After Li Zhiyun and others entered Xia County, they checked into an inn. The next morning, as soon as he finished his breakfast, Xu Tiecheng, Wang Xingben, and a middle-aged man in his thirties came to the post house to pay their respects. Xu Tiecheng introduced: "This is County Prime Minister Ding Guoyi." Oh, the three chief officials of Xia County have arrived. Li Zhiyun quickly chatted and joked with them, and then said: "Wang County Lieutenant, how was the inspection yesterday?"
"Back to the King of Chu, Zhou Shen was hit on the back of the head with a blunt object and died. The murder occurred at midnight the day before yesterday. I have sent people to investigate the case and strive to capture the real murderer as soon as possible." Li Zhiyun nodded and asked again: "Zhou Shen Where does he live? Does he have a family?" Xu Tiecheng said: "His home is in the county."
"Well, could you please three adults to lead the way? Let's go to his house and have a look."
Li Zhiyun took his entourage and followed the three county officials to Zhou Shen's house. They walked through two streets, crossed an alley, and entered a courtyard. Zhou Shen's family has learned of the bad news and has arranged a mourning hall at home, with memorial tablets and offerings. Zhou Shen's wife and children knelt on the ground in mourning and wept.
Everyone offered incense and kowtowed to the deceased one by one. After Li Zhiyun finished burning incense, he came to the wing room in the backyard. There were two rooms in total, one was a bedroom and the other was a study room. He walked into the study, looked around, and found a desk placed against the wall. On the table were inkstone pens and ink, and several thread-bound books. There was also a paperweight pressed down on a piece of paper, which was full of writing. Character. At this time, footsteps and voices came from outside. Before he could take a closer look, he quickly picked up the paper, folded it and stuffed it into his sleeve.
Li Zhiyun turned around, and Xu Tiecheng and Ding Guoyi walked in. He said calmly: "There is nothing in this room, let's go look elsewhere."
After leaving Zhou Shen's home, Li Zhiyun said: "County Magistrate Xu, this orphan and widowed mother are very pitiful. The pension must be properly handled."
"Don't worry, King Chu. Zhou Shen was killed by a traitor. The subordinate officials have reported the case to the state government and will get approval in a few days."
The group of people walked out of the alley and came to the street. Li Zhiyun asked again: "My lords, are there any temples near this county?" Ding Guoyi said: "Back to the King of Chu, there are many temples on Yinhua Mountain five miles away from the county. "
"The King of Chu didn't know something." Xu Tiecheng said, "Back then, the Indian eminent monk Shemo Teng carried Buddhist scriptures on a white horse to Luoyang. He passed by Yinhua Mountain and saw the steep mountains and beautiful scenery. He was very happy. Later, he It has been hundreds of years since we built temples and practiced cultivation here. Currently, there are more than a hundred temples on Yinhua Mountain, with 5,000 monks and nuns. There are no less than a million faithful men and women from nearby prefectures and counties who come here to offer incense and worship Buddha every year. The incense is very prosperous!"
"Oh? So, Yinhua Mountain is a Buddhist holy land?"
"You can say that."
After everyone had walked not far, Xu Tiecheng stopped, cupped his hands and said, "His Royal Highness the King of Chu, General Yuwen, and other generals, I have some wine at home today. Please don't give it up and condescend to come to my humble home."
"Master Xu, you are too polite."
"I am merely showing my gratitude to the landowner by submitting my official post. I ask the King of Chu and the generals not to refuse."
"Okay, it's better to obey orders than to be respectful," Li Zhiyun said, "Then I'll bother Mr. Xu."
Under the leadership of Xu Tiecheng, everyone came to Xu Mansion. As soon as he entered the hall, Li Zhiyun found an altar in the corner with a tablet on it. He quickly pointed his finger and said: "Master Xu, what is this tablet?..."
"This is the spiritual place of Zhuo Jing."
When Yu Wenxin heard this, he was shocked: "Mrs. Sister-in-law?...What is going on?" Xu Tiecheng sighed and said: "On the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month last year, Zhuo Jing took his maid to the Yinhua Mountain Temple to offer incense. I haven't seen anyone alive yet, and I haven't seen a corpse after death." When Li Zhiyun heard this, he quickly asked: "Then you didn't go to the temple to look for it?"
"Why are you not looking for it? I asked all the monks and nuns in the temple, but no one saw her. However, someone saw her going down the mountain after offering incense. After Zhuo Jing disappeared, I asked Wang Xianwei to search everywhere, and finally found her in the Lingzhang River. A silk shoe belonging to the maid was found on the side. It must have been that after Zhuo Jing came down from the mountain, he went to the river to play with the maid and unfortunately fell into the river. Although the body has not been found yet, the official thought that more than half a year had passed. There was no chance of Jie Duan surviving, so he set up a spiritual tablet at home and paid homage to him every day."
After Xu Tiecheng finished speaking, Wang Xingben on the side added: "Xiaguan once sent people to salvage in the Lingzhang River, but found nothing."
When everyone heard this, they all sighed. Xu Tiecheng waved his hand and said: "This matter has passed, so don't mention it. The banquet will be held in the back hall, please go to the back hall..."
