There were always people taking turns to guard the outer perimeter of the City Lord's Mansion. Upon seeing this scene, the guard on duty stepped forward, drew the long sword at his waist and said to the intruder, "Who are you? How dare you trespass into the City Lord's Mansion!"
The Jiedushi garrison soldiers in armor showed their badges: "Jiedushi soldiers, why don't you open the door and let Qiao Shan out!"
Her tone was not polite at all, as if Qiao Shan was not the lord of Mingzhou City, but just a small soldier under her jurisdiction.
The city lord's mansion had guards, and the total number was only 20. The Jiedushi's army had at least 200 people, standing outside in a large crowd.
The woman on duty glanced at her companions and wisely opened the vermilion door behind her: "Ladies and gentlemen, please wait a moment. Let us go and report to the Lord first. We are also doing this for others, so please understand each other."
Qiao Shan was sleeping soundly in bed with her husband in her arms when there was a loud knock on the door outside.
She yelled irritably, "Knocking my soul in the middle of the night!"
The guard outside hurriedly said, "Sir, please get up quickly. There are a group of people surrounding our mansion. They seem to be soldiers from the Jiedushi. They are looking for you by name!"
Qiao Shan's expression changed, and he couldn't sleep anymore, so he turned over and got up from the bed. Qiao Jia Zhengjun, who was awakened, lifted the thin blanket on his body and sat up with a panicked look on his face: "Wife, what happened outside?"
Qiao Shan patted his shoulder gently and said soothingly, "It must be that the governor has some urgent business, or he may be here to ask for money. You go back to sleep, I will be back soon."
After that, she put on her coat and hurriedly opened the door to go out. When Qiao Shan left the room, Qiao Jiazheng, who was sitting on the bed, couldn't calm down at all, so he also took a cloak and put it on, and went to knock on the doors of his two daughters and Qiao Yu.
Normally, when the Jiedushi came to Mingzhou City, Qiao Shan always received him well. Although she and the officer did not have a good relationship, they did not interfere with each other. It was unwise for the other party to come in the middle of the night and be so rude.
If the servant was not exaggerating, she guessed that she had been caught with something. When he hurried to the door and saw the scene, Qiao Shan's heart skipped a beat.
She stuffed the silver note prepared by the housekeeper into the hands of the leader and said, "It's late at night. You have worked hard. I wonder why Lord Bu sent you here?"
The woman took a look at the banknote, made a painful expression, and knocked Qiao Shan's hand away again: "The criminal Qiao Shan participated in the imperial examination fraud, framed the candidates, and ignored the laws of Jin. He also tried to bribe the law enforcement officials to bring him to justice!"
After saying that, several people rushed forward and put heavy handcuffs on Qiao Shan's hands.
Qiao Jiazhengjun rushed over and immediately rushed over: "What does this have to do with my wife? This is impossible. Did you catch the wrong person?"
The soldier said coldly: "Please respect yourself, Mr. Qiao!"
As the eldest daughter, Qiao Shu had a hot temper. She rushed forward with a wooden stick in her hand. She was very strong and had good martial arts skills. However, when her two fists were no match for four hands, she injured several people and the stick in her hand was knocked out and taken away.
Qiao Shan looked at this unworthy girl and glared at her and cursed: "You bastard, who told you to rush up!"
Qiao Shuwei cried out in grievance: "Mom!"
Qiao Shan also sighed, and without even looking at her, he was dragged away along with her.
Now, of the three women in the Qiao family, only Qiao Mu is left to be the backbone. Qiao Zhengjun looked at his second daughter and said, "Qiao Mu, you are usually smart and can make decisions the best. Come up with a plan to rescue your mother and your sister!"
Qiao Mu said: "Let's prepare some money first and find out who we have offended."
Father Qiao hesitated and said, "But just now, the soldiers took all your mother's money. Will this method work?"
Qiao Mu explained: "That was in public, in front of so many people, of course the man didn't dare to accept the money. We prepared a silver note of 1,000 taels and gave it to him privately, just to get the information, the other party will not refuse to tell us."
Qiao Yu bit her lip and said, "I'll go with you."
Qiao Mu looked at his cheered-up brother and shook his head, "You don't have to go. That place is a mess. There are military thugs everywhere. If they bully you, mother will worry about you."
She had a vague feeling that she had brought this disaster upon herself, but she was afraid of being blamed by her father, so she didn't dare to say anything until she had made a conclusion.
