Chapter 77

Commandant Yang, who was in charge of the military forces in Nanlong Prefecture, came in person.

"So you are the invisible man that Zhou Shouren, the county magistrate of Shuangyu County, told me about."

"Zhou Shouren? Isn't he dead already? How could that be?" Commandant Yang muttered to himself.

Commandant Yang was very puzzled when he heard the other party mention Zhou Shouren.

According to the information he received, the prefect had already secretly executed Zhou Shouren in prison.

Now hearing what the censor said, Zhou Shouren must have told the censor everything he knew.

This meant that Zhou Shouren might still be alive, and everything was just a smokescreen by the other party.

Thinking of this, Commandant Yang felt a tinge of panic, but he calmed down again when he thought that the other party would soon die by his men.

"Lord Censor is indeed the top commander of the Ministry of Justice. I truly admire your means, but unfortunately you will still die today."

"Is that so? To send so many people just for me, I'm really flattered. But who lives and who dies is still undecided." Lord Li said with a smile.

"Ridiculous! Do you still count on those dozen or so garrison troops in the bushes? Do you think we don't know who passed the information to us?"

"Oh? Even the garrison troops and General Wang are your people?"

"Humph. That old thing is only thinking about living longer every day. He doesn't have time to care about these things. But as long as there's money, it's easy to buy some people."

"Today I will see who else can save you."

After saying that, Commandant Yang glanced at the few other people behind Lord Li.

Only Nangong Jue was not one of their men. Unfortunately, in order not to let the news leak out, Nangong Jue had to be killed as well, and the blame would be put on him to kill two birds with one stone.

At this moment, he had to admire how well-planned Prefect's scheme was.

So he said insincerely to Nangong Jue: "Sorry, Young Master Traceless. You will have to stay here today too."

Nangong Jue didn't expect things to turn out just as Gong Xiaohua predicted.

However, he believed that an intelligent and meticulous person like Gong Xiaohua would not let Lord Li follow her to the suburbs without any protection just to watch the fight. She was here just to spectate.

"Humph. Too much injustice will lead to self-destruction. I advise you to stop while you still can."

"There's no need for Young Master Traceless to worry. But we have to thank Young Master for this duel today. Otherwise how could we easily capture them all in one fell swoop?" "You guys have it all calculated out." Nangong Jue said.

Qin Yi and others were guarding Qin Chuyuan and Gong Xiaohua.

Qin Yi whispered to Gong Xiaohua, "Miss Gong, they outnumber us. I'm afraid we'll have to fight to the death today. Please protect Young Master later when it comes down to it."

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen to you guys." Gong Xiaohua said.

"Is this your plan? To use yourselves as bait and deliberately lure them to surround and kill you?" Qin Chuyuan next to them asked coldly.

Gong Xiaohua was a little embarrassed. She had told him not to come today, but he just wouldn't listen.

There were too many eyes in the station, and she couldn't explain clearly lest it aroused other people's suspicions.

"Don't worry. If there is any danger, I will protect you."

When Qin Chuyuan heard Gong Xiaohua say this, he strangely felt a little happy in his heart, and he didn't care if there was any danger or not anymore. He believed her.

"Alright, it's time to send you on your way." Commandant Yang said.

Then he raised his left hand and waved it in the air as a signal. The men in black got the order and prepared to attack Gong Xiaohua's group.

But just as they were about to take action, there was a loud rumbling sound coming from afar, getting louder and louder.

It was the rumbling sound of galloping horses.

Commandant Yang's face changed in shock. The arrivals boded ill. He no longer stood by and watch. He immediately rushed forward with his spear, stabbing towards Lord Li.

And he ordered his men: "Everyone attack now, or we all die."

Seeing this, the men in black rushed forward with their weapons.

Fortunately, most of Gong Xiaohua's group were skilled in martial arts, and they were all quite good. They surrounded Qin Chuyuan and Lord Li in the middle in a circular formation that could withstand the enemy until reinforcements arrived.

Yu Wei had rushed to the temporary camp overnight with Lord Li's tiger tally last night to secretly mobilize a force of nearly a thousand men from the neighboring garrison.

In fact, Yu Wei and others were arranged to rest in the station under the excuse of serious injuries, but they were secretly collecting intelligence and waiting for opportunities.

After mobilizing the troops, they rushed back to Nanlong Prefecture nonstop. Then they divided these forces into three teams.

One team surrounded the prefectural government.

One team went to the barren mountains outside the city to retrieve the embezzled silver.

The last team followed him to meet up with Lord Li in the suburbs.

Yu Wei saw from afar that the men in black had already started fighting with Xiaohua and others.

He whipped the horse madly to rush over, leading the troops to charge into the crowd of men in black.

In an instant, dust and dirt flew everywhere, warhorses neighed, weapons clashed, and screams could be heard.

The enemy was weak and we were strong. Finally, Commandant Yang and the men in black were captured, and the battle ended.

"Lord Li, the enemy has been captured. Please give an order." Yu Wei dismounted and came to Lord Li to salute and await his command. "Good work. Bring everyone back to the city."

"Yes."

Nanlong Prefecture Administration Office

In the great hall, waves of cheering "Bravo" could be heard, and the commoners outside the government office also quieted down accordingly.

These commoners were shocked by the large number of troops in the city today.

Not long after, they heard that the prefect, the commandant and other high officials of Nanlong Prefecture had been taken to the government office by the newly arrived Inspector Lord Li for trial.

For a while, people spread the news and it caused quite a sensation. Many commoners swarmed towards the government office.

Lord Li sat at the bench in the great hall of the government office.

Gong Xiaohua and Yu Wei, the two heads, stood on either side of Lord Li.

Qin Chuyuan sat on the side watching the trial.

"Bring the prefect, commandant, garrison commander, county magistrates of Shuangyu County and Zishui County... into the hall." Nearly a dozen officials of Nanlong Prefecture were brought into the hall.

Seeing that Zhou Shouren of Shuangyu County had not died, the prefect and others knew that the situation had gone beyond redemption.

Lord Li directly pronounced the charges.

"The Nanlong Prefecture prefect, commandant, Shuangyu County, Zishui County... colluded to falsely create reasons to forcibly collect all kinds of taxes and levies, causing the commoners to suffer miserably."

"They embezzled disaster relief silver, resulting in severe flooding disasters in Nanlong Prefecture and the deaths of many commoners."

"To cover up their crimes, they murdered Former Inspector Zhang Yi and attempted to murder the censor."

"With conclusive evidence for the above three major crimes, I hereby sentence the Nanlong Prefecture prefect, commandant, Shuangyu county magistrate to be executed; the garrison commander, Zishui county magistrate and others to life exile."

"Guards, take them away!"

"Yes."

"Good." A shout of approval came from outside the government office, no one knew who it was.

Then a group of people started shouting their approval and clapping.

"Good!"

"The lord is wise!"

Thus the corrupt officials of Nanlong Prefecture were eliminated. Lord Li also submitted a memorial to the capital to send officials to take over the management of Nanlong Prefecture. Qin Chuyuan and the others rushed to Sishui Prefecture on the day the case was closed to take up their posts.

Nangong Jue also bid farewell to Gong Xiaohua and left after the trial ended, and he left these parting words.

"Although I am an assassin, I don't kill everyone. He is a good official, more useful to keep around."

The only regret in this case was that they failed to uncover who the backer behind the Nanlong Prefecture prefect was.