Tang riddles

On the seventh day of June, in the evening, the prison of the Ministry of Justice.

Li Shizhi, the servant of the Ministry of Punishment, was standing at the gate of the prison, waiting for the prison chief to open the door and lead him in, making his last inspection tour for the day.The cold, damp and musty smell in the dungeon made him frowned in disgust. No matter how many times he came here, he couldn't get used to the smell.

Shen Sui's family members were suddenly imprisoned in the prison, which made Li Shizhi feel unusual.Even he himself was removed from the investigation of the case, and the recent murder in Chang'an turned out to be what Shen Sui did, which really made Li Shizhi feel unbelievable.

He instinctively thought that this matter was too strange, although he knew he shouldn't be involved in it, but out of curiosity, he still wanted to talk to Shen Sui's family members, maybe he could learn something.

He came to the cell specially arranged for Shen Sui's family members, the cell was well arranged, it didn't look like a cell, it was more like a temporary residence, with ottomans and bedding.The outermost cell is the cell of the mother and daughter. The mother is sitting on the side of the couch indifferently, reading a collection of poems brought from home by the light of the oil lamp, and singing an unknown nursery rhyme in her mouth. Seriously, Li Shizhi didn't quite understand it, and only roughly judged that it was a nursery rhyme from the south, maybe it was from the south of the Five Ridges.

The child sat obediently on the pier, and the mother sang something, and she sang along, clapping hands to beat the beat, and the cell was filled with a magical, harmonious and comfortable atmosphere.

The arrival of Li Shizhi obviously broke the good atmosphere. The singing stopped abruptly. The little girl jumped off the pier and moved towards her mother nervously, but she didn't hide behind her mother, but blocked her. In front of the mother.He stared at Li Shizhi with wide eyes.The woman sitting by the couch didn't move, the pages of the book in her hands stopped, and she also looked in Li Shizhi's direction, without saying a word.

Li Shizhi felt uncomfortable being stared at by the mother and daughter, he laughed dryly and said:

"Come down and ask, are Mrs. Shen and the young lady all right? Is there any shortage of things, I will order someone to buy them."

"Li Shilang is too polite. My little girl and I are both sinners. We shouldn't have this special treatment. There are enough things in the prison right now, so you don't need to worry about it." Zhang Ruohan said calmly.

"No, Mrs. Shen is in prison this time, and I also feel sorry for it. If I can take care of it, I must take good care of it. If there is something wrong with the family in prison, I don't want to see it." Li Shizhi said in a circle. with.

"Li Shilang, you came here today, I'm afraid you want to ask me something." Zhang Ruohan didn't intend to continue to circle around with him, and directly exposed his intention of coming.

There was a moment of embarrassment on Li Shizhi's face, but he quickly seized the opportunity to ask:

"That being the case, I will be blunt. I don't know if Madam Shen knows why Shen Sizhi was convicted? I don't believe that so many murders in Chang'an City were committed by Mr. Shen. He is a famous detective with such a strong sense of justice that he is well-known among us judicial officials. A few days ago, Liu Yucheng told me that Shen Sizhi would never commit a murder case. I really can't accept this fact, is there any grievance in this? If I can lend a helping hand, Mrs. Shen should say it bluntly, and I will definitely not resign."

"Thank you Li Shilang for trusting my husband. To be honest, I don't know what my husband did outside. She never told me. However, I also believe that my husband will not do such cruel things as killing people." As for the grievance, I believe the imperial court will give a clean explanation, and Li Shilang doesn’t need to intervene, so as not to cause trouble for the upper body and let us implicate you.” Zhang Ruohan lightly and skillfully brushed off Li Shizhi’s question, Li Shizhi looked at her attitude, He knew that he might not be able to ask any questions from Zhang Ruohan.So he had no choice but to bow his hands, bid farewell and left, heading towards the cell further inside.

The cell on the inner side separated by a wall was the cell where Shen Sui's younger brother Shen Jin and her maid Qianhe were imprisoned together.The main purpose of Li Shizhi's visit today was to talk to Shen Jin. In his opinion, it might be normal for Zhang Ruohan not to know the inside story, but as Shen Sui's closest brother, Shen Jin must know something.

However, Li Shizhi hit a snag again, because Shen Jin seemed to be feeling a little unwell, and hadn't woken up while sleeping on the couch. The maid Qianhe sat quietly by the couch, and Li Shizhi didn't intend to ask any servants anything.In the cell afterwards, the servants of the Shen residence were basically imprisoned together, and the confidant servants such as Hu Tuo and Wu Ya seemed to know something, but with their loyalty, I'm afraid they wouldn't say anything.With a sigh, he decided to leave here and visit Qin Zhen again.

