Is the prince abolished today?

Chapter 86 Puppet

The Ministry of War at this moment is experiencing a freezing atmosphere with one small time a day and one big time every three days.

Headed by Minister of the Ministry of War Xiao Bing, a group of officials of the Ministry of War were neatly arranged into three factions according to their official positions, each with a slumped face, like a concubine, and no one dared to look directly into the piercing eyes of the young Marquis after the long case.

The reason was that an official on duty last night slept too much and failed to submit an urgent military report from Southwest Prefecture to the cabinet in time.According to the report in the letter, an unidentified gangster pretended to be an imperial army and broke into the village where the Miao people live in southern Xinjiang one night two days ago, set fire to looting, killed and wounded many innocent people, and deliberately provoked The conflict between the village and the court.

When Emperor Changping was stationed in the southwest for King Anshun, it took three years to completely subdue the 83 villages in southern Xinjiang headed by Miao Village, and the southern border defense of the Mu Dynasty was greatly consolidated.The Miao Village has a high prestige among the people in southern Xinjiang. If the Miao Village and the imperial court are divorced, there will be great chaos in southern Xinjiang, and the southern border will also be in jeopardy.

According to the letter reported by the Southwest government officials, those "thugs" had extremely high lightness skills, and the weapon they used was also a very rare lancet, which was not at all the same as the broad-backed knife commonly used by local gangsters.According to the confession of a young Miao village man who survived by luck, the five poisonous patterns of scorpion, centipede, snake, gecko, and toad are engraved on the arm of the "thug". It is a custom only in the Mu dynasty.

The purpose of the mastermind behind the scenes can be said to be written on his face.

Xiao Bing stood in front of him like a glow, feeling terrified in his heart.Fortunately, another subordinate found out about this in time this morning. Otherwise, if this urgent report was buried in the snow-like pile of files, when something happened in the southern border, he and the entire Ministry of War would really be a dead body and lose the country. Sinners who mislead the people.Han Chuang has studied hard for so many years, if he really has a reputation that will last forever, how can he have the face to meet the ancestors of their old Xiao family.

Time passed by every minute and every second, and the air seemed to be condensed into icy slag, which was blocked in the throat cavity layer by layer, making it hard to breathe.This feeling of one person making a mistake and the whole team sitting together is really uncomfortable, especially for General Wu, who is old and prone to leg cramps after standing for a long time.He didn't understand why he, an unlucky cannon fodder who could be wiped out as a small gang at any time, and couldn't manage his own affairs, why he would perish with these colleagues of the Second Prince's Party.

Wei Zhao sat behind the long table with a frosty face, and his long and narrow phoenix eyes kept staring at the sentence in the emergency report: "The five poisons of scorpion, centipede, snake, gecko, and toad are tattooed on the arm of the gangster. In a loop, wrap around the arm twice."

Wei Zhao's appearance originally belonged to the kind of sharp and handsome beauty. At this moment, the line of his jaw was tense, his thin lips were pursed into a line, and his eyes were like wine in a black cup, with a gloomy and cold luster, which made his whole body People look like a sharp blade, and people unconsciously want to back away to avoid bloody disasters.

Black scorpions, blood-colored centipedes, cyan snakes, gray geckos, purple toads... The tattoo patterns connected end to end are printed on the arm of a thin and wrinkled woman whose surface looks like the dead skin of an old tree, like a tattoo full of viciousness. Chains of spells.At the end of the chain, five fingers that were also wrinkled and aging were connected.

"Be careful, isn't it very painful, very uncomfortable."

"Don't be afraid, let Ben Gong take good care of you, and Ben Gong will suffer just as much as you."

The woman's strange laughter filled the red tent that smelled sweet and joyful.Dry yellow and sparse hair, loose and fallen teeth, wrinkled face, cloudy and protruding eyeballs, together form a hideous and excessively indulgent face.

