The morning light shines through the mist in the forest, giving people a fresh and lazy feeling. This is a small oasis located at the westernmost end of the Gobi Desert, close to the border town of Suiye Country.

Shiha has always been a necessary place for caravans from east to west.

Li Jiangyao just jumped off the horse and immediately smelled the pungent smell of blood, and his whole nerves couldn't help but tense up.

Du Jian, the veteran scout who was walking in front of him, took out the long knife from his waist, ducked and rushed out. The seven scouts around him also showed their weapons, while protecting Li Jiangyao, they chased Du Jian forward to search.

.

With little effort, the team bypassed a Hu forest and merged with the troops who had arrived earlier. A team leader pointed not far away and said in a deep voice: "Captain Li, you are here, look over there!

"

Li Jiangyao looked closely in the direction of his finger and almost screamed in shock. He saw more than twenty corpses suspended in the air dozens of steps away. The scene was very strange and scary.

"What's going on?!" Du Jian snorted. Even for a veteran like him who has seen the world, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Captain: "The first one to report the news was the business group from Shule Kingdom. They passed by here yesterday and originally wanted to take a rest, but they didn't expect to encounter this situation. Several of them fainted from fright on the spot."

Li Jiangyao tried to control his emotions and asked: "To whom did those Shule businessmen report the case?"

"They couldn't find the official's house, so they went to Mashha." The captain replied: "The stewards in the town came to take a look and knew that this was a huge disaster, so they didn't even go to the local government in Shule.

He lit the beacon directly and invited us to come over."

Li Jiangyao listened to the report from his subordinates and walked towards the hanging corpses. It wasn't until he got closer that he finally saw clearly that the corpses were not floating out of thin air, but were hung on the trees with extremely thin ropes.

Blood spilled from the corpse and flowed all over the floor.

"Looking at the costumes, they should be our Shengtang's caravan." Du Jian circled the body twice and muttered to himself: "Grandma, you are vicious!"

In fact, he didn't need to say it. Li Jiangyao had already seen it at this moment. These twenty-odd Shengtang merchants had all had their throats cut, hung on trees and slowly bled to death. If they hadn't been discovered in time, perhaps after many months, they would have died.

He might turn into a mummy.

He frowned: "What time is this?"

Du Jian put the sword back into its sheath and hummed: "It's the fifth time! However, this time he came up with a new trick and hung the corpse in the air!"

The fifth incident! In less than a month, five murderous attacks on the Shengtang caravan occurred in the western region of Ghost Desert. Counting this time, the number of victims increased to 177.

Li Jiangyao's heart couldn't help but sink: Such cruel methods were definitely not the work of ordinary sand and horse bandits.

The reason for this is very simple. Anyone who eats a bowl of food like Shangdao understands a little bit of the principle of "killing the chicken to get the eggs and draining the lake to fish". As long as they don't encounter fierce resistance, no matter whether they are sand bandits or horse bandits, they are not willing to hurt people easily.

If people are killed frequently and no one dares to go out to do business, wouldn't the bandits also have to starve to death?

Therefore, killing people intentionally like this and putting on a perverted scene at the same time must not be for the sake of wealth.

Another point is that the wounds on the corpse were obviously caused by sharp weapons in a crisp and clean manner, and those who were able to do this were mostly veterans who were used to the battlefield.

There are only veterans who are not afraid of blood and are skilled in technology.

What's more, most of the traders who have the courage to take this trade route in Western Xinjiang have practiced every move, and they are by no means powerless to fight back. And these dead people in front of them, as well as the surrounding environment, have not had any fighting experience.

Mark of.

This shows that the murderer easily restrained them as soon as he came up, and he could only stretch out his neck and wait for death.

A name gradually emerged in Li Jiangyao's mind: Turk.

Although there was no reliable evidence, his intuition told him that these five tragedies targeting Shengtang merchants were probably a conspiracy by the Turks.

Are they really coming?

"Boss Li, what should we do next?" the corporal asked.

