Daiyu of the Red Chamber raised a cat

"What, dead?!"

Zhou Hang frowned, his voice was condensed, making people feel as if he was in an ice cave, and his whole body was completely cold; the awe of a high-ranking person made the soldier in front of him tremble, and he began to reply intermittently.

"His Royal Highness, the traveling monk is indeed dead, and his death status is no different from that of Wu Shunbao's family."

Just afraid of this...

Hurry up and hurry over, it's still a step too late.

Zhou Hang glanced at Lin Ruhai, seeing him with a straight face, frowning as if he was thinking about something.It is expected that he has the same thoughts as his own at the moment, it is impossible to always be led by the nose like this.The Secretary of the Ministry of Punishment hurried over while clutching his nose. Zhou Hang glanced at him and said, "Order me to do an autopsy."

So Shang Shu, who just ran out of the room in the Shura field, had to bring Wu Zuo in with great hatred.

Here Zhou Hang clenched his fists directly and said coldly, "Take the abbot!"

The abbot is an old dragon-born monk with a gray beard, about sixty years old, behind him are two people in yellow-brown uniforms, both clasped their hands together and whispered every year.The abbot didn't seem flustered when he saw Zhou Hang, he clasped his hands together and recited the Buddha's name after seeing Zhou Hang.

Zhou Hang squinted at him and asked, "Are you convicted?"

The abbot bowed again and recited a sentence of Buddha, saying: "The poor monk has little talent and learning, and was bewitched by evil spirits, causing great disasters. He is willing to accept the punishment. Please come down to the Prince's Hall!"

Zhou Hang said: "Since you are convicted, why don't you honestly explain the origin of the demon monk and the mastermind behind the scenes?"

After hearing this, the abbot knelt down.

"Your Majesty the Crown Prince clearly learned that wandering monks practice hard and wander around. They are homes everywhere, self-cultivating, and enlightening sentient beings. There is no fixed place to live. Our temple often accepts wandering monks to live temporarily and provides meals for them. How can everyone know their origins? This time, the poor monk is really incompetent, he was deceived by the monstrous monk, and mistakenly took the stubborn stone as a beautiful jade, if His Highness blames him, the poor monk is willing to accept the punishment."

In short, he just refused to admit that he was related to that harmful monk, let alone know the details.

"Really?" Zhou Hang looked sideways slightly, with the corners of his mouth curled up, pursing his lips in a half-smile.

The abbot was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said: "It's absolutely true."

"How come the abbot personally entertains the traveling monk who lives in the temple?!"

The abbot clenched the hand holding the prayer beads violently, but his face remained calm.However, this small movement could not be hidden from Zhou Hang's eyes. He knew that the old monk was getting nervous, so he had to lie a few more words, and his flaws would naturally be exposed.

"His Royal Highness, the poor monk heard from his disciples that the monks who came to settle down this time have a dignified appearance, which is different from the past. I was afraid that the eminent monk would be rude, so I personally entertained him."

Zhou Hang let out an "oh" and looked at him with sharp eyes that were piercing.

"So, you were not recommended by the Jinling royal family?"

The abbot's forehead was covered with cold sweat, he was stunned, gritted his teeth and said: "It has nothing to do with the Wang family."

"Bold!" Zhou Hang yelled suddenly, "This old monk is talking nonsense. He colluded with the demon monks in an attempt to deceive the crown prince and obstruct the solution of the case. Come here and take him away. He will be locked up in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs. He will report to the Holy Spirit on a certain day and beheaded for public display!"

The abbot complained that he was wronged, and the two yamen servants fought and refused to leave.After finally being dragged a few meters away, he suddenly broke free from the shackles of the yamen servant as if he had taken a strong pill, rushed to Zhou Hang, hugged Zhou Hang's thigh, and yelled that he was wronged.

Zhou Hang didn't expect that the abbot of his monastery, who is also a respected monk on weekdays, would be such a rascal in front of his disciples. Somewhat inexplicable.

After he realized it, he smiled and said, "What is wrong with you? Why, you thought you wouldn't be able to find out if you didn't mention your own prince? More than two months ago, on the tenth day of October, at three o'clock in the morning, a walking monk came to your temple , was led by Wang Ren."

At the same time, the abbot felt an electric current hit his whole body, as if being pricked by thousands of needles, especially where he touched Zhou Hang, it was extremely painful.Although he is timid and afraid of death, he is not stupid, otherwise he would not be able to become the abbot of a temple from a small novice monk.This reaction in himself was obviously caused by the crown prince, since he has this ability, then crushing himself to death is like crushing an ant.Besides, he could not only tell the exact time when the monk came, but also who brought it. Obviously, he couldn't hide other things from him, so it would be ridiculous to call him wronged.

In the end, under heavy coercion, he expressed his willingness to cooperate.

At this moment, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment came out with people, with a bitter face and frowning, several servants who came out even held the plane tree in the courtyard to vomit, even Wu Zuo was pale and ashen .In his words, he has examined the corpses for decades, and today's corpses are the most disgusting.He had experienced rotting and dying of willow disease, and left it covered with maggots for more than ten days, and the smell was not as bad as this time, which was unbearable.

"How is the test?" Zhou Hang looked sideways.

Wu Zuo raised his head, his eyes full of resentment.

Sure enough, the high-ranking people don't care about the life and death of the ordinary people, and they are like ghosts, which makes people calm down anyway.

But he is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the son of the Holy Master, a born nobleman, and he is not something that a commoner can afford to offend.

