Everyone knew that Meng Shuyuan’s two sons had died on the battlefield, and only his youngest daughter remained, who had married a minor military officer. However, after Meng Shuyuan took his own life at Luo City, his daughter, returning from worshipping at a temple, died when her carriage overturned and fell off a cliff, leaving no remains.
Later, when the imperial court passed its final judgment, they claimed that Meng Shuyuan had gone to Luo City to rescue disaster victims, delaying military operations and causing Xie Linshan and the Crown Prince of Chengde to suffer a devastating defeat at Jinzhou. As people cursed Meng Shuyuan, the most common insult was, “It serves him right that the Meng family line has ended.”
Xie Zhong, being a retainer of the Xie family, certainly knew how severe the accusation against the mastermind of the Jinzhou bloodbath was. Upon hearing Zhu Youchang say that Meng Shuyuan had been wronged, he couldn’t help but feel sorrowful. Just as he was about to console Zhu Youchang, Xie Zheng, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: “The descendants of Old General Meng are still alive in this world.”
This statement stunned not only Zhu Youchang but also Xie Zhong.
Disregarding his disabled legs, Zhu Youchang tried to get up, supporting himself on the edge of the bed, but was fortunately stopped in time by Xie Zhong.
“I implore the Marquis to tell us where Old General Meng’s descendants are now. Is Sister Lihua… is she still alive?” Zhu Youchang clasped his hands towards Xie Zheng, his mouth twisted as if both crying and laughing, with muddy hot tears rolling into his unkempt beard.
Xie Zheng didn’t know the name of Meng Shuyuan’s daughter, but upon hearing “Lihua,” he instinctively recalled the name “Lihua” written on Madam Fan’s ancestral tablet in Lin’an Town.
Lihua, Lihua – it seemed that the Fan couple had feared trouble and dared not use even their original names.
Xie Zheng met Zhu Youchang’s eager gaze and, after a moment of silence, said, “General Zhu, please accept my condolences. Old General Meng’s beloved daughter is no longer in this world, but two granddaughters remain.”
As one of Meng Shuyuan’s top generals and almost an adopted son, Zhu Youchang had been very close to Meng Shuyuan’s children. Meng Lihua, in particular, was like a sister he had watched grow up. Although he had long suspected she was no longer alive, hearing Xie Zheng say that Meng Shuyuan still had descendants had raised a glimmer of hope that Meng Lihua might still be living.
Now, learning that Meng Lihua was indeed dead, grief overwhelmed him, and he covered his face, letting out two sobs.
Xie Zhong was puzzled by how much Xie Zheng knew about the Meng family’s descendants. Given the Marquis’s temperament, even those who had served him closely in the past didn’t dare mention the Meng family in his presence.
How had he managed to uncover all the details about the Meng family’s descendants without letting any information slip? The more Xie Zhong thought about it, the stranger it seemed. His brows furrowed into almost a “川” shape. He wanted to ask Xie Zheng but knew this wasn’t the right moment, so he could only pat Zhu Youchang’s shoulder and echo, “Please accept our condolences, General.”
Zhu Youchang also understood that given Xie Zheng’s position, he should have harbored a deep hatred for the Meng family before knowing the truth. How did he come to know so much about the Meng family’s descendants? Could it be for revenge?
This thought made Zhu Youchang’s heart race. Suppressing his grief, he scrutinized Xie Zheng and asked, “May I ask the Marquis, where are my two grand-nieces now?”
Xie Zheng answered, “They are both safe now. The elder one is sixteen this year. When rebels surrounded Lu City, she braved the night rain to cross mountains and kill rebel scouts while the army was damming the river upstream of Jízhou to flood the rebels. Later, she accompanied the army to deliver supplies to Yixia Gorge, where she beheaded Stone Tiger, a valiant general under King Changxin. She was adopted by Tao Yi, Tao Grand Tutor, who recommended her to join the army…”
His voice low and steady, Xie Zheng recounted Fan Changyu’s military journey. Each scene he briefly mentioned flashed vividly in his mind.
Their reunion on the mountain at Yixia Gorge, where she wept bitterly at his bedside; on the corpse-strewn battlefield, where she stood atop a pile of bodies, a fierce look on her face as she wielded a bone-chopping knife…
The path of a soldier was not easy. He knew all the hardships she had endured, the blood and tears she had shed.
“In the battle of Chongzhou, she led the right-wing army as the vanguard, saving He Jingyuan from certain death and beheading King Changxin on horseback. She was awarded the rank of Fifth-grade Valiant Cavalry Commander. During the battle of Lu City, she called herself Meng Changyu and volunteered to defend the city to death, buying time and declaring her willingness to die to restore her ancestor’s good name.”
