Li Zhiyun was taken aback when he heard Zhao Tingshi's words, and hurriedly asked, "What are their names?" Zhao Tingshi turned around and asked an official who followed behind: "What are the names of those three regimental soldiers?" The official looked down at the books he carried, and then said, "It's called Diao Dagui, Li Er, and Ruan Xiaoqi." ”

How can it be so coincidental? The three regimental soldiers I knew were burned to death? Li Zhiyun couldn't help but feel a little strange. Zhao Tingshi pointed with his hand and said, "The corpse is over there." Li Zhiyun looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, he saw three corpses covered with white cloth in a clearing not far away. He led the way over, came to a corpse, squatted down and was about to lift the white cloth, but Zhao Tingshi stopped: "Lord Wang, it has been burned to charcoal, it is better not to look at it." Li Zhiyun was right when he thought about it, with such a big fire, people must have been burned beyond recognition, and it was miserable. He stood up and said: "Zhao Tingshi, people can't be resurrected after death, and they must do a good job of comforting and compensating their relatives." ”

"Yes."

After Li Zhiyun returned to the King of Chu Inn, he was still thinking about the fire. According to state officials, the fire was caused by the overturning of an oil lamp, and there was no sign of arson. Li Zhiyun felt that even if the strong wind blew down the oil lamp and caused a fire, it would not burn the three regimental soldiers to death. The armory was just a few adobe houses, with doors and windows, and besides, the armor and crossbows did not produce any poisonous gases when they burned. After the three regimental soldiers were awakened by the fire, why didn't they flee and be burned alive by the fire? It's so weird.

He asked Cai Hu to call over and said, "You send someone to check where Diao Dagui and the three of them live." Since they are regimental soldiers, they should be locals. ”

In the afternoon, Cai Hu came to his room and said, "Lord Wang, it has been found out, Diao Dagui and Li Er's family are in Daliu Village, Ruan Xiaoqi lives in Xiaopu Village, the two villages are not far from each other, seven or eight miles away from Pizhou City," Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Early tomorrow morning, we will go to the homes of the three of them to pay respects." ”

The next morning, Li Zhiyun took two subordinate officials and dozens of guards and left Pizhou City and headed for Daliu Village. The procession walked along the dirt roads in the countryside, lined with endless fields, where green wheat seedlings had begun to tassel, and farmers in straw hats toiled in the fields. A fresh breeze blew slowly, rolling up the green wheat waves.

Li Zhiyun sat on the horse, admiring the beautiful pastoral scenery, and his mood suddenly brightened. At this time, Zhang Zheng rode up from behind and said, "Lord Wang, it seems that someone is following us behind." Li Zhiyun turned his head to look at it and said with a smile: "Let him follow, ignore him!" ”

The team marched for more than half an hour and came to Daliu Village. It is a village of hundreds of households, and although most of the houses in the village are adobe houses, they are scattered and densely distributed. The village was surrounded by fertile fields, and at the east end of the village there was a small river ditch, and beside the dry ditch there were four calves tied side by side, eating grass, and they mooed a few times towards the house; A flock of hens gathered on the dunghill in front of the pen, giving the dunghill a moving color, and they poked their paws to plan, then shook their bodies, and then cackled. The two roosters crowed incessantly, looking for bugs for the hens, and then beckoned them to come with a grug sound.

After inquiry, everyone found Diao Dagui's home. Diao Dagui's family has set up a mourning hall in the main house, and his wife and children are wearing linen and filial piety, kneeling at the gate to greet the guests who come to pay their respects, and there is a cry inside and outside the house.

Under the guidance of the relatives of the Diao family, Li Zhiyun walked into the house and came to the tablet dedicated to the deceased to burn incense and worship, and the guards took out the paper foil, paper money, paper tie people, etc., and burned them in the courtyard.

After the sacrifice, Li Zhiyun pulled Diao Dagui's wife up and said, "Sister-in-law, please stand up and speak." Diao Dagui's wife's eyes were red and swollen, and her face was stained with tears, she looked at him and said, "Are you the official master of the state capital?" Li Zhiyun shook his head and said, "No." Zhang Zheng on the side introduced: "He is the king of Chu and is from Chang'an." ”

"Huh? Are you the king? ”

Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "I met Dagui, he suffered misfortune, and I came to pay respects." Sister-in-law, please come and talk. He pulled Diao Dagui's wife to a square table next to him and sat down, looked at the other party and said, "Sister-in-law, how long has Dagui been on an errand in the state capital?" ”

"It's been almost two years."

"Does he have any enemies?"

"I've never heard of that."

"Did he usually tell you about the affairs in the yamen?"

"He's got a tight mouth and won't tell me anything." Diao Dagui's wife said, "However, he told me about such an incident, or he said it when he was drunk......

After Li Zhiyun listened, he stood up and glanced at Zhang Zheng. Zhang Zheng took out a cloth bag from his arms, handed it to Diao Dagui's wife, and said, "Sister-in-law, please accept this bag of silver." Diao Dagui's wife hurriedly excused herself and said, "No, no, the government has already given a pension, I can't ask for it!" Li Zhiyun took the silver bag and said, "Sister-in-law, this is a little bit of our heart, you must accept it!" So he put the silver into her hand.

