My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

The urgent report from Jiangbei was placed on the table.

Red seal.

Sealing wax.

Post Horseman's Talisman.

Seal of Yong'an County.

Nothing is missing.

If it weren't for the pre-written accident report lying next to it, it would look more real than many genuine official documents.

wrong.

It was indeed an official document.

The paper is real.

The seal is genuine.

The messenger who delivers it is also real.

It's just that the event hasn't happened yet.

This is much more troublesome than using fake official documents.

Fake things can always be found to have flaws.

Once genuine procedures begin to circumvent falsehoods, the flaws will become the actions of the people handling the matter.

Everyone should only do their part.

The courier was only responsible for running the horses.

The county government was only responsible for affixing the seal.

The Ministry of War was only responsible for receiving reports.

By the time everyone came to their senses, all forty-four people had died according to the methods written on the paper.

The Ministry of War official held the urgent report, his fingers trembling.

I asked, "Where's the newspaper delivery person?"

The dusty bailiffs were still kneeling in the street.

His face also looked very pale.

In the past, people were probably only afraid that the horse would run itself to death.

Today I realized for the first time that what I gave away might die even faster than the horse.

"look up."

The constable raised his face.

Around thirty years old.

My lips are dry and cracked.

His eyes were filled with confusion.

They don't seem like members of the accounting committee.

Even if members of the accounting committee are about to die, they usually know why they are dying.

He was like an unlucky person who had been running around for half a day, only to be told by everyone on the street that the route didn't even exist.

I asked, "Where did you receive the emergency package from?"

"Tongzhou North Post Station".

"when?"

"Today is the beginning of the month."

"Who gave it to you?"

"A courier."

"name."

He didn't report it.

The Ministry of War official frowned.

"When handing over a post station, the sign and number must be reported."

The constable quickly took out a small wooden plaque from his pocket.

"He gave this."

The front of the wooden plaque is engraved with "Ministry of War Urgent Delivery".

A number is written on the back.

C17.

The Ministry of War immediately checked the records.

Soon, a clerk returned, his face pale.

"Chengshiqi is Jiao Wu, an urgent messenger from the North Post Station in Tongzhou."

Where are they?

"He fell from his horse while escorting military reports last winter and died."

Someone on the street gasped in shock.

Ah Liu stood behind me and whispered, "Young master, another dead man on duty."

I didn't say anything.

This statement is no longer a joke.

The dead receive food.

Dead people receive salaries.

The dead conveyed their oral instructions.

Even the Ministry of War's express messengers can continue running after they die.

I asked the constable, "What does the person delivering the box look like?"

"Wear a straw hat."

"I can't see their faces clearly."

"Where's the sound?"

"He's a little hoarse."

"Male or female?"

The constable hesitated.

"Like a man."

"She also resembles a woman."

This answer seems useless.

But if someone deliberately lowers their voice, it's precisely to make it indistinguishable from yours.

"Where are your hands?"

The constable thought for a moment.

"His left hand was wearing a leather glove."

"How many fingers?"

He froze.

They clearly didn't understand why I asked that question.

"It seems... one is missing."

Luo Chenghai said this in the Golden Hall.

The second Lan Gu he met was young, and her left little finger was missing.

Eleven years have passed, and the young people may no longer be young.

Lost fingers will not grow back.

This Lan Gu first went to the old treasury of the Central Secretariat to transfer the seal.

Go to Beiyi in Tongzhou to deliver another report on the future battle.

Two things were done in one night.

He was more diligent than many court officials.

Bai Zhi took the urgent box.

I didn't read the content first.

First, look at the bottom of the box.

The bottom of the box was covered with two kinds of mud.

The outer layer is Tongzhou yellow clay.

A layer of grayish-white fine soil was pressed into the crack.

She scraped off a little and rubbed it with her fingertips.

"It's not Jiangbei mud."

An official from the Ministry of War said, "There is also dust along the river in Yong'an."

Bai Zhi glanced at him.

"This is lime."

"The lime and soil used for the repair of the southern wall of the capital."

"The urgent package first stayed in the capital, and then it was sent to Tongzhou."

The constable hurriedly replied, "I did indeed pick him up in Tongzhou!"

Nobody said you were lying.

