The fire in front of him was like a giant beast with teeth and claws, desperately showing its ferocity to the world.

Zhao Xiangyao looked at the mansion that was submerged in the sea of fire, and his face was extremely gloomy.

Around him, countless people were trying to put out the fire, but how could Zhao Xiangyao not know that this house could not be saved.

What's more, if you can save the house, you can't save people's lives.

Half an hour ago, Zhao Xiangyao got the news that an official of Jianzhou was found hanging himself at home, and when he arrived with people, what appeared in front of him was such a mansion wrapped in a raging fire.

No one knows who set the fire, just as no one knows why the official committed suicide.

The firelight was very warm on his body, but Zhao Xiangyao's heart was extremely cold.

When he was informed of the deceased's hanging, he also learned from the informant about the condition of the deceased's room at the time of his hanging.

The anomaly is that there are two large vertical characters on the pillars.

The content of the word is - the faint king is in charge, and the people are not happy!

The simple and vicious eight words seem to be the reason for the deceased to hang himself.

Zhao Xiangyao naturally didn't believe that it was the truth.

He came to Jianzhou early and knew a lot about the officials in Jianzhou, and in his impression, this official was just an ordinary person, and he would never have this kind of "heroism"

moves.

So Zhao Xiangyao suspected that those eight words were not written by the deceased, just as he suspected that the deceased did not commit suicide, but now that the house was destroyed in the fire, Zhao Xiangyao has no chance to verify this.

This is undoubtedly a tricky case, and it is very unreasonable, with Zhao Xiangyao's keen sense of smell cultivated over the years, there is a smell of conspiracy in it.

Zhao Xiangyao felt that something was at stake, and he had to do something.

At present, the officials of the imperial court are coming to Jianzhou to take over the power, and it is the time for Jianzhou to change the day, and it needs a stable environment.

But before Zhao Xiangyao gave an order, something unexpected happened again.

When Zhao Xiangyao heard this new news, the muscles in his face twitched.

There were also officials in Jianzhou who hanged themselves at home.

At the scene of the deceased's self-hanging, the two large characters were also found: The faint king is in charge, and the people are not happy!

The two officials who died one after another were like a bloody indictment of these eight words.

The night wind jumped through the treetops, blowing the leaves and making the leaves rustle softly, Zhao Xiangyao's hands and feet were cold, and the sea of fire in front of him could not give him half a bit of warmth.

Anger rose from the bottom of his heart, and in an instant it was even more fierce than the sea of fire, and he felt that the empire that had been irrigated by his and countless other comrades was being insulted.

"Transfer back all the manpower of the military intelligence department, and transfer the guard duties of the court officials to the army! Examine! Even if I dig the whole city three feet into the ground, I will find out the murderer! ”

Zhao Xiangyao gritted his teeth tightly, "From tomorrow, only one city gate will be opened in Jianzhou, and those who enter and exit will be strictly checked, and no suspicious person can be let go!" ”

The sharp soldier of the military intelligence department next to Zhao Xiangyao wrote down the order and hurriedly rushed to deliver the order.

The official of Jianzhou died, and it was naturally more than the manpower of the Military Intelligence Department at the scene at this time, and an official reminded him at this time: "Commander Zhao, the person committed suicide, where did the murderer come from?" ”

"Shut up!"

Zhao Xiangyao's way of responding to this stupid question was to slap the man in the face.

"There is likely to be a murder tonight, pass the order, and the whole city will be on alert!"

After Zhao Xiangyao ordered this sentence, he went to Su Fengying to discuss how to deal with this matter.

Su Fengying was the leading official sent by the imperial court to Jianzhou.

Murder and arson, this matter is so big that he can't cover it if he wants to, Zhao Xiangyao must make some plans with Su Fengying.

As Zhao Xiangyao expected, the third deceased immediately reappeared.

The three deceased were found shortly apart, no more than an hour apart.

