People are in Zhenguan, solving crimes scientifically

Chapter 307: The Secret of the Golden Hairpin! A Plot Spanning Eight Hundred Years!
Two days later.

Jinzhou, Ankang County.

Hundreds of soldiers riding on fine horses, wearing armor and holding sharp weapons, were escorting a carriage, rushing along the winding official road in the mountains.

The sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground was like thunder, which not only scared away the nearby birds, but also made the passers-by rush to the side of the road, nervously and curiously watching the sudden arrival of this imposing army, while talking about it at the same time.

"Where did this army come from? They look so majestic."

"And they are different from ordinary armies. They are wearing black armor, which makes them look very special."

"What's even more unusual is the carriage in the army. Who would ride in a carriage during a normal march? It's obvious that the person in this carriage must be an important person."

"That's right, I wonder which important person has come to our Ankang County to be escorted by so many elite soldiers."

"Uu——"

And at this moment, a "whoosh" sound suddenly rang out.

The rapidly advancing army suddenly stopped in front of these people.

The people suddenly fell silent, with panic showing on their faces, fearing that their voices would be heard by the important person in the carriage and would offend him.

However, they waited for a long time, but no one came out of the carriage. This made him feel relieved, but also made him more curious. Since they didn't run into any important person, why did the army suddenly stop? Why did this army come to their remote place?
For a moment, discussions arose again.

At this time, inside the carriage, the people were paying attention.

Li Zhen, who was sitting outside driving the carriage, lifted the curtain and looked at the people in the carriage. His eyes swept from Li Tai, who was retching due to motion sickness, to Sun Fujia, who was pounding his waist and legs because he felt his body was falling apart after traveling for a long time, and finally fell on Lin Feng, who closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, taking every opportunity to rest. He said, "Lin Sizheng, we can't find the way."

After hearing Li Zhen's words, Li Tai, who had finally calmed down his stomach, raised his head and said, "What did you say? Can't find the way? How can you not find it? Don't we have the map?"

He felt like his waist was about to break, and Sun Fujia, who kept changing his sitting position, frowned, equally puzzled.

"The map and the road don't match?" At this time, Lin Feng opened his eyes and asked.

Li Zhen didn't expect that Lin Feng's question hit the nail on the head. He nodded quickly and said, "Yes, in the map, there should be a road if we turn left ahead, but now there is a river and there is no road at all. If we want to get to the other side of the river, we need to go around the mountain, but this is completely different from the route on the map."

"The road turned into a river? How could this happen?"

Li Tai lifted the curtain directly, stuck his head out of the car window and looked forward. Sure enough, there was only a road leading to the right, and there was only a very wide river on the left. There was not even a bridge over the river, let alone a road.

He retracted his head, looked at Lin Feng and said, "It's true. There is no road on the left... How could this be? Could there be something wrong with the map?"

Lin Feng shook his head, looking thoughtful, and said, "If there really was something wrong with the map, we wouldn't have been able to find this place so accurately based on the map. It shouldn't be a problem with the map."

"It's not a problem with the map? Then what else could it be?"

Li Tai frowned and said, "The river is right in front of us. Could it be the river's problem? Shouldn't the river exist?"

Although Li Tai's words were a bit harsh, it cannot be denied that what he said made sense.

Even Li Zhen nodded subconsciously. After all, maps were drawn by humans and there was a possibility of errors, but the river was a mighty force of nature and it had always been there. How could it be a problem with the river?
"Why can't it be Taiga's problem?"

But at this moment, Lin Feng's voice suddenly rang out.

"What!?" They were stunned.

Li Tai couldn't help but said, "Lin Sizheng...you are not kidding, are you? The river has always been there, how could there be a problem?"

Li Zhen also said: "Could it be that when Emperor Wu of Liang ordered people to carve the Buddha statue, the craftsmen accidentally carved it wrong?"

"What Li Qianniu said is a possibility, but..."

Lin Feng smiled and said, "That's hard to verify, and the easiest thing to verify is whether there is a problem with the river."

They were both confused. It was hard to verify whether the map was drawn wrong, but it was easy to verify the big river? How could this be verified?

They totally didn't understand what Lin Feng meant.

At this time, they saw Lin Feng turn his head and look at Sun Fujia, the Encyclopedia of the Tang Dynasty, and said, "Doctor Sun, do you know if there has been a large earthquake in Ankang County in the past hundred years?"

"Earthquake?" Sun Fujia thought about it and soon understood what Lin Feng meant: "Earthquake? Earthquake?"

