I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 604
After more than half a month of trekking, Zhou Chen, the governor of Nanzhili, finally arrived at the boundary of Nanjing.

Zhou Chen did not go directly to the city, but temporarily stayed in a small post station a few miles outside the city.

There is actually a reason why he did this.

In the past half a month, the number of guards around him has increased, and it is difficult for the assassins to strike, but this does not mean that they have completely given up.

Zhou Chen clearly remembered that the leader of the group of assassins had not been arrested yet.

He had a hunch that this group of people would definitely show up again, and the last possible time was when they entered the city.

In any case, he is also the governor of Shuntian Mansion in good name, and those super nobles may not take him seriously, but all the officials in Nanjing, big and small, are all his nominal subordinates.

If you come by yourself, they will welcome you no matter what.

At that time, there will be many people, and it is the best time for the assassin to strike.

Although Zhou Chen is not afraid of death, it is not his style to get on the pole and jump into the trap.

So he temporarily settled down in this small post station, while waiting for He Lin, the new Nanjing garrison eunuch who left a few days later than him, and ordered people to investigate the situation in Nanjing at this time.

After planning to figure out everything, he quietly entered the city.

What he didn't expect was that even though he was so cautious and guarded everywhere, he still couldn't escape the assassination of the cunning assassin.

On the second day after staying in this small inn, the inn's owner found that the well seemed to have been poisoned. After testing, everyone found that the well water was indeed poisonous, and it was extremely poisonous.

The big white goose used for the test turned its eyes white within a quarter of an hour after drinking the well water, and died.

This made Zhou Chen and his accompanying guards very angry.

Immediately, all the personnel in the station were summoned, intending to interrogate everyone one by one to see if there was any assassin hiding in it.

This post station is a small post station, and there are not many official duties on weekdays.

So apart from a postman, two postmen and a cook, there are only a donkey and a yellow dog left.

Zhou Chen naturally trusts the guards around him very much, and in the recent period of time, no one else has stayed in this post except for them.

Therefore, it can be inferred from common sense that the person who is most likely to be poisoned, except for the four people in the post station, there can be no other people.

The interrogation was not easy. After searching all morning, no useful information was found.

Originally, according to the temperament of the guards who were born in Jinyiwei, as long as they tortured a few people, it would take less than half an hour to guarantee that they would even confess to their ancestors for eighteen generations.

But Zhou Chen is a very upright official, and he was unwilling to execute several people before he was sure whether they were the assassin's accomplices or not.

The question he asked was probably where the four of them were after nightfall last night, and there were no witnesses.

Coincidentally, after the investigation of the four individuals, none of them were found to be suspected of committing the crime.

After a lot of tossing, there was no result, and the dozens of people in the station were cut off from drinking water, thirsty and irritable.

So some people began to privately plan to execute the four people to torture and ask the mastermind behind the scenes.

But they were blocked by Yang Huzi and Yang Huilan's siblings.

Just when Yang Huzi's siblings and the guards were entangled to stop them, the four people in the inn, because they were afraid of the punishment of the guards, untied the ropes on their bodies and escaped through a secret passage.

By the time the guards found out that they were missing, the few of them had already fled without a trace and disappeared.

Their escape further confirmed the guards' suspicions that they had been bribed.

Regardless of Zhou Chen's obstruction, half of the men were dispatched to hunt down the four of them.

After all, Yang Huzi was young and energetic, and he thought that his good intentions had let the bad guys go, so he blamed himself, and followed the crowd to hunt down the four of them.

The number of guards was reduced by half at once, and the remaining guards were worried that the real assassin would take the opportunity to attack, so the defense was as tight as home.

In the evening, those who went out had not returned.

But at this time, a troupe of opera troupes who missed Sutou came to the post station.

In ancient times, post stations were not only used to deliver letters for the imperial court and provide accommodation for passing officials, but also served as inns on weekdays to entertain ordinary people who needed accommodation.

Originally, what the guards said, they all agreed to entertain them at this time.

But Zhou Chen's kindness broke out again, thinking that it was wrong for him and others to occupy the post station, and it would be even more wrong if even the people were driven away.

agreed to let them stay.

The troupe was not many, but it was quite a lot. Including the coachman who drove the carriage and the porter who carried the carriage, there were fourteen in total.

They loaded large and small bags into three large trucks, and when unloading the trucks, they almost took up half of the garden of the post station.

The leader of the guards, Yue Feng, had no choice but to lead a few people to closely monitor the troupe's every move.

If they were honest, it would be easy to say that if something went wrong, Yue Feng would never be soft-hearted.

The troupe's master seemed to be a well-rounded figure, he saw that the East Wing was being guarded to death, and Yue Feng and the others looked straight and meticulous.

He immediately guessed that the opponent might be an officer or soldier.

At the beginning, he didn't come up to disturb Yue Feng and others, but just kept urging his subordinates to move things quickly.

Wait until everything is sorted out.

The sky had completely darkened.

Since the only cook at the inn escaped, Zhou Chen and his group only agreed to a little dry food to satisfy their hunger at noon. At night, Yang Huilan insisted on cooking for Zhou Chen.

Everyone was also hungry for a long time, so they had no choice but to agree.

When Yang Huilan entered the kitchen accompanied by Yue Feng, she found that someone was already busy in the kitchen.

It was a middle-aged woman who still had charm, her face without makeup was still radiant, and Yue Feng, a tough man, was slightly stunned.

Before Yue Feng could ask, the woman first introduced,
"My family is the Huadan of the opera troupe. People in the Jianghu jokingly call her Feng Gu. She tampered with cooking utensils without permission. I hope the officials will forgive me."

Yue Feng coughed lightly in embarrassment, he was very polite, and the things in the inn were not theirs, so it was no big deal to use them.

He nodded and said,
"It's also not necessary to be formal when going out. There are still a lot of utensils in the kitchen, but it doesn't matter if you use them."

After finishing speaking, he didn't say any more.

Seeing that Feng Gu didn't look like some kind of expert with special skills, she simply explained to Yang Huilan, then turned and went out.

(End of this chapter)