The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 339 Bloodshed in Yangzhou City (Part )

Jia Huan quickly walked out of the west wing where Lin Daiyu lived, and saw the housekeeper Xiao Lei waiting anxiously outside, followed by two strong servants holding sticks.

When Butler Xiao saw Jia Huan, he immediately took two steps forward and said, "Third Master, something bad has happened. A group of men in black suddenly appeared outside the government office. They are so dense that they are almost invisible. Although they haven't taken any action yet, it's clear that they have bad intentions."

Jia Huan was now a man who had seen many storms, so he calmly asked, "Have you informed my uncle about this?"

Butler Xiao shook his head and said, "The master is weak due to illness and has worked hard today. He just went to bed, so I didn't wake him up. I also thought that Third Master Huan happened to be in the mansion, so I went to him for advice first."

There is a saying that goes: If you are poor, don't join the crowd; if you have little influence, don't advise others. If you are poor and your words are not taken seriously, no matter how proactive you are, others will not take you seriously. On the contrary, if you are well-known and have great prestige, even if you don't say a word, others will take the initiative to come to you to take charge.

Although Jia Huan is young, his abilities are obvious to all and he has established prestige in the eyes of everyone. In addition, due to his close relationship with Lin Ruhai, almost everyone in the Lin family now regards him as the young master. So when something happens, Butler Xiao thinks of asking him to deal with it first.

At this moment, there was a sound of fighting and shouting in front of them. Butler Xiao's face changed suddenly and he said, "Oh no, there must be a fight going on in front of us."

Jia Huan asked hurriedly: "Who is presiding over the meeting now?"

Butler Xiao replied, "Only Captain Jiang Bin and fifty salt soldiers are guarding the front. Lord Yi has led most of the Jinyiwei away not long ago, and it seems that he is going out to arrest criminals."

Jia Huan's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. Yi Hong originally had 100 Jinyiwei under his command, but now they were all gone. This undoubtedly greatly weakened the defense of the Salt Inspectorate's Office. He hurriedly ordered, "Notify Xiao Dai immediately and ask them to wait for me outside the second gate. In addition, send people to guard all the gates of the backyard, and no one is allowed to enter or leave."

Butler Xiao said solemnly, "I will arrange it right away." Then he turned around and left.

Jia Huan hurriedly called him and said, "Send a few more people to protect my uncle. In addition, you two stay here to protect Sister Lin's safety. Don't leave easily."

As Jia Huan spoke, he pointed at the two servants holding sticks. The two men responded sternly, turned around and stood on both sides of the courtyard gate. Butler Xiao also took the order and left in a hurry.

Jia Huan turned around and went back to the yard. All the girls looked at him anxiously, obviously having heard the noise coming from the front.

Ping'er's pretty face turned slightly pale, and she clutched her handkerchief tightly as she asked in a trembling voice, "Third Master, the shouting and screaming in front is so scary, but what big thing happened?"

Jia Huan did not want the girls to panic, so he pretended to be relaxed and comforted them, "It's just a small group of scoundrels who came to cause trouble. Sister Ping'er and Yuanyuan can stay in Sister Lin's room for the time being. I will go to the front to deal with it now."

Ping'er felt relieved when she heard this. She held Yuanyuan's hand and said, "Then Third Master, be careful."

"But little brother, you haven't eaten yet. What if you're hungry?" Little Xing Yuan was worried about Jia Huan who was still hungry.

Jia Huan stroked her forehead and said with a smile, "I'll eat later. You stay here and don't run out." After saying that, he looked at Lin Daiyu.

Lin Daiyu was still calm at this time, and urged: "Brother Huan, go quickly, don't worry about me... ours, just concentrate on doing your own thing, don't be distracted and be careful. "

Jia Huan felt warmed and relieved when he heard this. The current Lin Daiyu was obviously no longer the weak and crying Lin Daiyu in the original novel. So he nodded, turned around and quickly left the yard.

After Jia Huan left, Lin Daiyu immediately ordered people to lock the gate of the courtyard, and asked several maids to bring heavy objects to prop up the door. Then she returned to the house with the other girls and waited anxiously for news.

As soon as Jia Huan stepped out of the courtyard, his two sword-like eyebrows raised instantly, like two sharp swords drawn from their sheaths. The murderous aura that was inadvertently revealed made the two servants guarding the door gasp in shock.

The reason why Jia Huan used the strategy of escaping and rushed back to Yangzhou as quickly as possible was because he was worried about the safety of Lin Ruhai and Lin Daiyu. However, he did not expect that the other party would be so bold and directly launched an attack on the Salt Inspectorate's Office.

You have to know that Yangzhou City is densely populated, and the slightest disturbance will be known to all neighbors, not to mention such a big move as directly attacking the Salt Inspectorate's Office. This is absolutely impossible to cover up. Moreover, the people currently responsible for guarding the gates of the old city of Yangzhou are all salt soldiers under Lin Ruhai, who only obey Lin Ruhai himself. Even in this situation, the other party dared to attack, which shows that they are really desperate.

When Jia Huan arrived at the second gate, Captain Dai Shilin and twenty personal soldiers had already received the notice and were waiting there. When they saw Jia Huan, they immediately bowed respectfully and said, "Greetings, Third Master Huan."