Lin Feng nodded: "Yes, it is an earthquake."

Sun Fujia frowned and pondered for a while, then said: "I remember that there have indeed been many large and small earthquakes in the past hundred years, but I don't know whether there has been any earthquake in Ankang County... After all, dynasties changed quickly at that time, wars were frequent, people were displaced, bandits were rampant, and local officials did not do their jobs properly, so the county annals that should have recorded it either did not record it or were burned in the war. The county annals of Ankang County are one of those that were burned, with a gap of several decades in between, so if you ask me whether there has been an earthquake in Ankang County, I dare not say anything."

"It's burned down..."

Lin Feng touched his chin, thought for a moment, and said, "It doesn't matter. The county annals can be destroyed, but people can't be destroyed, and people's memories can't be destroyed either."

Having said that, Lin Feng got off the carriage directly.

He glanced at the people on both sides of the road who were looking at him curiously, thought for a moment, and then walked towards the oldest man with a white beard.

"I have met your Excellency."

When the old man saw the important man getting out of the carriage and walking straight up to him, he was startled and thought he had done something wrong, so he hurriedly saluted.

Lin Feng took a step forward, held the old man's arms, and said gently: "Old man, there is no need to be polite. I am Lin Feng, the director of the Dali Temple. I was ordered to come to Ankang County to investigate some things. Now I have encountered some problems and I would like to ask you for advice."

"Dali Temple Director Lin Feng?"

The old man just felt that the name was very familiar. Suddenly he raised his head and said with surprise: "Detective Lin Sizheng? Are you Detective Lin Sizheng?"

Lin Feng didn't expect that someone would know him in such a remote place. He smiled and said, "Old man, do you know me?"

The old man nodded repeatedly: "Of course, Lin Sizheng is a god at solving cases. He has solved so many unsolved cases and redressed the injustices of so many people. The storyteller tells you stories every day in the restaurant. We all know that you are the most fair and selfless official in our Tang Dynasty."

Being praised like this in person, even though Lin Feng was very thick-skinned, he couldn't help but feel a little hot at this moment.

He coughed and brought the topic back to business, saying, "Old man, do you know if there has been an earthquake in our Ankang County in the past hundred years?"

"Earthquake?"

The old man just recalled it briefly, then nodded and said, "Of course it happened, and it happened quite a few times."

There really was an earthquake... Lin Feng's heart moved, and he asked: "Then I wonder if there are any very powerful earthquakes among these earthquakes? So powerful that..."

Lin Feng turned his head, raised his hand, pointed to the river on the left side of the road, and said, "Is it so powerful that the terrain has changed, the mountain road has been destroyed, and the riverbed has appeared?"

"How did Lin Si Zheng know that this river appeared later?" The old man was a little surprised when he heard Lin Feng's words.

"This big river really appeared later? It didn't exist before!?"

Li Tai, who came here with Lin Feng, widened his eyes and looked incredulous when he heard this.

Li Zhen also looked shocked.

The old man hunched his back, looked at the rushing river with his cloudy eyes, and said slowly: "That was when I was a child, about six or seven years old. A serious earthquake occurred in our Ankang County. Overnight, almost all our houses collapsed, and cracks appeared in the ground. Originally here..."

He raised his hand, pointed to the place above the river, and said, "Originally, this was a small hill with a road leading directly to the other side. But overnight, the hill disappeared."

"That earthquake killed 70% of my family members, and none of my livestock survived... It was so tragic! It was so tragic! I will never forget the sight of everything turning into nothingness."

"And this great river..."

He looked at the broad river, his tone filled with unresolved sorrow. Even though more than sixty years had passed, the scars in his heart could not be healed. He said, "It appeared after that earthquake... The mountains disappeared, the river appeared, and the whole world was reshaped."

Listening to the old man's story, Li Tai couldn't help but gasp. Just by listening, he felt a shudder from the bottom of his heart. If he experienced this kind of thing personally, he estimated that he would never forget it until his death.

"It's actually true... This big river really appeared later!"

"in this case……"

Li Tai looked at Lin Feng and said, "The map is indeed correct! It is indeed Da He's fault!"

"The river's fault?" The old man was a little confused. He said, "It was the earthquake's fault, not the river's. It destroyed our family."

What the hell is going on? Li Tai was about to speak when he saw Lin Feng asking Li Zhen for a map.

He took a closer look at the map, then handed it to the old man and said, "Old man, take a look at this map. Do you know where the place marked on this map is?"

An earthquake has reshaped the earth.

The terrain has changed, so it would be inaccurate to follow the map.

