Struggle in the early Tang Dynasty

"How's the battle going?"

"All the thieves are in ambush, please come over to the mansion to see what happened!"

"Okay, when I put on my clothes, grandma, I want to see if the murderer is from the Zhang family."

Chapter 778

Hearing the good news brought by Liu Zhenxuan suddenly, Guo Ye was full of joy and excitement, ignoring Wu Xiuxiu, who was soundly asleep, put on his clothes in a hurry and left the bedroom.

Afterwards, he followed Liu Zhenxuan out of the government office, and rushed to Zhechong Duwei's mansion.

As soon as Guo Ye entered Zhechong Duwei's Mansion, he came to the place where the dungeon was located.

I saw hundreds of government soldiers crowded together, surrounding the courtyard with mountains and mountains, and the surrounding torches shone brightly, making the night as bright as day.

However, the battle seemed to have ended, and there was no movement of fighting.

The two brothers Zhang Jiujin and Wang Bajin in the crowd had sharp eyes. Seeing Guo Ye approaching from a distance, they immediately squeezed out the crowd to meet him. Let it go, let it go."

Suddenly, the crowd took the initiative to avoid a road, allowing Guo Ye to go straight to the center of the courtyard.

Surrounded by Zhang Jiujin and Wang Bajin, Guo Ye and Liu Zhenxuan walked into the center of the courtyard one after the other.

But when Guo Ye came in, he was dumbfounded.

It turned out that the ground was covered with black-clothed and masked assassin corpses one by one, as many as twenty or so, all of them lay upright on the ground and did not move.

Swords and swords were thrown on the ground indiscriminately, scarlet blood gurgled from more than two dozen corpses, soaking into the ground.

Guo Ye turned his head to look at Liu Zhenxuan behind him, and shouted in surprise, "Dead, all of them? Didn't anyone survive?"

Seeing this, Liu Zhenxuan's heart skipped a beat, and he yelled at the soldiers around him, "You bastards, didn't I say that I want to keep alive? Why are they all dead?"

All of a sudden, everyone on the scene lowered their heads one after another, as if they were too shocked to make a sound.

Only Wang Bajin argued to Liu Zhenxuan: "Liu Duwei, it's not that the brothers don't want to live, it's that this group of thieves who killed thousands of knives is too cruel, they have been stubbornly resisting, and they don't want to surrender at all."

Zhang Jiujin also hurriedly echoed: "Lord Inspector, and Captain Liu, what Bajin said is correct. These twenty or so assassins were caught in an ambush by hundreds of our brothers, and they refused to surrender in a daze, and they were fierce." Dafa, he hacked and wounded more than a dozen of our brothers. Those brothers have been taken away for treatment now. We saw these assassins being so desperate and unable to persuade them to surrender. It was a big knife again, slashing and killing. Alas... who knows that no one is willing to surrender until death."

After listening to Zhang Jiujin's explanation, Liu Zhenxuan cast his eyes on Guo Ye, and sighed in a low voice: "Master Hou, I can't blame them, I thought that by surrounding them, they would be able to avoid them, but I didn't expect this group of assassins He is so desperate. It is due to the mishandling of the humble position, please don't blame the brothers, Zhenxuan is willing to be punished!"

Swish Swish Swish~Boom~~

Hundreds of government soldiers landed on one knee, kneeling on the ground one after another, arching their hands and shouting at Guo Ye: "If I do not do my job well, I ask the governor to punish me!"

Even the two brothers Zhang Jiujin and Wang Bajin looked at each other, then half-kneeled on the ground shaking their heads and sighing, echoing.

Seeing this, Guo Ye also knew in his heart that things on the battlefield were changing rapidly, and these twenty or so assassins were obviously reckless stubblers. How could they surrender so easily if they had the will to die?It is true that they cannot be blamed for not leaving the assassins alive.

Immediately, he waved his hand to signal everyone to get up, and said gently: "Zhenxuan, Bajin, Jiujin, and all the brothers, get up, get up quickly. I don't mean to blame you. It's just a pity, a pity It’s really not reconciled to be unable to track down the culprit behind the scenes through the assassins, so that the success is on the verge of failure!”

As soon as Liu Zhenxuan got up, hundreds of government soldiers stood up one after another, among them Wang Bajin shouted: "Lord Inspector, although all the assassins were killed, we found this!"

While speaking, Wang Bajin picked up a horizontal knife used by the assassin on the ground, handed it to Guo Ye, and said respectfully: "Master Inspector, please look carefully at the handle of this horizontal knife."

Guo Ye took the horizontal knife from Wang Bajin's hand suspiciously, and checked the position of the handle.

A series of characters are impressively engraved on the hilt of the knife: In the winter of the fourth year of Wude, it was cast by the Zhangjia Sword Workshop in Gujing Lane.

Guo Ye was stunned, and muttered: "The owner of these horizontal knives is the Zhang family in Gujing Lane?"

After finishing speaking, he threw the horizontal knife in his hand to Liu Zhenxuan, then leaned over to pick up several horizontal knives again and again, carefully inspecting the handle...

Without exception, the handle of each horizontal knife was engraved with the same string of characters, indicating that the twenty-odd assassins and the owners of the weapons were directly suspected of being the Zhang family in Gujing Lane.

Guo Ye was relieved, and went to the place where the corpses of more than two dozen assassins were placed, and knelt down to check them one by one.

Liu Zhenxuan, who was standing, also checked the horizontal knives used by the assassins on the ground, and shouted excitedly: "Master Hou, what are you waiting for? Give the order, and I will call people to kill in Gujing Lane. Surround the Zhang family."

