Will Ming

Chapter 620 The Bet Is Yourself

Li Yuan, who returned to the imperial study, sat down on the chair, looked at the unfinished memorials on the table and frowned slightly.He picked up a copy casually and looked at it, but he didn't know why it was a little messed up, and he didn't care what was written on the memorial.After staring at the memorial for a while, his expression suddenly became a little ugly.

He stood up and went to the bookshelf to rummage for a while, and found a memorial in a corner.This memorial was submitted two months ago, and Li Yuan put it in a corner of the bookshelf after reading it.At that time, he felt that this matter was a bit strange, but the person sent to investigate did not find anything wrong.The person who went to investigate was careful and very good at handling cases. With his ability, if there were any hidden secrets, he would definitely find out.

Sitting down and reading the memorial carefully again, Li Yuan's brows gradually became a knot.

"Come on, go find Dugu Xue, now!"

"Here!"

Gao Liansheng, the head servant standing outside the door of the imperial study room, quickly agreed, and turned around and ordered the eunuch on duty to quickly find Duguxue, the prison guard general.Although he didn't stay by Li Yuan's side for a long time, if he didn't have the ability to guess the emperor's mood by listening to his voice, how could he have achieved this position.

Duguxue, who had already fallen asleep, heard the emperor's urgent call, so he got up, changed his clothes, and ran all the way to the door of the imperial study.Gao Liansheng said to him in a low voice: "Your Majesty told you to go in directly if you arrive... Your Majesty seems to be in a bad mood, Lord Dugu should be more careful."

Dugu Xue hummed and thanked in a low voice, pushed the door open and walked in.

"His Majesty"

After Duguxue entered the door, he bent down to salute. When he bent down, he glanced over secretly from the corner of his eyes and found that Li Yuan's face was indeed not very good, and the thing he held in his hand was what he knew about Duguxue, which he had handed over a while ago.He has an excellent memory and has a photographic memory.When he was serving as the Minister of Criminal Affairs during the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty, he could memorize the case files for almost a whole year, and he could tell them in detail whenever someone asked.

Speaking of which, when he first arrived in Chang'an, Li Yuan intended to let him be the Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment, but he did not hesitate to offend the emperor and did not agree.But now he, the general prison guard, is almost no different from the official of the Ministry of Punishment. The emperor asked him to investigate many things.And the more things he found out, the more secrets he knew, so much that he was a little uneasy sleeping now.

"The matter of the Longyou old house...you tell me again."

"Yes!"

Dugu Xue responded, but his heart tightened suddenly: "According to my investigation, Liu Wuzhou was killed after being defeated by His Royal Highness King Qin. Most of his troops were recruited by King Qin, but there were also thousands of remnants who fled. Among them, the largest There are more than a thousand people in one group, and the leader is Liu Wuzhou's general Zhou Xunke. He pretended to be an imperial envoy of the Tang Dynasty to avenge Liu Wuzhou and tricked him into opening the city gate. Then... after the murder, he set a big fire, and the people in the city were also burned Countless people died, even the county magistrate was burned to death in his own home, the fire burned for three days before it was extinguished, and most of the houses in the city were destroyed."

"Have you checked the corpse"

"The minister has checked all the corpses that can be found, but some corpses have been burnt to only half of their bodies, and some have been burned to charcoal, so it is difficult to determine their identities."

"Is there really one less number of people?"

"Quite a few."

"Are you sure that Lao Zhen, the official in the old house, is also dead?"

"The corpse was found in his small yard. His throat was cut to death. Because the corpse was dumped in the yard, it was not burned by fire, so the appearance can still be vaguely recognized."

Li Yuan hummed, put down the memorial and pondered for a while and said: "You are sending someone to check the number of people, and bring back some of the civilians guarding the city, Minyong, who saw the bandits entering the city at that time, and I will personally intervene. Zhou Xunke After the murder, he ran away, and there is no news until now... Although there are only a few servants left in the old house, they are all my people. A brutal bandit dares to be so arrogant. Could it be that there is not even a murderer under my command? nothing?"

"General Yunhui Chu Huo has led his troops to investigate."

Duguxue replied.

"But after chasing for more than two months, I haven't even seen Zhou Xunke's shadow!"

Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "You put all other things on hand first, this matter is important. Send someone to tell Chu Huo that if Zhou Xunke is nowhere to be found within a month, then he will Don't come back to see me. My subordinates won't just raise some useless waste!"

"minister……"

Duguxue knew that the emperor was in a very bad mood, but he still couldn't help but remind him: "I'm just supervising the gate guard and guarding the palace."

Li Yuan was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said: "I know that these things should not be entrusted to you, but if you honestly took over the errand of the Ministry of Punishment, would it be so embarrassing? I still reserve the seat of Minister of Criminal Affairs for you."

"The minister is really afraid of the job of the Ministry of Punishment."

