Red Mansion Huacai

Chapter 410: Murder and Arson Night
Tanchun did not mention her hurried return to Rongguo Mansion, but said that Li Weijian came quickly ahead, found the Ding brothers, and asked them to deliver letters to their relatives and friends, asking them to go to the Bo Mansion as soon as possible to avoid the war if they were not prepared.

The two brothers left after receiving the order, and sent people to report back from time to time.

A servant turned around first and reported, "Master, Madam Yan and the second young master went to Xiangshan yesterday to escape the summer heat."

Then another servant replied: "Mr. Xue has received the news and is now packing his things and rushing to the Bo's mansion."

After a while, Wu Haiping in front replied: "Master, everyone from the Zhongjing Marquis's Mansion has arrived."

Li Weijian hurried out to greet them, but saw the wife of the Marquis of Zhongjing, holding her daughter and carrying her child, with a panicked look on her face. Xiangyun was hiding behind them, half of her body hidden behind Yuanyang, and was secretly looking at him.

When the wife of Marquis Zhongjing saw Li Weijian, she said, "Fusheng, how did the war break out? Before the Marquis left, he only told us to guard the gates and didn't leave any other instructions."

Li Weijian said, "Aunt, you don't know that the prince is letting his soldiers cause chaos in order to seize the treasure. Now is not the time to talk. There is a secret passage in my house. Aunt, you should take a rest first. If anything goes wrong, quickly enter the secret passage and hide."

The wife of the Marquis Zhongjing agreed repeatedly, and then followed Qianxue into the inner room. Xiangyun, however, was straightforward, and seeing that she could not avoid it, she simply stepped forward and bowed, "Fourth Brother Jian."

"Sister Yun."

The two looked at each other, and Xiangyun's dark eyes immediately looked away, her face flushed with shame.

Li Weijian accompanied them inside, and halfway there he saw Sister Feng coming to greet them. He simply handed the family of Marquis Zhongjing over to Sister Feng, and Li Weijian turned around and went to the front to listen to Xin'er.

At this time, there was already chaos in the inner city. Many dignitaries, elderly and children, rode in carriages to the nearest city gate. However, the imperial guards had already closed the city gates, so the gates blocked the street. No matter how much they cursed, the imperial guards just refused to open the city gates.

After a while, the Ding brothers returned, and Ding Rusong said, "Master, I heard clearly that the rioters were from Jianwei Town, and the leader was Gu Chunlin, the Left Commander of Jianwei Town. The defense of the outer city was lax, and the Jianwei Town rebels sneaked into the city and seized the Zuo'an Gate during the chaos. Now a large number of rebels are pouring into the city, and I'm afraid they will attack the inner city soon."

Li Weijian muttered, "Jianwei Town? Isn't this the old background of Lord Daishan? Could it be that Gu Chunlin is also a personal soldier of the Jia family?"

The Ding brothers all shook their heads and said, "I don't know about this matter."

Li Weijian waved his hand and ordered the two brothers to look for him again. As soon as the two left, Xue Ke took a carriage and brought Tongxi to the door.

Meanwhile, Tanchun had already found Jia Zheng and tried to persuade him, but Jia Zheng was adamant about not going to the Bo's mansion to hide. He said, "For generations, our Jia family has not dared to commit crimes... Besides, my father has frequent dealings with Changle Palace, so even if there is a war, it will not affect our family."

Tanchun said, "Sister Feng just said that the thief specifically mentioned our names and wanted to come to our house to seek revenge."

Jia Zheng said disapprovingly, "With high walls and deep courtyards, what can a few thieves do if they take advantage of the chaos?"

Tanchun was about to say something else when she heard someone outside say, "Second uncle is right. Third sister, don't worry."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jia Lian came in excitedly. He bowed to Jia Zheng and then said proudly, "If the prince succeeds in his rebellion, our family will be rewarded in the future. Even if things go wrong, my second uncle and I are just mediating and not involved. I think the saint will not blame us for the sake of the queen. Such a sure win is great for our Jia family!"

Jia Zheng looked worried and sighed, "The prince is not even twenty yet, why rush into it?"

Jia Lian was resentful in his heart, but he could not say much, so he could only say to Tanchun: "If you are worried, Third Sister, wait until the prince's troops enter the inner city, and I will call a team to come to our house to protect us. I think with the soldiers here, those thieves will not dare to attack our house."

Tanchun hesitated to speak, thinking to herself, how could this matter be as simple as Second Brother Lian thought? If he succeeded, it would be fine, but if he failed, what if the queen was just a concubine? If the dispute over the throne involved, both father and son would be desperate, so why bother with just a concubine?
Tanchun sighed and said, "In that case, I will go and report to Fourth Brother Jian first."

