Chapter 10 3. The third dead man

That night, Li Lianhua, Fang Duobing and Ge Pan stayed in Xiling.Zhang Qingmao was a moderate leader in the Hundred-Men Army, and that night he hosted three people who lived on both sides of his room, Fang Duobing and Li Lianhua lived on his right side, and Ge Pan lived on the left side.Zhang Qingmao's opponent is the Zhang brothers, Fang Duobing and Li Lianhua's opponent is Yang Qiuyue, and Ge Pan's opponent is Gu Fengxin.This Minglou and Baocheng should not be inhabited by people, if the previous dynasty sent troops to station, they must have lived in Xunshanpu outside the mausoleum, but the 100-man garrison lived in Minglou for convenience.The weather is cold, they don't patrol the mountains, they drink and gamble in Xiling all day long, and the losers go out to buy wine and meat, and they are very happy.

Snow filled the city, and the stars and the moon were dim.This night Fang was so sick that he could barely sleep, except for Zhang Qingmao's snoring, the surroundings were surprisingly quiet, the snow light outside the window passed through the window of the room on the left, and reflected in the room on the right, still making people feel uncomfortable all over. It's as if every hair on the top and bottom can be counted clearly, but Li Lianhua has slept peacefully, and she never even turned the corner of her eyes to him. I don't know why, Fang Sickness always felt a vague uneasiness in his heart this night. This feeling was felt when he saw Zhang Qingshi, but he clearly didn't know this person. Why did he have this uneasiness?

After a sleepless night, when it was almost dawn, he suddenly heard someone rushing into Zhang Qingmao's room, and said in a panic: "Commander Zhang, Zhang Qingshi... Zhang Qingshi was killed and his head disappeared. Who, Has anyone seen Zhang Qingshi's head..." Yang Qiuyue was the one who came to report Zhang Qingshi's death. Fang Duobiao jumped up from the bed, Li Lianhua also sat up from the bed, the two looked at each other, Zhang Qingshi is dead? Zhang Qingshi died very strangely. When Zhang Qingmao put on his clothes and came to Zhang Qinghu and Zhang Qingshi's brother's room, he saw Zhang Qingshi sitting on the bedside in plain clothes. His head was gone, and half of the plain clothes were soaked in blood.The weather was cold, and the blood had turned into ice, firmly frozen on Zhang Qingshi's body, bright in color.The headless bloody corpse in front of the clean white powder wall is really shocking.

According to Zhang Qinghu, he gambled in Yang Qiuyue's room last night, and when he came back early in the morning, he found his brother dead.Fang Duobing and Li Lianhua had been in Zhang Qingshi's room for a long time. Except for his head being chopped off, Zhang Qingshi had no injuries on his body.The bewildered poor scholar was still staring at Zhang Qingshi in a daze, while Fang Duoshang was full of irritability. Obviously, this matter was much beyond his expectation—why would someone kill Zhang Qingshi?What's the relationship between him and Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang starving to death?

"Strange, why did someone kill Zhang Qingshi?" Ge Pan muttered to himself, "Could it be that he has something to do with Murong Wuyan and Wu Guang?" Fang Duoxing nodded, "He probably knows the entrance to the underground palace." Grappench said, "If he did know something, why didn't he say it?" Fang Duobing said: "If he brought those two people into the underground palace and killed them, of course he wouldn't say anything." Ge Pan frowned, "Then why did he die? It proves that he is not the only one involved in this matter, because we are going to search the entrance of the underground palace today, someone killed him at night to silence him?"

Fang Duobing sighed, "That means the murderer must be nearby, maybe between the mausoleum guards and the three of us." "There are no footprints outside." Li Lianhua interjected. Ge Pan frowned, "That means no one else came in last night..." "No," Li Lianhua said blankly, "That only means that there is another person who may have killed Zhang Qingshi, that is, the person who left the two corpses in the woods and went down the mountain from the platform of Ling'en Gate through the woods..." He didn't finish a sentence, Fang Duobing and Ge Pan were startled, and asked in unison: "Lingenmen platform?"

