On the official road about fifty miles northeast of Fangling County, a man in black was galloping in the dark night. He kept whipping the horse, and looked back nervously. The horse under his crotch was exhausted, gasping heavily, foaming at the mouth, and two crossbow arrows were inserted into the back of the horse's buttocks. The blood from the flowing condensed the hair on the hind legs into a ball, which looked shocking.

But the man in black on the horse didn't care about the life or death of the horse. He was only worried about whether the pursuers behind him would catch up. An arrow was also inserted on his back, and blood dyed the clothes red. But the will to escape supported him.

At this time, the war horse neighed with a long sad voice and fell down with a bang, lifting the man in black out more than ten feet away. Fortunately, there were dense bushes on both sides of the official road, and the man in black was not injured again. He got up in pain and dragged the horse desperately, but the horse twitched its hind legs and closed its eyes, which was obviously no longer possible.

Helplessly, the man in black had to untied his horse bag and placed the horse bag containing important documents close to his body. He looked around and saw that there were towering mountains around him, and there was no light. At this moment, he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves coming from behind. The pursuers were about to arrive. The man in black was extremely frightened, and he didn't care about the arrow wound on his back. He turned around and ran towards a forest hundreds of steps away.

After a moment, dozens of guards rode horses to chase after him. The person in charge was Wei Lian's confidant guard Han Zhiqi. He saw the horses that were dead by the road at first sight, and immediately stopped the horses and ordered a few people to dismount. Someone stepped forward to check and said to Han Zhiqi: "Captain, the horse's body is still hot, which means it has just fallen down."

Under the silver moonlight, Han Zhiqi found another series of footprints next to the war horse. He looked in the direction of the footprints and saw a lush forest more than two hundred steps away. Apart from that, the man should have nowhere to hide. He immediately ordered: "Go to search in the woods."

Dozens of guards divided into three routes and surrounded the woods, but Han Zhiqi could not have imagined that this was not a forest, but a forest that lasted hundreds of miles long, stretching over several mountains. The man in black they were chasing escaped into the forest, which was like a fish like a sea. If he wanted to find him again, he would have no hope.

The next morning, in the Luling Palace, Princess Wei Lian was strolling back and forth in the inner hall with anxiety, and her eldest son Li Chongrun stood next to her.

Shortly after Li Chongrun gave up the competition and left the capital overnight, he sent a pigeon letter to his mother. Due to the length, he did not say much, only mentioned that the eunuch guard Jiang Enxin, who was next to his father, was most likely an undercover agent sent by Wu Sansi.

Li Chongrun has many important things to show his mother to his face, such as the Wu family secretly discussing to block the revival of Li's family, and someone is preparing to attack his father, etc. These important information cannot be explained in detail in the Gexin, so he can only meet his mother and then discuss it in detail.

It was precisely because of the lack of awareness of the urgency of the crisis that Princess Wei wanted to use the trick and used Gan Enxin to convey some fake news to Wu Sansi.

Unexpectedly, Gan Enxin received a secret letter from Wu Sansi today, which prompted him to evacuate the palace immediately. Although Gan Enxin was about to escape, the guards who were surveillance of him were discovered by the guards who were surveillance of him. Han Zhiqi had already taken people to chase him, it was still unknown whether he could catch up.

Wei Lian was both angry and regretful. If she could be more decisive and arrest Gan Enxin in time, there would be no trouble today. But this matter was not entirely her fault. If her son could give her the news earlier-

Thinking of this, Wei Lian turned around and glared at the eldest son fiercely. Li Chongrun felt even more aggrieved. She told her mother all the information the day before yesterday. She could arrest Gan Enxin calmly, but she was reluctant to do it. Until today, Gan Enxin ran away, she began to blame herself for not saying it earlier.

Li Chongrun did not dare to argue with his mother, so he had to stand aside silently. At this time, footsteps came from the yard below the hall, and a palace maid whispered loudly: "Guard Han is back."

Wei Lian was overjoyed and quickly turned around to greet him. Han Zhiqi walked into the inner hall first. He saw Li Chongrun at first sight. He was stunned and quickly knelt down on one knee, "Report to the princess, he is incompetent, and he has not been able to catch Gan Enxin."

"What"

Wei Lian was extremely angry, "Can you not catch up with so many people?"

"Reporting to the princess, he was going to catch up, but he fled into the forest. The forest was too big and we were not equipped enough, and the result was."

Han Zhiqi was reporting to Wei Lian, but Li Chongrun next to him was furious, with murderous intent bursting out in his eyes. This was the inner palace and his mother's living place. Han Zhiqi broke in without reporting. Li Chongrun had already heard some rumors about his mother, just because he lived outside the palace, and this matter could only be a rumor.

