When the time of Xu was about to pass, the lights in the Imperial Palace were brightly lit and people were noisy.
The meeting hall was even more overcrowded, people were rushing back and forth, and the sky was filled with excitement.
Relevant personnel from the Ministry of Industry, Cabinet, Dali Temple, Yulin Guard and other departments were all present. Even Bi Sheng, who has always been individualistic, led the backbone of his intelligence department to wait in the hall.
"This is Shangfu, Guixu, Wanli," an old man with gray hair and wearing a red official robe was pointing at the map to explain, "This one is Daxincheng five hundred years ago, and it basically overlaps with the current location.
"Look at this picture again. This is an urban construction project recorded by the Ministry of Industry. A general monument was dug out 25 meters underground at Quliang Gate. It has been verified to be a historical site of the Tianlong Dynasty, a full 1,400 years ago...
"
This person is Lan Qizhi, Minister of Industry, who is seventy-three years old this year and happens to be on the road.
"Lan Shangshu," Lin Chaofeng said with a frown, "Should I ask you to teach us now? Do you want to popularize history?
"Can you all please grow your brains?" He shouted angrily at everyone, "The current situation is that those Xuanmen rebels are hiding in the underground city, and I don't know what they are going to do!
"Who among you knows what Cao Ding found on the ancient map?"
"General Manager!" At this time, a general of the Yulin Guards said, "The Xuanmen rebels have ulterior motives. Since time is tight, why don't I lead a team to search!"
"Do you know how big it is down there?" Lin Chaofeng asked with eyes wide open, "The place down there is only bigger than Xuanmiao City. Even if you send an army down there, it will be in vain!"
"Sir," Bi Sheng said, "Xuanmen's rebels are hiding underground, and they must be trying to attack the palace. After we send people down, we can search in the direction of the palace!"
"No...it doesn't make sense!" Lan Shangshu frowned and said, "I have been working in the Ministry of Industry all my life and know the structure of the entire palace very well. Even if those Xuanmen rebels use explosives underground, they cannot cause any harm to the palace."
"You..." Lin Chaofeng asked, "Are you sure?"
"Today's imperial palace was built on the basis of the capital of the Song Dynasty," Lan Shangshu said, stroking his beard and shaking his head. "When it was being built, it was discovered that the ground was covered with a layer of diamonds.
"The craftsmen estimate that when the Song Dynasty built the palace, they may have considered the fact that there was a city under the city and were worried that the ground would collapse, so they spent huge sums of money laying diamonds.
"So... even if those Xuanmen rebels are mice that can dig holes, they will definitely not be able to get into the palace!"
"The key is," General Habayashi Wei said confidently, "the entire palace is impregnable, so what if they can dig a hole in?"
"I'm afraid..." Cai Kun frowned and said, "There is something unknown down there!
"Manager Lin..." He pulled Lin Chaofeng aside and asked in a low voice, "Do you think...do we need to ask the Queen Mother to move?"
"Bold!" Lin Chaofeng suddenly changed his expression and shouted, "Isn't this looking for death? You don't know the Queen Mother's temper? Xuanmen forced the Queen Mother to move, and if you tell me, the Queen Mother will take our heads?"
"Yes...yes, yes..." Cai Kun realized that he had not thought carefully and quickly kept silent.
"Hurry up and show me..." Lin Chaofeng ordered the people in front of the map, "How far is the entrance discovered by Xu Zun and others from the palace?"
"About...approximately..." Someone from the Ministry of Industry measured it and said, "It's only three miles away from the nearest Taiping Gate."
"Three miles..." Lin Chaofeng thought for a moment and ordered General Yu Linwei, "Send people down immediately to search in the direction of the palace!"
"Yes!" The general was already eager to give it a try and immediately took the order and left.
"The key is..." Unexpectedly, Nalan Shangshu stroked his beard and said, "Near does not necessarily mean connected!
"You know, those underground cities have collapsed a long time ago. Even if they are passable, they can only rely on some gullies and culverts..."
"Gully and culvert..." Lin Chaofeng tasted it carefully and suddenly said, "No wonder Xuanmen cares about Cao Ding so much!
"Cao Ding must have the distribution map of those ancient culverts in his hand. Only by following those culverts can they reach the designated location.
"Bi Sheng," he turned around and asked, "does your Zuowei Mansion not have such a map?"
"Well..." Bi Sheng quickly bent down and answered with two words, "No!"
