Once again returning to the prison where he had been away for several months, Wan Lei couldn't help but feel a little emotional: Is he destined to be a disaster star in this life? No matter what he does, he will get into trouble. Is this the legendary general who will give a great job to this person, and he must suffer first?
Muscles?
The second time he was imprisoned, Wan Lei did not receive inhumane treatment because this was Peiping. Tie Xuan had told the prison supervisor not to sentence Wan Lei, so as not to further incite conflicts between the people and the government.
In the prison, there was only Wan Lei as a "prisoner", and the other prisoners were released to serve as slaves. Wan Lei went to bed after eating every day, and wrote books when he woke up. On the contrary, he was very leisurely. Almost every day, Zhao Hongru was the prisoner.
The representatives' fellow villagers would bring some food to see him, and from time to time they would talk about the war in Beiping City.
After the reinforcements from Shandong arrived, reinforcements from Henan, Shanxi, Liaodong and other places arrived in Beiping City one after another. Hundreds of thousands of troops fought with the Yan-Meng coalition forces outside Beiping City for more than ten days, with each side winning or losing. Until the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, from the south
The 200,000 reinforcements from Zhili passed through Shandong and approached the Tianjin Guards. The enemy troops retreated one after another. Now they have retreated to Juyong Pass, and the siege of Beiping was finally lifted.
The siege of Peiping City was lifted, but the villagers did not return to their hometowns because the main force of the Yan rebels was still in Juyongguan and Peiping City was still under threat. Therefore, the villagers were organized to serve as a grain transport team to assist in the transportation of food.
A large amount of grain and grass went north to prepare for the army's expedition. Even the tens of thousands of new troops that Wan Lei personally pulled out were transferred to serve as grain transport teams.
The good soldiers are no longer qualified, and the daily free rice treatment is no longer available. It is inevitable that there will be many complaints from the top and bottom of the new army. If it were not for military law, they would have been disarmed and returned to the fields long ago. No, they are living a miserable life of eating chaff and drinking water.
, the more the New Army misses the days when "Mr. Wan" was the leader, the more they miss Mr. Wan, the more they fight for Mr. Wan, and the more their loyalty to the court plummets.
On the early morning of the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month, drum music was so loud in the city of Peiping that Wan Lei could not concentrate on writing a book. He had to find a place to take a nap and think about something. He knew that the drum music meant that the emperor's son had entered Peiping, and he was about to go to court.
After being tried, it is very difficult to say whether he can save his life in the future.
It's a blessing or a disaster, but you can't avoid it. What should come will eventually come. Wan Lei shook his head and couldn't help but regret a little: when he held military power, why didn't he take the opportunity to rebel against his mother?
Of course, regrets are regrets, and the thought of rebellion is just a thought. Not to mention that it is the beginning of unification, and the possibility of a successful rebellion is very slim. Even if the rebellion succeeds, it is just a change of court, and it cannot solve the problem of development at all.
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"Only development can solve problems, and war can only destroy and increase problems." Wan Lei has a profound understanding of this point. If he is not forced to go to Liangshan, he will not rebel. After all, rebellion is not about playing house, nor is it about climbing up and shouting.
The joy was dripping with joy, but the war ended in disaster, and wives and children were separated.
The drumming played all morning and finally stopped at noon. Wan Lei was just trying to seize the time to write a book when he saw the iron door of the prison was opened. The prison chief led several guards and pulled a man in a python robe.
A group of middle-aged men came in. Judging from their complimentary attitude, the person who came here must be a super official, otherwise he wouldn't be able to wear the python robe.
"My lord, the person locked up here is Wan Lei. Could you please lift him up to a clean room? He is really too dirty at this moment." The prison head said with a smile.
"No need, you all can go out." The man waved his sleeves, and the prison leader did not dare to say anything more, so he had to lead his men back out.
The man looked Wan Lei up and down, and found that Wan Lei did not kneel down to ask for help like other prisoners, and would not let go of the book and looked at the person as if he was nothing. He couldn't help but look at him a few more times, and saw that he was not being pretentious.
The others walked away and asked, "Are you Wan Lei?"
"I am Wan Lei. Who are you and what do you want me to do?" Wan Lei put down the pen and paper and raised his head to ask.
"Wan Lei, the chief minister of Changping Station of Shuntian Prefecture, do you know your guilt?" The man not only did not answer, but also asked sternly.
"I act openly and aboveboard. I am worthy of the world and have no shame on earth. I have a clear conscience. What crime am I guilty of?" Wan Lei is not to be frightened. You can catch him, but you can't make him admit that he is guilty.
"You are a little postmaster, but you are not timid at all. If you dare to order an arrow to be fired at an official of the imperial court, you are really heartbroken. When the Holy One hears about this, he will be furious and will be punished severely."
"Oh, there's no point in trying to accuse me. I'm just a small official, and my life is as cheap as grass. If I kill him, I'll kill him. Why do I need to find a reason?" Wan Lei finally understood why he was imprisoned. I bet there was someone to settle the score with his future wife.
coming.
"Oh, that's not right. Aren't those guys eating in prison in the Yan Army camp? How could they bring this matter to the emperor? Could it be?" When Wan Lei thought of this, he understood even more clearly: It must be so.
The Yan rebels released the prisoners in order to get rid of the enemy.
Seeing Wan Lei's expression of deep thought but no fear at all, the man said again: "Now that your Majesty is coming from the north, you will inevitably be punished with death."
