hellebore flowers hellebore flowers

In the early morning of the next day, in the flower hall of Kaifeng Mansion, Zhan Zhaozheng told Bao Zheng and Gongsun Ce that they had entered the palace to face the saint yesterday.

"Guard Zhan means," Bao Zheng looked surprised, "someone sneaked into the palace and left a note in the imperial study?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, and took out a scroll from his pocket and handed it to Bao Zheng: "According to the Holy Majesty, after he came down to court yesterday, he saw this scroll hanging on the wall as soon as he entered the imperial study."

Bao Zheng carefully opened the scroll, and saw that the exquisitely framed scroll was dripping with ink, and there were four large characters written on it:

There are thieves in the palace

Bao Zheng passed the scroll to Gongsun Ce who was beside him, and said, "Mr. Gongsun, let's take a look at the clues of this scroll."

Gongsun Ce took the scroll with both hands and spread it flat on the desk. First, he reached out to touch the scroll, then lowered his head to sniff the ink, and finally stretched out his index finger to copy a few strokes along the handwriting. , this scroll is top-grade both in terms of paper and workmanship, and there are dark patterns of dragons on the paper, so it should belong to the imperial palace." He said and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded and said, "The Holy Majesty also said so."

Gongsun Ce continued: "The paper is gold-sprinkled paper, and the ink is golden-scented ink. If the paper is something in the palace, then the ink should also be in the palace. The person who left the book directly used it in the study of the Holy One. pen and paper. As for this word," Gongsun Ce paused before saying, "If the student didn't miss it, these four words should have been written by a woman."

Bao Zheng looked surprised, took the scroll and looked at it again, then nodded slowly and said: "Sure enough, although the handwriting is strong and powerful, the strokes are soft after all, sir, you have good eyesight."

Gongsun Ce laughed and said, "Your Excellency, it's just that the Forbidden Palace is heavily guarded. Why these four words appear in the Imperial Study Room, the students are completely puzzled."

Bao Zheng stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, then asked: "Guard Zhan, with your skills, is it possible to leave these four words in the study of the Holy One?" "Guard Zhan doesn't have to worry about it, but it doesn't matter."

Zhan Zhao said: "It's not difficult to keep books, but the imperial study room is always swept by people, if you enter the imperial study room to leave your writing during the day, you have to let the Holy One see the writing first, I'm afraid..."

Bao Zheng nodded: "In this way, the person who left the letter. If it wasn't for his extraordinary martial arts skills, he could really come and go without a trace, or he was very familiar with the palace. Did the person leave the letter in the study of the Holy One to warn him, or ...to challenge the officials?"

Gongsun Ce suddenly said: "Women who are familiar with the palace, could they be some maidservant in the palace?"

Bao Zheng shook his head thoughtfully and said: "Looking at the ink characters, it should not be written by a weak woman. Besides, if a servant girl in the palace finds that there are thieves in the palace, how would she dare to leave a book in the study of the Holy One? I want to come, this woman She should have martial arts, but how could she be familiar with the palace..."

Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered what happened in the imperial kitchen yesterday, and said in a concentrated voice: "My lord, I encountered a strange incident in the palace yesterday." After finishing speaking, he told Bao Zheng about the woman in white in the imperial kitchen yesterday.

After Bao Zheng listened without saying a word, he asked a few more details, stroked his long beard and fell into deep thought, muttering to himself: "Just now someone left a message in the imperial study room saying that there were thieves in the Ming palace, and then found someone trespassing." Forbidden Palace, both of them are women, what is the connection between them..."

************************************************** ***********************************

At the same time, it was a different scene in the Forbidden Palace.

It was still early, and the young guards on duty were yawning and rubbing their sleepy eyes. Last night's search was really a waste of effort, not to mention that they didn't even see a piece of the woman's clothes in white, and they were beaten by Commander Wang for nothing. After cursing, fortunately his adjutant Li Ziyan was there to persuade them, otherwise their salary for this month would probably be lost again.

Anyway, at least the money has not been deducted, and the woman in white might just be the new Mr. Zhan's eyes. Even if there is such a person, this is the imperial palace. If you dare to come once, you will not dare to come a second time. .Thinking of this, the little guard regained his mood a little, rubbed his eyes vigorously, and managed to pull himself together. Counting the time, it was time for Commander Wang to come to check shifts. I hope the old man had a good night's sleep last night , don't just deduct their salary today...

