Kou Qianzhi is in his early 60s this year, and his origins are a mystery. Some people say that he is a child of a landlord's family, and some people say that he was taught by an immortal on Mount Tai. He is very knowledgeable.
He is good at identifying poison and also good at detoxification.
According to him, he had obtained the divine book left by Shennong's lineage, and knew all kinds of herbal medicines in the world.
Tuoba Tao was 70 percent suspicious of this Taoist priest, but even so, he would not joke about his life. One of Kou Qian said it was poisonous, so he asked someone to find a sheep and stab it with a crossbow arrow.
After a while, the sheep vomited and vomited, and sure enough, convulsed and died.
This result made that Su Wei's face turn pale, and after accusing him, he ran to wash his hands in a flash. Tuoba Tao's face was ashen. Such a violent poison was not an ordinary thing. Most of the poisons used by ordinary people were nothing more than arsenic. Those that could be smeared on arrows and had no color were not available to ordinary soldiers.
It was said that He Mulan was guarding the door when suddenly Tuoba Tao sent someone to summon her and asked her to meet. He Mulan asked Mangu to guard the gate and went to the Dianjiangtai.
It turned out that Tuoba Tao had already learned from Kumoti and Cui Hao about the assassination attempt last time, but no one knew about the details except He Mulan, so he had to ask He Mulan again.
He Mulan started talking about how he hid in the tent, how to hear their conversation, how they waited for more than a quarter of an hour after the secret conversation, how he went out after everyone had left, and so on.
"Then why did you go there?" Tuoba Tao pressed and asked, "You are Kumoti's personal soldier, the place where the junk is piled up should not be the place you should go..."
He Mulan glanced at Kou Qianzhi, who seemed to have nothing to do with her, which made He Mulan angry and said angrily, "I went to the toilet that day and found a man dressed as a monk in the army tent. Shuttle in the middle, how can there be a Taoist priest in the Chinese army? I was puzzled, so I followed his back all the way to find him. Later, when I saw him entering the tent, I followed up and wanted to ask him why he was wandering in the Chinese army..."
Everyone looked at Kou Qianzhi with puzzled eyes. Kou Qianzhi was also taken aback for a moment, and then he started to think.
"I opened the tent and found that there was no one else inside, and I heard footsteps outside. I couldn't explain to them why I ran into the sundries tent, so I had to lift a blanket, get in, and hide among the many sundries. between."
He Mulan smiled wryly.
"I only heard the voice of the leader, I didn't see the other person's appearance, and the other people didn't speak a few times, so I couldn't tell who it was."
The most interesting thing about this is who the priest is. Hearing He Mulan's words, Cui Hao immediately stood up and shook his head and said, "It can't be Daochang Kou. Daochang Kou was with me that day and never left."
"Then Dao Master Kou, have you brought other Dao boys to the Montenegro camp?"
Tuoba Tao stared at Kou Qianzhi. Seeing the latter shaking his head silently, he rubbed his forehead with a great headache: "How come a Taoist priest still appears..."
"Your Majesty, you are the real Son of Heaven. Maybe God will warn you, and it may not be necessary to send messengers to lead loyal people to relieve the misfortune..." Kou Qianyi said seriously: "Although this is strange, it is not a unique thing. Han Liu Bang beheaded The White Snake Uprising, and Jin also had gods who came down to teach Taoism..."
"You man, your words are really ridiculous." Tuoba Tao interrupted him roughly. "Now we need to find the group of people who shoot the arrows. The crossbow machine is not easy to carry. There must be several people who brought the parts and temporarily assembled it on the school ground. Otherwise, if one person came in with the crossbow machine swaggeringly, there must be many people. see."
With a cold face, he pointed at the soldiers under the control of the school grounds who were not allowed to go out.
"Check! Check one by one, and let the people who have seen the crossbow identify them one by one!"
Kou Qianzhi took a poisoned arrow, rubbed the arrow with his finger, put his finger in his mouth, and spit it out with a "bah".
"The begonias and the heartbroken grass, it seems that there are still some roots of Aconitum... The material of this poison is not unusual, and they are all common in the Central Plains. This North Aconitum is only produced in the grasslands, and it is suitable for medicinal use. The people here are amazing, so many ordinary things can be mixed into such a big poison, this poison should have been prepared recently, and there is some astringency..."
