Chapter 1: First Meeting with Di Renjie

As the sky gradually darkened, a team of Qianniu Guards protected a carriage as it sped along the official road leading to Chang'an, raising clouds of dust.

This was because Wu Zhou and the Turks had been fighting for years, with heavy casualties on both sides, and both felt they could no longer continue.

The Turkic Khan Jili took the initiative to seek peace and sent his brother Shibi Khan to lead an envoy to the Great Zhou to request a marriage alliance.

Unexpectedly, the delegation was ambushed in Shihechuan on the Gannan Road.

All the personnel of Shibi Khan's Turkic envoys and Gannan Road's guards were killed.

The captain of the escort, Li Yuanfang, the former guerrilla general of Gannan Road, escaped alone and his whereabouts are unknown.

What's worse, the villains pretended to be a fake envoy group and came to Beijing, and they deceived the officials and the emperor.

Princess Yiyang, who was supposed to marry into the Turkic clan, was also killed in Chang'an.

Within a few months, a series of major cases shocked the court and the public. If not handled properly, Wu Zhou and the Turks would go to war again, and there would be no peace in the country.

In this critical situation, all the civil and military officials in the court were helpless.

Therefore, Emperor Wu Zetian recalled Di Renjie, who was exiled to Pengze, and asked him to return to Beijing to put out the fire and solve the case.

The captain of the Qianniu Guard who protected Di Renjie was very young.

He looked to be only in his twenties. His name was Zhao Ji and his courtesy name was Chengyuan.

The Qianniu Guards were the emperor's personal guards, and those selected were all "young and beautiful".

Zhao Ji was no exception: he had a slender figure, a clear and handsome face, and in his military uniform, he looked very heroic.

He was originally a university student majoring in history in the 21st century, and he loved the Detective Di Renjie series. It has been seven years since he traveled to the world of Detective Di Renjie, and it has also been seven years since he waited for the plot to begin.

The examples of Zeng Tai and Li Yuanfang told Zhao Ji that if he clung to Lord Di, he would be able to rise to prominence.

Now he finally got the chance he had been waiting for, becoming the imperial envoy to announce the imperial decree and escort Di Renjie back to Beijing.

Zhao Ji originally thought that with his familiarity with the plot, it would be easy to follow Di Renjie.

Along the way, things were not as simple as he had imagined.

Because this world does not completely overlap with the world of the original drama.

In the original drama, because director Qian was clueless about geography, he arranged for Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang to meet in the crimson tent.

However, the crimson tent was to the west of Chang'an, and no matter how Di Renjie walked back to Chang'an from Pengze, he would never reach the crimson tent.

Without the clear clue of the crimson tent, it is hard to say when Li Yuanfang will show up.

So Zhao Ji was like Lin Daiyu entering the Jia Mansion during this journey, being careful and attentive at all times.

After all, in the original drama, Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang left their guards behind and went directly to Chang'an. If I can't catch up with them, it will be too late to regret it.

Just as Zhao Ji's thoughts were in turmoil, he vaguely saw an inn ahead on the official road.

An old man with a kind face and a strong body lifted the curtain, looked forward, and then looked at the sky, and said: "Chengyuan, rest at the inn in front today."

The old man who spoke was Di Renjie.

"Di Gong has ordered us to go to the inn and rest. After the soldiers have finished their meal, one team will rest first, while the second team will be on guard. They will take turns at midnight."

Zhao Ji ordered the guards to go into the post station to rest. On the other side, Di Renjie had already got off the carriage and was stretching his body.

According to Zhao Ji's habits in his previous life, his daily schedule was always planned in advance.

However, in order to get to Chang'an as quickly as possible, Di Renjie often traveled overnight and rested late at night, but today was different.

Di Renjie patted Zhao Ji on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Chengyuan, you have been traveling all night these days. Thank you for your hard work."

"Di Gong is worried about state affairs, so he works day and night. He is the pillar of the country and a role model for our generation. You don't even say it's hard work, so how dare I say it's hard work?" Zhao Jilian said he dared not. After hearing this, Di Renjie laughed and said, "Chengyuan, relax a little, don't always call me Di Gong, Di Gong. Let's have dinner first. I have some questions about the diplomatic mission tonight. The situation is urgent and time is running out."

