Chapter 589 Behind the Thousand Black-Clad People
From the watchtower, a cold wind blew in, lifting up a few strands of hair under the brim of Zhao Duan's hat behind his mask.
Sun Lianying was stunned for a moment, looking at "King Zhao" who was leaning on the old wooden handrail with both hands, overlooking the distant street delegation, and said with a strange expression:
"Say it again, I'm old and my hearing is not good, I didn't hear it clearly."
The old eunuch had a few big words written on his face: Are you fucking kidding me?
Who in the whole capital doesn't know your temper?
Not to mention the peace talks of this delegation, Zhao Duan was another force that was secretly watching and controlling the situation.
Even if he didn't have this identity, based on his past style of doing things, he would never suffer such humiliation.
Zhao Duan turned his head, also looking very innocent, and said seriously:
"You really misunderstood me. I'm not the King of Hell, Zhao, but merely an acting minor police officer. How could I possibly interfere in such a major matter as the peace talks?"
As he spoke, he raised his fingers and tapped the white mask on his face very seriously.
The white mask looked particularly inconspicuous against the backdrop of the continuous roofs of the capital covered with a thin layer of snow.
Sun Lianying still didn't believe it, but she could vaguely hear some hidden meaning.
Just as I was about to ask, I was surprised to find that the street in the distance had undergone new changes.
…
People were sent in advance to reassure the people on the street where the delegation was walking, and people were prohibited from walking there.
Therefore, the long streets seemed particularly empty, with only the civil officials headed by the Minister of the Ministry of Rites leading the team behind them into the city in a frustrated manner.
However, just when the court officials were getting furious, the leading Minister of the Ministry of Rites suddenly stopped and looked ahead in astonishment.
Xu Xuelian, who was riding a huge white wolf at the back, and Xu Wenyan, who was riding a short horse because of his fat body, heard the rustling sound at the same time.
The noise was not loud at first, but it quickly spread from far away to near, becoming dense and lively.
Then, in everyone's sight, at the end of the quiet long street after the snow, figures in black suddenly emerged from the alleys on both sides.
There were so many figures that they poured out almost continuously, spreading along the long street. In the silent capital, they gave people a strange sense of solemnity.
Almost subconsciously, the delegation stopped and looked alert.
A sharp light flashed in Xu Wenyan's eyes on his fat face with a silly smile, and Mr. Feng beside him also showed a solemn expression.
Xu Xuelian was stunned for a moment, tightening her grip on the whip. She subconsciously turned her head to look at the old official from the palace who was following her. An idea popped into her mind:
Could it be that the Dog Emperor tricked them into coming in and killing them?
Arranged a large army to devour them?
However, soon, as the black crowd gradually approached, the prince and the princess realized that the situation was not as they had expected.
Those men in black were obviously not soldiers, nor were they holding swords or wearing armor, and even the black clothes they wore were not very pure.
Except for the group in front, most of the people behind wore dark clothes and tried to dress in a uniform manner as much as possible.
These people included men and women, young and old, and even children. Most of them were holding a basket in their hands. On both wings of this dark crowd, there were obviously men with red flowers embroidered on their bodies and fierce eyes who were maintaining order.
Red Flower Society!
This was the Red Flower Society, the largest underground gang in the capital, who organized a crowd to block the streets and prevent the delegation from going.
“Crunch, crunch.”
The footsteps stepping on the light snow suddenly stopped at a distance away from the delegation, in a uniform manner as if they had been rehearsed. On every face, regardless of gender, age or status, there was no expression.
On one side were the peace delegations sent by the two great vassal kings, and on the other side were the lower-class people driven away by the ruffians in the market.
The two sides seemed to be in a standoff on this long street.
"What... does this mean?!" Xu Xuelian reacted and glared at the Minister of the Ministry of Rites.
Xu Wenyan also looked over, waiting for an answer.
However, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites was obviously more confused than them. He was stunned for a while before he came to his senses and shook his head:
"I don't know... I don't know..."
He was a little confused. He had never heard of such a thing.
Xu Xuelian said angrily:
"Hurry up and drive these lowly people away! You've delayed my entry into the palace. I'll make you pay!"
The princess of Tieguandao, who was famous for her domineering and eccentric personality, shouted angrily, with no awareness that she was in a foreign land, or perhaps in her opinion, these lower-class people were not of the same species as the nobles.
However, before the Minister of Rites could react, bamboo poles were suddenly erected in the silent dark crowd, and banners were torn out. On the white banners were written words like "Traitor, get out of the capital" in large black characters.
A middle-aged woman suddenly shouted:
"Get out of the capital!"
While shouting, he took out a few moldy and smelly eggs from the basket on his arm and threw them hard at the delegation!
It was as if a "signal" was turned on.
In an instant, the vast crowd of people almost simultaneously shouted slogans like "Get out of the capital" and "The traitors should die."
