Chapter 44 Chapter 7: Interrogation of King Zhong—The mighty King Zhong was betrayed by a hunter

When dawn was approaching, Li Xiucheng woke up, his whole body was already wet with dew, and a gust of morning wind blew through him, making him feel a little cool.Young Heaven King, King Qian, and King Zhang have long since disappeared, and there is no one around. The previous shouts and hunting sounds have subsided, and there are a few chirping birds in the bushes in the distance. They are welcoming another ordinary and Tranquil morning.There are only broken halberds and broken weapons, rotten helmets and broken armor, patches of fallen thatch here and there, and a few smoking tree stumps, showing that not long ago this was a fierce battle field.Li Xiucheng remembered that he was knocked off by a horse last night, and lost consciousness after rolling down the road slope.He tried to move his hands and feet, but fortunately he was not injured.The sky was getting brighter, Li Xiucheng looked around, and even the poor horse didn't know where it went.He recognized this place as Fangshan Mountain, only fifty miles away from Tianjing City.This place is on the main road, so Li Xiucheng can't stop for a long time, so Li Xiucheng walked along a narrow path to the mountain.

After walking for three or four miles, a dilapidated earth temple appeared in front of him. Li Xiucheng wanted to go to the temple to take shelter.As soon as he got to the gate of the temple, there was a stench, and a few big gray and black mice six or seven inches long sprang out of it. He felt dizzy for a while, gave up the idea of ​​entering the temple, and sat down on a bluestone slab beside the temple.The sun came out, and my body was hot and restless. Only then did Li Xiucheng notice that he was covered in dust, blood and grass clippings.Looking around for no one, he took off all the ten gold bracelets on his arms and twenty gold rings on his fingers, took out more than a dozen gold ingots from his pocket, took off his turban, Wrap them up and hang them on a small tree branch by the stone slab.Then leave the Earth Temple and find a place with water to wash your face, hands and feet.

After walking a mile away, Li Xiucheng saw a clear stream.He came to the water's edge, took off his shirt, washed his hands and face slowly, thinking about how to go next. At this moment, a burst of noisy voices came, Li Xiucheng stood up vigilantly, quickly put on his coat, and suddenly heard a shout: "There is a Taiping army here!" It turned out that Li Xiucheng was not wearing a headscarf, A head of thick black hair is scattered on the shoulders, which is very eye-catching.Li Xiucheng ran to the grass.In a panic, the scattered silver in the jacket pocket fell out, and the group of people chased after them, shouting loudly: "You give us all the silver on your body, and we don't want your life!" Li Xiucheng dared not stop , keep running.

Helpless, tired and hungry, with weak legs, accidentally tripped over a green vine and fell.The chasers caught up and arrested him, and the two young men were about to search him. "Wait a minute!" A middle-aged man stopped the two young men and looked Li Xiucheng up and down carefully.The more he watched, the more amazed he became, and he finally confirmed it: "Isn't this Grandpa Zhongwang?" Li Xiucheng was about to deny it, when all these people knelt down together and shouted: "Grandpa Zhongwang, you are suffering!" After all, they all cried.Seeing this scene, Li Xiucheng no longer concealed it: "Brothers, please, I am Li Xiucheng, who are you all?"

The middle-aged man cried and said: "My name is Xing Jinqiao, and these people are my brothers and nephews. Our Xing family has opened a pharmacy and practiced medicine for generations. Last month, I took my children out of the city to seek food, and the guards of King Xin guarded the city gate. We have to pay four taels of silver each to let us go. I don’t have any money, how can I get so much money! I kowtowed and begged for forgiveness, but it didn’t work. Fortunately, your old man passed by and gave us the silver. I was able to go out of the city and live to this day. How is your old man here?"

Li Xiucheng couldn't remember what Xing Jinqiao said. It was common to give money to the common people in the city. He believed that what he said was true, so he briefly talked about what happened last night.Xing Jinqiao said: "Grandpa Zhongwang, Fangshan is surrounded by Hunan troops. You can't get out for a while, so go to my house and hide for a few days!" "Okay!" Li Xiucheng just took a step, when he suddenly remembered the bag hanging on the branch, "Wait a minute, I have a bag of gold hanging on the tree in front of the Earth Temple, I'll go and get it, send some gold For you guys."

