Chapter 23: Opposing Wang Chengtian
Xiao Ziyang wiped the blood from his mouth with his hand, struggled to get up, and walked towards the man in black. His eyes flickered with a cold and fierce light.
Xiao Ziyang grabbed the black-clad man's hair and flipped him over, revealing two crossbow bolts that had penetrated his abdomen from behind. As he turned over, the arrowheads scraped against the ground, stirring up his internal organs and causing him to shudder in pain. However, the man remained stubbornly silent, not making a sound.
Xiao Ziyang suddenly pulled down his mask, and at first glance, this person's skin was smooth and ruddy, like a young man of 26 or 27 years old. But if you looked closely, you could see that the corners of his eyes already had fine wrinkles, and his temples were slightly graying.
Xiao Ziyang saw that the man was tough and knew he wouldn't get anything out of him, so he reached out to search his body. A moment later, a pile of scraps were placed next to the black-clad man.
He picked up a waist card, which was made of brass, with the words "Yu Ci" engraved on the front and two lines of small characters on the back. The left side read "Seven-product Shuaiwei" and the right side read "Wu Tianyou", with a total of seven positive characters on both sides.
Xiao Ziyang had been studying the official system of the Western Liang State ever since his parents were killed and he found a letter written by the current Duke in their home. Just by looking at this waist plate, he knew that this person was a seventh-grade imperial guard personally appointed by the Emperor!
However, Xiao Ziyang also knew that having this waist card did not necessarily mean that the person was a imperial guard, because according to the Western Liang official system, marquises and above, as well as officials of the third rank and above, would all be awarded this type of waist card by the emperor. What distinguished true imperial guards from others was that their waist cards were made of gold.
The waist plaques of the guards in the palaces of princes and dukes are made of white silver.
This brass waist card was held by the family attendants of marquises or above who were third-grade officials.
Xiao Ziyang glanced at it for a moment, threw the token aside, and picked up several silver notes from the ground. These silver notes were all issued by Daxin Money House Beijing Branch, one of which was dated three months ago.
He rummaged through a pile of debris on the ground and suddenly looked up to ask: "Are you Zhao Zhi Bai, the newly appointed county governor?"
Wu Tianyou had been silent with his eyes closed since he was captured by Xiao Ziyang, but after hearing this sentence, his eyes suddenly opened wide, and an incredulous expression appeared in his eyes.
Seeing his expression, Xiao Ziyang smiled slightly and knew he had guessed correctly. He explained to the other person: "You are wearing a seventh-grade yellow copper guard's waist card, and all the silver tickets you carry are recently issued by the money houses in the capital. Looking at your clothes and several accessories, they are not in the style of Ganzhou. So I guess you must be from afar."
Xiao Ziyang played with a white jade dragon pendant in his hand, and slowly said: "Recently, the rumors in the streets say that the newly appointed county governor Zhao Zhi Bai is the fourth son of the Marquis of Zhongcheng. I am just a rustic villager, I don't know anything about court affairs, but I once heard from the storytelling 'The Heroic Legend of the Founding of Western Liang' that the first generation of the Marquis of Zhongcheng and the Duke of Fuguo were sworn brothers. Now it's only been fifty years since the founding of Western Liang, I think the relationship between this generation's Duke of Fuguo and the Marquis of Zhongcheng should be very close, right?"
At this point, Xiao Ziyang threw the jade pendant in his hand onto Wu Tianyou's face and took out a letter from his pocket.
The color on the envelope had faded, but it was well-maintained and showed no creases. Xiao Ziyang held the envelope in front of the man's face, his eyes fixed intently on him, not missing a single expression on his face.
When the man clearly saw the name of Xudongbei, the auxiliary king of Su, on the envelope, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. However, when he clearly saw the recipient's name, a look of extreme horror appeared on his face, and his complexion turned pale in an instant.
Xiao Ziyang pushed the envelope closer to his face, pointing at the recipient's name on the envelope and asked in a low voice: "Judging from your expression, you must know this person named Cang Zhilong! Who is he?"
Wu Tianyou stared blankly at the name Cang Zhi Long on the envelope, as if he had seen a malevolent spirit. His lips trembled slightly, and in an instant, cold sweat drenched the hair on his forehead.
Xiao Ziyang looked at him, a hint of puzzlement flashing across his face. What kind of person was this Cang Zhilong, to have scared him so thoroughly?
Xiao Ziyang had taken advantage of his travels to ask some well-informed or worldly people in bustling places about this name, but none of them knew anything.
Wu Tianyou closed his eyes, his chest heaving constantly. Half a minute later, he suddenly opened his eyes and glared fiercely at Xiao Ziyang, with a hint of madness in his gaze. "You're dead for sure! I'm also dead for sure! Anyone who has seen this letter is already a dead man!"
Xiao Ziyang raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?"
Wu Tianyou let out a cold, mirthless laugh, "Heh heh! You want to know who Cang Zhi Long is? Alright, I'll tell you, so you can also understand what kind of terrifying enemy you're about to face!"
Wu Tianyou licked his lips, "Cang Zhilong is a rebel! Seventeen years ago, when the purple sun appeared in the sky, the evil cult 'Lingguandao' leader Cang Zhilong spread rumors that 'Xiliang has lost the heart of heaven', deceiving the people and inciting rebellion! At that time, for seven consecutive days, both sunrise and sunset were a purple sun! The people and officials were in a state of panic, to the point where the government and military were almost paralyzed. Cang Zhilong took advantage of the situation and rose up, sweeping across the four southern continents in less than ten days!"
Xiao Ziyang furrowed his brow and asked, "This Cangzhi Dragon is rebelling on such a grand scale, yet why does no one know his name?"
"Hei Yi sneered: 'You don't know about Cang Zhi Long? Then have you heard of Cheng Tian Wang?'"
Xiao Ziyang nodded and said: "It's actually him! I should have thought of it earlier!"
The rebellion of the Xitian King was the most powerful and destructive since the founding of the Western Liang Empire, even though it has been more than a decade since its occurrence, the three words "Xitian Wang" are still on everyone's lips.
"Wu Tianyou suddenly let out a somewhat manic cold laugh, 'Hahahaha! You actually have the handwritten letter from Fu Guogong to Chengtian Wang in your hands, you're dead for sure, not only will you die, but your whole family will die too! Fu Guogong will absolutely not let you off!'"
Xiao Ziyang heard this and gave him a cold look, saying in a chilly voice: "Perhaps I will die, but before I do, I will make sure to praise you thoroughly. I will say that you are the great loyal minister of Western Liang, I will say that after reading this letter and discovering that the Crown Prince is a rebel, you let me go and allowed me to flee far away!"
Wu Tianyou stared at him in shock, "You... you...", but couldn't say another word.
Xiao Ziyang sneered, "You're a top-notch internal martial artist, killing a third-rate external martial artist should be as easy as turning your hand over, but I didn't die! Others will definitely believe me! What do you think the Duke of Auxiliary State will do to you, to your family?"
"So you'd better answer my questions honestly!"
Xiao Ziyang stretched out a finger and said: "The first question is, why did Zhao Zhi Bai send you to kill me, an ordinary escort?"
