Although Yueniang has been caught and she confessed to all the crimes, Ling Yiqu still feels that the matter is not that simple.
Wang Chengen also said that Yueniang is just an ordinary woman who knows a little bit about boxing and kicking. She has no martial arts and no internal strength. It should be just because she is beautiful and is good at dancing and talking that she was put into Zuixiang Tower to be the madam. Change.
In other words, she shouldn't be able to kill so many people with one blow.
Out of his own sense of responsibility, Ling Yiqu wanted to figure this out. He didn't want to wrong anyone, even if that person wished he could close the case quickly.
The real murderer she wanted to cover up was very important to the court.
Ling Yiqu didn't tell anyone, he took matters into his own hands and re-researched the case.
There were so many useless ministers in the court, so why did four of them die? There must be some connection. It was probably related to old events many years ago and Yueniang's past. But she didn't want to tell.
She is deliberately concealing her past. The past she conceals is probably closely related to the mastermind behind this.
If this is the case, it is even more important to find out the truth of the matter. Having made up his mind, Ling Yiqu began to seriously study the relationship between the four dead people.
After Lin Chong handed over the list to Zhou Ze, he began to study why he was taken out of the palace without anyone noticing. When he went to the imperial dining room that day, he did not take the eunuchs and maids with him. He sneaked in alone.
So it's very possible that no one noticed him coming in at that time, and he just entered the door and lost consciousness almost at the same moment.
He tried hard to recall the last scene he saw before he fainted. It seemed to be a blurry human face. But if he was asked to tell what this person looked like, he really couldn't remember clearly.
He led his men to search the area around the imperial dining room carefully, looking for secret passages and the like. Catching a traitor is not something that happens overnight, let alone a palace maid or a eunuch.
You must know that there are countless maids and eunuchs coming and going in this palace every day. When Miss Rong sneaked in, no one noticed at all, let alone if she deliberately wanted to conceal her identity.
He first started to check all the maids and eunuchs present in the imperial dining hall that day. When did each one enter the palace, how many years had they stayed in the palace, and their backgrounds.
But he checked over and over again and found no suspicious clues. Did he think wrongly that this person was not from the palace, but just sneaked in temporarily? But if this was the case, how could he accurately grasp his whereabouts?
If he was also secretly monitoring him, how could he hide it from the many eyes and ears in the palace?
The royal guards who were responsible for protecting his safety that day were also investigated one by one. Most of them thought that they were destined to die, but to their surprise, the emperor just called them to ask a few questions, and then waved them off. Really.
A life was saved in this way? The Jinyi guards were a little unbelievable.
Ling Yiqu himself couldn't get away from the investigation, so he sent one of his trusted Dali Temple Shaoqing to take charge.
This Shaoqing of Dali Temple can be said to be his favorite disciple. His surname is Guan, his given name is Qu, and his courtesy name is Zhuo Lin. He has been with Ling Yiqu since he was a child. He has learned his true heritage and is smart and astute, so he can feel more at ease when he is sent to Ling Yiqu.
After Guan Qu was ordered to take a few people to investigate the Yueniang incident in depth, after a series of visits and investigations and reading countless files, he finally found some connection between the dead people. These four people came from different places.
, there are very few overlapping parts in terms of family background and experience.
But one thing is that these four people have all been to the same place in the same year. Some were sent on official business, inspections, or assessments. Some went for fun, or to handle their own business. In short, Chongzhen
In the past two years, several of them have stopped in Wuzhou.
What is doubtful is that since returning from Wuzhou, there has been no contact between these people. According to common sense, they were officials in the same dynasty, so even if they did not have any close friendship, they should not suddenly have no interaction at all after returning.
Guan Qu decided to go to Wuzhou himself. Wuzhou is located in Guangxi and is an important gateway between Guangdong and Guangxi. Wuzhou has beautiful scenery and is also a place with extremely developed commerce.
Here there are green mountains and green waters, talented people and beautiful people, and there is no shortage of bustling long street shops. You can see children playing in twos and threes on the street, and you can also see old people with yellow hair sitting on bamboo chairs and sighing.
This place seemed to have never been threatened by war, making people who passed by feel peaceful. Guan Qu followed the order of arrival of several people to investigate the places they had visited, and even the inns they had stayed in, and questioned all officials about their dealings.
news and retrieved the files they had checked.
It is now the thirty-third year of Chongzhen, and more than twenty years have passed since then. He doesn't know how many clues he can still find. Maybe the people who knew the inside story back then have almost died of old age.
He knew what the master had been grappling with for so many years. It was the innocent death of his old friend Yuan Chonghuan.
When Yuan Chonghuan's accident happened, Ling Yiqu was just a teenager and was in high spirits. Although the two were very different in age, they hit it off and became close friends. They often drank and chatted together and talked to each other about their ambitions.
Yuan Chonghuan once gave Ling Yiqu a lot of advice. Later, the reason why he came to live in Dali Temple as a scholar was closely related to Yuan Chonghuan. However, he did not expect that this fate ended so quickly.
Yuan Chonghuan had just won a battle. The day before, he went to Ling Yiqu with a good drink to claim credit. The day after, he was sent to prison and Ling Chi died. At that time, Ling Yiqu was just an ambitious boy with no reputation, so he rarely
Some people know that they were friends of life and death.
Ling Yiqu once found it difficult to accept Yuan Chonghuan's death. He lost his temper and cursed the country and the emperor. He also once got drunk and lamented that the country was dead.
But it was a letter written by Yuan Chonghuan in prison that finally led him to join the officialdom.
"My dear friend Junfu, at this time of crisis for the country, I have been reflecting day and night, but in the end I have found nothing to ask for. Now that Yuan is dead, who can take up the important posts in the court? Who will the Ming Dynasty rely on? If the king wants his minister to die, he must die.
.However, it is not a pity that Yuan died. Now I hope that my virtuous brother will not forget to serve the country and remember it "...
At that time, Yuan Chonghuan had already betrayed all his relatives. It took an unknown amount of effort and price to send this letter. With just a few lines of words, Ling Yiqu locked himself in his room for three whole days.
The family members were very worried, and on the third day they were ready to kick in the door, but unexpectedly the door opened by itself.