043. The Troops and Horses Have Not Moved (Part 2)
A year has passed since the attack on the caravan that Dajun and Hanxiong were in. Although it caused a sensation for a while, it has gradually been forgotten by people. This year, too many major events happened in the Bashi Kingdom, such as the new
After you succeeded to the throne and Hou Lin passed away, the most recent young minister led a group of people to Meng Yingqiu to propose marriage, inspected the city walls and border defenses, and heard many stories about Master Peng Keng.
The Bashi Kingdom had been pursuing clues about last year's tragedy, but later it was all done in private. This matter also involved a scandal within the royal family, so it was impossible for Lord Cai Feng to send Cai Feng officers to publicize it among the people everywhere. When Hou Lin passed away
After Zhong Lan, Huiliang, Gu Liang and others also died in the Pengshan Forbidden Land, many people thought it had come to an end and there would be no follow-up.
The most important parties involved are already dead. Even if they want to track down the murderer, they have lost the evidence and clues. Those behind the scenes and the participants in the murder must have secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Shaowu, Huwa and others knew very well that it was done by Zheng Shiguo. He could plan such a large-scale master ambush and sneak into the territory of Bashiguo to carry out the attack. There was no news in advance. There must be someone in the country.
Needless to say, the self-righteous Zhong Lan was kept in the dark and cooperated with the murderer. Huiliang has been secretly using and manipulating Zhong Lan to get rid of the young minister. However, Huiliang himself was also used by Zheng Shiguo.
Manipulated.
But even based on the confessions of Zhong Lan and Huiliang, it is impossible to identify who the real murderer is. What Shao Wu has to do is not only to investigate secretly, but more importantly, to be able to justifiably send troops to denounce Zheng Shiguo. With the information currently available to him,
The evidence is not enough to convince the public. Even if you know in your heart that Zheng Shiguo did it, you can't bring it up to the public.
According to the results of Huwa's initial investigation, there are still three important witnesses who have not been brought to justice. The first one is Xiaoxi, the personal follower that Shaowu brought to Hongjin City. He leaked Shaowu's whereabouts to several waves of people, and the caravan
That's why he was exposed. Even if you catch Xiao Xi, you won't be able to find out who the real murderer is, but the Shao Wu will never forgive him. He has sent an assassin to assassinate Xiao Xi, who changed his name, in a busy city.
There was another person named Jiao Kai. He was originally Zhong Lan's guard captain. It was he who "helped" Zhong Lan find out the whereabouts of the young minister returning home. It was also he who volunteered to recruit dead soldiers from abroad to assassinate the young minister, so Zhong Lan gave him
He gave him ten pounds of gold to bribe the assassin.
However, when Zhonglan was captured, Jiaokai had disappeared. Later, Beidao secretly interrogated Huiliang in the forbidden area of Pengshan, and Huiliang also confessed that Jiaokai had been bribed by him a long time ago. Jiaokai was able to get close to Zhonglan and became his
The captain of the guard was also the result of Huiliang's secret promotion.
Jiao Kai's mission was to monitor Zhong Lan's every move, and secretly do some illegal things for Zhong Lan to gain his absolute trust. The last thing Jiao Kai did was to trick Zhong Lan into recruiting thugs to assassinate the young minister.
.This matter also came from Huiliang’s instruction.
Of course, Jiao Kai would not really hire an assassin. Someone would do it on the way back to the country. This person was also very cautious. He took the ten kilograms of gold and realized that the consequences of this matter were too serious.
A lot of money has gone away. Even Huiliang doesn't know where he went. He should be no longer in the Bashi Kingdom.
The Shaowu secretly sent many people to investigate the whereabouts of Jiao Kai, but they have not found it yet. However, the third personal witness related to the case, which is also the most important, was accidentally discovered by the Shaowu.
According to Huiliang's confession, there was a monk named Bai Shu who secretly told Huiliang something after drinking. On his way to Liangfengding to gather with fellow practitioners from various sects, he met two disciples from the Beast Mountain.
Bai Shu overheard the private conversation between the two people. They were actually going to join up with their accomplices to do a big business for a large sum of money. Bai Shu secretly followed the two people. He saw their accomplices in the wild again. It seemed that
They were all masters with good cultivation. Those people conspired to go to Shanchuan City to assassinate a caravan, and Prince Zhong Lan arranged everything.
This was Huiliang's self-proclaimed reason for exposing Zhong Lan's conspiracy. And according to Shaowu's investigation, there was indeed a monk claiming to be Baizhu who appeared at the gathering of fellow practitioners from various sects invited by Huiliang that day. This person was indeed
As Huiliang said, he has cultivated in the five realms and is very good at concealing his whereabouts and tracking in the mountains.
Although the Shaowu was far away in Wufuqiu, it did not mean that he had lost influence and control over the situation in the country. Huiliang could arrange a guard captain next to Zhong Lan, and the Shaowu could certainly arrange someone to monitor Huiliang's actions.
Among those who attended the gathering of monks convened by Huiliang and saw Bai Shu with their own eyes were Shaowu's confidants.
Later, the chief minister found out Xiao Xi's whereabouts, and of course he would not send just one assassin to kill him. There were dead soldiers who were responsible for the assassination, and some who provided various intelligence information and were responsible for covering up. Others were not directly involved in the operation, but were just secretly involved.
