It was past the hour of the clown, and the night was at its darkest. The flames near Wen Han Garden had been suppressed, but groups of lanterns and torches were still gathered there, and the atmosphere in the vicinity became somber.
The palace guards had already set up a tight defensive line along the walls. Cheng Zhouhai and his assistant got off the carriage and contacted Tie Tianying, who had arrived first.
"… Since the fire is almost extinguished, have all the yamen personnel stand by and wait for orders. No one is to move without orders … Your imperial guards will watch the inner circle, and I will send people to watch the surroundings. If there are any suspicious movements or random inquiries, we will take note of them. After today, we will visit them one by one …"
"… His Majesty will come later."
"… Okay." Cheng Zhouhai nodded. "How are the casualties?"
Tie Tianying looked at his assistant beside him. "Very heavy."
"Okay." Cheng Zhouhai nodded again, then waved his hand at his assistant. "Go and keep an eye on the outside. Report back to me if there is any news."
"Yes." The assistant left with the order.
Not long after, a convoy of imperial guards came from the north and entered the side gate of Wen Han Garden. Jun Wu, with a long sword at his waist, was the first to get off the carriage, followed by Zhou Pei. They sniffed the air, then walked into the courtyard with Tie Tianying and Cheng Zhouhai following them.
Wen Han Garden was a three-story building. The fire had destroyed one of the buildings, and more than half of the main building had been destroyed. Due to the large number of fire hose carriages, the air was filled with the unpleasant smell of half-burnt wood, and there was a faint smell of blood. Because she had to discuss matters with Zuo Wenhuai and the others every day, Li Pin, who lived not far away, had already arrived. She came out to greet Jun Wu and Zhou Pei.
"How are the casualties of the Zuo family?" Jun Wu asked.
"Your Majesty, Eldest Princess, please follow me."
Li Pin led them to the third building, which was still intact. Along the way, they saw the figures of some young people. Some of them seemed to be moving around in the burned rooms of the main building, but they didn't know what they were doing.
"Are Zuo Wenhuai and Xiao Jingyi alright?" Jun Wu asked as he suppressed his curiosity and did not run into the scorched building to check. Li Pin nodded and said in a low voice, "It's nothing. The battle was intense, but Zuo and Xiao were prepared. A few of them were injured, but fortunately, nothing serious happened. No one died. Only two of them were seriously injured. It's hard to say for now."
Jun Wu heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this answer. He looked at the burnt building and asked, "What are they doing in there?"
"During the battle, a few bandits rushed into a room in the middle of the building, trying to put up a desperate resistance. The few people here surrounded the room and persuaded them to surrender, but they resisted too fiercely, so … they threw a few bombs from the southwest in. Now, the corpses inside are badly mutilated. They … went in to find some clues. But the scene is too tragic, Your Majesty should not go over to watch. "
"I won't." Jun Wu looked at the ruins of the room and his brows relaxed. He replied in a low voice, then said, "It's true."
Using bombs to blow people to pieces was obviously not the standard of a national scholar, but seeing the emperor's cheerful expression in the face of such a violent atmosphere, no one questioned it. After all, ever since the Emperor ascended to the throne, he had been chased and had a difficult journey of fighting and killing. This drama of being assassinated by bandits and then lured over to surround the house and blow it to pieces was really to his liking.
— — That's what a good person should be like!
"Were the books and materials transported from the southwest damaged?" Only now did he look at the traces of fire and ask this question.
"After arriving in Fuzhou, the first thing we did was to make copies of these books and materials. Even if something happened today, the materials wouldn't be damaged. Oh, and the fire Your Majesty is seeing now was deliberately caused by us … "
"Why?"
"If Your Majesty wants to do something, it's only an excuse to suffer a loss first. It doesn't matter if we use it or not, it's just these two houses. In addition, when Lord Tie came over, he sealed off the inner perimeter tightly, and the courtyard was even more tightly sealed. We told the outside world that we suffered heavy losses tonight, and many people died. Because of that, the situation outside is somewhat chaotic … "
"Well done."
Jun Wu couldn't help but praise.
