Capital Datang

In the study room of Liangyi Hall of Taiji Palace, the light was very dark. Li Shimin sat behind the desk with a sullen face, and in the shadow in front of him, a shadow in black clothes that had never changed for thousands of years stood there, waiting for Li Shimin's question .

"Have you found out everything?" Li Shimin asked, "The demon school grass is entangled with me."

"Your Majesty, we have found out that the assassin was named He Gan Chengji, a confidant guard of the Crown Prince, and is now under the control of the Shadow Guard. According to his confession, he was ordered by His Royal Highness to assassinate Zhang Xuansu! "Shadow still said in his characteristic hoarse voice.

But Li Shimin didn't show any angry expression after hearing this, but sat there silently, his eyes full of pain.Last time, Li You sent guards around him to assassinate Chief Shi Quan Wanji, and now the crown prince sent guards to assassinate the officials of the Eastern Palace. Both of them are his sons, and what they did made him extremely disappointed. As a father , he was too lazy to get angry again, and what he had was just extremely heartache.

After a while, Li Shimin calmed down, and asked slowly: "Have you found out why the prince sent someone to assassinate Zhang Xuansu?" Capital Datang 401

Shadow heard Li Shimin's question, looked up, and then replied: "Your Majesty, Zhang Xuansu is upright and has repeatedly accused the prince, so he has always been disliked by the prince, but the day before the incident, Zhang Xuansu He wrote to the crown prince, proposing to expel a Taichang Le man named Xin Xin out of the palace. Because of this incident, His Royal Highness finally angered the crown prince, and the crown prince was confused for a while, so he sent an assassin to ambush Zhang Xuansu on the way into the palace. I wanted to "shoot" the opponent to death with an arrow, but Zhang Xuansu was lucky enough to escape!"

"Satisfactory?" Li Shimin was taken aback, "How can a mere person who is too happy make the prince do such a foolish thing?"

Shadow was most worried that His Majesty would ask this question, but he still said helplessly, "I would like to report to Your Majesty. This Xinxin has an ambiguous relationship with the Crown Prince. From all indications, the other party should be His Royal Highness's male favourite!"

"Bah!" As soon as the shadow's words came out of his mouth, Li Shimin immediately slapped the table angrily, and the two tigers stared round, as if they were going to choose someone to eat.If it was an ordinary person, he would have been paralyzed by Li Shimin's angry appearance long ago, but the shadow has a special identity, he is just a tool in the hands of His Majesty the Emperor.Whatever Li Shimin asked, he would answer, and all the consequences had nothing to do with him.

"Okay, okay! This is my son!" Li Shimin had a sneer on his face. If he was extremely disappointed with Li Chengqian just now, it has now become a kind of resentment.Although he dotes on Li Tai, he also placed great hopes on Li Chengqian. He didn't expect that this son would just use assassination as a means, but he was so indiscreet in his private life, which made him feel heartbroken and angry at the same time. .

But no matter how angry he was, Li Chengqian was still the prince of Tang Dynasty after all.The eldest son of Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, so in the end he could only be dealt with coldly.In fact, Li Shimin guessed that this matter was related to the prince long before Shadow investigated the truth. After all, the place where this matter happened is not far from the imperial city.Moreover, after assassinating with a bow and arrow in hand, the assassin was able to escape calmly without leaving any clues.

The people who can do this can be counted on the fingers of the entire Chang'an City.In addition, apart from Zhang Xuansu's bad relationship with the prince, he has not offended anyone else.Therefore, apart from Li Chengqian, no one else had any reason to assassinate the other party. Only by combining these two, it can be concluded that the "manipulator" behind the scenes must have a great relationship with the prince, and the shadow's investigation results also proved this point.

After the shadow reported, he asked Li Shimin a few more questions, and then he withdrew.At this time, it was already the beginning of the lights, and the shadow left the palace along a special passage, and immediately rushed to a manor on the outskirts of the city.

The area of ​​this manor is not small, and it is nominally the property of a big businessman from Chang'an. However, since the big businessman bought this manor, he has never been here again, but there are often some unidentified people wandering outside the manor. , but this manor is surrounded by ordinary people, and no one cares about the identities of these people.

Night had fallen, and most of the manor was pitch black, except for a small courtyard, where there was a faint light.In the wing room on the left side of the yard, two people are sitting at the table eating, and in the innermost part of the wing room is a space separated by an iron fence, which looks no different from a cell, and in this cell, the prisoner He was looking at a prisoner with disheveled hair, but this prisoner was wearing the guard uniform of the Eastern Palace. If he usually wore this clothes on the street, he would probably get the awe-inspiring gazes of countless people, but now he was regarded as a prisoner.

