Chapter 49: Dao Chunqiu at the Hongmen Banquet (II)

Yang attacked the city, one of the eight family generals.

Eight family generals, eight family generals, it seems to be a very simple statement, but when these three words are put together in one place, it has a completely different meaning. People knew that this referred to the eight experts privately stored in the second prince’s royal residence, these eight experts had always followed the second prince around, and were one of the second prince’s most powerful strengths in terms of force.

In the midst of the struggle between Fan Xian and the Second Prince the year before last, it was these eight generals who had kept Fan Xian in the tea store outside the Moon Embracing Building, and although they had not been kept in the end, they had still left a deep impression on Fan Xian.

It was indeed the eight masters.

Outside of the Kyoto Prefecture, after the trial of that case that was closely related to the Moon Embracing House and Fan Si Zhe, Fan Xian had made an awe-inspiring move to shatter Xie Bian’s heart, and that had triggered a problem with the true qi in his body as a result, for one thing.

By the side of the Imperial Mountain Road, in the midst of the autumn rain, the six assassins of the Supervisory Yuan struck out to silence him with an iron brazier, startling Fan Wuxiu and causing him to leave in spite of the second prince’s retention, which was the second.

Since that small, undeclared struggle, the Second Prince’s eight generals have been reduced to six. Today, the second prince was a guest at the Moon House, and he was confident that Fan Xian would not dare to do anything to himself, so in order to appear to have a heart as clear as the moon, he did not bring anyone with him, and the remaining six eight generals were also sent back.

Yang Siecheng was one of them. In such a head up to look at all the white snow, clouds have covered the silver moon night, he was a group of black-clothed people blocked the way, cut off the way back.

The day was once clear, the snow on the eaves next to the alley turned into water and dripped down, the alley was wet and cold. Into the night, the water drops gradually less, gradually condensed into a branch of ice thorns, but there is still a drop of water gathered in the tip of the ice thorns, drooping.

Yang attacked the city’s eyes pupils shrinking slightly, backhand draws out the waist of the sword, toes on the ground a little, the whole person has swept up, a sword chopping to the eaves of those ice thorns.

The ice thorns snapped with a giggle and turned into a piece of severe awn toward the black-clothed man in front of him.

And Yang attacked the city immediately after one foot stepped on the shoulders of his two accomplices, pointing these two accomplices towards the black-clothed men attacking from both sides, his own figure had already pulled up high, and would be about to probe out of the upper part of the alley.

He knew that this was a sniping, this was a sniping that had been planned against him for a long time. The other party had found out his daily walking route, so he would block himself in the alley at the right time.

But he didn’t want to die, so he would rather sacrifice his two companions or disciples, letting them act as sandbags against the blades, while allowing himself time to escape.

It was fleeing, not resisting, Yang Attacker had long lost his sharpness at a time like this. There weren’t many who dared to set up an ambush to kill someone in Kyoto, and the only one who had a grudge against the Second Prince was that person.

The person that person sent out to kill himself was not someone he could resist.

It had to be said that Yang Attack City was worthy of being the Second Prince’s personal eight family generals, his reaction speed as well as the way he responded to it was an instantaneous choice, when those black-clothed men below muffled their grunts and decapitated his disciple to the ground while splitting through those ice spikes which were half-contained with his true power, he had already swept into mid-air.

With only a split second’s time, he could step onto the head of the alley and vanish into the night sky.

Unfortunately, the sniper didn’t give him this instant, a crossbow arrow flew over, silently, stabbing him straight in the chest.

Yang Attacker stifled a grunt, flipped his wrist and chopped downwards, cutting down this crossbow arrow in a flash of lightning.

However, as the crossbow arrow came out, there was naturally more than one.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, more than ten crossbow arrows shot out at the same time, he was in mid-air, where can block? Although relying on a high level of cultivation barely blocked a few branches shot to the vitals, but still let a few missed branches deeply into the thigh.

Yang attacked the city with a pain and numbness in his legs, his eyes wanting to split, somewhat desperate to fall from mid-air.