"Returning to Your Highness, the walking monk's death condition is the same as that of Wu Shunbao's family. There is no trauma on the body, and there is no sign of poisoning. Judging from the color and lightness of the corpse spots, it took about an hour to die."

Zhou Hang closed his sense of smell and took people to search the room in detail, and found three ghost-like charms.

Although Zhou Hang knew a little about the art of talismans and made some talismans on weekdays, he couldn't understand what kind of talisman it was, so he planned to take it back and ask Daiyu, she was better at talisman than himself.

I also found a burnt letter next to the brazier with only a few inches left. There was only one character on it, and more than half of it was burned. From the remaining half, it could be vaguely judged that it should be the character "Zhang".

Otherwise, there are no valuable clues.

The Minister of Criminal Affairs asked Zhou Hang what to do with the body.

Zhou Hang waved his hand: "Burn it, so as not to pollute the environment."

Although the minister of the Ministry of punishment didn't know much about polluting the environment, he still understood the word "burning" and hurriedly ordered people to do it.

Zhou Hang had already taken the abbot to another courtyard for interrogation.

It's a pity that this old monk's knowledge is limited, and he doesn't know anything about it. Not only can't tell more inside stories, but he doesn't even know how much he has investigated. He only knows that the demon monk has contacts with Judge Zhang of Qingxu Temple.

Judge is a respectful title for Taoist priests with positions.Many of them have stayed in the Royal Taoist temple, or have contacts with the royal family, and have been given titles by the Holy One.

This judge is the master of the Qingxu Temple, and has very secret contacts with the four major families and other aristocratic families.

But this view of Qingxu is different from Tiekan Temple, Shuiyue Temple, etc. It holds that Taoist priests were originally Rong Guogong's substitutes at that time. Because they were good at making friends with powerful people, they quickly became famous in the circle of nobles.Later, the current emperor, the former emperor, heard about it, and summoned him into the palace to preach scriptures, and Zeng Yukou personally called him "the Immortal of Great Illusion".Even now, they are sometimes summoned, so no one dares to be negligent, from princes to ordinary officials, and even calls out "living gods" when they see each other.

Now that this person is involved in the matter, if there is no evidence, it is really difficult to arrest him.

As expected, Zhou Hang ordered someone to call this Taoist priest. Although the other party was courteous and thoughtful, he was rebellious in his bones.When I asked about the wandering demon monk, I just said that I met him by chance, chatted a few words, felt that the other party was very knowledgeable, and then met a few more times, nothing more than talking about Buddhism and Taoism, and discussing poetry and prose.

Zhou Hang asked him to go to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to cooperate with the investigation, and the other party moved out the Supreme Emperor.

He said he was summoned by the Supreme Emperor, and that he suddenly had a nightmare, and he wanted to call him into the palace to interpret the dream, and by the way, he would give a lecture on the Tao Te Ching.

Dare to use the Supreme Emperor to suppress him, do you think he will be afraid? !

Zhou Hang said directly: "Don't worry, the Taoist priest, I will go to the Ministry of Criminal Justice to stay overnight, and tomorrow I will send the Taoist priest directly to the palace, and I will not miss interpreting dreams and preaching scriptures to the Supreme Emperor."

Taoist Zhang naturally looked for reasons to shirk, and Koizumi also looked at Zhou Hang's sleeve.

"Master, involving the Supreme Emperor, this...isn't good..."

Zhou Hang was determined to investigate to the end, and said in front of everyone: "The Supreme Emperor blames it, and I will take responsibility!"

Daoist Zhang was "invited" to the Ministry of Punishment.It was not yet noon at that time, which meant that he had to stay at the Ministry of Punishment for at least one afternoon and one night.

Li Zhao heard that Zhou Hang had tied the Taoist priest whom the Supreme Emperor valued to the Ministry of Punishment. After lunch, he immediately ordered his bodyguards to call Zhou Hang into the palace.

"Nonsense!" The first sentence he uttered was a reprimand.

Zhou Hang curled his lips, looked at his emperor's father and said: "The man surnamed Zhang is not a good person. Over the years, relying on the power of those declining nobles, he has dared to deceive the common people. There are many people around Qingxu Temple. The displacement of the common people means that the land has been annexed by these local forces. They have a good idea to make the common people unable to live, and sell the land to the Taoist temple at a low price. I can’t even fill my stomach. Hmph, it’s just relying on the shade of our ancestors, these old nobles should be cleaned up after several lifetimes of fish and meat!”

Li Zhao sighed, got up from his seat, took a few steps, and said, "That's the truth, but the Emperor is nostalgic for the old days, and he has feelings for these things. Besides, it's not like you said, whoever is punished will be punished, We also have to consider the stability of the court and the response of the common people."

Zhou Hang muttered: "I know this too, so I have already been very polite to that Taoist priest. He was neither tied nor shackled, but please go over and cooperate with the investigation. This time, the girl next to Ms. Lin was killed for a while. Zhang's can't get away with it. They went through a lot of trouble, it's not as simple as trying to kill a girl, if I don't find out the black hands behind the scenes, sister Lin will be in danger."

Li Zhao looked at him and squinted his eyes: "Do you have conclusive evidence to prove that Taoist Zhang is related to this matter?"

"If I have evidence, I won't invite you, and I'll just tie you up."

Li Zhao walked up to Zhou Hang and patted him on the shoulder, "This matter will soon reach the Supreme Emperor's ears, you, think about how to explain it to the Supreme Emperor."

Zhou Hang said: "The Supreme Emperor is not an unreasonable person, I have my own way to explain."