At the other end, Li Jingye led a large army and ran quickly.
Suddenly, the deputy general's voice came from behind: "General, something happened."
Li Jingye immediately ordered the army to stop, turned the horse's head, came to the side of the deputy general, and asked: "What's the matter?"
"General, what do you think?" the deputy general pointed in the direction of the prison car.
Turning around, Li Jingye's heart suddenly sank. He saw the three men in black clothes lying motionless in the prison car.
Looking closer, two of them had dark faces and seemed to have been poisoned.
Li Jingye angrily yelled at the guarding soldiers: "What's going on? I told you to watch carefully, why did you let them take poison?"
The deputy general said: "General, these people's hands and feet were cuffed, and their mouths were checked. They must have taken poison before doing anything."
Li Jingye was very angry. After finally catching three people, they died like this.
At this moment, the deputy leader raised his chin and said: "General, look at that man, his face is normal. He should not have been poisoned. He should be pretending to be dead."
Following his words, the man in sackcloth in the prison car trembled.
Li Jingye smiled, finally one of them was still alive.
He looked around and found a dense forest on the west side of the road. He immediately said: "Let's go to the forest and torture this person first to avoid another accident."
A quarter of an hour later, the shrill screams of a man in linen came from the dense forest.
Li Jingye expected that this kind of killer's mouth would be the hardest to pry open, so he chopped off one of the man's fingers without asking any questions.
The man in linen clothes was tied to a tree, and his whole face was twisted in pain.
"Say, I tell you, don't hurt me again!" the man in linen screamed.
Li Jingye frowned, sprinkled salt on the knife in his hand, and asked: "Who are you, and who ordered you to kill Chen Bilian?"
"Chen Bilian?"
With a sneer, the man in sackcloth flew another finger into the air.
"You are bad people and demons, brother, please help me, mother, I feel so uncomfortable!" The man in linen clothes cried heartbreakingly like a child.
Li Jingye remained unmoved and slashed with the knife again. Only two fingers were left on the man in sackcloth's right hand.
"I... please, stop... torturing me, just kill... me..." the man in linen wailed.
Li Jingye said sternly: "It's the same question just now, tell me!
"The villain is... an ordinary citizen in Shangzhou. I don't know... Chen Bilian... Li Bilian..."
"Not honest yet!"
Li Jingye held no hand and swung his sword twice. The man in sackcloth was instantly left with only a bare palm on his right hand.
"You...you kill me...kill me..." The man in linen lost too much blood and became weaker and weaker.
The deputy general said: "General, this man is bleeding too much and needs to be stopped."
Li Jingye nodded, picked up the red-hot iron from the fire, and without further ado, branded it directly on the man in sackcloth's severed finger.
"Ahhh!"
The man in sackcloth yelled and fainted from the pain.
Li Jingye took a kettle and placed it on the head of the man in linen clothes, with the mouth of the pot facing down, and the water immediately flowed down.
Soon, the man in sackcloth opened his eyes with difficulty, saw Li Jingye's cold face, and cried:
"Master Jun, I am really just an ordinary person. I don't know Chen Bilian. I have nothing to do with these men in black. I just accidentally got in among them. You have really found the wrong person!"
Li Jingye saw the cowardly look of the man in sackcloth and secretly thought, "Maybe I really arrested the wrong person."
At this moment, the deputy general grinned and said: "General, it seems that we have encountered a serious problem this time, please let me down."
"You mean he's lying?"
"no doubt!"
Li Jingye knew that his deputy was proficient in torture, so he nodded, found a small river nearby, washed his face, and then returned.
When he returned to the small jungle, he saw that the man in linen clothes was stained red with blood, his eyes had lost their vitality, his eyes were dull, and his expression was dull.
"He's not bad, is he?" Li Jingye frowned.
The deputy general smiled bitterly and said: "General, I have never met a person with such a harsh mouth, but I finally asked about his origins."
"Who is he?"
"Salt Gang." The deputy leader said slowly.
The cavalry set off again and returned to Chang'an City. However, Li Jingye's heart could no longer be calm.
The Salt Gang is a gang in the south of the Yangtze River. Li Jingye went to Yangzhou with King Pei not long ago and knew that the backer behind the Salt Gang was the governor of Yangzhou, Yuan Shutong.