I said, "Someone will first send the box from the capital to Tongzhou, and then you will send it back from Tongzhou."

The constable was dumbfounded.

"Then, why not send it directly to the Ministry of War?"

"Send it directly; there are no postal stamps along the way."

What they need is not speed.

It's about making a fabricated story appear to have traveled thousands of miles along the official road.

Angelica dahurica unfolds the postal route list.

Yong'an.

Qingfeng.

Qingzhou North Post Station.

Tongzhou.

Beijing.

Seven seals along the way.

Not one was missing.

She looked at it for a moment, then turned the paper over to the other side.

"The seal is real."

The Ministry of War officials breathed a sigh of relief.

Bai Zhi continued, "The order is fake."

"What do you mean?"

"In normal delivery, at each station, the next stamp would be placed after the crease of the previous stamp."

"This waybill was folded only after all seven stamps were applied simultaneously."

She held the road sign up to the light.

All the ink pad edges are intact.

None of them were cracked by later creases.

This indicates that it was a blank waybill stamped with the official seals of seven stations from the very beginning.

The content was written later.

The faces of the Ministry of War officials turned even uglier.

"It is impossible for seven post station seals to appear in the hands of one person at the same time."

"A living seal is impossible."

I pointed to the dead man's urgent tile that belonged to Jiao Wu.

"What about the invalid prints?"

The clerk in the Ministry of War could not answer.

The Ministry of War has an abandoned card vault.

The Zhongshu (Secretariat) has no records in the Bingfang (Secretariat Clan).

There was also a discarded card vault in the inner court.

It seems that none of the things that were supposedly scrapped in Daliang were truly scrapped.

He simply died inside the tent.

Then they went back to the secret room to continue their business.

I looked at Gu Xingzhi.

"Investigate the Ministry of War's abandoned post station seal warehouse."

He nodded and ordered someone to do it.

The crowd on the street had not yet dispersed.

Those who used to accuse me of treason have mostly shut up now.

Keeping quiet doesn't mean you believe.

They simply went from "Shen'an delivering grain to the southwest" to "not knowing who is delivering grain to the southwest".

For the son of a traitor whose identity has already been made public, this difference is not enough.

I need to show them something more direct.

"The list of deceased on the accident report."

Bai Zhi handed me the list.

Seven people.

Five canteen soldiers.

Two boatmen.

I stopped when I saw the second name.

Zhao Gui.

Next, continue.

Liu Sanhe.

Tian Cheng.

I've met all three of these people before.

Yesterday, when the household registration was changed in the south of the city, they stood in the same row.

After receiving his new household registration, Zhao Gui knelt on the ground and cried for a long time.

Liu Sanhe is from Liugou Village.

Tian Cheng used to work as a granary worker at Yong'an Granary.

They were written as having died from the epidemic last year.

It has only just been changed back from the "Book of the Dead".

Today, he died again because of a report on a grain raid that hadn't even taken place yet.

The accounting committee wouldn't even waste the dead.

A corpse in a tent can be reused repeatedly.

I handed the list to Ah Liu.

"Go to the south of the city."

"Find these seven people."

Ah Liu took the list.

"Young master, what if they were all alive?"

"bring."

What if someone isn't home?

"Check where it went."

Ah Liu nodded and ran off.

He ran a few steps, then came back to take the copy of the register from the table.

Bai Zhi glanced at him.

"Finally, they've remembered to bring their own accounts."

Ah Liu said, "I've learned my lesson."

This counts as growth.

The price he pays is that now, whenever he sees anything, he first questions whether he needs to keep a copy.

Less than half an hour later, news came back from the south of the city.

Seven people died.

Six have been found.

They are all alive.

The last Tian Cheng has disappeared.

Someone said that a constable from the Jingzhao Prefecture came to see him this morning.

They claimed there was an error in the household registration verification and that they needed to take him to get his fingerprints re-issued.

The constable did not leave his name.

Zhao Gui and five others were quickly taken to Luo's Grain Shop.

Six living people stood in front of three future accident reports.

The expressions on the faces of the onlookers were priceless.

Someone recognized Zhao Gui.

He stood in front of the soup kitchen yesterday when the city south was changing its registered residence.

