Thief Emperor

Chapter 89 Sleepless Night
An hour ago, in the Gu family’s warm room.

Governor Tian had a gloomy face and almost slammed the table when he looked at the head of the Gu family in front of him.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down, and gritted his teeth and said, "This is indeed the Gu family, but this is still Xuanzhou!"

"If something happens in your home, that is, in Xuanzhou, I am not afraid, so what are you afraid of!"

"Afterwards, the murderer will be caught, and the government will give an explanation to the court. Everything has nothing to do with the Gu family. What is the Gu family afraid of?"

Gu Wen sat below Governor Tian, ​​and his expression was equally unhappy: "Sir, that's the imperial envoy!"

Governor Tian said gloomily: "He came secretly without informing us. How could anyone know that he was an imperial envoy?"

Sima Cao, who was standing by, raised his head and took a sip of wine, then cursed angrily, "Damn it! Because of a few unruly people in Hexi Village, the whole of Xuanzhou is in turmoil. Before Master Pei left, didn't he say that everything was fine? It's only been a short time!"

"They sent another imperial envoy to conduct a secret visit."

Cao Rong said with a gloomy face: "He didn't inform the local government. It's clear that he didn't even think about negotiating with us. If he really spread the matter to the higher-ups..."

"I'm afraid the prince can't protect us."

"It's not because of you!"

Governor Tian glared at him and cursed, "We wiped out Hexi Village, but left so many fish that slipped through the net. The remnants of Hexi Village are actually making trouble again, and once again alarmed the emperor!"

"besides."

Governor Tian sneered and said, "This matter is not about whether the prince will protect us or not. Some people in the court are directly targeting the prince and want to use Xuanzhou to shake the East Palace!"

"Our lives and property are of little concern. The safety of the crown prince is of great concern!"

Governor Tian gritted his teeth and said, "We have to make a decision here. We should act first and report later. When the time comes, we can report the matter and let the people above fight for it!"

"Otherwise, if those villains succeed and shake the foundation of the country, the Great Zhou will be in chaos!"

At this point, Governor Tian took a deep breath, looked at Gu Wen, and said in a deep voice: "Brother Zaidao, this is not the time to be timid. At this time, if we say small, it is for the stability of the court, and if we say big, it is for the people of the world!"

"Gu family, we must make a decision!"

Gu Wen looked up at Governor Tian and frowned slightly: "Sir, have you seen the prince?"

These words choked Governor Tian.

He had indeed never met the prince, but since the last time he met Master Pei, he had already considered himself to be a member of the prince's party.

In other words, at this moment, he must regard himself as a member of the prince's party, otherwise if the incident of the Hexi bandits happens again, he will definitely not be able to cover it up.

Because the imperial envoy who came back this time was not seeking fame or profit, and it was very likely that he came specifically to deal with them!
In this situation, his identity as the governor was not as useful as before. After all, a governor of Xuanzhou was too insignificant in the court.

After a long while, the governor Tian looked at the head of the Gu family with a gloomy gaze and slowly said, "Brother Zaidao, although I have been in Xuanzhou for less than four years, I know a lot about Xuanzhou. The higher-ups want to conduct a thorough investigation of Xuanzhou, and your Gu family is also involved."

"Gu family..."

Gu Wen looked up at Governor Tian and said silently, "The eight hundred coins of tax are not collected by our Gu family. If the imperial court comes to investigate the Gu family, we will at most be reduced to poverty. If this imperial envoy dies in my family, it will be my fault."

"That means the family is broken up."

"I have said so."

Governor Tian suppressed his temper and said in a hoarse voice: "The Xuanzhou government will give an explanation to the court about this matter. There will be no mistakes or omissions in the cause of the incident and the murderer. When the time comes, we will report it to the higher-ups. Even if the higher-ups argue about it, it will have nothing to do with us!"

Gu Wen's face was still as gloomy as water: "Will the prince fight for it? Will he fight for the sake of making the prince fight?"

"You fought for the envoy, will you fight for my Gu family?"

"My third brother is still serving as an official in the capital."

Gu Wen still insisted: "I can't hurt him!"

"Damn it!"

The hot-tempered Cao Rong could no longer bear it. He drew the sword from his waist and looked at Gu Wen fiercely.

"Master Gu, if you cooperate, it will be the Hexi bandits who will come and kill the imperial envoy today. If you don't cooperate, it will be the Hexi bandits who will kill the entire Gu family and burn down the Gu Mansion!"

Cao Rong is a person with direct interests in the matter.

He took the money for the extra taxes imposed by the state! He was also the one who sent people to suppress the rebellion in Shidai! No matter what, he couldn't get away from it.

Therefore, Sima Cao is also the most active person.