The group had already arrived in front of the undamaged wooden building. Along the way, Jun Wu had also observed some of the situation. Although the guards were responsible for the defense of the outer perimeter and the inner perimeter of the courtyard, it was obvious that the Huaxia army was in charge of cleaning up and investigating the battle sites.
This was unusual. In theory, Tie Tianying should have been responsible for this first-hand information. The reason why he was excluded was that there must have been some disagreement or even conflict between the two sides. But in the end, Tie Tianying didn't force Zuo Wenhuai and the others who had just finished a round of slaughter.
This revealed the true power of the forty-some soldiers from the southwest. It was completely different from the respectful, even bashful, attitude that Zuo Wenhuai had displayed in the past. To those in power, this was naturally a bad sign, but to Jun Wu, who had always wondered and fantasized about just what this powerful fighting force of the southwest was all about, he now understood many things.
Indeed, if not for this attitude, how could his teacher have openly defeated Zong Han and Xi Yin, who were even more difficult to deal with than the Jurchen Eastern Army?
As a young and spirited Emperor in his early thirties, he had struggled under the shadow of defeat and death for many years. He had also fantasized countless times about what kind of iron-blooded atmosphere the Huaxia army in the southwest was like. When the Huaxia army finally defeated Zong Han and Xi Yin, he thought about the long years of failure and the slaughter of the people of the Wu dynasty. He only felt guilty and even said that this was how a real man should be.
Zuo Wenhuai was a talent that the Zuo family had placed in the southwest to train. When he came to Fuzhou, although he was frank, he seemed too shy and scholarly. This was somewhat different from the Huaxia army that Jun Wu had imagined. He had even felt that this was a pity. Perhaps the southwest had considered that there were too many scholars in Fuzhou, so they had sent some slick and sophisticated civilian soldiers. Of course, it was a good thing to be able to use them, so he naturally wouldn't complain.
At this moment, the dagger was revealed in front of him.
This was how it should be!
When he reached the front of the two-story building, a young Huaxia soldier from the southwest nearby bowed to him. Jun Wu stretched out his hands to help him up, covered in blood, and asked for Zuo Wenhuai's whereabouts. When he learned that Zuo Wenhuai was examining the bodies of the bandits and wanted to call him out, Jun Wu waved his hand. "It's fine. Let's go take a look and see what's inside!"
The place where the bodies of the bandits were placed was on the left side of the first floor. Before they reached it, Zuo Wenhuai and the others came out after learning that the Emperor was coming. They bowed to Jun Wu. Jun Wu greeted them, then smiled and walked into the room.
"Your Majesty, in there …"
Zuo Wenhuai also wanted to persuade him, but Jun Wu said, "It's fine. I've seen the bodies before." He especially liked the feeling of being swift and decisive.
The room was quite large, but it reeked of blood. There were three rows of corpses, about twenty of them. Some were on the ground, and some were on the table. Perhaps they heard that the Emperor was coming, so they hastily covered the corpses on the table with a layer of cloth. Jun Wu pulled the cloth off the table and saw that the corpses had been stripped naked. Some of their wounds were even more bloody and hideous.
"… We've examined the bodies. Most of them have very dark and rough skin, and there are calluses on their hands and feet. From their positions, it seems that they were people who spent most of their time at sea. During the fight, we also noticed that some of them were agile, but their lower body movements were very strange, as if they had been on a ship. We've dissected the stomachs of a few people, but we haven't found any obvious clues yet. Of course, we've just arrived, so there are some traces that we can't find. We'll have to wait for the coroner to examine them … "
"Dissecting the stomachs …" Jun Wu pretended to look at the disgusting bodies and nodded. "Is the coroner here?"
"… Because we don't know who did it, we've discussed it with Lord Li. We think that we shouldn't let random people in, so …"
"You did the right thing. How were the bandits' martial arts skills? "
"They were good. If they fought in private, it would be hard to tell who would win."
"Then why did we have so few casualties? Of course, it's a good thing. I'm just a little curious. "
"Your Majesty, fighting on the battlefield is different from fighting in jianghu. There are soldiers guarding the perimeter of the Wen Han Garden, but we have carefully planned out what methods we will use if we want to attack this place. We have some contingency plans. When the bandits came, the sentries we arranged were the first to discover them. Then, we organized a few people to patrol with lanterns and deliberately led them to one place. When they came in, it was too late to fight back … But these people were determined and not afraid of death. We only caught two seriously injured people. We bandaged their wounds and handed them over to Lord Tie later … "
"Hmm …" Jun Wu nodded and listened with great interest. Then, he said solemnly, "Maybe they're slaves of some big families. If we look carefully, we'll find them."
