Chapter 82 Section IX

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Shangyuan Festival.Early in the morning, just as the gate of Chang'an City was opened, people from the four villages who had been waiting outside the city crowded into the city.Tonight is one of the most indulgent nights of the year when people can indulge and play until the next day.According to the statistics of the Left and Right Jinwu Guards who are in charge of public security, there are about 300,000 people who enter the city from outside the city to celebrate the festival on this day alone. In addition, among the more than 2 million people in the city, anyone who can walk will go to the street to watch the lanterns. , the chaos of the scene can be imagined.

Not long after the opening of the city, more than fifty four-wheeled and three-set ox carts entered the city through the Chunming Gate wrapped in crowds, and the old Hu Beier met him at the gate of the city.Seeing that it was the convoy of the Nine Princesses transporting money, the soldiers guarding the gate had already understood it, and let it into the city without asking.Who would be so courageous as to offend the Ninth Princess? Thirty strong wicker barrels were installed on each cart, and each barrel contained five hundred fresh copper coins.Lin Songzhi walked up and down the courtyard with several Hu merchants, counting the quantity and unloading the goods into the warehouse.This is the last deal before the festival.

Early this morning, before the door of the workshop was opened, Jiulang broke into Lin Song's house, alarming all the neighbors.Under the crowd watching, Lin Songzhi had no way to refuse the whole cart of gifts from Jiulang. Datang people are the most polite, and refusing Jiulang in public would make her lose face greatly.I have nothing to repay, so I had to promise her to watch the lantern together tonight. Gao Tiancheng's bullock cart was in the front line and quickly unloaded the goods.Gao Tiancheng put a big cloth scarf around his head, and led the cow out, with three accomplices following behind the car.Even so, Lin Songzhi recognized him at a glance.

How can this guy pretend to be a coachman, what is he going to do?Yesterday he had just withdrawn one hundred coins from Kaiyuanji, but this morning he was among the coachmen, there must be something hidden in it.Lin Songzhi was worried that this person's contact with Jiulang several times might really be detrimental to Jiulang.Kidnapping rich people and extorting money often happened in Chang'an City. Gao Tiancheng's ox cart did not go to the car shop in the open area of ​​the South City with the other vehicles, but turned north and left the East City.Along the way, several people were taciturn, just walking with their heads sullen, seeming to have a plan in mind, but also seemed to be uneasy.Lin Songzhi couldn't figure out what was going on.

The mansion of Li Chengqi, King of the Song Dynasty, was in Anxingfang in the north of Dongcheng. Because it was located in the east of Nanfang Gate, Xingqing Palace was seen looking south through the square wall.It used to be the mansion of their five brothers. Because the third brother ascended the throne, the brothers donated the mansion and built this Xingqing Palace for the emperor.The emperor built a new palace for his brothers near the Xingqing Palace, which was bigger and more magnificent than the old palace.People who don't understand the inside story certainly don't know that Li Chengqi advocated the construction of Xingqing Palace mainly because his old palace was considered by the warlocks to have the aura of domineering. became the root cause of trouble.

The ox cart entered from the west gate of Anxingfang, walked eastward to Cross Street, and stopped to ask for directions.Lin Songzhi followed from a distance, but felt a little relieved in his heart. From this appearance, they were just hired helpers. There were many such people in Chang'an City, and they were extremely trusted by the master. The ox cart turned south and turned into an alley. Lin Songzhi knew that there was only one door in that alley, and it was the back door of Song Wang Li Chengqi's mansion.It was getting late, although the sky was overcast and there was no sun, Lin Songzhi could roughly estimate the time, and Jiulang probably couldn't wait.

When a man in charge outside the back door saw Gao Tiancheng and the others arrived, he yelled, "Bastard bastard, you have no eyes, don't you see who you are working for, so careless!" He secretly winked at Gao Tiancheng.Gao Tiancheng lowered his eyelids and pretended not to care about anything, but he saw everything in his eyes.The frontier soldiers of the Western Regions are a group that cannot be ignored. These people know what loyalty is, but it's a pity that he doesn't know why I came here? "You can't be careless about the float." The car stopped in front of the garage, and the steward whispered beside Gao Tiancheng.Several groups of people were already busy in the yard, and the materials for making floats were piled up everywhere.

"It's a trivial matter, go ahead." Gao Tiancheng smiled at his old comrade in the army, the corners of his eyes and lips were full of wrinkles. The parts of the machine crossbow were hidden under the carriage panel, and the crossbowman instructed two other people to dismantle the compartment panel, revealing two large crossbows with a bow length of nine feet.If you want to shoot three huge arrows from one crossbow, you must have such a bow.The crossbowman is very satisfied with his craft. The machine crossbow was quickly installed. The bowstring made of beef tendon and cowhide rope had a big iron ring at each end. The four of them worked together to hang it on both ends of the bow.

