Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Jing Niang came over from Xiao Chuo and checked Li Yueji's palace again because they were all from outside the Great Wall. Concubine Li Xian's palace is searched by a large number of people every day and asked various questions.

A group of eunuchs were rummaging through boxes and cabinets again, eager to dig three feet into the ground!

Jing Niang said coldly: "Concubine Li Xian, if you did that, you should already know that you can't get out of this palace. Just confess it, why put on airs?"

Li Yueji looked haggard, looked at her and shook her head and said: "Jing Niang, I am now the Concubine Daxu, and I used to be Princess Pingxia. How could the Gaomen family teach their daughter to do such dangerous things since childhood?"

Jing Niang was taken aback when she heard this, and felt that there was some truth to it, people like Li Yueji, who are used to living a good life, have more extravagant and lazy people, and fewer conspirators.

... The eunuch Yang Shiliang was in the Long Live Hall, leading a group of eunuchs from the inner factory to search for clues at the scene of the incident. One eunuch was holding the emperor's usual teacup to look at it, his eyes were almost glued to the cup, and he was holding it up to his nose to sniff; another eunuch was examining an ivory comb. Standing tremblingly by the wall is a group of eunuchs and court ladies, all of whom are slaves who are often on duty in the Long Live Hall.

Yang Shiliang was also looking around. He came out of the bedroom, looked around in front of a desk, picked up a copy of "Zuo Shi Chunqiu" stacked in the corner of the desk, and flipped through it. He found nothing unusual. He was a little dazed, and picked up a thread-bound "Book of Changes".

Yang Shiliang's eyes lit up!

He thought to himself: There are dozens of people on duty at any time in the Long Live Hall to serve the officials, and the officials don't do any work here, how can their hands be dirty? And this "Book of Changes" is one of the most difficult books to read. Except for officials, I don't believe any slaves can read it.

Yang Shiliang put his nose close to the faint fingerprint and smelled it, and suddenly turned his head without warning! His eyes quickly swept across the group of people standing by the wall, and suddenly he saw a court lady hurriedly lowered her head.

Yang Shiliang stared coldly at the person who made a move, and continued to look up and down the desk carefully without saying a word with a livid face. His gaze stayed on a jasper-colored brush on the pen stand...it was the "Han Tianzi Brush", and it looked similar to what Ye Shi described, but it should be a fake.

Such things are placed in the Long Live Hall, and Yang Shiliang judges that they should be things that officials like to use. He picked up the pen and looked carefully at the light from the window, smelling it while examining it, and smelled an indescribable faint smell, which was the same as the smell on the pages of the book!

Yang Shiliang closed his eyes slightly, as if he saw a scene: the official sat alone in front of the desk, put the brush on the inkstone, read the book intently, put his fingers on the tip of his tongue to soak a little saliva, and turned the pages of the book; so the poison smeared on the pen tube touched the official's tongue and the pages of the book at the same time, and fingerprints accumulated on the pages of the book.

Yang Shiliang carefully put the "Han Tianzi Brush" on the pen holder, turned around and walked towards the crowd by the wall, and stood directly in front of the court lady. The maid in front of him still had a childish face, she was probably only in her teens, if Yang Shiliang wasn't smart, he probably wouldn't have doubted this young lady.

The maid began to tremble all over, it was obvious trembling that could be seen by the eyes! She definitely doesn't want to, but I'm afraid it's hard to control herself at this time.

Yang Shiliang grabbed her both hands suddenly, looked at her fingers carefully for a while, although he didn't find anything strange, he gave her a calm look, and suddenly ordered: "Take it down!"

The palace lady's body softened when she heard this, and she didn't say a word, only heard the sound of "giggle" teeth colliding. Yang Shiliang suddenly noticed water stains dripping from her skirt, so he calmly took out a handkerchief from his sleeve pocket and pressed it on his nose, "How dare you do such a thing, do you know how many people will die?!" Then he turned and walked to Li Shanggong: "The maids here, are you in charge?"

Li Shanggong's face was pale, and he knelt down on the ground: "It's none of my business! I am loyal to the official family, and the official family is closer than my father..."

Yang Shiliang sneered when he heard this.

Li Shanggong said anxiously again: "That maidservant is called Li Erniang. Although her surname is Li, she has nothing to do with me! By the way... there is one thing, this lowly maidservant tried to seduce the officials in the bathing pool.

Eunuch Yang checked clearly, if I was an accomplice, why would I want to send her away? "

Yang Shiliang said: "The miscellaneous family will verify what you say."

An eunuch next to him reminded: "Mr. Yang, I will take people to search this servant's house, and they will surely get the stolen goods!"

"No!" Yang Shiliang said decisively, "What kind of evidence do you need for such a big thing? Be careful not to startle the snake." He observed the timidity of the little maid, and said in a positive tone, "There must be a party! How can things be done with such a servant?"

Several eunuchs grabbed the little maid, stuffed her mouth with a ball of cloth, and dragged her away without saying a word. Yang Shiliang followed, then pointed back at the rest of the people and said, "No one is allowed to leave!"

A group of people came to a room where guards of honor were piled up in the Long Live Hall, and the weak little maid was immediately tied to a chair by a group of people. The people around are all vicious.

