Chapter 6 The golden cicada escapes from its shell
At night, the moonlight shines brightly in the woods outside the county town.

The shrill howls of unknown wild beasts coming from the woods were creepy.

A black shadow fell from the treetop to the ground like a giant bird. It was the killer Yu Feng, the mysterious figure that Li Yuanfang met in Lingzhou Inn.

He wore a conical hat, held a long sword in his hand, had a murderous look on his face, and his eyes were extremely fierce.

He whistled, and dozens of masked men slid down from the tree quickly.

Yu Feng asked in a low voice: "Why is there no news yet?"

The subordinate next to him responded: "It should have come a long time ago."

Yu Feng frowned: "Something happened!"

Then he waved his hand, and the killers followed Yu Feng and rushed into the city.

When they arrived at the alley where they had planned to ambush, they saw more than a dozen bodies of fake Qianniu Guards lying on the ground.

Yu Feng's eyes were bloodshot and he leaned over to touch the corpse on the ground.

Then he gritted his teeth and said, "We must not let them escape, especially Di Renjie. Otherwise, our situation will be very bad. The body is still warm, they can't run far, chase them!"

Then he led the killers and ran away, disappearing into the night in the blink of an eye.

After a while, Zhao Ji and three others walked out of the yard next to the alley.

"Sir, what should we do now?" Li Yuanfang asked.

"Leave the city immediately." Di Renjie said.
-
Yu Feng, who was in pursuit, had already led the killer to the end of the alley, so naturally, he didn't see any human figure.

He led his men to Lanqiao Posthouse and met up with the killer who was responsible for monitoring the posthouse.

"What, Di Renjie didn't return to the post station?" Yu Feng was furious when he heard this.

"No, after our people took Di Renjie away, he never came back. Also, the captain who was guarding Di Renjie is missing." The killer replied.

"What a waste! Why didn't you report such important news in advance?"

Yu Feng waved his hand and slapped his subordinate in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Yu Feng is taking his anger out on others.

It was obviously the fake Qianniu Guard who made the mistake due to negligence. It was useless to blame the assassin who was monitoring him.

The rest of the people looked at each other, not daring to speak.

After a long while, someone finally asked, "Leader, what should we do now?"

Yu Feng knew that Di Renjie and his group had escaped without a trace.

He sighed and said, "The development of the matter has exceeded our expectations. We have no choice but to return to Chang'an, inform Viper, and then discuss it."
-
The next morning, the body of the fake Qianniuwei was found in the alley.

The news of Di Renjie and Zhao Ji's disappearance was also quickly reported to the capital.

When the news reached the capital, Wu Zetian was relaxing in the Imperial Garden accompanied by Wu Sansi.

But as autumn approached and the grass and trees withered, I could no longer relax, but instead felt even more depressed.

Wu Zetian was overwhelmed with emotion and sighed, "Autumn is the season of punishment. What a solemn and murderous scene!"

Wu Sansi asked: "Your Majesty, are you still worried about the Turkic envoys being killed?"

Wu Zetian said: "For a long time, there have been two forces within the Turkic people, one led by Shibi Khan who advocates peace, and the other led by Modu Khan who advocates war. This time, Jili followed Shibi's advice and sent envoys to negotiate peace, but unexpectedly something went wrong in Shihechuan. Now that Shibi is dead, the Modu faction will surely rise up, and it will be difficult for the two countries to negotiate peace again!"

Wu Sansi said disdainfully, "Humph, Your Majesty, how can we, the great Celestial Empire, be afraid of the little Turks?"

Wu Zetian looked at Wu Sansi with disgust. Since she came to power, she had suffered several setbacks in foreign wars. This nephew was really bringing up things that were out of the ordinary.

Wu Zetian scolded him, "You said it lightly. Once the war starts, the people will suffer. Those rebels who want to restore the Tang Dynasty will stir up trouble. Have you thought about this? You are still the prime minister."

Wu Sansi was terrified when he heard this, and hurriedly bowed and said, "I made a mistake."

Wu Sansi was the nephew of Wu Zetian. He was granted the title of King of Liang and served as prime minister.

This person formed a clique for personal gain, excluded dissidents, and abused his power by relying on Wu Zetian.

Wu Zetian herself was cold-blooded and ruthless, and she had a bad relationship with Wu Sansi's father, Wu Yuanshuang. She did not favor Wu Sansi because of their blood relationship.

It was just that Wu Sansi himself was flattering and used supernatural things many times to praise Zhou and belittle Tang.

In order to compete for the position of crown prince, he repeatedly excluded old ministers of the Li Tang Dynasty such as Zhang Jianzhi in the court, and thus won the favor of Wu Zetian.

Wu Zetian used Wu Sansi to suppress Li Tang's old ministers and balance the government. Many shady things were done through Wu Sansi.

But the Wu clan members are really useless and can only be used as minions, unable to shoulder major responsibilities.

Most of the important affairs of the court still depended on the old ministers of Li Tang. Wu Sansi was also well aware of his role. This time Wu Zetian transferred Di Renjie back to Beijing, which made Wu Sansi feel very uneasy.

Di Renjie is the most staunch supporter of the Li Tang faction, and is determined to recover the Tang Dynasty's sacred artifacts.

