The bad emperor of Tang Dynasty

On the outskirts three hundred miles away from Chang'an City, in the four directions leading to the city, all post roads and gates have been blocked by heavy troops at this time. A large number of slaves and officials are patrolling the intersections, conducting strict checks on passers-by.

A picker on the side of the road was carrying a load of wild goods and walking at the roadside pass. At this time, he was stopped by the official who set up a sentry post for interrogation:

"Stop! The area with a radius of [-] miles is blocked, and now you can only go out and not enter. Any idlers, please detour."

Dozens of solemn officials were all armed with plain knives, long spears, armor and shields, and were extremely vigilant.

"Oh, sir, Xiaomin's home is ten miles away in Taohuazhuang, hurry back now."

"Then go back to the city and wait, and the government office will remove the checkpoint after finishing its work." The leader, a scar-faced county lieutenant, replied lightly.

The picker had a helpless expression on his face, and even though he had worn his lips, he couldn’t pass the checkpoint. He wanted to break through the checkpoint by force, but unexpectedly, an archer in the distance raised his bowstring and shot without saying a word. Majestic shouted: "Stand back! Turn around and leave!"

There is no way, passers-by like that shopkeeper, when encountering the post road leading to Lintong in the north, are always driven back to the city by a large number of officials.Some villagers in Lintong County arrived in the capital eight days ago, but when they returned, they found that they could not return to their homes in the territory. Many people had been stranded in the capital for several days.

According to gossip, a fierce and bloody fight took place on a post road in the outskirts of Lintong a few days ago, and many people died.The first person to discover the scene was a local villager. They saw corpses strewn across the road, broken arms and limbs, weapons and blood everywhere. There was no living person. It was a hell on earth.

At that time, the mountain man was so frightened that his legs went limp, and he immediately peed on his pants. "Oh my god!" After crying, he rushed back to the nearby village and quickly informed the whole village of the shocking news.

Soon the head of the township hurriedly dispatched villagers to protect the scene, but it was not too bad. Finally, a man was found to be breathing, but the clothes on his body were out of shape, and the blood stained the tattered cloth all over his body. No less than a dozen large and small incisions were cut on the back, arms, and legs, and he lay unconscious on the broken carriage.

More than a dozen corpses fell beside him, some were headless, and they were all thrown into a grass ditch more than ten meters away. Some of their arms and ankles were cut off, and the intestines of the corpses flowed out from the torn belly. , dragged to the ground, or some heads were flattened and cut off in half, and white blood mixed with blood was sprinkled everywhere on the stone slabs. Most of the people in black died in a particularly terrifying manner.

The dozens of young and strong mountain people who came here have lived for decades, and they have never seen such a bloody scene. When they arrived at the scene, there was a buzzing sound in their heads, and they all froze, and then they all bent over and wowed vomited.

When the only man not wearing black was removed from the carriage, everyone thought that with such a tragic injury on his body, an ordinary person would have lost too much blood and died. The young man found that there was an almost imperceptible breath in the man's nose.

It was also considered his fate, and the simple villagers immediately became excited, and hurriedly carried him back to the village, invited the best medical doctor in the village, poured a lot of herbs on him, and took care of him carefully until he fell into a coma He didn't wake up.

The mayor realized the seriousness of the matter, and immediately drove a donkey cart with his two sons overnight, and rushed to the nearby capital to report the incident after dawn.

This assassination incident, the follow-up incident developed into a large-scale sensation in the capital.There is an undercurrent surging above the upper echelons of the imperial court.All factions focused on the Lintong assassination case, silently watching the development of the case.

After Guo Nuan, the chief officer of the Jingzhao Mansion, was assassinated by a large number of assassins, he disappeared in the mountains and forests hundreds of miles away in the Lintong area. This incident also involved the granddaughter of the patriarch of the Qinghe family.This is amazing news.In case any of them goes wrong, no one can take responsibility.

The eighth day has passed, and many forces have entered near Lintong County.The Yamen of Jingzhao Mansion was the first to receive the report from the villagers of Lintong. At first, Yan Ruoshui thought it was just a slightly serious assassination case. When Guo Nuan did not return to the Yamen after two days, there was no sign of Guo Nuan in the Princess Mansion and Fenyang Palace. Afterwards, after collecting information from various aspects, it was learned that Guo Nuan was also involved in the assassination.

