The morning light shines through the mist in the forest, giving people a fresh and lazy feeling. This small oasis is located at the westernmost end of the Ghost Desert Gobi. It is adjacent to the border town of Mashha in the Suiye Kingdom. It has always been a must-pass for east-west caravans traveling back and forth.
As soon as Li Jiangyao jumped off the horse, he immediately smelled the pungent smell of blood, and his whole nerves became tense.
Du Jian, the veteran scout who was walking in front of him, took out the long knife from his waist, ducked and rushed out. The seven scouts around him also showed their weapons, while protecting Li Jiangyao, they chased Du Jian forward to search. .
With little effort, the team bypassed a Hu forest and merged with the people who had arrived here earlier. A corps commander pointed not far away and said in a deep voice: "Boss Li, you are here, look over there!"
Li Jiangyao looked closely in the direction of his finger and almost shouted in surprise. Only dozens of steps away, there were more than twenty corpses suspended in the air. The scene was very strange and scary.
"What's going on?!" Du Jian groaned. Even for a veteran like him who is used to the world, he can't help but be a little surprised.
Captain: "The first one to report the news was the business group from Shule Kingdom. They passed by here yesterday and originally wanted to take a rest, but they didn't expect to encounter this scene. Several of them fainted on the spot."
Li Jiangyao tried to control his emotions and asked: "To whom did those Shule businessmen report the case?"
"They couldn't find the official's house, so they went to Mashha." The captain replied: "The stewards in the town came to take a look and knew that this was a huge disaster, so they didn't even go to the local government in Shule. He lit the beacon directly and invited us to come over."
Li Jiangyao walked towards the hanging corpse while listening to the report from his subordinates. It wasn't until he got closer that he finally saw clearly that the corpses were not floating out of thin air, but were hung on the trees with extremely thin ropes.
Blood spilled from the corpse and flowed all over the floor.
"Looking at the costumes, they should be our Shengtang's caravan." Du Jian circled the body twice and muttered to himself: "Grandma, you are vicious!"
In fact, he didn't need to say it. Li Jiangyao had already seen it at this moment. All the twenty-odd Shengtang merchants had their throats cut, and they were hung on the tree and slowly bled to death. If it is not discovered in time, over the years, it may become a mummy.
He frowned: "What time is this?"
Du Jian put the sword back into its sheath and hummed: "It's the fifth time! But this time, he came up with a new trick and hung the corpse in the air!"
Starting from the fifth time! In less than a month, five murderous attacks on the Shengtang caravan occurred in the western region of Ghost Desert. Counting this time, the number of victims increased to 177.
Li Jiangyao's heart couldn't help but sink: Such cruel methods were definitely not the work of ordinary sand and horse bandits.
The reason for this is very simple. Anyone who eats a bowl of rice from Shangdao understands to some extent the principle of "killing the chicken to get the eggs and draining the lake to catch the fish". As long as they don't encounter fierce resistance, neither sand bandits nor horse bandits are willing to hurt anyone easily.
If people are killed frequently and no one dares to go out to do business, wouldn't the bandits also have to starve to death?
Therefore, people who intentionally kill people like this and put on a perverted scene at the same time must not be doing it for wealth.
There is one more thing. The wounds on the corpse were obviously caused by sharp weapons and clean techniques, and those who were able to do this were mostly veterans who were used to the battlefield.
There are only veterans who are not afraid of blood and are technically proficient.
What's more, most of the traders who have the courage to take this trade route to Western Xinjiang have practiced every move, and they are definitely not without the power to fight back. There were no traces of fighting among the dead before them, as well as the surrounding environment.
This shows that the murderer easily restrained them as soon as he came up, and he could only stretch out his neck and wait for death.
A name gradually emerged in Li Jiangyao's mind: Turk.
Although there was no reliable evidence, his intuition told him that these five tragedies specifically targeting Shengtang merchants were probably a conspiracy by the Turks.
Are they really here?
"Boss Li, what should we do next?" Wu Zhang asked.
