Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

Jiang Yuan's reaction was extremely fast, and the personal guards he brought were no exception.Seeing the frightened horse rushing towards him, he immediately formed a circle to protect Situ Sheng and the three of them in the center.

At the same time, more than a dozen masked people immediately protruded from the roof ridges of the shops on both sides.Each of them held a bow and arrow in their hands, and pointed at Jiang Yuan and the others with the flashing arrows.

"Get in the car!" Jiang Yuan yelled these two words, and he had already picked up the frightened horse that fell to the ground as a shield in his hand, blocking the direction of possible arrows and providing cover for everyone present.

After all, Situ Sheng was the one who had led the army in battle, and he did not drag his feet in the face of danger. He took his son with one hand and his sister with the other, and immediately retreated into the carriage of Guanyinghou's mansion under the cover of Jiang Yuan.

The masked people obviously didn't expect that Jiang Yuan was so powerful that he could subdue even a powerful startled horse in an instant, and he could also lift a startled horse weighing hundreds of catties to use as a shield.Although they also shot a few arrows, they were all stopped by Jiang Yuan with the "horse meat shield", and the three people who got into the carriage one by one did not get hurt at all.

The guards brought by Jiang Yuan were all wearing soft body armor, and they also took the door panels and booths of the shops on both sides as shields in their hands. The stone bows in the hands of those masked men couldn't shoot through them at all. defense.

Jingchao's carriages used doors instead of curtains to enter and exit. Jiang Yuan's carriage was specially made and extremely strong.Close the car door and seal the car windows with small tables, chessboards and other objects in the car. Ordinary bows and arrows can't hurt the people in the car at all.

Jiang Yuan took the long knife handed over by the soldiers on the side, drew the knife out of the sheath, cut off the harness on the carriage, and let the horse pulling the cart go, so as to prevent the bow and arrow from shooting the horse pulling the cart and making it uncontrollable. Run wildly and injure the person in the car.

Where has the crowd above the market seen such a scene?Everyone ran away in a panic, and some people who didn't understand what was going on also ran around in a panic with others, and the whole street became chaotic all of a sudden.Several people took the opportunity to squeeze towards the carriage with the crowd, and took out their hands from their pockets, holding a dagger that was shining with cold light!

Jiang Yuan yelled "be careful" to remind the surrounding soldiers, and he slashed at a person approaching him with a single knife.The man quickly blocked the blade with his dagger, but he couldn't resist Jiang Yuan's strength, his hand numb, the tiger's mouth split open, and the dagger in his hand fell to the ground instantly.

Jiang Yuan took advantage of the situation and cut off the man's head with a horizontal stroke of the knife. The blood that shot up into the sky made the crowd beside him scream.Jiang Yuan was unmoved, and kicked the assassin's body aside with one kick, with a stern expression as if a demon god was reborn, which made people feel chills in their hearts.

Seeing the surrounding assassins rushing towards the carriage, he quickly walked around the carriage, killing people with each step, spattering blood with each step, and took the lives of eight assassins one after another.The assassin's blood spewed down, staining every bluestone slab on the ground, leaving behind a bright and painful color...

Seeing Jiang Yuan's strength, the rest of the assassins understood that they couldn't get close to the carriage without passing through Jiang Yuan. These assassins made up their minds and left their opponents to rush towards Jiang Yuan.

Seeing being surrounded by assassins, Jiang Yuan didn't care.He let go of the horse carcass in his hand, picked up the iron pot of melted sugar left by the sugar painting vendor next to him, and poured it on the surrounding enemies.

What was in that big iron pot was not a cool liquid, but boiling hot syrup!The melting point of sugar is always one hundred and eighty/ninety degrees, pouring a pot full of hot sugar on the body is not much worse than boiling oil.The syrup dissipates heat slowly and is very viscous. It sticks to the body even if you want to shake it off. Four assassins.

The archers on the eaves kept shooting arrows at Jiang Yuan, intending to support the assassins on the ground, but Jiang Yuan, who left the dead horse, was still holding a stronger big iron pot in his hand.This big iron pot is very strong, it is more useful than the shields on the battlefield, the arrows shot over can't hurt Jiang Yuan at all, they are all stopped by the iron pot, but he seized the opportunity to hit it down with stones two archers.

The level of the assassins on the ground is not as good as the personal soldiers brought out by Jiang Yuan and the palace guards led by Situ Sheng.In addition, it is inconvenient for these assassins to bring long knives to the downtown area, and the weapons they are holding at the moment are only short weapons such as daggers and short swords. Facing the sharp long knives in the hands of the soldiers will inevitably suffer losses.

