The Song Dynasty was the king for thirteen years before he knew that he was Tianlong.

Chapter 134: The whole city is in turmoil, Huang Shang goes to Beijing

The Khitan people of the Liao Dynasty believed in Shamanism. Later, with the introduction and rise of Buddhism, many people began to believe in Buddhism, but Shamanism still had a strong appeal in the Liao Dynasty.

Shamanism believes that all things have spirits, which had an impact on the Khitan’s life, sacrifices, wars, and other matters.

Shamanism worships many kinds of gods, and all things are worshipped, among which the gods of heaven and earth are the main gods.

Zhao Ti looked at the two statues in front of him, which were the shapes and appearances of shaman gods. He had read a secret book introducing shamans in the palace. Shamans would even worship a large stone. Moreover, shamanism was not only practiced by the Khitans, but also by the Jurchens and the Mongols on the grasslands.

"Shamanism?" Zhou Tong and his companions were stunned. They had never come into contact with this religion and did not know much about it.

Zhao Ti thought to himself at this moment that it seemed that the girl was from the Liao Kingdom. After all, those tribes in the north had no contact with the Song Dynasty, and only the Liao Kingdom would plant spies in Tokyo.

This can also explain why the girl was with the people of the Ming Cult before. It must be that Taishu Dinggan wanted to start a rebellion and secretly contacted the Liao Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom was stirring up trouble and might have promised the Ming Cult something behind the scenes. They wished to create a mess in the Song Dynasty and let the country reap the benefits.

Zhao Ti said, "Go and see if there are any secret passages on the left and right sides of the statue."

He didn't believe that the girl could disappear out of thin air. If she couldn't find her after the search, it meant there must be a secret passage for her to escape.

The girl knew that she couldn't get rid of him and would be caught up by him after a long time, especially after daybreak. She had no choice but to return here and escape through the secret passage. As for exposing this place, there was no other way.

At this time, everyone stepped forward to look for it. After a few breaths, Zhou Tong said, "Your Majesty, something is not right here!"

He moved a protrusion on the statue, and then a secret door opened on the back of the statue, and cool wind blew out immediately.

As expected, there was a secret passage. Zhao Ti nodded and said, "Send more people in, be cautious, and see where it leads to."

Wei Hanchen and Zhou Tong, the two leaders, led dozens of soldiers and entered the secret passage.

Shang Qi moved a chair over, and Zhao Ti sat down and waited, opening the list in his hand.

The content of this list is not written in Chinese, but in Khitan. Khitan or Xixia scripts are both derived from Chinese and are square. Some of them are just Chinese characters with a few more strokes, but they actually mean the same thing.

When Zhao Ti was in the palace, he had learned two languages, even Tibetan. He had a photographic memory and understood it all in a short time, so he had no problem seeing.

This book is full of addresses and names. The addresses include those of ministers, royal family members and princes. As for the names, the Khitan name is placed first and the Chinese name is placed at the end. It is obvious that these are the real and fake names of the spies who have infiltrated the country.

After looking at them, he frowned. There were as many as thirty or forty of them. He didn't expect that the Liao Kingdom had such a deep presence in Tokyo.

The ministers on the list are relatively easy to deal with. Most of them are from the old party. Many have been demoted or dismissed from office, and some have been exiled to other places. They were not taken care of in the past, and at least it is difficult to get any information from them recently.

Among the royal family, there are spies not only in Prince Duan's mansion, but also in Prince Shen Zhaoqi's side. Royal family members were not in power, and no one knew why the Liao Kingdom placed people in these mansions. If they were betting on the possibility of being able to rise to the top in the future and plotting for the future, it was really a far-reaching plan.

Zhao Ti closed the list and continued to wait. Not long after, he saw Wei Hanchen, Zhou Tong and others coming back from outside the yard. They reported that the secret passage in the statue led to a house outside, but the house was empty.

