Chapter 142 - The Emperor Is Very Very Interested!
After drinking quite a bit at night, Zuo Shaoqing felt suffocated just by sitting there for a while. Then, he found attendant to lead the way. The Peony Garden was located at the back of the Jiang's Mansion, a distance away from the latrine.
attendant, who was leading the way with a lantern in his hand, slightly bowed. His attitude became extremely respectful when he saw that his subordinate had dared to casually kick a court official.
If he offended this old man, he would be crushed like an ant. Moreover, from the looks of the situation just now, the Jiang Zuo family and Jiang Zuo would soon become relatives.
As the latrine was a bit far, he was afraid that Third Master Zuo wouldn't be able to hold it in. He picked a convenient path and walked for a while. Then, he heard some movement from the flower beds on both sides of the path.
attendant thought that since it was another midnight rendezvous between a pair of wild mandarin ducks, he did not mind at all. However, he heard the tall man shout: “Who's there? Come out!”
Yinyi immediately pulled Zuo Shaoqing behind him, vigilantly staring at a part of the garden. Zuo Shaoqing didn't dare to be careless, and secretly touched his belt.
It was the most suitable weapon that Lu Zheng had mentioned before. Zuo Shaoqing didn't even know what it was when he got it. It was thin, soft, but extremely sharp.
After Lu Zheng's demonstration later on, he found out that it was a flexible sword. Lu Zheng was very meticulous and had customized a variety of waist seals so that he could hide the flexible sword inside the waist seals.
attendant saw that the two grandfathers looked as if they were facing a great enemy. He snickered and said to the flower beds, “Who's inside. Hurry up and apologize to the two grandfathers!”
A few more rustling sounds came from the flower beds, and then two figures stumbled out.
But… When Zuo Shaoqing saw the two's faces, he instantly coughed unnaturally.
There was no other reason. The ones hiding here were actually two men, and judging from their messy clothes, it was obvious that they had done something shameful.
Although attendant was suspicious as to why he had never seen these two servants before, he was agitated by the matter of the two men together and didn't think much about it.
There was a good manly young master in the Jiang's Mansion, so naturally, he would have to accept this kind of situation. attendant only lectured the two, “Hurry up and apologize to the two lords. Will you be able to take on my honored guest?”
The two people walked over with their heads down and waists down, looking like they were going to kneel down. However, just when the three let their guard down, the two people suddenly jumped up, took out a sharp sword from their sleeves and stabbed towards Zuo Shaoqing.
Zuo Shaoqing stood behind Yinyi. His first attack was successfully neutralized by Yinyi, but the two swords also separated him from Yinyi.
Zuo Shaoqing could tell that they were not kind people from their skill and eyes, so he quickly took out his flexible sword to meet the enemy.
“The royal guard?” Yinyi's face completely darkened. He was Lu Zheng's confidant and naturally knew that the fourth prince had made a move, but he was not sure that these two were sent by the fourth prince.
Yinyi's kung fu was obviously much higher than that assassin's, and he quickly gained the upper hand. Although Zuo Shaoqing was not as good as him, but he could still protect himself, and was currently fighting against one of the assassins.
However, just as Yinyi was about to win, a few rays of cold light flashed in the flower beds on both sides. In the blink of an eye, a dozen or so black-clothed men drilled out.
Yinyi did not dare to be careless. He slapped his palm heavily on the assassin's chest, snatched the sword from his hand and approached Zuo Shaoqing.
The two of them had their backs to each other, confronting the dozen black-clothed men with serious expressions on their faces.
The Jiang's Mansion's attendant was stunned by the chain of events. After a long while, he raised his voice and shouted: “Someone come…”
A sword blade slashed across his neck, instantly stopping his scream. attendant's body twitched a few times and then fell to the ground without a sound.
Zuo Shaoqing frowned, “Who are you guys after? Shouldn't we understand ghosts before we die?”
