In the end, the police brought a total of more than ten people who had come into contact with Jie Ligu.
This number of people was within Zhao Xun's expectation.
Because in his opinion, since Jie Ligu is a remnant of the Demon Sect and an informant and spy planted by the northern barbarians in Chang'an City, he will definitely keep a low profile as much as possible in his daily life and try his best to avoid contacting the neighbors. not in contact.
After all, he is a barbarian from the North, and his accent cannot be changed in a short time.
If you say more, you will be wrong; if you say less, you will be wrong; if you say nothing, it will be good.
For Jie Ligu, the most important thing was to stay silent as much as possible and not attract anyone's attention.
Otherwise, you may get burned.
After questioning each of these dozen people, Zhao Xun once again confirmed his conjecture.
It seems that there are no clues to be drawn from these people.
Seeing that Zhao Xun was about to leave, Magistrate Kou, who had finally come to his senses, quickly came over with a smile on his face. .
"Master Zhao, if you need to go down to the official position, just give me your orders. I will be willing to share Mr. Zhao's worries anytime and anywhere."
Zhao Xun turned his head and smiled noncommittally at the toady as a response.
...
...
After returning to the Bad People's Yamen, Wangcai and Jia Xingwen immediately greeted them.
"Mingyun, you're back. You've been gone for most of the day, but you worried me to death."
Jia Xingwen pointed at the sun and said complainingly.
It was noon when Zhao Xun went out, and they were still eating. It was already sunset by the time Zhao Xun came back.
"Yes, brother Mingyun, your status is different now. Although His Majesty has not appointed you, it is clear that you are the acting bad commander of the bad man's yamen. So many people only follow your lead. If you disappear, whose orders will we listen to? .”
fo
The two people talked to each other, but Zhao Xun did not complain, but smiled and said: "It's my fault this time, I went out too hastily. But do you know what I found?"
Zhao Xun is a god in solving cases, and Wangcai and Jia Xingwen know it better than anyone else.
And they also knew very well that Zhao Xun relied on intuition to solve the case.
Sometimes, even if the instinct comes, they can't stop him, so they didn't stop Zhao Xun at noon.
Thinking about it carefully now, Zhao Xun must have made a major discovery.
"Mingyun, tell me quickly."
Jia Xingwen could not suppress his excitement and curiosity for a long time, and asked in Zhao Xun's ear.
"I found a remnant of the Demon Sect."
Zhao Xun doesn't hide it either. Wangcai and Jia Xingwen are both his good brothers and the people he trusts the most.
In front of the two of them, he would not hide anything.
"The remnants of the Demon Sect?"
Jia Xingwen frowned and said, "You mean, you found clues about people in the Demon Sect?"
"Yes, it should be a spy planted in the capital by the northern barbarians. This person is called Jie Ligu, and he suddenly disappeared yesterday. I also saw the file records about him and that's why I suddenly rushed out."
Zhao Xun slowly explained: "This Jieligu lived in Xingshanfang. And Xingshanfang is within the jurisdiction of Wannian County. So of course I went to Wannian County and asked Wannian County The county magistrate assists me in investigating the whereabouts of the missing Jie Ligu."
Zhao Xun paused for a moment, and then continued after the two of them digested it: "Then we went to the place where Jie Ligu lived before. Guess what, it was a shanty town where poor people gathered. The conditions inside It was so bad that Magistrate Kou almost vomited it out. You didn't see his uncomfortable look. Of course, these are not important. The important thing is that I smelled the evil spirit in the place where Jie Ligu lives."
When he said this, Zhao Xun instinctively looked at Jia Xingwen.
Jia Xingwen laughed loudly and said, "Okay, okay, Mingyun, you are now a disciple."
Zhao Xun was taken advantage of by Jia Xingwen but was not annoyed. He smiled and said: "Yes, so I immediately judged that there was something wrong with Jie Ligu. I ordered everyone who had been in contact with Jie Ligu to be brought to the Yamen for investigation. Inquiry. But after some inquiries, no substantial clues were obtained."
Zhao Xun put his hands behind his back, as if he had everything under control.
"This further confirms my judgment. A person who has contact with so few people and does not talk about important things must be a strictly trained spy. This person must be a spy placed by the northern barbarians in Chang'an City .”
Zhao Xun said it very seriously, but until now, he still didn't know where this detailed work was hidden.
"The top priority is to find this person as soon as possible. This person's whereabouts are very critical. Only after we find him can we use him as bait to dig out all the secrets of other northern barbarians planted in Chang'an City."
