Volume 1: Storm in the Western Region Chapter 80 The Truth [middle]
The coffin that Yuan Mingkong insisted on bringing back was filled with such books. Zhao Rang casually opened a few more books and found that the contents were almost the same. They were all altered verses with numbers.
Keeping accounts in this way is indeed very secretive, difficult to be discovered, and quite elegant. However, Zhao Rang does not know how these account books appeared in the coffin.
"Did you collect these and hide them in the coffin?"
Yuan Mingkong shook his head and said:
"They were already here. After I found out, I simply got in and guarded them myself. But I was afraid of being discovered by them, so I took drugs to make myself appear to be in a state of suspended animation."
Yuan Mingkong acted like this and was gambling with his life.
Although after taking the medicine, his breath was as thin as a thread and his pulse was weak, which could not be detected at all. But if someone opened the coffin lid and needed to access the account books, there was no way he could hide it from such a big person lying on it.
This kind of medicine can only deceive the detection of skilled warriors, but it cannot avoid the eyes. If it is actually seen, it is even more dangerous. In this state, Yuan Mingkong is worse than a little lamb.
He was so weak that a three-year-old could kill him with a dagger.
Zhao Rang calculated in his mind. Judging from the amount of medicine Yuan Mingkong took, it didn't take long for him to get into the coffin. It was probably before Shen Liushu's banquet, that is, shortly after the Zhong family class was bloodbathed, he
He took the medicine and lay quietly in the coffin.
With a change of mind, Zhao Rang remembered the strange situation when Yun Lifei, the leader of the eight strange people in the Zhong family class, died. Someone seemed to have taken something from his hand. Could it be an account book?
But now these account books fill half the coffin, and the most he can hold in his hands when he dies is one.
Yuan Mingkong saw what Zhao Rang was thinking, so he rummaged through the place where the corpse's head was placed in the coffin, pulled out a blood-stained account book from the bottom, handed it to Zhao Rang, and said:
"I arrived at Chagan Tologai four days and three nights earlier than you."
Zhao Rang did not open the account book immediately, but asked:
"Where did you live before taking medicine?"
Yuan Mingkong stretched out his finger.
Zhao Rang's line of sight followed, but it was blocked by the wall across the courtyard. But the direction Yuan Mingkong pointed was exactly the slum area that Zhao Rang had been to twice, which was the original Chagan Torogai.
"It was only later that I heard the deputy shopkeeper accidentally talk about it, and then I realized that that was the original place, so I went there again with Ye Sanniang, thinking that even if I couldn't find you, I would definitely find some clues."
Yuan Mingkong nodded, suddenly laughed, and said:
"Actually, it's my sister's fault!"
"Why should you blame Yuan Kexin?"
Yuan Mingkong replied:
"In the message I left for her, I specifically emphasized the word 'real'. I guess it was because too many things happened in King Lanmo's city that day, plus you and I both went out that night, so we split up to
As for her nervousness, she forgot when conveying it to you..."
After Yuan Mingkong finished speaking, he sighed, and Zhao Rang also shook his head.
If Yuan Kexin had said Yuan Mingkong's words authentically from the beginning, Zhao Rang would have clearly understood the history of Chagan Toluogai as soon as he arrived here. After all, Yuan Mingkong was not a random target.
He specifically said this, proving that there must be something else going on in Chagan Tologai.
In this way, things become much simpler.
When Zhao asked them to first enter Chagan Toluogai, they ate in a restaurant owned by a local. If they knew Yuan Mingkong's true words, they would just have to ask the boss more about what was going on here before, and his restaurant would be in business.
How long it will take, etc., the truth will be revealed immediately. Maybe Zhao Rang will immediately turn his horse around, not even going to Tongbao Bank, and go straight to the shack area.
However, there is still a big question, which Yuan Mingkong did not explain clearly.
It was also his first time here. How could he know so much about Chagan Tologai? If he hadn't inquired with the locals or done enough homework, even Ye Sanniang, who had been here before, wouldn't have known such things.
Little is known.
"Since those bright-minded mountain people who wanted to make money moved away from the original settlement, you have also seen how the shacks became abandoned. Naturally, no one pays attention to the desolate place, so..."
"So you arranged shadow guards inside?"
Zhao Rang interrupted him and said.
Yuan Mingkong nodded.
Zhao Rang was right. The reason why he had such a detailed and thorough understanding of Chagan Tologai was ultimately based on the information conveyed by the shadow guards placed there.
Zhao Rang's eyes flashed past those little beggars, the hunchback whose identity he did not know, and the room made of fine steel and filled with coffins.
If you connect with Shadow Guard, everything will make sense.
Chagan Torogai is still nominally under the management of Lan Mo Kingdom, and the father of the nonsense detective is also a noble in Lan Mo Kingdom.
He has no brains, and there are always smart people behind him.
If the shadow guard makes a big show of finding a job in this new place and conceals his identity, he will be investigated soon. It is better to establish a foothold in the already decayed original residence, and no one will be suspicious.
What's more, the nonsense detective only cares about how to earn more money from major merchants, which is the so-called "mediation fee". What kind of profit can there be in a beggar and a beggar? Of course, ignore it!
"Is it possible that the hunchback I captured and those little beggars are all Shadow Guards? Are they yours?"
