Transmigration: of Mysteries and Songs

Chapter 138: Conspiration

As Situ expected, the Eighth Prince didn't place much importance on his assassination. From the prince's point of view, Situ was loyal to the Emperor and was not under his wing. Hence, it would be better if his position was given to someone who supported him. However, the Eighth Prince changed his mind that day when one of his men brought him some news.

"I have investigated the area where the Duke was assassinated," the leader of the investigation said, "all aspects of the assassination, whether is it the venue of ambush, the timing of the assassination, are done in an orderly and professional manner. Also, this was done by someone from the Xuan kingdom and has nothing to do with other countries."

The Eighth Prince frowned and placed his hand on his chin, "I have looked at the corpses that were provided by the Duke. At first, I thought that they were just assassins hired by someone. However, they displayed greater loyalty to their master and chose to commit suicide in order to not leave any evidence behind. It seems then that my thinking was wrong."

His subordinate agreed. "They have to be either assassins or sishi. However, many officials of high rank have sishi under them. If we investigate in this direction, it might take a long time to get any result."

"But for someone to train so many sishi, the person must be someone in a higher position," the Eighth Prince eyes lit up, "he or she has to be someone from the royal family and it has to be someone who holds many secrets, someone like my elder brother. Before he left Chang'an, he has a huge number of sishi under him."

The subordinate knew that the Eighth Prince was referring to the Seventh Prince. Both of them were born to the same mother and the Seventh Prince was indeed powerful before he went downhill.

"It seems like I have to treat this issue seriously from now on." The Eighth Prince smiled mysteriously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day in court, the Eighth Prince was preparing to report his findings when a piece of urgent news came from the plains of the North.

"Your Majesty, the General of the Left of the North Army was just met with assassination. Fortunately, the assassins had failed and the Assistant General is fine. Two of the corpses are now on their way to Chang'an."

The Emperor was shocked, "Who has the guts to do this? Is it by outsiders?"

The soldier shook his head. "I have checked the corpse of the assassins. They are the people of the Xuan kingdom, carrying on their bodies the same symbol as the same assassins who'd tried to assassinate General Situ. I believed that the mastermind behind these two attacks is the same person."

The Minister of the Right immediately added in. "Your Majesty, General Situ will be arriving this afternoon."

The Emperor frowned. His gaze became dangerous as he said to the Eighth Prince sternly, "Have you not found out the mastermind behind the assassination of the Duke of Anping? Now, the General of the Left of the North Army has also met with the same attack. Are you waiting for me to get assassinated as well?"

The Eighth Prince dropped to his knees in fear, "Please contain your anger, Father. I have already found some evidence and will be able to catch the culprit soon. I believe General Situ will understand the situation."

The Emperor's gaze swept over the officials as he said angrily, "Anyone who dares to hurt my generals is also my enemy. If anyone of you has any evidence, do share it with the Eighth Prince. With everyone's help, the case can be closed sooner."

The officials bowed and agreed immediately.

However, the Heir suddenly came forward and said, "Father, now that the General of the Left of the North Army is assassinated, he must be in shocked and will not be able to handle the affairs of the army well. We should appoint another official to be the General-in-lieu and help with the affairs of the army."