Although the battlefield was on the street, the area where the battle was taking place was flanked by the high walls of wealthy families, forming a narrow alleyway.
Since ancient times, street fighting has been the most difficult and brutal form of warfare.
In such a small area, the two sides were locked in a fierce battle with no way out but to keep killing each other until the enemy was wiped out.
However, as one batch falls, another batch comes in; then another batch falls, and yet another batch comes in.
They're all foxes from the same mountain. The First Prince and the Fifth Prince can figure out the Third Prince and Emperor Qingyuan's people, and similarly, the Third Prince's faction can also figure out the First Prince and the Fifth Prince's trump cards pretty accurately.
So, when the fighting started, it was like playing cards, one person played a card, and the other played a card. The first batch of Imperial Guards and Imperial Soldiers fought against the soldiers of the First Prince and the Third Prince until the very end. The Imperial Guards and Imperial Guards, with only forty or fifty men left, won a miserable victory against the rebels, barely managing to save Emperor Qingyuan and the Crown Prince.
The streets were piled high with corpses, making it impossible for carriages to pass. Forty or fifty people escorted Emperor Qingyuan and the Crown Prince as they strode forward.
The hidden Divine Eagle Guards, taking advantage of their long shooting range, followed at a distance.
As the group walked out of Yongxing Street, a large, dark mass of Chu family soldiers awaited them at the corner, but unfortunately, the Fifth Prince was nowhere to be seen.
The Divine Eagle Guards patrolling the courtyard wall were on tenterhooks, their leader, Daozidao, said...
"Should we fire or not?"
Is it the blade now?
Fat Cat and the others weren't sure either, but seeing that they were still some distance away, they decided to wait a bit longer, since their thing was fast anyway.
Sure enough, at that moment, all the gates on both sides of Emperor Qingyuan's residence opened, and several large groups of people came out.
It was the Third Prince who brought up the elite troops of the Pei family army, which had been borrowed from Pei Jie. All the Divine Eagle Guards immediately felt reassured.
Sure enough, this wasn't the blade.
After the Pei family army emerged, a man with a commanding presence stepped out from the ranks to pay his respects to Emperor Qingyuan and the Crown Prince.
"Greetings, Your Majesty, Your Highness the Crown Prince. Pei Ji has come with the Pei family army to protect you. Please rest in the courtyard for a moment, Your Majesty and Your Highness, before I command my troops to fight the enemy."
Without further ado, Emperor Qingyuan and his entourage were escorted directly to the residence where Pei Ji and his group were hiding.
And Pei Ji and his group
Without any further words, the two sides instantly clashed.
Outside, the sounds of fighting were deafening. Emperor Qingyuan and his men had just emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and their bodies were covered in a strong stench of blood.
Hearing the sounds of swords clashing outside, Emperor Qingyuan lifted his robes and sat upright on a chair in the courtyard. He took a sip of the hot tea brought by a servant and calmly said...
"Pei Ji, what a nice name!"
"Aren't the Pei family supposed to be in the north? When did they arrive in the capital?"
The crown prince hurriedly knelt down to beg for forgiveness.
"Father, please forgive me. It was because I noticed that my elder brother and the fifth prince were frequently transferring manpower that I took the liberty of borrowing 10,000 men from Pei Jie, just in case."
Your Majesty, I have no intention of disloyalty whatsoever. I beg you to investigate thoroughly.
Since things had come to this point, there was no need for further embellishment, so the Crown Prince spoke directly.
Emperor Qingyuan laughed sadly, and put down his teacup.
"If they don't make a move tonight, what are you going to do?"
"Then everyone back to your positions, just like before, nothing happened tonight."
"If the eldest and fifth brothers lose, what do you think is the appropriate way to deal with them?"
The Crown Prince hesitated for a moment and said
"The eldest brother is ambitious and easily seeks quick success, while the fifth brother is reckless and lacks a sense of national duty. If the country is handed over to them, it will be in danger of national subjugation."
"He is unworthy of his position, yet harbors great ambitions; he is a great calamity for our Great Qi."
"so what?"
The Crown Prince looked at Emperor Qingyuan with cold eyes and a hint of anger on his face. His heart pounded, but he still spoke firmly.
"He should be killed to prevent future troubles!"
As soon as the prince finished speaking, the guards around him were so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe, and the air seemed to stand still.
Emperor Qingyuan stared at the Crown Prince intently for a long time, so long that the Crown Prince was almost about to kneel and beg for forgiveness, before finally saying a word.
"I did not choose the wrong person."
A ruler must avoid being overly compassionate, like a woman.
With this empire in your hands, I am at ease!
After Emperor Qingyuan finished speaking, he closed his eyes and sat down.
The crown prince wanted to explain, but his lips moved and he ultimately did not speak.
What can I say? This is what it's like to be born into royalty—there's no family, no friendship, no love.
All emotions and everything done are for one purpose: the long-term stability and prosperity of the Great Qi.
For royalty, especially the monarch, all their feelings, preferences, and even freedom must give way to it.
The eldest and fifth princes are plotting a rebellion and are ambitious. For the sake of the stability of the Great Qi, they must die.
He knew that Emperor Qingyuan might be reluctant to part with them, especially the fifth prince, who had always been his favorite. But this time, no one could save them!
Just as Emperor Qingyuan and his entourage fell silent, a group of masked assassins in black suddenly appeared. There were about two or three hundred of them. Judging from their ability to leap high and low, they were clearly skilled in light-footed martial arts and well-trained. Every move they made was deadly. They must have been suicide soldiers.
In a single encounter, half of the forty or fifty men guarding Emperor Qingyuan fell to the ground.
The fat cat was so anxious that it straightened its legs.
"A knife! This counts as a blade, right? We can't be too late and the Emperor and the Crown Prince are both dead, then we're finished!"
Daozi's palms were sweating with anxiety, but remembering Xie Yushu's instructions not to draw his gun until the very last moment, he said fiercely...
"Let's take another look!"
Sure enough, the next moment, Emperor Qingyuan made a gesture, and hundreds of guards in blue outfits suddenly appeared from the rooftops, trees, and houses behind him, leaping into the air and engaging in fierce combat with the men in black.
"Tianji Guard!"
Thankfully, it didn't move!
The fat cat couldn't help but whisper.
However, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the faint clatter of hooves and the clanging of footsteps behind them.
Daozi gestured to Long-Legged, who immediately jumped onto a tree, looked in the direction of the sound, and quickly used his light-footed skill to run over.
"A group of men came over; judging by their clothes, they looked like the Imperial Guards."
However, there were many people dressed in ordinary people's clothes inside, so it's hard to say for sure who they were from.
"Wearing ordinary people's clothes?"
bandit?
The eldest prince's cousin, a captain in the Imperial Guard, damn it! This time it's a knife's edge!
"Get up there and get to work!"
Anyway, after saying that, the Divine Eagle Guards all drew their guns and moved closer, completely distancing themselves from Emperor Qingyuan.
This team is probably their last card, especially since even the Tianji Guard has come out.
This group was the one that would ultimately decide the outcome, but unfortunately, despite all their calculations, the First Prince and the Fifth Prince did not anticipate that the Divine Eagle Guard would appear here.
In fact, only a few people, such as Han Zhongyu and Empress Dowager Pei Jie, knew that Xuanyuan Che had given the Divine Eagle Guard to Xie Yushu. No one deliberately spread the news, and the Divine Eagle Guard had never appeared in the capital. Xuanyuan Che was dead, and the Divine Eagle Guard had almost been forgotten.
Little did they know, the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
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