"County Princess, Xiong Batian's body was found at the foot of the back mountain. It has already been brought back," a guard ran over and reported.
Upon seeing the corpse, Song Shixue narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
The face was pitch-black, an obvious symptom of poisoning.
Song Jinzhao lifted the slashed sleeve, revealing that the dried blood around the wound was entirely black.
"It's a knife wound. The poison must have been coated on the blade."
After saying this, she turned her head to ask the guard, "Did you find the missing silver?"
The guard shook his head.
"We found nothing but the body. There were many footprints on that path, most of which matched Xiong Batian's. However, there was another very clear set of footprints that didn't belong to him. They were likely left last night."
Song Jinzhao ordered, "Bring those three bandit leaders here."
When the three bosses of the Tiangang Stronghold were brought over, their eyes held anger in addition to fear.
The stronghold leader was missing, and even the second-in-command had vanished without a trace. They must have fled ahead of time.
Despicable and shameless! Even if they became ghosts, they wouldn't let those two off.
"Look and see if this knife wound was left by Poison Scorpion," Song Jinzhao commanded the three men.
Seeing the corpse laid out on the ground, the three men's expressions changed drastically.
The stronghold leader was actually dead!
Their hands trembled as they touched the skin. After clearly seeing the marks left in the flesh, the three collapsed to the ground, motionless and in a daze.
The guard sharply rebuked, "Speak."
The three nodded in disbelief. They never could have imagined that Poison Scorpion would kill Xiong Batian.
"It's Poison Scorpion's curved ring blade. He is the only one in the Tiangang Stronghold who uses this kind of knife."
Song Jinzhao continued to ask, "All the silver in the storehouse was swapped with stones. Do you know when it was switched?"
Before they could recover from their shock, another bombshell was dropped on them. The three men's pupils shrank, and they looked as if they were about to pass out.
"How could that be! I even went in to take a look a few days ago."
Song Shixue thought they just hadn't dug through to check.
"Only the topmost layer was silver; everything underneath was stones."
"Impossible, I even thrust my hands into it at the time," the third boss retorted with a resolute tone.
Song Jinzhao asked, "Exactly how many days ago?"
The three furrowed their brows in thought.
"Six days ago. At the time, we had just robbed a batch of—" His shoulder was nudged, and realizing his slip, the third boss quickly shut his mouth.
He guiltily lowered his head, not daring to meet Song Jinzhao's eyes.
Seeing that they were intentionally hiding something, Song Jinzhao took a step forward and interrogated them directly.
"Robbed a batch of what?"
The three kept their heads down, too afraid to answer, their palms covered in sweat.
Seeing this, Song Jinzhao straightened her back and gave the guard a meaningful glance.
The next second, a sharp longsword rested against the third boss's neck.
The sudden stinging sensation scared him stiff. He closed his eyes and blurted out, "Salt! We robbed a batch of salt."
As soon as these words came out, everyone present widened their eyes.
In the Dongzhao Kingdom, only the government could sell table salt, and there were specialized soldiers responsible for escorting it. How could it be so easily robbed by the men of the Tiangang Stronghold?
Realizing the severity of the matter, Song Jinzhao's voice grew heavy.
"Did you rob smuggled salt or official salt?"
The other two hastily defended themselves, deeply afraid of being charged with an even greater crime.
"How could we dare to rob official salt? It was smuggled salt transported from Binzhou. The people transporting it were all from Binzhou, which is why we robbed them."
Liu Hucheng walked up to Song Jinzhao and whispered, "County Princess, the Binzhou salt mines are split half and half between the Yang family and the imperial court. Their salt can only be sold in places like Panzhou and cannot cross into Yanshan County and Qingxia County. This matter is not simple; I fear there will be major trouble."
The officials in the southwest region feared nothing except conflicts with the southwestern foreign tribes.
Whether it was killing people from Binzhou or discovering them smuggling salt over to sell, neither could be handled as an ordinary situation. They had to be extremely careful and think twice, even thrice, before acting.
