When it was nearly two watches, the city of Suzhou was already quiet, but the thousands of households in the city were still brightly lit, Lu Zhen sat on the top seat and slowly sipped the tea in the cup, as if he was thinking about something, and below him, Yao Gan, who had already wrapped up his wounds, kept walking back and forth impatiently, stopping several times to say something, but he didn't say anything after all.

Lu Zhen looked at him for a moment before he smiled and said, "Why are you so breathless today, this is not like you." ”

Hearing this, Yao Gan's steps stopped again, but he didn't respond, but asked a little eagerly: "My lord, you said that these officials have been in for a while, why haven't you seen them come out to give a result?" Don't they be fooled by those women again, right? ”

"You can rest assured that they are all people who know what to expect, how can they leave their future, and even their lives behind because of a woman? Moreover, it is not easy to make a woman change her mind, and it always takes some time and words. Wait, the results should be coming soon. Lu Zhen looked very indifferent, and pointed to the chair next to him as he spoke: "You are still injured, sit down and wait for a while." ”

In fact, Yao Gan is not an impatient person, only because he missed his hand this time, he was in a hurry to get the result because he wanted to make up for his mistakes. Now that Lu Zhen said this, he also found that he was a little too anxious, so he agreed and sat down on the chair next to him, but the look on his face was still a little impatient.

After a while, a slightly heavy footsteps finally sounded outside the hall, and Zhang Shiqian, the deputy of the city department, walked back with an annoyed face, and after seeing Lu Jin, he turned into panic: "Big ...... Adult ......"

"What, is that person in your family who refuses to cooperate with the government and tell the inside story that he knows?" Lu Zhen immediately understood the reason, and asked with a smile.

"To the disappointment of the adults, she has always said that she was wronged, and after the official pointed out the Xinyue Nunnery, she refused to speak again. After being appointed as a subordinate official, how to persuade and tried her best to speak, but she was still unmoved. It was the officials who didn't know the people and were fascinated by the beauty, which caused today's disaster, and I ask the adults to punish them. Zhang Shiqian hung his head and admitted his mistake, and after speaking, his legs bent, and he was about to kneel down with Lu Jin.

Lu Zhen stepped forward to support him first: "Master Zhang doesn't have to blame himself so much, this matter has not reached the point where there is no room for turn, let's wait." However, since she is still stubborn at this time, and the court has its own laws, I hope you don't blame the official for being ruthless. ”

"Whatever the adults said, how dare the lower officials have any complaints about it." Zhang Shiqian immediately confessed his intentions, but he directly abandoned the concubine he valued before. As an official, there is still a difference in the importance of this, and compared to a woman, it is naturally more important to have her future official position.

Lu Zhen didn't say anything about his choice, just asked him to sit down and wait for the news of the next others. It was Yao Gan, but there was a bit of disdain in his eyes when he looked at the other party, such a negative and unfortunate approach really made people feel cold.

After that, several officials returned one after another, and they, like Zhang Shiqian, failed to convince their women, so they all looked a little apprehensive when they came here. However, Lu Zhen didn't embarrass them, just Wen Yan relieved them a few words, and let them continue to wait here.

With the passage of time, when they came to the third watch, all the officials almost returned, and almost nothing was gained, leaving only Xiao Wentong, the prefect, who had not yet returned. This made everyone pin their hopes on him, if even he returned in vain, I am afraid that the next step would be to torture these women.

Just when everyone was getting more and more anxious, Xiao Wentong finally rushed back with a solemn face. As soon as they saw him arrive, several officials sitting outside hurriedly stood up, looked at him expectantly and asked, "Lord Prefect, what did Mrs. Zun say?" "Although I already knew that the other party was a member of the White Lotus Sect, the habit of addressing him that I had developed over the past few years had not changed.

"Lord Lu, Xia Guan is fortunate not to be dishonored, she finally told Xia Guan everything she knew!" When they heard Governor Xiao say this, everyone was greatly relieved, and many people even had a surprised smile on their faces.

Even Lu Jin, who was in good spirits, put the teacup on the table, and said, "Okay!" Then he said: "It's still Governor Xiao's mansion, your royal wife is well-organized, and you have finally solved a problem for this official." ”

was looked at with some admiration by everyone, and the old face of Xiao Zhifu suddenly turned red: "Actually, it's not that the lower officials have much ability, but they still have to rely on the two children in the family." Since she became my successor last year, I have always had a good relationship with my two children. Originally, she was unmoved after all the good and bad words of the lower officials, until she mentioned that once the court investigated it, not only me, but even the two children who were less than ten years old would be affected, she finally relented......"