Xing Jinqiao said: "We will go with you." Li Xiucheng hurried to the Earth Temple with all the people, and when he walked to the little tree to look, the cloth bag had disappeared. "Strange thing! Who took it?" Li Xiucheng looked around, but there was no one there. "Maybe Tao Dalan took it." Xing Jinqiao's younger brother Yuqiao said. "How do you know?" Jin Qiao asked. "When you were talking to Grandpa Zhong Wang just now, I saw Tao Dalan hurried down the mountain from the opposite path, coming from the Earth Temple." "Who is Tao Dalan?" Li Xiucheng asked.

"He's a hunter from a neighboring village." Xing Jinqiao said, "We'll ask him to come later. Grandpa Zhongwang, why don't you come down the mountain with us now!" Tianjing is lost, but he still cares about this bag of gold!Li Xiucheng said to Xing Jinqiao: "Forget it, don't look for someone surnamed Tao, so as not to make it public." "You can't let that kid get a windfall, you must come back!" Xing Yuqiao said angrily, he also wanted this windfall in his heart. The Xing family brothers led Li Xiucheng into the house, closed the door tightly, ordered the mother-in-law to boil water for cooking, and found some old clothes to change for him.After eating, Xing Jinqiao took out a razor and said to Li Xiucheng, "Grandpa Zhong Wang, the villain shaved your head."

"What? Shave your head!" Li Xiucheng stared angrily. "Prince Zhong." Xing Jinqiao said in a low voice, "I also know that your old man doesn't want to shave your head, and you didn't want to shave your head when you first left the city, but if you don't shave too conspicuously, you will be arrested by the government at any time. Now that Tianjing has fallen, The Hunan army is arresting the Taiping army everywhere, Fangshan is only fifty miles away from Tianjing, and there are people from the imperial court in all directions, how can you save your life if you don't shave your head all the time?"

"Hey!" Li Xiucheng sighed helplessly.Xing Jinqiao was telling the truth, he couldn't die because of his hair. "You shave!" Li Xiucheng closed his eyes, the razor scraped on the top of his head, as painful as a knife cutting his flesh.After shaving his head, Xing Jinqiao said: "Lord Zhong, you can sleep well at my house, and I will go outside to inquire about it." Li Xiucheng had just fallen asleep when Xing Yuqiao came in. "Brother, where is Prince Zhong?" "Asleep." Jin Qiao pointed to the back room. "Just taking this opportunity, let's go to Tao's house to get the gold." Xing Yuqiao was in a hurry.

