Chapter 190: Generals Disarm
As expected, Huo Lang lazily leaned his head and closed his eyes in deep thought. His features looked indescribably charming under the flickering candlelight. After a moment, he said without emotion, "Well, let's go to the palace gate and see what's going on."
Mr. Xiahou stood up to persuade him, very puzzled: "Your Majesty, why do you have to wade into this muddy water? The men of the Wei family are now dead or injured, and their strength has been greatly reduced. We can just wait for them to fight each other and we can reap the benefits."
Master Sang secretly tugged at his sleeve and said, "The wife of the Duke of Zhenguo is determined to get an explanation. If we continue to stalemate tonight, it will be difficult to end. It would be better for the prince to come forward."
Huo Lang never allowed anyone to interfere with his decisions. Xiahou Qing had just started to study under him, so it was inevitable that he did not understand the prince's temper, let alone the relationship between the prince and the current emperor. Master Sang could not explain it too clearly, so he could only tactfully change the subject.
It was freezing cold, and even though there was a warm charcoal fire in the house, it was still hard to resist the chill.
Huo Lang lifted his heavy fox fur coat, stood up and walked behind the screen, where a maid helped him change his clothes. He had worked his way up through military exploits in his early years, and was left with a number of old illnesses. Every cold winter, he would feel sharp pains in his bones, and in severe cases, he could not even walk. He had not been to the battlefield for a long time, otherwise the task of defending Xiling would not have fallen on the Wei family.
The personal maid secretly glanced at Huo Lang's pale face and couldn't help but persuade him: "My Lord, why don't you wear ordinary clothes? It's cold outside, and the silver armor is too cold..."
Huo Lang closed his eyes calmly: "Just put on your armor. The battle tonight is so big, how can we not use weapons?"
Yong'an Street leads directly to the imperial palace. Huo Lang swiftly mounted his horse and galloped towards the palace gate with his three hundred personal guards. The wind and snow hit him in the face, drilling through the gaps in his silver armor, and the exposed skin felt painful as if it were scratched by a knife.
The night was silent, paper money and gold ingots came from nowhere and filled the sky. White flags were raised on the roadside, and sobbing cries were heard from every household. The soldiers who died outside Guiyan Pass were the husbands and sons of countless people.
The wife of Duke Zhenguo was dressed in mourning clothes, holding her husband's spirit tablet in her arms. Beside her stood the coffin that had been transported thousands of miles back to the capital. The soldiers in charge of escorting her were all the remnants who had withdrawn from Guiyan Pass. Their armor was still stained with blood and sword marks, and they had white scarves tied around their left arms. They stood motionless in the wind and snow, their eyes bloodshot, and a murderous aura that almost reached the sky.
In the dark night, everything was silent, even the sound of the chilly wind seemed to have been muted.
The gatekeeper did not dare to use force. He had been holding out for two hours with his sword drawn. He gritted his teeth and advised, "Madam Zhenguo, please return quickly. The imperial city is a place where we cannot be reckless!"
Mrs. Wei was about 40 years old, with a thick layer of snow on her shoulders. Her eyes were full of bloodshot, and she just stared at the general who was speaking quietly, which made people feel terrified for no reason, as if the souls of those soldiers who died in vain were floating in the sky and watching:
"My husband and son are dead, and I have nowhere to go. If Your Majesty does not give me justice, I will die in front of the palace today. What does that mean?!"
With every word she spoke, the funeral procession behind her took a step forward in unison. The black iron-inlaid coffin slammed heavily against the palace gate again and again, like the ringing of a funeral bell, the sound as dull as thunder.
"Bang--!"
"Bang--!"
"Bang--!"
"Return to Yanguan, Xiling rebels, young men in armor please be restrained!"
"Looking north, bidding farewell to my homeland, how many people return from the cold river thousands of miles away!"
"Don't you see, I'm hungry, I raise my head and drink all the blood and tears!"
"You are a treacherous and treacherous person, feeding rats with grains in the granary!"
