Judge Dee's Mystery Episode 21 Recap, Plot

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By the time Qiao Tai led the city defense soldiers to Zhenxi Fort, what they saw was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, filled with smoke. The bandits fled at the sight of them, and the once large Zhenxi Fort was completely unrecognizable. Di Renjie took out a letter and handed it to Qiao Tai, insisting on reporting the mutiny, which left Ma Rong disbelieving and confused.

Ma Rong questioned Di Renjie sorrowfully and angrily why he was doing this. The soldiers had fought desperately against the bandits, defending this land with their lives. If they were sent back to their hometowns, no one would know they had suffered abuse; they would only be treated as criminals, losing even their last shred of dignity.

Unfortunately, even though Ma Rong pleaded earnestly, Di Renjie still believed that killing enemies and repelling invaders was their duty, while murdering comrades was their crime, and the two could not be conflated. Therefore, Di Renjie asked Hong Liang to take two thousand cash to Zhou Changyi's home, and handed the military camp over to Qiao Tai and Ma Rong to manage, while he went alone to apprehend Han Yongnan. Diao Xiaoguan followed closely behind.

Seeing Di Renjie deep in the desert, hungry and thirsty, his consciousness had become somewhat hazy. At this point, Diao Xiaoguan came before Di Renjie and wondered if Di Renjie's persistence still held any meaning. He should have killed Han Yongnan earlier, and then he wouldn't have escaped from Lanfang, causing so many innocent people to lose their lives. Afterwards, Di Renjie went to the post station and found that the postmaster was trading and selling young girls with someone.

In his anger, he brought him to justice, tying him behind a horse and dragging him along the way. Upon returning to Lanfang, Di Renjie met the old man from the Western Regions and apologized to him with guilt for not being able to personally capture Han Yongnan. Someone nearby heard Di Renjie mention the name Hari and said that Hari was the old man's eagle. Di Renjie immediately realized that he had fallen into Diao Xiaoguan's trap.

Combining all the clues before and after, he finally concluded that Han Yongnan had not left Lanfang. Meanwhile, Diao Xiaoguan tied up Han Yongnan and incited Han Wangdong to personally kill his enemy to avenge his sister. Di Renjie arrived in time to stop it, but Diao Xiaoguan was faster than him. The two exchanged blows fiercely, fighting back and forth intensely.

Han Wangdong, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to plunge the dagger deep into Han Yongnan's thigh, causing Han Yongnan to scream incessantly in pain. Diao Xiaoguan told Di Renjie not to try in vain anymore. Han Yongnan's evil was far more complex than it appeared on the surface. He illegally excavated mines, harming the villagers. Every piece of land underfoot could potentially be dug through.

Although Di Renjie tried hard to persuade Han Wangdong to calm down and hand Han Yongnan over to him for legal disposal, Han Wangdong had lost trust in Di Renjie. Just as he was about to strike again, he was suddenly knocked unconscious by a misstep by the two of them. Di Renjie's eyes were about to split, and he no longer held back against Diao Xiaoguan. They fought fiercely, locked in a desperate struggle.

Seeing this, Han Yongnan broke free from the ropes and ran out. Han Wangdong woke up and grabbed hold of Han Yongnan tightly, plunging a dagger into his back until Han Yongnan could no longer move. Diao Xiaoguan and Di Renjie had only one arrow left. The two simply decided to settle the outcome with one move. However, after Di Renjie shot the arrow, he found that Diao Xiaoguan was already prepared to die.

He spat out fresh blood and fell to the ground. Before dying, he scoffed that the Tang Dynasty laws Di Renjie upheld were nothing but nonsense, unable to protect the weak or punish the truly evil. After saying these words, Diao Xiaoguan crushed the wolf attractant in his hand, attracting wild wolves within a radius of five li. Di Renjie hastily took Han Wangdong away.

Watching Han Yongnan struggle to hide inside the house, he still couldn't escape the fate of being bitten to death by the vicious wolves. Ma Rong and the others quickly found Di Renjie. Seeing his tragic, severely wounded state, they felt both heartache and anger, blaming him for being too stubborn. Fortunately, although Di Renjie's injuries were severe, they were not life-threatening. He would need a period of recuperation to recover.

Cao An came to visit Di Renjie and said that everything he had done was not wrong. However, when she learned that Diao Xiaoguan was Hei Yan, she still couldn't help but hide outside the door and cry bitterly, regretting that she hadn't been able to meet him. Qiao Tai and his men searched the mine tunnels and found skeletons, confirming that Han Yongnan's excessive excavation had caused water source pollution.

The villagers were unable to farm for a living and could only be hired by him as illegal laborers, later dying in mine accidents. Not long after, Di Renjie publicly announced that Han Yongnan would be executed by hanging, hoping everyone would jointly abide by the law and ensure the bottom line of humanity. After this incident, Han Wangdong completely changed his view of Di Renjie. The villagers also supported Di Renjie, believing that he would one day make the Tang Dynasty laws more perfect.

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