Countless rotten vegetable leaves, stones, snowballs, wood blocks and other random thrown objects, like a flock of startled birds in a dense forest, suddenly took off into the air and turned into a dark and heavy rain, raining justice indiscriminately on the delegation team.
"Princess, be careful!"
A tall guard from the Yanshan Palace suddenly stood in front of Xu Xuelian, drew his sword and chopped it forward, splitting several rotten eggs with a "puff". The smelly and almost solidified egg liquid flowed down the blade.
Then a leaf was stuck on the face of the practicing martial artist...making his expression change.
On the other side, Xu Wenyan was about to dismount when he saw the situation was not good, but he was a step slower due to his fat body. He shouted to his followers with a bitter face. The Xiping soldiers hurriedly used their bodies to protect the prince. Many of them had their heads swollen by stones and screamed in fear.
At this moment, faced with the huge amount of objects thrown from high altitude, the well-trained soldiers and even the martial artists who had practiced martial arts were put on the defensive.
The previously arrogant princess and prince became the focus, and the guards could only try their best to protect the two princes from being "attacked".
The scene was in chaos for a while.
On one hand, there were thousands of people who were passionate and well-trained and were cursing the rebels; on the other hand, there were the royal team who were hiding in a panic and did not dare to fight back due to their status as an envoy. It was truly amazing.
"My lord...my lord..."
The Minister of the Ministry of Rites was stunned and stood there blankly. He only came to his senses when he felt the officials around him pulling and shouting.
Subconsciously wanting to hide, the court officials were surprised to find that they were in an area not covered by the projectiles. Looking up, they saw countless bullets streaking high parabolas above their heads.
The Minister of the Honglu Temple was delighted, but he pretended to be annoyed and shouted hurriedly:
"Don't throw it away!", "Don't throw it away!", "You are so bold and unruly, why don't you stop it?"
But the perfunctory attitude of slacking off was almost written on his face.
“…”
Seeing this, the other officials around followed suit and tried weakly to stop the fight.
…
far away.
Looking upstairs.
Sun Lianying stared at this scene in amazement, and for a long time she did not come back to her senses. Then she turned her head to look at Zhao Duan and said in a deep voice:
"You arranged this?"
Zhao Duan acted pure and innocent, and said confidently:
"How can you claim no one is innocent? The people of the capital must have heard of the coming diplomatic corps, and they were enraged and came here to voice their grievances. Alas, when war breaks out, the people suffer the most. What does this have to do with me?"
Sun Lianying was almost amused by his shameless face and pointed at him:
"You kid...you kid...really..."
In the end, the old eunuch laughed out loud and muttered, "Only you can come up with such a crooked idea."
joke!
Under the emperor's feet, who could mobilize such a large number of people to wait for the delegation at this critical moment? No one else except Zhao Duan.
And all this was obviously arranged long ago.
Sun Lianying watched the play leisurely, thought for a moment, and exclaimed:
"Although this move was a bit reckless, upon closer inspection, it actually served a positive purpose, dampening the arrogance of these people. But how did you know in advance that this delegation would be dishonest? Did they arrive late on purpose? To intimidate the court?"
Zhao Duan stopped joking and pretending to be stupid, and said calmly:
"I don't know, I'm just being prepared. Besides, I was planning to cause a public outcry even if these people came into the city politely.
Oh, I’m not one of those scholars who have become stupid because of reading too much. I won’t attack unless my enemy takes action.
"The relationship has already broken down, why are you still pretending to be gentle, kind, respectful, frugal and modest? These people still want to control the court? I originally planned to deal with them and give them a warning."
Sun Lianying was silent for a moment and sighed:
"Your Majesty was right to tell you to keep an eye on them. Ha, letting the people take action is truly leveraging your home-field advantage. Since the delegation has chosen to negotiate, no matter how angry they are, they won't dare to slaughter the people of the capital in the streets. To do so would be to seek death."
With so many people, even if the delegation demands punishment later, they can only push out a few leaders as a scapegoat. Then they can just pick a death row prisoner from the prison as a scapegoat. They will have no say and can only suffer in silence.
But I'm curious, where did you find so many brave people? "
Zhao Duan said in an unusually calm tone:
"The Red Flower Society originally obeyed the imperial court's orders. As for these civilians, many of them had family members in Xiping and Tieguandao. During the months of fighting there, many of the dead included relatives of the people in the capital."
Sun Lianying fell silent.
A cold wind blew, and the snow flakes on the watchtower fluttered, revealing the wooden frame below that was mottled and peeling due to wind and sun.
An old man and a young man quietly overlooked the conflict ahead.
At this time, the people accompanying the delegation could no longer bear it and intended to drive them away by force. Hou Renmeng and Shen Juan, who were guarding in a nearby alley, took out their whistles and blew them almost at the same time.
