It was the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, and the sun was shining on the roof of the hall at noon. A subordinate from the Zhao Mansion drew water from the pool in front of the hall with a water wheel and poured it on the roof, as if it had rained in time, which made the house cool down suddenly. Under this scorching sun, the frogs in the ears are chirping, the body is cool, and the mouth is accompanied by good tea, what a pleasure. However, Zhao Fuyi and several officials in Henan did not have such leisure and leisure, and looked at the water droplets falling like beads outside the hall like a beaded curtain, hoping that there would be rescuers coming.

Suddenly, Zheng Rong's sergeants quickened their pace and ran over, lowered their voices and said to Zheng Rong: "Zhao Fude, the assassin of Henan, together with Wu Yan, the envoy of Henan Jiedu led by General Zhenbei, brought three or four thousand foot soldiers, and surrounded the Zhao Mansion. ”

Zheng Rong deliberately raised his voice and said: "It turned out that Zhao Tingshi and General Wu came, and they came, and they brought 5,000 soldiers and horses, so I was really flattered!" He said to Qiu Yizhi behind him, "Do you recognize the eldest uncle of Zhao Tingshi?" ”

Because my mother is not on good terms with the two brothers of the Zhao family, Fude and Fuyi, I have never had any contact, but I have met a few times during the New Year's holidays, so Yizhi nodded and said, "I know!" ”

Zheng Rong also nodded, handed over the arrow just now to Yizhi, and instructed him to invite this Henan Assassin Zhao together with the jade pendant given to him last night.

Qiu Yizhi listened to Zheng Rong's instructions, turned his head and glared at Zhao Fuyi, followed by the white dog called "Lulu", and ran out as if flying. Zhao Fuyi hadn't seen Qiu Yizhi for a long time, and today he changed into new clothes, just as Zheng Rong's little servant, so he ignored it, but said to Zheng Rong arrogantly: "You are a small hundred households, a petty official who does not enter the stream, how do you know that Lord Zhao is now a brother in Henan." Now that the soldiers are pressing, I advise you to quickly kowtow and admit your mistakes, and convict you of robbing a rich family, and it is refreshing to cut you down with a knife. If not, you will be punished for the great crime of rebellion, and when the time comes, it will be too late to regret it! ”

Zheng Rong didn't raise his head as if he hadn't heard it, and continued to drink his tea calmly. This made Zhao Fuyi even more angry, and secretly determined that he must clean up this little officer who didn't know the height of the sky.

One of Qiu Yi's Lu Fei ran to the south gate of Zhao's house, but was told that it was Henan Thorn Shi who came from the east gate, so he hurriedly ran towards the east gate. Along the way, the sergeants who were originally tight inside and loose on the outside drew their swords out of their sheaths, some went up to the wall to look, some moved stones to block the door, and some lay in ambush in the grass, and they were ready to fight. Yizhi sped up his pace, crossed countless flowers and trees, and then ran to the east gate of Zhaofu. At the east gate, a leader under Zheng Rong's command was negotiating with people outside the door, and the two were talking in a high-pitched tone and the atmosphere was very tense. Yi Zhi hurriedly rushed forward, raised the arrow with his right hand, and shouted loudly: "I want to see Lord Zhao of Henan Thorn Shi!" ”

When the two parties saw this, they immediately silenced and made way for Yizhi to pass. Seeing this, Qiu Yizhi tidied up his clothes, adjusted his breathing, and walked out of Zhao's house from the passage. After walking a few steps, I saw several civil and military officials nodding around an obese official, Qiu Yizhi recognized that this fat was his eldest uncle, Zhao Fude, the current Henan Thorn History, walked up quickly, squeezed into the crowd, and stood in front of Zhao Fude.

Zhao Fude was stunned for a moment, only to feel that the child in front of him was a little familiar, and was about to take a closer look, but saw the child holding an arrow, clumsily took the jade pendant on his waist, handed it to him, and said something in his mouth: "Please speak in the hall of Lord Zhao!" ”

Zhao Fude thought to himself: Where did the wild child come from, he was so rude to the dignified Henan Assassin History and the feudal officials, and stretched out his hand to snatch the Ling Jian jade pendant and looked at it. It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, a layer of sweat oozes from your head when you look at it. The history of Henan Thorn has seen the world, the format of this arrow is very different, it is by no means owned by the first level of the Jiedu Envoy, even if the front, rear, left and right generals who command the forbidden army may not be able to have, lest it be a chariot general, a hussar general at the level. This jade pendant is even more unpredictable, and the various auspicious auspicious decorations carved on the jade faintly have a royal atmosphere, and it is by no means only worn by the prince, even if it is said to be the items around the saint, it is not an exaggeration. The more Zhao Fude thought about it, the more chaotic he became, and listed the powerful people in the DPRK and China one by one: It is not uncommon for imperial relatives to be in military affairs at present, but only Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, and Zheng Hua, the king of Lingnan, have such a high degree of title and military position. Recently, I heard that the king of Youyan entered Beijing to face the saint, and he could enter Beijing by water, and when he returned, he must pass through Henan by land.

