Eastern Capital, East City, Yihefang, Prime Minister's Mansion, Shen Chu

In the inner hall of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Prime Minister Liang Ziqing sat on the main seat, and the guest seats on the left and right were full of men in civilian clothes and black hats.

"Ladies and gentlemen, who do you think Liu Qing's death was done?" Liang Ziqing asked calmly, and glanced at everyone under the table. He was eight feet tall, with three long black beards, dressed in earth-colored everyday clothes, about thirty-eight or nineteen years old, and had a majestic and inviolable majesty.

There was silence for a while, and then a dark-skinned young man sitting on the right side got up and said, "Prime Minister, the minister thinks that this matter must be done by the prince's party. ”

"Tell me about it." Liang Ziqing glanced at the man.

The young man said sternly: "Prime Minister, not to mention that the group of ministers under the prince are extremely hostile to us, even that King Huai once threatened us in public, and he said that if we target the prince again, we will take our heads to worship our ancestors." If His Majesty hadn't arrived in time, I'm afraid that a fist and foot fight would have started a long time ago. Now that I think about it, King Huai really didn't say it casually, but had already begun to put it into action, and the minister suspected that the prince was preparing an organized and premeditated assassination operation, and the prime minister had to take precautions. ”

As soon as these words came out, the guests were in an uproar.

Next to the young man, an old man in his sixties got up and said: "Prime Minister, last year, the prince was in charge of the Yangzhou Silk Weaving Bureau, because someone secretly hid the goods, raised the market price, so that the price of Yangzhou silk continued to rise, the national supply was insufficient, and the people were full of grievances, and was scolded by His Majesty. At the same time, Cheng Yuan implemented the policy of clearing the land in the north, which led to a bumper harvest of grain that year, which was praised by His Majesty. The distinction between advantages and disadvantages is clear at a glance, and the prince also lost his favor at that time, I am afraid that at that time he felt that it was difficult to compete with the prime minister with his political achievements, and only by cutting off loyal ministers by assassination could his wings have a chance to fill the court. ”

A middle-aged man on the left stood up and said, "Lord Wu is right, Prime Minister, we should have made plans early and fought back." ”

Liang Ziqing looked at the middle-aged man with a sullen face: "Counterattack? How to fight back? Could it be that it is impossible to send someone to assassinate the prince's party? Absurd! ”

The middle-aged man was so frightened that he immediately knelt down, and the others also bowed their heads and were silent, not daring to look directly at this prime minister.

Liang Ziqing stroked his long beard and said: "I still understand the prince, no matter how powerful he is, he will not do such a vicious thing, he is not a stupid person, how can he not know the consequences of doing such a thing." There must be another reason for this. ”

A white-bearded old man trembled and said: "Prime Minister, even if the prince will not do this, it is difficult to guarantee that the people under him will hide his assassination, especially His Royal Highness King Huai, he has a fiery personality and will inevitably do something out of the ordinary." ”

Liang Ziqing nodded and said, "Yes, I am also worried. Therefore, in the future, we will discuss privately, and we will come directly to the Prime Minister's Mansion through the secret door, and there is no need to find another place. ”

After a pause, he raised his eyes and stared at everyone: "However, the prime minister now has a question, how did outsiders know about Liu Qing's whereabouts that day?" Also, why did so many ministers assassinate Liu Qing alone? ”

There was silence in the guest seats.

Their attention is only focused on who might be the mastermind, and they forget to consider this crucial question.

"Does the prime minister think we have dark ghosts here?" The dark-skinned young man said cautiously.

Liang Ziqing didn't answer, but silently picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip.

"But even if there are dark ghosts, why did they expose and assassinate Liu Yuanzhen early? Could it be that his latent purpose is only to kill a royal historian? A young man in white raised his doubts.

That's why I said that this matter is not so simple, there must be another reason. Our security is at stake today, and we cannot afford to ignore it. Liang Ziqing then looked at the dark-skinned young man, "Yu Qing, you usually have the most ideas, and you can put forward any good ideas." ”

The young man known as Yu Qing thought for a while, and then crossed his hands and said, "Prime Minister, Liu Yuanzhen's case is now taken over by Tiwei, we might as well start from Tiwei's Mansion." However, the three major guards are not allowed to be inquired about by foreign ministers, so they can only ask the prime minister to repair a letter in person, and hand it to Xiao Chongguang, the chief of the guard, promising him to provide all the information about Liu Yuanzhen, and promise a lot of money, he only needs to find out any news, and he must pass it to the prime minister as soon as possible, so that the prime minister can always grasp the trend of the case, if there is any emergency, the prime minister can also make timely countermeasures, and at the same time, he can also win over the defense mansion for the prime minister's use. ”

At this time, a middle-aged man got up and asked, "Jin Yuan, there is something suspicious about your strategy." Not to mention that Xiao Chongguang is a master who does not eat hard and soft, and it is difficult to buy. Even if he accepts it, how can he guarantee that the information he sends to the Prime Minister's Mansion in the future must be true? If he used to send false information to the prime minister, wouldn't he harm the prime minister? ”