At this moment, the little guard suddenly heard a muffled "bang" from a warehouse on the left.

Normally, he would have regarded it as a rat in the barn at most, but after yesterday's experience, the little guard suddenly became alert, pulled out his saber with a swipe, and carefully prepared to go over to check, thinking about it, he pulled back the knife he usually used with him. He made good friends with Dalin.The two, one on the left and the other on the right, hesitated for a long time outside the door with two gleaming steel knives. Finally, Dalin took a deep breath and kicked the door open.

The two doors hit the wall, and they bounced back unwillingly, making harsh creaking noises. Through the rising dust, the two finally saw Commander Wang Konglin in the warehouse.

To be precise, it was Commander Wang whose head was covered in ashes like a rice dumpling.

It has to be said that this situation was a bit beyond the little guard's psychological expectations. He has only been a guard for a short time. He has never experienced this kind of scene of seeing his immediate boss being tied up and falling to the ground, and he doesn't know how to deal with it.Should I call someone for help right away?Or should we take the lead and help Wang Tong and his old man up?It's better to help Commander Wang first. In this way, Commander Wang probably doesn't like what many people see...

Thinking of this, the little guard hurriedly put down his waist knife to help Wang Konglin, while praising himself in his heart, he really did a good job, he really has the ability to adapt.

It's a pity that this contingency failed after helping Wang Konglin, and the little guard couldn't hold back a "puchi" laugh.

I saw a long strip of white paper hanging in front of Wang Konglin's chest, hanging down on both sides around his neck.

What is written on the left is: The Forbidden Palace can come and go freely.

On the right is written: Bantam can do nothing to me.

It's over now, the little guard thought to himself, this smile, I'm afraid all the salary for this year will be deducted.

************************************************** ***********************************

If the young emperor still had some doubts when he saw the scroll, after such an incident, it was a certainty that someone trespassed in the Forbidden Palace, so the emperor immediately ordered that all the guards in the palace listen to the fourth-rank guards with knives. Zhao Zhao sent to assist Master Bao in catching this daring thief who trespassed in the Forbidden Palace.

After hearing the news, Muchen still drank from an old tree in the back garden of the palace.The tree is a ginkgo tree. After autumn, a large piece of ginkgo leaves will fall off when the wind blows. They are as fragile as the gray hair on the head of an eighty-year-old man.However, this old tree carefully selected by Muchen has a trunk full of lush branches and leaves. Although the tree is also covered with fallen leaves, the branches and stems are still covered with small golden fans. Also faintly visible round ginkgo.

For the wood quinoa, it is really a good hiding place.

Especially when there are several altars of fine Xinghuacun Fenjiu buried under this tree.

Of course, Muchen doesn't know who buried the wine, she only knows two things, first, the wine is not poisonous; second, the wine is good wine.

In the palace, these two reasons are completely sufficient.

So Muqin dug out the hidden wine with peace of mind, found a comfortable branch on the tree with peace of mind, and then slapped the mud seal with peace of mind, and drank the wine stored in the palace even more with peace of mind.

There will be good wine buried under the ginkgo tree in the back garden of the palace, and there may be some interesting stories behind it.In normal times, Muchen would probably take advantage of the wine to make a guess, and then make up a story to entertain herself, but for now, her greatest pleasure now is to recall the bantam surnamed Wang. The ridiculous appearance of being made ashamed by her, and when the picture she wrote a long time ago hung on the slender and slender neck of Commander Wang, the expression on his face that he couldn't swallow and spit out Coptis chinensis .

Playing tricks on others is not the biggest pleasure of Mu Li, but when she has this fun, she always enjoys it. In fact, she is still in a very happy mood after playing tricks on Commander Wang for a long time.

This happy mood remained until the guards came to search the back garden.

A jar of Fenjiu was already bottoming out, and Muchen was also a little bit drunk, but the moment she heard the footsteps, her body tensed up like a cheetah, and her eyes became brighter and brighter. , she looked up to see that the sky was getting dark, and murmured: "It's such a beautiful weather. After being tired for half a day, I really should find a place to sleep well."

