Great Han Empire

Chapter 264 The situation changes suddenly
On Fu'an Street, hundreds of Black Panther volunteers dressed in armor and cloaks lined up under the snowstorm, all with solemn expressions, bows and arrows, ready to go.The thirty Tiqi warriors lined up in the front row, with their crossbows flat in their hands, all aimed at the entrance of the small street.

The atmosphere was tense to the extreme in an instant, and it was on the verge of breaking out.

The archer held a horned bow in his hand, pointed his arrow at Cao Cao who was leading the horse, and shouted coldly: "Take down the assassin!"

Cao Cao was shocked, and while pulling the reins hard to stop the galloping horse, he yelled in panic, "Slow, slow, slow, we are not assassins, we are not assassins..."

Sun Jian's war horse was in pain, stopped in place and neighed, and his huge body almost stood upright. Sun Jian immediately raised his hand and shouted: "Don't shoot arrows, don't shoot arrows, the assassin is on the run..."

Shehu was unmoved at all, he raised his sword eyebrows, and said in a deep voice: "Put down your weapon, kneel down and bind it, otherwise you will be shot!"

Xu Gen was so anxious that he almost jumped up. He rushed to the street, panting, pointed at the majestic black panther Yi Cong, and shouted angrily: "Get out of the way, or the nine clans will be killed!"

Several Tiqi warriors standing in the front row were furious when they heard the sound. They all raised their crossbows at Xu Gen and shouted loudly at the same time: "My lord, kill them..."

"kill……"

Without hesitation, Shehu said three times: "Put...down...weapon..."

The strong murderous aura suddenly reached its peak, and the cold wind that was raging at the street seemed to be unable to bear the suffocating murderous aura, and fled away in a hurry.Facing the strong bows that are stretched one after another, the sharp arrows that are sharp and cold, and the pairs of angry eyes, no one is not afraid.As long as the young officer gave an order, arrows would fly like locusts, and thousands of arrows would fly together, killing Huangquan.

Xu Gen felt a chill in his heart, and shivered suddenly, his arrogance suddenly disappeared, and a cold sweat broke out all over his body, he shrank his neck involuntarily, and quietly hid behind Sun Jian's horse.

Yuan Shu led the iron cavalry from Changshuiying to rampage on the street, showing off their power. The panicked crowd fled in all directions, trampling each other and injuring countless people.They quickly dispersed the crowd and rode their horses into the side street, "Catch the assassin... catch the assassin..."

In desperation, Sun Jian pulled off the bronze seal and black ribbon on his body and held it up high, "I am Sun Jian, the minister of the dynasty, not an assassin..."

Shehu tilted his head to look at it, curled his lips, ignored Sun Jian's shout, and slowly aimed the long arrow in his hand at him.

At this time, Li Hong suddenly appeared in people's field of vision with a dozen riders.

"Master Li, Master Li." Cao Cao was overjoyed and raised his hands and shouted: "Quickly order your subordinates to retreat, we are going after the assassin, the bride has been robbed."

Li Hong rode up unhurriedly. He looked at the crowd crowded at the street corner, and said with a smile, "The assassins in Luoyang are really rampant. In broad daylight, they first assassinated me, and this time they robbed Mr. Sikong's bride." Son, there is no law."

He turned around and waved to Black Panther Yicong, and ordered loudly: "They are all our own people, don't be nervous. You take down your bows and arrows, and split up to help search. Hurry... hurry..."

Heibao Yicong retracted his bow after hearing the sound, his movements were uniform, he appeared to be well-trained, and his momentum was astonishing.As soon as the danger was gone, the murderous aura hanging over the street disappeared immediately, and everyone let out a breath of cold air at the same time, feeling more and more afraid of the Black Panther Yi Cong in their hearts.

Brothers Xu Gen and Xiahou rushed out of the street with a group of servants at the fastest speed, followed by Shehu and several teams leading their respective teams, and rushed into the snowstorm.

Cao Cao sat on the horse without moving, his eyes were fixed on Li Hong, as if he wanted to read something from his face.

Li Hong didn't take it seriously, he drove his horse towards Cao Cao, and said with a smile, "Brother Meng De, it's snowing too much today, and the assassin has another plan, so I don't think he can catch him." He touched his face and asked, "Is there anything on my face?"

Cao Cao nodded, laughed, and said, "What a coincidence, my lord."

"Brother Meng De has something in his words." Li Hong said with a smile, "You stare at me so intently, don't you think I'm an assassin?"

