Chapter 456: Continuous Assassinations
"Bet on whether the Shen family will assassinate the envoy?"
Inside the shaking carriage, the Governor of the Grand Canal was stunned for a moment and asked hesitantly.
Zhao Duan lazily leaned against the cushions and murmured softly, "To be more precise, I wonder if I will be assassinated."
Would the Shen family dare to kill him? Zhao Duan was not entirely sure.
In this era when imperial power had never reached the countryside, it was difficult to understand the power of local "clan" forces unless you were there.
The promotion of the new policy is fundamentally in conflict with the interests of the Shen family, not to mention the death of "Second Master Shen" that stands in the way.
In Zhao Duan's opinion, the biggest obstacle to whether the Shen family would take action was not his identity as "Grand Guardian".
He still remembered that a long time ago, the old eunuch had told him that during the previous emperor's time, there was a story about a eunuch who was very popular in the palace and was beheaded by local people after he went out of the palace to purchase goods.
The biggest obstacle may be the many powerful guards around Zhao Duan.
In addition, what he did not make clear to Governor Ning was: Even if the Shen family did not take action, would Prince Jing's Mansion be peaceful?
Prince Jing’s Mansion can put the blame on the Shen family once, so why can’t it happen a second time?
However, the Governor of the Grand Canal Transport Bureau was unable to think of these higher-level struggles due to his limited vision.
"Haha, maybe I'm overthinking it," Zhao Duan said with a smile, breaking the solemn atmosphere. "By the way, has the news of my entry into the city spread yet?"
Seeing him change the subject, Governor Ning forced a smile:
"Everyone in Jianning Prefecture has heard about this. The locals knew long ago that His Majesty would be performing the Fengshan ceremony in Luoyang. And now that the envoy has been sent by the Emperor to prepare for the Fengshan ceremony, who dares to neglect it?"
Throughout the dynasties, Fengshan was a very grand event.
When the empress is enthroned, more than just Prince Jing and the Shen family are affected.
"Now, countless people in the entire Jianning Prefecture, and even in the two Jiangnan regions, are looking forward to meeting you and making contributions in the Fengshan ceremony." Governor Ning said.
Zhao Duan thought about it and nodded:
"In that case, we can save ourselves the trouble of meeting everyone one by one. Please, Governor, arrange for me to meet with the gentry, wealthy individuals, and officials from various government offices in Jianning Prefecture tonight. This will also facilitate the preparations for the ceremony later."
Governor Ning agreed straightforwardly: "Okay."
…
The group returned to Jianning Prefecture and went straight to the Grain Transport Office. For the rest of the afternoon, Zhao Duan looked through documents and files in the office to learn about the progress of local new policies, official vacancies, and other situations.
As for the conflict with the Shen family, few people knew about it because all parties tacitly covered it up.
Near dusk, Governor Ning brought back news that everything had been arranged. A welcoming banquet would be held at "Jingyuan" tonight. People from all walks of life in the city would gather there to pay homage to the great god "Zhao Du'an" and also to try to find a job in the Fengshan ceremony.
Zhao Duan nodded happily, and at dusk, he took a group of guards and went to Jingyuan with Governor Ning.
…
The so-called "Scenic Garden" is a river section where buildings, stone bridges, gardens and water veins are intertwined.
It is not a sealed-off manor, but the most lively area in Jianning Prefecture at night. Lights are always on along both sides of the river. Pavilions and towers stand beside the water on a piece of land that protrudes from the Jinxiu River that flows through the city.
It’s a bit like the ancient version of “The Bund”.
When Zhao Duan arrived, the sky was getting dark. The ancient buildings were all lit up, the red shadows of lanterns were reflected in the river, and the city's famous singing girls and dancers were already in place on the colorful flower boats decorated on the river.
The stringed instruments and orchestral music, accompanied by unique southern tunes, create a very atmospheric atmosphere.
"There are so many people." Qian Kerou walked behind Zhao Duan, her eyes wide open in amazement.
Zhao Duan jokingly said, "You look like you haven't seen the world, but Yanzhi Alley in the capital is not bad."
The secretary felt aggrieved: "I'm not going to a brothel to listen to music, this is just our first time meeting."
Yes, Xiaorou is an honest child. She punches in and out at regular times and never fools around. In comparison, Hou Renmeng and Shen Juan, the two sultry troublemakers, are whispering and commenting on which dancer has a more perky butt.
