"Brother Fuliang, Mr. An has been captured by Zhao Guogong. What should we do now?"
In the main hall of the An Mansion, those "fence-sitters" had all run away after learning that An Shuncai had been captured. Only the eight Hu merchants who had gone to the workshop with An Shuncai were left. At this moment, Shi Nanshou frowned and looked at Kang Fuliang.
"Alas … we can only wait!"
Kang Fuliang sighed and said, "Let's wait for news from Zhangsun Manor. Brother Shuncai's plan originally had a certain amount of risk, but I didn't expect it to be exposed so quickly. Duke Zhao isn't someone we can offend. We can only hope that he can be magnanimous towards Brother Shuncai!
Also, when I returned from the workshop of the Curious Pavilion this morning, I have already written a letter to inform the Kang Kingdom of this matter. When the King learns of this matter, he will most likely send an envoy to negotiate with the Great Tang Imperial Court. But Changguan is far away from the Kang Kingdom. Even if he gallops, I'm afraid it will take more than a month for news! "
Shi Nanshou nodded and said, "I have also written a letter and sent it back to the Stone Kingdom. The Nine Families of Zhaowu are united. I believe the Monarch of the Nine Countries will not allow the Tang Empire to humiliate us!"
"That's right!"
The others nodded.
Kang Fuliang said, "Since Brother Shuncai has been captured, we can't stay here for long. You should go back first. Just send someone to keep an eye on the Zhangsun Mansion!"
"Fuliang is right! Let's go back first! "
They did not hesitate. They only said a few words to the steward of the An Mansion and left under the steward's aggrieved and resentful eyes.
Cough, it was not that they did not want to save An Shuncai, but that they did not have the ability to do so. It was obvious that An Shuncai's plan had been exposed and had angered Zhangsun Wuji. But who was Zhangsun Wuji? He was the Minister of Official Personnel Affairs of the Tang Empire and the elder brother of the Tang Empress. How could they afford to offend him?
So even though the old steward of the An Mansion begged them to help save An Shuncai, they could only pretend not to hear and leave in a hurry!
The arms were no match for the thighs!
…
"Your Majesty, the Zhangsun Clan has sent an An Kingdom merchant to the Supreme Court, claiming that he is An Shunshan's cousin. They hope that the Supreme Court will properly interrogate him and see if he is colluding with Turkic spies!"
In the Sweet Nectar Hall, Li Er had just finished dealing with administrative matters and was about to leave when Zhao Song walked in quickly and whispered to Li Er.
"Oh? Merchants from An Kingdom? And he's An Shunshan's cousin? "
When Li Er first heard this news, he did not pay much attention to it. However, he suddenly felt that the name 'An Shunshan' sounded familiar. Then, he thought of the latter half of Zhao Song's sentence about Zhangsun Wuji wanting the Supreme Court to investigate whether the An Kingdom merchant had colluded with the Turk spies. Li Er instantly recalled the identity of An Shunshan. His eyes focused and after pondering for a moment, he instructed Zhao Song,
"Go to the Supreme Court and bring this person out, then hand him over to the Hundred Cavalry Department for interrogation! “
For the time being, Li Er did not want more people to know about what had happened in Taiyuan City. Firstly, even if others knew about what had happened in Taiyuan City, it would be useless to save Li Tai. Secondly, since there were Turkic spies in Taiyuan City, who could guarantee that there weren't any in Chang 'an City? If the Turkic spies in Chang 'an City learned of what had happened in Taiyuan City, there was no telling what sort of trouble they might cause to prevent Li Junxian from saving Li Tai.
Li Er was rather satisfied with the current situation in Taiyuan City. He believed that as long as Li Junxian slowly and steadily worked his way through, he would have a high chance of successfully rescuing Li Tai!
And the Supreme Court naturally did not know what had happened in Taiyuan City. If they were to interrogate An Shunshan for colluding with the Turkic spies, Dai Zhou would probably be filled with question marks and wouldn't even know how to interrogate him.
Thus, Li Er planned to have the Hundred Cavalry Department properly interrogate this An Shunshan!
Because Li Junxian was in Taiyuan City, the Hundred Cavalry Department knew what had happened in Taiyuan City. Moreover, the Hundred Cavalry Department was Li Er's most trusted unit!
"This old slave obeys the decree!"
Zhao Song clasped his hands in acknowledgement, but he did not turn to leave. After a few moments of hesitation, he said, "Your Majesty … the Zhangsun Clan also sent a person to the Supreme Court. To be more precise, they sent a corpse!"
"Who?"
Li Er's expression froze as he sternly asked.
Could it be that Zhangsun Wuji had suffered a setback in the Imperial Palace, so he went back and killed someone to vent his anger?
That shouldn't be the case!
Zhangsun Wuji was a smart man. He wouldn't make such a low-level mistake.
"It's the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, Ma Cheng!"
Zhao Song bowed as he softly reported.
"Ma Cheng? The Crown Prince Zhan Shi who was elected last month? "
Li Er asked in confusion.
He knew of the relationship between Ma Cheng and Zhangsun Wuji. Logically speaking, Zhangsun Wuji had pushed Ma Cheng to the position of Crown Prince Zhan Shi with great difficulty. It was impossible for Zhangsun Wuji to kill him, right? Wouldn't that be a waste of effort and self-destruction?
"Precisely!"
Zhang Song nodded and clasped his hands.
"The Zhangsun Clan said that Ma Cheng secretly colluded with An Shuncai and received huge benefits from the other party. After the matter was exposed, he knew that he had committed a grave sin, so he bit his tongue and committed suicide!
