The house was dark, and there was a roar of wind outside.
The whining wind was mixed with the howls of wild beasts, adding a bit of gloominess.
Brother Jiu took the medicine and his eyelids were heavy, but his mind was very clear. He warned himself not to think about it, but the head without facial features was still clearly engraved in his mind.
His breathing quickened, and he was worried about Shu Shu. He raised his arms vigorously and put them on Shu Shu's waist.
Shu Shu opened his eyes and looked at the top of the tent, figuring out the timeline.
There were a total of two transition points in the relationship between Kangxi and the prince in history.
One time was in the 29th year of Kangxi's reign, on the eve of the Ulan-Butong War, Kangxi was seriously ill, and the prince personally went to the army to visit him, but the meeting was unrelated.
Once in the 42nd year of Kangxi, Suo'etu came to trial, and the prince lost Suo'etu, his biggest helper.
Twenty-nine years has long passed.
As for the forty-two years, no more.
Suo'etu stepped down four years early, which was not a bad thing for the prince. The conflict between father and son has not yet been brought to light.
Longkodo also took his bow, and the fourth elder brother seemed to have lost his biggest support.
Does anyone else have a chance?
While she was thinking about it, Brother Jiu's arm was already on her waist, and he pulled her into his arms vigorously.
Seeing that Brother Ninth Brother was not breathing properly, Shu Shu also hugged him back and patted Brother Ninth Brother on the back.
It's better to be timid. This is reverence for life.
With their status, they are below a few people but above tens of thousands of people. It would not be a good thing if they lose their respect for life.
Brother Jiu felt his arms soften, and the familiar scent of magnolia lingered around his nose.
His fear and anxiety subsided, and in his mind was a little girl with no hair, who looked like Ni Guzhu, her arms were like lotus joints, she was dressed in red, and her eyes were wandering around.
Huh?
It seemed like he was riding a black horse galloping...
It's not a horse, it's a black bear, a small black bear, as big as a big dog...
Brother Jiu was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth for a while. He felt so cute and wanted to pinch her chubby face...
*
"Da da da da..."
At midnight, the sound of horse hooves was very clear and could be heard far away.
As we got closer, we heard the sound of wheels coming inside again.
Cao Shun's lips were chapped, so he licked them, turned over and dismounted.
The sound of drums was heard in the distance, it was the fourth watch.
Outside Andingmen, there are barracks on both sides, which were expanded from the Eight Banners Dingque's house in the past few years.
Someone with a bright mind rented out the house next to the official road, and a small businessman took over and opened a noodle shop as a resting place for people outside the city gate.
Cao Shun and his entourage rode over and entered the noodle shop.
There was a front room of one and a half rooms with five or six tables. Cao Shun came in with two long followers, ten guards, and two coachmen, and the room was full.
The boss and waiter was a middle-aged man in his forties. When he saw this, he hurriedly said: "Do you guys want to eat noodles? The store has braised noodles and soup noodles, as well as side dishes of pork head, braised pork sausage, dried tofu, and soybeans... …”
Cao Shun glanced at everyone. He was on the road today. He ate a few mouthfuls of fried rice while feeding the horses at the post station. He was already very hungry.
"Everyone has a bowl of braised noodles and a bowl of soup noodles. Each table will have a portion of the food you bring..."
The boss responded, immediately wiped the table, asked everyone to sit down, and went to the kitchen to place an order.
Cao Shun brought a chief to sit with him. His two chiefs and two coachmen sat at the door of the shop, so that they could keep an eye on the carriages and horses outside.
The remaining nine guards sat at three tables.
Although everyone did not have fast horses galloping and had to match the speed of the carriage, they were still more tired than the fast horses because the riding time was too long...
*
At the moment of Yinzheng, the city gate opened.
Cao Shun ordered the guards to stay outside and guard the carriage. He took two long followers and entered the city alone.
There is no way around this.
As long as it's just a bear carcass, it's fine, but if there are carcasses, you have to ask for permission before entering the city.
