The Marquis Is Innocent

After Xiao Qiao left the governor’s house, which had been filled with music and drums, gradually fell silent and the guests dispersed. Seeing that Qiao Ping was still standing at the gate, Qiao Yue went forward to persuade him to go inside and said, “Second brother, Man Man has gone far away. You have seen with your own eyes the magnificent scene in the city. I am really happy for you.”

Qiao Ping turned around and said: “Eldest brother, I have a question I should not have asked. It has troubled me for a long time, so I take this opportunity to ask. Ten years ago, father sent an army to conquer Li Su, but he did nothing on the battlefield, causing the death of Wei Jing and his son, and thus creating a feud with the Wei family. At that time, did father actually send a messenger to Wei Jing to make a report? That year, brother accompanied father together with the army, you should know.”

Qiao Yue was stunned, then his face showed displeasure and waved his hand, saying, “It’s all in the past. Why do you suddenly mention this? No matter how father handled the situation back then, he always had his reasons. How can we, as sons, have a say in it?”

When Qiao Yue replied this way, Qiao Ping’s suspicions were confirmed in his heart.

Ten years ago, after the incident in Chen County, Wei’s family mourning. His father Qiao Gui sent Qiao Ping to pay condolences in Yuyang. On top of the funeral hall, the Wei family general drew his sword and angrily confronted Qiao Ping, scolding Qiao Gui for being cunning and unfaithful, for not sending any letters at all. Just sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight. Qiao Ping was frightened and thought he could not walk out of the Wei family gate. But he didn’t expect Mrs. Xu to reprimand the general in front of him and reassure Qiao Ping with gentle words. When Qiao Ping returned to Yanzhou, he told his father, Qiao Gui, about the situation.

He remembers clearly that his father frowned for a long time, and finally sighed: “The Wei family has a woman like this. I am afraid that in the future it will be a disaster for my Qiao family!”

Qiao Yue suspected his father had not reported the news ten years ago. His father was very resourceful and ambitious. Although the forces of the Wei family were still in the north of Yan and You, and there was no problem with Yanzhou, but Wei Jing ruled the army strictly and was crowned a marquis for his merits, and had a reputation of being a virtuous man, and famous scholars from all over the world have gone to join him.

Maybe his father thought if the Wei family rises in the future, it will not be good for Yanzhou, so he wanted to use Li Su’s hand to remove a hidden problem.

“Second brother, the marriage of two families, not only to resolve the discord but also to solve the current difficulties of Yanzhou. What is wrong with it? You should not think about it anymore.”

Qiao Ping smiled bitterly. “Elder brother, Man Man has been married as you wish. Yanzhou is temporarily rescued. From now on, I hope elder brother works hard to revive our family’s reputation, so the people of the county will be benefited, and Man Man will have a support.”

Qiao Yue looked sarcastic and said, “Of course. Don’t worry, second brother.”

……

Wei Liang led a team of Wei family soldiers to escort Xiao Qiao to the north. They travelled by day and rested by night. At first, the journey was smooth. But one day, when they entered the border of Jizhou, and it was about to get dark, the carriage and horses had not yet arrived at the stage court to settle down, and they passed a deserted road with no one around. He noticed someone seemed to follow behind him, and immediately ordered to turn back and check, but the soldiers came back and said there was nothing unusual.

Wei Liang seems to be rude, but actually he is very careful. He didn’t make a sound. That night, after building the tent, he guarding Xiao Qiao’s room with a sword. The next day, he increased his protection, and the journey became faster. Finally, before the end of the year, he successfully arrived in Jizhou.

……

Gao Tang, the former governor of Jizhou, is under Xing Xun’s control. Killing brutally and destroyed Han Dynasty. He established himself as an emperor. The court has sent several troops to besiege, but Gao Tang has been running for many years. He has a powerful army and horses, and he has taken advantage of the geographical location of Jizhou. Last autumn, Wei Shao raised troops into Jizhou.

Previously, when soldiers came to attack, Jizhou citizens will lose a layer of skin. Even the official army surrounded the village and slaughtered villagers, cut off their heads and hang them on the horse as the head of the rebels to receive credit. They have long been suffering, and when they heard that Wei Shao from Youzhou had arrived, they were scared and left their fields and fled in all directions. The entire village is empty.

After Wei Shao’s army arrived, they did not commit any crime. When they saw the wheat fall to the ground without being harvested, the soldiers removed their armor and harvested the wheat and piled it up at the entrance of the village, and caught those stragglers along the road who were plundering for a living.

