The city of Xiangyang shrouded by the night is already silent, most of the people in the Xuanzheng Workshop have fallen asleep, the workshop is pitch black, only the magnificent Dugu is brightly lit, the reed shed built in front of the house is visible from afar, the sound of hundreds of monks chanting sutras accompanied by the sound of wooden fish is far away, three or four miles away can be heard clearly, making the quiet night appear more lonely.

Three or four miles away, Dugu Huaien's frame came under the escort of more than a dozen guards, he was worried that outsiders knew that they were out of the period when his father was not yet buried, and did not enter the workshop through the main gate, but went around to the south gate, intending to enter through the back door, although the pawns were nominally imperial court generals, but in fact, these were all people from Dugu Mansion, and they were guarded by their own people, and it was more convenient and safe to enter and exit at night, and it could play a role in hiding people's ears and eyes; The same is true of Xuanwei Fang, where the Dou Mansion is located, where the two big families almost form a small world of their own in the vast Xiangyang.

After entering the workshop, the nervous guards had a sense of security returning home, and their expressions were relaxed.

Advancing for about a mile, the shops on both sides of the road disappeared, and what appeared in front of the guards was a large pond planted with aquatic flowers and trees, and the dense water bamboo was more than one person high, and there were several acres of area, just when they were just close to the water bamboo bushes, one of the guards in front suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, and then the others also fell, and they stepped on the iron thistle terrestris hidden on their heels.

Tribulus terrestris has four iron thorns several inches long, no matter how to throw it, there is always a thorn facing up after landing, the tip of the thorn is extremely sharp, in order to be able to recycle, the tribulus terrestris will leave a salute when it is built, and the rope is strung together before laying, as soon as the war is over, you only need to find the rope to recover, but the tribulus terrestris can only make people and war horses lose their mobility, and it is not enough to be fatal, so many times, the laying party will quench the poison on the tribulus terrestris, after the poisoning of the people and horses, they will lose their combat effectiveness at least and lose their lives at worst.

These Dugu Mansion guards wailed and fell on the thistle, and the pierced wound quickly became black and swollen, and they died on the ground in a short time.

At this moment, dozens of black-clothed warriors were killed from Shuizhu, and they rushed towards several guards behind the carriage with their swords, they were strong in martial arts, and they shot fiercely, and in just a moment, the guards of the Dugu clan screamed miserably, and all of them died.

The horse pulling the cart has also stepped on the thistle, fell to the ground fiercely, the frightened Dugu Huaien fell out of the carriage, before Dugu Huaien got up, several black-clothed people rushed up, hacked him to death, and a few others pulled up the rope, the iron-thistle terrestris was all recovered, before and after less than a moment, the black-clothed people jumped into the pool, and soon disappeared into the night.

This flower pond was actually part of Dugu Mansion, and when the assassins withdrew, the alarmed Dugu Mansion guards rushed to the place of the incident with torches and fire dragons.

"It's Shangshu!"

Under the torch, Dugu Huaien, whose face was black, was recognized by the guards.

The burly young man at the head stumbled and almost fell to the ground. This person's name is Dugu Wu, is the family general of the Dugu family, as early as the Northern Zhou Dynasty, due to the implementation of the military system, almost every family has a large number of generals and troops, these generals have changed to the master's surname, the most typical representative is Yuwen Shu, his original surname is Ye Potou, became Yuwen's family slave before changing his surname Yuwen.

These families will follow the master for generations, and the master and the relationship between prosperity and loss, this Dugu Wu ancestor grandfather is the Dugu letter general, four generations are loyal to the Dugu family, can be described as loyal. Dugu Wu is superb in martial arts, shrewd and capable, and has always been the right-hand man of Dugu Cheng and Dugu Cheng, and has won the trust and respect of his uncle and nephew.

He tried to force himself to calm down, and quickly confessed: "Carry Shangshu to the mansion, and if anyone asks, say that the assassin lured us here, which caused the mansion to neglect its precautions, resulting in the assassination of Shangshu, who was tired and asleep." Drag the wagons and carcasses away."

"Whoa!"

A guard carried Dugu Huaien's body on his back and quickly returned home under the cover of several brothers. Several others carried the carcass onto the carriage and dragged it away.

Dugu Wu breathed a sigh of relief.

If people know that Dugu Huai'en does not return in the middle of the night during his filial piety, it will be very bad for his reputation, and he will arrange it this way, not only to protect Dugu Huai'en's filial piety, but also to deal with the court; If the court knew that Dugu Huaien was dying outside, and asked why he went out, Dugu Mansion was very passive, and if it was not good, it would expose the Dugu family's plan. As for who the murderer of Dugu Huaien is, he can only find out later.

Seeing the guards leave far away, when Mo Yue arrived in the mansion, he suddenly ordered: "Go to one person, go to the front yard to inform the head of the house, and the others will search with me." ”

"Whoa!"

A group of people took action one after another, holding torches high, like fireflies in the night, and the sound of search broke the silence of Xuanzheng Fang

Soon, Dugu Cheng got the news, and when he saw Dugu Huaien's black corpse, he almost fainted.

