Ma Jiyou's eyes were not yet adjusted to the change in light, so he closed them tightly and opened them after a while. In the darkness, he could see nothing but the four walls.
"What's wrong..." He felt a splitting headache, still reeling from what had just happened. He only remembered that after receiving news of Liu Guang's withdrawal from Chiling Pass, Qian Sheye had held a banquet at the palace to celebrate the generals' victory. During the banquet, Qian Sheye even apologized to him specifically for Wan Yongchun's ambush, implying that he intended to hand over all military power in the country to him. Although he politely declined, he was overjoyed and drank several cups. He was usually a heavy drinker, but for some reason, he drifted off to sleep and only woke up when he was dragged away. Even after waking up, he had no strength left and could only watch helplessly as several warriors dragged him to this iron house, unable to utter a single word.
The effects of the drug in the alcohol hadn't completely worn off, so his mind was still hazy. He lay on the cold ground for an unknown amount of time before he gradually regained feeling in his limbs. Although they were still incredibly heavy, he managed to struggle to his feet.
"What's going on!" He lunged at the door, pounding on it and shouting, "Who dares to lock me up? I am Ma Jiyou!"
There was no sound outside. Ma Jiyou's heart was filled with shock and anger like a tidal wave. He had finally woken up from his last shred of illusion. Recalling Qian Sheye's smile at the banquet, he realized that he had gone from being a great general to a prisoner.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" He pounded on the iron gate again. "Your Majesty, why do you treat me like this? Before the birds have flown away, are you going to use a fine bow as firewood?"
There was still no sound outside. Ma Jiyou continued to knock and shout for a while, listening intently, until he was hoarse, but still no one paid any attention.
"What should I do now?"
As the panic subsided with his exhaustion, Ma Jiyou seemed to have grown accustomed to the drastic change in his status. The memory of Qian Sheye's methods towards those disgraced officials sent chills down his spine. For years, he had stationed troops abroad, partly to manage the frontier, and partly out of fear of Qian Sheye's suspicions. Now, the very thing he had long worried about had become a reality. The only ones who could save him were Qian Sheye suddenly having a change of heart, or Heaven itself.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Ma Jiyou's breathing became heavy. Most people would have collapsed or despaired after such a dramatic change, but not Ma Jiyou. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, he would fight for it with all his might.
"They didn't kill me on the spot, probably because they wanted to take me back to Kyoto and Kaihei." He thought to himself, "If that's the case, they won't let me starve to death here, and I'll have a chance to save myself."
In an instant, hundreds of thoughts flooded his mind, and these thoughts seemed to be shouting: "I want to live, I want to live, I will live at all costs!"
A long time passed. Ma Jiyou, trapped in the black iron cell, lost track of how many hours had gone by; each hour felt like a year. Finally, he heard faint footsteps outside. A surge of excitement welled up inside him, and he pounded on the iron door, shouting, "Let me out! Let me out!"
"Looks like he still has the energy. There's no need to send him these dishes." The voice of He Li, the chief eunuch of Qian Sheye, came from outside the door, followed by the sound of an earthenware pot breaking.
"Eunuch He, let me out!" Ma Jiyou shouted, but he knew in his heart that the other party would never let him go.
"Very well, the General has given the order, how dare this humble servant disobey?" He Li's cheerful voice rang out, followed by a clanging sound from the iron gate.
Ma Jiyou heard the chains on the iron gate clanging for a long time, but the gate still wouldn't open. He couldn't help but feel anxious. Although he knew that the other party would never really let him go, even just opening the door for a while would make him feel a little better.
"Oh dear, I don't have the key to this iron gate, General. Please make do and come out from here." He Li's shrill laughter rang out again, followed by a screeching sound under the iron gate, and a small dog hole appeared at the bottom of the iron gate.
“You…” Ma Jiyou suddenly realized that arguing with this eunuch would only humiliate him. He sighed and said, “Eunuch He, we have always had some friendship. Last time you went to my army to deliver an imperial edict, I did not mistreat you. Why are you humiliating me like this?”
He Li's sharp voice rang out from the other end: "General, this is not our fault. You were indeed very polite to us to our faces, but did you ever say to anyone behind our backs that eunuchs are nothing more than His Majesty's castrated dogs and cannot be trusted with important matters? When our palace servants became slightly pleased with His Majesty, you submitted a memorial saying that eunuchs interfering in politics was like a hen crowing at dawn, an omen of calamity from heaven. You also instructed ministers in the court who were in cahoots with you to submit memorials saying that eunuchs, being physically incomplete, must be wicked and that His Majesty should be wary of our palace servants. Do you think that's true or not?"
Inside the iron house, Ma Jiyou heard the piercing hatred in his sharp voice. Even though he had spent half his life in the battlefield of life and death, he still felt his heart pound. He had said those words before, and now he could not deny them, nor did he bother to deny them. Therefore, he did not deny them, but remained silent.
