Li Zhiyun was surprised when he heard what Governor Zhao said and asked quickly: "What are their names?" Governor Zhao turned around and asked an official who was following him: "What are the names of those three regiment soldiers?" The official lowered his head and looked through the pages. The book he carried, and then said: "The names are Diao Dagui, Li Er, and Ruan Xiaoqi."
What a coincidence? The three regiment soldiers he knew were all burned to death? Li Zhiyun couldn't help but feel a little strange. Governor Zhao pointed with his hand and said: "The corpses are over there." Li Zhiyun looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough he saw three corpses covered with white cloth on an open space not far away. He took the lead and walked over and came to a corpse. He squatted down and was about to lift the white cloth when Governor Zhao stopped him and said, "Your Majesty, it has been burned to charcoal. It's better not to look at it." Li Zhiyun was right. In the fire, people must have been burned beyond recognition, and it was too miserable to look at. He stood up and said: "Prefect Zhao, people cannot be resurrected after death, so we must comfort and care for our relatives."
"yes."
After Li Zhiyun returned to King Chu Inn, he was still thinking about the fire. According to state government officials, the fire was caused by an overturned oil lamp and there were no signs of arson. Li Zhiyun felt that even if the strong wind blew over the oil lamp and caused a fire, it would not have burned the three regiment soldiers to death. The armory is just a few adobe rooms with doors and windows. Moreover, when the armor and crossbows burn, they will not produce any poisonous gas. After the three regiment soldiers were awakened by the fire, why didn't they escape, but were burned alive by the fire? This thing is so strange.
He asked someone to call Cai Hu over and said, "Send someone to find out where Diao Dagui and the other three live. Since they are regiment soldiers, they should be locals."
In the afternoon, Cai Hu came to his room and said: "Your Majesty, we have found out that Diao Dagui and Li Er's family are in Daliu Village, and Ruan Xiaoqi lives in Xiaopu Village. The two villages are not far from each other, Qiba from Pizhou City. "Here," Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Tomorrow morning, we will go to the homes of the three of them to pay homage."
The next morning, Li Zhiyun took two subordinate officers and dozens of guards and left Pizhou City for Daliu Village. The team was walking on a dirt road in the countryside, with endless fields on both sides. The green wheat seedlings had begun to ear, and farmers wearing straw hats were working hard in the fields. A breeze blew slowly, rolling up the green wheat waves.
Li Zhiyun sat on the horse, admiring the beautiful pastoral scenery, and his mood suddenly became brighter. At this time, Zhang Zheng caught up from behind on horseback and said: "Your Majesty, someone seems to be following us from behind." Li Zhiyun turned his head and looked at it, and said with a smile: "Let him follow you, ignore him!"
The team marched for more than half an hour and arrived at Daliu Village. This is a village with hundreds of households. Although most of the houses in the village are adobe houses, they are scattered in an orderly and dense manner. The village is surrounded by fertile fields. There is a small ditch at the east end of the village. Beside the dry ditch, there are four calves tied side by side, eating green grass. From time to time, they moo towards the house; a group of hens gather around the cow. The dung pile in front of the pen added a lively color to the dung pile. They were digging their claws, shaking their bodies, and clucking. The two roosters crow constantly, looking for bugs for the hens, and then make a grooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong call to them.
After asking around, everyone found Diao Dagui's home. Diao Dagui's family has set up a mourning hall in the main house. His wife and children, wearing sackcloth and mourning, knelt at the gate to greet the guests who came to pay homage. There were cries inside and outside the house.
Under the guidance of relatives of the Diao family, Li Zhiyun walked into the house and burned incense in front of the memorial tablet for the deceased. The guards took out the paper foils, paper money, paper figures, etc. they brought and burned them in the courtyard.
After the hanging ceremony was completed, Li Zhiyun pulled Diao Dagui's wife up and said, "Sister-in-law, please stand up and speak." Diao Dagui's wife's eyes were red and swollen, with tears on her face. She looked at him and said, "Are you an official of the state government?" Li Zhiyun shook his head and said: "No." Zhang Zheng on the side introduced: "He is the King of Chu and comes from Chang'an."
"Ah? Are you the prince?"
Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Dagui and I met. He met with misfortune, and I came here to pay my respects. Sister-in-law, please come and talk." He pulled Diao Dagui's wife to sit down at a square table next to him, looked at her and said: "Sister-in-law, how long have you been working as an errand in the state capital?"
"Almost two years."
"Does he have any enemies?"
"I've never heard of that."
"Has he ever told you about things in the yamen?"
"He has a very tight mouth and won't tell me anything." Diao Dagui's wife said, "However, he did tell me such a thing, and he said it when he was drunk..."
After listening, Li Zhiyun stood up and winked at Zhang Zheng. Zhang Zheng took out a cloth bag from his arms and handed it to Diao Dagui's wife: "Sister-in-law, please accept this bag of silver." Diao Dagui's wife quickly declined: "No, no, the government has already given me the pension, I can't take it. !" Li Zhiyun took the silver bag and said, "Sister-in-law, this is a little bit of our kindness, you must accept it!" After that, he put the money into her hand.
