Meanwhile, in a remote, abandoned manor south of Luoyang, it was dark and deathly silent.

On the surface, the houses in the manor look like dark, monstrous creatures.

Although there was no sound, the inside was actually shrouded in darkness.

Anyone who dares to approach will likely be surrounded by a large crowd.

Or, at a single command, arrows rain down, turning him into a hedgehog.

The previous owner of this house must have been a wealthy family who liked to dig tunnels to hide things.

There was a secret room beneath the house, brightly lit by several oil lamps.

The secret room was filled with all sorts of instruments of torture.

There were many figures, and five or six men with faces as cold as iron stood motionless around.

"Zhao Zhong, wake up! The prince is here. If you know anything, just say it now or you'll suffer a beating!"

Ding Xiu, the head of the Luoyang branch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, poured a basin of cold water directly over a person's head.

It turns out that this was a secret stronghold of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Luoyang.

They acquired him months ago.

They kidnapped Zhao Zhong to interrogate him about the deaths of Liu Wei's adoptive parents.

At the last Jinyiwei intelligence meeting, Liu Wei arranged for Lu Wenzhao to arrest Zhao Zhong.

Ding Xiu was then tasked with carrying out this mission.

It's unclear what methods they used; perhaps Zhao Zhong was crippled by Liu Wei that day, and Empress Dowager Dong wanted him to fend for himself.

Ding Xiu and his men easily captured Zhao Zhong, who had left the palace to find a doctor.

Because the fight took place outside the palace, they did not encounter any Mohist masters inside the palace.

Zhao Zhong was taken by Ding Xiu and his men to this secret stronghold in Luoyang City, where they waited for Liu Wei to interrogate him.

With disheveled hair and a bloodless face, Zhao Zhong still didn't know what kind of force these people in front of him belonged to.

He has too many enemies to recall them all at once.

When he heard someone call him "Your Highness," Zhao Zhong's cloudy eyes seemed to see a glimmer of light.

"Your Highness? Are you men of the Prince of Hongnong?"

Zhao Zhong immediately screamed in agony, "Release me! I want to see the Prince of Hongnong!"

"Shut up!"

Ding Xiu slapped Zhao Zhong hard across the face, knocking out two of his back teeth!

Zhao Zhong screamed in agony, his mouth full of blood, but Ding Xiu pried open his mouth and made him spit out his teeth.

Otherwise, a tooth stuck in his throat could have killed Zhao Zhong. He would have died without getting any information, which would have been extremely wasteful.

"Commander Ding, take it easy!"

At that moment, a majestic voice rang out from behind the crowd.

"Your Highness, you've arrived!" Everyone bowed in greeting.

Liu Wei and Shen Lian emerged from the darkness and appeared under the flickering oil lamp.

"It's...it's you, King of the Clouds, Liu Wei!"

Zhao Zhong suddenly realized that it was Liu Wei's men who had come to arrest him.

It turns out that Liu Wei was attending a clan gathering organized by Liu Hua and Liu Yu tonight.

While sending someone to deliver a message to He Jin asking him to redeem He Miao as a pretext, Shen Lian began to take action against Baoguo Temple, where Empress He was hiding her private money.

They stormed into Baoguo Temple from all directions and killed Abbot Zhizhang.

Then they looted all the tens of thousands of taels of gold and hundreds of thousands of strings of cash inside the pagoda.

Don't ask how they transported so much money, because they were Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards), and there were hundreds of people involved. Their methods are unknown.

Before the city's garrison arrived, they set fire to the temple and took all the coins with them.

The soldiers in Luoyang hated these money-lending monks, and they were too busy putting out the fire to care about the money.

When Empress He in the palace learned of the disaster at Baoguo Temple and ordered He Jin to send troops to arrest the perpetrators, intending to dig up the entire city of Luoyang, Shen Lian and his men had already hidden the money and silk in a secluded place.

Afterwards, Liu Wei deduced that Shen Lian had succeeded, and then asked Liu Hua in Feifeng Tower to hide something in her residence.

Liu Hua not only agreed, but also sent several horse-drawn carriages to pick them up.

With Liu Hua's help, Shen Lian and the others delivered all the money and silk to Liu Hua's residence through the back door and found a room to store it.

No one dared to inspect the princess's residence.

Liu Hua appeared calm on the surface upon seeing so much gold and coins, but inwardly he felt incredibly pleased.

She never imagined that the Empress would secretly amass wealth; no wonder her brother, Liu Hong, was so poor that he had to sell official positions in the Western Garden.

After everything was settled, Liu Wei and Shen Lian arrived at the secret stronghold of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to interrogate Zhao Zhong.

"Since you know it's me, then tell me honestly what you know!"

Liu Wei sat down in front of Zhao Zhong and looked at him coldly.

Zhao Zhong, one of the infamous Ten Attendants, was now like an old dog with its spine broken.

"King of the Clouds, what do you want me to say? Let me go at once!"

"If Empress Dowager Dong can't find this old servant, she will definitely send someone to investigate, and then you will be in a difficult situation to explain yourself."

Zhao Zhongming asked the question knowingly, pretending not to know anything.

His words sounded like a threat, but they were actually a pitiful plea for mercy.

"You know what I want to ask!"

"Heh, do you think you're still of any value now that would make the Empress Dowager save you?"

"You know so many of her secrets. Seeing that you're useless now, I would have killed you to silence you long ago!"

Liu Wei sneered, "You still naively think that the Empress Dowager would care about your dog's life?"

"I only saved you from my grasp in the palace that day to prevent the other eunuchs from feeling disheartened."

Zhao Zhong stubbornly replied, "This old servant is loyal to the Empress Dowager. Don't even think about getting anything out of me."

Liu Wei smiled faintly: "Hehe, I have sent people to investigate both Zhuojun and Niujiazhuang. The matter will soon be clear."

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