Qin Mu led five hundred households, a total of 600 troops, to the west to encircle and suppress Gu Xiancheng. When they reached Nanqi Mountain, a horseman suddenly chased them from behind.
The man on the horse had a face covered in yellow dust and cracked lips. He kept shouting, "Master Qin, Master Qin, I have an urgent matter to report, I have an urgent matter to report..."
The man's panic-stricken look made the soldiers in the army look at him sideways, and they all speculated what had happened. A soldier stopped the man and brought him to Qin Mu;
The servant knelt down on the ground and said in a hoarse voice, "Master Qin, I am Qian Erxi, sent by my boss Xu Yingjie to report to you that something happened in Nanchang. The Nanchang Inspection Office has sealed off my Rentong branch on the grounds of collusion with the rebels. Miss Li Xiangjun has also been taken into custody and thrown into jail..."
"What?" Before Qian Erxi could finish his words, Qin Mu felt as if someone had spit on his face. He could not help but get furious. "Say it again."
“Sir… Sir,” Qian Erxi was so frightened by Qin Mu’s rage that his voice trembled. “The Nanchang Inspection Office seized the property on the grounds of collusion with the rebels…”
"The last sentence!"
"Miss Li... Miss Li Xiangjun was also taken into custody."
There is no prison in this world that is not dark. After being locked up in there, who knows what kind of humiliation a beauty like Li Xiangjun would have to endure. The more Qin Mu thought about it, the more scared and angry he became.
In a rage, he drew his sword and knocked down a small tree as thick as a wrist by the side of the road. The soldiers of the three armies looked at each other with serious expressions, and even stopped talking.
Qin Mu immediately leaned on his sword and shouted, "Come on, pass on my order immediately, and ask Ma Yongzhen to come and command the suppression of the bandits immediately. In addition, ask Lord Wang Gong, the military governor, to come and preside over the suppression of the bandits. At the same time, ask Huo Sheng to gather a thousand troops and march towards Nanchang in the name of training. Wait for my next order at any time."
"yes."
"Liu Meng, gather your men, bring plenty of dry food and water, and prepare to set off with me."
"Yes, sir."
"Ma Liuliang."
"exist."
"You are in charge of this place. The army will stay here temporarily and wait for Ma Yongzhen to take over the command."
"yes."
Han Xiu, the accompanying centurion, hesitated for a moment, and finally couldn't help asking, "Sir, are you going to Nanchang?"
"Do you have any questions?"
"No, I just want to remind you, sir. Nanchang is the provincial capital after all. If you lead your troops there, the consequences will be difficult to deal with. Besides, is it worth it for you to go to war for a woman?"
Qin Mu replied coldly: "A real man can endure the humiliation of being humiliated, but he cannot let others humiliate his wife, children and parents. If you can't even protect your own woman, how can you live in this world?"
After hearing Qin Mu's words, the soldiers of the three armies started shouting, not knowing who was taking the lead.
"I would like to follow you to Nanchang."
"I would like to follow you to Nanchang."
... ... ... ... ...
Liu Meng, who was the first to follow Qin Mu, was even more determined. He wished he could smash the huge mace on the gate of Nanchang immediately. The 110 cavalrymen were ready to go and formed a formation.
Qin Mu said a few words to comfort the hundreds of soldiers, then immediately led Liu Meng's men to Nanchang. The horses' hooves stirred up billowing dust, and they roared away with a murderous aura.
***
In the Nanchang City Inspection Prison, there were cries and screams. The owner and clerks of the Rentong Branch were tortured so severely that they were unrecognizable.
As the saying goes, under the three trees, you can ask for anything. Although most people knew that admitting to secretly communicating with the rebels was a capital crime, they could not stand the torture and admitted it anyway.
Ma Shisan walked to the deepest part of the prison with several freshly confessions. Although the light here was dim, it was clean. It was very different from the filth and stench of other cells. Li Xiangjun and his servants were imprisoned in this cell.
Although Li Xiangjun and his servants were not tortured during these two days, they were interrogated twice and had seen the caravan companions who were tortured to the point of living a life worse than death.
Fortunately, Li Xiangjun still had hope in her heart. She firmly believed that Qin Mu would come to save her. Although she herself didn't know where this confidence came from, she firmly believed that Qin Mu would come, and would definitely come.
If she hadn't had such a belief in her heart, she would have collapsed long ago under the constant intimidation from Ma Shisan, Han Tiesan and others.
There was only a bed board and a thin quilt in the narrow cell. There was a faint smell of mildew in the air. Li Xiangjun and his servant sat on the bed board, the two of them leaning close together, looking vigilantly at Ma Shisan who came in.
After Ma Shisan opened the cell door, he didn't say anything. He glanced at the master and servant in the cell. Although Li Xiangjun looked very haggard, it did not detract from her beauty at all. Her delicate figure instead made people feel infinite pity. Even the pretty girl Xing'er was also good-looking, graceful and fresh.