The news spread, ten to one hundred, and before long, people who had escaped to take refuge have returned. Some of the young and strong volunteered to join the army. The people along the way, unlike the usual, welcomed Wei Shao army into Jizhou by beating gongs and drums.

Wei Shao gathered people’s hearts, like a tiger with wings. And with several battles, Gao Tang has lost some cities and finally retreated to Xindu and stayed quiet.

Wei Shao was in no hurry to attack and stationed his troops down. At the beginning of the year, after besieging the city for several months, he took Xindu in one fell swoop. And Gao Tang, in desperation, cut himself down and died.

The people of Jizhou heard the news and ran around, pushing the oldest and most respected of the elderly to pleading with Wei Shao to stay on.

Wei Shao was told there were still remnants of Gao Tang’s army outside of Xindu who were abusing the countryside. There were many of them, so he responded to the people’s sentiment and continued to station his troops to sweep away the remnants of the rebellion.

The court refused because fearful of his expansion, and ordered him to withdraw his troops from Jizhou, and Wei Shao did so.

When the court sent several officials to Jizhou, the people blocked them outside the city gates. The people were furious. After several times, the court could do nothing about it, so they had no choice but to comply with the public opinion and let Wei Shao take over the leadership temporarily.

Wei Shao then entered Jizhou again. The people welcomed him, and now it has been nearly a year.

Recently, Wei Shao was in Xindu. Compared with Yuyang, Xindu is closer, so the place of marriage is set here.

……

Xindu is an ancient city, not huge, but everyone knows it in Ji region.

During the Warring States War between Zhao and Wei, the Zhao lost Handan for three years and took Xindu. They built the Xin Palace in the middle of the city. With a building called Tantai, which was made of centuries-old sandalwood and was over ten feet high, so they could see the entire city from the building. After hundreds of years, it still remains. After several repairs, the word “Palace” in “Xin Palace” was removed and changed to “Residence”, which became the official residence of the government.

When Wei Shao was in Xindu, he settled in the old Xin Palace.

Xiao Qiao’s wedding carriage enters slowly from the city gate.

Through the carriage window, she saw the river water not rippling. The city’s main road is wide and flat with green boulders, allowing ten horses to walk side by side, surrounded by houses on both sides. The city’s street scene differs from what she was used to seeing in the East County. The men, women and children walking on the street noticed the carriage she was riding. They stopped to look at it, with curious expressions on their faces, as if they didn’t know that Wei Shao was about to marry a wife.

Under the curious gaze all the way, the carriage finally stopped in front of the Xin Palace gate. The armored guards stood at the entrance, recognizing Wei Liang and opening the door to let them through.

Xiao Qiao was helped down and finally got out from the bumpy carriage and entered the Xin Palace with Chun Niang and a few maids.

During the boring journey on the road, to pass the time, Chun Niang imagined a lot of scenes after arriving at the wedding place.

Now, with her own eyes, although the Xin Palace is huge, and the hall is elegant, but the inside is cold and quiet. Chun Niang had imagined the festivities preparation for the wedding, but there are not even a few people. After a while came a woman, forty years old, well-dressed, with a serious face.

The woman led a few servants behind her, called herself Zhong, and was ordered to meet the Qiao family’s new wife here. Although the tone was respectful, the way she looked at Xiao Qiao made people feel cold.

Xiao Qiao guessed although this woman was a servant, she should have a certain status in the Wei family, so she called her “Zhong Niang” as usual.

“Don’t, I’m just a servant. They have ordered me to serve. Lady can call me Old Zhong.”

Old Zhong led Xiao Qiao to the place where she was staying, named “Yuyang” in the west and facing south, with excellent lighting.

Old Zhong left two servants for Xiao Qiao and said if she needed anything, she could find her. After bowing towards Xiao Qiao, she turned around and left.

As soon as the old Zhong left, Chun Niang was disappointed. She was even more worried about Xiao Qiao. She dismissed the two servants left by the old Zhong. And she was busy with the maids to make the bed and the seats, while complaining in a low voice, and said: “Is the Marquis of Wei in the city now? When is the wedding date?”

Chun Niang did not understand, and Xiao Qiao was also at a loss. She pounded her legs, which had become a little sore from sitting in the carriage for so long, and got up to the window, pushing it open to look out.

The courtyard was spacious. The sunlight just passed through the gap between the eaves and corners, casting down a circle of bright light, shivering people’s eyes.

……

There are servants who regularly bring in food every day, and they are considerate. But Xiao Qiao can’t leave the door of the Xin Palace, and she seems to be forgotten.

Old Zhong didn’t show up after that day, and as for her husband – let’s call him a husband, the man named Wei Shao – didn’t even show up.

