Chapter 285: Open up Dengzhou! (ask for monthly ticket)
In fact, Li Jingren was not too averse to Xu Jingzong. Before leaving Youzhou, Li Xiang had talked to him about this person.

According to Li Xiang, you can interact with people appropriately, but you should know the limits and not get sold out and have them count money for others.

Lao Xu is a very smooth person and cannot be arbitrarily defined as a treacherous minister.

In fact, what Li Zhi said was completely appropriate for Xu Jingzong. Sometimes, Xu Jingzong had no say on whether he was virtuous or not. If he wanted to get to the top, he had to pay a token of his allegiance to Li Zhi and completely sided with Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang in the matter of deposing Wang and enthroning Wu.

If we must find some fault with Xu Jingzong, it is that he was a bit extravagant. He once built seventy flying towers and let prostitutes ride on horses on them as a form of entertainment.

But this kind of thing was not considered shameful in the Tang Dynasty.

The biggest reason why Li Xiang wanted to use him was that Xu Jingzong did not care about the world's opinion and was able to please the emperor.

Super, it’s only convenient for people like this to use it.

But then again, he is worthy of being one of the "Eighteen Scholars" of the Tiance Palace. In some aspects, Xu Jingzong is like Lao Li, cut from the same mold.

Old Xu was a somewhat lustful man. He had long noticed that his wife Pei's maid was quite pretty. After Pei's death, Xu Jingzong naturally took the maid away and made her his second wife, giving her the false surname Yu.

Xu Ang, the eldest son of Xu Jingzong and Pei, was very talented in literature and also good-looking. After a few interactions, he started to hook up with Yu in the backyard.

This sudden encounter caused the two to fall in love and they were caught by Lao Xu on the spot without realizing it.

No matter how generous Xu Jingzong was, he found it hard to accept that he and Haodaer had become fellow travelers.

He was furious about this, so he deposed Yu and accused Xu Ang of being unfilial. He then submitted a petition to the court requesting that Xu Ang be exiled outside the mountains.

During the Xianqing period, Old Xu may have regretted his decision, so he submitted a petition to the court requesting that Xu Ang be allowed to return and serve as the magistrate of Qianhua County.

No, is stepmother literature so popular in your Tang Dynasty?

It is difficult to say whether Li Zhi finally agreed to Xu Jingzong's transfer of Xu Ang because of the mutual respect between the same kind.

Inside the prison were the fully armed guards of the Prince of Shu’s palace.

As the son of Li Shimin, even though he was not very favored, his guards were definitely not just for show.

Moreover, he also wanted to go out to sea to explore new territories, so, following Li Xiang's suggestion, Lao Li slightly raised the standards of his guards, all of whom were men who had been on the battlefield and seen blood.

Just putting these people in jail is enough to suppress the villains who have evil intentions.

When they saw Xu Jingzong and Li Jingren coming, someone immediately came forward.

"The prison is a restricted area, holding important criminals. No outsiders are allowed to approach!"

"I am the imperial envoy sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Youzhou," Xu Jingzong took out a token from his sleeve and handed it to the captain, "Please take a look."

The captain took the token, examined it carefully, looked at Xu Jingzong, and then at Li Jingren.

"This is the token of His Royal Highness the King of Shu." Li Jingren took out the token that Li Yin had just given him from his arms.

Only after seeing Li Yin's token did the captain order his men to make way.

"It is my duty, and I hope you two superiors will forgive me." The captain crossed his arms towards the two men, showing a very polite attitude.

After all, he was responsible for the incident. Li Yin had issued a strict order that no one was allowed to enter the prison without his consent, so as not to ruin his brother's plans.

Everyone knew that Li Yin respected Li Xiang, and no one dared to disobey this order.

When Li Yan gets angry, he really doesn't care about anything. If someone is really guilty, at least he will be stripped naked and paraded through the streets.

"It's okay. The people in the prison are extremely important, and it's your duty." Xu Jingzong said with a warm expression: "Please lead the way."

"Please--" the captain stretched out his hand.

"Please." Xu Jingzong took the lead and walked into the prison.

The prison environment in Dengzhou is actually not that good. There is no so-called humane concept these days. It is already very humane if the prison is not made to look like a Buddhist world.

But what surprised them was that there was no smell of decay in the prison. Instead, it felt... quite human?
"This is the order of His Royal Highness the Prince of Shu." The lieutenant saw Xu Jingzong's confusion and explained with a smile, "His Royal Highness the Prince of Shu said that these two yamen runners are very important to His Royal Highness the Grandson, and they must not be lost, so he asked us to find lime and other things to clean the prison inside and out to prevent them from getting sick."

