Li Yuan also practiced martial arts when he was young. Although he had no achievements, his instinctive reaction was still a little faster than that of an ordinary civil servant. He lowered his head quickly, and the poisonous arrow shot through his hat, pressed against his scalp and shot into his hair. His scalp even felt a chill of coldness.

Li Yuan shouted and fell on the carriage. Dozens of guards on both sides of the carriage were also shocked and shouted: "There is an assassin, the emperor was assassinated!"

The team was in chaos. Nearly a hundred soldiers raised their shields and surrounded the carriage without revealing a gap. Two imperial doctors rushed over with medicine boxes, climbed onto the dragon chariot with weak legs. Li Xuan, who followed his father to inspect Fufeng County, was so domineering that he was furious and ordered the soldiers to close the mountain and arrest the assassin.

Li Yuan fainted from fright. When he slowly woke up, he was already lying in the inner hall of Jiucheng Palace. Concubine Yin De, who followed him on a patrol, was sitting in front of him to wipe her tears. Li Yuan sighed slightly, Concubine Yin De immediately held his hand and shouted: "The Lord has woken up, I will pass on the imperial doctor!"

Two imperial doctors rolled in and crawled in. At this time, Li Yuan had already woken up. The two palace maids helped him sit up. Li Yuan touched the top of his head and asked in lingering fear: "Is it okay?"

An imperial physician said: "I can only say that Your Majesty is very lucky. The arrow is highly toxic. As long as you lower it a little bit, your Majesty will see blood on his head, and the consequences will be unimaginable."

At this time, Li Xuanba bowed his head and walked in and knelt down and said, "My son is incompetent and failed to catch the assassin. Please punish the father severely!"

Li Yuan immediately said angrily: "Thousands of people can't catch an assassin, I'll raise you in vain!"

"Father, the son-in-law immediately closed the mountain and searched, and almost no inch of land was spared, but the assassin really disappeared like an empty space and could not be found. Father, the son-in-law really tried his best."

Li Yuan said even more angrily: "The final result is that I was almost killed, and everyone was fine. Is that what it means?"

Li Xuanba lowered his head and stuttered in a low voice: "My son has severely punished the sixteen guards who guarded his father. Each of them beat a hundred military sticks, and then drove out of the palace. There are also the magistrate of Yong County and the prefect of Fufeng County. Mr. Chen took them down, just wait for the father to issue an order to punish them!"

Li Yuan got angry and finally calmed down slowly and said to Li Xuan: "This matter has nothing to do with the county magistrate and the prefect, so he immediately released them and asked them to investigate the assassin strictly. Also, where is the arrow? Take it to me."

Li Xuanba quickly walked away. Soon after, he brought a guard in. The guard was holding a plate, which poison arrow was in the plate.

Li Yuan looked at it for a moment and ordered, "Take a dog in and try the arrow."

After a moment, the guard led a yellow dog in. Before the dog could react, Li Xuanba stabbed the yellow dog with an arrow. The yellow dog immediately fell to the ground, twitched all over, and in a blink of an eye, he foamed at the mouth and died, and his body was faintly covered with a layer of black.

Li Yuan was furious again and punched the imperial case hard, gritting his teeth and said, "I will never give up if I don't catch the murderer who assassinated me!"

At this moment, a Qianniu ran in and reported: "Your Majesty, we have caught a woodcutter, and he has clues."

Li Xuanba asked, "Is the woodcutter an assassin?"

"Report to your Highness, the woodcutter is a local, he has never practiced martial arts, and there are no traces of archery on his hands. He should not be an assassin."

"What clues do he have?" Li Yuan waved his hand and asked.

"Your Majesty, the woodcutter said that he saw a man in black riding a horse coming out of the post station this morning and disappeared after entering the mountain. The man with a bow and arrow."

Li Yuan suddenly remembered the black shadow he saw and nodded, "This man in black is indeed very suspicious. Since he appeared at the inn, there must be clues there at the inn. Go and find out for me!"

Li Xuanba agreed and turned around. Li Yuan called him and said, "Let Pei Xiangguo go with you!"

Li Yuan knew that this son was stupid and might neglect the key clues, so that Pei Ji would go with him more safely.

Li Xuanba hurried away. At this time, Concubine Yin De advised: "Your Majesty, let's sleep for a while! After a rest, you will feel at ease."

Li Yuan sighed and said, "As soon as I close my eyes, I think of the poisonous arrow, I can't sleep!"

At night, Pei Ji returned to Jiucheng Palace and reported the investigation during the day to Li Yuan.

"Your Majesty, this is a bit weird."

Li Yuan stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, and said coldly without looking back: "Tell me what you found, don't hide anything, just say it in the first place."

"Report to Your Majesty, this man in black received a letter and a nailed wooden box at the post station this morning. The postmaster only knew that a man handed it to him yesterday afternoon. The postmaster gave the letter to Shengtian. The postmaster did not untie the letter, and directly handed it and the wooden box to the man in black."

"Why not open the letter or the box and take a look?"

"The official secretary got this man ten taels of gold, so he didn't tear it down."

Pei Ji put an inch of gold on the imperial case, "Your Majesty, this inch of gold is also a clue."

Li Yuan glanced back at the gold on the table, and he recognized it at a glance that it was the official gold cast by Shaofu Temple, which was very standard horseshoe-shaped.

