Zhang Zheng took a guard, and the two of them rode out of Pizhou City from the north gate. They followed the road map drawn by Gao Lu and found the villa he said.

The villa is located at the foot of Cuiping Mountain, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with a small river in front and the beautiful scenery of Cuiping Mountain behind it. Zhang was pulling his mount on the main road, which was more than a mile away from the villa. He took out his binoculars and looked at it, the door of the villa was closed, there was no one around, and there were several gilded characters on the plaque of the gatehouse: Qiuhong Courtyard.

After making sure that this was the villa they were looking for, Zhang Zheng turned his head to the guards and said, "Let's tie the horses to the woods next to them first, and then go to the back mountain to have a look." The guard nodded.

The two dismounted and led the horse into a wooded field on the left. After tying up their horses, they went around to the hill behind the courtyard, hid in a bush, and observed the house below.

Qiuhong Courtyard covers an area of about seven or eight acres, and the entire residence is surrounded by a courtyard wall more than one zhang high. This villa has a total of three courtyards, and as soon as you enter the gate, there is a bungalow on the left and right, which is probably the gatehouse. Passing through the courtyard, there is the front hall, which has a total of five rooms, in addition to the main hall, there are two side rooms on the east and west sides. After the atrium is the back hall, and the back hall is also five, and there is a corridor between the front and back halls. Behind it, there is the back garden, where there are pavilions, arched bridges, and water pavilions. At the back of the garden, there is a small courtyard with several bungalows, presumably stables and barns.

From the outside, the gate of Qiuhong Courtyard is closed, it seems to be an empty house that is uninhabited, but in fact, it is loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and the defense inside is very tight, in addition to people walking around the courtyard wall and patrolling around the house, there are also hidden secret sentinels. These people are uniformly dressed and carry knives at their waists, and they are obviously the nurses of large families. Such an ordinary mansion, so well guarded, must be hiding some ulterior secret.

After observing for a while, Zhang Zheng put down the binoculars and said to the guards: "It seems that if we go in during the day, it is impossible not to be discovered, so we have to wait until night." The guard nodded, "Then go in at night." ”

The two went down the mountain and returned to the woods to wait quietly. In the evening, they took out the dry food they had brought and ate it. By the time they finished eating the dry food, it was already a golden wuxi fall, and the jade rabbit had risen eastward. The two walked out of the woods, Zhang Zheng looked up at the moon in the night sky, and estimated that it was the second watch. He whispered to the guards, "You go to the stable in the back and set a fire, and I'll go to the front to find out the situation." Remember, move bigger! The guard agreed, turned and walked away.

Zhang Zheng bowed down and walked quickly to the side of the courtyard wall, flew up, and his toes were only a little at the head of the wall, and he had already fallen into the courtyard, almost silent. He hid in the shadows, carefully observing his surroundings. After about a stick of incense, the yard suddenly became chaotic, and someone shouted: "The water is gone, go and put out the fire!" The nurses ran towards the back garden.

Zhang Zheng looked up, and the back of the courtyard was red, and it seemed that the fire was still burning strongly. When he saw that all the people in the courtyard had run away, he came out of his hiding place. Zhang Zheng did not go to the front hall, but went straight to the back hall. When he observed on the back hill in the afternoon, he found that the guards guarded the rooms in the back hall more tightly than the front hall. He felt that if the looted goods were hidden in this courtyard, they would probably be in the back hall.

Zhang Zheng walked lightly into the atrium like a tanuki, hiding in the shade of a tree. He found that there were two guards at the door of the West Wing. Everyone else went to put out the fire, but they were the only ones who kept guarding the room.

Zhang Zheng did not alarm them, but went around to the back window, pried open the sash with a dagger, and climbed through the window. The moon was big and round tonight, and the moonlight poured in through the window, and the mercury sprinkled on several large boxes. Zhang Zheng counted them, and there were ten boxes in total, each box was three feet long, two feet wide, and two feet high.

The chest was unlocked, and he gently opened one of the lids, only to see that it was filled with gold ingots, which glowed yellow in the moonlight. He opened another box, which was full of jewels as large as pigeon's eggs.

After making sure of the doubt, Zhang Zheng climbed out of the window, gently closed the sash, and then walked to the courtyard wall and jumped out. When he returned to the woods, he found that the guards had returned. Zhang Zheng excitedly said: "The thing has been found, let's go." The two led their horses out of the woods, and when they got up the avenue, they mounted their mounts and hurried back to the city of Pizhou.

Early the next morning, Zhang Zheng came to Li Zhiyun's room and told him what he had discovered yesterday. Li Zhiyun was very happy to hear this, and said with a smile: "The big fish has surfaced, it's time for us to close the net." After a pause, he said again: "Zhang Zheng, you work harder, go to the barracks, tell Sang Xianhe, and say that I want to see him." ”

"Yes."

In the afternoon of the same day, Sang Xianhe came to the King of Chu Inn. As soon as he walked into Li Zhiyun's guest room, he clasped his fists and saluted. Li Zhiyun invited him to sit down, and then sat down opposite and said: "General Sang, although Pizhou is a remote state capital, but the terrain is dangerous, the general guards Pizhou, which is the great trust of the imperial court, and I hope that the general will not live up to the trust and expectations of the imperial court." ”

"The king of Chu can rest assured that he will not fulfill his duties and serve the court and the emperor."

Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "General Sang, when this king was in Hedong, he had a lot of dealings with your old governor Qu Tutong, and he mentioned it to this king many times, saying that you are a rare general. ”

"That's the old chief's false praise for the general."

