Infrastructure masters in the red building

The crown prince Taifu Xia Xingshen, Mr. Xia, calls those princes by their first names and surnames every day.That's because the princes are all his students, teachers are dignified, Xia Shengshen never cared about their identities other than "students".

But now Ruan Yunqing directly called the third prince by his name in the hall of Shuntian Mansion, which shows that he hates him and is at odds with the third prince.

"Witness?"

The crown prince is dead, and the people in the Dongping palace are sold out, sold out, and dismissed, how can there be witnesses?

But Ruan Yunqing looked serious, looked up at Lin Yan, nodded and repeated: "Yes, witness!"

The right half of his face was so badly damaged that it was difficult to connect him with the pillar of the Cloud Dispelling Squad, the peerless beauty Ruan Yunqing.But there is a spark in his eyes, it seems that if the third prince in front of him is a little careless, he, the Prince Jian Guo who has already entered the East Palace, can be ruined.

"Let's hear it!" Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion didn't dare to clap the gavel in his hand this time.

"That day, the villain was seriously injured and fell into a coma. I would like to thank the people from the Ministry of Criminal Justice for inviting a doctor for the villain and treating the injury with medicine." Ruan Yunqing said "thank you", without even a hint of gratitude in her words.It is estimated that the people from the Ministry of Punishment who were not angry treated him indiscriminately, causing his face to be damaged like this.

"However, thanks to everyone, the villain lived in the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice for more than half a year, and was finally released."

As soon as Ruan Yunqing finished speaking, Lin Yan said "oh", the people in the Ministry of Punishment showed embarrassment, and the third prince's face was stiff——

Can an important witness like Ruan Yunqing be thrown out after only half a year in the Ministry of Punishment?Didn't the people in the criminal department think about interrogating him?

For a while, the adults sitting in Shuntian Mansion all had weird eyes, as if they felt that Ruan Yunqing's bloody and tearful accusation at the beginning of today might not be unreasonable.

Then Ruan Yunqing complained to himself: After he was released from the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, he first went to the south, and then returned to the capital for this old case, and found the brothers in the Paiyun Squad.

At this time, because the Paiyun class was involved in the assassination of the prince, how could there be any business?Those brothers in the team were willing to take in Ruan Yunqing for a while. They were implicated by Ruan Yunqing, and they themselves were in danger, so how could they afford the rest of his life?

So Ruan Yunqing went to the street to do odd jobs. He was weak and couldn't do coolies, but because of his sweet voice and sweet lips, he also got some moving errands. Although the money was not much, it could always feed him alone. .

Unexpectedly, not long after this, Ruan Yunqing encountered a "big business" - the third prince moved, and moved the things in the mansion from the third prince's mansion to the East Palace.Ruan Yunqing was said by her companions to be "although she was born ugly, but her hands and feet are clean and her work is delicate", so she also sneaked into the third prince's mansion.

"While moving the goods, I met a servant of the Prince's Mansion named Wu Da. He said that he was specialized in moving things from the outer study. So I followed him all the time to see what I could find."

When Ruan Yunqing said this, the third prince's face was ugly, making people guess that Wu Da must be a real person.

"In the end, he took out two boxes and handed them to me, asking me to hold them carefully, and don't drop them, because there are firecrackers inside."

"Holding those two boxes, I thought about the life of His Highness the Crown Prince, and then I thought about my face, and I felt that hatred in my heart." Ruan Yunqing continued, "But I knew that if I rushed into the room with these two boxes, Shuntian Mansion, I'm afraid I'll be beaten to death on the way..."

"Wait!" Jia Daishan interrupted suddenly and stopped Ruan Yunqing, "You said you heard that Wu Da said that there was a firecracker in the box, but you didn't open it to see it, did you?"

Ruan Yunqing smiled miserably, and said: "Master Rong Guo, the villain is just doing errands for people on the street, and the servant of the Prince's Mansion is watching by his side. Do you think I will have a chance to open the box?"

Jia Daishan immediately said: "Based on your words alone, it cannot be concluded that there are firecrackers in the box."

Ruan Yunqing spoke eloquently, and immediately retorted: "That's why the villain said that Wu Da is the witness, and didn't say that the villain is the witness."

Jia Daishan was speechless for a while, glanced at the third prince sitting in the hall, and thought: There is really no way...