He Mulan silently watched Kou Qianyi say "there is still some astringency", like a gourmet of later generations, and looked at his mouth curiously to see if it would swell into a sausage mouth.
Nothing happened, Kou Qianzhi just shook his head and said to Tuoba Tao: "Your Majesty, the roots of Aconite vulgaris are highly poisonous, and all the flowers and leaves of Aconitum chinensis wither in winter, you can't find them, only spring buds. I can only find it. This poison has only been prepared recently. Maybe it is just waiting for this medicine to be introduced. Your Majesty can send someone to inquire about it. Recently, there may be some soldiers sneaking to dig for herbs or wild vegetables. Find the person who dispensed the poison."
Hearing this, Tuoba Tao was overjoyed, and immediately called Kumo to bring it up. He wanted to join the military tent and find someone to go to all the tents to ask if anyone had been digging medicine or digging up something to bring back recently.
After a while, Su Wei, who was beside Tuoba Tao, brought forty or fifty people over, everyone was wearing gray clothes and looked terrified.
The person who was the first to say that the person standing on the stone pier was wearing gray clothes had no idea what the gray-clothed man looked like. After all, he was looking from the bottom up and could only see a chin.
But he remembered that the other party was wearing gray clothes, a pair of shoes with black sides and white bottoms, tall stature, and holding a crossbow in his hand.
In such a crowded place, it is difficult to assassinate without being noticed at all. However, the men in the army usually wear gray, black and khaki clothes, because these colors are the most resistant to dirt, so as soon as they are pulled out, they pull forty or fifty people.
Except for those who were not wearing black shoes and were short, more than 20 people out of the 40 or 50 people were selected.
Some people came in groups, and there were a large number of people nearby who testified. After half of them were removed, only eleven people were left who could not prove what they were doing at the time.
He Mulan was just waiting patiently for the results of the search, because even in modern times, to investigate a murderer among a group of people, in addition to conducting surveillance, she could only conduct on-the-spot investigations, and she didn't offer any advice.
But when the eleven people stood up, He Mulan was still surprised.
Because she originally had the same fire, but she was later promoted to kill ghosts in the Great Competition, and she was also among them.
Kumoti was at He Mulan's side at this time. Seeing her face changed, he asked her in a low voice, "But what's wrong?"
He Mulan was the only person who had contact with these assassins, and it was normal for her to find something wrong.
"No... Among these people, one of these people used to be on fire with me, and the fifth from the left, and I used to eat, live, and practice together. So, I was a little surprised."
He Mulan's heart was turbulent, but she tried her best to hide her surprise and showed a calm look.
"Oh, your fellow fire?"
Kumoti glanced at the man.
This Hua Mulan's past expression of Tonghuo was very surprised, as if she regretted why she came here.
A few people who had seen the man in gray stood beside them, carefully looked at their clothes, shoes, and figure, and even asked them to stand on the stone pier to simulate the scene at that time, but the last remaining people were tall, short and fat. They were all similar in weight, and they all wore similar clothes. No one could tell who was standing there at the time.
In desperation, Tuoba Tao ordered people to take care of them all and prepared to "check" them carefully.
As for what will happen to them, you can imagine.
This made He Mulan even more worried.
Tuoba Tao was assassinated. It stands to reason that he should immediately put up a guard of honor or go to a safe place to take shelter temporarily. In the end, he didn’t know whether Tuoba Tao was too stubborn, or whether Tuoba Tao liked to face difficulties. Not only did he not dodge, he He also took a large number of people to the king's tent in Kumoti, ready to stay.
He Mulan was highly skilled in martial arts, and was one of the few trusted people in Tuoba Tao in the Montenegro camp, so he was transferred over to serve as the chief guard, guarding Tuoba Tao together with Kumoti.
This kind of trust naturally attracted many people's attention. After all, it was always surprising that a general could be trusted as a brother. He Mulan just wanted to know what would happen to killing a ghost, but Wang ordered her to protect Tuoba Tao, so she had no choice but to obey.
The school ground was rummaged all afternoon, and finally the dismantled parts of the crossbow were found in the evening.
Some of these parts were buried in the soil, some were abandoned in secret places, and they were eventually found. Except for the smallest spring that could not be found, everything else was roughly assembled into a crossbow machine and sent to Tuoba Tao.