Li Jiangyao looked around again: "Let's put down all the corpses first, and transport them to Mashha for the time being, so that they can be properly buried locally. All things that can prove their identity, no matter what they are, should be gathered together and sent to Anxi. Finding their families as soon as possible may be the only thing we can do for them now."
Du Jian: "The murderer is not being investigated?"
"Of course we have to check," Li Jiangyao looked at him: "But tell me first, how to check?"
Du Jian was speechless for a moment, blinking his eyes: "No, I have no clue."
Li Jiangyao smiled: "Of course I have no clue. You are a good fighter, but you are a layman in investigating and solving crimes. The Lord Commander has already reported to Deputy Governor Zhang before, asking him to coordinate with Liangzhou to dispatch experts from the six gates. Come and help.”
Du Jian: "Oh, that's right. The Six Gates are responsible for catching bandits, so they are naturally better than me, Old Du. With them, we don't have to worry about it anymore."
Li Jiangyao shook his head gently: "I think it's different from what you thought. If I guess correctly, these five cases and six doors won't matter."
"Why is that?" Du Jian was a little confused.
"Let's not talk too much." Li Jiangyao waved his hand: "Let me ask you, the teams traveling on the Xijiang trade route are very large. Is there a government office specifically to manage them?"
Du Jian: "Yes, the Western Xinjiang Government Office. The imperial court has a total of two yamen stationed in Xijiang. One is the envoy under the Ministry of Rites, and the other is the Government Office under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. They are responsible for determining The transaction prices of bulk commodities, investigating various villains who bully the market, and issuing customs clearance documents to Shengtang’s merchant caravans traveling to and from Western Xinjiang.”
Li Jiangyao's eyes lit up: "Where is the official and municipal office located?"
"It's also in Anxi," Du Jian replied: "But I heard that in some places where business is booming, there are also officials dispatched from the government and city departments. The closest one to here...oh, by the way, Hetian City!"
Li Jiangyao secretly calculated in his heart that Hetian was only seventy miles away from Mashha, so he would be there in half a day at a quick pace. So he quickly ordered Du Jian to leave three or four people here to guard the body, while the whole team set off with him and rushed to Hetian.
More than a dozen war horses were galloping all the way on the Gobi Desert. The sun had just turned west, and Li Jiangyao and others arrived at Hetian, the important trading town of Suiye Country. As soon as they entered the city, Du Jian knew the way and led everyone straight to the city guard's house to find out whether the official and market minister stationed here by Shengtang was there.
In the blink of an eye, a young man wearing the official uniform of the ninth rank of the Holy Tang Dynasty came out. He was far away and stepped in to bow: "Oh my, I didn't know that the Pegasus hero is here. I am sorry for being so far away. . Please come inside, please come inside."
Li Jiangyao couldn't help laughing when he heard his nondescript polite words, neither official nor businessman-like, and said, "How do you know we are Pegasus scouts?"
"It's simple," the young man pointed at Du Jian's shoulder: "Panthellae has always been the sacred flower of Western Xinjiang. In the entire Zhenjiang Protector's Mansion, only the Pegasus Scout Battalion uses it as a mark, so the official recognizes it. "
Li Jiangyao nodded: "I see... you haven't asked for advice yet?"
The young man quickly said: "Oh, Tu Wushou, the official, was originally the foreman of 'Three Cups of Drunk', the largest restaurant in Hetian City. Last year, Mr. Shi, the chief official of the Government Department came to inspect and thought that there should be a person here to coordinate and supervise Various business groups were involved in various affairs, so they rushed to the shelves and forced me to take on this role."
Li Jiangyao burst into laughter when he heard this: "No wonder, no wonder, Lord Situ is wearing a court uniform and a crown, but he has not changed his past style, which is admirable."
Situ Wushou smiled bitterly: "Sir, don't be sarcastic about the official. This official job is really not easy to do. Come on, come on, please come in, let's go inside to drink tea and talk."
