Chapter 161: Trying to conceal the truth
After the world was unified, the court was very taboo about the recruitment of retainers by noble ministers, so those aristocratic families began to raise dead men.
Most of these dead scholars are young orphans selected from the refugees and trained since childhood.
In other words, the dead men are all undercover. If you want to check their identities, you can't find any clues at all.
"How many assassins are there?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Three hundred people in total disguised as caravans and archers ambushing in the farmland." Gu Tingye replied.
Zhao Xing did not ask whether anyone had escaped. Dead soldiers and dead soldiers, there was only one way to succeed or not if they were dispatched.
If these dead soldiers escape, they will only give people a chance to follow the clues.
“Cao Mian!”
“I am here!”
"The blame for your crime will be settled with you later. Now you lead people to Yangwu County and capture the Yangwu County Magistrate and his family." Zhao Xing ordered.
The identity of the assassins must be checked. Even if they are dead soldiers, the weapons and bows and arrows they use can still be traced.
However, these all take time. In this case, Zhao Xing is prepared to adopt Wang Anshi's suggestion and at the same time let those who send the assassins relax their vigilance.
If the person behind the scenes cannot be found out, Zhao Xing will have trouble sleeping and eating in the future.
"Your Highness, if I leave, your safety..."
"You don't have to worry about Gu's safety!" Zhao Xing interrupted Cao Qin with a wave of his hand and said, "Just do what Gu said."
Zhao Xing also thought about whether there might be assassins left. Backhand, but if you think about it it’s almost impossible.
This is Kaifeng Mansion. It is already a fantasy to hide three hundred dead men in this place to assassinate the prince.
"But..."
"Why can't I instruct you?" Zhao Xing interrupted Cao Qin again.
"Yes!" Cao Qin didn't dare to say anything after hearing this. He stood up, bowed and hurried away.
"Pack up and let's continue to Yangwu County." Zhao Xing ordered.
"Your Highness, the situation is unclear now, why not go back to Bianjing first." Gu Tingye said.
"No need, the three hundred assassins should be all the dead men the people behind the scenes can bring out. There will be no danger next. And this place is not far from Yangwu County. If we turn around, what will happen? Heiqian can't reach other counties at all, and it's more dangerous in the wild," Zhao Xing said.
“Yes!”
Gu Tingye thought about it carefully and found that this was indeed the case.
Assassinating the prince is a serious crime against the nine clans. To be sure, all the dead soldiers in hand will be sent out.
Even if there is still, the enemy is in darkness and we are in the light, and it is not safe to spend the night in the wild.
Gu Tingye ordered the soldiers to pull out the arrows from the carriage and collect the bodies of the dead soldiers.
Half an hour had passed since I finished all this. When I set off again, there was already sunset on the horizon.
"Jiefu, who do you think wants to kill Gu?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Your Highness should have already made a guess in his mind, right?" Wang Anshi said with a smile.
"I can only have a general direction, but I can't be sure who did it." Zhao Xing said.
"What a coincidence, I only have a general direction. It seems that I have the same idea as His Highness." Wang Anshi said.
"Since you don't want to say it, I won't force you." Zhao Xing shook his head.
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
Wang Anshi didn't want to say it, he couldn't.
When the prince is assassinated, the most suspicious person is naturally the other princes.
Nowadays, there is only one son in the official family, so naturally this possibility does not exist.
But because the official family only has one son, Zhao Xing, the suspicion of the clan becomes greater.
The official family is already in their early fifties and it is almost impossible to have any more children.
If Zhao Xing dies, the official family will have no choice but to adopt the clan.
Therefore, the most suspicious people are those who have the best chance of inheriting the throne after Zhao Xing's death.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that it is because Zhao Xing ordered the land to be measured.
But this possibility is very slim, almost impossible.
After all, Zhao Xing ordered the acres of land to be measured, and so far he has not said how to punish those who hide in the fields.
In this case, who would be crazy enough to assassinate the prince?
What's more, if you can produce three hundred dead soldiers, your identity can be simple.
Wang Anshi did not dare to say anything when it came to the clan.
Zhao Xing actually thought of this, but he was just not sure.
Asking Wang Anshi made him feel that they were inseparable.
Among the clan, the most suspect ones are King Yong and King Yan.
In the original play, the official family was wavering between the two, and finally chose King Yong.
These two people are also the two closest to the official family in the clan.
Zhao Xing prefers King Yan in his heart. After all, this is the master who dares to rebel.
It is not impossible for King Yan to assassinate him, the prince, for the sake of the throne.
But these are just speculations, and there must be evidence.
…………
For Zhao Xing’s safety, Cao Qin did not dare to bring more people, so he only took more than ten people to Yangwu County first.
After leaving for a while, he sent two more people to take a detour to avoid Zhao Xing behind him, and went to Bianjing to report the news of the assassination of the prince to the officials. Then he took the remaining people and rushed to Yangwu County.
When he was approaching Yangwu County, he encountered a yamen servant coming on horseback. Cao Qin had someone stop the yamen servant.
After revealing his identity and asking some questions, Cao Qin’s expression changed dramatically.
The family of Yangwu County Magistrate Zhang Xiuting was poisoned.
And this yamen official was sent to Bianjing by the county magistrate to report the news.
Cao Qin sent someone to report to Zhao Xing, and he went to Yangwu County.
........."Meet Your Highness!"
Zhao Xing got off the carriage and walked directly into the county government office without saying a word.
All the officials in Yangwu County looked at each other, wondering whether to follow them in or not.
"Commander Cao Du, look now..." Shi Jingbo looked at Cao Mian.
"Just wait." Cao Mian said.
