The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 338 Bloodshed in Yangzhou City (Part )

Although it was still unclear where the black-clad men came from and their purpose, encountering them at such a sensitive time and in such a sensitive place, Yi Hong naturally thought that they were coming for him, so he took the initiative to attack, and the two sides then started fighting on the street.

However, the fighting power of this group of men in black was a bit ridiculously weak. Their formation was chaotic and disorganized. Seven or eight of them were killed by the Jinyiwei in one encounter. Then they scattered in a hurry, like a group of cockroaches encountering pesticides, desperately crawling into the dark alleys around them.

Yi Hong obviously did not expect the battle to be so easy. He stood there for a few seconds before reacting. Seeing that the Jinyiwei under his command were about to chase into the dark alley, he hurriedly stopped them to prevent their manpower from being too dispersed and falling into the opponent's trap.

"Sir, we caught one alive."

At this time, two Jinyiwei escorted a man in black to Yi Hong and threw him on the ground like a dead dog.

Yi Hong looked around in the light of the torch, and saw that the mask of the man in black had been torn off. He was about thirty years old, with a pale face and fear in his eyes. His whole body was shaking like a sieve. He kowtowed and begged for mercy incoherently: "Please spare my life, sir... I deserve to die, I don't want to die, please spare my life, sir!"

Yi Hong stared at the man in black with his one eye, and asked sternly, "Who are you? Who sent you?"

The man in black replied tremblingly: "My name is Hu Si'er, and I am Master Feng's second-class servant."

Yi Hong frowned and asked, "Which Master Feng?"

"It's... it's Mr. Feng, the magistrate." Hu Si'er replied in a trembling voice.

"Feng Qicai, the magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture?"

"Yes, yes, it's our master!"

Yi Hong suddenly realized that Feng Qicai was one of the officials at the prefectural level in Yangzhou Prefecture, in charge of judicial affairs. He was on the list of people Kang Lingcheng had confessed to, so he asked sternly, "So it was Feng Qicai who sent you to kill me?"

Hu Si'er shook his head in fear, "I don't know. Tonight, when it got dark, the housekeeper gathered all the servants in the mansion and gave each of them two taels of silver, a set of night clothes and a knife. He told everyone not to ask any more questions, just put on the clothes, take the knife and follow him. He said he would reward two taels of silver later. I really don't know what I came out for. My lord, please spare my life!"

Yi Hong finally understood why these men in black were so weak in combat. They were just a group of slaves put together at short notice, and they didn't even know what they were supposed to do. So he continued to interrogate them, asking, "What's your housekeeper's name? Where is he now?"

Hu Sier pointed at a corpse on the ground and said with a stammer, "Our housekeeper's name is Feng Shoufu. Look, that's him. He was killed by you, sir."

Yi Hong looked in the direction he was pointing and found that it was the unlucky guy who was stabbed to death by him at the beginning.

Yi Hong was about to interrogate them when he saw a group of men in black with torches and sticks coming out from a side street in the distance. He was startled: "Anything else?"

This group of men in black were originally going to go in another direction, but when they discovered Yi Hong and others here, they immediately turned around and rushed over with murderous intent.

Although Yi Hong was surprised, he was not afraid. The Jinyiwei under his command were the same. They probably thought that this group of black-clothed men were just like the previous group of black-clothed men they encountered, a bunch of small fry composed of slaves. So without waiting for Yi Hong's orders, they immediately rushed forward. A small leader even shouted loudly: "The commander of the Jinyiwei, Lord Yi, is here. You scoundrels, if you know what's best for you, put down your weapons and surrender immediately, otherwise...!"

——Whoosh!

Before the Jinyiwei could fully display his prestige, a cold light flashed in the crowd opposite him, and a crossbow arrow shot out and hit him in the throat. The Jinyiwei immediately covered his throat and fell down slowly with a painful expression, and hot blood flowed out from between his fingers.

Yi Hong and a group of Jinyiwei all turned pale. The other party actually had a crossbow and the accuracy was obviously not something that ordinary servants could have. Unfortunately, it was too late for Yi Hong and others to realize it!

I only saw this group of black-clad men suddenly move quickly, and in the blink of an eye they rushed forward and swung their butcher knives. Every knife was ruthless and deadly. In one encounter, they chopped down six or seven Jinyiwei. With such agile skills, such cold eyes, and such clean knife skills, how could they be just some small fish and shrimp? They were clearly a group of professional killers!

Yi Hong couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, knowing that he had hit a wall. What frightened him the most was that he didn't know how many troops the other side had, so he led a group of Jinyiwei to fight and retreat.

It turned out that this group of men in black were the death squads raised by Prince Yi Zhong's mansion, and they were also the main force attacking the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen tonight. The servants of various families led by the prefect Hong Wenxuan and others were just cannon fodder to make up the numbers. The real killers were the death squad in front of them.

This death squad was composed of about one hundred death warriors from the royal palace, who were previously secretly kept in Jinling City by the comprador eunuch Ji Jinxiao. For tonight's operation, eunuch Ji secretly transferred all these death warriors from Jinling. That was why the operation was delayed for two days, otherwise they would have taken action the day before yesterday.

Although the Jinyiwei were notorious, they were not really ranked in terms of combat power. Moreover, their Embroidered Spring Swords were light and beautiful, but actually not suitable for fighting on the battlefield. They were OK for showing off by hanging them around their waists, but they would definitely suffer a loss in real combat on the battlefield.

