Chapter 20: Coffins are a good business
During the reign of Emperor Dayinwu, there was the Honglu Temple, which had a Honglu Temple Minister who was in charge of diplomatic relations with all parties and corresponding court etiquette and other duties.
In the dynasty before Dayin, there was still some communication between the countries in the world, and envoys and caravans from various countries could often appear in Haojing. At that time, the Honglu Temple was still considered an important government office of the previous dynasty.
More than 1,800 years ago, Emperor Taizu of Dayin overthrew the previous dynasty, established his own country, and followed the official system of the previous dynasty. The Honglu Temple remained a permanent institution of the court, and in the following hundreds of years, it was also responsible for diplomatic affairs such as welcoming and seeing off guests.
Over the next thousand years, the world continued to change, martial arts declined, and the bloodlines of humans and various birds and beasts continued to weaken. Foreign envoys and caravans, which could easily travel tens of thousands of miles in a day and a night, can now only travel a thousand miles, or even hundreds of miles.
From then on, diplomatic relations between countries were severed, foreign missions disappeared, and the position of the Honglu Temple in the court gradually became awkward, and its importance continued to decline. Today, the Honglu Temple has become a "service department" with little authority.
Sijifang in Fengtiaofang, with three streets and five alleys, is a garden and mansion, which is now the property of Honglu Temple.
Of course, the Guardian of the Palace would not take the current Honglu Temple seriously. If they said they would bully it, then so be it. Could the powerless Honglu Minister really die by banging his head against the gate of the Guardian of the Palace?
But the Guardian Guard is unwilling to offend the people living in Sijifang.
The Dayin Wu Dynasty followed the previous dynasty and divided Dayin's territory into nine states.
Among them, Haojing is located in the "ancestral state" of the Central Plains, the core of the Nine Provinces, and the place of origin that will never change.
Outside of Zuzhou, there are East Shenzhou, West Youzhou, South Manzhou, and North Mingzhou.
To the east of East Shenzhou, there is the Far East Mingzhou; to the west of West Youzhou, there is the Far West Mozhou; to the south of South Manzhou, there is the Far South Huangzhou; to the north of North Mingzhou, there is the Far North Dazhou.
When the Dayin Wu Dynasty was first established, its martial arts were at their peak The elite legions in the city of Haojing had extremely high martial arts skills, and the huge legions could travel thousands of miles a day. The four major states of Mingzhou, Mozhou, Huangzhou, and Dazhou were still firmly controlled by the Dayin Wu Dynasty.
Later, as martial arts declined and the bottleneck in martial artists' realm became increasingly difficult to break, Gaojing gradually lost control of the Four Great Continents.
With the destruction of the last military city of Dayin on the territory of Siji Great Continent eight hundred years ago, and after Haojing was no longer able to dispatch a large-scale field army to Siji Great Continent, the local forces in Siji Great Continent took the opportunity to announce their independence from Dayin's rule and happily declared themselves kings.
Since three hundred years ago, the decline of martial arts in the world has reached an extreme.
Haojing can now barely control the ancestral state of Central Earth. The other four states in the southeast, northwest, and northeast still nominally respect the emperor of Haojing as the common ruler of the world, but in reality they have already established their own territories, fighting and conquering each other, forming alliances, and have entered the chaotic "Warring States Period".
The founding ancestor of the Dayinwu Dynasty once conferred titles on eight hundred princes in each state except the Central Plains Zuzhou. The titles were divided into five levels from high to low: "Duke", "Marquis", "Bo", "Viscount", and "Baron".
After three hundred years of chaos and war, some of the once high-ranking "Princes" have been wiped out.
After three hundred years of rising up, some men who were once of humble status have become powerful and influential.
However, since these princes still regard the Emperor of Haojing as the common ruler of the world, they still have to show some attitude.
For example, the collective tribute every twelve years.
For example, the princes' sons need to be canonized by the emperor.
For example, placing a few unimportant sons and daughters in Haojing as hostages.
The three streets and five alleys of Sijifang, with thousands of garden houses, are rented by the beloved sons and daughters of thousands of princes and lords from the four major states in the southeast, northwest, and northeast.
What can I say about these people?
They are all troubles, there are few good ones.
East Shenzhou is the most culturally rich and elegant place, with the most complete heritage of classics and civilizations from past dynasties. The princes and daughters of East Shenzhou have a catchphrase: "You barbarians, bah!"
Xiyouzhou is rich in products, especially its specialty 'golden sand'. All the princes are extremely wealthy, and the princes' children's favorite words are - 'Haha, you poor ghosts'!
There is no need to mention Beiming Province, the people are tough and powerful, especially there are many glaciers and grasslands, and there are a lot of cavalry. They like to parade through the city with large groups of men. They would rather take action than talk. Their daily language is - 'You are all a bunch of ballless bitches', 'Believe it or not, I will kill your whole family'!
As for the Nanman State, the people are not so fierce as to be called "fierce, evil, cruel, and violent". They are all born killers, especially good at all kinds of witchcraft and secret arts. They are all hard-working and practical. They are taciturn by nature and will kill directly if they disagree with others. They are the biggest security threat in the capital city of Hao.
It is these people who have turned Sijifang into a huge hornet's nest.
Almost every day, various conflicts would break out between them, often affecting innocent . The major government offices in Haojing City were busy cleaning up their messes.
But no matter how intense the conflict between them is, once the Gaojing officials dare to intervene, they will instinctively join forces to fight.