At night, at the King of Chu Inn, a black shadow climbed over the wall and fell into the courtyard. There is no moon tonight, only a few stars in the sky, just the so-called dark moon killing night, when the wind is high and the fire is set on fire. The shadow stooped through the courtyard and ducked into the shadows at the base of the house walls. He felt for a window, pried open it with a dagger, and jumped into the room. This room was Li Zhiyun's room, and the black shadow tiptoed to the bed, took off the strong crossbow on his back, and aimed at the figure lying on the bed and pulled the tooth crossbow machine. The crossbow body shook suddenly, and the bowstring "buzzed". The power of a strong crossbow is not much better than that of a pistol at close range. Five short arrows fired in unison, shooting at the figure, making a "poof" sound. The black shadow was stunned for a moment when he heard that the voice was wrong. At this moment, someone outside the room shouted: "Catch the assassin!" Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door.

The black shadow hurriedly threw away the crossbow, turned around and rushed to the window, and jumped out. As soon as he landed, one of the guards rushed up and stabbed him in the head. The black shadow was agile, dodging the blade and rounding the guard's side. He swayed left and right, flashed several blocking guards one after another, and almost did not touch the ground to snake near the courtyard wall, a "dry land plucking onions", jumped over the wall more than a foot high, and then disappeared into the darkness......

In the guest room, several guards stood armed with lanterns and candles. Li Zhiyun walked in, looked at the short arrow shot on the futon, and said with a smile: "He still came, but unfortunately he pounced." ”

Li Zhiyun escaped today's catastrophe, and he has to thank Wang County's order. Wang County Commander has been the Xinping County Commander for many years, and he is an authentic head snake, and he is full of eyeliner in the city. This afternoon, he specially came to the King of Chu's Inn to find Li Zhiyun, and told him that an assassin he had been chasing for many years was seen near the King of Chu's Inn. Wang Xianling told him that this assassin was ruthless and had many lives on his back, and he was careful that this guy was bribed to assassinate him.

In addition to strengthening precautions, Li Zhiyun also changed rooms. He asked people to add a bunk to Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu's room and live with them. Sure enough, the Assassin infiltrated his room that night and fired a crossbow bolt at the disguised bed.

Li Zhiyun stretched out his hand and pulled out a crossbow arrow, which was a six-inch-long three-edged steel armor-piercing short arrow made of a narrow piece of wood with an arrow tail. He was just about to touch the arrow with his hand, but Zhang Zheng on the side shouted: "Don't touch the arrow, be careful of poison!" When Li Zhiyun heard this, he was so frightened that he hurriedly threw away the short arrow.

In order to prevent the assassin from assassinating again, the innkeeper rearranged Li Zhiyun's room, and his room was changed every two days, so outsiders had no idea where he lived. In addition, there are guards around the room, who are on duty 24 hours a day, and his protection can be described as airtight and foolproof.

On this day, Liu Yinglian came to Li Zhiyun's room, pushed open the door and went in to take a look, only to see him lying next to the bookcase, so she said, "Are you practicing calligraphy again?" ”

Li Zhiyun put the rabbit pen on the celadon pen holder, shook his arm and said, "You came just in time, I'm tired of writing." Liu Yinglian walked over and sat down opposite, picked up a piece of paper on the case, and saw that it was densely written: Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong, Qiu Hong......

"What are you writing about?"

Li Zhiyun smiled and said: "Lu Sifang said the word Qiuhong to me before he died, I asked people to look all over the city, and the woman named Qiuhong also found five or six, but they have nothing to do with Lu Sifang." So, I wondered if it could be homophony? No, write it down first, and then let people look for it. When Liu Yinglian heard this, she burst out laughing and said: "There are too many homonyms for the word Qiuhong, if you want to look for it according to this, then you have to find the Year of the Monkey and the Moon?" ”

"What's the solution? Now there are no new clues, only this stupid way. ”

Liu Yinglian pondered for a moment and said, "How can you be sure that what Lu Sifang said must be a person's name?" Li Zhiyun said strangely: "What else can it be if it's not a person's name?" Is it a place name? Liu Yinglian smiled: "Do you think, what do you want to say most before you die?" ”

"Of course it's the most important thing for him." Li Zhiyun said casually, suddenly reacted, patted his head and said, "That's right, Lu Sifang is trying to tell me the location of the treasure?" ”

Liu Yinglian looked at him calmly and nodded with a smile. Li Zhiyun thought for a moment and said, "Yes, Lu Sifang knew that he was going to lose his breath, and the two words he said with all his strength should be the place where the stolen goods were hidden." Li Zhiyun got excited, stood up and walked to the door, opened the door, and said to the guards outside the door: "Xiao Lu, you go and call Gao Lu." The guard agreed, turned and walked away.

Not long after, Gao Lu walked in, hugged his fists and said, "Lord Wang, are you looking for me?" Li Zhiyun picked up the piece of paper on the desk and said: "Gao joined the army, you have been in Pizhou for more than a year, you should be very familiar with this place, you see, is there a place name on it?" Gao Lu took it and looked at it for a while, and said, "Yes." ”

"Which one?" Li Zhiyun hurriedly asked.

Gao Lu pointed with his hand and said: "This, Qiu Hong, as far as the humble knows, there is a Qiu Hong villa outside the city. ”

"Qiuhong Villa? That's great! ”