When Taizu was first established, he advocated frugality. The Dayue Imperial Palace (palace city) was rebuilt on the basis of the old mission, and its scale was much smaller than that of the previous dynasty. Bianliang did not build a larger imperial city, but only built the original palace.
In some cases, outer walls were built outside Bianliang City, dividing Bianliang City into two parts: the inner and outer walls.
Since the Chihu people invaded the south, hundreds of thousands of refugees have poured into Bianliang City to escape the war. Most of them stayed in Guocheng, and only a small number entered the inner city in the name of seeking refuge with relatives and friends.
These people said they were seeking refuge with relatives and friends, but after sneaking into the inner city, many actually had no relatives or friends to seek refuge with, and most of them were now driven to the vicinity of Tongji Temple on the south bank of the Bian River.
This is also the area with the highest concentration of poor people in the inner city. It was originally a mixed bag, but now tens of thousands of refugees have been driven here, making it even more chaotic.
Curfew does not exist in this area, and the night patrol soldiers are short of manpower, so they dare not enter this area easily.
There were many shops in the streets and alleys south of the Bianhe River, with people holding lamps, but the water was pitch black. A black-topped boat slid silently and slowly, and finally stopped in front of a warehouse pier.
Several "cuckoo" bird calls came from the cabin.
"Kaka!" The sound of striking fire sickles came in the dark night, and soon two lanterns were lit. There were seven or eight people on the pier who had been standing guard in the dark. At this time, two pallets were put on the side of the ship.
Zhu Hang and Zhu Zhi stood at the pier and saw Princess Yingyun getting off the boat, and shouted in a low voice: "Thank God!"
Without saying much at the moment, everyone gathered around Princess Yingyun and walked through the messy warehouse into the front yard.
The yard was not big, and from time to time there were sounds of mules and horses neighing from the outside, but a few lanterns could not illuminate much of the area, and Yingyun could not clearly see what was inside and outside the yard.
She had settled down at this time, but she had a lot of doubts in her heart.
However, as soon as they entered the courtyard, someone called Zhu Hang and Zhu Zhi away. Yingyun didn't know what else they were busy with, so she could only be patient and ask people to take them to a room on the second floor.
Rest.
Where can she rest?
In addition to the roaring of mules and horses outside, she could vaguely hear intermittent dull screams coming from downstairs. Yingyun became more and more curious. When she was about to push the door and walk into the yard to see what was going on, she heard someone coming up from the wooden stairs.
I sat down at the table in front of the window. After a while, the wooden door was pushed open with a creak from the outside.
With the dim light, Yingyun could clearly see the face of the visitor, and shouted in surprise: "Xiu'er, why is it you? Why are you here?"
The visitor put the steaming bowl in his hand on the table and said: "Marquis Xu Jun and Lord Zhu Xiaolang found the slave the night before yesterday. They said that they were ordered by the prince to take the princess out of the palace and asked me to be with Xiao Shuanzi.
I should inquire about the news and cooperate with them to pick you up, Princess Princess! Thank God, I didn’t expect that Princess Princess was actually picked up and you were not sent to Chong’an Temple!”
"Where's the little Shuanzi?" Yingyun grabbed the maid's hand and asked.
"Little Shuanzi is still in the palace - Mr. Xu said that the princess disappeared rashly, and someone will definitely track it down. The palace is the biggest suspect. They will turn the palace upside down and search for you, the princess. If someone is left in the palace, just
You can generally know what's going on in the palace." The maid said.
"Does my mother know about this?" Yingyun couldn't help but ask expectantly.
"Mr. Xu said that the less people know about this, the better. It is best not to let the princess and other people in the palace know, otherwise there will be too many loopholes, and people may come looking for you before the princess can be escorted out of the city.
"The maid shook her head and said.
The moment Yingyun saw Xiu'er, she really hoped that her mother had arranged all this personally, but she didn't expect that her mother had no idea about it, and she couldn't help but feel disappointed.
"Princess, you haven't eaten well these days. There is no good food here. There was some noodles left at night. I cooked a bowl of noodles. Princess, please eat to fill your stomach. I see that you have been eating all these days.
I have lost a lot of weight." The maid urged.
