Chapter 123: What a Person!

The men and women of Camp Clearwater saw an oddball horse race like no other.

The six horses at the track were still skinny and bony to the point where the wind blew them down, even though they had been chosen by the contestants from the herd of thousands, short and tall.

Half of the riders had just climbed on the horse’s back, and the horse shook a few times, and its four hooves were soft and wanted to slump to the ground. Riders had to make every effort, touch the horse’s head to smooth the horse’s mane and pat the horse’s ass, hoping that the horse to give some face, can insist on holding on to the end of the line, even if it is as slow as a tortoise is also recognized.

Qingping court caught long Yan Chang because horsemanship is good, by the court horse temple officials to drive the duck on the rack, when the individual race first stick. He is dry and thin, climbed on the back of the horse, the horse despite the four feet trembling, but still pack.

He could not help but cry out for luck, carefully pulling the reins, and did not dare to push too hard, slowly walking forward, but gave him a ride ahead of most of the circle.

As he passed the stands, he oiled up a bit of smugness and subconsciously glanced up at the two superiors on the first seat.

Wei inspector he had the honor to meet once, since he recognized, right now is pointing at him, turned his head to the next imperial historian said something.

Could it be that I am praising me for being ahead of the crowd? Yan Chang snickered.

And the new Su imperial historian is never seen, he fixed his eyes to look carefully, the other lips red teeth, very young and handsome, and feel some familiar, only for a moment can not think of ……

Imperial Secretary Su picked up his teacup and sipped it.

Yan Chang snapped to mind: tea …… pineapple tea! A self-proclaimed surname Su’s son, with a box of pineapple tea as a knock on the door, swindled to buy a horse in the Qingping Court, the results of a ruthless shabby him, told him to work hard to hide up five hundred horses by the Ningxia Wei’s Zhang Qiandu a roll, and finally landed a horse and money lost, hands empty!

–That murderous liar, Su Sanlang, was not born with this look!

Liar …… imperial history …… He is being fished? Finished, the surname Su knows everything, how will he be punished, can he still keep this little life! Yan Chang face like dirt, the whole person suddenly collapsed the frame, even the skinny horse under the body also lost balance, the front hooves folded, kneeling down.

Yan Chang fell on the ground a dusty face, afraid to be seen by the stage Su imperial historian to see his appearance, low head and pull the reins hard, want to let the horse stand up and continue to run.

This horse is already thin and sick, and was torn by the iron chewing mouth pain, simply directly put down the challenge, even the hind legs also kneel down, relying on not to go, from the nose huffing and puffing air.

Yan Chang was in a big hurry, tugging on the cage head and pumping the horse’s buttocks, and after tossing and turning for a long time, he still couldn’t get the horse to stand up.

In the stands, Su Yan skimmed the floating leaves with the lid of his cup and looked down at him with good humor.

Yan Chang can not pull the horse, anxious and sweating, and see the Su imperial historian such a look, the back of the neck is cold.

Lingwu Supervisor’s Supervisor Li Si, riding a hairless, mangy horse slowly passed by, could not help but laugh: “Yo, Yan Catch long. Just now was not running quite fast it, how this moment on the discouragement? The lack of energy ah your horse, it seems that the first place in this individual race to me.”

Yan Changzheng heart chaos fire anxious, scolded back: “Your mangy horse are rotten to the skin, guaranteed to walk less than a circle will be flopping on the ground, we’ll see!”

Li Si hemmed and hawed and was about to overtake Yan Chang, who was struggling to drag his horse, when he heard a clear voice coming from the stands, “Hey, that bumper sticker, are you done with the swollen bag on your head?”

He was shocked, raised his head, and met the eyes of the smiling Su Yan squarely, and suddenly remembered – wasn’t this the same male in the carriage when he was lying on the ground on the street pretending to have a broken leg, trying to blackmail someone for ten taels of silver?

