"Ah Che, are you looking for me?"
Su Jin was a little puzzled. When Pei Che returned to Beijing before, the four of them had agreed to get together once. After that, because everyone had their own work to do, they agreed to meet again every month at a time that would not interfere with each other. Now that the time had not yet come, how could he have time to come to see him
Pei Che pointed to the chair next to him and asked him to sit down and talk.
"Ah Jin, I remember you said last time that you are now working in the Imperial Guard Battalion, right?" Pei Che did not keep anyone in suspense and directly explained his purpose.
Su Jin nodded. He had always been fond of martial arts. Reading and practicing calligraphy were just for the sake of coping with exams. If he were allowed to choose, he would naturally pursue a military career.
The princess was afraid that he would take advantage of the situation and escape from Liangjing to join the army, so she mentioned it to the emperor. Su Jin then became a palace guard, responsible for patrolling the main halls of the palace, and usually practiced martial arts with the guards. Although Su Jin was not very satisfied, it was much better than before.
"I want you to help me with something." Pei Che had no choice. He couldn't look through the records in the palace.
"What's the matter? If you want my help, you have to accept a reward." Su Jin was a little surprised because Pei Che had hardly ever asked anyone to help him.
"As long as you do me this favor, I'll give you any benefit you want." Pei Che knew he was joking.
Su Jin pretended to think for a while and said, "Well, I want your husband to cook me a table full of food with glutinous rice." He usually loves to eat food made with glutinous rice, but the ones sold in ordinary stores are too sweet and greasy. Although there are also salty pork dumplings imitating Jiang Miao's, they don't taste the same. Jiang Miao's ones are still better.
Pei Che was a little amused: "The Princess's Mansion is short of food for you? Okay, I'll tell A Miao when I get back. Now, you have to listen carefully to what I want you to do."
Su Jin listened to his request carefully. Although he was a little puzzled, he did not ask any more questions and agreed directly.
After Pei Che left, Su Jin exchanged shifts with his brother, and then went to find the commander of the palace. The current commander of the palace was named Guan. He was assigned to the palace of the third prince as a guard. He worked hard for many years, so after the third prince ascended the throne, he was promoted from managing the guards of the palace to managing the guards of the palace.
Seeing Su Jin coming, he hurriedly stood up to greet him, without any dignity as a superior.
"Prince Su, why are you here? Is it because your duty time is not arranged properly, or you want to change your shift but can't adjust the time? You can just send someone over to tell us." Commander Guan asked with concern.
Among all the royal relatives, the one he feared the most was Su Shizi's mother, the tough and protective Princess. If she became arrogant, the emperor would be helpless. Now that her son was working under him, she would send people to check on him from time to time, fearing that these people would neglect her son.
This person is not here to do a job, he is here to be a ancestor!
"Master Guan, I would like to see the previous badge records. Is that possible?" Su Jin was already accustomed to their attitude and was not polite at the moment.
Commander Guan was a little confused: "Record on the badge?" He was not sure what this ancestor wanted to do, so he just pretended to be in deep thought and was reluctant to nod in agreement.
"Is it OK or not?" Su Jin had no patience. He hated this kind of witty remarks. "I'm just taking a look. I won't take anything away or do anything else. I won't make things difficult for you."
"Oh," Commander Guan immediately laughed, "Your Highness, you misunderstood me. How dare I refuse your request? I was just wondering where I put the key to the storeroom and was not able to come to my senses. Please forgive me, Your Highness."
Su Jin curled his lips and said, "In that case, please open the door, Master Guan, and let me go in and take a look."
Commander Guan took out a bunch of keys from the drawer of the desk and asked Su Jin to go with him. The guards in this palace are rotated every five years, and the waist badges are also changed every five years. If someone is promoted or dies in the meantime, the waist badge will be taken back and given to the successor. If it is lost, it must be recorded to prevent someone from making trouble.
After the door of the storehouse was opened, Su Jin looked at the shelves full of books and sighed in distress. He hated dealing with books, let alone so many books.
"If I want to check the content of a certain year, what should I do?" Su Jin was too lazy to look through it. He wanted to rely on Commander Guan's ability, and it would be best if he could help him find it directly.
Commander Guan smiled and said, "You've asked the right person. If you had come a few days ago, it would have taken you ten days or half a month. But now, I've learned the method of the Ministry of Revenue, and I've had people sort the books on these shelves by year. I wonder which year you're looking for?"
Su Jin nodded with satisfaction and said, "Find me one from the 37th year of Mingcheng."