Wei Zhao misunderstood, cut off the fuse that would lead to some unpleasant past in time, and slowly raised his head after the long case.The coldness in his eyes has not completely disappeared, and there are even a few traces of cruelty remaining in the corners of his eyes.

Xiao Bing, who was standing at the front, was the first to be dazzled.

"Master Hou..."

Xiao Bing bit the bullet and spoke, because he was too nervous, and felt that the voice was not his own.

"What happened this time is the fault of my subordinates for not being strict with me. I am willing to accept any punishment."

Such apologies are almost always in the belly of Xiao Bing, a seasoned veteran of the officialdom, and he can say three or three paragraphs in one breath without panting.

Wei Zhao sneered, and said, "Xiao Shangshu."

Xiao Bing straightened his shoulders unconsciously: "The minister is here!"

Wei Zhao fixed his eyes on the old fox like a knife, and said, "Do you think that as a boss who is innocently involved by incompetent subordinates, as long as it is not a major matter of conspiracy and treason, as long as he admits his mistakes and has a good attitude, even if he does not act, even if he occasionally commits minor mistakes Wrong, even if you were a little slow to react after hearing the news, the imperial court would not dare to do anything to you, at most you will be fined for a few months of salary. And a mere few months of salary, for you who own hundreds of acres of fertile land in your hometown, is not worth it. Nothing to mention, right?"

Xiao Bing seemed to be strangled by someone suddenly, his upright Chinese character face turned purple and congested at first, and then turned pale.If you look closely, you can still see fine beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.

The atmosphere in the military hall once again condensed to freezing point.

Sensing the disdainful or suspicious eyes of his subordinates on him, Xiao Bing said with great difficulty: "The fields in my hometown..."

"The Marquis knows that the fields in your hometown are all fertile land purchased by the children of the clan through normal transaction procedures, and there is no such thing as forcibly occupying the people's land. Have you never thought about why the common people who depend on the land for food don't grow it themselves? , but willingly sell it to the children of your clan at a low price?"

As if something terrible was about to come out, Xiao Bing lost his mind, rolled his Adam's apple twice in numbness, and muttered to himself: "But the minister has ordered them, and the minister has clearly written to them repeatedly..."

"This Marquis can believe in your difficulties, but the law will not. If the children of your clan really rely on your name to collude with the local government and seize the people's land, even if you don't know it, you will have to pay a heavy price for it. Because you Knowing that there are hidden dangers, and knowing that His Majesty hates government and businessmen forcibly occupying civilian land, he failed to strictly restrain the behavior of the children of the clan. The same principle also applies to the subordinates of your military department."

"Since you served as Minister of the Ministry of War, it is not the first time that the Ministry of War has missed the military situation. After the accident, you admitted your mistake very smoothly, but you never carefully investigated the root cause of the hidden danger and corrected it. You allowed the same stupid things to happen again and again. Your Majesty is merciful. The generosity is to encourage you to work diligently and boldly to use your hands and feet, not to let you crowd like hamsters in this lobby and eat the emperor's food!"

"Lord Xiao." Wei Zhao glanced around, where all the officials lowered their heads like sorghum stalks that had been broken off.Wei Zhao finally fixed his gaze on Xiao Bing, his face frosty: "Do you know where the five poisonous totem on the arm of the 'thug' came from?"

Xiao Bing was at a loss.

Wei Zhao squeezed out three characters between his teeth: "Nanzhao Kingdom."

Xiao Bing's expression changed drastically!

The Kingdom of Nanzhao is a small country located at the junction of southern Xinjiang and southwest. It was also one of the biggest obstacles when King Anshun pacified the 83 villages in southern Xinjiang. During the reign of Emperor Wu, he had always coveted the land in the southwest of Mu Dynasty. The gangsters colluded with each other and attacked Anshun Palace while King Anshun was leading the army to suppress the bandits.Wei Zhao, who was only 13 years old, also made his debut at that time. He single-handedly broke into the bandit village and rescued the kidnapped family members of Anshun Palace...

