Chapter 772
The beast we saw last time was lying lazily in the corner.
In addition to Pingxi Marquis Zhuang Yan, Young Marquis Zhuang Yunfei, and Zhuang Qiang were also there.
And on the ground in the middle of the yard, there were twenty corpses, which were constantly emitting wisps of black air, and their bodies were decaying rapidly.
These twenty people were none other than the twenty palace soldiers responsible for escorting the Netherworld Pill.
Pingxi Hou Zhuangyan's expression was very ugly.
Someone assassinated twenty palace soldiers in the palace. This was a slap in the face of Marquis Pingxi!
If the palace knew about this, King Yin would definitely blame him, Marquis Pingxi, for not doing things well.
Although there are only twenty palace soldiers, they represent the face of the palace.
Therefore, we can understand why Pingxi Hou Zhuangyan's face is so ugly.
Xiao Zhan didn't know why Marquis Pingxi called him here, so he stood beside the housekeeper Wu Yong.
Zhuang Yunfei and Zhuang Qiang also frowned, not knowing what they were thinking.
Not long after, a burly man wearing black armor walked into the courtyard, exuding a powerful aura from the Nether River Realm.
The burly man knelt on one knee, raised his hands to Pingxi Marquis and said:
"Xie Jing, the commander of the imperial army, pays homage to the Marquis."
Marquis Pingxi asked coldly:
"I heard that the person who snatched the Nether Pill has been caught, right?"
Xie Jing nodded, "There are two groups of gangsters, one of which is a traitor in the government army and has been arrested."
"The other group, two young men, were also captured by Master Zhuang Qiang and are now being escorted outside the Marquis' Mansion."
Having said this, Xie Jing suddenly knelt on the ground with both legs, "Your Majesty, there is a traitor in the army. This is my dereliction of duty. Please punish me!"
Pingxi Hou glanced at Xie Jing coldly, "Of course I will punish you, but for now, bring the gangsters up first."
Xie Jing nodded and walked out of the courtyard. Not long after, he led dozens of government soldiers and escorted a hundred refugees into the courtyard.
In addition to these one hundred refugees, there were two young people.
As soon as the refugees saw the solemnity, they knelt on the ground, crying and begging for mercy.
The two young men stood there expressionlessly, with no fear on their faces, but their eyes were full of death.
As for the one hundred refugees, there was indeed an old man who was kneeling on the ground begging for mercy with a face full of fear.
Xie Jing pointed at the old man and said to Marquis Pingxi:
"Master Marquis, this man is the father of the person in charge of the seventh battalion of our army. The person in charge of the seventh battalion was killed by me on the spot when he was escaping."
"On the day of the incident, it was he who took the ninety-nine refugees, disguised as soldiers, and took the Netherworld Pill from the hands of twenty soldiers of the palace."
Saying that, Xie Jing glanced at the old man with a murderous look on his face, and growled: "Why don't you get it right and tell the Marquis exactly what happened that day!"
The old man was so frightened that he trembled wildly. He quickly climbed to the front and cried:
"Master Marquis, I plead guilty. It was my son who was so obsessed that he asked me to bring these refugees to pretend to be government soldiers to take over the batch of Netherworld Pills."
"But the Netherworld Pill is really not in my hands."
The old man cried, pointed at the two young men, and shouted:
"It's them!"
"They were the ones who took the Netherworld Pill away from me again!"
Marquis Pingxi looked coldly and glanced at these refugees.
Feeling the power emanating from Pingxi Hou Zhuangyan's body, these refugees turned pale and trembled all over, not daring to say a word.
Marquis Pingxi looked at the two young men expressionlessly and asked:
"Who sent you to grab the Netherworld Pill?"
The two young men looked at each other and saw one of them saying:
"We want those Netherworld Pills ourselves. Since we were caught today, we accept our fate. Lord Marquis, just deal with us."
Xie Jing directly pulled out his saber, as if he was about to take action.
Kill these two men.
Marquis Pingxi slowly spoke:
"Here comes someone."
Then he saw a black shadow rising into the sky from outside the yard and landing in the middle of the yard.
This is a man wearing a black mask, revealing only a pair of cold eyes.
Marquis Pingxi waved his hand and said:
"Lock these people up and interrogate them again."
Xie Jing and others frowned.
They never knew that there was such a person beside Pingxi Marquis.
Zhuang Qiang looked at Pingxi Hou, cupped his fists and said:
"Father, these people have done such bold things. It's best to kill them in public to serve as a warning to others!"