He only had time to leap out over the alley for a split second, and in that split second, he saw seven crossbowmen standing at the eaves of the residential houses in the alley, in different directions, but blocking the upper part to death.

There are assassins below and crossbowmen above, it is a dragnet, how can we avoid it?

Yang attacked the city in the process of falling want to open the mouth long whistling for help, the corner of the eye but found the black-clothed people in the alley also pulled out crossbows and arrows from their arms …… an oncoming crossbow shot into the mouth, blood splattered a splash, his hissing forced him to go back!

At this moment, he thought in despair, how did the other party take so many hard crossbows to deal with a small person like himself? The too intensive crossbow attack made him look as ridiculous as a hedgehog as he was already shot with dozens of crossbow arrows on his body while he was in mid-air.

Snapping sound, Yang attacked the city’s body fell in the snow and water, shaking up a streak of blood, just his cultivation is really high, suffered such a serious injury, but actually did not die for a moment, one knee on the ground, with the sword on the ground, looking at the black-clothed man leader who is getting closer and closer to himself, pupil showed a hint of panic ferociousness before the beasts die.

Yes, he was an expert, but an expert who was ambushed with dozens of hard crossbows had little recourse, unless he was Ye Liuyun.

Blood flowed down the densely packed arrow shafts all over his body, bleeding out his essence, blood and spirit, Yang Attacker hoed in his throat, but refused to go limp.

The leader of the men in black walked up to his body, backhandedly drew out the straight sword on the side of his waist, the blade was as bright as snow, not stained with dust.

Most of the ice spikes on the eaves of the alley had been cut off, leaving only a few lone icicles, and the drops of snow that had been contained for a long time finally converged into a large rounded droplet, dripping down, dripping into the blood in the alley, causing a light ringing.

The leader of the men in black drew his sword and chopped down in silence, decapitating Yang Attacker’s head in one clean cut.

Yang Attack City’s headless corpse remained kneeling.

The leader of the men in black waved his hand, and the crossbowmen standing on the private house rolled over and landed on the ground, the snipers in the alley went up in silence, removed all the crossbows and arrows, and then wiped out the traces in the alley.

A group of men stripped off their black clothing, dressed as ordinary looking folk, and left the alley, merging into the seemingly eternal life of Kyoto.

The alley was quiet, as if no one had ever been there, except that there were three more corpses, and the headless one, unsupported by the crossbows and arrows around it, finally collapsed, smashing into the alley with a muffled thud.

“I never thought in the past that this thing, crossbows and arrows, could be this terrifying.” Fan Xian raised his wine cup and slowly drank, his eyes filled with a perplexed look, “As you all are well aware, I am also accustomed to using crossbows and arrows in the Procuratorate, but it still has not occurred to me that after a murderous object has reached a certain level of abundance, it would become this terrifying.”

Everyone in the banquet at the Moon Embracing House listened quietly to Fan Xian’s account, which was the details of the sniping in the valley, and people could hear the hint of brooding and gloom in Fan Xian’s words.

Fan Xian placed his wine cup on the table and said with a smile, “The rain of crossbows in the sky is something I have never seen in this life, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in my previous life either……. It wasn’t sniping, it was more like being on top of a battlefield, and it was only at that time that I realized that my personal power, indeed, was limited.”

The Grand Prince slowly nodded his head from across the room, his face showing a complex look, perhaps thinking of the years of fighting with the Hu tribesmen during the Western Campaign.

“The sound of crossbow arrows hitting the carriages is like the sound of soul-capturing drums.” Fan Xian frowned, seemingly recalling the exact episode at the time, “That feeling of being blocked and killed is bad.”

The crown prince sighed and comforted, “It’s good that it’s over, Anzhi you’ve managed to survive, and those chaotic criminals will eventually be brought to justice one day. The court is investigating closely, I think there will be results in a matter of days.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” Fan Xian raised his cup in honor of all of them and said with a smile, “Yes, at least I survived, and I’m sure many will be disappointed. What does it say about me that I can’t be killed even though even the city guard crossbow was utilized?”

