Brocade Robe Unparalleled

Chapter 66: Crime
Inside the Jingbian Division compound.

A body covered with a white sheet lay quietly in the courtyard.

Shen Qingya stood before the corpse, her expression somewhat dazed.

At that moment, a strong sense of self-doubt arose in his mind.

Since he took up the post of centurion of the Jingbian Division in Sizhou, everything has gone wrong for him.

A key figure, under tight protection and facing a blockade by the chieftain while mediating a conflict, was assassinated in his room the night before the arrival of the commanders. The assassin even left behind a provocative letter written in blood…

Perhaps he really shouldn't have come here.

Lu Feng, the commander of the Jingye Division, had a gloomy face. He had led his men all the way to the southwest, only to see a dead man.
Lu Feng stared intently at Shen Qingya and Wu Xianren, his voice filled with anger: "What a terrible job you two have done!"

Wu Baihu looked completely innocent. He hadn't even woken up that morning when he was summoned to the Jingbian Division for questioning. He still didn't know what had happened. He clasped his hands and asked, "Sir, what exactly happened?"

Lu Feng, his face grim, questioned, "You're the deputy centurion in charge of intelligence, don't you know what happened?"

Wu Baihu replied blankly, "This humble official has no idea. No one from above has ever assigned this task to me, and I've never even seen this person before..."

Shen Qingya swallowed hard. He had wanted to take all the credit, but instead of getting credit, he had to take the blame all by himself.

Lu Feng looked at Shen Qingya, then at Wu Xianren, and seemed to understand something.

Instead of getting angry, he laughed and nodded, saying, "Good, good, good, very good. It seems that Li Qianzhang didn't take the commander's words to heart at all..."

He looked at Shen Qingya and said coldly, "Young Master Shen, tell me everything from beginning to end. If you conceal anything, I guarantee that even the Shen family cannot protect you!"

Shen Qingya's face was as white as paper. He knew that if he couldn't explain himself clearly and clear his name, he might become a spy for Nanzhao...

Without any hesitation, he immediately replied, "Commander Lu, a few days ago, the magistrate of the Southern Garrison sent someone to me, saying that he wanted to give me a great merit. I had no choice but to obey..."

Lu Feng listened quietly, his expression calm and composed.

The initial handling of this matter by Li Qianzhang, the magistrate of Nanzhen Prefecture, was quite appropriate and commendable.

Such an important figure would not be allowed to be used by Dayong by Nanzhao. He was escorted to Nanzhen Prefecture. The journey was long and they would inevitably encounter many Nanzhao experts who would try to ambush him along the way.

Li Qianzhang did the opposite, arranging for him to go to Sizhou and strengthening the defenses of several large garrisons. He then set up a maze to lure the powerful warriors of Nanzhao there, and his actions were impeccable...

But his biggest mistake was that he harbored selfish motives in this crucial task, bypassing the deputy centurion in charge of intelligence in an attempt to give the credit to Shen Qingya alone!

As the head of the Jingbian Division, he personally visited the heavily guarded target on multiple occasions, and even went to great lengths to arrange prostitutes for him...

This person is a complete good-for-nothing, an utter idiot!

Stupid people ruin the country!

After listening to Shen Qingya's explanation, Deputy Commander Wu slapped his thigh and sighed, "Lord Shen, how could you make such a basic mistake? You shouldn't have gone to see him in person. You should have acted as if nothing had happened, so as not to expose any flaws. You also shouldn't have brought outsiders there. Alas, if only you had asked me beforehand... What can I say about you!"

Wu, the deputy centurion, said this, which made Lu Feng's anger rise to its limit.

If only Li Qianzhang, the magistrate of the Southern Garrison, had been less self-serving, if only he had followed the proper procedures of the Border Pacification Division, and if only the experienced Wu Xianren had been involved in this matter, the outcome would not have been like this...

Lu Feng closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and said, "Arrest everyone who has had direct or indirect contact with him and interrogate them thoroughly!"

Huang Yue arrived at Jingbian Division early, only to be unexpectedly pinned against the wall by two banner officers.

"What are you doing?"

"Rebellion?"

"Lord Shen, what's going on? Quickly, tell them to let me go!"

……

Shen Qingya glanced at Huang Yue, who was shouting loudly there, and then looked away.

He can barely take care of himself, how can he possibly care about others?
Huang Yue, along with his twin sister, was soon imprisoned in the Jingbian Division prison.

Within a few days, five women who had been in contact with the Nanzhao spies were also brought to the Jingbian Division.

Shen Qingya wasn't completely stupid. After these women entered that residence, they were never released and had no chance of sending messages out.

Deputy Commander Wu has completely taken over the Jingbian Division and is sending people to thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of these women.

Two of these women were prostitutes, and three were respectable women from Sizhou. The Jingbian Division conducted a thorough investigation into their identities but found nothing suspicious.

These five women were all born and raised in Sizhou, with clean backgrounds and innocent connections. Their ancestors for three generations were law-abiding citizens, and it was impossible for them to have any connection with Nanzhao.

