Huo Qubing's carriage was covered with animal skins and was very spacious, but with three people squeezed in, it was still a bit crowded.
After the carriage started moving, a tiptoeing big cat secretly jumped onto the roof of the building on the outer wall of the building along the street.
It is also ready to go out and play with it. If it doesn’t take me, I will come up by myself.
Huo Qubing's perception accurately captured the traces of the big cat, including the slight trembling of the whiskers at the corners of the big cat's mouth when it jumped, all of which were clearly presented in his perception, just like seeing it with his own eyes.
Outside the car, Xiong San and Yao Zhao were sitting on either side of the platform, responsible for driving.
In the carriage, on the right side of Huo Qubing were Yue Rao and Song Ran. One was tall and well-proportioned, the other was slim and had a cold face.
Especially after Huo Qubing said she was stupid, Song Ran's expression became more and more indifferent, almost frozen.
Sitting across from the two women was Qu Jun.
When Huo Qubing finished asking, Yue Rao raised his hand to reveal a white wrist, and pulled out a silk scroll from his sleeve.
There is a symbol painted on the silk scroll, but it is the same incantation symbol that Xia Jie and Huo Qubing had fought against each other that day. She had summoned it from her chest to increase her own potential and resist the attack of Yuan Shen Soaring Snake.
In the end, it was this symbol that killed her and penetrated her chest.
From the outside, this symbol looks like a hole, and somewhat like a mouth, composed of many small spell patterns.
Huo Qubing asked several people to investigate the origin of this symbol.
Yue Rao already has clues:
"I have read various files many times in the past few days and found that this symbol first appeared in a sect in the Spring and Autumn Period."
Huo Qubing nodded: "Is that sect called Chunqiu Zonghengdao?"
Yue Rao was startled: "Already Huo Shizhong knows?"
Song Ran had previously found out through Xia Jie's practice direction that although the Zongheng Dao was mainly based on the Zongheng technique, it also had the inheritance of the secret technique of opening up the Yin.
Now Yue Rao also found the information about Zonghengdao based on this symbol.
The two clues match up.
It is almost certain that Zonghengdao was at least involved in the assassination of Northern Army Lieutenant Liu Huai.
"One of the ways of practicing the art of vertical and horizontal is to stir up turmoil and lobby various schools, so as to gain the power to unite vertical and horizontal, and increase the practice.
But this lineage has disappeared for a long time when it came to our Han Dynasty, because the world is unified, and the Zongheng lineage has long since lost the soil to unite Zongheheng." Yue Rao said.
"Are there any other clues?"
It was Song Ran's turn to speak, with a cold face: "I'm looking for the spice that killed Liu Huai, but there are no clues yet.
But I secretly paid attention to the situation of the new Northern Army lieutenant, and I made some discoveries, but..."
The person who succeeded Liu Huai as the new lieutenant of the Northern Army was Zhang Cigong, who was originally a brave general under Wei Qing.
"But what?" Huo Qubing asked.
"We secretly paid attention to the itinerary of the new Northern Army lieutenant and found... that he had had several private meetings with people outside in the past few days."
Song Ran's face was slightly red and she spoke implicitly.
Zhang Cigong was of bad character, and the so-called private meetings were just having fornications outside.
This is what Zhang Cigong was like. He was a big thief in his early years, and he was not confused about major matters, but he had a dissolute temperament. He was also tall and handsome, and he liked to plant flags everywhere.
"Who is he having a private meeting with?"
"Master Liu Ling."
The princess is the daughter of the royal family, which is different from the princess. In the Han Dynasty, she was called the princess.
Liu Ling is the youngest daughter of Liu An, King of Huainan.
And Liu An is Liu Che’s uncle.
Liu Ling was also a promiscuous woman and was famous as a "social butterfly" in Chang'an.
Liu Ling and Zhang Cigong secretly met...
Huo Qubing frowned, suppressed a thought that arose in his heart, and asked the others: "What can you gain by waiting?"
"In addition to Chang'an, there have been changes in other places in the past few days."
Qu Jun, under the command of Tingwei, frowned and said: "We, Tingwei, have received reports from various places for three consecutive days. Officials in Runan and Nanyang counties have been killed.
A total of three officials died in mysterious circumstances. Although they were minor officials, the three people died in strange ways with no injuries on their bodies. They were very similar to the situation when Lieutenant Liu Huai died."
As soon as these words came out, Yue Rao and Song Ran fell into silence.
Things seem to be getting more complicated.
I thought that after Xia Jie and others were captured, at least something similar would not happen again in the short term. However, the hidden opponent not only did not restrain themselves, but intensified their efforts and openly opposed the imperial court.
The Runan and Nanyang counties that Qu Jun mentioned are not far from each other in the southeast of Chang'an.
The other party obviously had a purpose in committing crimes in these two counties, which was to divert attention from the murder of Liu Huai, deliberately create chaos, distract investigators, and make the situation more confusing and even more difficult to start.
"The other party wants to divert our attention and complicate the matter.
Then we should try to be as simple as possible and seek a breakthrough from one point."
Huo Qubing is a typical military strategist.
He did not intend to investigate step by step. Unlike Qu Jun and others' approach to investigating the case, which was to follow the clues and dig out the things behind it bit by bit, Huo Qubing was better at going straight to the midsection and defeating the opponent's ability to resist with one blow.
.
The same is true for his method of using troops, which is as powerful as lightning, sharp yet effective, quickly simplifying complex battle situations.
