Suzaku Fury

【34 Suzaku Rage】

It was night, and the lanterns in Chang'an City, which were less than a day earlier, were just lit up, and Zhuque Tianjie was full of people's voices, and people crowded shoulder to shoulder, so it was very lively.

The arched altar built in front of Suzaku Gate by the Queen's order is nearing completion, and now the outer bamboo frame is being removed, and the altar in mid-air is gradually showing its prominence.And above the Vermilion Bird Gate, a group of people is quietly deploying.

"Yuchi Zhenjin, what do you mean by calling me to Zhuquemen?" Empress Wu wore a black gold-rimmed phoenix robe, walking in front with her hands behind her back.

"You have been playing tricks for a long time, but after all, you still haven't given me a clear explanation." Empress Wu stopped her steps, turned around, and all the attendants behind her bowed their heads and backed away.

Yuchi Zhenjin followed Empress Wu, also bowed his head and cupped his fists, and replied: "My minister... I guess the case has progressed."

"Guess?" Empress Wu took a step closer, "I ask you, do you know what crime should be for teasing the empress?"

Yuchi Zhenjin immediately knelt down when he heard the words, cupped his hands and said again: "The Empress forgive me! It's just, it's just that Di Renjie made a special trip to ask the minister to ask the Empress to wait at the Suzaku Gate. He must have found a key clue, otherwise the minister would not dare to invite the Empress rashly. Move over here."

"Di Renjie?" Empress Wu squinted at Yuchi Zhenjin, "A little temple minister thinks that he can be bold and do whatever he wants with the imperial mace bestowed on him? How dare he let me wait here? Hmph, ridiculous!"

Yuchi Zhenjin was speechless, just knelt silently, not daring to raise his head at all.

"Forget it, I'd like to see what tricks this Di Renjie can pull off." Empress Wu turned and walked towards the battlement, "Ling'er, is it the first watch?"

"Reporting to the Empress, it's already the first watch."

Empress Wu's eyes were filled with the lights of Tianjie, and when she heard the female officer returning like this, she said with a smile: "Okay, wait a moment." Go to the outer encirclement.

On the tower of Suzaku City, there was a mass of people kneeling down, no one dared to speak, and it was so quiet that it made one's heart tremble, which formed a sharp contrast with Suzaku Tianjie.

Yuchi Zhenjin secretly raised his eyes to look at Empress Wu's back, and saw that she had been looking at the door, so he turned his head slightly to look at Sha Tuozhong, who was kneeling behind him on the right.

"What did Di Renjie tell you? Are you sure?" The words were almost out of breath.

Shatuo also lowered his voice as much as possible and said, "My lord only asked at this time, isn't it a bit late?"

Yuchi Zhenjin was in a hurry: "Stop talking nonsense with me! What did Di Renjie say?"

"He only said that he asked me to wait here and look south at the first watch."

"South?" Yuchi was confused, after hearing what Sha Tuo said, he quietly leaned forward and looked towards the south, but there was still no movement.

Waiting for a quarter of an hour felt like years, but the quarter of an hour passed, and the south of the Vermilion Bird Gate was as peaceful as ever.

"Ling'er, is it a quarter of an hour?"

Empress Wu's words frightened Yuchi and the others.

"Reporting to the Queen of Heaven, a quarter of an hour has passed."

"Go back to the palace." Empress Wu walked from the battlements to Yuchi Zhenjin, "I don't want to say more about the crime of teasing me. Until a suitable replacement is found, Li Shurui, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, will concurrently serve as Minister of the Dali Temple." After finishing speaking, he was about to leave the tower surrounded by the crowd, but he only took a few steps when he heard an exclamation:

"Diva!"

Empress Wu stopped walking, and looked back unhurriedly. Unexpectedly, another fire phoenix appeared in the dark night sky!

Yuchi Zhenjin was also taken aback when he saw this, but jumped up from the ground almost like a conditioned reflex, and stopped in front of Empress Wu: "Protect the Queen of Heaven!" Sha Tuo reacted quickly and stopped Yuchi in time.

Yuchi was out of breath, shook Shatuo away at once, and angrily reprimanded: "Get out of the way!"

"My lord, wait a moment!" Sha Tuo yelled, but Yuchi Zhenjin had already rushed to the top of the battlements, and was about to jump down when he saw the opportunity.

However, at this moment, someone suddenly grabbed Yuchi Zhenjin and pulled it off the battlements by surprise.

"My lord, why are you so impatient?" The torch moved closer, and it turned out to be Di Renjie dressed as a royal guard!

Yuchi Zhenjin was taken aback, and before he could speak, he saw Di Renjie kneeling on the ground and saluting Empress Wu.

