Chapter 5 Spring Dawn (Grade 4 Upper)

  The four soldiers responded in unison, throwing the four captured officers heavily onto the ground in front of the stage. Yu, Bian, Han, and Zhang were frightened pale, constantly looking back, hoping that the Flying Dragon Imperial Guards would take pity on their past relationships and rise up with a common enemy, shouting loudly to put pressure on Feng Changqing. However, these four guys' interpersonal relationships were not very good, although they were caught off guard today, but the Flying Dragon Imperial Guards found it difficult to show sympathy, and some people even had a smile on their faces, as if saying, "You four are done for today!"

  "Speak up, how have I wronged you all? Why don't you tell everyone?" Seeing the four of them delaying and refusing to speak, Feng Changqing smiled and continued to ask.

  Among the four, Yu Lingyuan was usually the most eloquent with his round face and chubby appearance, but today he became stuttering, stammered for half a day, couldn't say a complete sentence of self-defense, and hung his head down with a red face.

  "Since you can't say it, I'll say it for you!" Feng Changqing's nostrils flared with a cold air as he gritted his teeth. "Feng has been ordered by the Emperor to reform the Fei Long Imperial Guard. You think that since Feng comes from a humble background, you're not convinced, is that right?"

  "Ah, sir......" Yu Lingyuan's forehead immediately broke out in cold sweat, knowing that the things he and his gang had been secretly doing probably hadn't escaped the other person's eyes. He let out a miserable cry and "thud" fell to his knees.

  Feng Changqing gave him a stern look with his eyelids, and continued to interrogate loudly, "Did Feng's Flying Dragon Guard disperse and reorganize in Wuchun, and did you secretly contact and incite the dissatisfied ones?"

  "Appointing a general who has returned from the battlefield after a hundred battles as your superior, you think it's an insult and have been secretly disobeying him, is that right?"

  "Did you think that just because someone was promoted to team leader, you would be surpassed by a latecomer? You incited that fool Qi Heng to come forward and prepare to humiliate the new military officer?"

  "If Qizheng wins this match today, you will continue to collude with more generals in the Imperial Guard to make trouble until they squeeze out Feng."

  Every time he asked a question, he paused for a moment, quietly waiting for Yu Lingyuan, Bian Jian, Han Shichen, and Zhang Mouren to explain. However, these things were all guilty, and the four captured culprits only had the guts to do it in secret, but not the guts to put their own actions out in the open. One by one, they knelt down, hanging their heads, not even daring to breathe loudly.

  Previously, Qi Heng, who had a martial arts competition with Wang Xun, was originally prepared to go out and accept punishment, running around the White Horse Fortress. When he walked to the gate, he heard the changes behind him and quietly turned back. At this moment, seeing Yu, Bian, Han, and Zhang kneeling on the ground with their heads bowed, even if they were stupid, they understood that they had been used as a knife by others. He parted the crowd, took big strides to the front of the stage, and knelt down straight: "Qi is too foolish, please punish me, sir!"

  "Do you still know that you're stupid?" Feng Changqing gave him a look, somewhat unyielding. "Ming Fa, the participating military officer, come forward and announce, according to what I just said, what crimes have they committed?"

  "Enough!" Marshal Wang Teng stepped forward, loudly proclaiming, "Those who speak out of turn and anger their commander shall be beheaded! Those who refuse to listen to orders and are difficult to control shall be beheaded! Those with glib tongues and sharp teeth who recklessly judge right and wrong shall be beheaded! Those who stir up discord among the soldiers shall be beheaded! The four men, Yu, Bian, Han, and Zhang, have collectively committed eight capital offenses. Their crimes shall be punished together, their heads shall be hung on high poles for seven days as a warning to others... However..."

  "Spare his life!" Before Ming Fa could finish speaking, Yuan Lian's plump face had already let out a mournful and piercing cry.

  "Spare our lives, General! We dare not again!" Han Shi Cheng and Zhang Mou also knew that they could not escape today, following behind Yu Lingyuan's back, pleading and kowtowing with all their might.

  Only Bian Jian was stubborn and refused to give in, seeing Feng Changqing take action and immediately jump up, shouting at the people behind him, "You bastards, what did we say in the beginning! The surname Feng has already framed us..."

  Before he could finish speaking, Shi Wei's thirteenth guard kicked him in the chest and sent him tumbling to the ground. The surrounding soldiers hastily retreated as several other guards rushed forward, grabbing Bian Jian's arms and pinning him to the ground. As death loomed over him, Bian Jian shouted loudly "Attack! Don't believe he has the ability to kill everyone. Today...he..."