No one picked up on his words, and the faces of the two Vice-Embassadors of the Privy Council looked bad. The valley sniping matter undoubtedly involved the military, although the court’s investigation had not yet yielded any results, but this was already an ironclad matter, and when Fan Xian spoke here, it was no wonder that these great lords of the military were secretly speculating.

“I am a very confident person.” Fan Xian gestured to the crowd that he had already finished his drink and said with a smile, “The elders, including His Majesty and Lord Dean, have all asked me before why you are so confident.”

The crowd listened intently, but a feeling of absurdity arose in their hearts. At this moment, there were all the important figures of the Qing Kingdom in the seats, as well as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the three Imperial Princes, but as soon as Fan Xian opened his mouth, everyone’s attention would be drawn to him. This was not only because he was the host of the banquet tonight, but also because …… it seemed that everyone subconsciously recognized that he was truly the most powerful person.

This is really ridiculous. In history, there might have been powerful ministers who had the power to overthrow the dynasty, and castrati who called the Nine Thousand Years Old, but there had never been such a young and intimidating bastard of the royal family, or a radiant one at that.

The crowd subconsciously glanced at the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince, however, was smiling as he listened to Fan Xian, his expression not showing a hint of unhappiness, but instead was filled with comfort and understanding.

The Grand Prince coughed gently.

Fan Xian’s left hand gently fiddled with the large wine bottle, his eyes looking at the one-foot case in front of him, as if he was looking at an extremely beautiful picture: ”Why am I so confident? Because I believe that I am the person with the best luck in this world, and there is no one else whose luck can be better than mine.”

The person who had obviously died, but somehow came to life, and embraced such a colorful and even bizarre life, this kind of luck needs to be slowly celebrated in the years to come.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “As I said earlier, I am also very used to using crossbows and arrows in my inspectorate, and those crossbows and arrows, can’t kill me, while my enemies, must not have such good luck as me.”

Not far away from the Imperial Palace, in the Supervisory Academy, within that secret room that President Chen liked to stay in the most, Yan Bingyun was wearing a pure white cotton coat, staring at the case file on the table out of his mind, a few moments later he sighed, and rubbed his temples, feeling the soreness and pain there in his temples that was hard to stop.

The door was knocked, an official from the Second Division’s Intelligence A Division flashed in, handing him three small wax-sealed bamboo tubes.

Yan Bingyun was stunned, used his fingernail to pick open the wax seals, took out the information inside and scanned it, then burned it on a candle flame, then in the intelligence official’s strange gaze, he said in a somewhat tired manner, “Tonight’s matter will not be recorded in the file.”

The Intelligence A Division official was stunned, then he bowed his head in response and said, “Forty-three targets, three have been cleared.”

Yan Bingyun seemed to have a bit of a headache hearing these words, shaking his head in annoyance and waving his hand to indicate that he knew and let him out.

Silence returned to the secret room, and Yan Bingyun looked at those wax shavings left on the table and began to be lost in thought again. Tonight, Fan Xian was feasting at the Moon Embracing House while the Supervisory Court was under secondary status, in the dark night of Kyoto, it was unknown how many people were in action and how many people would die, and all of this was only because of Fan Xian’s madness.

Tonight’s plan had been drawn up by Yan Bingyun himself, and although he had expressed his firm opposition to it in front of Fan Xian, what needed to be done still had to be continued. Within this plan, eleven people were to be killed and thirty-two were to be caught. Among the first eleven targets that had to be removed, six of them were the second prince’s eight family generals.

This is a crazy retaliation.

The second prince’s eight generals had already died three times, and with the Supervisory Yuan’s all-out frantic counter-attack, the power of a single royal family could not shake the overall situation, and it was certain that the rest of the people would be receiving news of their deaths in the next few moments.

Yan Bingyun walked to the window and lifted up the corner of that black cloth on the window, just like what Chen Pingping used to do, looking through that narrow space towards the palace not far away. The palace was still bright, exuding a holy and sublime flavor in the midst of the dark night.

He looked at the palace full of worries thinking, “His Majesty made you a lone minister, not an absolute minister.”