"Haha, the arrival of Envoy Zhao has greatly encouraged the people in Jianning Prefecture..." A local celebrity greeted him flatteringly.
"Sir Zhao, it's me. We've met in the capital." A wealthy businessman greeted him with surprise.
"Your Excellency..."
"Zhao Shaobao..."
In Jingyuan, in addition to the walking waiters, celebrities from all walks of life had already gathered. When they saw the main person coming, they all came over enthusiastically.
The palace and the Shen family may not give face to Zhao Duan, but the others dare not offend him. At least they have to be respectful on the surface.
Zhao Duan, with a smile on his face, was surrounded by a large group of important figures in the city and taken to the table. There was no lack of formal greetings.
However, today was a "welcoming banquet", and both sides tacitly did not mention the Fengshan event.
Governor Ning smiled and introduced the people present to Zhao Duan one by one. Zhao Duan then compared the unfamiliar faces, some flattering, some enthusiastic, some forcing smiles, and some secretly wary, with the information he had read in the afternoon.
The scene was extremely harmonious and friendly.
Only no one from Prince Jing's Mansion and the Shen family was present.
This undoubtedly sends a certain signal.
After a lively atmosphere, the banquet began and the prepared song and dance performance officially started.
Although a waitress dressed in cool clothes placed the delicacies in front of him with expensive utensils, Zhao Duan did not rush to pick up his chopsticks.
Among the masters of the palace, a eunuch suddenly stood up, took out a special magic weapon, a silver needle, and checked the food in front of Zhao Duan one by one.
After trying several dishes in a row, the eunuch's eyes suddenly narrowed as the silver needle was pulled out of a bowl of soup. He put the silver needle stained with soup into his mouth, smacked it, and whispered to Zhao Duan:
"Sir, it is a colorless and tasteless 'entrance poison' that is enough to kill ordinary Divine Realm people."
Then you dare to try it? Oh, you specialize in poisons and have long been immune to all poisons. Then it’s okay... Zhao Duan calmly ordered: "Go check it out, don't make any noise."
Tang Jinzhong and Song Jinxi stood up in unison and walked towards the kitchen. After a while, they returned and said calmly:
"As soon as we entered, the man swallowed poison and died."
Zhao Duan nodded and said, "Sit down and watch the show."
Then he turned his head and looked at Governor Ning, who was sitting next to him with a stiff expression, and smiled:
"What's wrong, Governor? Eat, don't worry, every dish we eat has been checked by the palace's poison experts."
Governor Ning stared blankly at Zhao Duan, who was calm and unmoved by the assassination.
He turned his head and glanced at the calm appearance of the guards around him, including Eunuch Hai, Prajna Bodhisattva, and others. He felt a little dazed and had a strong sense of unreality.
"Envoy, if I heard correctly, someone just poisoned you."
"Yes, didn't I tell the governor? The assassination attempt against me will come soon." Zhao Duan looked as if he was used to it.
Governor Ning opened his mouth and suddenly looked at Qian Kerou, who looked the youngest and most immature among the people at the table:
"Aren't you all surprised?"
The round-faced secretary glanced at him and said confidently:
"When has my master gone out without encountering assassination attempts? Even in the capital, he encounters them occasionally. What's so surprising about that?"
The others nodded, as if it was a matter of course.
“…” The Governor of the Grand Canal shut his mouth, silently put down his chopsticks, and decided not to eat a single bite of food tonight.
The singing and dancing lights and shadows in front of me also seemed strange.
Fortunately, this table was the main seat, some distance away from the other celebrities at the banquet in Jingyuan. To outsiders, it seemed that Zhao Duan had just ordered his men to go out, and no one knew that a poisoning had just occurred here.
"good……"
Zhao Duan was sitting lazily, when he suddenly cheered loudly. It turned out that a song and dance had just ended on the huge deck of the flower boat floating on the water.
In the center of many beautiful women wearing local characteristic gauze clothes, there was a woman wearing a light pink gauze skirt, with snow-white skin, a jeweled gold hairpin on her head, and outstanding appearance and singing and dancing. She was the most famous courtesan in Jianning Prefecture.
It is said that she has never been touched by anyone since her debut, and the ticket for a meeting with her for tea has been sold for five hundred taels each... and that's for the last row.