That day the third prince led the Ministry of Criminal Justice to search for firecrackers in the middle of the capital, and kept letting out the wind, saying that the prince was injured by the firecrackers, and even used this as an excuse to almost rush into Rongfu to arrest Jia Fang for questioning.

But even so, the third prince could not find the whereabouts of the pair of firecrackers in the end.

Up to now, it has been revealed that this pair of firecrackers is actually in the third prince's mansion, and it's still hidden in the outer study?

Jia Daishan sighed in his heart: As long as the third prince is really shrewd and practical, he should have tracked down the whereabouts of the firecracker early in the morning.It's not that the subordinates are superfluous, pretending to be busy all day long, but in fact they have achieved nothing, and they have been dragging on until now.

It seems that this supervisor has indeed improved since then, but unfortunately he has grown too late.

"So the witness you mentioned is Ding Wuda, the family servant of the Third Highness's residence?" Lin Yan continued to ask Ruan Yunqing.

Behind Lin Yan, the third prince said expressionlessly: "This Wu Da, I remember that he fell into the water after drinking last month, and he is gone."

Now it's even more suspicious.

It was hard to get a personal ID. Last time when the third prince was moving, he saw the pair of firecrackers, and they disappeared as soon as he turned his face.Whether this was an accident or was silenced, with Ruan Yunqing's testimony, the third prince couldn't argue with his own words, even if it was justified.

It might be better if the third prince didn't mention Wu Da. Once he said this, others would feel that a majestic prince who supervised the country even remembered clearly the incident of the servants in the mansion falling into the water.Now it's even more suspicious.

So Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion looked at Ruan Yunqing and said, "Listen to what His Highness said, the celebrity witness you mentioned is no longer alive. Your testimony is now an isolated witness, what else do you want to say?"

Ruan Yunqing lowered her head in thought for a moment, then suddenly raised her head, looked at Lin Yan and said loudly, "Master Lin, now there are no witnesses, but physical evidence."

"What physical evidence?"

"It's the pair of firecrackers!" Ruan Yunqing raised his voice, he was originally a danjiao, his voice was high-pitched, and when he raised his voice, he looked like a frightened woman.He pointed at the third prince and said, "Now, the pair of firecrackers that killed His Highness the Crown Prince are hiding in the East Palace. If we can find out the pair of firecrackers and hand them over to Duke Rong Jia for identification, we will be able to confirm--"

"My lord!—"

Ruan Yunqing slammed her forehead on the stone floor in front of her with a "bang".

Yin Linyan of Shuntian Mansion sat at the head and rubbed his hands anxiously:

This Ruan Yunqing is too outrageous, he pulled out the radish and brought out the mud, and he still talked about the physical evidence when the witness was gone-and said that the physical evidence is currently in the East Palace, so let him go to the East Palace to search for physical evidence?

—Did he dare?

The Fourth Prince's Gewu Academy recently received a batch of old furniture from the East Palace.

When the third prince moved into the East Palace, he naturally cleaned up all the household belongings, and threw all the unused items into the warehouse.

But the third imperial concubine felt that the warehouse was too crowded, so her husband hurriedly found someone to deal with all the things in the former East Palace.The third prince remembered that his younger brother Zhou Zhou Dezhang was setting up the "Gewu Academy" in Taixue.And the fourth child has always had no money at hand, so the establishment of this college must be very shabby.He went to say hello to his younger brother, and ordered people to send all the old furniture cleared out of the East Palace to Gewu College.

"They're all good things!" The third prince dropped a sentence.

The fourth prince took a look at the things after receiving them, and it was true: the tables were all made of rosewood, and the other two were made of nanmu, the wall tables were all edged with marble or Qiyang stone; the chairs were all ebony inlaid with marble.The shape is so exquisite and dazzling, or inlaid with gold and silver, or carved with hidden flowers, the things are so expensive that there is no edge.

Therefore, the third prince didn't clean up the old belongings that were no longer needed. He clearly disliked the family belongings left by the prince as unlucky, so he gave them to others.

In addition to household items, the East Palace also sent out a lot of utensils, such as incense burners and incense tubes, brush washers and brush beds, painting boxes and scrolls, etc. There are always a lot of odds and ends, and the fourth prince has to clean them up by himself and sort them into categories.

