Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 137
The posthouse in the western suburbs of Chang'an City.

Suddenly there was a sound of "vomit", and a government official rushed to the door and vomited it out. Then he looked up and saw dust flying on the official road.

"The county lieutenant is here."

"Where is the body?"

"Inside, please, this place is just west of Fengshui, and it is under the jurisdiction of our Chang'an County."

"Don't worry about these, bring people for questioning."

Yan Zhenqing strode into the post house, and a stench came over his nostrils.The clerk and several residents in the post house are being questioned by the servants.

"It was night, and the villain had rested. Hearing the movement, he was scolded by the thief, and dared not make a sound. It was too dark to see their faces, but he took the middle-aged guest officer away. ..."

Having roughly understood the situation, Yan Zhenqing took his assistant to examine the corpse.

Wu Zuo walked into the room, looked at the horrible scene in front of him, and sighed.

"Except for the man whose neck was cut, everyone else was beheaded to death."

Wu Zuo pointed to a corpse in the verandah, carefully observed the wound, and explained what "cutting to death" meant.

"Look, county lieutenant. The cut surface is smooth. It can be seen that the murder weapon is an extremely sharp knife, heavy and long. The murderer has great strength, so he can cut it off with one knife. The students speculated that it was an old soldier holding a long-handled Mo knife. .”

"How to confirm?"

"Wounds often appear on the neck, shoulders, arms, and the bends of the legs. This is the habit of old soldiers to kill the enemy in battle, because the joints cannot be covered by armor. Rangers and robbers kill with light and quick moves, so the wounds should be left on the heart. Let's see, county lieutenant, is there a person in the house with a piercing heart and lung injury?"

Yan Zhenqing thought it was true, and said: "It is indeed what the old soldier did."

He turned into the main house, he didn't mind the blood, and was about to bend down to explore the body of the Huihe leader.

There was the sound of a horse neighing just outside the post house, and a team of yamen servants rushed in.

"The Jingzhao Mansion will take over the case! Yiying county government officials will step down immediately."

Yan Zhenqing turned her head to look, and even Jing Zhaoyin and Xiao Jiong came in person.

He had no choice but to stop his investigation and stepped forward to salute.

"The minister of Qing came so quickly." Xiao Jiong said, "Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival. At this time, such a murderous case happened."

Yan Zhenqing could faintly hear the gloating in Xiao Jiong's tone, and said in a deep voice, "This case happened in the jurisdiction of Chang'an County, I can hardly absolve myself of the blame..."

"Shut up!"

The horse neighed again, and a loud shout sounded at the posthouse.

"Guo Qianli, the left middle marshal of the Longwu Army of the North Yamen, was ordered to supervise the case! Where is Jing Yin?!"

A majestic general rushed in with his saber in hand, took a glance into the verandah, and cursed: "You dog's intestines! It was hacked to pieces. Either the frontier soldiers or the captives did it."

While speaking, he walked towards Xiao Jiong, saw Yan Zhenqing, and immediately shouted: "Retire, little official, this is not a case you can meddle in!"

"retreat!"

The soldiers of the Longwu Army shouted loudly and expelled all the officials of the Chang'an County Government.

Guo Qianli then said: "The general ordered me to supervise the case, are you sure that this case is related to Pei Mian?"

"Sure." Xiao Jiong's tone was firm, "The person who was taken away was Pei Mian, and these Huihe people are probably inseparable from the East Palace."

"Find Pei Mian immediately, the general wants to see him."

While talking, another fast horse came.

"Jing Yin, looking for... found Pei Mian..."

~~
Yan Zhenqing turned back to the Chang'an county government office, analyzing what she saw today.

I thought the Pei Mian case was over, but I didn't expect another big case to be brought out by the Right Prime Minister's Mansion to bring out the Uighur caravan raised by Dong Gong's subordinates.

He gradually became restless, and he didn't want to sit in the office, so he went back home directly.

"Ah Lang, why did you come back so early today?"

Wei Yun came up to meet him, Yan Zhenqing immediately asked: "The kid hasn't been at home these days?"

"Yes." Wei Yun said with a smile, "I won the first place in the year-old exam, and I lived in Du's house until the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now Chang'an says that Xie Tou is your disciple. Sanniang just muttered that after the Mid-Autumn Festival, I have to take him to see her uncle." Grandpa and aunt."

"Speak to Liu Niang and ask him to stay at home."

"What happened?"

"The wind and the rain continued, so don't get wet."

