Princess Jinyang of the Tang Dynasty

Tian Hanshan leaned forward to take a closer look, and found that there were small white spots stuck to the lining of the bag. After careful identification, he still couldn't see that it was snake skin.

Li Mingda knows that the snake skin is too small, and she can see it clearly, but it doesn't mean that the evidence is convincing to others.Since the snake was likely released by Qi Changshi, there should be some clues in his residence, so Li Mingda decided to go to Qi Changshi's residence again.

On the prison side, Li Mingda left Tian Hanxi behind, and asked him to thoroughly investigate which minor officials Qi Changshi had contacts with in the prison before his death.If the snake was really released by him, he must have someone he knows here.

Due to Li Mingda's order, Qi Changshi's residence remained in its original state, and no one damaged it.After Li Mingda looked around the room, she really didn't find any special clues. After all, she had carefully checked every inch of the room last time.

But if Qi Changshi really kept snakes, Li Mingda didn't believe that Qi Changshi would keep them in a palm-sized bag all the time. There must be something in his residence to hold snakes.

Li Mingda checked the vases and other things, and then went out, and saw a tank with goldfish in the east of the yard, but it was empty on the west side. Look closely, there is a circular dent on the ground, which should be very shallow. If you don't observe carefully can not tell.

Li Mingda immediately ordered people to search the yard for the other tank.Not long after, the palace people came to report that the tank was found among the dead branches piled up under the sycamore tree at the back of the house, and it was indeed the same as the goldfish in the front yard.

Li Mingda checked immediately, and found that the wooden lid was put together with the dead branches, obviously used to cover the tank.Inside the vat was a piece of snake skin that was as long as a thumb. Tian Hanshan took it out and put it on a silk handkerchief, and hurriedly presented it to the princess.

"Your lord has good eyesight, just a little bit in the bag, you can see that it is snake skin, as expected, your eyes are as bright as a torch, and slaves are absolutely inferior." Tian Hanshan praised.

Li Mingda glanced around again, but there were no other clues, so he led the people away quickly.Although she was dressed as a eunuch, if she stayed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a long time, she would definitely attract suspicion.

Not long after returning to the Lizheng Palace, Li Mingda got the situation in the prison.

It turned out that the cell leader Zhang Bitian had some relationship with Qi Changshi.Zhang Bitian had been working as a gatekeeper at Tongming Gate for six years.Tongming Gate is the only entrance from Taiji Palace to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Qi Changshi often walks around, and after a long time, he gradually became acquainted with Zhang Bitian.Last year, Zhang Bitian made a small mistake because of lax control, and was demoted to prison.Qi Changshi still didn't forget him as a friend, so he went to meet him whenever he had the opportunity, and had some wine with him, the relationship between the two became better and they talked about everything.

"The night before Zheng Lun's death, Qi Changshi went to Zhang Bitian, but Zhang Bitian said that he never let Qi Changshi go to prison."

"Qi Changshi doesn't need to go into the prison himself. He often goes there and talks to Zhang Bitian. He must already be familiar with the structure of the prison. I heard the minister of the Ministry of Industry say that the surroundings of the prison were rammed with earth. It is built tightly, but each room also has ventilation openings. Although the openings are small, no one can get in, but it should be easy to get a snake in." Li Mingda rested his chin on his hand, thought for a while, then turned to look at Tian Hanshan, "I I want to personally interrogate Zhang Bitian."

Tian Hanshan looked embarrassed, "Your lord, this is not suitable, there are many people in the palace, if the princess's case investigation is publicized, some people who have a lot of things, such as the surname Wei, will know, I am afraid... ..."

"Okay, then let Fang Yi deal with it directly." Li Mingda ordered someone to prepare paper and ink, wrote the questions he needed to answer on the paper, and asked him to send it to Cheng Chubi after he read it. Give Fang Yizhi.

After Cheng Chubi looked at the princess' calligraphy, he heard that there was nothing wrong with him, so he asked Tian Hanshu puzzledly: "Since this is the princess' order to Fang Yizhi, why do you want me to read it again?"

"Cheng Shiwei didn't understand. This is to let you be a witness, so that no one will gossip in the future. If someone really makes a fuss, but there is no real witness to explain it, it will become a 'half-truth, half-false' thing. Now Plan ahead, multiple people can avoid this trouble with a glance, do you think it is worthwhile." Tian Hanshan nodded to Cheng Chubi in a low voice.

Cheng Chubi suddenly understood, nodded and went to do it immediately.

Early the next morning, Li Mingda just opened his eyes.Tian Hanshu came over with a smile and told Fang Yizhi that he had replied.

"So fast?" Li Mingda rubbed his eyes, sat up, couldn't wait to receive Fang Yizhi's reply, and paused before reading.

Tian Hanxi hurriedly explained that the letter had passed the eyes of Cheng Chubi and the imperial eunuch Fang Qirui.

Li Mingda took it over to look at it.

The words on the paper are graceful and graceful, with a strong pull, but neither surly nor rude, neither dry nor moist, good words!

Li Mingda continued to read the content, but he didn't expect Fang Yizhi to interrogate Zhang Bitian thoroughly in just one night.All the answers she asked for were answered, and some unexpected questions were also thoughtfully answered by Fang Yizhi, and they were all recorded one by one.

This Qi Changshi has been with Zhang Bitian for a long time, as Li Mingda deduced, Zhang Bitian and Qi Changshi have talked about many cases of being too prison, so Qi Changshi is very familiar with the structure of the cell.

