Posthouse in the western suburbs of Chang'an City.
Suddenly there was a sound of "vomiting", and an official rushed to the door and vomited. Then he looked up and saw dust flying on the official road.
"The county captain is here."
"Where is the body?"
"Please come inside. This place is just west of Fengshui River and is under the jurisdiction of our Chang'an County."
"Don't worry about this, bring the person here for questioning."
Yan Zhenqing strode into the post house, and a fishy smell hit his nostrils. In the post house, the waiters and several residents were being escorted for questioning by the government officials.
"At night, the villain has rested. Hearing the noise, he was scolded by the thief and did not dare to make a sound. It was too dark to see their faces. All he knew was that they were taking the middle-aged guest officer away. …”
After roughly understanding the situation, Yan Zhenqing took Wu Zuo to check the body.
Wu Zuo walked into the veranda, looked at the horrific scene in front of him, and sighed.
"Except for the one whose neck was cut, everyone else was beheaded to death."
Wu Zuo pointed to a corpse in the veranda, carefully observed the wounds, and explained what "killing by beheading" was.
"County Lieutenant, please take a look. The cut surface is smooth. It can be seen that the murder weapon is an extremely sharp knife. It is heavy and long. The murderer was very strong, so he can cut it off with one knife. The student speculated that it was an old soldier holding a long-handled Mo knife. .”
"How to confirm?"
"Wounds mostly appear on the neck, shoulders, arms, legs, etc. This is the habit of old soldiers going into battle to kill the enemy, because the joints are not covered by armor. Rangers and bandits kill with light and quick skills, so wounds should be left more on the heart. County Lieutenant, let’s see, is there anyone in the house with a heart and lung injury?”
Yan Zhenqing took it seriously and said: "It was indeed done by the old soldier."
He turned into the main room, not bothered by the blood, and was about to lean over to explore the body of the Huihe leader.
The sound of horses neighing was heard outside the post house, and a group of government servants rushed in.
"This case will be taken over by Jingzhao Mansion! Yiying County officials should immediately step down."
Yan Zhenqing turned around and saw that even Jingzhao Yin Xiaojiong had arrived in person.
He had no choice but to stop investigating the case and stepped forward to greet him.
"Qing ministers came so quickly." Xiao Jiong said: "Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and at this time of year, such a murderous case happened."
Yan Zhenqing faintly heard Xiao Jiong's tone that seemed to be gloating about others' misfortune, and said in deep thought: "This case occurred under the jurisdiction of Chang'an County, and I cannot absolve myself from the blame..."
"Hush!"
The horses neighed again, and a loud shout sounded at the post house.
"Guo Qianli, the left middle marshal of Beiya Longwu Army, was ordered to supervise the case! Where is Jing Yin?!"
A majestic general rushed in with his sword in hand, glanced straight into the veranda, and cursed: "Eating dog intestines! It was chopped into pieces. The person who did it was either a border soldier or a bandit."
As he spoke, he walked towards Xiao Jiong and when he saw Yan Zhenqing, he immediately shouted: "Young official, step aside, this is not a case that you can get involved in!"
"retreat!"
The soldiers of the Longwu Army shouted loudly and expelled all the officials from the Chang'an County Government.
Guo Qianli then said: "The general ordered me to supervise the case. Are you sure that the case is related to Pei Mian?"
"I'm sure." Xiao Jiong said firmly, "The person who was taken away was Pei Mian, and these Huihe people are probably inseparable from the East Palace."
"Find Pei Mian immediately, the general wants to see him."
While he was talking, another fast horse came.
"Jingyin, looking for... found Pei Mian..."
~~
Yan Zhenqing returned to the Chang'an County government office and analyzed what he saw today.
I thought the Pei Mian case had been settled, but I didn't expect that another major case would arise, causing the Right Prime Minister's Mansion to lure out the Uighur caravan maintained by Dong Gong's men.
He gradually became restless and had no intention of sitting in the office, so he returned home directly.
"Alang, why did you come back so early today?"
Wei Yuncai came up to greet him, and Yan Zhenqing immediately asked: "Then the boy hasn't been at home these days?"
"Yes." Wei Yun said with a smile: "I got the first place in the examination at the age of 20 and lived in Du's house until the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now everyone in Chang'an says that Jie Tou is your disciple. Sanniang was muttering just now that she would have to take him to see her elder after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Grandpa and mother-in-law.”
"Speak to Liu Niang and ask him to stay at home."
"What happened?"
"It's raining heavily, don't get caught."