After being hacked to death by the soldiers one after another, the group of assassins saw that there was no way to succeed in the assassination, so they left the corpses of a few of their accomplices and fled quickly.In order to prevent the next wave of assassinations that might exist, Jiang Yuan and his soldiers had no choice but to chase the assassins. If they only followed a few people, it would be like delivering food to the assassins, so they could only watch the assassins flee in a hurry and unable to pursue.

Jiang Yuan looked at the scattered arrows on the ground with a gloomy face, and gritted his teeth hard.These are arrows specially supplied to the domestic army, or he personally inspected and accepted them some time ago.The hard bows held by those assassins just now are also the most commonly used stone bows in the army. These things are definitely not something that ordinary people can easily get. There must be shadows of court officials and generals in them!

He picked up an arrow that fell on the ground, smelled the arrow, and sure enough there was a pungent smell of medicine. Although he didn't know what ingredient was coated on the arrow, he could guess that it must be poison/medicine.

He wasn't completely sure when the assassin first appeared, but later things became very clear. All the assassins wanted to rush towards the carriage, and they surrounded him when they found that they couldn't attack the carriage unless they killed him.The target of this group of assassins must be His Royal Highness Situ Sheng!

Assassinating the prince in the street is such a big deal that most people dare not think about it, but some people just want to poke a hole in this day!

When the soldiers stationed in the capital rushed to the market, all the assassins had already fled, leaving only a mess on the ground.The governor of Shuntian Prefecture didn't take it seriously at the beginning, but when he heard that the prince was assassinated in the downtown area, he hurried over in panic.That's the crown prince of the country, let alone being injured, even if he was frightened, he couldn't bear it!If he were to be held accountable, even if he had ten heads, it would not be enough to chop him off!

Situ Sheng didn't intend to pursue responsibility.The group first made a scene of frightened horses galloping, trying to disperse the group of them, and then the bows and arrows in the sky and the assassins on the ground cooperated to carry out a pincer attack. The weapons used by the assassins were all painted Poison/drug, retreat immediately as soon as you see something wrong, and the chosen route is very successful, leaving no traces, it looks like a planned, premeditated and prepared assassination.

Not a single one of these assassins survived. The wounded and fallen assassins were either killed by their companions or committed suicide by taking poison one after another. One could tell that they were a group of dead soldiers. I am afraid that there were not many things that could be found on these corpses.

"Send the corpses of these assassins to the Ministry of Criminal Justice." Situ Sheng said coldly, "Order Jiang Ning to investigate!"

Jiang Ning is Jiang Yan's son, and took the title of "ancestor" Cheng'an as his nickname.A few days ago, he was transferred from the Ministry of Punishment to be a Taoist priest in northern Xinjiang. Recently, he returned to Beijing to report on his work to welcome Fang Han back to China.He has a delicate mind and is the best at reasoning and judging cases. When he was in the Ministry of Criminal Justice, he was the number one expert in judging cases in the Ministry. He can definitely find things that others don't pay attention to when he checks.

Sure enough, on the second day, Jiang Ning entered the palace to report the results of the investigation to Situ Sheng, and His Royal Highness quickly summoned Jiang Yuan to the palace to discuss the situation.

Jiang Ning saluted and said: "Your Highness, I have already checked the corpses of all the assassins left at the scene."

"The clothes, shoes, and socks worn by the assassins are very ordinary, with no trace of their origin, and there is no mark on the dagger they hold. The hard bow they use is the most common stone bow in the army, and the arrows are also from the army. It's very common, and it's not easy to find out the history. The poison/medicine on the dagger and the arrow, and the medicine that made the horse crazy are still asking the imperial physician to continue to study, and no conclusion has been reached."

"I checked the food in the assassin's stomach and intestines. Some of them are the residues of river mussels that are unique to Tongzhou. Although this kind of river mussels is very delicious and very cheap, they must be caught and eaten now. Even the capital city that is very close There are no such mussels for sale here. From the perspective of digestion, these people should not have eaten the mussels for more than three hours, which means that they only entered Beijing via Tongzhou on the day of the assassination."

"Also... After taking off the assassin's clothes, I discovered that the tattoos on the right shoulders of these corpses are the word 'Nan'an'."

Jiang Yuan frowned and said, "Nan'an? Do you mean the King of Nan'an?... No, these assassins were definitely not sent by the King of Nan'an."

Jiang Ning nodded in agreement, "The clothes and weapons of these assassins showed no flaws. After the assassination failed, the wounded immediately committed suicide by taking poison and refused to leave us alive. It can be seen that this group of people must be dead soldiers who have been trained for many years. Some people will tattoo the words representing the identity on the body of the dead who go to assassinate, so it makes no difference whether they stay alive or not, isn't it all self-inflicted? Just look at the fact that there is no silver 300 taels here You can see the problem."

