Invincible Iron Army 20, also known as "Gate of Hanging Beheading Flag"

  Liu Jiao Jiao ordered: "Come, untie Wang An for me." But Wang An said: "Wait a minute, I have been wronged and cannot let it go like this. Liu Jiedu Shuai, you must untie me and compensate me for the loss of my Jing Shen."

  Liu Jiao Jiao saw that Wang An was being arrogant and said: "Although he is detestable, his crime does not deserve death."

  Liu Jiao Jiao angrily said to Wang An: "You want me to untie you? Don't even think about it!" Jiang Cai said: "Wang brother, now that things are clear, you are innocent. Let's not continue to bother with this matter."

  Wang An shook his head and said: "Big brother, our lawsuits always start with a loss and end with a win. Now that we have won, let's win thoroughly. Besides, I am doing this for Jiao Jiao's own good. A person's life cannot be revived once it is taken, and a head cannot regrow once it is cut off. If she had killed me today, wouldn't that have been a miscarriage of justice? Wouldn't that have chilled the hearts of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Yu Yang army? Who would still want to establish merit for the country?"

  Jiang Cai heard Wang An's words and thought they made sense. He went to Liu Jiao Jiao and said: "Jiao Jiao, you were too rash today. You have no choice but to untie him and apologize. Otherwise, if you treat a meritorious person like this, it will really chill the hearts of the entire army."

  Then Jiang Cai whispered to Liu Jiao Jiao: "Sister, why did you provoke him? Even when you are in the wrong, you still want to stir up trouble. Now that you are in the right, can't you just let it go?"

  Liu Jiao Jiao had no choice but to swallow her anger and went to Wang An's side, her face cold as she prepared to untie him. But Wang An said: "You must smile and serve me well. If your attitude is not good, I will refuse to let you untie me." Liu Jiao Jiao was furious.

  Liu Jiao finally managed to squeeze out a smile on her face, preparing to untie Wang An's ropes. However, Wang An said, "Why do you look uglier than when you cry?" Liu Jiao glared at him angrily.

  Wang An continued, "You've done something wrong, and you must admit your mistake. Here's what we'll do: you'll apologize to me and ask for punishment, and I'll forgive you." Liu Jiao asked, "How do I apologize?"

  Wang An replied, "You'll take off all your clothes, put a bundle of twigs on your back, and apologize to me, asking me to whip you as punishment to atone for your sins." Liu Jiao was furious and said, "You want me to take off my clothes? You're dreaming!"

  Jiang Cai was shocked and thought to himself, "Brother Wang, we're just small officials, and you want to strip the regional commander's clothes and whip her? This is too much! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

  Wang An thought to himself, "What's the big deal? I've seen your body before. That was a memorable night." He then said, "I forgot you're a woman. You only need to take off your top, put twigs on your back, and let me whip you."

  Liu Jiao refused, saying, "Taking off my top is not an option either." Wang An continued, "Fine, you don't have to take off your clothes. Just let me whip you once, and I'll consider it a big concession."

  Liu Jiao retorted, "You want to whip me? You're the one who should be whipped!" Wang An said, "You're ruining our business deal and refusing to apologize. Your character is really poor!"

  Liu Jiao asked him to repeat what he just said, and Wang An replied, "You're framing a meritorious official and refusing to apologize. This will really dampen the morale of our soldiers."

  Just then, Wu Ge came over to report to Liu Jiao, "Regional Commander, I've carefully checked, and there are only 1720 enemy heads here, not 1800. Wang An has falsified his military achievements. According to military law, he should be beheaded as an example."

  Wang An, Jiang Cai, Du Lu, Li Li, Zhang Wan, and others thought for a moment before remembering that they had let some wounded enemies escape during their battle against the Xiongnu army, which meant the total number of enemy soldiers killed was less than 1800.

  Liu Jiao glared at Wang An and said, "What do you have to say now?" Wang An calmly replied, "I've decided to forgive you. You don't need to untie my ropes yourself; the guards can do it for you."

  Liu Jiao had been defeated by Wang An's words and immediately ordered, "Guards, take him out of the camp and behead him!" The guards promptly dragged Wang An out of the camp.

  After Wang An came out of the prison gate, the executioner saw Wang An and immediately recognized him. He warmly greeted him, saying: "You're here again." Wang An said: "We'd better not meet, no, it's better not to meet at all." The executioner and the soldiers didn't care about him, they lit the signal fire and prepared for the beheading.

  At this time, Jiang and others were pleading with Liu Jiao to say: "General, the responsibility for this mistake is not entirely on Wang An, we also have a responsibility, please give us some leeway and let Wang An go." Wu Ge said: "General, Wang An has committed an unforgivable error, you absolutely cannot let him off, you must know that if you don't enforce military law, how can you command the three armies in the future?" Liu Jiao also didn't want to kill Wang An in her heart, thinking that although Wang An was a despicable person, his crime wasn't punishable by death. Moreover, Wang An had made great contributions and was indeed a useful man, killing him would be a loss for the border region.

