Ma Xun and Jiang Dou, the main and deputy platoon commanders of the first platoon of the second company of the 12th battalion, found the human corpses and horse bones in the cave, and hurriedly gathered their troops and rushed to Jinziguan again. By the time they arrived, it was already evening. The bright torches inside and outside the palace made them understand at a glance that they were late.

Jiang Dou was worried that his credit would be lost, and muttered and cursed the troops who had taken the lead. But when Ma Xun and Jiang Dou reported to the guards and walked into the palace, the worry turned into excitement:

I saw the lanterns hanging high on the platform in front of the Sanqing Palace, and the deputy director Li Cunliang was sitting in the middle, and the brocade guards were guarding the left and right; The white-haired abbot Jin Xuanzhen and the black-haired and long-haired steward Qing Yunzi sat cross-legged at both ends of the platform, guarded by the soldiers of the Protector Army. Jin Xuanzhen's face is ruddy, calm and relaxed, and there are words in his mouth, and he still looks like a fairy; Qingyunzi's face was pale, holding a whisk in his hand, and he was meditating, in short, he didn't say a word.

In the courtyard under the platform, there are 100 people. Each of them had a futon, a bench, a blank piece of paper, a bald pen, scratching their ears and cheeks, and their heads were full of sweat.

What for?

Fundamentals of Taoism exam.

Exam content: Silently write "Ceres' immortality, is for Xuan Mu (PIN)...... Long but not slaughtered, it is called Xuande (Note 1). ”

Li Cunliang's logic is that Jin Ziguan is in charge of the Taoist affairs of Shunqing Mansion, and if there are local tyrants who mix into Jin Ziguan, Jin Ziguan can easily use the blank degree to forge their identities for them. But most of the local thugs are illiterate rough people, their identities can be faked, but the knowledge in their minds is difficult to fake.

"A stick of incense has arrived, hand in the volume!" Li Cunliang patted the armrest of the chair and stood up, "Hand in the blank rolls, get out of the way!" ”

In an instant, more than a dozen people were isolated by the Protector Army with knives and guns. These Taoists who can't even write the basic Taoist classics silently have naturally become the focus of the next step of screening.

"Next wave, come in for the exam!" Li Cunliang's dog-legged Li Er yelled in the voice of his master.

Although the courtyard is large, it is still a bit small for all the Taoists of the Golden Purple Temple to take the exam together at the same time. So it had to be divided into two groups, the first group is some identity in the Taoist temple, and the second group is the miscellaneous servants and women in the Taoist temple. Therefore, the second wave is far less neat than the first wave, some tall and some short; Some are strong, some are weak; Some are well-dressed, and some are gray.

Li Cunliang's eyes widened, hoping to find one or two suspects, but the crowd disappointed him.

As he expected, at the end of the second batch of exams, more than half of them handed in blank papers.

Li Er was about to speak, when a Dao aunt suddenly pulled out her hair bun, brushed her Dao crown, and rushed to the platform with her hair scattered. She cried loudly at the foot of the steps for help, she was originally a woman from a good family, but she was deceived by the palace and became a tool for the lewd people to vent their animal desires. These prostitutions also forced women to sit on the toilet for two or three days at the time of menstruation, collecting menstrual blood for alchemy.

The Zhengyi Sect respects the doctrine of Wai Dan and likes alchemy the most. Among the many materials used in alchemy, women's menstrual blood and morning dew are said to have miraculous effects. Using it for alchemy, it can make people prosper and prolong their lives.

Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxuan, under the encouragement of Tao Zhongwen, a scholar of Zhengyi, selected a large number of virgins to enter the palace. These devastated girls couldn't bear it anymore, and finally there was a change in the Renyin Palace that shocked the inner court. If it weren't for the excessive nervousness of these girls and the knotted rope, Zhu Houxuan would definitely be strangled to death on the big bed in the Qianqing Palace. After the incident, Emperor Jiajing strictly ordered the blockade of the scandal, but Li Cunliang, who grew up in Beijing and was born in Qi Gui, knew the secrets of the Great Inner for a long time.

