Zhong Xiqing quickly led the people into Dengwick Alley. He also had three heads of government beside him, and he had surrounded the entire Tongdefang.
An idle man squatting on the roadside saw him and hurriedly got up to greet him.
"Are you watching?" Zhong Xiqing asked.
"Yes, according to the vegetable vendor's report, the old man who went to buy vegetables in the past two days has the same physical appearance as the Han Chengxu we are looking for. He lives in that oil and grain shop. The man at the front door has been watching, and there are also people at the back door.
Stare."
Zhong Xiqing nodded and said to the three people beside him: "Thank you for your hard work."
"Shang Zhong, you're welcome... Search!"
"Listen carefully, all those who look similar to the fugitives will be captured. Anyone who dares to resist arrest will be shot to death!"
Lines of soldiers with swords quickly rushed into the alley.
Soon, I heard a shout from the oil and grain shop.
"I got Han Chengxu..."
"No, it's the shopkeeper of the oil and grain shop..."
"Don't worry about it for now. All the suspicious ones will be detained! Someone will identify them."
"take away!"
The whole alley was filled with cries, and many people were escorted by soldiers and brought to Liu Bing and Bai Mao for identification.
Zhong Xiqing frowned, intending to involve less innocent people, but thinking of the errand on his shoulders, he finally became hard-hearted and shouted: "Don't rush to identify, as long as there are similarities, we should take them down, Bai Mao, you can do whatever you want."
Xu Du watched from the end of the alley to prevent others from running away."
"yes……"
Soon, Zhong Xiqing walked into the oil and grain shop, checked the old shopkeeper, and suddenly turned around and looked at a small house diagonally opposite.
"Bang!"
The courtyard door was kicked open, and soldiers with swords rushed in, smashing open bed boards, overturning wardrobes, and searching for every hiding place.
"Search!"
Zhong Xiqing walked into the small house and saw a ladder set up beside the courtyard, where she could see the oil and grain shop.
There are some eggshells left by the threshold, ink stains dripping on the table, and several empty medicine jars on the ground...
There was also a pair of trousers that were only half sewn. Zhong Xiqing picked them up and looked at them. They were quite long.
"Sewn for Li Xia?"
He murmured, threw his pants on the ground, and shouted: "They live here, chase them!"
"yes."
One after another, the soldiers rushed out and stepped on the pants on the ground, trampling them to pieces.
After a while, someone came forward and whispered to Zhong Xiqing: "Sir Zhong, there are dead people. Two of them died. Those who resisted arrest were killed."
Zhong Xiqing shook his head and said: "Go down and tell me, the fugitive has killed two people. It is really vicious and must not be leaked."
"clear……"
However, until nightfall that day, Li Xia and others were never found.
Zhong Xiqing understood that the oil and grain store was probably a false move by Li Xia. As soon as someone inquired about the oil and grain store, they had already fled away.
Although the clues have been broken again, Li Xia and others have lost their hiding place, so it will not be difficult to find them next.
Zhong Xiqing also arranged for people to search throughout the city.
Although his official position was not high, he received an order from the left prime minister and envoy of the Privy Council, which strictly ordered all the rooms in Lin'an Prefecture to be controlled and vowed to kill Li Xia and others.
It was almost the first watch and Zhong Xiqing had just made the arrangements.
He knew that the left prime minister had just gone to bed at this time and would not get up until the middle of the night, so it would be appropriate to report him then.
It's a pity that Xu Hexing failed to expend all his efforts in the investigation. I hope I can find Li Xia and others tonight...
Zhong Xiqing lived in the outer city and was too lazy to return home late at night. He couldn't stay for two hours before he had to come back, so he planned to stay at Xu Hexing's house.
He asked his personal entourage to go and talk to Xu Hexing first, and he took another boy to eat a bowl of three-fresh noodles on the street, then got up and walked to the north of the city.
Walking through a dark alley, out of the corner of my eye I seemed to see a figure suddenly emerging from the diagonal ground.
Zhong Xiqing only heard a soft "pop" sound. He turned around and saw that the follower behind him had fallen down.
There was another "pop" sound, and Zhong Xiqing felt a cold feeling in her lower abdomen.
He reached out and firmly grasped the dagger he was about to stab in again.
In front of him was Zhang's handsome face.
"You...are you Li Xia?"
"I am a Mongolian craftsman," Li Xia said.
The first knife did not hurt any vital parts, but Zhong Xiqing felt blood pouring from his abdomen and felt unable to hold Li Xia's hand any longer.
"Don't kill me...don't kill me..."
Li Xia asked: "Why did Uncle Xie Fang send you to kill me?"