Yingyun ate the egg noodles tastelessly, not feeling so hungry. At this time, she vaguely heard a dull scream coming from the building, and asked Xiu'er: "What is this sound?"
"I don't know, it seems like someone is being interrogated! The courtyard here is not big, and the doors and windows face the courtyard, so the blockage is not tight. It's weird to hear these sounds!" said the maid.
After sitting for a while, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from the courtyard downstairs, as well as the sound of armor plates flapping lightly. Yingyun suddenly thought of Xu Huai and others pretending to be night patrol soldiers. She opened the door and leaned on the railing to look, but
It was Xu Huai who walked into the courtyard surrounded by a group of soldiers.
"The princess hasn't rested yet?" Xu Huai raised his head and asked.
Where could Yingyun lie down and rest at this time? She walked down the wooden stairs and asked: "Xu Huai, is everything okay for my father in Gong County?"
"Of course everything is fine for the prince in Gong County," Xu Huai said, "but there is one thing that we didn't tell the truth before - I came back to Bianliang this time to see Wang Xiang and Zhu Hang.
I only found out about the princess after I met Lord Lang Lang. I was thinking of sending a message to the prince because I was afraid that it would be too late. There would inevitably be soldiers blocking me on the way. There were too many unpredictable surprises, so I took it upon myself to kidnap the princess first. This is
It is also a decision made by me, Zhu Langjun and Wang Fanlang. The prince is not aware of it yet. However, I believe that the prince knows about this and will definitely order us to save the princess!"
However, Yingyun was not surprised and said: "Let me tell you, it has only been four or five days. How could my father know about this so quickly and send you back to arrange everything?"
Xu Huai came over and had many things to deal with. Seeing that Princess Yingyun had no intention of going back to her room to rest, he directly asked Zhu Hang: "Did Qin Zhihui give you any useful information?"
"Qin Zhihui insisted that he was not in the palace during those two days and he had no idea who had contacted the envoys - he did not change his story even after being tortured. Under the Shaoqing, the Concierge Hall of Honglu Temple has the Cheng, the Director, the Recorder and the Court.
There are more than 20 officials. Maybe Qin Zhihui really doesn't know anything about it. How about we find someone to investigate further?" Zhu Zhi said at the side.
"Several clues of our investigation all intersected with him - Zhuang Shouxin, as the minister of construction of the Salt and Iron Department, could hear many rumors in a hurry. How could Qin Zhihui not know at all? Even if he had not seen it with his own eyes,
No matter how he heard a lot of news, the more he gritted his teeth and refused to reveal a word, the more it showed that there was something wrong with him. It was just that he knew that the matter involved a lot, so he gritted his teeth and tried to muddle through!" Xu Huai said, "I personally
Go put him on trial!"
Xu Huai, Zhu Hang, and Zhu Zhi walked to the west wing.
Seeing Princess Yingyun coming from behind, Xu Huai stopped, hesitated for a moment, took out a piece of black cloth from his arms and gave it to Princess Yingyun, and said: "Unless it is absolutely necessary, we don't want to kill people and silence them, so we can't do it during the interrogation.
Let this Qin Zhihui see our faces clearly!"
"Ah!" Yingyun just had a lot of confusion in her heart, and had no intention of watching Xu Huai and the others torture and interrogate others. She just didn't know what to do at this time, so she couldn't help but follow him for a few steps, and suddenly saw Xu Huai and others together.
The black cloth was handed over, and he was stunned for a while. Finally, he took the black cloth and covered his face.
Seeing Zhu Hang, Zhu Zhi covered his face with a black cloth, but Xu Huai reached out and wiped it on his armor, and then wiped the blood on his face. In the dim light, he looked indescribably ferocious.
Following Xu Huai and others into the west wing, Yingyun saw a few large candles lit inside, which was quite bright. They only used thick curtains to block the doors and windows, so the situation inside could not be seen from the outside, and the sound could not be transmitted very well.
Go out, no wonder the sound felt so far away just now. A middle-aged man in his forties was hung and tied to the beam, his robe was stripped off, his upper body was naked, and his back was beaten with a whip until it was stained with blood; there were still people in the room.