Li Lianhua said in a daze: "That's right. Behind the Ling'en Gate is the glass screen wall, and behind the glass screen wall is the Ming Building. People live in the Ming Building all the time. The kitchen is next to the Ling En Gate. People walk around in this area on weekdays, so There will be snow plowing in this area, and there will be no footprints. That...the kitchen is empty at night, there is a fir forest outside the platform, and there are no other places..." Fang Duobing slapped him on the shoulder with a slap, and praised: "Good guy, it makes sense! It seems that the entrance to the underground palace is near the Lingen Gate."

Li Lianhua still shook her head in confusion, "No, if the person who brought the corpse out of the underground palace killed Zhang Qingshi, how did he know that we were looking for the entrance of the underground palace this morning, and then killed Zhang Qingshi at night?" Fang Duoyi was taken aback, "That means..." Ge Pan blurted out, "That means that the murderer who killed Zhang Qingshi was among the few people who heard in the grove last night that we were looking for the entrance of the underground palace today!" Yang Qiuyue and Zhang Qinghu turned pale when they heard this.There were no more than eight people in the grove last night: Brother Zhang Qinghu, Yang Qiuyue, Gu Fengxin, Zhang Qingmao, Li Lianhua, Fang Duobing, and Ge Pan.One of the remaining seven people is the murderer, so who is it?And why cut off Zhang Qingshi's head?

All the mysteries can only be solved by entering the Xiling Underground Palace.What secret is hidden in this royal tomb that has been silent for hundreds of years, which can cause two peerless masters to starve to death in the tomb, and make a guard of the tomb lose his good head in the middle of the night? Zhang Qingmao immediately summoned the few people who were guarding the corpse in the woods last night, and followed Li Lianhua and the other three to the platform of Ling'en Gate. Across several majestic stone pillars and stone gates, there are two beautifully carved stone carvings surrounded by auspicious clouds in the Ling'en Gate of Xiling.The seven began to search for the entrance of the underground palace. They had no respect for the former emperor, and they held swords and knocked on the reliefs everywhere, and the sound of ding dong was endless.

"Lianhua," Fang Duobing pulled Li Lianhua aside, and said quietly, "Tell me who is more suspicious, and I will keep a close eye on him." Li Lianhua smiled and said, "Ah, I don't know..." Before he could finish his sentence, Fang Duosick squinted at him, "Your parrot seems to be still at my house?" Li Lianhua froze for a moment, and frowned, "Could it be that you suddenly like eating parrot meat?" Fang Duo sickly grinned, "If you don't know, maybe I will suddenly like it." Li Lianhua sighed, "Master Fang, it's really embarrassing to kidnap a little parrot..." He lowered his voice, and a smile appeared on his lips, "Have you noticed that Zhang Qingshi's room In addition to his body, there is no blood anywhere else?"

