When Wei Zhen returned to Shangjia Fort at Donglu Mountain with his bailiffs, what he saw was Shang Wensheng’s corpse—his grayish-white eyeballs nearly split open, long dead.
Blood had soaked through the bedding, yet Wei Zhen could see no other new obvious wounds on Shang Wensheng’s body with his eyes that wouldn’t close in death. Wei Zhen surmised he must have died from his old wounds rupturing and bleeding.
As for Chen Xiang and the six other retainers who had been bound hand and foot, they had now been killed with sharp blades like swords slashing their throats. Their bodies lay sprawled on the ground before the bed, blood pooled everywhere, already congealed into a purplish-black color—Wei Zhen hadn’t noticed when walking in and stepped right over the threshold into a puddle of congealed blood, getting it all over his foot.
Looking at the ferocious, twisted expressions on Chen Xiang and the others’ faces, they seemed to have been utterly shocked and surprised at being killed.
“That’s not right, not right! When Su Lie and his people left, the lord had indeed died, but Chen Xiang and the others were all still perfectly alive. How is it they’ve also been killed now? I may be old, but my eyes aren’t dim—Chen Xiang even spoke to me at the time! They were fine, so how did they die?” An old man whose face was as wrinkled as tree bark, wearing coarse hemp cloth clothing, sat down hard on the ground upon seeing the carnage in the room, saying in a dazed, soul-shaken voice.
“Are you concealing anything from this official?” Wei Zhen stared sternly at the old man and demanded. “Are you certain that when you entered Shangjia Fort, you saw Chen Xiang and the others still alive? If so, why didn’t you untie them then, instead running dozens more miles to first report back to this official in Lishui City?”
Though flustered, the old man’s speech was still fairly clear. Sitting on the ground, he sobbed out his account point by point:
“Lord Wei, you know this old slave too. When has this old slave ever dared to conceal half a sentence from Lord Wei? At daybreak, Shang Biaozi brought San Mazi and two others running into the city, saying the lord had sent orders to bring back some of the women, children, and family members to Shangjia Fort first. I was puzzled at the time—either don’t bring anyone back, or bring everyone back. What sense was there in bringing back some people and leaving some behind? Besides, Shangjia Fort is such a large place, it’s not like there isn’t enough room for so many people to live, nor should there be insufficient food. I became suspicious, so I quietly followed them back to Shangjia Fort. To my surprise, when Shang Biaozi and San Mazi brought the women and children to Shangjia Fort, they didn’t go inside at all. After meeting up with Su Lie and the others outside the fort, they headed straight south. Only then did I realize something was wrong. When I went into the fort to look, the lord had already died, the Second Young Master’s and Madam’s coffins were still placed in the front courtyard, and Chen Xiang and the others were bound hand and foot in the lord’s room, but they were all still perfectly alive. Chen Xiang said that Su Lie and those few slave servants resented the Second Young Master for killing the Young Madam and for killing refugee women and children. When the assassin broke into the fort, they cowered in the western courtyard, dragging their feet and refusing to come out to fight—the lord wanted to hold them accountable, so they rebelled and captured them—though the lord wasn’t killed by them, he was angered to death by them. Chen Xiang also said Su Lie might be in collusion with the assassin, and that assassin breaking into the fort was very likely to avenge the Young Madam—this old slave, seeing this situation, panicked into a mess. I couldn’t tell whether what Chen Xiang said was true or false, and feared that if I freed them, they might stab this old slave to death with one knife thrust. I could only flee back to Lishui in panic to find Lord Wei to uphold justice. Who knew they would later be killed by someone else breaking in?”
Wei Zhen stared at the old man with a face full of suspicion, half-believing his account. But thinking it over carefully, this old slave of the Shang family had no reason to deceive him on so many details.
At this moment, two officials walked in from outside and reported: “Looking at the carriage and horse tracks, the Shang family’s escaped slaves fled south toward Yishan. They have over forty horses and have most likely already entered Yishan by now. Perhaps we can only send word to Xuanzhou and Shezhou to assist in their capture…”
The county had only about two hundred sword and bow hands, and this was still an over-staffed state from the recently ended war.
