Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 456 Song Yan's Reputation (6,000 words)

Black Jingguan: Song Yan!

The magistrate's eyes were full of smugness. Look at those charred corpses; he felt that the name "Black Jingguan" was just right.

As for adding Song Yan's name, it was naturally to highlight the Marquis's great achievements. He protected Pingyang, wiped out the Xiongnu, and saved tens of thousands of people. How could such great deeds be kept secret? Wouldn't that be like returning home in glory, wearing fine clothes in the dark?

Once, when Liu Yisheng was inspecting Dehua, he said that his lord was destined to rise to great heights, so the more famous he was, the better.

Everyone knows that Liu Yisheng is an absolute confidant of their lord.

Although he spent a long time in Xinhou County, serving as its magistrate, he also concurrently held the position of Prefect of Pingyang.

Moreover, Liu Yisheng wielded immense power in Pingyang Prefecture. Even though these officials were appointed by Luo Yuheng, their continued tenure depended on Liu Yisheng's approval. If Liu Yisheng discovered any problems with them, their official positions would be in jeopardy in an instant.

Liu Yisheng also frequently visited various county towns to inspect people's livelihoods and review the work of officials.

Occasionally, he would seek out some officials for private chats to build rapport... If one observes closely, one will find that most of the people Liu Yisheng sought out were extremely dissatisfied with the imperial court.

When these people get together and chat, some disrespectful things start to come out of their mouths. Then, somehow, they start saying things like, "If only there were more officials like the Marquis in the court," and slowly it gets to... "If only the Marquis could sit in that position."

They exchanged a glance, both understanding each other without saying a word.

Unbeknownst to them, a large group of people had gathered around Liu Yisheng, and what they all had in common was their blind trust and worship of Song Yan.

Liu Yisheng was a figure among officials and common people, and Zhang Han was a figure in the military camp.

Without Song Yan's knowledge, Pingyang had practically been transformed into a rebellion stronghold by Liu Yisheng and Zhang Han.

The thousands of young men on the ruins of Dehua County couldn't help but nod in agreement to the magistrate's suggestion. They felt the magistrate's words made perfect sense. The Marquis was fond of building mounds of skulls from foreign tribes, and now, due to the urgency of the military situation, he didn't have time to arrange such things. As the people under the Marquis's rule, they naturally had to do it for him. They even felt that simply building a mound of skulls wasn't enough to truly reflect the Marquis's achievements…

Then a young man in his thirties stepped forward and carefully chose his words: "Your Excellency, I think that in addition to the mound of skulls, a monument should also be erected!"

"The stone tablet must be made of the finest material. Everyone knows the county government is in dire straits. That's why the five families of Wang, Li, Zhao, Guo, and Zheng are willing to pay for it. We will definitely buy the best material, and it will be big enough. We will also hire the best stonemasons to ensure that the Marquis's achievements are recorded in detail."

As soon as these words were spoken, a rustling sound arose all around.

Most people strongly support this proposal.

After all, corrupt officials are all too common these days. Take Dehua County for example. For the elderly, they may have gone through seven or eight county magistrates in their lifetime, and basically none of them were good.

Now, it's rare to find an exceptional person like the Marquis. He not only defends against the Xiongnu and suppresses the Jurchens, but also loves the people like his own children and is honest and upright. Pingyang City was originally a poor and remote place, but now life is getting better and better. Who wouldn't like such a good official?

However, some people have different opinions. Of course, it's not that they are unwilling to erect a monument for the Marquis of Champion. Such a good official as the Marquis deserves all the praise. What they are worried about is another aspect.

“There’s no need to record it in detail, is there?” A younger man frowned and spoke slowly. Although he was dressed in coarse linen clothes, he had the air of a scholar and spoke with a refined manner: “After all, Dehua is Ningguo’s own city. If word gets out that the Marquis burned Dehua, it will inevitably be criticized.”

"Even if the Marquis did it to defend against the Xiongnu, this fire may become a stain on his reputation and a handle for other officials in the court to attack him."

Those who expressed differing opinions were mostly scholars from the five major families of Dehua... For the small families of Wang, Li, Zhao, Guo, and Zheng, scholars were absolute treasures, and now even they had been sent out. It is conceivable that these people had invested heavily in defending Dehua.

Compared to ordinary people, those who have been educated naturally have more knowledge.

Scholars understand scholars best; they know all too well how eloquent and persuasive the pens and tongues of the civil officials in the imperial court are.

Accusations such as "offending heaven and earth," "cruel and violent," and "unforgivable by heaven" are often sharper than knives.

Over the years, countless military generals have died at the hands of civil officials in Ningguo.

Although the Marquis has a special status and is capable and powerful, he can probably handle such a weakness, but it's best not to leave any loose ends.