The Supreme Court's coroner conducted a preliminary examination of the corpse. Ma Cheng's tongue was severed from the root. He really bit his tongue and committed suicide. It doesn't look like a homicide! "
"Ma Cheng colluded with An Shuncai? This is interesting. Later, let the Hundred Cavalry Department investigate this matter as well! "
Li Er's eyes flashed as he instructed Zhao Song.
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Zhao Song clasped his hands and left after receiving the order.
…
"Time for lunch! Time for lunch! "
When it was close to noon, on the Black Armored Military Academy, where the Wu Battalion was located, Sun Zhiping's announcement of disbandment caused the soldiers of the Wu Battalion to erupt in cheers. After training for the entire morning, the soldiers who were originally exhausted seemed to have been "revived with full blood" at this moment. Everyone rushed to their own tents as fast as they could.
Their food was there. They were going to eat!
Of course, the reason why they were so excited was that there was enough meat for all the soldiers of the Wu Battalion today!
Due to the Black Armored Army's martial arts competition yesterday, Team One of the Wu Battalion and Team One of the First Battalion had both suffered heavy losses. Team Two of the Wu Battalion won without a fight and obtained the first place. According to the rules of the competition, the team that obtained the first place would be able to enjoy an unlimited supply of meat for a day!
This was incredible!
In this era, there was no complete animal husbandry industry. The supply of meat was not as plentiful as it was in the modern era. It was already considered good if a commoner could have a meal of meat during the New Year. As for the soldiers, although their food conditions were much better than the commoners and they could eat some meat every day, they still had to undergo a huge amount of training every day!
The more energy they expended, the more energy they needed to replenish. This was especially true for the soldiers of the Black Armored Army! The amount of training for the Black Armored Army was definitely several times that of the other battalions in the capital!
Under such circumstances, how could the meager amount of meat provided by the Black Armored Army be enough for them? It wasn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth!
Now that there was such a good opportunity to eat as much meat as they wanted, how could the soldiers let it go? Each of them wished that they could grow wings and fly directly to the kitchen. Everyone swore in their hearts: Today, we must eat until the sky turns dark and the earth turns dark!
After all, there won't be another opportunity like this if we miss this village!
"Oh ~! I, Old Cheng, want to eat a pig today! No one is allowed to stop me! "
Cheng Chumo wailed like a ghost and howled like a wolf. He was the first to get his rice bowl and galloped towards the kitchen of the Wu camp.
Following closely behind him was Bao Lin. As he ran, he shouted:
"Ang! I want to eat eight pig trotters! No one is allowed to snatch them from me! "
"F * ck! Why is Cheng Chumo running so fast! Old Zhou, you guys hurry up too! If we're late, there might not be any meat to eat! "
"Didn't you say that we have enough meat for today? Why is there no meat? "
"Tsk! Why don't you think about it? Everyone in our battalion is a foodie. Which one of us can't eat five or six bowls of meat? If we're late, we might only be able to drink meat soup! "
"Then why aren't we running?"
Just like that, from the leaders to the ordinary soldiers, everyone was running towards the kitchen as if they were playing with their lives!
Speaking of which, the Cooks' Army Unit of the Wu Battalion had already anticipated the 'grand occasion' this afternoon. They didn't even participate in the training this morning. They spent the entire morning preparing the lunch for the soldiers of the Wu Battalion!
It wasn't that they wanted to be lazy and skip training. It was just that they had to prepare too many ingredients. In just one morning, they had already slaughtered 40 pigs!
If a pig weighed two hundred pounds, then according to the 70% meat yield, forty pigs could produce about five thousand pounds of pork. There were a thousand people in the Wu Battalion, so on average, each person could get about five thousand pounds of pork!
These were the 40 pigs that Li Zexuan had prepared for the kitchen. He asked them to slaughter all of them at noon. If the soldiers couldn't finish their meal, they could eat at night. Anyway, the more the better. Li Zexuan would never go back on his word. If he said that there would be enough meat, then there would definitely be enough meat!
"Quick! Quick! Give me a bowl of foreleg meat. I want all the lean meat, not the fat ones! "
Cheng Chumo was the first to arrive at the kitchen. He directly rushed in front of a cook and handed over his bowl of rice.
If it was when Cheng Chumo first came to the Black Armored Army, he would be very satisfied to be able to eat meat for every meal. Why would he care about the fat or lean meat? But today, the 'living conditions' of the Wu Battalion had improved. This idiot also started to be 'picky about his food'!
Yesterday, during the fighting competition, Yuan Dacheng from Team One of the Second Battalion had used underhanded means to severely injure Lu Ming from the Wu Battalion. Lu Ming was very popular in the Wu Battalion. When they found out that he was severely injured by Yuan Dacheng, everyone was filled with righteous indignation. Coincidentally, in the knockout round, Team One of the Wu Battalion met Team One of the Second Battalion! And coincidentally, Cheng Chumo was up against Lu Ming!
During the fight, Cheng Chumo used all his skills and finally won against Yuan Dacheng who was stronger than him. It could be said that he had avenged Lu Ming. This caused everyone in the Wu Battalion to have a good impression of Cheng Chumo, especially the Cooks' Army Unit at the kitchen!
"Hey! Chumo, you little brat, you sure run fast! "
The Cooks' Army Unit in front of Cheng Chumo looked at Cheng Chumo and laughed. Then, he took the bowl of rice from Cheng Chumo's hands and said, "Lean meat and lean meat are cooked together. But since you came first, I'll help you pick some lean meat!"
This was clearly giving special treatment to Cheng Chumo, and it was not just in name but in reality!
Think about it, the Wu Battalion of the Black Armored Army had a thousand people. If everyone was as picky as Cheng Chumo, then how could the Cooks' Army Unit be so busy? It was because Cheng Chumo had avenged Lu Ming yesterday that he received such special treatment!
… … …
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