"From the way these people sneaked in, it seems that they have a good understanding of the soldiers guarding the perimeter. They chose the right time to change shifts and sneaked in without alerting them. This shows that they have deep connections in Fuzhou. Besides, we've only been here for less than a month, and we haven't even started what we're doing. We don't know who they are, but they want to get rid of us … We can't figure it out for now … "
Jun Wu smiled. "We can investigate this slowly. You and Minister Li made a good decision at the last minute. First seal off the news, purposely burn down the building, and show weakness to the enemy. When the news of your losses is released, from our point of view, those with ulterior motives will slowly reveal themselves. Don't worry, for today's matter, we will definitely get back at you. Oh right, where are the injured people? Take me to them first. Also, let the imperial doctor in first. After treating them, keep him under strict guard and don't let anyone know anything about what happened here. "
Everyone then went to check on the injured people in the room on the other side of the building. Jun Wu reflected and said, "Actually, since we entered Fuzhou, some people tried to assassinate me. But because the army was stationed nearby and Official Tie's family was guarding me, there weren't many people who dared to kill people in the city. You've just arrived in Fuzhou, but you've encountered such a thing. It's my negligence. These people really care about the righteousness of the Wu dynasty. I didn't see them put in so much effort when we fought against the Jin — "
He cursed fiercely.
After all, the troops from the southwest hadn't participated in the large-scale reform. In the first round of speculation in everyone's hearts, they first believed that the old Confucian scholars who had been thinking about the crime of the Heart Demons committing regicide were the most likely to make a move. To be able to mobilize dozens of people to carry out an assassination like this, this was a truly extravagant act. If Zuo Wenhuai and the others had lowered their guard just because they had arrived in Fuzhou, it was possible that the people on the first floor would die tonight.
But when he saw the bloodstains on their bodies and the steel armor under their coats, Jun Wu understood that these young people were much more vigilant about this fight than the others in Fuzhou.
Usually, this would mean that they didn't trust him, but now, it proved that they were right.
"I want to apologize to you," said Jun Wu. "But I also promise you that this won't happen again."
"Your Majesty, there's no need for that." Zuo Wenhuai lowered his head and bowed. He paused for a moment and said, "In truth … I will say something disgraceful and unfilial. Before we came here, Mister Ning of the southwest repeatedly warned us that as long as there are interests involved, internal struggles are far more dangerous than external ones. This is because many times we don't know where our enemies will come from. Since Your Majesty is carrying out reforms, we are Your Majesty's lackeys. Soldiers don't avoid swords and spears. Your Majesty, you don't need to think too highly of us. "
Jun Wu looked at him in silence for a long time, then let out a long sigh. At that moment, he suddenly remembered his meeting with the members of the Huaxia army before Jiangning ascended to the throne. That was the first time he had seen a spy from the Huaxia army. The city was in danger and supplies were scarce. He had wanted to ask them if there was enough food to eat, and they had replied that there was enough because there weren't many people left …
At that moment, Zuo Wenhuai seemed to overlap with that figure …
This was the Huaxia army.
This was the Huaxia army!
If he had been surrounded by such soldiers, how could mere Jurchens wreak havoc and slaughter in Jiangnan …
He nodded.
After that, everyone discussed for a while in the room about what to do next, how to confuse the outside world and how to find the mastermind this time … When they left the room, the members of the Hua Xia Army had already handed over some of the imperial guards under Tie Tianying — their bodies were smeared with blood, and even those who could still move seemed to be seriously injured and looked rather miserable. But under this miserable appearance, the people who had survived the battle against the Jurchens had already begun to accept the challenges of the local tyrants and strangers in this strange place …
The sky was still dark, and the stars twinkled in the night sky. The smell of the fire was still pervading the air, and the night was still restless and uneasy. Wave after wave of power was about to display their power ….
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