At this moment, the famous courtesan in Jianchengdao finished her song, gently tossed the guqin in her hand, jumped into the water, and set off a cloud of waves.
Then, accompanied by the sound of splashing water and continuous drum beats, Zhao Duan sat cross-legged in the center of the pavilion, leaning over to face the river.
He looked down, and when the drumbeats ended, waves suddenly appeared on the river surface, and a figure emerged from the water.
At this moment, streams of energy were as dense as a net, blocking the surroundings, but Zhao Duan just held a wine cup in his fingers and smiled indifferently.
Looking down at the water, the courtesan, her whole body wet, her clothes almost hiding her fair and smooth figure, emerged like a white carp, her wet black hair hanging down, and in her red lips was a plump and voluptuous rose that shouldn't be growing in this season. She raised her head, holding the edge of the pavilion with both hands, and looked into the eyes of Zhao Duan, who was looking down at her and listening to the music.
"Don't panic, it's just a woman."
Zhao Duan smiled indifferently, but ignored the courtesan waiting to be rescued from the water. He drank the wine cup in his hand, which earned him cheers and applause from dozens of gentry in the city around him.
The banquet lasted until very late, and the guests gradually dispersed. Jingyuan had already arranged bedrooms for Zhao Duan and his group, so they could stay there.
Governor Ning took the initiative to say goodbye and leave because his wife and daughter were waiting for him in the yamen, so he didn't want to get involved with other women.
"Everyone, be alert and be careful."
The drunk Zhao Duan said this, turned around and staggered, and walked towards the most distinguished bedroom on the bank of Jingyuan River under the resentful gaze of Prajna Bodhisattva.
…
When he pushed open the door and walked into the room covered with expensive carpets and illuminated by four bright lights, his originally drunken eyes instantly became clear, without showing the slightest hint of drunkenness.
He waited for a moment with his hands behind his back. The room was silent, with only the sound of the burning candle in the lampshade and the sound of ripples on the river surface caused by the wind outside the house echoing.
No... there's also... breathing sounds.
Zhao Duan took a step and walked to the bedside. Through the gauze curtain, he vaguely saw a figure lying on his bed.
He raised his hand to open the gauze curtain, and what he saw was a slender figure lying on her side. The most famous courtesan in the city, who was no less famous than anyone in the capital, was only wearing a gauze skirt and sleeping on her side.
From bottom to top, there are the snow-white lotus feet, the perky round buttocks, the seemingly messy but actually orderly hair, and the beautiful "back chest" under the neck.
Zhao Duan asked with great interest, "Are you also an assassin?"
The eyelashes of the courtesan sleeping on her side trembled slightly and her breathing became a little disordered.
Zhao Duan smiled and said:
"Food and sex are human nature. You know I'm surrounded by many experts, and it's pointless to kill them by force. So you've changed your strategy, first targeting food, then targeting sex... You're willing to put in the effort and invest. Don't pretend to be asleep, your breathing rhythm has already betrayed you."
The oiran remained motionless.
Zhao Duan sighed softly, walked slowly to the bedside, sat down lovingly with her, and said:
"Let me think about it. Where did you hide the murder weapon? Was it a sharp hairpin hidden in your hair, or a deadly poison hidden between your teeth? It can't be..."
With every possibility he mentioned, the nerves of the courtesan who was lying on her side pretending to be asleep became more tense.
Finally, she couldn't bear the invisible pressure anymore, opened her eyes, covered her face and cried:
"Please kill me, sir."
Surrendering already? Yes, a female assassin with no trace of martial arts training and no reason to be a master of magic...
Aside from the chance of a successful assassination in bed when my defenses were at their lowest, even if a high-level Divine Chapter like me had been even slightly prepared, there would have been no chance of her successfully launching a sneak attack...
Zhao Duan's mind turned, he smiled, and suddenly without any warning, he knocked the woman unconscious with a knife!
When the courtesan fell down in shock, her hands that were covering her face dropped down, revealing a thin metal tube that she was holding between her teeth, ready to fire poison gas.
“No creativity.”
Zhao Duan muttered, stood up, pushed the door open and walked out of the room, complaining to the old eunuch in the python robe guarding the door:
"Father-in-law, you are really doing your duty by keeping an eye on me."
Eunuch Hai gathered his sleeves, snorted, and said:
"His Majesty has said that we should keep a close eye on you and make sure you don't get swallowed by that witch."
