Aoyama

Chapter 240 Murder and Silence

Chen Ji commanded the Yulin Army to catch up, while he drove Zao Zao and rushed into the darkness like an arrow.

However, the Yulin Army did not move.

In Kule Street under the night sky, the torches in the hands of the Yulin Army flickered in the cold wind. They turned their eyes to Li Xuan and the prince, waiting for orders.

Qi Zhuozhuo stood there holding the reins, and said unhappily, "This kid has no merit or official position, so what right does he have to give orders to my Yulin Army? It's so cold, what if he fails again?"

Li Xuan glared at him and said, "If you don't have a brain, stop talking. Have you forgotten what your sister told you before coming to Guyuan?"

Qi Chenzhuo said aggrievedly: "Brother-in-law..."

Li Xuan was furious: "Shut up!"

He looked up at the prince sitting on his horse, clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, the army just now deliberately led us the wrong way, which has proved that Chen Ji was right. The most urgent task is to find the thief of Jing Dynasty. There is no time to delay... Your Highness?"

Before Li Xuan could finish his words, the prince had already turned his horse and chased after Chen Ji: "Yulin Army, listen to my order, follow me to kill the Jing Dynasty spies."

"Yes!" The Yulin Army mounted their horses with torches in hand and charged towards Shache Street with heavy horse hooves, like a flowing galaxy of fire.

At this moment, Chen Ji held the young man he had captured and asked loudly, "How do we get to the next intersection?"

The young man was almost blinded by the wind. He barely recognized the direction and shouted, "General, go north!"

Chen Ji's face was solemn, and he couldn't help but wonder: How many spies are there among the border troops? What other plans do these spies have besides poisoning the well water?
The most important thing is, has Deputy General Zhou been instigated by Jing Chao? Could this be the reason why Jing Chao's Tiance Army launched a surprise attack on Guyuan?
For a moment, he only felt that Guyuan City was shrouded in layers of fog, and he had only glimpsed one-tenth or one-twelfth of it.

However, at this moment, Chen Ji saw a familiar figure in front of him, it was the border soldier who had led the way just now!
The other side had grabbed a horse from somewhere and was galloping. Chen Ji immediately threw the young man on the straw stack beside the road and sped up to catch up with the border soldiers.

A soldier on the border heard the sound of horse hooves coming from behind and turned to look. When he saw Zaozao and Chenji rushing towards him, he thought to himself that something was wrong.

He drew a machete from his waist, and when the horse passed a tavern, he chopped at the wine banner standing on a wooden pole.

Amidst the flying wood chips, the wine banner fell diagonally behind the border soldier, blocking Chen Ji's way.

The prince saw this and shouted behind Chen Ji: "Be careful!"

In an instant, Zaozao jumped up with all his might, and flew over the wine banner carrying Chen Ji!

With a loud bang, the wine banner fell heavily behind Chen Ji, stirring up dust on the dirt road.

The prince rode his horse through the dense smoke and dust and saw Chen Ji lying on Zaozao's back, getting closer and closer to the soldiers.

Gradually, there was only one body length between Chen Ji and the border soldier, but the soldier no longer thought about how to get rid of Chen Ji, but raised his machete across his neck, intending to commit suicide!
Chen Ji was shocked, assassins!

Without having time to think, he took his feet off the stirrups, jumped lightly to squat on the saddle, and then leaped again and pounced towards the border soldiers.

In mid-air, he reached out and grabbed the wrist of the border soldier holding the knife, twisted the man and threw him to the ground, rolling several times. His cheeks, hair, and clothes were all covered with mottled yellow soil.

After the border soldier stopped rolling, he wanted to pick up his dropped machete, but Chen Ji had already taken a step forward, twisting his arm and pinning him to the ground.

Chen Ji asked in a serious tone: "How many spies does Jingchao have in the border troops?"

The soldier of the border army sneered with half his face on the ground: "You are the Jing Dynasty spy!"

Chen Ji suddenly became confused: "Then why did you help the Jing Dynasty spy escape? Why did you work with the Jing Dynasty to pollute the well water in Guyuan City?"

