The Marquis Is Innocent

The remaining fires in the Prefect’s residence have not been extinguished, so it is impossible to move in. The victims have been placed in the courthouse on the east side.

A soldier lighted the way with a fire stick and Wei Shao walked along. Except for the Prefect’s residence, which still burns behind him, the street was dark and the windows and doors of the houses on both sides were closed, just like a deserted city. When walking through a house, there was a sound of a child crying. Before the cry was finished, it faded away. It must have been covered by the frightened adults.

At the entrance of the courthouse, Shiyi’s guards and officials are gathered. The military army is facing each other. The officials are disheveled. Their faces are ashen. Some are sitting on the ground. Some are crying. They hear the soldier shouting “the marquis is here”, and then they salute. A man in armor and blood is on the entrance. He is young, just in his twenties. They know this man is the famous Wei Shao. They all tremble and don’t dare to make a sound. They only peek at him.

Wei Shao ignored these Shiyi officials and went inside to remove his armor and wipe the blood off his face. Then he went to comfort the injured soldiers from this night’s attack.

This battle is a tragedy. Shiyi’s 20,000 defenders were wiped out, and Wei Shao’s side also suffered heavy losses. Despite the dead, only the injured who are lying here make dozens of doctors busy to heal the wounded soldiers.

The soldiers saw their master did not celebrate even they had just conquered the city, but came to visit those who were wounded, and they were all grateful.

When Wei Shao had finished comforting the soldiers, he went to visit Wei Liang.

Wei Liang, because of his guilty conscience, had been attacking the city and had been hit by several fire arrows. But his injuries were not critical. The military doctor had finished treating him. He was now lying on a bed with his eyes closed. Seeing Wei Shao come to visit, he struggled to get up, but Wei Shao pressed him down.

Wei Liang was poisoned by fire. The injury is quite serious. His face is like golden paper, but he is still talking and laughing. His spirit still looks good.

Wei Shao asked him about the details of what happened in Qiuji. Wei Liang recounted from beginning to end. He gritted his teeth and said: “Damned Chen Rui! How dare he scheme me to kidnap the lady! He deserves to die! When I find him next time, I will cut him into pieces so I can eliminate the hatred in my heart!”

Wei Shao asked, “Are you saying they kidnapped the lady in the posthouse, and someone sent a passerby to report to you she had fallen to Chen Rui’s hands? Do you know who that person was?”

Wei Liang shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe someone was watching, so they came to report.”

As Wei Shao pondered, the sergeant came to report a soldier had found Chen Rui a few miles outside the west gate of the city. Chen Rui had snatched a horse and appeared to be heading toward Le Ping. The soldier was doing his best to track him down.

Wei Liang was furious and sat up to roll out of bed, touched the wound on his body and shout in pain.

Wei Shao looked as normal, but a shadow swept across his eyes. Pressing Wei Liang’s shoulders, telling him to recuperate from his injuries, and ordering the military doctor to treat him with all his heart, making no mistakes. He got up and rode his horse out of the west gate.

After Chen Rui escaped through the Prefect’s residence’s wall, he took advantage of the chaos to sneak out from the west gate. He saw torches behind him, and Wei Shao’s soldiers were moving in silhouette, so he knew they were looking for him. He fled like a dog and saw a thorn bush growing in the field. He ignored the thorns and dug in to hide. Trying to escape the pursuit and planning to escape after dawn.

Unexpectedly, his luck was poor. He alerted a nest of wild beavers. The beavers ran around and make a noise. Attracted the soldiers and they stabbed at the thorny bush with their spears. At first, Chen Rui held back, but a soldier thrust his buttocks with a spear. With an ouch, he jumped out and knocked over the soldier, grabbed a horse and fled to the west.

He ran like a frenzy, and the soldiers who were chasing behind him were left behind. He breathed a sigh of relief, and saw his horse was panting, and its pace was slowing down. Afraid the horse would die, and he would lose his legs, plus he was exhausted, so he came down and sat on the ground to catch his breath. Before he could breathe twice, he found the people behind him seemed to catch up.

Tonight the moon and stars are scattered, and everywhere is empty. He can see faintly this crowd is at least a dozen people. Chen Rui broke out in a cold sweat. Getting up from the ground, turned over and jumped on horseback and ran again. Try to not panic, and ran into a large deserted cemetery. Watching the people chasing him get closer, he can even hear horse’s hooves on the ground.

Chen Rui knows Wei Shao hates him to the bone. If he falls into his hands, his life will be worse than death. There is no way to escape. He made up his mind, so he made a gamble. He rolled off the horse. Kicked the horse’s buttocks, and urged the horse to continue to move forward. He rolled and crawled into a pile of barren graves. Bumped into a wild grave, and there was a dark hole in the shade. After hiding, he took out a stone to block the entrance of the cave.

……

Wei Shao led the soldiers to catch Chen Rui out of the city a few dozen miles away. After entering the cemetery, they soon caught the horse. But Chen Rui was missing. He stopped and ordered the soldiers to search the area, but he was nowhere to be found. There was a deserted cemetery next to the road, so he ordered the soldiers to search again.

One by one, the soldier came back and reported they had looked everywhere and did not see Chen Rui.

