The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 421 Death Game
Pengcheng.

When the time has not yet arrived, the clouds are like lead, and every house in the city is already brightly lit.There are very few pedestrians on the street, and the occasional passer-by is shivering and walking quickly in the icy snow wind when they go out.

Xu Xing's ancestor, Junyan, is particularly prominent. He is a sharp-edged scribe. He had a good relationship with Xue Daoheng in his early years. When Xue Daoheng recommended him to Emperor Wen, Emperor Wen liked his talent very much. But after asking about his family background, Emperor Wen held a deep disgust. .The reason is that Zu Junyan was burdened by his father Zu Ting.

Zu Teng is a rare all-round talent in history, but his character is despicable. In addition to corruption, flattering superiors and bullying subordinates, forming cliques for personal gain, selling officials and nobles, and framing Zhongliang, he is also a gentleman who likes to steal things. The famous Northern Qi general Hu Luguang looked down on Zu Ting As a human being, he once saw him scolding from afar, "What do you want to do for a troublesome and begging villain!" After Zu Ting knew about it, he held a grudge and finally framed the famous general.

However, the consequences of Zu Teng's framing of Qu and killing Hu Luguang finally appeared in the Sui Dynasty, which caused his son Zu Junyan to miss his official career during the period of Emperor Wen and Wu.

The frustrated Zu Junyan later joined the Wagang Army and was entrusted by Li Mi as a recorder. Although the grade of recorder is not high, it is extremely important. For the core secrets, only Li Mi's confidantes can be in charge, Zu Junyan finally has a platform to display his talents!

He has recently become obsessed with Cuizhu, a courtesan from Jinfenglou, and today he wants to redeem this girl. Although with his current status, Cuizhu is not even a concubine, let alone a regular wife, but when he Is it better to live outside than to wander in the wind and dust?
But to Zu Junyan's disappointment, Cuizhu refused. She didn't want anyone's pity and charity. Zu Junyan was not angry, but admired this strange woman even more.

In fact, Zu Junyan's identity is not that he can't give it, but that he suffered from his father's notoriety and spent half his life doing nothing, so he doesn't want future generations to taste his own evil results.Therefore, Zu Junyan decided not to come to Jinfeng Tower in the future, and the meeting would only add to the sadness.

"Ugh!"

For a moment, Zu Junyan was filled with emotion, resisting the thought of going back to look at the green bamboo again, reluctantly quickened his pace, and gradually disappeared into the heavy snow.

"Pfft~"

Just as he arrived at the door of his house, a crossbow pierced his throat without Zu Junyan responding, and the two soldiers who were in charge of protecting him had no time to react, and followed in Zu Junyan's footsteps.

Amidst the screams of passers-by, the blood stained the large expanse of snow red, which was extremely beautiful.

"Quick, inform the king!"

Amidst the screams of servants and passers-by, a group of passing patrol soldiers rushed to this side one after another, leading people to search around frantically, but nothing was found except for a hand crossbow that was thrown on the ground.

The hand crossbow was quickly sent to Li Mi's table with the news of Zu Junyan's death.

This is the first important counselor under Li Mi's command to be aggrieved and die of assassination, and it belongs to the counselor Li Mi attaches great importance to and relies on.

Regarding Zu Junyan's death, Li Mi roared with anger.

Bing Yuanzhen picked up the hand crossbow that was dropped by Li Mi on the ground, looked it over carefully, and then said to Li Mi: "My lord, the assassin retreated very calmly, this hand crossbow was obviously dropped on purpose to show his identity. "

"The assassin was sent by Yang Tong!" Li Mi's voice was icy cold. When the crossbow was presented to him, he found the engraved "Bow and Crossbow Workshop System" on the crossbow. Military crossbows are difficult for ordinary people to obtain.

"We can't rule out the possibility of blaming others. There is absolutely no need for the other party to keep this crossbow." Fang Xuanzao sighed.

In fact, he also knew that this possibility was unlikely, because Li Mi first joined forces with the Pei family and Liu Heitai to plot against the Sui royal family, and then sent martial arts experts to Yecheng to try to kill Yang Tan and blame Yang Tong, and even let Pei's dead Assassinate Yang Tong himself.Even if this series of schemes and plots were replaced by him, he would also get angry, let alone Yang Tong with a strong temperament?Moreover, the unwritten law of war that 'the family is never harmed' was broken by Li Mi's low-handed means, so Yang Tong has no reason not to fight back.

Li Mi also didn't expect that the combination of light and dark attack methods would not be able to harm Yang Tong at all, and the counterattack method came so fast and so ruthlessly!
Zu Junyan!

That is the third counselor after Fang Xuanzao and Bing Yuanzhen, and his status is still above Jia Guifu.

"Investigate! At least find out the murderer!" Li Mi said in a deep voice.

"Here!" Bing Yuanzhen and Fang Xuanzao nodded, although they knew that even if they found out, they would only be a few small fish, but if they didn't investigate, they really couldn't explain to the living.

The two looked dignified and stepped out of the palace one after the other. When they reached the square, Fang Xuanzao suddenly asked, "What do you think?"