There were three people in charge of the torture, all of whom covered their faces with black cloths.
Xu Huai waved his hand to ask someone to put down Qin Zhihui, the chief minister of the Concierge Hall of Honglu Temple. Seeing that his mouth was trembling with pain, his eyes glanced at his face and he hurriedly moved away, as if he was afraid of recognizing himself.
Xu Huai pulled out his bag knife, cut off the ropes tied to Qin Zhihui's body, and said: "Their torture methods are not very good, and they cover their faces. They clearly don't want to kill people and silence them at every turn. How can they frighten Qin Langjun?"
What? But Qin Langjun should be able to smell the fresh smell of blood on my body, right?"
Qin Zhihui's eyelids twitched, he lowered his head and said dumbly: "I really don't know anything. If you don't believe it, there's nothing I can do about it!"
"The news leaked out from the Concierge Courtyard. The three thousand innocent souls of the Xuanwu Army. Qin Langjun, if you say you don't know, will this matter be revealed? In today's world, even if we don't kill you, we will put you back and you won't go.
If your family is implicated, Qin Langjun, can you and your family really live a long and peaceful life?"
Xu Huai shook his head and sighed, took out a sweat towel from his arms, wiped the blood off his face, held Qin Zhihui's chin in his hand, asked him to look directly at him, and said,
"Qin Langjun, look at me, see this face clearly, and tell me what you know. You won't be able to pass this test today. If you don't open your mouth at the first rooster crow, I will kill you.
Silence them, and then send people to arrest Gao Chengyun, the chief registrar of the Concierge House, and Qian Chengyuan, who recorded the affairs..."
Speaking of this, Zhou Jing came over and said something.
"Qian Chengyuan from the Concierge House has been arrested. You guys are very efficient in doing things."
Xu Huai paused and continued to talk to Qin Zhihui,
"Catch you one by one, interrogate and kill each one until you are caught who leaked the information to the captors. Don't think that you died unjustly. Someone secretly conspired with the captors and three thousand Dai Viet athletes were destroyed. You didn't report the knowledge.
Do you feel that your death is unjust? Even if you are all killed, you will still be dead! By the way, don’t think that because you are dead, you don’t have to involve your family. Think about it, we have to continue to investigate, simply
I'm afraid it would be hard to avoid alerting some people by killing you instead of creating the illusion of a gangster robbing your house. Qin Langjun, think about it again, where did the bloodstains all over my body come from? You don't
Do you think I slaughtered a sheep and put its blood on my armor to scare you?"
Xu Huai waved his hand and asked Zhou Jing to bring in Qian Chengyuan, who was recording the affairs of the Concierge Court.
A middle-aged official was tied up, blindfolded and brought in. To prevent him from shouting, a ball of cloth was stuffed in his mouth. Zhou Jing stepped forward and removed the black cloth from the man's face and pulled out the ball of cloth from his mouth.
"Who are you?" Qian Chengyuan struggled and asked in panic. Seeing Xu Huai looking at him coldly but not saying a word, he turned around and suddenly saw the Chancellor Qin Zhihui and shouted, "Mr. Qin, how come you were caught here by these gangsters?"
?”
"Now I need to know who in the court saw the envoys on the night when Xuanwu Army's three thousand soldiers attacked the enemy camp at night and the night before. Why is there no record in the Concierge Hall?" Xu Huai stared at the two people and said.
"You are a thief, you kidnapped the imperial officials in Bianliang City, are you not afraid of having your whole family executed?" Qian Chengyuan angrily shouted.
"There are traitors in the court who secretly communicated with the captive envoys, causing the tragic death of three thousand soldiers of the Xuanwu Army. How can you feel at ease if you don't report the knowledge?" Xu Huai laughed angrily, grabbed Qian Chengyuan's collar, and pulled it out.
The bag knife stabbed into his chest, causing blood to flow out. Along the back of his hand, the sleeve armor dripped to the ground. It was not until Qian Chengyuan's body was completely limp that he pushed his body to the ground, and then stared at it.
Qin Zhihui took a sweat towel and slowly wiped the blood on the knife and put it into its sheath, and said coldly, "Mr. Qin, my patience is limited..."