Commander Guan was puzzled. Mingcheng was the reign title of the previous emperor, and it had been about ten years since then. Why was he checking the records of that year? However, there was nothing to hide. He wanted to see it anyway, so he could just find it for him. It would be bad if he was annoyed by asking too much.
"Sir, look, these are the records of the waist badges from the 37th year of Mingcheng." Commander Guan brought out a thick stack and placed it in front of Su Jin. Fortunately, it was rearranged not long ago, otherwise it would be covered with dust.
"So much?" Su Jin frowned tightly, and suddenly felt that he was losing out on that meal, and should have two meals.
"Then take your time to look at it. When you are ready, just let me know." Commander Guan had no intention of staying with him.
Su Jin waved his hand, indicating that he could leave, and then took out a waist badge wrapped in a cloth towel, opened the first one, and compared it with the shape on it. Finding that it was not the same, he opened another one.
Su Jin was startled by the sudden sound in his ear. He turned around and glared at Commander Guan, saying sinisterly, "I remember that Commander Guan had just left."
Commander Guan quickly apologized with a smile: "Didn't I just drop the key? I frightened the prince. I'm so sorry."
"You just mentioned this badge. What is this badge? Do you recognize it?" Su Jin was too lazy to continue arguing with him, so he turned around and asked.
Commander Guan took the cloth, carefully examined the waist badge, and nodded heavily: "Guan also had an identical waist badge, which I wore for five years until it was replaced. Therefore, I am very familiar with this badge. Even though it has been corroded beyond recognition by rust, I can still recognize it at a glance."
"In that case, the owner of this sign should have come in with you?" Su Jin was secretly delighted. It was great that he didn't have to open the books one by one.
Commander Guan took another look at the plaque and said, "Yes, it's from the same group. But why does the prince have one? Could it be that someone has kept it for himself?"
Su Jin glanced at him and said, "Don't worry about how you got here. Find all the books you brought with you and let me have a look."
Commander Guan had no choice but to look through the pile of books and find a few books. He opened one of them and said, "Guan's name is still on this one."
Su Jin took it and found the words "returned" written under his name, so he thought the words should also be written under the names of those who had not returned the books. Thinking of this, he quickly flipped through the books. But after flipping through all the books, he could not find a single book that had not been returned.
"Did you see it wrong? The badge is here, why are all the words 'returned' written on it?" Su Jin frowned, feeling that this Guan guy was fooling him.
Commander Guan slapped his forehead and said, "Prince, are you looking for the list of those who have not been returned? Prince, you don't know that the list of those who have not been returned is listed in a separate book. I will go and find the list of those who have not been returned this year."
Su Jin had no choice but to stand aside and continue waiting.
After waiting for a while, Commander Guan came back with the list. Su Jin looked through it for a while and found that many names were circled, but some were not.
"What are these?" he asked, pointing to the circled names.
"These are the palace guards who have been confirmed dead. In the last few years of Mingcheng, some rebel forces in the society planned several assassinations, but they were all discovered at the palace gate. The palace guards fought with them, and some died and some were injured. Some of them died, but their badges were not on them. We can't confiscate their homes for this, right? So we just assumed they were lost." Commander Guan said.
"So, those who have not drawn a circle are missing?"
Commander Guan nodded, and Su Jin asked him to bring a pen and paper to write down the names of the missing people and the prefectures they were assigned to before they disappeared. He also asked a few questions while recording, and if the commander knew the person well, he would rule him out on the spot after asking about his appearance.
After finishing copying all the excerpts, Su Jin took the papers to Pei Che to report.
Commander Guan found this matter a little strange. After thinking it over again, he decided to tell Emperor Liang Ping about it.
After listening to him, Emperor Liang Ping also felt strange: "You mean, my nephew went to investigate the missing people in the 37th year of Mingcheng? I remember that he was still young at that time. Why did he investigate this?"
Commander Guan shook his head: "I don't know either. I thought it was nothing serious, but after thinking about it, I felt something was wrong, so I came to report to His Majesty."
"The thirty-seventh year of Mingcheng... the thirty-seventh year..." Emperor Liang Ping paused as he thought about it, "Do you remember what happened that year?"
Commander Guan was reminded by him and immediately replied: "I remember that year, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Duke Zhongguo's Mansion died suddenly in the wilderness."
His expression turned into surprise: "Could it be that Prince Su is here to investigate what happened back then?"
Emperor Liang Ping pondered for a while and said, "Send someone to follow him and see if he has any contact with Pei Che."
"Yes!" Commander Guan changed his previous smiling face and became serious.
(End of this chapter)