Only then did everyone understand that our prefect had used the means of saving the country. But no matter what method he used, as long as he could get the woman to tell the truth, it would be the best result.

After a while, Lu Zhen got to the point: "Then what does she know?" How did you get the message out before? ”

"In fact, the method they used was indeed as judged by the adults before, taking advantage of the ignorance of the lower officials and the people in the yamen to secretly see the relevant documents. It's a shame to say that the lower officials sometimes take the documents back to the back house because they are in a hurry to deal with some official affairs, and she took the opportunity of the lower officials to sleep and saw many official secrets......" Saying that, Xiao Wentong lowered his head a little worriedly.

In fact, not only him, but some of the other people present also looked ashamed after listening to this story. They really didn't care about the wives and concubines around them on weekdays, which gave them a peek at the contents of the government's secrets.

After a pause, Xiao Wentong continued: "Subsequently, as long as it is confirmed that the government will have merchant ships going to sea, they will go to Xinyue Nunnery under the pretext of worshipping the Buddha, and send the relevant news to the Jingyue Shitai there, and then pass the news out to sea, so that a certain person who has long been set up at sea will attack the official merchant ships. ”

Lu Zhen nodded in agreement, which was not much different from his previous guess. But this is obviously not enough: "Is there anything else to explain?" ”

She said that the reason why the other party was able to avoid the warships sent by the government to suppress them was because Xinyue'an had to receive accurate information from several important locations such as the government office, the city shipping department, and the wharf before sending the information out. As long as there is a message that does not arrive, it will not move. ”

"I see." Only then did everyone understand that it was no wonder that the arrangements of themselves and others would fail several times, which was also the purpose of the White Lotus Sect to insert many women into their side. This move is indeed extremely bold and cautious, but it is precisely because of this arrangement that the people of Jinyiwei will see the flaws.

"But...... We've already rummaged through the Xinyue Temple, and there are no carrier pigeons and other things that can be used to deliver the news, so the urgent thing is sent to the sea, so they won't drive the ship themselves to deliver the news, right? Yao Gan immediately raised another question of his own.

And this time, Xiao Wentong couldn't give a definite answer: "The lower official also asked her about this, but she said that she didn't know anything about it, only that Jingyue and the others would send the exact news somewhere in the north of the city, and the accomplices there would pass it on to ......the sea with carrier pigeons."

As soon as everyone heard this, their expressions that were still a little excited suddenly froze, the north of the city is so big, how can it be possible to find another stronghold of the other party without any prompting?

Lu Zhen also narrowed his eyes, this time the White Lotus Sect was much more careful than before, not only did it have so much insurance, but it also made it difficult for his subordinates to know the location of the next ring, so that they could indeed ensure their own safety. Especially when the people in Xinyuean are dead, it is even more difficult to find out their downline.

"My lord, if you don't send someone to the north of the city to investigate in detail from house to house, I don't believe that they will be able to cover everything up and hide it in a short period of time." Yao Gan immediately proposed. Even those officials felt that this matter could only be done in this stupid way, after all, the clue would be broken here.

Lu Zhen waved his hand: "This method may not work. Even if we do find the pigeon in the north of the city, as long as there is no further evidence, it is still impossible to know for sure that it is a member of the White Lotus Sect. ”

"Can you take care of this at this time? There is no evidence to take the torture as well. ”

"It's different, finding the person who delivered the news is not the goal, the official still needs to use them to lure out the thieves at sea. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm its identity before taking one of them down. Lu Zhen has his own intentions and persistence.

"It's going to be difficult...... everyone looked puzzled, because it was beyond their reach.

Only Lu Jin, still frowning and thinking carefully. Suddenly, he thought of something and asked, "Do you know what kind of incense and candle packaging is left in that Xinyue Nunnery?" Where did they buy their incense and candles? ”

"This ......" Yao Gan recalled carefully, and then said: "I remember, at that time, in that Guanyin Temple, I watched that Jingyue take out the incense stick from a box labeled with the mark of Zhicheng Zhai. ”

"Governor Xiao, is this Zhicheng Zhai in the north of my Suzhou City?" Lu Zhen looked at Xiao Wentong again and asked.

The other party thought for a while, then nodded and said, "There is indeed such an incense shop in the north of the city......"

"This is it!" Lu Zhen immediately asserted, his expression was extremely determined, but everyone was a little puzzled, how could he so decisively judge that Zhicheng Zhai was the stronghold of the White Lotus Sect?