Li Yuan said coldly again: "Don't ask questions and answers, say everything you know."

"Your Majesty, this man who sent the letter was in Chang'an accent. According to the Yicheng, although he was wearing ordinary clothes, his clothes were very thick. Unlike Chuxia, he seemed to be wearing a set of clothes inside, and a corner of the collar was exposed, which seemed to be the pattern of the guard's uniform. His left hand was used to putting the guard's waist sign on his waist. The Weicheng first suspected that the man sent the letter was a palace guard. The content of the letter should be a map of the mountain road and the approximate time when the emperor came to Jiucheng Palace. The box should be a guard's uniform. Weicheng also followed the guards who asked for leave yesterday to go out. There were a total of twelve people. Weicheng was preparing to let the official guard identify these twelve people."

"Why did Pei Xiangguo determine that the trustee is a palace guard?"

"Your Majesty, the postmaster told me that this man in black is from Hanzhong, and his accent is exactly the same as his hometown dialect. It was because he was from his hometown that the postmaster asked a few more questions. He found that the man in black knew nothing about the terrain here, so he actually asked him where Liqiao was? You should know that the postmaster is called Liqiao Post. Everyone in this area knows that Weichen in black is from this, which is the first time this man in black is here, but he can escape from thousands of people's mountain blockade searches. It is unimaginable that there is no insider. The letter must be a detailed map, the wooden box is a guard uniform. After His Majesty was assassinated, His Highness King Zhao immediately blocked the surroundings. Weichen felt that there was only one way to escape."

"The assassin has changed into the guard uniform!"

"That's right! Only by putting on the guard's uniform can he escape among the guards, so the Wei-memorial believes that this person should be a palace guard, and he is a trustee."

"Tell me about this gold!"

"This ingot of gold is an official gold. The bottom is usually the number of Shaofu Temple, but the number has been chiseled off. Otherwise, clues can be found from the number. However, I remember that the amount of horseshoe gold casting is not large, so I can still go to Shaofu Temple to investigate. I believe there will be clues."

Li Yuan pondered for a moment and said, "Don't the Prime Minister think there are still loopholes in it?"

Pei Ji was shocked, "I didn't pay attention!"

Li Yuan sneered, "The loophole is there at the post station. I will bring the postmaster and I will interrogate it myself."

The Yicheng had been taken to Jiucheng Palace. Soon after, the guards brought him in. The Yicheng was a short and fat man in his forties who looked like a winter melon. When he entered the hall, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed and cried, "The villain is guilty, beg Your Majesty to spare his life."

"You don't have to be afraid. I'll ask you a few words. As long as I answer honestly, I won't kill you."

"The villain must answer honestly."

"I ask you, are you really not looking at what is in the box?"

"The villain really didn't look at it, but the villain weighed the weight and shook his head. If he felt that there was a hard object inside, the villain would definitely take a look at it secretly, but there was no hard object inside."

"What do you feel is inside?"

"The villain's intuition at that time should have a set of clothes inside, but now I'm not sure."

Li Yuan nodded and asked again, "I heard Pei Xiangguo say just now that the man in black is from Hanzhong, and is his hometown?"

"Yes! The man in black has the same accent as my hometown dialect. Bei Zhi also asked him a few words in his hometown dialect and asked him if he was from Nanzheng?"

"How did he answer?"

"He didn't answer, but just asked Bei Zhiliqiao how to get there?"

"The villain told him that the bridge was at his feet."

Li Yuan immediately asked, "I remember there is a sign at the post station, right!"

"There is a big sign standing at the door with three big words 'Liqiaoyi' written on it. The villain pointed it to him. He didn't say anything, and turned around and left."

Li Yuan asked the guard to take the postmaster down, and then said to Pei Ji: "Does Pei Xiangguo understand?"

Pei Ji nodded repeatedly, "Your Majesty is as careful as his hair, there are indeed loopholes. How can the assassin's accent be heard? No one can kill people to silence him? How can the assassin be careless and not see the big sign at the door? This is a question knowingly. This guard is not from Hanzhong, and he learned the Hanzhong accent. This guard is not here for the first time. He deliberately gave the postmaster the illusion that he was here for the first time."

Li Yuan sneered, "If I say that this assassin is among the guards at this time, will Pei Xiangguo think it is credible?"

Pei Ji took a breath of air. He felt that Li Yuan was right. Even if he pretended to be a guard, he would reveal his strength. Only real guards would not be discovered.

"Your Majesty, perhaps the one who handed over the letter is not a guard. He has no need to wear a guard uniform inside, hold it in his hands, or hide it somewhere. He has created an illusion for us and completely mislead us."

Li Yuan nodded and immediately ordered: "I ordered King Zhao to withdraw his troops immediately, count the guards, and see who is missing?"

Soon, Li Xuanba rushed back to report: "Father, son minister counted the guards and found that his highness guard Huang Lu was missing. He was responsible for guarding the east gate of Jiucheng Palace. The people with him said that he had been unwell in the afternoon and asked for leave."

"What is the background of this Huang Lu?"

Li Xuanba hesitated for a moment, but according to the facts, he reported: "Qi reported to his father, he turned out to be the guard of the Eastern Palace."
Chapter completed!