Li Zhiyun divided the men and horses into two pulls, and the army of the family affairs government took some of them to an inn, and he led the people to the other. Along the way, he was thinking about what he had just heard, and the rumors in the wine shop were not reliable, but those people had noses and eyes, and this thing was eighty percent true. When he arrived at the door of the inn, he saw Liu Hong get off the carriage, so he turned over and dismounted, walked over and shouted to Liu Hong, and said, "Lord Liu, who is the parent official of this city of Pizhou?" ”

"On the boundary of Xinping County, the parent official is of course the county magistrate of Xinping County. What, you're going to the county office? ”

Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "I want to check it." ”

"Then I'll go with you."

"No, you're old, and you've been tired all the way, so let's go to the inn and rest."

Li Zhiyun left the inn with Zhang Zheng, Cai Hu and two other guards, and after inquiring along the way, he found the county office. After the official at the door went in to report, it didn't take long for an official to walk out of the room. He was in his mid-thirties, of medium build, and looked suave. He walked up to Li Zhiyun and arched his hand: "Xinping County ordered the king, I didn't know that the king of Chu had arrived, and I missed the distance, and I hope that the prince will forgive the sin!" ”

"It turned out to be Wang County's order, disrespectful, disrespectful."

Wang Hao welcomed Li Zhiyun and others into the lobby, and after the guests and hosts sat down, the servants served fragrant tea. Wang Hao looked at Li Zhiyun and said, "I don't know what business the prince has to do in Pizhou?" Li Zhiyun smiled and said, "This king is not here for official business, but for some personal affairs. However, just now the king heard in the wine shop that there was a murder outside the city, and a whole family was killed, I don't know if it's true? ”

"What the prince heard is true," Wang County ordered, "It was the Loujiazhuang Lou Wai family who was killed, and he led the county government to investigate the scene early yesterday morning. The murder occurred between midnight and ugliness the night before. All nine members of the Lou family were killed. The prince may have heard that the Lou family is quite wealthy, and the murderers are obviously going for the yellow and white things. ”

Li Zhiyun asked, "Can you find an eyewitness?" Wang Xianling shook his head and said, "I haven't found it." Li Zhiyun frowned, puzzled: "The murderers killed people and seized money, and the movement was quite big, why wasn't they discovered by the neighbors?" Wang Xian Ling hurriedly explained: "The prince doesn't know. In addition to the Loujiazhuang family, although there are dozens of villagers living in Loujiazhuang, their houses are far away from the Loujia house, and the nearest one is about a mile. In addition, the murder happened in the middle of the night, and the villagers were already asleep, so no one witnessed it. It's just that a neighbor got up early to pick up dung, and when he passed by Lou's house, he found that the gate was open, and the courtyard was in a mess, so he went in to inspect and found the corpse before reporting to the official. ”

Li Zhiyun pondered for a moment and said, "I wonder if Wang County Ling can accompany this king to the scene to inspect?" "Although he is not the top boss of Wang Hao, he is a prince after all, and he holds the position of Shang Shuling, which is a high-ranking official of the imperial court who ranks among the three princes and nine secretaries, and he has the right to intervene in such a major case. Wang Hao naturally didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly gathered a group of staff and officials, and personally accompanied Li Zhiyun and others out of the city and went to Loujiazhuang.

The distance to Loujiazhuang is only five miles, and it doesn't take half an hour to get there on horseback. Everyone entered the Zhuangzi and came to the door of the house outside the building. Li Zhiyun took a look, this mansion covers an area of quite large, about one or twenty acres, and it is a three-hall mansion with dozens of rooms. There is a pond in front of the house, a poplar forest to the east, and a large vegetable patch to the west to see the houses of other villagers.

Although it has been two days since the tragedy, there are still villagers gathered outside the gate. They pointed and whispered. On both sides of the gate, there are two soap officers with water and fire sticks, who are responsible for guarding the scene and preventing idlers from trespassing.

Li Zhiyun, accompanied by Wang County's order, walked into the house. They walked through the courtyard and into the hall. Five corpses were parked on the floor of the hall, all covered with white cloth. Wang County ordered: "There are still four bodies parked in the west wing. Li Zhiyun looked at the corpses and said, "Have you examined the corpses at noon?" ”

"It's all been tested, and all of them were killed by the sword, and there is nothing strange about it."

Li Zhiyun walked to a corpse and squatted down, lifted the white sheet, the deceased was an elderly man, probably the head of the house. The face was blurry and almost unrecognizable, his eyes bulging out, and the two eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, as if they were dead. His face and neck were slashed several times, and the flesh of the knife was curled outward, and his appearance was very miserable. Li Zhiyun has experienced many battles in the past two years, and he has seen a lot of bloody scenes, and when he can see this miserable face, he still can't help but be frightened, if he just crossed that time and saw such a tragic situation, he would definitely be frightened and screamed.

Li Zhiyun stood up after covering the sheet again, and caught a glimpse of Wang Xianling's face with admiration. Wang Xianling probably felt that although he was young, he was quite timid. He smiled, turned around and saw two steel knives and a flag on a desk next to him, and walked over. The two steel knives were extremely sharp, and there were purple-black blood stains left on them. The flag was a small triangular flag with the word "Liang" printed on it.