Zhao Xiangyao wrote a letter overnight, reporting the matter to Chengdu as soon as possible, "I'm afraid that in the next two days, there will be news of officials being killed in Xichuan one after another." ”

Li Congjing agrees with Mo Li's inference, but this is also the worst-case scenario, which means that Xichuan, which has just ended the war, will once again fall into a turbulent situation, and if this matter is not controlled in time, it will be extremely detrimental to the rule of the imperial court in Xichuan.

The murder in Jianzhou was different from that in Chengdu: arson, and writing was left behind.

The arson was left in order to make the murder case public, but also to expand its influence, which shows that Chengdu's blockade of the news of the murder case made the murder case not achieve the expected effect of the criminals.

Of course, it is not excluded that the perpetrator had a plan to commit crimes in other states and counties from the beginning, and murders are blooming everywhere, which can maximize the influence of murders.

It's just that if this is the case, the strength and power of the criminal will be too fearful.

The text left behind, the content has already shown the intention of the murder: to shake the rule of the imperial court in Xichuan.

Especially when the imperial court had just conquered Xichuan militarily, such a murder was undoubtedly an expression of disobedience and resistance - if the dead were all suicides.

Who is stirring up the situation in Xichuan?

This is the biggest question that lingers in Li Congjing and Mo Congjing's head.

However, this question cannot be solved by thinking, there are too many forces in Xichuan that do not want the country to control, not to mention those separatist princes like Wu State, that is, those feudal towns in the empire, is there no intention to commit crimes?

Of course.

The prosperity of the empire is based on the new policy and the cutting of feudal domains, not to mention that the 50,000 forbidden troops are the elite forces from various feudal towns, and the current imperial feudal towns are no longer the same military strength as four years ago.

If a feudal town that does not want to lose its authority and cannot openly stand up against the imperial court, if it does not want to sit idly by, it must take action, so it is natural to use Liangchuan to make some articles.

They could not control the war between the two rivers of Wang Shi, so they could only do some dirty things after the war, first, to cause some trouble for the empire, to seek opportunities to disturb the empire, and second, to vent the resentment in their hearts.

There are too many people with ill intentions to prevent it.

From the motive for the crime, no clues can be found to track down the criminal, and now Li Congjing has only one way left.

Arrest the perpetrators and interrogate them to find out who is behind the scenes.

The game of chess in the world is far deeper than Li Congjing initially expected.

"Who the hell is stirring up the situation in Xichuan?"

Mo Li's folding fan kept tapping on the palm of his hand, "Do they have any follow-up plans?" ”

On the magnificent road, challenges always come unexpectedly, the mediocre life is naturally not shocked, and the ensuing tribulations mean that he is walking on the great road, although Li Congjing's heart is inevitably worried, but more is the firm will to ride the wind and waves.

He said to Mo Li: "There is an 'old saying' that says: ride a donkey - we'll see. Mo Ge'er, remember this sentence. ”

In the next two days, not surprisingly, Li Congjing received several urgent reports from various states and counties.

The cumulative number of homicides has reached 21, involving six prefectures and counties, including Chengdu, Jianzhou, Hanzhou, and Meizhou.

Twenty-one lives, the "self-hanging" of twenty-one officials of all sizes in Xichuan

- Not counting the non-official officials who died in the fire, as well as the words left at the scene of the crime except Chengdu, are like a series of bombshells, which have caused a monstrous wave in Xichuan.

Combined with the dates of the cases in various places, it can be seen that from the first homicide in Chengdu to the last homicide in Meizhou, there was less than 24 hours in between, and a series of murders came too quickly and suddenly, so that all localities did not have time to react.

By now, something is clear: it was an elaborate conspiracy.

Li Congjing's letters, secretly guessing in his heart: How deep is the water of this conspiracy?

After days of rain, the sky finally cleared, and the winter sun always seemed precious, and every family had to go out of the house to enjoy the rare gift of God.