The last remaining suspects are Huang Yue and his twin sister.

Lu Feng used the Mind-Asking Mirror on the two men, and the results showed that they had no idea about the defection of the Nanzhao spies, so it couldn't possibly be them.

Lu Feng rubbed his temples. Now that things had come to this, it was no longer so important who had leaked the information.

Every year, there are a few spies from the Nanzhao Kingdom who betray their cause.

But he was the first person to know so much information as that person.

The commander had high hopes for this operation and sent him in person to carry out a major purge of the Nanzhao spies in the southwest.

With the death of this key figure, such expectations were naturally dashed.

He didn't look at Shen Qingya again, walked into the duty room behind him, took out a palm-sized silver mirror from his pocket, dipped a brush in cinnabar, and slowly wrote on the mirror surface.

After a long time, the cinnabar characters on the mirror began to be scrambled and rearranged at a rapid pace.

The reappearing handwriting, each stroke sharp and piercing, conveyed the anger of its owner even from thousands of miles away.

Lu Feng put away his telescope, turned around and walked to the outside of the duty room, and said in a deep voice: "Shen Qingya, the centurion of the Sizhou Border Pacification Division, listen to my command!"

Shen Qingya's heart skipped a beat, but he could only quickly step forward, clasp his hands in greeting, and say, "Your humble servant is here!"

Lu Feng's voice was not loud, but it clearly carried throughout the courtyard: "Shen Qingya, the centurion of the Sizhou Border Pacification Division, neglected his duties, failed to recognize talent, and leaked secrets, resulting in the death of a key figure in the purge of the Nanzhao Secret Service. His crimes are unforgivable. Effective immediately, Shen Qingya is dismissed from his position as centurion of the Sizhou Border Pacification Division!"

Hearing this expected verdict, Shen Qingya felt remarkably calm.

He felt that being an official was completely meaningless.

After becoming a centurion in the Jingbian Division of Sizhou, he did nothing but take the blame for a lot of things...

I'd rather not take this official position!
The officialdom is too dark. He still misses the carefree days in the capital. It would be so much better to be the Third Young Master Shen in peace. Why did he have to come to this wretched place and suffer this damn torment? Let whoever wants to suffer this torment suffer it. I'm not going to put up with it!

Lu Feng looked calmly at Shen Qingya and said indifferently, "If you weren't surnamed Shen, you'd already be on your way to the Northern Frontier battlefield..."

Shen Qingya, now with a clear mind, clasped his hands in a fist salute and said in a nonchalant tone, "Thank you for your mercy, Commander."

Lu Feng's gaze then turned to Wu Baihu, and he said, "Wu Xianren, the deputy commander of the Jingbian Division, although he was not involved in this case, you were in charge of intelligence and failed to detect the anomaly in time, so you also bear responsibility for negligence..."

The next moment, he changed his tone again and said, "Considering your experience is decent, and you have been in Sizhou for a long time and are familiar with the place, in these turbulent times, the Jingbian Division cannot be without a leader. Effective immediately, you are promoted to the position of Chief Centurion of the Jingbian Division. I hope you will take this as a warning and not become the next Centurion Shen."

After a moment of stunned silence, Wu Baihu immediately clasped his hands in a fist salute, bowed deeply, and said in a trembling voice, "This humble official will certainly live up to the trust placed in him by Commander Lu and the Commander's Office, and will devote himself to the cause until his dying breath!"

At this moment, his expression was somewhat dazed.

After working diligently for more than a decade, he was ostracized and suppressed, and almost ended up in a miserable state.

These days, he completely neglects his duties at the office. He wakes up one morning to find himself inexplicably promoted...

The ways of officialdom are truly unfathomable.

At the same time, the Southern Garrison Command.

Town Magistrate Li Qianzhang put down his binoculars, slowly sat down in a chair, and muttered to himself, an inscrutable expression on his face, "I originally wanted him to show his face, but he ended up showing his backside. I shouldn't have agreed to the Shen family's offer in the first place..."

He really didn't expect that Shen Qingya could take the credit so easily without doing anything.

He managed to mess up such a simple task.

If he had known this would happen, why would he have done the Shen family a favor?
His bodyguard whispered, "Sir, what do we do now? Young Master Shen has caused such a huge mess; the Commandery might even blame you..."

Li Qianzhang leaned back in his chair and sighed, "I've already been blamed. The Commander's Office is transferring me to the Eastern Garrison Command as Deputy Garrison Commander. I'll be leaving immediately. You should also pack your things and get ready to go..."

Upon hearing this, the guard's heart sank.

Of the four major prefectures in the east, west, south, and north, the southern prefecture is the most leisurely. No matter how much the Nanzhao people riot, they only dare to make small moves. The chieftains have become much more docile in recent years.

To the north lie grassland tribes, to the west troubles the Western Barbarians, and to the east rampant Japanese pirates. Lord Li's journey to the Eastern Garrison Command has been marred by a demotion to deputy envoy; his future looks uncertain...

(End of this chapter)