The Bamboo Horse Dressed as the Emperor

Li Xu seems to have been a little crazy these few years. He stood in the shadow of the tree and looked at Jiang Ping: "When you came to Qi, how did you promise me? How did you promise me? In the end, you ran away with the people of Qi." Now, you still have to be an official in Qi."

He took a deep breath: "How dare you? How dare you?!"

Jiang Ping's expression was calm, looking back, his hands hidden in his sleeves were slightly clenched: "Why don't I dare?"

Li Xu's eyes were on fire, and he wanted to burn everything in his eyes.

Jiang Ping pulled Song Jiao and took a few steps back to avoid this man who looked like a mad dog.

Song Jiao called out, "Uncle Fan Kai."

Fan Kai immediately called the guards to step forward, and several guards held Li Xu down.

Song Jiao turned around and asked Jiang Ping, "How did you get here?"

Jiang Pingdao: "I was a little drunk just now, a little eunuch said..."

Song Jiao suddenly heard the rustling of branches not far away, he turned his head and pointed in the direction of the sound, and there was indeed a figure.

"Uncle Fan Kai!"

Fan Kai immediately led his men forward, shouted angrily, and really caught a little eunuch in the dark.

Song Jiao thought for a while, if Li Xu and this little eunuch were brought up, the two of them would definitely bite Jiang Ping back, and Jiang Ping couldn't tell what to say at that time.

Song Jiao lowered his voice: "Uncle Fan Kai, take them..."

Before he finished speaking, Mr. Xie's voice came from upstairs: "Fan Kai, bring everyone here."

Oops.

Song Jiao looked up, the two grandfathers, as well as the Jinshi who went to Qionglin Banquet today, all came out.

Song Jiao looked at Li Xu, gritted his teeth and said, "If you dare to grab and bite recklessly, I..."

Jiang Ping held him down: "It doesn't matter, those who clean themselves will clear themselves."

"Brother Jiang..."

"It's okay." Jiang Ping patted Song Jiao's shoulder, "I believe His Majesty and Prime Minister Song will return my innocence, and it's my fate that I should have this calamity. I have done things to accompany the prince of Qing Dynasty, and I always have to be punished." Others know."

At this time, Jiang Ping was completely awake from the wine, he brushed his robe, let out a long sigh of relief, turned his head and exchanged a look with Song Jiao: "Let's go, thank you, Maomao."

Song Jiao had no choice but to grit his teeth at Li Xu as a threat.

Song Jiao and Jiang Ping walked in front, Fan Kai escorted Li Xu and the little eunuch to walk behind.

A sense of panic rose in Song Jiao's heart for no reason.

Soon back to the banquet scene, everyone had already returned to their seats and sat down.

Master Xie waved at Song Jiao: "Maomao, come sit down and tell Grandpa Xie, what did you see?"

Song Jiao walked up to him, took a seat at the original seat, glanced at Jiang Ping, and decided to tell the truth: "I was just about to go downstairs when I saw...Senior Brother Jiang and Li Xu standing outside. Because His Highness Li Xu has been He has been recuperating from illness for a long time, and his spirit is not very good, so I asked Uncle Fan Kai to help him away. Brother Jiang later said that a little eunuch brought him out while he was drunk and in a daze. I asked Uncle Fan Kai to search around. , Sure enough, we found a suspicious little eunuch."

Master Xie nodded, "Okay."

Then Tanhua Lang Zhang Mo got up and went out, kneeling in the hall: "Your Majesty, I want to sue Jiang Ping, who is the spy of the Qing Kingdom, and deliberately participated in the palace examination. Now Jiang Ping colluded with Qing Guo's protégé, Li Xu, and was bumped into by the little Highness." This is true, the evidence is conclusive, please dispose of Jiang Ping, Your Majesty, so as to bring peace to the court."

Song Jiao raised her voice: "Zhang Tanhua, I just said that I saw Jiang Ping and Li Xu standing together, whether they colluded or not, it doesn't matter..."

Zhang Mo ignored him, but repeated his own words: "Your Majesty, please deal with Jiang Ping, so as to bring peace to the court."

Song Jiao knew the meaning of the sentence that his grandfather asked him when he came to the Qionglin banquet this afternoon.

At that time, he said that Tanhua was innocent, but his grandfather asked him back: "Is he really innocent?"

