Zhu Nao

Shouzhou.

At dusk, most of the farmers have completed today's farm work. People put away their farm tools and headed home in twos and threes.

After a day's work, although they are tired, they are also satisfied. They will soon be able to go home and eat the food prepared for them by their families.People were talking and laughing, and some people hummed folk songs.

At this moment, panicked shouts suddenly came from a distance.

"The army is coming! The army is coming!!"

The farmers heard the shout clearly, showing a dazed look.army?Where did the army come from?Shouzhou has always been peaceful, and the people here have not seen an army for a long time.

Everyone thought it was some kind of prank, so they paused for a moment, didn't pay much attention to it, and continued walking towards home, talking and laughing.

But not long after, a black crowd actually appeared on the distant field, rushing towards their direction!

The farmers took a closer look and saw that it was really a neatly formed army, and the soldiers were fierce with swords in their hands.They couldn't help being taken aback, and quickly scattered to hide in the nearby farmland.

Fortunately, the target of the army was not them. The ground shook, and the menacing army passed through the fields, all the way to the county where the Shouzhou government was located...

……

……

On the other side, Luoyang City.

In the morning, Xie Wuji came to the imperial city on horseback, and entered the imperial city to inspect the work of the soldiers and craftsmen.

He has no mission recently, and has more free time, and Zhu Nao entrusts him with the task of building the new imperial city.Although most of the affairs are handled by someone, he only needs to coordinate and dispatch, but he is also very concerned about this matter, and visits the imperial city whenever he has free time.

"General."

"General."

The craftsmen and soldiers along the way saluted him when they saw him.Xie Wuji also nodded slightly to signal to everyone.

He only brought two guards with him. One was that he didn't like to make too much publicity, and the other was that the craftsmen and soldiers in the imperial city were all well-known, so that no one else could get in, so there was no need to worry too much about public security.

Suddenly, Xie Wuji noticed a craftsman.The craftsman, with a hammer in his hand, was beating on a brick wall.The craftsman's face was very ugly, today's work had just started, and his forehead was already covered with sweat, as if he was unwell.

Since Xie Wuji often came here to inspect, he looked familiar to this craftsman.So he went forward.

Xie Wuji looked at the craftsman and asked in a low voice: "Are you sick?"

When Xie Wuji approached, the craftsman obviously became more nervous, his shoulders trembled slightly, his breathing became more and more constricted, and there were more beads of sweat on his forehead.

Xie Wuji squinted his eyes, his intuition made him realize that something was wrong with this person today.

The next moment, the craftsman suddenly mustered up his courage, shouted loudly, swung the hammer in his hand, and threw it at him head-on and face-to-face!

The two guards around Xie Wuji didn't expect such a change at all, and they didn't have time to react. Fortunately, Xie Wuji himself was prepared, and he took two steps back lightly, avoiding the falling hammer.Seeing that the blow was missed, the craftsman picked up the hammer and tried to hit him again. This time, Xie Wuji kicked him on the wrist instead of retreating!

He moves extremely fast, cleanly and accurately.Hearing a scream from the craftsman, he let go of the hammer and took a few steps back!

At this moment, the guard finally came to his senses and rushed up to hold the craftsman!The soldiers patrolling nearby also rushed over when they heard the sound, and surrounded them tightly.

Xie Wuji frowned and looked at the craftsman.The craftsman looked flustered, his eyes dodged, and he didn't dare to look at him at all.The man showed no hatred, and it did not appear to be revenge for ill-treatment suffered in the fortifications.

Xie Wuji walked up to him and asked coldly: "Who ordered you?"

The craftsman trembled all over, his eyes became more dodgy, and he refused to speak.However, his silence also confirmed Xie Wuji's guess - the assassination was not his original intention, this person must have been instigated by others.

Xie Wuji said: "Take him down for interrogation. Immediately investigate his background and his family!"

"Yes!"

Several soldiers rushed up and tied up the craftsman and took him away, and several others rushed to report the matter to Junao.

……

……

"The craftsman who repaired the city assassinated General Xie?!" Zhu Nao was reviewing the official document, and when he heard this, he was taken aback and immediately pushed away what he was holding.

He asked with a sullen face: "How is General Xie's situation now? Are you injured?"

