Hold His Hand

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Today’s morning court started after noon and did not end until dark.

Although Xie Chengze gave the officials in the court a warning when he appeared, these officials still did not cooperate very much afterwards.

Xie Chengze followed suit and killed a few more.

There are many crimes and with many people on his must-kill list, he can slowly kill them.

In the process, he can also investigate the crimes of others and kill a few more.

He wanted to make the family that had hollowed out DaYan to fall apart in his hands.

He was also paving the way for Lu Yanzhou.

If these people are not resolved, Lu Yanzhou will definitely encounter a lot of resistance from these influential families in the future.

However, after he disintegrates the power of these influential families and also kills them, when Lu Yanzhou comes to the capital, he will naturally be regarded as the savior by these people.

When the time comes, they will obey Lu Yanzhou’s orders and work for him.

Xie Chengze originally didn’t plan to do so much, but Lu Yanzhou wrote to him every day for several years and weaved a sweet dream for him. He always wanted to give Lu Yanzhou some thank you gifts.

He went too far and no whe gave Lu Yanzhou a good reason to kill him.

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Xie Chengze returned to his residence and asked his servants to clean the room where he and Lu Yanzhou had lived before.

He has been living in a different room for the past few years, but now…he wants to stay in that room again.

Returning to the place where he lived alone, Xie Chengze took out the letter Lu Yanzhou had recently written to him and read it.

When Lu Yanzhou wrote this letter, the Wang family had not yet arrived at Lu Yanzhou’s place, so the letter was as affectionate as ever.

The letter is very long, but Xie Chengze had read it several times and could now recite part of it.

After reading the letter written by Lu Yanzhou, he took out the letter written by Xie Jia and read it.

Xie Jia still called him ‘Master’ and then wrote down all Lu Yanzhou’s recent actions. The meaning was obvious — Lu Yanzhou had been thinking about him and there was no one else beside him.

Xie Chengze didn’t believe it.

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Xie Jia is now a general under Lu Yanzhou. Since Lu Yanzhou values him so highly, he must be loyal to Lu Yanzhou and help Lu Yanzhou.

Xie Jia was probably coaxing him with Lu Yanzhou.

But he liked it.

These letters allow him to tell himself that he was always loved.

Xie Chengze went to bed early, but the influential family in the capital was very frightened.

Going to court today, for them, is like walking around the gates of hell.

They no longer remember what they discussed when they went to court today. They only remember that when they went to court, there were eunuchs cleaning up the blood stains inside and outside the hall all the time.

The smell of blood made them want to vomit, and the sound of splashing water and cleaning made their scalps numb. In their eyes, the hall had become hell, and Xie Chengze sitting on the dragon throne was clearly King Yan!

They don’t know how they got home!

“Xie Chengze has gone crazy.”

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“He knows he won’t live long, so he wants to bury all of us with him!”

“What should we do? Should we go to court tomorrow?”

…

They are going to die if they don’t go to court but they may not survive even if they go to court either!

After everyone despaired, they began to hope that someone could save them.

“Why haven’t Sun Chongshao and Yan Hang come to the capital yet?”

“No matter who it is, come to the capital quickly and kill Xie Chengze!”

“We can’t be discouraged. It doesn’t matter how crazy Xie Chengze is. When the rebels enter the capital, he will definitely not have a good end!”

“I want to live and wait for the day I see Xie Chengze’s death!”

“Xie Chengze’s end will definitely be worse than ours!”

…

After thinking that Xie Chengze would be miserable in the future, these officials finally felt a little better.

That night, some officials who thought they had integrity and could not succumb to the eunuchs committed suicide at home.

However, the vast majority of people went to morning court obediently the next day.

There were even people who were afraid of death who behaved obediently and started flattering Xie Chengze.

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As a result, Xie Chengze said that this man was too ugly and had him dragged out and beheaded.

Xie Chengze seemed moody in the eyes of those officials, but Xie Chengze and Xie Chengze’s close men all knew that the official who was killed because of his appearance was actually a very bad person who committed many evil deeds.

After that, Xie Chengze killed a few more people on the grounds that he didn’t like someone’s beard or felt that someone looked at him inappropriately.

When the officials left the palace that day, their faces were all pale. Some of them fell to the ground as their legs went weak as soon as they left the palace.

Xie Chengze looked at these people from a distance and felt quite good.

“Godfather, you should disclose the crimes of those people.” Said Sheng Yuan.

Xie Chengze killed those who deserved to be killed. If he disclosed the crimes of these people, then these officials would not be so afraid, and the people in the capital also wouldn’t regard Xie Chengze as a man-eating demon.

Xie Chengze said: “It’s not necessary.”

“Godfather!” Sheng Yuan was a little anxious.

Xie Chengze raised the corner of his lips: “Even if I announce the crimes of these people, others will not believe it.”