"you……"
"Don't talk nonsense, I know everything. Just ask why you want to kill me?"
"Your going north... is basically a situation set up by the main war faction to overthrow the Left Prime Minister. It was Jia Shenzheng and the Right Prime Minister who took advantage of you and used you as a pawn to deal with the Left Prime Minister... Then they can only kill you."
Li Xia asked again: "Uncle Xie Fang colluded with Mongolia?"
"This is absolutely not the case." Zhong Xiqing said: "The Prime Minister Zuo advocated peace for the sake of the overall situation and was definitely not a traitor. The wars on the border continued, the fields were barren, and the people were displaced... These are the reasons why Prime Minister Zuo advocated peace.
"
"Killing Yu Jie is also for the common people?"
Zhong Xiqing groaned twice in pain and said: "The Prime Minister Zuo's actions are worthy of heaven and earth."
"How do you know our specific information without colluding with Mongolia?"
"Baimao offered it."
"Baimao?"
"Yes, he came back from the north with Nie Zhongyu. Because Nie Zhongyu had defected, he had been hiding Bai Mao. But Bai Mao pretended to defect, so he went to Lin'an Prefecture to report Nie Zhongyu..."
Zhong Xiqing struggled to speak for a while.
Li Xia said: "What else do you know?"
Zhong Xiqing gritted his teeth and said, "I don't know anything else... I'm just following orders."
Li Xia didn't say anything anymore, took out the dagger and stabbed it again.
Zhong Xiqing turned around and wanted to run away, but was kicked to the ground by Li Xia.
He turned his head, his eyes full of despair.
"Don't kill me... If you have any grievance, I can clear your name."
Zhong Xiqing said, and then begged: "I am really not a bad person. I have been kind to people all my life... I help the old and young, and help the poor... If you go to the outer city, go to the north right wing of the city and ask... Who doesn't say that Zhong Sanlang is a good man?
people……"
Li Xia lowered his head, wondering what he was thinking.
Li Xia was actually not familiar with the neighbors in Dengwick Lane.
But there is a man across the door who lets his five-year-old son ride on his neck every day, walking up and down the alley, laughing and joking. A few days ago, this man was injured in a fight. Today I saw the officers and soldiers coming.
, he ran a few steps and was killed as Gao Changshou.
Although Li Xia had never spoken to him, she always felt that living in Dengxin Lane for the past two or three days felt like a bit of home.
The trousers sewn by Gao Mingyue were trampled to pieces. Gao Changshou, Han Chengxu, and Han Qiaoer were injured, and they are still sleeping on the street.
Thinking of this, Li Xia knelt down and asked, "If you find us today, will you let us go?"
Zhong Xiqing was stunned.
Li Xia asked again: "Can the five of us, including the elderly, children, injured and women, survive in the hands of Uncle Xie Fang?"
"Okay, okay." Zhong Xiqing said as he climbed: "The Prime Minister Zuo is a great loyal minister, his reputation is known all over the world, and everything he does is for the sake of the country... Really, you can ask, how does the Prime Minister Zuo love the people?
Son, since I came to power, I have implemented many good policies that benefit the country and the people, and the people among the people don’t praise them... I know that if you are able to venture north, you must be loyal and righteous people, and we are on the same journey."
"Yeah?"
"Yes." Zhong Xiqing seemed to be ignited with hope, and begged: "Behind me is the Prime Minister of the current dynasty... If you kill me, you will make it clear that you are an enemy of Zuo Xiang and the imperial court.
If you kill me, you will really become a traitor and have no way out. Li Xia, Li Xia... you must not kill someone impulsively and label yourself as an evil traitor."
Li Xia had already held down Zhong Xiqing's struggling hands.
"A loyal minister and a good minister." He sneered softly and said, "I don't care whether Uncle Xie Fang is a loyal minister or a good minister."
"Don't kill me, I'm not a bad person..."
Li Xia added: "I don't care whether what Uncle Xie Fang did was concerned about the country and the people."
"Please." Zhong Xiqing was still struggling, "If you kill him and me, you will be finished too, Zuo Xiang..."
Li Xia didn't seem to hear it, and stabbed the dagger in his hand straight away.
With a "pop" sound, Zhong Xiqing's eyes widened and his anger disappeared.
…
Until her death, Zhong Xiqing did not feel that she had done anything wrong.
Zhao Kui is the one who ruined the affairs of the three capitals; Jia Sidao is the treacherous minister with nepotism. These two people work together with the right prime minister and send people northward. What good things can they do?
Only Li Xia reached out to cover his unwilling eyes and said one last word to him.
"Uncle Xie Fang is the Prime Minister and a loyal minister, so you can kill me if you want? I'm not Yu Jie..."