"Tell the Governor, what this thief said is all nonsense, and not a word is true!" He Renlong replied viciously, and it was not easy for him to suppress the anger in his chest: "It is clear that I want to deceive myself and be discovered, and the secret arrow injured my nephew, and now I have come to deceive the boss again, and I want to escape!" “

Yang He nodded and did not speak, although he was born as a jinshi, he has served as a county commander, prefect, imperial envoy, and has been in charge of salt affairs, and he has a lot of experience, and he is not the kind of Beijing official who does not have the world. He has also heard of what He Renlong did on weekdays, Liu Cheng said that He Jin tried to kill the good and won the merit but was killed is likely to be the truth, but one is just a passerby, and the other is a powerful general who is known for his bravery, so the status of the two people in Yang He's heart is completely unequal, if he admits that what Liu Cheng said is true, then he has to treat He Renlong for the crime of lax governance, which is impossible when the people in Shaanxi are in turmoil and when the army is used. If it were another Ming Dynasty official, I am afraid that he would have already buttoned a hat to Liu Cheng to coax the official, and asked He Renlong to pull him out and cut it down. But Yang He was one of the few officials in the late Ming Dynasty who still had a sense of justice in his chest, and he decided to try to see if he could find a way to save Liu Cheng's life without losing He Renlong's face.

"As the saying goes, there is no basis for words, you just said that you are a rebel, but what evidence do you have?" Yang He pondered for a moment and asked in a deep voice, he was very careful to avoid whether He Jin framed this joint, as for whether Liu Cheng could hear his intentions, it depended on whether the other party was clever enough.

Undoubtedly, Liu Cheng heard Yang He's voice, since He Renlong made the big mistake of drawing his sword out of the sheath in front of Shangguan just now, but was only called aside, Liu Chengcheng understood that the biggest victory he could win was to save his own life and that of his subordinates. He carefully considered the words and replied, "Du Ruhu and Du Guoying's uncle and nephew are both outside, and the first-level weapon banner is also there, so the boss can verify it." ”

Seeing that Liu Cheng did not stupidly mention He Jin's framing, Yang He's brows relaxed, he made a gesture, and after a while, the soldiers brought the heads, weapons, flags, and Du Ruhu and Du Guoying's uncle and nephew. With the battle narrated by the Du family's uncle and nephew, the civil and military officials watching on the city tower let out a low exclamation, and with their eyes, they could naturally see that those heads, weapons, and banners could never be obtained by killing good people and risking their achievements, seeing all this, Yang He's face couldn't help but show a happy look.

The only unhappy person present was He Renlong, his originally quite graceful face became more and more gloomy, and suddenly he walked out of the ranks and bowed to Yang He: "Boss, it is quite strange that the following officials have seen this matter!" ”

"Oh? Where did General He say this? ”

"Sir!" He Renlong pointed at Liu Cheng and said: "Du Ruhu's uncle and nephew and even the old man of our Yansui Town, everyone knows the ability, and the elite of each town who brought King Qin to King are complete, and the firearms and armor are complete. It would be good if the people in the village could defend themselves against the danger, and they could still wipe it out? Besides, this person has long clothes and hair, is not a monk, and has a strange origin, and he should be severely tortured according to the general, and he will be able to gain something. ”

Hearing He Renlong's words, Yang He also groaned. Although he is unwilling to kill innocents indiscriminately, Liu Cheng is tall and burly, talks well, and dresses so strangely, he is obviously not an ordinary peasant child, is it possible that he is a person with ill intentions? Now Shaanxi has been famine for several years, the people are in turmoil, even the relatively rich Guanzhong Plain, is already everywhere dry firewood only one Mars is missing, Yang He is familiar with history books, and knows in his heart that if there is Zhang Jiao, Sun En and the like, the northwest will immediately erod, in the case of the Ming Dynasty and the Dongyu successive defeats, it is absolutely impossible to accept that the northwest will cause such a rebellion.

"Sir, where is Xianxiang? Why do you dress up like this? Where is it going? Yang He changed his name to Liu Cheng, but judging from the look on his face, it was more of a vigilance than respect.