Xu Jingzong nodded and glanced at Li Jingren.

"I didn't expect His Royal Highness the King of Shu to be so thoughtful."

Li Jingren also didn't expect that this stupid Li Laoliu, who was not only stupid but also a scoundrel, would start to dabble in medicine?

"After all, we have to stay in the prison temporarily to protect their personal safety." The captain replied, seeming... very sincere.

This made sense. Li Jingren thought about it and thought that Li Yin must have just given an order casually, and this group of people took the chicken feathers as a token of approval and cleaned up the place where they were going to live.

Otherwise, it can't explain why I'm so attentive.

"Hahahaha..." Xu Jingzong and Li Jingren looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"The two yamen runners are ahead." The lieutenant pointed ahead and said to them, "As soon as they were put into prison, Feng Changshi asked His Royal Highness the King of Shu to send soldiers to take the families of the two yamen runners to the port to ensure their safety."

"Feng Changshi is a meticulous person. He is busy with all kinds of affairs every day, but he can still think of this. I can't compare to him." Xu Jingzong shook his head and sighed.

This statement is more or less a polite remark, as a fancy sedan is carried by people.

After saying that, he walked towards the room where the two yamen runners were imprisoned.

Li Jingren also set out to follow.

The room was quite tidy. It was obviously a special room, probably used to detain some people with connections. It had two more windows than other rooms.

Not only ventilation, but also lighting.

"These two are the imperial envoys from Youzhou." The captain introduced them from behind, and at the same time used the tiger skin as a banner - after all, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince represents the Emperor, so there is nothing wrong with calling them imperial envoys from the court.

When the two yamen runners heard that he was an imperial envoy from the court, they immediately bowed their heads.

Are you kidding, skeptical?
They both couldn't believe that so many people had gone to such great lengths to protect them for so many days just to send two fake imperial envoys to fool them. This didn't make sense at all.

"You two don't have to do this. If you have any grievances, please tell us in detail." Li Jingren said in a kind tone: "Tell us what happened in detail."

"Don't worry, your family members have been taken to the port by His Royal Highness the King of Shu to protect their safety." Xu Jingzong added.

"Yes, yes..." The yamen runner bowed twice more and began to introduce himself: "My name is Wang Wu, and this is my brother, Zhang Shun. We are both from Wendeng, Dengzhou. When Feng Changshi was the magistrate of Wendeng County, my two brothers followed him as yamen runners." Hearing this, Xu Jingzong raised his head and glanced at the captain. Seeing the captain nodded, he continued: "Of course, this official knows something about this. Now you tell me the details of the case. What exactly caused that family to commit suicide by jumping into the sea?"

Wang Wu sighed and began to explain the story to Xu Jingzong in detail.

After a while, Xu Jingzong nodded. He had a general understanding of what had happened.

The compensation plan proposed by Feng Qing was quite generous, and the requisition of sea vessels and fishermen was not forced; the policy was entirely voluntary.

According to the policy, they will not be relocated to Youzhou permanently, but will be temporarily seconded there, and will be given generous compensation. In short, they will not suffer any loss or have their work in vain.

Even if the family disagrees with the compensation plan and chooses to refuse conscription, no one will make things difficult for them.

According to these two people, they were talking to the family in a friendly manner throughout the whole process, but they didn't know why this family chose to commit suicide by jumping into the sea.

Moreover, on the second day after the family committed suicide by jumping into the sea, rumors spread in Dengzhou. Some said that they were forced by the yamen runners, and some said that the compensation from the Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office was unreasonable. What's worse, some people said that this was damaging the interests of Dengzhou to fatten up Youzhou.

Although nationalism has not yet emerged these days, regional isolationism has existed since ancient times.

For example, Liu Zongyuan, the most ruthless regionalist in the Tang Dynasty, left behind some weird little articles such as "The dog in Shu barks at the sun", "The dog in Yue barks at the snow" and "The donkey in Guizhou has run out of tricks".

Of course, he himself might not mean that.

In short, the confrontational sentiment between regions immediately caused dissatisfaction among the people of Dengzhou.

The rumors became more and more intense, and finally it became known that Dengzhou was under construction, and you guys wanted to tear it down and move it to Youzhou with just a few words?

This is no longer an ordinary behavior, and a heavy blow is necessary!

"Mr. Li, what do you think?" Xu Jingzong turned around and glanced at Li Jingren.