“You can only blame yourself for offending someone you shouldn't have!” A black-clothed man replied in a deep voice. Then, he made a hand gesture, and half of the black-clothed men immediately surrounded Zuo Shaoqing and Yinyi.
The other half of the man in black clearly didn't listen to his orders, but waited for the man in the lead to give an order before taking action.
“Master San, this subordinate will stop them. You have to go back and forth, the Jiang Family won't let you get into trouble at the Jiang's Mansion.” After Yinyi finished his sentence, he immediately attacked first with his sword.
The sharp sword in his hand drew out strings of afterimages, successfully blocking a quarter of the enemies. However, he alone was unable to cover his surroundings. Soon, three men in black clothing attacked Zuo Shaoqing.
Zuo Shaoqing never intended to run first, so he held the soft sword that he wasn't familiar with and blocked the opponent's attack with difficulty.
The flexible sword was too nimble. If Zuo Shaoqing wasn't careful, he wouldn't have been able to distinguish the enemy from himself. Even he had been cut. Just as Zuo Shaoqing's flexible sword was wrapped around a sharp blade, the other sword's tip pierced towards his neck.
“Capture him alive!” A low order caused the blade of the sword to change directions. Zuo Shaoqing managed to dodge in time and only managed to cut off a portion of his hair.
“Yinyi, their target is me. Furthermore, they don't plan on taking my life for now. You go find someone!” Zuo Shaoqing took advantage of the chaos to push Yinyi out of the encirclement and shouted, “Let's go!” He had barely managed to withstand a few blows, but a few more wounds had inevitably appeared on his body.
Yinyi clenched the sword in his hand, clenched his teeth, performed his Qing Gong and disappeared from the crowd's sight in the blink of an eye.
Zuo Shaoqing was too weak to fight. Furthermore, it was difficult for him to fight against all four hands with both fists. Thus, he did not resist and threw away his sword.
The leading black clothed man looked at the direction that Yinyi disappeared in with doubt, but such a big movement already alarmed his Jiang's Mansion, he did not have time to chase, he could only order his men to bring Zuo Shaoqing away!
Zuo Shaoqing only had enough time to hear messy and hurried footsteps before he was cut on the back of his neck. He immediately fainted.
Along the way, Lu Zheng and his guards followed the attendant to the Imperial Palace. Along the way, he also received news from several spies in Duke Zhen's residence.
Standing in front of the palace's gate, Liu Tie saw that the palace's gate was tightly shut, and Janissary Guard on the city wall was on his guard. Liu Tie stood in front of the palace's gate, and seeing that the palace's gate was tightly shut, Janissary Guard on the city wall was on his guard.
“Yes.”
Seeing that the guard was about to leave, Liu Tie added: “After returning to the residence, bring a group of people to Jiang's Mansion to bring Third Master Zuo over to the Wu Steel Manor.”
The guard respectfully agreed again, then hurriedly ran away.
When he saw Duke Zhen's arrival, Janissary Guard ordered his men to open the palace gate. After Lu Zheng came in, he immediately went to greet him.
“What's going on?”
“Reporting to Master Lu, an hour ago, the Emperor suddenly summoned all of Janissary Guard to close the gates of the palace.” Reporting to Master Lu, an hour ago, the Emperor suddenly summoned all of Janissary Guard to close the gates of the palace.
Lu Zheng's footsteps paused as he glanced at the chest placed at the foot of the city wall. He knew that a fierce battle would not be avoided tonight.
Compared to Janissary Guard, who was used to living a peaceful life in the capital, and the Emperor who had never been to the battlefield, Lu Zheng clearly knew how to command the army.
“Send down the order to get someone to prepare food. The soldiers who are serving the guards first, be alert. It won't be a peaceful night.”
Although Janissary Guard didn't come under the jurisdiction of the Wu Steel Manor, Janissary Guardzhong didn't refute Lu Zheng's words. On the contrary, when Janissary Guard saw him, his nervous heart calmed down.
