Aoyama

Chapter 229 Longmen Inn
The sound of horse hooves faded away.

The night in Guyuan was so cold that it seemed that ice would form in the air if touched lightly. Chen Wenzong seemed to have broken the ice and walked into the night alone.

Zhang Zheng stood in the backyard of the post station and exclaimed: "Chen Ji, your Chen family finally has a decent person!"

Zhang Xia said softly: "The elders change like tigers, the villains change their faces, and the gentlemen change like leopards."

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

Zhang Xia smiled and explained: "A king is like a tiger, with a powerful spirit and can tame power; a villain is panic-stricken, has no opinion, and goes with the flow; a gentleman is like a leopard, hiding in plain sight when nothing happens, but making decisions immediately when something happens."

Chen Ji hummed and said, "Brother really deserves the title of 'gentleman'."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a "slap" sound in the yard, and Liang slapped Wang Gui in the face.

Wang Gui couldn't believe it: "Madam, why did you slap me?"

Liang said in a serious tone, "If you had taken the initiative to go to the Dusi Mansion and ask the clan, why would you have risked your life? You usually eat better and wear more expensive clothes than other servants. My Chen family has raised you for so many years in vain. It would be better to raise a loyal dog!"

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

Liang said harshly, "You protect him? Why do you protect him?"

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

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

For her, her husband needs to be served with great care and tread carefully. If her husband has a concubine, she still needs to think about how to win his favor, because after all, that concubine is not her closest person.

But her son was different. He was her biggest support for the future. If anyone let her son get into danger, don't blame her for turning her back on him.

Chen Ji had no time to watch the show. He returned to the inn with a knife in hand and carefully searched the first and second floors of the inn to make sure that there were no assassins lurking there. Then he led Xiaoman and others to sit down on the stone steps.

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

"Meow."

Chen Ji sat on the stone steps and looked up. Wu Yun was 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 felt a little more relaxed.

Chen Ji whispered, "No matter who ordered the assassin, he must be a ruthless person who dares to poison the entire Chen family. If you deal with such a person, it will be difficult to escape unscathed if you are not careful. But who is it that would do such a cruel thing when the Chen family first arrived?"

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

Chen Ji then asked, "Miss Zhang Er, has the prince ever had conflicts with the border troops before?"

Zhang Xia thought for a moment and said, "No, this prince has always been kind to others and pragmatic. When he first left the government to work, His Majesty only gave him the position of deputy academician and asked him to preside over the imperial examinations. He helped many poor students, and now these poor students have also made their mark, and some even govern a prefecture. The poor people in the society all respect him very much."

Zhang Xia continued, "Later, His Majesty ordered him to investigate the private minting of copper coins. He seized millions of privately minted copper coins, which brought a severe blow to the privately minted copper coins on the market."

Chen Ji thought thoughtfully: "Has the private minting of copper coins ever involved the border troops?"

Zhang Xia shook his head: "No, he killed a group of Shanxi merchants and Zhejiang merchants. Shanxi merchants have copper mines, and they dig, smelt and mint coins in the mountains; Zhejiang merchants simply collect copper coins on the market, melt the five-zhu copper coins, and mint four-zhu copper coins to spend, making huge profits without any investment."

Zhang Zheng, who was sitting on the right side of Chen Ji, was so cold that he hugged his shoulders and said, "The great scholars all say that the prince is like a rough jade, pure and flawless, but I think he is very smart. Everyone with a discerning eye knows that the noble families have been privately minting copper coins for a long time, but have you ever seen the prince touch the Xu family, the Chen family, the Qi family, and the Yang family? He knows it in his heart."

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Brother Zhang is very wise but appears foolish. It is Master Zhang who underestimates you."

Zhang Zheng said proudly: "Of course!"

Zhang Xia on the side suddenly said, "If we really want to talk about the relationship between the border army and the prince, it is probably related to Prince Fu. Prince Fu is your majesty's eldest son. When the prince was appointed a few years ago, news came from the palace that your majesty originally planned to appoint the eldest son Prince Fu as the prince, but somehow, he appointed the current one. And Hu Junxian, the general soldier of Guyuan Dusi Mansion, is Prince Fu's uncle. Prince Fu also has a younger uncle of a very senior generation, that is, the junior uncle of Laojun Mountain Taoist Court, Hu Junyan, the young supervisor of the Imperial Observatory."

Chen Ji asked curiously, "Does Prince Fu intend to compete for the position of crown prince?"

Zhang Xia shook his head: "I haven't noticed that. Prince Fu spends his days drinking and partying and doesn't seem to want to compete for the throne. But who can say for sure about the crown prince?"

Chen Ji asked in confusion: "The Hu family is behind Prince Fu, who is behind the prince?"

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

Chen Ji: "..."

Seeing Zhang Zheng and Zhang Xia Xiaoman shivering in the cold wind, he stood up, took a knife and went into the post station, and used pliers to take out the charcoal basin from the house.

Chen Ji asked Xiaoman to bring firewood from the kitchen and light a bonfire in the yard.

Zhang Zheng was so happy that he wanted to cry: "I have to follow Chen Ji. I will suffer wherever I go!"

