The sound of horse hooves faded away.

The dark night in Guyuan was so cold that ice could form in the air with just a slight touch. Chen Wenzong seemed to have smashed the ice and broke into the night alone.

Zhang Zheng stood in the backyard of the inn and praised: "Chen Ji, you finally have a decent person in the Chen family!"

Zhang Xia said softly: "A grown-up becomes a tiger, a villain becomes a villain, and a gentleman becomes a leopard."

Zhang Zheng scratched his head: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Xia explained with a smile: "A king is like a tiger, with blazing arrogance and can tame power; a villain is panic-stricken, has no independent opinion, and just goes with the flow; a gentleman is like a leopard, hiding and keeping a low profile when nothing happens, and making prompt decisions when trouble occurs."

Chen Ji hummed: "Brother is worthy of the word 'gentleman'."

As soon as he finished speaking, a "pop" sound was heard in the courtyard, and Mrs. Liang slapped Wang Gui on the face.

Wang Gui couldn't believe it: "Madam, why are you slapping me?"

Liang said solemnly: "If you took the initiative to go to the Dusi Mansion just now, why would you risk your life by asking for the title? You usually eat better than other servants and dress more expensively than other servants. It is in vain for the Chen family to support you like this. After so many years, I might as well have a loyal dog!"

Wang Gui's expression changed several times, and finally he knelt down and said, "Madam, please calm down. I will catch up with the eldest young master now and protect him."

Mrs. Liang said harshly: "You protect him well? Why do you protect him well?"

Wang Gui stood up and said: "Madam, the eldest son has a war horse, and ordinary villains will definitely not be able to stop him..."

Liang said angrily: "Who told you to get up? Kneel down!"

As far as she is concerned, her husband needs to serve her carefully. If her husband has a concubine, she still needs to think about how to win favor. After all, she is not the closest person to her.

But her son is different. He is her biggest support for the future. If her son is put in danger, don't blame her for turning against him.

Chen Ji didn't care about watching the show. He returned to the inn with a knife and carefully searched the first and second floors of the inn to make sure there were no assassins lurking inside. Then he led Xiao Man and others to sit down on the stone steps.

Mr. Liang and Chen Wenxiao were sitting at the stone table in the courtyard. They were sitting on the stone steps opposite, clearly separated from each other.

"Meow."

Chen Ji sat on the stone steps and looked up. Dark clouds were standing on the eaves of the second floor roof, carefully watching the surroundings to prevent the assassin from returning.

With the dark clouds around, he relaxed a little.

Chen Ji whispered: "No matter who is driving the assassin, if he dares to poison the entire Chen family, he must be a ruthless and ruthless person who cares about human life. If you are not careful when dealing with such a person, it may be difficult to escape unscathed. But, in the end, in the end Who is it that wants to do this to the Chen family when they first arrive?"

Zhang Xia sat on his left side and recalled: "Nine people entered the post today, five of them were postmen, and they were all poisoned to death. There were four others, a middle-aged man, two women, and an old man. Goodbye I will definitely recognize them when I see them."

Chen Ji turned to ask: "Miss Zhang Er, has the prince had any conflicts with the border troops before?"

Zhang Xia thought for a moment: "No, this prince has always been kind to others and pragmatic in his work. In his early years, when he first came out of the government to work, your majesty only gave him the official position of deputy academic administrator and asked him to preside over the imperial examination. He helped many poor students.

, now these poor families are also showing their prominence, and some even preside over the government. The poor families among the people all respect him highly."

Zhang Xia continued: "Later, His Majesty ordered him to investigate the matter of privately minted copper coins. He seized millions of privately minted copper coins, which wiped out the privately minted copper coins in the market."

Chen Ji thought thoughtfully: "Has the border army been implicated in the private minting of copper coins?"

Zhang Xia shook his head: "No, he killed a group of Shanxi and Zhejiang merchants. The Shanxi merchants had copper mines in their hands, and they mined, smelted copper, and minted coins in the mountains themselves; the Zhejiang merchants simply collected the copper coins on the market and added five baht to them.

The copper coins were melted down, and then they were minted into four-baht-weight copper coins and spent, without any capital or profit."