"Your Majesty, the house is simply furnished but tightly sealed. It is obviously just an escape route for the house." Zhou Tong said.

Zhao Ti nodded, stood up and walked out of the room. It was already light outside. He said, "Go back to the military headquarters and gather the troops to arrest the man."

He couldn't wait any longer. After all, no one knew whether the girl would run around to inform other families. If he went to the palace to ask for permission to search, and then came back with the troops to capture her, the whole process might have taken a long time before she had run away.

Then he returned to the military headquarters and wrote a memorial, asking Hou San to go back to the mansion to find Tong Guan to deliver it to Zhao Xu. Then he began to dispatch people to various places to capture them. He asked Wang Enzhong and Pu to take the lead in the families of some exiled old party members, and as for the royal family, he had to go there in person.

Let's go to Prince Duan's Mansion first. It was not yet completely bright and there were not many people on the street. The guards at the gate of Prince Duan's Mansion were dozing off with their guns in their arms. When they saw Zhao Ti coming with a group of people, they were so scared that they turned around and ran away.

Zhao Ti said calmly, "Why are you in such a hurry? Go and wake up Prince Duan. I have something important to ask him."

The soldiers hurried to find Zhao Ji, while Zhao Ti walked towards his study. He went in and sat down to take a look. There were actually quite a few good things displayed, which were in no way inferior to those he took away last year.

A moment later, Zhao Ji came in angrily with dark circles under his eyes: "King of Yan, what time is it now? Why are you running here like a madman, and bringing soldiers with you? Are you going to rob me again?"

Zhao Ti ignored him and read out the two names on the list: "These two people are from your house, right? Where are they now?"

Zhao Ji was stunned when he heard this, and suddenly jumped up and said, "One of these two is my concubine, and the other is a maid in the back house. Could it be that you saw them last time you came to the mansion, and you want to take them away this time?"

Zhao Ti sneered and shook the list in his hand: "We just uncovered the spy nest of the Liao Kingdom in Tokyo and got the list of spies. These two are Khitans. You dare to take them as concubines? Aren't you afraid that your head will be moved in your sleep? Have someone take them to the capital?"

"Prince of Yan, you, you are trying to scare me, right?" Zhao Ji's eyes widened. "You have used this to scare me several times before, and now you are trying to scare me again..."

Zhao Ti raised the list in front of him and said, "You can recognize Khitan characters. Look at what this is. Lu Jiaonu and Xi Qiaofang both have Khitan names in front of them. Take me to find them quickly."

Zhao Ji glanced at the list and his face turned pale: "How could this be..."

Zhao Ti said: "Stop talking nonsense and lead the way!"

Zhao Ji walked out of the study with trembling legs: "Eight, Eight Brother, I was with Jiao Nu last night..."

"Then you're really lucky as your head is still on top of your head." Zhao Ti sneered.

"Myna, stop talking. I'm scared..." Zhao Ji looked dazed and walked forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

After a while, he arrived in front of his bedroom and went in. He saw a pretty woman with her hair loose in the quilt, looking at him in surprise.

"Your Highness, what is this for?"

Zhao Ji didn't dare to step forward at this moment, so he hid beside Zhao Ti and shouted, "How dare you say that you are a Khitan spy and have been deceiving me all along."

The woman was stunned when she heard this, and suddenly a strange smile appeared on the corner of her mouth: "So, Your Highness is bringing people to arrest me."

Zhao Ji stole a glance at the woman and saw that she looked quite strange. He was certain in his heart and shuddered: "Myna, hurry up, get someone to catch her and kill this spy with a knife!"

The woman giggled and said, "No need!" She suddenly gritted her teeth, as if swallowing something into her stomach.

Zhao Ti frowned and saw that the woman's mouth and nose suddenly began to ooze black blood. It turned out that she had committed suicide by taking poison.

"Go find another one!" Zhao Ti said calmly.