Someone saw him picking up his medicine this morning.

Now, the Ministry of War urgently reports that he died yesterday at Liugou Ferry in Yong'an.

Zhao Gui was illiterate.

I read the order form to him.

After hearing this, he first touched his own face.

He touched his chest again.

Finally, they asked me:

"Lord Shen, where have I been dead?"

"Liugou Ferry".

"How did he die?"

He was killed by refugees from the southwest while protecting the grain.

Zhao Gui thought for a while.

"I will not protect the grain."

"I have a limp."

As he spoke, he took a step forward with his right leg.

The old injury is obvious.

It's hard to walk even a little faster.

Not to mention the grain transport.

Finally, someone in the crowd laughed.

It's not easy.

It was so absurd that I didn't know how to react.

Liu Sanhe's name was also called.

He said, "The pontoon bridge was washed away when the Liugou Ferry flooded last year."

"Only a small wooden bridge was built this spring."

"People can get through it."

"The grain carts can't get through."

The Ministry of War official looked up abruptly.

Are you sure?

"I lived there for forty years."

Liu Sanhe said, "We need to take the four thousand shi of grain to Shiliang Ferry in the south."

"If we go through Liugou, the first car will fall into the river."

The location is fake.

Time is a lie.

The dead are alive.

They even wrote down which road the grain carts should take wrong.

The only genuine ones are the county seal and the post station seal.

I looked at the crowd of onlookers.

"Did everyone hear me clearly?"

"This military report says that a grain robbery occurred yesterday at Liugoudu in Yong'an County."

"But the grain was only released from the warehouse today."

"Even grain carts can't cross Liugoudu."

"Of the seven dead people reported in the newspaper, six are standing here."

"The last one was taken away under the pretext of a household registration review."

I held up the urgent message.

"Someone isn't reporting a looting of grain that has already occurred."

"It is an order that a grain raid must take place."

The street was quiet for a moment.

Then some people started cursing.

This time, the person who was being scolded wasn't me.

"Using living people to fill out military reports!"

"Who stamped the county seal?"

"Where is the magistrate of Yong'an County?"

Where did Tian Cheng go?

True public opinion usually doesn't have a single, unified term.

Some people are criticizing officials.

Someone asked someone.

Some people are worried about food supplies.

Some people even crowded in front of the wooden board to see if their relatives were on the list.

chaos.

But it's true.

I ordered the Jingzhao Prefecture to publicly copy the confessions of six living people.

The Ministry of War was instructed to add a note to the urgent report:

The six deceased have been confirmed alive in Beijing.

The official in charge of taking notes had a stiff hand when he put pen to paper.

On a urgent report that traveled 800 li, it was written on the street for the first time:

The reported dead are still alive.

This line of text is more useful than tearing up the urgent report.

If we tear it up, people will say we're destroying evidence.

If it is left behind, then this genuine document will forever carry its falsehood.

The man Gu Xingzhi sent to the Ministry of War's archives of discarded seals has returned.

"Seven post station seals are missing from the abandoned warehouse."

"When did it become less?"

"The register says it was damaged by last year's flood and has been destroyed."

"Have the destroyed waste materials been inspected?"

"no."

"The person who handled it?"

"Ma Qing, Director of the Department of Military Affairs, Ministry of War".

The expression on the Ministry of War official's face changed slightly.

"The MCA Youth Committee reported illness three days ago."

I asked, "At home?"

"Not here."

"Where are your family members?"

"Leaving the city yesterday."

Another escape route prepared in advance.

Before I could even send someone to chase after me, the sound of horses' hooves echoed again at the end of the long street.

Another urgent package sealed in red.

This time, it wasn't an urgent report about the looting of grain.

It was an order from the Ministry of War to pursue and suppress them.

Upon receiving the first urgent report, the Qingzhou grain escort troops immediately set off ahead of schedule.

There are a total of nineteen people.

We traveled along the northern post road.

They escorted the second batch of 12,000 shi of grain.

I looked at the second accident report that I had prepared in advance.

They were attacked by Shen Lie's men on the northern post road.

Nineteen soldiers and officers escorting the grain died.

Not one was missing.

These nineteen people have not yet left the city.

But news of their deaths was already waiting on the table.