In a blink of an eye, it’s almost the end of the year. Chun Niang got anxious, and she caught the two servant girls and inquired about them countless times, but the servant girl seemed to follow Old Zhong. No matter what she asked, she would shake her head. If she asked any more questions, she knelt down and apologized, making Chun Niang furious and wanted to go to Old Zhong to ask, but Xiao Qiao stopped her.

It’s better to be safe. It’s just the beginning. He is not in a hurry; she is even less in a hurry.

The Spring Festival in the seventh year of Dingkang is approaching. When the sky was clear, Xiao Qiao climbed up to Tantai and see the people in the nearby houses busy cleaning their houses, washing clothes and drying quilts, preparing for the Spring Festival.

After coming here, Xiao Qiao learned that the Spring Festival, the most important festival of the year, which is regarded as an auspicious reunion in the latter part of the world, does not represent good luck.

The so-called Spring Festival is the most inauspicious day of spring.

It is for the sake of warding off evil spirits and praying for blessings that people spend the Spring Festival in a way of cleaning up dust and reunion. The level of excitement is far less than later generations.

Xiao Qiao could not go out. Of course, she herself did not want to go out, but no one prevented her from climbing this Tantai next to her residence to see from afar.

The Tantai Terrace was really high, even higher than the city walls. Standing on the observation deck at the top, she could see a wilderness beyond the city walls as far as the eye could see.

……

The last few days before the end of the year, it snowed.

At noon, the snow stopped, and the sun came out, surprisingly bright.

Xiao Qiao nestled in her room and dozed off for the afternoon. In the evening, she went up to the Tantai Terrace.

In the last few days, she would ascend the Tantai Terrace to wait for the sunset.

Beyond the city walls, there is an endless wilderness. Watching the sunset at the end of the wilderness and swallowed completely into the horizon. If she was a poet, she might write a poem that can be passed down to future generations.

There is nothing difference between this dusk and the previous, but the roofs are covered with a layer of snow like cotton. The streets are dotted with black and white. The white is the snow, black is the original color of the road after the pedestrian trampling melted snow. As usual, people take advantage of this last moment before the light goes down. Pick and carry, cart, walking at a brisk pace …… several children happily piled up the snow in the alley’s corner. The sound of laughter seems to reach this lofty building above.

“It’s getting dark! It’s so cold! The wind is blowing like a knife! There is a fireplace in the house, Lady, go down!”

Chun Niang was fat, and after climbing a few dozen stairs, she was a little out of breath, so she persuaded Xiao Qiao and added a fox fur cloak to her.

Chun Niang had never left the warm climate of East County in the first half of her life. At first, she was a little unaccustomed to the climate here and stay in her room from morning to night.

The wind at the top of the Tantai building was really strong. Xiao Qiao closed her hands to her mouth. Puffed a few warm breaths and pressed her frozen cheeks with her remaining warm palms. She turned around and was about to go down with Chun Niang when a faint wave of sound came from the direction of the sunset in the distance.

The sound was vague and Xiao Qiao thought she was hearing things. But soon, the sound became clear. And it came somewhat unexpectedly, as if a muffled thunder rose from the ground.

Xiao Qiao could not help but turn her head to look again.

Beyond the city walls, the white wilderness, which had been dead as if asleep, suddenly awakened. A snow fog seems to be swept up by the wind, like a blanket covering the sky, blocking the horizon of the half-round sunset, with flags hidden in between.

“What is that?”

Chun Niang followed her line of sight and her eyes widened and her voice sound frightened.

Xiao Qiao continued to look.

The sound of muffled thunder became clearer.

She finally saw clearly that it was a large group of cavalry, thousands in number, and was rapidly racing towards the city, and as they traveled closer, the sound was already like a thunderstorm.

“The Marquis is back — “

“The Marquis is back — “

In the sound of the horses’ hooves that shake the ground, a moment later, the foot of the city wall at the entrance of the city suddenly shouted loudly. This cry drummed with the wind, a higher than a sound, sent to the twilight sky of the ancient city of Xindu, also reached Xiao Qiao’s ears.

The people on the street also heard it and stopped in their tracks. After a short period of silence, they hurried in the direction of the city gates in unison.

“Marquis is back! Marquis is back!”

The whole ancient city stirred up. And people ran out of their houses, running to tell each other.

……

After Xiao Qiao arrived in Xindu and spent half a month nestled in the Xin Palace, in this snowy sunset, Marquis of Yan, Wei Shao, finally returned to Xindu from Bo Ling, which was hundreds of miles away.