Today he appeared in his mother's inner palace because of a special situation. Unexpectedly, he discovered this detail. Han Zhiqi dared to break into his mother's inner palace at will. Is this really just an accident?

It was this inadvertent detail today that made Li Chongrun realize that the rumors were not without basis, and at this moment his heart was filled with deep shame.

"Chongrun, what do you think you should deal with it now?" Wei Lian turned around and asked Li Chongrun.

Li Chongrun concealed the hatred in time. He lowered his head and whispered: "Report to his mother, the child suggested blocking the exits of various official roads in Fangzhou in time. Even if Jiang Xin'en escaped, he would not be able to leave Fangzhou."

“This suggestion is good”

Wei Lian nodded in praise and said to Li Chongrun: "You go to the prefecture and Fangling County Government immediately, and the palace is stolen. Let the government help to investigate Jiang Xinen."

"You'll go now."

Li Chongrun glanced at Han Zhiqi coldly and left quickly. Wei Lian was upset. She didn't notice the hatred when she looked at Han Zhiqi in her son's eyes.

Han Zhiqi felt the trouble in Wei Lian's heart, so he comforted her in a low voice: "Princess, Gan Enxin may not be able to escape into the forest alive. The beasts in the forest appear. Bei Zhi thinks he is in danger, so there is no need to worry too much."

Wei Lian also felt that there was some reason. She thought about it and said to Han Zhiqi: "Although that's the case, you still can't be careless. You continue to lead your men to search for Gan Enxin. Once he escapes from the forest, be sure to catch him."

Fangzhou is surrounded by mountains and has high terrain. The land is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and broken basins are distributed, becoming a place where Fangzhou people have cultivated and lived for generations.

There are three main official roads in Fangzhou that lead to the outer states. One is the north road, also called the waterway, which leads to the northern Han River through the waterway valley, followed by the west road, which is the famous Shangyong Road, heading west to Hanzhong and Bashu, and the other is the east road, also called the waterway, which leads to Xiangzhou through the waterway valley.

The north side of these three official roads is blocked by Han River and Wudang Mountain, and the terrain is rugged and steep, and the road is difficult. Generally, mule and horse caravans do not take this road very much. Shangyong Road leads to Hanzhong and Bashu. There are too many detours for the Central Plains, which is only beneficial to the caravans traveling west.

Only the host road has a slightly flat terrain that is conducive to caravans entering and leaving, and it also leads to the prosperous Central Plains region. Therefore, the host road has become the most important official road to enter and exit Fangzhou.

There is a small town called Guishan Town at the east end of Fangzhou. It is named after the appearance of a nearby mountain resembles a turtle. The clear and wide water comes from the west, runs across the town, flows to the northeast, and pours the Han River into Gucheng County, fifty miles away.

Next to the official road on the east side of Gui Town is a tea shed. It is opened by a wealthy family in the town. It is specially designed for pedestrians to rest and fight for tips. There are constant customers all year round and the business is booming. The shopkeeper of the tea shed is surnamed Liu, and he is a distant relative of the wealthy family. He is about forty years old. He is eloquent and very smart. He leads three friends to take care of the tea shed.

That afternoon, a team of more than ten people came slowly from the east official road. Manager Liu saw this team from afar. He was knowledgeable and thought that this team should be a member of the government.

The turmoil in Guishan Town these two days, and the people from Fangzhou government and Luling Palace were catching a thief, which made the town panic. Every family closed their doors and did not dare to go out at night, which also affected the business of the teahouse.

Manager Liu did not want this team to come to his tea shed for a rest and dinner. He did not want to deal with people in the government, but many things were often contrary to people's expectations. When the team saw the tea shed, they left the official road and walked towards the tea shed.

"Shopkeeper, do you have any food or food?" shouted at the front of the team.

Manager Liu heard that they had a Beijing accent and felt a little upset, so he had to bite the bullet and answer: "There are tea and food, and you are welcome to come to the shop to rest.

Manager Liu hurriedly asked his friend to lead the horses for them and tie the horses to the horse piles outside the tea shed. He personally welcomed the group into the tea shed.

There were thirteen people in this group. It was the Dali Temple investigation team led by Sun Li. Dali Temple Minister Li Yuan received a secret order from Wu Zetian, asking him to send someone to Fangzhou to investigate the case of King Luling raising warriors. Li Yuan also learned that Lai Junchen had also gone to Fangzhou, which was related to the orthodox royal family. He really didn't want to interfere in the case, but he had to obey the order, so he ordered Dali Temple Minister Sun Li to lead more than a dozen people to Fangzhou.