The fourth prince was not fond of talking too much by nature, so he rolled up his sleeves and started to work, cleaning up by himself.

Putting it away, he suddenly found two long ebony boxes—could this be a painting box for scrolls?

But the painting box is not so long or so big.

So the fourth prince opened one of them, staring at the shiny black iron in the box, he was immediately amazed.

"What the hell... is this?"

One of the fourth prince's entourage asked: "Do you want to check the list handed over from the East Palace for you?"

The fourth prince nodded silently, brought out the iron object, and played with it casually in his hand.

But until the people of Gewu College checked all the old things sent by the East Palace, they still couldn't find the corresponding entries of these two ebony boxes.

"Do you want to return to the East Palace?" His entourage asked casually.

The fourth prince has gradually discerned the way of this iron artifact.He held the thing in his hand, and the end with the wooden handle rested on the hollow of his shoulder.

How to operate after that, he was confused again.

So the fourth prince said: "Look for a painter!"

Recently, he has become more and more aware of the truth that if you talk too much, you will lose it.Jia Fang once mentioned a sentence in front of him: As long as he speaks short sentences, and each sentence is short and powerful, his tongue will not tremble, and others will not be able to hear his stuttering.

The entourage said "yes" decisively, and hurried to find the painter.

The fourth prince's right shoulder and arm were already a little sore, and he slowly put down the iron object.

Sure enough, as long as he established authority over the speaker, he gained confidence, and his speech gradually became fluent—it's a pity that so far, there are not many people who can allow him to establish authority.

In Taoyuan Village, Jia Fang received a letter from Jia Amnesty from Shuangwen, and Shui Xian received a letter from the fourth prince from the shopkeeper Ren. The two put together the news in Beijing and came to the conclusion: "Ham, it turns out that this is the case. Something happened!"

Ruan Yunqing rang the Dengwen Drum of Shuntian Mansion, bringing the assassination case of the prince back to the table, and pointed out that the third prince was the most suspected.

Ruan Yunqing's reason was: after the prince's assassination, the third prince's investigation was not good, and he was still unable to find out where the two firecrackers that killed the prince and severely injured Duke Rong went.He also asked Shuntian Mansion to search the East Palace. Of course, the governor of Shuntian Mansion did not dare, and the two sides naturally froze there.

The fourth prince received two firecrackers from the East Palace inexplicably.

He wrote to Shui Xian to confirm whether these two bombs were the same ones that attacked Shui Xian and Jia Fang that day, and attached a picture.

Jia Fang and Shui Xian recognized at a glance that the firecracker that chased after Shui Xian in the garden that day and broke up the gooseneck chair in "Sit with Whom" was the one in the pattern. pieces.

"Could it be that the third prince really harmed the prince?" Jia Fang asked.

Shui Xian hesitated for a while, shook his head, and said, "Do you still remember what your father said when he looked for you alone last time?"

Jia Fang was dizzy for a while before he figured it out: "...you said it was the emperor!"

When the emperor came down last time, he once commented on the third prince: "The third son is an idiot."

Both Jia Fang and Shui Xian thought: The third prince is indeed mediocre, but if you really want to say that he is infinitely stupid, that would not be the case.

If the third prince really has the ability to do such a big game and harm the prince and his wife, then why didn't he prepare a scapegoat early on and put the blame on others?Why wait until now, when the prince's old love blames him, and all the officials and people in the capital are eating melons and watching jokes?

Jia Fang gave a "hmm", looked at the letter and said, "My father... the father in the Rongguo Mansion also thinks so. He thinks this matter has nothing to do with the Third Prince."

"Furthermore, my elder brother wrote in the letter that my father believed that the people behind the scenes, in addition to putting the crown prince to death, might also have a grudge against the Rongguo mansion, so he deliberately lured my father to find the crown prince, wanting to Snipe and kill together. And then..."

Later, Jia Fang and Shui Xian were attacked again. I am afraid that Jia Fang was the main target that time, and Shui Xian was incidental.

"It makes sense." Shui Xian commented.

"However, do you think the real culprit really sent the two firecrackers in his hand to the fourth prince in order to blame the third prince?"

Jia Fang nodded and said, "That's exactly what I'm worried about."

"I think that the opponent should have more than two firecrackers now."