"If it's really the King of Youyan, then things will be in trouble!" Zhao Fude was uneasy, and he didn't dare to discuss with Wu Yan, who was the envoy of the festival, and thought of a way to test Qiu Yizhi: "King Youyan only let the lower officials see each other? ”

Qiu Yizhi didn't like this uncle very much, so when he came, he had an extra heart, didn't answer the conversation, and said coldly: "Father-in-law will let you in." ”

"What father?" The suspicion in Zhao Fude's heart increased a little more, thinking that only what he saw with his own eyes could he distinguish the truth from the false, so he turned around and asked his subordinate military and political officials a few words, sorted out his appearance, and followed Yizhi to the courtyard of Zhao's mansion.

Zhao Fude had a big belly, couldn't keep up with Qiu Yizhi's brisk steps, and lost it after walking a few steps. Fortunately, Zhao Fuyi's garden was no different from his own, so he simply walked slowly and sorted out his thoughts along the way. Finally walked into Ninghe Hall, his eyes swept in the hall, and he saw a person on the right guest seat drinking tea as if no one was around, bowing his head upside down, and shouting in his mouth: "I don't know that the prince of Youyan has arrived, and I miss the welcome, it's really a sin and a sin!" ”

Zheng Rong was unmoved, and the three officials who had been restless for a long time were taken aback, hurriedly stood up and knelt down in a hurry, and kept apologizing and pleading, especially the military general of Dengzhou, who was born too violently, and actually broke a good blue and white tea bowl, and the tea splashed himself. Zhao Fude prostrate on the ground, but when he raised his eyes, he saw his younger brother Zhao Fuyi sitting motionless, and immediately reprimanded: "King Youyan is here, why doesn't Fuyi worship?" Zhao Fuyi knelt down with a "poof".

Zheng Rong didn't let the kneeling five people get up, and he held the teacup and slowly sat down on the main seat that Zhao Fuyi had just given up. He pointed to the seat next to him and said to Zhong Likuang, "Sir, please sit here." Zhongli Kuang was not polite, so he sat down in the auxiliary seat. Qiu Yizhi just wanted to stand behind Zheng Rong like just now, but was grabbed by Zhong Likuang, let him stand beside him, and whispered: "The prince is about to send officials, you have to listen carefully." ”

Zheng Rong took another sip of tea and asked Zhao Fude, who was still kneeling: "Have the bureaucrats at all levels in Henan Province arrived?" ”

"Back to the prince, there are eight states in Henan Province, and there are five state governors and seven state governors waiting outside the door." Zhao Fude replied.

"Got it." Zheng Rong replied as if he was careless, and casually instructed his subordinates, "Go and invite all the adults to come to the hall to get together." With that, he took another sip of tea, and then the kneeling people in the hall got up. After a while, the military and political officials of several states, except for the Dengzhou Assassin Shi and Jiedu envoys who were already present, had already gathered in front of the hall, stood in shifts, and waited quietly for King Youyan to speak.

Zheng Rong glanced at the hall, without a word of greeting, and directly passed on the old man Zhao and Zhao Heizi, who had been waiting outside the Ninghe Hall for a long time, and asked the two of them to state Zhao Fuyi's grievances about seizing the people's land in front of officials at all levels in Henan Province. Although Zhao Fuyi is a rich man in Nanyang County, even Dengzhou and even the entire Henan Province, he is just a person in the final analysis, and he can only stand last in order of grade. Zhao Fuyi relied on his huge wealth and the protection of his brother, and it was not a day or two that he had been doing evil in Nanyang, and the officials of various states had heard about it, and the statements of the two villagers of Zhao Jiadai, an old man and a young one, were not unexpected by them.

