Chapter 338: Carrier pigeon

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

The heater in the room rose with steaming heat, slipped out through the open window, was wrapped in the cold wind, 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 had been trained; the noise was extremely small when flying, and the flight trajectory was unpredictable, flying past the eaves and deliberately hiding in the shadows; if one didn't observe intentionally, it was impossible to find.

It flew for a cup of tea like this and arrived at the city gate. Along the city wall, it flew upward and was about to fly out of the city.

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

"Brother You, thank you."

"Easy!"

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

The carrier pigeon made a sharp turn and bypassed it.

"Oh, this is the main character."

That person 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 mechanical sounds of springs and chains suddenly sounded from the ground, and then ox-hair needles rained down, shooting toward the sky.

No matter how miraculous the carrier pigeon was, it couldn't enter the blade empty-handed. In an instant, it was pierced through by dozens of ox-hair needles, let out a wail, and crashed down.

You Zi'ang reached out to catch it, flipped over like a kite, 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 through the carrier pigeon's corpse.

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

He looked up.

"The letter tube is empty."

An Ziyang walked out of the shadow of the city wall and said with a smile.

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

He reached out to take the carrier pigeon, waved his hand, and a subordinate ran out of the shadow to take it.

"Investigate its origin and see if you can find any clues. If there are any discoveries, don't act rashly, report back immediately."

"Yes!"

The person 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 you had other clues, Brother An. 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 sender must have noticed, and it will be difficult to catch it in the future."

"Or do you know where the recipient in the city is?"

An Ziyang smiled with his hands behind his back.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have brought you to squat for half the night for a pigeon, I would have gone to the door and caught the person for interrogation."

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

You Zi'ang asked suspiciously.

"Just a coincidence."

An Ziyang smiled.

"This is Shuntian Prefecture; as soon as night falls, carrier pigeons fly around like locusts crossing the border, especially recently since the Commander started clashing with those civil officials; at least a dozen can be caught on this city wall every night."

"It's just that I was lucky tonight and caught the main character."

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

"Brother You, do you know what Battalion Commanders Wang, Li, and I have been busy with since the Moon-Gazing Banquet?"

"Don't know."

"After the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the Commander 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, the palace lost more than a hundred eunuchs, more than a hundred thousand taels of property, and even part of the secret treasury storing the Heaven-Man Inheritance was moved away."

"And there is also, do you remember the person the Commander brought back from the mountain after the Moon-Gazing Banquet? He was a eunuch, and after verification, the Zhou Zijing whose neck was broken by the Commander was instigated by him."

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

You Zi'ang paused.

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

"The backhand of that person?"

An Ziyang nodded with a smile.

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

You Zi'ang pulled An Ziyang's sleeve when he heard this, looked around to see no one, and lowered his voice.

"So... is this carrier pigeon tonight the work of those people?"

"Yes."

An Ziyang nodded.

"Even Brother You almost couldn't catch it, and it had to be shot down with the Rain of Pears; there is only such a thing in the palace that can be tamed."

"Then how could it be caught so carelessly?"

You Zi'ang frowned.

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

"It is to alert the enemy!"

An Ziyang waved his hand and said firmly, which made You Zi'ang stunned.

Specialization has its own expertise; You Zi'ang was a thief, his own aptitude was only top-notch in light skills, and his comprehension of other types of Wu Gong was extremely poor. Aside from secret visits and delivering letters, he could be said to be the most wooden brain under Li Miao aside from Mei Qinghe.

An Ziyang didn't sell it, and continued.

"Everyone uses carrier pigeons; if it were so easy to follow the vine to find the melon, no one would use them long ago. Especially the ones tamed by the palace method, even peak experts can't catch them easily, where would we get so many peak experts to squat for pigeons everywhere?"

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

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

"This batch of eunuchs were the personnel prepared by that person to replace the Embroidered Uniform Guard, selected from the best, and they could take any Wu Gong manual in the palace, which can be said to be more elite than the Battalion Commander that the Commander personally brought out."

"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 is no less a threat than Yingzhou."

"So Battalion Commander Wang, Battalion Commander Li, and I divided the work."

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

An Ziyang took You Zi'ang to Li Miao's office, 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's eyes widened after taking a look.

"This is!"

"News sent back by Battalion Commanders Wang and Li."

An Ziyang smiled with his hands behind his back.

"No matter how difficult this batch of people is, they ultimately have two weaknesses. One is few people, and the other is lack of experts, at most only one or two Heaven-Men sitting in town, and only the kind on the road."

"If they want to break the situation, they can only think of ways in Shuntian Prefecture, but their strength is not enough, so they must unite with others."

"Either evil path, or officials, or Yingzhou."

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

"To deal with this bunch 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 took a look, and his face became solemn.

"Brother An, who are these people?"

"After the Imperial Mausoleum affair, the new faces that appeared near the Commander, 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, so my verification was a bit difficult."

"But I can be sure that this bunch of eunuchs has disguise Wu Gong and will definitely lurk beside some important figure. Maybe they are in this Embroidered Uniform Guard Yamen... or even, not far from the Commander."

"If I don't care, it's dereliction of duty, but if I strike too hard, I have to be careful of them jumping over the wall in a hurry. If the Commander is hurt, what face do I have to see the Commander?"

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

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

"Brother You, please report to the Commander."

"Battalion Commanders Wang and Li have already found a clue, pointing to Shuntian Prefecture, and they will be able to find the main character along the vine in a month or two. I will also be able to finish screening the people in a month or two."

"At that time, we will converge in Shuntian Prefecture and wipe them out in one go!"

"Let the Commander rest assured, with me An Ziyang here, even if everyone in Shuntian Prefecture dies—the Commander 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 the 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, you have worked hard guarding all night."

"Go, go, go, I found a tea stall a few days ago, 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.

"No, practicing sword."

"Okay, you are busy, I won't delay you."

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

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

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

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

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

"Jinyi."

"Liu, Jinyi."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 339 =====