"What is this?"

"This is what I found in the house when I investigated the scene yesterday, and it was probably lost by the murderer."

Li Zhiyun picked up the pennant and looked at it, and said, "Wang County Order, according to you, what does this Liang character represent?" ”

Xia Guan guessed, does this Liang character refer to Liang Shidu? Liang Shidu is now occupying Diaoyin, could it be that this group of strongmen came from Diaoyin? ”

Li Zhiyun pondered for a moment, nodded and said, "There is this possibility." These robbers may have heard of the name of the building's clerk, and they have moved evil thoughts and come to kill people and rob money. However, if the robbers come from afar, rob their belongings, and walk on the official roads in broad daylight, it will be very inconvenient, and they will surely look for a place to hide for the time being. ”

"Xia Guan also thought of this layer," Wang Xian ordered, "Yesterday the garrison of Bizhou was informed, and they were asked to set up checkpoints everywhere to check on passing business travelers. Xiaguan also sent officials to search restaurants, village shops, and carriage shops along the way, but nothing has been found so far. ”

Li Zhiyun nodded and went to the west wing to take a look. After coming out of the west wing, Wang Xian ordered: "The corpse has been parked for two days, and the lower officials are building a coffin, preparing to go out of the funeral early tomorrow morning, so that the deceased can be buried in peace." Li Zhiyun thought for a while and said, "Wang County Order, is there a total of nine people in the Lou family?" Are there any people who have escaped by going out for some reason? Wang Xianling was stunned for a moment and said: "This subordinate didn't think about it, and the subordinate immediately asked someone to check it." With that, he turned and walked away, and discussed with the staff who had been following behind. Li Zhiyun led people through the hall and atrium and entered a room in the back hall.

It was a large inner room, about the bedroom of the couple outside the building, and it was a mess inside, and there were blood stains on the floor. Probably the owner was awakened in his sleep and let out an exclamation, and the gangsters rushed in and killed the couple. Li Zhiyun said to his entourage: "You all go and search everywhere to see if you can find any clues." When everyone heard this, they all dispersed, and Li Zhiyun also lowered his head and looked for it in the house. After a while, Cai Hu walked over and handed him a silver bracelet.

"Where did you find it?"

"Under the bed in the room next door."

"This should be a pair, what about the other?"

"Only one was found."

Li Zhiyun looked down, this is a silver silk double-buckle bracelet, the color is dull, obviously some years old, probably an ancestral thing. The inner wall of the bracelet is engraved with the word "Wei Ji", which is about the name of the silver shop where the bracelet was made.

Li Zhiyun tugged the silver bracelet into his sleeve. At this time, Wang Xianling walked in and said, "Lord Wang, I asked the master to find Lizheng, he should know how many people there are in the Lou family." Seeing Li Zhiyun nodding, Wang Xian Ling said again: "Lord Wang, have you been to the secret room?" ”

"Secret room?"

"That's right, it's where the Lou family hides gold and silver treasures."

"Where?"

"It's in the study." Wang Xian ordered to say that, and led Li Zhiyun and the others out of the bedroom and into a room in the west.

The room was also spacious, and like the others, it was turned into a mess, with two rows of bookcases on the north wall, and a doorway in the middle that could be used for one person to enter and exit. Wang Xian ordered a servant to go first to light the oil lamp, and then led everyone into the secret room. The secret room is underground, the elevation of the ceiling is about one zhang from the ground, the area of the secret room is about ten square meters, about two feet five inches high, and the surrounding walls and ground are very dry. In ancient times, there was no waterproof membrane and waterproof glue, but the ancients used their ingenuity and wisdom to still be able to do a good job of waterproofing the basement, as evidenced by the tombs of the emperors of various dynasties.

Although there was nothing in the secret room at this moment, Li Zhiyun couldn't help but marvel in his heart, how many gold and silver treasures could be hidden in such a large secret room! His main concern now was the whereabouts of the gold and silver treasures.

Everyone came up from the secret room and returned to the study, and Li Zhiyun began to look for the mechanism to open the secret passage. There were two brass hooks nailed to the east wall, presumably used to hang clothes, and he walked over and twisted them with his hands, but they couldn't be twisted at all. He searched carefully, found nothing, and finally noticed a Buddhist platform in the corner of the wall, so he walked over.

There were several lanterns enshrined in front of the Buddha statue, and he picked up the lamps that had long since dried up and found that none of them had taken root. Finally, his eyes fell on the Buddha statue, and he stretched out his hands to rotate the Buddha statue to the left, but it couldn't turn at all, and then turned to the right, and the Buddha statue actually loosened. With a "squeak", the two rows of bookcases closed automatically, and the entrance to the secret room disappeared.

Everyone was amazed, they had never seen such an organ, and Li Zhiyun had never seen it, except in the movies. Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu scratched their heads - this King of Chu, how can he understand everything? He could figure it out. There is indeed money outside the building staff, and I don't know where to invite skilled craftsmen to create such an ingenious mechanism, and this Buddha statue is the switch to open the secret passage. Li Zhiyun saw the secret room, and he was able to find the switch to open the secret passage, and people who didn't know the truth would not know that there was a secret room built underground in this study, and it was impossible to find the switch of the secret passage.