At night, at the King of Chu Inn, a black shadow climbed over the wall and fell into the courtyard. There is no moon tonight, and there are only a few stars in the sky. It is the so-called night when the moon is dark and the wind is high and the fire is set. The shadow bowed across the courtyard and hid in the shadow of the wall of the house. He reached a window, pried open the sash with a dagger, and jumped into the room. This room was Li Zhiyun's room. The black shadow tiptoed to the bed, took off the crossbow from his back, and fired the tooth-hair crossbow at the figure lying on the bed. The crossbow body vibrated suddenly, and the bow string buzzed. The power of a crossbow at extremely close range is no less powerful than a pistol. Five short arrows fired at the figure, making a "puff, puff, puff" sound. When Heiying heard that the voice was wrong, he was stunned for a moment. At this time, someone outside the room shouted: "Catch the assassin!" Suddenly, there was a burst of footsteps outside the door.
The black shadow hurriedly threw away the crossbow, turned around, rushed to the window, and jumped out. As soon as he landed, a guard rushed up and stabbed him in the pocket. The black shadow was agile, dodged the blade, and passed around the guard. He swayed left and right, dodging several blocking guards one after another, and almost without touching the ground, he snaked to the courtyard wall. Like a "dry land plucker," he jumped onto the wall that was more than ten feet high, and then disappeared into the darkness. …
In the guest room, there were several guards standing with lanterns and candles. Li Zhiyun walked in, looked at the short arrow shot on the quilt, and said with a smile: "He still came, but it was a pity that he missed it."
Li Zhiyun had to thank County Magistrate Wang for escaping today's disaster. Magistrate Wang has been the magistrate of Xinping County for many years. He is an out-and-out local snake with spies all over the city. This afternoon, he specially came to the King of Chu Inn to find Li Zhiyun and told him that an assassin he had been chasing for many years was seen near the King of Chu Inn. Magistrate Wang told him that this assassin was ruthless and had many lives behind him. Be careful that this guy was bribed to assassinate him.
In addition to strengthening precautions, Li Zhiyun also changed rooms. He asked someone to add a bunk to Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu's room and live with them. Sure enough, the assassin sneaked into his room that night and fired a crossbow bolt at the disguised bed.
Li Zhiyun stretched out his hand and pulled out a crossbow arrow. It was a six-inch long, three-point steel armor-piercing short arrow with a tail made of narrow wood chips. Just as he was about to touch the arrowhead with his hand, Zhang Zheng shouted: "Don't touch the arrowhead, be careful it's poisonous!" Upon hearing this, Li Zhiyun was so frightened that he threw away the short arrow.
In order to prevent the assassin from committing another assassination, the innkeeper arranged a new room for Li Zhiyun. Moreover, his room was changed every two days, so outsiders had no idea where he lived. In addition, there are guards all around the guest room, who are on duty 24 hours a day, so his protection is airtight and foolproof.
At midnight, Liu Yinglian came to Li Zhiyun's room, opened the door and took a look, only to see him lying next to the desk, and said, "Are you practicing calligraphy again?"
Li Zhiyun put the rabbit brush on the celadon pen holder, shook his arm and said, "You came just in time, I'm tired of writing too." Liu Yinglian walked over and sat down opposite, picked up a piece of paper on the case, and saw densely written words on it. : Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong, Qiuhong...
"What are you writing about?"
Li Zhiyun smiled and said: "Lu Sifang said the word Qiu Hong to me before he died. I asked people to search all over the city. Five or six women named Qiu Hong were found, but they had nothing to do with Lu Sifang. Related. So, I wondered if it was a homophone? Why not, write it down first, and then let people look for it." When Liu Yinglian heard this, she burst out laughing and said, "The homophones of Qiuhong and Qiuhong are too similar. There are many, if you want to search according to this, then you want to find the Year of the Monkey, the Horse and the Moon?"
"Is there any way? There are no new clues now, only this stupid way."
Liu Yinglian pondered for a moment and said: "How can you be sure that what Lu Sifang said must be a person's name?" Li Zhiyun asked strangely: "What else could it be if it wasn't a person's name? Could it be a place name?" Liu Yinglian said with a smile: "You think, when a person is about to die, What do you want to say most before?"
"Of course it's what he thinks is the most important thing." Li Zhiyun said casually, suddenly reacted, patted his head and said, "Yes, is Lu Sifang trying to tell me where the treasure is hidden?"
Liu Yinglian looked at him calmly, smiled and nodded. Li Zhiyun thought for a moment and said, "Yes, Lu Sifang knew he was going to die. The two words he said with all his strength should be the place where the stolen goods were hidden." Li Zhiyun became excited, stood up, walked to the door, and opened the room He opened the door and said to the guard outside the door: "Xiao Lu, go and call Gao Lu." The guard agreed, turned and walked away.
Not long after, Gao Lu walked in, clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, are you looking for me?" Li Zhiyun picked up the piece of paper on the desk and said, "Gao Canjun, you have been in Pizhou for more than a year. You should be familiar with this place." It's very familiar. Take a look, is there a place name on it?" Gao Lu took it and looked at it for a while, then said, "Yes."
"Which one?" Li Zhiyun asked quickly.
Gao Lu pointed with his hand and said: "This, Qiuhong, as far as I know, there is a Qiuhong villa outside the city."
"Qiuhong Villa? That's great!"