“What about Yan Hang…” Sheng Yuan frowned. If what Xie Chengze did was to eliminate harm for the people, then Yan Hang would naturally let Xie Chengze go when he comes.

But now that Xie Chengze is acting so willfully, will Yan Hang still let him go?

Xie Chengze showed a gentle expression: “Don’t worry, Yan Hang is an upright man so he won’t blame me.”

Sheng Yuan was speechless.

His godfather has never met Yan Hang, why does he trust Yan Hang so much?

No matter how good Yan Hang is, if everyone around Yan Hang wants him to kill Xie Chengze, can Yan Hang still protect Xie Chengze?

What’s more, Xie Chengze killed the emperor!

Which emperor will leave the person who killed an emperor alive?

Xie Chengze then said: “Okay, Sheng Yuan, let’s talk about something else, such as finding a reason to kill people tomorrow.”

Sheng Yuan: “…”

People outside the capital didn’t know much about the situation in the capital, but at this time, Lu Yanzhou led a group of people to cook.

They had just finished a day’s march and now they are taking a rest.

In Lu Yanzhou’s team, the food eaten by ordinary soldiers and generals are different, but the difference is not big.

Anyway, the scene in DaYan, where the soldiers ate chaffy vegetables while the children of those influential families, who led the soldiers had a lot of servants, not only delicacies from the mountains and seas along the way, but also leisurely reciting poems and painting, did not exist here.

In fact, DaYan once sent troops to wipe out his rebel team, but the troops came very slowly, he even had to wait for two days.

When those people who he was waiting for finally arrived…The general, who was born in the influential family, drove ordinary soldiers to serve as cannon fodder, then relied mainly on their carefully trained guards to fight. This was also an eye-opener for Lu Yanzhou.

At that time, he killed all the general and his servants. As for the ordinary soldiers…they are now serving as soldiers under him. They eat multigrain flatbread and salted fish.

Lu Yanzhou has obtained many resources from the sea over the years.

Salt drying in the sun, fishing, and even raising ducks on the beach, he did not miss anything.

Therefore, when marching and fighting, his soldiers were guaranteed a piece of salted fish every day, and salted duck eggs from time to time.

Ordinary soldiers in the army basically eat salted fish with dry food, as well as freshly cooked kelp soup and seaweed soup. Generals, depending on their rank, can get some other types of food, such as bacon, dry meat, and noodles and the like.

Lu Yanzhou was sitting next to a pot of porridge, chewing on dried meat.

The staple food of the generals is also multigrain flatbread, but they also have hot porridge to drink, dried meat, and sauerkraut fried in oil.

Everyone sat on the ground and ate.

Wang Tingyun and Wang Pinghou, father and son, didn’t want to sit down at first, but they were too tired, so they sat down anyway.

They didn’t want to eat from such a big pot of rice, but they were so hungry that they ate anyway.

The Wang father and son, who were polite and even had their beards carefully trimmed one by one, were now fighting for the dried meat with bared teeth.

They didn’t need to come, but Wang Tingyun wanted to make some contribution, so he said he knew the situation in the capital better and wanted to follow them.

Lu Yanzhou thought that he would have to deal with the influential family in the future, and Wang Tingyun also knew what he was doing, so he took him with him.

Along the way, Wang Tingyun and his son, who had no previous experience in marching, really suffered a lot.

However, hardships are hardships. After seeing the situation of the army led by Yan Hang, they became more and more convinced that Yan Hang could win.

His soldiers are strong and well-equipped, and they trust their superiors when executing orders and prohibitions…

That’s like the private soldiers that influential families spend money to raise! But how could the number of private soldiers they raised compare to the number of troops under Lu Yanzhou’s command?

Wang Tingyun swallowed a mouthful of dried meat with difficulty and asked: “General Yan, do you have a way to make salt?”

Soldiers marching and fighting need to eat a lot of salt to have strength.

However, salt is expensive, and DaYan’s army will not give ordinary soldiers enough salt anyway.

Lu Yanzhou’s army is different. His soldiers all have salted fish to eat.

After Wang Tingyun tasted the salted fish, he also determined that the salt used to pickle the salted fish should be high-quality salt.

Lu Yanzhou didn’t hide anything: “Yes, I have a way to make salt!”

“There has been an abundance of salt on the market in the past two years…”

“I sold it,” said Lu Yanzhou.

“If General Yan does not sell salt, the combat effectiveness of Sun Chongshao’s army should be greatly reduced.” Wang Tingyun said. Generally, in troubled times, the price of salt will skyrocket, but in recent years, there is a lot of salt on the market so the price of salt also became cheap.

He didn’t know what was going on before, but now he knew that it was Yan Hang who did it.

Lu Yanzhou said: “The common people also need to eat salt. If I don’t sell it, the common people’s life will be more difficult.”

In this era, no one has dried salt, so the production of salt is not high. Coupled with the inconvenience of transportation, the price is not cheap.