Now the county needed people everywhere. To pursue over ten trained, fully armed escaped slaves into the mountains, even though these slaves were encumbered by fifty or sixty women and children, deploying thirty or forty sword and bow hands from the county might not be enough, and could very likely result in unpredictable casualties.
The best method would be to notify Xuanzhou and Shezhou, having these two prefectures dispatch elite troops from their provincial camps to pursue into the mountains—that would be more reliable.
Wei Zhen was stunned for a moment, as if his mind was completely absent from the pursuit matter. His gaze turned sinister as he glanced at the Shang family’s old slave still sitting collapsed on the ground. He said to the two officials behind him: “This Shang family old slave’s answers to this official just now were incomplete and untrue. This official suspects he may be in collusion with the assassin and escaped slaves. Without using punishment, I fear we cannot make him tell the truth—drag him away and give him thirty heavy strokes of the rod first. See if he still tells the truth then.”
“My lord, his…” The officials hesitated, glancing at the Shang family’s old slave. They thought that with his frail body, thirty strokes of the heavy rod would leave him with barely half a breath—wouldn’t he be beaten to death on the spot?
“What, you doubt this official’s decision?” Wei Zhen stared sternly at the two officials and said, “Don’t question him first. After using punishment, see if he still tells the truth, if he still dares to deceive this official.”
“Yes.” The officials grasped Wei Zhen’s meaning. Ignoring the old slave’s crying protests, they covered his mouth and dragged his skeletal, frail body to the adjacent room to directly administer punishment.
A moment later, the two officials ran back to report: “That Shang family old slave couldn’t even endure twenty strokes of the rod before he expired.”
“Truly detestable.”
Wei Zhen’s gaunt old face became slightly ferocious and twisted at this moment. Standing among the corpses, he deliberated for a while before speaking.
“Draft a document stating that the county office received a report from the Shang family’s old slave at noon today, saying that after Director Chen from the Jinyun Bureau and Director Shen from the Ministry of Justice left, Shang Wensheng detected that slaves in the residence were in collusion with the assassin. However, before Shang Wensheng could report to officials again, those slaves colluding with the assassin became aware of it and rebelled first, killing Lord Shang. They also bound retainers Chen Xiang and six others who were unwilling to join the rebels with ropes in the room. After the Shang family’s old slave detected this matter, he rushed to Lishui to report to officials. This official led officials to Shangjia Fort and discovered that retainers Chen Xiang and others had also all been killed, which differed from what the Shang family’s old slave said. This official suspected the Shang family’s old slave of colluding with the rebels and interrogated him under torture. The Shang family’s old slave could not withstand the interrogation and died. After killing Shang Wensheng and the Shang family’s loyal servants, the rebels may have already fled to Guangde Prefecture or Xuanzhou. Copy this document several times and immediately send reports to the Jingzhao Prefecture, Ministry of Justice, Jinyun Bureau, as well as Guangde Prefecture, Xuanzhou, Shezhou and other offices, requesting their assistance in pursuing the master-killing escaped slaves…”
The two officials didn’t know what exactly the Shang family’s old slave had said to their lord to make him so impatient to torture him to death and silence him. But they exchanged glances, said nothing, and simply drafted the official case documents according to Wei Zhen’s instructions. After verifying there were no errors, they copied several versions and dispatched fast horses to deliver them to the various offices.
After handling these matters, Wei Zhen remembered something else and asked the officials: “Changes occurred at Shangjia Fort, and people were sent to Liyang the night before last to notify the Shang family’s eldest young master. How is it the Shang family’s eldest young master still hasn’t returned by now?”
“The day before yesterday, two people were sent to Liyang to report. One returned early to report that Shang Mengtong was not in Liyang—he had taken people to Dantu to see the newly appointed Prefect of Runzhou. The other person continued rushing to Dantu to report, and may have been delayed somewhat on the journey.” The official said.