This is a matter of character.
When the opponent makes a move, Qu Jun and others want to respond to the move.
Huo Qubing did the opposite, and he had already made arrangements before, so he asked Song Ran:
"Xiao Ying went to check the location of Zonghengdao. How did the check go?"
"The news has been sent back that Zonghengdao people are active in Jiangxia, Lujiang and Yuzhang counties.
Xiao Ying mobilized my manpower for secret investigation in these three counties, and has already discovered the hiding place of Zonghengdao, which is in Lujiang County."
Jiangxia, Lujiang, and Yuzhang are the three major counties on the north and south sides of the Yangtze River.
"Since we know there are problems with the vertical and horizontal channels, let's find a breakthrough from them."
Huo Qubing asked Yao Zhao outside the car: "I asked you to go to the Chang'an Guards camp to mobilize troops. How is the situation?"
Yao Zhao said loudly: "Have you gathered the troops earlier today?"
Earlier today... it seems that even without Xiao Ying's detection results, Huo Shizhong would have made a plan... Qu Jun and others secretly thought.
Song Ran said again: "There is one more thing."
"Taichang, the head of the Nine Qing Dynasties, joined forces with the imperial envoys to sign a subordinate order, saying that they were the court officials who had been killed in Chang'an in recent months. There were four of them, two of whom were civil servants. In view of the joint secret investigation by the court officials, there was a delay in the investigation.
The murderer can be found, so Tai Chang is prepared to send another team to assist in the investigation."
"Taichang also wanted to get involved in the murder of the Northern Army lieutenant?" Yue Rao was a little surprised.
Taichang is the head of the Nine Qing Dynasty, and one of the Three Dukes, the imperial envoy, is a Confucian scholar.
The position of the imperial minister is similar to that of the senior official Ji in later generations. It is reasonable for him to want people to participate in the investigation of Liu Huai's murder.
Song Ran continued: "Huo Shizhong asked me to track down the murderer Xia Jie's biography and find a breakthrough from this aspect. The people at Taichang have already taken this clue and found out that there is a problem with an official. p>
Exploring the secret passage in Ruyinhou Mansion, why Xia Jie knew how to open it was also taken over by them."
Yue Rao said disdainfully: "They will find an advantage if they follow our clues."
"The person leading the other team is named Zhang Xiaoyuan, and he is the eldest grandson of his predecessor, Taichang."
Song Ran lowered his voice slightly: "Master said that there was a dispute between Confucianism and military strategism behind this matter. Zhang Xiaoyuan wanted to suppress you, Shi Huo, and find out the person behind Lieutenant Liu Huai's death first.
Huo Shizhong, please don't be careless, you are not only facing Zhang Xiaoyuan, but also Taichang and others behind him."
Huo Qubing couldn't help but laugh: "Let them do it. Do you know how to ride a horse? I will take you to see the excitement."
Several people thought at the same time what Xiong San said about going to war.
"The matters in our hands..."
"You can put the matters at hand aside for now. Those Confucian people are willing to investigate, so let them investigate." Huo Qubing said with a smile.
In fact, he asked Qu Jun, Song Ran, Yue Rao and others to work together to investigate clues. To a certain extent, he was setting off a smoke bomb.
The other party dared to assassinate the Northern Army Lieutenant Liu Huai, and it had been planned for a long time.
From the very beginning, Huo Qubing had considered that the mastermind hiding behind the scenes might have been paying attention to the investigation progress of the secret agent and Ting Wei.
Therefore, letting Song Ran and others conduct investigations and collect clues will also have the effect of making a splash in the east and attacking in the west.
This is a game, just like leading troops to fight.
Secretly, Huo Qubing had another plan, which was to surprise him and open a breakthrough from another direction.
His idea became clearer after receiving the dossier Ru Bohu asked Song Ran to hand over.
The hidden meaning of the secret scroll sent by Ru Bohu is to remind Huo Qubing that the water in Chang'an is deep and intricate, making it difficult to quickly find useful clues and achieve breakthroughs.
He wrote more than 20 possible suspects in Huo Qubing's file, most of whom were prominent people, just to remind Huo Qubing of the difficulty of investigating this matter.
Huo Qubing had other plans earlier.
His plan was only fully reported to Emperor Liu Che.
At this time, everyone rode out of the city on carriages and arrived at the Chang'an Guards barracks.
Yao Zhao had been ordered to prepare the troops and two hundred light cavalry in advance. They had been waiting for a long time.
When Huo Qubing and others got out of the car, a chilling atmosphere hit them.
That afternoon, a cavalry army of two hundred people pierced out of Chang'an like a sword and galloped toward the southeast.
In the evening of the same day, on the outskirts of Chang'an City, someone secretly reported that a trained bird flew into the sky and flew southwest.
In Changle Palace, Liu Qing was also looking up to the southwest, with a hint of expectation in his bright eyes.
She returned to the quiet room in the palace, crossed her legs and closed her eyes. She differentiated a trace of spiritual consciousness and attached it to a big bird as handsome as an eagle on the eaves.
The big bird suddenly rose into the sky, flapped its wings and flew far away, leaving Chang'an in a blink of an eye.
The big bird flew along the road for more than ten miles, and then saw from the air on the ground in front of it, a group of two hundred people's elite cavalry, moving forward as fast as thunder.
Such a fast speed... Liu Qing thought with a ray of soul entrusted to the big bird.