Not to mention how Cheng Kun worked hard to strike iron, after Teng Ji returned to the county office, he found the county lieutenant Xiao Yan as soon as possible and told the whole story.

After Xiao Yan listened to Teng Ji's report, the two thick eyebrows were squeezed together and twisted into a "Sichuan" character. He didn't expect that he was just because of a little thing about his concubine, but he inadvertently surprised a big fish in the shallow pool of Xinfeng City.

He whispered the name "Tang Zhong" in his mouth, in Xinfeng City, few people knew this person, but he happened to be one of them.

There is something hidden behind the name that makes him have to be cautious too. If Teng Ji was only scared because this matter involved Tiangehou, then he saw an undercurrent hidden under the calm situation of the Chu Dynasty that had been surging for a long time.

More than 200 years have passed since the Chu Dynasty was founded by Taizu Xiang Yu to pacify the world and the founding of the country. The rise of the national situation has gradually encountered a bottleneck, and some hidden contradictions in the past have begun to slowly come to the fore, among them, the first to break out is the contradiction between the old and new nobles, or the ancient family forces and the emerging cold forces!

These two forces are like two greedy crocodiles, their bellies are always empty, and hunger drives them to eat flesh and blood to fill themselves. When all the interests have been divided, they inevitably turn their eyes on each other. At this time, they have already grown into behemoths without realizing it.

Of the two, the family with a strong foundation was a little stronger, and their rivalry spread across all aspects of the country, and the emperor was happy to see it. The emperor was never afraid of disagreements and contradictions in the court, because this was one of the foundations of their existence.

For a long time, the emperor was skillful in supporting one side and suppressing the other according to the situation, and he himself acted as a referee to maintain the majesty of imperial power. And the ministers are obviously well versed in the rules of power struggles, and cooperate with the monarch to keep the conflict within a safe range.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that in this long wrestling, the emperor is biased, and they have the ambition to support the children of the poor family together and suppress the nobles of the family.

It's no wonder that the power of the family is too great. It is like an iceberg floating on the sea, the exposed part is only one-tenth, until the end, no one knows what kind of hole cards are hidden in these ancient families, how can this not make the emperor jealous.

And the people in power behind the family are obviously very aware of this, those old guys have empty eyelashes one by one, and they can be used as whistles when they are plucked!

They took a step further, took two steps back, carefully controlled the rhythm, cut off the less important parts of their bodies and threw them out, and distributed them to other forces, reducing the size while making sure that they did not cut too much at once, causing heavy bleeding.

This rhythm has been maintained very well, and those who have the ability to make rules have acquiesced to this situation until Emperor Chu Huai died and the new son of heaven Xiang Liang succeeded to the throne.

During Xiang Liang's time as the crown prince, he did not show any outstanding talent. On the contrary, because of his poor martial arts talent, the secret "Dingjiangshan" divine fist of the Xiang family has limited attainments, so that many royal family elders are not optimistic about the alternative of this overlord lineage.

But the strange thing is that the first emperor never had the idea of abolishing the crown prince, and many people were still worried about whether Xiang Liang could sit in the position of emperor at that time, and it was not until Xiang Liang ascended the throne that they understood that they were really stupid.

Compared with his ancestors, Xiang Liang did not have the world-beating force like the first generation Taizu Xiang Yu, and he could subdue all parties on his own, but he had a firm will and a strong wrist that was rare among emperors.

With his first victory over the Xiongnu after ascending the throne, when his prestige soared, he would weaken the pace of the family and speed up, and constantly take various opportunities to weaken the power of the family in the army.

For more than 20 years, Peng Yuan has been fighting against the Xiongnu, and has made countless contributions, in this process, Peng Yuan not only trained a powerful army that is enough to deter the world-Dingshan Army, but also passed the test of the battlefield to eliminate the unqualified children of the family in the army one by one.

Xiang Liang turned these credits into Peng Yuan's official rank, pushing him step by step to become the military god of Great Chu, the general of Yipin Zhenguo, and only one step away from the Great Sima, one of the three princes of the Chu Dynasty, and the current Great Sima is the contemporary head of the Xiahou family - Xiahou Injury.

The family can only watch their power in the army shrink little by little, like a frog boiled in warm water, not painful but deadly.

It's not that they didn't try to resist, and some people once played the impeachment of Peng Yuan's self-respect and ill-intentionedness. But without exception, Xiang Liang was left aside, and he didn't bother to look at it, and the courtiers who played were also imprisoned by him for framing important ministers of the country. Through such a heavy punishment, Xiang Liang showed his trust in Peng Yuan to the world.

Finally, the family was afraid, they couldn't see when such a little bit of bloodshed would come to an end. Without the protection of the army, their power becomes rootless, and they will fall when the wind blows.

Eleven years ago, Peng Yuan's righteous son Ren Rong was ambushed by the Hun army when he went out to spy on the enemy's situation, and fled in defeat. Xiahou took the opportunity to attack, a major earthquake broke out in the Great Chu army, in the conflict, both sides were defeated, dozens of middle-level officers were beheaded, and the general Lu Juan also defected to the Huns, almost hurting the vitality of the army.

