The county horse is a medicine jar

After returning to the official post, Lin Sishen didn't have time to rest, so he went straight to Shen Qingwan, and told Shen Qingwan what he learned from Han Ce today.

What Han Ce learned by accident was about Longling, a mysterious place that only existed in rumors.

This matter had to be talked about five years ago. It turned out that Chu Sima and Han Ce actually had a relationship.

The two of them were both from Pingliang City, and both served as officials in Pingliang City, but later Sima Chu took the post of Sima, and went to Dingxi City to work alone, and his wife, daughter and relatives stayed in Pingliang City.

Han Ce is cowardly and timid, but Chu Sima is strong and fearless.When he was an official in Pingliang City, Chu Sima was law-abiding and upright. He cared especially for the poor and never colluded with the powerful.Therefore, Han Ce, who is kind and upright in nature, has always admired Chu Sima.

When Chu Sima had an accident five years ago, Han Ce had just been promoted to the county magistrate.He remembered that a few days after he took office, Chu Sima suddenly asked for leave and returned to Pingliang City.

After Chu Sima returned to Pingliang City on leave, he intervened in the case file of Pingliang City.The officials under his command persuaded him to read the Sima Book of Chu in front of the Governor, but Han Ce did not feel dissatisfied with this at all. On the contrary, he also became suspicious of the fact that many people disappeared for no reason in Pingliang City.

Han Ce originally wanted to investigate the case with Chu Sima and help him, but Chu Sima was extremely wary of him. Not only did he scold him in public for being a dog under Sun Wenqian, he didn't give him any face, and turned him away.

In desperation, Han Ce could only sit on the sidelines, not daring to associate with Chu Sima.

Not long after that, Sun Wenqian suddenly led thousands of soldiers to Pingliang City without warning, saying that he had found evidence that Chu Sima had colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country, and was ordered to arrest Chu Sima.

Although Han Ce was sarcastically and scolded by Chu Sima not long ago, he has always believed in Chu Sima's character in his heart, and he is definitely not the kind of villain who collaborates with the enemy and betrays the country.But he has always been timid and afraid of getting into trouble, and he became the county magistrate only by relying on Sun Wenqian, so he dared not speak for Chu Sima in front of Sun Wenqian, for fear that he would be hurt by it.

On the day Chu Sima was arrested, the defenders in Pingliang City were also taken away by Sun Wenqian. Han Ce had no right to follow Sun Wenqian at all, so he could only anxiously wait for the news at home.

That night, Han Ce, who was tossing and turning, suddenly heard the sound of fighting in the city. He ran out to take a look, and saw a huge fire emanating from the direction of Chu Sima's mansion, and the flames lit half of the sky red.He turned pale with fright, and knew in his heart that Chu Sima was in danger this time.

In a panic, he suddenly remembered that Chu Sima's only daughter had been recuperating in the Jingxin Nunnery outside the city, so he secretly found an old beggar on the street, collected some money, and asked him to rush to the Jingxin Nunnery outside the city to ventilate report.

On the second day, when Han Ce tremblingly ran to Chu Sima's mansion, he saw only corpses all over the floor, and Chu Sima and his wife were among them. It was chopped down.

He stared at the sky with blood-red and white eyes, and stared at the sky with death, blood foamed from his open mouth, half of his tongue was thrown aside, and his death was extremely tragic.

Sun Wenqian said lightly that Chu Sima refused to surrender last night, and even tried to lead the guards at home to resist, so he was killed on the spot.

Han Ce has long been frightened by Chu Sima's death and the corpses all over the ground. Last night, he sent someone to urge Chu Sima's only daughter to leave. He was so guilty that he dared to speak. He could only do as Sun Wenqian asked him to do. .

Afterwards, Sun Wenqian did send people to the Jingxin Nunnery, and burned everyone inside to death. As for whether Chu Sima's only daughter escaped, he still doesn't know.

Because the old beggar he sent to the Jingxin nunnery fell to his death under the cliff, and he didn't know if he fell to his death on the way there or if he stumbled and fell to his death on the way back.

Sun Wenqian knew that Han Ce was a cowardly and timid person, not only had no ambition, but was easy to deal with. After learning that he had never been with Chu Sima, he let him continue to be his county magistrate in Pingliang City.

From the beginning to the end, Han Ce never saw any evidence of Chu Sima collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country. He only heard that the Governor General had letters from him with the enemy country, and several large boxes of gold and silver were found from his home. jewelry.

As for whether Chu Sima was really collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country, or was framed by Sun Wenqian, Han Ce had no way of knowing.

After Chu Sima's death, no one dared to have anything to do with him, and no one dared to approach his mansion, and the nearby people moved out one after another, leaving only this desolate mansion that was mostly burned down , slowly rotted and decayed in the corner, and finally passed down into a haunted house that made people talk about it.

But Han Ce always had pity for Chu Sima, and the next year, when it was Chu Sima's memorial day, he sneaked into Chu Sima's mansion late at night, hiding in a hidden corner, and wanted to burn some paper money and joss sticks for Chu Sima.

Because of this, he accidentally discovered that there were footsteps and whispered conversations coming from this haunted house that no one set foot in, and the voice was quite familiar, it was one of his masters. the sound of the book.

Out of curiosity, Han Ce secretly followed the footsteps, and found that there were many people among the rockery groups where the haunted house had not been destroyed, and they were digging for something under cover.

Just when Han Ce was puzzled, he suddenly felt someone looking at the place where he was hiding. Without thinking, he turned around and ran. After running for a while, he suddenly tripped under a tree.