After the two guards guarding the prisoners finished their meal, one of the bearded guards poured the leftovers from the table into a basin, then walked to the prison, handed the basin in through the food opening below and said: " Kid, this is what our brothers ordered at Junzi Restaurant in Chang'an, although Junzi Restaurant is not as delicious as Dengxianlou, but it is also a first-class restaurant, today you are considered lucky master!"

The prisoner who was detained was also a person of status before, so he naturally knew the difference between Junzilou and Dengxianlou. He used to be a frequent visitor to Dengzhoulou, and sometimes he was too lazy to go to places like Junzilou. As for the food there, it was naturally not rare, not to mention the leftovers from the two guards, if they were in normal times, they would have been kicked over by him long ago.

But now his current life is in the hands of others, and he has been imprisoned here for two days, not to mention the torture he suffered. Cold water, he almost vomited after eating, and now the two guards can bring over the leftovers, which is already showing mercy.

"Thank you two big brothers, but I just want to ask, how do you plan to deal with the little brother?" The prisoner in the prison showed a flattering smile, nodded and bowed.

In fact, this is not the only thing he wanted to ask. Since he was caught here by this group of unknown people two days ago, he tried his best to torture himself. Zhang Xuansu's story came out.Unexpectedly, after the other party heard this, he threw himself here, and ignored him for a few days. This made him panic, wondering who these people were?Who are you doing for?And after they knew that they were ordered by the prince to assassinate Zhang Xuansu, how would they deal with themselves?This is also the question that matters most to him.

"Eat your meal honestly, why ask so many questions?" The bearded guard scolded impatiently. In fact, he was just a pawn who was ordered to guard the other party. As for how to deal with it?That's not something he can know.

"Yes, yes~" The prisoner in the prison smiled, and at the same time retreated to the corner of the cell with the rice bowl in his hand, thinking while eating. According to his observations during this period, the other party should be a very strict organization. It can be seen from the clear division of labor, and the guards are also divided into three shifts, which makes him have no chance to escape at all, and can only wait for the opponent's final disposal.

The prisoner named Hegan Chengji was also reported by the shadow to Li Shimin. The assassin who was sent by Li Chengqian to assassinate Zhang Xuansu was apparently a guard of the Eastern Palace, but in fact he was secretly supported by Li Chengqian. There is more than one assassin like Hegan Chengji, and there are about a hundred of them together, among which Hegan Chengji is the most valued one.

Although Hegan Chengji's name looks like a Turkic person, he is actually a Han Chinese. Hegan is a compound surname, but it is relatively rare. At the end of Wude, he once attacked the Turkic people in the north, and it was precisely because of his military exploits , was placed in the East Palace, and was later favored by the crown prince, and was introduced into the assassins he kept.Capital Datang 401

Originally, Hegan Chengji thought that he was not afraid of death. When he was on the battlefield, he was also a brave general who dared to fight, but after receiving the courtesy of the prince Li Chengqian, he lived as a dead man and felt that no matter what happened , would not betray the prince, but it was not until he fell into the hands of the outside gang two days ago that he tasted the feeling of not being able to live but not dying. This kind of torture is unbearable even for hard-fought people, so he finally failed to do it for him. The prince kept the secret.

Human nature is like this. After the first betrayal, the second betrayal is much easier, at least for Hegan Chengji.Ever since he confessed the assassination of Zhang Xuansu, he suddenly found that there seemed to be a voice in his heart that kept saying: I want to live, I must live, as long as I can live, I am willing to pay any price, even... Even if it is to betray the prince again, he will not hesitate!

Although at the beginning, Hegan Chengji still felt a little self-blame for the thought of betraying the prince, but as the desire to survive became stronger, the self-blame in his heart was slowly suppressed, and he He is no longer a dead soldier in the Eastern Palace, but a poor man struggling to survive.

Having made up his mind, the uneasiness that had accompanied Hegan Chengji since he was arrested finally disappeared, and he even felt a little at ease. After all, although the ancients had the saying of sacrificing one's life for righteousness, there were still some people who did not do what they wanted, and destroyed them. He said that although it is shameful for him to betray his master for his own survival, from another perspective, it is also a great thing that benefits the country and the people.

Of course, the premise of all this is that these people want to kill him, then he can only use the prince's secrets in exchange for a chance to survive, if these people don't want to do anything to him, then he still won't say anything, After returning, he will continue to be his guard of the East Palace.

And just as Hegan Chengji was sitting in the corner of the prison cell thinking about it, an unremarkable carriage finally arrived at the gate of the small courtyard of the manor. When the door opened, a figure in black jumped out of the carriage, He was ordered by Li Shimin to make a thorough conclusion to this matter.