"It's more than that." Jiang Yuan said to Situ Sheng: "Your Highness, when I rushed towards the gate of Yuquan Zhai yesterday, I once saw the king of Nan'an County. He was wearing coarse clothes and a belt on his head. Wearing a bamboo hat to hide his face, he was standing not far from the street. If the king of Nan'an County really sent someone to assassinate His Highness, how could he stand in such an unobstructed and dangerous place? If he was accidentally shot by the assassin's poisonous arrow Accidentally injured, wouldn't he die in vain? If he ordered an assassin to come to assassinate, he would hide in the dark to observe the situation. A gentleman would not stand under a dangerous wall, and he would never stand blatantly in a place where he could be easily accidentally injured. At the scene of the assassination!"

Situ Sheng nodded and said, "That's true. Before getting into the car, Gu also saw the Nan'an County King. He didn't have a single guard around him. When he saw the assassin appearing, he immediately hid in the nearby car. In the shop. Although he deliberately wore a bamboo hat and hid his head and tail, for fear of being seen by others, if he really arranged for the assassination, he would never come to such a dangerous place alone. The king of Nan'an is the one who cherishes his life the most. With guards, this time is so abnormal, it's not like his style."

He seemed to have remembered something, and said sarcastically, "It's a hard bow... They are afraid that they will forget the assassination near Wenshu Temple in the suburbs of Beijing!"

When Situ Sheng mentioned it, Jiang Yuan immediately thought of meeting Situ Sheng back then.Indeed, the four kings with different surnames sent someone to assassinate Situ Sheng once, using the same hard bow from the army. This time, the assassin wanted to use his identity as the king of Nan'an County to lure them to the four kings with different surnames. Think, to avoid being traced.

"Although the matter was forcibly suppressed by the emperor at the beginning, there are quite a few people who know it. Those who are interested can still find out the root cause of the matter and find the same bow and arrow." His Royal Highness frowned, "Only by this However, the origin of the assassin is still difficult to determine."

Jiang Ning cupped his hands, "I would like to ask Your Highness, who knows about His Highness leaving the palace?"

Situ Sheng immediately understood Jiang Ning's meaning, and after careful consideration, he replied: "Gu thought of going out of the palace on a whim, and apart from the few palace guards he brought with him, there were only a few guarding the Donghua Gate. The guards knew about Gu leaving the palace. And Gu didn't mention where he was going, and he decided to go to Qingyuan on the way, and then went to the downtown area just by chance..."

There is absolutely no problem with the guards in the palace, these people were all brought into the palace by Situ Sheng from Prince Rui's residence, and they knew everything and did not dare to betray, then it was the guards of Donghuamen who leaked it.

Jiang Ning thought for a while, then suddenly said: "Huh? The Prince of Nan'an was present at the time of the assassination, and with the tattoo of 'Nan'an' on the corpse, it is obvious that the people behind the scenes planned to blame the Prince of Nan'an for the assassination of His Highness. His Highness's going out of the palace was just a matter of arousal, and his going to the market was just an accidental act. The guards of Donghua Gate would have no way of guessing where he went. Why did Wang also appear at the assassination scene at that time?"

"Nan'an County King Hui appeared not far from Yuquanzhai in that attire. It was obvious that someone had lured him there on purpose, so how did that person make Nan'an County King appear in the market alone? Even if he was going to meet acquaintances , the King of Nan'an County, who has always cherished his life, wouldn't take no one with him, at least he had to follow a driver."

Jiang Yuan was also very surprised when he heard it, it was indeed such a truth.As a marquis, he had to bring a few followers, coachmen, personal soldiers and so on when he went out. As a prince of Nan'an County, he was always careful. Didn't he bring a single servant with him when he went out?It doesn't make sense.Even if he wanted to meet some hidden person, he had to bring a few confidant guards with him.

"Unless..." The three looked at each other.

"Unless the matter that the king of Nan'an County is facing is extremely confidential and concerns the life and death of the entire Nan'an family, so he dare not take anyone there, for fear that someone will know that this matter will threaten his life. The servant can understand." Situ Sheng came to a conclusion.

What can be related to the life and death of a county king?It can even make him dare not bring any servants, and go to the appointment alone after disguised?The range of answers is not too wide anymore...

Regardless of whether the person who asked him out was an enemy or a friend, this Nan'an County king definitely violated a taboo that even the king of a country can't stand...It's worse than embezzling the treasury's silver, and it's worse than assassinating a coldly treated prince The much bigger taboo must be a taboo that damages the imperial power and even threatens the safety of the country!