Upon hearing this, Wangcai and Jia Xingwen completely understood Zhao Xun's thinking.
Jia Xingwen nodded and said: "Mingyun, just tell us how we should cooperate with you. Just mention it. As long as we can do it, we will try our best to cooperate."
"It's only now that I understand that it's unreliable to rely on others. You can't rely on trash like Wannian County Government. You ordered the brothers in the bad people's government office to follow the records of the city where Jie Ligu often went. Once I searched for it, I didn't believe that a living person could really disappear without a trace."
Zhao Xun absolutely did not believe that Jie Ligu had disappeared. Not even a member of the Demon Sect can master such terrifying and weird magic.
So Jie Ligu must still be in Chang'an City.
Moreover, Zhao Xun felt that Jie Ligu was probably not too far away from Xingshanfang, and was probably in Xingshanfang.
This trick is called darkness under the light, which means that the more dangerous places are sometimes safer.
Because from a common sense analysis, most people think this plan is not tenable.
Of course, Zhao Xun is not sure that this is necessarily the case. It can only be said that his intuition guided him to search from the inside out.
"Okay, no problem. I'll take care of it."
Jia Xingwen, who is also a bad guy in Feipao, naturally takes on this responsibility.
As for prosperity, it is a bit urgent.
"Brother Mingyun, what about me? What should I do for you?"
"Wangcai, go and check for me the people who have recently bought a large amount of rice noodles and see if there is anyone acting suspiciously."
As a talent trained by a top merchant family, Wangcai immediately understood Zhao Xun's intentions.
"Brother Mingyun, do you want to see who is hoarding goods?"
Zhao Xun nodded happily and said, "Those who know me will be rich."
The ultimate goal of the northern barbarians sneaking into Chang'an City was to cooperate inside and outside to help the barbarian army marching south to capture this great city in the world.
Just spreading rumors is definitely not enough, so the most likely thing these guys will do is to hoard goods and raise the price of food in Chang'an City to create panic.
Once panic spreads, they are likely to succeed if they incite more.
...
...
The human heart is always the most unpredictable.
Even Zhao Xun couldn't directly find out who was the undercover agent of the northern barbarians in the huge crowd.
But through arrangements from all parties, he gradually found some clues by casting a net for investigation.
"Judging from the current situation, there are three grain stores that are buying large quantities of rice grains. I ordered people to investigate their backgrounds, and it turned out that they basically all have northern backgrounds."
Wangcai said it very naturally, but it was very different in Zhao Xun's heart.
"Northern background..."
Zhao Xun thought carefully: "The north is very big and wide. Which place in the north do you mean specifically?"
"Shuozhou."
Wangcai said without hesitation.
"Shuozhou!"
When Zhao Xun heard these two words, he felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
"If I remember correctly, Shuozhou should be the defense zone of Jiedushi Wang Zhongyi, right?"
"good."
Wangcai nodded and said: "This Wang Zhongyi can be considered an old friend of ours. Shuozhou is indeed his defense area. I heard that this time the northern barbarians went south in large numbers and bypassed Shuozhou."
"Tsk, tsk."
Jia Xingwen, who had been silent all this time, couldn't help but speak up this time: "In this way, this matter is actually inseparable from Wang Zhongyi."
Zhao Xun quickly put an end to this unreliable inference: "Don't rush to judgment yet. You have forgotten the results of our investigation last time. What you see is not necessarily the truth, but may be the appearance, or even possible It’s an illusion. From this point of view, we are actually very likely to be misled.”
After Zhao Xun mentioned this, the two of them remembered the past when they investigated the Wang Zhongyi case last time.
"That's true. The outcome of the Wang Zhongyi case was really unexpected at that time. Who would have thought that the powerful left prime minister would be the mastermind behind it."
Jia Xingwen sighed and said: "It can only be said that you know people but don't know their hearts. The left prime minister seems so loyal, but he didn't expect that he turned out to be a rebel."
Zhao Xun thought to himself that this is because you are short-sighted. Rebels pretend to be loyal ministers. There are many cases where loyal ministers pretend to be rebels and rebels. It is nothing more than a way of playing.
In fact, in the final analysis, what matters is the results.
As long as the result is good, the process doesn't matter.
After all, this is an era of consequentialism.
"Brother Mingyun, what should we do now? Have we ordered people to seal down these grain stores?"