First of all, the old man Zhao explained in detail the circumstances of Zhao Fuyi's embezzlement of people's land over the years, and Zhao Heizi then stated the incident of Zhao Fuyi's bullying of the people. After the two finally finished speaking, Zheng Rong shouted: "Zhao Fuyi! You have seized people's land, beaten villagers, and run rampant in the village. Now he actually took advantage of the fire to rob, took advantage of the drought in Henan to lower the land price, and forcibly purchased fertile land, which is to force the good to rebel, and it should be a crime of one more degree! As he spoke, he suddenly slammed the table and said sharply, "What crime should you be guilty of, and you won't kneel down for me?" ”

This "kneeling" and the sound of the table trembling came into Zhao Fuyi's ears, which made him startled, his knees couldn't bear the strength, and he knelt upside down, unable to say a word in his mouth. However, the elder brother Zhao Fude came out of the class to play: "Fuyi's encroachment on people's land and bullying the villagers have been found to be substantiated, but no one has been killed, so he thinks that he can be ordered to return the good land he occupies free of charge, apologize to the villagers, and compensate for medical expenses as a punishment." ”

Zheng Rong listened to Zhao Fude's remarks of avoiding the important and trivial, "hehe" sneered twice, and said: "When this king went to Zhao's mansion, Zhao Fuyi not only did not treat him with courtesy, but tried to commit murder several times. May I ask Lord Zhao, how should this crime of offending the vassal king be punished? ”

Zhao Fude listened, and replied without thinking about it: "The prince's patronage of the Zhao family's mansion was originally a unique happy event for the Zhao family for several generations, and Fuyi must be very happy. However, in order to investigate the people's feelings, the prince was dressed in white dragonfish, and even the lowly rank just knew the identity of the prince, not to mention a person in Fuyi. As the saying goes, 'those who don't know, don't be excessive', therefore, although Fuyi's offense to the vassal king is true, it is always excusable, and now he is terrified, so he begged Wang Ye Haihan to pardon him for this crime. ”

Zheng Rong smiled and said: "This king has always taken the saint as a model and treated people with generosity everywhere. Therefore, although Zhao Fuyi is rebellious and has repeatedly offended the king, the king can be pardoned, but there is one thing that cannot be forgiven. Speaking of the way of calling Qiuyi, "Yizhi, what I told the king in the broken temple yesterday, do you dare to do it again in front of the officials in Henan?" ”

Qiu Yizhi stepped forward: "Of course I dare!" He talked endlessly about how Zhao Fuyi bullied his mother and son.

Zheng Rong said "good", then asked Qiu Yizhi to stand as it was, and said to the Henan military and political officials: "This Qiu Yi's origin is extraordinary, his father has a life-saving grace for this king, yesterday this king has regarded Yizhi as the son of a moth, and now he wants to avenge this revenge for the bullying and humiliation of the widow for the righteous son. ”

Zhao Fude thought badly, but he didn't expect that this familiar child was actually his sister's son and his own nephew, and now he is considered a righteous son by the powerful King Youyan, which is no longer what it used to be. And Fuyi in order to seek his sister's industry, he played an unsightly trick and forced his sister to death, he knew these things, and he felt that he was at a loss as soon as he heard about it, and he had persuaded a few words, but in the end, he saw that he had a share of the land, and he passed half-concealed, but he didn't expect it to happen at this juncture, which is a big crime to death. So I racked my brains and thought about it for a long time, but I couldn't think of a way to distinguish it, my brain was hot, and I had the courage to argue: "Although the prince of Youyan supervises the military and political affairs of Youyan, this place is Henan Province, and judicial trial is the authority of this official. Here, I would like to advise the prince not to act beyond his authority, so as not to fall into the situation of impeachment by hundreds of officials. "Before Zhao Fude was appointed as the assassin of Henan, he had served several terms as the imperial historian of the Dao, and he was articulate and did not say it, he has always been quite well-connected in the circle of officials, and if he really wants to launch the impeachment of the imperial history, it will be a big trouble.

Zheng Rong was not afraid of this, so he took off the sword at his waist casually, and shouted to the civil and military officials: "You can recognize it, what is this!?" ”

Immediately, an official exclaimed: "Shang Fang Sword! As soon as the sword of Shang Fang, which was given by the emperor, was released, it immediately shocked the hall, and the well-dressed officials knelt down in a hurry, bowed three times and bowed nine times, and said with words in their mouths: "Long live!" Banzai! Hooray! ”

After a set of big courtesies, many elderly officials were already dizzy. Zhao Fude couldn't be confused at the moment, knelt on the ground and said: "The Shang Fang sword given by the emperor has slashed officials below the fourth grade, and it can be cut first and then played." But the prince is the king of Youyan, I'm afraid that this Shangfang sword can kill Youyan's officials, but it can't kill my ministers in Henan! ”