Just as Leng Yu was about to continue questioning, Zhang Ting suddenly stuffed something into his mouth. Two drops of black blood instantly flowed out from the corners of his mouth. Then, he widened his eyes and twitched his body, as if he had stopped breathing.
Leng Yu let go of his hand in shock, and Zhang Ting fell limply to the ground. Xiao Lingzi hurried over to check his breath.
"Your Highness, he's dead. It looks like he took poison just now."
Upon hearing the news, Leng Yu felt overwhelmed. Once Zhang Ting died, the whereabouts of the money became a mystery.
He suddenly clenched his fists, and shouted fiercely with a ferocious look on his face.
"Little Twins, you personally lead the men to search the Shangshu Mansion."
"yes."
The twins took the order and retreated. Leng Yu looked at the gatekeepers again and waved to the officers behind them. They were dragged in front of Leng Yu.
"Tell me! Where is the silver?"
Leng Yu's voice became hysterical. So much silver was lost. This was the biggest theft case in Daning State.
The leading gatekeeper shook his head vigorously and replied with a pale face:
"We...we don't know. We were only responsible for guarding the first gate. We really don't know how the silver turned to stone."
"Hmph! There's only one door to the treasury. So much silver suddenly disappeared, and you claim you didn't know. If that's the case, don't blame me for being rude. Come on, someone!"
After that, several officers came forward. Leng Yu raised his voice and shouted angrily:
"Take these guys away and give them fifty lashes until they confess."
Anyone with a discerning eye knew that even if the man wasn't killed by fifty lashes, he would at least be crippled. Leng Yu obviously wanted to force them to tell the truth.
"Your Majesty, please spare us. We really don't know."
"Your Highness, this door only opens once a month, and only Lord Zhang goes in by himself. We really don't know what's going on."
"Your Majesty, spare my life!"
“…”
As the voices of these people begging for mercy gradually faded away, Leng Yu's face became extremely dark.
Xiao Lingzi took two steps forward and reminded softly:
"Your Highness, since no one has ever opened this door, could it be that the silver didn't leave through the main gate?"
This sentence made Leng Yu suddenly feel enlightened. He immediately frowned and waved to Xiao Lingzi and others.
"Go check and see if there is a secret passage."
"I understand."
After receiving the order, Xiao Lingzi brought a group of servants and began to search the national treasury.
The treasury is very large. Looking along a corridor, you can see that it is divided into many compartments. There is not only a silver vault that contains a large amount of silver, but also a clothing vault for storing court robes, casual clothes, etc., a silk vault for storing silks and satins, a tea vault for storing tea, and a porcelain vault for storing tributes from officials and princes from all over the country.
Leng Yu walked into the porcelain warehouse, picked up a piece of porcelain and examined it, and his eyes suddenly flashed with a fiery gaze.
This is not a high-quality porcelain at all. It is clearly a low-quality porcelain produced by a small local kiln. To be more precise, it is some inferior product that is passed off as a good one.
He picked up several more pieces of porcelain and checked them one after another. Without exception, there were problems with all of them.
Seeing this, he suddenly felt a little ironic. It was such a huge joke that the great Ning Kingdom couldn't even protect its treasury.
Is it that the emperor trusts Zhang Ting too much, or does this Zhang Ting know how to conceal the truth?
But now he is dead, and there is no way to remedy everything. If the silver in the national treasury cannot be found, not only will the people affected by the disaster be unable to be resettled, but the future of Daning State will also be worrying.
Xiao Lingzi and his men searched around but still found nothing.
"Your Highness, we've searched everywhere, but we haven't found any hidden passages, nor have we found anything wrong."
Hearing this, Leng Yu's face suddenly turned ashen. He looked at the extremely poor quality porcelain vase in his hand, suddenly gritted his teeth, and threw it towards the wall in front of him, saying hatefully:
"It's outrageous! How could these things just disappear without a trace?"
At the moment the porcelain pieces fell to the ground, the wall behind him suddenly moved. After hearing the unusual noise, everyone turned around and stared at the slowly moving wall in a daze. Leng Yu's heart was in his throat.
He hoped more than anyone else that the missing silver was behind this wall.
But to his disappointment, behind the wall was just a pitch-black corridor.
He waved to Xiao Lingzi hurriedly,
"Bring a torch."
After a while, someone brought a torch. Leng Yu took the torch and led the way himself, walking into the dark corridor.
This corridor looked newly built, and there was still a lot of debris inside that had not been cleaned up yet. They walked for a long, long time, so long that Leng Yu felt that they were about to leave the city.
At this moment, a faint flame flickered in front of him. Leng Yu stopped and waved to the people behind him. Xiao Lingzi and others hurriedly stopped.
"Your Highness, there is a light ahead. Could there be someone there?"
Leng Yu's eyes narrowed for a moment, then he took out his sword from his waist and walked forward slowly and cautiously. Xiao Lingzi and others were afraid that he would be in danger, so they also took out their swords from their waists and followed closely behind him.
But what no one expected was that there was no one here, no mechanism, and even nothing else except the flickering oil lamp.
Standing in this cellar that was more than one meter high, Leng Yu frowned even more tightly. Xiao Lingzi looked around and said in surprise:
"Isn't this where the silver is hidden? But there is no further road ahead."
Leng Yu was also a little confused. If there was no trick here, then building this secret passage seemed meaningless.
Thinking of this, he frowned and shook his head.
"There must be something wrong here, everyone look around."
After hearing this, Xiao Lingzi and the others scattered and began to knock on the wall, looking around.
Leng Yu also walked around the wall with a serious expression, looking for any suspicious places.
Suddenly, he felt as if he stepped on something. He quickly retracted his foot and squatted down. A rope appeared in front of him. He tensed his expression and pulled it gently.
At this moment, a crack suddenly appeared in the ground. Xiao Lingzi and others hurriedly gathered around and looked along the crack.
After a while, the crack in the ground grew wider and wider, until many bags of silver and porcelain were revealed. Leng Yu heaved a sigh of relief, and Xiao Lingzi immediately shouted in surprise:
"Your Highness, I found it, I finally found it, the silver is here."
At this time, someone on the other side shouted:
"Your Majesty, there is a problem here too."
Hearing the shout, Leng Yu took big strides and walked towards that direction.
It turned out that in an inconspicuous corner, there was also a rope similar to the one on the ground. Leng Yu said seriously to the people around him:
"Back off."
After everyone stepped back a few steps, he gently pulled the rope. Everyone stared at the ground, but this time, it was not the ground that cracked, but the top.
Just as Leng Yu was stunned, someone suddenly shouted from above:
"General Shuang, something's going on here."
Two generals?
Leng Yu's eyes darkened for a moment, and he suddenly understood something.
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