The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 624 The Death of Dugu Huai'en

The city of Xiangyang, shrouded in night, is completely silent. Most of the people in Xuanzheng Square have fallen asleep. The inside of the square is pitch black, except for the magnificent Dugu, which is brightly lit. The sound of chanting sutras accompanied by the sound of wooden fish can be heard clearly from three or four miles away, making the quiet night even more lonely.

Three or four miles away, Dugu Huai'en's carriage came slowly under the escort of more than a dozen guards. He was worried that outsiders would know that he was going out before his father was buried. Instead of going through the main entrance, he went around to the south gate. I plan to enter through the back door. Although the square soldiers are soldiers of the imperial court in name, they are actually people from the Dugu Mansion. They are guarded by their own people. It is more convenient and safer to go in and out at night, and it can also serve as a deception; The same is true of Xuanweifang in Xiangyang, where the two big families almost formed a small world of their own in the spacious Xiangyang.

After entering the workshop, the nervous guards felt a sense of security at home, and their expressions were relaxed.

About one mile forward, the shops on both sides of the road disappeared, and what appeared in front of the guards was a large pond planted with aquatic flowers and trees. The dense water bamboos were as tall as a person, and spread over several acres. The moment they just approached the water bamboo bushes , one of the guards at the front suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, and then the others also fell, and they stepped on the barbed wire behind them.

Caltrops have four iron thorns several inches long. No matter how they are thrown, there will always be one thorn pointing upwards after landing, and the thorns are extremely sharp. The ropes are strung together, and once the battle is over, all you need to do is to find the ropes to recover them. However, the caltrops can only incapacitate people and horses, and are not fatal, so in many cases, the party who deployed them will quench the poison on the caltrops. After people and horses are poisoned, they will lose their combat effectiveness in light cases, and die in severe cases.

These guards of the Dugu Mansion wailed and fell on the barbed wire, and the pierced wounds quickly became black and swollen, and died on the ground after a while.

At this moment, dozens of black-clothed warriors were killed from Shuizhu, and they swung their knives at the guards behind the carriage. All die.

The horse pulling the cart had also stepped on a barbed wire and fell to the ground fiercely. The shocked Dugu Wynn fell out of the carriage. Before Dugu Wynn could get up, several men in black rushed up and took him He was hacked to death with knives, and several other people pulled up the rope and recovered all the barbed wire. In less than a moment, the group of men in black jumped into the big pool and quickly disappeared into the night.

This flower pond is actually a part of Dugu Mansion. Not long after the assassins withdrew, the alarmed guards of Dugu Mansion rushed to the scene of the incident like a fire dragon with torches on their hands.

"It's Shangshu!"

Under the torch, Dugu Huai'en, who had a dark complexion, was recognized by the guards.

The burly young man in the lead staggered and almost fell to the ground.The name of this person is Dugu Wu, and he is the general of the Dugu family. As early as the Northern Zhou Dynasty, due to the implementation of the tribunal system in the army, almost every family had a large number of generals and troops. The representative is Yu Wenshu. His original surname was Ye Potou, but he changed his surname to Yu Wen after he became a slave of Yu Wen's family.

These family members have followed their masters for generations, and the relationship between masters and masters is that one is prosperous and one is harmed. The grandfather of this Dugu Wu ancestor is the Dugu believer. The four generations have been loyal to the Dugu clan, which can be said to be loyal.Dugu Wushu is superb, shrewd and capable, has always been Duguzheng and Dugucheng's right-hand man, and has won the trust and respect of the two uncles and nephews.

He tried to force himself to calm down, and quickly confessed: "Bring the Shangshu back to the mansion. If someone asks, they will say that the assassin lured us here. This made the mansion careless, and the tired Shangshu who fell asleep was assassinated and died. Take the carriage. and the horse carcass are also dragged away."

"Here!"

A guard carried Dugu Wynn's body on his back, and hurried home under the cover of several brothers.Several other people carried the horse corpse into the carriage, dragged it and galloped away.

Dugu Wu breathed a sigh of relief.

If people know that Dugu Huai'en does not return in the middle of the night during his filial piety, it will be very bad for him. His arrangement is not only to preserve Dugu Huai'en's filial piety, but also to deal with the court; if the court knows that Dugu Huai'en died outside, ask why When going out, the Dugu Mansion was very passive, and if not done well, it might expose the Dugu Clan's plan.As for the faction who assassinated Dugu Huai'en, we can only find out later.

Seeing the guards leaving far away, when Mo Yue arrived at the mansion, he ordered awe-inspiringly: "Go to one person, go to the front yard and inform the Patriarch, and the others follow me to search."

"Here!"

A group of people took action one after another, holding up the torches, scurrying like fireflies under the night, and the sound of searching broke the silence of Xuanzhengfang
Soon, Dugu Cheng got the news, and when he saw Dugu Wynn's black body, he almost fainted.

Before he could ask anything, someone ordered by Dugu Wu to send a bunch of blood-stained barbed wire, and reported: "Patriarch, we found this bunch of barbed wire, it should be left behind by the assassins in a hurry to collect it. Come."