"Hey." Shi Jingbo raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, with a depressed look on his face.
He still doesn’t know about Zhao Xing’s assassination, he only thinks it is because of the death of Zhang Xiuting’s family.
After waiting for a while, Sanshui came over and asked them to go to the county government lobby.
The group of people quickly came to the county government hall, bowed and said: "Meet His Highness the Crown Prince."
Zhao Xing looked at Shi Jingbo with no expression on his face and said, "Tell me about the situation of the county magistrate's family."
"Yes!" Shi Jingbo told the story of the murder of the county magistrate's family.
Zhang Xiuting, the magistrate of Yangwu County, is a filial son and often goes to have meals with his old mother.
At noon today, Zhang Xiuting and his family had a meal in the old mother's courtyard. As a result, the food was poisoned. Except for a few concubines who were not qualified to attend, everyone in the family was poisoned to death.
"Have you found anything?" Zhao Xing asked.
"I have brought all the servants of the Zhang family back for interrogation, but no clues have been found yet," Shi Jingbo said.
Zhao Xing pondered for a while and said: "Go down and find the murderer as soon as possible."
"Yes!" Shi Jingbo breathed a sigh of relief. He thought His Highness the Crown Prince would be angry. I didn't expect it to pass so easily.
"What do you think, Jiefu?" Zhao Xing asked.
He didn't care about Zhang Xiuting's death, but the time of his death was too coincidental.
"You want to cover up the obvious." Wang Anshi said concisely and concisely.
"Yes, this is trying to cover up the obvious." Zhao Xing sneered: "But this also exposed a lot of clues."
He was assassinated in Yangwu County, and the county magistrate Zhang Xiuting did not care about it anyway. There is responsibility, but a whole family was poisoned without any clues, as if they committed suicide out of fear of crime.
But in fact it is full of loopholes. If it is really related to Zhang Xiuting, assassinating the prince is a major crime against the nine tribes, and they may prepare for the worst.
Even if you know you can't run away, you should send away an heir in advance to preserve your bloodline.
However, everyone in Zhang Xiuting's family was poisoned and died.
The purpose of doing this is probably not to appear to commit suicide in fear of crime, but to give the illusion of murder and silence, and mislead the direction of the investigation.
Through this series of events, Zhao Xing came to the conclusion that this assassination was both planned and impromptu.
The reason why I say this is because the three hundred dead soldiers could not have been trained near Bianjing.
The people behind the scenes mobilized the dead soldiers to the vicinity of Bianjing early, obviously to assassinate him.
I am usually in the city, and even when I go out of the city, I am always at the polo field and Jinming Pond. The people behind the scenes can't find a chance.
This time I went out of the city, giving me a chance to match.
The person behind the scenes thought of poisoning Zhang Xiuting's family to divert attention, which proves that they have been monitoring his every move.
However, this assassination, including the poisoning of Zhang Xiuting and his family, seemed too hasty.
It shows that the person behind the scenes was not someone close to him or someone close to his father. He was not able to learn the news in advance and had no time to make precise arrangements.
But the other party didn't want to miss this golden opportunity. After all, Zhao Xing himself didn't know when he would leave the city next, and the people behind the scenes also knew that it was difficult to find opportunities for Zhao Xing to leave the city.
…………
Bianjing City
It was already late at night, the weather was cool, and the soldiers on duty at the top of the city were taking a nap while standing on the top of the city.
Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, no one has ever attacked Bianjing in a hundred years.
The soldiers who defended Bianjing City were very lax.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves came, breaking the silence.
The soldiers on the top of the city suddenly woke up and looked towards the direction where the sound of horse hooves came from.
However, in the vast dark night, even if there are many braziers on the top of the city, just like day, the direction that can be seen is limited.
However, the soldiers did not think that someone was rebelling or something.
After all, although the sound of horse hooves is rapid, it is not dense. Once you hear it, you can tell that there are only one or two horses.
A fire chief quickly ordered people to invite the captain. At this time, he was galloping towards Bianjing City. Maybe it was an urgent report from eight hundred miles away. The soldiers guarding the city could not be the ones to open the door. .
Soon the captain came in a hurry, and the men on horseback also arrived at the top of the city, and they could vaguely see two soldiers wearing the Forbidden Army.
"Who is under the city?" the captain shouted.
From their attire, the captain could tell that they were not messengers.
"According to the orders of His Highness the Crown Prince, there are urgent matters that need to be reported to the officials." The two forbidden troops under the city shouted.
The captain at the top of the city hesitated after hearing this, and asked people to prepare horses to put down the basket.
He did not dare to be careless when it came to the prince.
After the two men were pulled up to the top of the city in a hanging basket, and their identities were verified, the captain quickly arranged for people to escort them to the palace.
"It seems something big happened." The captain murmured.
.........
Half an hour later, the palace door opened wide, and Rong Xian, the deputy commander of the Imperial Army, led thousands of imperial guards in front of the palace and left the palace.
He rode straight to the Duke of Wei's mansion. Not long after, Cao An, the Duke of Wei, and Rong Xian, all dressed in military uniform, met up with Rong Xian and led the imperial army out of the east city gate with the imperial edict in hand.
Although it was already late at night, there was no curfew in Bianjing City. Such a big movement soon reached the officials and the Lords.
Although I don’t know the reason, how can these noble officials not know what it means when the palace door opens late at night.
Even if it is an emergency report that is eight hundred miles away and arrives in Beijing at night, only the side door will be opened.
But this time, the main entrance was opened, not to mention that there were thousands of forbidden troops leaving the city.
Some people even had a thought in their minds. Could it be that the official family was in trouble, so they ordered someone to recall His Royal Highness?
(End of this chapter)