Chapter 30 Outside Beijing

Once out of the capital, the sun will be dimmed, the caravan passes through the Pavilion without stopping, in the avenue of willows under the eyes of the slow north.

The officers and soldiers of the city patrol division escorted the delegation 18 miles out of the capital and then turned back, leaving the task of guarding along the way to the Kyoto guard division. The main means of transportation for the delegation is the carriage, pulling more than ten in a row, in addition to carrying people, more space is reserved for the rituals required for this trip north.

Sean’s shackles were not removed, and he was detained in the second carriage, in which there was also an official from the Supervisory Yuan responsible for taking care of his daily life. With a smile on his face, the official carefully wiped the felon’s face with a towel that was soft enough not to hurt Sean’s old and withered cheeks.

“If I capture you and use you to threaten the young man named Fan, will it work?” The chain dangled, and Sean’s pale voice rang out in the carriage, only the words naturally exuded a sense of carelessness, as if he had already guessed the answer.

The official who was responsible for his life and living smiled gently and said sincerely, “Mr. Xiao, since it’s my turn to serve you, I have naturally been prepared to be restrained by you for a long time, but as a citizen of the Qing Kingdom, when the time comes, naturally, I will have to take the poison and kill myself, so as not to make it difficult for the adults of the courtyard.”

Sean closed his eyes, the severe coldness in his body gradually faded some, and said softly, “The hair is too long, help me tie it.”

The conversation between the two seemed to omit one thing, that is, Sean was imprisoned by the iron cuffs at this time, how could he restrain this Supervisory Yuan official? Perhaps both of them know clearly in their hearts that once they leave the capital and go far away, relying on these thin iron handcuffs alone, it is absolutely impossible to restrict the horrible Sean’s hands and feet forever.

That official walked to Sean’s side, took out a comb from the small cabinet beside him, and carefully combed Sean’s waist-length snow-white messy hair. The fingers were unusually steady, without a single tremor.

Sean was one of the world’s top nine experts decades ago, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he had been locked up in the Supervisory Institution for the past twenty years, tortured by the torture, and his body and spirit broken by the poisons in the three places in the institution, one would have guessed that he would have long ago advanced into the realm of the great masters.

Rarely, but the sick tiger still has the remaining power, just look at him when he came out of prison when the monitoring hospital as the appearance of the enemy, as well as his body that natural flow of might, you can know that this old man still has a terrible strength.

If Sean stormed out at this moment, I’m afraid that this middle-aged official could not possibly have half a point of resistance, but he still smiled steadily and was full of self-complacency. Sean gave him a somewhat admiring glance, knowing that the other party had only made up his mind a long time ago that once he was restrained by himself, he would immediately take the poison and kill himself, he just didn’t know where his poison was hidden on his body.

“Is Keikoku really so good that it can make you willingly, even full of joy, to keep me, the devil, at your side?” This was something that had always puzzled Cane. Obviously, the officialdom of Qing was also corrupt, but the Northern Wei court that he had served in the beginning had fallen apart in a single night, and although there was a reason why he himself was captured and Marshal War Qingfeng had lost his power, the fighting power of Qing was still strong and somewhat illogical.

The middle aged official said respectfully, ”If I die, the courtyard will be responsible for my family’s future life, and my child will be ordained after he is twelve years old, and I believe that Lord Little Fan will help me take care of it. Little Lord Fan is very rich, it’s really worth it for this broken life of mine to be exchanged for so many things.”

Sean moved his wrist, and the sound of the chains sounded again, somewhat annoyed, “Still these old tactics …… What is your name?”

The middle-aged official laughed and replied, “My name is Wang Qinian.”

The carriage holding the felon Sean was in the second row, Fan Xian lifted the side curtains of the car, squinted slightly at the carriage, waved his hand and summoned a tiger guard, and asked softly, “How about the person arranged next to the carriage?”

What is a tiger guard? This would have to go back to the second conversation between Lord Fan Jian of Sinanbo and Dean Chen Pingping outside the palace, in short, Minister Fan finally couldn’t help but allocate a small portion of the hidden forces he had in his hands to put into the mission when his son was about to leave the country.

Each of these tiger guards has extremely strong force, although the sniping is not as good as the six departments of the Supervisory Yuan, and the collective combat strength is not as good as the five departments of the Supervisory Yuan, but these tiger guards are all selected characters, the loyalty of the protector is unquestionable, and there is an indescribable ruthlessness.

Of course, Fan Xian vaguely guessed that in fact, these tiger guards is the father for the emperor in the palace in charge of his majesty, may also play a role in restraining the role of the Supervisory Yuan, just to restrain the power of the Supervisory Yuan is obviously not only tiger guards in this regard, this time, the Sinanbo can send these seven tiger guards to follow his son to the north, but also through the palace must have been allowed to do so.

The one who followed the first carriage was the leader of the tiger guards, surnamed Gao Da, who respectfully replied, “Don’t worry, young master, although there are no people from the Sixth Office, we are able to ensure stability.”

Because nominally these Tiger Guards belonged to Fan Shangshu’s private armed forces, he addressed Fan Xian using Young Master instead of Lord, but Fan Xian still felt a little strange and smiled.