"That kid is very stupid, how could he be willing." "Can you tolerate his refusal? Take it anyway." Xing Yuqiao is not an easy person to mess with. Tao Dalan, a hunter in Taojia Village, spent the night guarding the trap in Fangshan, but found nothing. When he went down the mountain at dawn and passed by the Temple of Earth, he got Li Xiucheng's bag of gold by accident, and his mouth crooked from laughing.He kowtowed three times to the Earth Temple, ran home in a hurry, found a jar, put the bag of gold in the jar, buried it deeply in the vegetable field of his backyard, and moved a few cabbage plants on top.Tao Dalan had just completed all these tasks, when she was resting on a chair, the Xing family brothers entered the house. "Morning! Brothers." Tao Dalan was happy, and greeted the guests more warmly than usual.After thinking about it, this brother from the Xing family never came to the door, but he came early this morning, maybe he leaked the news.Tao Dalan felt guilty, and the smiles on her face became even bigger. "Brother Tao, you made a lot of money this morning!" Xing Yuqiao was impatient and didn't know how to play around. Boss Tao is a poor man who drives mountains, how did he get rich! Last night, he guarded the sky above the mountains all night, and he didn’t even catch a rabbit.” "Brother Tao, don't pretend to be confused." Xing Jinqiao patted him on the shoulder, "You took the bag hanging from the tree branch in front of the Earth Temple this morning!" "No, no!" Tao Dalan's face turned pale, but her mouth was hard, "I went down the mountain this morning, and I didn't pass the Earth Temple at all. I came home from the Qianshan Road." "Okay, my surname is Tao, you still have to pay your bills, what is this!" Xing Yuqiao rushed to the bed and shook a bright yellow scarf on the mat. It turned out that this was Li Xiucheng's gold-wrapped turban. When Tao Dalan put the gold into the jar, she was careless and did not hide the turban properly. "This is my wife's headscarf." Tao Dalan was quick to think. "Your wife's scarf? Your wife is so bold, dare to use such a scarf!" Xing Yuqiao sneered sharply, shaking off the scarf. A dragon was embroidered with red thread on each of the four corners of the scarf.Tao Dalan was dazzled by the gold light at that time, so she didn't look at the scarf carefully, but when she saw it at this moment, her whole body went limp. "Tao Dalan, do you know whose gold it is?" Xing Yuqiao stood in front of Tao Orion, with his head held high, as if he was a judge.Tao Orion was discouraged, his heart beating wildly. "Let me tell you the truth. This bag of gold belongs to no one else, but to Li Xiucheng, the true loyal military advisor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. You are so courageous, how dare you take his gold! You hand it over today and everything will go away. If you don’t hand it over, your life will be lost.” When Tao Dalan heard this, she was so shocked that she couldn't make a sound for a long time.He is not a fool. When he got this bag of gold this morning, he was thinking, who has so much gold?And why not put it at home, but hang it on a tree?He first thought it might be a robber.A robber robbed this bag of gold and hung it here, making an appointment to wait for another person to pick it up.Then I thought that the city of Tianjing had been under fire for the past few days, maybe it belonged to the high officials in the city, or maybe it was robbed by the Hunan army.But why hang it on a tree?He thought about it left and right, but if he couldn't think of a trick, it was fine.Tao Dalan came back to her senses and asked, "How do you know that it is the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?" "Prince Zhong told us personally." Xing Jinqiao said quite proudly. "Where is King Zhong now?" "How about at my house? Would you like me to take you to see him!" Xing Yuqiao said proudly. King Zhong left the city, could it be that Tianjing was captured by the court?An evil thought floated up in Tao Orion's mind.A smile appeared on his face again: "Brother, to be honest, I took the bag of gold hanging on the tree in the temple of the earth. I didn't know it was loyal to the prince. He loves the people like a son. How can I be ignorant?" Conscience took him, but this bag of gold is not with me now, I have already transferred to my wife and brother's house. You go back first, I will send the gold to your house tonight, and I will plead guilty to Prince Zhong in person." Seeing Tao Dalan's sincere words, the Xing family brothers believed it: "You must send it tonight!" "If I don't send it tonight, I, Tao Dalan, will be struck and burned by lightning, and I won't be able to survive this year!" Tao Dalan swore. After the Xing family brothers went out, Tao Dalan immediately slipped out the back door and ran towards Tianjing.He has a cousin named Tao Dahua, who works as a horseman in a Hunan army camp. This barracks is stationed in Dongshan, fifteen miles away from Tao Dalan's house.When there is nothing to do on weekdays, Tao Orion often goes to sit with his cousin and eat two meals together.Tao Liehu wanted to tell his cousin the news so that he could report it to his superiors and send people to arrest Li Xiucheng and the Xing brothers.He thought that if Li Xiucheng and the Xing family brothers took it away, he would be able to take possession of the bag of gold securely.Tao Liehu rushed to the Dongshan barracks in one breath, just as his cousin came out leading his horse. "Dazhi." Tao Orion whispered a few words into his cousin's ear breathlessly. "Really?" Tao Dazhi was overjoyed, capturing King Zhong was a great achievement!Tao Dazhi immediately reported this shocking news to the battalion officer, and the battalion belonged to Xiao Fusi's department.Xiao Fusi ordered the battalion officer to lead a hundred people to hide quietly in Fangshan. In the middle of the night, Tao Liehu led the Hunan Army to surround Xing Jinqiao's home tightly, and arrested Li Xiucheng who was sleeping soundly, and Xing Jinqiao was also taken away.Tao Lihu took people to the end of the village to catch Xing Yuqiao.Unexpectedly, Yuqiao knew something was wrong when he heard the dog barking, so he slipped out of the house early and hid in the mountains. A few days later, people in Taojia Village found Tao Orion's body in the pond at the entrance of the village.