Chapter 456 Story
The front cover and back cover were made of thick dark blue paper, very old, and the corners were rolled up and felt soft and slumped. There were no words on the front cover. During the process of circulation, someone cleverly wrote "Chun Yu Xiao" on it. There are three big characters, the word "Owl" is missing a little, and the handwriting is completely different from the text inside.
The guards and the imperial physician investigated for seven days, but they couldn't find any trace of poison. Only at the urging of the emperor, they handed over the remnants of the book.
During these seven days, Han Ruzi was at a loss.
Yang Feng actually left like this, even more decisive than those heroes in the arena who were unwilling to be loyal to the court: the grandfather and grandson of the Du family chose to return to the arena, the cook chose to disappear, the ugly king chose to be assigned to the frontier, and Yang Feng ran directly to death.
Han Ruzi didn't look at the corpse, and the people around him disagreed. He himself felt that it was unnecessary. Yang Feng left a message to the emperor, not through the corpse, but conveyed it in a broken book.
Han Ruzi did not return to the bedroom tonight, nor did he summon any of his concubines. He sat in Lingyun Pavilion and watched at night.
The original book was indeed very thick, at least 300 pages long, but now there are only three pages left. The two incoherent words at the beginning and the end are removed, and the rest of the content records a story.
There is no official history or unofficial history of this story, and the author does not give a place to write it down in the tone of an insider.
The protagonist is Han Fu, Taizu of Great Chu. According to the Holy Soldier, most of the content of this book is related to the hegemony of Chu, Qi, and Zhao, and the same is true for this little story.
The story directly calls Taizu "Han Fu".
The general idea is that after Han Fu destroyed Chen Qi and Zhuang Zhao, he was sitting on the world, but his heart could not be settled. The Zhuang family was completely destroyed, but the Chen family fled. With the appeal of the Chen family in the Qilu area, they may make a comeback at any time. .
Han Fu sent a large number of cronies to various places to supervise the government to search for the whereabouts of the descendants of the Chen family. At the same time, he relocated a large number of Qi people to enrich the northern and southern counties.
A confidant found a clue.
It turns out that the descendants of the Chen family have always been protected by heroes, hiding in Tibet, and only less than a hundred miles from the capital recently.
Han Fu was furious. He used to be a third- or fourth-rate hero. When he was hunted down by the government, he also received help from many heroes, but he is now the emperor, the only emperor in the world, and he can't stand the illegal actions of heroes. , so the decree was passed that within one month, the descendants of the Chen family must be handed over, otherwise, all the heroes who had received the descendants of the Chen family would be sentenced to death, even implicated in the three clans.
On the day of expiry, seven heroes from all over the country went to the local yamen to surrender themselves, but they refused to disclose the whereabouts of the descendants of the Chen family, but chose to commit suicide.
Three days later, a descendant of the Chen family suddenly appeared on the streets of the capital. After loudly declaring his identity, he committed suicide in public to thank the heroes for their protection.
The public opinion in the world was fierce, and Han Fu was also afraid. He pretended to amnesty and released others related to this. Since then, the public pursuit was turned into a secret investigation, but until Han Fu died of illness, no other descendants of the Chen family were found.
What is this story trying to say? Han Ruzi was confused after reading it.
After reading it three times, he decided to seek the opinion of others.
"Meng E, come and have a look."
Since living in the palace, Han Ruzi has been busy with government affairs during the day and rarely sleeps alone at night. Meng E is still nominally the emperor's personal maid, and there are not many opportunities for the two to meet, but there is no alienation and strangeness caused by this. Ruzi called her name casually, she hummed, and came over, as usual, not cold or indifferent.
There were three pages of paper, Meng E read quickly, put down the paper, and looked at the emperor.
"What do you think this story is about?"
"I think this story is false. In the records of Righteous Island, the descendants of the Chen family were protected by a group of loyal ministers and fled directly to the sea, which has nothing to do with heroes."
"This is a book that teaches people how to rebel. All stories should be examples to illustrate a truth. It doesn't matter whether it is true or false. I am wondering, what is the truth of this story?"
Meng E picked up the paper again, and read the last half of the paragraph, all praising the hero, not saying "reason".
She thought for a while, "First of all, people who write stories don't like Da Chu Taizu."
Han Ruzi snorted, this is an obvious fact, he glanced at the Taizu sword on the table, since the sword was returned to the original owner, he has been with him.
Meng E thought for a while, "Probably saying that heroes can also embarrass the emperor and make the emperor bow his head. Didn't the Taizu in the story let other people go in the end?"
"Why did Yang Feng keep this story? Or why did the person who killed Yang Feng do this?"
"Your Majesty still suspects that Yang Feng was assassinated?"
"Luan Banxiong said that books can kill people, but Yang Feng really died, but there are only three pages left in the book. I can't help but doubt it."
"Then this is a provocation. The assassin wants to tell the emperor that he will escape without a trace like the descendants of the Chen family, and His Majesty will never be able to catch him. The best choice is to give up like Taizu."
Han Ruzi nodded, feeling a bit reasonable, but not what he wanted.