Tuoba Tao played with the crossbow machine for a while, and said with a sneer, "This is a crossbow machine from the south, a self-defense thing for those Han civil servants. They are not good at bows and arrows, so they use machinery skillfully. Look, this machine is much polished. Beautiful? We, Wei, don't have such a precise hand crossbow, which can be taken apart and put together to have such a flat bore."
"Is it Liu Song?"
A general was stunned for a moment, "That's impossible, how could the people of Song be infiltrated in our army!"
"It's just that the crossbow machine belongs to the Song people, not necessarily the assassins sent by the Song people." Kumoti explained: "The Song people are skilled craftsmen. Although our two countries do not do business, smuggling is not allowed. , I think there is something entrained from the south, and there is also some. This crossbow machine is inconspicuous after it is disassembled, and it is tucked in the clothes and quilts, so it is extremely difficult to be noticed. "
Tuoba Tao seemed to not care about his own life and death at all, but unfortunately touched the crossbow.
"If only the machine spring was still there, this crossbow is well made, and I can have more weapons. This man is too hateful, he would rather take the machine spring and cause trouble than give up the complete crossbow machine. give me!"
"Your Majesty, is this what you should say after the assassination?" Kumoti looked at his cousin depressedly, and couldn't help but growl: "Now you should live in the General's Mansion in Heishan City!"
"What should I do after the assassination? Are you panicking and crying?" Tuoba Tao waved his hand indifferently. "The assassin just wants to see me like this, but I don't. I still eat and sleep, continue to patrol, and mad at them!"
He Mulan coughed, restrained her smile, and continued on duty.
After about an hour, everyone in the post house in Heishancheng came. As soon as Tuoba Tao, who was not afraid of the sky and earth just now, heard that Gu Bi was coming, he hurriedly ran to the depths of the king's tent. He was chased by the ashen-faced Gu Bi, and was held in the tent to teach him for half an hour.
Helian Mingzhu was also surprised that he would encounter assassins when he went to the Montenegro camp. Seeing that He Mulan was on duty in the tent, he stared at her with wide eyes, not knowing how to face her.
Emotionally, she thought that maybe He Mulan had some reason to know about the kind of things women use, and it was out of good intentions that they brought them to her, but the wolf told her that even if they were as close as mothers and sisters, they were the men in the family. Found this thing and no one will tell them what it does.
He could know it, either because it happened for a reason, or it was a wild bee and a butterfly.
But she was embarrassed to ask what was going on.
When He Mulan saw Helian Mingzhu glanced at her, she turned her head away to see her again, and blinked in confusion.
In the past, when this soft girl met her, she looked like she had met her in a foreign land. Why did the other party ignore her after she taught her self-defense and sent the little angel
Hey, teenage girls are trouble.
Tuoba Tao rested in Kumoti's tent. Except for Gu Bi and Cui Haosu who were in the second tent, everyone else was on duty in the tent to protect the emperor's safety.
Tuoba Yan was the most frightened. Even though Ying Yang's army was guarding the king's tent with eight thousand troops, he still sent thousands of elites to surround the king's tent. I know that there are big men in the army.
And who can be the person in the army who can make the two clans Tuoba Yan and Tuoba Ti work hard to be on duty in person
This made Li Qing and a group of people who had watched the lively scene on the school grounds scared half to death, especially Li Qing, he had also faced the person directly, but he couldn't beat the other side, and he was a fool...
'No wonder Mulan and Duguwei are unwilling to fight him...'
Li Qing gritted his teeth and complained.
'I actually humiliated myself and lost face in His Majesty's eyes! '
***
that night.
"Aren't you going to sleep for a while?" Tuoba Tao looked at the few people standing upright in front of his mattress, "Go and rest for a while, there are so many guards outside the tent, it must be fine. Even if something happens, there are so many outside the tent. People can't keep it, what's the use of you?"
"Your Majesty, we will talk about it. Tonight, we will act as your guards and stay with you at night. I can't stand it anymore. We will take turns to rest."
No one knows the identity of the "general" who launched the assassination. If the other party is entangled with his subordinates, it will be bad.
He Mulan used to be Kumoti's personal soldier, and all the old guards also followed Kumoti's lead. When Kumoti said no to leave, everyone had to continue to stand.
"The question is, how can you tell me to sleep when you stand like this!" Tuoba Tao patted the pillow, "I don't have so many people standing in front of me in the palace! Either go back to sleep, or sleep with me, Choose for yourself!"