Tang Zhong was Peng Yuan's personal soldier at that time, and it was also at that time that he was pulled out of the Dingshan army for a reason.

And now, Xiao Yan learned from his subordinates that this Tang Zhong had been under his nose all along, and the shock in his heart could be imagined.

A person like him from a family has access to a much wider world than ordinary people imagine, and the information he receives is also richer. Now, Xiao Yan is obviously thinking too much. He racked his brains, thinking about the hidden meaning behind Tang Zhong's appearance, as for the contradiction between Zhou Cai and Aunt Hu, he had already left it behind.

For a long time, Teng Ji saw that the county lieutenant had been bowing his head and pondering, and he didn't speak. He hesitated and stepped forward to ask: "My lord, my lord, look, do you want to arrest this Cheng Kun, then Fan Gang is still in prison." ”

Xiao Yan came back to his senses, looked at Teng Ji in front of him, and his eyes widened: "What else are you catching, hurry up and release that Fan Gang, this matter is over, do you hear?"

Teng Ji hurriedly agreed, the county lieutenant's orders were exactly what he wanted, and his old arms and legs couldn't stand the toss.

......

In the county jail, Fan Gang stood in a dark and damp cell, his nose was filled with a lingering stench, and the screams of prisoners were heard in his ears from time to time, which was terrifying.

His eyes were a little red, and it was obvious that he had cried. Suddenly, he was arrested and put in prison, and there was no one around who could speak, and the more this guy thought about it, the more scared he became, and he scared himself, thinking that he was going to die this time!

He was thinking that he would do things by himself, not to implicate Xiao Kun, and when he thought that the incident happened suddenly, his father and mother were afraid that he didn't know that he had been arrested, but after his poor father and mother were old, they couldn't find anyone to support their old age. Well, I don't know if it's too late to let them have another brother now...... ( ̄▽ ̄)

For some reason, after the sadness and fear passed, the thoughts that swirled in his mind became more and more curious.

At this time, the old man in the prison came over, opened the lock, and said in a low and hoarse voice: "Fan Gang, you can go." ”

Fan Gang: "...... Huh?"

He didn't believe his ears, and pointed his right index finger to his chest and looked at each other with doubts in his eyes.

This old man doesn't know how old he is, this body exudes the unique smell of decay and sin in prison, seeing Fan Gang's reaction, his wrinkled old face like orange peel showed a playful smile: "Of course, if you want to stay, I can also talk to Teng Bantou." There are no other benefits in this prison, and the food is still in charge. ”

Fan Gang shivered all over his body, and suddenly woke up, he hurriedly walked out of the cell, feeling that the soles of his feet were a little floating, he had stood for too long, and his legs and feet were numb.

When he walked out of the yamen and saw the sunshine outside again, he realized the preciousness of life and the beauty of light for the first time.

......

After nightfall, in the Xiao Mansion, Wu Yan carefully prepared refreshments, waiting for her husband's arrival, with a smile in the corners of her eyes, her face was full of light, looking forward to life, the maids in the mansion saw it during the day, and they were secretly surprised, why this little lady seemed to be much younger and more beautiful all of a sudden.

The treatment of a normal concubine is five days and one night, that is to say, the husband can have sex with him every five days, but there is no outsider supervision of this kind of boudoir secret, so in fact, it depends on who the husband loves more, and she is very confident in this.

As the minutes passed, the candles burned shorter and shorter, and the tears were buried.

Wu Yan couldn't sit still, she sent a maid to ask Xiao Yan if he had returned home tonight, when the work was squeezed too much, Xiao Yan would also stay in the county government directly.

Soon, the maid returned. For some reason, there was a hint of pity in her eyes when she looked at Wu Yan.

Wu Yan asked her anxiously about the result, but the answer she got made her a little incredulous, "Madame, the master has already returned to the house, and now he is sleeping in the lady's room, the master asked me to tell you, don't bother him if it's okay." Reading between the lines, the alienation and coldness are undisguised.

Wu Yan only felt that his heart seemed to have fallen into the ice cave in the middle of winter, and his heart was cold to the bone. Her eyes also lost their lustre, hollow, and her whole person was lifeless.

She doesn't know why, yesterday the two of them still complained to each other, and they were affectionate, and today they will judge the two of them, is this the lover she wants to entrust her life!

I think of myself in the past three years, I have been careful every day, and I have endured the oppression of the eldest woman, but I have no complaints, in order to get the favor of my husband. She thought she had done it, but now that she thinks about it, this favor is just a bubble in the sun, which seems to be crystal clear, but it can burst with a fragile poke!

She sat blankly on the bed, suddenly smiled, reached out and touched her face, and at some point, it was already full of tears.

This is exactly what it is: laughter fades away, and affection is ruthlessly annoyed.