Zhu Nao

The two waited anxiously in the courtyard for an unknown amount of time, when they suddenly heard many footsteps outside, it was the patrolling soldiers who finally found their street.

There was a knock on the door, but it wasn't their family. The soldiers went into the house next door to them and began to inquire.Wei He pricked up his ears, wanting to hear what the soldiers would ask, but the voice next door was not loud, he could only hear a few words, but couldn't make out the specific content.

"Relax, relax..." Wei He licked his lips and comforted himself, "As long as we don't get nervous, we won't reveal our secrets."

In fact, the hearts of both of them have reached their throats, and they can only comfort themselves in this way.Because they didn't plan to stay in Luoyang City for a long time, they didn't rent the high courtyard, but only rented such a small courtyard, and they didn't know where to hide if they wanted to hide now.

After an unknown amount of time, footsteps finally came to the door of their yard, and knocking on the door sounded again.

Wei He took a deep breath and opened the door.Sure enough, there were several soldiers holding torches standing outside the door, looking at him and Cao Yan seriously.

Wei He piled up a smiling face, and asked cautiously: "Brothers, what happened? Why is martial law suddenly enforced in the city today?"

The soldiers did not answer him, but still looked at them with scrutiny.

After a while, the leading officer asked, "Just the two of you here?"

"Yes……"

"Name?"

"Cao Da, Cao Er." These were the names they registered when they first entered the city.Anyone entering Luoyang City needs to register their name and address. However, due to the chaos of household registration after the war, it is not too difficult to forge their identities.

The soldier looked at the roster in his hand, found the registration when they entered the city, and asked, "What is the relationship between you two? Where are you from?"

"We are two brothers, originally from Anshan." Wei He was well prepared, and the answers were fluent.

The officer nodded, closed the roster, and said, "Sorry, there have been brutal bandits in the city recently. We need to search the house to make sure there are no other people hiding inside."

"Look at our small yard, how can we harbor other people?" Wei He muttered in feigned dissatisfaction, and stepped aside to get out of the way.But he was secretly happy in his heart: It seems that these soldiers who searched did not suspect them!As for the suspicious things in the house, they had already disposed of them today when they found out that the city gate was closed, and they were not worried about searching.

A group of soldiers walked into the yard, some of them began to search the house, while others quietly approached Wei He and Cao Yan.By the time the two of them realized something was wrong, they were already under the control of the soldiers!

Cao Yan was so startled that he almost bit his tongue and said, "You, what are you doing?"

The officer said coldly: "You two act suspiciously, please come back with us. If the investigation proves that you are innocent, you two will be released."

Wei He and Cao Yan were dumbfounded.

They were simply dumbfounded.Where is the flaw exposed?Is there something wrong with the conversation just now? ?No matter how you think about it!

Little did they know that when these soldiers went door-to-door to investigate, they would also ask each household if they had seen Jiangning accent, suspicious people who fit the craftsman's description, etc.Therefore, long before they knocked on the door, the soldiers had already heard from the nearby people that there were two suspicious people living in this house, and no matter what, they had to be arrested and let the craftsmen identify them.

Facing a group of ferocious soldiers, Wei He and Cao Yan naturally did not dare to resist forcefully. They could only take chances and hope that the army was just searching and arresting on a large scale, and did not really have any evidence.

So the soldiers quickly took the two away.

……

……

Wei He and Cao Yan were brought back to the military guard. In addition to them, there were also some suspicious people who were brought back in the guard. There were dozens of people in total, crowded into the whole room.

Seeing this scene, Wei and Cao breathed a sigh of relief: It really is a large-scale search, as long as they bite to death and refuse to admit it, they still have a chance to escape this catastrophe.

Just when they were secretly lucky, a few soldiers rushed in and shouted at the noisy crowd: "Stand quietly! No one is allowed to speak!"

Although everyone in the room was dissatisfied, who would dare to talk too much when facing a group of soldiers with knives?At the moment, we can only stand in line.

After a while, Wu Cong strode in with a grim expression—because someone intended to murder Xie Wuji, the matter of the case was of great importance, and he was personally responsible for the investigation.Behind him, there were three craftsmen who were coerced by Wei and Cao.In just one day, the smart and capable soldiers had found out all the craftsmen who had been coerced.

