Chapter 792: The Royal Palace of the Hanging Arch Palace
Although he encountered thieves who attacked him this time, Zhao Hongrun was not panicked.
Don't think that his two-horse carriage is just for show. In fact, the carriages in Prince Su's Mansion are all built by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau. They appear to be made of solid wood, but in fact they have iron plates inside. Once the mechanism is turned on and the doors and windows are closed.
, the entire carriage looks like a large iron box. Unless it encounters those heavy-duty crossbows developed by the Smelting Bureau, ordinary crossbows cannot shoot through the embedded iron plate that is nearly a knuckle thick.
In comparison, Zhao Hongrun was more worried about the member of the evil gang on the other carriage - Xu Pu, the official of the Qiu Examination Division of the Ministry of Justice.
At this time, in the carriage, Zongwei Lu Mu and Mu Qing began to rummage through boxes and cabinets looking for things.
Under the astonished gazes of the two elders, Xu Rong, the Minister of Dali Temple, and Chu Shuli, the Prime Minister of Daliang Prefecture, they dug out a box from the carriage.
Xu Rong and Chu Shuli took a curious look, and then discovered that the box contained several hand crossbows with strange shapes.
Perhaps noticing the curious expressions of the two elders, Lu Mu clapped the crossbow in his hand and said with a smile: "The private goods of the Smelting Bureau will probably become the military-made weapons of the Wei Dynasty next year."
Xu Rong and Chu Shuli were stunned for a moment, and then felt relieved. After all, a certain King Su was in charge of the Smelting Bureau, and it was normal to have such a weapon.
On the contrary, Wen Qi, a retainer of Prince Su's Mansion, opened his eyes wide in surprise. Perhaps because in his original identity, he did not have the opportunity to come into contact with military-made weapons, so he was even more curious.
"Wei Jiao, continue."
Lu Mu quickly distributed the hand crossbows to the Zongwei on the carriage. In fact, they were just Wei Jiao, Mu Qing, Zhou Pu and others. As for Chu Heng, who was strong but not very smart,
This kind of private goods is not as useful as the sword on his waist.
In addition to the hand crossbow, there were also some sleeve arrows in the box. The Zongwei quickly put them on their arms. After all, they could be used to save their lives at critical moments.
"Your Highness."
Lu Mu handed a pair of sleeve arrows to Zhao Hongrun.
Zhao Hongrun took it and put it on his right arm, but his eyes were still staring out the window.
On the street outside the car window, two groups of people dressed like civilians were fighting fiercely, which made Zhao Hongrun a little confused.
"If the first group of people are trying to kidnap their companion Xu Pu, then the second group of people...who are they?"
Just when Zhao Hongrun was muttering secretly, except for Chu Heng, the other clan guards all got off the carriage and met with Gao Kuo, Zhong Zhao, Zhu Gui and He Miao, the clan guards in another carriage next to them. Eight clan guards
The guard's sword was unsheathed and he quickly protected the two carriages.
The Zongwei did not rashly intervene in the melee in front, because the fight between the two groups in front also made the Zongwei feel a little surprised. Therefore, they just passively protected the carriage, holding crossbows and holding swords tightly in warning.
"Who are these guys?" Mu Qing asked Wei Jiao, the Zongwei Chief, with a frown.
Wei Jiao slowly shook his head.
The fighting that was unfolding in front of the clan guards at this moment seemed like the first group of people were trying to attack the carriage, while the latter group of people seemed to be protecting the carriage.
The first group of people were all dressed up as civilians, but looking at the way they waved their weapons, they didn't look like civilians at all. At least these people were not afraid of life and death; while the latter group of people were dressed in all kinds of clothes.
There were peddlers selling goods along the street, farmers setting up stalls on the roadside selling wild fruits, hunters carrying game, passers-by, and even guys who looked as fair and white as scholars.
The latter group of people, it can be seen that they are a little timid and not as fearless as the other group, but even so, they still desperately protect the two carriages, causing the Zongwei to temporarily regard them as
One of their own, they used crossbows to shoot the other group of people from a distance as cover.
With the joint efforts of these people and the Zongwei, the first group of people rushed away several times, leaving behind more than a dozen corpses and retreated decisively.
Seeing this, the next group of people quickly chased after them. Only one person put away the weapon in his hand and walked slowly towards the two carriages.
"stop!"
Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao shouted in a deep voice, pointed the hand crossbow at the visitor, narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who are you?"
The visitor unloaded his weapon and raised his hands to show that he had no ill intentions. At the same time, he said: "Masters Zongwei, please don't be impulsive. I am not a thief because I hold a low position... I have a token in my arms that can identify me."
"Humble job?"
Wei Jiao frowned slightly and signaled to Mu Qing, "Go and search him."
Mu Qing nodded and slowly approached the man with a wary look on his face.
However, the man did not move at all, and Mu Qing came to him and groped for a while.
"He had no weapons on him."
While speaking to Wei Jiao and others, Mu Qing searched for a token from the man and looked down at it.
However, the words engraved on this token made Mu Qing open his eyes in shock - "Yan Shun, the left commander of the Royal Court Guards of Chui Gong Palace".
"Chang... hang... you..."
Pointing to the token in his hand and the man in front of him, Mu Qing was shocked and speechless.
