Chapter 300: Carrier pigeon

Zhu Yijing was still sleeping, Liu Jin looked for a long time, walked slowly back to the bed, drilled into his arms and closed her eyes.

The heater in the room rose with steaming heat, drilled out along the open window, was wrapped by the cold wind and climbed onto the roof, flew along the eaves, and caught up with the carrier pigeon released by Liu Jin.

This carrier pigeon didn't know how it was trained, the movement when flying was very small, and the flight trajectory was unpredictable, flying past the eaves, and deliberately hiding in the shadows, if not observed intentionally, it couldn't be found.

It flew for a cup of tea time, and arrived at the city gate. Along the city wall all the way up, it was about to fly out of the city.

Suddenly, someone said at the foot of the city wall.

"Brother You, thank you."

"Easy to say!"

A figure suddenly flashed and flew up, all the way up along the city gate tower, when reaching the top, kicked hard, the whole person rushed up several zhang, and reached out to grab the carrier pigeon.

The carrier pigeon made a sharp turn and bypassed it.

"Oh, this is the main owner."

The man fell from mid-air, without any disappointment, but with a trace of joy in his tone.

"It's up to you, Brother An."

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh*—

A series of machine spring sounds and chain movements suddenly sounded on the ground, and then a rain of cow-hair fine needles shot toward the sky.

No matter how miraculous the carrier pigeon was, it couldn't enter the blade with bare hands. In an instant, it was pierced through by dozens of cow-hair fine needles, let out a cry, and crashed down.

You Zi'ang reached out to catch it, a kite flip landed off the city wall, and drifted to the ground like a falling leaf.

"Hmm... no wonder it couldn't be caught."

You Zi'ang looked at the carrier pigeon's corpse.

"A 'flying slave' fed with secret medicine, this thing is worth at least a thousand taels of silver, no wonder it's so hard to catch!"

He raised his head.

"The letter tube is empty."

An Ziyang walked out of the shadow of the city wall, smiling and saying.

"I think so, if it were so simple to intercept letters, it would be strange."

He reached out to take the carrier pigeon, greeted his subordinates, and someone ran out of the shadow to take it.

"Check the origin, see if you can find some clues. If there is a discovery, don't act rashly, report back immediately."

"Yes!"

The man bowed and took the order.

You Zi'ang asked suspiciously.

"Brother An, is it over?"

"Yes."

An Ziyang smiled.

You Zi'ang shook his head.

"I thought Brother An, you had other clues. We squatted for half the night, just to catch a pigeon without a message?"

"Not to mention whether catching a pigeon is useful, we intercepted the carrier pigeon, the person who sent the letter must have noticed, it will be difficult to catch in the future."

"Or, did you know where the person who received the letter in the city was?"

An Ziyang said with his hands behind his back.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have squatted for half the night with Brother You to catch pigeons, I would have gone to the door and caught the person for interrogation."

"Then how could you know that you could catch a carrier pigeon here?"

You Zi'ang asked suspiciously.

"Just a coincidence."

An Ziyang smiled.

"This is the capital, carrier pigeons fly around like locusts crossing the border at night, especially recently when the Commander-in-Chief started to clash with those civil officials, at least a dozen can be caught on this city wall at night."

"It's just that the luck was good tonight, and the main owner was caught."

An Ziyang walked into the city, and You Zi'ang followed quickly.

"Brother You, do you know what I and Battalion Commanders Wang and Li were busy with after the Moon Appreciation Banquet?"

"Don't know."

"After the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the Commander-in-Chief took over the defense of the Imperial City. After counting, he found that during the time he rushed back to the capital from the Imperial Mausoleum, more than a hundred eunuchs and more than a hundred thousand taels of property were missing in the palace, and even a part of the secret treasury storing the Heavenly Human Inheritance was moved away."

"And there is also, do you remember the person the Regional Commander brought back from the mountain after the Moon Appreciation Banquet? He was a eunuch, and after verification, the Zhou Zijing who was pinched to death by the Regional Commander was instigated by him."

"Not just him, there were more than a dozen evil experts at the Moon Appreciation Banquet who had colluded with them in advance. If it weren't for the Regional Commander's divine power, directly beating half of the righteous path into submission, I don't know what kind of trouble would have been caused."

You Zi'ang paused.

"Eunuch... could it be—" Since it was on the street, it was not easy to say clearly, he raised his hand and pointed to the sky.

"The backhand of that person?"

An Ziyang smiled and nodded.

"Sitting in that position for more than twenty years, there are always a few loyal ministers. Even in the court, it is not that there are no ministers who noticed his strangeness and went to test him, but they were all 'handled' by the Commander-in-Chief."

You Zi'ang heard this, reached out and pulled An Ziyang's sleeve, looked left and right, and seeing no one, lowered his voice and said.

"So... tonight's carrier pigeon, is the handwriting of those people?"

"Yes."

An Ziyang nodded.

"Even Brother You almost couldn't catch it, and it had to be shot down with a rain of pear blossom needles, only the palace can train such a carrier pigeon."

"Then how can it be caught so rashly?"

You Zi'ang frowned.

"Since they are lurking in the capital, they must have a plan, maybe they want to attack the Commander-in-Chief. Why catch a pigeon? Isn't this alerting the enemy?"

"It is precisely to alert the enemy!"

