Chapter 23: The Earth-Shattering Secret

  After a while, Qin Qiong returned, and the soldiers behind him carried 5 corpses and followed in.

  After entering the house, Qin Qiong reported to me: "There are six Fu Sang people in the mansion. These people were very ferocious and resisted with knives when they saw us rushing in. As a result, we killed five of them on the spot, and one was seriously injured. Now, we have found a doctor to treat him. We searched their bodies and found several tokens and a letter. I'll show it to Your Excellency."

  I took the sign and looked at it, it was the same as the one in my hand. I then looked at the letter again and was shocked to find that it was a letter from Liu Hei's son to his stepmother. The letter said that she must take good care of something and that things were going smoothly for him. It wouldn't be long before he could reunite with his stepmother in Japan, where they would live together happily ever after.

  Holding this messy letter in my hand, I was a bit dazed. After circling around the room several times and looking up to see Qin Qiong also following me in circles behind me, I asked: "Have you read this letter? What do you plan to do?"

  Qin Qiong smiled bitterly and said: "The more chaotic it gets, the more chaos is added, what can be done about it? Let's talk about this letter after things are settled here."

  I nodded and said: "Now we can't afford it, let's deal with what's in front of us first".

  He beckoned to Xu Yuqian and said to her: "This letter you immediately copy two copies, one sent to Gaoyou, the other letter handed over to Shangjiang General Shang of Jinling, the original you hide well on your body, let the apprentice in the rice shop send it, go quickly";. Xu Yuqian took the letter and went to the back hall.

  I then asked Qin Qiong: "How many defending soldiers are there in Yangzhou, can you mobilize them all?"

  Qin Qiong smiled and replied: "Don't worry about this, I'm also an old hand at martial arts, I won't let any important matters slip away, there are a few school lieutenants who seem to be the governor's confidants, I'll deal with them in a moment, fortunately you've taken care of the governor, and the order for the transfer was also passed on in front of that fatty's face, I think it won't be a big problem."

  I nodded and said: "Did you see those two Japanese girls sitting on the table? I think they're not simple, do you have any way to dig up some information from them?"

  Qin Qiong stared at me with a straight face for a while, then suddenly put on a sly smile and said in a low voice: "No wonder Miss Xu said that your gaze towards those two Japanese girls was not right, and even said that you drooled all over the table. I say, Xiao Jiu, do you really have a crush on these two? I think Miss Xu is quite good to you, she's beautiful and talented in both literature and martial arts. Why don't you forget about these two and let me be your matchmaker? Once this matter is settled, we'll go propose to Miss Xu, how about that?"

  He didn't say anything serious with his mouth, but his actions were not ambiguous. With a wave of his hand, more than 20 tiger-like soldiers rushed over and pressed them down, tied them up, and searched their bodies. Before long, several soldiers cried out in surprise: "General, these two Japanese women are...are men in disguise!"

  After hearing this, I almost threw up at the time, and my heart was extremely disgusted. For the first time kissing a woman, but ended up kissing a man instead. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became, the more I wanted to vomit. I gritted my teeth and fiercely said to Qin Qiang: "You immediately send someone to capture Nan Yun's brothers, I want to personally... personally chop them off". At this point, my voice was shaking with rage, almost in tears.

  Qin Qiong looked at me and shook his head, saying: "You're really unlucky." He wanted to continue speaking when he saw that my eyes were red, so he quickly brought people to take away those two demons.

  When I returned to the main hall, I was still fuming and felt uncomfortable whether sitting or standing. After pacing back and forth in the room like a donkey grinding grain for over 20 rounds, I cursed loudly: "Damn you, Four Joys Pills! This is what you call 'good looking'!" As soon as I finished speaking, I turned around and ran towards the room where he was being held.

  I arrived at the house and suppressed my anger, slowly walking to the already bound Four Joys who looked like a ball, and squatted down to pat his fat face with my hand several times. Seeing me busy, Four Joys said: "Your Highness spare my life, this old slave knows his mistake."

  The chess master's servant said: "This old fellow has been making a ruckus since he came in, crying and shouting to see you, disturbing my peace of mind. He only calmed down after I kicked him a few times earlier."