"Chen Di Renjie, pay homage to the Queen of Heaven."

Empress Wu escaped from the support of the female officer beside her, and said displeasedly: "Di Renjie, what the hell are you up to?!"

Di Renjie lowered his head and said respectfully: "Reporting to the Empress, I am reproducing the modus operandi of the culprit in the Suzaku case."

"What?" After finishing her sentence, Empress Wu immediately raised her head to look at the fire phoenix flying towards the Suzaku gate.

I saw the flaming Suzaku screaming all the way, going north from Mingde Gate, and was about to hit the Suzaku tower!

"Protect the Empress Dowager!" Someone shouted, and the city gate immediately became a mess, surrounded by empress Wu from the bustling inner and outer three floors.

"Back down, all of you!" Empress Wu yelled angrily, causing all the female officials and guards who surrounded her just now to bow their heads and back down.

The Suzaku Sky Street was also boiling because of this sudden Suzaku, and the top of the Suzaku city tower was also brightly lit with fire because of the approach of the fire phoenix.

Just when everyone thought that this Suzaku was about to crash into the battlements on the tower, this Suzaku, covered in flames, turned sharply and rushed straight into the sky.After a while, the fireball became smaller and smaller until it turned into a spot of fire, and finally disappeared into the night sky.

Empress Wu withdrew her gaze and asked, "Di Renjie, what kind of trick is this?"

Just when everyone thought that everything was over, they suddenly heard a "click" sound from the top of the city tower, and a monstrous flame suddenly ignited on the city bricks five feet away. There was an uproar under the door.

The pile of dry straw that was instantly ignited shot straight into the sky with long flames, as if to compete with the God of Heaven; the burnt dry straw also flew into the air with sparks, and fell on the city bricks one after another until it was dark. above.

Completely different from the people below the city, the people above the city tower were all silent, no one dared to speak, they all looked at the pile of fire soaring into the sky, not daring to speak out.

Di Renjie took off his helmet and asked for instructions: "Tian Hou, I have something to announce to the people in the city, please allow me."

Empress Wu stared fixedly at the blaze and said, "Sure."

Di Renjie got up quickly after receiving the permission, stepped onto the battlement and shouted to the people watching below the city: "I am Di Renjie, the chancellor of Dali Temple, please stop and listen to what Di has to say."

As soon as Di Renjie's words came out, the people in the city surrounded him even more.If it weren't for the soldiers overseeing the altar standing outside the altar, they might have already broken through the city gate and entered to see what happened.

"The 'Suzaku' that appeared on Chang'an City recently is actually the same thing as the ball of fire that you all witnessed just now." Di Renjie stopped talking for a moment, and then there was another uproar.

"Suzaku is a fire phoenix, one of the four holy beasts, but it is definitely not something that can be imitated by such clumsy tricks. I found out in Dali Temple that there are people with ulterior motives who use the legend of the holy beast to make trouble, and then spread rumors, making Chang'an The people in the city are in panic, which disturbs the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty and damages the national prestige of the Tang Dynasty. Today, Dali Temple has found out the gangster’s method of committing the crime, and personally tested it to make the rumors self-defeating, so as to restore the atmosphere and strictly enforce the discipline!”

"I, Di Renjie, promise to arrest the culprit within two days, find out the reason, and give you an explanation!"

"Okay!" After Di Renjie finished speaking, cheers and applause immediately resounded from below.

Di Renjie cupped his fists and bowed, and then jumped off the battlement, and immediately knelt down after getting off.

Yuchi Zhenjin also realized this, and quickly followed Di Renjie to kneel in front of Empress Wu.

"Everyone get up, stand up and talk." At this time, there was only a spark left in the dry straw pile, and Empress Wu ordered people to pour it out with water, and then walked to the two of them.

"Thank God." The two got up together, looked at each other, and bowed their heads to wait for orders.

Empress Wu looked down at the two of them, and said in a deep voice: "Di Renjie, you are so courageous. Don't even mention teasing me, in the end, Di Renjie will teach you to take all the prizes?"

Di Renjie was startled, and quickly knelt down: "I am guilty."

"Get up and kneel all day long, don't you feel your knees hurt?" Empress Wu leaned over and pulled the man up herself, "Tell me what's going on, if it's reasonable, I'll make it up to you .”

"Thank you for your kindness." Di Renjie breathed a sigh of relief, and said again: "Tianhou, let's look at Mingde Gate in the south."

Empress Wu moved a step away, looked towards Mingde Gate, and asked again: "How?"

"Mingdemen, Suzaku Tianjie, and Zhuquemen naturally become the same word for 'Hui'. This is the brilliance of this plan."