Otherwise, according to regulations, if soldiers and civilians in the inner city died outside, their remains would not be allowed into the city, and they would be mourned outside the city.
Except for the meritorious service of getting the emperor's favor and allowing the coffin to be returned to the city.
As soon as he entered the city, there was someone waiting in front with a lantern.
It's Erhe who's here.
Cao Shun had a cautious and appropriate temperament. Erhe guessed that he would wait outside the city gate waiting to enter the city, so he waited here.
"The Emperor has to listen to the government in the morning and meet with the officials who turned out the signs yesterday. I guess he won't be available until after Sichu..."
The two of them rode towards the imperial city, Erhe talking to Cao Shun.
Cao Shun was a little nervous. He had seen Shengjia before, but he was in Jiangnan at that time, following his uncle, and the emperor seemed warm to him.
Now I have become a mourning bird, which is very unpleasant.
Erhe took Cao Shun into the imperial city and went directly to the Xihua Gate. He met with the guard commander on duty and asked him to inform the Qianqing Palace.
This is the manpower sent back by Ninth Elder Brother, and speculations about Ninth Elder Brother are becoming popular.
The ginseng leader went directly to Qianqing Palace without any delay.
The news gathered here Liang Jiugong.
Shengjia was already preparing to listen to the government, and Liang Jiugong had no chance to report.
When Kangxi came back from listening to politics at Qianqing Gate, sat down to have tea, and was about to pass on the officials to the meeting, Liang Jiugong had time to talk about Erhe and Cao Shun waiting for him outside Xihua Gate.
Kangxi did not respond, but was silent for a while and said: "It is said that Zhao Chang..."
After half a cup of tea, Zhao Chang came over.
Kangxi wrote a handwritten edict, stamped it, and handed it to Zhao Chang, saying: "The carriage escorted by Cao Shun is allowed to enter the city, and it will be sent directly to the back hall of Jingshan, and it will be sent to the Chief of Shenxing for inspection."
Zhao Chang bowed in agreement, retreated, and headed towards Xihua Gate.
Kangxi sat on the Kang and looked at the officials he was going to meet this morning. There were two officials named Tong, one to meet and the other to say goodbye.
These two people were both from the Zhenglan Banner of the Han Army and were relatives of Orundai.
Kangxi had no expression on his face, put down the list in his hand, and motioned for the successor of Liang Jiugong to come in.
Most of the people I met were those who were newly promoted to the fifth rank or above, while the ones I resigned from were those who were posted to the local government and were close to the people.
Because of the surname Tong, Kangxi paid close attention to the two people and found that one was a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs and the other was a magistrate in Jiangnan, both of whom were in good positions.
He was noncommittal and showed no emotion. He asked a few questions according to his position, switching between Mandarin and Chinese.
There was no one who showed too much timidity, and it looked good enough, so he gave a few words of encouragement and told her to kneel down.
But after looking at a circle of people, his eyes fell on the list.
He is not an old fool. The Tong family is considered a common surname. It is spread across the Eight Banners. Not all of them are members of the two Cheng'en Gongfus.
However, among the children surnamed Tong who have filled the vacancies in recent years, there are still more Xianghuangqi and Zhenglanqi, which are the close relatives of Cheng'en Gong.
Kangxi was happy to see this situation happen in his early years, and it was also caused by him.
For now, he felt he could stop.
He and Shu Shu wanted to go together, thinking that if Longkodo really died violently, it would probably be an "internal fight."
The scope of this "inside" is not very large, perhaps smaller than imagined.
The killing of flesh and blood is even more chilling and chilling.
*
Outside Xihua Gate, Erhe and Cao Shun waited for Zhao Chang.
Since the emperor's order was given, the two of them had nothing to say. They took Zhao Chang back to the Anding Gate and successfully brought the two carriages into the inner city.
The City Gate School on duty had no chance to lift the carriage curtain.
Such a mysterious thing was sent back to the capital overnight, and someone from the imperial court came to pick it up...