At this moment, Qianhe suddenly spoke up, and said to Li Shizhi:

"I don't know if Li Shilang can ask a doctor for my Erlang to give acupuncture. She has to give acupuncture every day to relieve the pain in her waist, otherwise her condition will get worse. The slaves will also give acupuncture. If it is inconvenient to ask a doctor, Li The servant just needs to give me a needle bag."

Li Shizhi hesitated a little, but seeing that Shen Jin was indeed seriously ill on the bed, he couldn't bear it, so he said:

"I can give you a needle kit, but only if you answer a few questions for me."

"Li Shilang just ask. The servant will tell you everything." Qianhe said.

"Well, do you know where your master has been going in and out recently? Have you ever gone out in the middle of the night?"

"No, my lord always goes out after the morning bell and returns home before the evening drum. He rarely stays out overnight. Even if he sleeps out overnight, he always stays in Dali Temple. Only one night is spent in the princess' mansion."

"Then have any strange or strange figures visited your mansion recently?"

"No, the family is full of old acquaintances."

"Has your lord ever been in and out of the prince's mansion?"

"This... indeed, some time ago, Lord Lang met with King Shou and King Zhong."

Li Shizhi frowned, thinking, Shen Sui was not suspected of forming a party for personal gain, even if he did, he was part of the princess party, and there was no reason to murder those people at all, why would he be a murderer?Could it be that he was planted?While he wondered whether he should restart the investigation of the case, he asked the jailer beside him to fetch the needle bag.The prison of the Ministry of Punishment itself has doctors to diagnose and treat acutely ill prisoners, and naturally also has needle kits.It's just that serious criminals don't have this kind of treatment. Generally, these doctors in prisons treat the imperial family and nobles who are temporarily imprisoned.The Shen family is a serious criminal, and it is reasonable to say that they are not allowed to enjoy any medical treatment, but no matter whether it is placing beds and bedding in the prison, or providing medical stones for diagnosis and treatment, all exceptions have been made, which can be said to be very rare.

The jailer took the needle bag and handed it to Chizuru in the prison:

"Hey, come get the needle pack."

Qianhe fumbled to stand up, reached forward with both hands, hesitantly touched the fence, and finally got the needle bag tremblingly with difficulty.Li Shizhi saw that she was a blind girl, unable to move around, even with a needle bag in her hand, she couldn't do much, so she felt relieved and said to the jailer:

"Look at her, take the needle bag away after the needle is done, don't stay in the cell."

"Don't worry, Shangguan, the villain understands." The jailer nodded and bowed.

"Then I'll go first." Li Shizhi said hello, and left in a hurry, planning to go through the detailed case records of the Chang'an Five Elements Murder Case again, and even forgot to ask Qin Zhen about it .

Qianhe groped to give Shen Jin the needle on the bed, about half an hour later, the needle was over, the jailer was impatient, and sat chatting with another guard at the door of the cell with his back to the cell.Chizuru said:

"Several officials, the slaves have finished administering the needles, this needle bag..." Qianhe said cautiously standing by the fence, his tone seemed rather cowardly.

The jailer glared at her, and snatched the needle bag from her hand. He was also careful, afraid that she would hide the needle, and if he committed suicide by swallowing the needle, he would not be able to do so.So he counted how many needles he had in advance, and then counted them again when he brought them back. There were not many of them, so he took the needle bag and left with his partner, ready to hand over work.

It was late at night, and the prison was dark, and the weak lights could only illuminate a fairly limited area.When the jailer left, he never noticed that one of the long needles in the needle bag was actually missing.And the broken part was hidden in Qianhe's belt...

……

Huyan Zhuoma pushed aside the thorns in front of him, got out of the bushes first, stood still and looked ahead.Sweat dampened his beard and soaked his clothes beneath his armor.

Shen Sui and others who followed behind him were in the same state as him.They had already trekked in Lishan Mountain for an hour and a half, and the sky had completely darkened.Because it had just rained, the road in the mountain was muddy and soft, making it very difficult to walk.After the shower, instead of bringing a feeling of coolness and refreshment, it seemed even more sweltering and unbearable, making people breathless.

"Chishi, something happened to you, wouldn't the lotus maids in Chang'an be implicated as well?" Probably because she was busy running away, Li Jinyue remembered this incident, and hurriedly grabbed Shen Sui who was beside her and asked.

"The maidservants Lian, Huang'er and Xiongniang were all imprisoned before I came to Mount Li." Shen Sui said indifferently.