Li Jiangyao ordered his men to stay where they were, and only took Du Jian and followed Situ Wushou into the city guard's mansion. This place was originally the official office of the Suiye Kingdom, and a small courtyard was specially designated for the use of the Shengtang Government Office.
The three of them walked all the way to the room. Situ Wushou ordered the servants to serve tea, then turned around and asked, "I haven't asked you for your honorific titles yet."
Before Li Jiangyao could speak, Du Jian, who was standing next to him, shouted loudly: "This is Lord Li Jiangyao of the Pegasus Scout Battalion of the Shengtang Town Protectorate! Are you still not polite?"
In fact, the position in this small school is at the same level as the ninth-grade official in the government department, but I don't know if Situ Wushou can't figure out the rank here, or if Du Jian's loud voice is really scary, he As soon as he finished speaking, Situ Wushou stood up obediently and gave Li Jiangyao a grand salute to meet a Shangguan.
Li Jiangyao was secretly amused, and did not deliberately correct him. He just waved his hand and said, "No need to go out. Sit down. I have something to ask you."
Situ Wushou only had half of his buttocks next to the chair, and said respectfully: "Master Li, if you have any advice, please give me your advice."
Li Jiangyao: "Do the caravans coming and going from here, I mean Shengtang's caravans, usually register with you?"
Situ Wushou was slightly startled: "That's not necessary. As long as they get the customs clearance documents issued by the Government and Municipal Affairs Bureau in Anxi, they can travel unimpeded throughout the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang without any need to come here to register. Unless...unless they are encountered. When I encounter any difficulties or lose my documents, I will go to the official for help."
Li Jiangyao nodded silently, and then asked: "Which route does the caravan usually take? Is it planned before?"
Situ Wushou: "Generally speaking, there are two main roads in Suiye Kingdom, both of which can pass through the ghost desert and connect the east and west. However, for the sake of safety, the travel plan of the caravan is often kept secret to prevent anyone from having an affair. Bandits robbed money along the way. In the past few years, the banditry was serious, and the caravans were miserable. The Suiye Kingdom specially mobilized troops and horses to carry out a ruthless crackdown, and set up sentries on the two main roads. From then on, caravans were rarely heard of. It was about being robbed.”
"Does the oasis over the town of Mashha belong to the main road you mentioned?" Li Jiangyao suddenly asked.
Situ Wushou thought for a while: "Mashha... Mashha... Oh, that's where you are talking about. Of course it is the main road! Go west for more than ten miles and you will come out of the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang. La."
After speaking, he hesitated and asked tentatively: "Sir, are you here because of those four murders?"
Li Jiangyao nodded: "Not four, but five."
"Something happened again?!" Situ Wushou opened his mouth in surprise: "Damn it! Or is it our Shengtang's caravan?"
"Tell me what you know." Li Jiangyao said calmly.
Situ Wushou straightened up and lowered his voice: "Sir, there must be a ghost here! And it's Manihan's ghost that can't escape!"
Li Jiangyao: "Mani Khan? Who is he?"
Situ Wushou subconsciously looked around: "Manihan is one of the four major governors of Suiye Kingdom, and Hetian is his fiefdom. This guy has always been hostile to our Shengtang. He has one thing on the surface and another behind his back. His typical smile hides a knife. .The most important thing is that the official accidentally discovered that Manihan actually has Turkic ancestry!"
When he heard the word "Turkic", Li Jiangyao couldn't help but feel moved in his heart: "Since Manihan is the governor of Suiye Kingdom, he is equivalent to the royal family of our Shengtang. If he really has Turkic blood, he will definitely try his best to hide it. What do you think?" How do you know?"
"I heard what Ti Lian said." Situ Wushou said: "Ti Lian is a Qiuci dancer and the top star of Three Cups of Drunken House. I used to take good care of her. The two of them were like brothers and sisters. One time Ti Lian was recruited by Manny Khan. When she was sleeping in the palace, while drunk, Manihan told her that he was half-Turkic. Moreover, he accidentally told her a big conspiracy!"