"Your Excellency, you are joking." Cao Cao flatly denied it, but his eyes showed deep suspicion without hesitation.

"Didn't your lord go to Jizhou according to the order? Why did you come back?" Sun Jian asked in bewilderment.The fact that Li Hong's elite troops appeared on another street by such a coincidence made people suspect that he and Yuan Shu were in collusion.

"Before the troops set off at noon today, Master Yuan and Master He suddenly asked for leave to return to the city. I thought they had something urgent, so I agreed casually." Li Hong explained, "Later, I heard that they came to the city to look for someone. Revenge. I was taken aback, and hurriedly led people into the city, preparing to call them back. Who knew such a coincidence, we ran into each other here."

Yuan Shu and He Feng came galloping at this moment.

"My lord, you have worked hard." Yuan Shu cupped his hands and said with a smile, "I am concerned about your lord, so I came to meet you personally."

Li Hong said with a smile: "Master Yuan, Mr. He, the revenge is over?"

"Happy, I'm finally relieved today." He Feng laughed loudly, "Xu Dazi is a bully and has always been against us. This time his bride was robbed, so let him cry, haha..."

Suddenly he pointed at Li Hong and shouted loudly: "My lord is an assassin!"

Cao Cao and Sun Jian were shocked when they heard the words, and looked at Li Hong at the same time.Li Hong's expression was as usual, he shook his head repeatedly with a smile, "What a lunatic, what are you talking about?"

"Just now, the servant of the Cao Mansion said that there was an assassin who called me a leopard, haha..." He Feng laughed wildly, "This assassin is a big fool, who would believe it?"

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Cao Cao was heartbroken that his men were killed, so he led his men to hunt down the assassins in a rage.

He originally thought that relying on the more than 200 members of the Xu Mansion and the Cao Mansion, it would not be a problem to ensure that the bride can reach the Xu Mansion safely, but he never imagined that in a short period of time, he not only lost the bride, but also lost the bride. Lost dozens of brothers, too useless.If it weren't for Yuan Shu's many people, he really wanted to stab him with a knife.

Sun Jian reckoned that with such a delay, the assassin would have fled long ago. Luoyang is so big, where can he find it?He was in a bad mood, and walked listlessly on Fu'an Street with a few of his men, at a loss.The teacher will be heartbroken when he hears the bad news.When he was about to leave the house, he still swore to the teacher, patted his chest and said that he would guarantee Xiao Lan's safety, but now, Xiao Lan didn't know if he would die, so how could I have the face to see the teacher.

"Brother Wentai..."

Sun Jian looked back and saw that it was Li Hong who was calling him.Li Hong came with dozens of riders like a whirlwind.Sun Jian patted his horse and went up to meet him.

"My lord is leaving the city?" Sun Jian asked.

"Yes, the large army has already set off at noon, and I want to catch up immediately." Li Hong said with a smile, "As soon as it gets dark, all my troops will leave the city. Right now Master Yuan and Black Panther Yicong are still helping to search for the assassins. In addition, Master Zhao, the school captain of the city gate, also led patrol soldiers to conduct house-to-house investigations along Yongping Street and Fu'an Street."

Sun Jian sighed sadly, but remained silent.

"Brother Wentai, let's say goodbye here. We don't know if there will be a meeting later. Take care." Li Hong stretched out his hand, held Sun Jian's big hand tightly, and said generously.

Sun Jian smiled calmly and said, "Your Excellency, you are the one who took care of yourself. As long as you and I don't die, we will meet again one day."

Li Hong patted his arm gratefully, and said with a smile, "Thank you, Brother Wentai. When Brother Wentai sees Master Zhu, please tell him that Xiaolan is safe and everything is fine."

Sun Jian was startled suddenly, and stared at Li Hong with wide eyes.

Li Hong smiled slightly, leaned over to Sun Jian's ear, and whispered, "Brother Wentai, please look behind me."

Sun Jian's heart beat violently twice, and he looked up slowly.

The knight soldiers behind Li Hong pulled their horses out of the way one by one, revealing Li Wei in armor.Li Weixi smiled and raised his hand to signal.Then Sun Jian saw Xiao Lan in military uniform.Wearing a battle helmet and heavy armor, Xiao Lan looks heroic. If she hadn't been leaning against Li Wei, Sun Jian would not have recognized that she was the naturally beautiful Xiao Lan.

Xiao Lan bowed slightly, parted her vermilion lips, and whispered, "Brother Wentai..."

Sun Jian was ecstatic, he understood everything in an instant.