The old man took a close look at the map, thought about it, and then raised his hand and said, "I'm not too sure, but it should be close... You go forward along this mountain road for ten miles, and then there is a forest on the left. You go straight through the forest path..."

Soon, the old man pointed out the way for Lin Feng in great detail.

After Lin Feng carefully wrote it down, he bowed and said, "Thank you for showing me the way, old man."

The old man had never received such respect from a high-ranking official like Lin Feng, so he waved his hand quickly and said, "It is my honor to be able to help Lin Sizheng."

Lin Feng said: "I am lucky."

Then he added: "I have another question for you, old man."

"Lin Sizheng, just ask."

"I wonder if you have seen any unfamiliar faces in the area recently?"

"Unfamiliar face?"

The old man thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, it is near the place I showed you the way. Once I went up the mountain to collect firewood and found several strangers. However, their attitude was not very friendly. I didn't dare to offend them, so I left in a hurry."

"Could it be... those strangers are!?" Li Tai looked at Lin Feng in surprise.

Lin Feng also exhaled slowly, a smile appeared on his lips, and he said: "There shouldn't be any problems now."

As he spoke, he looked at Li Zhen and said, "Li Qianniu, do you have any questions about the route?"

Li Zhen shook his head quickly. He had completely engraved the old man's words in his mind and would probably never forget them in his lifetime. Lin Feng nodded and bowed to the old man again, saying, "Thank you, old man. We still have a mission to complete, so we'll take our leave first. If we have a chance in the future, we'll come to thank you again."

"No, no, I didn't do anything." The old man waved his hands.

Lin Feng smiled, without further delay, and quickly returned to the carriage.

Soon the army set off again, the horses' hooves trampled the ground, splashing dust all over the sky, as if black clouds were climbing a mountain and dragons and snakes were rising from the mist.

Following the old man's instructions, the army marched forward for another hour and a half and finally stopped.

"Lin SiZheng, we are here."

Hearing Li Zhen's words, Lin Feng and the other two quickly got off the carriage.

Then they saw that they were standing halfway up a mountain. The peaks were high, the woods were lush, and there were many weeds growing everywhere. If it were summer, this place would surely be full of life, but the cold winter was approaching, and the world was withered, making this place seem a little sad.

Li Tai looked around for a long time and couldn't help but ask, "There's no secret hidden here?"

Lin Feng smiled and said, "How can it be hidden in plain sight for you to see? If the secret hideout is so easy to find, it would have been discovered long ago. How could it be left until now?"

"That's true."

Li Tai nodded and said, "Where is the secret treasure hidden? Could it be hidden in this mountain?"

Li Zhen pondered and said, "This mountain is the only place around that can hide things."

"This mountain is so big, how can we find it? We can't dig the mountain, right?" Li Tai couldn't help but say.

Li Zhen frowned, he was also thinking about this question.

Now they are sure that the royal secret treasure must be in the mountain in front of them, but he has no idea where it is in the mountain and how to find it.

Li Zhen was out of ideas and could only look at Lin Feng again and said, "Lin Sizheng, how do we find the hidden treasure?"

Upon hearing this, Li Tai and Sun Fujia hurriedly looked at Lin Feng. They were used to encountering such difficult situations, and subconsciously felt that Lin Feng would definitely be able to solve them.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Lin Feng smiled and said, "It's very simple. Just send someone to search the mountain."

“Search the mountain?” Everyone was stunned.

Lin Feng smiled and said, "Why? Do you think it lacks technical skills?"

Li Tai scratched his head and said, "Can it be found? Didn't Lin Sizheng just say that the secret treasure is hidden very secretly and can't be seen from the surface? In the past hundred years, people have been walking around this mountain. If it can be easily found, it would have been discovered long ago, right?"

Lin Feng said: "There is nothing wrong with your idea...but that was before. The current situation is different from before."

"Different?" Li Tai was puzzled.

Lin Feng smiled and said, "Your Highness, have you forgotten? This royal secret treasure is no longer undiscovered as before. During this period of time, the Four Symbols Organization has found it and taken out a lot of things from it."

"It is impossible for them to move things in and out without leaving any traces. Moreover, in the eyes of the Four Symbols Organization, this royal secret treasure is far away from Chang'an and hidden in the wilderness. It is difficult to be discovered, so they should not spend too much energy on dealing with traces."

"therefore……"

Lin Feng raised his head and looked at the mountain in front of him, and said slowly: "Just send people to search this mountain carefully to find the traces of man-made things I mentioned. As long as these traces are found, the entrance to the royal secret treasure... must be there!"