"That's a maid. She's in the courtyard in the distance." Zhao Ji didn't dare to look at the dead woman. He turned around and looked outside and said.

"Lead the way!" Zhao Ti said expressionlessly.

Then he went to another corner of the yard and saw several maids busy outside. Zhao Ji whispered, "My dear, that's the one wearing the green skirt."

The maids were all surprised to see so many people coming. Zhao Ti raised his hand and knocked the woman in the green skirt down with his magical Yin-Yang finger power: "Take the poison pill out of her mouth first."

Hou San and Zhu Si went over, pried open the maid's teeth, and sure enough, they found a tiny wax ball under her tongue.

Then he took her away to look for someone from Shen Wang Zhao Qi, but he came up empty-handed. He then went to several other clan families and captured another woman.

Then he went back to the military headquarters. At this time, the people sent out to search various places returned one after another, but only brought back two spies, a man and a woman. Zhao Ti asked and found out that most of them swallowed poison directly when they saw the situation was not good, and a few families were not there. They might have been informed of the news by the girl in advance and escaped first.

Zhao Ti ordered the four men to be imprisoned in prison, and then took the list into the palace.

At this time, the morning court had just ended, and Zhao Xu was sitting in the imperial study with a grim look on his face.

Zhao Ti walked in and said, "Your Majesty, I arrested the man without asking for permission. I apologize to you."

Zhao Xu asked urgently, "What crime has the King of Yan committed? Hasn't he submitted a memorial? How many Liao spies have been captured?"

Zhao Ti presented the list and said, "These Khitan spies all had poison pills in their mouths, making them extremely difficult to capture. In the end, only four were caught."

Zhao Xu breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that he's caught. Has the King of Yan interrogated him?"

Zhao Ti shook his head: "I will come and report to the government after I am put in prison."

Zhao Xu took the list and read it carefully, then threw the desk down. "The Liao Kingdom is omnipresent. They even dared to place spies in the imperial family. They are so bold that they all deserve to die!"

Zhao Ti said: "I don't know how long it has been in operation, and I don't know if this booklet contains all the contents, but I have seen that they are all important officials of the old party, so I guess this is about it."

Zhao Xu thought for a moment and said, "Prince Yan will interrogate him first and report to me immediately if he finds out anything."

Zhao Ti said: "Your Majesty, the interrogation of spies is the business of the Privy Council's Speed ​​Office. I am here to interrogate..."

Zhao Xu snorted, "They are all just vain people, I'm afraid we won't be able to get anything out of them, King Yan, you can hand them over after you've finished questioning them."

Zhao Ti nodded, then stood up and returned to the Junsi Prison. At this time, the four captured people were locked up in different cells, tied to wooden pillars, and each of them had rags stuffed in their mouths.

Jong-Puk came over and saluted, saying, "Your Highness, three people wanted to gossip, but were stopped by the soldiers, so their mouths were blocked."

Zhao Ti nodded: "Where is the one who didn't bite his tongue? Take me to see him."

Then he went to a cell in front, where was the maid brought back from Prince Duan's Mansion, named Xi Qiaofang. She was trembling all over, her face was pale, and there was a thin layer of white frost on her eyebrows.

This is the symptom of being hit by the Phantom Yin Finger. If no one uses pure Yang internal energy to heal her, or if Zhao Ti does not take back the cold Yin true energy, her blood will coagulate and she will die soon.

Zhao Ti approached her, and Zhong Pu pulled the rag out of her mouth. She said weakly, "It's so cold, kill me, kill me quickly..."

Zhong Pu shouted, "You Khitan spy, it would be easy to kill you with one sword. Now I ask you questions and answer them truthfully, and I can give you a quick death. Otherwise, I will use dozens of tortures to make your life worse than death!"

The maid shook her head: "I, I don't know anything..."

Zhao Ti walked over and said calmly: "All three of them want to bite their tongues, why don't you do it?"