"Tell the Boss!" Liu Cheng also felt the imminent danger, he couldn't help but be glad that Xu Hecheng thought thoughtfully for himself, he took out the document from his arms and replied: "The villain is a Xijing person, because of his weak body when he was young, his father gave it to the temple, made a wish to the gods and Buddhas, and the crown party has to be returned to the world." “

Yang He took the paper, looked at it roughly, and handed it to the scribe on the side, naturally someone went to verify, and asked a few questions casually, fortunately, they were all mentioned by Yu He in advance, and Liu Chengdu answered them one by one, and there were no flaws. Finally, Yang He asked, "Sir, you grew up in the temple since you were a child, why are you so familiar with military affairs?" “

Liu Cheng knew that Yang He had asked the key, although it showed that any scholar and doctor at the end liked to talk about military affairs, and there were mountains of books on various fire attack tactics, but most of them were just unfounded conjectures. On the tower of the city is either Qiu Ba who licks blood every day, or he is the commander who commands Qiu Ba to fight, if he wants to say that he has learned these things by reading "The Actual Record of Military Training" and "The New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness", no one will believe it, because Qi Jiguang's two books were only circulated in the army and among the upper-level civil officials at that time, and they were classified materials, and the key points were still unknown, how could they learn these things in the temple? So Liu Cheng pretended to be embarrassed, and replied after a little hesitation: "The villain's master in the temple was from Zhejiang, and he once did it under Qi Shaobao, because he killed too many evils and later became a monk to pray for the blessings of the next life, and the points that the villain learned were taught by the master." “

"I see!" Yang He's demeanor became kind, Qi Shaobao's story of relying on Shaolin monks and soldiers has long been spread all over the world, since it is so strange, it is not strange that there is a general Zuo who is old and enters the temple as a monk. He looked at He Renlong on the side, and coughed in a low voice: "You have merit in breaking the thief, but you accidentally injured the guard of the pass, and your sin is unforgivable, and you will be guilty-"

"Your Excellency!" He Renlong heard this on the side, and hurriedly stood up: "Liu Cheng's thief may not be true, but it is a fact that he killed the court generals without permission!" “

"General He!" Yang He's face suddenly became gloomy: "There are worries about the saint, and I have to relieve the saint's worries when I become a courtier, and I finally won the battle, it's not Liu Cheng's thief, who is the thief?" Do you want me to say in my excerpt to the imperial court that the rebels were killed by hitting their heads against the south wall? ”

The governor's seizure suddenly quieted down the city tower, Yang He's immediate meaning is very clear, he is a manipulative character today, and he has long been impatient with the affairs of the northwest, and this victory can solve his urgent need, so Liu Cheng, a meritorious man, cannot die, otherwise the excerpt of the meritorious service will not be able to be written. Is it important for your nephew's life to be important, or is it important for the governor to report his merits to the imperial court? Or is the overall situation of the Northwest important? This series of hats were buttoned down, and He Renlong was speechless for a while, so he had to bow down and bow down and return to the ranks.

turned Yang He's face looked much better: "Mr. Liu, meritorious service will be rewarded, and if there is a mistake, it will be punished!" If you break the rebels and thieves, you should be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver and awarded a hundred households. But His Majesty was not strict so that his subordinates accidentally injured He Qianzong, and rewarded the orphans of He Qianhu with silver, can you be convinced? “

"Convinced, convinced, thank you, sir!" Liu Cheng finally breathed a sigh of relief, obviously Yang He was favoring himself, not only did he save his head, but he also mixed up with the big and small officials, if he didn't see it good, he would be a fool.

"So be it!" Yang He was very satisfied with Liu Cheng's knowledge, his eyes glanced at He Renlong Yang He on the side and coughed lowly: "General He, what about you?" ”

"The last general obeys!" He Renlong stared down at the tip of his shoe, only in this way could he not let the people around him see the anger on his face, and he used his best strength to keep himself from exploding on the spot.

"Well, so be it!" Seeing that the problem was satisfactorily solved, Yang He's mood became better, with such a successful document, the wave of attacks on himself in the court can finally be less, as an old bureaucrat who has been in the court for more than ten years, Yang He really knows too well what kind of person he is today, if he uses one word to describe it is "", it is good when he can use you, but if it is a little uncomfortable, he will never have the slightest patience to consider the difficulties of the courtiers and support Yang He. Yang He couldn't imagine what kind of fate he would end up with once the matter in Shaanxi was corrupted. Thinking of this, Yang He couldn't help but begin to regret why he wanted to take over the hot potato of the trilateral governor, and he silently prayed in his heart: "Bodhisattva bless me Yang He to be able to finish this term as the trilateral governor safely, and return to his hometown to lead the yellow dog and chase the hare in the mountains behind his hometown." “

Tongguan City, prison cell.

