Before entering the palace, Lu Bai first found the palace guard commander.
The palace gate guards are in charge of the palace gates and are very familiar with the craftsmen who go in and out of the palace gates.
The night before, Lu Bai had always had a question after hearing the female ghost's narration about the three children being taken into the deep palace by craftsmen: Qingxin Palace is in the harem, next to Fengqi Palace, the queen's dormitory.
Since ancient times, the most taboo thing for emperors is wearing a cuckold, so craftsmen who enter the palace must be carefully searched and strictly monitored.
If they took advantage of the guards at a distance and then secretly dug a hole, Lu Bai thought it was possible. After all, the guards only needed to prevent them from entering the harem.
But if they said that they brought three children in secretly and the guards didn't know about it, then Lu Bai wouldn't believe it even to death.
He has always been curious about how these three children were brought in. Now that he has arrived at the palace, he just happened to catch the guard and ask.
When craftsmen work on weekdays, they obviously do not go through the main entrance, but through the side entrance.
Lu Bai made several inquiries in succession and found out that those craftsmen entered and exited through Dongyang Gate when building Qingxin Hall, and were checked by the guards of Dongyang Gate every day.
Lu Bai then went to Dongyang Gate again.
Dongyang Gate is a lively public gate, and the palace's daily purchases are made through Dongyang Gate. When Lu Bai arrived, he saw several chamberlains driving several ox carts and pulling a cart of vegetables into the palace gate.
Although these palace servants faced chamberlains, craftsmen and servants all day long, they still had good eyesight. When they saw Lu Bai coming, they hurriedly greeted him and saluted. After learning about Lu Bai's intention, they invited their leader.
come out.
This leader was short and chubby, with a face as big as a round disk. Judging from his appearance, he must have eaten a lot of fish and meat, because the fat on his face made Lu Bai feel that it could be leached out with a little roasting.
"Little... Mr. Hou, what do you want to check?" the leader asked respectfully.
Who doesn't know Lu Bai's name now?
The most popular rumor in the capital in recent days is Lu Bai, and they no longer call him the executioner, but call him a little fairy.
If you dare to ask for a drink from the gods in the sky, are you just a little god?
There are many people in this world who are named gods, such as the owner of Yiqiu Villa, the old god who walks through the Tianmen with a wooden sword in the Jianzhai, and the old pen fairy from Xizhou who moves horizontally and vertically in the inkstone pool.
But these are all people who are half buried in the earth and half stepped into the ascension gate. They are not born at all, so it is naturally difficult for the world to see them.
Not so with Lu Bai, he was a little god living among them.
"Little Marquis?" Lu Bai thought this name was quite good, and it sounded young.
Lu Bai asked him, "Almost half a year ago, did the craftsmen who built Qingxin Palace enter and leave the palace through this palace gate?"
The leader nodded hurriedly, "Yes, all craftsmen working in the palace enter and exit through Dongyang Gate."
"Okay, then let me ask you -" Lu Bai looked around and saw that the guards were conducting strict checks, "Those craftsmen once brought in three children, do you know?"
"Three children?" The leader was startled.
Lu Bai asked him to think carefully, "If you can't remember, ask the guards to help you think about it. This is very important."
"No need." The leader said hurriedly.
He remembers them all.
"Those craftsmen brought three children in, but they were all half-grown, around eleven or twelve years old." The leader looked at Lu Bai cautiously, "I wonder if the Marquis is asking about these children?"
"Eleven or twelve years old?" Lu Bai touched his chin and muttered.
There is no compulsory education in this era. You are going to be a father when you are fourteen or fifteen years old. Although you are not yet ready to talk about marriage at the age of eleven or twelve, you are still at the age where you are considered too old or too young.
The rattle in his hand shouldn't belong to this eleven or twelve-year-old child, right?
Lu Bai felt a little disappointed, but still let him talk.
"Because some craftsmen escaped, the supervisor temporarily recruited some craftsmen near the capital. And because the construction schedule was tight, one day these craftsmen brought these three children in and said that although these children were not old, they could already do a lot of work.
Some of them had to carry dirt and rocks for a living." The leader saw that the children were all from poor backgrounds, with thick shoulders and dark complexions, so they might be good candidates for work.
"Especially that fool. He looks cute and silly, but he has a lot of brute strength." The leader is still amazed when he thinks about it now.
"Oh, idiot?"
Lu Bai was keenly aware of the doubts.
Seeing Lu Bai's interest, the leader nodded hurriedly and said, "Yes, his father brought him here. He wanted to do some work to earn a living."
Lu Bai was confused, "Does the general prisoner allow them to bring people like this?"
The boss smiled bitterly, "At that time, the supervisor was pressed hard by the construction deadline. He wished he could have more manpower, so naturally he wouldn't care about this."
Lu Bai nodded and asked the key question, "Which of these children is holding a rattle in his hand?"
"That fool!" the leader said without thinking.
The fool's father told the guard that the fool of his family could not do without the rattle wherever he went.
"The guards saw that the skin of the rattle had been peeled off from playing with it, and the drum head was a little broken, and the sound it made was dull and hoarse. There was nothing strange about it, so they let the fool take it in." When the leader said this, he saw Lu Bai's face was solemn,
He hurriedly asked: "Master Hou, is there something wrong with this rattle?"
Lu Bai waved his hand, "No."
He asked the leader, "Did the three children leave the palace later?"