Am I that kind of person? I am devoted to Zhen Bao, and heaven and earth can bear witness to that. I wouldn't even touch a fifty-year-old nun, let alone an inexplicable courtesan... Zhao Duan had a hurt expression on his face, as if he was distrusted. He frowned and said,
"Father-in-law, I feel something is wrong."
"What's wrong? Didn't you expect that they would come to assassinate you? You even guessed what method they might use." Eunuch Hai asked curiously.
Zhao Duan said seriously:
"Don't you think these two assassinations were too easy? Although it seems that there were indeed opportunities to kill me, whether it was the poison that was enough to kill a Divine Chapter Realm cultivator, or the female assassin who was used as a death squad... they all cost a lot of money, and only the top forces in Jianning Prefecture could arrange it so quickly... but..."
He said seriously, "It's still too 'simple'. Didn't the person who attacked me anticipate that I would be extra cautious these past few days? Why were they so eager to act? Why couldn't they wait even a day?"
Eunuch Hai thought for a moment and said:
"Perhaps the other party guessed your thoughts and is betting against you by betting that you will be relaxed today."
"No, that doesn't make sense." Zhao Duan frowned and shook his head.
"I believe that the other party is not stupid enough to think that this level of assassination can really hurt me... I am not Ning Zechen..."
Suddenly, Zhao Duan was stunned, and a flash of inspiration flashed through his mind.
He suddenly raised his head, his expression slightly changed:
"Oh no, I know who their target is!"
…
…
Late at night on the street, Ning Zechen rode in a horse-drawn carriage and stopped outside the gate of the Canal Transport Office.
In the darkness of the night, the two solitary lamps at the gate of the yamen looked a little desolate. The old gatekeeper of the yamen heard the noise, rubbed his eyes, climbed up and opened the door, and said in surprise:
"Governor, you're back?"
"What are you talking about? Do I look like someone who doesn't come home at night?" Governor Ning, who was born as a son-in-law, said righteously.
The old doorman didn't dare to say anything, thinking that when the madam was not in the city, you didn't speak so firmly.
The door opened, the carriage entered the yard, and was pulled to the stable by the gateman.
Ning Zechen walked into the back court, the courtyard where he lived, and found that the lights in the house were still on, and there was a faint shadow of a woman's lamp imprinted on the window.
Madam Ning heard the noise and stood up and opened the door. The quiet and dignified woman saw her husband coming back and sighed in relief: "You're back?"
"Yeah, I'm back."
"Where is Lord Zhao?"
"I'm staying at Jingyuan... Is my daughter asleep?"
"Asleep."
As the couple was talking, Mrs. Ning helped the governor take off his outer robe and fetched water for washing his feet, which made Ning Zechen flattered.
After talking for a while, Ning Zechen asked his wife to go to the bedroom to sleep, saying that he still needed to look over some official documents. He then put on a single layer of clothes and thought about what had happened today in the study:
Zhao Duan arrests the Shen family... Prince Jing arrives... The food at Jingyuan is poisoned...
"Why are they so bold? Are they trying to rebel? Your Majesty will be visiting Jiancheng Road soon... How dare they do this at this critical moment..."
Ning Zechen paced back and forth, unable to figure it out.
Suddenly, he heard the faint sound of tiles breaking in the yard.
He was stunned, a warning arose in his heart, he casually drew the sword from the weapon rack, pushed the door open and walked out of the study.
In the courtyard, the night was as cool as water, and the light of the stars and the moon shone down. Ning Zechen stood in the courtyard with a sword in hand, looking around. Seeing nothing unusual, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to himself, "
"I scared myself..."
However, just as he was about to turn around and go back to the house, four killers who had blended into the night suddenly jumped out from the dark corner!
Silently, like a poisonous snake, it lies dormant for a long time, just to launch a fatal attack at the moment when its prey relaxes!
"Who?"
Ning Zechen suddenly turned around and chopped down with his sword. The sword tip made a "clang" sound and collided with an assassin's dagger, knocking him back.
However, another dagger pierced into his back with a "puff" sound.
Governor Ning felt a sharp pain in his heart, and all his strength seemed to be lost at that moment.
He widened his eyes and swung his sword with all his might, forcing back another assassin from the side. He took several steps back and shouted loudly:
“There’s an assassin!!”
(End of this chapter)
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