Chapter 764 Assassination of the Grand Master

Chapter 764 Assassination of the Grand Master

Sophisticated ordnance capable of arming thousands of people disappeared out of thin air, including even heavy military equipment such as heavy riding equipment. This is definitely a shocking thing.

Just being able to do this is not easy, and what is even more shocking is who is running this and what is the purpose?

If these ordnance and weapons are scattered outside, the harm will be relatively minor. If they are still hidden somewhere in Ji, then the entire city of Chang'an will be shrouded in a huge crisis!

Although many clues have been lost due to the chaotic personnel management of the Forbidden Army in the past six months, there are still traces that can be followed after careful investigation.

After all, the Western Wei Dynasty had relatively strict procedures for managing warehouses, especially warehouses with higher management levels such as arsenals. Even if someone used power to suppress others and erased management records at the grassroots level through various means, higher-level records were It's not easy to completely erase it.

In particular, some of these arsenals are simply difficult to enter without higher-level authorization. By checking the records before and after, we can generally lock the time of the theft of the treasury items within a certain range. Then we can look through the order books of the various military mansions who were ordered to withdraw the treasury items before and after, and we can identify some people who have the opportunity to come into contact with these items. Lost property.

Especially for heavy riding equipment and such important ordnance, management must be stricter. Organizations like the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office, which have frequent military dispatches, only need one set of heavy weapons for ten days. Relatively speaking, there are not many military tasks in the imperial court, but there are still one plate and one book per month. Therefore, it is only possible to steal equipment from the Youwei Military Mansion without being aware of it within this month.

The arsenal of lost artifacts is located in Xianyang. It is of a very high level and contains very important items. Even Yuanding, the right-guard general, needs an order from the leading army to conduct an investigation.

The Leading Army Mansion records the people who entered the arsenal within the month. In addition to Yuan Ding entering for interrogation, there were two other times. Once, the minister was attending a funeral and was given the secret weapon of Dongyuan, which was collected from Xianyang. The other time was that the Lu book was damaged, so he ordered the cultural relics to be taken from Xianyang to supplement it.

Without the deed order of the military mansion, outsiders have no way of entering this arsenal. Therefore, the theft of heavy armor in the warehouse is most likely related to these two incidents.

The Dongyuan secret weapon was buried directly in the cemetery, while the Lu book cultural relics were collected in the inner garden of the imperial city. Although the possibility of moving somewhere else is not ruled out, until more clues are obtained, there is no doubt that these two locations are the places with the greatest chance of finding lost items.

The matter was so important that Yuchigang had no time to worry about it. He immediately ordered Yuan Ding to lead a group of troops to go to the house where the secret weapon of Dongyuan was given to conduct a thorough investigation. If necessary, he could directly open the coffin and conduct an autopsy. Although this probably offended people to death, in order to track down the lost items as soon as possible, I didn't care too much.

As for Yuchi Gang himself, he led his troops directly into the imperial city and searched the inner treasury. It would be best if it is not found in the inner library. If it is found, it would be really fatal. Of course Yuchigang would not dare to lie to others about such an important matter.

When Yuchigang led his troops into the imperial city to search, Emperor Yuan Qin was entertaining the clan kings in the inner hall, including Huai'an Wang Yuanyu, Guangping Wang Yuanzan and other clan kings who also held the position of general.

While chatting at the banquet, the emperor gradually brought the topic to the chaos of the Chang'an Forbidden Army. He couldn't help but sigh: "If you suppress the troops bravely, then you are brave, but in the end the methods are rough and imperfect. The king and others all want to control the army. The government and the clan are virtuous, and it is time to take advantage of the situation to advance and be the leader..."

Several princes who were caught by the emperor's gaze bowed their heads respectfully, but none of them gave any clear answers.

The emperor was of course dissatisfied with their lack of enterprising attitude. He frowned immediately after seeing this. But before he could say anything, suddenly an eunuch from the inner court hurriedly walked in and whispered to the leader Wei Chi Gang and his troops to enter. The matter of searching things in the imperial city's inner treasury.

"This disciple is really domineering. He relies on his estranged family ties and dominates the vassal. He is so unscrupulous and rampant in the inner garden!"

When the emperor heard this, he became furious. He took off the sword from his waist and laid it on the table. At the same time, he said bitterly: "Whoever holds this sword will capture this madman for me!"

After seeing this, everyone couldn't help but look embarrassed. Seeing that the emperor was so angry, they didn't dare to respond silently for a while. After a while, Wang Yuanyu of Huai'an stood up and said bravely: "Since Yuchi leads the army and is in charge of the guards, he should not be able to enforce the law. It is a violation of the law. I think there is a reason for this behavior. Please calm down your Majesty for the time being and ask him first. If Yuchi leads the army and violates the palace prohibition for no special reason, he will be punished!"

When the emperor heard this, he snorted coldly, then nodded stiffly and agreed to King Huai'an's departure.

After seeing this, Yuan Yu walked out of his seat, without stepping forward to take the sword placed on the table by the emperor, and led several followers outside the palace to go straight to the inner treasury.

However, before he had gone far, he saw Yuchi Gang, who was wearing armor, leading hundreds of armored soldiers towards the inner hall. After seeing this, Yuan Yu also frowned, pointed at Yuchi Gang and shouted loudly : "Here Zunchen is even in a strategic place. Why doesn't the leader invite his own troops to come in and disturb him with his armored staff? Stop quickly and don't come any closer!"