Seeing those three craftsmen, the faces of Wei and Cao turned pale: Are you kidding me? !How could these three people appear here? !And even three came together!

It should be known that after these two people entered the city, although they also spent money to hire people to deal with some nasty things, but because the assassination of Xie Wuji was of great importance, one more person who knew about it would increase the risk of things being revealed, so the matter of threatening the craftsmen was left to him. People came forward in person.

Sure enough, the three craftsmen glanced around the room, and pointed at the two of them in unison: "That's them!!"

If they are only identified by one person, they still have the possibility of cunning.But the three of them are together, even if they are eloquent, they will not be able to turn the sky.

Wei He and Cao Yan's knees softened, and there was no more luck in their hearts.They know that this is really over...

……

……

When Wu Cong led people to interrogate the two behind-the-scenes messengers overnight, Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji had already fallen asleep.It was too late, and the two of them still had a lot of business to deal with during the day, so they couldn't spend the whole night.

At dawn the next day, Wu Cong, who hadn't slept all night, came to see Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji's temporary residence outside the temporary palace, preparing to report the results.

He was brought into the palace and came to the courtyard where the two lived. After waiting for a while, he saw Jing Zhe walking out of the courtyard.

Jing Zhe said: "Brother Wu, Your Majesty and General Xie are receiving the envoy, please wait a moment. After they finish seeing the envoy, you can go in."

Wu Cong couldn't help being startled, and raised his eyes to look at the sky: "Messenger?"

If something important and special hadn't happened, the envoy would not have come to the door before dawn, and Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji would not have summoned him in such a hurry.I don't know what's going on in the world...

……

……

At the same time, Jiang Ning.

Before dawn, suddenly there was a hasty knock on the door outside the towering courtyard wall of Xie Mansion.

The knocking on the door lasted for a while, and finally a servant from Xie's family opened the door, stuck his head out sleepily, and asked dissatisfiedly, "Who is it?"

"It's me! I have something urgent to report to Xie Changshi!"

The servants took a closer look and found that the person who came was a messenger who specially reported the military situation in Xuzhou.He looks anxious, it seems that something really important.

The servant lost most of his temper immediately, and said: "Please wait a moment, I'll go in and report right now before the regular attendant gets up."

"Please hurry up, it's about military affairs, it's urgent!"

The servants didn't dare to delay, and quickly ran towards the mansion.

After about a stick of incense, the gate of Xie Mansion opened again.The servant of the Xie family rushed to the messenger and said: "Please come in, the attendant is waiting for you inside."

The messenger hastily thanked him and ran in quickly.

Xie Wuchen had already washed up briefly, and sat in the courtyard in his unlined clothes.Seeing the messenger come in, he asked, "What happened to Xuzhou?"

The messenger hurriedly shook his head and said anxiously: "Xie Changshi, it's not Xuzhou, but something happened in Shouzhou!"

Xie Wuchen looked blank: "Shouzhou? What's wrong with Shouzhou?"

Shouzhou is located on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Huaihe River. It has always been the territory of Chen State, and it is also considered a wealthy place.

The messenger said: "Three days ago, General Jianwu suddenly announced that the officials of the Shouzhou prefecture deliberately withheld their military salaries and conspired against the enemy inside and outside. So he led the army to attack Shouzhou! Now they have captured more than a dozen of Shouzhou A county town has used all the money and food from the government as military expenses!"

"What?!" Xie Wuchen couldn't believe his ears.Ma Shu actually attacked Shouzhou? ! ? !First he robbed the Huainan clan, and then captured the Shouzhou government. Is he crazy? ! !

This bundle of horses is no longer Chen Guojun, neither the previous Liang Guojun nor the current Shu army has ever fought against the Huaihe River.Now it is Ma Shu, who has robbed Huainan and Shouzhou, as if he has already invaded many pieces of land in Chen State! !

——Xie Wuchen didn't know that Ma Shu was in dire straits due to lack of food.He has only two choices, one is to break through Tongshan and enter the Central Plains to grab grain, and the other is to turn around and fight back to the south of the Yangtze River to grab grain.