Fang Duobing thought for a while, "Well, so what? Are you going to say that he didn't die there?" Li Lianhua said: "Did you notice the blood on his body? It was soaked down layer by layer, not gushing out. The wall was clean without any trace." Fang Duoxing frowned, "What do you want to say?" Li Lianhua said: "I want to say that he died first before being beheaded, not because of beheading." Fang Duobing was stunned, "As long as the person dies, it's fine to kill someone, why bother killing someone and beheading him?" Li Lianhua smiled slightly, "Killing people can be said to silence people, but beheading is not... In any case, if he was beheaded alive, and he was sitting on the bed, the white wall behind the bed would not have the slightest trace. You and I It is very clear that if a sword cuts someone, if the wound bleeds immediately, the blood will adhere to the weapon to some extent. It is clear. There is no trace in his room, and it can only be said that the person who beheaded him did it when his blood was about to coagulate, so the wound did not bleed immediately when the sword parted the flesh." Fang Duoyi asked in amazement, "How do you know that he must have been beheaded inside the room? Maybe his head was beheaded outside." Li Lianhua sighed, "If he was beheaded outside, the blood on his body would not be like this. The blood came out not long after his head was beheaded. It has not been touched by anyone, so it soaks through the clothes layer by layer, but it doesn't flow quickly into a single line, and it doesn't splash everywhere." Fang Duobing is still retorting, "He may still die outside... " Li Lianhua sighed again, as if a little helpless, "I only said that he died first, and then he was beheaded in the room... When did I say that he must have died in the room? Don't mess around." Fang Duo Bing snorted, "Even if his head was beheaded after he died, so what?" "That means that Zhang Qingshi was killed twice. Either the murderer was the same person and the purpose of the murder was to behead him; or there was another person who beheaded besides the dead man and the murderer." Li Lianhua said slowly. , "The interesting thing is not to kill, but to behead." Fang Duoyi was taken aback, "Beheaded?" Li Lianhua smiled, "The head is a very strange thing that will reveal many secrets, whether it is alive or dead." Fang Duoxing was extremely surprised, "Ah? What do you mean?" Li Lianhua whispered in his ear: "Beheaded—for example—beheaded, you don't know who died." Fang Duobing was taken aback by his sudden whisper, "Wow—" he raised his head and slammed into Li Lianhua's head. The people who were looking for the entrance suddenly turned their heads, Li Lianhua was full of apology, and Fang Duoxing punched him hard, "The road is over there, don't hit me." Li Lianhua promised with an innocent face. Ge Pan had always paid attention to Fang Duobing and Li Lianhua, and couldn't help but ask now: "What are you two talking about? Have you found the entrance to the underground palace?" Li Lianhua said: "Xiao Fang said he found it." Fang Duoxing was taken aback again, "Huh?" Li Lianhua stared at him blankly, and asked in confusion, "Didn't you say behind the glazed screen wall?" Fang Duoxing scratched his hair vigorously, "Oh..." Li Lianhua continued to be stupefied and said: "It's you who said that in the imperial mausoleum, the underground palace tunnels are all on the center line of the mausoleum, and many of the entrances are behind the glazed screen wall." Fang Duoxing nodded repeatedly, "That's right, it's exactly what I said." Ge Pan immediately strode towards the glazed screen wall outside Lingen Gate. The patterns painted on the glazed screen wall of Xiling Mausoleum are a bit strange—generally, dragon and phoenix patterns are painted on the glazed screen wall, which protect life and spirit with divine beasts, but the painted glazed screen wall of Emperor Xicheng has extremely complicated patterns.It took a long time for everyone to identify them before they recognized two carp with dragon heads and wings playing around the lotus.This is a picture of a carp transforming into a dragon. Logically, this kind of pattern would never appear in royal ornaments, but at this moment it is actually painted on the tomb of an emperor who has been in power for many years. It is indeed a very strange thing. Ge Pan stroked the glazed screen wall for a while, tapped lightly with the tip of his sword, and there was no abnormality everywhere, "It's a bit strange here, where is the entrance?" "The entrance of Yipin Tomb must not have been dug out." Zhang Qingmao said suddenly, "I have been here for more than three years, and there are people coming and going here in Liuliyingbi. mounds." Fang Duobing's eyes lit up, "Then there is an agency?" Ge Pan muttered to himself: "There is a mechanism...but the back of every brick here is solid, where is the entrance?" He looked around for a long time, and then said: "There is nothing here that can be pulled and pulled. Where is