Gui Yuan

Ning Qing asked suddenly, Bai Dingguang was at a loss for a moment, and then he turned into that humble and polite look, asking: "Why did Mr. Ning say that?"

"You took Xu Yang down the mountain for questioning, but you didn't mention Zhong Hui's death at all. From his appearance, he seemed to understand the matter after listening to us. There must be a reason for your lord to do this, right? At that time, Master Luo told us what happened that night, and now that I think about it, it seems that you were deliberately guiding us." Ning Qingping said calmly, with slightly raised eyes, as if chatting with him about an anecdote.

Bai Dingguang was still calm, he didn't answer Ning Qing's question immediately, but said: "Mr. Ning is meticulous, and such a trivial matter is taken to heart."

Fei Tian, ​​Zhao Min, and Tian Cheng looked at each other, wondering what was going on.Fei Tian moved closer to Ning Qing, leaned close to his ear, and asked in a low voice, "Brother Lan Yu, what's going on, isn't he the most suspicious?"

Ning Qing smiled slightly, as if answering him, but looked at Bai Dingguang: "I thought it was some trivial details, but now that I think about it, we have followed Master Bai's way."

Wei Yao walked to Bai Dingguang's side and said, "I can vaguely understand that Mr. Bai must have had many worries before. Seeing Mr. Bai's calm expression now, the worries lingering in your heart must have been dispelled, right?"

Bai Dingguang changed his face, saluted Wei Yao and Ning Qing respectfully, and said: "The general is well-known outside, and the lower officials have heard about it, but this matter involves a lot, and I don't have full confidence, and the lower officials dare not act rashly. , so I tested it before, and I hope you will forgive me if I offend you."

He said it euphemistically. In fact, although Wei Yao is quite famous, the reputation in the court is polarized. The military officials look up to him, but most of the civilian officials don't like him. The reason is nothing more than his high achievements.

Knowing what he said, Wei Yao asked with a smile, "Then, Mr. Bai, should you let go of your doubts now?"

Bai Dingguang saluted again: "Your official can trust the general."

These days Wei Yao and Ning Qing's behavior is in his eyes, Xu Yang's words are absolutely right, he is a small deputy military envoy, he is still timid to deal with Xu Yang, let alone trying to reach it is even more out of reach people.Wei Yao has a high position and authority, and he has little worries when dealing with things. If you rely on Wei Yao, you will get twice the result with half the effort in dealing with this matter.

He turned to Ning Qing and said slowly: "Mr. Ning just asked, firstly, the official did not tell Xu Yang the truth on purpose, so that he would show his feet in front of the two, and it turned out to be his own wish; as for the second, what Master Luo said It was indeed out of his own considerations, and the officials only found out about it when they heard him say it, but later on, it was just going with the flow."

"Lord Luo is so cautious that even Lord Bai is on guard. It can be seen that there are many dangers in the Military Equipment Institute and Changzhou Martial Division, and people and ghosts cannot be distinguished." Ning Qing said.

Wei Yao said: "Master Bai can tell the truth now, right?"

Bai Dingguang nodded.

"Lord Zhan and Lord Zhong Hui had an accident on the same night. The whole story is as mentioned before, but there are some secrets that you don't know. In fact, most of the people in the Armed Forces Institute and the Martial Division are like looking at flowers in a fog, and everyone is at ease. After a long time, no one will go to disperse the fog and ask for trouble, so there are not many people who know the truth." There was a touch of melancholy on his face, and a slight self-mockery, "According to the investigation of the lower officials, Mr. Zhong Hui is Qingqing In vain, he would get involved in this matter, the specific reason is still unknown, but the lower officials guessed that it was mostly because of the saltpeter mine in Xiaoweishan. As for Mr. Zhan, he and Xu Yang are in the same group. What kind of plan did the two of them have? The two of you have read Xiaoweishan's records, so you must already know about it."

Wei Yao thought for a moment, and said: "If Zhan Guiyou conspired with Xu Yang to hide the saltpeter mine in Xiaoweishan privately, and then transport it down the mountain for personal gain, it would make sense. Now that Zhan Guiyou is dead, Xu Yang is still fine, you Do you suspect him?"

Bai Dingguang shook his head: "That's not why I lied to Xu Yang. Xu Yang and Zhan Guiyou are grasshoppers on the same rope. He killed Zhan Guiyou because he tripped him. According to the officials, it should be Zhan Guiyou who did something. The people behind them couldn't tolerate him, so they killed him to silence him."

Ning Qing raised his eyes when he heard the words: "Have you found out who is behind them?"

Bai Dingguang sighed and said: "No, I only know that he is a powerful minister, and the rest cannot be found by lower officials."

Fei Tian listened intently for a long while, and now he finally got the hang of it. He asked Ning Qing in a low voice: "It can't be..."