Upon hearing the signal, the members of the Red Flower Society who were mixed in the crowd led the people to evacuate.
At the same time, Hou Renmeng and Shen Juancai waved their hands lazily and rushed out with a large number of Jinyi captains who had been waiting in the nearby alleys, pretending to have rushed over after hearing the news and to maintain order.
Thousands of people, led by this group of low-level gang members, dispersed at an extremely fast speed.
In the blink of an eye, the long street was empty again, and the ground was covered with dirty footprints, stones, rotten eggs, and rotten leaves...
"What happened? We were a little late in arriving. Is the delegation okay?"
The marquis pressed his sword hard and walked over carelessly.
When the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and others saw this group of men in brocade clothes, they looked at them strangely and acted in unison.
He angrily questioned Jinyi why he allowed the unruly people to appear, then turned back to comfort the princess and the prince.
Xu Xuelian only came back to her senses at this moment. Her fair face flushed with anger, but she was held down by the old official of the palace beside her, and did not lash out.
"Princess, continuing to make trouble will only make you more embarrassed."
The old minister pointed to the houses along the nearby street.
The scene just now was seen by countless pairs of eyes hiding in the house.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince..." Mr. Feng also helped the fat Crown Prince up from the back of the carriage.
Xu Wenyan stood up panting, and looked deeply at the brocade clothes that appeared. He turned his head to look at the embarrassed delegation, and let out a silent breath. He returned to his silly look, feeling lost and lonely.
"Don't the people here welcome us?"
Xu Xuelian was not so good-tempered. She held the whip tightly and said angrily:
"This princess will report this to His Majesty later!"
After leaving behind these harsh words, the delegation set off again. This time, they no longer dared to show off their military might. Instead, they sped up and headed towards the palace.
Fortunately, most of the people in the delegation who were hit were guards, so it did not delay the meeting of several important figures with the emperor.
…
"Our family has to go to the palace too."
Sun Lianying rolled up his sleeves and sighed, then walked downstairs to the watchtower. A carriage was already waiting downstairs, ready to take him into the palace.
When the delegation arrives, it is reasonable for the empress to lead her ministers to meet them.
This was also the first real confrontation.
"Haha, I won't join in the fun."
Zhao Duan smiled, took one last look in the direction of the delegation, and walked downstairs to see Sun Lianying off.
After waiting for a while, Hou Renmeng and Chen Juan came with their men from afar on the snow. In the cold winter wind, a group of sword-wielding imperial guardsmen all had flushed faces, and were so excited as if they had done something extremely satisfying.
"Sir." Everyone stopped and bowed to Zhao Duan in unison.
Zhao Duan said "yes" and praised:
"Well done. You can go back to the government office first. If the envoys come to investigate, just follow the method I arranged before. Ha, this is our territory. I really don't understand why a group of people who come here to ask for peace are so arrogant.
Giving them an explanation is already a matter of concern for the imperial court's reputation. If they really don't understand, then drowning them in the Hun River wouldn't be that difficult."
The group of imperial guards were stunned when they heard this. They thought that the acting police chief was being very arrogant, but they did not take him seriously.
Although the delegation was seeking peace, wasn't the imperial court doing the same?
If you really don't care, why would you pay attention to the other party's request for peace?
Ultimately, under the current delicate situation, the imperial court needs to eliminate the threats posed by the two vassal kings and free up its hands to deal with Prince Jing.
The two princes hoped to use the threat of helping Prince Jing to gain benefits from the empress, or in other words, to exchange for promises.
It is precisely because of this negotiation basis that Xu Xuelian and Xu Wenyan had the courage to provoke and swallow their anger in the face of this wave of "public opinion".
Both sides fought against each other, but both controlled the intensity of the struggle, and no one wanted to really "go out of line."
Therefore, they all thought that the white-faced police officer in front of them was just speaking angry, harsh and empty words.
Only Hou Renmeng and Shen Juan, who knew Zhao Duan's identity, felt a chill in their hearts. They looked at each other and saw each other's fear.
They knew very well that their master was not a coward who would make empty threats, and that he might really do something like sinking the diplomatic mission into the river.
Thinking of this, the two couldn't help but worry for Xu Wenyan and Xu Xuelian.
"Let's go."
Zhao Duan waved his hand, asked his subordinates to go back, and walked alone in the silent capital.
Today is the first time the delegation has come to the palace. According to the rules, they will not negotiate directly, but will first stay and then start the negotiation process at the Honglu Temple.
Therefore, if Zhao Duan wanted to get a feel for the situation, he had to wait until the delegation had finished their meeting with the emperor.
…
Not long.
Zhao Duan arrived outside the Tianshi Mansion and knocked on the gate.
——
ps: This chapter uses the beginning of Xia Jian Ke, haha
(End of this chapter)
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