Li Zhen did not expect that the investigation of the assassination of the king would end up on his head, although it was said that it was a joint investigation between the internal guard and the Dali Temple, but in fact, it was mainly the internal guard, and the Dali Temple only played an auxiliary role, in short, if the background of the assassin could not be found in the end, the responsibility was also borne by him Li Zhen.

This made Li Zhen feel nervous and helpless, and he had to hand over the matter of secretly investigating Lai Junchen to his subordinates, but Lai Junchen's investigation of him never relaxed, which made Li Zhen feel an invisible pressure.

On the way to Xiangwang's Mansion, Li Zhen was explaining to Zhao Qiuniang the precautions for investigating the disappearance of Qiao Zhizhi's wife, "This case must be investigated secretly, and we must not let Lai Junchen pay attention to him now, Qiao Zhizhi I have already talked to him over there, and he will continue to remain silent." ”

Zhao Qiuniang nodded silently, and said: "Can the commander let Jiuzhi cooperate with me, he is more well-informed and can help me in my investigation."

Jiu Zhi has been promoted to lieutenant, and he is at the same level as Zhao Qiuniang, so Zhao Qiuniang can't transfer him at will, so he can only ask Li Zhen to arrange, Li Zhen smiled and said: "I'll tell him, let him assist you in the investigation, I still say that the investigation must be secret, this is the top priority." ”

"Rest assured, Commander, I understand"

Zhao Qiuniang led several of his subordinates to leave the team, Li Zhen immediately led more than a dozen elite guards to ride horses into the Mingyi Fang, the Xiangwang Mansion is located in the Mingyi Fang, at this time Dali Temple Chengsun Li and Si Zhi Gao Jian have led the Dali Temple elite personnel to arrive at the Xiangwang Mansion first.

Li Zhen didn't expect to meet Gao Jian in the Xiangwang Mansion, he immediately realized that this was the force inserted by Princess Taiping, and it was impossible for Princess Taiping to stay out of the investigation, so Gao Jian, as the head of Dali Temple, appeared reasonably.

"It turned out that the senior brother was also there"

Li Zhen turned over and dismounted, arched his hand and said with a smile: "With the intelligence of the senior brother, I believe that this assassination case can be solved soon." ”

Gao Jian hurriedly returned the salute, "Commander Li is too polite, it's better to call me by my name." ”

"That's good, I'm better to be respectful, I hope to have a good time with Gao Sinao"

The two glanced at each other, and both laughed tacitly, at this time, Sun Li and Li Chengqi walked out of the mansion, the two saw Li Zhen, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, Li Chengqi said happily: "Commander Li personally came to investigate this case, we are grateful"

Li Zhen knew that Li Chengqi's gratitude was not enough, so he smiled and asked, "Is the prince in good condition now?"

"My father is still in good spirits, does the commander want to see him?"

Li Zhen nodded, "Since you are here to investigate the assassination case, of course you have to talk to the assassination, if it is convenient." ”

"No problem, I'll arrange it"

Li Chengqi said a few words to the housekeeper, and the housekeeper immediately rushed into the house, Li Chengqi smiled again: "I will accompany Sun Sicheng to the back garden to investigate, and the housekeeper will take Commander Li to see his father later, and I will not accompany him." ”

"Childe is busy"

Sun Li and Li Zhen discussed a few more words, Dali Temple and Li Zhen's subordinates followed Li Chengqi to the back garden, and after a while, the housekeeper ran out and bowed to Li Zhen and said: "The prince is invited, Commander Li, please come with me"

Li Zhen followed the housekeeper into the palace quickly, walked through the corridor, and came to Li Dan's place to recuperate.

A maid walked out of the room, "The prince invites Commander Li to enter"

Li Zhen walked into the room, only to see Li Dan half-lying on the sickbed, next to the second son Li Chengyi and the third son Li Longji, Li Chengyi is sixteen years old this year, he is a concubine, his mother is a palace maid Liu, died early, Li Chengyi was raised by Princess Liu.

Compared with the shrewdness of the eldest brother Li Chengqi, he seems to be more shy, and he is not as smart and strong as the third brother Li Longji, he is quite weak, his health is not very good, his face is very pale, and his figure is slightly slender, like a pole.

Although he is not as good as the eldest brother and the third brother in terms of personality and appearance, Li Dan obviously loves this son very much, and specially asked the great Confucian to teach him to read, so that Li Chengyi's poems and essays are very good, and his writing is also very famous among the royal family.

But Li Zhen only glanced at him, his eyes turned to Li Longji again, he hadn't seen Li Longji for a few months, Li Zhen felt that his temperament was different again, his eyes became more calm and deep, although there were not many words, just a salute, but Li Zhen could feel that Li Longji had something to say to himself.

