The officials escorted by the men in black all looked as pale as death, with the Duke of Anguo at the forefront. They felt that their good days were coming to an end.

Not to mention the fact that they abused women in the capital, just the fact that these officials did not obey the emperor but instead colluded with the princes, if this hat is not put on them, it would be a light punishment if their entire clan is not exterminated.

Don't they understand at this point? These people must be the emperor's men, otherwise, who would dare to arrest them privately?

However, although they were not very familiar with the Jinyiwei around the emperor, at least they were familiar with them. But this group of people were obviously strangers.

Suppressing the confusion in their hearts, perhaps, the officials at this time did not dare to think at all, this group of black-clad men, are they the Royal Guards or something else? In short, it is definitely not a good thing for them to fall into the hands of this group of black-clad men.

With such an uneasy mood, the twelve officials walked in the darkness.

Today was really a double whammy. They had been hiding very well, but they were summoned out because of a small private seal of Prince Rui. They hadn't done anything yet, but they were caught. The twelve officials were angry, but who could they blame? Of course, they could only blame Prince Rui.

They don't care whether this private message was sent by Prince Rui or someone sent it using Prince Rui's private seal. In short, it is related to Prince Rui.

The prince's private seal, such an important thing, was actually ruined by Prince Rui. It's really... People are really disappointed with each other. Why did they get on Prince Rui's pirate ship in the first place?

Is it too late to regret now?

As a result, the twelve officials who should have been loyal to Prince Rui began to blame each other. However, at this time, complaining could not change anything.

The twelve officials walked with their heads down. They were trapped in the middle, with men in black guarding them from all sides. In fact, even if these men in black were not guarding them too closely, the twelve officials could not escape because they could not defeat this group of well-trained secret guards.

In this way, the black man escorted the twelve officials towards the city gate.

At this moment, the city gate was closed, but today the city gate was extremely lively. However, just after entering the city gate, a group of soldiers, holding weapons, rushed towards a group of men in black.

It was dark at night, and even the twelve officials could not see the face of the visitor clearly, but they could clearly identify from the visitor's clothes who was the emperor's Jinyi Guard.

The twelve officials said they were saved.

However, this excitement did not last for a second, as they discovered a fact that made them even more crazy.

If the emperor's guards found out that they had left the palace at night, would the emperor still not suspect them? Even if the emperor did not suspect them on the surface, could he not send someone to investigate them behind the scenes?

Thinking of this, the twelve officials all looked ashen. Their excitement just now was instantly drowned by despair. As expected, they did not check the almanac before going out today. It was really unlucky.

The Royal Guards fought with the men in black. These two people were equally matched in strength, but was this a fight?

Although the twelve officials said they didn't know much about martial arts, they couldn't help but frown when they saw their somewhat perfunctory way of fighting.

Are they just playing house? What kind of fight is it if there is no blood? Are the Royal Guards really here to save them?

The twelve officials expressed their doubts. They felt as if they were being tricked.

However, they no longer had any choice at this point. If they followed the men in black, they would die. If they followed the Imperial Guards, they would also die. The only difference was that if they followed the men in black, they would die at the hands of strangers. If they followed the Imperial Guards, they would die at the hands of the emperor.

What's more, why do these two groups of people look like they are in the same group? They have been fighting for such a long time, but not many people have fallen down. They just suffered minor injuries. Do you guys sympathize with each other?

The fight was over in less than half an hour. The final result was of course that the Imperial Guard had a slight victory. The men in black escaped with the wounded. The Imperial Guard took one look at the twelve imprisoned officials and gave them a cold look.

The leader stepped forward and spoke quite nicely.

"Sir, the Imperial Guards are late. We are sorry to have frightened you all. However, several of you were kidnapped by the men in black. I'm sure you were frightened. The Imperial Guards are here to bring you all into the palace on the orders of the Emperor. Please come in."

On the surface, they were "invited" into the palace, but at this point, would the Imperial Guards still believe that these twelve officials who left the palace in the middle of the night were innocent? Of course not, otherwise they would not have been "invited" into the palace.

Moreover, the Imperial Guards have just made it very clear that they are following the emperor's orders.

The twelve officials hung their heads in despair, praying silently in their hearts, perhaps it was not that bad. After all, their emperor had always been "merciful".

However, the officials forgot that no matter how kind he was, he was still the emperor. He held the center of power in this country, which meant that he was destined not to be kind to everyone, especially those who betrayed him.

Besides, who would believe in the kindness of an emperor?

If they said that there were kind people among the princes and descendants of the dragon, they would still believe it. However, kind people either do nothing or rest in peace.

However, unknown to the twelve officials, the black-clad men who had retreated on the surface were secretly connecting with the Imperial Guards. The leader of the Imperial Guards clasped his fists towards the black-clad men.

"We will remember this kindness."

The man in black didn't say anything, but responded with a punch at the leader of the Jinyiwei. Yes, this group of men in black were the secret guards of Prince Jing's mansion, and the leader was Wu, Prince Jing's most loyal secret guard.

Although the Emperor did send the Imperial Guard to investigate the case of selling women and weapons, the information they had was very limited, unlike the Prince Jing's Mansion, which had already been secretly investigating this group of people for several months. But the people in the Prince Jing's Mansion did not dare to take credit for this.

This was because, no matter what Prince Jing's mood was, a thorough investigation of the matter would cause the emperor's dissatisfaction. It would be a humiliation for the emperor to admit that his Jinyi Guards were not as capable as the secret guards of Prince Jing's mansion.

What's more, although their emperor has always been kind and benevolent, he is also sensitive and suspicious. Prince Jing's private investigation of weapons may sound good for the country, but to put it bluntly, it is overstepping the line.

No ruler likes someone who crosses the line, even if that person is the emperor's most beloved son.

Therefore, the secret guards of Prince Jing's Mansion had no choice but to give up the credit. But even if they gave it up, they couldn't give it up for nothing. At least they had to let the Jinyi Guards owe them a favor. If they owed them a favor now, they could take it back in the future, right?

The secret guards looked at the backs of the Jinyiwei as they left, and they had to admire their own prince, who really never did useless work. They had cooperated with the Jinyiwei in this way many times, and in the future, perhaps, there would be deeper cooperation.

Of course, this is a story for the future, but with such a master around, the secret guards can indeed save worry and effort, and they can perform their missions with great enthusiasm, because the master is strong and they only need to obey the master's orders.