When Tanchun came out of Mengpozhai, she could hear the sound of gunfire and the panic shouting of the people around her. Tanchun frowned and entered the Grand View Garden. She saw Xichun coming to greet her with her maids.

When the two sisters met, Xichun asked, "Third sister, there are guns and cannons outside. I heard from the maid that there was a war. What is it?"

Tanchun briefly told Xichun about it, and then the two sisters went into Huifang Garden and found Li Weijian to tell him what Jia Lian and Jia Zheng had said.

After saying this, seeing Li Weijian frowning slightly, Tanchun asked, "Brother Jian, is this not a proper way to deal with it?"

Li Weijian smiled and said, "Third sister is smart, I don't think she needs my teaching. It's dangerous inside... I'm afraid it's a life-or-death situation."

Tanchun sighed and said with a wry smile, "Brother Lian has caused such a disaster. What can we do? I don't want to think about anything else now. Let's get through the war first."

Tanchun led Xichun to stand up, bowed, and then took her leave.

"Third sister."

Li Weijian called out to her, and Tanchun turned around and saw Li Weijian coming towards her. He pulled out the revolver from his waist, grabbed Tanchun's hand and put the revolver into her hand.

Tanchun looked down, then raised her eyes and briefly exchanged glances with Li Weijian, and then heard Li Weijian say, "War is a dangerous time. If something really happens to the Rong Mansion, I'm afraid I won't be able to rescue them in time. Keep this revolver for self-defense, Third Sister."

"Yes." Tanchun agreed, bowed, and then led Xichun out.

The two sisters walked in silence, Xichun glanced at Tanchun from time to time. When they entered the Grand View Garden, Xichun sent away two maids and then said to Tanchun: "Third sister... do you admire Fourth Brother Jian?"

"Ah?" Tanchun was startled. She stamped her feet and looked at Xichun, her face flushed with anger as she said, "Don't be ridiculous. How could that be possible?"

Xichun said, "Third sister has been stroking that pistol since just now, and even her ears are red, and she still said that she admires Fourth Brother Jian."

Tanchun was startled, frowned and asked, "Is it... so obvious?"

Seeing Xichun nodding her head, Tanchun smiled bitterly and said, "So what if I admire her? Sister Lin and Sister Yun are both married, and even my second sister is married. Can I still marry into her family?"

Xichun said, "Why not? It's better to be a concubine to Fourth Brother Jian than to spend the rest of your life with an unclear and rude man."

"Nonsense." Tanchun curled her lips and said, then went back to deep thought.

When they got to the meeting room in front, Tanchun sent someone to find Mrs. Xing. Ping'er came back a little later. The three women discussed it and opened the storehouse. They gave sticks to the servants and strong maids and ordered them to guard the door carefully. The front and back doors were closed and strong bamboo poles were found to prop them up. Then they organized dozens of maids and told the kitchen to cook more food. They also distributed three thousand taels of silver. The morale of the servants in the Jia family was greatly boosted, and everyone was proud and happy.

Tanchun, holding a musket in one hand and a sword in the other, led a group of strong women to patrol. Before they knew it, it was noon. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire became dense, and it sounded like the sound of popping beans. All the servants were frightened. Those who stood on the wall to watch at first retreated and only dared to stand on the roof to peek around. At this time, the Ding brothers returned together and reported to Li Weijian: "Jianwei Town is attacking Zhengyang Gate."

Li Weijian asked the Ding brothers to go down and rest, and Feng Jieer said worriedly: "The rebels are so powerful, they won't break into the city, right?"

Li Weijian shook his head and said, "It's hard to say... Jianwei Town only has eight-jin cannons, even if they fire 10,000 rounds, they can't break the city wall... I'm afraid of internal and external cooperation." He paused, looked at Feng Jieer and said, "I think the prince has already escaped from the city. Chen Hongmou is in charge of the inner city now. The imperial guards have been purged before, and they will definitely not be willing to go along with the rebels.

In this case, the prince must have left ambushes in the inner city to coordinate with the outside forces."

Sister Feng said, "The Prime Minister will surely think of it, right?"

Li Weijian shook his head and said, "There are too many places in the nine gates of the inner city that need to be protected. Even if Chen Hongmou knew about it, what can he do?"

At dusk, they heard shouting and gunfire approaching. Ding Rusong climbed up to Yuechun Tower to observe the situation and came back to say, "Fucheng Gate has been breached, and a large number of rebel soldiers are pouring in."

Li Weijian went up to the tower to observe the situation and saw that the imperial guards were fighting and retreating all the way into the imperial city.

Looking at Fucheng Gate again, a large group of rebels attacked Xuanwu Gate and Zhengyang Gate. The imperial troops defending the city were defeated and retreated all the way into the imperial city.

Following the rebels, there were many bandits in disarray, holding knives and sticks, shouting and attacking everywhere.

