The commander of the imperial army bravely came to the front of the tiger-masked man and said: "On the order of the queen, I escort the prince back to the palace and ask this lord to return the prince."
Although the commander spoke calmly, his heart was pounding. However, most of these hawks and dogs from the Metropolitan Procuratorate were not easy to talk to. If they did not hand over the prince, things would not be easy to handle.
Fortunately, the tiger-masked man holding the child did not make things difficult and silently handed the child over to him.
"Thank you, sir!"
"Protected!"
The few fluttering words made the commander of the imperial army tremble, and the invisible pressure made people feel like they were falling into the abyss. He knew in his heart that although the other party's words were spoken lightly, if anything went wrong with the prince in his arms, he and everyone around him would be affected.
They will all pay a heavy price.
The commander of the imperial army swallowed, took the child, and was about to turn around when he heard the tiger-faced man behind him say: "Tell the empress that today's matter will be taken over by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. No one or department is allowed to intervene, otherwise you will be responsible for the consequences!"
…
The assassination outside the palace quickly spread throughout the capital.
The entire capital became silent. Although there was a lot of conflict in the morning before the assassination because of the new crown prince, because of the sudden assassination, those forces that could not bear it chose to temporarily endure it.
It is estimated that no one would have thought that the queen would be attacked. Although the queen had the right to speak in the court, she acted very carefully and did not make any obvious enemies. No one even knew the queen's attitude or where she was.
They are planning something, so they all think that the current queen will not attract much attention and enemies.
Even if an assassination occurred in the capital, it should have happened between the second prince and the third prince. They were the figures at the center of the whirlpool.
No one expected that the queen would be attacked, and Xia Shang was also very surprised, so the danger arose.
Afterwards, people who heard the news would feel strange and couldn't figure out what the enemy's motive was, and they didn't know who was behind the suicide attack.
After all, it is not easy to cultivate such a group of dead soldiers, and it is certainly not easy to send out such a team of people.
Two hours have passed since the incident, and the area where the incident occurred has been cleared. All the major mansions in Kyoto are closed, and the adults are all guessing who it is.
The street where the Metropolitan Procuratorate's Yamen is located is even colder.
It was as clear as death, except for the smell of blood that filled the yamen.
Xia Shang stood in the courtyard, looking indifferently at the pile of corpses on the ground, all of which were dead soldiers dragged back from the street.
The officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate around him were all silent, and the atmosphere was quite solemn.
"Sir, I'm afraid this matter is a bit difficult to investigate..." Sima Heng stood next to Xia Shang and whispered, "Because they learned that the enemies were all tied with explosives, their men were very ruthless in their attacks, leaving no one alive. Moreover,
Judging from their faces, they are not from the capital, they look like a group of refugees who fled to the capital from the deserted states."
"Then check the plague four years ago and see if these refugees were adopted by anyone."
"You can start the investigation from here, but it will take a lot of time to get results. And now the battle for the crown prince is about to begin, and later it will involve the marriage with the Japanese princess, and many things will happen. If you put a lot of energy into investigating this
One thing will inevitably happen later..."
Xia Shang raised his hand to stop Sima Heng from continuing.
Xia Shang walked a few steps in the courtyard with a sullen face, and suddenly asked: "Tell me, who is the most suspicious in this matter?"
Everyone was shocked. They didn't expect the leader to ask such a difficult question in front of so many subordinates.
Because every object of suspicion cannot be doubted casually, nor can it be spoken out easily.
But the people here are not court officials in the traditional sense. Even when someone shouted: "The second prince is the most suspicious, because he has just been assassinated. He may suspect that someone in the palace arranged it, and he will naturally fight for the queen."
"
Someone else said: "The third prince is also suspected. He behaves too calmly, as if everything has nothing to do with him. In my opinion, he is just pretending to be like this. And the princess behind him has always been good at planning assassinations, and she has heard about it for a long time.
It is said that Princess Yong has an army of dead soldiers privately."
"The Ministry of War has something to do with it. The explosives of these killers cannot be obtained casually in the world. Such a lot of explosives require a lot of raw materials, and these raw materials are under the control of the Ministry of War."
"Where is the Prime Minister? Is the Prime Minister suspicious? I heard that he was furious in the court. Is it possible that he wants to deliberately muddy the waters?"
"Also, how did the Queen's whereabouts leak out? She left the palace for only half an hour, but someone seized the opportunity.
.Everyone who knows the Queen’s whereabouts is suspect.”
In the courtyard, the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate began to argue fiercely.
Xia Shang did not interrupt them and listened carefully to everyone's analysis.
But the more he analyzed it, the tighter Xia Shang's brows furrowed and his steps became slower.
Everyone seemed to notice the weirdness of the adults, their voices gradually became quieter, and they all looked at Xia Shang.
Bai Ling quietly came to Xia Shang's side: "Sir, do you already know who did it?"
Xia Shang shook his head: "I heard you say that everyone in the capital is suspected? If this is the case, then I have a solution to this matter."
…
In the blink of an eye, it was dusk, the sky outside had darkened, the rain was still falling, and the cold weather seemed to be mixed with some broken ice.
Li Xiangyang looked at the sky under the eaves of the mansion. There were no stars in the gloomy night. An old man beside him was shaking a little, whether because of the cold or something else.
On the other side, a ghost-faced man in black robes was as motionless as a stone sculpture.
Suddenly, Li Xiangyang spoke: "Taoist Master Ma, you said that this prince can part the clouds and see the sun, and have a clear view of the sky, but now it is cloudy and raining continuously. Your thirty-six-character sky performance is not as accurate as you said...
Now I have some doubts as to whether the fate you approved for me is accurate, huh?"
Li Xiangyang's face turned and became gloomy, and he looked at the old gentleman beside him.
Taoist Ma was glared at by Li Xiangyang, and immediately became more nervous. He took out a strange-looking astrolabe from his arms, fiddled with it in a panic, looked at the sky, frowned, and shook his head tremblingly.
Said: "Your Highness, the old Taoist... The old Taoist also... I don't know why... the star chart has been in chaos recently, and the destiny has changed. It seems that there are... monsters that affect the fortune of the sun and the moon, causing the old Taoist's celestial performance to go awry...
"
"Hmph..." The ghost-faced man behind him snorted coldly, "You want a monster to cause trouble! I think you are the one who confuses people with your evil words, right?"
With that said, the ghost-faced man had already arrived in front of Taoist Master Ma, and turned back to Li Xiangyang and said: "Your Highness, this person is full of nonsense, and what he said is not even half accurate. I believe that such illusory talk of destiny is purely misleading others.
It would be best to kill this kind of flattering villain."