"How else can we look at it? They are just using this family to create a fuss in order to provoke public opinion and oppose Dengzhou's policy of aiding Youzhou." Li Jingren shrugged, a gesture he learned from Li Xiang.

Xu Jingzong reached out and knocked on the table unconsciously, then looked down at the two yamen runners: "Any other details? Recall them."

"Oh, right." Zhang Shun suddenly said, "On the second day after the policy of the Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office came out, someone found me and told me to be more careful when requisitioning ships, so as to complete the task early and live up to the trust of His Highness and the Chief Secretary..."

"But I have a secret. Feng Changshi often teaches me and others that this time we are recruiting boats and experienced fishermen. We are not forcing them. Otherwise, he will never let us off easily. So we did not agree to that man's request."

"Be more careful?" Xu Jingzong couldn't help but sneer when he heard this: "What a good intention, it's so vicious!"

"Who asked you to do this?" Li Jingren suddenly asked.

"This..." Zhang Shun opened his mouth.

"Don't worry, no one will retaliate against you." Xu Jingzong lowered his eyes and assured him, "Even your family members are the same. They are now under the protection of His Royal Highness the King of Shu. If you are worried that you will not be able to survive in Dengzhou in the future, you can naturally go to Youzhou."

"I am the Chief of Youzhou Prefecture. It is only a matter of a word to arrange for you two yamen runners."

At this point, Xu Jingzong added: "If you tell the truth, considering your merits, it is not impossible to promote you to a captain in principle."

After hearing about this treatment, Zhang Shun and Wang Wu had no reservations.

Their families are safe, and they can go to Youzhou together. They don’t have to worry about retaliation from the Dengzhou nobles.

No matter how long their arms are, they can't reach from Henan Road to Hebei Road, right?
"I'll tell you right away." Zhang Shun said quickly, "It was someone from the Song family. It was someone from the Song family who found me and asked me to be more careful..."

"Who from the Song family?" Li Jingren asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, it's Song Yunlai, the county magistrate of the Song family in Penglai County Government." Zhang Shun answered honestly.

Li Xiang is not here, otherwise he would definitely move the DNA of this person named "Song Yunlai".

Lao Hu was a real man. He never revealed his Baoding accent until his death.

"Song Yunlai..." Xu Jingzong hesitated for a moment, and then said to Li Jingren: "Li Chenshi... Forget it, let's go there in person."

Lao Xu originally wanted to ask someone to bring Song Yunlai over, but then he changed his mind and decided to meet Song Yunlai in person.

However, when they just arrived at the Penglai County Government Office on horseback, they found that people were being carried out from inside, covered with a large white cloth.

Seeing this scene, Xu Jingzong reined in his horse, frowned and asked loudly: "What's going on?"

After all, Lao Xu was wearing a crimson official robe, and he was obviously a fourth-rank official.

A fourth-rank official was already quite high in Dengzhou.

What's more, the possibility of someone daring to pretend to be a fourth-rank official in public is extremely small.

The people below did not dare to neglect it. Although they did not know who the high official in front of them was, they still answered respectfully: "To answer your question, the county magistrate of Penglai just died of a sudden illness in his room. We are preparing to carry him back home."

"Sudden illness?" Xu Jingzong frowned and asked, "Penglai County Magistrate, is it Song Yunlai?"

"In response to what the superior said, that's right." The people below answered respectfully.

Xu Jingzong dismounted from his horse, walked forward to the stretcher covered with white cloth and lifted it up, revealing a face with a long tongue sticking out.

Anyone who is not stupid should know that this kind of horrific death is definitely not caused by a sudden serious illness.

He even put his hand on his nose to try, and found that he was indeed dead.

"Is this Song Yunlai?" Xu Jingzong turned and asked Zhang Shundao.

Zhang Shun suppressed his fear and stepped forward to identify him, then replied, "To reply to your Excellency, this man is indeed Song Yunlai!"

"..."

Old Xu already had some ideas in his mind. The affairs of the Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office could certainly not be hidden from these powerful families. The news of their entry into Dengzhou would definitely be spread to each family's home at the first opportunity.

In order to avoid being interrogated about anything, the best way is to let Song Yun come first, to cut off the tail of the gecko and the arm of a hero, so as to avoid the fire from falling on them.

After Xu Jingzong pondered for a moment, he took a deep look at Song Yunlai's body and mounted his horse.

"Let's go back to Dengzhou Grand Commandery first, and then we can make plans!"

(Black Monkey can’t play anymore. I feel sleepy and want to sleep as soon as I play games. I am particularly exhausted. The power of Yang is too great…)
(End of this chapter)