Yuan Shutong was a minion of the Wu family, and he secretly fought fiercely with the Yue King Li Zhen in Yangzhou.
He supported the Salt Gang to deal with the salt merchants supported by the King of Yue.
In other words, these people from the Salt Gang were probably sent by Wu Chengsi.
This shows that Wu Chengsi already knows that Chen Bilian is the person they placed next to Di Renjie.
Deliberately staged an assassination show just to get rid of Chen Bilian.
Although he didn't understand why Wu Chengsi used this method, he understood one thing.
This matter is not trivial and must be reported to King Pei immediately!
Since his sister married Wu Chengsi, Prince of Changping County, his position in Prince Pei's Palace has been very embarrassing.
Although King Pei's attitude towards him did not change on the surface, he was not involved in many confidential matters.
Now everyone in the palace knows that the person King Pei relies on most is Zheng Yuanning, the head of the Zheng family.
Li Jingye was not dissatisfied with this matter.
The Zheng family of Zheng Yuanning is an aristocratic family that has been passed down since the Han Dynasty. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty, it belonged to the Five Surnames and Seven Hopes. It has not declined since the Tang Dynasty and ranked among the Seven Surnames and Ten Families.
Even the Li family cannot compare with the heritage of such a big family.
And Zheng Yuanning is the head of the Zheng family. He has great strength, so it is only natural that he would be favored by King Pei.
Li Jingye was determined to assist King Pei, so he also wanted to have a good relationship with the Zheng family.
This mission is a good opportunity.
He caught the murderer of Zheng Yuanning's maid and found out their identities. He believed that Zheng Yuanning would be grateful to him when he found out.
…
Early the next morning, Li Jingye returned to the palace and walked along the corridor to the outside of the study of Prince Pei. After making an announcement, he entered the study.
In the room, King Pei and Zheng Yuanning seemed to be discussing something. After seeing him, King Pei smiled and said: "Jingye is back, please sit down quickly."
As soon as Li Jingye sat down, Zheng Yuanning asked: "General Li, is your trip going smoothly?"
Li Jingye hurriedly stood up, cupped his hands and said: "Your Highness, Mr. Zheng, I caught a murderer who participated in the death of Miss Bilian."
King Pei wrote lightly: "Who is he?"
"That man has confessed that he is a member of the Salt Gang!"
"Salt Gang? How could it be them?" Zheng Yuanning said in surprise.
King Pei said coldly: "The Salt Gang was supported by Yangzhou Governor Yuan Shutong, who was a close associate of Wu Mei. In other words, the Salt Gang is a member of the Wu family."
"Then how could they attack Wu Chengsi's people?" Zheng Yuanning didn't know the details of the Salt Gang, and he felt even more confused.
Li Jingye said in a deep voice: "I suspect that Wu Chengsi and Di Renjie knew that Miss Bilian was one of ours, so they sent someone to kill her!"
"It's still wrong. If they really knew Bilian's identity, they would just arrest her and torture her or kill her. Why would they use this method?" Zheng Yuanning narrowed his eyes and asked.
"I can't figure this out either." Li Jingye frowned.
King Pei sneered: "What's so hard to figure out? The fact is obvious. My good cousin is setting a trap for me!"
"What does His Highness mean by this?" Li Jingye asked in surprise.
"Think about it, if Wu Chengsi directly attacks your maid, how will we react?"
Zheng Yuanning said without hesitation: "We will definitely stop the plan immediately."
King Pei said coldly: "Yes, this is the reason why Wu Chengsi did not directly attack your maid. He did not want me to stop his plan."
"Could it be..." Zheng Yuanning opened his eyes wide.
"His real purpose is what you are thinking now. He hopes that the king will continue to launch his plan! In order to reassure the king, he even deliberately pretended to leave Chang'an City." King Pei continued to sneer.
Zheng Yuanning clapped his hands and said suddenly: "He deliberately left Chang'an City just to paralyze us, but in fact he was hiding in the dark and watching."
Li Jingxuan's face changed drastically, and he trembled all over. He smiled bitterly and said: "After we implement the plan, he will expose our plan and bring down His Highness!"
King Pei let out a long sigh and said, "Fortunately, I was cautious enough this time and suspended my plan after your maidservant died, so I didn't fall for Wu Chengsi's deception."