The person who came to report hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, General Xie is fine and is currently interrogating the prisoner at the City Guard."

Zhu Nao got up and was about to go out, but stopped after taking two steps, called Jing Zhe and ordered: "Seal the city gate immediately, and no one is allowed to leave the city!" He emphasized, "Anyone, not allowed!"

Although nothing is clear at the moment, the artisans who repaired the city had checked their backgrounds before the requisition, and they have not heard that the artisans were treated harshly and were dissatisfied recently. Therefore, the biggest possibility of this matter is that someone bribed the artisans to assassinate Xie Wuji.As for the mastermind behind the scenes, they should still be in the city right now, after all, they dare not leave until they are sure of the outcome of the assassination.It is still too late to close the door and beat the dog immediately.

As the city is being renovated, there is a huge flow of people entering and leaving the city gate every day.However, Zhu Nao directly ordered the blockade, which will definitely have a serious impact.However, he still issued such an order, which shows that he attaches great importance to this matter.

Jing Zhe solemnly said: "Yes, I will go right away!"

Without saying a word, he ordered a group of people, and hurried to the various city gates to deliver orders.

……

……

After a stick of incense, Zhu Nao hurried to the guard in the city.He walked into the guard in a hurry, Xie Wuji was sitting inside, seeing him coming, he hurriedly stood up to greet him.

Zhu Nao walked up to Xie Wuji, looking him up and down quickly.Xie Wuji was slightly taken aback - he rarely saw Zhu Nao frowning.

"Relax," he said succinctly, "I'm not hurt—not at all."

Zhu Nao let out a breath, his brows relaxed, and he regained his former composure.

"What did your assassin say?" he asked.

Xie Wuji said: "His children were kidnapped. The kidnapper gave his wife 20 taels of silver and promised him that as long as he can take my life, he will let his wife and children leave to live a better life together."

It was not difficult to interrogate the artisan. After bringing the artisan back to the guard, he explained everything in less than a cup of tea.All the artisans involved in the fortifications live and eat collectively on weekdays, but they can go home to visit relatives for a day off on holidays.That is, on the day of the holiday, the craftsman returned home, only to find that his son and daughter were missing, his wife was full of tears and trembling, and there was an unexpected guest at home.

The mastermind behind the scenes also knew that assassinating Xie Wuji would be a dead end, so he didn't make unrealistic promises to the craftsman, but only advised him to die peacefully and find a way out for his family.As for whether the craftsman's daughter can be released after the assassination... the craftsman has no choice but to do it honestly.

Zhu Nao asked, "Who is the messenger?"

Xie Wuji shook his head: "He doesn't know, that person came to look for him, and he didn't explain his identity to him."

Zhu Nao asked again: "What's the accent of the messenger? What's his appearance?"

Xie Wuji said: "I have ordered someone to take a portrait. As for the accent, the craftsman is from Luoyang, so he can't distinguish the accent from outside, only that he is not from Henan."

Zhu Nao said: "Then find a group of people with different accents and let him identify them."

Right now there are 10,000+ people in Luoyang City, from the army to the common people. They only have this little information and want to find someone, which is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack.But if you can determine the accent and facial features, it will be much easier to find.

Zhu Nao said again: "Gather the rest of the craftsmen together. The messenger may not have only coerced one person, maybe other people were also bribed and coerced. Ask them to see if we can find more clues."

The most urgent task right now is to find out who was behind the assassination of Xie Wuji. Even the gates of the city were blocked, and a large number of soldiers were called back to stand by.Zhu Nao's orders were issued layer by layer, and the soldiers immediately divided into two groups. One group began to question the rest of the craftsmen, and the other group searched for people with various accents in the city.

Soon, the soldiers gathered people from all corners of the country and brought them to the craftsman to identify them.

Not long after, Wu Cong, who was in charge of the trial, came out and reported to Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji: "Your Majesty, General, the craftsman said that the accent of the person who instructed him should be from Jiangning."

Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji immediately looked at each other.Jiang Ning?Could it be someone sent by Chen Guo?

However, just an accent can't prove anything. After all, the person who threatened the craftsman must be found and interrogated directly to reveal the truth.It's just that Jiang Ning's accent undoubtedly made this matter more complicated.