After lunch, Li Zhiyun and the others came out of Magistrate Xu's home. On the way back to the post house, Yu Wenxin was still feeling emotional about Mrs. Xu. Li Zhiyun said: "General Yuwen, do you know this Mrs. Xu?" Yu Wenxin said: "Wei Jiang and Xu Tiecheng are from the same hometown of Liaocheng. Mrs. Xu is the only daughter of the county guard, with beautiful appearance and intelligent talent. Xu Tiecheng is also a child of a noble family. The two families have been friends for a long time, and they were married. After their marriage, the two became extremely affectionate and became the talk of the town for a time. It is so sad that Mrs. Xu was unexpectedly met with unexpected events!..."
It was still early, and Li Zhiyun wanted to go shopping at the market, so he led everyone to a busy street. He found that what Yu Wenxin said was true, and Xia County was indeed very wealthy. In recent years, due to constant wars, people in many places have lived in hardship. He walked through many towns and found that many of the people there were sallow, thin, malnourished, and their clothes were mainly linen, with very few wearing silks and satins. However, the people here had healthy faces and seemed to eat nutritious food. Also mainly made of silk fabrics. People are coming and going on the street. Men carry oil, grains, rice and noodles in their hands, women hold silk in their arms, and children hold windmill sugar cakes in their hands. It is a scene of prosperity and comfort.
They walked around for a while. The weather was hot and there happened to be a tea shed next to the street. Li Zhiyun said: "Let's go in and sit down and have a bowl of tea."
Everyone entered the tea tent, each found a seat and sat down. Li Zhiyun was drinking a large bowl of tea when he suddenly noticed a crazy man walking down the street. Although this man has disheveled hair and is filthy, his skin is fair and he looks like a scholar. Behind him followed a group of urchins, yelling at the madman and picking up dirt and trash at him. The scholar seemed to be unaware, just walking staggeringly, talking about something in his mouth...
After the crazy man walked over, Li Zhiyun found that several strangers at the same table with him had just pointed at the crazy man and whispered something. He put down his tea bowl and said to an old man with gray beard and hair next to him: "Old man, what happened just now?" How can someone become crazy if he looks like a scholar?"
"Brother, you don't know something," the old man said. "His wife went to the temple on Yinhua Mountain to offer incense six months ago and never came back. He missed her and went crazy."
Another disappearance case, another visit to the temple to offer incense. Li Zhiyun thought of the wooden sculpture found on Zhou Shen's body. These two disappearances and a murder case are all related to the temple in some way. It seems that he will go to Yinhua Mountain tomorrow...
After Li Zhiyun returned to the post house, Zhang Zheng reported to him: "Your Majesty, I asked Zhou Shen's wife. Zhou Shen ran away from home during the first watch of the day and never came back." Li Zhiyun nodded. , walked into his guest room.
He sat next to the desk, took out the piece of paper from his sleeve, unfolded it, and saw a poem written on it:
Hou Yi's divine bow has no heavy arrows, and there is a cave in the blessed land of Lingshan;
The mountains and seas are still and boundless in my heart, and I focus on the mysteries and forget about the wonderful methods;
There are many coincidences, and the sky is unpredictable.
He read it twice. It was just a poem, but he couldn't seem to find any clues. He put down the paper and fell into deep thought.
According to Wang Xingben, Zhou Shen was Kucao. Among the county-level officials in the Tang Dynasty, only county magistrates, county magistrates, and county lieutenants were officials of high rank. The others were all minor officials who were not in the mainstream and were called Liuwai. There are nine levels of official positions in Liuwai. It can be seen that there are quite a lot of such low-ranking officials. Li Zhiyun didn't know what level Ku Cao belonged to Liuwai, but he knew that Ku Cao was in charge of the mansion. In ancient times, the place where money was stored was called "fu" and the place where food was stored was called "cang". Therefore, Kucao is roughly equivalent to the bank president and grain director in later generations, which is still a very important position.
At night, Li Zhiyun stayed up late, meditating on the candle, and the scenes that happened during the day went through his mind again. Less than twelve hours after he arrived in Xia County, he discovered two disappearance cases and a murder case. It seems that the water in Xia County is still very deep. There must be a demon dragon hidden in the deep water. However, where is this demon dragon hiding?
Aunt Ying came in with a flowered porcelain bowl, put the bowl on the table, and said: "Your Majesty, I think you didn't eat much at night, so I made you a bowl of lotus seed soup. You can drink it while it's hot. ." Because he drank too much at noon, he didn't eat a few bites of dinner. Now he smelled the fragrance of lotus seed soup and felt a little hungry. After thanking him, he picked up the flowered porcelain bowl and ate with a spoon. Aunt Ying, who was sitting nearby, smiled happily when she saw that he was eating well...
Xu Tiecheng heard that Li Zhiyun was going to Yinhua Mountain, but he had official business to deal with and could not accompany him, so he sent the chief secretary Hong Jiran to be his guide. Mr. Hong is about twenty-seven or eighty-years-old. He wears a light blue robe. Judging from his appearance, he is a loyal and kind man. Intimidated by Li Zhiyun's status and power, he was very respectful to Li Zhiyun.
Li Zhiyun took Yinggu, Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and Scarface and set off with Master Hong. They left the north gate of the county seat, and not far away, they saw several rugged peaks rising from the ground in front of them, with lush trees. Master Hong pointed with his hand and said, "That's Yinhua Mountain."