That's what it meant.

Ever since that unwritten rule, no middle-aged or elderly person has ever been a candidate. When Zhang Mo was called out by Grandpa Xie, he thought that he would be the second or number one.

He didn't expect...

As long as Jiang Ping is pulled down, it is enough to prove that the palace examination is unfair. Even if Zhang Mo will not be re-enrolled as the second place, he will still win the applause of people who don't know the truth.

And how did he know about Jiang Ping's relationship with Qing Guo?Naturally, Li Xu told him.

Zhang Mo is not innocent, he is not innocent at all.

At this time, Liu Yi was also fighting for Jiang Ping's reasoning, and several Jinshi of the same discipline who had been close friends with Jiang Ping also stood on Liu Yi's side.

"This statement is too absurd. If Brother Jiang is a spy of Qing State, what has he done for Qing State all these years? What news has he delivered? On the contrary, it was Qing State who slaughtered Brother Jiang's family, and Qing State's proson Li Xu, he treated Brother Jiang extremely harshly, and now Brother Jiang still has the scars drawn by His Royal Highness Li Xu, if this is considered a spy, then all these years, the students who came to Qi State for scientific examinations from Qing State are considered spies .”

Zhang Mo said: "Now it is the little highness who bumped into..."

It's nothing for them to debate, it always involves Song Jiao, and Mr. Xie is not happy.

He raised his hand and shouted to stop, then looked at Li Xu: "Li Xu, what are you doing here?"

Song Jiao hurriedly said, "Grandpa, he can't tell the truth..."

"It's okay, grandpa knows it well." Mr. Xie asked again, "Li Xu, what are you doing here?"

The corner of Li Xu's mouth curled up into a sinister smile, and he opened his mouth with clear words: "Jiang Ping was originally my reading companion, and he invited me to meet here, and he said that he would hand over Me, entrust me to Qing Guo."

Mr. Xie asked, "What about the official job list?"

"It's still on Jiang Ping."

"Search."

Fan Kai glanced at Jiang Ping: "Young Master Jiang, I've offended you."

Jiang Ping raised his hands, his expression frank: "Thank you."

Fan Kai searched his body carefully, from head to toe, even untied his hair.

Everyone else was sweating, Song Jiao blinked his eyes, then turned to look at Zhang Mo, only to see that Zhang Mo was not nervous and seemed to be winning.

He had a bad heart, and the next moment, Fan Kai's movements stopped.

He took out a piece of paper from the inner pocket of Jiang Ping's clothes.

Before Fan Kai presented the things, Zhang Mo yelled: "The evidence is conclusive! Your Majesty, the evidence is conclusive!"

Fan Kai brought the things up, Mr. Xie opened it and took a look, and then showed it to Prime Minister Song.

Prime Minister Song said indifferently: "It's the two poems written by him and Liu Yi."

Fan Kai continued to go back to search, but this time nothing was found. Fan Kai took off Jiang Ping's purse, accessories and other small items, and presented them to Mr. Xie.

"Let's put it aside for now, and we'll talk about it after Prime Minister Song and I have checked it out."

Mr. Xie naturally knew that Jiang Ping was wronged, and he also wanted to let him go and save him from being imprisoned, but Jiang Ping seemed unwilling.

He has great integrity.

Jiang Ping stroked his hair, took off his non-commissioned officer hat, untied his jade belt, and took off his crimson official uniform, folded them neatly, and placed them on the table in front of Mr. Xie.

He performed these movements smoothly and smoothly, without any reluctance.He knelt down on both knees, neither humble nor overbearing: "Your Majesty knows clearly, I have a clear conscience, but this is a big matter, according to the laws of Qi State, I should be detained and interrogated carefully. Considering that His Highness Li Xu is the hostage of the Qing Dynasty, it is inconvenient to send him to prison, However, they should be guarded."

He made arrangements for himself and Li Xu.

He has asked himself to go to prison, and Mr. Xie can't say anything more: "Okay, then put him in custody."

Mr. Xie looked around and said, "This matter is serious, so please don't speak out. Whoever dares to speak out will be punished."

A spy of the Qing Dynasty was selected in the palace examination. Even if such a thing is fake, if it spreads out, it will not be good for the court.

