Tang riddles

The next day, that is, in the early morning of May [-]th, at dawn, a group of soldiers gathered by the Tianjin Bridge, each with dragon eyes and tiger eyes, and a strong physique.The officials who crossed the bridge and went to court were queuing up on the bridge to wait for the entrance gate to enter the imperial city. Seeing this scene, they couldn't help poking their heads out of their respective carriages and horses curiously. Many people even sent their slaves to inquire. , but did not receive any answers.

Around the time of Maochu, Li Jinyue arrived, and behind her was a carriage with a peculiar shape. The carriage was surrounded by female soldiers of the Gongyue Army under her command.The leader, Cheng Yi, looked solemn and looked around with vigilance, observing the surrounding situation vigilantly.

After Li Jinyue arrived, he gestured to the general officer headed by the group of male soldiers in the distance. The man bowed his hands and began to order the soldiers under him to take off their outer robes, reveal their strong bodies, and go into the water.These soldiers are the elite of the Luoyang sailors, they move swiftly, they form a group of three, and they are divided into six groups in total, after launching into the water.Group A and Group B acted together, and Group A played the vanguard, first diving down from the Doumen Sluice Gate by the Tianjin Bridge to check.Group B takes a boat and stands by on the water.The two groups of Bing and Ding rowed westward along the Luo River to the confluence of Gu River and Luo River on the north bank of the west side of Tianjin Bridge. They also dived down and checked at the confluence.The Wuji group crossed the bridge to the north bank of Luoshui River, went to Lidefang Lide Lake, dived into the bottom of the lake, and checked the intersection pipeline of Fucheng Canal and here.

The Grain River passes through Xiyuan and flows into Luoshui from north to south. It is one of the most important channels connecting Xiyuan artificial sea and Luoshui.Fucheng Canal starts outside Deyou Gate in the north of Luoyang City, passes through the city, passes through Hanjiacang City along the way, winds through Daoguang and Qinghua two squares, and finally flows into Lidefang Lide Lake.

At the same time, Wang Zhongsi led another team, opened the gate at the mouth of the culvert under the artificial sea in Xiyuan, removed the fence, sent murlocs to drill into it, and inspected along the channel.Each of these diving masters wears several pig urine bubbles on their bodies to solve the problem of ventilation. The longest dive can last up to two quarters of an hour.

An all-round and large-scale investigation of waterways began, and the investigation was carried out intensively throughout the morning.By noon, the latest news came. The Bingding team had discovered in the valley water and the artificial sea. The eggs of unknown creatures were found in the mouth and channels of the artificial sea, and they were guessed to be eggs laid by red-tailed lizards.Afterwards, at the bottom of the lake near the mouth of the ditch, under the accumulation of lake rocks, more eggs, a broken tail of a red-tailed lizard, and four bundles tightly wrapped in thick oilcloth were found, and they were brought ashore. When I opened it, it was full of black fire/powder.

Before the evening drum sounded, all three waterways were discovered.In addition to the discovery of Gushui, the broken tail and eggs of red-tailed lizards and black fire/powder bags buried in the water also appeared in the water channel of Fucheng Canal passing through Hanjiacang City. There are more here. There are eight.

Near the Doumen Sluice, the diving murlocs discovered that a dry pipe had been opened inside the sluice, bypassing the area where the water was most concentrated, and directly leading to a deeper underground ditch, heading straight for the imperial city.When they walked all the way to the top along the pipeline, they discovered that they had already arrived at the pond in the South Garden of the Eastern Palace before they knew it.

The matter was not trivial, Li Jinyue brought Shen Jin into the palace overnight to report the progress to the saint.Although Shen Jin entered the palace, he was not summoned by the saint, so he did not meet the saint directly, but was accompanied by Cheng Yan and waited outside the palace.Li Jinyue didn't intend to bring her here, but Shen Jin insisted on entering the palace, because it represented their Shen family's attitude, and she wanted the saint to know that even if Shen Sui was poisoned and unconscious, her "brother" was still investigating the case on her behalf , so that the sage can rest assured that he will not get angry afterwards, or suspect that Shen Sui was deliberately injured and unconscious, and that he is incompetent in investigating the case, so as to evade responsibility.

When Li Jinyue and Shen Jin entered the palace, the saint had already received the news, and the prince was also there.To Li Jinyue's surprise, there was also a new friend who had just met, Pei Min who had just been recalled by the saint.

Li Jinyue glanced at Pei Min, but didn't pay much attention to it. She straightened out the topic and said the conjecture she and Shen Jin had come up with.

