Love Lock

Chapter 246 The Leisurely Strolling Young Man

Song Yuanqing's pupils suddenly contracted. He vaguely saw something flying from the direction of the council hall, but it was so fast that he couldn't even catch a glimpse of it.

Even more terrifying, from a distance of four or five hundred meters, the mysterious hidden weapon could hit exactly where it was supposed to, striking the commander of the personal guards' nose with perfect accuracy.

Such archery skills are truly terrifying.

He had practiced martial arts for many years and had never seen such powerful masters in the Great Jing Dynasty. The commander of the army and the commander of the personal guards were completely like monkeys being teased in front of these two masters.

Song Yuanqing dared not presume that these two experts had come to save him, knowing he didn't have that much influence.

But it's clear that these two experts came specifically to deal with Qinghe's commander...

While Song Yuanqing was still in a daze, another sound came from the other side of the big tree.

"Hey, you little rascal," the voice from the tree said, feigning annoyance, "I haven't even agreed to whether it counts or not, and you've already fired? It doesn't count, it doesn't count!"

Qinghe staggered back two steps, her left hand unconsciously pressing against her bleeding wrist.

He looked around and noticed that the soldiers' eyes had changed—from awe to suspicion, and some were even secretly backing away.

The old marshal suddenly realized that he was standing on the edge of a cliff. He couldn't afford to offend those two experts, but he could still handle Song Yuanqing.

“General Song.” Qinghe turned to look at Song Yuanqing, each word seemingly squeezed out from between her teeth, “We have served as officials in the same court for many years. If you surrender today, I will guarantee the safety of your family.”

Song Yuanqing did not answer immediately. He turned towards the big tree and the council hall, solemnly clasped his hands in a salute, and raised his voice several decibels.

"May I ask your honorable names, sirs? I, Song, am deeply grateful for your life-saving grace!"

The moment Song Yuanqing raised his head, tears welled up in his eyes.

Regardless of whether these two experts were after him or not, they had just saved his life. He had to express his gratitude first.

Seeing that Song Yuanqing ignored her, Qinghe turned to look at the big tree and shouted loudly.

"Song Yuanqing is a traitor! His Majesty has decreed that anyone who harbors a traitor will be punished equally! You have disregarded His Majesty's decree to help him, so you must also be accomplices. Archers, take them all down."

As he spoke, he suddenly waved his hand, and the archers in the group raised their weapons in unison, their gleaming arrows aimed at the locations of the two mysterious figures.

From the treetop, a deep laugh, tinged with metallic coldness, rang out: "Marshal Qinghe, what an arrogant official you are! Whoever you call a traitor, is a traitor. What benefits did Prime Minister Wei promise you? Was it the position of Minister of War, or gold and silver treasures?"

The deep voice paused for a moment, then the powerful loudspeaker blasted every word into the hearts of everyone present.

"You used an imperial edict to frame a loyal official. Are you plotting a rebellion? Or are you harboring malicious intentions and want to kill General Song for your own selfish desires?"

The voice echoed throughout the training ground. The soldiers who heard it had various expressions, and whispers arose from the crowded crowd.

Song Yuanqing shuddered. The mysterious man's words seemed to have enlightened him, and he suddenly understood something.

Marshal Qinghe's weathered face twitched, and his left hand, which was covering his wound, trembled slightly.

His brother-in-law, Prime Minister Wei, did indeed send him a letter along with the imperial edict, instructing him to find an opportunity to eliminate Song Yuanqing on the battlefield against Cangzhou, and that Prime Minister Wei would also find a pretext to suppress the Song family in the capital.

But even his most trusted personal guard commander was unaware of this secret, while the people in the tree knew it like the back of their hand.

He felt fear coiling around his heart like a venomous snake, but he knew there was no turning back now.

As the commander-in-chief of an army, if the rumor that "he framed loyal officials for his own selfish desires" were to circulate in the army, his prestige would be greatly diminished.

"Archers, fire! Shoot them to death, life or death!" Qinghe was furious and embarrassed, her voice like tearing silk, her hand covering her wound almost digging into it.

At Qinghe's command, hundreds of crossbowmen cautiously took a few steps forward, raised their crossbows in unison, and the clicking sounds of the taut mechanisms filled the air.

"put!"

The bowstring twanged like a thunderclap, and the arrow whistled through the air in an instant.

The first wave of arrows soared into the sky, the dense clusters of arrows weaving a deadly net under the sunlight, cascading down with a fierce wind.

Then the second and third waves were launched in succession, with the rear arrows chasing the tail feathers of the front arrows, drawing a chilling arc in the air.