The border soldiers shut their mouths tightly and said nothing more.

Chen Ji was silent for a moment, then began to search the other person's clothes to try to find any hidden weapons.

But just as he was removing the worn rattan armor from the other person's body, a pair of grey cotton gloves fell out from his arms.

When Chen Ji picked up the gloves from the ground, he could still feel the warmth of the gloves. The cotton gloves were brand new, and it seemed that they had never been worn.

When the border soldier saw Chen Ji taking the gloves away, he immediately struggled and said, "Give me back my gloves!"

Chen Ji was slightly startled, then immediately realized that "hand cage" was the name for gloves in the northern part of Ning Dynasty.

He didn't expect that just taking away the opponent's gloves would cause the other party to struggle violently.

"Did you hide intelligence for Jing Dynasty spies in there?" Chen Ji looked at the gloves carefully. He pressed the border soldier with his knees and freed his hands to search the inside of the gloves, but there was nothing.

He picked up the machete on the ground and cut the gloves, but there was only white, brand new cotton wool inside, and no "intelligence" at all.

When the soldiers saw that he had cut his gloves, they were furious and shouted: "You are the running dogs of the imperial court, persecuting the loyal and good! One day, I will make you see the flood and kill all of you treacherous people!"

Chen Ji fell into deep thought...Persecution of loyal officials? Are you talking about General Wen Tao? But it was more than ten years ago that General Wen Tao was persecuted by the eunuch party. Why did the border army bring up the old matter again?

and many more!

He suddenly looked down at the torn gloves in his hand, and recalled the deal Prince Jing had made with Chen Liqin: as long as Prince Jing could persuade Chen Ji to study the classics with Prince Daosheng, the Ministry of Revenue would purchase a batch of cotton gloves for the border troops.

Chen Ji was in doubt. Could it be that these gloves were the ones that the Ministry of Revenue had just allocated to the border troops? And the "loyal and good" mentioned by the border soldiers actually refers to Prince Jing? !
He lowered his body and asked in a deep voice, "Do you want to avenge Prince Jing?"

The border soldiers suddenly widened their eyes, then buried their heads in the loess, and refused to say another word.

When Chen Ji was about to ask again, the Yulin Army had already arrived. Li Xuan signaled the Yulin Army to lift up the border soldiers on the left and right.

One of the Yulin soldiers raised his fist and punched the soldier in the abdomen: "Run? Are you still going to run?"

The border soldier raised his head, spat on the Yulin Army's face, and said ferociously: "How come your fists are so weak, you dog thief? Kill me now if you have the guts! If you don't kill me, you will take my surname!" The Yulin Army was furious and started punching and kicking him.

Chen Ji turned his head away without looking any further and got back on his horse.

The prince rode up to him and praised him, "Just now I saw that Brother Chen Ji was very skillful and did things without dragging his feet. He is truly a great general."

Chen Ji clasped his fists and saluted: "Your Highness, thank you for your praise. I am only doing what I should do. This person is a tough guy and I can't tell anything about him in a short time. The most urgent task is to catch the thieves in Shache Street first, so that they can't harm the people of Guyuan."

The prince nodded: "Let's go!"

A mile was reached in a flash, and when they arrived at the intersection of Shache Street, Chen Ji stopped his horse.

He looked at the only elm tree in Shache Street and could smell a faint stench from more than ten feet away. This was it!
Li Xuan ordered his attendants, "Put out the torches to prevent the marsh gas from igniting."

Chen Ji said calmly, "No need. It takes at least a month to ferment biogas in winter. They just collected the golden juice today, so there won't be any biogas."

The Yulin soldiers looked at him, but still followed Li Xuan's orders, extinguished their torches and moved forward in the moonlight.

Chen Ji did not dismount, and stayed with the prince together with Li Xuan and Chen Liqin.

The prince looked at Chen Ji and said, "Brother Chen Ji, are you not going to take action?"

Chen Ji bowed and said, "In terms of fighting skills, the Yulin Army's formation is more powerful, so I won't show off my ugliness. But the Crown Prince was fearless from beginning to end, like a young general who had been on the battlefield for a long time."

