Read her introduction. There is important information there.

She provides Dan’s contact information. Try using it.

Send a message to Dan. You will receive important information from him.

As soon as you contact Dan you’ll receive two important pieces of information. 

• Check the map and find a city close to his current location. 
• Check his twitter account to gain some important insights into his thinking

If you don’t have a X account(twitter)  please use this file for a reference

Marc Silvers -@MarcSilvers5- – X

Read through Dan’s tweets regarding the artifacts that were discovered in the excavations and when they were discovered.

There is important information about Bao.

It seems he had been killed. But where and when?

Bao’s remains were found in the mountains, in a town destroyed by an earthquake that happened at the same time as the assassination. He was likely on a trip at Lian’s request as he had money with him. It appears he had nothing to do with the murder.

Yiji is mentioned in Lian’s letter to Bao.

Read the Wikipedia article.

The affair with the concubine, who became pregnant, would have had a big impact on Lian’s situation.

Check Rouland Rushi’s painting.

Lian would have been able to retain her good status by giving birth to a boy.

If you compare the Chinese birth chart with Rouland Zodiac’s sign, you will discover that she had given birth to a son. This appears to be what Bao’s journey was about.

Lian tried to purchase a child to maintain her comfortable position and planned to murder Lai afterwards. Without a child, her prospects would have deteriorated quickly. But as Bao could not accomplish what she had intended (he was killed near his destination. city Xian, on August 15th and had both the letter and the money on him), Lian had no interest yet to commit the murder at the time. Also, look closely at the coins. The coins that Lian gave to Bao are authentic (can be compared to the coin on the auction) and look different from the coins found on the murderer.

Check the historic notes for who led the Tangut army during the battle.

Check the letter concerning the assassination and figure out who wrote it.

Check both town watch’s reports about the captured messenger and the preacher. One report has the letter with the encoded name and the other has the key to decode it.

The captured messenger had the letter and the preacher had the fake coins. Check the coin. It is inauthentic and was made in Tangut.

The coin has a square hole through it and is decorated with dragons.

Place the coin on the original letter so that the dragons are facing north and write down the three letters you find. This should help you decipher to whom this letter was addressed.

The letter was addressed to Fang Daoguang (3 Chinese characters – 道 方 光). But did he receive it?

The messenger was delayed because of the destroyed bridge, so Fang Daoguang never received the new plan for the ambush.

The rebel Toba and Vice Chancellor Fang Daoguang were plotting to assassinate Xiao Lai in front of his army – each with their own motive. Toba decided to change the ambush strategy and sent a message to his co-conspirator. But as the messenger was late and captured by the town watch, this letter never reached Fang. As such, when Xiao Lai was assassinated and replaced by Fang Daoguang as commander of the army, Fang was unaware of Toba’s change of plan, the fact that he will meet his army earlier and as a result was killed in battle. So they had both planned to assassinate Xiao Lai, but in front of the army and had no reason to kill him the day before the army left for Tangut.

Check the drawing of the village and the mountains on Stanley’s auction (www.stanleys-art.com).

Check the map for information about the drawing.

Xiao Lai appears to have been from Tangut, which means he persecuted his own homeland and actively stunted it’s growth.

Check the marriage letter.

Xiao Lai’s symbol is the tiger (similar to the stamp). The two Lai brothers were estranged due to their opposing political beliefs.

It seems that Xiao Lai’s brother Qilian is the only possible remaining suspect. This is despite the town watch having declared his innocence. But do we have any evidence that points to his guilt?

What is the brother’s occupation?

Which three letters were addressed to him? Who wrote them and when?

You can see that Toba wrote two letters on the same day: one was addressed to Qilian Lai and the other to Fang Daoguang. Can you spot the differences?

Check the auction on stanleys-art.com. There is special note for collectors. 

It seems that Qilian Lai presented the order for the “traitor” stamp from Toba referring to his personal signature stamp. But in doing so, he made a crucial error – he used paper that was only used within the Song Empire, whereas different paper was used in Tangut at the time. This can be noted by comparing Toba’s two letters from August 1st. The one outlining the ambush which matches the historically documented facts of the battle was definitely written by Toba. The second letter (the order of the stamp), although bearing the same date, was written on different paper and using different calligraphy. It is highly unlikely that Toba would write two such different letters on the same day. Accordingly, the main evidence is the forged letter / the order of the “traitor” stamp. More evidence pointing to Qilian Lai can be found on the resolution page.