Someone is lurking in Luoyang City, intending to harm the imperial city.Among them is likely to be a snake witch from Tocharo in the Western Regions, who can manipulate red-tailed lizards to secretly transport fire/powder.The red-tailed lizard has a habit. When the female lizard is pregnant and about to give birth, she is used to finding a water terrain surrounded by three sides and inwardly sunken, digs a pit, lays her eggs in the pit, and then buries it.They will lay eggs in multiple places as a test, and the last time they lay a large number of eggs, they will definitely cut off their tails and leave the young in the eggs as food.The gangsters lurking in the dark took advantage of this habit, tied fire/powder packs to the tail of the red-tailed lizard, and transported many fire/powders to various places in the imperial city without anyone noticing.Especially now that black fire/powder has also appeared in Hanjiacang, it has to arouse a high degree of vigilance.

Also, about that death team.Although it is not yet clear why they submerged strangely a few feet away from the lake, what is certain is that these ten people were all poisoned by the red-tailed lizard, so that they had hallucinations and went crazy.Their pockets are full of stones, most likely because they have hallucinated these stones as gold and silver treasures, so they stuff them into their pockets to make a fortune.

However, according to what Zhao Shijunzi said, and the records of the red-tailed lizard's habits that Shen Jin later retrieved, everyone's performance after being poisoned by the red-tailed lizard is different, because what everyone likes and wants to get is different. Everything is different.This team did not encounter the red-tailed lizard directly, but was harmed by the red-tailed lizard toxin extracted by the snake witch.After the ten people were poisoned, the reason why they showed a high degree of behavioral identity is probably because of another skill of the Snake Witch - hypnosis.Otherwise, it is impossible to explain what happened to the series of abnormal footprints.In Tochara, snake witches often use poisoning and hypnosis to do some illegal activities, which has long been known in the local area.

As for the motive for killing Team Shi, it is very likely that there was a traitor in Team Shi, helping the gangsters lurking in Luoyang city to deliver black fire/powder to the palace. I don’t know what happened in the fog that day. The traitor in the team was murdered and silenced, and nine other people in his team were also buried with him.

What's even more frightening is that the imperial city has been infiltrated, and no one can tell whether there are other traitors among the tens of thousands of forbidden troops, and it will not be found out in a short time.

After listening to Li Jinyue's report, the saint looked a little solemn.He ordered Yang Shuo, the general of the Right Jinwu Guard, to redeploy the defense of the imperial city, especially focusing on the deployment and control of Hanjiacang, the imperial city Xiyuan, and the east palace, and to check whether there is any hidden black fire/powder in the palace.At the same time, Marquis Yu was dispatched to immediately conduct an investigation into internal traitors within the Forbidden Army.The sage also ordered to focus on the safety of the East Palace. The culvert leading to the South Garden Pond in the East Palace made the sage feel that something was wrong. He also ordered the prince to fill the pond overnight to prevent future troubles.

Furthermore, since the whereabouts of the Holy Grail were still unknown and Shen Sui was unconscious, the saint did not set a five-day deadline to force Shen Sui unreasonably.Moreover, the situation is reversed. Now it is not the sage who wants to give an explanation to those Fufu missionaries, but these missionaries must give the sage an explanation.Therefore, the so-called five-day period, as if the sage had never mentioned it, will not pursue it anymore.Now the saint doesn't care much about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. The imperial city is infiltrated and perilous, which directly threatens his safety. This is what he cares most about now.

As for Shen Sui who was injured on duty, the saint also compensated him.Although he did not directly meet Shen Jin who was waiting outside the hall, he ordered Gao Lishi to reward Shen Jin with a token that allowed him to enter and leave the imperial city freely. Shen Jin then needs to assist Li Jinyue to complete the follow-up investigation.And Gao Lishi hinted to Shen Jin that after the case is over, Shen Jin is likely to enter an official career, and the saint intends to reward officials and her.

This is not good news for Shen Jin.

Those Fusu missionaries were secretly detained and interrogated that night.What awaits them is torture in Fengchen Mansion.The predecessor of Fengchen Mansion was the Control Crane Mansion in the period of Emperor Wu. The ability of the cruel officials to extract confessions by torture can be said to be passed down from generation to generation here.

It was late at night, Li Jinyue and Shen Jin did not leave the palace that night, the saint stayed with them in the East Nuan Pavilion, which was close to the East Palace.Before falling asleep, Li Jinyue and Shen Jin visited the prince.

When they arrived at the East Palace, the prince was overseeing the work in Nanyuan. The urgently called earth and stone craftsmen were using drum carts to drain the water in the Nanyuan pond and continuously filled it with sand and gravel to bury it.Fortunately, the pond is not big, and the project proceeded quickly.Standing by the side of the waterside corridor, the prince looked at the mouth of the dark canal exposed in the pond with gloomy eyes by the dots of lights, watching the opening being buried bit by bit, his cold lips were tightly pursed.