At the beginning, Jia Fang asked Jia Daishan specifically, and confirmed that the assassins who attacked the prince carried two firecrackers, and used up which one, probably because the firecrackers were not easy to reload and took a lot of time, so they made such preparations.

Later, when the assassins attacked Jia Fang and Shui Xian, they assigned two assassins, each of whom possessed a firecracker—this made Shuixian and Jia Fang judge that the opponents only had these two firecrackers at that time.

But now the opponent is so generous that in order to frame the third prince, he actually sent these two firecrackers to the fourth prince directly.

But this also corresponds to Jia Fang's worries: he is now more and more worried that the opponent has more than two firecrackers.In this way, even if Jia Fang develops corresponding weapons here, it must also be considered that the opponent's strength level is also improving.

"What did His Royal Highness say in the letter?" Jia Fang asked Shui Xian, "Will he report this matter to Shuntian Mansion?"

Shui Xian shook his head, and said: "You fourth brother, you should know his temper. He is a very serious person. He thinks that the batch of furniture sent by the East Palace is mixed with firecrackers, which cannot directly prove the fire. The gun was sent out from the East Palace by the Third Prince to avoid being searched. This matter is logically untenable."

"Indeed!" Jia Fang sincerely admired the fourth prince's judgment.Logically, the fourth prince received the firecracker, and it cannot be directly deduced that the third prince sent the firecracker.

It's rare for the Fourth Prince to be so sober.

"But even so, he still has to report this matter to your other father, he can't do it himself." Shui Xian looked at the letter and said.

Jia Fang nodded: "I understand."

This matter, if it is placed in ordinary people, it may be similar.The brothers fought over the property, and the third brother was suspected of harming the second brother. Even if the fourth brother believed the third brother, he had to tell the old father the evidence he found, lest the father think that the fourth brother colluded with the third brother and covered up for the third brother.

In this time and space, even the royal family must act in accordance with the prevailing rules in the world.

But in this way, the situation in the capital was frozen there: Ruan Yunqing complained for the prince but had no evidence, suspected of framing him, and was sent to prison—but it may also be Yin Linyan of Shuntian Prefecture who saw him pitiful and wanted to protect him. Keep him safe.

The third prince is still supervising the administration of the country in the East Palace, but in order to avoid suspicion, he can no longer intervene in the case of investigating the prince.The entire case was handed over to Yin Linyan of Shuntian Prefecture, and the Ministry of Criminal Justice, Dali Temple, and Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Kuang Renshan, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, wrote a letter saying that the people might be manipulating public opinion-this also fell on Shuntian Mansion by the way.

Jia Fang sighed and said, "Actually, it's inappropriate for any one of us to come forward to hunt down the person who killed the prince."

"You!" Shui Xian said concisely, as if he wanted to say that Jia Fang could do it.

After all, Jia Fang has a foreign surname in name, and he is not qualified to chase that chair before he recognizes his ancestors and returns to his clan.Furthermore, he himself was attacked and narrowly escaped death.If it wasn't for Shui Xian...he would have died long ago.

"No," Jia Fang shook his head, "I have this self-knowledge."

There have always been rumors in Beijing that he is the emperor's confidant, and the reason why he is not allowed to recognize his ancestor and return to his clan is because he is afraid that he will be hurt if he changes his surname back to Zhou.People say that if you establish a son, you will establish love, so he may be regarded as the hang of "love".

Besides, he was attacked in the suburbs of Beijing and in front of the Beijing Prince's Mansion in Beijing, this matter cannot be resolved.After all, once others asked him how he escaped, neither he nor Shui Xian could explain.At that time, others can naturally say that he directed and acted on his own, and used a bitter trick to deceive the trust of the people of the world.

Although he really wanted to find out the truth about the prince's murder at the moment, he couldn't let him do it.

"Your father, your brother! They can." Shui Xian explained a little bit more.

Jia Fang immediately understood: "Why didn't I think of that?"

Although he can't come forward, Jia Daishan is a justifiable sufferer, and Jia Amnesty is the eldest son of the sufferer.The two of them can circulate in the capital, relying on the contacts of the Ningrong Second Mansion, and slowly investigate the truth of the matter.

"Okay, I'll write a letter right away." Jia Fang rubbed his hands, doing it as soon as he thought of it.

But Shui Xian took his hand lightly, and said gently: "Don't be busy for now. I had an appointment to go to - those two places today."