The carriage of the ox cart has long-cut grooves, and the crossbow body is firmly embedded in it, and the lock pin will not be shaken, otherwise, the crossbow body is not stable, and the arrow will lose its aim when it is fired. After everything was ready, the crossbowman took off the crossbow triggers on the two crossbows and the sharp arrowheads on the six giant arrows, and carefully hid them in a groove on the carriage.This is just in case, parading in front of the emperor, there will be no one to check your car.There is no trigger on this crossbow, no arrowheads on the arrow, it is just a display and will not hurt anyone.

Gao Tiancheng wobbled over with two crock pots in hand, saw two giant crossbows stretched out on the cart, and gave a thumbs up to his companions. "Hurry up and dress up the car." He put the two crock pots in the glove box in the front compartment of the car. There are plenty of silks, wood and lanterns to decorate the floats, and the work is very smooth, and several people cooperate very well. None of the people who were busy in the surrounding cars paid any attention to what happened in this car. "Don't disturb them." Knowing Gao Tiancheng's whereabouts, the emperor felt at ease. Although the matter was worse than he imagined, the elder brother had news that he was actually involved in this matter.Nothing, the emperor who has experienced this kind of crisis many times is very calm. As long as he knows the details of the other party, he can control the development of the situation.

"There is another person who has had contact with Gao Tiancheng, and I don't know what to do." Although Luo Jingsheng said this, he knew that at this point, there was nothing to be taboo about, and there were things more terrifying than the elder brother's rebellion. what? "Who?" "The Ninth Princess has a new friend named Lin Songzhi." Luo Jingsheng was very proud of his ability to handle affairs. "This man is twenty-one years old. He used to work in Jinwuwei and Qianniuwei. For some reason, Princess Jiu removed his job in Qianniuwei. Now he does business with Princess Jiu." "Understood, send a few people to follow him." The emperor didn't want anyone involved in the conspiracy to slip through the net. "Where is King Song?" This is the key to the matter, and there must be the emperor's personal will. "It's business as usual, just keep an eye on it. If you startle me for no reason, then don't come to see me." The emperor didn't want to mention the elder brother's name. After Luo Jingsheng stepped down, the emperor wrote an imperial edict and asked Gao Lishi to do it himself. Yu Bin stayed in the Prince Song's mansion without closing his eyes all night. In the early morning, Fang found that he had overlooked an important clue.Such a major event as killing the king will cost a lot of money, why didn't I think of investigating the source of Lao He's money? "My lord, there is such a person who has more than a thousand coins in his trumpet." Like any businessman, Huber's calf twists when he sees an official. Yu Bin is the guard of King Song, so he couldn't ask for it himself, so he invited an old friend from the Jinwu Guard to help. "What did he use his money for? Who did he give it to?" This Jinwuwei man, like any security officer, was not only rude to ordinary people, but also disrespectful and impatient. "My god, how could this old Hu'er know?" Huber called out to Tianqu. Whether Yu Bin has experience, he asked kindly: "Who do you see him in contact with?" "There is only one man, who looks like a soldier from the Northwest. He doesn't talk much. He gave this man a lot of money." "Where does that person live?" "I don't even know who that person is, I've only met a few times." Huber replied hesitantly, but his mind kept spinning. "It seems that I am guessing randomly. It seems that Lin Songzhi knows this person. He has a black hair on his face, so it is not difficult to recognize." "Have black hairs on your face?" The officials of the Jinwu Guard were taken aback. "it's him……." "Where is Lin Songzhi?" "He followed the nine princesses to watch the lantern." Huber simply told the truth. Walking out of Kaiyuanji, Yu Bin dragged his friend to a hiding place. "Since you know about this, please tell me, it is very important to me and our prince." Seeing that the man was hesitating, he said again: "It's not that you don't know the generosity of our lord." The man thought for a while, and then said: "I don't know if I guessed right. For a few days, the entire Jinwu Guard has been looking for these people. The leader is Gao Tiancheng, with a tuft of black hair on his face. They are the frontiers of the Western Regions." soldiers, and one of them was a crossbowman. We killed one of them, and the other four escaped." Yu Bin couldn't hide the disappointment on his face. "However." The man said again. "Someone sent a message in the afternoon to ask the Jinwu Guards to do their best to maintain law and order in the capital. Don't look for those people anymore, or they may have been caught." If these people were caught by the emperor, things would not be so good.