Dong Sheng entered the palace, knelt down with Cun Zhao to listen to the reading of the edict, received a sword from the emperor, and set out with it. Before leaving, he listened to Cai Xianqing's instructions, wrapped the sword in yellow silk, put it in his arms, and rode out of the city. The Imperial Guards under Cun Zhao all looked sideways when they saw this extremely conspicuous yellow silk; the people who came to watch also pointed out: "The one holding Shang Fang's sword is undoubtedly an imperial envoy!" Dong Sheng earned a lot of money. Less limelight.
Cun Zhao was full of doubts and deliberately slowed down his horse to get far away from Dong Sheng. He turned slightly and whispered to his confidants: "Dong Sheng was originally a scholar. He has been an official for less than half a year. Now he is leaving the town. Ye Yongjia had no choice but to do so. However, he was not panicking and had such a method when the situation happened. It is probably not his fault."
The confidant replied: "This man is at the Ministry of War every day. Ye and Cai naturally took the opportunity to teach him. He must have memorized the method of doing things."
"I don't think so," Cun Zhao glanced coldly forward, "The situation at the border is different from that in the capital. We need to adapt to changes. How can we allow him to act strictly?"
"You mean...?"
Cunzhao clenched his hands and said, "I must have something like a letter with me to help him deal with the threat in front of him."
The confidant clicked his tongue: "It's possible. But he has a stable personality. How can he find out these confidential things?"
Cun Zhao covered his mouth and said: "Yesterday, I asked Chen Shangshu about his origin. He is from Gyeonggi and has old friends here. You can sneak out of the team and look around here a few times. If there is one or two Bring those who can be used!"
His confidants gestured with their hands, and while the streets were congested, he blended into the crowd of people and entered the alley. Cun Zhao looked around, pretending not to know.
After the team had marched for a day, the sky became dark and the moon was about to rise to the zenith. Looking at the second watch, Cun Zhao persuaded Dong Sheng to stop traveling and rest at the inn for the night. Dong Sheng immediately listened to this, gathered the horses, and led the entire army into the post station.
After working for a while, the accommodation was finally arranged. Everyone was very sleepy at this time and immediately fell asleep in the room. Only Cun Zhao asked for some cooked food and cold wine from the kitchen as a late night snack.
He was not much more energetic than others, but in order to wait for news from the capital, he did not dare to let down his guard, and only used the few sips of residual wine to cheer himself up.
Cun Zhao was chewing on the sausage in his hand when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the window. He suddenly became excited. He quickly wiped the oil in his hands on his clothes, leaned close to the window and said, "No need to ask, just come in!"
Someone from outside walked in. He was the confidant sent out this morning.
"Have you found anyone yet?" Cun Zhao held his hands and asked urgently.
"For the record, Si Jin, I went to Dong Sheng's village and met an old man named Dou. He was Dong Sheng's teacher when he was a child. He said that he was very friendly with Mr. Dong, so I brought him here."
Cun Zhao was overjoyed. He swept away his fatigue in an instant, nodded and said, "Okay! Then let him in!"
"Young man Dou Da, please see Mr. Si Jin!"
I saw that Mr. Dou was wearing brown cloth, with a shabby square scarf on his head, his hair was gray, his face was wrinkled and colorless, and he still had a small goatee on his chin.
Cun Zhao smiled and said, "Don't bow to me, old man. I have something to ask of you. May I ask how old you are?"
Mr. Dou took two shaky steps and said, "I am sixty-six years old."
"Oh, at such an old age, how can your body and bones bear the burden of walking so many miles in one day?" Cunzhao pretended to be surprised while asking his confidant, "What time is it now?"
"Look at the sky, it's probably past the third watch."
"It's not in the way, it's not in the way. The common people followed this military master on the main road and used a carriage on the way. It's not too hard."
Cun Zhao said: "That's good, let's talk about the business next. I'm here to invite you because of your former student. He is a relatively stable person. Although he has a good relationship with me, he doesn't really trust the sergeants under me; And my subordinates also felt that he was junior and looked down upon him. I was in a dilemma and often couldn't mediate. Unexpectedly, there were rumors recently that he had secretly hidden an official document and had evil intentions. The sergeants made a noise because of this, and they were angry with the subordinates. Ming’s hatred is getting deeper and deeper.”
"If you want to settle this dispute, you must have evidence to be convincing. But I don't dare to ask directly for fear that he will misunderstand my intention; I just want you to poke around and see if I can get This official document. Of course, you can also settle for the next best thing and just write down the contents and report them back to me. As long as the gap between the two parties is lifted, it will be a great good thing for everyone."
Mr. Dou was still in a daze, and the confidant pressed his shoulder again and said, "Just find some excuse at home and talk to him. Remember, don't reveal your purpose, let alone involve Cun Sijun." "
Mr. Dou sighed and said, "I don't need to make any excuses. I am not good at running my family, and my second son has been dissolute, which has led to a lawsuit. I am in urgent need of money. I heard that you will reward the common people with money, so the common people came here at all costs." "
"How much do you want?" Cun Zhao drank all the wine.
"Hmm... thirty taels." Mr. Dou raised his eyelids slightly.
"Easy to handle." Cunzhao took out a fifty-tael silver note from his sleeve and pressed it on the table. Mr. Dou looked straight.
"I rode with Dong Congming to take office. I was so anxious that I had no cash, so I had to carry this ticket with me. You can go back to the capital to cash it." Cun Zhao said coldly. Mr. Dou was extremely happy, kowtowed and thanked him, and was taken away by his confidants.
"It's time to get up, it's time to get up!"
Following the rooster's crow in the early morning, Dong Sheng quickly climbed out of bed, walked out of the house, and knocked on the doors one by one. But after shouting several times, he still heard a lot of snoring. He felt annoyed and wandered on the corridor.
"grown ups!"
Suddenly hearing a shout from behind, Dong Sheng turned around and saw a post official escorting an old man to report to him.
"He pretended to be your friend at the door," the postman pointed at the man, "I see he is quite young, how could he have met you? He is expected to be a swindler."
Dong Sheng had nothing to do, so he wanted to find out the origin of this person and asked: "Old man, when did you recognize me? I may have forgotten."
With tears in his eyes, the old man choked and said: "Mr. Dong, I was your private tutor back then, Mr. Dou! You said you wanted to repay my kindness back then, but now..."
"Old sir! Please accept the students' respect! The students deserve death!" Dong Sheng knelt down excitedly and shouted emotionally.
Little did he know that this scene was watched by Cun Zhao who was in the room. The latter opened a very small crack in the window. Seeing Dong Sheng's performance, he couldn't help but smile a little more victoriously.