Li Tai hadn't reacted to Lin Feng's words when he heard Li Zhen's voice: "What are you still standing there for? Search the mountain!"

Soon, the elite Qianniu Guards scattered in all directions.

Li Zhen personally took action, and hundreds of Qianniu Guards lined up in order, and then searched forward together, not missing any blind spots.

Looking up, he could see that the entire mountain was filled with Qianniu Guards. Li Tai felt as if there were not just a few hundred Qianniu Guards, but thousands or even tens of thousands of them.

"I must find it. God bless me and I must find it."

Li Tai was so anxious that he couldn't stay still and kept turning around in circles.

Sun Fujia and Lin Feng sat on a big rock. Seeing Li Tai's anxious look, Sun Fujia said with a smile, "Your Highness the King of Yue has really changed a lot in the past few days. In the past, Your Highness the King of Yue would never have worked so hard with us."

Hearing this, Lin Feng nodded in agreement. They had indeed had a hard time along the way. As Ankang County was some distance away from Chang'an and Lin Feng was in a hurry, there was no time to waste. So they had not had any rest along the way. Fearing that the war horses could not bear it, they sent out a message in advance and ordered the post station to dispatch horses nearby. Then, after arriving at the post station, they would quickly change horses to ensure that their journey would not be affected.

In this way, after two days and two nights, not to mention Li Tai, the prince who lived in luxury, even Lin Feng's body could hardly bear it.

But even so, Li Tai never complained. Indeed, Li Tai had changed a lot since he first met him in the East Palace.

"Difficulties make people grow. It's not a bad thing to experience some difficulties occasionally." Lin Feng said with a smile.

Sun Fujia also nodded.

He looked at the mountain in front of him that was being searched inch by inch, and said with emotion: "But this Emperor Wu of Liang is really good at hiding. Who would have thought that he would hide the secret of restoring the country in Ankang County, a border county far away from the imperial capital Jiankang?"

Lin Feng gently moved the red sandalwood cloud bead, feeling the warm touch of the red sandalwood cloud bead with his fingertips, and said with a smile: "This is the wisdom of Emperor Liang Wu. He knew that if the secret of his hidden royal treasures was leaked, there would definitely be many people coveting his hidden royal treasures. At that time, they would definitely search everywhere to find the whereabouts of the royal treasures."

"And Jiankang is the capital of the emperor, and he has never left Jiankang, so he would naturally be the most suspicious place. Even if those people go looking for him, they will look near Jiankang... So he hid the royal treasure in the border far away from the imperial capital, which is naturally out of the reach of everyone and safer."

"It doesn't matter even if the border is lost in the end. After all, even he can't save the Liang Dynasty at that time. If the border is taken away by other countries, it will be safer for his descendants. After all, no one would have thought that the royal secret treasure he hid had already been on the land of another country."

Sun Fujia agreed again and again. He looked around and then said with emotion: "Since ancient times, the heart of the emperor is the most difficult to predict!"

Lin Feng smiled. Originally, he didn’t feel deeply about this sentence, but this time the investigation involved Li Shimin, which made him feel for the first time that the king’s heart was indeed as deep as the sea!

Thinking about this, Lin Feng suddenly thought of something. He clenched the red sandalwood cloud bead tightly, looked at the Qianniu guards who were searching the mountain seriously, and said, "Doctor Sun, the twists and turns in searching for the royal secret treasures suddenly gave me some ideas about the gold hairpin."

"Jin Chai?"

Sun Fujia was stunned. He didn't expect Lin Feng to suddenly mention the golden hairpin.

Then Lin Feng said slowly: "The golden hairpin and the red sandalwood cloud beads have many similarities. They both contain royal secrets, and the secret legends are all related to treasures."

Sun Fujia nodded: "Indeed."

"The Red Sandalwood Cloud Pearl is only a hundred years away from us, which is not that long. But if the golden hairpin was really left by Empress Lu, then the time is not comparable to a hundred years."

Sun Fujia estimated in his mind and said, "More than 800 years."

"That's right, more than 800 years..." Lin Feng turned his head and looked at Sun Fujia, and said, "The royal secret treasure hidden in the Red Sandalwood Cloud Pearl is only a hundred years old. Because of the earthquake, the map is difficult to use. If there were no people nearby who witnessed the earthquake, we might not even know that the earthquake happened, let alone find this place according to the map."