Not far from the second gate was the front yard. At this time, shouts, fighting, banging of the gate, and even climbing the wall were clearly audible, indicating that the enemy was launching a fierce attack. Without saying a word, Jia Huan decisively ordered: "Xiao Dai, send a signal immediately to notify Hu Zi and others to enter the city for support."

"Understood!" Dai Shilin immediately took out his hard bow and shot three arrows into the night sky.

The three flaming arrows, with long flame tails, whistled into the sky and exploded into three dazzling fireworks.

As the saying goes, "Preparation is the key to success, while lack of preparation leads to failure." Since Jia Huan rushed back to Yangzhou overnight, how could he not make any preparations? In fact, in addition to the twenty personal soldiers, Tiehu also followed back with two hundred cavalrymen. However, in order to conceal his tracks, Tiehu set out an hour later, and used the excuse that he had discovered the escaped bandit leader Li Hongji and others, and made a detour halfway before returning to Yangzhou.

Shortly after Jia Huan secretly entered the city, Tiehu also led his cavalry to the western suburbs of Yangzhou about ten miles away to set up camp and rest. Beforehand, Jia Huan had agreed with Tiehu that if support was needed, three whistling arrows would be used as a signal.

Let's get back to the point. When the three whistling arrows were launched into the sky, Yangzhou prefect Hong Wenxuan, who was organizing the "thieves" to attack outside, was suddenly caught off guard and thought, "Oh no, could it be that Lin Ruhai was prepared?"

However, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Although Magistrate Hong was extremely worried, it was impossible for him to retreat at this time. So he could only grit his teeth and continue to urge his men to attack.

The wall of the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen was five or six meters high, like a small city. The people under Hong Wenxuan were all made up of slaves from various families, and their fighting power was really mediocre. Even with climbing tools, they were still unable to attack the city. As soon as they climbed to the top of the wall, they were stabbed down by spears extending from inside, and were either dead or injured, and there were wailing all over the place.

After more than ten people were killed or injured, no one dared to climb the wall anymore. No matter how the leader urged them, no one dared to go up. Just when Hong Wenxuan was at a loss, the commander of the Jinyiwei, Yi Hong, and his gang were killed by the group of assassins from the palace and fled back in a panic.

Yi Hong had brought a total of fifty Jinyiwei with him before he left. After all the escape, he only had about twenty people left. It was just like the saying "beating a dog with a cucumber" - more than half of them were killed. The remaining twenty people were almost all injured and in a very miserable state.

Originally, Yi Hong planned to flee back to the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen and hold his ground behind closed doors. However, just as he had just fled back to the vicinity of the Yamen, before he could recover from his shock, he saw that the street in front of the door was crowded with people in black, at least several hundred of them. He was immediately frightened and stopped in his tracks.

"Sir, what should we do now?" asked the confidant Lu Youwei with a deathly pale face.

"Charge!" Yi Hong is a ruthless character after all. Seeing that there is no way forward and there are pursuers behind him, the only option now is to fight to the death. If he can escape back to the yamen, he may still have a chance of survival, because according to his understanding of Jia Huan, since this kid rushed back overnight, he is likely to have a backup plan.

With this in mind, Yi Hong took the lead, brandishing his sword and charging forward. Seeing this, Lu Youwei and others had no choice but to follow. As a result, they were pleasantly surprised to find that the men in black blocking the front were very weak. Compared with the group of men in black chasing them from behind, they were not at the same level at all. They were defeated by just one charge and dodged to both sides.

Yi Hong and the others were overjoyed. Driven by a strong desire to survive, they wielded their swords even more ferociously and successfully reached the east corner gate.

"I am Yi Hong, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Open the door quickly!" Yi Hong knocked on the door and shouted loudly.

It is worth mentioning here that the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen is more than 50 meters long along the street and more than 150 meters deep, with a total area of ​​nearly 10,000 square meters. There are three gates on the front, namely the main gate, the east corner gate and the west corner gate.

The East Corner Gate is usually used for yamen runners, while the West Corner Gate is used exclusively for the families of the Lin family. Yi Hong and his Jinyiwei usually go through the East Corner Gate, and the people now in charge of guarding the East Corner Gate are some of the Jinyiwei who stayed behind at the yamen.

Naturally, the Jinyiwei recognized Yi Hong's voice and dared not delay. They quickly opened the east corner gate and let Yi Hong and others in. But now things were in trouble. The assassins who were chasing them saw them and immediately rushed up to seize the door. Two Jinyiwei tried to close the door but were shot dead by sharp crossbow arrows.

Boom boom…

The East Corner Gate was immediately completely opened by the swarming assassins. The prefect Hong Wenxuan was overjoyed when he saw this and deliberately shouted loudly: "The East Corner Gate is open, everyone rush in and kill the dog official Lin Ruhai to avenge the boss."

The men in black immediately poured in like a tide. Yi Hong saw that he could not stop them, so he could only lead the remaining Jinyiwei to flee towards the second gate.

At this time, Jia Huan led Dai Shilin and twenty other personal soldiers to the front yard, where they met Lu Xiangsheng and the salt soldiers' commander Jiang Bin.

"Ziming, we've lost the east corner gate. The thieves have already rushed in. They are too numerous and powerful to be defeated. Retreat to the second gate quickly." Lu Xiangsheng raised his voice to warn.

As soon as he finished speaking, the main gate of the Salt Inspectorate's office was opened by the thieves, and countless men in black rushed in holding torches, like a flood that had broken through a dam, unstoppable.

(End of this chapter)