the mechanism hidden for the outstanding thing? The ingenious thinking of the predecessors really awes the future generations." Fang Duoxing squinted at Li Lianhua. Since this person said he found it, he wouldn't lie to him, would he?But it's common for this person to deceive people, it's strange if he doesn't lie, oh no, he said that I found it, if he didn't find it, wouldn't it embarrass me?Just when Fang Duoxing was feeling resentful in his heart, his knees suddenly went numb, something bumped into the sea of ​​blood on the side of his knees, and he fell to the ground with a thud, everyone was startled, "Mr. Fang ?” Fang Duoxing was lying on the ground with his chin pressed against the floor and looking forward, he suddenly saw a strange phenomenon. At this time, the sun was rising, and the light was abundant. He saw that from the tip of his nose to the bottom of the glazed screen wall, all the sand on the ground was big and stuck in the front, close to the edge of the gap on his side. There is almost no sand, sand is mostly accumulated on the edge of the gap near the screen wall, and some tiny gravel and dust are scattered under the screen wall.He took a step back, and the ground was still like this, and he took another step back, until he retreated to the threshold of the back room of Lingen Gate, and then he saw the small irregular sand, "Commander Zhang, the snow here is Scan once a few days?" "As long as it doesn't snow and the place isn't cleaned much, few people will come here." Zhang Qingmao said, "Anyway, this place is for ghosts, not people." Fang Duoxing patted the dust and got up from the ground, "Does that mean you haven't swept it recently?" "No, the snow fell more than half a month ago, and it hasn't melted, and it hasn't been swept for more than half a month." "Then—" Fang Duobing snorted through his nose, "The entrance is here." "Ah, where is it?" Li Lianhua looked at him in surprise.And Fang Duobing really wanted to plug his mouth with a big piece of cloth, and his Xuehai acupoint was numb to death by something bounced by Li Lianhua, so he had to cough and explain: " The sand and stones on the ground are all rolling towards the glass screen wall. If the sweepers did not deliberately sweep the sand and stones under the glass screen wall, it means that the whole ground has been erected or lifted up, otherwise The sand and stones don't fall in the same direction. But who can pull this floor up? I guess it's the entrance to the dungeon below." Ge Pan nodded again and again, "That makes sense, but the ground is so heavy, how do we lift it up?" Fang Duobing was at a loss for words, paused for a moment, and became a little annoyed, "Those who have mastered martial arts can naturally use their hands to pull." Ge Pan frowned, "At least one must have natural supernatural power, or a foreigner's kung fu. 'Iron Bone King Kong' Wu Guang must be able to do it, but you and I can't do it." Zhang Qingmao said suddenly: "Speaking of strength, the Zhang family brothers are from Shaolin horizontal Kung Fu practice, their hands can lift a thousand catties, I wonder if it will come in handy?" Both Ge Pan and Fang Duosick were surprised.Zhang Qinghu was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, with a sad face, but he was born with supernatural power. Zhang Qinghu nodded, and took out a steel hook from his body, hooked it to a thin stone gap between the steps of Ling En Gate and the ground, exhaled suddenly, "Ha!" There was a puff of smoke and dust, which was actually shaken by him.The steel hook was immediately distorted by the huge force of both sides. Ge Pan handed over his long sword and scabbard in time, and Fang Duobing handed out the short stick in his sleeve. middle.Everyone started their hands one after another, using their own weapons against the gap, and with concerted efforts, Zhang Qinghu threw away the steel hook and replaced Fang Sickly's short stick. With a wild cry, he pried it violently, and raised his hands as hard as he could, "Open!" The ground suddenly and silently lifted up about three feet high, and the dust, sand and rocks creaked and rolled down, most of them fell into the dark hole below, and some rolled down under the glazed screen wall.When the ground was raised, Yang Qiuyue, Gu Fengxin, and Zhang Qinghu seemed to be attacked by hidden weapons inside the entrance, and jumped away to avoid it. After landing, the entrance was fully opened, and no hidden weapons were shot out. Everyone's weapons were crushed under the weight of the slate, and only Fang Sick's short stick was still intact.Zhang Qinghu respectfully returned the short stick to Fang Duobing, "Good weapon." Fang Duobing put it into his sleeve with a smile, and poked his head into the hole, saying, "It's such a big hole." The stone slab above the entrance is also more than one chi thick, with a radius of about five zhang, which weighs more than a thousand catties. Everyone is in awe of Zhang Qinghu's arm strength, Shaolin disciples really have something unique.