As soon as Wang Cai finished speaking, Zhao Xun raised his hand and said: "Wait a minute. I want to put a long line to catch big fish."
"Playing the long game to catch the big fish?"
Wangcai was stunned for a moment.
"How can you take a long time to catch a big fish?"
"in this way..."
Zhao Xun called Wangcai to come over, and then lowered his voice and said.
"Wonderful, wonderful. Brother Mingyun, you are really a mastermind."
After Wangcai heard this, he was filled with admiration.
Zhao Xun waved his hand and said: "This is nothing. Just watch, these guys will show their fox tail sooner or later."
...
...
Li Taiping, the head of Yonghe County, and his party finally returned to Gyeonggi Province after a long journey.
They had a smooth journey along the way, but when they arrived outside Chang'an City, they found that the atmosphere was very unusual.
Originally, Chang'an City was a prosperous city with countless caravans coming and going every day.
But now not only is there no caravan in sight, there are not even a few people in sight.
"Go ask someone personally and see what's going on."
Seeing that the city gate was closed, Li Taiping, the lord of Yonghe County, was extremely confused.
"As commanded."
A fourth-grade cultivator clasped his fists and strode toward the city gate.
I don’t know if I don’t ask, but I’m really shocked when I ask.
It turns out that the reason why the gates of Chang'an City are closed during the day is due to martial law.
When he reported the news to Li Taiping, the head of Yonghe County, the noble clan daughter was also in disbelief.
You know, she has lived for more than ten years, and in her memory, Chang'an City was under martial law only once.
That time it was still King Yong's rebellion, and the emperor ordered the entire city to enforce martial law to search for the remnants of the rebels.
But only this time.
Li Taiping knew that something big must have happened when Chang'an City was under martial law.
So what happened that forced the majestic city of Chang'an to impose martial law.
"Ask again and find out why the martial law is enforced. If anyone scolds you, show them this token."
Li Taiping took out a token and handed it to the fourth-level guard.
This token is the exclusive token of Prince Qi's Mansion, symbolizing the identity of Prince Qi's Mansion.
Anyone who sees this token is like seeing the King of Qi.
"As commanded."
The fourth-level cultivator took the token and turned around and left.
After about a cup of tea, he left and returned, and replied with great respect to Li Taiping: "Your Majesty, the County Lord, the northern barbarians are moving south, and many northern barbarians have also mixed into Chang'an City. The imperial court ordered the whole city to Martial law, at first it was only allowed to enter but not allowed to leave, but now it is not even allowed to enter."
"What? Northern barbarians."
Li Taiping, the head of Yonghe County, couldn't believe his ears when he heard this.
In her impression, the northern barbarians had always been a very illusory concept.
When she was very young, she heard her father tell stories about the barbarians in the north.
According to his father, the northern barbarians are a group of extremely cruel barbarians who drink blood and hair.
These guys live in the northern grasslands, chasing water and grass.
When the horses are fat in autumn, they will send their troops south to plunder the Central Plains.
The northern barbarians are good at mounted archery, and even children of several years old can complete archery movements on horseback. Therefore, their cavalry is very strong. Whether fighting alone or attacking together, the Central Plains cavalry is far from their opponent.
This is not only true of the Great Zhou Dynasty, but also true of almost all dynasties in the Central Plains.
In contrast, the northern barbarians are not good at positional warfare, especially not at siege warfare.
Lacking siege weapons, they could only look at the city and sigh.
Often they could only plunder some small counties with not too high walls, and most of them plundered villages.
So this time the northern barbarians marched south in large numbers, and they were heading towards Chang'an City?
How can this be?
You must know that Chang'an City is the most majestic city in the world.
Countless people, countless soldiers, and countless defensive equipment.
Faced with such an almost indestructible city, why should the northern barbarians attack?
Why do they have confidence and courage?
Li Taiping found it difficult to understand.
"Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
Li Taiping confirmed again and again.
"Qi County Lord is really right, that's what the guard guarding the city said. He scolded me at first, but when I took out the token you gave me to Prince Qi's Mansion and revealed my identity, he Then he answered me respectfully."
"I see."
Li Taiping murmured: "Then have you asked him if we can enter the city?"
"this..."
The practitioners of the fourth level looked troubled when they heard this.
"My subordinates asked him, and they said that no one can be allowed into the city. This is His Majesty's order."
The fourth-level cultivator paused and said, "But he also said that Prince Qi has asked them to let you go to the Imperial Manor outside the city for a while if they encounter you returning to the capital."
...
...