On the other hand, the weapons used by these death warriors were all swords that were convenient for slashing and killing on the battlefield. In addition, they were fearless and well-trained, so they killed the Jinyiwei and made them retreat step by step, in a miserable state.

"Kill Yi Hong, don't let him run away!" A voice sounded behind the enemy. Yi Hong felt vaguely familiar with it, but the situation was critical at the moment and he had no time to think about it. He just fought and retreated towards the direction of the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen.

The person hiding behind the death squad and giving orders was none other than the great-grandson of the king, Xu Wenhan. This guy was not stupid at all, nor was he as brave and bloodthirsty as Kang Dayong. The reason he came to the front line in person tonight was entirely because of his lustful desires.

As mentioned in the previous article, although Xu Wenhan had never seen Lin Daiyu in person, after making inquiries from many sources, he learned that Lin Daiyu was as beautiful as a fairy, rare in the world, and both beautiful and talented. So he became interested in her and even regarded her as something in his pocket. He ran all the way from the capital to Yangzhou, hoping to win her heart.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Xu Wenhan arrogantly went to Haimen County to propose to Lin Ruhai, but was rejected. In the end, he was beaten up in the street by Jia Huan, which made him lose both face and money.

Originally, Xu Wenhan only coveted Lin Daiyu's beauty and the Lin family's wealth, and wanted to have both beauty and wealth. But ever since he started to have an affair with Jia Huan, and there was also a conflict of pride between them, he could no longer let go.

Therefore, Xu Wenhan was willing to take action personally tonight, planning to take this opportunity to break into the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen and take her by force to get a glimpse of Lin Daiyu's beauty. If she was really as beautiful as the legend said, he would abduct her and keep her in his private room for his enjoyment. If she was just an ordinary girl, he would kill her with a single blow.

Let's get back to the topic. Yi Hong and others were fighting on the streets, but Jia Huan was still sleeping at his desk in the small courtyard where Lin Daiyu lived. He was wearing the thin quilt that Sister Lin usually used, and he was sleeping soundly with a faint fragrance.

Lin Daiyu asked Xueyan to light some wormwood to repel mosquitoes, and she also held a round fan and carefully drove away the flying insects that followed the light, for fear that these insects would disturb Jia Huan's sleep.

Xueyan couldn't help but smile when she saw this. At this moment, Ping'er and Xiao Yuanyuan came back with food boxes. They were stunned when they saw this scene.

Xueyan came forward and took the food box from Ping'er, laughing softly, "The Third Master asked our young lady to play the piano, but she fell asleep before she even finished a song. It's all thanks to him. If it was someone else, wouldn't the young lady be upset?"

Ping Erh was amused and distressed when she heard this. It was obvious that the young lady was really exhausted, so she walked over quietly and said softly, "How can you let Miss Lin do the work of a servant? Let me do it. You can take a rest."

Lin Daiyu's pretty face was slightly embarrassed. Although her heart was completely on Jia Huan, she was afraid that others would see it, so she quickly handed the round fan to Ping'er. The latter took it and waved it for a while, and then Xiao Yuanyuan snatched it away again, smiling sweetly, "Sister Ping'er, let Yuanyuan come, you are tired from cooking just now."

Ping'er could not persuade her, so she had to let her go. She only smiled bitterly at Lin Daiyu and said, "Our gentleman was just complaining about being hungry, but now he has fallen asleep again. If I wake him up, I'm afraid he will be too tired. If I don't wake him up, I'm afraid he will be too hungry. It's really frustrating."

Lin Daiyu said, "Let him rest for a while. He just ate an apple and a bunch of grapes. I'm afraid he won't be hungry for a while."

Qiao Ping'er felt relieved after hearing this, and looked at the sleeping Jia Huan with loving eyes. She hadn't seen him for more than two months, so she naturally missed him very much, but she couldn't show it in public.

At this moment, there was a sudden "zizzle" sound from the distance. All the girls looked up subconsciously, and saw a firework exploding in the air, which was extremely gorgeous and beautiful.

Xueyan exclaimed softly, "Tonight is neither New Year's Eve nor the Lantern Festival, but someone is setting off fireworks. How strange."

Lin Daiyu was a straightforward person, so she continued, "There's nothing strange about that. If you want to release them, just do it. It's just for fun. As long as the government doesn't stop it, it's fine to release a whole cart of them."

At this time, a maid came in hurriedly and said, "Miss, Butler Xiao is outside the yard looking for Master Huan San, and he seems to be in a hurry."

Lin Daiyu said softly, "Brother Huan just fell asleep. No matter what urgent matter he has, just wait until he wakes up."

The old woman had no choice but to leave, but came back after a moment and said, "It's no use. Butler Xiao said it was extremely urgent and asked Master Huan San to go out."

Lin Daiyu and Ping'er looked at each other helplessly and were about to wake Jia Huan up, but the latter seemed to have sensed something and woke up. He yawned and asked sleepily, "Sister Lin, have you finished playing?"

Xueyan couldn't help laughing and said, "Third Master, you still have the nerve to ask. Our girl only played half of the song and you fell asleep. How infuriating!"

Jia Huan smiled and said, "This proves that Sister Lin has improved again. She hypnotized me with just half a song."

Lin Daiyu hurriedly said, "Brother Huan, stop talking nonsense for now and go quickly. Housekeeper Xiao is looking for you outside and says it's urgent."

When Jia Huan heard this, his heart moved and he quickly stood up and walked out.

　Sorry, there is only one update today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)