Chapter 119 Jiangjiazhuang

The murderer was riding an unusually large horse, and after the heavy rain, the hoof prints left behind were obvious.

I don’t know whether the hoof prints were too big to be covered up, or whether the murderer had no intention of covering up the hoof prints at all.

The hoof prints on the official road never stopped, and Di Renjie and Zeng Tai followed the yamen runners all the way.

Li Yuanfang took the rubbing of the horseshoe print to the Palace Province to ask someone to look at it. The Yongchang County Magistrate was sent back to the county by Zeng Tai to look for the relatives of Jiang Jiazhuang and Jiang Xiaolang.

Di Renjie and Zeng Tai followed the hoof prints all the way, turning many turns, and when it was almost dark, they slowly arrived at a hill at the foot of Mang Mountain.

The hill was covered with lush wild grass in the summer and the sky was dark, so when we walked here the hoof prints gradually became invisible, leaving only some traces of trampled wild grass, which were difficult to identify.

If we follow further, we will reach the depths of Mang Mountain, and it seems that this is the end.

The group continued to move forward for a while, and the scene before them was horrifying: a pile of tombs and ruins lay quietly in front of them, like a portal to another world.

There were no people around the cemetery, let alone human voices. Only low thunder echoed in the distance, as if telling some horror story.

Zeng Tai felt uneasy, and looked at Di Renjie and asked, "Master, why did this murderer come to the cemetery? It's getting late and it's going to rain, why don't we go back today?"

Di Renjie shook his head and did not answer, but walked straight towards the tombstones.

"Look." Di Renjie pointed at the words on the stone tablet.

Zeng Tai then noticed that the surname on every stone tablet was Jiang, and there was a conspicuous tablet with the words "Tomb of the Former Clan Leader Jiang Xiaolang" engraved on it in large characters.

"Ah? Jiang Xiaolang's tomb!" Zeng Tai exclaimed, and his clothes were instantly soaked with cold sweat.

At this moment, a group of people came from the other side of the post. They were the county magistrate sent by Zeng Tai to find Jiangjiazhuang and Jiang Xiaolang's relatives.

The county magistrate hurried over to Zeng Tai and said, "Greetings, sir. Why are you here?"

Zeng Tai calmed down and asked in confusion: "You asked me, and I wanted to ask you something. Didn't I ask you to go find Jiangjiazhuang? What are you doing here?"

The county magistrate replied: "I went to look for Jiangjiazhuang, but this is Jiangjiazhuang."

Zeng Tai pointed at the village below the hill and said, "Oh? Are you saying that the village below the hill is Jiangjia Village?"

"Your Excellency, the area below the hill is Enji Village, and the area above the hill is Jiangjia Village. The area under our feet is Jiangjia Village," explained the county magistrate.

Zeng Tai frowned, somewhat dissatisfied: "Nonsense! This is clearly the Jiang family's cemetery, how can you say it is Jiangjiazhuang?"

Di Renjie stopped Zeng Tai from getting angry and said, "Don't be impatient. Please ask the county magistrate to speak slowly. There may be some hidden story behind this."

Zeng Tai nodded and motioned to the county magistrate: "Go ahead."

The county magistrate swallowed his saliva and said, "Sir, this is what happened. After returning to the county government office, I asked several yamen runners who were familiar with the county's situation, and they all said there was no such place as Jiangjiazhuang."

"I didn't believe it, so I checked the map again, but still found nothing. Later, I guessed that maybe Jiangjiazhuang had changed its name, but I didn't know. So I took people to ask an old senior for advice."

"The elder is called Gao Rujin. He served as the county magistrate of Henan County in the early years of the Wude era. He is one of the few elders in the county who are over 90 years old. So I went to his home to ask for advice. He told us that Jiangjiazhuang is on Qingyanggang."

Zeng Tai frowned and said, "I think the old man is too old and remembered it wrong. Jiangjiazhuang is not on Qingyanggang."

The county magistrate's voice was already trembling: "Sir, it's not that simple. Elder Gao said that a bloody incident occurred in Jiangjiazhuang several decades ago. More than 30 people were killed, and the heads and left arms of the bodies were chopped off."

