There were no absolutes in this world.
Some things could be hypothesized and redone.
For example, imperial envoy Huang Jingrong had died once again.
The new imperial envoy, Pei Huaigu, had just arrived at Yao Zhou. He had not even stepped through the gates of the military governor's office when he was chased into Yao Zhou by a fast horse that traveled eight hundred li from the capital.
Wu Zetian gave him another secret edict. Pei Huaigu received this secret edict and read it. He immediately let out a long sigh of relief and wanted to laugh out loud. With this imperial edict in hand, all his worries were solved. He could clean up the mess left by the war in Yao Zhou.
Wu Zetian ordered Pei Huaigu to investigate the truth as soon as possible. If it was true that Huang Jingrong was extorting bribes and used the rebels to implicate the barbarians, she could be beheaded on the spot to quell the public's anger. She also asked him to calm the situation in Yao Zhou as soon as possible.
Pei Huaigu put away the imperial edict and immediately dismissed the officials and chieftains who were welcoming the imperial envoy. Only Xun Qi, Zhe Zhu, Wen Hao, and Yun Xuan were left behind to discuss important matters. He was originally worried that these barbarian leaders would not understand his hint. He did not expect that even though they were barbarians, the leaders were not ordinary people.
The four of them were intelligent and resourceful, especially Zhe Zhu and Yun Xuan. Pei Huaigu had only said half of what he was hinting at, but the two of them had already understood. Thus, the story of Huang Jingrong using the tiger's might to extort money and goods from Yao Zhou to force the barbarians to rebel was gradually perfected by the two parties involved.
Then, news came out of Yao Zhou. The news that Huang Jingrong was dead was actually a rumor. Huang Jingrong was still alive but was detained by Xun Qi and chieftain Zhe Zhu. Imperial Censor Pei was astute and experienced, he enforced the law in an impartial manner. Less than two days after he arrived in Yaozhou, he had already investigated Huang Jingrong's bribery and forced the barbarians to rebel against him. He also found out that Huang Jingrong had received more than a dozen loads of all kinds of treasures, as well as several dozen beauties from various races.
The people of Yaozhou all saw with their own eyes the baskets of jewels being carried by imperial envoy Pei's entourage out of the mansion that Huang Jingrong had originally lived in. There were also the dozens of young girls of various races who had been rushed to the prefectural city by their parents and older brothers to take them back. Cries rang out in front of the military manor. Everyone praised Imperial Envoy Pei's righteous name and cursed Huang Jingrong for being greedy and shameless.
Striking while the iron was hot, Imperial Censor Pei decided to execute Huang Jingrong in accordance with the law of the land. However, Huang Jingrong had already been chopped into minced meat. Even if he wanted to kill her, he wouldn't be able to.
Xunqi had once ordered people to dig out Huang Jingrong's minced meat from the pit and ordered people to use a knife to cut off Huang Jingrong's head for him to see. Xunqi pinched his nose and looked at it for a long time. He felt that even if he found the best corpse, it would not be able to disguise the knife and sword marks on Huang Jingrong's head. He could only find another corpse that looked similar to Huang Jingrong's and ordered Imperial Censor Pei to execute it.
Pei Huaigu pretended to arrange the execution ground and kept the people watching far away. He ordered people to carry the corpse up to the execution platform. The corpse did not move at all. It was said that Imperial Censor Pei, out of consideration for his colleague, ordered people to pour strong alcohol on the corpse in advance so that he would not suffer any more fear or pain before his death. This action gave Imperial Censor Pei the reputation of being merciful.
After 'Huang Jingrong' was beheaded, the head was hung on a pole six feet high and exposed to the scorching sun for three days. When the head had completely rotted, Pei Huaigu used his own money to buy a thin coffin to store the corpse. The coffin was placed in a monastery in Yao Prefecture and waited for the Huang family to collect the corpse. He really did not let anything slip.
Under Imperial Censor Pei's kind advice, the leaders of the barbarian tribes in Yao Province were fortunate enough to erect a stone tablet for the Empress. They requested Imperial Censor Yao to carve an inscription praising the Empress's wisdom, benevolence, magnanimity, and magnanimity. Imperial Censor Pei naturally wrote all of this into a memorial and ordered it to be sent to the capital on horseback.
