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

The order to transfer forty-one missing persons is genuine.

At least it was printed by Liang Su.

The signature is similar.

The problem is that Liang Su said he didn't sign it.

If an official had said that, I would have suspected him.

Because the most common skill of court officials is not signing documents.

It was after seeing the document that he suddenly couldn't recognize his own characters.

But Liang Su produced a warrant that had been in use for nearly half a year and asked Bai Zhi to compare it.

She read it only once and then said:

"The signature is real."

Liang Su's expression darkened further.

Fang Chengli asked, "Has the Governor forgotten?"

Liang Su looked at him.

"I'm not so sick that I can forget my forty-one lives."

I picked up the transfer order.

"Is the paper real?"

Bai Zhi touched it.

"Official documents from the Bureau of Experience".

"Where's the ink?"

"Yesterday."

"Rescheduling personnel?"

"this morning."

"This means it wasn't a blank visa left many years in advance."

She turned over to her back.

"But the paper has creases."

I swept the charcoal powder under the lamp.

Another line of text slowly appeared on the back.

Three boxes of old records from Yong'an are approved to be sent to Qingzhou for review.

This is an order that Liang Su signed seven days ago.

Originally used for collecting books.

Someone placed a thin piece of paper under the document he signed.

Press the signature and seal underneath.

Then use a chemical solution to develop the mark.

This method differs from the Ministry of War's practice of replacing lists by printing seals across the seams.

But it's the same principle.

The true seal was stolen from the true book.

Then send a fake order.

Bai Zhi pointed to the lower right corner of the transfer order.

"The edge of the gate is missing a bit."

Liang Su took out his own customs seal sample.

Three days ago, the right corner of the door was damaged.

The stamps made nowadays all have broken edges.

The seal on the transfer order was intact.

This proves that the piracy occurred more than three days ago.

At least three days ago, Xu Mingzhang or his associates had already prepared to transfer forty-one people.

The South City verification notice is just the final step.

I asked Liang Su, "What do these forty-one people have in common?"

"no."

"Let's see."

The underground verification system has been reopened.

Forty-one people came from different counties.

They are also of different ages.

There are river works.

Salt workers.

Grain carriers.

There were even two old temple servants.

They have nothing in common on the surface.

However, Bai Zhi quickly discovered:

Everyone is a witness to an old case.

Some people have seen that food supplies were reduced due to the epidemic.

Someone drove the grain cart for Luo's family.

Some people have seen dead bodies being dressed in military uniforms at the salt fields.

Qi Xiaoman escaped through the Qingfeng Warehouse.

These forty-one people were not chosen randomly.

Of the 847 people, 41 knew the most.

Bai Zhi divided the forty-one small portions into four stacks.

The first batch of twelve people saw that the grain had only reached the village entrance; the remaining grain was taken away by Luo's caravan.

The second group of nine men had altered military uniforms at the saltworks and knew how to transfer the size of a dead man's uniform to a living man.

The third stack of seven people had seen old rubbings of the county seal, post station plaque, and governor's official seal.

The last thirteen people passed through Chen Ji's boat shop and the old salt river of Qingxia, and learned which waterway the people from Huocang had taken to leave.

The four stacks of identity documents appear to each represent a different section.

When put together, they can lead from the county register all the way to the Orchid Clothing Shop in Qingxia.

The accounting meeting is not a temporary arrest.

They picked them off one by one, according to the section they knew.

Liang Su kept them in the relief camp.

There was no separate protection.

He believed that everyone would be safe as long as they were inside the wall.

The door to the wall was opened by a clerk from the governor's office.

The enemy doesn't need to climb over the wall.

You can enter by taking his seal.

I asked, "Where are you being transferred to?"

The warrant was from the South City Verification Center.

People in the south of the city said they had not received any of the forty-one people this morning.

The escorting carriages changed their route before entering the city.

The wheel tracks point north.

The salt fields are located to the north of Qingzhou.

It was also the most important part of the Wang family's old silver route.

Liang Su brought the city gate register.

Four vehicles belonging to the governor's yamen passed through Beiyanmen this morning.

Escort document writing:

Old files on deaths from the epidemic.

It must not be opened for inspection.

The carriages were sealed off tightly.

The gatekeeper did not see if anyone was inside.

I looked at Liang Su.

"Walk."

He said, "I'll go too."

"Not staying in camp?"

"The camp gates were sealed off by personal guards."

"The 757 people will not be transferred today."

I said, "They are not criminals."

Liang Su paused for a moment.

Turning to his personal guard, he said:

"Open the camp gates."

The guards were stunned.

"Your Excellency, if anyone takes advantage of the chaos to desert the camp..."

Liang Su looked at the people on the open ground.

"Those who wish to stay and wait for the results, please stay."

"If someone wants to go home, we won't stop them."

No one in the camp moved for a moment.

They have been locked up for too long.

The door suddenly opened, and he dared not leave.

Liang Su stood by the door.

"I will no longer make decisions for you."

This is not an easy thing to say.

It was no easy task, at least for a governor who had made decisions for over eight hundred people over three years.

We headed to the North Saltworks.

The tire tracks of the four vehicles were clearly visible.

The road to the salt field is all white clay.

As the car passed by, it was like leaving an imprint on paper.

The cart tracks disappeared in front of the old salt warehouse.

The old warehouse seal is intact.

The door lock wasn't touched either.

Yan Xiaoyi went around to the back.

Not long after, he shouted:

"typical."

There is a brine drainage ditch below the salt warehouse.

It is used to dilute brine on ordinary days.

Now the ditch is lined with wooden planks.

It requires people to bend over to pass through.

Forty-one pairs of straw sandals were left at the entrance.

Ah Liu counted twice.

"Forty-one."

"People go in barefoot?"