Li Jiangyao looked around again: "Let's put down all the corpses first and transport them to Mashha for the time being so that they can be properly buried locally. All things that can prove their identity, no matter what they are, should be gathered together and sent to Anxi.

Finding their families as soon as possible may be the only thing we can do for them now."

Du Jian: "The murderer is not being investigated?"

"Of course we have to check," Li Jiangyao looked at him: "But first, tell me how to check?"

Du Jian was speechless for a moment, blinking his eyes: "No, I have no clue."

Li Jiangyao smiled: "Of course I have no clue. You are a good fighter, but you are a layman in investigating and solving crimes. Lord Captain has already reported to Deputy Governor Zhang before, asking him to coordinate with Liangzhou to dispatch experts from the six sects.

Come and help."

Du Jian: "Oh, that's right. The Six Gates are responsible for arresting bandits, so they are naturally better than me, Old Du. With them in charge, we don't have to worry about it anymore."

Li Jiangyao shook his head gently: "I think it's different from what you thought. If I guess correctly, these five cases and six doors won't matter."

"Why is that?" Du Jian was a little confused.

"Let's not talk too much." Li Jiangyao waved his hand: "Let me ask you, the teams traveling on the trade routes in Xijiang are very large. Is there a government office specifically to manage them?"

Du Jian: "Yes, there is the Government and Municipal Affairs Bureau in Xijiang. The imperial court has a total of two yamen stationed in Xijiang. One is the envoy under the Ministry of Rites, and the other is the Government and Municipal Affairs Bureau under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs. They are responsible for determining

The trading prices of bulk commodities, investigating various villains who bully the market, and issuing customs clearance documents to Shengtang's merchant caravans traveling to and from Western Xinjiang."

Li Jiangyao's eyes lit up: "Where is the official and municipal office located?"

"It's also in Anxi," Du Jian replied: "But I heard that in some places where business is booming, there are also officials dispatched from the government and city departments. The one closest to here...oh, by the way, Hetian City!"

Li Jiangyao secretly calculated in his heart that Hetian was only seventy miles away from Mashha, so he would arrive in half a day at full speed. So he quickly ordered Du Jian to leave three or four people here to guard the body, and the whole team would follow him and rush to Hetian.

.

More than a dozen war horses were galloping all the way on the Gobi Desert. The sun had just turned west, and Li Jiangyao and others arrived at Hetian, the important trading town of Suiye Country. As soon as they entered the city, Du Jian knew the way and led everyone straight to the city.

Guard the mansion and ask if the official and market minister stationed here by Shengtang is there.

In the blink of an eye, a young man wearing the official uniform of the ninth rank of the Holy Tang Dynasty came out. He was far away and stepped in to bow: "Oh my, I didn't know that the Pegasus hero is here. I am sorry for the delay in greeting you. Please forgive me."

.Please come inside, please come inside.”

Li Jiangyao couldn't help laughing when he heard his nondescript polite words, neither official nor businessman-like, and said, "How do you know we are Pegasus scouts?"

"It's simple," the young man pointed at Du Jian's shoulder: "Panthellae has always been the sacred flower of Western Xinjiang. In the entire Zhenjiang Protectorate, only the Pegasus Scout Battalion uses it as a mark, so the official recognizes it.

"

Li Jiangyao nodded: "I see... you haven't asked for advice yet?"

The young man quickly said: "Oh, Tu Wushou, the official, was originally the foreman of 'Three Cups of Drunk', the largest restaurant in Hetian City. Last year, Mr. Shi, the Chief of the Government Department came to inspect and thought that there should be a person here to coordinate and supervise

Various business groups had various affairs, so they rushed to the shelves and forced me to take over this class."

Hearing this, Li Jiangyao burst into laughter again: "No wonder, no wonder, Master Situ is wearing court uniform and crown, but he has not changed his past style, which is admirable."

Situ Wushou smiled bitterly: "Sir, don't be sarcastic about the official. It's really not easy to do the work of the government office. Come on, come on, please come in, let's go into the house to drink tea and talk."

