Li Zhiyun divided the troops into two groups, and Dianjun of the Marriage Affairs Office took one part to one inn, while he led the others to the other. Along the way, he was thinking about what he had just heard. The rumors in the wine shop were not reliable at all, but those few people had good sense and eyes, and it was probably true. When he arrived at the door of the inn, he saw Liu Hong getting off the carriage, so he turned over and dismounted, walked over and stopped Liu Hong, and said, "Master Liu, who is the parent official of Pizhou City?"
"Pizhou City is on the boundary of Xinping County. Of course my parents are the magistrates of Xinping County. What, you want to go to the county government office?"
Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "I want to verify it."
"Then I'll go with you."
"No, you are old and tired from the journey, so you should go to the inn and rest."
Li Zhiyun left the inn with Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and two other guards. After asking around along the way, he found the county government office. After the yamen officer on duty at the door went in to report, not long after, an official walked out quickly. He is about thirty years old, of medium build, and looks gentle. He walked up to Li Zhiyun, cupped his hands and said, "Xinping County Magistrate Wang Guang, I didn't know that the King of Chu was coming, so I missed him from afar. I hope you will forgive me!"
"It turns out to be Magistrate Wang, disrespectful, disrespectful."
Wang Pang welcomed Li Zhiyun and others into the lobby. After the guests and hosts sat down, the servants served them tea. Wang Pang looked at Li Zhiyun and said, "I wonder what business the prince has come to Pizhou for?" Li Zhiyun smiled and said, "This king is not here for official business, but just to handle some private matters. However, I was in a wine shop just now. I heard that a murder occurred outside the city, and a whole family was killed. Is it true?"
"What you heard is true," County Magistrate Wang said. "The people who were killed were members of the Loujiazhuang family. I led a team of people from the county government to the scene to investigate early yesterday morning. The murder occurred between midnight and Chou hours the night before yesterday." time. All nine members of the Lou family were killed. The prince may have heard that the Lou family is quite wealthy, and the murderer was obviously after yellow and white things."
Li Zhiyun asked: "Have you found any witnesses?" Magistrate Wang shook his head and said: "None of them have been found." Li Zhiyun frowned and asked in confusion: "The murderer killed people and stole money. There was a lot of movement. Why were they not caught? Did the neighbors find out?" Magistrate Wang quickly explained: "Your Majesty doesn't know anything. In addition to the members of the building and his family, there are dozens of villagers living in Loujiazhuang, but their houses are far away from the Lou family's house. The nearest one is about a mile away. In addition, the murder happened at midnight, and the villagers were all asleep, so no one witnessed it. However, a neighbor got up early to pick up excrement. When passing by the building's house, he found the door open and the yard was in a mess, which made him feel strange. , went in to investigate, and reported the matter to the authorities after discovering the body.”
Li Zhiyun pondered for a moment and said, "I wonder if County Magistrate Wang can accompany me to the scene to inspect?" Although he is not Wang Guang's immediate boss, he is a prince after all, and he holds the position of Shangshu Ling, which ranks among the top three officials. As a senior official in the court, he has the right to intervene in such a major case. Wang Pang naturally did not dare to neglect, and quickly summoned a group of staff and government servants to personally accompany Li Zhiyun and others out of the city to Loujiazhuang.
The journey to Loujiazhuang is only five miles, and it takes less than half an hour to arrive on horseback. Everyone entered Zhuangzi and came to the door of the building member's wife's house. Li Zhiyun took a look and saw that the mansion covered a large area, about ten or twenty acres. It was a three-entry mansion with dozens of rooms. There is a pond in front of the house, a poplar forest to the east, and a large vegetable field to the west to see the houses of other villagers.
Although it has been two days since the tragedy occurred, villagers in twos and threes still gathered outside the gate. They pointed and talked in low voices. On both sides of the gate stood two servants holding water and fire sticks. They were responsible for guarding the scene and preventing anyone from trespassing.
Accompanied by Magistrate Wang, Li Zhiyun walked into the house. They crossed the courtyard and entered the hall. There were five corpses parked on the floor of the hall, all covered with white cloth. Magistrate Wang said: "There are four more bodies parked in the west wing." Li Zhiyun looked at the corpses and said, "Has the body been examined at noon?"
"They have all been tested. They were all killed by swords. There is nothing strange about them."
Li Zhiyun walked to a corpse, squatted down, and lifted the white sheet. The deceased was an old man, probably the head of the household. The face was so bloody that it was almost unrecognizable. His eyes were bulging, and the two eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, giving him a dead look. His face and neck were chopped several times, and his skin and flesh were rolled out from the knife edges. His condition was very miserable. Li Zhiyun has experienced many battles in the past two years and has seen many bloody scenes. Seeing this horrible face, he can't help but feel frightened. If he had just traveled through time and seen such a tragic scene, he would have screamed in fright. .
Li Zhiyun covered the sheet again and stood up, catching a glimpse of Magistrate Wang's face with a look of admiration. Magistrate Wang probably thought that although he was young, he was quite courageous. He smiled, turned around and saw two steel knives and a flag placed on a table next to him, and walked over. The edges of the two steel knives were very sharp, and there was still purple-black blood stains on them. The flag was a small triangular flag with the word "Liang" printed on it.