He Li, clearly having suppressed his anger for a long time, seized this opportunity to vent, saying outside, "Our palace servants resigned from their homes and gave up everything for nothing more than a life of honor and comfort. What does it have to do with you, a general, to humiliate us like this? Let me tell you the truth today, the palace servants have long said that if we don't bring down you, Ma Jiyou, we won't have a good life. In the past, you held great power, and His Majesty trusted you greatly, so we thought that with you in charge, the Hong Kingdom's rule would be secure. For the sake of the greater good, we endured without making a move. But unexpectedly, you, this wolfish and ambitious dog, dared to collude with Liu Guang, secretly communicate with the Chen Kingdom, and use your military power to plot treason. Fortunately, His Majesty is wise and saw through you long ago. Now, you have been captured without bloodshed. If we don't thoroughly humiliate you, how can we vent our hatred and avenge His Majesty's deep-seated grudge?"
"False accusations!" Ma Jiyou was shocked as if struck by lightning. If these charges were true, he would have no place to stand in Hong Kingdom, and he would not even be able to die an old, unmarried commoner in the marketplace. He shouted, "Nonsense! How could I have colluded with Liu Guang, how could I have secretly communicated with Chen Kingdom, how could I have used troops to bolster my own power, how could I have plotted anything treacherous?"
“It seems you won’t give up until I expose you,” He Li said. “As soon as you arrived in Tianhe City, Liu Guang specifically requested to see you. The two of you had a long private conversation, which His Majesty and his ministers witnessed, as did many soldiers and civilians in the city. How can you deny that you colluded with Liu Guang? You stationed a large army in Wutai City, and His Majesty repeatedly ordered you to attack and capture Luoying, the capital of Chen, but you always made excuses. If you weren’t secretly colluding with the Chen Kingdom, how can this be explained? When you learned that Liu Guang had captured Chiling, His Majesty personally led an expedition, but you didn’t send your entire army to rescue it. Instead, you only gathered some scattered soldiers along the way to make a show of responding to His Majesty. What else could this be but using your military strength to your advantage?”
You humiliated a minister before His Majesty, displaying arrogance and disrespect. His Majesty wanted to pursue Liu Guang with the entire army, but you blocked it. If you weren't plotting something, why would you show such disrespect to His Majesty?
Hearing He Li's questions one after another, Ma Jiyou could not refute a single one. These things were impeccable in the eyes of a military general like him, but in the mouth of this eunuch, any one of them was enough to ruin his reputation. Although he had always thought that eunuchs were capable of ruining the country, he never thought that eunuchs could be so powerful.
"If that's the case, I'm willing to return my military command and retire as a commoner. I humbly request that Eunuch He speak well of me before His Majesty..."
"Hmph, do you think His Majesty would raise a tiger that will cause future trouble? If we release you out of this iron gate, you will go and seek refuge with Liu Guang. You know the true strength and weakness of our dynasty. Since you are not to be used by His Majesty, you cannot be used by anyone else!"
Ma Jiyou's grief grew stronger with each passing moment. He had devoted himself to the country, yet the country could not accept him, not even allowing him to live like a commoner. He sighed wearily. After years of serving as a general and killing countless people, this end was inevitable.
"If the ruler commands the subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die." He said in a low voice, "Eunuch He, the only person His Majesty resents is Ma Jiyou. Now Ma Jiyou is like a tiger in a cage. His elderly mother, wife, and children are at home. I hope His Majesty will remember my years of service and the fact that Princess Anning is His Majesty's own sister, and take good care of them..."
"I'm afraid it's too late. If you had begged His Majesty for mercy earlier, perhaps the disaster wouldn't have befallen your mother, wife, and children." He Li's words seemed to express sympathy, but his tone was blatantly gloating. "His Majesty has already ordered a messenger to deliver a decree, upholding justice even at the cost of family ties, ordering your wife, Princess Anning, to commit suicide, and all the rest of your family members to be escorted to the West Market and executed by slow slicing!"
"What!" Ma Jiyou roared in fury. He Li couldn't see his face through the iron gate, but he could imagine Ma Jiyou's hair standing on end from the thunderous shout. A smug smile involuntarily crept onto his lips.
"Give up!" He Li smiled sinisterly. "After Lu Xiang's death, his fame remains, and Liu Guang fled and dominated foreign lands. But you will only be remembered with eternal infamy. His Majesty has already made your four major crimes public to the world. You, Ma Jiyou, are a traitor and a rebel, and everyone has the right to kill you. There is no place for you in this world!"
He Li's words grew increasingly urgent, and Ma Jiyou felt his exhaustion intensify. When he heard, "There is nowhere left for you," his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. His earlier heroic resolve to save himself, his disdain for arguing with the eunuch, vanished completely. At this moment, all he could think of was pleading: if he were given a chance to save himself, a chance for revenge, he would give anything for it.