Bai Zhi picked up a shoe.

"Not barefoot."

"Change your shoes."

Forty-one pairs of Southwest Army boots were placed beside the ditch.

There are also forty-one sets of gray short coats.

The character "烈" (fierce/fierce) is embroidered inside the collar.

Again.

My father's name has recently become like an official seal.

Wherever there's a shortage of rebels, they'll build them up.

Liang Su's face was grim.

"Are they planning to create a southwestern rebel army in Qingzhou?"

"not only."

Forty-one confessions were also found inside the salt warehouse.

Each one has been written.

They admitted to infiltrating Qingzhou on Shen An's orders.

They incited families who died from the epidemic to gather under the guise of restoring their household registration.

At noon, they seized weapons and started an uprising in front of the reorganization notice board in the south of the city.

The confessions all end with the location of the handprint.

All that's left is for forty-one people to be pressed down.

The letter of accusation that Fang Chengli had in his carriage can be sent to the capital tomorrow.

Liang Su privately kept dead people.

Shen An led a dead man in rebellion.

The evidence is complete.

The replacement of certificates in Jiangbei is no longer considered a destruction of evidence.

It will become a necessary measure after the rebellion is quelled.

Ah Liu flipped through the confession.

"My lord, why do they always want you to rebel?"

"Because my father has rebelled."

"save trouble."

"Then, young master, will you be able to do anything else in the future?"

"It's difficult."

I said, "At least they haven't written that I eloped yet."

Bai Zhi glanced at me.

"Her Highness is not here, you're talking too much."

I shut up in time.

There was no one in the salt warehouse.

The drainage ditch, however, had fresh drag marks.

It leads all the way to the brine drying area on the north side of the salt field.

We followed the trail.

Rows of white pools line the sun-dried brine field.

They all look the same.

If the forty-one people were separated and hidden in the salt sheds, it would take at least half a day to search them room by room.

It's too late before noon.

Bai Zhi did not search for anyone.

Check the food first.

"If we transfer forty-one people, we can't just deprive them of food and water."

The saltworks accountant was brought here.

He said he didn't eat extra rice today.

Angelica dahurica is used to open the kitchen and register grain.

Last night, I did indeed only receive the usual treatment.

However, a military food shop outside Beiyanmen gave out forty-one extra portions of dry rations this morning.

The payment was made using a night patrol pass from the governor's office.

Signature of the person receiving the grain:

Xu Mingzhang.

No one hid in the salt field.

They were just changing clothes at the salt field.

He then went elsewhere as a night errand boy for the governor.

Liang Su said, "The only places in the north of the city that can be entered with a night patrol pass are the armory, the old military camp, and the Yicang ice cellar."

Armory is not suitable for hiding people.

There are too many guards.

Troops are stationed at the old military camp.

Only the Yicang ice cellar remains.

In Qingzhou, ice is stored in the granary during the summer.

After autumn, the ice has completely melted.

It's empty inside.

It's cold enough.

It is most suitable to make forty-one people fall into a coma for a day after taking the medicine.

Just as we were about to leave, Ah Liu suddenly pulled a hair tie out of a salt bag.

A small piece of cloth was sewn onto the hair tie.

After the forty-one transfer orders were laid out, Liang Su insisted on verifying his own seal first.

He turned the seal over and pointed it out to me.

"This crack on the corner was caused by a fall three years ago."

The seal on the fake transfer order was also cracked.

Bai Zhi turned the paper towards the lamp.

"The crack is correct, but the ink edge is incorrect."

When the seal is pressed down, the crack will absorb ink, with the left side heavier than the right.

Each of these forty-one sheets has the same uniform crack.

It wasn't stamped one sheet at a time with a genuine seal.

First, the most beautiful genuine seal is made, and then a replica is carved.

Liang Su's expression turned even uglier.

Being counterfeited from a genuine seal is no easier than having it stolen.

The former indicates that someone has seen it once.

The latter suggests that the people around him have been observing him for many years.

I asked him to write down everyone he could contact today.

He wrote the seventh character and then stopped.

That person has disappeared this morning.

Qi Xiaoman's "There is a door under the ice" does not mean we should lift the floor tiles.

The ice cellar floor of Qingzhou Yicang is paved with solid stones.

Lift one section, and the entire passageway will be exposed.

Bai Zhi first checked the ice records from previous years.

Last year, it cost 1,200 yuan to buy ice.

This year's reported loss is 1,196.

There are four pieces left.

There wasn't a single piece in the warehouse.

"The ice has melted," said the granary official.

"Why does the accounting only report losses, but not where the water was drained?"

The ice cellar has a drainage ditch.

If the ditch opening is sealed, the water will accumulate in the lower layer.

But the ground was dry.

The real door isn't under the ice.

Behind the drainage ditch.

Yan Xiaoyi cursed for half an hour after he went inside.

When I came back, I was covered in black mud and had a fresh piece of sawdust in my hand.

"It was just sealed inside."

The granary official wanted to run away.

Ah Liu grabbed his leg and was dragged two zhang away.

"Young Master!"

Hold me tight.

"Why not have Guard Yan arrest him?"

"He's in the mud."

Gu Xingzhi pinned the person down with his foot.

When the hidden door was opened, there were no forty-one people inside.

There were only twelve empty stretchers and a pot of still-warm dream-locking medicine.

The person has already been transferred.

However, there are forty-one short lines carved on the wall.

There's a small "full" character next to the last one.

Qi Xiaoman didn't just leave the door open for us.

He also testified that all forty-one people had been there.

The official order was sent to bring people in.

The fake order was what they were supposed to do.

The words were written crookedly on the cloth:

There is a door under the ice.

Don't speak directly.

Signature:

Qi Xiaoman.

He escaped again.

They did not completely escape.

But at least they left the door open for us.