Li Zhiyun shook his head and said, "No, General Sang is too modest, you are indeed a fierce general." I think that when my father attacked Chang'an, Qu Tutong led tens of thousands of elite soldiers to leave Hedong City and go to Guanzhong in order to rescue Chang'an, but he was blocked by Liu Wenjing in Tongguan, and the two sides faced each other for more than a month. In order to capture Tongguan, Qu Tutong ordered General Sang to attack Liu Wenjing's camp at night, General Sang commanded properly, two of the three camps were captured by you, and the camp commanded by Liu Wenjing himself was also breached, the righteous army died thousands of people, Liu Wenjing was also hit by a stray arrow, just when the righteous army was about to be defeated, General Sang suddenly stopped attacking......"

Sang Xianhe continued: "Before the general saw that the soldiers had fought all night and were exhausted, he ordered to bury the pot and make rice, intending to wait for breakfast before launching a final attack on the rebels. At that time, the last general was overly optimistic about the situation, believing that the general trend of the rebel army was gone. However, Liu Wenjing took advantage of this rare opportunity to catch his breath and secretly sent soldiers to sneak to the other two camps, killed the sentries, and recaptured the two camps. What's even more strange is that a group of hundreds of rangers of the righteous army swam behind the general at this time and launched an attack on the general. The enemy was not exposed to the enemy, and the formation was in chaos, and finally the whole army was annihilated, and he fled back to Guancheng alone. What a providence! If the last general had known that the Great Sui would not have escaped the doom of destruction, he should have surrendered to the rebels earlier. ”

Li Zhiyun smiled: "Qu Tutong saw that General Sang was defeated and returned, and knew that there was no hope of rescuing Chang'an, so he left General Sang to guard Tongguan and led his army to Luoyang. But as soon as Qu Tutong left, General Sang sacrificed Tongguan and surrendered to Liu Wenjing. General Sang's move is respectable and congratulatory! ”

"The King of Chu has a good reputation."

Sang Xianhe didn't expect that Li Zhiyun knew everything about his past. The King of Chu in front of him, although he was young and looked like a child, showed a noble and noble style. He has a deep vision, and he is far more mature and sophisticated than his contemporaries, which should not be underestimated. Since he had a lot of dealings with his old chief Qu Tutong, and heard that he was also a brother to Qu Tutong's son Qu Tushou, Sang Xianhe gave birth to a heart of clinging. As the saying goes, there are people in the court who are good officials, although they have the support of the old chief, but many friends and many roads, if you climb the prince in front of you, then your future career will definitely be much smoother. Thinking of this, Sang Xianhe said: "The prince strategized during the battle of Hedong, and repeatedly built miraculous feats, and the general was very admired!" Since the prince is close to the old commander of the general, the general is your person, and he is willing to listen to the prince in the future! ”

Of course, Li Zhiyun understood the meaning of Sang Xianhe's words. Unlike the second brother, he had no roots in the Tang army except for the new army. In the entire Tang Army, only Fan Botong can barely be counted as his person because of Fan Shuxiang's relationship. If he can bring Sang Xianhe under his command this time, if something unexpected happens in the future, then he will have another trump card in his hand. So, Li Zhiyun smiled and said, "General Sang's intentions are already known to this king. General Sang rest assured, this king must be in front of Abba. This king believes that with the bravery and talent of General Sang, it is not difficult for him to make contributions on the battlefield in the future, and it is not difficult to open a government and build a government and tear the soil to seal the marquis. ”

When Sang Xianhe heard this, he stood up and hugged his fists and said, "Thank you, Lord Wang!" The prince has an envoy, and if he doesn't go to the soup, he will not give up! ”

"Okay."

After Sang Xianhe left, Li Zhiyun asked Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu to call them and said to them: "Let's go to the state government and find Zhao Changlin." ”

After the three of them left the inn of the king of Chu, they came to the state office. After the official went in to report, Zhao Tingshi greeted them, brought them into the lobby, and after the guests sat down, Li Zhiyun said: "Zhao Tingshi, I heard that you once served as a county magistrate in Yongshou County, right?" ”

"Back to the prince, Xia Guan has served in Yongshou County for many years."

Li Zhiyun nodded and said: "Sun Fen is a native of Qingquan Village, Anping Township, Yongshou County, his father was killed by Sun Changwei, a member of the same clan, Sun Fen was only ten years old that year, and he swore to avenge his father. One day a few years later, Sun Fen's uncle was having a banquet at his home, and Sun Changwei was also present, Sun Fen smashed Sun Changwei to death with a brick, and was captured by the government and sentenced to death. I heard that it was Zhao Tingshi's active operation that cleared Sun Fen's charges, right? Zhao Changlin nodded and said: "What the prince heard is true, and the lower officials were moved by Sun Fen's filial piety, so they wrote to the court to ask for him to be exempted from sin, and to keep him by his side to listen." How do you know that Sun Fen didn't know how to return, and actually colluded with bandits, sought money and killed him, which was really a waste of the hard work of the lower officials. ”

"Sun Fen is to blame, what does it have to do with Zhao Tingshi?"

"Sun Fen and Lu Sifang are both subordinates of the lower officials, and the two of them committed such a serious crime, and the lower officials failed to gain insight into their treachery in time, and they are responsible for negligence, please punish the prince."

"What Sun Fen and Lu Sifang did is a personal act, please Zhao Tingshi don't blame himself." Li Zhiyun said, "However, according to the judgment of this king, neither of them is the mastermind. According to Zhao Tingshi's view, who is the mastermind behind this scene? ”