After Imperial Censor Pei arrived at Yao Prefecture, he was fair in rewards and punishments. He helped the people settle down and swiftly executed Huang Jingrong to appease the anger of the barbarian tribes. After a series of hard work, he successfully resolved the chaos in Yao Prefecture. The battle in Yao Prefecture was quelled. The two chiefs of the White Man and Crow Man tribes led more than two hundred thousand people to return to the imperial court.
While Pei Huaigu was enthusiastically helping Yang Fan clean up his mess and gaining political capital for himself, Xunqi ordered people to rush to the headquarters of Wenhao's tribe and told Yang Fan everything that had happened.
This way of dealing with the situation was obviously less loopholes than shifting the blame to Wen Hao and Yun Xuan. Thus, the memorial that Wen Hao had personally written in Yang Fan's sleeve on how to execute Huang Jingrong was naturally useless. Yang Fan casually tore apart Wen Hao's personal memorial.
When Yang Fan decided to give the credit of quelling the chaos in Yao Prefecture to Pei Huaigu, he knew that Pei Huaigu would do his best to resolve this matter. However, he did not expect that it would be resolved so smoothly. And all of this was because of the imperial edict that Wu Zetian had sent over eight hundred li on horseback.
Why did Wu Zetian's attitude change so much? Why was she so eager to quell the chaos in Yao Prefecture? She had previously used delaying tactics to prevent Yang Fan from interfering with the investigation of the imperial censor. She had a conniving attitude towards the imperial censor, but now she was acting out of character. This change was really thought-provoking. What had happened?
Unfortunately, the messenger that Xunqi sent only knew what Xunqi had told him. That was, Huang Jingrong's death had been resolved and that Wenhao's memorial should not be reported to the imperial court. He did not know anything else. Yang Fan could not figure out the reason behind this and could only wait patiently for Xunqi and Zhe Zhu to return …
…
The Qianzhong Path was west of the Jiannan Path and south of the Lingnan Path. The traffic there was more difficult than the two paths.
The Barbarian province of Qianzhong was governed by Bajiang County. The imperial court appointed the local Song family as the governor of the Barbarian province and the magistrate of Bajiang County, which were hereditary. Every Barbarian Province Governor and Bajiang County Magistrate were chosen by the Song Clan themselves. After reporting to the Imperial Court, they would be appointed by the Imperial Court.
Due to the special geographical situation of the south, a change of dynasty would rarely bring about great changes to an aristocratic family. Therefore, these southern aristocratic families were deeply rooted in the local area. They were free and unfettered, and their family power was a hundred times more stable than that of an emperor.
No matter how glorious those great empires were in the past, having three hundred years of luck was already considered a long time for them. However, these local great clans that dominated a region usually had their luck measured in thousands of years.
Before the establishment of the Tang dynasty, the Song family of Bajiang had actually ruled this place for many years. Their family lived through the Han, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties until the establishment of the Sui dynasty. After the establishment of the Tang dynasty, Qianzhong Road was established and the Song family of Bajiang was appointed as the hereditary provincial governor and hereditary county magistrate. Since then, the Song family had been ruling this place until the early years of the Qing dynasty.
This generation's Barbarian Province Governor was called Song Chumeng, and the Bajiang County Magistrate was called Song Wanyou. They were a pair of uncle and nephew. This pair of uncle and nephew had been very distressed recently. Originally, they were free and unfettered in their autonomous area, far away from the Emperor. Who knew that the Imperial Court would suddenly send an imperial envoy called Liu Guangye.
This imperial envoy Liu was a person of the Imperial Censorate. After arriving at the Barbarian Province, he only went out for a casual stroll and said that the exiled people were plotting a rebellion. He asked Song Chumeng to send troops to assist him in suppressing the rebellion.
Song Chumeng had no choice but to send troops to assist Liu Guangye in capturing the exiled people. Under Liu Guangye's orders, more than nine hundred and forty exiled people had been killed. Almost all of the exiled people in the Barbarian Province had been slaughtered.
