Tibet.

Chapter 1313 The Shadow Dissipates
The group came to Yongchangfang, south of Guangzhaifang, where Wang Xiaoding lived.

Soon, they came to a dilapidated courtyard. Zhang Song knocked on the wooden door, "Xiao Ding! Xiao Ding!"

The door was locked from the inside, but no one responded.

"Is his family not here either?" Liu Wutong asked.

Zhang Song shook his head. "He is an orphan and has not yet started a family. It is said that he has an older sister or a younger sister who is married in Xianyang County. This house was left by his parents."

Liu Wutong winked at his men, who gently climbed over the wall and opened the door from the inside.

When everyone walked into the courtyard, they immediately discovered something unusual. Several rooms were locked from the outside, but the courtyard door was locked from the inside, indicating that Wang Xiaoding was in the courtyard.

The two men immediately rushed to the well in the corner. After looking for a while, one soldier said, "General, he is in the well!"

When Zhang Song heard that Wang Xiaoding was dead, he was so scared that he sat down on the ground, his face pale. Will people in this profession also be killed?
Liu Wutong immediately understood that this was murder to silence the witness.
"Go inform Fang Zheng to come and deal with it!"

A soldier ran to look for someone. Liu Wutong picked up Zhang Song and asked, "I want to know where the house that has been sold but not transferred is. Can you find it?"

Zhang Song nodded, "We can find the boss!"

"How to find it?"

"We have been entrusted with the sale, but the deal has not been completed yet. Currently, there are only three households in Guangzhaifang and none in Yishanfang. I estimate that one of them should be this."

At this time, Fang Zheng came running with a group of people. Liu Wutong ordered: "Go to the police immediately, it should be murder!"

"I obey your orders!"

Fang Zheng arranged for people to salvage the body, and he ran to the Wannian County Government to report to the authorities.

Liu Wutong took Zhang Song back to Guangzhaifang. Zhang Song quickly found three houses that had been entrusted but not sold. One of them should have been sold, but because the ownership had not been transferred yet, it was shown as not sold.

"I don't know which family it is. If it has been transferred, we will get a deed stamped by the county government, and then we can confirm that it has been sold."

"Since the deal has been completed, there should be some commission income!"

"Wang Xiaoding complained because the property has not been transferred yet and he has not received the commission. If he had received the commission, he would not care whether the property is transferred or not."

"Where are the addresses of these three households? Are there any facing the Danfeng Gate?"

Zhang Song looked at the registration book and said, "Yes, there is one household on the northernmost side, directly opposite the Danfeng Gate, and the other two households are on the south side."

Liu Wutong nodded and ordered: "Go find the landlord of this family now!"

Zhang Song left in a hurry, and Liu Wutong ordered another of his men, "Quickly get a hundred men over here!"

Soon, a hundred fully armed internal security soldiers led by Liu Xiaoshi arrived, and the broker Zhang Song also hurried over with the landlord.

"General, it's that family. The deal was completed a month ago, but the other party hasn't transferred the property yet."

"Is there a contract?"

The landlord quickly handed over a contract. Liu Wutong took a look at the contract and his heart jumped. The buyer's name was Su Qi, the businessman who had commissioned Donglai Restaurant to smuggle 25 Japanese samurai.

Liu Wutong was not in a hurry to alert the enemy, so he sent one of his men to find out the news from his neighbors.

Not long after, the subordinate came back to report, "The neighbor said that there is only one person living in that small courtyard, a businessman, who goes out early and comes back late every day, and is in a hurry. He has not returned yet."

Liu Wutong nodded and said to his son Liu Xiaoshi, "Take two of your men and sneak in to have a look. Don't mess up his things and try not to go into the house. Mainly check if there is anything unusual in the backyard."

Liu Xiaoshi thought about it and said, "Now that father said that, maybe there is some mark on his door. We can climb over the wall from the next door."

"That's right! You should go and come back quickly."

Liu Xiaoshi took two soldiers and ran northward, while Liu Wutong asked the other internal security soldiers to temporarily withdraw from Guangzhaifang. Since the other party was not there, they could not alert the enemy.

Liu Xiaoshi went to the neighbor's next door. They climbed over the wall to check the backyard. They saw that the backyard was full of wooden racks that had not been put up yet. Under the wooden racks, there was a large crossbow hidden.

After receiving the report from his son, Liu Wutong was certain that the other party wanted to use a large crossbow to shoot the Regent from a distance during the coronation ceremony on the first day of the first lunar month. They might not hit the target, but the threat would be great.

Liu Wutong asked his son Wang Xiaoshi to take a few men to monitor next door, and he temporarily evacuated Guangzhaifang.

In the Han Chang'an City, thousands of internal security soldiers surrounded a large courtyard covering an area of ​​nearly two acres.