Qiao Mu immediately took the banknotes, and when there was no one around, she chased after him and stuffed the money in. The latter looked at her and took the money: "Your mother must have offended someone. It is said that she is a distinguished guest of our master, and that person saved our master's life. And your family did make a mistake. Since you are so sensible, I will remind you that the person who tied the bell should be the one to untie it."
Beyond that, the man was unwilling to reveal anything more.
Qiao Mu thought about it and realized that this was the only time she had taken action against someone in the examination room recently. But Hao Cheng was just an orphan without a father or a mother, and he came from a remote mountain village. How could he have any connection with the Jiedushi
She jumped on her horse and galloped all the way to the invigilator in charge of Hao Cheng's examination room. She asked him about the whole situation at that time, and her heart was chilled.
The honored guest of the Jiedushi was no one else but the prince that Hao Cheng was going to marry soon. It was said that when Hao Cheng was brought out, he looked extremely embarrassed. If Hao Cheng had not been cautious, he would have been poisoned to death.
Qiao Mu's face turned pale. If it was just something she ordered, she could apologize and ask for magnanimity. But why was she so unlucky that the Fang family wanted to plot against Fang Yu
She whipped the horse on the spot, and the horse felt pain and started running wildly.
When Qiao Mu returned home, Qiao's father and Qiao Yu came around to ask about the situation. She paused and said, "It's my fault this time. It implicated my mother."
Her face darkened, and her eyes became more vicious. "Anyway, we are implicated by the Fang family this time. I will order people to arrest the Fang family first. Then I will bring them to plead guilty. No matter what, I will exchange my mother and sister!"
Qiao Yu stared into her eyes; "Second sister, tell me, who did we offend?"
Qiao Mu's expression changed again and again, and finally she said, "It's Hao Cheng. To be more precise, it's the man she's going to marry soon."
After finding the person, Qiao Mu could no longer sleep that night, so she went to Hao Cheng's residence that night, but was rejected. She slept in the courtyard next door for the whole night, but she kept her eyes open all night and couldn't fall asleep.
On the second day, Dong Xue from Hao Cheng's house came out to buy some things, and Qiao Mu hurriedly went to greet her: "Mr. Dong, please let me know..."
Dong Xue interrupted her impatiently: "I am just a servant, I am not worthy of being called a sir by Lady Qiao."
Qiao Mu's eyes flickered. After all, she was asking for help, so she endured it. She stood in front of the mansion for a long time, her legs were sore and numb, but the people in the mansion still refused to see her.
After all, Wang Yang, an honest man, was reluctant to come out and said, "I don't know what happened exactly, but the master of the family caught a cold and had a fever when he came back yesterday. If you have something to ask our master, please come back in a few days."
Because of catching a cold and being frightened, Hao Cheng had a fever for a day. By the second day, her condition had improved a little, but she still had to drink those bitter, black and smelly Chinese medicines.
She didn't want to drink it at first, but Jiang Mengzhen fed it to her mouth with his own hands. Even though she was afraid of taking medicine, she pursed her lips and drank the big bowl of medicine reluctantly.
At this time, she missed the modern isatis root powder and small pills. Isatis root tastes so good, unlike this Chinese medicine, which makes her feel sublime after drinking it.
Seeing her sad face, Jiang Mengzhen smiled and put a sweet and sour candied fruit in her mouth: "You still want to save Fang Yu, wait until you get better, and I will help you get her out."
Although Hao Cheng was cute because of her illness and her clingy and coquettish appearance, he still hoped that she would recover quickly. After all, being sick was uncomfortable, and he felt very distressed just by seeing her sick and lifeless appearance.
Thinking of retrieving Fang Yu, Hao Cheng drank it all in one gulp, no matter how bitter it was. After all, she was young and had no bad habits. Her health was good, and she recovered in two days.
Jiang Mengzhen had not allowed her to go out for the fresh air before, but she could not sit still anymore. While Jiang Mengzhen was out on business, she put on a cloak made of fire rat fur, and regardless of the rain outside, she opened the door and went out for a walk to relax.
As a result, when the door opened, she saw someone she didn't want to see. Before she had time to hide, the person's eyes lit up when he saw her and walked towards her.
But he waited too long, his feet went numb, and he stumbled and was about to fall. Seeing that he was about to fall, Hao Cheng used the umbrella handle to support him.
The man knelt down, grabbed the umbrella handle, and begged her, "I know it's all my fault. Please, let my mother and sister go."
What the hell! Hao Cheng was startled, but after saying this, the other party fell headfirst in front of her.