This matter caused the dissatisfaction of many of the tribal leaders in the Barbarian Province. Because these exiled people had been exiled to the Barbarian Province for many years, many of their families had already married with the locals.
These southern aristocratic clans had a particularly strong sense of home. Those who were taken in as their own people could not tolerate being bullied and humiliated like this. Now that these exiled people were being hunted down by the Imperial Court, and the imperial envoy was using the Song clan's troops, they all protested to the Song clan, expressing their strong dissatisfaction.
The interests and political relationships between the local aristocratic clans were complicated. Due to thousands of years of intermarriage, the relationship between them was even more difficult to clearly distinguish. Song Chumeng and nephew didn't dare to offend the imperial envoy, but they also had to suffer the strong pressure from the various aristocratic clans under their rule and even from within their own clans. They were caught in the middle and were truly in a dilemma.
However, that Liu Guangye seemed to be addicted to killing. He wouldn't stop until he killed every single exiled person in the Barbarian Province. Song Chumeng had already sent him generous gifts more than once, only hoping to send this god of plagues away. However, Liu Guangye turned a deaf ear to her. Every day, he would lead the soldiers and chase after the exiled people everywhere for fun.
Early this morning, Liu Guangye left the city with the soldiers. Song Chumeng and nephew didn't know which stronghold this imperial envoy was going to harm today. They were gathered together, frowning and sighing. Suddenly, someone hurriedly came to report that a group of imperial envoys had rushed to the outskirts of the Barbarian Province and asked the Provincial Governor and County Magistrate to go and welcome them.
When Song Chumeng and Song Wanyou heard this, they immediately complained incessantly. Liu Guangye hadn't left yet, and now another group of imperial envoys had arrived. Could it be that these imperial envoys were going to slaughter the Barbarian Province until rivers of blood flowed? The two of them didn't have time to think too much. They could only put on their clothes and brace themselves to rush out of the city to welcome them.
The group of imperial envoys that had suddenly rushed over was Yang Fan's deputy envoy, Sun Yuxuan and Hu Yuanli. The one leading the troops was Maqiao, who commanded a brigade of the Dragonmartial Guards. They had rushed all the way from Chang 'an. When they passed by Yelang, they just so happened to meet the imperial court's messenger who was chasing after them.
Yang Fan was moving alone, so it was not easy to find his whereabouts. On the other hand, Sun Yuxuan and Maqiao's group had a large number of people. Along the way, they had to rely on the local authorities to feed their people and horses, so it was very easy to find them. Moreover, the messenger didn't know that Yang Fan was traveling alone, so he followed the trail and caught up to Sun Yuxuan and the others.
The messenger delivered a secret edict. Maqiao and the others used the excuse that Yang Fan had just left Yelang City to visit incognito and wanted to receive the secret edict on his behalf. When the messenger left the capital, he was instructed to deliver the secret edict as soon as possible. Moreover, he was also tasked with delivering messages elsewhere, so he didn't dare to delay and handed the secret edict to the imperial deputy envoy.
Currently, the most well-informed places in the Empire of the Tang dynasty were the various hostels. Along the way, Maqiao and the others had heard too much news, such as the rebellion of the Xun and Meng clans in Jiannan Province, and the rebellion of the Feng clan in Panzhou Province in Lingnan Province. They knew that such frequent and frequent rebellions must have been caused by the ruthless officials of the Imperial Censorate who were extorting and extorting the local people.
Especially the rebellion of the Black and White Barbarians in Jiannan Province. Yang Fan should be there at this moment. In the midst of the chaos, they didn't know if he was safe or not. The group was deeply worried, but they had already made an agreement with Yang Fan to meet at the Barbarian Province. If they rushed directly to Yaozhou, they might miss Yang Fan due to the lack of information between them.
With no other choice, they could only travel day and night towards the Barbarian Province. However, the hundreds of them were all cavalrymen. It was fine when they were in Guanzhong, but once they entered Shu, it became difficult for the cavalrymen to move even an inch, especially on the dangerous mountain roads that could save them a lot of time. It was the same even after they entered Qian Province. They had to travel through many twists and turns, and more than a dozen horses died of illness before they finally arrived today.
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