Qin Fang said, "Everyone, bring torches and look around for this bright light. Because there are many boxes, the powder may be scattered. After you find it, form a team of ten to follow up and search."
"Yes." Both the Imperial Guards and the soldiers from Yunxiang County consciously and efficiently formed teams to search.
With the help of powder, they searched along the way. Because searching on foot was slow, they searched for a whole night and several pairs of people gathered in the same place.
Du Xingran looked around: "We started from the incident site. The powder was scattered in different places. We took several different routes, but finally we all gathered here. And what is here? Cliffs, what are we planning to do by gathering here?"
The final gathering place is here. There is no road ahead, but a cliff. Everyone dispersed and searched along the powder and finally gathered here. In other words, after the carriages separated, they finally returned here. So there must be something wrong here, otherwise why did they come here
Qin Fang: "Everyone, split up and look for any clues nearby. One person should go to the front and see if there are any signs that the carriage has left."
"yes."
Soon, some soldiers found traces.
"General Qin, there are some problems with the trees here. There are traces of ropes tied around them."
"General Qin, there are also traces of ropes tied on this side of the tree."
"General Qin, there are some here too."
"General Qin, there's this side."
So many trees have traces of ropes tied on them, which is obviously unusual. And why are the ropes tied here? This question is very simple. There is a cliff in front, and ordinary people can think that the ropes are tied there, which may be related to the cliff.
Qin Fang first watched from the tree for a while, and then went to the edge of the cliff to watch. As expected, there were traces of friction on the edge of the cliff, and there were also rope grass fluffs on this side.
At this time, the ropes were all made of grass or hemp. If they were rubbed against the edge of a cliff, some grass or hemp fluff would definitely remain.
"General?" Captain Yang also squatted down and watched. But he didn't squat too close, because if he fell, it would be no joke.
Qin Fang said: "Go prepare the rope, we will go down and take a look."
Captain Yang: “Yes.”
They naturally brought ropes with them when they went out, after all, they were transporting heavy explosives, so they had spare ropes in case the ropes tied to the explosive boxes broke along the way. However, these ropes were obviously not enough, so Captain Yang took people to cut some rattan to connect them.
After preparing three ropes, they were fixed on the tree. Then Captain Yang pulled the ropes hard, and after making sure that the ropes were firm, he said to Qin Fang: "General, it's all right."
Qin Fang nodded: "I'll go down and take a look."
Yu Nian said, “I’ll go too.”
Du Xingran also wanted to go, but he didn't dare to go down because his skills were average. Among the children of wealthy families, there were very few who were really good at martial arts, and they usually practiced martial arts by using defense and strength.
The cliff is not very high, but it is definitely not low either. The rope we prepared is long enough, but it is not yet as low as the cliff. However, when we come down from the cliff, we can see at a glance the traces of heavy objects being hung down.
Yu Nian: "It seems that the medicine box was transported down from here." So they looked around but couldn't find any trace of the powder leaving.
Qin Fang nodded: "Very likely."
The rope was not long enough, so Qin Fang said to another imperial guard who followed Yu and Yu Nian down: "Go up and ask them to prepare a longer rope, and then arrange for some more people to come down. General Yu, shall we go down and take a look?"
"Yes." The royal guard climbed up.
Yu Nian said angrily: "No problem. Damn it, you robbed me, I'm not going to let it go like this." The man looked fierce, and his words were quite scary.
The rope was not long enough, so they had to give up the rope and climb the rock. There was a problem with rock climbing, that is, they could not hold the torch, otherwise they could not climb the rock with one hand. Fortunately, Qin Fang and Yu Nian were both good at climbing, the cliff was not very steep, and they had been climbing for a long time with the rope. After about a quarter of an hour of climbing with both hands, they reached the top.
As soon as he got to the fire, Yu Nian took out the tinder he had brought with him and lit the tinder. Once the tinder was lit, the situation inside became clear at a glance. "This... I'm afraid this hasn't been burned by fire, right?"
The traces of fire at the bottom of the cliff were particularly obvious, and the charcoal from the wood was still there, as well as the traces of grass, which were also particularly obvious. But the most obvious thing was the clay block next to the fire, which was the fake fire medicine made by Qin Fang, which was transported from Yunxiang County by the younger generation that day, and now appeared here.