He wanted to kill the imperial envoy and then put the blame on the Hexi bandits. In this way, the court would at most charge him with failure to provide adequate protection, or at most send another imperial envoy.

Anyway, the next imperial envoy’s attitude towards the local officials of Xuanzhou will not be worse than this one!

Gu Wen gritted his teeth and said, "You are so brave!"

Governor Tian reached out to pick up the teacup, his hands trembling.

Cao Sima, who was standing by, lowered his voice and said, "Sir, my subordinates have surrounded the Gu family!"

At this time, the soldiers in the state cannot be used.

After all, that was the court's organization.

However, after receiving the empty salaries, these local military generals would often raise some private soldiers of their own. Although this was also a disguised way of eating the imperial court's food and salary, they were not part of the imperial organization, but their personal troops, their private soldiers!

Gu Wen's face turned pale. Just as he was about to speak, there was a hurried knock on the door. A servant reported loudly, "Master, Master!"

"The wing room is flooded!" Master Gu's face changed, and he stood up suddenly, looking at the six or seven Xuanzhou local officials present, then tried to lower his voice and said sternly: "You did it?!"

Governor Tian frowned and turned to look at Cao Rong.

Sima Cao frowned slightly and shook his head, saying, "I haven't had time to do anything yet."

Gu Wen stood up and walked out.

"I'll go take a look!"

He pushed open the door and strode out.

Governor Tian and a group of officials stayed in the warm room and looked at each other.

Cao Rong asked, "Sir, should we go and take a look as well?"

"Confused!"

Governor Tian snorted and said, "How can we get involved in this? Let's go now and leave the Gu family."

"Your troops..."

Cao Rong said, "My men are all outside the city. The ones in the city tonight are the Hexi bandits!"

Governor Tian slowly exhaled a breath of foul air, looked outside, shook his head and sighed: "If we are not careful, we will be involved in the court struggle. The waves are hitting us, and we are all helpless."

Cao Rong said coldly: "At this time, you can only save yourself!"

A group of officials hurriedly left the warm room of the Gu family. They were familiar with this Gu family and soon found the back door of the Gu family.

As soon as Sima Cao opened the back door, a flash of knife light shone on his face.

A strong man in armor, holding a weapon, shouted, "Go back!"

Cao Rong was furious and was about to say "Do you know who I am?" But when he looked up at the burly man's face, he froze in place.

They were neither his troops nor Xuanzhou’s government troops!
Just as he was about to speak, he was pulled in by Governor Tian. Governor Tian had a dark face and whispered, "You can't reveal your identity before leaving the Gu family!"

Everyone retreated to the backyard of Gu's house. Governor Tian had a gloomy face and shouted, "Where did this person come from?"

"Where are your troops?"

Sima Cao was also confused.

"I...I don't know!"

…………

There was fire everywhere in the Gu family's side rooms.

Li Yun and Mr. Gu hid in another room. Li Dutou poured a cup of tea for the dusty Mr. Gu and asked, "Mr. Wenchuan, what are you doing tonight?"

"It's useless to investigate further. I'm going to arrest him first and talk about it later."

"Catch him, and try him, and the truth will naturally come out."

"Arrests?"

Li Yun asked: "Who to arrest?"

"Of course it's the officials from Xuanzhou."

Mr. Gu said slowly: "Whoever is at Gu's house tonight will be arrested."

Li Yun had a strange look on his face: "How did you know that they were at Gu's house? Even if they wanted to attack you, they didn't have to come to Gu's house in person..."

"Because my people saw it."

Mr. Gu smiled and said, "Captain Li, you don't think that I really came to Xuanzhou alone, do you?"

Li Yun looked outside and saw that the fire outside was even more intense.

He still hadn't figured out some things, so he asked, "So, was today's fire a crime that you planted on the officials in Xuanzhou?"

Hearing the word "insertion", Mr. Gu was startled, then nodded and said, "Almost."

"Otherwise, there would be no reason to arrest them."

"Even if the matter of Xuanzhou is reported to the court, it will take several months for the court to make a decision. There are too many variables."

Li Yun made a "tsk" sound.

It’s still the scholars who are bad!
But the question is, how can they control the situation with just the two of them?
Just as he thought of this, a loud shout came from outside.

"I am He Chong, the commander of Tong'an County! I have been ordered to accompany and protect the imperial envoy. How dare you burn the imperial envoy's residence!!"

Gu Wenchuan in the room looked at Li Yun leisurely and smiled, "Before coming to Xuanzhou, I transferred some people from Lin County."

"But it's not a good idea to make a big fuss about it, so none of them showed up."

Having said this, Mr. Gu stood up, patted the black dust on his body, and said slowly: "Let's go, Brother Li."

"Let's go...deal with this mess."

　I was delayed for a while in revising the manuscript~

　　
　
(End of this chapter)