Chapter 94 Omnipotent Tai Shou

  September dusk always comes quickly, before the water vapor evaporated from the sun's rays in the fields has dissipated. The sun sinks into the western mountains. The mountain valley wind carries a strong coolness, driving away the white fog, wandering down the mountain; while the shadow of the mountain peak presses down on the village more quickly, the shadow growing thicker and thicker, gradually merging with the residual yellow color of the sunset.

  Yue Yun was leading the cavalry on the road to Cai Prefecture. Since leaving Haozhou, this road had been smooth sailing, and even when they encountered a few groups of mountain bandits, they kept their distance upon seeing the elite troops radiating an aura of murder from head to toe.

  Yue Yun rode on horseback, pondering this journey.

  This time going to Chu State to borrow grain, originally thought it was a small matter, whether or not borrowed, should be able to return within a month. As a result, I didn't expect to encounter so many things, now it's already early September, and the one-month deadline set by Cao Gong has passed. Although I had previously reminded Yue Fei to withdraw some old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers in batches, so that at least they can be said to be withdrawing, avoiding giving Qin Hui an excuse for violating military orders. It's just that I'm not there, and I don't know if Yue Fei is doing it seriously or not.

  Alas, it's good that Jin Zhiyuan has already been killed by me. Even if Zhao Gou and Qin Hui want to negotiate, they will have to wait for the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty to reappoint an envoy. Moreover, the Jurchens will surely be enraged by this and their proposed conditions will inevitably be harsh. I'm afraid they won't dare to agree easily either.

  Just then, Guan Ling whispered beside him: "Young Master, we've arrived at Cai Prefecture!" His voice was filled with a hint of joy.

  Yue Yun looked up and saw a dilapidated city gate in front of him, with the two stone-carved characters "Cai Prefecture" on it, but they were also severely damaged. However, the soldiers standing on the city tower were full of energy and had a completely different momentum from the soldiers in Shouchun and Huizhou that he had passed by earlier.

  "We've finally returned to the defensive zone of our army! Now we can relax a bit. The garrison commander of Cai Prefecture seems to be Meng Bangjie. I'll have him send someone to help us guard the grain carts later!" Niu Tong stretched his waist on horseback, he had been taking turns keeping watch with Yue Yun and Guan Ling for several nights and was extremely tired.

  "Hmm, from Cai Prefecture going north, even on foot, it will only take ten days to reach Zhuxian Town. This trip to borrow grain is already half a success." Yue Yun's mood was also more relaxed, and he said to the generals around him: "Everyone get a good rest tonight, and we'll set off early again tomorrow."

  At this time, at the gate of Cai Prefecture City, Meng Bangjie had arrived to greet them. Upon seeing Yue Yun and others, he directly said: "Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Rear Army, Defender of Cai Prefecture Meng Bangjie pays respects to the Young Master. This humble general has come late to welcome you, I hope the Young Master will forgive me!"

  Yue Yun took a closer look at Meng Bangjie and saw that he had a rugged face with a thick beard, dark skin, and a sturdy build. He was wearing a suit of bright qilin lock armor, with a shiny protective mirror on his chest.

  Yue Yun smiled slightly and said: "General Meng is too polite, we originally came suddenly, and did not notify the general in advance, why should the general blame himself?"

  Meng Bangjie sighed, "Actually, the scout had already informed me half an hour ago that the young master's carriage had arrived thirty miles outside the city. However, I was busy dealing with a civil dispute and couldn't come out to greet him in time. After finishing the mediation, I heard that the young master had already arrived outside the city, so I hurried over to welcome him. Alas, mediating civil disputes is really not something us military officers are good at!"

  Yue Yun listened and was somewhat surprised: "Handling civil cases should be the business of local judges, how did General Meng get involved in this matter?"

  Meng Bangjie heard this and said with a worried face: "Young Master, Cai Prefecture is a city that we just recovered three months ago. The local officials have not yet taken office, and I am in charge of the affairs of the governor, prefect, judge, and accountant. I am really busy and my head is spinning. I was thinking of asking Young Master to put in a good word for me with the Commander-in-Chief, so that I can go back to the front line to fight instead of being stuck here as the garrison commander."

  Yue Yun suddenly realized. Meng Bangjie led the convoy to stop in the courtyard of the prefecture, and then began to arrange food and lodging for Yue Yun and his party, busy running around.

  Just then, however, a loud "boom, boom, boom" shook the air, and the "drum of injustice" in front of the government office was struck with great force.

  "Ah! Someone has reported again!" Meng Bangjie sighed to Yue Yun: "In the past two months, what I feared most was the sound of drums. Those trivial matters among the people, each side has its own reason, and it's hard to make a judgment. Moreover, the worst part is that I can only barely recognize characters, and I'm completely ignorant of the laws of the Song Dynasty. Fortunately, I found two scholars who had passed the imperial examination from within the city and temporarily hired them as clerks, so I could barely cope."

  He paused for a moment and then said: "Young Master, you can rest first. I'll go to the front hall to hear the case."

  Yue Yun had never seen a scene of drumming and sentencing in this era, and he was also very curious. So he said casually: "General Meng, why don't I go with you to see how it's done?"

  "Is the young master going too? That's great!" Meng Bangjie was suddenly delighted, thinking that the young master was at least literate and had more experience than himself.

  At this moment, the two of them quickly rushed into the hall. Meng Bangjie immediately sat upright in the main seat inside the hall, with a bright mirror hanging above his head. But what he wore on his head was a black iron helmet, and on his body was still that suit of shiny Qilin lock armor, looking ridiculous to the extreme.

  Yue Yun couldn't help but smile and asked: "General Meng, are you going to try the case dressed like that?"

  Meng Bangjie also sighed: "Alas, this is also an unavoidable thing! At the beginning, I also felt that it was a bit incongruous. I changed into the official uniform stored in the yamen and went to trial in a dignified manner. But after only a few days, I really couldn't hold on anymore. Every day, just changing clothes would take up a lot of time. The prefecture is one set of clothes, the assistant magistrate is another set, and the defensive envoy is yet another set... So later on, I also got lazy and just wore armor. At first, the common people also felt a bit unaccustomed to it, but after two months, they slowly got used to it."

  He then ordered his men to set up a seat for Yue Yun on his left side. After Yue Yun sat down, he found that there was also a chair placed on the right side of Meng Bangjie.

  He didn't understand what was going on at first, but a moment later, he saw a man in his 40s, wearing a long gown, running in and sitting down in the chair. It wasn't until then that Yue Yun came back to himself, realizing that this person was one of the two masters mentioned by Meng Bangjie earlier.

  Yue Yun couldn't help but secretly laugh at this. He took another look at the bailiffs standing on both sides, who were all wearing fine iron armor and holding red wooden batons, clearly soldiers borrowed from the military to make up the numbers. They looked even more intimidating than the regular bailiffs.

  At this time, a bailiff had already brought the plaintiff up. The plaintiff was a young master wearing a cyan-based bamboo flower patterned brocade robe, holding a folding fan in his hand. He was about 27 or 28 years old, and although he was dressed neatly, his footsteps were light and floating, and there was a hint of evil spirit on his face, giving people the impression that he was somewhat like a spoiled young master.

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  A new week has arrived, and I hope that with everyone's support, this book will achieve good results, which will also give me the motivation to write even better follow-up stories.