The Internal Security Department checked the registration information of house purchase and rental in the past month and found something unusual about this courtyard. The neighbors reported that nearly 20 young men had lived in this courtyard. But they only lived there for ten days and then left. According to the registration information, this courtyard had been rented until the tenth day of the first lunar month, which means that it is still within the lease period.

Although no one lives here anymore, the internal security still keeps it under close surveillance.

The Inner Guards had dealt with Khitan assassins in Luoyang. Their characteristic was that they kept moving and usually did not stay in the core areas, but in the surrounding suburban counties. When they were in Luoyang, they hid in Yique County in the south.

Just as the Internal Guards were continuously investigating the surrounding counties, Li Chenghua unexpectedly received news that the group of Khitan assassins had returned to the Han Chang'an City.

Even though a cunning rabbit has three burrows, if all three burrows are targeted, even the most cunning rabbit cannot escape.

"Reporting to the commander-in-chief, the enemy has discovered us and is clamoring to surrender!"

Li Chenghua said coldly: "Evacuate all the neighbors around here and prepare to shoot with heavy crossbows!"

All the surrounding neighbors were evacuated, mainly to prevent accidental injuries.

At Li Chenghua's command, a thousand three-foot-long heavy crossbow arrows were shot towards the yard. This kind of heavy crossbow arrows have extremely strong penetrating power and can penetrate the roof. Even the furniture in the house cannot withstand it. It is a powerful weapon for street fighting in the city.

After the inner guards fired three rounds of 3,000 heavy arrows, hundreds of elite soldiers rushed into the courtyard. After a while, three injured but not dead Khitan assassins were carried out, and the other assassins were all shot to death by heavy arrows.

"Bandage their wounds and interrogate them!"

Li Chenghua knew that these Khitan assassins could not rent a house on their own. Someone must have rented the house. From the information currently available, it was a Youzhou merchant who rented the house for them. This merchant seemed to have rented houses in the suburbs under different identities. Most of them were large courtyards of two or three acres.

This businessman must be dug out, otherwise there will be endless troubles.

At night, a middle-aged man came to the northernmost part of Guangzhaifang. He was the tall and thin middle-aged man who came to rent a house more than a month ago.

When he arrived at the gate of the yard, he was not in a hurry to open the door. Instead, he took out a thin ruler, inserted it into the crack of the door, and gently lifted it up. He felt a thin silk thread.

The middle-aged man was extremely cunning. He tied a silk thread from inside and climbed over the wall himself.

Once this door is opened, the silk thread inside will break. Once the ruler cannot detect the silk thread, he will run away immediately.

The middle-aged man found that the silk thread was still there, and his heart was relieved. He took the key to open the door and entered the yard. Just as he turned around to lock the door, several guards who were ambushing in the yard rushed up and pressed him to the ground.

Liu Xiaoshi's movements were extremely skillful. He blocked his mouth, put a black cloth bag over his head, pushed him out of the door, and put him in a carriage in a hidden place.

The carriage sped away
That night, the internal security conducted an interrogation and without using any tricks, the middle-aged businessman spoke honestly.

His name was indeed Su Qi, a merchant from Longquan Prefecture. He had been doing business with Japan for a long time and often came to the Tang Dynasty to do business. He could speak Japanese and Chinese.

He was bought by Japan five years ago and became an intelligence spy for Japan. After Japan sent troops to Bohai State in the name of support, he quickly took control of Bohai State.

The Japanese army also knew that the Tang army would soon send troops to Liaodong. In order to annex the Bohai Kingdom and stop the Tang army from sending troops, the Japanese army thought of assassination. They immediately sent Su Qi to Dengzhou to pick up 25 assassins who smuggled into Dengzhou.

Su Qi then rushed to Chang'an and bought the house from Wang Xiaoding twenty days ago.

He used the excuse that the real owner had not yet come to Chang'an and delayed the transfer of ownership. However, he was afraid that Wang Xiaoding would say something bad, so he arranged for two assassins to kill Wang Xiaoding and throw him into the well.

"Where are the twenty-five Japanese assassins?" Liu Wutong asked coldly.

Su Qi lowered his head, "In the Wu family compound west of Yunyang County!"

As expected, it is cunning. There is no need to register with the Internal Security Bureau when buying or renting a house in Yunyang County.

"Why Yunyang County?"

"The house they bought is too small. Twenty-five people living in it would be easily discovered by the neighbors. They plan to move in on the last day of the year."

An internal guard unfolded a map of Yunyang County in front of him. He looked at it for a moment, then picked up a pen and drew a circle on a house in the west of the city.

Liu Wutong nodded and said, "If the situation is true, you may still have a chance to survive. If you dare to deceive the inner guards, you will be dead."

"I dare not lie!"

Liu Wutong waved his hand and said, "Take him down!"

The internal security soldiers carried Su Qi away and detained him. Liu Wutong hurried to find Li Chenghua with the confession.

(End of this chapter)