The gloomy prison smelled of decay, the flies buzzed, the dampness and the sweltering heat mixed together. The severe pain and discomfort stopped for a while, and the ragged Su Wenfang curled up in a corner of the cell, shivering.
Zizhou prison, and the voice of mourning came from afar. It has been a day and a half since he was arrested here, and almost a day of torture has made Su Wenfang collapse. At least in his own clear consciousness, he feels that he has collapsed.
Maybe it was better to die then...
Persistent pain and discomfort will make the perception of reality tend to dissipate, and many times there will be memories and hallucinations of one kind or another. After being tortured for a day, the other party threw him back to the prison to rest for a while, a little better than letting his mind gradually clear up. His body was shaking, and he cried silently, his thoughts were confused, sometimes he wanted to die, sometimes he regretted it, sometimes he was numb, and sometimes he remembered the experiences of these years.
This is the first time in his life that he has experienced these things, beatings, sticks, sticks and even soldering irons, beatings and waterboarding over and over again. From the first time, he felt that he would not be able to endure it any longer.
He never thought of himself as a strong person.
Over the years, he initially worked with Zhuji, and then later participated in the war and became a member of the Huaxia Army. His journey is not easy, but relatively speaking, it is not difficult. Following my sister and brother-in-law, I can learn a lot of things. Although I have to put in enough seriousness and hard work, for other people in this world, he is already happy enough. Over the years, from the efforts of Zhuji Xia Village, to the killing of the king in the Golden Temple, then to Xiaocang River, defeating Xixia, to the three years of bloodbath, and the operation of Southwest China for several years, as an administrator of the Black Flag Army, he has seen He has learned many things, but he has never really experienced the hardships of bloodbath and the great terror between life and death.
Many times when he passed the miserable wounded barracks, he would also feel the penetrating cold in his heart.
Over the years, he has seen many people as strong as steel. But when he was running outside, Su Wenfang was always afraid in his heart. The only weapon against fear is rational analysis. When the situation outside Da Liangshan began to shrink and the situation became chaotic, Su Wenfang was also afraid of what he would experience. But the result of rational analysis told him that Lu Qiaoshan was able to see the situation clearly, whether it was war or peace, the safety of his group was in his best interests. In today's Southwest, the military actually has a huge say.
It's just that things are going in an uncontrollable direction after all.
Since he was put into prison, the torturer asked him to tell the list of the members of the Huaxia Army who were still outside the mountain. Naturally, he was reluctant to say it. Every second of the torture that followed was unbearable, Su Wenfang thought. Those companions who died in front of him thought in his heart, "Hold on, hold on," and within half an hour, he began to beg for mercy.
Begging for mercy can get you a certain period of respite, but no matter what you say, as long as you don't want to confess, the torture will always continue. The skin and flesh soon burst open. At first, Su Wenfang fantasized that the members of the Huaxia Army lurking in Zizhou would come to rescue him, but such hope did not come true. Su Wenfang's mind swayed between confessing and not being able to confess, and he cried most of the time. Shouting, begging, and occasionally threatening each other. The injury on his body was too painful, and then he was sprinkled with salt water. He was pressed into the bucket again and again, suffocated and fainted. After more than two hours had passed, Su Wen easily pleaded for mercy and confessed.
The words of the confession came to his lips, but he could not say them.
Over the years, those figures on the battlefield, the black flag soldiers who died in the fight with the Jurchen, the infiltrating shouts of the wounded barracks, the stumps and broken legs, the veterans who did not die but were disabled after the fight... These things are in His eyes swayed, and he couldn't understand why these people experienced so much pain and shouted that they were willing to go to the battlefield. But these things made him unable to say the words of confession.
He sat at the table and shivered for a while, then began to cry again, raised his head and cried, "I can't say..."
Next, of course, is a more vicious torture.
Every moment he felt like he was going to die. The next moment, more pain continued, and the buzzing in his mind turned into blood, crying mixed with cursing and begging for mercy, and sometimes he would be moved to each other while crying: "We are here. The North fought the Jurchen, and it was three years in the northwest. Do you know how many people died and how they died... When they were clinging to the Xiaocang River, how the battle was fought, and when the food was scarce, some people starved to death... Retreat, someone didn't retreat... ah we're doing a good job..."
"Please...don't fight..."
"Please… "
The weak voice gradually developed into: "I said..."
Then it becomes: "I can't say..."
Repeating this over and over again, the torturers changed a few times, and then they got tired too. Su Wenfang didn't know how he persevered, but those tragic events reminded him that he couldn't speak. He knows that he is not a hero, and soon, a certain self who can't hold on may have to confess, but before that... hold on... It's been so long, another time...
Maybe the rescuer will come
At some point, he was thrown back into the cell. When the injury on his body was a little breathless, he curled up where he was, and then began to cry silently, complaining in his heart, why the person who saved him still didn't come, and he couldn't hold on if he didn't come... I don't know when, someone suddenly opened prison door.
Su Wenfang was already extremely tired, but he woke up suddenly. His body began to curl up in the corner of the cell, but two gentlemen came over and dragged him out.
Su Wenfang struggled hard, and soon after, he was dragged and dragged back to the torture room. His body was relieved a little, and when he saw those torture tools, he became more and more frightened. The torturer came over and asked him to sit at the table and put a pen and paper on it: "I've been thinking about it for so long, brother, Just give me face, just write a name... write something unimportant."
Su Wenfang was trembling all over, the man's hand pressed on his shoulder, touching the wound, and the pain surged again. Su Wen conveniently cried again: "I can't say, my sister will kill me, and my brother-in-law will not let me go..."
"They don't know."
"They know... Hehe, you don't understand at all, there are people around you... "
"… Who is it?"
