The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

"My lord," Liang Chao and Li Yang came to Zhang's mansion, saw Zhang Fan, and stood up to greet him, "The two humble officials have handed over the silver from Zhejiang to the branch below, and now the people there have begun to count The silver taels have been counted, and those officers and soldiers who came to escort the silver have already sent people to lead them to the vacated military camp outside the city, "

"Very good," Zhang Fan said with joy after hearing the reports from the two. After all, the matter is considered to be two-thirds completed now, and he said, "There will be no problem when this batch of silver brought in is counted." If so, ship it immediately,"

"My...my lord, why are you so impatient," Liang Chao asked with some doubts, "And have all those boats arrived yet?"

"I borrowed a sea boat from Zhao Xiande, and it happened that he had three treasure ships vacant. When he heard that I wanted to use them, he didn't even ask me what I was borrowing them for. He just asked where I was going to sail the boat, so he directly He ordered the people on the boat to drive the boat from Suzhou to Yangzhou," Zhang Fan said with a smile, "now it is estimated that there are still two days before the boat will arrive. put it on,"

"But my lord, isn't it a little unsafe to put so much money on the boat?" Liang Chao was worried about this matter, "I know that my lord has sent heavy troops to guard the place where the boat is moored, but it is still difficult to guarantee that no one will board the boat." Ship stealing silver, according to the meaning of the job, my lord, wait until all the silver in Fujian is delivered, and then send it up together after counting, it will be safer that way."

"Don't worry about this, I'm already prepared. I'll let the guards rotate three shifts a day, and the supervising army will come to patrol four times every hour, and when the time comes, wait until the money from a place in Fujian arrives." After counting and moving to the ship, I will have someone count it again, there will be absolutely nothing wrong with it," Zhang Fan said confidently, "The main reason for doing this is because there is too much money. I don’t know how much time it will take to transport the silver to the ship together, anyway, these few days are idle, so why not use it,”

"That's it, my lord, I'd like to help carry it in a lowly position." After hearing Zhang Fan's words, Liang Chao didn't refute. Instead, he asked for help. Go back to the capital.

"You," Zhang Fan said in a strange tone, looked at Liang Chao's thin body even though he was acquainted with him, shook his head and said, "I think it's better to forget it, your family has been here for generations. Wei Li has skills and strength, but he can't compare to those porters who have been doing hard work all year round."

"..." Liang Chao felt defeated when he heard what Zhang Fan said, and he lowered his head in embarrassment. Li Yang, who was at the side, felt a little funny seeing this scene, but he held it back He didn't laugh out loud, but his complexion looked a little weird because of the suppressed laughter.

Zhang Fan took a look and realized that he had said something wrong just now, so he immediately changed his words and said, "But you have worked in Weili for many years, and you are good at things like tracking, so how about you go to the pier to help?" , just keep an eye on those people who are working, and don't do anything sneaky, just do it."

"Yes, my lord, I will definitely go all out to fulfill my lord's order," Liang Chao said cheerfully after receiving Zhang Fan's order.

"By the way, the two of you are going to pick up the money escort team. There is no accident on the way," Zhang Fan asked suddenly as he wanted to end the conversation.

"This... my lord, there is nothing wrong on the road, but when we entered the city, a strange thing happened," Liang Chao recalled what happened when we first entered the city.

"Oh, what strange thing happened?" Zhang Fan didn't expect that he would ask something casually, but something really happened.

"The two low-ranking men entered the city from the east gate of Yangzhou City, but they found that a gate official died there," Liang Chao said, pointing to Li Yang, "Li Yang found out about this, so let him come and talk to your lord." Elaborate, "

"My lord, this is how it happened..." Li Yang cupped his hands to Zhang Fan and began to narrate.

The incident didn't take long, and it didn't take long for Li Yang to finish talking, but the short period of time made Zhang Fan's brows tighten as he listened.

"You mean that the gate official who died at Dongcheng Gate today was killed with a poisonous needle," Zhang Fan asked, with a very flat expression, making it hard to see what was going on in his heart.

"That's right," Li Yang said with certainty, "When Beizhi entered the city, he suddenly smelled a scent of flowers. He had smelled that smell before, but he just thought it was familiar and didn't think too much about it. Seeing that there are people from the yamen, and thinking about it again, it suddenly occurred to me that what the humble officer smelled was clearly a poisonous smell, "

"How to say it," Zhang Fan wanted to ask.