Yu Jinyuan said with a smile: "Lord Lin is too worried, Tiwei has been anxious about this case recently, searching for traces of the murderer everywhere, I just got a secret report, Xiao Chongguang and Lu Yunsheng went to Liu Yuanzhen's residence at the beginning of today, but unfortunately they still haven't heard any valuable news, at this time, if the prime minister promises to provide clues, how can he refuse?" He is a smart man, and he doesn't have the courage to hide anything in front of the prime minister. Of course, I have also taken into account Lord Lin's concerns, don't forget that I have an informant in Tiwei Mansion, if the information he provides has a way out, the informant will definitely find out, and when the time comes, the prime minister will ask him to blame, and he will not dare to be dishonest. ”

That Lin said: "Then you just let your informant provide information, why bother to make such a big bend to buy Xiao Chongguang?" ”

Yu Jinyuan said: "My informant is just an ordinary guard, and the information provided is limited, and at most it can only be used for supervision. ”

Liang Ziqing nodded and said, "I think Yu Qing's strategy is feasible, so I will follow this plan." ”

Dongdu Dongshi Jingkangfang Tiwei Mansion Youzhong

Xiao Chongguang sat on the main seat in the hall, and looked through the notes made by the news he inquired about from the Wang family this morning, this case may involve party disputes, and he didn't know what to do next for a while.

Go ask the Prince?

Not to mention that he has no evidence, even if he does, he is not qualified to question the royal people, let alone the prince of the East Palace.

Looking for the Prime Minister?

That's impossible, Prime Minister Liang Ziqing is deep and suspicious, he is afraid that not only will he not reveal the slightest bit of information, but he will also list himself as a hostile object, and he will be troubled everywhere at that time.

"Come, have a cup of tea to relieve fatigue."

Lu Yunsheng handed over a teacup, Sogo took it and took a sip, his eyes suddenly lit up: "Wow!" This is an authentic Mandarin tea. Where did you come from? ”

Yunsheng smiled: "This is my treasure for many years, seeing that you are so tired, I deliberately took it out to share." ”

"Interesting!" Xiao Chongguang smiled, "You invited me to tea this time, and I will invite you to drink next time." ”

"Hey, that's what you said, don't go back." Lu Yunsheng said with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

Xiao Chongguang patted his chest and said, "Xiao Mou is that kind of person, don't worry, tomorrow night, you will go to Cuiting Zhai you like." ”

Lu Yunsheng laughed and said: "Hahaha, okay, a word is a certainty!" ”

As soon as the words fell, he heard a sudden "whoosh" sound of breaking the air out of thin air, Lu Yunsheng subconsciously lowered his head to dodge, only to see a feather arrow shooting obliquely from top to bottom, and finally nailed to the doorpost outside the hall.

Xiao Chongguang immediately bounced up from his chair, put down the teacup easily, and rushed out of the hall to take a closer look, but saw a figure pass by the opposite roof, and then disappeared.

"What a big bold! How dare you attack the Tiwei Mansion! Tiwei assembled! Lu Yunsheng yelled.

The guards in the house heard the sound and gathered in line.

Lu Yunsheng said to the guards: "Each of you is divided into a team of three people, starting from the opposite room, tracking the archers outside the house, and you must catch that guy, understand?" ”

"Whoa!"

The guards responded in unison, and when they were about to leave the house, Xiao Chongguang shouted, "Wait! ”

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and looked at each other.

Lu Yunsheng stepped forward and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

Xiao Chongguang pulled out the feather arrow, it turned out that there was a letter inserted on it, he took the letter down, and the seal clay at the opening of the envelope made his heart tremble - it was the seal of the prime minister.

Prime minister's secret letter!

Sogo and Yunsheng were both surprised, and glanced at each other, could it be that the prime minister already knew about his trip to Liu's mansion, and was afraid that he would implicate their prime minister, or it would touch taboo things, so he sent someone to send a letter to warn?

Lu Yunsheng looked back at Zhong Tiwei and said, "It's okay, everyone is gone." ”

"Lu Tou'er, but the thief who shoots the arrow ······" A guard said suspiciously.

"After such a long time, that person has long been gone, and it is useless to chase him," Lu Yunsheng waved his hand, "You can just divide some brothers and go out to inspect for a while." ”

"Whoa."

The guards left confused.

Seeing that it was only himself and Yunsheng, Sogo quickly opened the letter, only to see only a few words inside:

"Lord Liu is my deep friend, and today is unfortunately assassinated, and the Prime Minister is willing to give full support to Tiwei to thoroughly investigate this case. However, the thieves had other plans and threatened the Prime Minister's Mansion, so I hope that Xiao Wei will secretly inform the Prime Minister of the progress of the case in the future, and at that time, the Prime Minister will be thanked. This letter was burned immediately after it was read. ”

The signature of this letter is Prime Minister Liang Ziqing.

Lu Yunsheng laughed and said, "Okay, you actually want to bribe us to Tiwei Mansion, aren't you afraid that we will take advantage of this matter to join him?" ”

Xiao Chongguang pondered for a while and said, "I think that if we want to solve this case, we may really have to borrow the power of the Prime Minister's Mansion." I don't care if it's a heavy reward or not, the only thing that can attract me to this letter is the first one, the Prime Minister will fully support the Tiwei Mansion in handling the case, and many details of Liu Yuanzhen are probably only known to the Prime Minister. ”