Chapter 91 Arrest on a Snowy Night [Jinjiang Authentic Edition Exclusive Release·We Are Good Citizens…
At the same time, inside the Qinxue Palace, the night was deep and snowflakes were falling.
A tall, bookish middle-aged man walked to the door of the side hall with light steps. Just as he was about to go in to take up night duty, he clearly heard the sobbing cry of a child coming from inside the house through the heavy wooden door.
He was very familiar with that childish crying voice. It was from the Eighteenth Prince Hu Hai, the most troublesome young man among all the princes and princesses in the palace.
He paused slightly in his forward steps, and with a gentle face, he asked the eunuch guarding the palace gate with a curious smile:
"Excuse me, sir. It's already past curfew. Why is the Eighteenth Young Master still studying so hard in the Diligent Learning Palace instead of returning to the Green Bamboo Palace to rest?"
The black-robed eunuchs standing on either side of the palace gate noticed the official robes the man was wearing, and leaned forward slightly. They replied in a cold and indifferent voice:
"Zhi Dian Lang, you may not know that today, after His Majesty returned to the palace, he sent someone to take the Eighteenth Young Master to the Qinxue Palace and ordered his teacher to teach him the royal precepts of successive Qin kings. He also stipulated that only when the Eighteenth Young Master could recite the royal precepts by heart would the master and disciple be allowed to leave the Qinxue Palace."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Huai couldn't help but show surprise in his eyes. He said goodbye to the eunuch guarding the gate with a smile, and returned to the room where he usually edited books. He knelt quietly on the seat, and began to look at the neatly stacked bamboo slips on the desk, frowning and thinking.
In the past, although he had not taught the princes and princesses in the Palace of Diligent Learning, he had listened to the private complaints of the doctors.
Among the eighteen princes, ten princesses and one grandson in the palace, the most intelligent and the easiest to teach is the eldest grandson who understands things quickly. The eighteenth prince is not only the dumbest child in the royal family, but also the laziest one!
You have to know that His Majesty the Emperor has over thirty "Kings of Qin" above him! The bamboo slips containing the teachings of past kings in the palace are piled high and fill up an entire spacious room!
It would take an adult nearly half a month to finish reading all these "Royal Instructions". But at this moment, the most noble man in the world actually asked his little son, who was not even six years old, to recite the contents of a room full of bamboo slips by heart before he could leave the Qinxue Palace.
hiss--
Isn't this a disguised way of imprisoning Prince Hu Hai?
Zhang Huai suddenly felt a strong sense of strangeness in his heart, mixed with a faint sense of unease.
He knew that the man had taken his grandson out of the palace today.
In the past, every time the grandfather and grandson returned to the royal city, the man living in Zhangtai Palace would be very happy.
Why did the man torture his youngest son in disguise after returning from outside the palace today?
What exactly happened in the meantime?
The more Zhang Huai pondered, the more uneasy he felt. It was almost as if his intuition was urging him to stand up from his seat, hurried out of the book repair room, and found a young eunuch who often delivered books to the former court. He whispered to him, "What are you doing?"
"Excuse me, sir, why do I feel that the palace seems much quieter tonight than usual?"
Seeing that it was a familiar face, the young eunuch was not on guard and replied quietly:
"Hasn't Zhang Zhidian heard about it?"
"What did you hear?"
Zhang Huai pretended to be surprised.
The young eunuch immediately made a dangerous gesture of touching his neck and whispered in an imperceptible voice:
"Zhang Zhidian, I heard that His Majesty and His Royal Highness Zhangsun encountered an assassin in the western suburbs after leaving the palace today. His Majesty was furious and sent out nearly half of the palace soldiers to search the entire city for the thief!"
"What?"
When Zhang Huai heard this, his eyes widened in shock.
Seeing Zhang Huai's shocked expression, the young eunuch wanted to say something, but he didn't understand the situation. For the sake of their past acquaintance, he patted Zhang Huai on the shoulder and whispered to him, "What are you talking about?"
"Don't panic, Zhang Zhidian. Meng Neishi has personally apprehended the thieves. I believe the chaos in the capital will only last for one night. Everything will be peaceful once the day breaks tomorrow."
"For your own safety, please stay in the palace tonight and keep watch. Don't go home."
Zhang Huai tried hard to force out a smile of relief. After watching the young eunuch hurriedly leave, he felt a little flustered.
What's going on?
He clearly told his men not to act rashly, so why did an assassination attempt happen?
Zhang Huai took two steps forward eagerly, but then stopped with a strange expression.