Li Jiangyao ordered his subordinates to stay where they were, and only took Du Jian and followed Situ Wushou into the city guard's mansion. This was originally the official office of the Suiye Kingdom, and a small courtyard was specially set aside and lent to the Shengtang Government Office.

use.

The three of them walked all the way to the room. Situ Wushou ordered the servants to serve tea, then turned around and asked, "I haven't asked you for your honorific titles yet."

Before Li Jiangyao could speak, Du Jian next to him rushed to speak loudly: "This is Mr. Li Jiangyao from the Pegasus Scout Camp of the Shengtang Town Protectorate! Are you still not polite?"

In fact, the position in this small school is at the same level as the ninth-grade official in the government department, but I don't know if Situ Wushou can't figure out the rank here, or if Du Jian's loud voice is really scary, he

As soon as he finished speaking, Situ Wushou stood up obediently and gave Li Jiangyao a grand salute to meet a Shangguan.

Li Jiangyao was secretly amused, and did not deliberately correct him. He just waved his hand and said, "No need to go outside. Sit down. I have something to ask you."

Situ Wushou only had half of his buttocks next to the chair, and said respectfully: "Master Li, if you have any advice, please give me your advice."

Li Jiangyao: "Do the caravans coming and going here, I mean Shengtang's caravans, usually register with you?"

Situ Wushou was slightly startled: "That's not necessary. As long as they get the customs clearance documents issued by the Government and Municipal Affairs Bureau in Anxi, they can travel unimpeded throughout the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang. There is no need to come here to register. Unless...unless they encounter

When I encounter any difficulties or lose my documents, I will go to my official for help."

Li Jiangyao nodded silently, and then asked: "Which route does the caravan usually take? Is it planned before?"

Situ Wushou: "Generally speaking, there are two main roads in Suiye Kingdom, both of which can pass through the ghost desert and connect the east and west. However, for the sake of safety, the travel plan of the caravan is often kept secret to prevent anyone from having an affair.

Bandits robbed money along the way. In the past few years, the banditry was serious, and the caravans were miserable. The Suiye Kingdom specially mobilized troops and horses to carry out a ruthless crackdown, and set up sentries on the two main roads. From then on, caravans were rarely heard of.

It was about being robbed."

"Does the oasis over the town of Mashha belong to the main road you mentioned?" Li Jiangyao suddenly asked.

Situ Wushou thought for a while: "Mashha... Mashha... Oh, that's where you are talking about. Of course it is the main road! Go west for more than ten miles and you will come out of the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang.

La."

After speaking, he hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively: "Sir, are you here because of those four murder cases?"

Li Jiangyao nodded: "It's not four, but five."

"Something happened again?!" Situ Wushou opened his mouth in surprise: "Damn it! Or is it our Shengtang's caravan?"

"Tell me what you know." Li Jiangyao said calmly.

Situ Wushou straightened up and lowered his voice: "Sir, there must be a ghost here! And it's Manihan's ghost that can't escape!"

Li Jiangyao: "Mani Khan? Who is he?"

Situ Wushou subconsciously looked around: "Manihan is one of the four major governors of Suiye Kingdom, and Hetian is his fiefdom. This guy has always been hostile to our Shengtang. He has one thing on the surface and another behind his back. His typical smile hides a knife.

.The most important thing is that the official accidentally discovered that Manihan actually has Turkic ancestry!"

When he heard the word "Turkic", Li Jiangyao couldn't help but feel moved in his heart: "Since Manihan is the governor of the Suiye Kingdom, he is equivalent to the royal family of our Shengtang. If he really has Turkic blood, he will definitely try his best to hide it. What do you think?

How did you know?"

"I heard what Ti Lian said." Situ Wushou said: "Ti Lian is a Qiuci dancer and the top star of Three Cups of Drunk Restaurant. I used to take good care of her. The two of them were like brothers and sisters. One time Ti Lian was recruited by Manny Khan.
Chapter completed!