  I smiled dazedly and pulled over a chair to sit in front of him, asking: "Do you have something to see me about? I already know everything that needs to be known, your hideout has been raided by my men, several were killed and several were caught. The two brothers from Nanyun are also being held by me, and those two Japanese demons are also under arrest. You're finished, do you understand? I'm here to see you now to ask if there's anything else you need to take care of, your family will be spared for the time being, after I report this to the Emperor, whether or not he wants to exterminate your entire family is up to him. If you have something to say, speak quickly, if it's something that can be done, I'll help you with it, but if it's something that can't be done, don't waste my time, lest I get angry with a dead man like you."

  Si Xi Wan Zi nearly peed his pants after hearing my words and knelt on the ground, wailing: "Your Highness, please allow me to speak, I have something confidential to tell you."

  "I irritably waved my hand and said: 'Don't try to get close to me, even if you don't say it I won't know about it, as the saying goes 'if you want to keep a secret, don't do anything', now that you've fallen to this point, are you still trying to save your life?'"

  Those four happy pills almost buried their heads in the ground, rubbed their fat faces on my legs and cried in a hoarse voice: "Your Highness, please listen to me, I really have something important to tell you." I turned back to give a squeeze to Shifu's eyes, made a hand gesture, then suddenly stood up, lifted my foot and kicked the four happy pills, turned around and walked out while scolding fiercely: "You ungrateful thing, still not finished here. I'll call someone to flay your skin right now."

  Shi Bo hastily pulled me back and said with a smile: "Your Highness, calm down, I think it's better for you to listen to what he has to say, see if there's anything useful in his words. This person is the house slave of the Grand Duke, if he really says something useful, I think you should spare his life, this way you can also help the Grand Duke save some face."

  As he spoke, he helped me sit down on the chair. I sighed again and said: "I know you want to save your life, and I don't want to kill you either. When I was young, my older brother often praised you when we played together. Today's events have unexpectedly reached this point, so even if I wanted to protect you, I would need some basis for doing so. This person, really doesn't know where to start talking about it."

  Si Xi Wan Zi hastily said: "Your Highness, before you arrived, the Grand Duke sent a secret message saying that you were coming to Yangzhou to discuss an alliance with the Silla people, and ordered me to closely monitor your movements. He also bribed a Japanese ninja to assassinate you."

  I gave a wry smile and said helplessly: "It seems that my brother's prejudice against me is getting deeper and deeper. He always thinks I have the intention of usurping his throne, but in fact, I, Li Shimin, never had such an idea. Now that the world has not yet been pacified and the various lords have not yet surrendered to the Great Tang, I am working hard for the sake of our family's great cause, only to be met with his unjustifiable murderous intentions. Alas... Once the world is at peace, I will retire to a mountain and never again ask about worldly affairs. Otherwise, it would end up with us brothers killing each other, leaving future generations to laugh at us."

  Si Xi Wan Zi knocked his head again and said: "Your Highness is indeed a magnanimous person, old slave..."

  I waved my hand and asked: "Is that all? I already know everything."

  Si Xiu hurriedly said: "Xie Zihui's rebel army has 5,000 cavalrymen lying in ambush on the road back to Beijing, intending to harm Your Highness."

  As soon as he said this, I almost fell off my chair. Before I could think carefully, he continued: "Liu Hei's wife is hiding in the main temple of the Mikage ninja in Fusang country, and that woman has the national seal passed down from the ancestral dragon on her body."

  Another big hammer hit me and I was dizzy with stars spinning around my head. Just as I was about to ask a question, Si Xi Wan Zi spoke up again: "Liu Hei Cha's son has infiltrated the capital city and is planning to assassinate the Emperor together with the leader of the Fu Sang ninjas."

  Those three moves of yours almost scared me to death, looking at the chess master sitting opposite me with sweat all over his head I was completely confused. There's nothing here that I can control myself, must hurry to inform Officer and Lord, thinking of this I stood up and said: "I don't have time to chat nonsense with you here, what you said I've already heard before, write down everything you know for me to see, I'm tired, want to go sleep, temporarily won't kill you tomorrow morning, let me take a look at what you wrote then talk".

  He then instructed Chess Master Bo: "Take good care of him, if he doesn't listen, don't let him stay."

  He said that and made a gesture to the teacher to take care of Si Ximazi. He turned around and rushed to the main hall. When I arrived at the main hall, I was so scared that my whole body was sweating and my hands and feet were numb. I thought for a moment with my head down and came up with a plan.