In the afternoon of the next day, Chen Ping received news from Tang Hao.
The people in the Ling Mansion have been cleared out, and they are ready to invite him to look for clues together.
He couldn't wait to change his clothes, asked for leave from the teacher, and left Zhuyuan again.
Zhao Wenhe looked at the hurriedly leaving figure and tightened the ruler in his hand. This guy has been neglecting his job recently and is a little wandering running around all day long.
Lingfu is located in the center of Zhengxingfu, which is the most lively and prosperous place.
When Chen Ping arrived at the door, he saw Zhao Jin already waiting here. The two of them pushed the door open and entered.
"Are you here?" Tang Hao said directly without being polite, "Ling Shu must have a secret room, let's look for it separately."
Zhao Jin glanced at him, and Chen Ping asked tentatively: "Master Tang, are you familiar with this place?"
"I have been friends with Ling Shu for several years, so I naturally know a lot about this place. However, Ling Shu is a cautious person, and I have never entered his study."
"I still don't know why Mr. Tang is helping us. Can you tell me and clear up the confusion?"
Tang Hao smiled lightly and said: "Don't think too much, I did it as ordered."
"I wonder whose order Mr. Tang is following?" Chen Ping was very curious.
"Don't say it, you will know when the time is right." Tang Hao smiled evilly.
He doesn't look like the murderous god yesterday at all, and has returned to the posture of a careless soldier.
Since the other party was unwilling to say anything and had no ill intentions, Chen Ping could not continue to ask further questions.
"Since you have noticed Ling Shu for a long time, how much do you know about the people behind him?" Zhao Jin didn't pay much attention to this and asked the key question directly.
"No need to ask," Chen Ping said quietly, "If Mr. Tang knew, he wouldn't be with us today."
Tang Hao walked into the study and opened a book, sighing helplessly.
"That's true. If your life hadn't been in danger if you fell into Ling Shu's hands this time, Tang wouldn't have taken action so quickly."
When talking about this matter, Chen Ping couldn't help but become serious.
He raised his hands to Tang Hao and bowed solemnly.
"Master Tang's life-saving grace will always be remembered in Chen Ping's heart!"
"Thank you for your luck. This Lingshu kills people without blinking an eye. If it weren't for your luck, you would have been dead before I showed up." Tang Hao waved his hand casually, disapprovingly.
The three of them said nothing more and started looking for clues in the study.
After a while, there was a sudden click in the room.
Chen Ping and Tang Hao followed the sound and saw that Zhao Jin had pushed the bookshelf away, tore apart the wooden boards on the wall, and kicked open the dark dumb door.
It should be controlled by some agency, but no one was found, so it was violently dismantled.
Zhao Jin walked in and before he could stand still, he was dazzled by the gold and silver jewelry in the entire secret room.
"So damn rich! I don't know how much ill-gotten wealth I've collected!" Tang Hao couldn't help but cursed after seeing it.
Even Chen Ping was stunned by the treasures that filled the entire darkroom, and he immediately reacted.
"These are not important, look for clues."
The more invisible people’s secrets are, the more they are placed in the corner where they are most likely to be ignored.
This room full of gold and silver treasures, if it were someone else, they would be unable to walk around.
But the three of them came to Ling Shu today to leave evidence about the mastermind behind the scenes.
Chen Ping looked through the shelves and cabinets containing calligraphy and paintings, while Zhao Jin groped the walls to see if there were any hidden compartments.
Tang Hao looked around, picked up a string of pearls and looked at them carefully, "This seems to be something from the South China Sea, tsk tsk."
Finally, after rummaging through everything, a locked nanmu box attracted the attention of the three of them.
He used brute force to open the box directly, and several letters were quietly placed inside, pressed with a jade wrench.
"This is it!"
Chen Ping was overjoyed. He picked up a letter and looked at it. The signature on the letter was a seal. The person was ugly.
[Prepare everything you need quickly and deliver it to the destination without delay! People are ugly]
"Is this a code name?" Zhao Jin was surprised.
"Master Tang, have you ever heard of such a code name?" Chen Ping asked.
