The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 208 Assassination
When they reached the middle of Bogda Peak, all they could see was silver-white.

Yang Yuhuan walked to the top of the small peak, opened her arms to face the warm sun, closed her eyes and felt the cool breeze and warm sunshine of the Tianshan Mountains.

After a long while, Yang Yuhuan looked back at Li Heng and said with a sweet smile: "Thank you, my lord. I will dance for you."

"Okay." Li Ying nodded and waited to see.

Yang Yuhuan smiled sweetly and began to dance gracefully.

Yang Yuhuan was wearing a light pink dress today, with a graceful figure. Her soft body seemed boneless when she danced, and her flying long sleeves were like drifting clouds. Her spinning and moving showed her infinite charm, and her lowered brows and nodded expression was captivating.

The silver sky and the majestic Tianshan Mountains pale in comparison to her dancing.

Li Ying stared at her infatuatedly, making no effort to hide his obsession with Yang Yuhuan.

Not long after, when the dance was coming to an end, Yang Yuhuan suddenly slipped and was about to fall. Li Heng was quick to step forward and hug Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan showed no sign of panic and said with a smile: "This is the essence of this dance."

Li Ying asked in confusion: "Did you fall on purpose?"

"Yes." Yang Yuhuan smiled and hugged Li Heng's neck. "No matter how beautiful the dance is, it is not beautiful without the appreciation of my lover."

"Dance is the most difficult to pass on. It is not like calligraphy and painting, which are carried by objects. Dance can only be carried by people. If there is no one with the same talent, it will soon be lost." Li Ying said seriously, "Dance like yours has never existed in the past thousand years, and it will not be seen in the next thousand years."

Yang Yuhuan was overjoyed to receive such praise from Li Heng, and said, "In my heart, for two thousand years, across the nine continents and four seas, there has only been one lover, only you."

Not only is Yang Yuhuan's appearance, figure, and temperament rare, her talents and interests are even rarer.

Such a woman is destined to be unable to hide.

But so what?

Li Ying looked at Yang Yuhuan, lowered his head and kissed Yang Yuhuan's lips. Yang Yuhuan responded without restraint.

……

After visiting Tianchi, Li Ying and his party traveled to the capital of Beiting, Tingzhou Jinman.

The Hanhai Army is stationed in Jinman City.

The Hanhai Army was the largest military force in Beiting, with more than 12,000 soldiers and more than 4,200 horses.

After Li Heng took charge of Beiting, he also concurrently served as the military envoy of the Hanhai Army, and Feng Changqing served as the deputy military envoy.

Li Heng asked Feng Changqing to arrive first in order to let Feng Changqing take over the Hanhai Army first. Only by holding the Hanhai Army in his hands can Li Heng's actions in Beiting be fearless.

Feng Changqing has been in charge of the army for many years and has experience in temporarily taking over the Hexi Army. Historically, he also took over Beiting for a long time. Li Heng made the best use of him.

After Feng Changqing arrived in Jinman, he quickly gained control of the Hanhai Army through various means.

Although this control was not complete and could not make the Beiting Army a direct lineage, for Li Heng, it was enough to stabilize the situation first.

When Li Heng arrived outside Jinman City, officials from Tingzhou and leaders of local clans came to greet him. Feng Changqing also brought important generals from the Hanhai Army to greet him.

Li Ying greeted everyone cordially and went into the city with them, planning to have a feast together.

As the group passed through a busy city, forty or fifty people dressed in civilian clothes on both sides of the road blew a whistle, took out their hidden weapons, and rushed towards Li Heng.

Four of the bandits were standing on Li Ying's left and right, only seven or eight steps away from him. Suddenly they jumped up and slashed at Li Ying with knives.

But before he could get close to Li Heng, he was stopped and killed by Li Siye and Zhang Guangsheng behind Li Heng.

The hundred-man guards behind Li Heng reacted immediately and rushed forward. Soon, they killed or injured most of the forty or fifty bandits. The rest, seeing that they were about to be captured alive, committed suicide by taking poison. A few who did not want to commit suicide were stabbed to death by their last comrades who committed suicide. The assassination came suddenly and ended quickly.

Those who were slow to react didn't even come to their senses.

After a while, the Tingzhou officials came to their senses and realized the seriousness of the problem, and broke out in a cold sweat.

Someone actually assassinated the Jiedushi of Chikou and the prince of the Tang Dynasty within the jurisdiction of Tingzhou!
"I have not been strict in my administration. Please punish me, Your Highness." Tingzhou Governor Yuwen Shun turned pale and his voice trembled.

Yuwen Shun was not familiar with Li Heng, but he knew what Li Heng had done before.

Based on Li Heng's previous style of doing things, it is very likely that he will be held accountable.

But at this moment, Li Heng did not think about holding anyone accountable at all. His mind was entirely on his guards.

The guards that Li Heng had brought from Chang'an could only barely protect his safety, but the newly selected people were all battle-hardened. Faced with such emergencies, they showed amazing adaptability, organizational skills and combat effectiveness.

Li Siye and Zhang Guangsheng were fully aware of the capabilities of these guards, so apart from killing the four people who had approached them earlier, they did not participate in the battle. They stood silently beside Li Heng, Yang Yuhuan and Zhang Mujin, keeping watch throughout the entire process.

This reminded Li Heng of An Lushan's eight thousand adopted sons, Yeluohe, and his hundred "servants".

With those guards around him, it was indeed difficult for outsiders to assassinate An Lushan except for his close associates.

Li Heng was stunned for a while before he said to Yuwen Shun, the governor of Tingzhou: "This is just a small matter, nothing serious, let's have the banquet first."

"Yes." Yuwen Shun didn't expect Li Ying to be so easy to talk to. After being surprised, he quickly led Li Ying to the restaurant.

Li Ying was feasting with everyone that day and never mentioned the assassination from beginning to end.

The next day.

Not long after Li Heng got up, Feng Changqing, Zhang Guangsheng and Li Siye came to report the situation.

Feng Changqing said: "Your Highness, the assassination happened because of my negligence. Please punish me."

"It's not your fault." Li Ying smiled slightly. "The Tang Dynasty does not have strict control over swords. They didn't use crossbows in this assassination, which means you have done your best to rectify it."

In the Tang Dynasty, weapons were divided into two categories.

One type allows private possession to protect personal life safety and family private property.

This type of weapons mainly includes five short and light weapons: bow, arrow, knife, shield and spear.

However, although these weapons were allowed to be privately owned, the imperial court also imposed strict restrictions, requiring that they be "made according to official standards", that is, they must be made according to official styles, and the name of the worker must be engraved on each finished product before they were allowed to be bought and sold.

This is done both to ensure quality and to facilitate traceability.

The other category is prohibited from private storage and manufacturing, such as armor, crossbows, spears, halberds, and equipment.

Considering the current situation in Beiting, the assassins used private weapons and no prohibited weapons were used, which is enough to show that Feng Changqing put a lot of effort into this aspect.

Li Heng did not blame him, and Feng Changqing said nothing more.

Zhang Guangsheng stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, none of the bandits are alive. I checked their weapons and found that most of them did not have the names of the craftsmen. A few did, but..."

"But what?" Li Ying asked.

Zhang Guangsheng said: "I checked and found that all those who left their names were craftsmen of the He family."

(End of this chapter)