Unfortunately, the people in the tree didn't even try to dodge.

Although the crossbow bolts are more powerful than ordinary arrows, because they are fired from flat ground, their maximum range is only about 200 meters, which is still far from reaching the ancient pine tree.

Seeing that the crossbow bolts were ineffective, and the soldiers were too frightened to advance by the mysterious hidden weapon from before, Qinghe was extremely frustrated.

The commander of the personal guards had already fainted. The wound on his wrist had caused him to lose too much blood, making him dizzy and unsteady on his feet.

But relying on the fact that he had more men under his command, he still forced himself to shout loudly.

"Two cowards who don't even dare to show their faces dare to spout nonsense here? If you've got the guts..."

The voice from the tree immediately interrupted him, responding with disdain: "Tch! Who said we dare not show ourselves? Blackie, go down and meet him."

"Okay!" came the clear, cheerful reply.

The figure that had been lying on the eaves of the council hall slowly got up, even tidied his clothes, and then lightly leaped down and landed steadily on the ground.

He had a long object on his back and seemed to be holding something in front of his chest. The distance was too great for the people present to make out clearly.

The sunlight illuminated his wheat-colored face, making him look no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, with a mischievous smile on his lips.

Seeing him finally land and appear, Qinghe narrowed her eyes and coldly ordered the guards beside her, "Go and capture him quickly."

As soon as she finished speaking, Qinghe's mouth curled into a sinister smile.

No matter how strong the opponent is, they cannot possibly defeat his army of 100,000. As long as they dare to show themselves and land, he is confident that they will not be able to return.

Upon receiving the order, the entire guard battalion of about a hundred men immediately poured out, swarming forward and skimming towards the council hall.

The boy walked slowly towards them, his young face showing no fear, but rather a faint smile.

When the guards at the forefront were a few dozen steps away from him, the boy suddenly picked up the black box in his arms.

"Ta-ta-ta! Ta-ta-ta!"

A series of crackling sounds, like popping beans, reverberated through the sky. The soldiers at the forefront felt as if they had crashed into an invisible wall, their chests bursting into blooms of blood.

Some people collapsed while running, while others clutched their shoulders and spun around in place. Even more terrifying was the seemingly endless supply of hidden weapons, which felled more than twenty people in the blink of an eye. The young man pulled the trigger and advanced forward as if no one else was there, his personal guards, who had just rushed forward, unable to get close at all.

Upon seeing this, the soldiers on the training ground were all so shocked that they couldn't close their mouths and dejectedly dropped their weapons.

The marshal's elite personal guards were powerless against the boy's hidden weapons, so these lowly soldiers naturally knew their own limitations.

This stunned silence lasted only a moment; in the blink of an eye, the training ground was in complete chaos.

The warhorses neighed in alarm, the soldiers pushed and shoved each other, some shouted "Sorcery!", and many more dropped their weapons and fled in all directions.

On the platform, Song Yuanqing appeared calm, but his heart was in turmoil.

He knew these two mysterious people wouldn't hurt him, but the weapon in the boy's hand was so powerful that it made him question his existence.

He involuntarily looked down at his hands. His years of diligent martial arts practice, day and night, were utterly useless against this weapon; it all seemed futile.

At this moment, Marshal Qinghe watched with a deathly pale face as his carefully trained elite troops fell like wheat in swathes, while the devilish young man simply strolled forward leisurely.

When he couldn't see the mysterious man earlier, he boasted that the other party was a cowardly rat who dared not show his face. But now that the other party had appeared in front of him, he wished he were a rat so he could burrow into a hole and hide.

The pain from the wound made his temples throb, and he could no longer hold his wound. He felt dizzy and was about to fall to the ground.

"Marshal, let's go!" The lieutenant suddenly grabbed Qinghe's arm. "That hidden weapon can hit a target from a hundred paces away!"

Marshal Qinghe seemed to have lost his soul, only muttering repeatedly, "Impossible...impossible, how could the Great Jing Dynasty possess such a weapon..."

Just then, the loudspeaker in the tree blared again: "Soldiers, do not panic. Our target is only Marshal Qinghe, and has nothing to do with you brothers."

The soldiers on the scene slowed their pace, but they were so nervous that they dared not even breathe. They all retreated far away from the command platform, watching the weapon in the young man's hand warily.

Although the mysterious man said it had nothing to do with them and was only aimed at Marshal Qinghe, they were still afraid that the hidden weapon might be unpredictable and accidentally injure them.

Seeing that the situation was under control, the sounds from the trees suddenly became chilling.

