In the cell, Chen Xia stood on the withered grass, his breathing becoming extremely heavy.
Now, he still doesn't know where everything is completely out of control.
But fortunately, he was not beheaded.
Looking at Li Xuan, who was standing in front of him, wearing a black gold silk robe, with a slender figure and a stern face, and listening to his cold and stern questioning, the pride in Chen Xia's eyes flashed away, he still had a trump card.
"The prince made a mistake. Chen has never thought about doing anything big, and the Chen family doesn't have any big plans. They just want to take advantage of the war to start, hoard some food and grass, and then make some money."
Chen Xia moved his body slightly twice. The shackles on his hands made him very uncomfortable. The next time he moved, the shackles immediately appeared in Li Xuan's eyes.
"You don't want to say it?" Li Xuan looked at Chen Xia with some surprise. Even now, Chen Xia is still arrogant and thinking about bargaining.
"It's not that I don't want to say it, it's that I really don't have anything to say." Chen Xia's expression calmed down, but his heart was completely firm. Although everyone in the northwest seems to be preparing for war in an orderly manner, there is nothing on the surface of the water. The undercurrent below is still strong.
The King of Nanchang wanted to ask questions from him, but it was not that easy without giving something...
At this time, Li Xuan nodded calmly and said: "Since you don't want to say it, then... someone comes!"
"Your Majesty!" Two Qianniu guards suddenly appeared at the prison door. Li Xuan waved his hand and said calmly: "Send him to the east gate and behead him immediately."
"Here!" Two Qianniu Guards immediately stepped forward, grabbed Chen Xia's arms with both hands and dragged him out.
Chen Xia was dragged to the door of the cell. At this time, he finally reacted, danced and shouted in a loud and panic: "My lord, I am not guilty, I am not guilty, I am guilty..."
With a "bang" sound, a palm slapped Chen Xia hard on the back of the head.
Chen Xia fainted immediately and was led out of the cell by Qian Niuwei.
In the entire cell, only Li Xuan and Zhang Qiniang, who was completely unconscious in the next cell, were left.
Li Xuan walked out of Chen Xia's cell and walked to the door of another cell in a few steps.
Looking at Zhang Qiniang, who was lying on her side with her eyes closed, wearing a soap prison uniform, but still looking beautiful, Li Xuan said lightly: "Okay, there's no need to pretend, I know you haven't fainted, if you still don't Get up, and I will behead you and your uncle in confusion."
"It seems inappropriate for the prince to kill people so casually." Zhang Qiniang's voice was a little hoarse. The original sound that sounded like an oriole was completely gone, leaving only the nervousness of the voice.
The next moment, Zhang Qiniang stopped moving her lower body. With a swing of her waist, she sat up straight away.
During the movements, the body formed an extremely exaggerated arc, which was unusually charming.
Li Xuan looked at this scene with a cold expression, and said coldly: "It was never me who killed, but the Qianniu Guards. The Qianniu Guards have the right to detect and eliminate traitors, so they took action. You will just die."
"But Qiniang is not a traitor, how can she be killed unjustly without trial?" Zhang Qiniang finally stopped playing tricks and stood up directly, looking at Li Xuan with a face filled with resentment.
"If you were still the daughter of the governor of a state, then you would naturally have to be more cautious when dealing with you, but now, you are no longer."
Li Xuan stood motionless at the door of the cell, looking at Zhang Qiniang coldly, and said: "Your father was executed for committing a crime. Do you think the Dunhuang Zhang family will delete your family's name from the genealogy because of this? Without the Dunhuang Zhang family, Behind the scenes, you are just an ordinary criminal, not even comparable to ordinary people. If you are wronged, you will be wronged, and if you die, you will die."
After Li Xuan's words, Zhang Qiniang was immediately stunned, with a trace of fear flashing in her eyes.
Because Li Xuan was right, the Dunhuang Zhang family would definitely do that.
If Zhang Yungong was still alive, then the Zhang family would definitely do their best to keep him as governor. But now that he is dead, the Zhang family would immediately give up on him decisively and completely.
They would even cut off all the ties that might implicate the Zhang family.
Among them, she, Zhang Qiniang, was included.
"And don't worry, you will never get a fair trial, because you know too much, and there are too many things that cannot be told in court, so you only need to be beheaded, hand over the head, and file it in Dali Temple. But." Li Xuan looked Zhang Qiniang up and down, a little disdainfully, and said with some emotion: "What a pity for such a pretty face."
"You still don't want to kill me." Zhang Qiniang keenly grasped the meaning of Li Xuan's words.
Li Xuan nodded lightly and said: "Yes, I really don't want to kill you that much, but unfortunately, if you are unwilling to say anything, you have no value."
"Could it be that I didn't tell you because you didn't ask?" Zhang Qiniang couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth.
Li Xuan looked surprised and said subconsciously: "Didn't I ask?"
Seeing Li Xuan's pretended surprise, Zhang Qiniang was speechless.
The surprise on Li Xuan's face disappeared instantly, and she said calmly: "Very good, you have the last chance of survival now. You have to understand that there is something wrong with what you said..."
Li Xuan's eyes have fallen on Zhang Qiniang's fair neck. The gaze was very light and not too hard, but Zhang Qiniang could clearly feel that even the slightest glance was enough to tear her throat.
"Excuse me, Your Majesty." Zhang Qiniang sat on the ground, looked up at Li Xuan, and bowed slightly again.
"I would like to know how many people are secretly communicating with Tubo in the entire Taozhou and Hezhou?" Li Xuan asked the most critical point in one sentence.
Zhang Qiniang hesitated for a moment, then said: "There is one thing that the prince needs to understand. In the entire northwest, are there three types of people who are secretly communicating with the Tubo people?"