The afternoon sun was a little tired, and the streets and alleys and walls were all lazy eyebrows, Zhang Jinliang looked up in the courtyard and looked around, and finally his eyes fell on the eaves.

He really wanted to jump on the roof of the house to look at the lively scene of the East Market, because he knew that it must be extremely lively, and the prosperity there was a fatal temptation for him, a bitter man who grew up on a sandbank, not to mention being in it, even from afar, it was a great pleasure.

The war of the previous days and the death of several officials did not make the market disappear from the city, and although the prosperity has long been compared to the original, it is still not a poor country to look forward to.

However, Zhang Jinliang, who is not short of silver now, finally withdrew his eager gaze, let alone going to Dongshi, and he couldn't even do such an outrageous move as climbing on the roof.

Because that means risk.

The place in this ordinary house is not small, and it is not a problem to live in more than a dozen people, but now there is only Zhang Jinliang.

Zhang Jinliang looked at the kitchen, he knew that there were still some steamed cakes and cold dishes, but he had already seen the "delicacies of the mountains and seas"

Zhang Jinliang, after enduring the steamed cakes and cold dishes for many days in a row, finally couldn't raise his interest anymore - although the steamed cakes here were indeed good, if it had been a few months ago, he would have been happy to eat that for the rest of his life.

Glancing at the warm sun, Zhang Jinliang hesitated for a while, but still opened the yard and walked out.

Of course, he didn't forget to hide the boning knife on his body before going out.

For a man like him, keeping a knife on his body is like keeping his hands on his body.

Zhang Jinliang didn't remember the name of this square area for a while, but he remembered the flavor of the small dishes in a small shop in Fangdong clearly, although the small shop only had three tables, and even a pair of signboards were owed, so it was really not a restaurant, but the proprietress with a thin waist and fat buttocks was full of charm and was more delicious than rice.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jinliang had an evil fire in his abdomen, he glanced at the sun, and wondered if he would eat two more wines today, so that when it was dark, he would find an opportunity to deal with the widowed proprietress .

Now he has a lot of silver.

Anyway, before that thing was done, he couldn't leave here for a while, and he couldn't show up to visit the kiln, so he couldn't hold it all the time.

Zhang Jinliang walked with his head slightly lowered, so that he could use the corner of his eye to observe his surroundings, while others kept rolling his eyes.

This walking posture is also conducive to when he perceives danger, he suddenly attacks or walks away, and others cannot judge what he is going to do by the change in his expression because of his expression.

There are old women selling vegetables on the side of the road, children running around, spicy women chattering with their men, and girls with soup and cake stalls.

There was nothing abnormal, Zhang Jinliang paid special attention to it, the old woman selling vegetables and the girl who set up the soup cake stall were still the same people, and there was no suspicious figure in the alley, he looked up and went to the small shop, and walked in quickly.

There were only three sons and daughters in the shop who were eating at a table, and on a cold day, they were thinly dressed, and some of them wore only a short coat, showing off their sturdy flower arms, showing off their fearlessness of the cold, as if this would show that they were strong.

These three sons have a very loud voice, exaggerated movements, and non-stop bragging, all of them look like Lao Tzu is the best in the world.

Zhang Jinliang pursed his lips, if this kind of person is placed on a sandbank, he will definitely not live to the next day, but he doesn't mean much, he has seen these ruffians more than once.

Sitting down at the window, a small servant came to serve, Zhang Jinliang glanced at the counter, and did not see the plump proprietress who was angry, so he asked.

The little maid replied that the proprietress had something to do.

Zhang Jinliang asked again when he would return.

The little guy replied that he didn't know.

Zhang Jinliang stood up and left.

The proprietress who was not in the store was the first anomaly that Zhang Jinliang encountered when he went out—not even an anomaly, so his reaction was actually extremely fast.

But it was still late.

The three ruffians had already surrounded them.

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