Situ Sheng said sternly: "This matter is much more serious than we initially thought... The matter of the assassin's body will continue to be handed over to Cheng An for investigation. As for Nan'an County King... I'm afraid Qingyuan will be in trouble."

The thing that can make a county king so panic-stricken is not much less than the assassination of the prince. Naturally, there are people who can find out, but most of them have to make a big fanfare or even startle the snake.There are not many people who can better grasp the sense of proportion and find out the truth without knowing it.The Gyeonggi camp has been on the right track, and the affairs of the Ministry of War have become more relaxed. He is most at ease in entrusting such important matters to Jiang Yuan.

Unexpectedly, just after San Francisco was cleaned up, a Beiman jumped out, and the Beiman envoy had just been appeased, and the Nan'an County King didn't know what happened... Big things happened one after another, but Jiang Yuan was full of interest.How many major military and state affairs are taken over by yourself?How many pens and inks of Danqing are inscribed by yourself?In the vicissitudes of life, only great heroes can show their true colors!Standing at such an important node, his every move can change the direction of the whole world, isn't it exciting!

King Nan'an, for Jiang Yuan who has never read the book "Dream of Red Mansions", this name refers to Fang Tianding, the son of Fang La in Water Margin...Fang Tianding was named King of Nan'an by Fang La, holding Fang Tian's painting halberd, guarding the Hangzhou, with more than 24 troops, 12 generals, and four marshals, in the city of Hangzhou alone, [-] of Liangshan’s [-], [-] generals were killed in battle, and they were finally killed by the ghost of Zhang Shun, Baitiao in the Langli… cough cough , far away.

The four kings with different surnames in the Jing Dynasty were Dongping County King, Xining County King, Nan'an County King, and Beijing County King. These four families were old relatives and colluded with each other. Working together, they have done a lot of daring things, but there is still a difference between the four kings and the eight princes.

The power of the eight princes mainly comes from themselves and their in-laws who are officials and generals. After all, this power comes from the emperor. Although it will take a lot of hands and feet to take it back, it is not difficult to do. It is possible to clean up the Eighth Duke's family without leaving a piece of armor, but the four kings are different.

The reason why these four families were named kings with different surnames at the time of the founding of the country was that these four kings were his allies rather than his subordinates when Emperor Gao rebelled. Although the respective armies did not succeed in separatist regimes, the high positions and high positions were not easy to deal with. It was purely because there was no way for Emperor Gao to seal the positions of kings with different surnames to these few families to stabilize them.

Although the military strength of these four families has been continuously reduced by three generations of emperors in the past few decades, they have always controlled many troops in their hands, and many people in the army are willing to be the minions of these four families. Small.

The power of the King of Xining County is the smallest among the four families, but it has been reduced to the same extent in recent years, and he has no much ability.But the remaining three families have a lot of military power. Although they are not as good as the San Francisco, they are still enough to shake the country.At the beginning, these few families dared to assassinate the prince, even if Situ Sheng lived like an invisible man at that time, he would not be able to live like an invisible person, this is a slap in the face of the royal family.The emperor had to swallow this breath in a daze, and wanted to cover it up for them, for what?What I am afraid of is that these four kings will turn against each other, causing chaos in the country and the people's livelihood.Situ Sheng held the military power, but he just tossed these few companies a little bit, but he couldn't act rashly to overthrow them.

Thanks to the San Francisco rebellion, the military officers on the southeast coast were turned upside down by the old emperor because of their inability to rescue them. Some Dongping and Xining families took the opportunity to take back a lot of military power, and these two families are no longer a cause for concern.

As for the king of Beijing County, their family pretended to be modest and weak, playing with poems and songs, they were actually a family of old foxes.The forces colluding with nobles secretly fight for power and profit, but on the surface they are diligent, prudent and honest, but on the inside they are full of cunning and cunning.But now the reigning king of Beijing is already old and out of shape. He heard from the imperial doctor that he will not live for a month or two. His successor is not as deep as him. The house can be tidied up slowly.

In the end, the king of Nan'an County controls part of the military power in the southern region. Although he is not as powerful as the king of Beijing Jing, he is also the number two figure among the four kings.He is quite cautious by nature, he cherishes his life too much, and he is the most cautious in doing things on weekdays, and he refuses to be caught by anyone.Let Dongping and Xining do all the things that offend people, while he sits firmly on the Diaoyutai. For so many years, he has never been willing to take risks lightly. He didn't even dare to get involved in the attack on Situ Sheng. It was the King of Dongping and Xining County. The handwriting of the Wang family.

Such a cautious character, what could drive him to this point?