Taiping Inn

After passing through the Huaishui Ferry Crossing outside Huainan Prefecture, there is a restaurant here, which serves customers and merchants to stay and eat, and the business is good.

But the store is really not big, far less than Taiping Inn, so the shopkeeper, guy and chef of the entire inn are all the shopkeepers and are busy on weekdays and have to stay up until very late before closing. But today it was a bit abnormal. It was closed early before dusk. The flag on the pole in front of the door was closed and the door panel was put on.

But if you get closer, you can still vaguely see the lights coming out of the store through the gaps in the door panel.

At this time, an oil lamp was lit on the table in the center of the store, and four of them sat around the table.

Sitting opposite the door was a fat man, dressed simply and had a businessman's smile on his face. Most of the shops here are the shops. However, the store owner seemed very nervous at this time, and sweat beads kept rolling down his forehead and temples, which forced him to wipe his sweat from time to time with a handkerchief, which looked quite funny.

Sitting opposite him was a young man of twenty-five or six years old, wearing a blue official uniform. Looking at the patterns, he was actually a third-rank court official. At this age, it was really scary. This person is quite handsome, but his face is gloomy at this moment, and he faintly reveals a little bit of a blue color. It is the commander of the Qingluan Guard who escaped twice from Li Xuandu and Shen Changsheng in Taiping Inn. Zhao Lian.

On the left side of Zhao Lian sat a gentleman, who looked about forty-year-old. He was wearing a stone-green regular dress, with three strands and long beard, and his black hair was tied up by a jade hairpin. He looked very handsome. It makes people forget the world when they see it. His expression was calm, half-down his eyes, and gently tugged a string of Taoist flowing beads made of jade in his hand, making people unable to see through what he was thinking.

On the right hand was an old man, wearing a coarse cloth clothes, like an old farmer in the countryside. He looked quite old, his hair was white, and his face was covered with ravines, but his eyes opened and closed. The shiny shines, making people realize that this old man who looks like a rotten tree is just looking. At this time, he was taking a slender iron needle and teasing the lamp grass in the oil lamp, with a focused and serious expression, as if he was not concerned about all the reasons.

The middle-aged man with elegant temperament was Gu, named Gu Fengxian, and was the commander of the Qingluan Guard in Luzhou. However, compared with Zhao Lian, he was incomparable, because he had made a big decision a few years ago. Although his merits were not enough to be promoted, he raised his rank to the second-rank. In addition, he had a deep experience, and the Governor's Office had already heard that he would be promoted to the second-rank governor in two years. Tongzhi.

The old man with a surname, Bai, named Bai Chouqiu, was the deputy governor of Qingluan Guard who came from the imperial capital. In the Qingluan Guard's Office, he was responsible for the Chuzhou Department, but after Qian Xing, who was in charge of Luzhou Department, died suddenly. He temporarily took up the affairs of Luzhou Department, so strictly speaking, he was the head of the four people present at this time.

As for the shop here, although they are also from Qingluan Guard, they are only a fourth-rank commander and have the lowest official position among the four.

It is late summer now. After a heavy rain, the heat of summer has been reduced by a few points, but in such a closed room, it is still a bit stuffy. However, the atmosphere in the store was so gloomy at this time, especially the four Qingluan Guards were silent, which made people breathless.

After a long time, Bai Chouqiu, the old man with the highest official position, finally stopped teasing the lamp grass and slowly spoke: "Qian Xing is dead, a dignified third-rank chief general, and he also needs to add dozens of captains and two commanders. The incident and a commander-in-chief were all killed in battle. This loss has not happened in many years? This incident reached the capital, and even the governor was alarmed."

Since the old man spoke, the others had to speak. Zhao Lian's lips moved and said hatefully, "If I had known this, I would have eliminated Zhou Tingchao's disaster when I was in Jiangzhou."

Gu Fengxian glanced at him, and a trace of contempt for this young colleague flashed through his eyes, and he slowly said, "No matter what, Zhou Tingchao was an official appointed by the court after all, and he was a second-rank chief official, and his teacher was the current cabinet. Chief Supervisor Sun Songchan, what name do we use to get rid of him? Even if he wrote a letter to disobey, after shocking the government and the people, it was the imperial case. Although we, Qingluanwei, have the right to handle the imperial case, it has not been approved before the imperial case was approved. The power to privately execute criminals. If you killed Zhou Tingchao when you were in Jiangzhou, the matter was exposed to the court, and the Qingliu in the court and the people made a big fuss about this matter, or even involved the Empress Dowager, I am afraid that Even the Governor is very passive. By then, how many heads do you have to cut?”

Zhao Lian was speechless at the pass.

Gu Fengxian continued, "The reason why Lord Qian chose to kill Zhou Tingchao in Huainan Prefecture was because someone robbed the prison at this time. Afterwards, the court asked him about it. At least there was a cover for avoiding crimes, which could put all the blame on those robberies. After all, many people died in the prisoners, and we, Qingluan Guard, could even use the reason for this matter to launch another prison and capture Zhou Tingchao's accomplices in one place."

Gu Fengxian has a special status among these four people. Among the four, Bai Chouqiu was the leader, but Gu Fengxian was also expected to be promoted to the governor and the co-author. Therefore, in addition to facing Bai Chouqiu, he could still be respectful, but he was unfair to the other two.

After hearing this, Zhao Lian's face turned red, not knowing whether it was shame or anger.

The old man said calmly: "Things have happened, and people are dead, so there is no point in saying this."

Gu Fengxian stopped moving the beads in his hand and said softly: "Although Zhou Tingchao is dead, the loss this time is indeed appalling. The right governor who is in charge of the affairs of Jiangbei is very angry about this and strictly ordered our local Qingluan Guard to hold the murderer accountable. In addition, Zhou Tingchao's daughter cannot be let go. However, we still need to ask the assistant to set a rule on how to arrest the murderer."

The old man glanced at the three people, pondered for a moment and said: "The identity of the group of people who hijacked the prisoners has been found out. The two leaders are disciples of Zhengyi Sect and Cihang Sect. Since the change of the imperial capital in the second year of Tianbao, the six sects headed by Zhengyi Sect have been proud of their merits and gradually alienated from the Queen Mother. Instead, they have close contact with King Jin. This time, although the two outer disciples of Zhengyi Sect and Cihang Sect are only two inferior ones, they can also see some clues. It's just that at this moment, the two sects are powerful and we It is not good to move them without authorization."

"As for the inn, I have also sent people to investigate. It has been at the foot of Taiping Mountain for ten years. According to Zhao Lian, the waiter in the inn can have the cultivation of Baodan Realm. Anyone with a little bit of brains can understand one thing. This Taiping Inn is probably closely related to the Taiping Sect on Taiping Mountain. The Taiping Sect has a transcendent status among the twelve sects of the righteous way and has never been concerned about worldly affairs. Even the change in the imperial capital that year, the Taiping Sect did not participate in it, so we can't rashly provoke people from the Taiping Sect. "

"In this way, only the unknown Jianghu guest is left. And according to the subsequent situation, this person is indeed the culprit of this matter. It was he who killed Qian Xing and took away Zhou Tingchao's daughter Zhou Shuning. "

Bai Chouqiu paused for a moment and said lightly: "Use this person's head to report to the governor. "