"These demons! Shameless! Li Cunliang's face turned pale with anger, and he scolded angrily: "Immediately screen those who can't read big characters one by one!" The law of the imperial court has a use! ”

"Young master, the soldier in charge of searching the mountain has made a major discovery!" Li Er reported with an ear.

"Oh? Which troops? Li Cunliang asked.

"One platoon of the second company of the twelfth battalion. Platoon leader Ma Xun and deputy platoon Jiang Dou are waiting under the ear corridor opposite! ”

"Pass it on, in front of these demons, make it clear!"

At this time, the stone toast soldier standing beside Qingyunzi suddenly exclaimed at Ma Xun, who was hurrying under the corridor: "Brother! I'm not dead! Still alive! ”

……

After listening to Ma Xun's report, Li Cunliang roared hatefully: "Ruthless! It's so ruthless! Once the centaurs are killed, there is no trace! All that remains is the gold and silver that can't speak! During this time, we have been circling around eating and eating, and we didn't expect to be deceived! ”

"Deputy Superintendent, the last general requests a search of the firewood kitchen!" Ma Xun reported, "The last general found an axe mark at the head of the Fujiqiao Bridge. The last general has ordered his subordinates to retrieve the sigil soil in its entirety. Just fill in the plaster and get an axe-shaped ......"

"Good! Go and come back! ”

Ma Xun received the order and turned to leave. Li Cunliang glanced at Jin Xuan Zhenren and Qing Yunzi, and saw that Jin Xuan Zhenren was still unchanged and calm, while Qing Yunzi's lips trembled and his breath was uneven.

Li Cun's conscience had a bottom in his heart, and he was about to order Qingyunzi to be detained, but he saw an old man with a bare chin slipping over from the side porch carrying a piece of half-red and half-white meat, which turned out to be Shi Yaoxian, who was ordered to check the accounts.

"Report, subordinates found a large amount of horse meat in the ice cellar! The subordinates checked the account inventory and found that the accounts were not equal. There are more than 200 Taoists in the Golden Purple Temple, and even if each person consumes one and a half catties of food per day, he will consume more than three stones of food. However, it was reported on the account that not long after Wang Gao and Wang Guangxing fled into the mountain, Jin Ziguan's food consumption suddenly decreased to two stones a day. The subordinates were suspicious, so they asked several Taoist children in the view, and they all said that there was meat in the dish recently! So his subordinates searched the cellar in Guanzhong and found an ice cellar near the kitchen, which contained thousands of catties of meat. The subordinate took a piece of meat and boiled it and ate it, and found that it was horse meat! ”

Old man Shi shouted in a hurry, which made Li Cunliang suddenly realize that he had never eaten horse meat in his life, and hurriedly asked how he knew that it was horse meat.

Shangguan asked, making Old Man Shi's face blush.

Shi Yao had been poor in the previous years, and one day he was dizzy with hunger, and suddenly found a dead horse on the side of the road, and he was immediately ecstatic, and immediately went home to get a knife, and prepared to divide the dead horse into several pieces and carry it home to satisfy his hunger.

However, when he returned to the scene, he found that dozens of neighbors had already cut up the dead horses, leaving only a sleek skeleton. Shi Yaoxian immediately stepped forward to argue, and everyone saw that his eyes were fierce, and he was still shaking with a bright kitchen knife in his hand, and he was finally kind, and asked him to bring back a few large bones with shredded flesh.

It's just such a shameful thing, how can it be talked about in public? Old man Shi is worthy of his literati background, his eyes rolled, and he immediately thought of a crepe statement:

"Materia Medica, horse botulin, sex is good, and almonds must be eaten to detoxify. Its meat taste, more muscle and less fat, is very different from pork. The subordinates were poor back then, and they had eaten horse meat, so they knew it! ”

Old man Shi's careful thinking was not in Li Cunliang's attention at all. What he was thinking about was the current case: Liu Jin, a small citizen, heard a large number of horses' hooves passing the archway with his own ears and went to the Golden Purple Temple; Human corpses and horse bones were found in the cave; Guanzhong cellar confirmed to be horse meat......

