Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

"This testimony can't just be handed in like this." Zhang Chi said, "Before I came to the capital, I really believed that Yi Qiuhua was the murderer who killed Yongninghou, so that I could explain why Princess Yaoping wanted to cover up the real murderer of her husband, and Just when the imperial court withdrew the arrest warrant for me, he rushed over the wall and brought people to hunt me down. He also thought that as long as I got rid of the scapegoat, the emperor would have doubts about this matter. In order to take into account the face of the royal family, I will also choose to make mistakes and make mistakes, so that I don’t have to expose a scandal of disobedience and murder of a royal family member, and at most secretly reprimand and punish him and it’s over.”

Long Jiu nodded and said: "That's right, the emperor must have thought of this level, what is missing is this confession, is there anything wrong?"

Zhang Chi said: "You have also seen that Yi Qiuhua was in a state of drunkenness at the time, no matter what was said in the testimony of Princess Yaoping or in the testimony of the servants of the Hou Mansion. Master may not be the one who killed him."

"I don't think so. Princess Yaoping has even done such things as framing, murdering and silencing her. It's normal to find some excuses for Yi Qiuhua to get rid of the crime in the end. And look at these confessions." Jiu lowered his head and rummaged through it, and found a few confessions from the servants of Lord Hou's mansion and spread them out on the table. He tapped the papers with his fingertips and said, "Two guards on duty, a gardener and a The maid's confession corroborated each other perfectly, Yi Qiuhua broke through the door drunk that day and insisted on going in to see Lord Hou, and Lord Hou told them to let them go, and then there was a faint sound of scolding from inside the house."

"After that, no one heard what happened." Zhang Chi rested his forehead with a headache and thought hard. For the privacy of the discussion, Hou Ye's study room is better sound-proofed, and the guard post arranged is more than ten steps away from the door, unless Someone shouted or yelled inside, otherwise people outside would not be able to hear anything.

"If a person's throat is cut suddenly, it is really impossible to shout out. The cause of Hou Ye's death is that his throat was cut with a sword, and he lost blood. Moreover, after several months, the traces of the scene have already been destroyed by the eldest princess and others. We have no way of knowing exactly how the murder happened, we only know that there were only Hou Ye and Yi Qiuhua in the room at the time, if Yi Qiuhua hadn't done it, wouldn't Hou Ye still have committed suicide?" Long Jiu said, "It doesn't matter Whether it's Yi Qiuhua himself or Princess Yaoping, they always want to say things in a direction that is beneficial to them. Now it seems that at least Yi Qiuhua was drunk at the time, otherwise he would not have done such an irrational act As for the matter, as to how drunk you are, I still can't listen to what the eldest princess says."

"Let's assume that the eldest princess is lying, and Yi Qiuhua was not so drunk that it was difficult for him to move." Zhang Chi said, "But even if we think so, there is still a big doubt - after all, Master Hou has trained in martial arts. Yes, although it is only for the purpose of strengthening the body and does not specialize in this way, it is still much stronger than ordinary people. How can Yi Qiuhua, a dude who has never practiced martial arts, kill him with a single sword? Move, Lord Hou has already resisted and shouted for guards."

"Maybe it was because he saw Shizi drunk, he was unprepared, but Shizi would suddenly go to draw his sword, and he was cut in the neck before he could resist." Long Jiu also felt a bit far-fetched after speaking, but he Still stick to my point of view, "Even a master of martial arts will sometimes be paralyzed and die at the hands of traffickers and pawns, not to mention that Lord Hou has only practiced some kung fu routines to strengthen his body, and has never really fought with people. Indeed, It is more difficult for the son to kill Lord Hou with one sword, but I can't think of any other possibility, after all, there are only two of them in that room."

"...Maybe it's not just the two of them?"

"how do I say this?"

Zhang Chi recalled: "I still remember that when I went to find Lord Hou that day, the secret passage was open. Princess Yaoping didn't know how to open the secret passage, so after I hid in the secret passage, she only Being able to order someone to forcibly break it down gave me a chance to escape."

These words made Long Jiu fall into thinking: "Are you suspecting that before you go, someone opened the secret passage, sneaked in through the secret passage, killed Lord Hou, and planted it on the drunk Yi Qiuhua?"