  Liu Jiao said, "Bring Wang An back", and Wang An was brought back from the Ghost Gate. As he was leaving, he even bid farewell to the executioner, who said, "See you later". Wang An replied, "Children's words are not taken seriously, the strong wind will blow them away. Let's just not meet again." The executioner said, "I can see your temper, you'll definitely be back soon."

  Wang An was brought back in front of Liu Jiao, who was playing with a whip and said: "What did some people say earlier? There's an idiom called 'carrying thorns to plead guilty', if you carry thorns to plead guilty to me, I'll forgive you." Wang An thought to himself: "You can dream on, if I plead guilty to you, you'll definitely take revenge and beat me half to death. Women are really narrow-minded, as the saying goes 'it's better to offend a petty person than a woman', it's really true." Wang An said: "I didn't do anything wrong, what guilt should I acknowledge?" Liu Jiao pointed at Wang An and said: "Now that the evidence is conclusive, you still dare to deny it, you're truly hopeless. Come, take him out of the camp and behead him!"

  The executioner's hand saw Wang An and enthusiastically greeted him, saying: "We meet again, it's really exciting!" Wang An hastily shook his head and said: "Exciting your head, seeing you is my bad luck." Jiang Cai was still pleading for Wang An to Liu Jiao, saying: "General, Wang brother is straightforward and speaks quickly, don't mind what he says. Other generals on the border have tens of thousands of soldiers, but they only kill a few hundred enemies in a year. Wang brother led us to kill over 1,000 enemy soldiers, almost three times our military strength. If there's no merit, it's not a crime, isn't this chilling for the three armies? Moreover, who hates Wang brother the most should be the Xiongnu, but he is going to die at the hands of his own people. Isn't this doing what the enemy wants and avenging them?" Liu Jiao saw that Jiang Cai's words made sense, so she said: "Bring him back for me." Wang An was brought back again, and the executioner still enthusiastically greeted Wang An, saying: "Thank you for your patronage, welcome to visit next time!" Wang An hastily shook his head and said: "This time, I won't come back no matter what." The executioner still shook his head and said: "With your temper, it's strange if you don't come back."

  Wang An was brought back by the guards, and Liu Jiao said: "Just now, Brother Jiang pleaded for you, and I agreed. I will allow you to redeem yourself through meritorious service, and let you go today." Wang An shook his head and said: "You are wrong, I am innocent and have made contributions. You should reward me instead of punishing me. Moreover, you should apologize to me with a gift of silk." As soon as he mentioned apologizing with a gift of silk, Liu Jiao's eyebrows furrowed in anger, and she was about to erupt. Jiang Zai scolded Wang An: "Brother Wang, just say less!" Wang An said: "I am not wrong! Look at us, we killed over 1,700 enemies without receiving any rewards, but because of the missing 80 heads, meritorious officials suddenly became guilty officials. Your laws are too lenient when it comes to rewarding achievements and too harsh when it comes to punishing crimes. If achievements are not rewarded and crimes are punished, who will dare to report their merits to you in the future? This move will surely chill the hearts of the three armies." Liu Jiao listened to Wang An's words and thought they made sense, so she said: "Alright, I'll give you a reward, and we'll forget about your false reporting of military achievements. How does that sound?" Wang An said: "No way! You haven't even untied my bonds yet? Remember to have a good attitude and provide smiling service!" Liu Jiao glared at Wang An but had no choice, so she personally untied his bonds. Wang An massaged his numb arms, which had been tied up by the ropes, and said to Liu Jiao: "General, you wronged me once again. Look at this matter of apologizing with a gift of silk?" Liu Jiao looked at Wang An angrily but soon broke into a smile. She looked at him and said: "Wang An, your crime of false reporting is pardoned, but you can't escape punishment. Do you want to receive some punishment?" After saying that, she raised the leather whip in her hand.

  Wang An hastily said, "This matter will be discussed later." Liu Jiao did not hesitate and immediately handed over the silver. Wang An's soldiers were overjoyed and carried the silver away to their barracks. As they left the camp gate, the executioner warmly said to Wang An, "We'll meet again." Wang An felt a chill run down his spine and quickly replied, "I hope we never meet again, I don't want to see you for even a moment." The executioner said, "But I want to see you." Wang An immediately fled. Seeing Wang An's flustered appearance, Liu Jiao giggled and said, "This is really strange, seeing the governor yet not being afraid, still daring to negotiate terms repeatedly."

  Wang An's soldiers immediately purchased a large portion of meat to improve their rations, and also allocated some money from this silver as consolation fees for the dead soldiers. They also prepared some money to be given to the soldiers to send back to their families. The soldiers were grateful after receiving the reward, and they now knew how difficult it was for Wang An to get this reward, which was earned with his life. They were filled with gratitude towards Wang An, who had not embezzled a single penny from his subordinates. This also earned him the respect of his soldiers.

  Note: Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty*

  Regarding this matter, Su Shi's "Jiang Cheng Zi / Jiang Shen Zi Mi Zhou Chu Lie" mentions the incident of Feng Tang in a sentence: "Hold the festival in the cloud, how can Feng Tang be sent?"

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