Zhu Nao ordered: "The whole city has a curfew in Youshi, mobilize all the troops to search from house to house, make sure to find the instigator!"

"Yes!"

……

……

The night wind gradually rises, the dark colors are all in harmony, and in a blink of an eye, the hour of You has passed.

The patrolling soldiers on the quiet street tapped on loud clappers, repeating loudly over and over again: "The curfew time is up! Everyone go back to the house and wait for inspection! Anyone who goes out of the street will be arrested and imprisoned!...The curfew time is up!" "

In a small courtyard in the north of the city, Wei Hetie was at the door listening to the movement outside, while Cao Yan walked back and forth awkwardly.These two are the henchmen sent by Ma Shu, and they are also the masterminds behind the assassination of Xie Wuji by bribing the craftsmen.

Since the surrender was rejected, Ma Shu put this grudge on Xie Wuji's head.But it is impossible for him to lead troops to Luoyang, and he is not even sure to repel the Xuzhou soldiers outside Tongshan. The only way he can think of is assassination.

He hoped to assassinate Xie Wuji. Firstly, it would remove the obstacle that hindered him from surrendering to the Kingdom of Shu, and he would vent his anger on himself; secondly, the death of Xie Wuji would definitely lead to civil strife in the Kingdom of Shu. Zhu Nao was short of men, so he would probably spend his time thinking about it. Win him over.And the more chaotic the world is, the more opportunities he has.On the contrary, the Kingdom of Shu was unified too early, and his chances of getting ahead were much smaller.This sincerity can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

So he sent two confidantes to Luoyang to complete the matter for him.

These two confidants were reliable in their work. After arriving in Luoyang, they quickly found out Xie Wuji's movements.Xie Wuji kept a low profile. On weekdays, apart from handling official duties in the army, he would also go to the imperial city to inspect fortifications. Apart from that, he rarely showed up in other places.

The army is Xie Wuji's territory, and they will never reach out to the army.The only place that has a chance to attack is the Imperial City.The control of the imperial city was also very strict, only the soldiers and craftsmen who participated in the construction of the city could enter and leave, so they used coercion and lure to coerce the three craftsmen who participated in the fortification, hoping to kill people with a single trick.

Originally, things went smoothly, and the three craftsmen they coerced all agreed to their request.And they didn't feel scared because of planning this matter—not to mention whether the three craftsmen can succeed in the end, at least Luoyang City is so big, with tens of thousands of people living in it, even if the matter fails, they can get away in time, It's almost impossible to catch them.

Because of this, as Zhu Nao expected, they did not leave Luoyang City after arranging the mission, and they stayed in the city waiting to confirm Xie Wuji's life and death.But who knew that things had just begun, and they developed in a direction that deviated from their assumptions!

"What to do... what to do..." Cao Yan was so nervous that he was sweating coldly, and kept wandering around the house.

Today, when he learned that all the gates of Luoyang City were suddenly closed, Cao Yan sneaked around the gates to observe the situation. I'd like to find a way to escape with my companions.But who knew that even those who transported food and bricks to and from the city were stopped, and the army locked the gates of the city extremely strictly, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving.That's when he started to panic.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of soldiers began to patrol the streets, and a curfew order was announced throughout the city.

Obviously, they underestimated the importance Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji attached to this matter, and even more underestimated the efficiency of the Shu army.It took no more than half an hour from Xie Wuji's assassination to the city's blockade, and they were already trapped in the city before they even had time to find out whether the craftsmen had done anything.That night, an army of ten thousand people was directly mobilized to search the whole city, and they were not even given time to think about countermeasures.

"Don't panic...don't panic..." Wei He comforted Cao Yan and himself, "There are so many people in the city, it may not be possible to find us. If we are found, it may not be sure that we did it..."

Cao Yan squeezed out an ugly smile: "I hope so..."

Wei He took a deep breath, and made up his mind: "In case... if it is really unfortunate that we are found, we will push the matter to the Xie family, and to that bastard Xie Wuchen!"

Firstly, they are Ma Shu's confidantes, and their hearts are still towards Ma Shu; secondly, if the matter is brought to Xie's family, maybe Xie Wuji has some concerns and can save their lives.

Cao Yan wanted to cry but said without tears: "Okay, let's do it like this!"