Sun Li came from Gucheng County and set off before dawn. He led his men to run for most of the day and was really tired. He sat down and took a sip of tea and asked Manager Liu, "The nearest county town here should be Yongqing."

"It was just walking west along the official road, passing Guishan Town, and then walking ten miles away. If you want to find an inn, Guishan Town also has it."

"How far is it from here to Fangling County?"

"Then I'll walk for a few days, at least two hundred miles."

Sun Li frowned and had to walk two hundred miles. He pondered for a moment and asked again: "I heard that Fangzhou has a severe drought this year, and I don't feel that it's that serious."

Manager Liu laughed and said, "That was last year's incident, but it wasn't that serious. There was a drought in Shangyong area and the southern mountainous areas. There were a few heavy snowfalls this winter, and the drought had already eased."

"It is said that many victims fled to Fangling?"

"I don't know much about this..."

Manager Liu knew the reason why the disaster came from his mouth. He didn't want to say much, so he turned around and entered the house. Soon he brought out a plate of wild game and mountain bamboo shoots, and then brought out a jar of local wine. The soldiers of Dali Temple poured wine and ate meat, chatting and laughing.

Sun Li was about to pick up a bowl of wine, and with a sound, an arrow roared and shot it into the wine bowl, smashing it to pieces. Then dozens of arrows were shot from the bamboo forest not far away. Several soldiers from Dali Temple could not dodge and were shot into arrows one after another, screaming and falling to the ground.

The sudden change shocked everyone. Sun Li took the lead in reacting. He roared, kicked the table over, hid behind the table, and drew out the sword from the bag beside him.

"Squat down and squat down quickly," Sun Li turned around and shouted.

At this time, the other soldiers had already reacted. Like Sun Li, they kicked over the table and hid behind the table. Manager Liu was so scared that his legs were trembling. He turned around and ran away, but was shot in the back by an arrow, screaming and thrusting, and he was almost gone.

Sun Li was extremely angry. He was attacked as soon as he arrived in Fangzhou. Who did this? Through the gap in the table, he saw dozens of black shadows in the bamboo forest, only thirty or forty steps away from them. They kept firing arrows, which made Sun Li and other subordinates unable to raise their heads.

After a while, the tea shed gradually calmed down, and the black shadows in the bamboo forest disappeared without a trace. Sun Li estimated that the other party had withdrawn. He immediately rushed to the front of several shots. Two of his subordinates had been killed, and two others were seriously injured and dying.

"Come here to save people"

Sun Li shouted, and the rest of his subordinates rushed over and bandaged arrows on his injured companion. Sun Li was so angry that he led several subordinates to rush into the bamboo forest. At this time, the people who ambushed them in the bamboo forest had retreated, and only footprints were all over the ground and more than a dozen lost arrows.

Sun Li picked up a crossbow. This crossbow is a standard horn crossbow, which belongs to the Tang army's equipment. The arrows that attacked them were shot out with this kind of military crossbow. Who would have done this.

"Envoy, there is a bronze medal here"

A soldier found a shiny bronze medal from the bamboo leaves all over the ground. Sun Li stepped forward to take the bronze medal and held it in his palm to look carefully. He saw that the bronze medal was very exquisitely crafted, soft lines and simple shape. On the front was a pair of swords and swords intersected, and on the back were engraved with three raised Yangwen seal characters: "Xing Tanghui, and there is a line of small characters below, "Ding Sanshiyi," which seemed to be the number of the licensee.

This bronze plaque made Sun Li breathe a sigh of relief, "The Xingtang Association was a secret organization established by Xu Jingye and other groups of officials who demoted Yangzhou more than ten years ago to oppose the current emperor. This Xingtang Association had long disappeared with the failure of Li Jingye's rebellion. Unexpectedly, it appeared in Fangzhou again.

Sun Li had already known the task of coming to Fangzhou this time, but now his men were ambushed by a man in black with a military crossbow. The Xingtanghui license plate appeared in Fangzhou. He began to realize the seriousness of the problem. No matter whether it is true or false, he dared not hide it and must report it to the higher authorities immediately.

Sun Li immediately wrote a letter and ordered his two subordinates to return to Dali Temple in Luoyang to report with letters and evidence. At this time, his subordinates had six, and two seriously injured people. Where should they go? Sun Li pondered for a moment and said to everyone: "Pack up your things and hurry to Yongqing County immediately."
Chapter completed!