Chapter 145: The Disgraced General Niu Ben
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A gentle breeze carried a drizzle, scattering lightly over the road.
On the official path to Qingzhou City, merchants and travelers hurried along. Though May was approaching, the lingering chill in the air seemed to thicken with the spring rain.
Among the mixed flow of merchants and commoners, a pair of bailiffs with hands resting on their waist knives stood out conspicuously. The pedestrians instinctively kept their distance.
Strangely, however, the two bailiffs seemed to treat the prisoner walking ahead of them with unusual respect—nothing like the impatience they typically showed toward other convicts.
“General Niu, Qingzhou City lies just ahead.”
Catching sight of the city walls in the distance, one bailiff spoke cautiously.
The prisoner wore a gray convict’s uniform, his hair streaked with gray and tangled, his long beard dotted with bits of straw. The thick calluses on his hands bore witness to years of hard labor.
“Mm. My thanks to you both.”
Niu Ben glanced at Qingzhou City. He had thought he would spend the rest of his life toiling in the mines, but half a month ago, Xiao Wenxuan had exiled him here instead.
When the news arrived, even the mine overseers’ attitudes toward him had shifted.
Back in the mines, those overseers had never cared about his past military glories. To them, he was just another laborer doomed to die in servitude.