As Xie Zheng detailed these events, hot tears never stopped rolling down Zhu Youchang’s cheeks.
After Xie Zheng finished speaking, Zhu Youchang was so choked up that he couldn’t speak for a while. Covering his face, he wept bitterly before finally saying in a trembling voice, “This is the blood of a general, the blood of a general!”
Xie Zhong was also shocked. He had long heard of a female general in the Northwest but never imagined she was a descendant of Meng Shuyuan, and that his own Marquis knew her background so thoroughly.
He secretly wondered if Xie Zheng had known all along that the failure to deliver supplies back then was not Meng Shuyuan’s fault.
Lost in these thoughts, he failed to hold Zhu Youchang, who pushed away his hand and fell from the edge of the bed.
With both legs broken, Zhu Youchang could only maintain a kneeling position by supporting himself with his hands on the ground. He bowed to Xie Zheng.
“What are you doing, General Zhu? Quickly, get up!” Xie Zhong moved forward to help Zhu Youchang, but he refused to rise.
Xie Zheng was also startled by this sudden turn of events and couldn’t avoid Zhu Youchang’s bow in time. He half-squatted to help Zhu Youchang personally: “General Zhu, whatever it is, please rise and then speak.”
Zhu Youchang still refused to get up. This man, who hadn’t shed a tear even when his legs were broken on the battlefield, now wept bitterly.
Choking with emotion, he said, “This bow is on behalf of the Meng family to thank the Marquis. Despite not knowing the truth of that year, you still allowed that child to make a name for herself in the army. This old Zhu thanks the Marquis for his great righteousness and open-mindedness!”
Xie Linshan had been disemboweled and hung on the city tower of Jinzhou. Even today, civilians would shed tears when mentioning it, cursing the Northern Yue people for their brutality. Xie Zheng, being Xie Linshan’s son, would naturally harbor more hatred towards the mastermind of the Jinzhou case than any civilian.
Zhu Youchang didn’t know how Xie Zheng had managed to treat the Meng family’s descendants equally in the army. At this moment, he was overwhelmed with gratitude and respect.
Hearing Zhu Youchang’s words, Xie Zheng’s hand, which was helping him up, paused slightly. He asked, “General Zhu, what exactly was the hidden truth of that year?”
Recalling the events of that time, Zhu Youchang couldn’t help but gnash his teeth: “It wasn’t that the Old General disregarded military orders and delayed the supply delivery. It was the Sixteenth Prince accompanying the army who was overly ambitious. Seeing only a few thousand Northern Yue soldiers guarding Luo City, with a hundred thousand civilians trapped inside, he ignored the Old General’s orders and insisted on going to Luo City for the rescue. In the end, the Sixteenth Prince was also captured. The Northern Yue people demanded that the Old General exchange the army’s supplies for the Sixteenth Prince, or else they would use the Sixteenth Prince’s blood to consecrate their banner!”
Xie Zhong’s face changed dramatically, and Xie Zheng’s eyes also darkened.
It wasn’t just that. The matter of the Sixteenth Prince seemed to have been deliberately erased over the past decade or so, with no historical records mentioning what the Sixteenth Prince had done in the battle of Luo City.
When Xie Zheng had heard rumors and reinvestigated the Jinzhou case, retrieving files from the Da Li Temple, the records stated that Changshan General Meng Shuyuan had disregarded military orders to rescue the hundred thousand civilians trapped in Luo City. In the end, he was defeated and failed to save the people in the city, causing the death of the accompanying Sixteenth Prince. The delay in supplying provisions indirectly led to the fall of Jinzhou on the front lines, and he ultimately committed suicide out of guilt.
But the Northern Yue army that had occupied Luo City at that time was hardly a threat. They were few and without supplies, only able to cling to life in that small space due to Luo City’s easily defensible terrain.
The imperial court initially ignored Luo City for two reasons: firstly, the situation in Jinzhou was more perilous, and secondly, the rebels in Luo City hadn’t yet reached the end of their rope, and forcibly taking the city would have consumed considerable time.
In comparison, holding Jinzhou as a gateway to keep the main Northern Yue army outside the border would allow them to deal with the Northern Yue forces in Luo City without worry later, like trapping a rat in a corner.
This was also why Xie Zheng had hated Meng Shuyuan for so many years.
Not aiding Luo City would have resulted in many deaths, but losing Jinzhou would have left Da Yin wide open, allowing the foreign race to advance unchecked, leading to ten or a hundred times more deaths.
It was Meng Shuyuan’s momentary soft-heartedness that had made him disregard military orders and commit an irreversible grave error!
So it turned out that Meng Shuyuan’s aid to Luo City wasn’t due to misjudging the situation, but because the Sixteenth Prince was also involved?
