Chapter 63: CH 30.2

30. Doubt (2)

Murong Xu immediately became vigilant,

“The civil and military map was soiled?”

“Yes.”

Murong Xu’s expression immediately turned serious,

“Bring it over.”

So the guard went in and returned with the map, while Murong Xu took it from the guard’s hands. He then opened and analyzed it carefully. He also rubbed the surface of the paper lightly, and finally said with certainty,

“This is a fake! The real civil and military map has been changed!”

His expression immediately turned ugly, he then threw the fake map to the ground.

‘What a good strategy!’

They even made use of Liao Zheng’s special hobbies to mess up the study room and make the map which was the evidence of this trip unrecognizable. They’re even trying to use this to frame him.

Then they used a fake map, deliberately destroyed it and threw it into the study, they also pretended to smash everything making it look like it was Liao Zheng who had done it, they wanted people to believe that the map was destroyed but they had already taken the real map!

What a smart tactic!

⚘

Meanwhile in the Yu Family Mansion, Murong Yan was walking under the eaves with his hands clasped behind his back. His face was gloomy and cold. After a while, he pulled his face with a smirk,

“So that’s how it is, this is their real purpose.”

⚘

Does that mean that Liao Zheng’s death was only incidental, and the assassins’ real goal was the civil and military map that Liao Zheng brought from the capital?

Murong Xu was furious, such bold people, they actually have no fear at all!

The civil and military map was pretty detailed, it showed the topography of the mountains and rivers. It also showed the armament of the cities and towns, and has always been an important object of the Ministry of War.

This time, if not to modify the details of the borders of the three states of Ji, Qing, and Xu, the emperor will not let the civil and military map leave the capital.

Even though this is only a part of the civil and military map, the importance of the terrain to military strategists is self-evident. Even if the relevant military deployment on the map is secretly changed later, the map of the three states was still secretly leaked out.

It’s pretty self-explanatory what these assassin wants to do by stealing this map.

Murong Xu sneered coldly, well, these people have such great courage, could they still expect to support Murong Yan to rebel and ascend the throne?

An ant may want to shake a tree, but they’re simply overreaching themselves.

The chaos in Murong Xu’s brain is gradually fading. He was finally able to find the direction of the investigation.

To be able to know about the information of the civil and military map, and where it was placed, this is probably a masterpiece of an inside man.

There’s obviously a traitor amongst his subordinates!

Murong Xu’s eyes were gloomy and cold, but there was a trace of pride in his heart.

The little devil has quite the means, Murong Yan carefully arranged the scene to cover his tracks, but he was still able to be seen through by him.

The name of Prince Langya, which was once widely revered by everyone, now seems to be nothing more than that.

Now as long as he had someone investigate Liao Zheng’s people one-by-one, as well as his own subordinates, he will eventually find the leak.

Thinking about this, Murong Xu finally had a realization… He was so complacent, and was so blinded that he basically almost turned the entire city over.

He did not even dare to think that the assassin must be hiding inside his own mansion.

The most dangerous place is always the safest place, such a traitor has good means.

(T/N: This is what happens when you think you’re too smart~)

Murong Xu sneered coldly, called his subordinates to come over, and gave some instructions in a low voice. Soon, the mansion where Murong Xu stayed was noisy.

The guards searched the rooms of the people in the mansion one by one, digging three feet just to find the civil and military map.

The guards were ordered to leave, but one of them hesitated for a moment, and asked,

“Your highness, what about Shangshu Liao…?”

Murong Xu glanced into the room with disgust, and said,

“Have someone prepare a coffin, collect the corpse and prepare it for a funeral. There is no need to say more about the specific cause of death, just say that Shangshu Liao was not used to the weather, caught an acute illness and died.”

“Yes.”

Although Murong Xu used the excuse of an “Acute Illness”, a lot of people still had some knowledge about the details of the state of Liao Zheng’s death, and everyone saw how the two singers came out that day.

Liao Zheng’s funeral ceremony is still adequate enough to show that it was for a court’s third-ranking official, just that it was held privately.

Liao Zheng’s reputation for having the lack of private virtue, and delusional reading of sage books has eventually spread.

Many people even speculate that the reason why Liao Zheng died violently is because he played too much and could not calm down for a while resulting in suffocation, as for the Prince Yingchuan’s statement, it is obviously to save some face to the Liao family at least.

Liao Zheng died in a hurry, and Murong xu focused all his attention into tracing the whereabouts of the lost civil and military map, naturally he also missed the only time to investigate why Liao Zheng actually died.

So the investigation was closed in just a few days. Murong Xu eventually found the real map buried under a newly dug pit in the back garden, and even learnt that one of the servants escaped from the mansion.

The real culprit is about to be revealed, and Murong Xu immediately sent people to chase after the servant, but he also instructed his subordinates to make sure to keep the servant’s life.

Once he’s caught, they must bring them back to torture, he may be able to dig out Murong Yan’s hiding place from the traitor’s mouth.

Murong Xu felt a little regretful. When he heard the news, his first intuition was that it was done by Murong Yan.

He was so happy. After so many years of Hiding, there’s finally a chance to catch Murong Yan. He didn’t expect that after tracking down the culprit it turned out to be just a traitor who’s been hiding under him for so many years.

The traitor was probably instructed by Murong Yan to steal the map, he did not expect that before he could find the opportunity to send the map out, Murong Xu was able to discover the conspiracy.

Obviously he was not without regrets, but he thought about it again, although it was not Murong Yan himself who might be caught this time, it was still worth it to catch his subordinates, and so he quickly became satisfied again.

Murong Xu found the “Real culprit”, and so he became complacent.

At this time, how could he remember what Liao Zheng wanted to do the day before his death.

After seeing that his master was in a good mood, the eunuchs around Murong Xu came over to say some flattering words, and one of the eunuchs speculatively asked, “Your Highness, are you still going to visit the Yu family?”