He was known for his "students and pupils all over the world", and there were many of his students and former officials in the court, so Wu Sansi could not help but be nervous.

"Why is Di Huaiying so slow? He should have arrived long ago." Wu Zetian had a bad premonition in her heart.

Just as Wu Sansi was about to open his mouth to make slanderous remarks, the eunuch suddenly announced that Prime Minister Zhang Jianzhi wanted to see him.

Zhang Jianzhi hurried over, his face full of suspicion and panic: "This morning, I received an urgent report. It said that the dozen Qianniu Guards sent by your majesty to Lanqiao Posthouse were all killed, and Lord Di Renjie is also missing!"

Wu Zetian was also puzzled: "I have never sent Qianniu Guards to Lanqiao to convey my order. What is going on?"

Wu Zetian immediately issued an order to inquire whether the Qianniu Guards should be transferred and to thoroughly investigate Di Renjie's whereabouts.

Wu Zetian had no idea that Di Renjie, Zhao Ji and Li Yuanfang had already arrived in Chang'an.

The next day, the people at Lanqiao Station discovered that Di Renjie and Zhao Ji were missing, and immediately sent someone to report to the court.

Lanqiao Posthouse was only a hundred miles away from Chang'an, and there was no need to change horses on the way, so Di Renjie and his two companions set out at night, which was a little faster than the postmen.

When the three of them arrived in Chang'an, they first stayed in an inn in the city.

Only Zhao Ji and Di Renjie stayed in the hotel, while Li Yuanfang sneaked into the inn. He is currently a wanted criminal and it is not appropriate for him to show up for the time being.

"Sir, since we have arrived in the capital, why don't we go directly to see His Majesty?" Li Yuanfang asked Di Renjie.

Li Yuanfang seemed a little anxious. He naturally wanted Di Renjie to meet Wu Zetian as soon as possible, explain the truth of the diplomatic envoy case, and clear his name.

"I still have some questions that I haven't answered. And there is a traitor in the court. If we go to see you rashly, we will only alert the enemy. It is better to investigate secretly first."

Di Renjie was not in a hurry, he had other arrangements.

"Your Excellency's words make sense, but where do you plan to start your investigation?" Zhao Ji asked.

"I remember that when you talked about the murder of Princess Yi Yang, you mentioned that the imperial palace in the capital was robbed. In order to investigate this matter, all the guards were dispatched." Di Renjie said with a smile.

"Sir, I would have forgotten about this matter if you hadn't mentioned it. Why do you suddenly want to ask about it?" Zhao Ji said.

Di Renjie smiled mysteriously: "Intuition."

"Within a few months, three major cases occurred in the capital. It's too coincidental. I have a vague feeling that there is some connection between them."

In addition to the fake envoy case and the murder of Princess Yi Yang, the third major case was the kiln fire, and the theft in the palace was just an excuse.

The earthen kiln was originally a prison cell where Wu Zetian secretly detained prisoners.

The prisoner imprisoned there, Liu Jin, turned out to be a senior aide to King Li Zhen of Yue ten years ago.

King Li Zhen of Yue and Duke Li Ai of Huang once held a secret meeting in Xiangyang, summoning the princes and former ministers of Li Tang to start a rebellion, with more than 130 people participating.

Many of these one hundred people were deceived by the King of Yue and brought to Xiangyang without their knowledge.

However, Liu Jin used this list to stir up trouble and coerced these people to launch rebellions several times.

It was not until three years ago when Liu Jin was captured in Youzhou that the situation finally calmed down.

In order to eliminate hidden dangers, Wu Zetian ordered the Qianniu Guards to interrogate Liu Jin day and night, vowing to force him to reveal the whereabouts of the list.

Unexpectedly, Viper led his men to raid the earthen kiln, rescued Liu Jin, and disguised it as a fire accident.

In the original drama, Di Renjie inexplicably appeared in the ruins of the earthen kiln in the capital, and it was not explained how he knew about the earthen kiln case.

Given the level of confidentiality Wu Zetian maintained about the prisoner Liu Jin, she would not have announced the fire in the earthen kiln to the public in official documents for no reason.

Zhao Ji sighed secretly. It seemed that the official documents of the court did not mention the earthen kiln case. He still had to point out this world line himself.

Sometimes Zhao Ji felt that he had traveled to this world specifically to fix plot bugs.

However, this matter was related to Wu Zetian's secret. If the source of the news was not explained properly, it would not only arouse Di Renjie's suspicion, but would also be taboo for the emperor.

If you are not careful, the person might be torn into pieces by five horses and his body dragged into the mountains to be fed to wolves.

Zhao still needs to consider carefully what to say and what not to say.

"Why? Is there anything that cannot be discussed?" Di Renjie was a little confused when he saw that Zhao Ji looked hesitant and did not reply for a long time.

"There are indeed some unspeakable secrets, which involve the secrets of the court... I will tell you, Your Excellency, you must help cover up some of them in the future." Zhao Ji said intermittently.

"There's no need to force it. If it's a secret, I can ask the emperor for permission." Di Renjie was understanding and didn't want to make things difficult for Zhao Ji.

He was excited by Zhao Ji's hesitation, which showed that something was unusual and he had asked the right question.

(End of this chapter)