The hall was so quiet that a dropping needle could be heard.
Tie Lanshan stopped tapping his fingers on the armrest.
His back remained straight, sitting as steady as Mount Tai, but the rhythm of his breathing was disrupted. From the leisurely state of watching a play just now, it had changed into deep and long exhalations. This was the instinctive reaction of a veteran who had rolled in a pile of dead bodies when suppressing his emotions.
Tie Lanshan stared at Xu Qinghuan.
This girl not only didn't take the hint to step down, but instead directly made things clear!
Audit the accounts? The defense account books of Zhenbei City were all held by Ma Jin'an and He Minghu. Was that something that could be casually touched? Whoever touched it would die!
Tie Lanshan's mind raced.
He, the commander-in-chief, had been marginalized for a long time and was happy to watch the dogs bite each other, but it didn't mean he was willing to be used by others.
This girl wanted him to step in with just empty words? On what grounds? What benefits could she offer? Not releasing the eagle until seeing the hare was an iron rule of the border pass.
Tie Lanshan restrained his smile and put on the demeanor of an elder looking at a junior.
"Lord Xu," he said, slowing his tone. "You have stayed in the capital for a long time and don't understand the hardships of the border pass. Zhenbei City is even less like the water towns south of the Yangtze River. The wind and sand here are strong, and things are more complicated."
He gestured in mid-air.
"Those defense account books are all locked up in Supervisor Ma's office. If piled up, they could be as high as this hall."
He gestured in mid-air again.
"Inside are all bad debts: pensions for the dead, forage for warhorses, and wall repairs."
"You have come from afar and are delicate. If you offend the local tyrants for these bad debts, I won't be able to bear the responsibility."
This excuse was blatantly obvious.
The meaning between the lines was simple: the account books are not in my hands, the water is too deep, and don't even think about dragging me down if you don't have any chips.
Xu Qinghuan didn't respond, just quietly looking at him.
Seeing the situation deadlocked, Bai Yushu seized the opportunity and took half a step forward.
"Imperial Envoy," Bai Yushu arched his hands, his tone mild. "What the General said is very true. The military affairs in the northern border are complicated, and the accounts are all with Lord Ma. Your Excellency has just arrived. If you start making a big fuss right away, I'm afraid it will cause unrest among the troops."
"The rough fellows at the bottom don't understand the rules. If they make a mess, everyone will lose face."
He paused, his gaze seemingly unintentionally sweeping over Li Sheng's hand resting on his sword.
"Besides, although the guards Your Excellency brought are elites, they are few in number. There are quite a few eyes staring at the relay station inside and outside the city. Why don't Your Excellency rest for a few days, listen more, and see more, so as not to be blinded?"
This remark was an undisguised warning.
After hearing this, Xu Qinghuan burst into laughter.
But there was no warmth in her laughter.
"Listen more and see more?" Xu Qinghuan leaned back against the backrest of the armchair, her gaze passing over Bai Yushu and landing on Tie Lanshan's face.
"Commander Tie, your military counselor's brain isn't working too well."
The gentleness on Bai Yushu's face faded, and his expression became somewhat ugly.
Xu Qinghuan ignored him and unhurriedly reached into her wide sleeve.
Just this one action made the atmosphere in the hall instantly drop to freezing point.
The personal guards waiting outside the door even craned their necks to look inside.
They saw Xu Qinghuan pull out a folded piece of paper.
And casually toss it.
The piece of paper traced an arc in the air and landed lightly on the mahogany tea table between the two of them.
The moment the paper landed, a foul smell spread.
Bai Yushu, who stayed in the incense-filled Commander's Mansion all year round, had never smelled such a filthy odor. He frowned tightly, raised his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose, and took two steps back.
Tie Lanshan looked at the piece of paper.
The paper had already been soaked soft by water, its edges wrinkled, and the handwriting on the surface had blurred into a black mass.
But right below this mass of ink was a bright red handprint.
That was the confession Xu Zhan had been forced to press his handprint on last night.
When Li Sheng escorted Xu Zhan out of the death row, he easily fished the original out of the black water. As for the one Qian Laosan presented to Ma Jin'an, it was nothing more than a fake forged afterwards.
"Commander Tie, this is what you want me to listen more and see more of." Xu Qinghuan's voice was so calm that there was no fluctuation at all. "You shouldn't be unfamiliar with this confession, right?"