Zhao Ji secretly complained, it turned out that he had something to ask, no wonder Lord Di was willing to rest so early today.

Not far away, a pair of eyes saw this scene and said, "Go and inform General Yu Feng that Di Renjie has arrived."

Zhao sensed something and looked back, but he didn't see any figure.

He thought to himself, "I learned martial arts by myself, so I have always been very sensitive and never make mistakes. Could it be that Li Yuanfang is here?"

Zhao Ji carefully calculated the conditions for Li Yuanfang's appearance and concluded that he would appear soon.

The meeting between Li Yuanfang and Di Renjie was deliberately arranged by the killer Yu Feng. Although there was no meeting in the crimson tent this time, Li Yuanfang did not miss meeting Di Renjie.

Li Yuanfang was seriously injured and was wanted, so he was unable to find Di Renjie by himself.

Therefore, Yu Feng must have secretly passed on information through various means and guided Li Yuanfang all the way.

It was Wu Zetian's sudden decision to send Di Renjie back to Beijing to investigate the case, and Yu Feng probably didn't have time to start surveillance from Pengze.

Even if the surveillance started from Pengze, the distance was too far to transmit the message, so the surveillance must have started from a specific location.

According to common sense, Di Renjie returned to Chang'an to investigate a case, so we only need to monitor the post stations near the final stop, Chang'an, to find out Di Renjie's whereabouts.

Besides, Detective Di Renjie is not a fantasy world, and it would take time for Li Yuanfang to rush from Gannan Road to meet Di Renjie, so it is not too far to choose a place near Chang'an.

Lanqiao Posthouse is less than a hundred miles away from Chang'an. If you ride a fast horse, it will only take one or two days to get there.

That is to say, starting from Lanqiao Posthouse, Li Yuanfang may suddenly appear every time he passes a posthouse.

After sorting out his thoughts, Zhao Ji was greatly encouraged and inspected the inn carefully, but unfortunately he found nothing.

Zhao Ji was not discouraged. He went to Di Renjie's room as Di Renjie had instructed him to do.

Di Renjie was sitting quietly at the table, looking through the case documents.

He looked up and saw Zhao Ji coming in, and pointed at him casually: "Chengyuan is here, sit down."

"Sir, what do you want to ask?" Zhao Ji asked while sitting on a chair next to the table.

"The imperial edict was issued in a hurry, and the case information is not detailed. The document says that you were on duty at the banquet held by the court to welcome the delegation, and you also saw the body of Princess Yiyang?" Di Renjie put down the document in his hand and asked Zhao Ji.

"That's right. When the fake envoys came to the capital to see the emperor, I was on duty in the palace and saw them with my own eyes. I was also present when Princess Yiyang's body was found."

Di Renjie nodded and said, "Tell me the details of the situation at that time, starting with the fake envoys' visit to the emperor."

Zhao Ji recalled: "It is said that the delegation consisted of more than 40 people, and there were more than a dozen people who entered the palace to see the emperor. These dozen people behaved properly and responded with ease, and no one could find any fault with them."

"Especially the leader, Kashibi Khan, who is neither humble nor arrogant, calm and composed, and has the demeanor of a minister."

"They also presented a pearl, saying it was a sacred object of the tribe. I saw it with my own eyes, it was shining brightly under the moonlight, it is indeed a rare treasure."

"When His Majesty saw the pearl, he was greatly pleased and bestowed many gifts and thirty beauties upon him."

Zhao Ji complained in his heart, where these thirty beauties went was a mystery.

Of course Di Renjie didn't know about Zhao Ji's complaints.

He asked a question that was beyond Zhao Ji's expectation: "So, this fake Turkic delegation is actually composed of real Turks?"

Zhao Ji fell into deep thought for a moment, somewhat confused about what Di Renjie meant.

　Please collect and recommend. I am a newbie, so please bear with me.

(End of this chapter)