In the northwest frontier, the army of the Great Yue had just returned with victory.

"Marshal, will you go back to the capital to report on your work?" said Jiang Xi, the right deputy of northwest army of the Great Yue, who was following closely behind a tall man.

"No." The answer of the front person to him was a short and powerful rejection.

"Marshal, you haven't returned to the capital for three years. If you don't go back again, those in the capital will definitely be dissatisfied. By that time, they will vent their anger on me, your humble subordinate. As your humble subordinate has defended you for three times, please go back this time. "Jiang Xi almost cried as he pleaded.

But unfortunately, the person in front of him still remained unmoved and answered Jiang Xi with a cold back.

"Lao Jiang, quickly help me to persuade the marshal." The right deputy was hurt by the marshal's coldness, turning to look at the northwest army's left deputy — Jiang Ke, who walked beside Jiang Xi.

Wearing a calm face, Jiang Ke said to the tall man who was walking in front of them, "Marshal, I heard that your aunt is making arrangement for your marriage. And she frequently visited the noble families of the capital in the past few days, which made your marriage become a hot topic in the capital. There is a possibility that our emperor will take action. Together with this victory, if our emperor grants a marriage with an imperial edict, you will have to go back to the capital whether you want it or not."

The person in front stopped. And the right deputy saw a glimmer of hope, looking at his back with expectation.

"Inform others to have a meeting in marshal's tent two hours later, and I will set off for the capital in three days." The person in front said.

"What a mighty marshal!" The right deputy jumped excitedly, "I'll go get them here as soon as possible!"

Jiang Ke calmly followed in the footsteps of the person in front, and didn't feel strange about Jiang Xi's failure to hide his moods.

......

Prefecture Yamen, Tanyang.

After the sounding of the gavel, the court was immediately in a solemn atmosphere.

"Jia Yuanling, why did you frame Ling Zhang?" Tao Feng asked.

"I didn't frame Ling Zhang. That was what he did!" Jia Yuanling said, clenching his teeth.

Tao Feng hit the gravel on the desk, "So insolent! I witnessed what you did today with my own eyes. How dare you quibble! If you don't confess, this magistrate can only put you to torture!"

Jia Yuanling was with a pale face, and the four young Childes behind him had gradually woken up. At this moment, scared by the sound of the gravel, they all started to tremble and their faces became pale.

"We didn't mean to. It was the dancing girl who seduced us. And it has nothing to do with us. Lord, please forgive us!"

Jia Yuanling turned back and glared at them, "Shut up!"

"It is not your turn to interrupt in the court." Tao Feng yelled at Jia Yuanling, and then said to those four people, "It seems that you are not willing to confess. Well, yamen runners, punish those five people under the court by flogging, ten times for each!"

"Yes, lord!" The yamen runners answered.

"No, no, no, please don't flog us. Lord, we will confess, we will confess right now."

"This is Jia Yuanling's idea, and it has nothing to do with us."

"Exactly, he told us to put the blame on Ling Zhang, and it has nothing to do with us!"

Those four, who were pleasant to the eye but of little use, had long been scared out of wits by the tension in court. Hearing that they would be flogged, they immediately confessed.

It was easier to deal with them than Ling Zhang had expected.

This made Jia Yuanling so angry that he almost fainted. "You, you are talking nonsense! Shut up! And if you keep talking nonsense, our Jia family will never..."

"Bang!" Another loud sound of the gavel.

"Jia Yuanling, this is the court, not your Jia family. Yamen runners, slap him in the face for this magistrate!" With his stateliness repeatedly provoked by Jia Yuanling, Tao Feng was infuriated.

The yamen runners got a little hesitant, and since they were all natives of Tanyang, they knew well what status Jia Family enjoyed in Tangyang. However, compared with the status of Jia Family, Tao Feng looked even more terrible at the moment. Therefore, they just hesitated for a little while before they went up to slap Jia Yuanling in the face.

"Ah!" Slapped by a yamen runner, Jia shouted with pain at once.

These yamen runners were all strong, so they naturally got great strength. Just one single slap might not be serious, but with a couple of slaps, Jia's mouth was bleeding heavily.

The butler of Jia family who had followed was frightened to kneel down on the spot to beg for mercy for Jia Yuanling.

Fang, the wife of Mr. Jia, rushed over a moment later; and when she saw his son being slapped, she almost staggered down to the ground. "Oh, my son!" she cried out.

Tao Feng raised his hand to let the yamen runner stop, who then returned to the queue with his hands stained with blood.

Looking at Jia Yuanling who was weak and limp and pinned on the ground with his face full of blood and tears, and Fang who was crying bitterly and loudly in excessive grief, Ling Zhang felt great relief in the heart.

"Silence." Tao Feng ordered loudly.

Catching sight of Tao's sharp eyes, Fang almost choked on her own cries, and it was not until quite a moment later that she restored her voice, and asked, "Your honor, why did you employ such cruel torture on my son?"

"He disturbed the court, threatened the eyewitness brazenly, despised me, and even refused to admit his guilt, so it was reasonable for me to punish him," Tao got angry. "Fang, you have attempted to query, and hinder me in carrying out my duty over and over again. I wondered whether it is true that you have been too unbridled to despise all the laws of our country just as Ling Zhang stated?"

Fang's face went ghastly pale at once.

Ling Zhang was near to applaud for Tao Feng. The evidence Ling had given to Tao Feng had been applied by the latter more skillfully than he himself could.

