In the afternoon, Zhang Yin took the order to go out. Although the team composed of one thousand Zhenwei Battalion cavalry and fifty gunmen was not large, at this time, it was already a powerful force.
Moreover, Zhang Yin's troops were not going to fight the rebels to the death, but to attack, harass and pursue the rebels from the rear. One thousand cavalry was enough for the rebels to drink.
Although there are only more than 1,800 cavalry left in the city, the strength of the troops has been reduced sharply. However, Qiu Yue's men have gathered nearly 700 people from his old troops, and it is still possible to stabilize the situation in the city.
After Zhang Yin led his army to leave, Zhang Yanling personally took charge of the excavation and cleanup work at the fire scene. Hundreds of people and soldiers were busy from morning to evening, and the ruins of the hall were cleared bit by bit.
After the ruins and broken tiles on the upper level were cleared away, many corpses were soon discovered one after another. Most of the corpses had been burned and twisted, and some only had a small charred human shape left.
Although some people have been burnt to blackened coals, you can still see the appearance of running and shouting, and you can even recognize the expressions of pain and fear on their faces. It can be seen from this that when the fire broke out, the people in this hall were
What despair and fear.
According to reports from the surrendered rebels and people in the palace, there were nearly a hundred servants, eunuchs, and maidservants in the Anhua palace. Forty or fifty people escaped after the fire broke out yesterday, and at least forty or fifty people were trapped inside and did not escape.
Therefore, it makes sense that corpses continue to be discovered.
The corpses were discovered one by one, but after careful identification, they were not those of Zhu Zhixiu. Zhu Zhixiu was tall and fat, and the corpses of some petite maids were preserved. He should not have been burned to ashes. Therefore, Yue Yue
It was cleaning up, and Zhang Yanling became more and more confused.
Is it possible that Zhu Zhixiu is really a fire escaper? I just said this casually. Could it be that it is really a prophecy? But if Zhu Zhixiu is really a fire escaper, where can he escape? Is there a secret passage in the palace leading to the city?
Other places, or does it lead to the outside of the city? It doesn't matter if it leads to the city. If it leads to the outside of the city, wouldn't it mean that he escaped?
However, Zhang Yanling quickly rejected this idea. If there was a secret passage in the Anhua Palace leading to the outside of the city, Zhu Zhixiu would not have had to rush around to fight to the death that day. After the fall of Ningxia City, Zhu Zhixiu tried to attack the north gate and east gate.
Those who escaped from the city only returned to the palace to defend themselves after the attack failed.
If there really was a secret passage out of the city, why would he do that? He could just escape with his men through the secret passage. He would not be aware of it, and he would have saved everyone's lives, and would not be in this situation now.
As long as you escape and join the rebel army, you can be safe. Everything after that is actually unnecessary.
A secret passage leading to the city is also impossible. The city is currently undergoing a large-scale search, purge and prosecution. Liu Tan led dozens of cavalry squads to search and register in every corner of the city. Zhu Zhixiu
It was useless to escape from the palace. Once he showed up, he would be discovered and there was no way he could escape.
Unless he has a secret place to hide. If a cat goes to a secret place, it will be difficult to find him.
Zhang Yanling was in a bad mood, but the clean-up work still had to continue because it was necessary to determine whether Zhu Zhixiu's body was among the rubble before we could finally determine whether he was dead or escaped.
At the second watch, when Zhang Yanling was sitting on the wall, squinting his eyes and recuperating, suddenly, there was a noise in the brightly lit fire field. Soon, a personal guard rushed over to report, saying that he seemed to have discovered Zhu Chixiu's body. Corpse.
Zhang Yanling hurriedly got off the wall and rushed to check. He saw a corpse leaning among the rubble of a cleared house in the garden of the back hall of the main hall. The corpse's face was charred and twisted, but its body was very bloated. Da Da is somewhat similar to Zhu Zhixiu.
But what is more identifiable is not the similarity in body shape, but the clothes he wears. Although the fire burned all his clothes, the clothes that were turned into charcoal pieces were covered with shining gold foil, and he wore a hat on his head. The golden ring on his hat cannot be burned. It is still exposed on the charred clothes, which is very conspicuous.
There were several gold rings on the fingers of both hands that were burned like charcoal rods. The ring surface of one of the rings was empty. The crowd found fragments of several broken gemstones in the ashes scattered on the ground. The fragments were too hot. It later collapsed, but the bright red color could still be seen. It was the expensive ruby ring the size of a dove egg that Zhu Zhixiu usually wore on his hand.
There are various signs that this is Zhu Zhixiu.
However, Zhang Yanling is still not reassured. Everything may be just an illusion. Clothing cannot mean anything. Whether it is Zhu Zhixiu's body cannot be determined based on these superficial characteristics alone, but requires some conclusive evidence.
It's not that Zhang Yanling was too careful, but that Zhu Zhixiu's life and death was of great importance. Don't make a joke later. He said that Zhu Zhixiu was dead, but in the end, the golden cicada escaped from his shell and came back to life. At that time, the emperor and the court would be hard-pressed If you confess, you may be criticized.
Zhang Yanling thought for a while, then ordered everyone not to touch the body, and ordered people to invite Zhu Qingyi to come and identify it. After all, Zhu Qingyi is Zhu Zhixiu's niece, and she should be very familiar with Zhu Zhixiu. Maybe she can identify who the body is. Not Zhu Zhixiu.
