Xu Zun once again spread the information on the table and looked at it carefully for an unknown number of times.
Before that, these materials had been almost destroyed by Xu Zun. Huo Anu couldn't understand what Xu Zun wanted to find in it?
"Sir," at this time, Li Xing brought someone in from outside and reported to Xu Zun, "Here he is! This guy is the chief chef of Beiya. He has already recruited him. It is Yan Hai, the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who has hired him.
Arrangements were made to join the Zuoya Forbidden Army."
As he said that, the inner guard behind pushed a fat man who had been beaten to pieces and almost looked like no one in front of Xu Zun.
"Sir... please forgive me!" The fat man quickly knelt down and bowed his head to Xu Zun, "I... we didn't know such a big thing would happen. We just followed his instructions and added some spices to today's meal.
It’s just stuff…”
"Aren't you telling lies with open eyes!" Xu Zun frowned, "Whose order? Didn't Yan Hai, the Minister of Civil Service, die of an assassination?"
"Yes... he is Yan Hai's butler," Fatty said quickly. "Shilang Yan died in an assassination, but his butler still has some influence. He said that as long as we follow his instructions, we can still get promotion!"
It’s the housekeeper again…
Unexpectedly, people from Xuanmen also placed spies around Yan Hai.
"You just said you, how many of you are there in total?" Xu Zun asked.
"There are... about ten people!" Fatty replied, "They were all arranged by the housekeeper to follow my orders."
"Sir..." Li Xing whispered in Xu Zun's ear, "These are just from the main camp of Beiya. Counting the side camps and Nanya, there are a total of forty or fifty people.
"We have arrested more than twenty, and the rest are still wanted."
"Well," Xu Zun nodded and asked the head chef, "Tell me exactly what you know. If you want to survive, tell me the truth, otherwise..."
"Explain it, I'll explain it!" The fat man kowtowed as if pounding garlic, and quickly confessed, "The younger one was originally a cook in a small restaurant in Chongning, Qian'an, Songzhou.
"Later, as if I had struck great luck, the steward of Yan Hai, the Minister of Civil Service, found me and pointed out a way for me to make money.
"I never dreamed that I would be able to establish a relationship with a high-ranking official, so I invested a lot of money and bought a small official from the Holy City to do it.
"Later, under the steward's operation, I was assigned to the Beiya Forbidden Army, where I worked for a year...
"During this period," the fat man said, "the housekeeper would often come to the Beiya back kitchen to see me, and sometimes he would bring General Chai from the Yulin Guard with him. It was very embarrassing..."
This General Yulin Weichai is the general manager of the transportation of supplies in the Forbidden Army camp, including the oil, salt, rice and vegetables that are brought into the kitchen.
"Sometimes, General Chai and the housekeeper will bring me some condiments to add to the meals in the military camp. They say they are prescriptions prescribed by the Taiyuan Hospital and can strengthen the body..." Fatty said, "Of course I don't dare
If you disobey orders, you will obey everything, but nothing will ever happen!"
Condiments...
Xu Zun hurriedly asked: "What kind of condiments?"
"It's a pill like an elixir," the fat man replied, "dissolve it with warm water first, and then add it to the vegetable soup.
"How dare I not obey the general's words? In fact, I did have doubts in my heart, but I didn't dare to make random suspicions. After all, my future is in their hands!"
"What happened next?" Xu Zun asked.
"Later, today was the day," the fat man said, "It was probably around the time when the housekeeper suddenly came!
"Several big boxes were pulled from somewhere, and the boxes were filled with those white pills.
"He told me that there has been trouble in the Holy City in the past few days. The Imperial Guards have to step up patrols and have a heavy task, so they need to add these ingredients to keep them energetic at all times and protect the Holy City..."
Tsk tsk...
Xu Zun's brows furrowed more and more as he listened.
"Although Shilang Yan and General Chai are gone, I don't dare to disobey the housekeeper," the fat man said. "So when it was time to start cooking, I distributed the pills and asked those who helped in the kitchen to cook.
Mix it into various pots in the kitchen...
"To be honest, when I saw the sudden increase in dosage, I was murmuring in my heart, but... the housekeeper has been monitoring everything we did, and I didn't dare to ask questions...
"Later, dinner was served," the fat man said, "and then some internal guards came and arrested a few of us!
"Sir, I am really unjust. I feel..." The fat man knelt down and begged for mercy, "You should interrogate those little officials carefully. They ran away as soon as the guards called their names. I feel they should know more than me!
"
"You said they brought a big box," Xu Zun asked, "Besides Yan Hai's housekeeper, who else is there?"
"Yes, yes!" The fat man said quickly, "They are those little officials. They were brought here together with the housekeeper."
After bringing it over, Xu Zun thought about it. It seemed that those pills should have been transported to the military camp long ago. It was just that when the time came, they could be used directly on the spot.
"Are there any pills left?" Xu Zun asked.
"Yes," Li Xing quickly took out the handkerchief from his pocket, and after opening it, a white pill appeared. "I found a few pills in the box, and most of them were broken."
Xu Zun took it in his hand and looked at it carefully. From the appearance, there was almost no difference between the pills and the pills they gave Li Jinlou.
The outside of the pill is covered with a layer of wax, presumably to prevent the ingredients in the pill from evaporating and affecting its efficacy.
Ani also came over to identify it, and after just a slight sniff, she was sure it was made by Xuanmen.
"Sir," Li Xinghui reported after the fat man was taken away, "the fat man is right. The only people who really know about this are Yan Hai's housekeeper and those few minor officials who do have problems.
"It's a pity that the clerk in question was either not caught or committed suicide by taking poison. The rest were deceived, just like the head chef."
Xu Zun brought the pill to his nose and sniffed it. Just as he was about to assign a task, his eyes suddenly froze!
"Sir," Li Xing guessed Xu Zun's meaning and asked, "Should we find the place where the poison is hidden first? It should...it should be in a room in the back kitchen of Bei Ya, right? Sir..."
As Li Xing called softly, Hou Zhen and Zhao Yu suddenly entered the house dejectedly.
"Master Xu, you are back so soon?" Zhao Yu's first words when they met were exactly the same as Huo Anu and Ani, "Did the Queen Mother ask you to thoroughly investigate this case?"
"Old Zhao," Xu Zun saw that Zhao Yu was still wearing the bloody clothes and asked quickly, "Is your injury okay?"
"It's okay, it's just... ugh..." he said angrily, "That Luo Jia has such a tough mouth, he just didn't say anything.
"He lost his arm and became blind. Instead, he simply broke the jar and dropped it!"
"Yes, sir," Hou Zhen agreed, "we don't dare to torture him too much for fear that he won't be able to bear it, so we can only treat him first, so..."
"Hou Zhen," Xu Zun said, "hurry up and make arrangements. I'm going to visit Bi Sheng in the left pavilion!"
"Oh?" Hou Zhen wondered, "You want to go to Zuofu? Okay, I'll report it quickly..."
"Sir," Zhao Yu asked hurriedly when he saw Xu Zun holding the pills, "do you have any new clues?"
"Yes," Xu Zun nodded, lifted the pill and said, "I seem to have smelled this kind of smell somewhere before..."