Like most of the cells in the Ming City at that time, the cells in Tongguan City were full of fleas, rats, foul air and desperate **, if there was any difference, the space of the cells in Tongguan City was narrower, the windows were smaller, and they were more solid, because Tongguan City was a military fortress, and the inhabitants inside were all soldiers, and according to the harsh military law, the final outcome of most of the prisoners who entered here was either death row or a severed head.

And the luck of the prisoners in the cells on this day was very good, according to the orders of the commander of the Tongguan guard, as long as the prisoners were not heinous, they were all kicked out of the cells, and all the cells were vacated for the detention of dozens of special prisoners - those who were captured by the town soldiers of the Liangxiang mutiny. Historically, these men were to be executed in front of the townsmen, and the leaders were even tortured to warn potential disgruntled.

Du Ruhu and Du Guoying's uncle and nephew sat opposite each other in the cell, judging from the average level of the Daming cell, the conditions of this cell were quite good, with fresh grass, ventilated windows, a low table, two plates of broad beans, soybeans, a pot of turbid wine, and even an oil lamp on the wall. The only reason why they gave these preferential treatment to the Du family's uncles and nephews was that they didn't want the two of them to die prematurely or commit suicide, at least not before Yang He's paperwork was approved, and the Ming court also needed the lives of these two people to warn potential unscrupulous criminals.

"Uncle! You see if Liu Cheng is deceiving us, we are already in this place-" Du Guoying asked with a snort of wine, he was drunk a little faster, he hadn't drunk for a few days, and the wine was getting faster and faster, and his face was already like a pig's liver.

Du Ruhu didn't answer, just stuffed the broad beans into his mouth one by one, chewed and swallowed, as if he didn't hear his nephew's question at all, Du Guoying saw his uncle like this, and couldn't help but feel a wave of anger in his chest, and suddenly lifted the short one, and scolded: "Eat, you know how to eat, are two plates of rotten beans so delicious?" “

Du Ruhu refused to pick up the dwarf table again, and picked up the beans from the ground one by one and put them back on the plate: "It's good to have these beans to eat here, why don't you eat them?" “

Du Guoying knelt down suddenly, holding the short table with both hands, and staring at each other's eyes with a pair of eyes: "Uncle, do you know where this is?" In ten days, at most dozens of days, the two of us will be cut by a thousand cuts, do you still have the heart to eat beans? “

"So what are you going to do? Do you want to go out of the city? Du Ruhu asked rhetorically, his face calm, without the madness of a person who was about to be executed. Du Guoying was intimidated by his uncle's calmness, he sat down and asked, "Uncle, you let me listen to that Liu Cheng's truth, could it be that he can save us?" “

"I don't know if he'll be able to get us out, but if he's locked up here, there's no hope for us at all. That Liu Cheng is a capable person, we can only count on him now! Du Ruhu said in a low voice: "Now all we can do is wait here obediently!" “

"Yes, yes! Uncle, what you said is that that guy will be able to get us out! It's like a man in the water grabbing a straw, and Du Guoying at this time also clung to this little hope, completely ignoring the bitter hatred he had for Liu Cheng not long ago.

Just when the uncle and nephew of the Du family were enduring the painful torment in the black prison, Liu Cheng and several of his subordinates were led to a small courtyard in Tongguan City near the mansion of the Wei commander, where Yang He's entourage and some standard battalion soldiers lived

I didn't want He Renlong to lead his troops to kill Liu Cheng in a private fight under the rage. As soon as the leader left, an atmosphere of ecstasy filled the courtyard.

"I can't believe we'll survive!" Du Gu wiped the sweat on his forehead: "Others don't know, who is He Renlong, who Yansui Town doesn't know, he has never been the only one who bullied others, no one else made him deflated, today is the first time!" "Forgive me, Webb worked late yesterday and slept lazily in the morning, updating late!