Ang Lee truly did bear some responsibility. Although this responsibility was not the main one, it could not be shirked.
First, it was Ang Lee who had invented the train. If he had not invented the train, the Emperor would not have been in danger. Secondly, it was Ang Lee who had led the design of the train tracks and lines. If the lines had been properly designed and avoided rivers and dangerous sections, perhaps this incident could have been avoided.
Most importantly, he had not considered the safety of the train sufficiently. He had considered the possibility that the train would be derailed if the tracks were damaged, but he had not come up with a perfect solution. He had only suggested that two trains clear the path ahead to avoid the possibility of the tracks being damaged.
However, the attack on the Emperor this time proved that there were still loopholes in this plan. The assassin hid in the water under the bridge and successfully fooled the guards who were clearing the way. Then, he rushed out at the right time and destroyed the train tracks, causing the Emperor's special train to fall into the river. Fortunately, the Emperor was unharmed. Otherwise, Li An would have been attacked from all sides.
"Your Majesty, this lowly subject's plan was not thorough enough. I did not consider that the assassins would be hiding under the bridge and suddenly attack the tracks. I thought that this plan would be foolproof, but it ended up alarming Your Majesty and frightening this lowly subject."
Ang Lee sincerely said.
"Forget it. This matter cannot be blamed on Assistant Minister Li. These assassins were too cunning. Who would have thought that they would hide in the water under the bridge?"
Li Longji's tone softened, and he no longer resented Ang Lee.
"Everyone, the two heavily injured assassins have woken up."
A eunuch ran in to report.
"Your Majesty, this lowly subject suggests that we have Giwin interrogate them. There is no mouth that he cannot pry open."
Li Linfu suggested.
"No, We will personally interrogate them. Bring the prisoners in. We want to see just who was so bold as to assassinate Us."
Li Longji was very angry.
Two assassins covered in bandages entered the Purple Imperial Palace under the escort of four guards.
"Kneel."
Even though he was severely injured, he was still forced to kneel on the ground by the guards.
Ang Lee glanced at them. These two Tufan assassins were heavily injured, but their eyes were still shining. They were obviously tough men. Most likely, they wouldn't be able to get anything out of them even if they were tortured, let alone ordinary questioning.
"Speak, who sent you to assassinate His Majesty?"
Before Li Longji could say anything, a lackey like Yang Zhao had already stood up for his master.
The two assassins looked at each other but did not reply.
Seeing that his threat was ineffective, Yang Zhao flew into a rage and kicked one of the assassins to the ground.
"Don't touch my brother. Hit me if you dare."
The assassin who hadn't been hit was furious.
"Hmph, you're quite loyal. Tell me, who sent you to assassinate His Majesty? Otherwise, I'll kill your brother first."
Seeing this, Yang Zhao was overjoyed and threatened loudly.
"Shameless. Even if I tell you, it's useless. We're just small fries. We don't know much."
"Hurry up and say it."
Suddenly, everyone looked at the assassin.
"My master used to be Zan Pu's little bodyguard."
The assassin made up a random name.
"Tut, tut, tut, I've never heard of him. Speak, why did he want to assassinate His Majesty?"
"Your dog Emperor imprisoned our Zampu. He deserves to die."
The assassin glared angrily at Li Longji.
"How dare you!"
Everyone shouted at the same time.
Li Longji's anger subsided a little. He looked at the assassin and asked angrily, "Tuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuotuo
"Dog Emperor, what do you think? Your princes all want to kill you and take your place. You killed your own son unjustly and seized your own daughter-in-law. You are so shameless. Do you still expect them to respect and be loyal to you? They are all in danger and can't wait for you to die. "
"Dog Emperor who killed his son and stole his wife, your death date is not far away."
The two assassins had no intention of living anymore. They took the opportunity to curse Li Longji to vent their hatred.
The people of Zi Chen Palace Hall were all dumbfounded. These two assassins dared to expose the Emperor's dirty deeds. Their courage defied the heavens. They, the loyal officials, were all stunned.
Ang Lee looked at Li Longji's twitching lips and did not dare to say anything. Only the heavens knew what the Emperor was thinking at this moment.
"Execute them on the spot. Flog them to death. Flog them to death."
Li Longji was furious. He gnashed his teeth and roared. Then, he coughed a few times and angrily left Zi Chen Palace Hall.
"Drag them out and flog them to death."
Yang Zhao saw that the guards were still in a daze and hurriedly reminded them.
The lives of the two assassins were not worth mentioning. They were quickly flogged to death and their corpses were thrown out into the wilderness to feed the dogs.