The prince laughed out loud, turned to Chen Liqin and said, "Brother Chen Ji speaks much better than Brother Wen Zong!"

Chen Liqin hurriedly said humbly: "My son, what you said is true. You are a wealthy man, but you are willing to work hard for the people of Guyuan. After I return to Beijing, I will let the world know that they have a good prince who cares about the people of the world."

The prince laughed, "You two are really praising me to the skies, Master Chen. My brother Chen Ji said earlier that he had no interest in the imperial examinations. How about letting him work in my Zhongcui Palace? If you agree, I will submit a memorial to my father when I return to the capital, asking for a position as the Right Guard for him."

Chen Liqin was startled. The Left Guard was now held concurrently by Li Xuan, and the Right Guard was still vacant. However, the Right Guard was a sixth-rank official position. How could the prince want to give it to Chen Ji? Even if Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao filled the vacancy after passing the imperial examination, they could only start from the seventh rank at most.

However, he quickly waved his hands: "No, no, Your Highness, absolutely not."

The prince asked in confusion, "Master Chen disagrees?"

Chen Liqin hesitated for a moment and explained carefully: "My son is stubborn by nature and is not worthy of such an important task. Besides, I still hope that he can take the imperial examination..."

The prince smiled and said, "Then we will discuss it after we return to the capital."

Chen Ji glanced at Chen Liqin calmly without saying anything.

At this time, the Yulin Army had surrounded the city from three directions: the front street, the back alley, and the roof. Qi Chengzhuo chopped open the main gate from the street with a knife, and the Yulin Army swarmed in.

The next moment, someone shouted loudly: "Be careful, officer!"

The earthen wall facing the street collapsed with a loud bang, and a Yulin soldier was unexpectedly blasted out from inside and buried under the wall.

Six masked men in black rushed out of the yard, forcing the Yulin Army to retreat again and again.

Li Xuan shouted: "Form a formation!"

The Yulin Army quickly formed a battle formation and surrounded the six men in black. The sound of weapons clashing could be heard on Shache Street, and the fighting was extremely fierce.

In front of the army, even the officers were at a loss.

The next moment, the men in black saw that there was no way out, so they joined forces in pairs, threw their two companions several feet away, and suddenly left the army formation.

The two men in black did not intend to escape. As soon as they landed, they rushed towards the prince like cheetahs, with swords in hand, from a distance of more than twenty feet.

Chen Liqin pulled the reins in panic, trying to turn the horse around and leave: "Your Highness, hurry up!"

At the critical moment, with a clang, Chen Ji ignored Chen Liqin, stretched out his hand to draw the long sword from the prince's waist, and rode his horse to block in front of the prince.

At this moment, the sound of tiles breaking was heard on both sides of Shache Street.

Chen Ji turned his head and saw that on the roofs on both sides, there appeared archers from the border army with their bows fully drawn.

The archers arrived at some point and started shooting. Arrows rained down like rain, blocking all the ways for the two men in black to move forward or backward, and shot them into hedgehogs.

The archers drew another arrow from their quivers and shot it at the remaining four men in black.

The iron arrow flew out of the bowstring, and the bowstring made a buzzing sound in the air. Li Xuan roared: "Yulin Army, get out of the way!"

The Yulin soldiers retreated one after another and watched the men in black being nailed to the ground by arrows, without a single one left alive.

Chen Ji looked towards the roof in doubt. He pulled the reins of the white horse under the prince's seat, protected the prince and slowly retreated, fearing that these border army archers would draw their bows and arrows again.

These archers came too suddenly, as if they had been waiting for a long time. Moreover, the other party killed people too decisively, as if they were killing to silence them.

Are the border troops planning to rebel? !
At this moment, Shache Street suddenly became quiet, and Chen Ji then heard the slow sound of horse hooves coming from behind him, getting closer and closer.

He turned around suddenly and saw Hu Junxian and Zhou You slowly approaching.

Hu Junxian was a tall and burly man. When he approached, it felt like a mountain pressing down on him, suffocating him.

(End of this chapter)