Kumoti hesitated for a while, then suddenly opened his mouth and said, "I may not have talked to Your Majesty Bingzhuye for a long time. Since His Majesty invited me so kindly, I have no choice but to be respectful rather than obedient."
After he finished speaking, he immediately took off his armor and shoes, got into Tuoba Tao's quilt with a stunned expression on his face, and said to the emperor beside him, "Your Majesty, it's getting late at night, hurry up and rest."
"You... you're crazy!"
Tuoba Tao stammered and said, "You actually asked me to warm your bed?"
Tuoba Tao got into the quilt first, the mattress should have been hot by now, that's why Tuoba Tao said this.
"Sun and Moon"
It's just that these words are too ambiguous. As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden "poof" sound, and even He Mulan couldn't restrain his urge to think about it.
"How dare I ask His Majesty to warm the bed for me? It's just me sleeping outside. If something goes wrong, I can stand in the way for His Majesty. Let His Majesty sleep..."
Cuomo reminded He Mulan to be on duty outside the account.
"Just have me here."
At this time, they had endured the laughter until their stomachs hurt, and when they heard Kumoti's words, they immediately exited the sleeping tent. Tuoba Tao's stupid look is really funny, but he and Kumoti are both tall and tall. Smile comfortably.
He Mulan and others left the tent, and Tuoba Tao and Kumoti suddenly changed their expressions and became serious. Kumoti asked him in a low voice under the quilt, "Your Majesty, who has met other than the few you know in this private visit to the army?"
Tuoba Tao has always thought that he is not a foolish king. He has been on the throne for five or six years, and his seat is considered stable. When he encounters an assassination, he will naturally feel uncomfortable. Hearing Kumoti's words, he said angrily: "See you at Heishan City. I met the Egret official in Montenegro, and I also met Hua Mulan by chance. But Hua Mulan should not be suspicious. He stood with me during the competition. If he wants to kill me, he can do it at any time in the Grand Summer Palace. "
'Knowing that Mulan is your confidant...'
Kumoti rolled his eyes under the quilt.
"It's too risky for you to do this, and you deliberately went to the school field to compete to attract these assassins..."
"It's better than when I was on the northern expedition to Rouran and found that there were assassins by my side. If the army were to advance, and I would die on the front line, it would be really a failure of the six armies, and the army would be defeated like a mountain." Tuoba Tao sighed, "I just didn't expect it. The other party was so careful, I only brought a dozen people out, and they didn't dare to go out to assassinate me, they only dared to shoot me with a crossbow while hiding their heads and tails."
"Duguwei was still careless, and almost put you in danger. Hua Mulan didn't know your purpose, and was afraid that he would rush over immediately when he heard that you were in danger. Li Qing is a member of the Chinese army, with a simple personality, and also It won't be an assassin, and now it seems that the assassin can only be among the people in gray."
"The people who want to kill me are nothing more than those people. It's not Liu Song's men, or the old guys in Pingcheng. Now that I have a son and a puppet, there must be more people who want to kill me."
Tuoba Tao laughed coldly, "Kumoti, I stayed in Montenegro for a few days, and the more I feel that Tuoba Yan is getting more and more old now, and he can actually do things that humiliate the ghost party in public. Rouran's status is higher than that of his Montenegrin coach, such a humiliation, it's a joke when it spreads out."
"Assassins can be infiltrated in the army, and there are a lot of grievances, all related to his 'ignorance'. My northern expedition this year is imperative, and I plan to let him sit in the Montenegro camp during the northern expedition, and he will not make any contribution. Wait. If the Northern Expedition is successful, I will let you sit in that seat, can you do it?"
What he asked was whether Kumoti might have saved enough military merit to be promoted to coach during the Northern Expedition.
"What does your majesty want me to do..." Kumoti replied with a smile: "Just say it, even if I go through fire and water, I will definitely do it."
"That's a decision." Tuoba Tao patted Kumoti's hand under the quilt. "If I am really unfortunate enough to encounter any accident, protect my son Ah Huang and train him to be a wise man. With 80,000 cavalrymen in the Montenegro camp in your hands, I don't worry about any trouble someone will cause."
"Why did your majesty say such a thing?" These words really made people feel cold behind their backs. "It's just an assassin, and it can't make any waves."