The silver did not blackmail, but instead was the other guards hanging upside down on the second floor clothesline, the brain are kicked swollen! That gentleman looked at Wen Xiu, open mouth is to cut eggs, ferocious very na!

Later, under the supervision of Wang Jianzheng, he could easily get rid of this too old, I wanted to admit my own bad luck even if. Unexpectedly, the other party was sent by the imperial court to monitor the imperial censor, this is good, not to mention the egg, afraid of the head will not be guaranteed!

Li Si squeezed out an extremely twisted fawning smile towards the Imperial Magistrate, his horse whip jerking hard on his horse’s buttocks, ostrich mindedly thinking of getting as far away from the other party as possible.

Who wants to mange horse can not be provoked, waist collapse, belly bone chirping, began to spray out of the rare shit. Side spraying side flick tail, the diluted shit not only thrown Li Si full of body, even with the side of the Yan Chang also suffered, hooded paste a large bubble, smoked him nearly fainted face stench.

Yan Chang was so angry that he lost his mind, pounced over and pulled Li Si off the horse, lifted his fist and pounded.

Undeterred, Li Si chokes and fights him off, and the two roll into a stinking ball of horse manure.

After being shocked, Governor Wei on the stands angrily said, “Simply unseemly! Men, drag these two assholes out of the arena and cane them for twenty!”

The personal guards led the way, but dragged their feet, unwilling to go forward, too dirty and smelly, and counting on the overseers of the race to keep order.

Supervisor is the Lingzhou Senator Huo’s men, the battlefield mixed, than the pampered governor’s personal guards endurance, so pinched his nose forward, with a long stick to separate the brawl of the two officials, driven to the outside of the field, stripped the pants and spanked.

Li Siqing of Yuanma Temple and Xue Shaoqing of Hsing Taisu Temple stood in the waiting area, looking on with a grimace, feeling that their old faces had been disgraced by the emergence of such fools under their rule.

The remaining four individual contestants, bent on seizing this great opportunity to overtake, desperately urged their horses forward. The smart ones even greeted their teammates and sent them good bean cake grass, feeding them on the spot and trying to make a last-minute effort. Unfortunately, the horses have been mistreated for many years, and their stomachs have been injured, so they simply can’t eat the good stuff, and even though the riders are like coaxing their ancestors to be attentive, they are still determined not to take a step forward.

Seeing this, the brocade guards who acted as referees asked Su Yan to release the individual competitors of the second and third races together. Anyway, the calculation was the sum of the time taken by each group of three, and it was the same regardless of whether they were in a relay race or on the court at the same time.

So the field was full of horses foaming, kicking back, wobbling, slanting on the same foot, and relying on the ground in a variety of ways.

One by one, individuals, trembling and riding, roaring and urging, sweating and tugging, trembling and topping, begging for grandpa and grandma, were wonderful.

The stands booed.

Wei governor could not bear it, asked Su Yan: “Su imperial historian, this horse race will be a little too …… outrageous, or should we stop here?”

Su Yan smiled and personally poured him a cup of tea, “No rush, no rush, Ta-Jen Wei will sit for a while longer. Then there’s the collective race, the colorful eggs haven’t been released yet.”

Wei governor was so a smile and a look, suddenly feel not so outrageous – soft cushion chair sitting, good tea to drink, snacks and preserves to eat, and the beauty of the side to him to appreciate, and more will sit for a while what does it matter? So settled down, continue to look.

The sixteen officials under the field were tossed and sweated like rain. Some of the fire, want to throw hands away, just a few steps away from the horse, there is a staff of brocade guards approaching ferociously, without saying that they will be caught to spanking, they have to shrink their necks back, and continue to share the pain with the horse.

After half an hour of this, most of the runners had finally run through five laps, and with five laps left, they were nowhere near reaching the finish line by any stretch of the imagination.

Su Imperial Minister mercifully ordered to the announcer, “It seems that the individual matches have encountered a bit of difficulty. But that’s fine, let the collective power help them out and let the other peers give them a boost. Announce the start of the collective race, and all participants will mount their horses. In half a quarter of an hour, the ‘race egg’ will be released, so I hope everyone will hurry and reach the finish line as soon as possible.”