Li Jinyue frowned. Shen Sui's attitude made her feel confused. She should be the person in the world who can't tolerate the harm of her wife, daughter and relatives. Now that Lian Maid, Huang'er and others are all in prison, how can she be a little bit worse? Don't worry?Could it be that she has other plans?

Seeing the expression on her face, Shen Sui couldn't help but smile, and comforted her:

"Don't worry, they will probably be able to come out tonight. If our place goes well, maybe tomorrow, we can meet in Baqiao."

"You really have an arrangement." While Li Jinyue breathed a sigh of relief, she felt that it was abominable for her to play tricks on her, so she couldn't help but give her a blank look.

"Hehehe..." Shen Sui just laughed.

"Are you really going back to Chang'an? It's a cave of dragons and tigers, now we should take the opportunity to escape as soon as possible, right?" Li Jinyue was still a little worried about Shen Sui's plan.

"You just need to follow my plan step by step. What we have to do now is to wait and see what happens. After a while, someone will naturally rescue us. For us today, the most dangerous place is actually the safest place. If we leave Chang'an, we will lose the opportunity. But I won't enter Chang'an city, that's really a little passive. Didn't I just say that our ancestors used to have a farm near Baqiao, which was later transferred to others. I bought it some time ago, but I didn’t expect it to come in handy now. It’s a big house, and it’s also very hidden, enough for us to hide. Right now, all the people from Chang’an Qianyumen are there.”

Shen Sui's words undoubtedly gave Li Jinyue a reassurance.

At this moment, the slope of the road ahead dropped sharply, and everyone stood on the edge of the steep slope. The trees stretched forward, and they were very sparse. In the distance, a large unsheltered field could be seen, and a large number of forbidden troops were stationed in that field. Above, patrolling back and forth.

Huyan Zhuoma turned around and said:

"Master, this is the weakest place in the encirclement. We must break through here in order to escape completely." As he spoke, he pointed to an unknown road running farther away than the patrol team. River, continued:

"Our destination is in the waters over there. Our boat is hidden in the reeds. That river is a tributary of the Wei River. As long as we go up the river, we can reach Baqiao along the Wei River."

Shen Sui nodded and said:

"Let's begin."

Huyan Zhuoma nodded, took out an eagle whistle and blew it. The whistle could not be distinguished by the human ear, but the eagle could hear it. Bai Hao in the sky received the signal and immediately flew away to the distant jungle, and soon plunged into the forest. In the forest, countless startled birds suddenly startled.At the same time, Cong Yun had already taken a detour, ran down the other side of the hillside, and took the opportunity to sneak into the tail of the patrolling troops. When the frightened bird flew up, he suddenly shouted:

"The fugitive is there!"

The patrolling troops were alarmed immediately, and the leader general was eager to make contributions, he called all the troops immediately, turned around, and moved towards the place where the frightened bird flew up. In an instant, the line of defense disappeared.

During this period, Shen Sui and the others hurriedly took off their armor and pretended to bury them in the ground, and ran towards the river quickly, sticking to the grassy ground.It wasn't until they got into the reed marshes smoothly and boarded the corresponding boat that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.The boatman on the boat threw the fishermen's clothes from the rain to them, and asked them to change again. They put on and undressed many times, and each time they seemed in a hurry, but this time they took it easy.

At this moment, Shen Sui suddenly remembered something, grabbed Li Jinyue's hand and said:

"Maomao, is your soldier talisman on you?"

Li Jinyue's heart skipped a beat, she raised her hand to touch her waist, and then her complexion turned pale.She carried her soldier talisman in her pocket, and she had taken off her clothes many times just now, and lost the pocket.

She looked at Shen Sui speechlessly, Shen Sui took a deep breath and comforted:

"Don't worry, I'll let the brothers who stay behind go up the mountain to look for them. Our clothes are buried in the ground at fixed points, and we won't lose them if there is no accident. Now we can't go back no matter what. If you lose the soldier talisman, you will lose it and keep it in the green hills." I'm not afraid of running out of firewood. What's more, it's hard to say whether the military power in Youzhou is still ours, even if there is a military talisman, it may not be able to mobilize the army."

Li Jinyue grabbed the loose hair on her forehead in frustration, and she could only nod her head when she heard Shen Sui's comfort.Yang Yuhuan on the side didn't know what to say, so she could only hold on tightly to the hem of her clothes.

……

On the Lishan Mountain on the other side, a figure appeared in the dense jungle. He stopped at the place where Shen Sui and the others stopped to change clothes, pushed aside the soil under his feet, and took out Li Jinyue's pocket...

The author has something to say: Guess who this person is, there is no prize for guessing [doge]