With his current military strength and strength, entering the Central Plains is to seek his own death, and there is still a way to survive by going back and grabbing "own" food and grass.That's why he forcibly charged the Shouzhou government with the crime of "withholding military pay and colluding with external enemies" to incite the morale of the army.In fact, Shouzhou had no obligation to provide him with food and grass, so it was a disaster without reason!

However, the court of Chen Guo refused to subsidize Ma Shu, and Ma Shu's surrender to Shu was blocked by Xie Wuji, which made Ma Shu think that his behavior of surrendering to the enemy had been known by Xie's family and the court of Chen Guo, so he simply tore his face and fought back. !

"Absurd! Absurd!!" Xie Wuchen was so angry that his hands and feet were cold and he couldn't help shaking.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down: "Have you notified everyone about this?"

The messenger said: "Someone else should have gone." Every family has its own eyes and ears.Such an important matter should be transmitted back to Jiang Ning at about the same speed. Before today, all the families will know.

Fortunately, these dignitaries from aristocratic families have been thinking about how to add chaos to the Kingdom of Shu, so that the status of the Kingdom of Chen will last forever.As a result, the first one to wave the butcher knife at them was not the Shu army they regarded as the enemy, but their own people!

Xie Wuchen didn't dare to procrastinate any longer, and quickly sent several servants to each house, contacting all the houses to discuss countermeasures together.

……

……

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

In Luoyang City, Wu Cong waited outside the palace for a while, until the sky brightened a lot, Jing Zhe came out again: "Brother Wu, go in, the young master and the general are waiting for you."

Wu Cong nodded and strode in.

He came in front of Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji, bowed to them, and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, General, last night at Haishi, the last general has arrested the mastermind behind the assassination of General Xie! After interrogation overnight, The case has come to light!"

Zhu Nao slowly asked, "Who is the main messenger?"

Wu Cong said: "The two men who coerced the craftsmen are named Wei He and Cao Yan. Wei He is from Jiangning, Cao Yan is from Anshan, and both are soldiers of the Chen State. They joined the Chen State's army three years ago. Served under Ma Shu, was appreciated by Ma Shu, and was promoted to a trusted confidant. After Ma Shu formed the Huainan Army, the two of them also followed Ma Shu to Xuzhou. It was Ma Shu who ordered them to do the assassination of General Xie!"

Before they were arrested, Cao Yan and Wei He planned to cover up Ma Shu and pushed the matter to Xie's family.But in fact, Wu Cong ordered people to take them down and torture them. Before they had whipped three or five times, the two men screamed and called everything.

Hearing these words, Zhu Nao and Xie Wuji couldn't help but look at each other - this was already the first time they had heard the name Ma Shu from the second person in the morning.Just now when Wu Cong was waiting outside, the spies inside came to report the situation of the Shouzhou army to them.

Zhu Nao asked Xie Wuji suspiciously: "Do you have any problems with Ma Shu?"

Xie Wuji thought for a moment, but still felt inexplicable: "I don't remember." He knew that he had enemies all over the world, but he really couldn't remember when he had anything to do with Ma Shu.

Wu Cong hurriedly said: "According to what Wei and Cao said, Ma Shu sent an envoy to Luoyang earlier, hoping to surrender to His Majesty, but they were rejected. Ma Shu thought it was the general who obstructed him secretly, which made His Majesty refuse to surrender him. Since then, he has been secretly jealous of General Xie. And he thinks that if General Xie dies, the Kingdom of Shu will be in chaos, and His Majesty lacks talents, so he will definitely try to win him over."

Xie Wuji: "..." After hearing these words, he was both angry and funny.Who gave Ma Shu such confidence?

But when he turned his head, he found that there was no smile on Jun Nao's face, and his eyes were slightly narrowed, revealing a dangerous light.

"Hehe..." Zhu Nao opened his lips slightly, and said slowly, "Slaughter the people, loot the government, and dare to touch my General Xie! You are really asking for your own death."

"Pass my order." He suddenly raised his voice, "Assemble [-] troops within ten days, attack Xuzhou, and take the heads of the villains!"