"Last time I was about to come to Montenegro, and I was attacked outside Shuozhou City. There must have been a connoisseur who informed Crawly and the people of Xia of my whereabouts. It's hard to guard against ghosts, and no one knows which way the immortals have been trying to make me die. I acted openly and honestly, and I didn't think I did anything to get rid of it. Someone assassinated me, which means that I was so scared that I didn't want to live. Isn't this the best compliment to me?"
"To deal with this kind of person, you can only treat them as non-existent. If you are really frightened, you will make the other party think of using despicable methods. It's just me, if I want to die, I will also die on the inner ghost, and the enemy can't kill it. mine."
Kumoti suddenly frowned and covered his mouth and nose.
Tuoba Tao smiled.
"Don't worry, you have been thinking too much since you were a child, so you have grown so mature. I'm just talking about what may happen. I don't treat you as an outsider, so I tell you this."
"Your Majesty..."
"Um?"
"Can you not fart in the quilt next time?"
"… I didn't do it."
"Who else could it be that you didn't do it! Could it be me?".
off account.
"Did you hear anything in there?"
A Su Wei asked a few companions next to him. "Looks like there's a commotion inside?"
Everyone raised their ears to listen to the movement inside, and it seemed that there was a noisy sound.
He Mulan was worried that the situation inside was not right, so she took the lead in raising the curtain and got into the tent, but after seeing the scene inside, she blushed and withdrew, holding down the other guards and preventing them from continuing to enter.
"Your Majesty is fine, you are fighting with General Kumoti."
It turns out that Zhao Ming said that His Majesty likes to be naked/sleeping, which is actually true.
Just naked/sleeping is fine, why take off the quilt, this big night, even if it is spring, is never warm enough to sleep without a quilt.
Moreover, General Kumoti also pushed His Majesty's head into the quilt with both hands, saying that it was a bad intention, but His Majesty smiled very proudly...
Is it possible that His Majesty is still shaking
…
I can't think about it any more, I'm terrified.
***
Early the next morning, things took a terrifying change, and what worried He Mulan the most happened.
Killer Ghost, who was tortured in the criminal tent, died in the tent in the early morning.
These people were originally tied up, and only when they were questioned were things removed from their mouths, and contact with outsiders was not allowed. But because after all, there was no conviction, and there were several generals, the criminal officials did not dare to go too far, just kept interrogating them some questions.
The matter was when they were interrogated in the early morning. As the judge relaxed his vigilance, the killer suddenly took out something from his hair bun and swallowed it.
The people next to him thought it was poison, so they immediately looked to the soldier in the army to see it, but after a while, Killer's face turned purple, and he died of suffocation.
There was no crime in the army, and Lang Zhong could only see that he died of suffocation. When Heishancheng's work was seen, it was said that he swallowed a large piece of food and choked to death.
Tuoba Tao asked Wu Zuo to cut his throat, and found a square iron block, about the size of a pigeon egg, which was the missing spring on the crossbow machine.
This time, it was almost confirmed that killing the ghost was the perpetrator. It's just why he didn't commit suicide yesterday, but waited until the day to commit suicide, and why he chose to swallow the spring in front of everyone's eyes has become a mystery.
He Mulan didn't want to believe what he heard at all, because although Killing Ghost was introverted and didn't like to talk, he was by no means a sinister person. On the contrary, because his master gave him freedom and the You Army took him in, he always had a strong sense of belonging to the You Army.
Such a result was unacceptable to He Mulan, but that machine spring would not appear in Killer's hair for no reason. Even if it appeared in the ghost-killing hair, why would he need to swallow it
If you swallow such a big thing, even if you can live, it will never be good.
For a while, the confusion became so heavy that even He Mulan began to wonder if Killing Ghost was the "General"'s chess piece hidden in the Right Army.
After all, the pillar that Luo Hun often relies on is not an acquaintance and would not know, but Na Luo Hun had a bad plan at that time and injured his shoulder.
The martial arts of killing ghosts in the right army are among the best, but they really can't beat Na Luohun. After Na Luohun was injured, he entered the competition, but was narrowly defeated by Li Qing's men, and did not meet He Mulan.
But if he really kills to the end, he must stand on the platform and accept the award.
Whose slave was Killing Ghost
Is he an assassin
Whether it is...
The man behind the assassination of Tuoba Tao, He Mulan didn't want to let him go.