"I would like to ask your Excellency, if you were to defend the city and the enemy surrendered and threatened you to open the city gate, what would you do?" Wan Lei asked in return.
"Of course I won't listen, but I won't give the order to shoot the hostages with arrows."
"Oh, you are a Duke, so you don't have to worry about not being able to convince the public. If you are not a Duke, but a third-rank official, and the sergeants under you are the subordinates of the surrendered general, you will be upset when you see the surrendered general trying to persuade him to surrender outside the city.
What will you do if you surrender? Or, if the enemy comes to see you and fails to persuade him to surrender, and calls out your head to exchange for the surrender, what will you do?"
"There are so many what-ifs in the world?"
"Yes, there are no what-ifs in the world. If there were what-ifs, you wouldn't be able to stand here to interrogate me, because Beiping City has long fallen into the enemy's hands. You don't know how difficult it is to defend the city, and you don't know how many soldiers died in the battle.
You just take it for granted on the battlefield. If that's the case, what's there to say?"
"I'm not here to interrogate you, but to ask you why. Did you order the arrows to be shot at the hostages?"
"So what if it's me? Anyway, I didn't shoot anyone, so it's considered a crime? Besides, when the two armies are fighting, there will inevitably be casualties. Who made those people so helpless and fell into the hands of the rebels? This kind of loss of troops and humiliation of the country
People should have died a long time ago. If I were the emperor, I would have ordered their heads to be chopped off."
"You are so brave, you dare to say such treacherous words. Aren't you afraid of killing the nine clans?" The man's expression suddenly changed.
"I'm alone, so why not kill my ten clansmen?"
"You..." The man was so angry that he finally laughed angrily: "Since you are not afraid of death, what are you doing here? You are really being sentimental."
"Please tell me, the emperor, that it is easy to kill me, Wan Lei, but it is difficult to regain people's hearts. After my death, the land of Yanyun will be in turmoil for at least twenty years!" Wan Lei looked at the figure who was walking away, and said again.
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"What do you mean, threatening the imperial court? Do you think the imperial court won't dare to kill you if you gather some rebels?" The man turned around and looked angrily at Wan Lei.
"Hahaha..." Wan Lei looked up to the sky and smiled, saying: "Since some people want to dig their own graves, why do I say so much? I am just being sentimental."
The man glared at Wan Lei again, and finally strode away. Wan Lei shrugged helplessly and continued to immerse himself in writing a book. Anyway, what is supposed to come will come, and when the time comes, he will die even if he is afraid of death. Now he can only seize the time. , spare more high-quality materials in your mind and leave them to future generations. Even if you die, you can still win a posthumous reputation.
+++000+++
Under the threat of death, Wan Lei wrote for four days in a row, but no one came to interrogate him. He couldn't help but be a little surprised: Could it be that my "sins" had been forgotten by the emperor's son, or maybe I was to be treated coldly until the Northern Expedition. Do you need to operate and bleed after it's over?
Wan Lei didn't bother to think about the reason why there was no trial and no judgment for such a long time. Instead, in the spirit of living one more day and earning one more day, he still buried his head in the pile of books. During this period, the sloppy Taoist priest came to see him almost every day, and took the paper by the way. Mo came and took the written book out. I don’t know what kind of ecstasy the old guy gave the jailers in charge, but no one stopped him anyway.
No, at noon that day, the sloppy Taoist priest appeared in front of Wan Lei on time again, bringing some wine and meat.
"Wow, there is wine and meat, this can't be a decapitation meal." Wan Lei was not polite to him and started eating on his own. After all, the food in the prison was not that bad, and his stomach was always hungry. A full meal.
"The bad water in your kid's belly hasn't been drained out yet. I won't let your kid die so quickly." The sloppy Taoist laughed.
"I'm afraid it's not up to you. Maybe I will be dragged out and beheaded tomorrow. You will bet your money on the wrong place again this time."
"Haha, there is a bet that is not lost."
"Where are Wei'er and the others, how are they doing now?" Wan Lei asked, not bothering to talk about whether they would die or not.
"They are all hiding. Nothing will happen to them. You will not be able to implicate them. But the young master of the Li family is in a miserable state. He ran out of medicine a few days ago and his stomach hurts so much that he screams. I am so compassionate, so of course You can't just die without saving me. But that kid also agreed to help with activities in the court, so that you kid can live a few more days." The sloppy Taoist laughed.
"Oh, it turns out that guy is helping me survive. Not bad. It's best if I can live for ten or twenty years before being decapitated." Wan Lei also smiled. He didn't expect that he has always been very arrogant. There are times when the sloppy Taoist priest can adapt, but unfortunately, this old guy has no intention of helping him escape from prison.
"You kid, you really dare to think about it. If you still have ten or twenty years left, I'll be fine if I can let you live for another ten or twenty days."
"A hundred thousand years is too long to seize the day. As long as I finish compiling the Book of Heaven, I will die without regrets. However, you must not let my hard work go to waste."
"What kind of hard work? No one except Wei'er can understand these ghostly talismans you wrote. Really, you are just trying to make the Taixuan Jing a poor person, aren't you?"
"Haha, you can understand the Three Character Classic at a glance, why don't you read it? Of course my "Book of Heaven" is obscure and difficult to understand, otherwise why would I ask you Taoist priests to study it. By the way, you have to protect Wei'er, only she can do it now Understand, if something goes wrong with her, your great cause of ZTE will be over."