"There's no rush," Zhuang Yan shook his head, "I have my own arrangements on how to deal with them."
A hint of worry flashed across Zhuang Qiang's eyes, but he did not dare to say anything else.
Soon, the two young men and a group of refugees were taken away.
Zhuang Yan then pointed at the twenty corpses in the middle of the yard and asked coldly:
"Let's talk about what to do about this matter."
"If someone can kill people in my palace, they will be killed by the soldiers of the palace. If King Yin gets angry, I, the prince, will not be the one to do it!"
Marquis Pingxi looked at his son Zhuang Yunfei and asked in a deep voice: "Yunfei, what do you think we should do?"
Zhuang Yunfei looked solemn, "investigate thoroughly to the end!"
"But this matter cannot be hidden after all. We should immediately send someone to the palace to report it. It is said that a group of masters appeared among the refugees, robbed the Nether Pill and killed twenty palace soldiers."
Pingxi Hou nodded and looked at Zhuang Qiang again, "Zhuang Qiang, what do you think?"
Zhuang Qiang handed over his hand, "Father, just as Yun Fei said, we must not let the palace know that these twenty soldiers happened in our Pingxi Marquis Mansion."
"In addition, to be able to kill people in our palace, the killer must be very strong."
"We should impose martial law immediately."
Marquis Pingxi said "hmm" and looked at Xie Jing, the commander of the army.
Xie Jing let out a breath, "Master Marquis, the two young masters are right, we should investigate thoroughly immediately. I am giving an order that all soldiers in the government are not allowed to leave the camp without permission."
Marquis Pingxi looked at Xiao Zhan at this time and asked in a deep voice:
""Xiao Zhan, from your perspective, how should this matter be handled?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the courtyard looked at Xiao Zhan subconsciously, with doubts in their eyes.
Why should we ask Xiao Zhan for his opinion on matters concerning the Hou Mansion?
He is not yet in office.
Could it be that Mr. Hou attaches great importance to Xiao Zhan?
Xiao Zhan didn't expect Marquis Pingxi to ask him.
He thought for a while and said:
"The key to this matter is who killed these twenty soldiers, and why did they kill them?"
Marquis Pingxi nodded, "What do you think it is for?"
Xiao Zhan said truthfully:
"There are only two reasons. One is that someone wants to kill the Marquis and wants King Yin to be angry and hold the Marquis accountable. If this is the reason, someone must have reported the death of these twenty royal soldiers to the palace. .”
"There is another reason..." Xiao Zhan paused for two seconds, "That is that the truth about snatching the Nether Pill has not been caught, and is still hidden in the Hou Mansion. The purpose of killing these twenty soldiers of the Hou Mansion is to capture Completely cut off this thread."
As soon as these words came out, an imperceptible chill flashed through the eyes of Xie Jing, the commander of the army, Wu Yong, the steward, and Zhuang Qiang, the adopted son of the Marquis of Pingxi.
Xie Jing snorted coldly, looked at Xiao Zhan and said:
"What you mean by this is that the person we caught is a fake? Did I catch him myself to make up for the crime?"
"How dare I do such a thing as deceiving the Marquis?"
Xiao Zhan shook his head, "I'm just speculating. Commander Xie, don't panic."
"Who is panicking?!" Xie Jing glared at Xiao Zhan, "What do you mean, you want to say that I, Xie Jing, planned all this?"
Xiao Zhan shook his head, "I didn't say that, Commander, don't be angry."
Pingxihou watched this scene expressionlessly, looked at Xiao Zhan and said:
"Keep talking."
Xiao Zhan nodded.
"Whether it's the first reason or the second reason, it's actually not very important."
"We can report it directly to the palace and say that the real culprit has been apprehended."
"I believe that the palace doesn't care whether the people we caught are real or fake. What the palace wants is to take this opportunity to clear out the refugees within the territory of all the princes."
Pingxi Hou Zhuangyan frowned, "So, you mean, this matter is over?"
Xiao Zhan shook his head, "That's enough on the surface. We'll investigate in private. After all, those who dare to cause trouble under your nose, Lord Marquis, are indeed too arrogant."
Pingxihou suddenly smiled, "That's right."
Zhuang Qiang looked at Marquis Pingxi with a smile at this time, "Father, Xiao Zhan's ideas are similar to ours. I think it's better to let Xiao Zhan be responsible for investigating this matter."
"We are the only people here who know about Xiao Zhan now. He is not working in the Hou Mansion now. It is most appropriate to quietly investigate the truth of this matter."