"Oh?"

"Tianhou, let's look at the two Tianjie Streets. The houses look like houses, with high eaves and teeth, which happened to give the 'Suzaku' a fulcrum." Di Renjie paused for a while, and then said: "After the Suzaku appeared the first two times, Master Yuchi and I walked along the road. During the investigation, Mr. Yuchi found suspicious round nails on the eaves of houses along Zhuquetian Street. This kind of round nails are made of special materials, small but not easy to deform, and all of them are made into close-closed hooks , so that the thin thread is allowed to pass through, and the thin thread is the secret of the 'Suzaku' to fly."

"Thin thread?" Empress Wu asked back, "What kind of thin thread can be bound by the flames without breaking?"

"After Tiantian, this kind of thin thread is definitely not the embroidery thread used by female reds, but a kind of thread made by fusing various metals, which is only produced in Yue Kingdom. It is called diamond thread, but the method of making this thread has been Declining. According to legend, the diamond thread is extremely tough and indestructible. It is a sharp weapon for assassination, and it is not a pure enough fire, so it is difficult to melt. It is also after many hardships that Wei Chen found some diamond thread, and this diamond thread is already old. When I used it, I was terrified." Seeing that Empress Wu didn't want to interrupt, Di Renjie continued the topic, "Let's talk about the 'Suzaku'. In fact, the thing that made this Suzaku is the same as the thing that made diamond wire, but it was made with intentions. People get this principle, so they infer other things from one another, and made the appearance of Suzaku. But no matter how indestructible the diamond wire is, it is impossible to fly into the air. Therefore, it is necessary to fill a large amount of black powder in the tail of 'Suzaku'."

"Gunpowder?!" Yuchi exclaimed.

"Exactly, my lord." Di Renjie said with a smile, "You have also seen firecrackers and fireworks. When the fuse is lit, the gunpowder will ignite when it meets the fire, and then it will fly into the sky. The reason why the 'Suzaku' can fly to the sky is black powder, and some Flying in a fixed direction is pulled by diamond wires. But if you want to create an unknown fire thousands of miles away, you need a few more items."

"The first is a roller; the second is hemp rope and western dragon oil; the third is Linyi fire beads."

"Master Yuchi found bamboo knots with holes on the bamboo shed where the altar was built. At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. However, if you connect this with the hook on the eaves found by Mr. Yuchi, you will not realize it. That's abrupt." Di Renjie smiled and took out a few wooden sticks from behind the light armor, and there were thin threads between the sticks, and finally took out a few small stones from his arms.

"Everyone, please take a look. If the three horizontal bars are Honglu Temple, Mingde Gate and Zhuque Gate respectively, and the two vertical bars connecting Zhuque Gate and the Mingde Gate in the middle are Zhuque Tianjie. The culprit is the Honglu Temple Minister A roller is set on the beam of the office room, and inside the roller is diamond wire, and the two ends of the diamond wire are fire beads. The culprit is that when setting the diamond wire on the roller, the diamond wire is folded in half to form a circle. To restrain Suzaku, wrap the two ends wrapped with fire beads on the roller, and then fix the set roller and fire beads on the beam, and wrap hemp rope on one of the fire beads. The other end of the rope is tied to another beam, and dozens of leather bags made of thin animal skins containing dragon oil from the Western Regions are tied to this hemp rope. Hold one of the fire beads in your hand, and pull it away together with the circle you just made. Of course, the length of the diamond wire must be carefully calculated, enough to pull the 'Suzaku' and the other fire bead."

"Because the other end of the roller has been fixed, the calculated distance is just enough to pull the roller to the limit. The made 'loop' is tied to Suzaku, and the 'loop' is fixed on Suzaku. The culprit is at the right time Ignite the black powder set behind the Suzaku, so that the 'Suzaku' flies along a specific route, and the specific route has already been controlled by the diamond wire and the round hook on the roof. After the 'Suzaku' burns the set black powder, it will fly with the fireworks Usually, it goes straight to the sky, as you have just seen. At this time, the residual heat ignites the second mechanism installed on the 'Suzaku'. There is still a mechanism inside the 'Suzaku' that has rushed to the sky, and the residual heat from the black powder burning If it is lit, this is another short diamond thread of the Western Dragon Oil tied to the head of 'Suzaku'! The fire of the Western Dragon Oil is not flammable, and it can only be natural when it comes into contact with air. The culprit is using this principle, Destroyed the evidence - 'Suzaku'."