Deeply aware that the situation was not good, Yan Ruoshui immediately sent people to the county offices of 2000 counties and districts in the Gyeonggi area. In one night, she gathered all the county government officials, arrested the heads, and more than [-] militiamen rushed to Lintong. In the mountain area, everyone is ordered to search for Guo Nuan and Cui Ying with all their might.

Cui Ying's bodyguard, Qian De, was found in a small mountain village in Lintong, and was immediately picked up by the Cui family in Qinghe, Hebei, more than 1000 miles away from Chang'an.Chandler had been in a coma for three days and was still awake, but his injuries had stabilized.The Cui family took him home to continue treatment.

At the same time, the Qinghe Cui family also sent more than 2000 people from the clan to the Lintong Mountains. Even the 80-year-old patriarch Cui Yan was also dispatched to lead the clan to find his granddaughter.

As for the Wang family of the Fenyang Prince's Mansion, when they heard the news that their youngest son Guo Nuan was missing, they were anxious. Fortunately, Guo Xi, the third son of the Shuofang Military Region, just came back on the third day of Guo Nuan's disappearance.

As Guo Nuan's third brother, Guo Xi had just rushed back to Chang'an to report on his duties from the battlefield thousands of miles away. Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped into the house, he was tired of traveling and traveling, and he learned from his mother Wang that his brother disappeared after being assassinated. Without further ado, he rushed to Lintong with [-] Shuofang soldiers who had come from Shun to save the lives.

As a royal princess, Guo Nuan's wife, Shengping, undoubtedly seemed much calmer and calmer in the face of the sudden bad news. She took her time and borrowed five thousand imperial guards from her father, Daizong, and led the troops directly to Guo Nuan's disappearance. mountains.

A mighty search operation began.

Searching with a net, the discovery was made on the sixth day. The people who rescued Guo Nuan and Cui Ying found more than ten corpses of men in black within a ten-mile radius of a prescription. But it has been severely damaged.It can be confirmed that Guo Nuan, who was holding Qian De's bow and arrow, appeared in the mountainous area in that area, and also launched an effective counterattack against the killer, annihilating many enemies.

A pile of buried fire remains, a short knife with a broken blade, and a torn undershirt were found beside a stream in a valley. After identification, Yan Ruoshui and Luo Yuan confirmed that the clothes were what Guo Nuan was wearing on the day he disappeared.

Guo Nuan's anti-reconnaissance method is very clever. It was originally intended to avoid the pursuit of the killer behind him. During the escape, he covered up the traces of the two people, so that it was difficult for the people who rescued them to find their traces, which delayed a lot. Despite the time and twists and turns, the search for Guo Nuan's trace was orderly, but the progress was not fast.

On the seventh day, Yan Ruoshui and Luo Yuan each led 2000 troops to search in the forest in two directions.In the deep forest, the weather is hot and dangerous. From time to time, you will encounter swampy mud or wild animals. Many of your men have been bitten by poisonous snakes and wild bees.Coupled with the complex terrain of mountains and ravines, dense forests and thorns are everywhere, which is very inconvenient for people and horses to walk, and delays the speed of most people.

"Master Yan, a large number of black-clothed men were found in the mountain ahead, no less than 200 of them, all armed with identities, acting very suspiciously!"

At noon, when Yan Ruoshui was camping in the woods with his men, suddenly the two spies in front of them hurried back to report.

"Uh! Are you sure it's the same group that chased and killed Mr. Guo?" Yan Ruoshui raised her eyebrows, and when she heard this unusual news, she was extremely serious.

"Reporting to my lord, the costumes of the men and horses in the mountain depression are the same as those of the corpses of the assassins left on the post road. It is very likely that they are the same group of men and horses." A spy replied.

"Everyone is there, listen to the order, and surround the mountain in front!" Yan Ruoshui shouted, and then 1000 people immediately moved into action, and a big battle was about to begin. ． ．