Li Zhen stepped forward and bowed to Li Dan, "See the prince for his humble duties"

"Commander Li doesn't have to be so polite. ”

Li Dan smiled slightly: "Please sit down and talk." ”

Li Longji immediately laid a soft cushion for Li Zhen beside his father, and Li Dan smiled approvingly at his son, "I have something to say to Commander Li, you go down first."

Li Longji and Li Chengyi both retreated, only to see Li Longji in the outhouse and said to the guards: "The prince wants to talk about important official business, you all step down"

Li Zhen couldn't help laughing, "Your Royal Highness's three sons are all extraordinary, but San Lang acts magnificently and has the demeanor of a king." ”

Li Dan smiled slightly, "In my opinion, he is still a child, just a little sensible, Commander Li once taught him archery, he has never forgotten it, if he has time, please ask Commander Li to give him another guide or two." ”

In the past, it was Li Dan who prevented his son Li Longji from learning arrows from Li Zhen, but now he took the initiative to ask Li Zhen to teach his son archery, which can also see the subtle change in Li Dan's attitude

Since Li Zhen put down Li Yuanjia's rebellion, the attitude of the Tang royal family towards Li Zhen has changed a lot, becoming friendly and friendly, on the one hand, Li Zhen returned the letter to them in time, so that they escaped implication, and they generally have a sense of gratitude to Li Zhen.

On the other hand, it is also because Li Zhen joined the Xingtang Society and became a part of them, of course, there is another layer of factors hidden for Li Dan, he hopes that Li Dan can join his faction, but this is a later story.

Li Zhen smiled and said, "Your Highness has this request, and Li Zhen should obey his orders." ”

After a pause, Li Zhen asked with concern, "How is Your Highness feeling about your injury at present?"

"I'm not bad, it's much better than yesterday, I just can't move, the slightest movement makes the wound hurt, I'm afraid I can't help much in the investigation of the assassins. ”

Li Zhen smiled slightly, "I'm just here to visit His Highness, not to investigate." ”

Li Zhen got up again and saluted, "I won't bother the prince to recuperate, and I will come to visit His Highness again when I have time, and I will leave first." ”

Li Dan also nodded, he knew that there were people sent by his mother to monitor around him, Li Zhen stayed too long, which would attract unnecessary suspicion from his mother, so he didn't keep it, and watched Li Zhen go out with a smile.

The backyard garden has been blocked by Dali Temple and internal guard soldiers, Li Dan's family and maids have left the garden far away, in a pavilion on a rockery, Sun Li and Gao Jian are asking a few guards on duty, at this time Li Zhen walked into the pavilion, and several people hurriedly got up to salute.

Li Zhen waved his hand and motioned for them to continue, and Sun Li continued to ask, "I want to know, how many assassins are there, some of you have seen two of them, but some of you have seen three of them, and they seem to have different opinions. ”

Gao Jian walked up to Li Zhen and pointed to a young man with a wound and a gray head and said in a low voice: "This person's name is Huo Zhishan, and he is one of King Xiang's two personal guards, and the other personal guard was killed, but he was only slightly injured. ”

"Isn't he injured and poisoned?" asked Li Zhen a little strangely.

"We have also asked this question, he said that only one of the two assassins had a poisonous blade, and the other assassin who stabbed him did not have a poisonous blade, we carefully examined it, and the other guard who was killed was poisoned and died, and the poison was exactly the same as the poison of the king, that is, the two of them each intercepted an assassin, this Huo Zhishan was lucky, and happened to meet an assassin without a poisonous blade. ”

Li Zhen thought about it carefully, and felt that there was still some doubt, generally speaking, it should be right that both assassins should use poisonous blades, there is no need to show mercy to the guards, and both of them have poisonous blades, so they have more hope of succeeding in the assassination.

However, Li Zhen didn't say much, he didn't understand the situation yet, so he couldn't draw conclusions arbitrarily, and asked again: "What else?"

Gao Jian smiled: "I can't see anything, but we have masters." ”

Gao Jian beckoned a middle-aged man in his fifties to him and introduced Li Zhen: "This is our Dali Temple commentator, named Wang Jiansi, who has participated in the case in Dali Temple for 30 years, and was also Di Xiangguo's right-hand man at the beginning, with rich experience. ”

Wang Jiansi hurriedly bowed down and saluted, "See Commander Li for his humble position"

Li Zhen heard that he was Di Renjie's right-hand man, and couldn't help but feel a little good for him, and hurriedly returned the salute with a smile: "It turned out to be Wang Pingshi, and I have heard of it for a long time."