"The 'Suzaku' burns up in mid-air, which can not only create the effect of 'Suzaku' appearing like a ghost, but also destroy key evidence, but the most important thing is to release the 'circle' made by the diamond wire." Di Renjie said While fiddling with the wooden stick in his hand, "When the roller set in Honglu Temple was pulled to the limit when the 'Suzaku' flew into the air, if the 'Suzaku' pulling it at this time disappeared, what would happen next?"

Empress Wu suddenly realized, and said anxiously: "The roller rotates, and the thin thread will be retracted automatically."

Di Renjie smiled and said: "The Queen of Heaven is wise. Just as the Queen of Heaven said, the roller will retract the diamond wire that pulls the 'Suzaku'. When all the diamond wires that pull the 'Suzaku' are retracted, the other one that has already been held by the culprit The fire bead will suddenly tighten. If the culprit lets go at this time, then the fire bead in his hand will be retracted at the same time. When all the diamond wires are retracted, the two fire bead will collide, ignite, and burn. The hemp rope on the other end of the fire ball made the Western Region dragon oil on the hemp rope lose its restraint, and all fell, and then knocked out of the thin leather bag, and then ignited the things in the room."

"As for why the adults who were killed were at the mercy of the culprit, it was because the adults had already been killed long before the fire started. The culprit spent so much time and effort mainly because he wanted to continue to conceal his identity, so he had to be cleared of suspicion. The fire is enough to destroy the things in the room, so there is no need to worry about being found out and causing the fire."

"Wonderful, really wonderful!" Empress Wu laughed, "I didn't expect such a clever trick to be seen through by you, Di Renjie. It's really amazing and admirable."

"The Empress of Heaven's false praise, I can't bear it."

"Hey, why should Di Aiqing be modest?" Empress Wu looked at the wooden stick in his hand, and asked again: "Since you have seen through such a clever trick, then the bold words that were released on the battlements just now are not empty words. It's the culprit, you already have a conclusion in your mind?"

When Di Renjie heard the words, he quickly knelt down: "The humble minister is not talented, and who is the culprit is still uncertain."

Empress Wu looked down at him for a long time, then said: "Forget it, you have uncovered the culprit's modus operandi and clarified the rumors in the city, which is already a great achievement. Since you still need two days, I will give you another two days. The culprit has not yet been apprehended, and the crime is the same as what the Japanese Palace said. As for Yuchi Zhenjin, let go of his dismissal, but the crime of living cannot escape, so I will deduct a month's salary as an example. You are also tired tonight, so let's go back and rest for the time being Bar."

After finishing speaking, he motioned to the female officer behind him: "Show me your car, go back to the palace."

"Congratulations to the Queen of Heaven."

A group of people went down the Zhuque tower one after another, and headed for the imperial city in a hurry.

Seeing that everyone was gone, Sha Tuo jumped to Di Renjie's side, wiped off his cold sweat and said, "Di Renjie! You scared me to death, I thought I was going to die!"

Di Renjie touched the beard on his chin, and sighed: "Anyone who achieves great things must be calm, calm." Finally, he came back to his senses, saw Yuchi Zhenjin hidden in the darkness, took a step back quickly, bowed and said: " I'm in trouble tonight, my lord."

"How dare, how dare?" Yuchi Zhenjin turned around, and said with a blank expression: "Di Aiqing's speed in solving the case is indispensable. I'm just doing the work of a dog and a horse, so what's the point? Humph! Please support me, my lord." After speaking, he flicked the black cloak, turned around and left.

"My lord! My lord! Let's listen to Di's explanation!" Di Renjie knew in his heart that if he concealed the truth from Yuchi because he didn't want to startle the snake, he would definitely make Yuchi very angry, and cause Yuchi to lose one month's salary, plus the two months of savings loaned to him last night. , he must be doomed this time.Then he blamed again: "Sha Tuo, why didn't you tell the truth to the adults in the situation just now?!"

Sha Tuo cleared his throat, shook his head pretending to be serious, and said, "Ten years is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge. Who made your lord target me all the time? This can be regarded as an outburst of anger."

"Sha Tuo, Sha Tuo, you sacrificed me to fulfill your ego!" Di Renjie wanted to cry, but had no tears to speak of, "You made me miserable!" After saying that, he hurriedly chased after Yuchi Zhenjin and go.

Sha Tuo sighed lightly, shook his head and said, "Oh, it's a pity, it's hard to solve this case, and it's hard to not break it!" Dui exclaimed, "Why am I here to deal with the aftermath again!?"

At the same time, three miles away, in the dense forest outside the city——

"Slap!" In the dense forest where you can't see your fingers, an abrupt slap came to mind.

Wang Pu was lying on a thick branch, his eyes were sleepy, and when he was awakened by the mosquito, he was still chanting:

"This Di Renjie, what, when did you come to meet me..."