In fact, these two assassins had been saved with great difficulty. They could have kept them alive and interrogated them slowly to find out the power behind them. However, Li Longji insisted on interrogating them himself. In the end, in a fit of anger, he destroyed the only clue with his own hands.
Now that the two assassins were dead and the rest of the assassins were still being searched for, there were no other clues. The difficulty of solving the case was extremely high. It was a troublesome matter.
Ang Lee was mainly responsible for the development of airplanes. Naturally, it was not suitable for him to spend too much energy investigating the Emperor's assassination case. At most, he would provide assistance and pay attention to it.
Li Linfu was older and did not seem to be a suitable candidate for Li Longji. Yang Zhao running up and down seemed to be a good choice.
Li Longji's anger had not subsided, but he was also thinking about who to give the investigation of the assassination case to.
"Everyone, protecting the Emperor's body is more important! Don't take the words of the assassins to heart. "
Gao Lishi stood at the side and persuaded.
"Little Gao! Am I really such a heartless emperor?! Do all of my princes hate me? "
Li Longji asked dispiritedly.
"Everyone, please don't think of it that way. This old servant has followed you for so many years. You are a good Emperor and a good father. All of the princes respect you, so why would they hate you? It must be these Tufan assassins who are trying to sow discord between us and the princes. "
Gao Lishi replied sincerely.
"I am very clear on what kind of person I am. These Tufan assassins are trying to sow discord between us. Their intentions are worthy of death. However, they have spies in the palace and they must be dug out."
Li Longji said angrily.
"Everyone is right. A spy by your side is the most terrifying. The Right Chief Minister and the others are still outside. We can get them to investigate the matter of the assassins."
"Ang Lee is busy. The Right Chief Minister has to assist me in handling the government affairs. Leave it to Yang Zhao! Give him a chance to perform. Hopefully, he won't disappoint me. "
Li Longji gave the order. Then, he lay down on the couch with a worried expression.
The words of the assassins just now had a huge impact on him. Killing one's son and stealing his daughter-in-law had always been his taboo. This was especially so for the latter. It was a matter that he tried his best to cover up. He didn't want anyone to mention it. However, not only did the assassins mention it, they even did it in front of many of the officials of the Tang dynasty. This violated his greatest taboo.
As such, no matter how much information he could obtain from these two assassins, he had to kill them immediately to appease his extreme anger. The taboo of the Emperor was not to be touched. No one was allowed to do so.
After receiving the full authority to handle the assassination case, Yang Zhao was pleasantly surprised. For the Emperor to entrust such an important task to him showed that he had great trust in him. However, this assassination case involved the Emperor. If he messed it up, he would not be able to bear the consequences.
"Congratulations, Yang Zhao. Hehe!"
Li Linfu still had many government affairs to deal with. After congratulating him, he turned around and left.
"Assistant Minister Li, if you don't have anything else to do, why don't you come with me to investigate the case?"
Yang Zhao said enthusiastically. Ang Lee once gave him a big business deal that made him a lot of money. He was happy and naturally wanted to get closer to Ang Lee. If Ang Lee was happy and gave him another lucrative business deal, how wonderful would that be?
Ang Lee smiled. "Yang Zhao, where do you plan to start the investigation?"
"This … there aren't many clues at the moment. Why don't we go to the crime scene first? Perhaps we can find some clues there. "
Yang Zhao couldn't think of any good ideas. He could only go to the crime scene to look for clues.
"Okay, let's go together. It's on the way."
Ang Lee also wanted to go to the crime scene to see the situation. He was the one who built the railway and the train. He wanted to go there and see what exactly was going on so that he could make more accurate countermeasures in the future.
Because the crime scene was still some distance away from the capital, cavalry would be too time-consuming. Yang Zhao, Ang Lee, and the others took a patrol car with only one carriage to the crime scene.
"Assistant Minister Li, we still have to deal with the situation at the crime scene as soon as possible. His Majesty's train occupies one of the tracks. Now that all the trains from the capital to the east have stopped, many merchants are as anxious as ants on a hot pan. Only goods from the east can be transported into the capital, but goods from the capital can't go to the east," Yang Zhao said.
If the goods in the capital could not be shipped out, many merchants who needed to sell their goods would suffer great losses. Yang Zhao was one of them. The market for his workshop's products had been completely opened. Moreover, relying on his power to suppress others, he had completely monopolized the industry. At this moment, a large number of finished products were being loaded into cars, ready to be transported by rail to Luoyang and other large cities in the east.