On the other side, Liang and Chen Wenxiao saw the bonfire was burning brightly and wanted to go and warm themselves but they couldn't bring themselves to do so, so they had to freeze.

Just at this moment, the dark clouds on the roof suddenly pricked up their ears and meowed softly.

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

Someone was coming, but Wuyun only heard the voice and didn't see the person.

When Zhang Zheng saw Chen Ji standing up, he immediately took a half-burned firewood from the campfire and asked nervously, "Is the assassin back?"

Chen Ji did not answer, but slowly pushed open the jaws of the knife with his left thumb, revealing an inch of the sharp blade.

Breathe.

Chen Ji's breathing went from rapid to slow, and then became slower and slower. He didn't know how many assassins there were, or what their strength was, so he could only whisper, "Hide behind me."

Xiaoman looked at her master in surprise, then pulled Zhang Zheng and Zhang Xia and stood obediently behind Chen Ji.

The inn was quiet, as if nothing had happened.

The next moment, a few creaking sounds were heard in the post station, as if someone had pried open the wooden window, which was located in the direction of the gable room's common bed.

Chen Ji then slowly turned around, with the hilt 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 sound, which was getting tighter and tighter.

Just when the string was about to break, someone in the post station suddenly let out a shrill howl: "Brother, here, here, there are so many dead people here, shedding tears of blood!"

Chen Ji was stunned. Not an assassin? !
He immediately rushed into the dark inn, crossed the corridor, came to the gable door, and swung his knife, causing the closed door to suddenly crack!

The moment the door suddenly opened, Chen Ji's eyes passed through the sawdust and saw two open windows opposite the bunk bed. Moonlight shone in, and several children were frightened by the bloody corpse and collapsed to the ground. Not far away, a young man with a scarf covering his mouth and nose stood there in a daze.

He is a thief who instigates children to steal property in broad daylight!
When the thief saw Chen Ji's figure, he immediately came to his senses and said, "Run!"

After saying that, he jumped out of the window like diving.

Chen Ji took a few steps forward and arrived before the thief jumped out of the window. He hit the man on the back with the blade of the knife and knocked him to the ground.

The thief fell to the ground, wailing. He tried to stand up, but Chen Ji stepped on his neck and pushed him back to the ground.

The three children pulled out blades from their sleeves and clamped them between their fingers, shouting tremblingly, "Let my eldest brother go!"

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

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

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

The thief gasped, "You... you killed all these people? I admit my defeat, but please let those kids 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, half of his face pressed against the floor, replied, "You injured one of our men during the day, and we are here to avenge you."

Chen Ji asked again: "How to retaliate?"

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

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

The thief remained silent.

Chen Ji said softly, "I ask, you answer, and you can only survive if you answer well. The first question is, what major events have happened in Guyuan recently? Think carefully before you speak, and tell me everything you can remember."

The thief quickly closed his eyes and recalled: "The prince came to Guyuan with several hundred personal guards, wearing silver armor and looking very majestic. Everyone said that he came to investigate the case of killing Liang and taking credit for the merit, and wanted to put General Hu to death."

Chen Ji frowned: "Killing innocent people to claim credit?"

The thief hurriedly said, "That's what people say. Some say the border troops massacred a village in Jing Dynasty and cut off the villagers' ears as a reward. Others say the county magistrate of Tianshui County next door was robbed by bandits and his whereabouts are unknown. Two months later, the county magistrate's ears appeared in military merits and were recognized."

Chen Ji said nonchalantly: "Who can recognize the original owner through one ear? What nonsense."

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 in charge of investigating military merits happened to be his brother-in-law, so he recognized him at a glance! Now his brother-in-law is also missing. I don't know if he was killed by the border troops or hidden."

Chen Ji was stunned. The other party spoke so confidently, with all the details and logic. Could it be true?

But how could the Guyuan border troops be so bold that they not only colluded with bandits to rob the county magistrate, but also dared to use the county magistrate's ears as military merit?
If this is true, it's really outrageous.

Chen Ji pulled out his whale knife and placed the cold blade against the man's neck: "What else is going on?"

The young man said, "Also, after the prince arrives, the Dusi Mansion will offer a reward of 100 taels of silver for finding the whereabouts of the Jing Dynasty's spies and bandits. As long as you can help the court catch the spies or bandits, you can get the money!"

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

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

As they were talking, the sound of iron hooves could be heard outside the post station. It was the sound that only war horses with iron slaps could make, crisp and explosive. If nothing unexpected happened, it should be the reinforcements that Chen Wenzong had 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, with the tip of the knife hovering over the thief's temple: "I can let you go, and those children too, but you still have to do a few things for me."

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

Chen Ji said calmly: "It's not time to tell you yet, but how can I find you later?"

The thief replied, "Go to the Longmen Inn and tell the innkeeper you're looking for 'Brother Hu San'. He will help you pass the message!"

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

"Of course!" the thief said in panic, "I am a well-known figure in Guyuan after all, and I will never break my promise."

"Let's go," Chen Ji stood up and raised his foot. The thief climbed up using his hands and feet, called out to the child, and disappeared out of the window.

(End of this chapter)