The Beacon of Kyushu

In the afternoon, around the time of Shen.

Zhao Tingmei was sober now, and walked out of the room with his hands behind his back, strolling leisurely in Kaifeng Prefecture. His pace was slow, and he hummed the tune he learned when he was young, with a smile on his face. It was a rare day when the government office was not busy, and the sun was so gentle above his head, so how could he be in a bad mood?

But he had only taken a few steps when Lu Duan came towards him and said, "Your Majesty, you were drunk just now, and I was afraid of disturbing your rest, so I didn't report an important matter in time. Now that you are awake, I have to disturb your leisure and report this matter!"

Lu Duan has always been a straightforward person. He has never been so long-winded before. Zhao Tingmei saw this and knew that something big must have happened. An ominous premonition immediately came to his mind. "Yi Zhi, what happened? Could it be the golden mace..."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lu Duan's tone was filled with anxiety, but his face remained calm and composed. "Two hours ago, the Eighth Prince sent a servant to Kaifeng Prefecture to report that his imperial golden mace had disappeared. What do you think we should do about this matter?"

Zhao Tingmei was startled and asked hurriedly, "Did the servant say anything else besides reporting this?"

Lu Duan shook his head and said, "I didn't say anything else."

"That's good. It seems he doesn't suspect me. Otherwise, this matter would be even more troublesome." Zhao Tingmei thought for a moment and said, "Well, you go and gather a hundred detectives. I will personally lead the team to search for the golden mace. Otherwise, not only will they give people a reason to criticize me, but I might even lose my life!"

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away." After saying that, Lu Duan clasped his fists and ran as fast as he could to the room where the detectives were resting. However, he was tall and fat, and when he ran, he looked like a clumsy elephant, which was quite funny.

Zhao Tingmei believed that Lü Duan would not let him down in summoning the constables, so he walked slowly, and it took him a quarter of an hour to walk even though his residence was only half a mile from the gate. When he left the gate of Kaifeng Prefecture, Lü Duan had already gathered the constables in front of the gate and prepared a sedan chair for Zhao Tingmei, waiting for him to arrive and set off to investigate the case.

Seeing that Lu Duan really didn't disappoint him, Zhao Tingmei smiled and gave a thumbs-up, "Yi Zhi, even though you look fat and generous, you are really fast! Now that everything is ready, follow me and go find the golden mace together."

After he finished speaking, he boarded a specially made sedan chair with eight men. Because of his heavy weight, the sedan chair suddenly sank down, and the sedan poles made a series of muffled "creaking" sounds, and it gradually returned to normal after a while. The accompanying constables saw that the prefect and the judge were both so fat, and everyone laughed in their hearts, but there was still no expression on their faces, as if they were born with a stern face.

Although the number of people brought by Kaifeng Prefecture on this mission was not too large, with the aggressive constables in front and the extremely prominent prince behind, which common people would dare not give way to them? Therefore, after the team left the palace gate and moved forward along Junyi Street, not only did no one dare to stop them along the way, but no one even dared to look at them.

Soon, the team left Junyi Street and turned right to Liangmen Street. Although Liangmen Street was the imperial street, the people on the imperial street were still ordinary people after all. Who dared to offend the prince? They would run away faster than a rabbit avoiding a hunter in the forest.

The team moved forward for a while, and suddenly stopped. Zhao Tingmei, who was in the sedan chair and didn't know what was going on, almost fell out of the sedan chair. Although Zhao Tingmei had always had a good temper, he was a little angry at this moment. He lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and said to Lu Duan beside the sedan chair: "Yi Zhi, what's going on in front? Why did the team suddenly stop?" Lu Duan looked forward to see what happened in front, but his sight was completely blocked by the backs of the constables, and he could not see anything. He had to pat the shoulder of the nearest constable and asked: "Hey, what's going on in front? Is there someone stopping the sedan chair to cry out for justice?"

The constable was very tall, more than half a head taller than Lü Duan, and could barely see what was happening at the front of the team. "Sir, the road ahead is blocked by a longer and more impressive team, and they refuse to give way no matter what they say."

Lü Duan was a little surprised and thought to himself, "I have been in Kaifeng Prefecture for a while, and I have never seen anyone dare to block the way of the Kaifeng Prefecture officials. What's more, the King of Wei is leading the team today. Is the other party tired of living?"

As he was hesitating, he suddenly heard a quarrel at the front of the team, so loud that it sounded like thunder in the sky. He heard the first person on the other side shouting: "What's so great about the King of Wei! We are here to investigate the case under the secret order of the emperor. No matter what king he is, he can't be greater than the emperor!"

The yamen runners from Kaifeng Prefecture shouted, "No matter how powerful the government is, when it comes to arresting people and handling cases, we still have to rely on Kaifeng Prefecture. If you don't give way and affect our handling of the case, the government will blame you and punish you first!"

The other side was not convinced and said: "Kaifeng Prefecture, what a jerk! If the emperor trusted you Kaifeng Prefecture so much, would he have left you detectives alone and personally issued a secret order to send us imperial guards to investigate the case? I advise you to be sensible and get out of our way quickly, otherwise we will go to court together!"

The bailiffs of Kaifeng Prefecture sneered and said, "Haha, the Imperial Guards investigating a case is really unheard of. I think you are just using the tiger's skin as a banner. Your constant talk of investigating the case is fake, and your real intention is to show off your power in front of us by using the name of the government!"

The imperial guards said with extreme contempt: "You are just small yamen runners, yet you dare to act wildly in front of the army? You are really tired of living! Our lords act according to the secret order. Since you have angered us today, it is within our discretion to kill all of you on the Imperial Street!"

The bailiffs shook their heads and said, "You soldiers are so unreasonable! We just refused to give way to you. What law have we violated? Why are you killing us? Besides, we are the prefects of Kaifeng and we are brothers from the same mother. Even if you have a secret order, you can't kill the prince of the country without authorization!"

A middle-aged man from the imperial guards said sarcastically, "You are bluffing so hard, probably because you want to make the emperor cry thief and pin all the blame on him. I admire your prince so much, he is so painstaking in order to throw dirty water on his own countrymen, there is no one like him in the world!"

Zhao Tingmei listened for a long time and initially felt that he had gone too far. He was about to order the troops to turn around and search the Bianhe Street first. But when he heard that the imperial guards dared to frame him and say such rebellious words, he was so angry that he lifted the curtain of the sedan chair, got off the sedan chair, and walked to the front of the team in two steps.

He thought the leader of this group of imperial guards was Gao Huaide, the deputy inspector of the palace, and wondered when Gao Huaide became so arrogant and unreasonable. But when he came to the opposite side and saw that the two middle-aged men who led the team were unfamiliar to him, he became even more angry.

Zhao Tingmei pointed to a middle-aged man on the left who had an elegant appearance but fierce eyes, and shouted: "If I am not mistaken, you should be the Imperial Envoy Chai Yuxi! You are a small Imperial Envoy, with an official rank of only eighth rank, and you dare to speak wildly and ask your men to kill me. You are so bold! I am right in front of you now, if you have the guts, draw your sword and kill me!" (End of this chapter)