"What do you say……"

Lin Feng's speech slowed down, but Sun Fujia subconsciously perked up his spirits: "It's been eight hundred years since the treasure left by Empress Lu. Even if the hairpin contains a map like the red sandalwood cloud bead... In eight hundred years, there is no telling how many earthquakes have occurred. The people nearby must have passed away countless generations. Can we still find Empress Lu's treasure?"

"This..." Sun Fujia frowned, he pondered for a moment, shook his head and said, "It's difficult! More than 800 years is too long, there are countless accidents in the meantime, and the memory may have been lost a long time ago."

Lin Feng nodded: "Yes, once time passes, the map will likely lose its guiding function... and as the most powerful people in a country, it is impossible for them not to consider this."

"It's just that Emperor Wu of Liang realized it too late. When he was preparing the royal secret treasure, he could no longer control the situation. So the time left for him was very short. He could only hurriedly leave a chance for revenge for his descendants as quickly as possible."

"But...what about Empress Lu?"

Lin Feng looked at Sun Fujia and spoke more slowly and with a heavier tone, causing Sun Fujia to subconsciously straighten his back and hold his breath.

Then Lin Feng continued, "After Liu Bang's death, Empress Lü has been in power. She did not become as incompetent as Emperor Wu of Liang. On the contrary, in order to consolidate her power, she has always been very shrewd."

"So, she would definitely consider her family and the power behind her earlier. Then you say... she has enough time and power to prepare. Then would she still leave behind a map that might not be able to accurately find the treasure due to time constraints, like Emperor Wu of Liang?"

"This..." Sun Fujia's pupils trembled suddenly.

Lin Feng continued: "Also, Empress Lu's dispersal of the golden hairpins is also problematic."

"What's the problem?" Sun Fujia was puzzled.

“It’s a big problem.”

Lin Feng's fingertips gently stroked the red sandalwood cloud bead, his eyes became more and more profound, and he said: "First, in order to ensure that one of the younger generations was found and led to the others, she deliberately made these people unaware of the whereabouts of the others, leaving only one key person to be used to find the others when the time is right in the future."

"Isn't this very cautious?" Sun Fujia said.

Lin Feng nodded: "Indeed, this is very cautious... But if each of these people carries a gold hairpin, is it still cautious?"

"What!?" Sun Fujia was stunned.

Lin Feng looked at Sun Fujia and said, "Doctor Sun, think about this. If any of these younger generations are really captured, then their gold hairpins will definitely be taken away... If one of the gold hairpins is missing, doesn't that mean that the map left by Empress Lu, or other clues pointing to the treasure, will also be lost?"

"This..." Sun Fujia suddenly widened his eyes, and he finally understood what Lin Feng meant.

Lin Feng nodded and said, "It seems that Doctor Sun has understood... Empress Lu's dispersal of the golden hairpins that contain the secret of the treasure will not only not be safer, but will increase more risks... After all, there are twelve people, who can ensure that everyone will be cautious enough, who can ensure that none of these twelve people will ever be exposed? And once one person is exposed, everything that Empress Lu has planned for the younger generation will be directly cut off. With Empress Lu's ability, will she really do such an unsafe thing?"

Sun Fujia's pupils were beating violently. He only felt his heart beating violently. The pounding sound seemed to ring in his ears like a drum.

He knew that this was his body's reaction after being stimulated.

He understood very well what Lin Feng's words meant, and he understood even more clearly what Lin Feng was trying to overturn.

Lin Feng looked at Sun Fujia steadily, and said in a deep voice: "I originally had some doubts about this, but it happened eight hundred years ago after all. I have no evidence, and everyone says so, so I can't be sure... But today, when I personally searched for the royal treasure, I personally experienced the same thing, and suddenly I realized that the method of leaving behind the gold hairpin and the map has far more hidden dangers than I originally thought."

"As for a person like Empress Lü, she, as a woman, has controlled the government for so many years. I don't believe she would ignore these hidden dangers."

"so……"

Lin Feng took a deep breath, and under Sun Fujia's nervous gaze, he slowly said: "I suspect... there may be something wrong with those gold hairpins! Either the secret of the gold hairpins is not Empress Lu's treasure! Or the existence of the gold hairpins..."

Sun Fujia swallowed his saliva subconsciously, and then heard Lin Feng say: "I'm afraid it's just a trick!"

"The purpose of their existence is not to find Empress Lu's treasure, but to... deceive people like you and me!"

"That is to say..."

Lin Feng looked at Sun Fujia, holding the red sandalwood cloud bead tightly in both hands, and said in a deep voice: "The moment we tried our best to find the golden hairpin, we had already stepped into the trap set by Empress Lu eight hundred years ago!"

(End of this chapter)