"The way they died was exactly the same as the two people we saw on the official road. Dozens of heads and arms were enshrined in the General Temple of Yuwen Chengdu in Xilin. It was a horrible sight."

"What! Is there such a thing?" Zeng Tai and Di Renjie looked at each other, both feeling unbelievable.

The county magistrate continued, "Later, a fire broke out in Jiangjiazhuang. All the villagers were burned to death, and the village was burned to ruins. The ruins... the ruins are where we are standing."

Before he finished speaking, there was another burst of lightning and thunder, as if responding to this horrible story. Zeng Tai looked at the rubble under his feet, and felt a chill rising from the bottom of his heart. His legs became weak and his face suddenly turned pale.

Di Renjie also felt horrified. He frowned and asked in a deep voice, "Was the case solved?"

The county magistrate was terrified and shook his head: "No, Elder Gao lost his job because of this, so he still remembers it clearly. Later, an expert pointed it out to him and he realized that it was the ghost soldiers who killed people and the evil ghosts who took revenge."

Zeng Tai took a deep breath and said, "The ghost soldiers killed people, and the evil ghosts took revenge?"

Following the horseshoe prints all the way to track down the murderer to the cemetery, the victim Jiang Xiaolang died decades ago, and the murder method decades ago was exactly the same as that today, which was weird everywhere.

Di Renjie's worldview was shocked, and he muttered to himself, "How can there be such a strange thing in the world?"

The thunder continued to roar and raindrops began to fall from the sky.

Di Renjie looked up at the sky, then looked at the yamen runners around him and said, "Zeng Tai, this matter is still open for discussion. Go back and check the old files in the county to see if it is true."

"It's getting dark and it's going to rain again, so let's go back. We'll go see the so-called General Temple tomorrow and ask the old people in Gangxia Village. They should have heard about this matter."

Zeng Tai had long since stopped wanting to stay in this cemetery, and hurriedly said, "Everything will be arranged by Master."
-
In Shangyang Palace, after a day of peace and quiet, heavy rain began to pour down again.

Zhao Ji was on duty as usual, guarding outside Wu Zetian's bedroom.

In the bedroom, Wu Zetian was dressing in front of the mirror, but she had hallucinations again.

She saw Queen Wang and Concubine Xiao, both covered in blood and with disheveled hair, reappear in the mirror. But when she turned around, there were only palace maids and eunuchs behind them.

Wu Zetian suspected that she had seen it wrong and looked back at the mirror.

The two female ghosts in the mirror seemed to have broken free from their restraints. They crawled out slowly from the mirror with bared fangs and claws, and their faces were hideous. They approached Wu Zetian, as if they wanted to eat her alive.

Wu Zetian screamed miserably, "Ah! Don't come over here, don't come over here, someone, come and protect the emperor! Quickly protect the emperor!"

Zhao Ji and the guards heard Wu Zetian's cry and rushed into the hall at high speed.

Wu Zetian fell to the ground, holding her head in her hands and trembling. Chunxiang and another maid knelt beside her.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?" Zhao Ji half-knelt in front of Wu Zetian and asked.

"Did you see it? There are ghosts, there are ghosts! I order you to drive them away, drive them away!" Wu Zetian pointed at the mirror and cried in horror.

Zhao Ji turned around and looked at the mirror: "Your Majesty, that is a mirror, there is nothing in it."

Wu Zetian looked carefully and found that the mirror was indeed empty. There was only the situation in the hall and her own face. The evil spirit had indeed disappeared.

"You, you really didn't see the evil ghost in the mirror just now?" Wu Zetian breathed a sigh of relief, but was still a little doubtful.

"Your Majesty, I only saw the mirror and the reflection in the mirror, and did not see any evil spirit." Zhao Ji replied.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the face in the mirror is Your Majesty's holy face, there is no evil spirit." The eunuchs around also echoed.

Wu Zetian sighed and said, "Help me up."

Chunxiang and others hurried forward and helped Wu Zetian to the bed.

Zhao Ji asked, "Your Majesty, would you like to summon the imperial physician to examine you?"

Wu Zetian shook her head and sighed, "What's the use of an imperial physician? Ask someone to summon the imperial teacher Wang Zhiyuan to the palace."

(End of this chapter)