"What three?"
"First, it is the hidden line that the Tubo people planted, bribed, and completely controlled; second, it is the broker who only sells information to make money, but is not controlled by the Tubo people; third, it is those old aristocratic families in Longxi, who from time to time ask the Tubo people Revealing true or false information, either to attack their opponents or for their own merits, in the end, the Tubo people are just pawns for them to use, and they don't think highly of the Tubo people." Zhang Qiniang's words were simple, but Very organized.
Li Xuan glanced at her in surprise and said softly: "It turns out that it was you who contacted Taozhou and the Tubo people!"
The breathing in the entire cell suddenly became suffocated. Zhang Qiniang wanted to open her mouth to defend herself, but her words had already said everything.
Li Xuan waved her hand and said: "You continue, what you just said is too false, I need to be more practical. Who is the person in charge of the Tubo spy operation, where does he usually operate, and how many informants does he have in the two states of Taohe? , who are the open stakes, hidden stakes, and dead stakes? Also, the identities of the brokers in our court, and the families who used the Tubo people. What kind of benefits did they get from secretly communicating with the Tubo people, and how did they get it? of?"
Zhang Qiniang's face turned pale and she looked at Li Xuan in disbelief: "You actually want to seize evidence of those people's liaison with Tubo!"
"Speak as much as you know. The more you speak, the more opportunities you have to spend the rest of your life as an ordinary citizen."
"Ordinary people?" Zhang Qiniang's face was full of bitterness, and she looked at Li Xuan and said, "Do you think someone like me will have a chance to become an ordinary person in the future?"
Li Xuan looked deeply at Zhang Qiniang. She had fair skin and tender flesh. She was used to enjoying glory and wealth. How could such a woman be an ordinary person.
Li Xuan nodded slowly and said: "It depends on how much you can do. If you can help me eliminate all these people, I won't mind letting you join the Secret Guard..."
"I don't want to join the Secret Guard..." Zhang Qiniang suddenly interrupted Li Xuan, then stared at Li Xuan and said, "I want to be yours... I mean, I want to serve under you."
Li Xuan's breathing suddenly became lighter, and then she said: "Those people in this palace seem to have some abilities, but they are all trained by the secret guards. They are okay now and are not watched by others, even if they are inevitably watched by others. When I arrive, I will eventually join the secret guards, and in the end I will take the same path as you."
"It's different. At least there is someone behind me." Zhang Qiniang's expression was extremely firm.
Li Xuan was stunned for a moment, and then said: "You go ahead and tell me. Frankness is very important here."
Zhang Qiniang lowered her head, thought for a moment, and said: "The Tibetan spy commander in Taozhou and Hezhou is named Hu Rile. He is one of the three most trusted spy commanders in Qinling in the entire Qinghai Plateau. He I have been staying in the Tongren area of Qingnan all year round, peeking at Diezhou, Kuozhou, Hezhou and Taozhou. I don't know the dead stakes under his control. I know three hidden stakes. As for the open stakes, those chess pieces that can be sacrificed at any time are of little use. "
After a slight pause, Zhang Qiniang continued: "As for the news brokers, there is one in Taozhou and operates in Lintan. There are two in Hezhou, one from the caravan and one from the water gang. There are none in Diezhou and Kuozhou. Those two places, The more you go, the faster you die.”
"continue."
"Finally, there are the long-established families in Longxi. Sometimes they use the Tubo people to ruin their enemies' affairs. Sometimes they spread false news to the Tubo people and then harvest their heads. Everyone is betting on each other. The information is useful." Zhang Qiniang smiled coldly and said: "Those aristocratic families are very careful in doing things. They never come forward on their own. They always pass the news to the Tubo people through the brokers in Taozhou and Hezhou. Anyway, the Tubo people are angry, and at most they can't do anything. Just kill some brokers."
"Let's talk about it." Li Xuan looked indifferent and said calmly: "Only those things that cause serious damage to military defense can kill people."
When an aristocratic family traps an aristocratic family, the court enjoys watching it; when an aristocratic family traps the common people, they are guilty but not serious; when an aristocratic family traps the military, it arouses public outrage.
Zhang Qiniang's face was solemn, and she finally said solemnly: "In the Taohe area, there are only two long-established families in Longxi who can really speak. One is the Hou Mochen family. Their family had a governor who died of illness last year. Although there is no one to replace him. But the power is still there. The other family is the Yuan family, which has a good relationship with the Chen family. Hezhou governor Yuan Ming. In the past hundred years, during the Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang, the Yuan family had six people, Ren Duo and Ren He. The governor of the state, in Hezhou, the Yuan family has a deep business."
"I know this, but the reason why the Yuan family can establish themselves in Hezhou is because they don't go out of their way, the overall situation is not unclear, they support the imperial court's western expedition, and they even have meritorious deeds, and the central government still trusts them..."
"But has the imperial court captured the plateau?" Zhang Qiniang showed a disdainful sneer on her face, and then said: "Although the Yuan family is not considered to be a loser, there is no doubt that they put their own interests first, and if the imperial court has the upper hand, they will They used the power of the imperial court to seize more interests secretly. If the imperial court failed, they would secretly communicate with Tubo and invade the imperial court's interests in the border states."
This is the family.
"Evidence." Li Xuan looked directly at Zhang Qiniang. The Yuan family was deeply rooted in Hezhou. It was difficult to move them. Especially now when the army went to war, it was more likely to cause unrest, so we must be cautious.
A proud smile appeared on Zhang Qiniang's face, and she whispered softly on her lips: "Yes!"
(End of chapter)