Although the two were political enemies, after they failed to assassinate Pei Qinghua with Liu Heitai, both of them strongly advised Li Mi to stop here and try to repair the relationship, and then cast the bad name on the aristocratic family.

However, Li Mi was too deeply bewitched by the Pei and Zheng families, or Li Mi, who was born in an aristocratic family, cared too much about the investment of the family. When he saw the great adjustment of the Sui army, he thought that Yang Tong was temporarily unable to go south, and felt that he had already torn apart. To save face, Yang Tong must be beaten to death, lest he turn around and deal with him.Therefore, Li Mi did not listen to the opinions of the two at all.

"The Sui army that stopped the foreign war, even if we combined the strength of Li Yuan, Wang Shichong, and Dou Jiande, it would be difficult to win the final victory. And we all know that Emperor Shengwu wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight. When I met him , and felt his kindness, but King Wei chose to provoke this fierce tiger." Bing Yuan was really annoyed, was the Great Sui Dynasty, which had no internal and external troubles, the same as other forces?I don't even think about the situation after the face is torn apart. If you don't understand it, it's fine, but all the factions in Dawei opposed it, but Li Mi ignored it and went his own way.

From this incident, Bing Yuanzhen was keenly aware of the arrogance of the aristocrats in Li Mi's bones. When he was weak, he could still get along well with them. Jianguo, as well as his long-term contact with the morale of the Kanto, this kind of arrogance is slowly revealed, and maybe he doesn't want to hide it.

"Hey, what should I do?" Fang Xuanzao was resourceful, if Bing Yuan really thought of it, he could naturally think of it.

"I thought Zu Junyan was the beginning, not the end. The next one might be you, or me... Anyway, let's take care of each other." Bing Yuanzhen suddenly smiled.

"Take care of each other." Fang Xuanzao responded with a wry smile.

Sure enough, they did not expect it.

Zu Junyan's death was just the beginning. In the following time, a wave of assassinations swept across Pengcheng, and Li Mi's important advisers and generals were all in danger.

That night.

When Fang Xuanzao was eating, someone poisoned the food. If the servant who served the dishes hadn't eaten a few chopsticks and died between the kitchen and the dining room, then Fang Xuanzao's family would have died;
Bing Yuanzhen slept until midnight, when a poisonous snake came out of the quilt, and he was almost bitten to death by the warm snake;

Yang Defang and Du Caiqian died silently in their own home after their throats were cut with a knife.

Hao Xiaode was shot dead at home by random arrows, and his death was miserable.

Meng Rang was also shot and killed. Although he was rescued by the guards, Meng Rang was also seriously injured. The assassin was surrounded and suppressed by the army and servants who came after hearing the news, but no one was left alive. After killing hundreds of enemies, he resolutely committed suicide.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Tuo's body was picked up from the latrine by his servants. His hands and feet were tied and he choked to death.

Pei Hong, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Wang Ruxin, Minister of Rites, were assassinated one after another, but Wang Ruxin was luckier than Pei Hong, and was rescued by the guards desperately, but Pei Hong was hacked to death.

Immediately following the third day, generals such as Shan Xiongxin, Xu Shiji, Sun Changle, Wang Bodang, Zhang Tongren, Chen Zhilue were all assassinated. Fortunately, these people were usually accompanied by soldiers and horses, so the assassins did not succeed.In the evening, more than half of Wei Palace was set on fire. Li Mi escaped by chance, but even so, he was shocked.

On the fourth day, an assassin broke into Pei Shiqing's mansion, and all his nephews, servants, and maidservants died. Pei Shiqing was shot through his ass, and almost lost his life. Fortunately, the guards in the mansion fought the enemy desperately to kill all the assassins. At the end of the day, Li Mi's censor, Zheng Ting, went to court in a carriage, but when he arrived at the palace, he lost his head.

All of a sudden, Pengcheng became turbulent, and Wei officials with a little bit of status shrank at home and did not dare to go out; officials who had to go out would bring their guards with them, and they would even stay around when eating and going to the toilet. Bodang transferred to protect himself, and the whole city was under martial law.

It’s okay if it’s just Li Mi and the civil and military officials, but the main target of this assassination is the entire scholar class such as the Pei family and the Zheng family. In just five days, more than 300 children of aristocratic families died under this assassination , The assassination method is weird and the method is so vicious, even for an old Jianghu like Li Mi, the first thing he does every day when he wakes up is to touch his neck to see if his head is still there.

Seven days later, just when Li Mi thought the assassination turmoil was over, a more terrifying assassination took place in various places under the rule of Wei State.

This time, the targets of the assassination were low-level officials. All the county magistrates under Li Mi's rule were assassinated on the same day, and the death rate reached a terrifying [-]%. Even several eunuchs were assassinated.The entire local government of Wei State was almost paralyzed. Even though Li Mi had more and more descendants from Kanto families who became officials, the low-level officials were slaughtered all at once. But in troubled times, people come and go frequently, and there is no accurate household registration at all, so how can the assassin be found out through the people?It was the common people who suffered. After all, there are many small hills under Li Mi's command, and many people's banditry is hard to change. How could they miss this golden opportunity to make a fortune?
(End of this chapter)