"It's out!" The leader laughed, "Master Marquis, it is a serious crime to keep someone in the palace. We absolutely dare not be careless or negligent."
Lu Bai frowned.
The female ghost made it clear the night before that the three children never came out after being sent to the entrance of the cave. However, the leader said that the three children came out. One of the two people must be lying.
"Did you see them come out with your own eyes?" Lu Bai looked at the leader.
The leader was stunned for a moment, then hesitated, and then said carefully after a while: "It's different when you go out and when you go in. You have to strictly check when you go in, but not when you come out. You just need to count the number of people. That day..."
The leader couldn't make up his mind, so he called a few guards over and muttered for a while before saying: "Master Marquis, although we didn't specifically identify them, we did see three children going out that day."
The guard next to him nodded, "Yes, yes, because there are three children among those craftsmen who are very eye-catching. I clearly remember them being among those craftsmen."
He still remembered the craftsmen patting the three children on the back and stroking their heads, saying that the three children were still too young and had not done much work. They were slowing down the progress and would not be allowed to come tomorrow.
"The next day, those three children did not come as expected." The leader said, so what they remembered was that they must have gone out that day, and there was no possibility of forgetting.
Lu Bai smiled, "As for the rattle, did you see the child take it out?"
Several guards were stunned together.
A guard whispered, "Okay, I don't think I saw him."
Lu Bai probably understood now.
These guards were most likely right. There were indeed three children who followed the craftsmen out of the public gate, but they were not those three children. This is open to question.
The craftsmen were delivering children for the eunuchs, and the little eunuchs who looked like three children in the harem were unknown. It would be too easy to find a few deceived little eunuchs.
After these three young eunuchs leave the palace, they can return to their original appearance and enter the palace struttingly, so that no one can notice them.
Lu Bai felt that if he wanted to find out the case clearly, he would have to go to the supervisor and question the craftsmen at that time.
He bid farewell to the leader and entered the general prison.
The general supervisor was there. When he saw Lu Bai, he hurriedly came over to salute. After Lu Bai asked clearly about the craftsman, he hurriedly asked his subordinates to get the book. At the same time, he couldn't help but smile and said to Lu Bai: "Those craftsmen were summoned temporarily.
Yes, but they are all used to it."
These craftsmen belong to the craftsman trade.
On weekdays, if the palace builds courtyards or repairs houses, and if craftsmen cannot be temporarily recruited, they will ask craftsmen from these craftsmen's shops to do the work. Some of them are recruited to work in the capital, but many will stay in the capital to work in the craftsmen's shops after serving.
, so these are all veterans in the construction of Qingxin Hall.
"The construction of Qingxin Hall was not accomplished overnight. These craftsmen have always been involved in it. It's just that many craftsmen escaped during that period, so many craftsmen were transferred from the craftsmen's shops in the capital." The supervisor who will be the supervisor said,
He took the roster from his subordinates and turned to those pages.
He turned sideways and pointed out the names on it to Lu Bai one by one.
These craftsmen have names, surnames, places of origin and addresses.
"Okay, I remember the above very clearly." Lu Bai praised.
The superintendent who will be the supervisor smiled flatteringly, "These are registered in every yamen in the capital. If these craftsmen want to work in the capital, they must be registered in the register before they can work."
Otherwise, if a shoddy project is built and people escape, the sufferer will have no room to reason.
Lu Bai nodded and asked the supervisor to write a copy for him, "I have a case to interrogate these people."
The supervisor followed closely, "What, what case?"
Lu Bai glanced at him, "I'm investigating a case, do I have to tell you?"
The supervisor's face turned pale and he hurriedly confessed.
Lu Bai patted him on the shoulder and asked him to stop asking about some things, "This way you can live longer. By the way, when the craftsmen built the Qingxin Palace half a year ago, I heard that three children were allowed in?"
The Superintendent stiffened.
Lu Bai snatched the roster from his hand, "Why, this is not registered?"
The supervisor hurriedly said: "Yes, yes."
He stretched out his hand to take the roster, "I'll show it to Mr. Marquis."
After Lu Bai gave him the roster, the Superintendent flipped through the roster with trembling hands. In almost an instant, sweat started to appear on his forehead.
"Not found yet?" Lu Bai was a little impatient.
"Looking for it, I found it, right here -" the supervisor pointed to Lu Bai.
Lu Bai looked at the names on it, Hu Baiwan, Mo Liu, and Pang San. These names sounded strange, but in fact they were not unusual at all. These poor people who were illiterate mostly named them with a few lines.
Lu Bai asked the supervisor to write down the names and addresses of these three people.
"yes."
The supervisor wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked his men to copy.
Lu Bai walked to the window and looked outside. The prisoner was from Qingshui Yamen. Although he was inside the palace gate, he was not in the harem. However, he was close to the harem, so he could not help but get some aura from him.
He turned back to the Supervisor and said, "The case I investigated is secret. Don't tell others what I came here to investigate. Otherwise, I will question you."
"Yes, yes, Lord Marquis, don't worry, I will definitely not tell anyone." The supervisor nodded hurriedly.
Lu Bai then took the list copied by his men, led the sword slave out of the general prison, and left the palace.
After Lu Bai left, the supervisor quietly looked around. When he saw that his figure had completely disappeared from sight, he hesitated for a while, and finally gritted his teeth and ran out of the small palace gate of the harem.