When the order was given, the field screamed even more.

After seeing the weakness of the official horses of the Six Courts and the encounters of the individual contestants, how could the officials not see that the new Imperial Magistrate was taking advantage of the situation to fix people?

So there were loud protests to strike.

Su Yan ignored it, anyway, there were soldiers from the Jin Yi Guards and Huo stopping the entrances and exits of the race course, no one could get away.

The officials quit and sat down on the floor, waiting to see how the little young royal historian would end up.

Su Yan pinched his pocket watch to see the time, and after seven and a half minutes, ordered, “Release the colored eggs.”

The fence on the other side of the entrance was opened, and a pack of vicious dogs rushed out, snarling and barking, and lunged at the participating officials as if they were starving, salivation dripping from between their wide-open, sharp teeth.

The officials were horrified!

No one could care less about protesting and yelling at this point, so they rolled and got up, not caring whose horse was next to them, and scrambled to the horse’s back, urging it to run.

Because Li Siqing was too fat and large, he climbed one horse and crushed it, then climbed another and crushed it again, wreaking havoc on three horses in a row, but he was unable to find a mount that could carry his weight. Seeing the evil dog getting closer and closer, he couldn’t help but shout in despair: “Come on people! Quickly come to the people! Help this official onto the horse!”

Everyone was so self-conscious that they had no room to care about him, even his subordinates.

Panic infected the horses, some horses desperately hoof gallop, some crazy like a rampage, there are some simply give up on themselves, to the ground, the sky collapsed also do not care.

The field is so full of people, it’s like a woeful mess, it’s so miserable that you can’t look at it.

Now even Governor Wei couldn’t sit still, changed color and stood up: “Su imperial historian, it’s too much! If a person is killed, even if you have an imperial decree, you will not be able to cope with it!”

Su Yan meandered up, gazing at the chaotic field of play, and returned, “Don’t worry, Lord Wei, a dog that barks doesn’t bite.”

It doesn’t really matter if they can bark or not. The dogs were borrowed by Huo from a local eccentric known by the nickname “The Dogfather”.

This person was born with the dog close to the dog, trained by his hands, the dog, than the county constable is smarter than their own grandchildren are more obedient. Ten miles and eight villages gave him a respected name “dog king”, the result touched the Pingliang County King Zhu Yougou’s mold, was nearly caught and clubbed to death, and then lucky to get away, busy changing the gag called “dog ancestor”.

Huo put the “dog ancestors” also brought to the scene, to ensure that this batch of vicious dogs seem to be grinding teeth and sucking blood, in fact, will only wail and threaten, pouncing and biting sleeves and pants, only pretending to people, in fact, the skin can not be broken a piece.

But the officials do not know the inside story, scared out of their wits, fearing that if they are slow to escape, they will die in the mouth of the dog.

At this moment, the horses that can run are the Bodhisattva who saves the suffering in their eyes, and one by one, they pulled themselves on the back of the horses and cried loudly.

Barking dogs, cries, curses, the neighing of horses, and the screams from the bleachers were blended into a torrent of fear and grief that rolled over Camp Clearwater.

Su Yan took a look at the field, felt that the fire was almost ready, and walked forward to the edge of the stands, his hand on the railing.

Jing Hongchou stood at his side and back, her palm pressed against his back, sending a wisp of unceasing true qi into his body.

Su Yan cleared his throat and opened his mouth. The volume of the voice was not large, but it was as if the chimes were vibrating and resounding, clearly and unmistakably transmitted to everyone’s ears-

“My lords.”

The dogs stop pouncing and wag their tails as they return to their “grandparents” to receive their reward.

The officials turned their heads toward the stands in a sorry state, many of them with snot and tears on their faces, a bewildered and angry aftermath of the robbery.

“I know that at this moment in your hearts, I, Su, am simply not a person.