Jia Fang thought about it, it was indeed the case, the matter of the letter could be put aside for a while, anyway, sending the letter from him to the Rongguo Mansion in Beijing was only a matter of a moment.The letter sent today, Jia Daishan and the others will also receive it tomorrow morning, so there is no need to be in a hurry.

"By the way, I think these two places should really come up with a code name and call them, just like your 'Dicui Pavilion'. How about it, do you have any ideas?"

Shui Xian asked as he walked. When he heard that the "Dicui Pavilion" in Taoyuan Village was not actually a pavilion, he had greatly appreciated it.

Jia Fang thought for a while, and said: "It's simple, one is called 'Aujing Pavilion', and the other is called 'Tubi Mountain Villa'."

As soon as Shui Xian heard it, he felt novelty: "The word 'concave and convex' is rarely used in poetry...but you used it to describe the topography of those two places, but it is also appropriate."

Jia Fang was praised, and stuck out his tongue quietly, thinking that he was learning from her wisdom. According to the original book "Red Mansion", the place names of the two Grand View Gardens were thought up by Sister Lin. He took it out in advance.

He also thought that these were supposed to be two buildings in the Grand View Garden, but he took the lead and used them to name two special places near Shuixian's small garden, or even special institutions.I don't know how the scroll will be counted in the future.

But at the moment, these details are completely ignored, Shui Xian has already pulled him, and walked directly through the passage of "Taoyuan-Xiaoyuan" to the Xiaoyuan Industrial Park.

He first took Jia Fang to the stamping and rolling workshop, and inspected the steel armor of the First Prince Ying.

At this time, the mechanical lathes for punching and rolling armor had been improved many times, and the finished products came out very quickly.As long as the steel plates can keep up, there is absolutely no problem rolling out dozens of sets of armor a day.

The workshop director even asked Jia Fang to try their new armor.Jia Fang tried it, and found that it was not like wearing a heavy armor all over the body like in the European Middle Ages. There were only a few pieces of this armor to protect the vital parts.There are buttonholes reserved in advance on the armor, through which the cowhide rope is passed, and it is fastened.

In addition, this armor is completely made to simulate the shape of the human body, it is very light and does not affect the movement.

Shui Xian then asked, "Do you think this kind of weapon can counter the threat of firecrackers?"

Jia Fang shook his head: "I doubt it."

He still doesn't have much confidence in this thin steel plate.When this kind of armor is produced, it should be more than enough for arrows, crossbows, knives and guns in the cold weapon era, but for the iron sand ejected from the firecrackers...even the harm caused by more advanced firearms, Jia Fang I don't feel particularly optimistic.

But instead of saying it to death, he said: "We can try it."

Shui Xian also knew that he always relied on the experimental results, so he immediately ordered people to take some sets of completed armors and go with them to the two places that Jia Fang just named "Aujing Pavilion" and "Tubi Mountain Villa".

Going to those two places, Shui Xian and Jia Fang first boarded a small train that the workers in the "small garden" used to commute on weekdays.

The small steam train of Xiaoyuan is the same as that of "Taoyuan-Wuyuan", except that there is only one kind of carriage.Even if Shui Xian and Jia Fang ride, there will not be any "special seats" to show that they are treated the same as the workers.The workers liked this very much, and greeted Shui Xian and Jia Fang enthusiastically when they saw Shui Xian and Jia Fang.

However, Shui Xian, Jia Fang and the others took several sets of armor wrapped in felt and got off at a very small stop on the way.This place does not lead to any living quarters or factories, so no one stays here except Shui Xian and his party.

Shui Xian took Jia Fang and waited for about a cup of tea. A carriage drove up on the flat asphalt road, picked up Shui Xian and Jia Fang, and their servants and armors, followed the road to the track headed in a completely different direction.

After driving for about an hour, Jia Fang was curious and asked, "Is this coming soon?"

Shui Xian pursed his lips and smiled, and casually lifted the curtain covering the carriage body.

Jia Fang immediately saw a dark blue coast beyond the curtain of the car.And the carriage was running along a high cliff protruding from the coast, and quickly rushed towards the top of the cliff.

The author has something to say: Oujing Pavilion and Tubi Mountain Villa both appear in No.70 six chapters in the original work, and they are the places where the scene of Daiyu and Xiangyun Yuexia's joint poem took place.