All the evidence gathered in Li Cunliang's mind at this moment, constructing a clear picture. He knew that he was only half a step away from being done.

Good! Li Cunliang happily slapped his thigh, stood up and announced loudly.

"The evidence is ironclad, how dare you deny it! Come on, interrogate the people with blank rolls one by one! Let them confess the Taoists who entered the Golden Purple Temple in the first month! Hmph, if you don't recruit it, you will be punished! Jinyi Weibei Town Fusi Seventy-two Punishments, this official has never seen anyone who can bear it! Tell them that if they hand over the whereabouts of Wang Gao and Wang Guangxing, they will be able to make meritorious service and atone for their sins! Not only did Ben Gongzi not kill them, but he also had a reward to take! ”

The cave was found, and the horse meat was also found. In the first wave, Wang Gao handed in the white papers, and Wang Guangxing handed in the white rolls in the second wave. Arraigned one by one, the identities of the two kings will inevitably be exposed. Even if the two kings themselves don't recruit them, others will confess them under great punishment!

Seeing that the matter was about to be revealed, the old immortal Jin Xuanzhen couldn't care about pretending to be an immortal, so he hurriedly fell to the ground and cried bitterly: "I can't imagine that the poor Dao has cultivated all his life, doing good deeds and giving charity, but he was careless for a while, and accepted the mantle of such a murderous thief!" Master Li Mingjian, the old Taoist is old and decrepit, and he is dedicated to cultivating the Tao, and he has not foreseen the mundane things in the view for many years, nor has he ever gone out to the mountain. Such a situation can be proved by the upper and lower people in the view! ”

"You lewd way and cheeky quibble!"

Before Jin Xuanzhen's words fell, the women in the audience had already rushed up angrily, as fast as an angry female beast. She bumped into Jin Xuanlaodao, knocked him over a few times, and then pressed up again, grabbed him by the collar, gouged out his eyes and tore his mouth.

The power of example is endless. When the women in the courtyard saw that someone had started their heads, they immediately rushed up a dozen more, surrounded Jin Xuan Lao Dao and began to beat them in groups. I could only hear the women screaming in the pile, but I didn't know what was going on.

"Tell them to stop! This is an important witness! Li Cunliang was rushed by the women, and in a hurry, he jumped off the platform. When the soldiers heard the order, they immediately stepped forward and tried to separate the women.

There were a lot of people on the platform, and there was a lot of commotion. At this moment, a shadow swished up from the ground, like a white ghost, rushing straight to Li Cunliang's back!

The soldiers of the Protector Army above and below the platform were stunned. No one could have imagined that Qingyunzi, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, was actually a martial arts master. When he saw him plucking onions on dry land, he threw the three soldiers who were guarding him at his feet. The dust whisk in his hand is also a secret weapon, and the slightest dust whisker seems to be a long needle stinger!

At the last moment, a gun head shoots faster. Qingyunzi was still a foot away from Li Cunliang, and the spearhead had arrived in time to drag Qingyunzi from the clouds to the dust. I only heard a thud, the jade silk shattered, and the flesh and bone separated. The hook on the white pole gun ripped off a large piece of Qingyunzi's wide robe and the tendons under the ribs.

"Ahh The screams rang out immediately.

is not the expected Qingyunzi, but the old Jin Xuan immortal in the women's pile.

Li Cunliang didn't care about Qingyunzi who was rolling on the ground, and he didn't care about thanking the white pole soldiers who saved the slave and the master, he rushed to the platform with a brisk step, and the women were also very cooperative to make a gap for him in a timely manner:

I saw that the old fairy's white beard was torn apart, and his face was covered with red nail scratches. He curled up like a cooked shrimp, like a castrated boar covering his crotch and screaming, and the big pool of blood on his lower body had stained his robes red.

The vengeful women used their unique stunt: the first form of the earth shatter, the phoenix hand, and burst the two eggs of the old fairy.

"I've enjoyed watching the big show! This is what happens to being a thief! Li Cunliang roared angrily at the stunned Taoists in the courtyard.

Note 1: Chapters 6 to 10 of the Tao Te Ching.