Tang Dynasty Prison Administration

071: The Lianhua Case in Qingzhou

After Xu Ge left, Su Wen looked at Cheng Nianci and said, "Go to the Sima residence for me and tell him that I sent him to the Right Army Camp to order the Commander-in-Chief to send a brigade here!"

After speaking, Su Wen looked at the constables and said, "You will come with us to see the twin statues first. After that, you will split into two groups immediately. One group will go to find Xu Ge, and the other will go to find Cheng Nianci. Understand? Remember to sneak behind us!"

The officers responded.

Su Wen, accompanied by several constables, arrived at the entrance of an underground mine outside Qingzhou City, led by this man.

The man looked at Su Wen and said, "Shangguan, the twin Buddha statues are inside. I won't go in; you guys go in!"

Su Wen merely frowned and glanced at the man, then responded with a 'yes.' He left two constables at the cave entrance to guide them, while the others followed Su Wen along the mine tunnel into the cave.

The further you go into the mine, the brighter it becomes, with candles lit on both sides and even the sound of voices coming from inside.

Before long, Su Wen and the other constables witnessed an extremely shocking scene: inside the mine, there was a temple, and in front of the temple, dozens of people were bowing and praying.

Su Wen led the constables through the crowd and stepped into the temple. There was only one Buddha statue in the temple, a Buddha statue sitting cross-legged. In front of the Buddha statue, there was a naked woman who was hugging the Buddha's neck and her legs were wrapped around the Buddha's waist.

Both the Buddha and the woman were naked. Just seeing this scene reminded Su Wen of the double-bodied Buddha statue he had seen before.

Although the Buddha statues look different, they are basically all of this type of style, which looks very frivolous!

At this moment, a constable shouted loudly, "Where is the abbot of this temple?"

"Hahaha..." A loud laugh came from outside the temple. Su Wen stepped out and frowned as he looked at the person who was laughing.

The man laughing was an elderly man, about six feet tall and forty to fifty years old, dressed in a long black robe. He squinted at Su Wen and said, "You are Su Wen, the acting governor of Qingzhou?"

Su Wen replied, "That's right. Who are you?"

The man smiled and said, "This humble monk is Xu Ran, a great protector of the Mahayana Lotus School under the command of Yi Tian!"

"Mahayana Lotus School..." Su Wen muttered to himself, and began to ponder: It seems that this person named Yi Tian has combined the heretical Mahayana religion of the Northern Wei Dynasty with Pure Land Buddhism and Tantric sexual practices to create a new Mahayana Lotus School!

"Originally, I might have had to go through some trouble to find you, but I didn't expect you to deliver yourselves to my doorstep today!"

Xu Ran laughed loudly a few times and said, "Haha...you are indeed capable, and you have some tricks up your sleeve. You actually managed to get some information from the young man selling Taoist priests in the ghost market!"

Xu Ran said confidently, "You forced me to kill the peddling young master, and also forced Wen Ci and Mudan to sacrifice themselves ahead of schedule. I thought I had misled you!"

"I never expected you to turn your attention to the dual-bodied Buddha statue. You've been pushing me too hard, forcing me to take a desperate gamble. Quite a few people know about this dual-bodied statue. Rather than letting you discover it, I'd rather lure you here and eliminate you directly!"

Su Wen sneered, "What exactly does your Mahayana Lotus Sect want? Why are you killing so many women?"

Xu Ran merely sneered and remained silent. Instead, he pointed at Su Wen and shouted, "Once you're dead, I'll tell you that this man is a lackey of the imperial court, a sinner who persecuted Empress Wu Zetian and caused such suffering to the world. He's an Asura who crawled out of the Vajra Hell!"

"Kill him, and you will save all living beings. You too can transcend and become Buddhas. Kill them!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen frowned, and the crowd that had been kowtowing and praying all raised their heads.

When Su Wen saw these people, their eyes were lifeless, their expressions were dull, and they even looked slightly foolish. It was clear that they had been controlled and brainwashed by the Mahayana Lotus Sect with drugs, which was why they had become such a ghostly figure.

Xu Ran pulled out a horn from somewhere and blew it without saying a word.

Immediately, everyone stood up and charged straight at Su Wen and the others as if they had gone mad.

Su Wen shouted, "No one is allowed to advance! Anyone who does will be killed on sight!"

However, they all seemed to have lost their own will and charged directly at the crowd. They didn't even have weapons, which shows just how brainwashed they had become.

Without any hesitation, the constables drew their knives and tried to strike and drive them away, but the men rushed forward like madmen, biting them with their mouths when they had no weapons.

Seeing this, Su Wen dared not show any more mercy and shouted, "Kill!"

Then they saw the constables draw their swords and start killing. Even though they were wounded by the swords, they did not stop their attack, just like a group of zombies.

However, a person is still a person, and after being killed, they are just a corpse.

Seeing dozens of people killed in front of him, Su Wen's hands trembled with fear.

Just then, a group of soldiers in armor, carrying long spears, rushed in menacingly, and the constables breathed a slight sigh of relief.

A constable announced, "Minister Su, the rescue team has arrived!"

Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, an arrow struck the constable squarely in the chest. The constable stared blankly ahead, then collapsed.

Seeing this, Su Wen said, "Quickly, go inside the hall!"

The servants hurriedly entered the hall and closed the door.

Through the crack in the door, Su Wen saw a man dressed in full armor, holding a long-handled sword, riding in on horseback.

Although he was wearing a helmet, only his eyes were visible, Su Wen recognized him at a glance. He was none other than Du Yu, the squad leader!

At this moment, Du Yu walked up to Xu Ran, waved his hand, and several soldiers brought Xu Ge out. Xu Ge was already tied up and the soldiers forced him to kneel on the ground.

Du Yu held a long-handled broadsword to Xu Ge's neck and shouted, "Get out of here right now, or I'll kill him!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wen hesitated for a second, but still opened the palace door and walked out. A man stood at the doorway, pointing at Du Yu and saying, "Bold Du Yu, you really are in cahoots with them!"

Du Yu smiled and said, "So you found out?"

As he spoke, Du Yu took off his helmet and looked at Su Wen, asking, "How did you find out?"

Su Wendao said, "I only discovered this recently. During the previous interrogation, I noticed that the sergeant had seen you. The young man selling Taoist priests was killed, but those were scars from a long-handled sword. And the most important point is, how did the sergeant know the murderer's method? And how did he impersonate the murderer to rape and then kill the four women?"

"Logically speaking, the corporal has no right to examine the body, nor does he have the authority to review the autopsy report. Even you, Du Yu, have no authority to review it. So how did you find out, corporal? Based solely on that vague and ambiguous notice? I don't believe it. If it were me, I would have guessed it was you. You are the squad leader; these people must have witnessed it with their own eyes!"

"I also found it strange at the time. I clearly asked Wang Ting to bring the person, but it turned out that you brought them. I think Wang Ting must have gone to your team to arrest someone, and you volunteered!"