However, after Lu Yanzhou started to make dry salt…he really didn’t lack salt on his hands.

He also had an army to transport salt to various places.

“General Yan is so kind!” Said Wang Tingyun.

Lu Yanzhou smiled and took another sip of porridge. He also asked someone to serve the porridge, put in a spoonful of sauerkraut, and gave it to some soldiers.

Soldiers who receive such honors naturally have done some meritorious service in previous battles.

Seeing Lu Yanzhou like this, Wang Tingyun couldn’t help but ask: “General Yan, why are you in such a hurry to stop Sun Chongshao? The current situation in the capital is probably not very good. Xie Chengze is at the end of his rope, he might do something…Why don’t you just let Sun Chongshao goes to the capital first, then we’ll reap the benefits after.”

Others may feel that going to the capital first will not only have a better reputation, but they will also gain access to many resources in the capital and the support of those influential families.

However, Wang Tingyun knew very well that his nephew was not simple.

If Sun Chongshao was the first to surround the capital, he would have to face Xie Chengze. Not only would Sun Chongshao not be able to take the advantage, he might also suffer heavy losses.

In fact, Sun Chongshao may not be able to capture the capital at all!

It would be most cost-effective for Lu Yanzhou to wait until the strength of both sides has been reduced before appearing.

Wang Tingyun thought so, and other people under Lu Yanzhou actually thought so too, so they asked questions one after another.

Lu Yanzhou said: “We can’t let Sun Chongshao go to the capital first. The capital belongs to me!”

It is indeed more orthodox to take the lead in capturing the capital first. Just as Wang Tingyun was about to say a few words, he heard Lu Yanzhou say again: “My family beauty is still in the capital.”

Everyone was shocked.

It is well known that Yan Hang has a very precious wife.

However, that person only existed in Yan Hang and the veterans around Yan Hang’s mouths. Others had never seen her and had no idea who she was.

Everyone thought that Yan Hang was afraid that someone would hurt her in these troubled times, so he hid her tightly. She should be hiding somewhere isolated from the world, right?

This person is actually…in the capital?

“I’m in a hurry to go to the capital to save him,” Lu Yanzhou looked at his men, “Except for the Wang family, you have been following me for a long time. You know that there are always people giving me things, right? Those are all from him. That’s right! You have all eaten the food he sent, and you have all worn the weapons and armor he sent. All the new and fresh things in my hands are also related to him. Without him, there wouldn’t be the current me, or any of you!”

Everyone’s expressions became serious.

Lu Yanzhou added: “So I’ll put it here, he is more important than me! When I go to the capital, it doesn’t matter if you don’t respect me. If you don’t respect him, I will challenge you to a duel!”

Lu Yanzhou not only gave Xie Chengze credit for sending things to help as his ‘madam’, he also told people of the things he asked people to do and what he did.

Therefore, although his subordinates have never met the madam, they still respect the legendary madam.

“General, we will surely respect Madam.”

“That winter, if madam hadn’t sent people to deliver food, my family might have starved to death! Whatever madam asks me to do, I will do it!”

“We will definitely rescue madam!”

…

For a moment, everyone was furious and clamoring to go to the capital to save the person.

This fighting spirit is quite good, but…Xie Chengze probably doesn’t need their rescue.

Lu Yanzhou stopped Sun Chongshao because he was afraid that Sun Chongshao would hurt Xie Chengze.

“I wonder what the capital is like right now. Will Madam be okay?”

“General, have you arranged enough manpower for madam?”

“Xie Chengze is so cruel and ruthless…”

“Stop!” Lu Yanzhou frowned, “I told you, Xie Chengze has been doing things for the people, he is much better than those influential families! Don’t say bad things about him!”

Everyone: “…” Lu Yanzhou often analyzes Xie Chengze’s actions for them recently. After analyzing it, it turns out that Xie Chengze does so many things for people’s sake.

Therefore, everyone actually has a good impression of Xie Chengze. They felt quite happy when Xie Chengze killed the emperor before!

They said bad things about Xie Chengze this time because they were worried about the madam…However, their general still won’t let anyone say bad things about Xie Chengze at this time?

Lu Yanzhou added: “Xie Chengze does things with a limit. Although he has sealed off the capital, he will definitely not attack innocent people. He will only kill those imperial and influential family members who have done many evil things…I believe him!”

Lu Yanzhou’s generals all trusted Lu Yanzhou, so after hearing what Lu Yanzhou said, they believed him too.

After all, through Lu Yanzhou’s repeated brainwashing during this period, they had begun to think that Xie Chengze was a hero who endured humiliation and fought against the influential families for the common people.

Only the Wangs and his son were a little embarrassed.

In Yan Hang’s mind, the influential families seemed inferior to Xie Chengze, a eunuch…

This man’s ideas were really different and deviant!