If it was someone else, Song Xiangyu would not be in the mood to pay attention to him at this time, but since it was Su Yao who came over, he stopped, glanced at her and said softly: "Miss Su, you already know about this, right?"
Su Yao heard about this from the Eleventh Princess.
What happened to Xiao Heng was a big deal. Emperor Yuanfeng urgently summoned the cabinet to discuss the matter. It could no longer be concealed. All the important people already knew about it. The Eleventh Princess could not hide her anxiety and fear. She told Su Yao about it carefully and also tactfully revealed that this time not only was Xiao Heng burned beyond recognition, but all the people who followed Xiao Heng were wiped out.
In other words, even Su Rong died.
The Eleventh Princess has been living with Su Yao for several months now, and has a very good relationship with him. She also knows how good the relationship between Su Yao and Su Rong is, and she was afraid that Su Yao would faint from the shock, so she sincerely comforted her for a while.
Su Yao was not as excited and out of control as she had expected, nor did he fly into a rage. She was actually quite frightened, and fearing that Su Yao would become unhappy, she kept trying to get him to stay in her bedroom.
But Su Yao refused. It wasn't that she wasn't sad, but she just didn't believe in fate.
If she were to say that Xiao Heng and Su Rong could be killed silently, she would not believe it even more.
Since she didn't believe it, she naturally had no reason to be heartbroken before she saw the bodies of Su Rong and Xiao Heng.
She nodded: "I have heard something. Uncle Song should have just returned from His Majesty. Can you tell me what you know?"
People outside only knew that Xiao Heng and Su Rong were dead, but how could ordinary people know the details? Even the Eleventh Princess only knew these, and most of them just shook their heads and said they didn't know.
Song Xiangyu hummed, rubbed his temple and made a gesture, indicating that Su Yao should follow him into the tent.
After entering the tent, he asked Su Yao to sit down first, and then repeated the contents of the memorial from Zhaotong Prefecture, and then said: "He said in the memorial that the Crown Prince and his followers, the Earl of Yongding and the Princess of Yongning, were all killed in the fire. When the government officials arrived, the assassin had already escaped. Now they are trying their best to catch the assassin in Zhaotong, and I believe there will be results soon."
Capture the assassin
Su Yao was silent for a while. Seeing Song Xiangyu taking out the map and studying it carefully, he asked softly, "Is Zhaotong far from Dali?"
Song Xiangyu looked up at her and said, "It's far. They just went to Yunnan from the border of Guangxi. They entered the territory of Yunnan only after entering Zhaotong."
"Is Mu Tong's power in Yunnan so huge?" Su Yao asked expressionlessly, "I heard that Yunnan is divided into inner and outer areas, which is commonly known as the area outside the three rivers where the natives are not suitable for floating, and the area inside the three rivers where floating is not suitable for the natives. That is, the hinterland is still the general prefectures and counties, while in the remote areas, Xuanweisi is set up, and local prefects and local county magistrates are appointed to let the local people govern the locals, right?"
There was a hint of surprise in Song Xiangyu's eyes. He didn't expect that Su Yao even knew this.
But then he nodded in appreciation: "That's right, the internal and external division of power does have its benefits. For a long time, the natives were relatively law-abiding, but this also has disadvantages. The disadvantage is that the natives' obedience is based on the fact that the local chieftains are also law-abiding and obedient to the court. Once the local chieftains have second thoughts, things will become very difficult. This is why the native rebellion lasted for more than ten years. Mu Tong's father and brothers were wholeheartedly loyal to the court, so when they were in power, the natives were obedient and did not cause any major incidents. But once they got into trouble, the ambitious Mu Tong succeeded him, and things became different. The local natives didn't know how he got to the top, they just blindly worshipped the chieftain and obeyed his decisions."
So when he learned that the court had accepted Miss Mu San and Mu Qinglu, Mu Tong immediately instigated the already peaceful natives to make trouble again. And this time Mu Tong did not leave any room for them. He slandered the old chieftains who originally supported Miss Mu San as criminals who colluded with the court, and wanted to kill dissidents.
However, this is just as the doubts raised by Su Yao.
Yunnan is divided into internal and external areas, and the imperial court has limited control and intervention in the affairs of the natives, because after all, the gap is quite deep, and the locals only recognize the chieftains and not the government.
But at the same time, these provincial capitals located within the hinterland are not subject to any control from the chieftains.
If that is the case, how did Mu Tong's forces infiltrate so many prefectures, assassinate Xiao Heng in Zhaotong, and set fire to the post station and killed more than 500 people
This is an obvious suspicion.
Song Xiangyu snorted coldly and pointed out bluntly: "There are too many suspicious points in this matter. If the so-called assassin can travel all the way from Dali to Zhaotong, then it can only be said that Yunnan really needs to be pacified."
Su Yao knew that he had understood what he meant, so he also said, "One more thing, Uncle Song, do you think that His Royal Highness is the kind of person who has no ability to fight back?"
Song Xiangyu looked at her deeply and shook his head: "Of course not."
He absolutely would not believe that Song Heng would be burned to death without any ability to fight back.
"Then let's assume that nothing happened to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and my brother. If nothing happened to them, but they didn't contact the Zhaotong government, then what would happen? In other words, is the Zhaotong government's statement in the memorial about tracking down the assassin a real assassin?" Su Yao pointed out directly. Seeing Song Xiangyu suddenly look up at him, he calmly met his gaze and continued, "Uncle Song is going to Zhaotong, I'm afraid he has to go as soon as possible."
Otherwise, Xiao Heng, Su Rong and others would be attacked from all sides.
Song Xiangyu was shocked and stood up immediately: "I will go and ask to see His Majesty."
What Su Yao said was, if Xiao Heng and Su Rong were fine, but Zhaotong said that Xiao Heng and Su Rong were dead, and they were still looking for the murderer, were they looking for the real assassin, or Xiao Heng and Su Rong? If so, then Xiao Heng and Su Rong were really in danger.
He nodded to Su Yao and went to see Emperor Yuanfeng without stopping. Because all this was just speculation for the time being, he naturally could not say that Zhaotong Palace and the others had definitely done something, but he repeatedly reiterated that he would set off for Yunnan immediately.
Emperor Yuanfeng knew him very well. Seeing how anxious he was, he hesitated for a moment and then asked people to urge the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel to speed up the arrangement of personnel and cooperate with Song Xiangyu to set off immediately.
At this moment, Old Mrs. Su, who was far away in the capital, still didn't know what had happened.