In these times, transmitting messages and reports was very inefficient. For a journey of over two hundred miles, the county’s officials were all accustomed to being lazy and evasive—being delayed a day or two en route was perfectly normal.
“Send another person on a fast horse to chase to Dantu to find Shang Mengtong and report,” Wei Zhen said. “This official still needs to return to the office first to handle other matters. If the eldest young master of the Shang family or people from the Jinyun Bureau or Ministry of Justice come directly, you handle receiving them first…”
……
……
From Shangjia Fort to Runzhou’s provincial seat Dantu City, taking the highway along the eastern flank of Maoshan, then crossing at the Yanling ferry was the fastest route.
The fields and residences on both sides of the highway were largely desolate and abandoned, making it hard to imagine this was a prosperous area of the capital region. The wild grass that had grown rampantly since summer had almost submerged the highway.
A fast horse galloped rapidly along the highway from south to north.
The message-bearing official on horseback completely failed to notice the horse-tripping rope hidden in the wild grass. The horse stumbled and he was thrown flying, landing in the muddy ground and unable to get up for quite a while. Hearing faint sounds, he tried to draw the saber at his waist, only to discover his leather belt had snapped and the saber had fallen off somewhere.
A masked man approached and placed a cold blade across his neck. The official was so frightened his hair stood on end. Not daring to move an inch, he allowed another masked man to reach into his clothes and search out the message.
The two men took the message and the fallen saber nearby, rolled up the horse-tripping rope, then left the official there and walked toward the woods away from the highway.
The official barely raised his head and saw two horses soon gallop out from behind the woods, racing south at full speed.
A moment later, after leaving the official’s line of sight, the two men left the highway on horseback and rode west toward Maoshan’s Leichui Peak.
Han Donghu and Su Lie were currently waiting on horseback in the dense forest at the eastern foot of Leichui Peak. Seeing the two men ride over on horses, they came out to meet them.
“Tiger Master guessed right—Wei Zhen indeed sent another person to deliver a message to the eldest young master. The message is here,” the two masked men said as they pulled away the black cloth covering their faces, revealing their true faces. They were precisely two of the escaped slaves who had rebelled against the Shang family with Su Lie. They handed over the seized message to Su Lie. “We can’t read. Master Su and Tiger Master, see what’s written inside?”
In these times, even among the Shang family’s direct house soldier retainers, not many were literate.
Before selling himself to the Shang family, Su Lie had been forced by his mother to attend private school for three years. He opened the message, scanned it, and his expression changed dramatically. He said in shock: “When we left, Shang Wensheng’s wound had ruptured and we could see he couldn’t be saved, but Chen Xiang and the others were perfectly fine! Who killed them?”
Han Donghu took the message and looked it over, saying: “Regardless of who killed Chen Xiang and the others to silence them, it seems that like Wei Zhen who tortured Old Uncle Shang to death, only after all the witnesses are dead can they conveniently muddy the waters further…”
“Shang Hu, can you ask people from Xuzhou to help us leave Jinling?” Su Lie frowned tightly, looking toward Han Donghu and asking.
He didn’t care what Wei Zhen and the person behind killing Chen Xiang and others to silence them wanted to do—that wasn’t something he could manage at this moment. What he cared more about now was how they could escape from the dragnet!
If it were just the seventeen or eighteen of them, evading government checkpoints along the way and slipping out incognito wouldn’t be difficult.
However, their families added together included fewer than thirty able-bodied adults, plus nearly sixty unarmed old, weak, women and children without the strength to truss a chicken. With so many people, trying to escape government pursuit was harder than ascending to heaven.
They had circled here to intercept the messenger Wei Zhen sent out precisely to understand the government’s movements so they could more conveniently evade pursuit.
“As far as I know, Xuzhou has no one lurking in Jinling. Those I don’t know about, I also can’t contact…” Han Donghu guessed that the person behind muddying the waters might be targeting Xuzhou and the Marquis of Qianyang, Han Qian. But he had no leisure to worry about too much else. At this moment, he felt more ashamed about and responsible for the unknown fate of Su Lie and the others whom he had implicated, along with their families…