There was a rustling and commotion all around, and even the county magistrate couldn't help but ponder, for this was indeed a problem.

"So what do you think should be done?"

A scholar pondered for a moment: "The Marquis's achievements should naturally be recorded, but they can be slightly modified. For example... when the Xiongnu army attacked, the Marquis led his soldiers to fight to the death. Just when they were about to completely annihilate the Xiongnu army, the despicable and cruel Xiongnu shamelessly set fire to Dehua County, trying to drag the entire county's people down with them."

"The Marquis was furious. Although the fire had already engulfed the county town, he resolutely led his soldiers into the sea of ​​fire to save the people who were surrounded by flames."

"However, the fire was merciless, and the Marquis was severely burned. Although he was in unbearable pain, he still cared about the people who were still trapped in the fire. His eyes widened as he glared at the hundred-foot-high flames and cried out in sorrow: Why burn and kill my people!"

"Afterwards, he vomited three liters of blood and fainted on the ground. The people around him wept upon hearing this, unable to speak."

"Heaven and Earth are moved by the Marquis's benevolence and cannot bear to see him suffer."

"Then dark clouds filled the sky, thunder roared, and torrential rain poured down. The fire in Dehua was extinguished by the rain, and the people were finally able to survive."

"The surviving people, grateful for the Marquis's kindness and mindful of Heaven and Earth's mercy, carved this stone to commemorate it!"

"how?"

After the scholar finished speaking, he realized that he had no idea when the surroundings had become completely silent, and everyone's faces were wide-eyed with astonishment and disbelief.

Goodness, no wonder he's educated.

Look at that mouth! It tells lies as if they were the truth.

If they hadn't personally witnessed what just happened, they probably would have believed it too.

The magistrate looked up at the raindrops falling from the sky, then at the charred corpses of the Huns inside and outside Dehua County, their foreheads covered with black lines... This kid, if he went into officialdom, he would definitely be more successful than me.

It must be admitted that the method proposed by this young man is indeed much better than simply recording that the Marquis burned Dehua and killed tens of thousands of Xiongnu people. He was overjoyed. According to this young man's words, the Marquis could be given a cloak of being favored by heaven and earth. With some publicity and fermentation, he might even gain the title of the Chosen One.

He coughed twice: "Ahem, since that's the case, let's record it like this. Everyone keep your mouths shut, and no one is allowed to go out and talk about it."

A chorus of agreement erupted from all around.

There's no need to worry too much. Once this story spreads, even if someone finds out the truth, probably no one will believe it. After all, compared to the burning of Dehua, people are more willing to spread bizarre and nonsensical stories.

"By the way, Magistrate, there are many Xiongnu corpses in the county town, probably fifty or sixty thousand. Should we build a few Jingguan (a mound of corpses)?" Another person thought of a question and asked quickly.

Generally speaking, building a mound of heads requires three to five thousand heads, since there are layers of yellow mud and heads. If too many heads are stuffed in, it is easy for the mound to collapse.

“Just one.” The magistrate’s eyes gleamed with admiration. “Think of a way to pile all the heads together and build the largest mound of heads ever seen.”

"And where is the location?"

"Right beside the official road between Anzhou and Dehua, so that everyone passing by the road can have the opportunity to admire the Marquis's achievements."

……

Achoo, achoo, achoo!

On the other side, Song Yan, who was heading north with his troops without taking a break, sneezed several times in a row.

The spring rain was still a bit chilly, and my clothes were soaked through, sticking to my skin and feeling uncomfortable.

Perhaps he had caught a cold, Song Yan rubbed his nose, muttering to himself: Surely no one is badmouthing my reputation behind my back again?

In fact, marching at night is difficult enough, let alone now that it's raining. But Song Yan didn't have many options. If he could head north a day sooner, more people in Ningguo could be saved.

Strangely enough, the rain subsided quickly after leaving Dehua County. After traveling a while longer, not a single drop of rain could be seen. Turning around and glancing at the black-armored soldiers and garrison troops behind him, Song Yan saw the visible exhaustion on their faces. He then ordered a temporary halt to the march, found a flat area, and had the soldiers gather plenty of dry branches and leaves to build bonfires, drying their wet clothes.

The cooks also prepared pots of porridge.

The so-called "huhu" is made by grinding wheat, millet, and other grains into powder and then cooking it in a pot. Although the taste is not very good, it is quite good for filling one's stomach. The soldiers in Pingyang City have the best treatment in the entire Ning Kingdom. When cooking the huhu, they also add some dried meat, mostly fatty meat, so that it can be considered as having some oil.

As the steaming hot porridge entered their stomachs, many soldiers felt a surge of heat throughout their bodies, and their initial chill was largely dispelled.

After drying their clothes, many soldiers went to bed.