"Marshal Qinghe, can we now have a proper discussion about the imperial edict?" The loudspeaker broadcast the words to every terrified soldier. "Or, let the 100,000 soldiers hear how you colluded with the Ministry of War to embezzle military pay at every level?"

Upon hearing this, the scene erupted in uproar.

Marshal Qinghe's already shaky body seemed to be struck by a heavy hammer. His eyes widened and his voice was weak and trembling.

"Who...who exactly are you people?"

"Heh! A man who acts on behalf of Heaven." A clear voice suddenly rang out beside Marshal Qinghe. In the short time it took to exchange just a few words, the young man had already arrived at the command platform.

Marshal Qinghe flinched, looking at the boy as if he were a demon.

Even his hundred or so personal guards couldn't stop him, allowing him to walk right up to him with ease.

The soldiers below the reviewing stand stood motionless, and not one of them stepped forward to stop them.

When she came to her senses, Qinghe pushed the deputy general forward to block the attack. The deputy general was usually quite skilled in martial arts, but at this moment, his hand holding the knife was trembling.

He had just raised his knife but hadn't yet brought it down when the boy's index finger twitched slightly. A gunshot rang out, his body froze for a moment, and then he fell to the ground.

All of Qinghe's personal guards and lieutenants were dead, and the area around the command platform was littered with corpses.

Just then, an order came from the air: "Alright, boy. Tie him up! The prince said he still has a use."

A prince?!
Song Yuanqing suddenly jolted, his fists clenching instinctively, his wary gaze shooting towards the direction of the large tree.

A burly figure strode over; he was a middle-aged man in his early forties, dressed in coarse cloth but unable to conceal his menacing aura.

He held a large megaphone in his left hand and casually pushed aside soldiers blocking his way with his right, causing crowds to part like a tide wherever he went.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on his smiling face.

“This person…” Song Yuanqing narrowed his eyes, feeling that the person was very familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen him before.

As the man approached the reviewing stand, he suddenly braced himself against the three-foot-high railing with one hand, and with a swift somersault, leaped up. The clean and decisive movement drew a murmur of gasps from the soldiers below.

The man stepped onto the stage, first kicking the limp Marshal Qinghe, who had collapsed to the ground, then bowing respectfully to Song Yuanqing with a deep, thunderous voice.

"Greetings, General Song. I am a personal guard of the Prince of Cangzhou. The brothers in the camp all call me Old Meng."

"The King of Cangzhou?! You're one of the King of Cangzhou's men?" Song Yuanqing found it unbelievable.

He had just rushed back from Cangzhou, how could the royal guards have arrived so quickly?

A smile appeared on Old Meng's dark face as he took out a gilded token from his pocket.

Sunlight danced on the four characters "King of Cangzhou," and Old Meng said with a smile, "His Highness anticipated today's events. That's why he sent his subordinates and ten guards to infiltrate the military camp first, just to save General Song at this moment."

As he spoke, he patted the strange weapon on the boy's chest, "These weapons were specially prepared to save the general."

Song Yuanqing's eyelids twitched, and he finally understood why he had been drunk for three days in Cangzhou. It turned out that it was all arranged by the King of Cangzhou, with the purpose of setting everything up in advance.

Old Meng brought the megaphone to his lips, his deep voice carrying far. "Brothers, come out!"

In an instant, three gray figures emerged from behind the grain stacks in the distance, two black figures leaped down from the watchtower, and four more people walked directly out from the ranks of soldiers.

Nine men walked toward the reviewing stand, each carrying a shiny black weapon on their chest, and lined up neatly in front of it.

"Uncle Meng, I'm going down too." The young man nodded to Old Meng, then leaped down from the platform and rejoined the ranks.

Song Yuanqing broke out in a cold sweat. How could so many people have managed to sneak into his camp without anyone noticing and lie in ambush for so many days?

This is absolutely terrifying!
If they hadn't meant no harm, the soldiers in this camp would probably have been lying dead everywhere long ago.

Just as Song Yuanqing was stunned, Old Meng's iron-like hand slapped Song Yuanqing's shoulder armor.

“My lord said that General Song is the only military officer in the Song family and is relatively close to Cangzhou. My lord can save you.” He glanced at Qinghe, who was lying on the ground, “but those in the Song family who are officials in the court are probably going to suffer.”

Song Yuanqing's Adam's apple bobbed, and the muscles beneath his clothes were taut and aching.

The image of Qinghe's long sword thrusting at him was still vivid in his mind.

At that moment, he already understood why Qinghe treated him this way.