The footsteps of the guards approached, and Mu Li patted the wine jar in her hand lightly, and looked at the excavated land under the tree that she had tidied up, with a faint smile on the corner of her mouth.

A gust of autumn wind blew in the coolness, the ginkgo leaves rattled, and the clothes of the cloverleaf trembled, and people had disappeared into the depths of the garden.

Probably because the old man was "injured" by Wang Commander, and he was recuperating at the moment, and Li Ziyan, the deputy commander of the guards, was accompanying Zhan Zhao to search.

Compared with Commander Wang, Li Ziyan was calmer and more eloquent. During the half-day search of the palace with Zhan Zhao, he had already told Zhan Zhao all the things in the palace. Zhan Zhao had doubts. Yes, Li Ziyan can often explain clearly in a few sentences.After getting along for half a day, Zhan Zhao couldn't help feeling that, compared to Commander Wang, Vice Commander Li seemed more suitable for the position of Commander.

Under Master Bao's order, Zhan Zhao searched the palace this time, looking for someone is the second priority, understanding the personnel in the palace is the top priority, so Commander Wang's timely "injury" can be regarded as helping Zhan Zhao.

It's just... what Zhan Zhao heard was that at [-] o'clock today, some guards discovered that the Commander Wang was tied up in a warehouse, with a piece of white paper hanging around his neck, and there was a book written in ink on it... I have never heard of the so-called injuries. Zhan Zhao asked Li Ziyan, "I heard that Commander Wang was injured yesterday when he encountered a villain? I don't know if it's serious or not?"

Li Ziyan laughed out loud when he heard the words, and then realized that it was inappropriate to laugh at his immediate boss like this, and coughed abruptly, and said vaguely: "Commander Wang, the old man met some bad guys yesterday, probably... he suffered a little. Surprised, the injury... should not be serious, not serious..."

************************************************** ***********************************

When Zhan Zhao and Li Ziyan were inspecting the Forbidden Palace, the "not seriously injured" Commander Wang was sitting tremblingly in the main hall of his house, not even daring to take a breath.Although the old man's physical injuries are light at this moment, the burden on his heart is unprecedentedly heavy.

And every time his gaze meets the old man in front of him, who is as dark as iron and not angry and self-assured as in the rumors, his burden will be even more.

Once again, Wang Konglin and Bao Zheng looked away uncomfortably, and looked down at the table, but it turned out that the note that landed on it was the note that killed a thousand swords. The fourteen ink characters on it were clearly visible, and the handwriting was flying and free, "What can I do?" The four words are even more forceful, and they almost burst out of the paper, as if they are mocking him even with a stroke and a vertical stroke.

Wang Konglin's horse face stretched even longer, but the governor of Kaifeng was in front, he didn't dare to show it clearly, he couldn't let out a bad breath, so he had to swallow it again, and turned around to digest it by himself.

Bao Zheng had a panoramic view of Wang Konglin's expression, he was secretly amused, but he didn't show his face, he just lowered his head and drank his tea.

Bao Zheng had been chatting with this Commander Wang for some time, and this Commander Wang really did not hide anything about what happened last night, how he patrolled the palace at night, how he felt a numbness in the back of his neck, how he lost consciousness, How to find himself in a warehouse after waking up, and how to make noises to attract people to find out and be saved, detailed and detailed analysis, this commander Wang probably has never analyzed anything so thoroughly in his life.

If Bao Zheng were a few dozen years younger, he might have believed his words. It's just that over the years of judging the case, he has interrogated [-] or [-] prisoners, including some timid and wretched, and some hypocritical and flattering , Some people bite to death and don't let go, and some people have no words to listen to.From their mouths, Bao Zheng heard countless kinds of rhetoric.

Over the years, he dared not say that every case would be solved and that there would be no wrongdoing, but he, Bao Zheng, could still distinguish clearly what was the truth and what was a lie.

The words of the Commander Wang were too clear and precise.

The more lies, the more details are needed to justify them.

Bao Zheng lowered his head and took another sip of the fragrant tea, and looked up at Gongsun Ce who had been silent for a long time.Gongsun Ce understood, coughed and said, "Commander Wang, are you familiar with the handwriting on this note?"

