The Famous Detective of the Red Mansion

Chapter 168: The Opportunity to Kill at the Birthday Feast [Part 1]

"The auspicious omen has shown, the auspicious omen has shown!"

"The Gods and Buddhas are blessing this great Dynasty!"

"Long live Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty!"

Sun Shaozong was speechless and admired the chaotic scene in front of the main gate of the Imperial Palace. Several hot air balloons were floating on the gate tower.

The hot air balloon, which was clearly a tool used by political enemies to escape, was simply made by Emperor Guangde to sing praises for him!

He even invented the method of drawing banners with hot air balloons without learning from others.

From a distance, the red silk and gold characters spread in the wind, as if some new supermarket chain had opened to paying customers.

Not to mention, the level of excitement was comparable!

But this scene of universal celebration was not a good thing for Zhao Liben and his Yamen runners.

At a casual glance, he could see the busy figures of the salt and iron officials.

As for Sun Shaozong, his only task now was to guard hundreds of sedan chairs. After the birthday party, he would escort the old men home.

Those ordinary old men actually didn’t need to be escorted by him, but there were several senior officials in the Imperial Court. It would be too contemptuous for them to arrange for Yamen runners or scribes to escort them.

The night was getting dark, and it was almost time to wrap up the happy occasion.

Sun Shaozong stood up and said, "Please remember the names of the old people who are going to be picked up and send them off carefully! Inspector Zhou will call out their names three times later. If no one answers, don't blame me for not being nice!"

All the Yamen runners and sedan bearers were busy and agreed to the promise.

Meeting and sending off two hundred old men celebrating the Emperor’s birthday, the sedan bearers have practiced six or seven times. Besides, two Yamen runners have been assigned to take care of every ten sedan chairs. If they still made any errors in this task, they would really be hopelessly stupid.

Sun Shaozong signaled again. Zhao Wuwei and some Yamen runners hurriedly asked the sedan bearers to solve their physiological problems first, so as not to delay the business.

Sun Shaozong himself went to find Zhao Liben himself and asked him to clear up a large enough space on the west side of the main entrance of the Imperial Palace.

When everything was ready, Zhou Da shouted at the top of his voice, "Lift the sedan chair!" More than 200 sedan chairs were put on the sedan bearer's shoulders and they walked unsteadily towards the main gate of the Imperial Palace.

At the main gate of the Imperial Palace, a group of sedan bearers, under the command of the Yamen runners, a sector was roughly displayed.

It took more than a quarter of an hour to see many white beards pouring out of the brightly lit gate tower.

Zhao Wuwei hurriedly raised the colored flag on his shoulder, and hundreds of sedan bearers and Yamen runners shouted with one voice, "Following the order of the Emperor to the Central Judicial Office, we are here to welcome the senior birthday stars back to their houses."

It was a thankless job in greeting and seeing off these old men, so Sun Shaozong specially rehearsed the show. At any rate, he had made a sense of existence under the Imperial city.

When the old men heard the roar, they also slightly adjusted their direction and walked towards this side.

As soon as they walked up, he saw that many people were swaying. In the beginning, Sun Shaozong thought they were drunk, but when they got closer, he found that this was not the case.

After all, all the old people were in their 70s and 80s, and they were not as young and healthy, but this birthday party lasted several hours, and it was reasonable that they would be in poor spirits.

Sun Shaozong hurriedly led a dozen scribes to meet them and helped those who were unstable to the sedan chair first.

Zhou Da asked the names one by one, and immediately the scribes reported in unison. Every time a person's name was given, a special sedan chair bearer came to meet them.

As for the Elders of the Court Officials, they had already been informed. As soon as they left the Palace, they ran to the green cloth sedans carried by four people. The decoration inside was far superior to others. There were some small snacks prepared to help digestion, such as hawthorn preserves.

"Do a good job!"

When Sun Shaozong saw that all the people here had arrived, he rushed Zhou Da and Zhao Wuwei to explain to them, and then he got on the horse and said, "Following the order of the Emperor, I’m here to send you Lords back to the Mansion."

The selected sedan bearers immediately carried the sedan chair and followed Sun Shaozong steadily.

After six old men had been sent off, the moon was already hanging high.

Sun Shaozong took out his pocket watch and looked at it. He wanted to go back to the mansion to have a rest, but he was still worried about Zhou Da and Zhao Wuwei. He let the sedan bearers and Yamen runners disperse and rode to the main gate of the Imperial Palace alone.

After he rode for a while, he saw a team coming in front of him with more than twenty helmets at the head and bright amours, which seemed to be the soldiers of the Huben Camp. A large group of people in the back were wearing ink dragon and cloud attire. There were dozens of Dragon Guards.

In the center of dozens of Dragon Guards, there was a bright yellow sedan chair!

In the middle of the night, the Huben Camp and the Dragon Guard put together such a big scene…

Sun Shaozong did not want to disturb others, so he prepared to turn his horse around and retreat.

Who knew, just after he hit the horse's butt, he saw a team catching up behind him. Looking at their dress, it seemed that it was the escort from the Central Judicial Office.

So unlucky!

Sun Shaozong cursed secretly in his heart, but he immediately straightened the horse's head again. He rode towards the miscellaneous army and roared, "There is an ambush ahead, retreat quickly!"

The forty or more Yamen runners who were in charge of guiding the way had seen Sun Shaozong, while the two opposite holding the lanterns of the Central Judicial Office were strangers!

In addition, when Sun Shaozong turned into the intersection just above, he clearly didn't see any teams.

Therefore, those people either sprinted directly at the speed of the 100-meter race, or they had been lying in the dark for a long time, and only lit lanterns temporarily when the miscellaneous army on the opposite side appeared.

And the combination of these two items was enough for Sun Shaozong to make the correct judgment!

Hearing Sun Shaozong's loud warning, the opposite team immediately became riotous, and then several people dressed as Dragon Guards stepped out of the crowd and said, "You are..."

BuzzBuzz

Without waiting to hear what those fools were asking, they heard the loud sound of the bow and string on both sides!

They were ambushed on the roof!

Sun Shaozong was shocked. He hurriedly hid in the stirrup and under the horse's belly!

Duh~

At the same time, he heard a dull noise on the horse's back. It was a sharp arrow nailed to the saddle!

That was close!

Fortunately, he escaped in time, otherwise…

Sun Shaozong was glad, but suddenly he felt something sticky and hot running down his fingers to his wrist.

Blood?!

Sun Shaozong was surprised again. One should know that his saddle was not cheap, and it would be difficult to pierce it with a sword.

There were only two possibilities for an arrow to pierce the saddle.

First, the bow was extremely strong, second, the archer's arm was also extremely strong. These two were armor-piercing cones that were only available in the army!

However, whatever it was, it seemed that it was not good news for Sun Shaozong!