Yu Nian picked up the clay block and asked, "Is this the fire medicine that General Qin gave me?" As soon as he saw the size, he understood. He counted the number of fire medicines and found that it was the size of this piece, so he almost immediately determined that it was fake fire medicine.
Qin Fang said, "Indeed. We have burned everything in the box that should be burned, but this piece of clay cannot be burned, so we can only throw it here. I guess they discovered that the fire medicine was fake when they were burning it, so they threw it away. However, this road is a good choice. If we hadn't discovered it, they would definitely leave with the fire medicine."
Yu Nian said: "The other party's plan is very thorough, but now everything is here, I'm afraid we can't follow them. We can only look for clues nearby. I don't know if there is a manor nearby, or if anyone has seen us."
"General..."
While Qin Fang and Yu Nian were talking, many soldiers from the Imperial Guards and Yunxiang County came down from above.
Qin Fang said: "Let's rest here for one night and find out more about the situation tomorrow."
"yes."
It was late at night, and even if there was a village nearby, we couldn't go and ask around, as it would be bad if we scared people. And it had been three days, so the barbarians wouldn't be waiting for us. So there was no need to rush.
the next day
Early in the morning, Yu Nian and Qin Fang took people to check, and surprisingly, there was really a village nearby.
"Auntie, have any strangers in your village walked towards the back mountain recently?"
“No.”
"Uncle, have any strangers entered your village recently?"
"This elder sister..."
Qin Fang asked many people, but they all said they had never seen it. In fact, it was not unusual that they had not seen it. After all, although the village was nearby, there was still a long way to the cliff at the back of the mountain. If the barbarians wanted to avoid the villagers, there were still many ways.
Yu Nian said: "General Qin, I'm afraid we won't be able to find out anything for a while. We have a mission here. We need to go to Yongzhou military camp to confirm whether the medicine has been delivered. After confirmation, we will return to the capital to recover our sight. I'll leave the matters here to you for the time being."
Qin Fang said: "Then I won't see you off. We can have a drink together again when we have the chance."
Yu Nian bowed and said, "Take care, General Qin."
Du Xingran: "Take care, Brother Qin."
Qin Fang also bowed and said, "Take care of yourself, too."
Yu Nian took the Imperial Guards away. Without them, there were suddenly fewer people at the scene. Although it was difficult to track down clues, Qin Fang did not give up. There was more than one village nearby. Just because the villagers of that village had not seen him recently did not mean that the villagers of other villages had not seen him either. So Qin Fang asked Captain Yang to continue searching.
Capital
Du Ke received Qin Fang's letter a day later. Because the soldiers carried Qin Fang's letter instead of memorials, it was faster to send the letter to Du Ke than to the emperor. Similarly, it was safer to send the letter to Du Ke than to the emperor. The matter of the fire medicine was exposed. In Qin Fang's opinion, the emperor had someone, so Qin Fang still let the soldiers send the letter to Du Ke.
This was the third time Du Ke was called back from the military yamen by his family. To be honest, it seemed like the last time was several years ago.
As soon as Du Ke got home, he met the soldiers and read Qin Fang's letter. When he saw Huo Yao being intercepted on the way, he stood up suddenly, and when he saw that it was the barbarians who intercepted Huo Yao, Du Ke immediately thought of political issues. Qin Fang had to think about it before he could think of Yonghe Hou and the Second Prince, but Du Ke thought of it directly.
But when he saw that Qin Fang had other plans for Huo Yao, he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Qin Fang was cautious, or fortunately, Qin Fang was frightened before, so he was more careful this time. Otherwise, Huo Yao was really intercepted by the barbarians, and if it fell into the hands of the barbarians, it would be difficult for the army to fight against Qi State.
But the question is, how did the barbarian know about the fire medicine
There is a traitor in the court.
After reading the letter, Du Ke went into the palace immediately.
Imperial Study
Bang…
The emperor was so angry that he threw the teacup on the ground. He stared with his eyes wide open, breathing heavily, and his expression was full of anger. Du Ke did not dare to look up and pretended not to see it. After a long time, the emperor slowly calmed down his anger: "Du Ke, who do you think leaked the news to the barbarians?"
Du Ke said: "I don't know."
The emperor asked again: "How did the Marquis of Yonghe manage the Yongzhou Yongjun? He didn't even know that more than a hundred barbarians had sneaked into the territory of Qi. If the barbarians entered the palace to assassinate me, would he not know?"