Li Zhen was a little strange in his heart, since he was Di Renjie's right-hand man, why did he only get mixed up with a petty official from the eighth rank now, and he didn't want to ask more, so he smiled again: "Can you ask Wang Pingshi to analyze the case for me?"

"Please Commander Li come with me"

Wang Jiansi led Li Zhen to the direction of the wall and said to Li Zhen: "Although from the point of view of the indication, there is no trace of this assassination case, and the assassin also died and escaped, but after looking closely, there are still a lot of gains. ”

Wang Jiansi walked to the corner of the wall, pointed to a few large pieces of peeling wall skin in a low voice, and said: "These wall skins only fell yesterday, they are very new, the assassins should have escaped from here, and the guards did not chase here, so the wall skins are all intact and have not been trampled, but what I see are the footprints of two people, here"

Wang Jiansi pointed to two footprints of different sizes with a wooden pole and said, "Obviously, two people are going to go out over the wall, has Commander Li thought of anything?"

"That's three assassins," Li Zhen reacted immediately.

Wang Jiansi smiled slightly, "To be exact, there should be four assassins, and there is also a responder on the wall, pull them up with a rope." ”

Wang Jiansi took out a small piece of hemp rope crumbs, "This was also found by the wall, but there is no place to tie the rope at the head of the wall, so I deduced that there is another person on the wall who is pulling the rope." ”

Li Zhen couldn't help but secretly admire, this Wang Jiansi was really powerful, his reasoning was rigorous, reasonable, he pondered for a moment, and then asked: "I thought it was a little strange just now, so the injured guard was not poisoned, and King Xiang and the dead guard were both poisoned, does Wang Pingshi think there is something wrong with this guard?"

Wang Jiansi laughed, "Commander Li is very thoughtful, I actually thought about this issue just now, and I discussed it with Gao Sizhi, but I later thought that this guard was generally fine. ”

"Why?" asked Li Zhen curiously.

"Quite simply, the three Assassins had their own division of labor, two of them were responsible for killing the Prime Minister, while the other was lurking in the trees. ”

Wang Jiansi pointed to the big tree above his head, just lurking here, two personal guards intercepted the assassin, but the third assassin hiding in the tree sneaked up from behind and stabbed one person, it was Huo Zhishan, this third assassin did not have a poisonous blade, I found a broken branch, it was cut off by a sword, and there was a corresponding section on the tree, I looked at the section carefully, there was no trace of poison on it, so I judged that the third person did not have a poisonous blade, and Huo Zhishan's wound was also on the back, which was completely consistent.

"Wait a minute, why is it called roughly no problem?" Li Zhen suddenly heard the language in his words.

"Because there's another possibility, like—"

At this time, Sun Li was waving to Li Zhen in the distance, "Commander Li, there is an important situation here." ”

"Okay, we'll talk about that later. ”

Li Zhen walked quickly towards the pavilion, Wang Jiansi also followed, several guards had already gone down, there were only Sun Li and Gao Jian in the pavilion, seeing Li Zhen coming, Sun Li hurriedly stepped forward and handed a box to Li Zhen, "The box is something that a guard picked up on the ground, we have confirmed, it is not the property of the palace." ”

Li Zhen took the box and opened it, it turned out to be a pearl earring, the pearl was the size of grapes, inlaid on a gold ring, Li Zhen frowned, this is clearly a woman's thing, is there a woman among the assassins?

Li Zhen was about to pick it up and take a closer look, but Wang Jiansi next to him hurriedly said: "Commander Li be careful, there is a poison in here."

Li Zhen was startled, he carefully lifted the pearl, facing the direct sunlight, now the pearl was really hollow, and there was something powdery in it, he smiled at Wang Jiansi and asked, "Why is there poison hidden in Wang Pingshi?"

"The reason is very simple, the general assassin is strictly forbidden to carry anything that reveals his identity, if there are trillions or the like, most of them are for poison, judging from experience, this pearl should have a name. ”

Li Zhen nodded and handed him the pearl, "Can Wang Pingshi show anything?"

Wang Jiansi squinted and looked at it for a long time, and said to Li Zhen: "This kind of big pearl is not produced in our Tang Dynasty, it should be a special product of the Japanese Kingdom, and the quality of this pearl is very good, the value is at least more than 100 times, and it is actually carved into a hollow, this kind of craft is not available in general stores, I think we should go to Luo Zhutang in Nanshi to ask, they specialize in precious pearls, and they are also good at pearl carving." ”

Li Zhen nodded, "I'll go to Luo Zhutang to inquire, and you continue to look for clues." ”

Gao Jian smiled and said, "Why don't I go with Commander Li too?"