Guo Ye squatted on the ground and pulled off the masks of the assassins one by one. While checking the appearance of the assassins, he shook his head in doubt and said, "Zhenxuan, don't you find it strange?"

Liu Zhenxuan was taken aback, ran to Guo Ye and squatted down, and asked anxiously: "Master Hou, what's so strange? Although there are no survivors, these weapons are obviously made by the Zhang family. Even if the Zhang family has a thousand mouths , he can't tell."

"No!"

Guo Ye suddenly denied it categorically: "It's just because these weapons are engraved with the words made by the Zhang family, I feel strange. Zhenxuan, have you forgotten the express regulations in the laws of the Tang Dynasty for the great families? Soldiers, As for the murder weapon, if you forge a weapon without permission, you will lose your head, not to mention the Zhang family, even our Yangzhou government office is not qualified to forge it.

You must not forget that the yamen of each prefecture and county and the weapons of Zhechong Duwei's mansion in various places were all cast by the imperial court generals and supervisors, and then distributed to the localities in batches.Even if a horizontal knife is produced, it will be strictly recorded.You said that Zhang's family has its own blacksmith shop, casting some agricultural ironware and knives, I believe it.But if you say that the Zhang family dares to forge a controlled ordnance such as a horizontal knife so blatantly, I will not believe anything. "

Liu Zhenxuan was taken aback for a moment, then swallowed his saliva, bit his lip and retorted: "Master Hou, it is precisely because of this that the Zhang family should be bold. Otherwise, how dare they do such a thing?"

"No, Zhenxuan, even though I hate the Zhang family even more than you, I wish I could eradicate Gujing Lane right now. But..."

Guo Ye pointed to the more than [-] corpses on the ground with their masks removed, and said, "But look for yourself, the hairstyles of these assassins, without exception, are all round cut. Do you think this is a dead man raised by the Zhang family?" ?"

Today's Central Plains people all wear long hair and wear a head. Obviously, these people's hair is not the hairstyle that the Central Plains Han people should have.

After Guo Ye's mention, Liu Zhenxuan also noticed this detail, and asked in surprise, "Could it be that these murderers are not from our Central Plains?"

Guo Ye nodded and said: "That's right, look at their cheeks with blush, and look at their hands..."

As he spoke, he grabbed an assassin's right arm, pointed to the back of his hand and said, "Look, this is obviously left after the frostbite has healed, and it is the deep scar left by the frostbite for many years. What's the weather like in Yangzhou?" There will be severe cold? So I speculate that these assassins are not from our Central Plains at all. Since they are not from the Central Plains, how could they be dead soldiers raised by the Zhang family?"

Although Liu Zhenxuan's heart began to waver, he still questioned: "Master Hou, maybe these people are not dead soldiers raised by the Zhang family, but assassins they invited from other places? The humble official still thinks that the Zhang family is the biggest suspect. of."

Guo Ye laughed, and said: "Zhenxuan, you are a fan of the authorities! If they are assassins invited by the Zhang family with money, it means that the Zhang family only has a transaction relationship with them, and it is normal to use other people's money to eliminate disasters for others, but It’s not enough to keep secret for the sake of the employer? Also, if these horizontal knives were really made by the Zhang family, how could those old foxes of the Zhang family hand over these weapons that would reveal their identities to this group of foreign assassins? What? It doesn’t make sense in terms of emotion and reason! Moreover, in my opinion, the hairstyles of these foreign assassins are more like fan monks. They should be fan monks who came to the Central Plains from the Western Regions and other places. Are they working hard? Isn't this unbelievable?"

Hearing this, Liu Zhenxuan no longer insisted on his own opinion, and speculated suspiciously: "Master Hou, what you mean is that the plan of these out-of-town assassins to break into the Captain's Mansion at night to silence Feng Kui is that someone is planting Zhang's family?"

Guo Ye nodded, and sighed softly: "That's right, maybe it's not just this killing tonight, maybe from the very beginning of the death of Xue Hao and his wife that night, someone deliberately directed our attention and suspects to the Zhang family. This series of plans must have been secretly designed by someone, but now it seems that it will definitely not be the Zhang family."

Liu Zhenxuan's expression was lost, and he had a feeling of fear, and he exclaimed: "Master Hou, you mean that someone deliberately misled us from the beginning to the end, so that we would suspect the target of the Zhang family? Well, then this person also It's terrible, what is he planning to take so many lives in haste?"

"Picture what?"

Guo Ye shook his head and said with a sneer: "This person is very aware of the conflict between me and the Zhang family. Judging from this series of signs, it is obvious that he wants to mislead my opponent, the Zhang family, so as to provoke me to fall into an endless situation with the Zhang family again. Hehe, This person is probably an acquaintance, and it seems that the plan is not small. As for who he is and where the real benefits of doing this are, then I don't know. Perhaps, we need to continue to wait for him to show up for the second time. "

"Damn it, it's so cloudy and foggy, I almost fainted!"

Liu Zhenxuan resentfully spat on the ground, bared his teeth and scolded: "Wait for him to come out again? Then we have to wait until the year of the monkey?"

"Don't wait!"

Suddenly, a frivolous voice came from outside the crowd of hundreds of government soldiers: "Hey, I have to rely on my son to send you a letter at a critical time, tsk tsk, Guo Ye, let me tell you, this time you bring me down Yangzhou, you really brought it right!"

Guo Ye and Liu Zhenxuan turned their heads to look outside, and the person who came was the elder Sun Yumo who went undercover in Gujing Lane.

But he didn't come back alone, there was another person who came with him, standing tall...