Xie Zhong frowned and asked, “Did Old General Meng delay the supplies to save the Sixteenth Prince?”
Zhu Youchang urgently replied, “How could General Meng, the most trusted old general of the Grand General, have failed to prioritize properly? Lord Xie, you fought alongside the Grand General back then, surely you must know our general’s character!”
Xie Linshan had been titled the Nation-Protecting Grand General, and in all of Da Yin, only he could be called “Grand General.”
Xie Zhong was a retainer of the Xie family, serving as part of Xie Linshan’s guard. “Du Qi” was his official title back then, and Zhu Youchang was using the old form of address.
Hearing this, Xie Zhong unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.
Zhu Youchang spoke with resentment: “The Marquis is still young and may not know how much the former emperor doted on the Sixteenth Prince. Lord Xie should be aware of this.”
He looked towards Xie Zhong as he spoke.
Xie Zhong nodded: “The Sixteenth Prince’s maternal clan was powerful, and his mother, Noble Consort Jia, was the most favored in the harem. There were frequent rumors that if not for Crown Prince Chengde’s kindness and respect for the worthy, which earned him a good reputation among officials and commoners alike, the former emperor might have named the Sixteenth Prince as Crown Prince.”
Xie Zheng remained silent, lowering his eyes to conceal his thoughts.
It was strange that for such a prominent Sixteenth Prince, only fragments of information remained after seventeen years.
After Xie Zhong corroborated his statement, Zhu Youchang continued: “General Meng couldn’t disregard the Sixteenth Prince’s life, but he also couldn’t delay the crucial supply delivery. So he sent an urgent war report back to the capital, requesting the former emperor’s instructions on how to rescue the Sixteenth Prince. Meanwhile, he ordered the main army to continue escorting supplies to Jinzhou, leaving only a small force to negotiate outside Luo City.”
“Two days later, an imperial tiger tally arrived by urgent dispatch from the capital, along with a personal letter from Wei Yan.” At the mention of Wei Yan, Zhu Youchang’s jaw unconsciously tightened, as if he wanted to tear into his flesh: “That despicable man wrote in the letter that His Majesty had ordered the general to return to Luo City immediately to rescue the Sixteenth Prince and that troops from Chongzhou would escort the supplies to Jinzhou.”
Chongzhou’s geographical location was between Luo City and Jinzhou. With urgent situations on both sides, it indeed made sense for Meng Shuyuan’s supply troops to turn back to attack Luo City, while the army stationed in Chongzhou would escort the supplies to Jinzhou without delay.
Xie Zheng keenly spotted a flaw and asked, “If it was a troop deployment, with only a personal letter from Wei Yan and not even an imperial edict, did the old general believe it?”
Zhu Youchang instinctively reached into his collar, but finding nothing, he regretfully pounded the edge of the bed: “There was a military tally as proof! Unfortunately, when I was rescued from prison, someone claiming to be from the Crown Prince of Chengde’s faction came. Fearing I might not survive to leave, I hurriedly handed over the military tally to that person, begging them to clear General Meng’s name!”
Xie Zheng, who had taken advantage of the fight between Qi Min’s people and Wei Yan’s trained assassins to rescue Zhu Youchang, of course, knew that Qi Min’s people had also participated in the prison break.
He said, “I’ve checked the records of tiger tally usage from seventeen years ago. There was no record of the court issuing another tiger tally before Jinzhou fell.”
Zhu Youchang urgently replied, “There was! It was that ungrateful Wei Qilin who personally brought the tiger tally and letter! I didn’t recognize the Chongzhou tiger tally, but the general couldn’t have mistaken the Changzhou one. The general only changed course to Luo City after confirming both tallies matched!”
As the truth of that year was gradually uncovered, Xie Zheng remained unusually calm. He asked, “Two tiger tallies were used at once, with the Changzhou army responsible for escorting military supplies. Why was there no imperial edict?”
Recalling this, Zhu Youchang was also heartbroken: “That ungrateful Wei Qilin said that since the Sixteenth Prince had caused such trouble if His Majesty issued an edict, the crime would be officially recorded. Without an edict, only granting the tiger tally, if we could hold Jinzhou and recapture Luo City, it would be a great achievement, and the matter would be overlooked. Everyone at court knew the Sixteenth Prince was favored. When we saw the tiger tally and Wei Yan’s letter, we believed his lies!”
Xie Zheng suddenly asked, “Wei Qilin, did he betray Old General Meng?”