"I don't have any intention of despising the law. Your honor, please don't get me wrong." Fang responded. The lady, who just had attempted to behave aggressively shed tears now. Pretending to be delicate, Fang said, "I just took pity on my son. For the sake of my love for my son, please forgive my impulsion."

"You honor, my lady didn't intend to offend you, so please forgive her." The butler pleaded.

"Your honor, my son just got confused temporarily, and he didn't mean to slander Mr. Ling. Please judge carefully, your honor." Fang cried.

"They four have confessed. It was Jia Yuanling who had instigated them to plant the adulterous affair with the dancing girl on me. Mrs. Jia, don't quibble for your son any more." Ling Zhang said.

Fang's crying stopped suddenly in shock as her eyes fixed sharply on those four guys who lowered their heads in order not to meet her eyes.

Glaring at the four guys firmly, Fang grinded her teeth with rage, and said, "They lied."

"I'll make my own judgement whether they lied or not", Tao Feng said at the moment, "Unless I ask, Fang, you will be punished with the crime of disturbing the court if you dare to speak again."

"You four confess honestly how Jia Yuanling instigated you to slander Ling Zhang. What was the process?" Tao spoke to the four guys.

The four guys just looked at each other and hesitated. It was obvious that they didn't dare to speak like a moment ago with the presence of Fang.

Ling Zhang frowned. What he wanted was the confession of the four guys. If they refused to identify Jia Yuanling, the matter would get much troublesome.

He looked at Tao, who gave him a veiled look. Slapping the gavel violently, Tao Feng shouted loudly, "Each of you will be flogged with sticks 20 times if you don't confess."

"Your honor, they might not have been instigated, and could have committed the crime on their own initiative just like Jia Yuanling did if they refuse to speak. They might be accomplices. Your honor, I beg you to give them a severe trial, and they should be sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment and three-thousand Li of exile just like Jia Yuanling." Ling Zhang clamped down.

With the hint given by Tao, the yamen runners who stood in two lines in the court struck the ground with their sticks cooperatively, the sound of which reverberated throughout the whole court.

Under heavy pressure, the four guys blanched with fear. One of them couldn't bear the tension any more, and said, "I'll confess! It was Jia Yuanling who had told us that he would put poison in the sobering-up soup for Ling Zhang; and after Ling went into a coma, he would take off Ling's clothes, and throw him beside the dancing girl."

"Impossible!" Fang shi screamed. With her angry and ferocious face, she was fierce as if she would pounce on to tear that speaker.

The speaker was shocked to step back repeatedly.

"So insolent!" Tao Feng angrily ordered the Yamen runners to pull Fang shi away, "Gag Fang shi for this magistrate!"

"Lord, lord! Please let her off. Our lady is the hostess of Jia family, and for this reason, please save some dignity for our Jia family." The butler of Jia family shouted loudly.

"This magistrate has enough of her insolence. How could I connive at her repeatedly provoking my stateliness!" Tao Feng fumed.

The butler of Jia family then persuaded Fang shi, "Madam, please calm down." He whispered to Fang shi, "Let's wait for Commander Zhang."

The name of Commander Zhang calmed Fang shi. Although she still stared malevolently at the four people, she showed no sign of rushing to them and tearing them apart.

Ling Zhang looked at Fang shi's face and sneered sarcastically. This woman had presented a noble and graceful look in Jia family just now, but she showed her true colour here.

Even the crowd of onlookers outside began to remark loudly as they pointed at Fang shi.

"Silence!" Tao Feng shouted.

All the people outside were quiet.

"Go ahead with your confession." Tao Feng looked at the person who spoke before.

However, that man began to hesitate again.

With a disapproving frown, Ling Zhang berated coldly, "Why did Jia Yuanling incite you to frame me? I am generous to you and always treat you as my brothers."

This was also what hurt Ling Zhang most before his rebirth. He treated these people in all sincerity and took them as friends and brothers. But these people stabbed him in the back!

The four people who were questioned did not dare to look Ling Zhang straight in the eye and bowed their heads in shame.

"We, we didn't mean to do that. It is Yuanling who said that your Ling family, and, and ... were so close that you may stand in Jia family's way. If we throw the responsibility of the dancing girl's scandal on you, you will lose your reputation. And this will teach your Ling family a lesson."

"Yuan Ling didn't like you from the very beginning. You were too stupid to not even notice it."

"That's right. How could you blame us? You should blame your own stupidity."

Ling Zhang's hands that were put behind his back clenched. He just looked at the four people and Jia Yuanling coldly, his cold eyes sharp like blades.

Although he had known all this before his rebirth, when hearing it directly again, he still felt his anger burning ceaselessly. And he just wanted to kill these malicious people by himself!

At this time, Jia Yuanling, who couldn't speak because of the blood in his mouth, met Ling Zhang's eyes. He saw the anger in Ling Zhang's eyes and even gave a bloody and mocking smile. The smile seemed to be laughing at Ling Zhang's ignorance and stupidity in the past, with disgust and contempt in his eyes.

When Ling Zhang saw such a gaze, the anger burning in his heart somehow cooled down. He had met this kind of gaze for too many times, and he had even experienced gazes more undisguised and more humiliating than this. Jia Yuanling's stare was nothing compared to them.

He had vowed to send these people to hell.

Ling Zhang quickly calmed down and looked at Jia Yuanling coldly. He said, "It turns out that Jia family has long hated our Ling family. And this is the reason why you have framed me."

Seeing that Ling Zhang quickly recovered his cool, Jia Yuanling was very surprised. The calmer Ling Zhang was, the more Jia Yuanling appeared to be a real clown. This role of conversion made Jia Yuanling's face distorted.