However, because one of the tracks was occupied, these goods couldn't be transported out at all. This caused Yang Zhao to suffer great losses. If the Emperor's train occupied the tracks for a long time, his losses would only increase. The result of overstocked goods was that the capital couldn't flow effectively. It was like a person's blood flowing to the limbs but couldn't flow effectively back to the heart. This way, the person would die without a doubt. If the capital for the goods couldn't be recovered quickly, there was a risk that the capital chain would break.
Ang Lee naturally understood Yang Zhao's little scheme. He had seen through this fellow long ago. In front of him, this fellow was nothing more than an invisible person.
"Yang Taifu is right. Every day the railway is delayed, the losses of the merchants will increase. Most importantly, the citizens of the East will not be able to obtain the goods they need in time. As time passes, their quality of life will decrease. This is especially so for Yang Taifu's masseuses. If they are out of stock for too long, the rich ladies of Luoyang will be embarrassed."
Ang Lee mocked with a smile.
"Haha! Assistant Minister Li's words are true. However, if it weren't for a genius like Assistant Minister Li who invented the loveseat, the noble ladies of the Tang dynasty wouldn't have such good fortune. "
Yang Zhao was really despicable. With just one sentence, he pulled Li An into the Women's Friends group and made him his teammate.
Ang Lee smiled awkwardly. He felt that he had shot himself in the foot.
"Assistant Minister Li, we have arrived at Grand Yang's residence."
The guard reminded them.
"We're here, we're here. Assistant Minister Li, let's get off and take a look."
Yang Zhao got off the carriage and headed to the scene of the incident.
At this moment, many people had already gathered at the scene of the incident. There were people from the Imperial Court, but there were also many bored commoners who had specially come to watch. The scene was rather chaotic.
"Out of the way, everyone out of the way."
In order to ensure the safety of Ang Lee's group, the guard drove the crowd away.
"What's going on? How's the investigation going?"
Yang Zhao turned to a minor official in charge of investigating the scene.
"Yang Taifu, Assistant Minister Li, we've already completely understood the situation. The assassin used reeds to breathe and hid underwater. When His Majesty's private train passed by, he suddenly leaped out of the water and used a metal rod to flip the train over."
After several hours of investigation, the minor official had obtained a rough understanding of the situation and presented several reeds and two square metal rods used by the assassin.
"Assistant Minister Li, we can't find any valuable clues here. Why don't we move His Majesty's private train away as soon as possible? This way, the train will be able to move faster. "
Yang Zhao casually scanned the surroundings as he spoke.
"Yang Taifu, His Majesty has already given you full authority. There's no need for you to ask me this question."
Ang Lee faintly smiled as he picked up the reeds and metal rods and began to carefully examine them.
The reeds were still intact, but the metal rods had been deeply indented by the wheels of the train. From this, one could see just how powerful the impact was.
"Men, pull the second half of the train back to the capital."
Yang Zhao decisively gave the order.
The train that they had been on earlier was responsible for pulling the second half of the Emperor's private train back to the railway station. However, the first half of the train was still submerged in the water, with only a small portion of it sticking out of the water.
"Immediately have someone fish it out and transport it back to the capital."
Yang Zhao pointed to the carriages in the water and ordered.
After giving the order, Yang Zhao and Ang Lee walked along the tracks. At the front, several maintenance workers were inspecting the damage to the tracks.
"How is it? How much damage is the tracks? How long will the repairs take?"
Such a professional question naturally required Ang Lee to personally deal with it. Yang Zhao was a layman when it came to the field of railways.
"Assistant Minister Li, please take a look. This section of the tracks has been damaged and has to be completely replaced to ensure absolute safety. It will take at least a day's worth of work," one of the craftsmen replied seriously.
"That's right.
Hurry up and make sure that the tracks are open to traffic as soon as possible. "
Ang Lee approved of the craftsmen's words and ordered them to immediately start repairing the damaged tracks. Of course, the railings of the bridge also had to be repaired, and it would take some time. However, even if it couldn't be fixed quickly, it wouldn't affect the flow of the trains. In other words, they only needed to wait for another day for the trains in the capital to be able to leave for the east.
"The few of you, did you manage to find any information on the assassin?"
Yang Zhao turned to the yamen runners and asked.
"Yang Taifu, we've already confirmed that the assassin escaped via the river. We don't have any leads yet, but these assassins were injured and couldn't have gotten far. We only need to issue a decree to the pharmacies in the capital to have them pay attention to the buyers of the Golden Sore Medicine. We'll also scatter some men around the pharmacies. If we discover any suspicious individuals, we'll be able to capture the remaining assassins in one fell swoop."
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