Everyone bowed their heads and said yes, Liu Yi came out: "Your Majesty, I ask you to investigate..."

"You can't. You and his poems are still here. You have a good relationship. If you can't check it, I will send someone to check it."

It was getting late, Jiang Ping and Li Xu were both taken down, and Jinshi left the palace separately.

After they all left, Master Xie took a look at Song Jiao: "Maomao, how long do you have to start school?"

Song Jiao couldn't believe it: "There is still half a month."

"Then seal you as an imperial envoy, and you and Fan Kai will investigate."

"I..." Song Jiao wanted to remind Grandpa Xie, don't be blinded by Mao Mao, and he has a good relationship with Senior Brother Jiang.

Grandpa Xie seemed to see his worries, and said with a smile: "If you are partial, when Grandpa Xie asked you what you saw just now, you should say that you didn't see or hear anything. Grandpa Xie can trust you, you Go check it out, check it out, it's okay."

He meant something: "If you can really find out the spies colluding with Qing Guo, grandpa will give you a great credit. You should also be careful yourself, don't expose it, and push it to me and your grandpa if you have anything to do."

"I know."

Song Jiao and grandpa are going home too.

In the carriage, Grandpa Song patted his head: "Grandpa knows that Jiang Ping is wronged, but it's useless for us to know, and we need to prove it to everyone."

Song Jiao nodded: "I see, Grandpa."

"From this matter, have you thought of anything else?"

Song Jiao thought for a while: "Li Xu still has connections with Qing Guo, and Qing Guo has also arranged people in Fengxiang City. When necessary, they will deliberately guide Fengxiang City's people's trend, and fish in troubled waters. Otherwise, those rumors will not be true. It will spread so fast, and it won't last long."

"Yes, these years, the imperial court has focused on enriching the treasury and enriching the country by strengthening the army, and almost forgot about the sentiment of the people."

"It would be the best if we could use this matter to dig out Qing's mouthpiece."

"That's right." Grandpa Song smiled at him, "Maomao is smarter."

"But I'm alone..."

"It doesn't matter, just go and check, grandpa will send someone to help you."

"En." Song Jiao nodded.

Back home, Song Jiao was lying on the couch with his clothes on, his mind was in a mess and he didn't know where to start.

Maybe they should keep an eye on Li Xu, or on Zhang Mo, but what they have to do has already been done, and they probably won't take any more risks.

It's better to check Jiang Ping's things first, as long as he can't find the official job list that Li Xu mentioned, at least it can prove Jiang Ping's innocence.

But if he still had to dig deep into Qing's spies, he didn't know what to do.

Song Jiao thought for a while, sat up from the couch, pulled out the small bamboo whistle and blew, calling the eagle over.

He sat down at the table, picked up his pen and ink, and wrote a simple letter to Xie Chen.

These days, he and Xie Chen always kept communicating with each other once a month, and it was the first time he returned to Fengxiang City to send an urgent letter with an eagle.

Song Jiao stuffed the letter into a small bamboo tube, tied it to the eagle's feet, and let it go.

It would take two or three days to send the letter by eagle. After sending the letter, Song Jiao washed up and went to sleep.

Before going to bed that day, he was still thinking about it.

Early the next morning, he woke up, took Fan Kai with him, and wanted to enter the palace.

This matter was kept secret, Jiang Ping was imprisoned in the palace, they wanted to go into the palace to see what was found on him last night, and to ask him some things.

But the carriage was blocked on the road, Song Jiao wanted to get out of the carriage and walk, but heard someone talking outside.

"Have you heard? This year's No. [-] is a spy from the Qing Kingdom, and he has already been locked up."

"What's going on? How did you choose this kind of person this year?"

"He was from the Qing Dynasty..."

Song Jiao frowned, and sat back in the carriage again: "Uncle Fan Kai, send someone to investigate and find out who is the source of spreading the news and who has been spreading the news. I think these people should be the same as those who slandered the two senior brothers before." It's a group of people."

Just at this moment, a caravan from Qingguo passed by the carriage, the bell of the carriage rang, and snow-white carrier pigeons flew past them.This is also the reason for the traffic jam.

Song Jiao suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and hurriedly said: "Uncle Fan Kai, send someone to investigate these caravan traders scattered in the streets and alleys, especially those from Qing Kingdom."