"The poisonous needle that poisoned the door official was smeared with the poison extracted from the flower stem of a flower called Linbo Fairy, which is also commonly called narcissus in the Central Plains," Li Yang said.

"Wait," Zhang Fan interrupted Li Yang suddenly, and asked, "You mean narcissus, could it be that narcissus can kill people?"

"That's right, my lord, but it's very troublesome," Li Yang explained, "My lord knows that I was originally the head of the Tianlong Hall of the Five Poison Sect. Although we have studied the poison that comes out, it is not our profession after all, we just know a general idea, so when I came to the city with a humble job, I smelled the smell familiarly, but I didn't think of it for a while.

"This daffodil looks ordinary, and there are many people who like to raise it. In fact, it is poisonous. All its grass leaves are poisonous, and the rhizome is the most poisonous. If someone eats it by mistake, it will cause vomiting. , diarrhea, fast and weak pulse, cold sweat, dyspnea, fever, drowsiness, physical weakness and other symptoms, but if it is serious, it may convulse, paralyze and die, but only young children will, even if the average person eats it by mistake It won't die either.

"The poison that poisoned the door official was probably extracted from the rhizome juice of a lot of narcissus, which is why it has such a huge toxicity. When it is rubbed on the silver needle, it can almost seal the throat with blood. Even if it is checked by an experienced doctor or pestle, there is no sign of poisoning. After all, this narcissus can kill people, and almost no one in the Central Plains knows it. Moreover, narcissus is easy to raise. , is also very common. Although it takes a lot of daffodil rhizomes to extract a few drops of the poison that sees blood and seals the throat, daffodils are really easy to find and the price is not expensive. Compared with other poisons Speaking of which, it's cheap.

"However, this poison has a disadvantage, because the rhizome of the narcissus is the most poisonous when it blooms, but the scent of the narcissus at that time is too strong, and after refining it into a highly poisonous , its fragrance is even more intense. In this way, it is impossible to kill people unknowingly. People who know a little bit about poisoning can tell the difference. Therefore, even people who use poison We all know, but no one has ever used this poison to kill people, after all, it is too easy to expose themselves, "

"That is to say..." Zhang Fan touched his chin and said after hearing Li Yang's explanation, "The person who poisoned this is either extremely ignorant, thinking that no one will recognize this poison; the key point is that he is so arrogant Extremely, I am not afraid of people knowing that the dead were poisoned to death.”

"But my lord, these two points are very contradictory." Liang Chao also frowned and said, "If it is the first case, then from the humble point of view, the only explanation is that the murderer is still a novice. Such a bright poison is used, but it shouldn't be. When he wants to learn it, the person who taught him should know that this kind of poison is really not suitable for such a secret thing, even if he is an idiot.

"But if it's the second case, it really doesn't make sense at all. If you want to cover up the truth of this person's death, why use such conspicuous poison; if you want to vent your anger by killing people, you shouldn't use poison at all. It should be refreshing to directly hack to death with a knife."

Although what Liang Chao said was a little rude, but it was all to the point. Yes, if you want to deceive people, you will naturally not use such conspicuous poison. If you want to kill people to vent your anger, then you shouldn't use poison at all. Direct trauma to death is considered venting anger.

"This matter is really a bit strange," Zhang Fan also felt very puzzled, "Li Yang, what do you think?" He asked Li Yang, who knew the industry best.

"My lord, I have no clue here," Li Yang said honestly, he really has no clue about this matter.

"Look, could it be..." Zhang Fan said speculatively, he didn't finish the sentence, but he believed that Li Yang could understand what he was going to say next.

"Your Excellency is saying..." Li Yang obviously guessed what Zhang Fan meant, first he was surprised, and then he had a determined expression on his face, "No, no, this matter is definitely not done by the people of the Five Poisons Sect, It's not that the humble officials are defending them, it's just the truth.

"Think about it, my lord. Although you can't tell the details of all the people in the Five Poison Sect, you still know a general idea. As far as you know, no one in the sect uses poisonous weeds as raw materials for poisoning, and you want to I thought, the one who died was a sect official, not to mention that the Five Poison Sect never had any conflicts with the imperial court, if they really did, they would never use such tricks."

"That's true," Zhang Fan thought for a while and said, "Forget it, don't think about it if you don't think about it. Although someone died, it's not a big deal after all. Maybe this door official himself caused some trouble, but the enemy is Just hired a rookie to kill."