An Ziyang waved his hand, saying decisively, which made You Zi'ang stunned.

There is a specialty in the art, You Zi'ang was a thief, his own qualifications were only top-notch in light work, and his comprehension of other martial arts was extremely poor. On weekdays, except for secret visits and sending letters, he could be said to be the most wooden one under Li Miao, except for Mei Qinghe.

An Ziyang didn't sell it, and continued.

"Carrier pigeons are used by everyone, if it were so easy to follow the vine and find the melon, no one would use it long ago. Especially the one trained by the palace method, even top experts can't catch it easily, where do we have so many top experts to squat on pigeons everywhere?"

"Being able to squat on this one is already good luck."

"Let's go back to the topic just now, at the Moon Appreciation Banquet, I, Battalion Commander Wang, and Battalion Commander Li were all on the scene, that little eunuch was interrogated by the three of us, and it can be considered that everything in his stomach was squeezed out."

"This batch of eunuchs, they were the personnel prepared to replace the Embroidered Uniform Guard by that person before, selected from the best, and they could take any martial arts manual in the palace, it can be said that they were more elite than the Battalion Command brought out by the Regional Commander himself."

"Disguise, poisoning, assassination, secret investigation, frontal confrontation, all have corresponding means, and they know the truth of the Imperial Mausoleum affair. Leaving such a batch of people in the Great Ming, the threat is no less than Yingzhou."

"So I and Battalion Commanders Wang and Li divided the errands."

While talking, the two walked to the gate of the Embroidered Uniform Guard Yamen.

An Ziyang took You Zi'ang to Li Miao's duty room, nodded to Mei Qinghe who was leaning against the corner of the wall with a sword, took a stack of paper from the table, picked a few and handed them to You Zi'ang.

You Zi'ang took it and glanced at it, his eyes widened.

"This is!"

"News from Battalion Commanders Wang and Li."

An Ziyang smiled with his hands behind his back.

"No matter how difficult this batch of people is, they have two weaknesses after all. One is that there are few people, and the other is that there are not enough experts, at most only one or two Heavenly Humans sitting in town, and they are only of the first path."

"If they want to break the situation, they can only find a way in this capital, but their strength is not enough, so they must unite with others."

"Either evil, or officials, or Yingzhou."

"Yingzhou is personally investigated by the Regional Commander, while Battalion Commanders Wang and Li are investigating the evil and officials—recently there have been some results, since Brother You came back to deliver the letter, it is just right to bring these news back to the Regional Commander."

"To deal with this group of people, you can't be in a hurry."

An Ziyang then picked up a stack of paper from the table and handed it to You Zi'ang.

You Zi'ang just glanced at it, and his face became heavy.

"Brother An, who are these people?"

"After the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the strangers who appeared near the Commander-in-Chief, various Battalion Commanders, high-ranking court officials and their families."

An Ziyang pointed to the stack of paper.

"After the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the court was in turmoil, and even the people in the capital were changed. My verification here is also a bit laborious."

"But I can be sure that this group of eunuchs has disguise techniques, and they will definitely lurk around some important figures. Maybe they are in this Embroidered Uniform Guard Yamen... or even, not far from the Commander-in-Chief."

"If I don't care, it's dereliction of duty, but if I start too hard, I have to be careful that they jump over the wall in a hurry. If the Commander-in-Chief is hurt, what face do I have to see the Regional Commander?"

"So, intercepting a carrier pigeon, startling these dead eunuchs, letting them slow down their hands and feet, the scale is just right."

An Ziyang leaned against the table and looked at You Zi'ang.

"Brother You, please report to the Regional Commander for me."

"Battalion Commanders Wang and Li have already traced a clue, pointing to the capital, and they can find the main owner by following the vine in one or two months. I can also finish checking the people in one or two months."

"At that time, we will converge in the capital and catch them all in one net!"

"Let the Regional Commander rest assured, with me An Ziyang here, even if everyone in this capital dies—the Commander-in-Chief will never have any accidents!"

You Zi'ang nodded solemnly and bowed.

"Brother An, rest assured, I will definitely bring the words!"

After saying that, he returned the paper to An Ziyang, flashed out of the door, turned into a black shadow, swept across the roof like lightning, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

An Ziyang looked at the thick stack of paper full of names in his hand, put it on the table, turned to Mei Qinghe and smiled.

"Battalion Commander Mei, guarded all night, hard work."

"Go, go, go, I found a tea stall in the past few days, their breakfast, tsk tsk tsk, it's delicious~"

"If you give me face, I will take you to taste it?"

Mei Qinghe opened her eyes.

"Don't go, practice sword."

"Okay, you are busy, don't delay you."

An Ziyang walked out of the duty room, stretched, and walked toward the outside of the Yamen.

The morning breeze blew into the open door, turning over the stacked paper on the table. Mei Qinghe walked over, reached out to take the paperweight to press it, her gaze swept over it unconsciously, but paused.

She took away the paperweight, took one out from inside, and looked at it carefully.

On the paper, a delicate face was outlined with fine brushwork, smiling cautiously at Mei Qinghe. Her brows furrowed, she just felt like she had seen it somewhere, but the impression was not deep, and it was difficult to remember for a while.

So she looked again, found the name of this face at the bottom of the paper, and said it softly.

"Jin Yi."

"Liu, Jinyi."