Chapter 26 The truth (please read)

Qi Ping couldn't remember where he had read a sentence: The truth is often found inadvertently.

At this moment, when Princess Anping said these words, the fog in his mind instantly dispersed and he suddenly became enlightened.

"I...I..." Anping was frightened and hesitated, forgetting what he just said.

However, Qi Ping only asked subconsciously, patted the table and said excitedly:

"I did think wrong and went into a misunderstanding."

Yongning looked at him: "What?"

Qi Ping stood in front of the table and exhaled:

"My earliest guess was that these cases might be intrinsically connected. They seemed scattered and disorderly, but there must be a hidden thread connecting them. Therefore, I tried to find commonalities among the fourteen tragedies in the files.

This idea is correct, but I overlooked an important point.

That is...these fourteen cases may not all be the targets of the other party!"

After a pause, he organized his words and said:

"The princess just said that if the fourteen cases all involve the older generation, then no matter what the grudges are, it is unlikely that no one will remember this. We know this, and the gangsters naturally know it too."

"Let's put ourselves in their shoes and assume that we are gangsters who want to kill some people but don't want the government to find out the inner connection. What would happen?"

Princess Yongning's eyes lit up: "Confuse the public!"

She said: "If you only kill a few households, it will be easy to detect abnormalities. The best way is to kill more to muddy the water. In this way, even if you investigate, you will be interfered with by a large number of irrelevant clues, thus hiding the truth."

Purpose."

Qi Ping praised:

"This is why the princess is smart. From what is known, this group of gangsters are not reckless people. They know how to cover up by robbing money, and they are prepared every time they take action.

Such people are likely to deliberately kill irrelevant people to create information interference.

Thinking about it, this is also the reason why people in Fucheng didn't connect multiple cases together. Before the Sun family was wiped out, the other party had almost no clues, until this time.

For some reason, the hasty action allowed us to find the flaw."

Princess Yongning nodded frequently and walked slowly:

"That makes sense. If your guess is true, then the next thing to do is to eliminate interference."

How to exclude?

Naturally, cases involving the older generation that have nothing to do with Jianghu will be eliminated.

The two of them focused their eyes on the table, and Qi Ping quickly started picking. Soon, there were only three files left on the table.

Two of them are highly similar to Sun Qianli’s life experience:

During the war in the past, he left his hometown to travel around the world. About thirty years ago, he returned to his hometown with gold and silver and started a family business.

Thirty years is only two generations. In this era, as long as one does not squander, it is enough to become a rich man.

This boosted Qi Ping's spirits.

As for the third case, it is a little special. It is the massacre in Dagou Village, Yangqiu County. Several families were affected. The deceased were all clan members and had lived in the local area for generations. It was different from the other three cases.

However, the archives record that in the past, a man from the Xu clan fell into trouble and became a bandit. After the war subsided, he returned to the clan, scattered a lot of money, and died of illness soon after.

Just barely.

"Dong Hongwu, Fang Quanlin, Xu Yuanshan...plus Sun Qianli." Qi Ping exhaled, "That's the four of them."

Anping, who was sitting on a chair with his chin in his hands, wondered: "What's next? Do we want to investigate them carefully?"

Qi Ping fell silent.

According to normal logic, this should be the case, but... this is ancient times, and these four people have all passed away, and there was a war that year. It is not easy to investigate?

There is no complete household registration information or written records, and there are not even many old people alive from that time. How can we continue to check?

Rain rustled outside the window, and the case reached a deadlock again.

At this moment, Qi Shu, who was sitting by the fire pot and wrapped in a blanket, suddenly said: "Xu Yuanshan? I have heard of this name."

The three of them suddenly turned their heads.

They all looked at the girl.

The thin girl wearing coarse clothes shrank her neck, took out the "Heroes of the River" from the blanket, and turned to one of the pages:

"There is a story in the book about a green forest hero named Xu Yuanshan."

What?

The three of them were stunned, what a coincidence. Qi Ping quickly took the book, looked down and raised his eyebrows.

It really is.

There is indeed such a person in the book, he does not occupy much space, and his experience is very legendary. It is not surprising, after all, there is a lot of fabrication.

The background of the story is consistent with that of decades ago, and the most important thing is the first sentence in the book:

Xu Yuanshan, originally from Yangqiu...

Yangqiu County!

Qi Ping felt as if thunder exploded in his mind.

He remembered that this book was a gift from Fan Er. According to him, it was a collection of folklore from various places in the government. It was a collection of stories.

It's a bit like Liaozhai, but it's not about monsters, but martial arts heroes.

The so-called "The Legend of Dahe Heroes" refers to some martial arts masters who have become famous in Dahe Prefecture in Yuzhou.

It's not completely made up, it has the original story.

Qi Ping was worried about the case yesterday, and the novels of this era were not as good as those of later generations, so he flipped through it casually and threw it away.

As for why he didn't think of Xu Yuanshan, the reason was very simple. This man was from Yangqiu County, and the original owner was in Heyan, so there was no information.

The original owner was too poor to afford to go to a teahouse to listen to books.

Now it seems……

"No way." Qi Ping swallowed and read the story quickly.

The story is extremely short, only two to three hundred words.

His experience was unremarkable, and Qi Ping wondered how such a short story could be included in the book.

After reading it carefully, I suddenly realized it.

It turned out that Xu Yuanshan was not a lone ranger, but formed a gang with several fellow villagers, known as the "Five Tigers of Yuzhou".

The so-called "heroes" in the book refer to this group, and Xu Yuanshan is just one of them.

"Wait... is it possible that those four people all belong to this group?"

Qi Ping breathed quickly as he thought of this possibility.

He hurriedly spread the book on the table, took the pen and paper, and began to read and copy the information about the other "Four Tigers". However, he was disappointed.

The rest of the "Four Tigers" are completely incompatible with Dong Hongwu and others.

In other words, among the Five Tigers of Yuzhou, only one named Xu Yuanshan matches his name.

Did I guess wrong? Is it just a coincidence? Qi Ping was a little confused.

Next to them, the two princesses only saw Qi Ping's operation and had no idea what was mentioned in the book. With their status, they naturally did not know such folklore.

"What did you find?" Yongning asked curiously.

Qi Ping put down his brush, looked at the names of the Yuzhou Five Tigers on the paper, raised his head and said, "Maybe I thought wrong..."

Halfway through his words, Qi Ping suddenly paused again and thought of a possibility.

In martial arts novels, when a hero wants to retire to the countryside, what is the first step?

Incognito!

Is it possible that all the Yuzhou Five Tigers have changed their names? So they cannot correspond?

As for Xu Yuanshan, the files record that after returning to his hometown, he dissipated all his wealth and died of illness soon, indicating that he may have been seriously ill at the time and was not going to die soon, so there was no need to remain anonymous.

So……

He looked at the names on the paper again, and his eyes fell on the name of the last tiger among the "Five Tigers of Yuzhou":

Sun Chong.

"My surname is also Sun. If you separate the double characters, it's 'Qianli'. Sun Qianli..."

"Sun Qianli!"

Qi Ping's eyes suddenly lit up: "I understand!"
Chapter completed!