Dugu learns.

"Go first, I want to be quiet."

Li Yuan seemed a little tired, waved his hands and said, "After the prince's affairs are over, you will go to the Ministry of Criminal Justice. If you dare to say no again, I will let you and Gao Liansheng take turns in the imperial study."

Duguxue smiled wryly and bowed to leave.

"Too much like..."

Li Yuan looked at the memorial on the table with a gloomy look on his brows.Just as he was about to clean up his mind and deal with the matter at hand, suddenly someone rushed over from outside, crying anxiously, "Your Majesty, something is wrong...the empress...the empress has passed away!"

……

……

In less than two months, Li Yuan lost three close relatives one after another.Li Yuanji, king of Qi, died in Daying of the Eastern Capital. It is said that he was violently killed by Li Jing when he ordered Li Jing to be executed. Li Yuan didn't want to find out the truth, because he really didn't want to believe or admit the truth.

The prince was killed on the wall of Xuanwu Gate more than ten days ago, and he has not been buried for various reasons. The mausoleum that Li Yuan ordered to build at the beginning of his ascension to the throne has not yet been completed. He gave this mausoleum to the prince. The coffin was still parked in Fengnian Hall, but the queen had also left.

In an instant, Li Yuan felt as if he had been hit hard on the heart by a heavy hammer.The breath he had been holding on for so long finally couldn't hold on any longer. When he heard the words "Queen died", he stood up abruptly and looked at the eunuch who reported the letter. He opened his mouth and passed out.The emperor's body fell limply to the ground, frightening the eunuch who reported the letter and Gao Liansheng, the chief servant.

The on-duty imperial doctor who just ran to the queen's bedroom had to rush to the imperial study. Li Xian, who had been watching the busy people in the queen's bedroom, heard that Li Yuan had passed out, and felt a little ominous in his heart.When he hurried to the imperial study with the imperial doctor, Li Yuan hadn't woken up yet, the imperial doctor hurriedly rolled his eyelids to feel his breath and check his pulse, Li Xian took advantage of the chaos and entered the imperial study and stood watching.

He suddenly saw a memorial that was still unfolding on the table case, because it was not very far away from the table case, Li Xian could see some familiar words on it, Longxi... the old house...

General Duguxue, the prison guard, looked at Li Yuan nervously, and inadvertently saw that King Yan seemed to be very interested in the memorial on the table.Everyone's attention was on the emperor, but he noticed that King Yan's footsteps seemed to be unintentionally moving a few steps towards the desk.His eyes changed, he coughed and asked, "Your Highness... are you going to invite Lord Na Yan and other important court officials in?"

Li Xian's footsteps paused, and a trace of doubt flashed in his gaze towards Duguxue.

"Are you asking me?"

he asks.

Duguxue nodded and said, "I can only ask you now, my officer."

Li Xian thought for a while and said, "Then please."

"Here"

Dugu Xue replied, and subconsciously glanced at the memorial on the desk.Li Xian looked at him, slowly moved away and walked to the imperial doctor, looked at the anxious imperial doctor and said softly, "Let me do it."

After Duguxue walked out of the room, he couldn't help but turned around and glanced at King Yan who was taking His Majesty's pulse. He always felt that his behavior was a little abnormal, and he seemed to find something in his mind for a moment, but it was very vague.He shook his head and walked out quickly.What he didn't know was that there was a pair of eyes staring at his back until they disappeared.

Gao Liansheng saw that the emperor woke up faintly after King Yan's massage, and quickly handed him a cup of hot tea.Li Xian took it and handed the hot tea to Li Yuan. Li Yuan gasped and slowly shook his head, his face was frighteningly pale. He looked into Li Xian's eyes and asked word by word: "Why did the queen die suddenly?"

Li Xian did not answer, but glanced at the imperial doctor and the servants in the room.

"You all get out, all of you get out!"

Li Yuan waved his hand and ordered.

Gao Liansheng hurriedly led people out of the imperial study room, and when there were only the two of them left in the room, Li Xian said: "The queen is very emotional, crying and laughing for a while, she asked me to come closer, and I sat by the bed The lights were brighter. The queen asked me where I have been all these years, and I said...on the way of killing people and avoiding being killed."

He raised his head and glanced at Li Yuan and continued: "The queen burst into tears, a mouthful of phlegm stuck in her throat. I sent someone to rush to the imperial doctor, because I am proficient in medicine, so I massaged the queen first, but it didn't work ...Her body is really too weak, before the imperial doctor arrived, the empress had already lost her breath."

"you……"

He didn't know what Li Yuan was going to say, but he took back what he said later.

……

……

Not long after returning to their own mansion, Liu Zhenghui and Pei Ji, who had just laid down and were about to sleep, were startled by the news brought by the people from the palace, and they almost jumped out of their beds.Hastily changed into court clothes and got into the carriage to Tai