People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1063 Is it a secret, or is it intentional?

Standing by the small lake in the backyard, Li Xuan looked around, her eyes fell on the well in the backyard, and she nodded suddenly.

He now knew how Ming Chongyan's secret room was dug out.

As soon as Li Xuan raised his head, Zhao Gong shook his head and said, "After asking, the servants and servants in the courtyard know nothing about the secret room here."

"Then have they seen anyone come here, come to this house, and stay for more than half an hour before leaving?" Li Xuan asked subconsciously.

"No, Master Shiyin rarely brings any friends here. Other official duties are basically handled in the palace. As for the people of the Ming family, Master Shiyin does not allow them to come to Luoyang on weekdays." Zhao Gong shook his head. , the secret guards have already investigated these situations.

"So, I'm afraid there are a lot of secrets in this mansion." Li Xuan looked at the secret room at her feet and narrowed her eyes slightly.

Before, he had been focusing on Li Jingye's help in getting Li Xian off the hook, and had not paid attention to other aspects of him.

Now it seems that Ming Chongyan may have a big secret here.

"You're thinking too much." Zhao Gong pointed out the error in Li Xuan's idea unceremoniously, shook his head and said: "This is just a place where Master Shiyin uses himself to meditate and rest, and occasionally tests some elixirs. And even if he is refining elixirs, he is mostly in the palace."

"So, the secret guards have searched this place inside and out?" Li Xuan understood the hidden meaning of Zhao Gong's words.

Yuan Wanqing has been responsible for this case for such a long time, and everything that should be investigated and everything that can be investigated has been clearly investigated.

How much room would there be for Li Xuan?

"It seems that my nephew's only chance is this secret room." Li Xuan walked to the well with a wry smile, her eyes fell, and she couldn't even see the location of the secret room at a glance.

But the reflection from the bottom of the water exposed a ray of fire.

"Let's go." Zhao Gong climbed down first and soon came to the entrance of the secret door. He pushed three wall bricks in sequence.

The next moment, a brick wall as tall as one person had slid open on both sides.

Li Xuan stopped at the door, stretched out her hand to touch it, and said as if she had some realization: "The mechanism here is quite ingenious."

In fact, it is clever, but it is just an ordinary method.

But this ordinary method is also relative. Some master craftsmen can easily open the secret door, but except for those master craftsmen, it is not so easy for other craftsmen to do it so smoothly.

Zhao Gong stopped, looked at where Li Xuan was standing, nodded solemnly and said, "We have never thought about the direction you mentioned. We have asked the neighbors, Fangzheng and Henan. None of the county officials or chief clerks knew that a secret chamber had been excavated here, and no further investigation was carried out."

"The secret guard did the right thing. This matter is actually not easy to investigate." Li Xuan shook his head and said: "The Ministry of Works will supervise the inner palace, the tombs, and there are countless great craftsmen in the world who want to find the person who built this place. It is indeed not an easy job to be a craftsman.”

"But it is also a direction." Zhao Gong shook his head slightly. No matter what, he could investigate and make progress. Even if the direction was wrong, he could still explain it to his superiors.

"Then it's all up to the secret guards to investigate." Li Xuan smiled, and then reminded: "Uncle, I haven't known about this matter for so long, so either the craftsmen who built the mausoleum or the young master were used here. It was done by the way when Luoyang City was being built, just ask the young supervisor about it."

"Yeah!" Zhao Gong nodded and took note, and said, "Let's go inside and have a look."

Zhao Gong took the lead and walked away. At the end of the passage, which was less than one foot long, was a secret room with a length and width of about three feet each.

There were eight medicine shelves placed on both sides of the secret room, filled with densely packed medicinal materials, some of which were even completely dry.

Li Xuan stood next to the medicinal cauldron in the center of the secret room, looked at the medicinal materials on both sides, sighed softly, and said: "Master Shiyin should come here usually to maintain the medicinal materials, but looking at the current situation of these medicinal materials, We can roughly deduce the time of Shiyin’s accident.”

"Yes, it should be two months after he left Chang'an in the first month." Zhao Gong nodded. They would not be unable to find out such obvious clues.

"The last time to maintain herbs should be in January. After January, if you either don't come again, or if you come again, there will be no chance." Li Xuan sighed softly.

"You still doubt that the body is not Ming Chongyan?" Zhao Gong stood on the futon deep in the secret room.

Li Xuan shook her head calmly and said: "My nephew just has a hard time accepting that the famous Master Shi Yin died silently in such a secret room without any wounds on his body."

"His death does not have to be so earth-shattering." Zhao Gong couldn't help but smile, looked around, and said: "In the entire secret room, the Secret Guards, Dali Temple, Qianniu Guards and the Punishment Department have already conducted a detailed investigation More than once, it took a lot of effort for my uncle to restore everything."

Li Xuan nodded silently and said: "There are always some things that others overlook, uncle, don't worry."

This case was nominally investigated by Zhao Gong and assisted by Li Xuan, but in fact, it was Li Xuan who was investigating and assisted by Zhao Gong.

Although Zhao Gong is also capable, his ability is not in investigating cases.

"It is these three books that make people think that Shiyin was obsessed with evil and died." Zhao Gong's eyes fell on the "Diamond Sutra", "Tao Te Ching" and "Spring and Autumn" in front of the futon, and his expression was complicated for a moment.

The foundation of Chongyan's practice in the Ming Dynasty was "Yi".

Both Taoism and Confucianism absorb and summarize Yi. Although there are differences, there are still many Confucianism and Taoism.