Not long after, Zhu Qingyi arrived in a car. Zhang Yanling stepped forward to greet her and apologized: "Qingyi, I'm really sorry for inviting you here so late. I originally wanted to invite you in person, but I can't at least , it was too far to walk, so..."
Zhu Qingyi smiled and said: "Why are you so polite, Lord Marquis? It's nothing. But Lord Marquis should pay attention to his own health. You are seriously injured and cannot work so hard. You need to take a good rest."
Zhang Yanling said: "This matter is very important. Determining whether Zhu Zhixiu is dead or not is the key to suppressing the rebellion. Once this matter is confirmed, I can feel at ease."
Zhu Qingyi nodded, so Zhang Yanling led her to the ruins of the main hall. As Zhu Qingyi walked, she looked at the mountains of rubble around her and sighed softly.
"Has Qingyi been here?" Zhang Yanling asked softly.
"Why haven't you been here? I often came to Anhua Prince's Mansion when I was a child. My father was still there at that time, and he took me with him when he came here. The palace in Anhua Prince's Mansion is much larger than that of Prince Qing's Mansion, and there are There are many interesting places, and I quite like coming here to play. I didn’t expect it to be burned to the ground now." Zhu Qingyi said softly.
Zhang Yanling said: "This is called the reincarnation of heaven. Seeing him build a tall building, seeing him feasting guests, and seeing his building collapse. If he had not done anything, he would have died. If Zhu Chixiu had stayed calm and behaved, how could he have suffered today's disaster?"
Zhu Qingyi nodded slightly.
The two of them walked to the place where the corpse was found in the back hall. Zhang Yanling was afraid that Zhu Qingyi would be frightened, so he warned her in advance to prepare her mentally. But when Zhu Qingyi saw the charred corpse, she was still so frightened that she turned pale. Holding Zhang Yanling's hand tightly, her face turned pale.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. I'm really sorry that you came to see such a scene. I'm really sorry." Zhang Yanling hurriedly comforted her and apologized repeatedly.
Zhu Qingyi covered her mouth with a white handkerchief, held back retching, recovered for a while, and finally plucked up the courage to observe the corpse.
"Looking at the outline of the body, it does look like him. The clothes on his body are robes with gold threads and dragon patterns, and the ring is also a gold ring inlaid with rubies. It is also his. But the face is really unclear. After all, although he and I are familiar, but after all We don’t have much time together.” Zhu Qingyi said softly.
Zhang Yanling frowned and nodded, this was indeed a bit embarrassing.
"If we knew what special characteristics he had on his body, characteristics that couldn't be burned away by fire, we might be able to make a conclusion based on this." Zhang Yanling smacked his lips and said.
Zhu Qingyi was stunned for a moment, then suddenly said: "Can the teeth be burned off?"
Zhang Yanling said: "How do you say it? Are there any characteristics on Zhu Zhixiu's teeth?"
Zhu Qingyi said: "I remember he had a gold tooth. You can see it when he opens his mouth and smiles. It's a tooth on the inside of his left cheek."
Zhang Yanling was overjoyed. This was definitely a decisive feature that could be proven. Teeth should not be burned that easily. So Zhang Yanling immediately ordered people to pry open the mouth of the corpse. As a result, after prying open the mouth of the corpse, he found that the corpse was tightly sealed. It was biting something. When the guard pulled it out, it turned out to be a strange, jagged metal stick about four inches long.
Zhang Yanling was greatly surprised, holding it in his hand and looking at it over and over, not knowing why.
Zhu Qingyi said softly from the side: "This is the key."
"Key?" Zhang Yanling's eyes widened in surprise.
Zhu Qingyi thought for a while, then whispered in Zhang Yanling's ear: "Maybe it's the key to the secret room. Prince Anhua's palace has a secret room, just like Prince Qing's palace. To open the underground secret room in Prince Qing's palace, a key is needed to open the mechanism. Although this key It’s different from the one in my hand, but it’s definitely the key.”
Zhang Yanling was overjoyed. This was one of his purposes for cleaning up the ruins here. He wanted to find the place where Zhu Zhixiu hid his belongings. But Meng Bin said that there were a lot of gold and silver treasures in this palace, so Zhang Yanling moved at that time The heart must be obtained.
"Gold teeth, there are gold teeth." The bodyguard inspecting the body called out.
Zhang Yanling squinted his eyes and saw that on the inside of the mouth of the corpse that had been pried open, a gold tooth shone brightly under the light of a torch.
At this point, there is no suspense anymore. This person is undoubtedly Zhu Zhixiu. This can also explain why the key is in his mouth. He refused to let the key be discovered before he died, so he bit it in his mouth and hid it. He died. Afterwards, he was buried immediately and no one else could find him. After all, no one would think of prying open the mouth of a dead person, and he was still a prince during his lifetime.
"There is no doubt that it is Zhu Zhixiu. There is no more suspense now. Come, take out the body and find a coffin to put it in. Be careful, don't let it fall apart." Zhang Yanling ordered.
Everyone immediately started to move the body carefully, put it on a stretcher and carried it out.
Zhu Qingyi covered her mouth and watched all this, and asked softly: "Master Hou, is his body going to be buried? Can I prepare a coffin for him and send him to be buried. He is my uncle after all."
Zhang Yanling looked at her, shook his head slightly and said, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid it won't work. His body will be sent to the capital and handed over to the court for disposal. Because he is a sinner."
Zhu Qingyi sighed, nodded slightly and said, "I understand."