Meng E's thoughts became more and more, "Perhaps this story wants to say that it doesn't matter whether the descendants of the Chen family can be found. The ancestors managed the Great Chu well, the world is peaceful, and the descendants of the Chen family are powerless to return to heaven."
Han Ruzi smiled, "What if this is Yang Fenggu's suspicion?"
Meng E didn't understand.
Han Ruzi explained: "There may not be any assassins at all. Yang Feng felt that he was seriously ill. In order to impress me, he personally created the illusion of assassination."
"Is Yang Feng a liar?"
"It's not that simple. Yang Feng must have something to say to me. The content is in this story."
"Can't he tell Chao Jing to tell His Majesty directly?"
Han Ruzi shook his head, "He wants me to remember this story firmly."
Meng E was even more confused, "Yang Gongzhen has no need to do this."
Han Ruzi was silent for a while. If this was Yang Feng's purpose, the eunuch had indeed succeeded, and Han Ruzi could no longer remove the story from his heart.
"Go and rest, I'm going to sleep later."
Meng E stepped back and did not go to rest, but still stood in the corner, watching the emperor silently.
Han Ruzi thought she was gone, stared at the remnant book for a long time, suddenly stood up, picked up the sword of Taizu, and drew it out of its sheath.
The sword was still cold, and when it fell into the hands of the robbers, it seemed that it had not been used.
"It's a good sword, but it's useless." Han Ruzi forgot that Meng E was "absent" and spoke to her again.
Meng E remembered and said nothing.
"On the battlefield, bows and crossbows and spears are used. There are occasional close combats, and machetes are more useful than swords. Jianghu people like to use swords, and Taizu may have always regarded himself as a hero."
Han Ruzi looked at the sword carefully against the candlelight, and put the scabbard on the table.
The sword is a good sword, but because it is too good, he is reluctant to use it. Han Ruzi sighed softly and planned to put the sword back into the scabbard. When he lowered his head, he saw a small piece of paper at the exit of the scabbard.
Han Ruzi was surprised.
The piece of paper is smaller than the cover of a finger, one side is blacked out, and the other side is turned over and there are characters, a "hand" character.
Taizu's sword has also been inspected, but since Chao Jing, everyone respects this sword very much.
Han Ruzi put down the sword, picked up the scabbard and placed it upside down, knocked it lightly twice, and a few pieces of paper fell out of the scabbard.
There are four pieces in total, the backs are all blacked out, and one word is written on the front, namely "hand", "please", "owl" and "receive".
Han Ruzi simply arranged it into the words "please stop the owl".
"Hey, Chunyu Xiao told me to stop and stop tracing his whereabouts." Han Ruzi sneered, and became even more confused.
According to Chao Jing, on the day he arrived at the military village a month ago, he got the Taizu sword from Yang Feng. Since then, the sword has never left his body, and Yang Feng has never wanted to go back.
It is speculated that the piece of paper was not put in by Yang Feng the night he died. He had difficulty getting up and could not do anything else.
"You're giving me a problem again, and this time you won't even tell me the question." Han Ruzi muttered to himself, thinking that back then, Yang Feng often asked the emperor questions, and each question took several days or even a month to think about.
Han Ruzi went to bed and lay down.
Meng E walked to the table, put the sword back in its sheath, glanced at the four pieces of paper, rearranged it to become "Xiao, please put your hand away", then disturbed, reached out and squeezed out the candle, and walked out of the room in the dark.
Lingyun Pavilion was big enough that she slept in the next room.
Han Ruzi couldn't forget Yang Feng, and to find out the truth suddenly became more important than the world's major events.
In the afternoon of the next day, Han Ruzi summoned Jin Chunzhong, "You go and find out if there is anything suspicious about Yang Feng's death."
Jin Chunzhong took orders, which was a time-consuming and arduous task. He had to repeat Yang Feng's return to Beijing and ask everyone who had been in contact with Yang Feng in the last month.
Han Ruzi still felt that it was not enough, so he called the eunuch Jing Yao again.
"Has Duke Jing investigated Yang Feng's origins?"
Jing Yao once checked the origins of Meng Che and Meng E, and the information he got was accurate.
"It was investigated, but it was soon stopped by Empress Dowager Cishun."
"Any clues?"
"Some are incoherent and don't explain anything."
"Continue to investigate."
Jing Yao looked at the emperor in surprise.
"No problem with Yang Feng, I just want to know... Where is his family, Yang Feng said he has a son."
"Yes, Your Majesty. It's a long way off. It might take a while."
"I'm not in a hurry, but you have to investigate carefully."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Jing Yao stepped down and was very happy to receive this task. He was also interested in Yang Feng and had always wanted to find out, and now he finally had the opportunity.
Han Ruzi still felt that it was not enough, Yang Feng gave the emperor a problem, and Han Ruzi had to think and solve it as the emperor.
Yang Feng was dead, and the Holy Soldier and Luan Banxiong who had read the book were also executed, but there was still one person alive. Although he had not read the book, he could somewhat understand the meaning of it.
The looker Lin Kunshan once committed crimes and went to Yunmengze to help Yang Feng suppress the bandits. Maybe he can interpret the story and solve the problem left by Yang Feng.