"What's this?"
"This is what I found in the house when I was inspecting the scene yesterday. It was probably lost by the murderer."
Li Zhiyun picked up the pennant, looked at it, and said, "County Magistrate Wang, in your opinion, what does the word "Liang" represent?"
"The official guesses, does the word "Liang" refer to Liang Shidu? Liang Shidu now occupies Diaoyin. Could it be that this group of strong men came from Diaoyin?"
Li Zhiyun pondered for a moment and nodded: "It's possible. These robbers may have heard about the reputation of the building staff, and have evil thoughts, and come to kill people and steal property. However, if the robbers come from afar and rob property, they will be killed in broad daylight. It’s very inconvenient to walk on the official road, so they will probably look for a place to hide temporarily.”
"Xiaoguan has also thought of this," County Magistrate Wang said. "Yesterday, we notified the Pizhou garrison and asked them to set up checkpoints everywhere to check on business travelers. Xiaguan also sent out government officials to go to restaurants along the way. , the village shop and the carriage shop were searched, but nothing has been found so far.”
Li Zhiyun nodded and went to the west wing to take a look again. After coming out of the west wing, Magistrate Wang said: "The corpse has been parked for two days. The official is building a coffin and preparing to carry out the funeral early tomorrow morning so that the deceased can be buried in peace." Li Zhiyun thought for a while and said: "County Wang "Commander, are there nine people in the Lou family? Are there any lucky escapers who went out for some reason?" Magistrate Wang was stunned for a moment and said, "This official has never thought about it. I will immediately ask someone to check." After that, he turned around. Walk away and discuss with the staff who have been following behind. Li Zhiyun led people through the hall and atrium and into a room in the back hall.
This was a large inner room, probably the bedroom of the couple outside the building. It was in a mess, with blood stains on the floor. Probably the owner was awakened from his sleep and screamed. The gangsters rushed in and killed the couple. Li Zhiyun said to his followers: "You all go search everywhere to see if you can find any clues." Upon hearing this, everyone dispersed, and Li Zhiyun also lowered his head and started searching in the house. After a while, Cai Hu came over and handed him a silver bracelet.
"Where did you find it?"
"Under the bed in the maid's room next door."
"This should be a pair, where's the other one?"
"Only one found."
Li Zhiyun lowered his head and looked at it. It was a double-buckle bracelet with silver wire. The color was dull and dull. It was obviously old and it was probably an ancestral item. The two characters "Wei Ji" are chiselled on the inner wall of the bracelet, which is probably the name of the silver shop where the bracelet was made.
Li Zhiyun put the silver bracelet into his sleeve. At this time, County Magistrate Wang walked in and said: "Your Majesty, I asked the chief clerk to find Li Zheng. He should know how many people there are in the Lou family." Seeing Li Zhiyun nodding, Magistrate Wang said again: "Your Majesty, Have you ever seen the Chamber of Secrets?”
"Secret room?"
"Yes, that's where the Lou family hides their gold and silver treasures."
"Where?"
"It's in the study." Magistrate Wang said, leading Li Zhiyun and others out of the bedroom and into a room at the west end.
This room is also very spacious. Like other rooms, it has been messy inside. There are two rows of bookcases on the north wall, and a doorway is exposed in the middle for one person to enter and exit. Magistrate Wang asked a government servant to go in first and light the oil lamp, and then led everyone into the secret room. The secret room is underground, and the ceiling is about one foot above the ground. The secret room covers an area of about ten square meters and is about two feet and five inches high. The surrounding walls and ground are very dry. There were no waterproof membranes and waterproof glue in ancient times, but the ancients used their ingenuity and were still able to make basements waterproof, as evidenced by the tombs of emperors of various dynasties.
Although there was nothing in the secret room at the moment, Li Zhiyun couldn't help but marvel at how much gold and silver treasures could be hidden in such a big secret room! What he is most concerned about now is the whereabouts of those gold and silver treasures.
Everyone came up from the secret room and returned to the study. Li Zhiyun began to look for the mechanism that opened the secret passage. There were two copper hooks nailed to the east wall, probably for hanging clothes. He walked over and twisted them with his hands, but they couldn't be twisted at all. He searched carefully but found nothing. Finally he noticed a Buddhist altar in the corner and walked over.
There were several ever-burning lamps enshrined in front of the Buddha statue. He picked up the lamps that had dried up and found that they had no roots. Finally, his eyes fell on the Buddha statue, and he stretched out his hands to rotate the Buddha statue to the left, but it could not turn at all. When he turned to the right again, the Buddha statue became loose. With a "squeak", the two rows of bookcases closed automatically, and the entrance to the secret room disappeared.
Everyone was amazed. They had never seen such a mechanism before, and neither had Li Zhiyun, except in movies. Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu scratched their heads - how could this King of Chu know everything? He can understand such weird stuff. The building member is really rich, so he hired skilled craftsmen from nowhere to create such an exquisite mechanism. This Buddha statue is the switch that opens the secret passage. Li Zhiyun was able to find the switch to open the secret passage after seeing the secret room. People who don't know the truth would never know that there is a secret room underground in this study, and it is impossible to find the switch to the secret passage.