~~
Du Wulang read for a while in the morning and fell asleep on the desk at some point.
It was noon when he woke up. He went to the west wing to look for Xue Bai, but when he opened the door, there was no one there.
"Where did you go again?"
From the backyard to the front yard, no one was there, but the concierge came in a hurry and said that someone came to see Xue Langjun. He refused to give his name, but he was obviously a member of a powerful family.
Du Wulang's scalp went numb as soon as he heard this. He was already very experienced and did not say whether Xue Bai was at home or not. He only ordered someone to come to the lobby to meet him and talk about some boring talk.
"How do you know that you came to our Du family to find Xue Bai...Okay, okay, Quan Fu, please go and see if Xue Bai is awake."
But I don't know where Xue Bai changed back again, yawning and looking like he had just woken up. If Du Wulang hadn't known him too well, he would have thought that he had made a mistake just now and mistakenly thought that he was not at home.
Xue Bai only glanced at the visitor and asked, "The prince-in-law wants to see me?"
"Hush, Xue Lang, be silent."
"It's okay, there's no need to hide, let's go."
Du Wulang looked at this scene and guessed that Xue Bai had done something powerful again, which he had covered up with his understatement.
…
Pingkangfang, Xianyi Princess Mansion.
At noon, Li Niang insisted on letting Yang Hui drink with her for a few drinks. At this time, her cheeks were still flushed with alcohol, and she was lying on Yang Hui's shoulder, talking to herself.
"Prince-in-law, I see that Li Heng has become more and more unpopular with the saint recently. I will depose him and support my brother as his heir. Only then can you and I continue to live happily."
"Don't say such things, saints don't like to hear them."
Li Niang was unhappy and bit Yang Hui's shoulder hard. She was a little drunk and didn't know what to do.
Yang Hui was in pain and had to explain: "The saint longs for immortality in his heart, but you are always making plans for his death. Can he be happy? Therefore, it is said that it is difficult to fight for the throne. You feel that every time you are only a little short of it, it is obviously If he is in a hurry, the thoughts of a saint will be unpredictable, which means going too far is not enough."
Having been involved in the battle for reserve positions for more than ten years, he has rich experience and understands the principles clearly. It's a pity that princes and grandsons like him have a common problem, that is, they have high vision and low hand.
But Li Niang didn't even want to listen to the truth and said angrily: "Blame me? You blame me?"
"well."
Unable to reason with this arrogant princess, Yang Hui sighed and fell silent.
"Why did you bring Xue Bai here today?" Li Niang asked, "They just said that we colluded. Are we not afraid of being discovered?"
"If we don't contact him, he will definitely not contact us." Yang Hui said: "Invite him to see you and take some risks so that you can hold him in your hands."
"what for?"
"Control him and tie him to our boat. If the matter is revealed, we will just be scolded by the saint, but he will die, so the more contact we have, the more leverage he will have in our hands. What's more, we I also know his identity.”
"As expected of my consort..."
After a long time, Li Niang was almost sober from drinking, and then Xue Bai arrived.
She immediately became unhappy again, got up, and walked to Xue Bai to teach him a few words.
"You're here now, don't you know who you're working for?!"
Xue Bai looked at her lightly and asked, "Princess is not afraid of me now?"
Li Niang straightened her hands on her hips, raised her head and said, "You are not a ghost. What is this princess afraid of you doing?"
"The princess is drunk."
"Eighteen Mother, you are indeed drunk." Yang Hui had no choice but to step forward and help her back.
"I'm not drunk." Li Niang said: "Since you are one of ours, let's talk about how to abolish Li Heng in the next step and support my brother as the heir apparent."
Yang Hui comforted her again and said to Xue Bai: "I asked you to come here quietly, why did you come so openly?"
"Sooner or later, this matter will not be hidden from the eyes and ears of interested people. If anyone asks, the prince-in-law can calmly answer that he wants to play cards with Xue to turn enemies into friends."
Xue Bai is not stupid. If someone discovers the secret meeting, the two parties will bear completely different responsibilities. During the annual exam, he took a risk out of helplessness, but now there is no need to leave more clues to Yang Hui.
Yang Hui was displeased and struck again, saying, "What if I ask about your life experience?"
Xue Bai said: "To be honest, as for the body contract, my consort has never seen my body contract."
"you!"
Li Niang suddenly realized that she had been deceived.
Xue Bai exchanged a piece of East Palace crime evidence for a body deed. As a result, the crime certificate was used to protect his person, and the body deed was returned to him. He is still saying this now.
"How dare you play tricks on me, princess? I've exposed your background!"