  Thirteen slaps opened his face, and again two big mouths. This time, the officer with the surname Bian finally stopped moving. Blood was still flowing from the corners of his mouth, and his body was still twisting, "Damn..."

  "Ming Fa Can Jun......" Feng Changqing's face turned iron-green, his eyes widened, and he shouted sternly.

  King Teng, the chief of staff, glared at the officer surnamed Bian with a look of helplessness on his face, as if to say, "You're asking for it yourself, don't blame me." "Inciting trouble in public, insulting the commander, and yet showing no remorse despite being reprimanded. You should be executed! But..."

  Before he could finish speaking, the officer raised his head again and shouted loudly, "My uncle is General Bian Rang of the Right Guard, my uncle is General Bian Rang of the Right Guard......"

  Yu Lingyuan and other accomplices didn't want to follow him anymore, they moved their bodies away, trying to kneel further away from this person. Feng Changqing sighed, lightly waving his hand downwards. Several knife-wielding men rushed in from outside the door, dragging Bian Jian out as they walked.

  "My uncle is General Bian Rang, the Right Guard General! Mercy... Ah!" The mournful cry suddenly stopped. After a few gasps, the executioner held up a bloody head on a tray.

  Feng Chang coldly swept his gaze over the crowd, his low voice commanding, "Hang him on a high pole for three days to serve as a warning. After three days, sew his head back onto his body and let his uncle take him away!"

  "Yes!" The executioner responded with a single word and walked out in big strides, carrying the bloody head.

  The Anxi army officers present were all seasoned veterans who had rolled in the midst of knives, having killed many people and didn't care about seeing another headless corpse. The other Feilong Imperial Guards and new recruits, however, were all greenhorns who had never seen blood before, each one pale with fear, and only managed to keep their mouths shut due to strict military discipline, otherwise they would have vomited out their gallbladder on the spot.

  "You few, what do you have to say!" After dealing with the Bian surname officer, Feng Changqing turned his head again towards the remaining people kneeling on the ground. The round-faced and chubby Yu Shenhe quickly caught on, hearing that Feng Changqing was not planning to kill them all at once, and immediately kowtowed heavily several times, saying loudly: "We were foolish and were instigated by Bian Jian, which led us to commit a great crime. We dare not ask the general for pardon, but only hope that the general will take into account our first offense and give us an opportunity to reform!"

  "Yes, yes, we were all provoked by Bian Jian's son and didn't mean to cause trouble!" The others also knocked their heads and begged for forgiveness, shifting the blame entirely onto the dead man.

  The generals of the Feilong Imperial Guard looked at these boneless guys, and most of their sympathy turned into contempt. According to everyone's basic impression, among the four evils of Yu, Bian, Han, and Zhang, the round-faced little fatty Yu Lingyuan was the first. The other three usually followed his orders. Especially Bian Jian, who had just been beheaded, was one of the most lacking in conscience inside. Relying on his uncle, a eunuch, to back him up, he often acted as Yu Lingyuan's thug. But the bad things he actually did were less than a third of what Yu Lingyuan did.

  Feng Changqing obviously had anticipated this situation, and with a scornful shake of his head, he turned his gaze to Ming Fa Canjun Wang Teng. The latter cleared his throat and said loudly: "According to military law, the three should be beheaded as an example. However, when the general entered the camp, he made a vow by carving it on a stone, saying that first-time offenders would only be punished with a military stick. Therefore, for their multiple crimes, each of them will be punished with 400 strokes of the military stick. To avoid injuring their tendons and bones, it can be carried out over ten days."

  Xing Bian himself got himself killed! After hearing Wang Teng's words, the generals finally understood why he looked at Xing Jian with a helpless gaze earlier. Feng Changqing was ordered to discipline the army and emphasize military discipline on the stone monument, so he wouldn't easily let someone off just because of their powerful background. However, the note at the bottom of the monument was intentionally left by him as a way out for the Fei Long Imperial Guards. Knowing that the imperial guards were used to being lax, they would inevitably have some reckless individuals trying to challenge his authority when faced with strict demands. Therefore, he left some leeway for both sides to avoid having to kill too many people and making it difficult to report back to the court.

  If the guy with the surname Bian had not been so stubborn and had surrendered like Yu Lingyuan, I estimate that Feng Changqing would have used his military power to suppress the undercurrents of dissatisfaction among the troops and let them off. But Bian's people first incited all the imperial guards to riot, and then they brought out Bian's uncle, the right gate guard Bian Rang, to pressure Feng Changqing. They forced Feng Changqing and Wang Teng, the military law official, into a corner, leaving them no choice but to behead him!