Too……
Lin Chaofeng then remembered that Zuowei Mansion was an intelligence agency, so it was reasonable to not have these things.
So, he turned to look at Lan Qizhi again.
"No...no..." Lan Qizhi quickly explained, "Our Ministry of Industry undertook the construction of Daxuan Building and has never inspected the underground!"
"I don't believe it," Lin Chaofeng said fiercely, "Apart from Tie Jing and Cao Ding, no one else has ancient water channel maps?"
"Manager Lin," Lan Qizhi said helplessly, "the key is that every dynasty built a capital and had to build aqueducts. We don't know which dynasty Cao Ding used?"
"I don't care about this," Lin Chaofeng shouted in a commanding tone, "find me all the water channel maps right away!"
"This...this..." Lan Qizhi was helpless, but did not dare to disobey, so he had no choice but to turn around and discuss with his colleagues in the Ministry of Industry.
"Hey?" Lin Chaofeng noticed that there was one missing person at the scene and asked hurriedly, "Where is Mr. Xu? Where did he go?"
Cai Kun looked around and realized that Xu Zun was not in the meeting hall.
"Special Envoy Xu is in the inner hall!" A guard next to him immediately gave the answer.
Upon hearing this, Lin Chaofeng took Cai Kun, Bi Sheng and others to the inner hall.
As a result, when they entered the inner hall, they found Xu Zun sitting in front of the desk, looking at something carefully.
When they got closer, everyone saw that there were all kinds of information densely placed on the desk, and they were all about the large-scale assassination.
"Xu Zun," Lin Chaofeng asked curiously, "Why are you still reading these materials?"
"Oh," Xu Zun saw the three of them and hurriedly stood up to salute and replied at the same time, "Mr. Lin, we discovered before that Shi Chun, the general and chief craftsman of the Ministry of Water Resources, was recommended by Yan Hai, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
"And Yan Hai also died in this assassination."
"Mr. Lin," Bi Sheng added from the side, "we found that Yan Hai's recommendation was not in compliance with the procedures and did not pass the review of other departments of the Ministry of Personnel. It is suspected of selling out."
"This..." Lin Chaofeng looked at Xu Zun, "Why, do you think this is not a coincidence?"
"Report..."
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the voice of guard Hou Zhen suddenly came from outside.
"Sir," Hou Zhen came in and reported, "Li Xing, Zhao Yu and others have descended along the rope to the bottom of the ditch. The ditch is about ten feet deep. There is water in the bottom tank. The water is two feet deep and has no flow.
"They have found the body of Butler Cao Ding and confirmed his death.
"We searched his body and found no clues.
"Currently, Li Xing and Zhao Yu each lead a team to explore in two directions. Once something is discovered, they will immediately send someone to report back."
"Okay," Xu Zun ordered, "go back and tell them to be careful and not to proceed lightly. If they encounter a fork in the road, they must mark it."
"Yes!" Hou Zhen withdrew.
"The ditch runs north-south," Bi Sheng said, "it should be closer to the palace to the north."
"It doesn't matter," Lin Chaofeng said, "The Yulin Guards' people will be here soon, let them search carefully.
"What kind of monster can they create when they are more than ten feet deep underground?"
While Lin Chaofeng and others were discussing, Xu Zun was thinking about something else.
He remembered the mark of Cao Ding's family, which was probably left by Cao Ding's steward.
Maybe... people in Xuanmen don't know each other and can only pass orders and information through those signs.
According to what Xu Zun currently knows, in addition to the murder scenes of Ying Rang, the Minister of Industry and Cao Ding, marks were also found on several other victims.
They all add up to seven or eight, and none of these marks are repeated.
Since the marks are used to transmit information, it is enough to show that Xuanmen has a support above the ground, and there is more than one!
So...he can't put all his energy into the underground city, these threats on the ground are equally important.
So...can you think of a way to lure these people out?
As a result, just when Xu Zun was thinking seriously, a muffled sound suddenly came from outside the hall.
boom……
As the muffled sound came, the ground shook slightly.
However, although the tremor was small, it frightened Lin Chaofeng, Xu Zun and others.
Everyone rushed out of the hall and looked towards where the sound came from, but the muffled sound went away as quickly as it came, and calm had long since returned.
"That's..." Lin Chaofeng was shocked, "That's the direction of Taipingmen. What happened just now? Was it... an explosion?"