Li Jinyue pushed Shen Jin and stopped outside the Shuixie gate. Shen Jin signaled that she would wait here. She knew that Li Jinyue wanted to have a secret talk with the prince, and she wanted to wait until the secret talk was over before entering to avoid suspicion.Li Jinyue entered the water pavilion alone.Seeing the prince standing by the window, Li Jinyue said:

"Erlang, it's so late, don't go to rest."

"Eldest sister, you are here." The prince turned his head and saw Li Jinyue, heaved a sigh of relief, "How can I sleep, I don't know when this matter started, maybe in the past few months, I have been with wolves Sleeping in the hole. Thinking about it, I break out in a cold sweat."

"I understand your feelings." Li Jinyue said in a deep voice, "No one would have thought that such a complicated and sinister secret espionage case would be drawn behind the theft of the Holy Grail."

"Eldest sister, there are some things I only want to tell you." The prince's voice was lowered, almost whispering, "This time, Mrs. Wu, did you instigate it behind the scenes?"

Li Jinyue frowned, and said after a long while: "It's hard to say. If she really has her share, then she will be charged with collaborating with the enemy and treason. Collusion with Fushu missionaries, the group of Tubo people, and Tubo people are indispensable. Those small countries in the Western Regions of Huoluo are involved in it. Seeing that the target of the enemy behind is Hanjiacang, maybe it is inseparable from the remnants of Goguryeo in the Heshuo area in the northeast. This is not a joke, even she should know Where is the limit of the competition for storage, it should not be crossed."

"Who could it be? Could it be that those foreign enemies really have the ability to infiltrate into our Great Tang Imperial City, and their arrows are directed at me, the Crown Prince of the East Palace?" the Crown Prince worried.

Li Jinyue didn't answer these words. At this moment, she fell into deep thought.

While Li Jinyue was having a secret conversation with the prince, Shen Jin, who was waiting outside the waterside pavilion, suddenly saw a figure flashing by in the corridor not far away.She didn't see the man's appearance clearly, but she recognized a Japanese samurai broadsword in his hand.

Chizuru? !

Shen Jin was taken aback. Before he could figure out why Qianhe appeared in the East Palace, his body subconsciously pushed the wheelchair to catch up.

The man walked very fast, Shen Jin rolled the wheelchair and had a hard time chasing him.Soon, the man disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

Shen Jin chased to the corner, knowing that he couldn't catch up, but he was not reconciled. He just turned the corner, but was surprised again, because Qianhe stopped at the corner and waited for her before going far.It happened to be very secluded here, avoiding the eyes and ears of others.

Shen Jin looked at her speechlessly, she was still the same as before, almost unchanged.Shen Jin's heart seemed to have knocked over the five-flavored bottle, and he didn't know what to say to her.

"Erlang-kun, long time no see, how are you doing?" Qianhe in front of him still looked calm and breezy, the corners of his lips curled up slightly under the black eyepatch, and asked with a smile.

Shen Jin pursed his lips, but did not answer.

"Dalang-jun, Sanniang, and Wu Ya, how are they?" Qianhe asked again.

Shen Jin's hand trembled slightly, then she angrily grabbed Qianhe's hand, and wrote roughly in her palm:

【Where have you been these days?Why are you in the East Palace? 】

Qianhe was silent for a moment, then broke free from Shen Jin's hand, and said slowly:

"I am now the personal guard of His Royal Highness, and it is not surprising that I appear in the East Palace."

Bodyguard?Shen Jin stared at her with wide eyes.

"I am no longer Sanniang's driver. When Sanniang took me in, she said that I am a free man, not her slave, and I can come and go freely. During that time, I was willing to be Sanniang's slave to repay my kindness. , but now I'm tired and left, that's how it is." Qianhe said briskly, "Mr. I mentioned it to the outside world, you know this matter and I know it, Qianhe thanked you. Today, Qianhe and Erlang-jun have a formal farewell, after that, I am afraid it will be difficult to see each other again."

She turned around, raised her hand, and solemnly said:

"Thousands of rivers and mountains from now on, I still look forward to Mr. Erlang... and Mr. Dalang and the third lady are cherished. If there is a destiny, let's meet again."

After saying that, she turned and walked away quickly.

Shen Jin stopped on the spot as if rooted and did not catch up again, watching her silently as she disappeared into the darkness.

The author has something to say: farewell to the willow twigs by the river, thousands of mountains and rivers are far away.Alas, this pair of Qinhe has suffered a lot.

Another: The barrel car is a kind of water wheel, which can be stepped on to lift water from a low place to a high place.It was originally a water conservancy irrigation tool, but it is used as a water pump here.