Seeing Ning Qing's indifferent gaze, he closed his mouth at the right time, and he was churning in his heart alone.

Ning Qing took a sip from the teacup, suddenly had an idea, and said with a sly smile: "Now that Zhan Guiyou is dead and Xu Yang is detained in the military department, isn't it a good chance?"

Wei Yao frowned and asked, "Do you want to search the mountains?"

"Yes, Xu Yang will become the backbone after Zhan Guiyou's death. Now that he is arrested, there will definitely be actions on the mountain. It's a good time, don't let it go." Ning Qing looked at him with squinted eyes.

"This time is no worse than before. It will be very dangerous." Wei Yao just wanted him not to follow, but Ning Qing seemed to have guessed his intention, and said, "How do you know that you will be safe if you don't go up the mountain? I caught you and restrained you?"

Wei Yao had nothing to say.

"The current situation in Changzhou is like this. If this matter is not resolved, no one can take care of it. Besides, good and bad depend on each other, so why worry too much about what hasn't happened." Ning Qing walked to Wei Yao with a teacup, and said in a low voice, "I know what you want protect me."

Wei Yao's lips were pursed into a straight line, and his eyes swept away. Everyone present was blessed to the heart, and everyone thought they were deaf and blind, and looked away at the same time with a heart, as if they were intimacy with Ning Qing in his ear, just a word He didn't hear it, he didn't see it for a while, but Ning Qing still raised his hand calmly and took a sip of the tea in his hand.

In the end, Wei Yao still agreed with Ning Qing to go to Xiaowei Mountain with them.

The next day, Bai Dingguang brought a dozen officers and soldiers from Wusi. Before leaving, when Ning Qing looked outside the carriage, he caught a glimpse of Wei Yao, Zhao Min and Tian Cheng discussing something together. Talk to Lin Rong.

Just as they were about to leave, the curtain of the carriage was lifted, Fei Tian and Lin Rong subconsciously squeezed aside, Wei Yao ignored their gazes, and sat next to Ning Qing with his robe lifted.Ning Qing looked out of the car and saw that Zhao Min and Tian Cheng were no longer there, so he asked, "Where are they?"

"I have something for them to do. Let's go first, and they will arrive later."

Ning Qing responded, and spoke to Fei Tian again, but when Fei Tian saw Wei Yaochu staring at him, he lost his previous thoughts, closed his eyes and fell asleep after a few words.Ning Qing smiled and turned to look at the scenery outside the window.

Xiao Weishan was still the same as the previous few days. Although Xu Yang was taken away inexplicably, it did not affect the mining of the saltpeter mine. A few of his subordinates took care of him on his behalf, and the whole mine still seemed to be in order.Before they set off, they agreed to split up. Bai Dingguang led the officers and soldiers to the mine to attract everyone's attention, while Wei Yao and Ning Qing secretly searched around the mine.

They first went to the cave where Zhong Hui's body was found. It rained heavily yesterday, and there were still raindrops on most of the branches and leaves. When they stepped on the thorns in the ground, they could even shed a drop of water.The cave is not big, and you can see it at a glance. There are a few locust trees with luxuriant branches and leaves at the entrance of the cave, which almost completely cover the entrance of the cave, and it is difficult to detect without looking carefully.

Ning Qing looked outside the cave and said, "It's unreasonable to throw the corpse here."

Fei Tian asked: "I think this place is quite hidden. If it wasn't for the sudden rain yesterday, General Zhao spotted this place with sharp eyes, and I didn't even notice that there is a hole here."

"It's hidden, but the corpse is lying in the hole without any cover. If it has been dead for a long time, it will definitely emit a strange smell. Isn't it intentional to attract people to find it? Even if you dig a hole in the hole and bury it, it won't be too late for you to hide." Bodies can be found in just one rain."

Fei Tian thought for a while: "It seems to make sense."

Ning Qing looked at Wei Yao, saw that he was thinking about something, and asked, "Zhao Zhuo, what trick do you see?"

"You're right. It's strange that Zhong Hui's body is placed in the cave. There is only one possibility..." Wei Yao glanced at him, "They didn't have time to dispose of the body after they killed Zhong Hui."

Ning Qing followed his train of thought and said: "It seems that something happened at that time, which is more important than disposing of the corpse, so the person who killed Zhong Hui put the corpse in the cave first, and he didn't expect that it would suddenly rain , and it happened that you went into the cave to hide from the rain, and only then did you find the body."

What is it?

Seeing Fei Tian, ​​Ning Qing suddenly asked, "Did anything weird happen before and after you hid from the rain yesterday?"

All of a sudden, six eyes focused on Fei Tian, ​​but he racked his brains and couldn't figure out why: "No, no."

Ning Qing asked again: "If you think about it carefully, you won't be able to tell what happened before and after that."