When Yuchigang heard Yuan Yu's scolding, he curled his lips in disapproval, but after thinking about it, he still raised his hand to signal the followers behind him to stop for the time being. He then stood outside the corridor and crossed his hands to Yuan Yu and said, "At the end of the day, The reason why the general is here is because of the unexpected incident in Kinei! I would like to invite you, Your Majesty, to be summoned here at the end!"

After hearing Yuchigang's words, Yuanyu's expression suddenly changed, and he hurriedly turned back to the palace to tell the emperor what Yuchigang said.

After hearing this, the emperor's face suddenly became a little unnatural, but immediately he frowned and shouted angrily: "If there is a counter-case in Jinei, the leader must have neglected his duty. This disciple did not rush to investigate and arrest, but came to the inner garden to breed." To cause trouble and make alarmist remarks! Isn’t it worthy of the imperial court to make such a mediocre person?”

When several people in the hall heard the emperor's words, they were a little surprised and confused for a moment. When the King of Huai'an reported the incident just now, they saw some panic on the emperor's face. Why did his expression and tone become fearless again now?

The emperor was unwilling to summon Yuchigang into the palace to meet him, and sent his staff out of the palace to convey instructions for Yuchigang to quickly leave the inner garden.

Of course, Yuchigang would not be dismissed so easily. He directly waved his hand and ordered his soldiers to place the heavy armor and equipment found in the inner treasury and the inner treasury stewards and other physical witnesses, and loudly talked about the theft of the arsenal and the stolen goods. He actually appeared in the inner garden.

After everyone in the palace heard Yu Chigang's shout, their expressions suddenly changed, and they looked at the emperor in surprise. The emperor suddenly became no longer calm. He stood up tremblingly from his bed, and with the support of the eunuch, he walked to the front of the palace. He looked at the witnesses and evidence displayed outside the palace, as well as Yuchi Gang and others in armor. The man's face also turned pale.

"The cultural relics of Lu and Lu are all taken by the Minister of Yuan Dynasty. I, I really don't know..."

The emperor lowered his head to avoid Yuchi Gang's angry gaze, and said hesitantly. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Yuchi Gang raise an angry eyebrow again, and he quickly said: "This matter is really strange, there is actually someone in the inner treasury... The leader must be strict Investigate and punish the ministers unjustly! The loyal ministers of the Yuan Dynasty will definitely not..."

Yu Chigang snorted coldly, and the officer put away the witnesses and evidence, and then looked around the crowd with cold eyes. Anyone caught by his gaze, regardless of their status, could not help but lower their heads. After a while, he bowed slightly to the emperor who was standing in front of the palace door, and then led everyone to leave.

After a while, the color gradually returned to the emperor's face, and he murmured: "Why is there heavy armor? Why is there an internal treasury..."

But soon, the doubts and fears on his face were replaced by anger. He looked at the direction Yu Chigang was leaving and said bitterly: "Unruly madman, I will never give you mercy when the day comes!"

As the heavy armor was found in the inner treasury, Yuchigang had also smoothed out part of his personnel logic. Shangshu Yuanlie was in charge of Wang Yi's Lu Bu. He took the opportunity to go to Xianyang to select Lu Bu's cultural relics and stole heavy weapons from the arsenal and hid them in the inner treasury. As for the purpose, it remains to be traced.

The reason why he showed this matter to the emperor was that he hoped that the emperor would be intimidated and not interfere with his pursuit of the truth. Of course, he also had a certain intention of showing off his power. After all, not everyone has the opportunity to show off their force in front of the emperor, even if he is just a puppet.

The follow-up investigation of the matter went very smoothly. As Shangshu Yuanlie was arrested, his slaves also took the initiative to confess that Yuanlie planned to arrange for the murderer to assassinate Grandmaster Yuwen in Wang Yilu's book at the end of the year. !

After learning about this, Yuchigang was also shocked and broke into a cold sweat. Fortunately, he noticed it early. If he had waited until the grand master arrived in Chang'an, who would have thought that there was a deadly killer hidden in the emperor's etiquette book?

Although he was afraid, Yuchigang couldn't help but have some doubts. It stands to reason that the most important thing in this kind of assassination is surprise. The short-bladed bow is the most advantageous, and the heavy armor is too conspicuous. Even if it is stolen, it is impossible to get close to Grand Master Yuwen. It is useless in the first place, and It increases the possibility of exposure, so why bother to steal?

After more in-depth interrogation, the results obtained also made people feel a bit dumbfounded. It turns out that hiding in the emperor's book and assassinating him was the first plan. If it didn't work, there were two other plans. That is to take advantage of Grand Master Yuwen's visit, guard the palace gate with strong men wearing armor, and ambush and kill his people inside.

The reason why there was such a superfluous plan was because Yuan Lie accidentally recruited several strong disciples and planned to use them to arrange a backup plan to increase the success rate, but unexpectedly, he was exposed instead.

Because other bows and knives were stolen in batches before, even though Yu Yi accidentally discovered them, it was difficult to get to the bottom of the investigation. On the contrary, the heavy armor was stolen just recently, and the clues in the investigation are clearer.

Of course, Yu Chigang did not believe that this was just a plot by Yuan Lie alone, but after finding out this step, he did not dare to take the initiative to continue the investigation. Instead, he reported this to the Huazhou Foreign Affairs Office and asked for instructions whether to continue the strict investigation.