This time Xiao Bing was truly as if facing a formidable enemy, he didn't know where he was.That frenzied old woman from the Nanzhao Kingdom colluded with the bandits and kidnapped a large number of family members from the Anshun Palace. One can imagine His Majesty's hatred for Nanzhao.And their military department actually missed such an important military situation, Xiao Bing couldn't imagine the expression of Emperor Changping at this moment.

Everyone in the Ministry of War, who had been sat down early in the morning and was full of grievances and complaints, was dumbfounded now, looking at each other, panicking like a chicken in water.General Wu's calf also turned with fright, and the pain disappeared instantly.

"Marquis of Dingbei!"

Needle dropping could be heard in all directions, and in the frozen atmosphere, Wang Fulai trotted in panting with a dust whisk pinned to his waist.

"Master Hou, it's too bad. His Royal Highness was assassinated in the Chengqing Palace. Now he is hiding in the cabinet and refuses to come out. His Majesty really has nothing to do. Go and see—"

Wei Zhao quickly stood up from behind the desk.

His chest rose and fell, and Fang asked: "The assassin has been caught, is your Highness injured?"

"It was caught, His Highness was just frightened, but not injured, but... hey, Marquis Dingbei..."

Before Wang Fulai could speak, a silver shadow flashed in front of his eyes, and Wei Zhao, who was sitting behind the long table just now, rushed out of the door like a gust of wind.

All the officials of the Ministry of War looked at each other in blank dismay, both surprised and puzzled.What is surprising is that someone dared to break into the Chengqing Palace to assassinate the little prince. What is puzzling is that the little prince was assassinated and hid in the cabinet and could not come out. Why did Wang Fulai come to find Ding Beihou? Why did the discolored Marquis of Dingbei act so anxiously?

Marquis Dingbei doesn't seem to be in charge of the defense of the palace.

The Chengqing Hall was in chaos, with the sound of staff hitting and the screams of palace people everywhere.

The Habayashi Army who came later had already surrounded the entire hall like an iron barrel. Ji Huai was directing his men to drag a dead "Taoist corpse" onto a stretcher and hand it over to the people of Dali Temple to carry it away.

Wei Zhao froze, ordered the stretcher to stop, lifted the white cloth, and looked at the face of the Taoist——

It's not Chunyu's.

Immediately, his pupils shrank, thinking of a more terrifying possibility.

"Can you find out the identity of this puppet?"

Wei Zhao's eyes were like torches, and he asked Ji Huai.

Ji Huai was surprised, Ding Beihou saw through it as a puppet, he heard that Prince Jing and the Second Prince stabbed one in the front and the other in the back, and stabbed seventy or eighty swords until they turned into a hornet's nest. This is a puppet without emotion.

Ji Huai suppressed his admiration as much as possible, and said: "It is still impossible to say for sure, but according to a brother in the Yulin Army, the appearance of this Taoist priest is very similar to the portrait of Li Tianshi enshrined in his home."

"Which Li Tianshi?"

"As for the former master of the Zixia Temple, Li Tianshi, who was passed down as a miraculous master during the late emperor's reign."

Wei Zhao stared at the shriveled and old face of the Taoist priest, an ominous premonition gradually surfaced in his heart.

Why did Li Tianshi become Chunyu's puppet?As a puppet master, Chunyu should have many puppets in his hands. The combat effectiveness of the puppets is closely related to the puppet's body. Back then, Chunyu's family practiced puppetry, and they were punished by the martial arts for killing a large number of young men to make human puppets. Because young and strong men have strong bones, strong fighting power, and strong self-repair ability after being destroyed.For this reason, puppet art has always been regarded as an unpopular martial arts category, and many schools with upright styles strictly forbid their disciples to practice this art.

Today, Chunyu Puppet entered the palace to assassinate the little guy. According to common sense, he should choose a young puppet with stronger fighting power, and the success rate is higher. Why did he choose Li Tianshi, who is frail and frail?