~~
Du Wulang read the book for a while in the morning, and fell asleep on the desk at some point.

It was noon when he woke up, and he went to the west chamber to look for Xue Bai, but when he opened the door, there was no one there.

"Where did you go again?"

From the backyard to the front yard, there was still no one there, but the concierge came hurriedly, claiming that someone was looking for Xue Langjun. He refused to give his name, but it was obviously a member of a powerful family.

Du Wulang's scalp tingled as soon as he heard it, he was already very experienced, and he didn't say whether Xue Bai was at home, he just ordered someone to come to the lobby to meet him, and chatted nonsense.

"How did you know that you came to our Du's house to look for Xue Bai...Okay, okay, Quan Fu can go and see if Xue Bai is awake."

But Xue Bai changed back from somewhere, yawning, as if he just woke up.If Du Wulang didn't know him too well, he would have thought he was not at home just because he had read it wrong.

Xue Bai only took one look at the visitor, and asked, "Your son-in-law wants to see me?"

"Hush, Xue Lang is silent."

"It's okay, there's no need to hide and hide, let's go."

Looking at this scene, Du Wulang guessed that Xue Bai had done something serious again, which was covered up by his understatement.

……

Pingkang Square, Xianyi Princess Mansion.

At noon, Li Niang insisted on asking Yang Hui to accompany her for a few drinks. At this time, her cheeks were still flushed with alcohol, she was lying on Yang Hui's shoulder, talking to herself.

"My son-in-law, I think Li Heng is getting more and more disliked by the saint recently, so let him be abolished and help my younger brother as a reserve, so that you and I can continue to live happily in the future."

"Don't say such things, saints don't like to hear them."

Li Niang was upset, she opened her mouth and bit Yang Hui's shoulder forcefully, she was a little drunk and didn't know what to do.

Yang Hui was in pain, so he could only explain: "The sage longs for immortality, but you are always planning for his death. Can he be happy? Therefore, it is very difficult to fight for the reserve. If you are in a hurry, the sage's mind will be unpredictable, and this is too much."

Having been involved in the reserve position battle for more than ten years, he has rich experience and understands the truth.It's a pity that a prince like him has a common problem, that is, his eyes are high and his hands are low.

Li Niang didn't even want to listen to the truth, she said angrily, "Blame me? You blame me?"

"Ugh."

Unable to reason with this spoiled princess, Yang Hui sighed and fell silent.

"Why did you bring Xue Bai here today?" Li Niang asked, "They just said that we colluded, aren't you afraid of being discovered?"

"If we don't contact him, he will not contact us." Yang Hui said, "Invite him to meet and take some risks, so that he can be held in his hands."

"what for?"

"Take control of him and tie him to our boat. If things come to light, we will be scolded by the saint, but he will die, so the more contact he has, the more he will have in our hands. Besides, we Know his identity."

"As expected of my son-in-law..."

After a long time, Li Niang was about to wake up from the wine, and Xue Bai finally arrived.

Immediately, she became upset again, got up, and went to Xue Bai to teach him a few words.

"You just came now, don't you know who you are working for?!"

Xue Bai looked at her lightly, and asked, "Princess isn't afraid of me now?"

Li Niang put her hips on her back, raised her head and said, "You are not a ghost, what is this princess afraid of you?"

"The princess is drunk."

"Eighteen Niang, you are indeed drunk." Yang Hui had no choice but to go forward and help her back.

"I'm not drunk." Li Niang said: "Since you are one of us, let's talk about how to abolish Li Heng in the next step and support my younger brother as the reserve."

Yang Hui comforted her again, and said to Xue Bai: "I told you to come here quietly, why did you come here blatantly?"

"Sooner or later, this matter cannot be hidden from the eyes and ears of those who are interested. If someone asks, the son-in-law can frankly answer that he wants to play cards with Xue to turn enemies into friends."

Xue Bai is not stupid. If someone finds out about meeting secretly, the responsibilities of both parties will be completely different.During the year-old exam, out of helplessness, he took a risk, but now there is no need to leave more grounds for Yang Hui.

Yang Hui was displeased, and tapped again, saying: "If you ask about your background, what should you do?"

Xue Bai said: "To be honest, the only thing about the deed of celibacy is that the son-in-law has never seen my deed."

"you!"

Li Niang suddenly realized that she had been cheated.

Xue Bai exchanged a piece of criminal evidence from the East Palace for the body deed, but the evidence was used to protect his person, and the body deed was returned to him, and he still says this now.