What if the tyrant really encountered the assassin outside the palace? Why would he punish his youngest son after returning to the palace?
[Could it be possible that the assassin is related to the Eighteenth Young Master?]
The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Zhang Huai felt a fog rising in front of him and his thoughts were in a mess. He didn't even know what to do now.
Just as bewildered as Zhang Huai were the uncle and nephew of the Xiang family, who braved the wind and snow and fled in the dark to reach Hanyangli on the outskirts of the city.
After nightfall, in the small village on the outskirts of the city, it was pitch dark.
The uncle and nephew rode all the way here, with snowflakes on their heads and their hands and faces red from the cold. They finally got in touch with the anti-Qin people here.
Unexpectedly, the first reaction of the local anti-Qin people was not to take them back home to sleep, but to drag them to a secret meeting overnight to get acquainted with the local heroes.
Xiang Liang, cold and tired, really didn't want to run anymore. He couldn't help but reach out and pull the middle-aged Korean who wanted to take them to the secret meeting, saying, "Let's go."
"Mr. Han, Liang knows your sincerity in wanting to take us to a secret meeting, but isn't it too late tonight? To be honest with you, Mr. Han, we have been fleeing for our lives and have come to Hanyangli overnight."
Han Huo, a loyal retainer of Zhang Liang, stared at the icy uncle and nephew, their faces flushed with cold, and asked in surprise, "Mr. Xiang Liang, are you and Master Xiang Ji going to assassinate that tyrant in the western suburbs today?"
"Assassination? What assassination?"
The uncle and nephew, who had rested in the inn for a while in the afternoon and then hurriedly escaped from Xianyang City overnight, were completely stunned when they heard this.
Seeing the confused expressions of the uncle and nephew, Han Huo was also stunned, and asked in disbelief:
"Mr. Xiang Liang, you two escaped from the city. Didn't you hear that today the tyrant took his eldest grandson to the western suburbs to tour the ironworks? Unexpectedly, they encountered two assassins from Chu there! They almost injured the tyrant!"
"The tyrant is furious in the western suburbs and has dispatched a large number of soldiers to search the entire city for the assassin!"
"Damn it! How can you, a grown-up, casually accuse others?"
Xiang Ji, a young man with a straightforward personality, threw the bag in his hand heavily onto the couch beside him as soon as he heard Han Huo's explanation.
Xiang Liang's expression was also not good. The situation in the city in the afternoon was obviously that they were searching for them.
Although the uncle and nephew dreamed of running to Xianyang City and slaughtering the entire Qin imperial family with their own hands to avenge their Chu royal family and their relatives who died on the battlefield, they did nothing! Who could tolerate being thrown a basin of dirty water on their heads for no reason and being hunted throughout the city?
Seeing the uncle and nephew looking so irritated, Han Huo realized something was amiss. He frowned and said,
"Mr. Xiang Liang, weren't you the two brave men from Chu who assassinated the tyrant in the western suburbs today?"
The hot-tempered Xiang Ji immediately cursed, "Bah! I really want to kill that tyrant myself! But my uncle and I only arrived in Xianyang City yesterday. Apart from watching the tyrant's procession by the Wei River this morning, we haven't had the chance to assassinate him, let alone see his face!"
Xiang Liang also nodded with a complicated expression:
"Mr. Han, Ji is right. My uncle and I have never been close to Ying Zheng. Liang even suspects that the tyrant was not assassinated today. He deliberately spread this rumor. Firstly, he wanted to discredit us heroes who still cherish our homeland, and secondly, he wanted to find a reason to search the entire city to prevent the common people from knowing the situation and causing chaos."
"this……"
Han Huo never expected that the "Chu assassination in the western suburbs" that had been widely reported all day was most likely a false pretext deliberately thrown out by the man in the palace!
But he couldn't figure it out, so he pulled his uncle and nephew to kneel down on the straw mat, frowning in confusion and saying:
"Mr. Xiang Liang, if the facts are really as you guessed, then what happened this day becomes very strange."
"What infuriating deeds have you and Master Xiang Ji committed during your time in the city these past two days that would cause that tyrant to target you two? He's even willing to claim he was assassinated, stirring up such unrest in the city, just to capture you?"
"To be honest, when this news reached us from the city before curfew, we were happy, but also worried about the two heroes of Chu."
When Xiang Liang heard Han Huo's words, the expression on his face became extremely bitter.