Du Ke didn't dare to answer this.
The emperor narrowed his eyes and said, "Qin Fang was frightened by what happened last time he came to Wang County, so he became more cautious this time. But he is also very courageous. I asked the Imperial Guards to deliver the medicine, but he deceived me and the Imperial Guards and directly asked people from the Yongzhou military camp to deliver the medicine."
Du Ke said directly: "That kid deceived his superiors and subordinates, he should be punished."
"Oh?" The emperor raised his eyebrows. "Then tell me, how should we deal with deceiving superiors and subordinates? Disobeying the emperor's order is a capital crime."
Du Ke said: "It would be a pity to kill him, why not let him guard the city gate for His Majesty?"
The emperor smiled coldly: "Don't think I don't understand what you are thinking."
Du Ke: "I dare not."
Emperor: "Well, although deceiving superiors and subordinates is a serious crime, there is nothing wrong with being cautious. This time, it is thanks to your caution. However, I do believe in the Marquis of Yonghe."
Du Ke: "The one I believe is Han Zhen. Han Zhen and Qin Fang are from the same village, grew up together, and joined the army together."
Hearing this, the emperor's doubts were dispelled. He did not like the generals to be too close to each other. Even if they were all people he trusted, he did not like them to be too close to each other.
The emperor asked, "Regarding the leak of the Huo medicine line, do you have any suspects in your mind?"
Du Ke said: "Don't doubt it. When the emperor arranged this matter, there were only a few people in the imperial study. Speaking of which, I am also among the suspects."
The emperor was silent. Du Ke was right. He proposed to let Yongzhou military camp use fire medicine that day because he wanted to see the power of fire medicine. At that time, the people in the imperial study were all his confidants. Although he knew that the confidants had their own thoughts, he never thought that he would have such confidants. He allowed them to fight among themselves, but he did not allow them to leak the news of the fire medicine to the barbarians. This would be treason. Internal fighting and treason are two different things.
The emperor narrowed his eyes and said, "Qin Fangxin said that it was the barbarians who intercepted the Huo Yao. The barbarians wore barbarian clothes to intercept the Huo Yao. What is their intention? No concealment?"
Du Ke thought for a moment and said, "Maybe he wants to frame Yonghe Hou."
"Oh? Tell me more about it."
Du Ke analyzed: "If he was wearing other clothes, even if he looked a little different from us Qi people, we might not suspect him to be a barbarian at first. But no matter if he was a real barbarian or a fake barbarian, wearing barbarian clothes would at least make people think of Yonghe Hou's dereliction of duty. Yonghe Hou allowed more than a hundred barbarians to enter the country, so he can't escape this dereliction of duty. Therefore, the barbarian doesn't need to hide his identity, he just wants to frame Yonghe Hou."
Emperor: "According to what you said, Marquis Yonghe is definitely not a suspect."
Du Ke shook his head: "Not necessarily. Maybe the Marquis of Yonghe is crying thief."
“Hahaha…” The emperor was amused by Du Ke, “The Yonghe Marquis’ lineage has been guarding Yongzhou for decades, so they naturally won’t do this.” The emperor still had some trust in this.
Du Ke added: "Marquis Yonghe would not do this, but the Second Prince's lineage might do this."
"What do you mean?" The emperor's voice suddenly became heavy.
Du Ke said fearlessly: "The young master of the Yonghe Marquis's mansion is the second prince's companion. If something happens to the Yonghe Marquis, in the eyes of the public, it means that a force of the second prince has been eliminated. So some people may suspect that this incident may be the work of someone behind the eldest prince."
In fact, the emperor just thought so.
Du Ke continued, "But it is also possible that the people behind the second prince are trying to frame the people behind the first prince?"
The emperor was silent. The eldest prince had the Ren family behind him. The emperor knew that the Ren family was very dissatisfied that he had not made the daughter of the Ren family the queen. Now the second prince had been found, and the Shen family was behind him. The Ren family might be anxious, so it was possible that they could deal with the people behind the second prince. However, it was also possible that the people behind the second prince would frame the eldest prince.
For a moment, the emperor fell into deep thought. "We can only continue to look for clues over there."
Du Ke should be. He took a bite on both sides and stayed out of this matter. But who leaked the news