This was a poem of resentment. The soldiers shouted in unison, shaking the snow on the palace eaves and making the sound break through the sky. The coffin did not contain the body and was wrapped in fine steel. After dozens of collisions, the vermilion palace gate was actually collapsed.
The gatekeeper begged loudly, almost kneeling down to beg for mercy: "Madam Wei! Madam Wei! Stop hitting it! Stop hitting it! If you hit it again, the palace gate will collapse! This crime is tantamount to treason!!"
The fourth daughter of the Wei family ran after her mother in mourning. Upon hearing the words, she drew out the long sword from her waist with a clang, and shouted angrily with red eyes: "Get out of my way! If you come to my way again, I will kill you! So what if you commit treason? Don't we, the Wei family, dare not do it!"
“Whoosh!”
Before she finished her words, a sharp arrow came from nowhere, accompanied by a strong wind, and knocked the sword out of her hand. She heard the sound of horse hooves approaching from the long street behind her, and the man's low and cold voice exploded in everyone's ears like thunder:
"Rebellion? I'm afraid your Wei family can't afford it!"
Miss Wei Si turned back in shock, only to see a cavalry team galloping towards them from afar, with at least hundreds of elite soldiers. The man in the lead drew his bow and arrow, his eyes gleaming with cold light even in the dark night, his aura was unruly and murderous, worthy of the title of Beishu's number one killer.
It's Huo Lang!!
Everyone was shocked when they saw this. The team blocking the palace gate automatically split to the sides, making way for a path. They all knelt down and saluted the man who was riding a horse in the distance: "Greetings, Regent King!!"
Huo Lang gently pinched the horse's belly and stopped a few meters away. His cold eyes swept through everyone one by one, and said meaningfully: "I heard that someone led troops to rebel, so I came to rescue the horse late at night, but I didn't expect to see the lady's body lying here. The Wei family is full of loyal and brave people. I think it was a misunderstanding. Now it's late at night and snowy. Why don't you leave as soon as possible?"
The Wei and Huo families have been at odds since ancient times. Their ancestors had long ago stipulated that they could not marry within three generations. The Huo family's daughter was a noblewoman at the time, but she fell in love with Wei Han and was willing to break up with her family to marry him. Otherwise, Huo Lang would have to call her "Aunt" now.
Mrs. Wei didn't expect Huo Lang to come to rescue her late at night. She looked at him with red eyes, the cold wind filling her lungs, and asked in a hoarse voice: "What if I don't agree?!"
Huo Lang said calmly: "Aunt will agree."
The cavalrymen behind him neatly drew their bows and put arrows on them. The tips of the arrows flashed coldly. Although it was silent, it was so oppressive that people couldn't even breathe, as if if Mrs. Wei said "no", she would be pierced by thousands of arrows and die.
Madam Wei raised her head coldly: "I never knew the Regent was so loyal!"
Huo Lang fiddled with the bowstring casually, put a black feather arrow on it, and then slowly pulled it tight. He narrowed his eyes slightly and aimed at the back of Madam Wei. His eyes were full of indifference to human life. He curled his lips to accept the mockery: "As a subject, this is what you should do. If anyone dares to rebel in front of Zhaokong Gate today, I will make him live a life worse than death!"
By the time he said the last sentence, his tone had become gloomy and cruel.
"Mother!"
Miss Wei Si was panicking and trying to stand in front of her, but the arrow had already left the bow, and the sound of the wind passing through Mrs. Wei's ears was mixed with the sound of a rapid wind. In the dark night, a light yellow figure sneaked out from the gap of the palace door:
“Aaaaaaaaaa——!!!!”
The man who was shot by the arrow let out a heart-wrenching scream, which immediately attracted everyone's attention. The gatekeeper rushed forward, supported the man and asked in panic, "Your Highness! Your Highness! Are you okay?!"
The person who was pierced in the shoulder by Huo Lang's arrow was Zhao Qin, the Prince of Jingyang, who had been hiding in the palace for most of the night. He saw Huo Lang and the people from the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion confronting each other, and originally planned to sneak away in the chaos, but he never expected to be stabbed in the thigh by the white-feathered black-gold arrow without warning, and he screamed in pain.
