Chapter 736: Suppressing the Strong and Supporting the Weak (I)

“It’s someone from Shaolin!”

As soon as he stepped into the Zen room, Li Haitang, with a beaming face, immediately recognized the identities of Yuanku and Wuchan. His face changed and he pulled out the bow and arrow at lightning speed. He drew out two arrows in succession and put them on the string. The arrows, shining with cold light, pointed at the solemn Yuanku and the stunned Wuchan respectively.

"Brother Li, what are you doing..."

"Master Su, you may not know that the current leader of the martial arts world, Qingfeng, has issued a hunting order to all the sects in the Central Plains. Anyone who sees Liu Xunyi must be killed with all their strength." Li Haitang explained, "Shaolin and Wudang are of the same blood. They will definitely regard Qingfeng's orders as the golden rule."

"Is there such a thing?"

Feng Tianba, who didn't know the truth, was horrified. He quickly realized the bad situation and drew out his steel knife without thinking. He then protected Liu Xunyi and Zhao Xin behind him and joined Li Haitang in fighting against the same enemy.

“I was wondering why your tone became a little strange when I mentioned Liu Xunyi just now. It turns out that the root cause is here.” Feng Tianba stared at Yuan Ku and Wu Chan covetously and said in a deep voice, “Lord Liu is an official appointed by the court. He dealt with Luo Tianjin just because he was ordered to do so. If you dare to take revenge for personal gain, you will be openly making an enemy of the court. I, Feng Tianba, will be the first one to disagree!”

"Master Liu, this is a peaceful Buddhist place. You are going to use knives and guns as soon as you show up. Isn't that a sin?" Kong Hui, who had been silent for a long time, spoke slowly, "If you can't be calm and honest, I can only ask you to leave my humble temple."

"Old monk, you are so biased. It is clearly a grudge between the two sides, why are you only kicking us out?" Feng Tianba said unhappily, "If you want to leave, let's leave together. How can you be biased..."

"Mr. Feng, you are wrong." Kong Hui remained calm and said, "I only saw you draw your swords against each other, but I didn't see Yuan Ku and Wu Chan say bad things. If they were as angry as you, I would also ask them to leave Horyuji Temple."

"This……"

"Brother Liu, you misunderstood!" Su He took the opportunity to smooth things over. "Not long ago, the abbot of the Jiaye Temple in Dengzhou, Master Xuanbei, passed away. He had been a monk in Shaolin Temple and was from the same school as the Shaolin abbot Master Xuanming. Therefore, Abbot Xuanming sent Master Yuanku to lead ten monks to Jiaye Temple to attend the Dharma Assembly and send Master Xuanbei to the Pure Land. After the Dharma Assembly, Master Yuanku heard the bad news about Yunya Town and knew that Horyuji Temple was chanting sutras to pray for the innocent people, so he hurried here with the monks."

"That's right!" Kong Hui continued, "They are here to eliminate their karma, not to increase it. Horyuji Temple is not a gangster force. Anyone who enters the temple can only recite scriptures, chant Buddha's name, and do good deeds. Even if Mr. Liu has a feud with Shaolin Temple, he should not cause trouble here."

Seeing Su He and Kong Hui swearing solemnly, and seeing Yuan Ku and Wu Chan looking magnanimous, Liu Xunyi hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pressed down the weapons of Feng Tianba and Li Haitang.

"Master Liu..."

"Don't worry. If they really wanted to deal with me, they would have set up an ambush when I entered the temple. Why would they wait until now?"

In fact, Liu Xunyi had heard of Yuan Ku's reputation. Among the Shaolin monks of the Yuan generation, there were indeed some who were upright and even vindictive. But Yuan Ku had the same temperament as Master Yuan Ji who died in Xuzhou in the past. They were both kind-hearted, gentle, humble, and willing to accept others.

"This..." Li Haitang and Feng Tianba looked at each other, hesitated for a long time, and finally slowly put away their swords and arrows.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be Princess Xinde!"

Kong Hui slowly stood up and bowed to Zhao Xin respectfully. Yuan Ku and Wu Chan followed closely behind and bowed to Zhao Xin one after another.

Facing these outsiders, Zhao Xin was somewhat at a loss, and nodded cautiously, and then secretly glanced at Liu Xunyi. Unfortunately, Liu Xunyi was thinking about something else at this time, and did not see Zhao Xin's eyes asking for help.

"The Buddhist monk is indeed magnanimous and kind-hearted." Li Haitang said, "Back then, the Mongols interfered and almost caused a fight between the six major sects and the four major families. Now most of the casualties in Yunya Town are Mongols. Not only did you not bear grudges, but you took the initiative to chant sutras for them to transcend. Your courage is really admirable."

"Whether they are Mongolians or Han Chinese, they are all living beings." Kong Hui said, "Buddha said that all living beings are equal. Why do you have such a big distinction?"

"That being said, you should not misunderstand Shaolin as a humble people who flatter and curry favor with the powerful." Yuan Ku corrected, "The reason we hurried here is not to pray for the souls of those soldiers who died in the melee, but to pray for the innocent people who were wrongly implicated."

"What do you mean?" Liu Xunyi seemed not to understand Yuan Ku's words, and asked suspiciously, "What innocent people? What about being implicated? Could it be that... those men in black not only attacked the wedding procession, but also took their anger out on the people of Yunya Town?"

"Impossible!" Li Haitang said firmly, "The men in black did not disturb the people. They only burned three mansions and the bodies of Song and Meng soldiers, and left quietly before dawn."