Song Yan, on the other hand, was still busy with something.

A map lay before him, his brow furrowed. This time, his target was the third prince of the Xiongnu, Agsang.

Song Yan was unsure of the Xiongnu's second prince's true intentions. He seemed to be there just to make a cameo appearance. In nearly a month, Abal had already conquered Anzhou Prefecture, but the second prince, Alibu, hadn't even managed to capture a single county.

Song Yan had done his research. Very few tribes among the Xiongnu were affiliated with Alib, and their strength was not particularly great. It would be difficult for Alib to gather 50,000 soldiers, but even if half of them were old, weak, sick, or disabled, it shouldn't have taken so long to capture a county town, and they could only plunder some grain from the surrounding villages and towns.

I have a feeling this guy is plotting something.

But Song Yan wasn't sure what it was, so he had to give up for the time being... After all, firstly, Alibu hadn't caused too much damage, so he could ignore it for the time being; secondly, it was too far away, so Song Yan could only focus his attention on Agsang.

As for Agsang, he was somewhere between Abal and Alibu. He wasn't as greedy and impetuous as Abal, nor as stagnant as Alibu. But in Song Yan's mind, Agsang's methods were definitely the most skillful among the three brothers.

Abal followed the official road, directly capturing county towns and even prefectural cities one by one. Then, his army approached Dehua, slaughtering all the county towns and prefectural cities he passed through. However, in order to speed up the march, Abal ignored the villages and towns around the county towns and prefectural cities.

But Agsang was different. Even though he had 40,000 to 50,000 elite troops under his command, and no county town could stop him, he still fought steadily. Before attacking the county town, he first swept through the surrounding villages and towns to ensure that the county town would not receive any support before surrounding it.

Seeing that they were in dire straits, most county magistrates simply abandoned the city and surrendered.

After occupying the county seat, Agsang, unlike Abal, did not massacre the entire city, but he still killed all the adult men, leaving only the elderly, women, and children. Although it was not a ghost town, it was completely deprived of the power to resist. Even the original county magistrate, county assistant, county lieutenant, and even the various levels of officials and village heads were retained, and these people were used to govern the occupied area.

These officials had already surrendered, and having witnessed the Xiongnu army slaughtering the men of Ningguo, they ultimately helped the Xiongnu rule the occupied territories and procure provisions for them. They had completely lost any chance of returning to Ningguo, becoming inextricably linked to the Xiongnu. They had become utter lackeys of the Xiongnu, and to survive, they would absolutely not allow any chaos to occur in the Xiongnu-occupied areas. Their methods might even be more ruthless and cruel than those of the Xiongnu themselves.

This tactic is quite sophisticated; it's practically impossible to eliminate Agsang in the same way they dealt with Abal.

Another troublesome aspect is that Agsang is still within the territory of Anzhou.

Ningguo's laws stipulated that a prefectural governor could only maintain the stability of his prefecture. If he led troops into other prefectures without imperial orders, it would be considered treason. It was for this reason that when the Jurchens attacked, Jiao Junze only repelled the Jurchen cavalry outside Dingzhou City and did not pursue them.

Song Yan went to Dingzhou to invite Jiao Junze to join him in a surprise attack on the Jurchens, but he was afraid of being purged by the court, which is why Jiao Junze dared not agree easily. Furthermore, at that time, the court was suffering repeated defeats in its foreign wars and desperately needed a victory to maintain stability. In addition, Jiao Junze had no enemies in the court, and neither the Fang nor the Yang families took advantage of his misfortune, so the matter was left unresolved.

But he is different.

He has enemies all over the world.

The Yang family, Bailu Academy, the Censorate, and even the Imperial Palace... they have offended countless people.

Song Yan could almost imagine that once he led his soldiers into Anzhou territory, the civil officials in the court would not care how many Xiongnu heads he had chopped off, how much territory he had recovered, or how many people he had saved... They would definitely seize on the fact that he had led his troops out of the territory without authorization, and then attack him like a pack of wolves or a pack of hyenas.

I wish I could strip him bare.

Of course, Song Yan wasn't afraid.

If those people really want to take him to Dongling for trial and punishment, Song Yan wouldn't mind going to Dongling again to see who would give up first.

Thinking this to herself, she heard a noise behind her. Looking up, she saw Hua Lianyue in a long black dress appear behind her at some point, carrying a fat and bloated figure in her hand.

That's a man.

A height of around 1.8 or 1.9 meters would definitely be considered a behemoth in this era.

His body was unusually thick; his thighs were probably thicker than the waist of an average adult man. Hua Lian Yue casually tossed the man to the ground, and his skin and flesh rippled.

This should be a typical example of fat wrapped around meat.

This perfectly matches Song Yan's stereotypical image of an ancient general.