But now he has lost everything: high office, wealth and honor, his elderly mother, his beloved wife and children, even his lifelong reputation—all have vanished like a mirage. What does he have left to exchange for a chance, a chance to save his family, or a chance for revenge?
An indescribable feeling completely overwhelmed Ma Jiyou. He was like a drowning man, grasping at anything he could. He knelt beneath the iron gate, his face pressed against the narrow opening—so small that even his head couldn't fit through. He pleaded, "Eunuch He, I admit to all my past transgressions and sins. You opened this tiny opening only to make me kneel and beg for mercy, and now I have. Eunuch He, please forgive my wickedness and don't stoop to my level. Please beg His Majesty to spare my mother..."
He Li bent down, presumably to check through the doorway to see if Ma Jiyou had truly knelt. After watching for a while, Ma Jiyou felt overwhelmed with shame, but he couldn't care less about anything else. He had been away from home for many years and had never been able to show filial piety to his elderly mother. Now, he had brought misfortune upon her. Thinking of his white-haired mother, who was about to suffer the agony of being slowly sliced to death in the West Market, how could he not kneel down, how could he not beg?
“You’re quite perceptive, knowing that we want you to kneel down and beg for mercy,” He Li said slowly. “But you called the servants in our palace castrated dogs, which is a very degrading term. If we were to plead for you now, the servants in the palace would probably call us spineless.”
Ma Jiyou untied the hairpin that bound his hair, letting his hair fall down and cover his face. He kowtowed to the ground and cried out, "Eunuch He, the eunuchs in the palace are His Majesty's eyes and ears, and I am His Majesty's dog. Now that I am crawling through this dog hole, I am even more like a stray dog. Eunuch He, please, please, exonerate my mother. If my mother can enjoy her remaining years in peace, I will not dare to complain even if I die ten thousand times."
He Li straightened up and said in a drawn-out tone, "Now His Majesty doesn't trust officials from outside the capital, but he values us quite a bit. We can say a few words to His Majesty. Ma Jiyou, don't worry, I will go to His Majesty immediately to plead for your mother."
In his despair, Ma Jiyou finally saw a glimmer of hope. He repeatedly said, "Thank you, Eunuch He. I can never repay your kindness in this life, but I will serve you like a cow or a horse in the next."
He Li bent down again, revealing his maliciously smiling face to Ma Jiyou: "Unfortunately, His Majesty sent a messenger to the capital to deliver the decree. Even if my words were effective and His Majesty showed mercy, it wouldn't save your mother. Ma Jiyou, accept your fate!"
In an instant, Ma Jiyou's only hope was shattered, leaving not even a trace. He had lost power, reputation, and family, and now he had lost dignity and hope. The successive blows to his mind were too much for even a man like Ma Jiyou to bear. He felt a surge of heat in his chest, spat out a mouthful of blood, and then fainted.
He didn't know how long he had been unconscious. When he slowly woke up, he looked out through the doorway and saw only a dim, hazy view outside. There was no sign of the guards. Ma Jiyou raised his head and stared blankly at the roof, feeling a deep sorrow in his heart, with no one to confide in.
"Am I really going to give up like this?" After a long while, he came to his senses, and a thought suddenly struck him. After Lu Xiang's wrongful death, his name became even more famous among the people. After Liu Guang fled, although scholars criticized him for not being loyal enough to die, many also believed that he had no choice but to do so. But his own death would not only implicate his elderly mother and family, but also leave behind a thousand years of infamy. If he didn't leave something behind, the truth would probably be forever buried in people's hearts.
He tore a large piece from his shirt, bit his finger, and tried to write down his grievances, but he didn't know where to begin. By the time he finally decided to start writing, the blood on his hand had already congealed, so he had to bite his other finger.
When he finished writing the twenty-four characters, "My merits overshadowed the emperor, the Hong king was jealous of me, the birds were all put away, the bow was put away, I was imprisoned in an iron cage, my old mother was implicated, I was so sad and indignant that I wanted to die," he suddenly heard the sound of dogs fighting over food outside the door. He looked out and saw that the food that He Li had broken was still on the ground, and two dogs that had come from nowhere were fighting over it. The smaller dog could not win against the larger dog and was whimpering.
Suddenly, a thought struck him. He had brought nearly two thousand Gale Cavalrymen from Tianhe City, elite troops he had trained over many years, and utterly loyal to him. If he could bring them over, he wouldn't be in despair. Now, he felt trapped in a lonely city, and the key was to send a message for help.
"Tsk tsk..." He called softly to the puppy. Both dogs were startled by the human voice. The puppy wagged its tail at him and looked at the food on the ground. When the big dog saw the puppy approaching, it immediately let out a warning growl, and the puppy had no choice but to retreat.
Ma Jiyou was anxious, regretting that he hadn't brought some food into the iron house. Seeing the little dog pitifully watching the big dog eat, wagging its tail and begging for food, he quickly reached his hand out of the hole, waved the cloth, and called the little dog over.