Chapter 390 Remnants of the previous dynasty
Shen Mingjiao stood up, brushed off the front of her shirt, "I can't help it, you have too many flaws!"
"How could...you..."
Shen Mingjiao glanced at her: "You mean to say, I don't know the Lord Jianing well, so how could I see through you so quickly!"
She smiled: "I think the girl can also read some words, you should know that it is difficult to paint the bones of a tiger!
I really don't know the princess of Jianing County, but I know that her mother is a noble eldest princess, and her father was born in a famous family. Not everyone can imitate a woman brought up in such a family. "
Hate flashed across the woman's lowered eyes, she shrugged her shoulders and said sadly:
"No, I did follow the order and planned to stun you, Princess, but I am really Jianing! I...I also have my reasons, they forced me..."
Shen Mingjiao seemed to be a little interested, and said coolly: "Oh. Then you should have heard my reputation in the capital! You have calculated me so much, have you thought about the end?"
The woman gestured behind her without any trace, lowered her head and said in a trembling voice: "I...I know a lot of things. The bandits who captured me have another identity. They are..."
"The remnants of the previous dynasty!"
The woman suddenly raised her head: "How do you know?"
"Is it hard to guess? Anyone who has been to that bandit's den can see it. The three-entry mansion is an architectural style favored by the former royal family,"
She had never seen that house before, Feng Lisheng mentioned it to her on the way back that day.
Although the house can't be seen from the outside, you can still see clues from the hollow patterns on the roof beams.
She looked at the woman with a pale face, "Your girl must have told you this news! You are not the Lord of Jianing, but the maid of the Lord of Jianing,
Your master is probably dead. In order to survive, you offered to pretend to be the master of Jianing County, and used it as a bait to lure me into the bait. "
The woman's face turned completely pale: "I..."
Shen Mingjiao has run out of patience, and glances somewhere behind the woman:
"Come out! Since you have made this round and want to capture me, how can there be no support staff nearby?"
The voice fell. There seemed to be a figure flashing past in the depths of the dark alley, obviously after hearing Shen Mingjiao's words, he had the heart to retreat,
However, all of them underestimated Shen Mingjiao and Fu Guang who silently followed behind Shen Mingjiao.
I saw Fuguang lightly tapped his feet, and he reached the depths of the dark alley in an instant, followed by the faint sound of fists colliding with the wind.
Not long after, four burly men were thrown out.
The woman collapsed to the ground in despair when she saw that the four were easily arrested.
Shen Mingjiao stared at these people, and frowned in confusion. It stands to reason that if someone is caught by accident, he should be taken back to the inn and handed over to Feng Lisheng, and then they will be interrogated and deployed together.
But in this way, the other party didn't see these people returning, so they knew that this plan had failed, and they would definitely hide again.
In this way, even if they interrogate something at that time, it will delay time after going back and forth, and the other party may have disappeared long ago.
Wanting to understand this, she didn't struggle anymore, walked into the deep alley, let Fuguang guard, and directly used hypnosis on these people.
"Who are you guys?"
"... bandits... no... the former and the later!"
"You guys stayed well in the mountains, why did you go out?"
"...Three months ago, the head of the family kidnapped a woman. The woman's identity is not simple. Mr. Qin was afraid of bringing disaster to the brothers, so he persuaded the head of the family to take us out of the village..."
"Who is Mr. Qin?"
"Mr. Qin is the military adviser in Xianyun Village, and he is a very smart person."
Shen Mingjiao gave a "tsk" sound: "Xianyun Village! This name is very special. The people who came to choose this name wanted the people in the village to be idle clouds and wild cranes from now on. It's a pity that you failed to live up to this name."
She asked the question they are most concerned about now: "Where did you go after you left Qishan?"
"...Yang's blacksmith shop."
Shen Mingjiao was stunned. After all, according to Feng Lisheng's guess, there were at least tens of thousands of people living in that bandit den, while a blacksmith's shop needed at most dozens of people. The difference between the two was too great.
It took me a long time to figure it out. The so-called remnants of the previous dynasty are actually some distant relatives of the last emperor of the previous dynasty.
Seeing the destruction of their family and country, these people were afraid of being implicated in the future or other reasons, so they came to Qishan with only their remaining belongings, and they have been hiding their names ever since.
It has been more than a hundred years since the fall of the previous dynasty. These people live a comfortable life away from disputes. The population also multiplied from the original thousand people from generation to generation.
Although the founding emperor of Great Xia won the world on horseback, he acted benevolently after he ascended the throne, and he was not a direct descendant of the last emperor. To kill all these people, one must first be prepared to be condemned by the world.
As the years passed, some people yearned for the outside world, so they quietly left the mountains and settled down in the Qin area. After more than a hundred years, the population has grown stronger and stronger, and these people have taken root in Qin.
However, there are still some people who keep in mind the teachings of their ancestors and stay in the mountains. They make a living by farming.
A few decades ago, there was a major famine in Qin, and the border was unstable at that time, so many people who could not survive fell into bandits.
It was also from then on that Xianyun Village really became a bandit. But it is also like what the people of Xianyang County said.