Once, a detective from the Sikoutai was investigating a murder case and he traced the case back to the son of a certain marquis.
As a result, more than twenty constables from the Sikoutai were beaten to death in broad daylight and their bodies were thrown on the street.
The Sikou of this dynasty was furious and ordered the Sikou Office to dispatch a large number of people to capture the murderer. As a result, more than a thousand hostages of the princes clamored in unison and rang the golden bells and silver drums at the gate of the imperial city, alarming the empress dowager and the emperor. They also organized tens of thousands of thugs and guards to violently resist the law, and forcibly made the Sikou unable to step down .
The matter was eventually covered up with the marquis handing over a "worthless" slave as a hostage to take the blame.
After the slave was beheaded by Sikoutai, the Queen Mother, in order to appease the Marquis hostage, ordered the Minister of Honglu Temple to secretly give the Marquis hostage a "pension" equivalent to a hundred times the value of the slave!
Old He chattered on and on, explaining to Lu Yi the special nature of Sijifang in the city of Haojing.
Lu Yu was shocked and asked Lao He: "Is this possible?"
Old He looked around and lowered his voice, "Nineteen years ago, the Queen Mother ruled the country from behind the curtain. The princes represented the princes from all directions and submitted a petition to persuade the Queen Mother to ascend the throne, supporting her wholeheartedly."
"If it weren't for the support of the princes from all directions, how could the Queen Mother..."
The topic was too sensitive, and Lao He swallowed a mouthful of stinky tofu and didn't dare to continue.
Lu Yi understood: "So, we can't touch this Sijifang. Even if Liu Wu is hiding in a courtyard somewhere?"
Lao He stuffed two pieces of cold stinky tofu into his mouth and chewed them in big mouthfuls.
He looked at Lu Yu and said in a deep voice, "Unless we catch them on the spot, otherwise... Besides, Sijifang is not under the jurisdiction of our team. Alas, in the entire Sijifang, no government office can control them. Those princes' children have always done what they want."
"Well, let's put this aside for now." Lu Yi shook his head helplessly: "Since they have already killed people and cleaned up the traces, then unless Liu Wu is a pig, he will not easily reveal traces again."
"We can only let the ghosts in the ground squat around Sijifang and try our luck."
"But we can investigate the other fifteen brothers who were killed, especially the one who was killed the day before yesterday." Lu Yi murmured, "It must be a big fish. It must be that when we put so much effort into tracking down Liu Wu, they found some other clues that caused the most intense reaction from the big fish."
"However, in the city of Haojing, who would be so unscrupulous as to attack the people of the palace guards?"
According to the information in the small notebook, Lu Yi used a charcoal stick to circle the location on the map where the fifteen guards had been killed a few days ago.
He gestured lightly on the map with his fingers and muttered to himself in a low voice.
"They must have accidentally bumped into something, or seen something or someone. But what could it be?"
"Especially that day, which was the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month last year, when seven guards were killed overnight."
"According to the testimonies of the residents in the market town, and based on the order in which they heard the screams and sounds of fighting, the first guard to be killed was here, then this spot, this spot, and this spot..."
"Someone was killed and there was a noise, and then some brothers who heard the noise rushed over to investigate."
"They just happened to run into the murderer. They were caught off guard and died on the spot."
"Then the direction the murderer fled should be this line."
Lu Yi was drawing on the map with the charcoal stick in his hand. His mind was filled with spiritual light and he intuitively drew a circle on the map.
"There is a 70% chance that the murderers' lair is in this area."
"Yes, it should be this section of Youlouzi Street."
"What kind of shops are these?"
"Goldsmith shops, silversmith shops, women's rouge and powder, ready-made handkerchiefs, these shops are too professional, with too much traffic and too much exposure. If there are a bunch of killers hiding here, the chances of them being exposed are too high."
"What kind of store can hide a group of people without arousing suspicion?"
“There are two coffin shops here!”
"One specializes in high-end coffins, which are prepared for the nobles in the rich and powerful houses. The other one sells medium and low-end coffins, which are prepared for ordinary people."
"What a coincidence, the two coffin shops are right next to each other."
"Old He, coffins are a good business, are you afraid?"
Lu Yi raised his head and looked at Lao He with a smile.
"If you're not afraid, come with me to these two coffin shops. Let's go check it out now!"
Lao He and the five ghosts' faces twitched violently.
Lao He looked at Lu Yu and said with a chuckle, "After those brothers got into trouble, we searched these two streets and alleys thoroughly, but we didn't find any useful information. Lu Yu, don't tell me that you found the murderer just by gesturing at this map?"
Lu Yi took out a hundred coins and threw them on the table, then stood up with a smile and said, "Come on, let's just treat it as a way to digest the food after dinner. It won't hurt to go over and take a look. However, we need to change our clothes, as this white palace gecko robe is too eye-catching."
Old He hesitated for a while, gritted his teeth, nodded, stood up, picked up the hundred coins that Lu Yi threw down, and threw it back to Lu Yi.
"We come here to eat and give them enough face, can they still ask for money?"
"Go, go, go, Lu Yu, I tell you, from now on in our own territory, except for sleeping with those girls, we must not owe them money for their sex, and we don't have to spend money on other things like eating and drinking!"
"The palace guards eat and drink from them, and they still charge money?"
"That doesn't make sense. That absolutely doesn't make sense!"
