Chapter 438: Borrowing Flowers to Offer to Buddha
When the chief clerk of the county government saw Lianyi, a smile appeared on his face. He had been very busy these past two days and had not originally planned to come out to see anyone. But when he heard it was Lianyi, he came out for the sake of the silver.
"Ms. Ripple wants to ask about the children?"
"Yes, but not entirely. I still need to ask the chief clerk for more information."
Ripple said with a smile.
"Of the thirteen children, seven have already been taken away by their families, all from villages near Huairou County. The remaining children were probably not captured by bandits nearby, so we have to wait and see. But don't worry, the children have food and drink in the county government, and they are not being treated unfairly."
The chief clerk first talked about the children's situation.
"That's good! I wanted to ask Mr. Qi, who came into the city with me that day, whether he has been in the county government office these days?"
"He came to the county government office two days in a row, and I haven't seen him since."
"Thank you very much! Thank you for your hard work!"
This time, Lianyi stuffed a plain purse into the chief clerk's pocket as a reward for getting the information.
"If Lady Lianyi wants to see Master Qi, she can go to Chongshan Inn."
The chief clerk squeezed his purse and immediately gave Qi Qi's whereabouts.
"Thank you!"
Lianyi bowed and turned to go to the Chongshan Inn that the chief clerk mentioned.
She didn't see Qi Qi when she went there, but his men were in the inn. Lianyi directly handed a wooden box to them.
"Thanks to you for helping me and saving me from a disaster, this is our thank you gift. Please give it to Master Qi and he will know after he takes a look."
"good!"
The subordinate took the wooden box and felt it was very light, not like it contained any heavy objects, so he put it in his arms and told them to take care of it and pass it on to them. Only then did Lianyi say goodbye and leave.
Lianyi found the wooden box under a chair in the bandit's lair. After returning home, she took a look at it and found some correspondence inside. There were letters between the bandit leader and some merchants, as well as some letters to big families. Some of the letters were written in Mongolian.
After reading it, Lianyi felt that this bandit leader was no simple person. After listening to what Wang Meimei said, she was more certain that this might be the letters exchanged between Mongolian spies and their country. However, she did not understand the specific content at the time, so she called Wang Yaozu, who was well-read in poetry and books, and asked him to play a role.
Wang Yaohui was still somewhat knowledgeable. After reading four or five letters from Mongolia in succession, he said that they only talked about some scenic spots in the Han Kingdom, just travel experiences, nothing special.
“I think the things in it are very important.”
"Why?"
"If it wasn't important, he wouldn't have kept it separately and hidden it."
"That means there is something hidden, but we just don't know how to interpret it."
Wang Yaozu was not stupid from reading so much, he reacted immediately.
"You're right! Let's not get involved in this kind of thing and leave it to professionals."
So she put away all the letters. Just then Wang Meimei came to see her, so she went to meet Wang Meimei first. Then she went to the county government office to inquire about Qi Qi's whereabouts and threw the hot potato in her hand to the other party.
At that time, Lianyi didn't know that her brother was an intelligence agent, but this did not prevent her from guessing that he was working for the royal family, and these letters would be more valuable if they were handed over to him.
The fact was exactly as Lianyi guessed. After Qi Qi returned to the inn from the cell, the people who stayed behind handed the wooden box to him.
After reading these letters, Qi Qi's pupils shrank. Not only did they contain information exchanged between the bandit leader and the Mongolian State, but also evidence of collusion with internal forces of the Han State. Although the titles used in the letters were vague, they at least provided them with a direction for investigation.
"Make a copy, then send the original back to the Imperial City and give it to the leader."
"yes!"
"You said this was sent by Lianyi?"
"Yes, and it was sent after I met Wang Meimei."
"Then she must have known that the bandit leader was a spy from the Mongolian Empire and had read these letters, so she sent the things here."
Qi Qi said while tapping the table with his fingers.
“It should be!”
"Did she also take the things in the secret room of the bandit's den?"
Qi Qi asked the people around him in a low voice.
"This wooden box is easy to take out. I can just put it in my arms. The secret room is not small. According to the spy, it contains the gold, silver, jewelry, jade, antiques, cloth, silk, and rice and food that they have robbed in the past two years. If we take one or two away, it should be no problem. But if we take them all away, it is absolutely impossible!
Besides, we were monitoring her at the foot of the mountain, and she brought down 20 little radishes in one go, and she didn’t have any extra bags on her.”
This person was the one who was ambushing at the entrance of the canyon at the time, and was also the one who captured the bandit leader, so he was very confident.
"I understand. Go and arrange for someone to deliver the message first."
After his men left, Qi Qi fell into deep thought. After the mother and son of "Feng Qi Wu Tong" were brought back, they confessed under torture by the secret guards that they had sold many women and children to the Mongolian State over the years, and that the people they traded with were the royal family of the Mongolian State. This was very interesting.
In the past two years, Mengguoxiao has been very active and its intentions are obvious. All that is missing is an opportunity, but both sides are waiting.
How many Han people were sold to Mongolia in the past ten years? What was their purpose in needing Mongolian women and children? This required them to continue investigating.
Qi Qi spread out a piece of white paper, picked up a pen and began to write a letter. This letter would be sent back to the imperial city together with the things they had found. Everything would depend on the Emperor's wishes.
His Majesty the Emperor in the Imperial City, after sending away Xiang Yi who came to look for him, went directly to the Imperial Study and asked in a deep voice:
"Princess Xiangyi, please keep an eye on her and ask her husband to spend more time with her and stop coming here to cause trouble."
"Yes, I've made note of it."
"How's her face?"
The emperor asked coldly.
"It's still the same. Every four months, it will crack and scab over again. It annoys the princess so much that she doesn't want to go out during that time."
"Well, let her wound heal more slowly, so as to avoid causing trouble for me."
"Yes, I understand!"
"Those people around her should be replaced when possible, so as not to arouse her vigilance."
"Yes, I am already doing it."
Eunuch Yu replied with his head lowered.
"Go down! I'll summon you if there's anything else."
"Yes, I'll take my leave!"
Eunuch Yu backed out of the imperial study and immediately called over a capable eunuch under his command and told him to do the job.
Eunuch Yu was a little puzzled. Ever since Princess Xiangyi got her face injured, although His Majesty still treated her favorably on the surface, he had secretly begun to cut off the princess's men, reduce her influence, and placed many of his men to monitor her.
Princess Xiangyi's face could have been cured, but the emperor personally gave orders to the Imperial Medical Bureau, forbidding the imperial doctors to cure Xiangyi's face. He also ordered her face to rot every four months, which drove Xiangyi a little crazy. She could not bear to see any beautiful woman in front of her.
(End of this chapter)
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