Zhang Zheng, who was sitting on the right side of Chen Ji, was hugging his shoulders because of the cold and said: "The great scholars all say that the prince is like jade, simple and flawless. I think he is very smart. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the family has been secretly minting copper coins for a long time, but

Do you think the prince has ever touched the Xu family, Chen family, Qi family, or Yang family? He knows it well."

Chen Ji smiled and said: "Brother Zhang is as wise as he is foolish. Master Zhang underestimated you."

Zhang Zheng exclaimed, "No!"

Zhang Xia suddenly said: "If we really want to talk about the relationship between the border army and the prince, I'm afraid it has something to do with King Fu. King Fu is your majesty's eldest son. When he established the prince a few years ago, news came from the palace that your majesty originally planned to

He established his eldest son, Prince Fu, as the crown prince.

Somehow, the current one was appointed later. And now Hu Junxian, the chief soldier of Guyuan Dusi Prefecture, is the uncle of King Fu. King Fu also has a very senior uncle, the junior uncle of Laojunshan Taoist Court.

, Hu Junyan, the young prisoner of the Qintian Prison."

Chen Ji asked curiously: "Prince Fu intends to compete for the position of crown prince?"

Zhang Xia shook his head: "I didn't realize that. Prince Fu spends a lot of time and doesn't seem to be competing for the crown prince. But who can say for sure about the crown prince."

Chen Ji wondered: "The Hu family is behind Prince Fu, who is behind the Prince?"

Zhang Xia looked at Chen Ji in surprise, hesitated for a moment and said, "It's your Chen family..."

Chen Ji: "..."

When he saw Zhang Zheng and Zhang Xia Xiaoman shivering in the cold wind, he got up and carried the knife into the inn, and used pliers to lift out the charcoal basin in the house.

Chen Ji asked Xiao Man to bring firewood from the kitchen and set up a bonfire in the courtyard.

Zhang Zheng was so happy that he wanted to cry: "You still have to follow Chen Ji, and you won't be punished wherever you go!"

On the other side, Mrs. Liang and Chen Wenxiao saw the bonfire burning brightly and wanted to warm themselves up, but they couldn't save their dignity, so they had to freeze.

At this moment, the dark clouds on the roof suddenly pricked up their ears and meowed lowly.

Chen Ji stood up suddenly, holding the whale knife tightly in his hand.

Someone came, but Wuyun only heard the sound and saw no one.

When Zhang Zheng saw Chen Ji getting up, he immediately nervously took a half-burned piece of firewood from the bonfire and asked nervously: "The assassin is back?"

Chen Ji didn't answer, but slowly pushed open the knife's jaw with his left thumb, revealing an inch of the shiny blade.

breathe.

Chen Ji's breathing went from rapid to gentle, then slower and slower.

He didn't know how many assassins came and what their strength was, so he could only whisper: "Hide behind me."

Xiaoman glanced at his young master in surprise, then pulled Zhang Zheng and Zhang Xia to stand behind Chen Ji.

The inn was quiet, as if nothing happened.

The next moment, there were a few creaking sounds in the inn, as if someone had pried open the wooden window, which was located in the direction of the herringbone house.

Chen Ji then slowly turned around, the handle of the knife in his hand always facing the source of the sound.

It was as if there was an invisible thread between the handle of his knife and the voice, which was getting tighter and tighter.

Just when the string was about to break, someone in the inn suddenly screamed sadly: "Brother, there are so many dead people here, shedding blood and tears!"

Chen Ji was startled, not an assassin?!

He immediately set off and rushed towards the dark inn, walked through the corridor, came to the door of the herringbone room and swung his knife, and the closed door suddenly cracked!

The moment the door suddenly opened, Chen Wei looked through the wood chips and saw the two windows opposite the bunkhouse open. The moonlight came in, and several children were frightened by the bloody corpses and fell to the ground. Not far away, a child covered his mouth with a scarf.

The young man with his nose was stunned in place.

He is a thief who instigates children to steal property during the day!

When the thief saw the traces of his figure, he immediately came to his senses and said, "Run!"

After that, he flew out of the window like a dive.