"Zhao Qin! You finally got out!"
When the people in the Zhenguo Mansion saw the Prince of Jingyang, they immediately burned with rage in their eyes, wishing they could rush up to eat his flesh and drink his blood. When the two armies went to war, Zhao Qin was in charge of supervising the food and fodder in the rear, but he embezzled all of it. There was continuous snow and wind outside the pass, and the soldiers had no grains to fill their stomachs for months, and could only swallow snow water and tree bark raw. The father and son of the Wei family died on the battlefield. How could people not hate him!
Huo Lang rode on his horse, threw the bow and arrow to his deputy general, and said lightly: "It is my poor archery skills that have injured the King of Jingyang. Why don't you take him back to the palace for treatment? What if the disease is delayed?"
In public, he hurt the royal family, but he just brushed it off as an accidental injury.
The gatekeeper did not dare to disobey orders, and quickly found a carriage to carry the wailing Zhao Qin back to the palace. Madam Wei blocked the palace gate tonight just to capture Zhao Qin. Seeing this, her eyes were so red that they seemed to bleed. She whipped her horse whip hard and immediately turned the team around to chase him. Before leaving, she remembered something and looked at Huo Lang resolutely:
"The entire Wei family will not let this battle of Guiyan Pass go. Let's see how long you can remain a loyal subject! I'm afraid that in the future, when the cunning rabbit dies, the running dog will be cooked, and your end will not be any better than my husband's today!"
Countless snowflakes slowly fell from the sky, covering the ground with a layer of white frost, but were soon trampled into mud by horses' hooves. With a deep cry of "Rise up, spirits!", the funeral procession rode away in a mighty manner, leaving only paper money and gold ingots floating in the sky.
A piece of white Ming coin flew leisurely in front of Huo Lang's eyes. He stretched out his hand to twist it, stared at the thin paper and said to himself: "How long can I be a loyal and loyal minister?"
Just sneer and see what his mood is.
Huo Lang threw away the paper and was about to lead his team to leave when an eunuch suddenly ran out from the palace gate and said, "Prince Regent, please stay. Prince Regent, please stay. His Majesty has summoned you!"
It was the dead of winter, and the day was still late. The majestic imperial city was reflected in the falling snow, making it look even more majestic. However, the long and quiet palace roads added an indescribable melancholy to the scene.
Huo Lang, led by the eunuch, came to the Council Hall. Just as he was about to enter the palace gate, a dragon-scale guard suddenly became frightened and stretched out his hand to stop him, saying:
"Prince Regent, according to the rules of our ancestors, please take off your armor and swords before entering the palace to meet the emperor!"
Huo Lang paused when he heard this, and his dark eyes swept over the guard's skin, inch by inch, giving him a stinging pain like a knife. His voice was cold and teasing, as if he had heard some big joke: "Ancestral rules?"
The ancestors of the Zhao family have been dead for who knows how many years, and yet they still want to establish some rules?
Although Huo Lang was arrogant, he was also polite and did not overstep the line in front of the emperor. However, ever since the emperor had taken on many concubines in the six harems, he had become more and more evil. He grabbed the dragon-scale guard by the collar, sneered and asked:
"I will not take it off. What do you think?!"
The dragon-scale guard was so frightened that his face turned pale. He thought that the Regent usually took off his armor when he went to the palace, and he was just reminding him as usual. Why was he so abnormal today? He was trembling and unable to speak.
At this moment, a voice as calm as the breeze came from the palace gate, easily dissolving the conflict outside, like the sparse rain falling, or the gentle sound of white jade:
"No need to take off your armor, please enter the palace."
Since His Majesty had spoken, the guards naturally did not dare to stop him and could only watch Huo Lang go in. He did not follow the rules when entering the court, did not give his name when paying respects, and did not wear a sword or shoes when entering the palace. The Regent Prince actually broke all three taboos.
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