He wore animal skin trousers on his lower body, but was almost naked on his upper body. Apart from a cloak, there were no other clothes to be seen, and even the cloak was torn with holes by the fire.

His entire body was covered in black soot, making him look rather disheveled. Especially his head, where almost all his hair had been burned off, leaving his bald, black scalp covered in blisters from high-temperature burns. The sight of such a bald, black scalp might make someone with trypophobia vomit.

People without trypophobia would probably think he resembles a Buddha.

There were two obvious burn marks on his face, as if they had been burned by hot coals, through which one could vaguely see his white cheekbones. The hair on his chest was also burned off completely, and the skin was all matted together, making the wolf head tattoo look somewhat distorted and comical.

In short, he was badly burned.

Of course, compared to those Xiongnu people who died directly in Dehua City, he was extremely lucky, at least he was still alive.

Song Yan raised an eyebrow and looked at Hua Lian Yue: "The eldest prince of the Xiongnu, Abal?"

Hua Lianyue nodded: "It should be him. When the fire destroyed Dehua City, I sensed a powerful aura, so I chased after it and saw a middle-aged man leading him to escape."

For Hua Lianyue to rate someone as powerful, they must at least be someone of the same level.

I was initially curious about why Hua Lianyue had suddenly left, but I never expected that she would go to intercept a Grandmaster-level expert.

It seems that Socholu, the Great Chanyu, values ​​his son Aballu very much.

They even arranged for a grandmaster to protect them closely.

"That person just obediently handed over the eldest prince?" Song Yan asked incredulously.

"Of course not." Hua Lianyue smiled, her tone light: "As grandmasters, even if there is a difference in strength, it is difficult to determine a winner... It is even more difficult to decide a life-or-death battle."

"However, if he keeps holding onto a fat man weighing around 300 pounds, even a grandmaster would be greatly affected. He can't escape, and it's inconvenient to fight. So I threatened him that if he didn't put this person down, he would have no chance of survival once my sisters arrived."

"Perhaps sensing Sister Tianxuan's presence, that person readily abandoned her."

Song Yan's lips twitched slightly.

As expected of a grandmaster, he truly acts according to his own nature.

The eldest prince was abandoned without the slightest hesitation.

It seems that the big order from the northern desert has recruited quite a few experts, but the loyalty of these experts is truly pitiful.

Ugh.

Hua Lianyue yawned beautifully, gently patting her lips with her small hand, seemingly a little tired: "I'll leave this person to you, my husband, and go to rest now."

After speaking, Hua Lianyue lightly touched the ground with her jade feet, her body rose into the air, and gracefully landed on a tree branch. She lay down and fell asleep. Song Yan was quite surprised by her posture and couldn't understand how Hua Lianyue managed to lie on that slender tree branch.

After admiring it for a moment, Song Yan turned her gaze away and looked at the eldest prince on the ground.

The eldest prince must have been beaten up by Hua Lian Yue before. Although there were no visible injuries other than burns on his body, even though Hua Lian Yue had left, his body was still curled up on the ground, twitching from time to time. He looked rather pitiful.

“You must be called Abal.” Song Yan smiled. “The people of the Central Plains have always been warm and hospitable. Hearing that the northern desert is bitterly cold, and that the eldest prince has come from afar, we naturally want to bring him some warmth.”

"I wonder if the eldest prince is satisfied with this warmth?"

The eldest prince shuddered, as if he had finally come to his senses, and then he saw that face suddenly contort into a grimace.

warmth?

Is that warmth?
What a beast.

He looked like he was being roasted alive. Who delivers warmth like this?

He thought he was a ruthless person, but when he saw the man in front of him, he suddenly realized what true viciousness was.

At this moment, Abal was filled with such deep regret that he was practically green with envy.

If he had listened to Cheng Xu's advice back then, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation now.
As expected of the eldest prince, his temperament was much better than that of ordinary people. Although he had been tormented by that damned woman before, now that she was no longer here, his fear had dissipated considerably.

Taking a deep breath, Abalu looked at Song Yan: "What do you plan to do with me?"

His deep voice carried a hint of arrogance; he seemed to have already concluded that Song Yan hadn't killed him outright, but rather wanted to use his identity to scheme for some benefit... If he wanted benefits, then he needed the leverage to make a deal.

However, Abaru was unaware that Hua Lianyue, perched on a tree branch, was watching the commotion below with a smile on her face.

When it comes to fighting, she's a master.

But when it comes to tormenting people, my husband is the master.

As for Granny Liang, she was a Grandmaster.

……

at the same time.

Ningping.

The Duke's Mansion.

A figure remained silently hidden in the darkness.

Like a ghost that had long since become one with the darkness, only a pair of scarlet eyes were fixed on the small house in front of it.

It's Song Jing!
(End of this chapter)