Chen Ji took a few steps to catch up with the thief before he jumped out of the window. He struck the thief on the back with the blade of his knife and slapped him on the floor.

The thief fell down in response and kept wailing. He tried to push himself up, but Chen Ji stepped on his neck and forced him to the ground again.

The three children took out the blades from their sleeves and clamped them between their fingers, trembling and shouting: "Let my brother go!"

The thief struggled and shouted to the children: "Don't move, you are no match for him...get out of here!"

However, the children did not move, they just held the blades nervously, in a dilemma.

Chen Ji looked at the child, then looked down at the thief on the ground: "A thief during the day?"

The thief gasped: "You...you killed these people? I admit defeat, but please let those children go and don't kill them!"

Chen Ji put one foot on the thief's back, squatted down, stared into his eyes and asked, "What are you doing here?"

The thief put half of his face on the floor and replied: "You injured one of our people during the day, and we will take revenge on you."

Chen Ji asked again: "How to take revenge?"

The thief replied: "I will cut off all your clothes and take away all your belongings!"

Chen Ji said calmly: "You didn't intend to hurt anyone? You can only deceive children with your words."

The thief remained silent.

Chen Ji said softly: "I ask and you answer. Only by answering well can you survive. The first question is, what big things happened in Guyuan recently? Think about it clearly and tell me everything you can remember."

The thief hurriedly closed his eyes and recalled: "The prince came to Guyuan with hundreds of personal guards, wearing silver armor and looking very majestic. Everyone said that he came to investigate the case of Liang Mao and wanted to put General Hu to death."

Chen Ji frowned: "Kill a good person and take credit for it?"

The thief hurriedly said: "That's what everyone said. Some people said that the border army massacred a village in Jingchao and cut off the ears of the people in the village as a reward. Others said that the magistrate of Tianshui County next door was robbed by bandits and his whereabouts are unknown. As a result,

Two months later, the county magistrate's ears appeared in the military awards and were recognized."

Chen Ji said casually: "Who can identify the original owner through one ear? What nonsense are you talking about."

The thief retorted: "I'm not lying to you. It is said that the county magistrate has a hairy black mole behind his ear. The person responsible for inspecting military merit happened to be his brother-in-law, and he recognized him at a glance! Now his brother-in-law is also missing. I don't know who it is.

Even if he was killed by the border troops, he still hid himself."

Chen Ji was startled. The other party said it so firmly, with all the details and logic. Could it be true?

But how could the Guyuan frontier army be so bold? Not only did they collude with bandits to rob the county magistrate, but they also dared to use the county magistrate's ear as military merit?

If it were true, this courage would be shocking.

Chen Ji pulled out the whale knife and put the cold blade against the opponent's neck: "Is there anything else important?"

The young man said: "Moreover, after the prince comes, the Dusi Mansion will offer a reward of one hundred taels of silver to find the whereabouts of Jing Chao Xizuo and the bandits. As long as you can help the court catch Xizuo or the bandits, you can receive the money!"

Chen Ji said calmly: "How many have you caught?"

"I didn't hear who was caught..."

While he was talking, the sound of iron hoofbeats was heard outside the inn. It was the sound that a war horse with iron slaps could make. It was crisp and crackling. As expected, they should be Chen Wenzong's reinforcements brought from the Dusi Mansion.

Chen Ji was silent for a moment and stood up straight.

He held the whale knife upside down in his hand, and the tip of the knife hovered in the air on the thief's temple: "I can let you go, and let those children go, but you still have to do a few things for me."

The thief quickly asked: "What's the matter?"

Chen Ji said calmly: "It's not time to tell you, but how will I find you in the future?"

The thief replied: "Go to Longmen Inn and tell the shopkeeper to ask for 'Brother Hu', and he will pass the message to you!"

"Longmen Inn?" Chen Ji thought thoughtfully: "Can I trust you?"

"Of course!" the thief said in a panic, "I, Brother Hu, are also a well-known person, and I will never break my promise."

"Let's go," Chen Ji stood up and raised his feet. The thief climbed up on his hands and knees, beckoning the child and disappeared out of the window.
Chapter completed!