Fei Tian recalled: "At that time, the sky suddenly darkened, and the rain soon followed, and we were soon half wet. General Zhao found this cave, and we hid in together, and then we found the cave. Zhong Hui's body."

All of these sounds really ordinary and nothing suspicious. When Ning Qing was already thinking about this matter in a different way, Fei Tian remembered some details and added: "Oh yes, although we found out as soon as we entered the cave. We found the dead body, but the rain was still too heavy, and accompanied by the sound of thunder, we stayed in the cave for about half an hour, and we went down the mountain when the rain subsided and the thunder stopped.”

Ning Qing was taken aback when he heard the words, and looked at him suspiciously: "It rained heavily yesterday, but there was no thunder at all."

It took Fei Tian a while to realize: "Then what we heard is..."

Wei Yao said: "You heard noises in the cave, which means that the place is not far from here. Let's search around and we should be able to find something."

After all, the four of them walked out of the cave, carefully searched for all suspicious places nearby, walked from the sunny place to the shady place, and walked down the mountain from the cave for about a mile. The surrounding vegetation was overgrown, and there was no decent road. Shuttle in the forest.

After walking for half an hour, when the few people stopped to rest, Ning Qing gasped and said, "We think highly of ourselves, even though Xiaowei Mountain is not big, it is very laborious to search it carefully. I'm afraid I won't be able to find out why until it gets dark."

Fei Tian was already tired. Seeing what he said, he quickly echoed, "Exactly. Why don't we go back and borrow more people?"

Wei Yao didn't answer, he was standing there looking at a certain place intently, only to see that his brows were getting tighter and tighter, and the next moment he turned around and pulled Ning Qing up: "There is an ambush, hurry up!"

He pulled Ning Qing to the front, and Fei Tian immediately pulled Lin Rong, who was half a beat behind, to follow. Before they could take a few steps, the sound of footsteps around them became more and more obvious. A batch of masked men surrounded them.The other party looked like there were five or sixty people, compared with only four of them, Wei Yao might not be unable to resist as usual, but he only hid a short knife in his sleeve this trip, and he wanted to fight with all of them. The desperado with swords and spears was still a little hesitant to fight against, not to mention that there were three laggards behind him.

Wei Yao squeezed Ning Qing's arm tightly, and said, "Follow me closely, and escape first when you see the right time."

Before Ning Qing could answer, he pulled out a dagger from his sleeve and rushed him forward. Wei Yao was skilled in martial arts, but the opponent was not easy to use, and the opponent was powerful. Wei Yao was jealous of Ning Qing and was passive instead.Ning Qing knew that she couldn't help much, so she took advantage of the fact that Wei Yao was fighting Wei Yao and had no time to worry about him, so she escaped and quickly disappeared in the distance of the dense forest.Seeing him escape, Wei Yao finally let go of the string in his heart, and his movements became sharper. He swung his knife again and again to block the enemy, while observing Fei Tian from the corner of his eye. Fei Tian relied on his three-legged cat kung fu He tried his best, but he struggled but was caught by the other party. Lin Rong, who was by his side, was obediently tied up early in the morning for fear of hurting him.

Wei Yao wanted to step back and help Fei Tian, ​​but there were too many people fighting against each other, and he couldn't spare more energy to help others.After fighting for about half a stick of incense, Fei Tian spent most of his energy climbing the mountain, but now he was really exhausted. In the end, he was caught by a large number of enemies, and tied together with Lin Rong.After finishing him, the rest of the people gathered around and focused on dealing with Wei Yao. The hostility in Wei Yao's eyes was intense, and the dagger in his hand was stained with blood. When he was panting and confronting everyone, the blood ran down the tip Drop by drop, it dripped onto the leaves on the ground, forming a small puddle.

Seeing that Wei Yao seemed to be at the end of his crossbow, the leader of the opponent waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to shrink the encirclement. Wei Yao's hand holding the dagger was tightened. They fell down, without exception, with an arrow stuck in their backs.Wei Yao looked in the direction of the arrow. Ning Qing was rushing here with Zhao Min, Tian Cheng, and more than 200 people behind them. He looked at Ning Qing with a smile on his face.

The masked man didn't want to fight when he saw this, he frowned and shouted: "Retreat, hurry up."

Wei Yao thought of Fei Tian, ​​and when he turned around to look, two people had already pulled Fei Tian and Lin Rong away.They were obviously well versed in the topography of Xiaowei Mountain, and after a while, a group of people disappeared at the end of the dense forest.

Ning Qing trotted to Wei Yao, nervously said: "Are you okay?"

Wei Yao nodded, touched his hand, and then said to Zhao Min: "I'm fine, they shouldn't be far away, you lead people to catch up quickly."

Zhao Min responded, "Yes!"