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The Xu Mansion was very quiet at night, without any sound.The guests came to enjoy themselves, and left in disappointment, and they had already dispersed.

In the study, Xu Xiang sighed with a dejected expression, and said in a disinterested manner: "After all, I still haven't escaped this catastrophe."

"Who belong to Yuan Shu and He Feng? It must have been planned for Yuan Shu to lead people to provoke troubles." Fan Ling sneered, "The general is deliberately trying to destroy our relationship with the few princes in the palace, and intends to weaken the authority of the middle officials. Strength. His move is too obvious."

"Why not a few Marquises?" said Sikong Mansion chief Shi Danjian, "Recently we have been in frequent contact with the General's Mansion, the Yuan Clan, and the Yang Clan. The Lord Marquis already suspects that Your Excellency has a heart of betrayal. Middle officials have always been vicious and vicious, and it is not surprising that they did such a thing at this time. Their purpose is nothing more than to warn Your Excellency not to have any dissenting intentions."

Fan Ling immediately retorted: "It's absolutely impossible. Don't the princes use this kind of trick to kill themselves? Gongfu, you must not be fooled. The general wants you to think so, so as to achieve a complete split. Our purpose. In the future, he can defeat us one by one without any effort."

"Maybe it's the Yang Clan." Sima Zhang Xin of the Sikong Mansion said, "In the Taixue debate that day, the Yang Clan and the Fu Clan who advocated the study of Jinwen Confucianism lost miserably. To retaliate against us. The bride was robbed, life and death are uncertain, happy events turned into bad ones, this is a great blow to our prestige Xu clan."

Xu Xiang shook his head and looked at Cao Cao who was sitting silently.

"Meng De, what do you think?"

"It can't be the Yang Clan. The Yang Clan doesn't have such a strong strength. I think it's His Majesty's doing." Cao Cao said in astonishment.

Everyone looked at Cao Cao in surprise.

"I've thought about it for a long time, and I feel that today's incident was done by the leopard Li Hong." Cao Cao said bitterly, "The eight assassins in the afternoon are all masters of martial arts. If these eight assassins are invited by the general Assassins, why didn’t the general send these eight people to assassinate Li Hong on the seventh day of the lunar new year? If these eight people were to assassinate Li Hong, even if Li Hong had the ability to surpass the heavens, he would be dead.”

"Li Hong and Yuan Shu appeared in Luoyang City at almost the same time. One caused trouble for no reason on Yongping Street and attracted our attention, and the other brought troops to cover the camera on Fu'an Street next door. After their assassins robbed the bride , quickly fled to Fu'an Street, and then escaped calmly under the cover of the Black Panther Yicong. All these arrangements were seamless and seamless."

"Why does Your Majesty use this strategy?" Cao Cao looked at the people in the room and sneered, "Your Majesty's use of this strategy can make Sir Sikong suspect that this matter was done by various forces in Luoyang. It may be the general or the general. Zhongguan or family clan, what about in the end? In the end, Sir Sikong and them all turned against each other, relying on the power of his Xu clan, he quickly cultivated a new force in Luoyang. The more power in Luoyang, the more dispersed the power, which is the most beneficial ? Of course His Majesty."

Everyone in the room was silent in thought.

"What reason does Li Hong have to pretend to be an assassin and rob the bride? What good does it do him? Since Li Hong has no reason to do it, then who ordered him to do it? No one can command him except the emperor." Cao Cao slightly After a pause, he continued, "Your Majesty asked Li Hong to go to Jizhou today, and I always felt that something was wrong. Why do you have to go to Jizhou on the [-]th day of the first lunar month? Isn't it okay to postpone it for a few days? It turns out that His Majesty has a plan."

"My lords, if you don't believe me, you can jointly impeach Li Hong and Yuan Shu tomorrow for violating military discipline and going back to the city to seek revenge and cause trouble. Let's see if His Majesty will protect you? If His Majesty tries to protect you, His Majesty can be sure that this is what happened."

Fan Ling shook his head and said appreciatively, "Meng De makes sense."

"If Meng De's thinking is correct, then Lord Zhu's daughter must be in Li Hong's army now?" Shan Teng thought for a while and asked.

"Of course." Cao Cao said, "Li Wei, the assistant commander in Li Hong's army, is Master Zhu's disciple. In addition, the students who Li Hong left from Taixue two days ago are all Master Zhu's disciples. You can think about it. Thinking about it, Master Zhu's disciple is so popular among Li Hongjun, how could something happen to his daughter?"

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(End of this chapter)