"We are all our own people, why bother with internal strife?" Xue Bai said: "At least this time we worked together to deal with the East Palace, it was quite effective."
Yang Hui felt that this boy was difficult to control, unlike a sixteen-year-old boy, but he still planned to control him.
He took a few steps and said, "Will you go to the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet tomorrow?"
"yes."
"Is there any way to help King Sheng please the saint?"
Xue Bai pondered: "Now is not the opportunity to make a splash. Li Heng seems to be in danger, but in fact he does not threaten the saint. If he stands up to fight for favor at this time, he will make the saint unhappy."
"Defense?" Li Niang scolded: "You speak nicely when you want us to take action, but you are very reasonable when we want you to take action!"
Although Yang Hui understood the meaning of Xue Bai's words, he still sneered: "You are willing to offer fried vegetables, dominoes, and poems to Mrs. Guo Guo. Now you say you want to be loyal to King Sheng, but you don't want to show any sincerity?"
As far as Xue Bai was concerned, the right thing to do now was to increase his reputation, expand his connections, win favors from the saints, prepare to become an official, and quietly accumulate strength. Li Longji was disgusted by jumping up and down in the fight for the reserve too early, but he still fought for others, which did no good at all.
Previously, I had no choice but to give Dong Gong a hard blow to make him calm down. This is forced, so others are willing to sympathize with him.
Right now, the couple wants to reach out and pinch him to make him take the initiative to stir up trouble.
Because he did not have the power of Gonu, they looked down upon him.
To put it bluntly, these two blind people, if you don’t give them a little show of their ability, they will immediately kick their noses into their faces.
"The prince-in-law wants sincerity, and we should give it to him. But..."
"You're still making it up?! The conditions were agreed upon at that time."
"Then tell the truth." Xue Bai said slowly: "But I'm afraid that getting too close to me at the royal banquet will cause trouble to King Sheng."
"Ah."
"Princess, Prince Consort, haven't you heard of this?"
"What did you hear?"
"Murder cases." Xue Bai said: "There have been two murder cases recently. In one case, eight Uighur businessmen died in the post house in the western suburbs of Chang'an."
Yang Hui said calmly: "What does this have to do with us?"
"Don't worry, Prince Consort." Xue Bai said: "The second murder case is in the wilderness on the eastern outskirts of Chang'an City. At this moment, perhaps the government has just found Pei Mian's body."
"What did you say?!"
Yang Hui stood up suddenly, shocked, and asked: "Did you do it?"
Xue Bai didn't answer, just smiled.
"you……"
Yang Hui opened his mouth, but he didn't know what he said. In the past few days, he didn't even secretly go to the outer room for a private meeting; but Xue Bai actually found Pei Mian and killed him.
Think about it, if Xue Bai informed them of this matter, wouldn't he be afraid of them suing?
But there is no evidence, and more importantly, how to file a lawsuit? If she is involved in this matter, the Princess Mansion may not be able to bear the blame.
At first glance, the couple seemed a little confused. Li Niang felt fear again, and Yang Hui had no idea.
They originally wanted to hold Xue Bai, but now they found that he was too prickly to hold. They originally wanted to tie Xue Bai to a boat, but now they were worried about being tied to the boat by him.
~~
The eastern suburbs of Chang'an, Huangtai Township, Wannian County boundary.
There are overgrown weeds in the wilderness, which is exactly what "the grass on the original plain grows wither every year."
"Jingyin, the head has been found. It can be confirmed that it is Pei Mian."
"Take me to see..."
Xiao Jiong personally walked through the wilderness. When he saw the broken corpse, he suppressed the feeling of vomiting in his heart, squatted down and took a closer look.
Pei Mian's eyes widened until he died, and his eyes contained a lot. He came from a noble family, had outstanding talents, and had great ambitions. He probably didn't expect that he would die this way.
The chief of the Jingzhao Mansion came over, pointed at the head, and whispered: "Jingyin, please see, he suffered great pain before he died. The murderer was tortured and interrogated."
"But why cut off the head?"
"Either to vent their anger, or to pay homage, or these murderers are cruel and unscrupulous."
"The body was not buried and was even left on the side of the official road. The murderer was not afraid of being discovered."
"Shhh."
Xiao Jiong glanced at Long Wujun coming from behind.
The murderer deliberately let people discover the body, indicating that the murder was not committed by Dong Gong, but there was no need to remind Long Wujun.
What Xiao Jiong wants to do is to capture the most noteworthy point of the entire case for the Prime Minister's Office.