Zhang Chi shook his head: "It's not sneaking in. The mechanism in the secret passage can only be used to close the door, not open it. Only the mechanism hidden under Lord Hou's desk can open the secret passage door, so the person who entered the secret passage before me must be I had an appointment with Master Hou first, and Master Hou also questioned and confirmed the identity of the other party before opening the secret door to let him in. The man killed Lord Hou and left from the secret passage, because he didn't know how to close the door, so The exit of the secret passage will be kept open. Otherwise, even if someone as cautious as Hou Ye sent his bodyguard Wuying to do other things at that time, he would let other guards accompany him. If it wasn't for this reason, I would I really can't think of it, if the prince is just drunk, why would he have any reason to ask all the guards to leave the room?"

"According to what you said, the murderer should not be a spy like you. The spy should know how to close the door."

Zhang Chi nodded: "But it must be someone that Hou Ye trusts very much. On the one hand, he trusts so much that he can transfer all the guards away. On the other hand, he doesn't want anyone to know about his meeting, even Wu Ying. However, this person that Hou Ye trusted so much happened to have a reason to kill Hou Ye, which made Hou Ye himself unexpected."

"Then do you have any doubts in your mind?"

Zhang Chi said helplessly: "Although Lord Hou treats me kindly, he is not so close that he will tell me everything. When he meets this person, he even moves away Wuying who is usually regarded as his hands and feet. I have no way of knowing.”

"Then how should we find this person, was there someone watching at the entrance of the secret passage that day?"

"No, the entrance to the secret passage was originally prepared for spies who can't see people. Naturally, it's very convenient to hide people's eyes. Unless someone specially sends someone to clear that area, otherwise no one will know what kind of people come in and out on weekdays. .”

"This is difficult." Long Jiu frowned, "The emperor is still waiting for your answer, but now you suspect that there is something hidden behind the murder, but at the same time you can't come up with any clues. How can you explain this to the emperor? ?”

"...Let's tell the truth first." Zhang Chi said, "I think our emperor can be reasonable, and he won't be furious just because I discovered a new problem in the process of solving the problem."

***

Zhang Chi sorted out the confession of Princess Yaoping, the confessions of the servants of Lord Hou's mansion, and the physical evidence of the murder weapon, and handed them to the emperor. After reading his summary, the emperor was quite satisfied: "I really didn't misunderstand you. .”

Zhang Chi reminded, "But Your Majesty, there are still some doubts in this case."

The emperor continued to flip through his case file: "In my opinion, the cause and effect of this case have been thoroughly investigated, and there are witness and material evidence. The so-called mysterious murderer only exists in your speculation, and no evidence has been left behind. The unreasonable details you think may also be based on your conjecture or coincidence."

Zhang Chi hesitated to speak, but finally bowed his head and said, "What the emperor said is true."

He thought that the emperor probably didn't want to dig deeper into this case for some reason, but the emperor paused and said: "... If you think about it in this direction, it will be easier for everyone, but things But it doesn’t always develop in an easy direction.”

Zhang Chi looked up in surprise, and the young emperor stood up and paced behind the table with some irritability: "If it is true that there is another person lurking in the dark as you speculated, then he is too scary-" -Have you thought about how to track down this mysterious man next?"

"I don't have a clue yet."

"Then let it go for a while and declare the case closed to the outside world. I will draft a decree to sanction the mother and son of Princess Yaoping. Absolutely don’t let it go lightly, wait until the person behind the scenes thinks we haven’t noticed him and loses vigilance, then you can continue to investigate secretly.”

The emperor stopped and looked at Zhang Chi and said: "The Marquis of Yongning has been serving the government for too long, and he has been monopolizing power for a long time. Although he has gradually returned the political affairs to me in the past two years, I have not had time to take over most of the things. Now he has encountered an unexpected accident. , all that is left to me is a mess, and this court is full of people who flatter and deceive others, and many things are out of my control. I said that if the case is completed, the Eagle Alliance Leave it to you, you first clean up the current mess of the Eagle Alliance Guard, and if you want money or someone, just talk to me, and when you have a team to collect and inquire about information, you can continue to track down the person behind the scenes."

Zhang Chi was speechless for a while, until the emperor asked: "Why, is there any problem?"

"...No, no. I will do my best." Zhang Chi sighed softly and bowed to accept the order.