"Innocent civilians were not implicated in the fight, but the Song government took out its anger on them," Wuchan explained. "The day after the incident, the governor of Junzhou ordered all the people in Yunya Town to be imprisoned. Regardless of gender, age or status, everyone was charged with the crime of 'collaborating with the enemy' and awaited the court's decision."

"What?" Liu Xunyi and Feng Tianba said in unison, their faces filled with surprise and anger. "Why did they do this?" Zhao Xin was shocked and said in disbelief, "The people of Yunya Town clearly knew nothing, so why did the government say they were collaborating with the enemy? Moreover, with only two or three days of investigation, I'm afraid they haven't found out everything yet. How dare the governor of Junzhou blindly convict them?"

"Because the Junzhou government has to give an explanation to the court, and the court has to give an explanation to the Mongols." When Liu Xunyi said this, the look in his eyes when he looked at Su He became more bitter. "Eight hundred Mongolian elites, three hundred and fifty Song soldiers, plus the princess's entourage, servants and the ten carts of 'dowry' that were lost. This crime is so great that no one dares to step forward to take responsibility, and they can only find scapegoats one after another. The Mongolian Khan will cause trouble for the court, and the court will definitely cause trouble for the Junzhou government. In order to protect itself, the Junzhou government can only impose the crime on the people of Yunya Town, saying that they are collaborating with the enemy and treason, and deliberately destroying the harmony between Song and Mongolia, in order to reduce their own guilt."

"This... could there be some misunderstanding?" Zhao Xin still couldn't believe it, and asked unwillingly, "Could it be a rumor? Someone is deliberately destroying the reputation of the government..."

"No!" Kong Hui replied, "Yesterday, a monk from my temple returned from the south. When he passed through Yunya Town, he saw with his own eyes that the town was empty. Every household had been turned upside down by the government troops and bandits. Now there is only a mess."

"This……"

When Zhao Xin was in Lin'an, she did hear people say that the people were quite dissatisfied with the government, but most of them were groundless rumors. She never thought that the local government would be so arrogant and rude. Ignoring the laws of the Song Dynasty, indiscriminately convicting innocent people, and even openly confiscating their homes, such behavior is no different from robbery.

"That's the people of the whole town!" Zhao Xin was ashamed and angry, and said angrily, "No! I must tell my father about this and ask him to issue an edict to give justice to the people of Yunya Town."

Since Zhao Xin has been adopted as the emperor's daughter, there is nothing wrong with her calling the emperor father.

However, Liu Xunyi knew in his heart that the person who could truly turn the tide was not the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, but the Mongolian Khan.

As long as the Mongolian Khan did not pursue the matter, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty would not investigate further. On the contrary, let alone letting the people of Yunya Town die as scapegoats, even if the lives of all the people in Junzhou were sacrificed, the Emperor would definitely not be merciful in order to stabilize the country.

What made Liu Xunyi feel most guilty was that the disaster suffered by the people of Yunya Town was closely related to the "bride escort", which was an unexpected disaster.

In other words, if the people of Yunya Town were massacred by the imperial court, then Liu Xunyi, Zhao Xin, Su He, Feng Tianba and everyone else involved in the wedding would be one of the culprits.

"Brother Su!"

Thinking of this, Liu Xunyi cast an earnest look at Su He. Although he didn't say much, Su He already understood what he was thinking.

"As long as we can send the princess safely to the Jingbei camp before the first day of June, the King of Hexi will believe that the Yunya Town incident was not the fault of the Song Dynasty court, but that another traitor took the opportunity to cause trouble." Su He seemed to be thinking about something and comforted him, "Then, the King of Hexi can plead with the Khan, and perhaps the matter can be settled, and the bloody incident in Yunya Town will not become the beginning of the Mongolian-Song war."

"Can the King of Hexi really convince the Mongolian Khan?" Feng Tianba said worriedly, "Those are 800 Mongolian cavalrymen, not just cats and dogs. Even in a war, the death of 800 cavalrymen is by no means a trivial matter, not to mention that they were ambushed and died in Yunya Town, which was a very humiliating death. Even if the Mongolian Khan believes that this matter has nothing to do with the court, he will definitely ask the court for an explanation. By then, if the emperor cannot find the culprit and wants to keep things quiet, he may still follow the method of the prefect of Junzhou and push the people of Yunya Town to the forefront!"

"This..." Faced with Feng Tianba's worries, Su He frowned and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"Brother Su, this matter concerns the lives of hundreds of innocent people, including many elderly people and hungry babies. How could we bear it if they died because of our 'passing by'?" Liu Xunyi asked earnestly, "Is there really no other way?"

"We can't take this risk!" Feng Tianba echoed, "Even if the King of Hexi is 90% sure of his plea, it won't work. We must come up with a 100% sure solution."

"How can there be so many perfect things in the world?" Li Haitang curled her lips and said, "This kind of thing... since we are powerless to resist, we can only hope for the best."

"Nonsense!" Feng Tianba glared at him, angrily scolding, "Where did you come from, you bastard? Not only did you not come up with a solution, but you even dared to say something sarcastic. How shameless!"

"I……"

"There is a 100% sure way." Suddenly, the hesitant Su He spoke softly, "It's just that only one of us can use this method."

"Who?"

Following the unanimous comments of Liu Xunyi and Feng Tianba, Su He slowly turned his conflicted gaze towards the uneasy Zhao Xin.

……

(End of this chapter)