Are they hiding two stunning beauties?
When the matter involves the imperial court, no one dares to discuss it blatantly, but they must whisper...
Zhao Chang and his entourage walked through Di'anmen and drove the carriage directly to the back hall of Jingshan.
This is the place where concubines in the palace stay when they are seriously ill and die. It is empty on weekdays, with only some old eunuchs on duty.
The two men under the Shenxing Department have already heard the message and are waiting here.
It's cold now, and it's about to freeze, so neither the bear carcass nor the remains of the body have decayed.
But there weren't many things that could be checked. There was a head with all the features gnawed away, a section of the upper torso, a calf bone with all the skin and flesh gnawed away, and an arm bone.
Wu Zuo looked carefully, starting with the torso, which was the easiest to distinguish. Judging from the superficial injuries, it was indeed the marks of whipping.
There are levels of caning: twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, eighty, ninety, and one hundred.
In fact, there are very few cases of more than fifty lashes, because most of them are quasi-redemption.
According to his inspection, with such dense scars and the appearance that they have not yet healed, the flogging would be over fifty and the time would be no more than ten years.
Therefore, as long as you check the eight banner yamen in Gyeonggi Province, you can count the people who were whipped within ten days.
Because there was a complete calf bone, Wu Zuo also estimated the height of the deceased. He was not short, but was about five feet two inches to five feet five inches.
The bones have grown and are very dense. There are no honeycomb holes yet. These are young and strong bones, aged between 20 and 50 years old.
Next, look at the hair. The scalp is clean and not greasy. It looks clean. The family is in good condition and it is convenient to bathe.
If you are really embarrassed and it is inconvenient to take a bath in winter, your hair will be greasy.
Then carefully look at the position of the facial features, determine the position of the brow bone, and have a simple drawing with eyes closed.
After checking the bones inch by inch, there were abnormal cracks on the back of the skull, as if it had been hit with a blunt object.
Then check the remaining leg bones and arm bones.
The leg bones looked smooth and smooth, but there were fractures on the arm bones that had not completely healed. They had been injured before.
There were two coworkers, a father and son. The older one was checking and talking, while the younger one took a notebook and recorded it.
Erhe and Cao Shun stood next to Zhao Chang and witnessed the incident with their own eyes.
Neither of them spoke, they just looked at each other, feeling uneasy.
Now that things have happened, they are really worried that this is not Longkodo.
If that were the case, their Jiuye would act a little fussily and appear to be unsteady when things happen.
Rather than Master Jiu misjudging, they still hope that this is Longkodo.
It’s just that the current evidence is not solid yet.
The inferred image, if you say it looks like Longkodo, is two or three points like it; if you say it doesn't look like Longkodo, you can really tell the difference.
As for the good family background, we cannot be certain that this is Longkodo.
Baqi is a die-hard farmer and loves to save face, so taking a bath this winter is not uncommon.
The two of them had never heard of arm injuries. They just felt that if Longko was injured, the emperor would probably take pity on him and not force him to leave the capital at this time.
But if there are no other missing persons, Longkodo is more likely.
Because the bannermen are not allowed to leave the station at will.
Jingqi is no exception.
When the room became quiet, Wu Zuo had already cut a piece of flesh remaining on the skull and neck to see how the blood coagulated inside.
This can estimate the time of death.
"More than three days..."
The old man explained the basis for identification, one by one, and asked his son to record it.
Zhao Chang looked at Erhe.
Erhe thought about it carefully and said: "According to what Yi Cheng said, the Tong family arrived at Miyun Station on the first day of the Lunar New Year and left at noon on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The record at the Gubeikou checkpoint matches this. It was in the afternoon of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. When they came out of the seclusion at the beginning of the car, there were fifteen people in total, including one woman, one boy, and fifteen young men..."
Just as he was talking, there was movement at the door.
Everyone looked at the door. Kangxi came in wearing regular clothes, surrounded by several eunuchs and guards...
(End of chapter)