At that time, the place where Zheng Lun's cell was facing the air vent happened to be very remote. If it was at night, Qi Changshi could easily throw the snake in through the air vent without being noticed.As for Zheng Lun's whip wounds, after he was arrested, Qi Changshi hinted to Zhang Bitian intentionally or unintentionally, telling him that the guards had practiced kung fu, but they were thick-skinned and hard-spoken, and he had to beat hard to make him explain.Therefore, when Zheng Lun was being interrogated, Zhang Bitian sure enough lobbied the little official, and then he did it.Afterwards, Qi Changshi learned that Zheng Lunzhen was beaten, so he took the opportunity to come here with the snake, and picked the snake in through the vent with a wooden pole.

Fang Yizhi also asked Wu to perform a second autopsy last night, and found some residual realgar powder in Qi Changshi's nails, which must have been smeared on his hands to catch snakes.

So far, it can be confirmed that Qi Changshi is the murderer who plotted to kill the guards.

An internal servant, after exhausting all kinds of troubles, killed two maids and a guard.This is the truth.

But things are getting more and more confusing.For example, what was his motive, why he had to take the risk of attacking these three people, whether there was a mastermind behind the scenes, and where did the poisonous snake in his hand come from.

Li Mingda didn't really believe Qi Changshi's reason for killing the two maids.Qi Changshi has been living in the palace since he was five years old, and it took him more than thirty years to climb up to his current position as a regular servant step by step. During this period, he must have suffered a lot of insults and suffered a lot.If it was said that he was just because the two maids laughed at him, then he would immediately kill him in resentment, the reason would be far-fetched.Besides, Luhe and Xiumei have become the lowest maids of the Yeting Palace. For Qi Changshi, it is easy to use power to torture them slowly, and there is no need to risk his life to do it himself.

Moreover, from the comments of people around Qi Changshi, he is gentle, cautious, never impulsive, and doesn't like to lose his temper.No one would believe that such a person would suddenly kill someone just because of two sentences.

Seeing that the princess finally looked away from the paper, Tian Hanxuan was also curious about the truth behind the death of the three people, so he hurriedly asked about the situation.

"My lord, have you checked everything?"

Li Mingda nodded, and passed the content to Tian Hanshan.

"The two court ladies were killed by Qi Changshi. The snake skin in the vat, and his relationship with the cell leader Zhang Bitian, also shows that Zheng Lun's death has something to do with him. It seems that the deaths of the three were all caused by him alone. "Tian Hanshan muttered while watching, and then his scalp became numb, and he looked at his princess with a puzzled face, "But why is he so bold as a little servant, insisting on risking his life to kill these three princesses? people?"

Li Mingda spat out four words, "There must be a reason."

Tian Hanshan looked around, then moved his lips together to Li Mingda's side, hesitant to speak.

"Say." Li Mingda said.

Tian Hanshan lowered his voice: "Your lord, after all, this Qi Changshi had an unusual relationship with the concubine before his death, and the three maids and guards were demoted because of the relationship with Princess Gaoyang. I don't understand, why do you think Fang Is the son-in-law innocent? I think this matter must have something to do with the son-in-law and Princess Gaoyang."

"Evidence? If there is no evidence, don't talk nonsense."

"Slave guilty."

Tian Hanshan's words reminded Li Mingda that since the whole matter was directed at Fang Consort and Princess Gaoyang from the beginning, then Qi Changshi must have some kind of connection with them, it may be direct or indirect.She still needs to re-examine Qi Changshi's background. She can't just check his situation in recent months, but also check his situation in previous years or even ten or eight years ago.

Li Mingda is still very curious about whether the final reason why Qi Changshi killed the third-life palace guard is related to his falling off the cliff.

Although when she woke up at the beginning, what she heard from Lu He Xiumei meant that she had attempted to harm her.It was indeed confirmed afterwards that when she fell off the cliff, Lv Hexiumei and Bi Yun and Tian Hansan had no time to commit the crime.But now that these two people were deliberately killed, Li Mingda suspected that these two people might have had a relationship with the murderer, but they didn't know it, so they were silenced later.

After Li Mingda ordered his subordinates to investigate again, he sat alone by the window to sort out his thoughts.

When she calmed down, she heard a lot of voices, the voices of the ministers discussing politics in the main hall of the Lizheng Hall, the cries of insects, the whispering voices of court ladies, the rustling of leaves blown by the wind...all in her Surrounded by chaos.When it was almost noon, Li Mingda also smelled the dishes prepared by the Shangshi Bureau, such as sheepskin silk, fairy scorpion, Xiaotiansu, Zhutouchun, etc., which were very rich. It seemed that his father was going to keep ministers here for dinner again.

Sure enough, not long after that, Li Mingda heard Li Shimin's passing on food in the main hall.Li Mingda was about to pass on the message himself, when he heard Li Shimin send Fang Qirui to call him over.

Aye wanted to have dinner with her, and Wei Zheng and Fang Xuanling were still staying in the hall.

Li Mingda didn't want to go, after all, eating with them was not as comfortable as eating by himself.But Fang Qirui had already come to deliver the decree, so Li Mingda had to go.

After entering the hall, Li Mingda was greeted by two highly respected ministers, and smiled and sat down beside Li Shimin.She has long been familiar with the matter of eating with her father and the ministers, so she can eat without worrying about the discomfort of the two ministers below, but she can still eat enough.

After dinner, Li Shimin casually asked about Li Mingda's case.Li Mingda was embarrassed, he glanced at Li Shimin in embarrassment, and then at Wei Zheng, who was really ready to move.

Why does her father always speak so nonchalantly?

Wei Zheng: "Your Majesty, Princess Jinyang is still investigating the death of three palace servants?"

Li Shimin also realized that he didn't pay attention to Wei Zheng's presence when he was speaking, and immediately denied it, "No."