"Do you dare to play this princess? I exposed your life experience!"

"We're all on our own, why bother fighting among ourselves?" Xue Bai said, "At least this joint effort to deal with the East Palace is quite effective."

Yang Hui felt that this kid was not easy to control, unlike a 16-year-old boy, but he still planned to control it.

He took two steps and said, "Will you go to the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Is there a way to help King Sheng win the favor of the saint?"

Xue Bai pondered and said: "Now is not an opportunity to stand out. Li Heng seems to be in danger, but in fact he does not threaten the saint. Standing up to fight for favor at this time will only make the saint unhappy."

"Dodging?" Li Niang scolded: "You said it nicely when you asked us to do it, and there are many reasons when we want you to do it!"

Although Yang Hui understood Xue Bai's meaning, he still sneered: "You are willing to offer cooking, dominoes, and poems to Mrs. Guo Guo, but now you say you want to be loyal to King Sheng, but you don't want to show any sincerity?"

As far as Xue Bai is concerned, right now it is justified to increase his reputation, expand his contacts, win favors, prepare to become an official, and quietly accumulate strength.Jumping up and down in the reserve position too early made Li Longji disgusted, but still fighting for others, there is no benefit at all.

Before the incident happened helplessly, Dong Gong had to be beaten hard to make Dong Gong calm down.This is forced, so others are willing to sympathize with him.

Right now, the couple still want to reach out and pinch him, so that he can take the initiative to pick things up.

Because he did not have the authority of the elder brothers, they looked down on him.

To put it bluntly, two things that have no eyesight, if you don't give them a good look, they will immediately push their noses on their faces.

"The son-in-law needs to be sincere, we should give it. But..."

"You still make it up?! The conditions agreed at the time."

"Then tell the truth." Xue Bai said slowly, "But I'm afraid that if you get too close to me at the imperial banquet, it will cause trouble for King Sheng."

"Ah."

"Princess, son-in-law, haven't you heard of this yet?"

"What did you hear?"

"Murder case." Xue Bai said: "Two murder cases have been reported recently. In one case, eight Huihe merchants died in a posthouse in the western suburbs of Chang'an."

Yang Hui said indifferently: "What does this have to do with us?"

"Don't worry, son-in-law." Xue Bai said, "The second murder case is in the wilderness in the eastern suburbs of Chang'an City. At this moment, perhaps the government has just found Pei Mian's body."

"What did you say?!"

Yang Hui stood up suddenly, shocked, and asked, "What did you do?"

Xue Bai didn't answer, just smiled.

"you……"

Yang Hui opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say. During the past few days, he didn't even go to have a private meeting with the outside room; Xue Bai actually found Pei Mian and even killed him.

Think about it, if Xue Bai told them this matter, wouldn't he be afraid of their suing?

But there is no evidence, and more importantly, how to sue?In case of being involved in this matter, the Princess House may not be able to bear the crime.

At first glance, the husband and wife were a little out of control, Li Niang felt fearful again, and Yang Hui had no claim.

They wanted to hold Xue Bai, but at this moment they found that he was very difficult to hold; they wanted to tie Xue Bai to a boat today, but now they were worried about being tied to the boat by him.

~~
The eastern suburbs of Chang'an, Huangtai Township, Wannian County boundary.

Weeds are overgrown in the wilderness, which is exactly "the grass on the Lili Plain, one year old and one year old withered and flourishing".

"Jing Yin, I found the head, and it can be confirmed that it is Pei Mian."

"Take me to see..."

Xiao Jiong walked through the wilderness himself, and when he saw the fragmented corpse, he suppressed the feeling of wanting to vomit in his heart, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

Pei Mian's eyes widened until he died, and there was a lot in his eyes.He came from a prominent family, with outstanding talents and great ambitions, but he probably didn't expect that he would die in this way.

The assistant from Jingzhao Mansion came over, pointed to the head, and said in a low voice: "Jing Yin, please see, he suffered great pain before he died. The murderer has tortured and interrogated."

"But why chop off the head?"

"Either it was to vent anger, or to sacrifice, or these murderers were brutal."

"The corpse was not buried, and it was even thrown by the side of the official road. The murderer is not afraid of being discovered."

"Shh."

Xiao Jiong glanced at Long Wujun approaching behind him.

The murderer deliberately let people find the body, indicating that the murder was not done by Donggong, but there is no need to remind Long Wujun.

What Xiao Jiong has to do is to capture the most noteworthy point of the whole case for You Xiangfu.