"Bring the head to the post house and confirm again. The Uighur caravan is definitely connected with Pei Mian."
"Here."
…
Xiao Jiong was not too tired and worked on the case all day. In the evening, he rushed to the Prime Minister's Mansion without stopping and reported many details in detail.
Compared to others, he had a little more friendship with Li Linfu.
When Xiao Jiong was appointed as the Minister of Hubu, he pronounced "Fu La" as "Fu Lie", so he was known as the "Fu Lie Minister" and was as famous as "Nongdeer Prime Minister" Li Linfu.
When Li Linfu saw him, he didn't even need to be separated by a screen.
"What did the veterans of the border army do? Who is the force?"
"I don't know at the moment." Xiao Jiong said: "The traces were cleaned very clean, extremely clean. Since I was appointed to the Jingzhao Mansion, I have never seen such a sophisticated murderer. He didn't even leave any hoof prints or car marks."
Li Linfu frowned, his eyes wary, and said: "That's too presumptuous, Chang'an City will never tolerate such a heinous assassination, it breaks the rules.
He never assassinated people, and only used Tang laws to destroy families and silence them. However, he had countless enemies, so he hated assassinations the most.
"Yes." Xiao Jiong said: "But the key to this case is still in the East Palace..."
"The real culprit must be found!"
Li Linfu gave the instructions very solemnly again and decided to strengthen the defense of the mansion, and then his mind turned to the serious matter of dealing with the East Palace.
"Is the evidence complete?"
"All." Xiao Jiong said: "This is extremely conclusive. The East Palace knew that the court was searching for Pei Mian, but still sent a caravan back to He to see Pei Mian. Whether he sent him away or silenced him, there is no denying it."
Li Linfu paced and pondered.
The reason why he dealt with the prince was different from that of Concubine Wu Hui's children. He was not so selfish. In fact, it was often connived by the saint, so he dared to take action.
The question is, how big a blow will this matter have to the prince's power?
~~
"Can you depose the prince?"
"Try your best. If it doesn't work, you should at least cut off the prince's arm."
That night, Xiao Jiong went to Anzhai in Daozhengfang again and conveyed Li Linfu's wishes to An Lushan.
Daozhengfang is close to Xingqing Palace. The saint gave Anlushan his residence here to facilitate his summoning to the palace. This shows the importance of Anlushan's holy family.
"Didn't the right prime minister just get rid of Fang Guan? What kind of power does the prince have?"
Xiao Jiong looked up, not knowing whether An Lushan was really stupid or pretending to be stupid, so he had to remind him: "The prince's biggest arms now have two people, both of whom are stumbling blocks on the future of An Dafu."
"Hey hey hey."
Only then did An Lushan giggle.
Right now, there are two people he fears the most. One was Pei Kuan, the former military governor of Fan Yang, who had a high reputation in the north, which prevented him from controlling Hebei; the other was Wang Zhongsi, the military governor of the four towns, who was disliked by others and was very afraid of Wang Zhongsi.
"Uihe people? The East Palace can collude with the Uihe people. This matter must be related to Wang Zhongsi." Xiao Jiong said: "I will carefully check the identity of Gu Wugu and involve Wang Zhongsi. An Dafu will see the opportunity to cooperate at the imperial banquet tomorrow. That’s it.”
"Okay, as long as Xiao Jingyin opens his mouth, Hu'er will definitely cooperate." An Lushan chuckled and said: "Why is it not the Khitans who protect Pei Mian, but the Huihe people?"
"An Dafu is brilliant." Xiao Jiong said: "As for Pei Kuan..."
"It's easy to handle, as long as Hu'er says a word to the saint."
Soon, Xiao Jiong had successfully negotiated with An Lushan.
He pondered, and then asked something seriously.
"I dare to ask An Dafu, did you...send the old soldiers to kill Pei Mian and those Uighurs?"
An Lushan's eyes widened suddenly, the sense of humor suddenly disappeared, and murderous intent burst out in anger.
"Who are you talking about?!"
Xiao Jiong was horrified and couldn't help but take two steps back and murmured: "But this case must be committed by veterans of the border army... There are few others in Chang'an City who can do this."
An Lushan quickly regained his dazed look, shook his head, and kept shaking the fat on his face to both sides, saying: "Hu'er didn't do it. How could Hu'er dare to commit such a murder?"
Even so, he knew that Xiao Jiong didn't quite believe it. After he retreated, he couldn't help but get angry and whipped the servant beside him.
"Who?! Who dares to frame me? Kill him!"
(End of chapter)