Although they became bandits, they never killed anyone. They just collected tolls from wealthy businessmen and gentry. Until seven years ago, the old head died unexpectedly, and the new head who succeeded him was a real villain. He started a business of murder and robbery.
According to the normal development, the head of the family killed someone, and the government led troops to the mountains to suppress the bandits, so the matter should have ended like this. But there was a change in the middle.
"...The head of the family has killed so many people. Hearing that the government will send people over, the brothers are very flustered. At first, the head of the family was also planning to escape.
Later, when he came back from a trip, he seemed to be a different person. Instead of panicking, he even said that we were going to have a great fortune.
On the second night, officers and soldiers went up the mountain to suppress the bandits, and the leader took us to hide in advance. I thought this was what the leader said, but someone quietly went to watch the next day, but found that all the officers and soldiers who went up the mountain were dead. A fire was set on the spot. The traces are wiped clean,"
“…Although the brothers don’t know what exactly happened, they vaguely know that this is a crime more serious than murder and robbery.
Later, the head of the family gathered all the people in the village together and said, We are the descendants of the former royal family, with noble blood flowing on our bodies, and now we have the opportunity to restore the country. If you want to gain a better future, you should stay and do business in the stockade.
But the head of the family killed so many officers and soldiers of the court, and the brothers would die when they went out. He blocked all our escape routes. "
When the other party said this sentence. Although his eyes were dull, his tone was tinged with sadness and helplessness.
Shen Mingjiao took a breath, probably connecting all the things together, and she continued to ask: "That Mr. Qin also appeared at that time."
"Yes, not long after that, people were sent up the mountain one after another, and a martial arts field was built on the mountain. Those people had special personnel to practice every day.
And we bandits only need to practice once in a while. As usual, he continued to roam around the Qin land or further afield, burning, killing, and looting according to the orders of the head of the family. Brothers can get 10% of the money they snatched back, and the rest of the money is used to support those who were sent. "
Shen Mingjiao understood the meaning of his words at once, the crown prince or the empress of Gaochang buried a lot of "fat sheep" in hidden piles everywhere,
Then pass the information of these "fat sheep" to the head of the family through Mr. Qin, and the head of the family will send the bandits under his hands to slaughter these "fat sheep", and the money obtained will be used to support the prince's private soldiers.
That is a complete assembly line!
For a while, Shen Mingjiao didn't know what to say, not to mention, if the crown prince is really put on the throne, then Daxia will not be far from subjugation.
The road to the emperor has always been bloody. Almost every generation of emperors can stand out and become the emperor, and their hands will not be clean. They may use all kinds of means to get to the top, but they will never destroy their conscience without a bottom line.
"So, for the sake of safety, three months ago, you bandits scattered and hid in Xianyang County or Qin, and those private soldiers who trained hid elsewhere?"
"Yes, over the years, many members of the Xiao family have settled in various places in Qin. Some of us went to seek refuge, and some hid elsewhere."
Even if those people knew that the other party was a bandit, they did not dare to report to the officials because of their clan consciousness—for fear of being imprisoned.
Furthermore, several high-ranking county officials in the Qin land belong to the prince, so even if they really go to the government to sue, there will be no result.
"Do you know where those private soldiers are hidden?"
"...I don't know, only Mr. Qin knows about this."
Shen Mingjiao is not surprised, this is the biggest secret in Xianyun Village, it is naturally impossible for everyone to know.
"Then why did you set up such a game today, or how did you recognize me?"
She asked this question to the woman pretending to be the head of Jianing County. Obviously those men were just following orders.
The woman said blankly:
"...After the girl committed suicide on a hunger strike, in order to survive, I took the initiative to seduce the head of the family. I told the girl that the set of diamond jewelry that the girl was wearing might be priceless. , take it out and sell it, and someone who is interested will check it out,
My plan failed, and I was punished by the big boss.
It's a coincidence that two days ago, someone came to a **** shop on South Street with an earring studded with blue diamonds. The owner and I happened to live next door. I saw it by accident and recognized the earring at a glance. It was the one the girl lost,
So I reported the matter to Mr. Qin, and Mr. Qin came up with this idea, and asked someone to pretend to be a merchant, and sold the set of blue diamond heads and the other set in the cage to the largest jewelry shop in Xianyang County . Then spread it in secret. "
In this way, Shen Mingjiao was purely a mistake. As for why the woman recognized her identity, it was probably because of her superficiality.
Everyone in the upper circles in the capital knows that Princess Su is often accompanied by a veiled foreign girl.
Seeing that the questioning was almost over, Shen Mingjiao thought for a while, now that Feng Lisheng is not here, it is impossible for her to rush over and arrest everyone immediately. In order not to startle the snake for the time being, she erased and tampered with the memories of several people, and waited for them to wake up. In the end, I will only remember that she ran away halfway.
After finishing all this, Shen Mingjiao went out of the dark alley, when the guard in charge of patrol came over,
At the same time, Feng Wu, who was Feng Lisheng and disguised as the county governor of Xianyang, also came over.
(end of this chapter)