He looked at the middle-aged Korean in front of him with a tired expression, and said helplessly with his hands spread out and sighed in a tone that he himself did not want to believe:
"Alas, Mr. Han, if Liang says that since we checked into the inn in Xianyang City yesterday, we have been living peacefully and doing nothing, and yet we were confusedly smeared by that tyrant with a trumped-up charge, do you believe it?"
Han Huo didn't know what to say to such a bizarre description. He could only raise his hand and scratch his head with an awkward smile. Seeing the tired and frustrated expressions on the faces of the Xiang family uncle and nephew, he stood up from the straw mat and bowed to them, saying:
"Since this is the truth, I will not stay here to disturb Mr. Xiang Liang and Master Ji. You two can rest here tonight. Tomorrow morning, I will find a way to get you out of Xianyang."
Hearing Han Huo's words, Xiang Ji, who had been riding in the wind and snow for more than an hour, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to find some hot soup to warm himself up, he saw his uncle also stand up from the straw mat and said worriedly to the middle-aged Han in front of him:
"Mr. Han, thank you for your kindness. However, the more I think about it, the more bizarre and utterly bizarre what happened today seems to me. We all know how deep that tyrant's character is and how ruthless his methods are. He sent his soldiers to search for us uncle and nephew with such great effort today. If he can't catch us, he will definitely not give up. Liang would like to ask you, is there any way to drive us uncle and nephew out of Xianyang tonight?"
Han Huo shook his head in embarrassment upon hearing this.
"Mr. Xiang Liang, you may not know that the customs in Qin and Chu are quite different. Xianyang City has a very strict curfew. This small town on the outskirts of the city is completely dark, with few patrols at night. If you two want to escape Xianyang tonight, you can only take the official road. However, at this time, if you appear on the official road without official documents issued by the government, you will be arrested by the soldiers!"
"If the soldiers in the city really came to arrest you during the day, in my opinion, it would be safer for you to stay here tonight."
"Don't worry, even if those black-clad soldiers turned Xianyang upside down tonight, they wouldn't be able to find you two."
Seeing Han Huo's confident and resolute tone, Xiang Liang couldn't help but ask tentatively:
"I wonder what Mr. Han relies on?"
Han Huo pointed at the roof and said with a proud smile:
"Mr. Liang, you can sleep here peacefully. Our head of the family is working in the palace. Although he hasn't been able to work for the tyrant yet, he has made many connections and can hear a lot of the latest news from the palace."
"Our master hasn't sent us any warnings in the past two days, which means nothing's happened in the palace. Hahahaha, come to think of it, that tyrant is incredibly unlucky, constantly being assassinated by warriors from all over the land. Furious, he's launched a massive manhunt in the city, but aside from Jing Ke back then and Gao Jianli later, what assassin have his idiots managed to capture?"
"Oh--"
Han Huo couldn't help laughing as he spoke. He covered his mouth and yawned, then bowed to the uncle and nephew, opened the door, and walked out.
After hearing Han Huo's words of comfort, the uncle and nephew looked at each other.
Xiang Ji also laughed drowsily:
"Father Ji, I think what Mr. Han said makes sense. The tyrant has been sending soldiers to hunt assassins all day long, but he hasn't caught a single hero. It's snowing heavily outside now, and we're both in an unfamiliar place. We've finally found a place to stay. Why don't we get some rest and sleep to get enough rest? We can find a way to escape Xianyang tomorrow."
"Hmph! Even if that tyrant has a lot of soldiers under his command, I don't believe that if we just hide in some forest outside the city, those pursuing soldiers can still catch us."
After hearing what his nephew said, Xiang Liang didn't say anything more even though he was still full of concerns.
The uncle and nephew did not bother Han Huo. They went to the kitchen to find some hot water, ate some cold pancakes in their bags to fill their empty stomachs, and then quickly washed their hands and faces with a handkerchief. They went into the house in the dark, lay down on the earthen couch with their clothes on, and closed their eyes.
Separated by an adobe wall.
In the dead of night, a loud "bang" sound of kicking the door suddenly rang in the ears of the uncle and nephew like a thunder.
The uncle and nephew, who had not slept for long, sat up from the couch in shock as if by reflex. Just as they touched the sword beside the bed, they saw that the door was kicked open with a "bang" from the outside.
The next moment, a team of Qin soldiers in black armor rushed in. Without saying a word, they put torches next to their couch to shine a light. Then, they pressed the uncle and nephew by the shoulders and tied them up with cowhide ropes.
The uncle and nephew were horrified and struggled desperately, saying, "What are you doing? We are good citizens!!"
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