The maid reluctantly raised her head and glanced at Zhao Ti: "I, I bit it too, but in the end I just couldn't bear it..."

Zhao Ti nodded and said, "I see that you are sad at the moment, so I will take away your true energy and then ask you a question."

The maidservant was as if she had been pardoned: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your longevity. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your longevity."

"Do you know me?" Zhao Ti put his palm on the other's shoulder and took back the trace of phantom Yin Qi.

"The last time Prince Yan came to the mansion, he asked us to stand together to identify it, and I remembered it." At this time, the coldness on her body disappeared, and the maid spoke fluently.

Zhao Ti looked at her for a moment and said, "You know you committed a capital crime, but there is a difference between dying quickly with a knife and dying by torture."

"I know, Your Highness Prince Yan, please give me a quick death..." the maid said gritting her teeth.

Zhao Ti shook his head: "But there is another way to remain immortal. Tell me what I want to ask, and I can spare your life."

"I would rather die than confess. If the news of my confession gets back to Liao, my whole family will die. I, I can't say it!"

Zhao Ti smiled slightly and said, "I will not ask you about the affairs of the Liao Kingdom, nor any intelligence. I will only ask you one other question. If you can answer it, I will spare your life."

"What's the matter?" The maid was stunned and looked at Zhao Ti.

Zhao Ti asked, "Your leader is a young girl, right?"

The maid struggled in her heart, but thinking that their identities had been revealed, it was obvious that the other party already knew about it, she nodded and said, "Yes..."

Zhao Ti smiled and said, "She escaped and I didn't catch her. What's her name and what's her status in Liao? If you can tell me, I will give you a way out."

"Her name and identity?" The maid looked stunned. "She is the leader of us. Her surname is Yuan, but I don't know her name."

"Surname Yuan?" Zhao Ti shook his head: "Khitan does not have this surname. It is a Han surname and a Xixia surname."

"I don't know about this..." the maid said cautiously, fearing that Zhao Ti would order torture.

Zhao Ti thought for a moment and asked, "Do the three people over there know?"

The maid said: "We don't know each other, and I don't know who those three people are..."

Zhao Ti pondered for a moment and said to Zhong Pu, "Let's torture the other three. In addition to the intelligence, there are also the questions I asked just now."

Zhong Pu said yes, and Zhao Ti then turned around and walked out of the prison door.

It was almost noon and Zhou Tong was driving back home. He had not gone halfway when he heard a loud screaming like a pig being slaughtered coming from a car on the road ahead.

Zhao Ti could not help but frown. This voice sounded familiar. He asked Zhou Tong to hurry up and drive beside him. Then he heard a child in the car reciting in a low voice: "The sky and the earth are primordial yellow, the universe is vast and wild, the sun and the moon wax and wane, the stars are lined up...singing, birds are singing in the bamboo..."

The sound of a bamboo clap hitting the child's palm was heard, and the child screamed again.

"I've recited it so many times, but you get it wrong when you get to this point. 'The phoenix sings on the bamboo', but every time you recite it it's 'the bird sings on the bamboo'. Tell me, should your father spank you?"

Zhao Ti heard this and said in the car: "Don't beat Huang Anfu anymore. If he can't memorize the book well, he can learn it slowly. Beating him all the time won't do much."

The voice of the man in the car next to him was Huang Shang, and the shouting child was Xiao Huang Mo.

At this time, the car stopped and Huang Shang jumped out: "But is it His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan?"

Zhao Ti lifted the carriage curtain and said, "Mian Zhong, has the government transferred you back to the capital?"

Huang Shang bowed and said, "Just as the Prince of Yan said that day, your Majesty did send an imperial edict to Fujian Province not long ago, transferring me back to Beijing to take up my post."

Zhao Ti looked at Huang Shang and smiled: "Since you are back, I have an errand for you. Go with me on a diplomatic mission to the Liao Kingdom."

(End of this chapter)