Liu Hongji’s investigation wasn’t going smoothly. He questioned the soldiers who first discovered the hailstones, and they all said they didn’t know how the hail had come about. He carefully observed those soldiers’ expressions and tested their words, finding nothing suspicious, which meant what they said was true.

Generally speaking, those who spread lies are usually the first ones to do so. If they weren’t lying, then what was the story behind these hailstones?

Liu Hongji stared at the hailstone whose characters were gradually melting due to the warmth of his palm. Where… where exactly was the spy?

“Were you the ones on night watch last night?” Faced with Liu Hongji’s inquiry, one of them said, “Reporting to Sir Liu, it was us.”

“Then did you discover any suspicious people moving about in the streets?” Hearing this, several of them looked at each other and shook their heads, “Apart from us, there were no other people moving about in the streets.”

Liu Hongji’s brow furrowed as he pressed further, “Not even after the hailstorm?”

“No.” The soldier responded, then added, “Later when it got light, we thought to sweep the roads clean to prevent horses from slipping when they passed by. Who knew that when we started sweeping, we discovered those things.” At this point, he hesitated to continue.

Liu Hongji noticed and said, “What do you want to say?”

The soldier hesitated for a moment, then said quietly, “Sir Liu… is His Majesty truly illegitimate in gaining the throne, so Heaven sent a warning?”

Liu Hongji stared at him coldly, “Daoist Master Wang Yuanzhi from Xuanjing Temple personally read His Majesty’s face and destiny, determining that His Majesty is the true dragon emperor, a person of Heaven’s mandate. Inheriting the throne is following Heaven’s will—where do these four words ‘Heaven’s warning’ come from?”

The man was scolded into not daring to raise his head, “This humble one knows his guilt.”

Liu Hongji swept his gaze over those soldiers and said coldly, “I know what you’re thinking. Although there’s no evidence yet, I’m certain these carved hailstones are absolutely not Heaven’s will, but someone’s deliberate doing, intended to shake our Great Tang’s military morale.”

As he finished speaking and prepared to leave, one soldier said timidly, “Sir Liu, there’s one matter—this humble one doesn’t know if it’s my overthinking or if there’s something truly strange.”

“Go ahead and speak.” After getting Liu Hongji’s permission, the soldier said, “When we discovered the hailstones this morning, this humble one noticed that these hailstones were mostly scattered along one particular road. There were some outside this road too, but very few.”

Hearing this, Liu Hongji’s eyes lit up, and he urgently asked, “Which road is it?”

The soldier pointed to a road not far from the city wall, “There, that one. It concentrated about seventy to eighty percent of the carved hailstones, as if they had all fallen specifically there. It’s truly strange.”

Liu Hongji frowned as he looked in the direction of his pointing finger, instinctively feeling this was a very important clue, but he couldn’t figure it out for the moment. He walked back and forth along that city wall, thinking hard.

City wall… hailstones…

Hailstones… city wall…

He could be certain these carved hailstones absolutely didn’t fall from heaven, and there seemed to be no spies in the city, which meant the problem was likely outside the city.

Outside the city! When these two words flashed through his mind, Liu Hongji’s whole body shook. He looked up at the towering city wall, and the next moment, he urgently said, “Go get a ladder!”

The soldier asked puzzledly, “Sir, what are you going to do?”

“Don’t ask questions, go get one immediately—one as tall as the city wall!” Seeing his urgency, the soldier didn’t dare ask more questions and hurried to find a siege ladder from everywhere. As soon as the ladder was set up, Liu Hongji climbed up eagerly. When he reached the top of the city wall, his guess was indeed confirmed!

What a Jieli Khan, to actually think of such a method to shake their military morale. He was much more formidable than Shibi and Chuluo.

As soon as Liu Hongji came down from the ladder, he immediately rushed to Chunming Gate. Li Shimin was below the city tower, and seeing him approach, he urgently asked, “Sir, have you found the spy?”

“There is no spy!” Before Li Shimin could ask further questions, he had already stepped forward and whispered in his ear. The latter, surprised, immediately said, “Sir Liu has worked hard. Please go up to the city tower immediately and tell everyone!”

“Yes.” Liu Hongji responded and quickly came to the city tower. Although Du Ruhui was defending with all his might and there were many soldiers, they were barely holding on.

Liu Hongji disregarded the danger and stood at the highest point of the city tower, shouting loudly, “Fellow soldiers, I know you have all seen the eight characters ‘An immoral ruler, the Great Tang must perish’ in today’s hailstones. You think this is a warning from Heaven, that His Majesty should not be the ruler, but I tell you, all of this is a Turkic trick, intended to shake our military morale and make us unwilling to resist!”

His voice was very loud, even the Turkic soldiers below the city tower heard it, and it also reached Jieli Khan’s ears. The latter’s face turned cold—Liu Hongji… had he discovered the secret of the hailstones?

Thinking of this, he immediately took the hard bow placed beside him, nocked a black arrow on the hard bow, aimed at Liu Hongji’s direction and drew the bowstring to full draw. At the same time, Du Ruhui on the city tower made the same motion, but the person he aimed at was Jieli Khan, preventing him from acting rashly.

Simultaneously, soldiers held armor shields behind Liu Hongji. Jieli Khan knew that if they fully protected Liu Hongji, he would have no chance. So even with danger, he still released the bowstring. The arrow flew toward Liu Hongji’s direction like a meteor chasing the moon. At the same time, Du Ruhui’s arrow also shot out. Jieli Khan immediately threw his whole body down on his horse’s back to avoid the arrow.

However, this time he guessed wrong. Du Ruhui’s arrow wasn’t aimed at him, but at the arrow he had shot. The two arrows met midway, their iron-forged arrowheads colliding precisely together. While making a sharp sound, they also sparked, then both arrows fell to the ground exhausted.

Seeing this scene, Jieli Khan’s face changed dramatically. This Du Ruhui actually had such archery skills—he had really underestimated him. In this short time, Liu Hongji’s back had been protected thoroughly, not even revealing a crack. It was now impossible to kill Liu Hongji with arrows.

But did Du Ruhui really think he had no other options?

With a cold smile, Jieli Khan beckoned Zhishisili to his side and whispered a few words in his ear. The latter nodded, “Yes, I’ll go do it immediately.”

While Jieli was doing this, Liu Hongji’s words continued, “The hailstone in my hand was picked up on the city wall. It also has the same eight characters I mentioned earlier carved on it. There are many more such hailstones on the city wall—in fact, all the hailstones on the city wall are carved with characters. Why? Because Heaven specifically dropped them there? Of course not. The real reason is that this so-called heavenly punishment is simply a fraud set up by the Turkics!”