Zhao Rang asked rhetorically.
If this is the case, then a flood will really hit the Dragon King Temple, and one family will no longer know the other!
But what the hunchback yelled at the end was really weird... "The long summer nights are long, the strong west wind is cool!"
Yuan Mingkong's expression suddenly became lonely.
He looked at the table. There were only two empty teapots and a plate of fruit on the table, but there was nothing else.
Zhao Rang knew what he was looking for.
Yuan Mingkong must be looking for wine.
So he shouted out the door and asked the deputy shopkeeper to quickly prepare a few jugs of good wine.
"Hahaha, it's my parents who gave birth to me, and it's Brother Zhao who knows me!"
Yuan Mingkong bowed his hands and said with a smile.
Zhao Rang also returned the gift and said:
“Each other!”
The deputy shopkeeper's feet were full of wind, and he ran very fast. In the blink of an eye, he came over with a tray full of wine, and the wine bottle on it took up most of the table.
Yuan Mingkong picked up a pot and drank it all. However, he was still not satisfied and drank another pot.
When he was about to reach for the third pot, he was interrupted by Zhao Rang.
Zhao Rang didn't say a word, just looked at him quietly.
Instead of looking at each other, Yuan Mingkong finally retracted his hand and said with a mouth full of alcohol:
"I guess it was the case before. But by the time I came, it was no longer the case."
Before Yuan Mingkong arrived at Chagan Torogai, the shadow guards placed in the slum area had long been exposed for some reason, uprooted from top to bottom, and then replaced with new people.
Impersonate.
It's ridiculous that Yuan Mingkong still thought that there were still people of his own here, so he still had frequent contact with them on the way and after arriving. This allowed them to be in control of the actions and plans of himself and Zhao Rang and others, and they could take advantage of them everywhere.
.
It is estimated that the only person who is not under their control is Ye Sanniang, a third-level martial arts master. He can conquer ten guilds with one force. If they knew Ye Sanniang's true identity, they would probably send a master of comparable strength to contain her.
Isn’t Lian Gongzi, who fought against Ye Sanniang in King Lanmo’s city, the best candidate?
Following Yuan Mingkong's narration, Zhao Rang gradually became clear in his heart.
It seems that neither myself nor Yuan Mingkong, who arrived first, could make any substantial progress except for the account books in the coffin.
"By the time I found out that these shadow guards were fake, it was already too late... Two fists were hard to beat with four hands. I relied on the high and low terrain in the shack area to fight with them. Later, I found that the pursuers behind me were not there, and the surrounding
It suddenly became quiet.”
"I quietly found my way out and saw a middle-aged man and a hunchback dressed in Chinese clothes and all the beggars who had just besieged me get into the coffin shop. This room was originally made by the Shadow Guards, so there are many mechanisms.
I know, they don't."
"Just like that, I saw the middle-aged man in gorgeous clothes put a bloody account book into the coffin. After they left, I felt that this coffin must be extremely important, and it would not be easy to
If it was opened again, I decided to take a gamble!"
"Chen Liushu!"
Zhao Rang blurted out.
The middle-aged man in gorgeous clothes that Yuan Mingkong saw must be Shen Liushu!
The death of Zhong Jiaban was indeed caused by him!
He first led people to wash out the Zhong family class with blood. At the last moment, he still wanted to use the account book in his hand as a threat in exchange for his life. It was really too naive...
After Chen Liushu took the account book, he hurried to the shack area and hid it in the coffin. Then he went through all the drama and came to Zhao Rang and others to tell Zhao Rang and others about the tragedy of Zhong's class.
As a result, he left himself clean. In addition, from the beginning, he showed a loyal and repaying attitude towards Zhao Rang and Ximen Dazhuang. He also walked in vain and spoke without any power. Zhao Rang then
They mistakenly thought that Shen Liushu had no martial arts skills at all and was just an ordinary semicolon shopkeeper with considerable business ability, so he did not put any defense against him.
"Understood……"
All the incidents came together at once. Although there were still some details that had not been straightened out, Zhao Rang knew that these must be led by a group of forces represented by Shen Liushu.
But who actually has the ability to replace all the shadow guards in a place, and also deceive Yuan Mingkong, the deputy commander of the shadow guards?
"Brother, Xifeng Lie may not be as simple as we think..."
Yuan Mingkong finished his third bottle of wine and said in a gloomy voice.
"After I lay in the coffin, I carefully looked through the account books under my body. Over the years, although the branch offices of Tongbao Bank here have been very profitable, Shen Liushu has only handed over to the main account only twenty-three out of ten at most.
Most of the rest of the bills have a line of small regular script at the bottom, guess what it says?"
Zhao Rang blurted out without even thinking:
"The long summer nights are long, and the west wind is cool every night?"
After saying that, he picked up the account book with the blood-stained cover and looked through it.
By coincidence, I saw the following words on the left and right pages:
"The king of the West has exhausted his eighty thousand warriors, but in order to retaliate, he throws a pot and has no arrows."
"Eight hundred miles away, my subordinates will be burned, half a million strings will be turned over outside the fortress, and the troops will be dispatched on the battlefield in autumn."
At the bottom of these two sentences, there is a sentence in small regular script, which is exactly what Zhao Rang blurted out just now.