Li Weijian came downstairs and hurriedly asked the women to hide in the secret passage. He opened the storehouse and distributed the weapons. The Ding brothers and a dozen guards, each holding a rapid-shooting arrow box, stood guard at critical locations.

As the sun was setting, Li Weijian thought to himself, the prince had already entered the inner city, so it was time for the saint to launch his backup plan. If the rebels took down the Five Armies and got the tiger talisman, the prince's party would be really powerful and difficult to control.

At night, although there was a lot of fighting outside and fires everywhere, the Jinglingbo Mansion was relatively peaceful. A few bandits attacked, but when they saw that they couldn't open the door, they left cursing.

Both families breathed a sigh of relief. After dinner, Lin Zhixiao's wife was inspecting the various places. Suddenly, she heard a servant at the corner gate making a noise. She hurried over and asked, "What happened again?"

The servant said, "Jia Cong and Jia Huan came back from outside. They wanted to go in, but they didn't dare to open the door. They looked through the crack in the door and saw a huge group of thieves standing behind them. They were so scared!"

Lin Zhixiao's family came forward to take a look and said, "They are really scared of people. They have already closed the door and don't open it."

At this moment, Jia Qiang cursed, "How dare you not open the door! Do you still have your master in your eyes?"

Lin Zhixiao's wife was thinking, how come Jia Qiang was among them? She did not hesitate to retort, "No matter who you are, I won't open the door. We don't recognize you anymore. Go away! Are you bringing some robbers to rob us? Listen carefully, it is the eldest lady and the master who ordered that from now on, the door will be closed and not opened. Please do whatever you want."

Jia Huan cursed loudly: "You dog slaves! You dare to reason with your master? You are all rebellious! If they don't open the door, we will break it down. Otherwise, we will climb over the wall."

Lin Zhixiao's wife was in a panic. Just then, Tanchun arrived with her men and ordered them, "Hold the door. Bring bamboo shoots. If anyone dares to climb over the wall, sweep him down!"

As they were talking, a thief really climbed up the wall. The servants raised bamboos and poked at them. Several thieves were poked and fell down screaming. However, one thief was extremely brave. He blocked the bamboo with a rattan shield and shot with flying knives, injuring a servant.

Upon seeing this, Tanchun raised the musket without hesitation, cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger.

bang——

With a cry of "Ah——", the thief was shot in the shoulder and jumped back with a scream.

There was chaos outside, and Jia Cong shouted, "Oh no! There are muskets inside!"

Jia Huan saw what was happening through the crack in the door and shouted, "Third sister... Third girl only has a musket. Can more than a hundred of us be frightened by a musket?"

But having said that, I still don't dare to climb the wall.

Someone shouted, "Let's go to the back door. There's no one guarding the wall. If we rush in, we can get the woman and the silver!"

Tanchun said to the others with a stern face, "You keep an eye on this side. I will walk along the top of the wall to prevent any fish from slipping through the net and coming in."

Lin Zhixiao's wife agreed, and Tanchun hurriedly led the people along the wall.

She had just patrolled half a circle when she heard a commotion at the back door. She saw a thief breaking in. Tanchun stepped forward and fired several shots before she drove the thief back.

A maid said, "Young lady, Rong Mansion is huge, and there are leaks everywhere. Young lady only has a musket, and seeing those servants are so scared, I'm afraid it won't be of any use... It's better to make plans early."

Tanchun thought for a moment and said, "That's right. I think it would be better to withdraw our troops to the Grand View Garden. In this way, we can hold out for a while longer. If things don't go well, we can just retreat to the Earl's house next door."

Having made up her mind, Tanchun went to the meeting room. At this time, Jia Zheng, Jia Lian, Mrs. Xing, and Ping'er were all worried, and when they heard that there was danger all around, their faces changed.

Tanchun told him what she was thinking, and Jia Zheng agreed. After a while, the maids, old women, and more than a hundred servants all retreated into the Grand View Garden.

Just then, there was a loud noise, and when he looked up, he saw flames rising to the sky. A servant came running and reported: "Oh no! The thieves blew open the gate and are rushing in!"

Jia Zheng's face suddenly changed, and he said to Tanchun, "It's over! If the thieves can blow down the door, I'm afraid the Grand View Garden can't stand it. Third girl, quickly take the fourth girl and the women to the Bo's mansion to hide."

Tanchun asked, "Father, what about you?"

Jia Zheng glared and said, "I want to ask Huan'er and Qiang'er why they invited the thieves to attack their family!"

Tanchun said, "Father, now they have rebelled. Even if you ask, what's the use? Why don't we retreat to Fourth Brother Jian's house and hide together?"

No matter how Tanchun persuaded him, Jia Zheng just wouldn't listen. Jia Lian was anxious at this time, and pulled Tanchun and said, "Second uncle has his own ideas, let's go quickly."

(End of this chapter)