Ma Shisan placed several confessions in front of Li Xiangjun. After just a few glances, she could not help but shout excitedly, "Impossible, this is impossible. You are forcing us to confess under torture. We are not spies. We have not colluded with the rebels. We have not..."
"Why are you so excited, girl? Let me ask you, when you called that woman in red sister, was that wrong?"
“I… I didn’t know her identity at the time…”
"Miss Xiangjun, there is no point in quibbling. The woman in red was called the Red Lady of Rope Skills. She used to be a wandering wanderer who made a living by performing acrobatics. Now she has become a rebel general under the bandit leader Li Zicheng. If you had not colluded with her, why would she save you? She kidnapped a craftsman from the Nanjing Military Equipment Bureau and took him back to make firearms. At that time, many people in the caravan heard the craftsman's cry for help. If you had not colluded with her, why didn't you report her afterwards?"
In the past, Li Xiangjun was always able to give clever responses when entertaining high-ranking officials, but at this moment, she didn't know how to defend herself. It was impossible to say that she didn't know Hong Niangzi's identity, as there were so many eyes watching her in the caravan.
Since she knew Hong Niangzi's identity but did not report it, the charge of harboring a traitor alone was enough to convict her of a serious crime. This was also why, when she heard the patrol soldier's shouting in the Rentong branch, she immediately felt something was wrong and quickly ran out the back door with Xing'er.
"We didn't collude with the rebels. Lady Hong just happened to pass by. She didn't come to save us. She took action first because she was worried that the soldiers would harm them after her identity was exposed..."
"I just want to ask you, why didn't you report her afterwards and let her leave safely with the craftsman?"
"There were soldiers present at the time, why should we report it?"
"The officers and soldiers have been defeated, but the rebels did not harass you, and did not even steal your goods. Isn't this strange? Besides, you talked with Hong Niangzi for a long time. You knew she was a rebel, so what did you talk to her about? Miss Xiangjun, the evidence is here. Who would believe you if you said you did not collude with the rebels?"
Li Xiangjun suddenly understood that it was useless to say anything now, as they were clearly trying to pin the crime of treason on her, so she simply stopped defending herself.
Ma Shisan laughed and said, "Miss Xiangjun, what's the point of you, a weak woman, colluding with the rebels? I'm afraid there is someone behind this. I heard that Miss Xiangjun went to Huichang this time to find the replacement magistrate Qin Mu. No wonder, Qin Mu is a scholar, how could he have such great ability? He also went all the way from Nanchang to suppress the bandits. It seems that there is the help of the rebels behind him."
"You are slandering me!"
Li Xiangjun was now shocked and angry. Once the affair involved Qin Mu, not only would her last hope be shattered, but it was also something she didn't want to see. She would rather die herself than implicate Qin Mu.
"Miss Xiangjun, it doesn't matter if I slander you, as long as the chief judge doesn't think so. But apart from this explanation, I can't think of any reason why Miss Xiangjun colluded with the rebels. I believe the chief judge can't think of it either. What do you think, Miss Xiangjun?"
Even though Li Xiangjun had a strong character, she could not help but feel despair at this moment. After all, she was just a weak woman, who was thrown into this deep prison without seeing the sun. She could cry out to the sky or the earth, but no one would help her. Everything was decided by others. They could accuse her of whatever crime they wanted, and she had no chance to defend herself.
"Miss Xiangjun is naturally beautiful, stunningly beautiful. My inspector was very sorry to hear that you were charged with treason. And if Qin Mu was also charged with collusion with the rebels, he would surely die. What a pity, what a pity..."
Ma Shisan seemed to be talking to the air, nonchalantly.
After hearing this, Li Xiangjun couldn't help but lightly stroke the hair on her forehead. The clever girl had a glimmer of understanding. It seemed that the charge of treason was just an excuse. Someone was just trying to achieve an ulterior motive.
Her heart suddenly calmed down, unusually calm, and the movement of her lightly brushing the hair on her forehead was as elegant as an orchid, as if she was not in a deep prison.
For some reason, she had a strong feeling in her heart that Qin Mu would definitely come to save her, he would.
She couldn't explain why this feeling came about, she only knew that she had never trusted anyone as much as she did at that moment.
She looked at the light coming through the small window of the cell, frowned and relaxed her eyebrows, and said to Ma Shisan resolutely: "Please go back and tell your inspector that the law of nature is circular and retribution is inevitable. From the moment I walked out of Jinling City, I was born a member of the Qin family and will die as a ghost of the Qin family. I will never serve another person in this life. I can't stop your inspector from accusing me of any crime he wants to commit, but if you have any unreasonable thoughts, then carry my body back."
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ps: I wanted to add a section about the mountain being without a ridge and the river being exhausted, but then I thought it would be too melodramatic and I was worried that you would feel sick, so forget it. Let's just leave it at that. Don't forget to vote for it.
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