The officers and soldiers of the surrounding Kyoto Guard Division arched over this strange group of ambassadors, slowly advancing northward. Those officers and soldiers in iron armor were somewhat silent, after all, this was just an idle trip, but those generals who knew the inner workings of the matter were somewhat uncomfortable, their silence representing more of a humiliation.

Over the past ten years, His Majesty, the reigning Emperor, has led the Qing army to fight in the east and the west, and has never lost a battle, which has long made the Qing army accustomed to victory, and last year’s war, which was defined as a “border conflict”, was still a victory for the Qing, but no one could have ever imagined that the Qing as the victorious party was forced to make a great concession because of something very bastardish – a great concession that will be made by both hands, and a great concession that will be made by both hands. A great concession – sending Sean back to the north with both hands!

The words and papers that Fan Xian had spread in the capital had long ago flown to every corner of the world as if they had wings, so these generals were also aware of the sinister role that the Rapunzel had played in this matter, and the military’s dissatisfaction with the royal family seemed to be centered on that beautiful and crazy royal woman.

This is also a problem that Fan Xian still hasn’t been able to figure out until now – although the Eldest Princess is crazy, she’s not stupid, backhandedly selling Duke Yan, the head of the northern secret agents of the Qing Dynasty, to the Northern Qi, what benefit can she actually get from it? If it was just for Zhuang Mo Han to come to the capital to humiliate himself, Fan Xian definitely didn’t believe it, he didn’t think he held such an important position.

If the Eldest Princess was seeking foreign aid from the Northern Qi side for the sake of a future battle for imperial power, but wouldn’t that offend the vast majority of the military forces? No matter how one looked at it, it would feel like a deal that would not pay off.

The caravan had already traveled north for half a day, and as the sun entered the peaks of the mountains, the light became more dim, and the caravan began to take a short break at the edge of a large forest. The deputy officer of the mission came to ask for instructions, and according to the rules, the mission should have stopped for the night at the post station three miles ahead of them.

Fan Xian thought for a while and then shook his head, ordering to pause here first and discuss it later, and then got off the carriage, stretching the numbness and stiffness brought about by the long period of immobility, and walked towards the rear with faith.

The leader of the tiger guards pressed his long sword in his hand and followed behind him in silence. Fan Xian’s gaze dropped, noticing that the tiger guard’s sword was somewhat strangely long, and he couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Would it be inconvenient to pull it out?” He had been taught by Five Bamboos to pay particular attention to reaction speed in battle, and knew that the longer the weapon, the slower the weapon owner’s reaction would be.

Tiger Guard leader Gouda lifted his long blade with a snap and calmly sent it to Fan Xian’s body, explaining, “There is a mechanism so that the blade can be quickened, and since my subordinate is mainly responsible for covering the interception, the seven Tiger Guards in this line are using lengthened blades, just to make the killing range a bit wider.”

Fan Xian nodded, signaling him not to follow him any further, at this time he had already reached the side of the second carriage, gently twitching his nose, he seemed to be able to faintly smell the scent of blood and icy cold coming from the carriage, and couldn’t help but smile slightly, thinking to himself that if Wang Qinian and that old monster stayed all the way, he’d only end up going crazy in the end.

As expected, as soon as he saw Fan Xian get on the carriage, Wang Qinian stood at the mouth of the carriage with a face full of pain and said, “My lord, when can I take a break?”

“Wait two more days.” Fan Xian smiled and patted him on the shoulder, asking, “Has there been any movement from Sean?”

Wang Qinian shook his head and calmly told young Lord Fan about Sean’s every move in the past half day and hour. Fan Xian listened calmly, knowing that Wang Qinian’s words would surely fall into Xiao En’s ears, but he wasn’t worried about anything, and after a long time, he said softly, “I’ll go in and take a look.”

“Dangerous.” Wang Qinian shook his head disapprovingly, “A sick tiger is still a tiger, and although Kenn is greatly inferior at this point in time, he was once an absolute powerhouse on the ninth rank after all, so what will we do if your lordship is accidentally captured by him and threatened?”

Fan Xian responded, “Don’t worry, Sean is no fool, it’s only a dozen miles from the capital, if he tries to make a move at this point, he’s asking for death.” Of course he knew about Sean’s terrifying strength, what did it mean to be a strong person on the ninth rank? One only needed to think of Yan Xiaoyi’s arrow that looked like it came from the heavens when he had explored the palace at night to realize it.

“And we’re going to be traveling together for a long time on this journey, so could it be that I won’t go to see him all the time?” Fan Xian laughed.

In the shadowy carriage, the chilly Sean grimaced, his white hair long tied back. Fan Xian held the small box on his body and lifted the curtain with a smile on his face, saying, “Mr. Xiao, it’s a long way to the upper capital of Northern Qi, so let’s get some food and fresh water in first.”

Xiao En slowly opened his eyes, the cold aura in his eyes fading away as he smiled and said, “Tough luck, Sir Fan.”

Fan Xian didn’t seem to be afraid of Sean’s tactics at all, and with a smile on his face, he opened the food box and carefully fed the pastries in the box into the old man’s lips, which still appeared to be a bit dry, and then fed him some water.

After a moment of silence, Sean suddenly spoke, “These poisons are useless.”