"No, I've never heard of Ling Shu. I didn't expect the water here to be so deep." Tang Hao was also confused.
"That's right. They are doing stupid things, how dare they sign their name." Chen Ping marveled at the other party's caution.
Each letter is very thin. When you open it and read it, there are only a few sentences.
[The situation has been made clear. Thirteen trucks of grain and iron will be transported from the north to you as soon as possible. There are other needs that cannot be supported at the moment. Ren Yin]
Chen Ping frowned. Without a signature, he could not confirm who sent this letter.
Tang Hao opened the third letter, [The situation is urgent, please advise whether the delivery point should be changed? Renwu]
Zhao Jin was unwilling to give in and took the box over and carefully explored it several times from the inside out.
"Indeed, these are the only ones," Tang Hao pondered, "Ling Shu acted cautiously and would not leave too much evidence. These two letters should be left waiting for follow-up contact."
In other words, if it weren't for the wrong timing, I'm afraid there would be no two letters.
Zhao Jin was extremely disappointed, with a shadow on his face.
Chen Ping remained silent, took both letters, put them to the tip of his nose and smelled them.
"The writing and ink of this letter are also the most common, and the quality and origin of the paper are also the most common."
Tang Hao folded his hands and looked at him, saying with interest: "What can you see?"
Chen Ping put down the letter and thought about many ways to convey the message.
Passwords, secret numbers, and even water poured on fire, but there are no such advanced things in this era.
Chen Ping picked up the jade ring and walked to the candle to examine it carefully.
"What is this finger ring for... Hey, is this a seal?"
The fire light dances, and the circular carving on the jade ring finger comes into view, and you can distinguish the word "Yin".
This shows that Ling Shu is Ren Yin.
"Hmph, they act cautiously!" Tang Hao snorted coldly.
Zhao Jin said in a deep voice, "The code names and seals are so organized, it's not like ordinary people can come up with them."
Chen Ping sighed thoughtfully and suddenly said.
"I'm afraid this code name was not chosen randomly."
"What do you mean?" Tang Hao asked.
"These code names seem to be sorting them. Could it be that they are also divided into twelve earthly branches?"
There was silence in the secret room, and Tang Hao's eyes twitched fiercely.
One Lingshu is enough to give Qianzhou a headache. If there were a few more people like him, wouldn't the world be in chaos?
Chen Ping touched his chin and muttered something.
"The twelve earthly branches have Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai. They are arranged in order and have the power of management from top to bottom. It is obvious that this person Wu is to transport goods for Ling Shu.
, all the goods on hand in each county were handed over to Lingshu for management.
Ling Shu is only in charge of Qianzhou, so do other states and counties also have people with such code names? Also, in the first letter urging delivery, could the ugly man be Pixiu? Who is the Son of Man?
Could it be Qi Hongming?"
Chen Ping spoke out his questions in succession, his expression slightly ugly.
So how many people does this organization behind the scenes have to be spread all over the country?
"It can't be Qi Hongming. Judging from the tone of Ling Shu's words yesterday, Pi Xiu is not under his control." Tang Hao reminded.
Chen Ping recalled Ling Shu's original words at that time and felt that what he said made sense. It seemed that this son of man had someone else.
So what role does Qi Hongming play in it?
For a moment, I had no clue.
The three of them pressed curiosity and searched carefully everywhere again. After a long time, they confirmed that nothing was missing, and then left Ling Mansion.
"You don't need to worry about the next thing." Tang Hao put the letter away, handed the ring to Chen Ping, and said: "You can keep this ring and see if you can find other clues in the future. I will send the letter to you."
Need to bring it back."
Then he continued to remind, "I have heard about what happened in Yongshun County for a long time. Although things have changed, there is no guarantee that people will not make an issue of this matter in the future. Chen Ping, you want to take the imperial examination and enter an official career. In the future, this kind of thing will eventually
It’s better not to show up again.”
Chen Ping touched his nose, changed the subject and asked, "How do you plan to handle Ling Shu's smuggling of prohibited goods, Mr. Tang?"
"The matter has come to this, and I will report it to the superiors today. Just pretend you don't know anything."