Watch the various movements around and confirm the results of the assassination. And the person who performs the task of secretly supervising and watching happens to have seen Bai Shu.
He met a man by chance in the capital of Zhengshi, and his figure and back looked familiar. He immediately recalled that this man was the monk who claimed to be Bai Shu, so he followed the investigation secretly, and the result he found was surprising.
This person's name is not Bai Shu, but Bai Shuxin. He was born in Baiguo City. He has cultivated to the fifth level of the fifth realm and has the status of a national worker of the Zheng Shi Kingdom.
Bai Shuxin's clan has been the fastest-growing force in Baiguo City in the past ten years. His brother Bai Boyi is also a master of the fifth realm, and his cultivation level is even higher than that of Bai Shuxin. There are two such people in a clan.
The character has also gathered a group of casual cultivators around him. Although it has not yet developed into a strict inheritance sect, it has also taken the prototype of a cultivation sect. It is impossible for such a force to be ignored in the country.
Just two years ago, Bai Boyi was appointed as the city lord of Baiguo City by the leader Zheng Gu. Zheng Shiguo also used this power to strengthen control of the northern border. Of course, Bai Boyi often appeared as the city lord and was well known to the people, but Bai Shuxin
But he did not hold any office in the city. Most of the time he just practiced in the cave or traveled around. Even among the local people in Baiguo City, very few people knew Bai Shuxin.
Bai Shuxin appeared in the capital of the Zheng family for some unknown reason, and the spies sent by the Shaowu happened to recognize him as the Bai Shu whom Huiliang had seen. But Bai Shuxin was such a master, and the spies sent by the Shaowu had no ability to capture him.
He didn't even dare to alarm him, so he could only find out his identity and quickly returned to Bashi Kingdom to report secretly.
While Huwa was healing Hanxiong and later leaving the Western Wilderness, the young minister was not idle for a moment. In addition to dealing with busy state affairs, he also used the power of the Bashi Kingdom to conduct a large number of investigations in private.
The three people mentioned just now have not let go of any possible clues. For example, the young minister is also focusing on tracking down whether there is a newly-appeared monk with a broken arm.
Hanxiong relied on the sword talisman given by his master, the Third Elder, to break out of the encirclement, and then used the sword talisman given by Huwa to repel his pursuers. Hanxiong's last sword talisman seriously injured a monk from the Fourth Realm.
Cut off one of his arms on the spot.
When Han Xiong was surrounded by the caravan, he could not clearly see the appearance of any of the assassins because all the attackers had their faces covered. When he finally escaped, although he cut off an arm of his opponent, he had no time to care about the outcome of the battle.
Mr. Changling later arrived at Suzhou to investigate the various traces and clues left by the murderer. The assassin cleaned the battlefield very clean, leaving almost no valuable evidence. The caravan supplies and corpses were all reduced to ashes. In Hanxiong
Deep in the dense forest where there had been a fierce battle, Mr. Changling did not find any broken arms, and no blood was even visible on the surface of the soil.
But the assassin's stay was limited after all, and it was impossible to completely erase all the traces. On the injured part of the assassin's broken arm, there was still blood seeping into the deep soil, although the traces on the surface were also covered up.
, Mr. Changling still noticed it with his keen sense. He dug out all the soil and ordered people to pack it and take it back to the capital.
Of course, what is more important than the soil at the scene is the assassin himself. This is the only clue that can directly trace the identity of the assassin present. The Shaowu sent people around to find out, especially Zheng Shiguo, who secretly searched. Is there anyone who has lost his right arm recently?
But something has been discovered. There is a monk in the Zhengshi Kingdom and the Bashi Kingdom who recently lost his arm due to an accident.
But the conditions of these two people were not consistent. One of them had his left arm broken, and there was no way he would have been in Zoshikawa Castle at that time. The other monk had his right arm broken, but there were many bystanders present when he had his arm broken.
It seems that the real murderer may have been seriously injured and died, or he may have gone into hiding and never appeared again.
But just when the young minister left Meng Yingqiu to inspect the border city, he got the latest secret report. There was a general in the Zheng family who had the fourth title. He had been without roads for more than half a year. He returned to his hometown not long ago, but he had lost his life.
His right arm was broken off. According to this person's claim, he accidentally encountered a powerful monster while collecting elixirs in the wilderness. Although he killed the monster, he was also injured and lost his arm.
The general was injured and had to remove his armor and return home. King Zheng Gu remembered that he had served the country and took pity on his disabled body. When he returned home, he was given a first-class title and the honor of five nobility.
This kind of thing that happened far away in Zhengshi Junior High School would not have attracted people's special attention in an era when transportation and information dissemination methods were primitive and backward, but it was still found out by the Shaowu. So the most important thing now is,
Just to confirm whether this person is the assassin whose arm was cut off by Han Xiong?
Hanxiong did not see the man's face clearly, nor did he catch him on the spot. However, the attentive young minister remembered all the physical evidence that Mr. Changling brought back from the murder scene, including the blood-stained soil; and the young minister also remembered
Another thing happened, Huwa once ordered someone to open all the sealed physical evidence on the way, and let Panhu check them all to remember their aura.
If that man was really an assassin, Panhu would have smelled the blood stains he left, and might be able to recognize him when he saw him again. (To be continued...)