Enduring the grief in his heart, Dugu Cheng stared at it and found that it was a string of terrestris with a broken rope. It is not appropriate to say that it is a string, because there are only five terriers, and the rope should have been torn off by excessive force.

"Are there any barbed wire in the mansion?"

"Have!"

"Bring a few."

"Here!" The guard left in a hurry. After a while, he brought two bags and a craftsman. He opened the bags one by one and said, "Master, this is the barbed wire of the Sui and Tang dynasties."

"What's the difference?"

"I don't know much about the humble job, so I invited the master of the Fuchu!"

Dugu Cheng nodded approvingly, and turned to the craftsman, "Let's talk about it."

"Here!" The craftsman said nervously when he saw the head of the family, "Master of the house, the Sui Dynasty was rich in ore and developed smelting techniques, and their caltrop spikes were longer and larger than those of our dynasty. "

"Do you know why?"

"I know!" The craftsman nodded, and then said: "The lowly position has the convenience of being a scholar, and you can freely enter and leave the smelting workshop of the Ministry of Industry. According to the old craftsman there, the reason for the long and large barbed wire in the Sui Dynasty should be related to foreign tribes. Because of combat, the grassland soil is loose and the horses are heavy. If the spikes are too short, the horses will sink into the soil when they step on them, and they can't even pierce the horseshoes. In order to achieve the purpose of severely damaging the horseshoes, the barbed wire is made long and big. .”

"I see, you can step back."

"Here!" The craftsman obeyed and retreated.

Dugu Cheng glanced at the five barbed terriers. According to what the craftsman said, he recognized them at a glance as Tang Dynasty barbed terriers. He turned around and looked at the expression on Dugu Wynn's face. It was almost the same as his uncle's. The corpses are exactly the same, so it can be seen that this is the same poison.

"People go to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to report the case, saying that Dugu Shangshu was assassinated and died in the mansion. At the same time, send someone to invite Jing Zhaoyin Zhao Cijing. The assassins have gone so rampant that they entered the mansion of the dignified Minister of the Ministry of Industry. I want to ask him , How did this Jing Zhaoyin become?"

"Here!"

Looking at Dugu Huai'en's wives and concubines, children, and Dugu Huai'en's body who were crying heartbreakingly, Dugu Cheng couldn't say a word to comfort him. After a long time, he stomped his feet bitterly and walked into the room.

When he arrived in the courtyard, Dugu Cheng let out a creepy sneer, "Li Mi? What a 'Li Mi', are you really going to make my Dugu family a piece of mud? Go and call Dugu Wu back, and the others will continue to search."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Dugu's family is not the only one who can't sleep tonight. In an attic of the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, a red candle is about to burn out. Su Jin is holding a red wedding dress and embroidering it stitch by stitch.

At this time, the door of the pavilion was opened from the outside, and a twenty-eight-year-old beauty in a colorful skirt walked in quickly, and said softly, "Yin..."

"Huh?" Su Jin looked up.

"The conspiracy has been completed!" The beauty in the colorful skirt showed a sweet smile, leaned over and gave a light gift: "Sister Su, there is news from over there, the task has been completed."

"understood."

"I can't figure it out. Why do you want to kill Dugu Wynn? Isn't it good to keep him?"

"Dugu Huai'en has already become wary of my performance tonight. Before leaving, he suddenly made a probing statement. If he is not removed, the Xiaoxiang Pavilion will be exposed sooner or later. Killing him will increase their hatred and make Xiangyang even more chaotic. a little."

Su Jin put down her clothes and needlework, and pondered for a while: "From his hints to Yun, I can sense what Dugu is going to do and send the news to Luoyang."

The beauty in the colorful dress looked at the sky, and estimated: "Xinying, it should be delivered tomorrow, but it's a pity that I can't bring that silly eagle, otherwise I can deliver the letter overnight."

"It's not stupid, it's so powerful that it can even catch wolves to the sky. It's late at night, you should go to rest early."

The beauty in the colorful skirt did not leave as she said, but closed the door, sat beside Su Jin, watched it carefully, and after a while, said: "Sister's craftsmanship is really good, the embroidery is so lifelike, if you don't look closely, I will They all thought that mandarin ducks were alive."

She was wearing bare hands and continued to say sullenly: "I can't do it anymore. The mandarin ducks I embroidered are said to be ugly ducklings."

"It's very appropriate!" Su Jin stopped her work, lightly stroked her temples, with a sweet smile on her face: "You have someone to help you, but I can't."

"I heard that you were forced to marry, so I found an excuse to run away. It can be seen that you have a sweetheart, otherwise you would not come to Xiangyang embroidery with your wedding dress."

"It's just for embroidery."

"You have been by his side all year round, is your sweetheart him?"

"No!" Su Jin's embroidery needle deflected, and a bead of blood oozed from her fingertips
"You still said no, you got stuck in your hands." The beauty in the colorful skirt smiled "hehe" and teased: "You spend more time with him than his ladies, big and small, and he is so outstanding, you like it very much." It's normal! If you like it, you should say it, how will he know you like him if you don't tell him; how will he know that you don't like others if you don't say it?"

"Crap!"

"If your brother asks him to decide and marry you, just wait and cry."

"To shut up!"

(End of this chapter)