“Send out more patrols to capture any suspicious individuals.”
“Yes.”
Lu Zheng turned his head, scanned his surroundings, and said loudly: “Those who are afraid of death, retreat first, don't be so scared that you can't even hold your sword steadily, and harm yourself and others!”
Janissary Guard was a descendant of a noble family and most of them had never seen blood before, but he had quite a bit of pride. After being mocked by Lu Zheng, their faces immediately turned red.
“We will protect the Imperial City with our lives!” It was unknown who shouted first, but then the entire palace's Janissary Guard responded loudly.
Lu Zheng looked at Janissary Guard, who looked a bit more spirited than before, and felt a little satisfied. He then followed the attendant to the imperial study room.
In the imperial study, Zhan Yuanfeng wasn't sitting on the dragon throne, but sitting cross-legged on the soft couch at the side. Before him was an unfinished game of chess.
Lu Zheng walked into the imperial study unhindered. When he saw Zhan Yuanfeng, he couldn't help but mock him, “Your Majesty, you're in a good mood!”
Zhan Yuanfeng rubbed his chin, waved his hand and messed up the game of chess. He got up and said with a smile, “It looks like our beloved official has a way. I was just thinking about how to improve Janissary Guard's morale.” Even Zhan Yuanfeng heard the cataclysmic sound of the horn.
There were still several ministers standing in the study room. When it came to court, not a single one of them was the head of the six courts. However, a few of them had a blank look on their faces, clearly not knowing what had happened.
“Janissary Guard has a total of ten thousand guards, but the Nine Guards have thirty thousand. This palace is very hard to defend!” As Lu Zheng spoke the truth, the officials who were listening broke out in a cold sweat.
Those who were able to reach the second rank were not idiots. Just two short sentences were enough for them to understand the seriousness of the situation.
Moreover, they had just seen the changes within the Imperial City. After making a few guesses, it wasn't difficult for them to guess the truth of the matter.
It was still fine during the day, but the imperial palace was already on guard at night. Thus, it was definitely not an invasion by a foreign enemy. It could only be internal rebellion.
As for the remaining princes of the late emperor, other than Prince Ruiqing, who had matured into an adult, the rest of them were still brats. Other than Prince Ruiqing and the others, they could not think of anyone else.
However, he had never expected that the fourth prince, who had always been an uninterested and uninterested painter, would also have such ambitions. Moreover, he had managed to capture the Nine Guards of the capital at some point in time.
“Your majesty, forgive me for being caught off guard, but I didn't know when that Xu Ze had a rebellious heart.”
Chief Shang took a step forward and said in a clear voice, “Commander Xu is the nephew of Grand Concubine Xu. Back then, he was highly regarded by the late emperor, and he never expected to step on this rebellious path. This subject believes that His Majesty's safety is the heaviest right now.” He didn't forget to look at Lu Zheng deeply after saying that.
Everyone understood what he meant. Ten thousand soldiers and horses from the capital's military camp and Duke Zhen's army guarding the outskirts of the capital were enough to fight against the Nine Guards of the capital.
Lu Zheng was a heavy soldier, but there were only 10,000 soldiers left in the vicinity of the capital. Firstly, it was a waste to leave a large number of soldiers and horses here, and secondly, it was to not arouse the fear of the officials.
Zhan Yuanfeng didn't make a decision immediately, because he still couldn't guarantee that the men of the capital's military camp wouldn't be bought by Prince Ruiqing.
Just as he was weighing the pros and cons, Chief Janissary Guard brought an urgent report, “Reporting to the Emperor, the rebel army has surrounded the palace.”
“How many people are there?”
“It doesn't look to be below ten thousand.”
Zhan Yuanfeng glanced at the ministers, decisively took out a military token from the secret compartment and handed it over to Lu Zheng cautiously. “My love, I have given the commanding authority of the capital's military camp to you. If anyone disagrees, kill him on the spot!”
“This official obeys the decree!”
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