The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 26 Frustration
The residence of Wu Sicang.

At this time, Wang Zhongsi's soldiers had surrounded Wu Sicang's mansion, and Wu Sicang's family and servants were all driven to the western corner and confined.

Zhang Duwei, who led the siege, explained to Li Heng, "Your Highness, Prince Shou, I have been following Wu Sicang these past few days. Yesterday during the day, Wu Sicang went to Huangfu Weiming's residence. After returning, he went into his room and has not come out since. Today, General Wang brought people to get it, but when we rushed into the room, there was no one there."

As Captain Zhang spoke, he led the way and brought Li Heng and the others to Wu Sicang's room.

Li Heng took a look at the room. There were scattered books on the floor. There were Confucian classics, Taoist classics, and "The Book of Filial Piety", which was the version annotated by Li Longji, as well as "Yaoshan Wangze" and "Weicheng Qiangui", which were presented to Li Longji by Pei Guangting. Li Longji asked the crown prince and the kings to keep a copy each.

As a warehouse in a border area, the fact that these books were stored there shows that he had a close relationship with the princes in the court.

Next to the scattered books, there were several thick candles, which had burned down to a little bit, and on the other side there was a piece of black leather.

Li Ying picked up the black leather and looked at it for a long time, but couldn't figure out what it was. He turned around and was about to ask Wang Zhongsi and the others, but Yang Yuhuan took the initiative to say, "This is sheepskin. Folk artists often make leather into this shape for shadow puppetry. When I was young in Shuzhou, whenever I saw this kind of magic, I wanted to take a look."

"shadow play?"

Li Ying looked around the room thoughtfully and found a small hole on the upper side wall of the room.

Li Heng roughly understood what was going on and asked Captain Zhang, "How do you know for sure that Wu Sicang was in the room?"

Captain Zhang said, "I was watching from the rooftop opposite, and there was always someone in his room."

"So it was just a silhouette, and I didn't see the real person, right?"

"Your Highness, that is indeed the case."

"That's right," Li Ying thought, "it's just an illusion similar to a shadow play."

Yang Yuhuan suddenly realized what was going on and said, "He set up a shadow puppetry in the room, creating an illusion of shadows, pretending that he was always there, but in fact he was not in the room at all."

Li Heng nodded and said, "Yes, he left the room a long time ago."

As he said this, he handed the leather to Wang Zhongsi.

Wang Zhongsi took the leather, looked at it again and again, thought about it, and said, "This Wu Sicang is really smart. I didn't realize it at all. If he left a long time ago, then he... knew that we sent someone to keep an eye on him."

"He should know." Li Heng walked out of the room and glanced at Wu Sicang's family and servants who were trembling in the west corner, and then said, "He knew it from the beginning. On the day of the banquet, from the moment he spoke up for Cui Chong, he knew we would suspect him, and he had anticipated all of this."

Wang Zhongsi followed him out and sighed, "With such wisdom, if he had used it in matters concerning his country and the world, he would have made great achievements. Unfortunately..."

After a sigh, Wang Zhongsi said, "Your Highness, the account books I got before were all forged. I haven't found any account books that show their embezzlement yet. Could it be that Wu Sicang ran away with the account books?"

"No." Li Heng shook his head. "If the account books they embezzled were really in his hands, he wouldn't run away, because if he ran away, it would only confirm his guilt. On the contrary, if he didn't run away, as long as he survived the interrogation, he would be fine. But he ran away, which just shows that the account books are not in his hands. He even suspects that we have found the account books."

"Found by us?" Wang Zhongsi looked puzzled.

Li Heng reminded, "At present, we have only contacted a few people. General Wang, please think about it carefully."

After Li Heng finished speaking, he smiled and turned to Yang Yuhuan and said, "Madam, I didn't expect you to know about these tricks."

Yang Yuhuan was not modest and smiled, "I have always loved these interesting things. I know a little bit about shadow puppetry. It originated in the north, but the best shadow puppetry performers in our dynasty are in Shaozhou, especially Qujiang. The sheepskin production method is from Qujiang." "Shaozhou Qujiang?"

Li Ying was stunned.

Qujiang, Shaozhou is the hometown of Zhang Jiuling, right?
Li Heng was thinking when a soldier suddenly came to report: "Your Highness Prince Shou, General Wang, Lord Niu has sent someone to assist in the investigation."

"Oh?"

Li Heng was slightly surprised when he heard this.

The Niu Gong the soldier was referring to is the current Hexi Jiedushi Niu Xianke.

Niu Xianke has a grudge against the current Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling, but has some friendship with Li Linfu.

Fenglin County was hit by a disaster, and the relief grain dispatched came from Hexi.

Li Ying thought of something.

According to historical development, this year, the Minister of the Court Pei Yaoqing was appointed as the Left Prime Minister, and the Minister of the Secretariat Zhang Jiuling was appointed as the Right Prime Minister, and both were dismissed from the position of Vice Minister. The Minister of War Li Linfu concurrently served as the Minister of the Secretariat, and the Hexi Jiedushi Niu Xianke was transferred to Chang'an and appointed as the Minister of War and the third rank of the Secretariat.

The people who assassinated him before, as well as the Chen Wulang case, and the people involved now, Wu Sicang and Huangfu Weiming, all point to Li Heng's side.

Therefore, Li Ying had always thought that if he continued to investigate the matter, he would not be able to find the cause of the matter on Li Ying, let alone Zhang Jiuling.

As long as Zhang Jiuling was not implicated, he also told his mother not to join forces with Li Linfu. In this way, Zhang Jiuling could continue to serve as the Vice-Chancellor, and Li Linfu and Niu Xianke would not be promoted.

He thought that history would diverge from him.

But now it seems that there is something evil about the confession Song Sitian gave to Wang Zhongsi, and the leather used by Wu Sicang to escape is also not right.

Also, according to Li Longji's philosophy of employing people, Du Xiwang is a man who knows how to protect himself, Wang Zhongsi is considered to be Li Longji's man, Huangfu Weiming is Li Heng's man, then what about the prince and Zhang Jiuling's people?
If the person who assassinated him lied, and the underlying relationship between Song Sitian and Wu Sicang was not as simple as it seemed, and they were the prince and Zhang Jiuling's men, then this matter must be exposed to the end.

Zhang Jiuling’s position as vice-chancellor is over!
Li Heng understood and thought, "So Li Longji appointed me as the demotion and promotion envoy for his own plans. He knew that if someone else investigated this matter, if the investigation led to the people employed by the crown prince and Zhang Jiuling, they would definitely hold back, so he wanted to use me to overthrow Zhang Jiuling and eliminate the crown prince's power."

"Great! I am a demotion envoy, but this is the result that I, Xin Yunjing, Wang Zhongsi, Wu Huifei, Li Longji, and Li Linfu all want."

"I thought history had forked from me, but what did I change? The torrent of history is still moving forward vigorously!"

Li Ying connected everything.

He suddenly felt a little tired and said to Wang Zhongsi:
"General Wang, please go and receive the people that Lord Niu sent to assist in the investigation. I'm tired and want to go back and rest for a while."

"Yes." Wang Zhongsi thought that Li Heng was too ill to stand, so he listened and added, "Your Highness, please take care of yourself."

"General Lao Wang is concerned."

Li Heng said something polite and left with Yang Yuhuan.

(End of this chapter)