"I don't know, they will know, I can't say, I can't say, you didn't see, how did those people die... In order to beat the Jurchen, the Wu Dynasty couldn't beat the Jurchen, they died to resist the Jurchen, why do you, Why do this…”
After he finished speaking, the torturer slapped him on the ground and shouted, "Tie him up!"
A few people beside him tied Su Wenfang to the shelf, and the torturer came over and said, "You don't want to talk, your tongue is useless, but you only have one, so I'll give you face. If you don't want to write, you have ten fingers. Let's play slowly!"
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, don't do this..." Su Wenfang struggled and shouted loudly. The other party had grabbed one of his fingers, and leaned over with an iron needle in the other hand.
"Speak or not"
"We hit gold! We killed a lot of people! I can't tell!"
"give me a name"
"My brother-in-law will kill you! Kill your whole family and kill your whole family. If you let me go, I can't say it, I can't say it."
The frantic shouting, with blood in the mouth, continued for a while, and then the iron needle was inserted, and a hoarse scream came from the torture room...
What followed was a scene from hell.
************
In the big and small Liangshan, the encirclement and suppression of the Mangshan Ni people has substantially begun.
The autumn harvest is still in progress, and the Huaxia Army troops in Jishan have been mobilized, but they have not yet been officially allocated. In the dull autumn, Ning Yi returned to Hedeng, waiting for negotiations with Shanwai.
On the surface, Lu Qiaoshan's attitude towards war and peace is not clear. He respects Ning Yi on the surface and is willing to have a face-to-face negotiation with Ning Yi, but he is a little bit wary about the details of the negotiation. This time, the envoy of the Huaxia Army who came out of the mountain was ordered by Ning Yi. Under the tough attitude, Lu Qiaoshan finally made concessions.
The date of the negotiation was postponed by two days due to the preparation work. The location was set in a valley outside Xiaoliangshan. Ning Yi brought 3,000 people out of the mountain, and Lu Qiaoshan also brought 3,000 people over. Knowing that this is Ning Yi's toughest attitude, if he doesn't talk about it, he will start the war as quickly as possible.
On this day, it was already the 21st of July, the ninth year of the construction of the Wu Dynasty. In the morning, the autumn wind became a little cooler and blew across the grass outside Xiaoliang Mountain. Ning Yi and Lu Qiaoshan met in a dilapidated pergola on the grass. There are 3,000 troops in the distance behind. After greeting each other, Ning Yi saw Su Wenfang brought by Lu Qiaoshan. He was wearing a neat-looking robe, his face was patched, and the fingers between the sleeves of the robe were bandaged, making his steps seem vain. This time, Su Tan'er also followed him. Seeing her younger brother's expression, her eyes turned slightly red. Ning Yi walked over and hugged Su Wenfang gently.
Su Wenfang's face showed a slightly painful look, and a weak voice seemed to come out from the depths of his throat with difficulty: "Brother-in-law... I didn't say... "
"I know, take good care of yourself."
"...It was those scholars who did it. They wanted to force Lu Qiaoshan to go to war..."
"it is good."
After Su Wenfang finished speaking in a low voice and with difficulty, he separated from Ning Yi and walked towards Su Tan'er.
Ning Yi faced Lu Qiaoshan, Lu Qiaoshan bowed his hands and smiled attentively: "Misunderstanding, it's definitely not what Lu meant, Mr. Ning, misunderstanding."
Ning Yi nodded and made a gesture of asking for a seat. He glanced behind him and said, "After all, it's my wife and brother, so I have to worry about Mr. Lu."
"Hey, it should be all the fault of those rotten scholars. Mr. Ning will definitely calm down if there is a lack of Shuzi and tricks."
Ning Yi nodded and smiled. Neither of them sat down. Lu Qiaoshan just handed over. Ning Yi thought for a while: "That's my wife, Su Tan'er."
"My younger brother and sister's name is virtuous, and I have admired it for a long time."
Ning Yi didn't answer, and continued with the tone of voice just now: "My wife was originally from a merchant family, Jiangning City, the third-ranked cloth merchant. When I joined the family, I accumulated several generations, but a very critical point came. At that time. No one in the third generation of the family was mature. Grandpa Su Yu finally decided to let my wife Tan’er lead the family, and Wen Fang and others followed her to do some common chores and do some chores. It is lucky to keep it.”
Lu Qiaoshan nodded.
"Of course later, due to various reasons, we didn't go down this road. The old man passed away a few years ago, and he didn't have the world in his heart, and he always thought about the surrounding family. It was very peaceful when he left, because although he built it later. On the contrary, there are still children of the Su family who have grown up. A young man more than ten years ago, playing chickens and dogs, and the appearance of a middle-aged man, maybe he will be a playboy who is accustomed to spending his whole life, and he will not be able to see his vision in his entire life. Jiang Ningcheng. But the fact is that today, General Lu, look at my brother-in-law, he is a real man who stands above the ground. Even if he looks at the whole world and compares with anyone, he can't stand still."
Ning Yi looked at Lu Qiaoshan, and Lu Qiaoshan was silent for a moment: "Yes, when I received your message from Mr. Ning and made up my mind to save him, he was already beaten into a human shape. But he didn't say anything. "
Ning Yi raised his head to look at the sky, then nodded slightly: "General Lu, the Huaxia Army has experienced a very difficult situation in the past ten years. , they have never really been defeated. Many people have died, and many people have become real men. In the future, they will fight against the Jurchens. There are countless battles to be fought, and countless people will die, but they will die properly. ... General Lu, the Jurchen has gone south, I beg you, this time give them a way to live, give your own people a way to live, let them die in places more worthy of death... "
The mountain wind blew over and rolled up the thatch on the pergola. Ning Yi looked at Lu Qiaoshan and asked for each other.
"… OK?"