Zhu Youchang gritted his teeth: “Wei Qilin was always Wei Yan’s dog! After seeing the tiger tally and letter, the general temporarily left the supplies on the road with guards and led the main army to rescue the Sixteenth Prince in Luo City. Wei Qilin took the Chongzhou tiger tally to deploy troops there! Who would have thought that after we fought bitterly with the general in Luo City for days, we’d receive news that Jinzhou had fallen and the Crown Prince of Chengde and General Xie had died!”
Getting emotional, Zhu Youchang couldn’t help but cover his face and weep: “There were no Chongzhou troops delivering supplies at all! The soldiers in Jinzhou were starved until they had no strength left, and were slaughtered like animals by the Northern Yue people!”
Hearing this long-hidden truth, even Xie Zhong felt a sinking dread in his heart.
No matter how one looked at it, Wei Yan was not innocent in this matter.
Yet Xie Zheng, unaware of this, had been raised under Wei Yan’s care and had called him uncle for over a decade!
Xie Zhong looked at Xie Zheng with a complex expression. The latter had his head half-lowered, most of his face hidden in shadow, making it impossible to see his expression at that moment. They only heard him ask, “Did Wei Qilin ever return?”
Zhu Youchang said hatefully, “If he dared to return, I’d be the first to slaughter him!”
Something still felt amiss.
Xie Zheng remembered the letter Wei Yan’s assassins were looking for at Fan Changyu’s home. He slowly asked, “Before his death, did Old General Meng leave any instructions besides giving you the Changzhou tiger tally?”
Recalling that day’s events, Zhu Youchang still felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. With reddened eyes, he said, “News of Jinzhou’s fall reached our camp in the morning. When we went to the general’s tent to find him, he was utterly devastated, sitting there unwilling to say a word. Knowing the general blamed himself and fearing he might do something rash, I stayed in the tent guarding him. It was then that he gave me the tiger tally.”
“The general said that from that day forward, the Changzhou tiger tally was lost, and told us to bring it out again when the time was right.”
“I didn’t understand the general’s meaning at the time. In the brief moment I turned to fetch some food, the general knelt facing Jinzhou in the tent and took his own life…”
Zhu Youchang choked with emotion: “Soon after, the court’s accusations came down. The general had only turned towards Luo City after receiving the troop deployment order, yet it became that the general had disregarded military orders, delaying the supply delivery and causing Jinzhou’s tragic defeat!”
Even after seventeen years, Zhu Youchang still cried out from the depths of his heart for Old General Meng: “General Meng was wronged!”
Outside, the heavy rain hadn’t stopped. Cold wind gusted through the wide-open doors and windows into the room, bitingly cold, as if even the heavens were mourning this great injustice against the Meng family.
Xie Zheng helped Zhu Youchang up. Though his face remained calm, one hand at his side had already tightened into a fist. He asked, “General Zhu, with the tiger tally as iron-clad evidence, why didn’t you clear Old General Meng’s name back then?”
Zhu Youchang replied emotionally: “How could I not have thought of it? I wanted to return to the capital and reveal this matter before the emperor, but all the officers under General Meng were demoted by several ranks and scattered to various places. I didn’t even have a chance for an imperial audience! I thought the Eastern Palace would thoroughly investigate this matter, but soon after, a great fire broke out in the Eastern Palace, and the Crown Princess and the eldest imperial grandson died in the fire…”
Zhu Youchang pounded the bed forcefully, his expression pained. He cried, “My only hope was General Xie’s former subordinates. At first, I wasn’t sure if this matter was related to Wei Yan, after all, General Xie’s wife was his sister! But when I finally managed to connect with General Xie’s former subordinates under the pretext of paying respects to the general, everything I said was overheard by Madam Xie. When the matter was exposed and Wei Yan had us detained, it was Madam Xie who threatened suicide to prevent Wei Yan from harming our lives!”
“Who would have thought that this ordeal would last seventeen years!” Zhu Youchang cried out in anguish.
The cold wind, mixed with rain, blew into the room, ruffling Xie Zheng’s bangs. His face was unusually pale as he whispered, almost inaudibly, “Mother.”
Xie Zhong’s expression also changed, saying with shock, “So when Madam asked us to return to the Xie residence in Huizhou, it was also to prevent us from being implicated in this matter? Then Madam’s death…”
Xie Zhong stopped mid-sentence, looking at Xie Zheng with an extremely sympathetic expression.
Sending Xie Zheng to be raised by Wei Yan was Madam Xie’s idea, wasn’t it? To make Wei Yan completely at ease with this child’s existence.
Xie Zheng’s lips were almost pressed into a cold, straight line. His fist, tense to the point where his tendons were visible, smashed violently into the sturdy pear wood table in the room. The table shattered into pieces as a name filled with endless hatred and bloodthirst escaped from his throat: “Wei Yan—”