Wang Konglin shook his head and said, "I have never seen this handwriting before."

Gongsun Ce stretched out his finger again, pointed at the words on the note and asked with a smile: "Excuse me for being rude, may Commander Wang have heard the nickname Bantam before?"

The muscles on Wang Konglin's face twitched, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I've never heard of this humble job."

Gongsun Ce turned a blind eye to Wang Konglin's embarrassment, but instead showed a bit of contempt, and asked persistently, "According to Commander Wang, that villain's martial arts are quite strong?"

Wang Konglin rolled his eyes and almost rolled his eyes. Fortunately, he was in charge of the guards after all. He was very smart and stopped his horse in time, but he couldn't help but angrily said: "Well, I'm sorry for being plotted by someone at that time. It's hard to know the strength of that villain's martial arts." After a pause, he added, "It's just that the humble job shouldn't be bad, otherwise that villain wouldn't have escaped from Mr. Zhan."

Seeing that the fire was almost ready, Gongsun Ce picked up the note on the table calmly, and said: "This scoundrel is so bold and rampant that he attacked Commander Wang and hung Commander Wang on the beam of the house, not to mention hanging this note." To humiliate Commander Wang with a note, I am afraid that you will speak badly to Commander Wang, and even fight, right?" When he spoke, his expression was determined and haughty, as if everything was under my control.

Wang Konglin was already very dissatisfied with Gongsun Ce's unsavory and sarcastic remarks. Now his complacent and contemptuous expression made Wang Konglin even annoyed. He only wanted to dampen Gongsun Ce's arrogance. Mr. Gongsun guessed wrong this time, but the woman in white didn’t mock me so much to Mr. In terms of etiquette, she still won by three points.” After speaking, she was quite proud, and raised her eyes to look at Gongsun Ce provocatively. .

Unexpectedly, Gongsun Ce had a smile on his face, and said lightly: "It turns out that the one who attacked Commander Wang was indeed a woman in white. If Commander Wang hadn't reminded me, the students really couldn't be sure."

Wang Konglin's heart skipped a beat, and he said hastily: "Mr. Gongsun is too worried, I have heard Mr. Zhan say so, so I naturally think that the villain is a woman in white, and I have never met the woman in white... "Speaking of this, I suddenly realized what I said before, and suddenly a layer of cold sweat broke out all over my body, and I froze there.

Gongsun Ce put down the note in his hand, let out a long sigh, glanced coldly at Wang Konglin's face a few times, and said with a sneer, "Master Wang made up a good story, and he kept saying that he didn't know who was plotting against him, so he just said it himself." That woman's etiquette is three points better than mine, so contradicting herself, dare to ask Commander Wang, what is the reason?"

Wang Konglin said "this" a few times, he was at a loss for words for a while, and simply refused to admit it: "Xiaozhi, this is a slip of the tongue. After listening to Mr. Zhan's narration yesterday, I was thinking wildly in my heart, and I didn't choose what to say, but I still hope... "

Wang Konglin hadn't spoken the words "Lord Bao forgives your sins", Bao Zheng slammed the table and said sharply: "Bold Wang Konglin, it is already a crime for you to lie to deceive the government, and you still say that the government has no knowledge, but Today, he is full of sophistry and deliberately shields the villain, it is really a crime!"

Wang Konglin was so shocked by Bao Zheng's harsh shouts that his eardrums ached, his temples throbbed, and he subconsciously swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva. He felt his mouth and tongue were dry, and he couldn't even speak for a while.Looking at his appearance, Bao Zheng said coldly: "It seems that Commander Wang is determined to protect that villain, so don't blame the government for being ruthless." Speaking of this, his voice suddenly increased, and he shouted, "Dynasty Mahan Zhang Long Zhao Hu, take Wang Konglin back to Kaifeng Mansion!"

Zhang Long, Zhao Hu and others who were waiting outside the door heard Bao Zheng's call, they all responded, and immediately stepped into the house, intending to take Wang Konglin down.

Wang Konglin was frightened at this moment, and suddenly remembered the three guillotines in Kaifeng Mansion. His legs softened, and he knelt down on the ground with a "plop", and shouted with a trembling voice:

"Master Bao, tell me all about the humble job!"

The author has something to say: Yo-ho-ho!!!