"Take the head to the post house and confirm it again. The Huihe caravan is definitely connected with Pei Mian."

"Here."

……

Xiao Jiong was not too tired, he spent a whole day working on this case, and in the evening he rushed to the Right Prime Minister's Mansion non-stop, and reported many details in detail.

Compared with others, he has a little more friendship with Li Linfu.

When Xiao Jiong was the servant of the household department, he pronounced "Fula" as "Fu Lie", so he was known as "Fu Lie's servant", and he was as famous as Li Linfu, the "Prime Minister of Nongzhang".

When Li Linfu saw him, he didn't need to be separated by a screen.

"The hand of the old soldier of the frontier army? Where is the power?"

"I don't know for the time being." Xiao Jiong said, "The traces were cleaned very cleanly, very clean. Since I took office in Jingzhao Mansion, I have never seen such a sophisticated murderer, who didn't even leave any hoof marks or car marks."

Li Linfu frowned, his eyes showed vigilance, and said: "It's too presumptuous, Chang'an City will never allow such a bad assassination case, breaking the rules.

He never assassinated, he only used Tang law to destroy his family, but he had countless enemies, so he hated assassination the most.

"Yes." Xiao Jiong said: "But the key to this case is still in the East Palace..."

"The real culprit must be found!"

Li Linfu ordered again very solemnly, and decided to strengthen the defense of the mansion, and then his mind turned to dealing with the East Palace.

"The evidence is complete?"

"All." Xiao Jiong said: "This time it is extremely convincing. The East Palace knew that the imperial court was hunting for Pei Mian, but still sent a Huihe caravan to see Pei Mian. Whether it is to send him away or silence him, there is no denying it."

Li Linfu paced back and forth in thought.

The reason why he dealt with the crown prince was different from that of Concubine Wu Hui's children. He didn't have so much selfishness. In fact, the sage often condoned him, so he dared to attack.

The question is, how much of a blow has this incident had on the Prince's power?
~~
"Can you abolish the prince?"

"Try as hard as you can, if it doesn't work, at least cut off the Prince's arm."

That night, Xiao Jiong went to Anzhai in Daozhengfang again, and conveyed Li Linfu's intention to An Lushan.

Daozhengfang is close to Xingqing Palace, and the sage gave Anlushan a house here for the convenience of calling him into the palace, which shows the importance of Anlushan's holy family.

"Didn't the right minister just get rid of Fang Guan? What power does the prince have?"

Xiao Jiong looked up and didn't know whether An Lushan was really stupid or not, so he could only remind him: "The prince's biggest arms now have two people, both of whom are stumbling blocks in the future of An Dafu."

"Hey hey hey."

Only then did An Lushan smirk.

Right now, there are two people he fears the most.One was Pei Kuan, the former military governor of Fanyang, who had a high reputation in the north, which prevented him from controlling Hebei; the other was Wang Zhongsi, the military governor of the Four Towns.

"Huihe people? Donggong can collude with Huihe people. This matter must have something to do with Wang Zhongsi." Xiao Jiong said: "I will carefully investigate the identity of Guwugu, and it will involve Wang Zhongsi. An Dafu will cooperate at the imperial banquet tomorrow. That's it."

"Okay, as long as Xiao Jingyin speaks, Hu'er will definitely cooperate." An Lushan said with a smile: "Why is it not the Khitan people who protect Pei Mian, but the Huihe people?"

"An Dafu is brilliant." Xiao Jiong said, "As for Pei Kuan..."

"It's easy, as long as Hu'er says something to the saint."

Soon, Xiao Jiong had negotiated with An Lushan smoothly.

He pondered, and then asked a serious question.

"Dare to ask An Dafu, did you...send the old soldiers to kill Pei Mian and those Huihe people?"

An Lushan's eyes widened suddenly, the sense of humor dissipated immediately, and in a fit of rage, he burst out with murderous aura.

"Who are you talking about?!"

Shocked, Xiao Jiong couldn't help but took two steps back, and murmured: "But this case must have been done by an old frontier soldier... In Chang'an City, there are very few others who can do it."

An Lushan quickly returned to his dazed look, shook his head, and kept shaking the fat on his face, saying, "It wasn't Hu'er who did it, how dare Hu'er commit such a murderous crime?"

Even so, he knew that Xiao Jiong didn't quite believe it, and after he retreated, he couldn't help but get angry, and whipped the servant around him violently.

"Who?! Who dares to frame me? Kill him!"

(End of this chapter)