Although he had never heard of "Yu Ting Wei", the prefix with the three words "Cui Gong Palace" was enough to make him afraid to make any independent claims.
Perhaps guessing Mu Qing's thoughts, the man whispered: "Lord Zongwei, this is not the place to talk, and it is not easy to make a big show of your humble position... His Royal Highness Prince Su is on the carriage in front. I hope to meet you.
Meet Your Highness."
Mu Qing took a deep look at the man, nodded and said in a low voice: "My lord, please wait here for a moment. Let me report to His Highness Prince Su first..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhao Hongrun's voice came from the carriage: "Mu Qing, ask him to come over."
Hearing this, Mu Qing no longer hesitated and took the man to the carriage of Prince Su's Mansion.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun had moved to sit near the car door and looked at the man up and down.
Seeing this, the man knocked on the ground without hesitation, clasped his fists, and whispered: "Yan Shun, Imperial Guard, pays homage to His Highness Prince Su."
At the same time, Mu Qing also handed this person's identity token to Zhao Hongrun.
Like Mu Qing, Zhao Hongrun was stunned for a moment after seeing the inscription on the token, because he had never heard of "Yu Ting Wei", but when he carefully looked at the wooden token in his hand
, but he discovered that the texture and workmanship of this token were of the highest quality, and the style of the carvings was very similar to that of the "Palace Building Bureau" managed by the Chamberlain.
After pondering for a moment, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said in a deep voice: "I have never heard of the 'Cui Gong Palace Imperial Guards'..."
After hearing this, Yan Shun didn't care and said with a chuckle: "His Royal Highness Prince Su has never heard of it. It's not surprising. In fact, there are ninety people in the court who don't know about us... After all, we haven't built it for a long time. For the time being,
...For the time being, we can only rely on the supervision of the Internal Attendant Supervisor..."
As soon as he heard the words "internal servant supervisor", Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but feel a slight movement in his heart.
Because he suddenly remembered something: in the nearly one year since he left Daliang to lead his army to the Chu Kingdom, and then returned to Daliang at the end of May this year, the internal supervisor's monitoring of Daliang had been greatly strengthened, so much so that even he
The Shangshui Qingya under Zhao Hongrun was known to his father in Chui Gong Hall, and was nicknamed Little Crow.
"..."
After taking a deep look at Yan Shun, Zhao Hongrun was convinced.
At this time, a group of people came back from a distance, roughly five of them, walking towards Zhao Hongrun - the same people who had just helped protect the carriage with Yan Shun.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun waved his hand to indicate to the clan guards that there was no need to stop him and waited for those people to come forward.
But before he could ask, Yan Shun asked the other party: "Tong Xin, have you ever caught him?"
A man named Tong Xin shook his head and said with a bit of resentment: "I have mobilized soldiers to intercept them in front, but those rats still jumped into the ditch and escaped."
"Have you ever caught anyone alive?" Yanshun asked again.
Tong Xin shook his head and said bitterly: "Anyone who thinks he can't escape will take poison and kill himself."
A trace of annoyance flashed in Yan Shun's eyes, and then he seemed to remember something and quickly reminded him: "Forget about this, let's first pay homage to His Highness Prince Su."
"Yes!" Tong Xin nodded. Under the vigilant eyes of the clan guards, he walked to Zhao Hongrun's carriage, took out a token from his arms, presented it with both hands, and handed it to Zhao Hongrun respectfully.
, whispered in his mouth: "Guard Tong Xin, pay homage to His Highness King Su."
Zhao Hongrun took the token and looked at it twice, and saw that there was also a line of words engraved on the token: "Tong Xin, the Right Commander of the Royal Court Guards of Chui Gong Hall".
Compared with the Yanshun token just now, except for the slightly different engravings, the two tokens are almost identical in pattern carving.
"The workmanship is so fine... Apart from me, Ye Zao Bureau, I'm afraid only Gong Zao Bureau has this habit..."
Passing the two tokens in his hands to Yan Shun and Tong Xin respectively, Zhao Hongrun pondered for a moment and asked, "Why are the two adults here?"
Yan Shun and Tong Xin looked at each other, and then Yan Shun lowered his voice and said: "Your Highness, Prince Su, I am sorry for taking such a humble position. In fact, Your Highness, you, Dali Temple Minister Xu Rong, and Daliang Mansion Minister Chu Shuli, you three
Your whereabouts over the past two days have all been under the protection of our "Guard Guard". We also know that you three have just captured a key criminal..." Having said this, he glanced at another carriage and then
Then he finished the second half of the sentence: "...the former Ministry of Punishment punished Kulang officials for stealing stolen goods, Yu Yan."
"..."
Zhao Hongrun frowned subconsciously, and then gradually relaxed.
"It's really remarkable. The level of supervision that the Internal Affairs Supervisor has over Daliang..."
He couldn't help but be a little surprised. After all, it was only about an hour ago that they captured Yu Yan. He didn't expect that the Arch Guard had already mastered this information.
"It seems that the Ministry of Punishment not only has spies from the evil party, but also has the father's spies..."
Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun asked in a deep voice: "Has your father also learned about this?"
Hearing this, Yan Shun clasped his fists and whispered: "According to the news from the palace, His Majesty is on his way to Dali Temple..."