Before he had time to ask anything, a person sent a string of bloodstained thistles on Duguwu's orders, and reported: "Master of the family, we have found this string of thistles, it should be that the assassin withdrew in a hurry and left it behind when he collected it." ”

Dugu Cheng endured the grief in his heart and stared at it, and found that this was a string of thistles with a broken rope, and it was not appropriate to say that it was a string, because there were only five thistles, and it should have been too strong and torn the rope.

"Is there an iron-thistle in the house?"

"Yes!"

"Bring a few."

"Whoa!" The guard hurried away, and after a while, he brought two bags and brought a craftsman, who opened them one by one, and said, "Master, this is the iron thistle of the Sui and Tang dynasties." ”

"What's the difference?"

"I don't know much about the lowly position, so I invited the master of the house!"

Dugu Cheng nodded approvingly, and turned his gaze to the craftsman, "You can tell me." ”

"Whoa!" When the craftsman saw the head of the family, he said nervously: "My lord, the Sui Dynasty is rich in ores and has developed smelting techniques, and their thistle terrestris spikes are longer than those of my dynasty, and their size is also larger than that of this dynasty. ”

"Do you know why?"

"Yes!" The craftsman nodded, and said: "The humble position is the convenience of the book, you can freely enter and exit the smelter of the Ministry of Industry, according to the old craftsman inside, the reason why the iron thistle terrestris of the Sui Dynasty is long and big, it should be because of the war with foreign peoples, the grassland soil is loose, the war horse is heavy, if the spikes are too short, the war horse will not enter the soil as soon as he steps on it, and even the horse's hooves cannot pierce it, in order to achieve the purpose of hitting the horse's hooves, so the thistle terrestris is made long and big. ”

"I see, you stand down."

"Whoa!" The craftsman retreated.

Dugu Cheng's eyes glanced at the five iron thistles, according to what the craftsman said, he recognized this as the iron thistle of the Tang Dynasty at a glance, and looked back at the appearance on Dugu Huaien's face, which was exactly the same as his uncle's corpse, it can be seen that this is the same poison.

"asked people to go to the criminal department to report the case, and it was said that Dugu Shangshu was assassinated in the house. At the same time, send someone to invite Jing Zhao Yin Zhao Cijing, the assassin has been rampant to the point of entering the mansion of the dignified Ministry of Works, I want to ask him how this Jing Zhao Yin is doing. ”

"Whoa!"

looked at Dugu Huaien's wife, concubine, children, and Dugu Huaien's corpse who were crying heartbreakingly, Dugu Cheng couldn't say a word of comfort, and for a long time, he stomped his feet hatefully and walked into the room.

When he arrived in the courtyard, Dugu Cheng let out a creepy sneer, "Li Mi? What a 'Li Mi', do you really plan to make my Dugu clan mud? Go and call Dugu Wu back to me, and the others will continue to search. ”

。。。。。。。。。。。。

The people who don't sleep tonight are not only the Dugu clan who are in chaos, in an attic of Xiaoxiang Pavilion, a red candle is about to burn out, Su Jin is holding a big red wedding dress, embroidering it stitch by stitch.

At this time, the door of the pavilion was opened from the outside, and a twenty-eight-year-old beauty in a colorful skirt walked in quickly, and said softly: "Yin ......"

"Huh?" Su Jin looked up.

"The conspiracy is done!" The beauty in the colorful skirt showed a sweet smile and leaned over to give a light salute: "Sister Su, there is news over there, the task has been completed." ”

"Got it."

"I can't figure it out, why did you kill this Dugu Huaien? Isn't it good to keep him? ”

"Dugu Huaien has become wary of my performance tonight, and before leaving, he suddenly made a tentative speech, if he is not eliminated, Xiaoxiang Pavilion will be exposed sooner or later. Killing him can increase their hatred and make Xiangyang even more chaotic. ”

Su Jin put down his clothes and needlework, and muttered for a while: "From his hints to Yun, I can sense what the Dugu clan is going to do to send this news to Luoyang." ”

The beauty in the colorful skirt looked at the sky and estimated: "If you believe in the eagle, it should be able to be delivered tomorrow, but it's a pity that you can't bring that stupid eagle, otherwise you can send the letter overnight." ”

"It's not stupid, it's so powerful that even wolves can catch it in the sky. It's late at night, so go and rest early. ”

The beauty in the colorful skirt did not leave as she said, but closed the door, sat next to Su Jin, watched carefully, and after a while, said: "Sister's craftsmanship is so good, the embroidery is lifelike, if you don't look closely, I think the mandarin duck is alive." ”

She was bare and continued sullenly: "I can't do it, the embroidered mandarin duck is said to be an ugly duckling." ”

"Quite apt!" Su Jin stopped what he was doing, gently stroked his temples, and smiled lightly: "You have someone to help you, but I can't." ”

"I heard that you were forced to get married, so I found an excuse to run out. It can be seen that you have a sweetheart, otherwise you wouldn't have come to Xiangyang to embroider with a wedding dress. ”

"It's just embroidering and playing."

"You have been with him all the year round, is your sweetheart him?"

"Nope!" Su Jin's embroidery needle was biased, and a bead of blood oozed from the fingertips

"And say no, you're all on your hands." The beauty in the colorful skirt smiled "hehe" and teased: "You spend more time with him than his big and small ladies, and he is so good, it's normal for you to like it!" If you like it, you should say it, how do you know you like him if you don't say it; If you don't say it, how does he know that you don't like people? ”

"Long-winded!"