“Yet in my Su Yan’s opinion, each and every one of you are not human either.

“You – most of you – are muckraking losers, supervisory worms, greedy and selfish national thieves, and short-sighted fools!

“You sit in the line of the Imperial Household Servants Temple, Yuan Ma Temple, the two supervisors of the six courts on the official chair, receiving the court’s salary, do not think in their politics and seek their duties, but instead of the body of food. You realize that the Yamen is poor and powerless, even if you are also belittled, so one by one, slacking off, doing a day of the monk, a day of the bell.

“As a temple chief official, Yuanma Temple Secretary Li Rong in office for three years, every day claimed to be sick not on the Yamen, under the jurisdiction of the officials have never even seen its people its face; line Taisu Temple Secretary Yan Chengxue no psychological politics, Zhenzhi hiding in the Qingshui camp does not do business, so that the two temples no one to supervise the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked.

“Your various supervisory court officials, supervisors and thieves, stealing and selling official horses to fulfill their private pockets, led by the herding army can not stand the hardship of life, abusing the official horses to vent their anger, so that the pasture is deserted and the horses are like the corpses of war.

“Your tea and horse division, salt division, afraid of the general’s sons and relatives and nobles, to their smuggling behavior know and therefore indulgence, so that the private tea and salt proliferation, there is a loss of the national lesson.

“The generals of your border guards, for the sake of profit, use military horses to sell goods, and privately raise war horses to sell to the army, embezzling the silver appropriated by the court, so that the cavalry has no good horses to train, low combat effectiveness, and military instability.

“Your relatives and the powerful, occupy the pasture for the farmland, so that the pasture is getting narrower and narrower, and the number of horses is decreasing. Of the 130,000 hectares of pasture, only 60,000 remain, a loss of half, and the four prisons and eighteen courts have been abolished, with only two prisons and six courts remaining.”

For every item that was pointed out, there was a relevant government official or guard general whose face turned ashen. These people were poked and prodded with scandalous things that could not be seen in the light of day, and were struck by the fear that the law of the land was hard to forgive, and for a while they were speechless under the sweat.

Su Yan slammed the railing, said in a stern voice: “The evil dog chase, you still know the fear of no horse to ride, all cry for heaven and earth. The Tartar’s ferocity is better than the evil dog a thousand times a hundred times, you call those soldiers who have no horse to ride how to protect the country, to resist the enemy outside the pass?

“The peace you have at this moment is what those soldiers have exchanged with their own flesh and blood! You should have been working together with them, but why have you become termite moths digging up the dike and destroying the Great Wall? Wasn’t it your country that the Tartar army trampled on when it broke through? Didn’t they kill your own family? Didn’t the Tartar army trample on your country and mountains?

“It is not that you do not understand such a simple truth, but you have a lucky chance, always thinking that the country is so big and the financial resources are so thick that there is no harm in stealing a little and occupying a little, but it has never occurred to you that when the termites form uncountable swarms, even the lofty mountains will be gradually hollowed out!

“I, Su Qinghe, will leave my words here today-

Su Yan took the Shangfang Sword from Jing Hongchou, drew the blade with a huff, and slashed at the railing of the grandstand, splitting the hardwood fence in two!

“Shaanxi horse politics, I not only want to inventory and organize, but also to investigate to the end, to the end! As long as there is still an official in office who is doing nothing, there is still a piece of turf that has not been returned to restitution, and there is still a warhorse that has been bought and sold upside down, the Shangfang sword in my hand will not be returned to its sheath, waiting for those obstinate corrupt officials and rebel generals and proud relatives to come to me to deliver their heads!”

Inside and outside the field is silent, I do not know whether it is by his a flurry of harsh rebuke, or by this represents the will of the son of heaven, the first to cut the Shangfang sword shocked.

Su Yan let out a long breath.

Wei governor open-mouthed, after a long time, slowly bowed and arched his hand, “…… Shaanxi up and down, dare not follow orders.”