Chapter 182 Hidden Arrow
Before Qiu Xiang and Li San Niang got into the donkey cart driven by Song Da Lang, she spotted the gang members at the entrance of the clinic. Through the hand gestures made by the gang members disguised as street vendors, Qiu Xiang understood that something was amiss.
As Song Dalang drove the cart toward the road leading to the entrance of the neighborhood, Qiu Xiang saw through the cart window more than one ruffian disguised as a passerby.
You should know that from the day Qiu Xiang came to Li San Niang's side, Mr. Bu Ke has spared no expense in supporting Li San Niang.
Li San Niang's safety level is almost on par with Mr. Ke Bu.
While Qiu Xiang was openly present at the Li family's residence, there were also two other skilled fighters secretly on the rooftop.
When Li San Niang goes out, in addition to Qiu Xiang, who is in the public eye, Mr. Bu Ke also arranges for three other people to disguise themselves as passersby and follow Li San Niang.
For example, the man who sells vegetables at the entrance of the clinic these past few days is a master of the underworld; he has a broad-bladed long knife under his cutting board.
Today, on her way out of the workshop, Qiu Xiang saw more than three of her own people. She spotted at least five based on internal hand signals, and there were definitely at least three more hidden in the shadows that she hadn't noticed.
Therefore, Qiu Xiang deduced that this must be a message sent back by a spy from the Bad People, indicating that the mastermind behind the scenes was about to make a move, which is why these people were arranged to protect Li San Niang.
This is absolutely outrageous!
Keep in mind that this is the busiest street, and this time of day sees the highest volume of people entering and leaving the neighborhood. Furthermore, the surrounding area is mostly populated by ordinary citizens, innocent passersby.
If the mastermind behind this is going to make a big scene here and kill Li San Niang in broad daylight, it will definitely cause panic and could accidentally injure passersby.
What is this if not outrageous?
Or rather, the mastermind deliberately wanted to harm innocent passersby in public before killing Li Sanniang to establish their authority.
Li San Niang naturally thought of this as well. She looked at the muscle relaxant on her left hand and wondered whether she should spray it in the wind if a fight broke out later.
Although this medicine only temporarily incapacitates people and is not considered poisonous, if passersby accidentally inhale it when it is splashed, wouldn't chaos ensu and they be unable to escape?
What should we do?
After thinking for a moment, Li San Niang put the soft tendon powder back into her purse. She figured that if a fight broke out later, she could hide in the tin-covered carriage and be safe.
She shouldn't have poured muscle relaxant through the car window upwind, otherwise accidentally injuring innocent civilians would truly be her fault.
If the battle becomes intense and the surrounding people flee for their lives, then it should be appropriate to take out this muscle-relaxing powder.
However, Li San Niang was now hesitating. Should she shout out to the outside world and tell the innocent passersby to run for their lives?
Based on the ruthlessness of the mastermind behind the previous two attacks, Li San Niang felt that the assassin who made his move in public this time could only be someone with even more ruthless methods.
But Li San Niang was worried that if she shouted, it might alert the assassins and cause them to act sooner, or even accidentally injure passersby.
Before Li Sanniang could make up her mind and ask Qiuxiang what to do, she heard the patrolling constables shouting loudly to adjust the direction of the crowd.
Furthermore, besides the patrolling constables, Li San Niang could tell from the clanging of armor that these were the Imperial Guards!
Within Chang'an City, only the Imperial Guards were fully armored and armed; they were the only ones wearing armor. The patrolling constables of the Capital Prefecture merely carried broad-bladed long swords.
It turns out that the mastermind behind the Red-Robed Gentleman's plan to murder Li San Niang in public had already been known to Mr. Bu Ke of the Bad People and Xue Yao, the commander of the Imperial Guards.
Although the Bad Guys didn't catch any big fish at the residence in the West Market, they did manage to extract some information from the smaller fish. Furthermore, Mr. Unknown also obtained a lot of information while cleaning up spies within the Bad Guys organization.
Mr. Bu Ke and Xue Yao, who had come into contact due to the case of the lost military tally and the Turkic rebellion, shared information and jointly planned a protection plan for Li San Niang.
After they learned that the mastermind was about to make a move, Mr. Bu Ke sent many experts disguised as passersby to follow Li San Niang. Xue Yao not only had his own people arrange people around her, but also notified the Jinwu Guard in advance to guard all the exits of Yongping Ward, so that they could catch her in a trap.
Since the Imperial Guards have been notified, the Jingzhao Prefecture naturally cannot be left out.
Therefore, in order to avoid harming innocent civilians, the patrolling constables and the Imperial Guards stepped in. They stood in the middle of the road, at the gate of the neighborhood, and at the beginning of the road leading to the gate, moving back and forth to disperse the crowd and let pedestrians leave as soon as possible.
Although it was a bit strange for the Imperial Guards and the street patrol officers to appear together, it wasn't without precedent.
Long ago, because people were rushing to leave and enter the wards before curfew, there were incidents of children being lost and stampedes occurring in other wards. Since then, the constables and Jinwu Guards in each ward of Chang'an City have been responsible for dispersing the congested crowds.
Therefore, the people in the crowd were not surprised to see the Imperial Guards and constables dispersing the crowd around them.
When the leader of the ten assassins led by the red-robed gentleman saw the Golden Guards appear, he was surprised and hesitated, wondering if their plan had been discovered.
While the leaders were debating whether to cancel the operation, they saw Li Sanniang sitting in the donkey cart, still smiling as she looked at the pedestrians on the roadside. Seeing that the Imperial Guards were only trying to disperse the crowd and get them away quickly, they realized that they were overthinking things. They thought that the Imperial Guards were just trying to avoid being held responsible for a stampede, which was why they were here to disperse the crowd.
When Li San Niang heard the voices of constables and imperial guards outside the carriage, she immediately opened the partition that Qiu Xiang had just put on, and also drew back the curtains, continuing to pretend that she hadn't noticed, while looking at the pedestrians outside the carriage window.
Li San Niang knew that only by doing this could she prevent the assassins outside from noticing anything amiss, thus buying time for the Jinwu Guards to quickly evacuate the passersby.
Of course, Li San Niang was still afraid of death, so although her face was looking out the window, she kept her right hand gripping the dagger and kept her body some distance from the car window.
Fifteen minutes later, Li San Niang's donkey cart began to move forward. Through the cart window, it was clear that the flow of people on the main road had decreased significantly, indicating that the evacuation efforts of the Imperial Guards and constables had been quite effective.
However, the number of people setting up stalls on the roadside has not decreased.
When the donkey cart was less than a hundred paces from the gate of the town, the woman who was setting up her stall selling hair ties and wooden combs by the roadside overturned the stall, pulled out a long whip from her waist, and lashed it at Li San Niang's donkey cart.
Having already prepared himself, Song Dalang saw the whip coming towards him, jumped off the carriage to dodge it, pulled out a long wooden stick from under the carriage shaft, and began to fight with the whip-wielding woman who had already approached him.
At the same time, Qiu Xiang stepped forward and lifted the window shutter. Just as she was about to close the other window, an arrow shot directly in through the narrow window.
The arrow was lodged near Li Sanniang's ear, less than a finger's width away.
"Third Sister, squat down."
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