  "Forty strokes a day! One stroke every other day, four hundred strokes and it's over!" Just as they were sighing in dismay, another order from Feng Changqing reached their ears.

  "Thank you, sir!" "Thank you, sir, for sparing my life!" Yu, Han, and Zhang, the three villains, narrowly escaped death and didn't wait for the execution to be carried out before they were dragged away by others. They voluntarily rolled and crawled their way out. The people who had been pressed onto the wooden bench for execution still couldn't stop expressing their gratitude. "Thank you, sir! Ah!" "Thank you, sir, yeah, gently, my mother's...!" "It hurts to death, ah!"

  What a fool, he deserved to die. As the sound of military drums came from outside, the last bit of sympathy for the dead man disappeared completely among the Fei Long Guards. They all understood that this time the imperial court was going to get serious about disciplining the army. If they wanted to continue eating the salary of being a Fei Long Guard, they would have to put away their previous sloppy and casual attitude and accept a good deal of drilling.

  At this moment, only one rough man, Qi Heng, was left kneeling under the stage. Feng Changqing looked at him and sighed lightly, "Ming Fa Can Jun..."

  "Yes, sir!" Wang Teng nodded and responded in a low voice.

  "Some are so foolish as to be deceived and cheated; according to military law, what crime should they be guilty of?"

  "Heh heh!" The new and old soldiers all smiled secretly, their eyes filled with sympathy as they looked at Qi Heng.

  King Teng, the chief of staff, also smiled and shook his head, answering loudly, "Sergeant Qi Heng was not serious during training and distracted during the martial arts competition, which led to his defeat. You have already punished him by running around Baima Castle three times, and it's not right to punish him twice for the same mistake. As for being stupid and becoming a laughing stock? I report to you, General, that stupidity is not listed as a crime in our military rules!"

  "Hahaha!" The soldiers could no longer hold back, bursting into loud laughter. The oppressive atmosphere that had just been created by Feng Changqing's display of power instantly vanished.

  "Can you hear?" Feng Changqing walked up to the stage and asked, leaning down.

  "I heard!" Qi Heng's face turned red like a pig's liver, and he scrambled to his feet in disarray, clasping his fists to receive orders.

  "Go run laps, if you can't finish, don't come back for dinner!" Feng Changqing waved his hand and chased them away. He immediately turned his gaze to the entire army, "I know you haven't suffered this kind of punishment before. But during training, eating a bit more bitterness will give you an extra chance to survive on the battlefield. The Flying Dragon Imperial Guard is the emperor's personal army, the face of Great Tang. If you can't even bear this little hardship, won't it make those barbarians from all sides who come to pay tribute laugh at Great Tang?! Tonight, add a meal, each person will be rewarded with a jar of wine and half a pig leg. Get out! Tomorrow, don't let me see you panting like bears again!"

  "Thank you, General!"

  "Hurray for the great general!"

  A few rough words, and the relationship between those on and off the stage immediately became extremely close. The soldiers who had been tired all day felt that General Feng was indeed one of their own, and they slowly dispersed with smiles and admiration on their faces. When almost everyone under the stage had left, Feng Changqing suddenly turned his head, his sharp gaze pointing at Wang Xun, "You fool, when others provoke you, you just take the bait. Do you think this is still the streets of Chang'an? Relying on the thickness of your arms to fight for dominance, what is military law used for? If someone comes to challenge me to a duel and wins one move or style, would I also give them the general's seal?"

  "The general's teachings are that subordinates know their mistakes!" Having just witnessed how the other party used the edge of the sword to establish prestige, Wang Xuan admired the old fox's methods with all his might. He lowered his head and responded in a low voice.

  "Idiot!" Feng Changqing squeezed out a word of evaluation from between his teeth, "On the battlefield, nine out of ten guys who die are those who died because of their own stupidity. I don't want to see you end up dead without a whole corpse in the future. You have three more days to think about how to be an officer. Three days later, I'll have you lead the 2nd squad of the Left 7th Regiment to the Big Drill Ground, responsible for maintaining order at the new recruit enlistment site. If by then your foolishness causes a disturbance on the drill ground, military rules are carved in stone, and even I won't be able to help you!"

  Having scolded him, he didn't care how Wang Xun was stunned, turned around and walked away with his hands behind his back, surrounded by the thirteen-grade guards.

  Note 1: The General of the Watchful Gate, a high-ranking position among eunuchs, was responsible for maintaining order within the palace. Suddenly remembered, in the TV series "Rest on Your Shoulder", if Japan's system referenced the Tang Dynasty, this person would probably be gone from the bottom up.