In total, there were six corpses before and after, all of which were crossbowmen.
The body that was carried was wearing a black tunic. The fatal injury was not the one shot through the neck by his own crossbow as the first person who reported the case said.
The fatal wound was also on the neck, but it was not a crossbow arrow, but an extremely sharp knife, killing him with one blow.
Along with the body, there were his crossbow and quiver.
After Wu Zuo finished examining the body, someone else came to report the crime.
Magistrate Xu was too busy, and about half an hour later, the corpses of nine crossbowmen lay neatly in the lobby of the Yamen.
"Will it be the last one?" Magistrate Xu looked at the corpse that had just been delivered.
"I don't know," Meng Xiaochuan thought for a moment, "I'll expose these nine corpses to the sun tomorrow."
"Exposed to the sun?" Magistrate Xu was surprised.
"Wearing night clothes and holding a crossbow, what kind of good people can they be?" Meng Xiaochuan said lightly, "Both they and those who killed them should be brought to justice. It just so happens that now we need a sharp weapon to shock the people's hearts, so as to revive them.
The government was so strict that they hung corpses to expose them in the sun as a demonstration."
Magistrate Xu had no choice but to raise his hand: "Yes."
Magistrate Xu went to make arrangements, but Meng Xiaochuan didn't stay long and turned back to the back hall.
As soon as he returned, he quickly took out the map of Xucheng.
The locations where the nine crossbowmen died were numbered by him according to the general range mentioned by those people, especially this brothel.
Finally, the entire scope was decided, and Meng Xiaochuan circled a location and immediately fixed his eyes on the Sihai Teahouse in Shiliudaofang.
Magistrate Xu arranged for the manpower to come back and handed over to Meng Xiaochuan: "Your Majesty, I have ordered you to go down."
"Let me ask you," Meng Xiaochuan said sharply, "Two waiters from Sihai Teahouse died behind Zifengfang Lane today. Where are their bodies?"
"The body, let Lin Laijie and the others send the body back."
"In broad daylight, such a big murder happened on the street, and your men sent people back?!"
"Your Majesty! I'll go find Lin Laijie immediately!"
"Lin Laijie is not your subordinate?"
"No, Your Majesty, no, they are my men," County Magistrate Xu stammered, "Your Majesty, these days the yamen are filled with farmers who have no vision. They want to rebel and bring down the sky!
It was these unscrupulous people who targeted the princess before, but if you think about it, Prince, they don’t even take the princess seriously..."
Meng Xiaochuan said angrily: "What on earth are you going to say!"
"That's right, the yamen is full of people, and the lower officials are too busy, exhausted, and don't care about the future!"
Meng Xiaochuan sneered: "I see that you are very leisurely. When my son comes to your Xucheng Yamen, you serve tea and water. How can you be such a busy person?"
Magistrate Xu wiped his sweat and did not dare to answer.
"So, there is no body, no case has been established, and such a big thing has happened, you just turn a blind eye and try to get it over with?" Meng Xiaochuan asked again.
"No, Your Majesty!" Magistrate Xu's knees weakened and he fell to the ground, "It's all Lin Laijie, it's Lin Laijie! I'll call someone to take him..."
Meng Xiaochuan kicked him away and walked toward the backyard: "Du Yong, Bai Jian, bring someone with me!"
The two guards responded and led others to follow.
Several fast horses left the courtyard behind the Yamen and rushed towards the Sihai Teahouse.
Due to the events on the streets today, there was almost no one on the road. Only the farmers in the countryside who could not go home gathered together and held a group party in front of some inns or wine shops that were not closed.
While running wildly, Bai Jian behind Meng Xiaochuan suddenly pulled the reins and looked up to the south.
Meng Xiaochuan felt something and reined in his horse in front of him: "What happened?"
The other guards looked up one after another.
"Your Majesty," Bai Jian looked at Meng Xiaochuan, "There's a fight on the roof!"
"There is movement!" Du Yong also said.
"You guys go up!" Meng Xiaochuan said immediately.
All the shops in the row of shops in the south were closed. One of them was broken in by Du Yong and his men. There was a household upstairs. The owner of the household was shocked in his dream: "Who is that?"
The five guards quickly went up to the attic and broke open the roof on the attic beams. A hundred steps away, three men were besieging a girl in white.
Three meters behind them, two men were lying, one of them dying.
It is said that three people are attacking one person, but it can be seen that the girl in white has the upper hand, and it seems that one is forcing the three.
When the guards saw this, they immediately ran away.
When Meng Xiaochuan and others were riding towards them, Xia Zhaoyi heard the sound of horse hooves, and she was not surprised at all by their appearance.
The roof was not as flat as the ground. Du Yong and Bai Jian crossed a ridge and suddenly heard a crossbow arrow coming.
The two quickly avoided it, but a guard who was following them was caught off guard and was shot in the ribs instantly. He was thrown from the roof to a back house in the alley.
Du Yong and others stared at the girl with wide eyes.
It was confirmed that the crossbow arrow was indeed shot by the girl's arm.
With one against three, how can you still kill others?!
What's even more abominable is that they haven't even exchanged a word with her yet. Are they killing people on sight?
Du Yong and others drew their weapons and ran.
Another crossbow arrow came, and Bai Jian quickly blocked it with his sword, almost getting hit. The rapid momentum of the crossbow arrow made his arm numb.
As they ran, the distance between the two sides kept getting closer, and here, Xia Zhaoyi finally found the right moment, walked like a dragon, rushed towards a man, and cut his throat in an instant with the dagger.
A lot of blood spurted out, and the other two men who fought hard and lost one of their companions finally got scared.
Du Yong and others were chasing after them. The two men realized that there was no point in fighting anymore, so they turned around and ran away.
Xia Zhaoyi didn't give him a chance at all and chased after him.
The two men were separated, and Xia Zhaoyi could only chase one of them.
At this moment, there was a sudden sound of strong wind, and a crossbow arrow was shot from the front.
Xia Zhaoyi was nimble and quickly avoided it.
The crossbow arrow struck ten steps away from Bai Jian, and the tail of the arrow trembled and buzzed in the night wind.
Soon, another crossbow arrow was shot from another place.
Another crossbow arrow came from the third direction.
Under the clear night sky, the white clothes were very conspicuous, but the three crossbowmen fired several shots in succession, but none of them could hit the girl in white.
When one of them set up another arrow, a terrible sense of crisis suddenly came over him.
The crossbowman immediately pulled out his dagger, turned back, and heard a clear dragon roar in the darkness. He widened his eyes and saw himself flying high, and on the other side was his fallen headless body.
Shen Lie stepped over the vertical ridge and whistled with his fingers.
Xia Zhaoyi turned around and looked around. Under the night, a tall man also dressed in white stood tall and tall, as tall as bamboo.
Across the endless darkness, one could not clearly see each other's features, only the bright light in the other's eyes, but Xia Zhaoyi seemed to understand what he meant.
The man she pursues relentlessly will undoubtedly encounter the luckiest moment in his life.
For the first time, Xia Zhaoyi gave up the easy prey, turned around without hesitation, suddenly stepped onto an eaves, and jumped towards the roof facing the street where Shen Lie was.
The white clothes are as graceful as a fairy, turning sideways in the air, as light as a swallow passing through a willow branch, and landing deftly on the horns of the roof.