Tie Lanshan's eyelids twitched violently.
He didn't touch the piece of paper, knowing clearly in his heart that this thing was hot.
"What does Lord Xu mean?" Tie Lanshan said in a deep voice, starting to play dumb. "I don't recognize this thing."
Xu Qinghuan leaned forward slightly.
"Don't recognize it? It doesn't matter. I'll explain it to you."
She extended a finger, the tip hovering over the bloody handprint.
"Wang Biao of the death row forced my second brother to press this handprint. His actions were quite swift, but unfortunately, the person doing the job had water in his brain."
Xu Qinghuan's fingertip slid up along the bloody handprint, stopping at the blurred mass of ink.
"What is written on this confession is colluding with the enemy and treason, but Commander Tie, look, the ink color of these four words is different."
Tie Lanshan didn't move, but from the corner of his eye, he locked onto the paper.
"The two words 'colluding with the enemy' have thick ink, and even the edges of the strokes are black and shiny. But the two words 'treason' have gray and pale ink, and even the direction of the strokes is completely different."
Xu Qinghuan tapped her fingertip lightly on the table twice.
"The first two words have plenty of ink, and the latter two words were added temporarily. The handwriting is even from two different people."
She withdrew her hand, picked up her teacup, and took a sip.
"First press the bloody handprint, then fill in the crime."
"Clumsy methods," Xu Qinghuan said. "What does Wang Biao, a petty head jailer of the death row, know about the crime of colluding with the enemy and treason?"
"He only knows how to whip people. For this kind of heinous crime that involves exterminating nine generations, if the higher-ups didn't nod, he wouldn't dare to fill it in even if you lent him a hundred guts!"
Tie Lanshan's breathing hitched.
He understood the hidden meaning in Xu Qinghuan's words.
"Lord Xu," Tie Lanshan's tone became serious. "If you have verified that the military men below have done wrong, you can deal with them according to the law."
"I have also heard that Hundred-Man Commander Xu and Deputy General He have some personal grudges in their daily lives. He Minghu has a fiery temper, and the soldiers below him, in order to cater to their superior, set up a private court and did such a foolish thing. They indeed deserve to be killed."
"You beheaded Wang Biao last night, which can also be considered eliminating a menace in the army."
He characterized this matter as He Minghu's personal grudge, pushing all the responsibility onto the dead Wang Biao.
The meaning was very clear: He Minghu's people provoked you, so you killed them, and I will absolutely not interfere. This is your mess, don't drag me down. I won't step in if I don't see any benefits.
"Personal grudge?"
Xu Qinghuan smiled again.
She smiled very lightly, but the people in the hall could all hear the mockery in it.
"Tie Lanshan, having sat in this position for so long, do you really think you can stay out of it?" She even omitted the word "Commander" and directly called him by his full name.
Bai Yushu was just about to scold her when he was stopped by a gesture from Tie Lanshan.
"He Minghu is just a martial artist," Xu Qinghuan's tone turned cold. "He knows how to deduct military pay, he knows how to smuggle furs, but he doesn't know how to write an unwarranted confession in a way that can deceive the Ministry of War's verification documents!"
Xu Qinghuan leaned closer, looking squarely at Tie Lanshan.
"He dared to do this because Ma Jin'an is standing behind him!"
"Why does Ma Jin'an, a fifth-rank Supervisory Censor, ignore the bad debts in the city and instead keep staring at the rations and forage of the Vanguard Camp?"
"Because he has someone in the court, and you absolutely don't know who this person is."
Tie Lanshan's expression changed.
"Commander Tie." Xu Qinghuan's voice returned to a serene calm, though beneath it lay an undisguised, crushing authority. "You are welcome to stay seated in that chair and watch He Minghu and me tear each other apart. You can keep hiding like a coward."
"However."
Xu Qinghuan leaned in slightly, dropping her voice to a low murmur.
"When the hammer falls on this massive treason case, those old men in the Cabinet will still be sitting safely in their capital estates, sipping their Longjing tea."
"But your head, Tie Lanshan, will be dangling from the neck of a barbarian's horse."
Xu Qinghuan straightened her back and slammed her teacup down hard against the tea table.
"I have laid this entire mess out right in front of you."
"Now I am asking you: are you going to take it, or not!"