After struggling to get up, he found that there was no one chasing after him, so he let out a sigh of relief, and subconsciously touched his sore legs and feet, but accidentally touched something hard like porcelain on the ground.

He looked down under the moonlight and found that yesterday's heavy rain had washed away the soil, as if a wine jar buried in the soil had been exposed.He didn't even think about it, he just scratched a few times, but he didn't expect to dig out a wine jar.

The wine jar was tightly sealed with oil-skinned paper, and when you shook it lightly, you could still hear noises inside. Fearing that those people would find him, Han Ce hurriedly buried the pit, and ran home holding the wine jar.

After returning home, he felt relieved, opened the dug out wine jar, and took out a book and a tightly wrapped piece of rice paper inside.

The book is in Chu Sima's handwriting. It clearly records the people who disappeared inexplicably in Longyou in the past few years, their identities and addresses, and the date of their disappearance. It is written in detail.

Han Ce flipped through it carefully, and was suddenly startled to sweat profusely. Such a thick book was filled with densely packed names.These people include people from Dingxi City, people from Pingliang City, and some villages and counties that he has never heard of.

Roughly count more than a thousand people.

So many people disappeared for no reason in Longyou, but no one noticed at all, let alone the emperor who was far away in the capital, even he, the magistrate of Pingliang City, didn't know that so many people disappeared.

Han Ce took a deep breath to force himself to calm down. After putting down the book, he spread out the rice paper again.

What was drawn on the rice paper was a topographic map, which seemed to have been copied in a hurry, and it was also Chu Sima's handwriting.But Han Ce looked at it repeatedly for a long time, but he didn't recognize where the terrain was.

Han Ce knew that the figure he accidentally saw in Chu Sima's mansion and the topographic map of the roster in his hand were the reasons why Chu Sima was killed.

Holding these things in his hands is like a hot potato. If someone finds out one day, his fate will probably be the same as that of Chu Sima.

But of course he couldn't give these things to others. He could only dig out a stone brick in the corner of the study overnight, gritted his teeth, sealed the roster and drawings into the wine jar, buried them in the ground, and finally moved the bookshelves to hold them down.

For the sake of his own worth and life, and for the sake of his wife and children, he can only bury this secret in the ground and rot in his stomach, no longer dig into it, no longer investigate secretly, just pretend he doesn't know anything.

Times have changed, and Han Ce has really kept this secret for many years, during which time he never revealed his feet, and continued to act in front of him, a cowardly and cowardly puppet magistrate.

It wasn't until Lin Sishen's arrival that Han Ce's numb heart finally started to stir.

From the beginning of the disaster, Han Ce witnessed the poverty of the people, and countless people were starved to death.And the relief food distributed by the imperial court was replaced by the bran eaten by the animals by those devout dog officials, and they were so vicious that even the bran was withheld a lot.

Han Ce couldn't bear to see the people suffer again, and planned to secretly remind Lin Sishen to thoroughly investigate the corruption case in Longyou.

He knew that Lin Sishen's background was enough to compete with Sun Wenqian, and he heard that she was also a member of the Fourth Prince.As we all know, Sun Wenqian is the second prince's right-hand man, while the fourth prince and the second prince are incompatible, and both covet the throne.

So he was sure that once Lin Sishen found out about this, she would definitely not investigate further.

On the day Lin Sishen arrived in Pingliang City, Han Ce avoided the county magistrate's account book and hurried to get the account book by himself, secretly altering the account book on the way.He didn't dare to remind Lin Sishen boldly, he could only use such a trick to remind Lin Sishen that these account books were all fake.

As expected, Lin Sishen discovered the problem. She even keenly sensed something was wrong when the officials and the chief secretary came, and covered Han Ce so that he didn't expose it.

After this incident, Han Ce pondered whether to hand over the relics left by Sima Chu back then to Lin Sishen.Just when he finally mustered up the courage to test Lin Sishen again, he suddenly learned that his wife and a pair of children had been taken away.

He immediately understood that his abnormal behavior still aroused suspicion, so he didn't dare to go to Lin Sishen again, and could only admit that he had altered the ledger in front of the official bookkeeper.

And made a poisonous oath that he would never reveal anything to Lin Sishen again, and only hoped that the governor would let his wife and children go.

Later, it was the man in black sent by the Protectorate to force him to commit suicide. Lin Sishen suddenly visited and scared the man in black away.

Han Ce was scared out of his wits by the man in black, but he came to his senses under Lin Sishen's reminder. According to Lord Duhu's ruthless eyes, even if he is obedient, Lord Duhu will not let him go in the end. There is his family.

Therefore, he could only risk his life and told Lin Sishen everything he knew.Including the roster drawings left by Chu Sima, they were handed over to Lin Sishen.

However, what he didn't expect was that the man in black was Lin Sishen.

From the moment he entered his house, Lin Sishen planned to play tricks and pull out clues he knew.

And he did not disappoint Lin Sishen.

Inside the official post, in Shen Qingwan's room.

Lin Sishen slowly took off the night clothes on his body, took out the hidden roster and drawings from his chest, blinked and smiled slightly, and put them in front of Shen Qingwan.

"An inconspicuous chess piece is often the key to the outcome of a chess game."

Shen Qingwan lowered her eyes and glanced at the words, slightly hooked her thin lips, raised her hand and spread out the yellowed rice paper, revealing the rough but clear topographical map copied.

On the blueprint, the word Longling is impressively written.