As soon as these words were spoken, the wind completely changed direction.
Thousands of eyes outside the North Gate shifted in unison from Xu Zhan to He Minghu's face.
The soldiers who had just been suspecting Xu Zhan of intercepting his comrades were now gasping for air, dumbfounded.
"Bullshit! It's pure nonsense!"
He Minghu forced down the panic surging in his heart and squeezed out a cold sneer.
"Zhang Tiezhu, you one-armed deserter, for the sake of a rotten life, you dare to bite this general? Who on earth ordered you!"
He tightened his grip on his sword hilt and raised his voice.
"You followed Zhao Si to Wild Fox Beach. This general didn't pursue your crime of complicity for the sake of your years of service. Now you bite back. Who taught you behind your back?"
Zhang Tiezhu knelt in the mud, the blood scab at his severed arm mixed with the yellow soil. He gritted his teeth and didn't utter another word.
He Minghu's rhetoric wasn't brilliant, but he had a sword in his hand and three hundred iron-clad guards behind him. In Zhenbei City, the hilt of a sword was often more useful than reasoning.
He abruptly turned the spearhead towards Xu Zhan.
"And you, Centurion Xu!" He Minghu shouted sternly. "You, a member of the Vanguard Camp, ran to Wild Fox Beach in the middle of the night with thirty-odd remnants. How did you know Zhao Si was there?"
"Wild Fox Beach is remote and dangerous. What news did you get in advance? Was it premeditated, wanting a share of the pie?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, several of the onlookers showed hesitation and whispered to each other.
"General He's words are not without reason. How did Centurion Xu know Zhao Si went to Wild Fox Beach?"
"Yeah, ordinary people can't find that place at all..."
Catching these whispers, He Minghu breathed a sigh of relief in his chest. As long as the water was muddied and Xu Zhan was dragged in, there was still room to turn the tables.
"General He must have forgotten that I am still the Centurion of the Vanguard Camp. Night patrols are my duty."
"In the middle of the night, Zhao Si drove a carriage out of the North Gate with over a dozen people, acting suspiciously. I saw he was driving the Imperial Envoy's supply cart, so I led people to follow him."
Just as He Minghu was about to speak, Ma Jin'an stepped forward ahead of him.
"General He, calm down."
Ma Jin'an cupped his hands, putting on the airs of a reasonable mediator, speaking neither fast nor slow.
"In my humble opinion, the context of this matter is already very clear. Zhao Si, driven by greed, stole the property sealed by the Imperial Envoy at night and privately bribed Zhang Tiezhu and others to cover for him."
"Now that the plot has failed and he is dead, Zhang Tiezhu, seeking to survive, pushes all the blame onto the general."
He turned to Tie Lanshan and bowed slightly.
"Commander-in-Chief, how can the one-sided words of a one-armed deserter be taken as truth? Being instigated to frame a superior officer is punishable by beheading according to the law."
"I implore the Marshal to deal with this person according to military law, to set the record straight."
In just a few words, watertight, he directly nailed Zhang Tiezhu's desperate accusation to "being instigated."
What a pair of good cop, bad cop partners.
He Minghu immediately put on a look of deep sorrow and let out a long sigh: "That dog Zhao Si! He killed over a dozen brothers and still wanted to drag me down at the end! Zhang Tiezhu, for the sake of our comradeship, I won't hold it against you."
"As long as you take back the nonsense you just spouted, I'll guarantee you a way out."
His tone became extremely magnanimous, like a wronged elder showing compassion to a subordinate.
Coercion and bribery, using both hard and soft tactics, the officers and men present looked at each other, and the balance tilted again.
Among the officers and men present, some began to waver.
"Zhang Tiezhu's words are indeed just one-sided..."
"General He also has a point. We can't convict a lieutenant general based on just one wounded soldier, right?"
Xu Qinghuan watched coldly from the sidelines, holding the Emperor's Sword in one hand, standing quietly in the wind, as if watching a clumsy play.
It wasn't until Ma Jin'an finished his performance that she spoke unhurriedly.
"Censor Ma's ability to turn black into white is truly masterful."
Xu Qinghuan's voice wasn't loud, but the whispers outside the North Gate instantly ceased.
"If Zhang Tiezhu's words alone are not enough to be believed, then let's add another person." Xu Qinghuan tilted her head slightly, her gaze passing over the crowd. "Superintendent Qian, come out and take a few steps."
From the back of the Vanguard Camp's remnants, a chubby figure scrambled out.
It was Qian Fugui.
This fat man's legs trembled as he rushed to the front, his knees going soft as he fell to the ground with a "plop."
"This lowly one... Qian Fugui, the seventh-rank Superintendent of the border market! Greeting the Commander-in-Chief! Greeting the Imperial Envoy!"
He Minghu's eyelids twitched wildly.
Ma Jin'an's hand, which was adjusting his cuff, stiffened, his fingertips suspended in mid-air for a long time before dropping dejectedly.
Why was Qian Fugui here?
According to their plan, Zhao Si went to Wild Fox Beach for the handover, with Qian Fugui leading the way. When the Helian people's butcher knives fell, this fat man should have been chopped into minced meat along with Zhao Si long ago!
Not only was he alive, but he was also following Xu Zhan's team intact!
The surrounding soldiers also recognized this old slicker from the border market.
"Isn't that Superintendent Qian? Why is he in the Vanguard Camp's team?"
"Didn't they say Zhao Si went to exchange grain by himself? Why did he bring the border market Superintendent?"
"Maybe to lead the way."
Qian Fugui knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times in a row, and raised his face, snot and tears streaming down.
"Marshal, please see clearly! Today, even if I have to risk this cheap life, I must tell the truth!"
"Last night, that Zhao Si took over a dozen brothers, smashed open the Superintendent's Yamen with the lieutenant general's waist tag, and personally said he was following Lord He's military orders to take over the Imperial Envoy's business!"
"My position is low and my words carry little weight, how could I dare disobey? I had to lead them to Wild Fox Beach overnight. When we got there, Zhao Si insisted on rowing to the center of the river alone to make the connection, and even boasted that this was Lord He's brilliant plan!"
The more Qian Fugui spoke, the more anxious he became, his voice growing louder.
"Who would have thought that the ones coming from the opposite bank were not merchants at all! It was the elite iron cavalry of the Helian Right Luli Prince!"
"Zhao Si's throat was sealed with a poisoned needle while still on the boat! The Helian people killed their way to the south bank, hacking at anyone they saw! If Centurion Xu hadn't led the brothers of the Vanguard Camp to carve a bloody path out, I would have long become a headless corpse!"
Qian Fugui cried out in grief, and by the end of his speech, he was limp as mud, only able to gasp for air.
These words were more detailed and fatal than Zhang Tiezhu's accusation.
Zhang Tiezhu spoke of the mastermind behind the scenes.
Qian Fugui completed the whole picture of the bloody case.
The two confessions fit together perfectly, an ironclad proof!
Zhao Xiong's eyes widened in anger as he turned to stare at He Minghu, his eyes full of shock and fury.
Right at this moment, Xu Zhan took out an object from his chest.
A palm-sized bronze tag, engraved with the Helian totem on the front and a howling war wolf on the back.
The waist tag of a Centurion under the command of the Helian Right Luli Prince!
Xu Zhan flicked his wrist.
The bronze tag drew an arc in the air and smashed heavily at He Minghu's feet with a "clang."
On the bluestone slab, the war wolf totem faced upwards, ferocious and glaring.