Wei Shao pondered for a moment. Looking back at the city, and thought the soldiers had been on the road for days and had attacked the city in the middle of the night, and were already tired. And they have just taken Shiyi, there are many things to do in the city, although there is Gongsun Yang taking over the town, but he can not leave for too long. He hesitated and looked at the endless deserted cemetery and ordered the troops to return to the city.

……

Chen Rui shrinks in the dark cemetery, with his eyes wide open. Not daring to move, only listening to the outside movement. At first, there seemed to be the sound of footsteps nearby, but the other side noticed nothing different from the shaded area and walked past. After a long time, there has been no other noise outside. Chen Rui deduced that Wei Shao and his party should have gone. He relief a long sigh, and then smelled rotten smell. He almost wants to vomit. Muttered a “bad luck”, and pushed away the stone to climb out. His corner of the clothes seems to be tugged and can not be released.

The appearance of ghosts flashed in front of Chen Rui. Although he usually kills like crazy and does not fear ghosts, but in this moment, in the middle of the night in a cemetery, surrounded by darkness, and the corner of his clothes was pulled, and the wind seems to have blown across his neck, even if he is brave, he still had goose bumps all over his body at the moment. He lying on the ground and unmoved. Closed his eyes and mouth, begged for mercy. After a while, there was no other strange situation behind him. He finally had the courage to reach back and touch it, only to find out the corner of his clothes was just hung up by a piece of wild thorn growing behind him. He hurriedly disappeared toward Bingzhou.

……

It was past the fourth period of the night when Wei Shao returned to the city.

Chen Pang had earlier stocked dozens of water dragons (*). The soldiers used the water dragons to suppress the fire. The fire was finally extinguished. Although the prefect’s residence was mostly burned, and the granary was affected, but only a few hundred pellets were lost. The rest was safe, and the fire did not affect the nearby houses.

T/N: (*) water dragons, ancient terms for warships.

When Gongsun Yang, who was cleaning up the mess near the fire, saw Wei Shao coming, he greeted and reported to him.

He also had not closed his eyes for a day and a night, but he was still in good spirits. After the brief exchange, he smiled and said, “Congratulations, my lord. Today we conquered Shiyi, and possessed the gateway, taking Jin Yang is just a matter of time.”

Wei Shao smiled and said, “Sir, you have worked hard all night, and the day is about to dawn. Just instruct the rest of the matter, and you go take a rest first.”

Gongsun Yang responded, thought about it and said: “The fire came in time, it helped to attack the city. But the source of fire is suspicious. Then I visited the lady with the military doctor. As expected, the lady set the fire to escape.”

He told the story, and praised: “I can’t believe that the lady, who looks delicate, can bear the pain of doing this to herself. She uses the fire to escape, can be called ‘not confused when in danger’ and ‘ the heart has a plan’. I saw that her two wrists were burned by the fire. She was covered in blisters, and her condition was so pitiful that I couldn’t bear to see her. When the military doctor treated her, she didn’t complain at all. Instead, she comforted me, saying that she was fine. I’m impressed. “

……

Although Chen Rui looks like a girl, but he was powerful. He tied Xiao Qiao backhanded on the bed like a chicken. After he left, she thinking that Wei Shao attacks the city, and the two parties fighting against each other. In the army’s chaos, no matter which side won the battle, if she kept being locked up here like this, it would be a terrible end.

When she was anxious, she thought of the two wedding candles that were lit in the room. She got out of bed and jumped in front of the candle flame. Brushed up her sleeves, turned her back on the candle flame, endured the pain of being burned, and burned off the rope on her wrist. When she broke the rope, her fair and flawless wrist skin was burned with large and small blaze blisters. She was in so much pain that she was in a cold sweat. Her eyes were dark, and she almost fainted. When she got over it, she untied the rope on her feet and used the candle fire to ignite the curtain in the room. She used the tea to dip her handkerchief and cover her mouth and nose, and then she wrapped herself in a quilt and hid behind the door.

The fire in the room grew bigger and alarmed the servant outside to open the door. Because of the smoke, the servant could not see how it was inside. The servant panicked and ran away to call someone. She took advantage of the gap to escape. Luckily, because of the battle, there was no one in the Prefect’s residence, and under the shade of night, she found a remote empty stable and hid herself.

……

The fire damaged most of the prefect’s residence, and it left only a few buildings intact. Xiao Qiao was placed in an inner room, with a bed and couch, which was clean. Before Gongsun Yang left, he ordered two servants from the Prefect’s residence to wait outside and left a team of soldiers to guard the passages and entrances and exits overnight.

Xiao Qiao knew she was safe.

In the past few days, she has not closed her eyes for a moment. After being taken here by Chen Rui, and being surrounded by a hungry wolf who is eyeing and drooling over her, she is even more cautious. She does not dare to be too tough to anger him, but she cannot make him feel she is easy to get. In order to deal with Chen Rui, she told him not to get close to her body, which can be described as a great deal of effort. Her whole body, even her hair, is tense.

Now she’s safe. The pain coming from the wrist is like being burned on fire and she can’t sleep at all. She just can’t wait to peel the flesh off her wrist.

Just now, when Gongsun Yang and the military doctor were still around, she had been holding back, not wanting to reveal anything. Now there is no one in front of her and the surrounding area is quiet. She can’t help but crying from the pain. The pain in the wrist seems to be lighter. With residual tears, she leaned on the bed and fell asleep in a daze.