Another two eunuchs brought up a chopping board and put a pack of sharp bamboo sticks on the chopping board. Yang Shiliang looked at the little court lady expressionlessly and said: "From ancient times to the present, there have been too many tortures. Let's start with the lightest ones. The miscellaneous family promises that you will not die if you try them all."

The surrounding eunuchs cooperated tacitly, pressed the maid's hands on the chopping board, and first inserted the bamboo stick into the five fingers of her left hand. After a while, she struggled to get up, her bound legs kicked wildly on the floor, several eunuchs struggled to hold her down, I didn't expect that this young lady was quite strong!

Yang Shiliang reached out to pinch her mouth, pulled out the cloth ball, and said coldly, "Who is the accomplice?"

"Forgive me! Forgive me..." The little maid repeated with tears in her face, her face blunt.

Yang Shiliang stopped talking, picked up the cloth ball and stretched it towards her mouth.

"I said! I..." The maid was anxious.

Yang Shiliang pulled off the cloth again and asked, "Who is the same party?"

"Feng Xian from the Bureau of Internal Affairs, his original surname is Li, he is my elder brother..." The little palace maid burst into tears when she said this, "My father was originally the commander of the imperial army, and because of being implicated by Zhao Kuangyin, he was tortured to death by the current emperor!"

"Record the confession without missing a single word." Yang Shiliang turned his head and said, and asked again, "When people enter the palace, officials will check their backgrounds. Since you are rebels, how can you sneak into the palace? Who helped you?"

The little maid wept bitterly, and said: "The Zhao family in Xuzhou. They told us to avenge our late father and his brothers. We obeyed the order. If we don't agree, we will kill our whole family and all relatives..."

"The people of Zhao Kuangyin's family who are being guarded in Xuzhou?" Yang Shiliang asked.

The little maid nodded.

Yang Shiliang said: "In the future, you have to say yes or no! The people of the Zhao family are supervised by special personnel, how can they contact the old department? Xuzhou officials were bought? Who bought them?"

"I don't know, I really don't know..." The little maid shook her head desperately, as if she had washed her face but hadn't wiped it off.

Yang Shiliang asked again: "If the thief only arranged for the two of you, how do you know that you will be able to get close to the official's house? There are other people in the palace! Who are they?"

The little maid couldn't help shaking her head: "I don't know, I really don't know..."

Yang Shiliang said coldly: "Haven't you tasted enough yet?"

The little palace maid cried: "This slave even confessed to my elder brother, why bother to hide it from others..."

When Yang Shiliang heard it, he immediately believed it.

At this time, an eunuch behind picked up a piece of paper and blew carefully. Yang Shiliang beckoned, and the eunuch came over with the paper and put it on the chopping board. Yang Shiliang grabbed the little maid's left hand, pulled out the bamboo stick on the index finger, and heard a scream of "Ah...", then grabbed the maid's hand and pressed a blood mark on the paper.

"Immediately send it to the Jinxiang Palace and report it to the empress!" Yang Shiliang said.

... Fu Jinzhan was in the study of the East Hall, after reading the confession with bloody fingerprints, he suppressed his anger and said: "Decree, let the commander of the Inner Palace Commander Du Chenggui come to see him immediately!"

"Slaves will obey Yi's orders."

Fu Jinzhan pondered for a while, and then called Huang Binglian, the cabinet assistant outside the screen, to come in and show Huang Binglian the confession.

After Huang Binglian looked at it, he cupped his fists and said: "I think that we should send people to Xuzhou as soon as possible to torture the officials there in the Zhao Mansion. Follow the vine, and do it quickly!"

Jinzhan said: "I have summoned Du Dushi, and I will take the forbidden soldiers Qingqi with you to Xuzhou."

Huang Binglian said again: "In addition, please ask the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out when and what month the prisoner in the palace entered the palace, and investigate the officials who were in charge of selecting candidates." He immediately stated without hesitation, "Those remaining evils should be fully accounted for, and we must not tolerate it any longer!"

After hearing this, Jinzhan nodded and said, "In this matter, Huang Fuzheng, Du Dushi, who is in charge of punishment and law, will assist in dispatching troops, and Yang Shiliang will assist in checking the news from the palace.

"I obey the order!" Huang Binglian bowed deeply.

Jinzhan stretched out his hand and rubbed his temples, remembering Wang Pu's conjecture that the suspect was formerly the old party or the Liao country. Now it seems that Wang Pu's calculation is somewhat reasonable... The old party of the former dynasty and the remaining Zhao party are two groups of people, and the foreign aid that the remaining Zhao party colluded with may be the Liao country; the poison naturally also came from the Liao country!

In this huge conspiracy, not only a lot of manpower is required, but also some big officials must be bought, which will inevitably require huge wealth and backing. Only the Liao Kingdom has such strength.

She thought more deeply, from this point of view, the crisis facing the Da Xu Dynasty may not only be internal... If the Liao Kingdom is behind the scenes, it may be ready at this time and will have plans.

The windows of the study in the East Hall were "crackling" by the wind. Jinzhan looked through the window lattice and saw that the sky above the huge palace was covered with dark clouds, making it seem like she couldn't breathe! Now is not the time for grief and fear, she is sitting behind the imperial case, unable to bend down even if the sky falls.

Because, a bigger storm hides behind this gust of wind!