But with the addition of the Diamond Sutra, this becomes more troublesome.

It’s not that the unity of the three religions doesn’t exist, it’s just that it’s in a fairly weak position.

Among them, the classics of the three religions have their own characteristics. It is far beyond what one person can do to find commonalities among the three selves.

It requires generations of people, painstaking research, and even generations of dedication and even sacrifice.

"It seems like that, but in fact it is not the case at all." Li Xuan shook his head slightly and said: "The Ming family did study Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, but when it came to the unity of the three religions, they did not There won’t be much results, and if you do it rashly, you will definitely go crazy.”

Li Xuan looked up at Zhao Gong and said seriously: "If this kind of method can be achieved in a remote place, but if it is put in Chang'an, once people notice the clues, no one in Taoism, Buddhism, or Confucianism will tolerate him. ...How smart Master Shiyin is, how could he do such a thing, and risk his life and death to do it."

Ming Chongyan is very ambitious. Because of this, he will never try to unify the three religions easily.

Even Wang Chongyang of later generations was only able to achieve something during the chaotic times of the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty.

In today's prosperous age, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are all prominent schools of the day. How could they allow others to integrate the three religions?

Ming Chongyan secretly thought about it, mainly focusing on Taoism, and a little bit more Confucianism and Buddhism without endangering himself. This is no problem, but let him force the unification of the three religions. When there is no way, the three religions can be unified into one. , he is simply looking for death.

If he really did such a thing, Empress Wu would not let him go.

"Okay, tell me what you have in mind." Zhao Gong looked at Li Xuan. To solve this case, he must have a clear idea.

"First of all, whether the dead person is Shi Yin or not, I won't make a conclusion until my nephew has seen the body, so there are two possibilities, yes or no." Li Xuan pondered and said carefully: "If so, then it was suicide. Or was it homicide?"

Zhao Gong nodded and signaled Li Xuan to continue.

Li Xuan took a breath and said: "If it was suicide, how could the meridians conflict; if it was homicide, who killed it, this is obviously not the place where the crime occurred, so where is the place where the crime occurred.

Secondly, if that person is not Zhenren Shiyin, then who is he, how did he die, when did he die, and where did he die? "

"You actually said one thing." Zhao Gong looked at Li Xuan, summed it up directly, and said: "Before seeing the body, investigate the possibility that Shi Yin was killed by him, who killed him, how he killed him, and where he killed him. After seeing the corpse, determine whether it is Shiyin Zhenren. If so, how did the meridians conflict and die? If not, who is he?"

"Yes." Li Xuan nodded slightly. Of course he knew that this person was not Ming Chongyan, but who exactly was he, where did he come from, and how did he die.

"So now that we are here, what can you find?" Zhao Gong looked at the secret room that had been searched countless times in front of him, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Before seeing the body, what evidence is there to prove that the person was killed by someone else.

Li Xuan walked to Zhao Gong's side, stood side by side with him, looked at the entire secret room, and said softly: "Uncle, I'm afraid you have checked almost everything in this secret room. Even underground, you are afraid that everything is there." I looked through it more than once, but there is only one thing that you haven’t moved.”

"That cauldron." Zhao Gong's eyes instantly fell on the cauldron in the center of the secret room.

Although they had studied the cauldron carefully, in fact, it was just an ordinary alchemy cauldron.

Likewise, it is as heavy as other alchemy tripods.

Li Xuan's eyes also fell on the Danding. He knew that the body had been hidden by Li Jingye for a long time. Li Jingye had found this place long before that.

But even he couldn't be sure that Ming Chongyan was dead. What if Ming Chongyan suddenly came back one day and at what time? What would he do?

Therefore, he must hide the body, and in this secret room, there is only one place where the body can really be hidden.

……

Li Xuan sighed softly, arrived in front of the alchemy cauldron, and then took off the lid of the cauldron with force.

Zhao Gong stood on one side holding a torch, and the firelight shone on the cauldron. There was nothing inside, not even the dregs of the medicine.

This shows how deeply Ming Chongyan cared about him.

Looking at the cauldron, Li Xuan's face felt inexplicably sad, then he took the torch from Zhao Gong's hand and threw it directly into the alchemy cauldron.

Although Zhao Gong was surprised, he still looked inside the alchemy cauldron with sharp eyes. Under the burning light of the fire, everything inside the alchemy cauldron was clearly visible.

But at this moment, a stain suddenly appeared on the wall of the alchemy cauldron, and then a strong smell came out.

"What does this smell like?" Zhao Gong couldn't help but cover his nose.

"It's corpse odor." Li Xuan's faint words made Zhao Gong open his eyes wide and look into the cauldron in disbelief.

Immediately, Zhao Gong raised his head, looked at Li Xuan, and said, "Did you smell it when you were standing next to the cauldron just now?"

Li Xuan smiled with a pale face and said: "My nephew has some knowledge of medicine. In these years on the plateau, he has been preparing medicines that can treat plateau miasma. Therefore, the pure smell of the medicine was mixed with the smell of corpses, and my nephew smelled it immediately. come out."

"Corpse odor." Zhao Gong looked at Li Xuan and nodded slowly. There are probably not many people in this world who are more sensitive to corpse odor than him.

"So, there was a corpse hidden here." Li Xuan pressed the alchemy cauldron with one hand and turned to look at Zhao Gong: "So, uncle, who took out the corpse here, where did the corpse here go? What’s up?”

Zhao Gong subconsciously looked at the futon.

(End of this chapter)