"Charge, success or failure depends on this, rush in!" Coach Hou believed that the presence of so many people protecting him just meant that Wang Jia was here, and he also saw the presence of guards in the courtyard.
One of the men stepped forward and cut off the rope hanging the fishing net with a knife, and his companion fell to the ground in embarrassment, making a loud "dong" sound.
The other person jumped over them and rushed towards the surrounding guards. Suddenly, an arrow flew from above and hit his right chest with a bang.
Judging by the sound, it was clear that it was a heavy military arrow. The injured screamed and was knocked six or seven feet away by the impact. He fell to the ground and twitched a few times before becoming motionless.
"It's Li Sanlang's people again!" Coach Hou frowned: "There are archers high up on the right, everyone, be careful!"
He knew that the palace guards and the guards of the Yiwei Department would not use such heavy arrows. This could only be done by Li Sanlang who had experienced the battlefield.
He originally thought that after entering the city, the county government had arranged a residence for King Ding, and common sense would have said that Li Sanlang's people would be placed elsewhere. Unexpectedly, they were actually in the mansion, which added variables to the operation. An ominous premonition arose in Coach Hou's heart.
When they broke through the outer courtyard and entered the garden at the back, they were shocked to find that the main guard force was concentrated in the garden instead of the study outside. Coach Hou immediately guessed that there was another door in the garden leading to the outside.
No wonder there was no guard at the door just now. It seems that the owner of this house does not go to the study often, and the garden is the main focus! But they are not afraid of the guards of the Yiwei Division and the palace guards.
The former only relies on the large number of people. When there are few people or the formation is broken, it can only save lives. The latter is a hired martial artist who is good at fighting alone but has trouble cooperating with each other.
The people taught by Coach Hou were strictly trained according to the standards of scouts. They were familiar with battle formations and their personal martial arts were not bad either.
However, there was still trouble, and soon a force of about twenty people joined and stopped them. These people were all good at martial arts. They worked in groups of three and killed four or five of the men in black immediately.
Coach Hou immediately understood that these people must have received some kind of training, and he sneered and stepped forward with his two swords.
The one who came was Sun Feng, who was in charge of guarding the palace. When he saw him attacking, he immediately greeted him. The two of them were going back and forth, one wanted to break the core of the formation, and the other was cooperating with the left and right to wrap up the opponent and prevent him from escaping.
Instructor Hou is a master of fighting skills trained in the military, while Sun Feng has been engaged in guarding targets for many years and is mainly cautious.
The former had elite soldiers but a limited number, and had already suffered several casualties, so they were eager to open up the situation quickly; the latter had a good idea and was not in a hurry, waiting only for the encirclement and internal and external closing nets to be completed.
In terms of personal skills, the two are actually about the same. Coach Hou may have an advantage in strength and speed, but Sun Feng has people supporting him on both sides, which can basically offset this advantage.
And as he was beating and beating, Coach Hou began to realize that something was wrong. The other party used these twenty people to resist the frontal attack, and the guards gradually surrounded him from both wings. Humph, it’s still a trap!
After seeing through this, Coach Hou made a bold decision. He made a feint and revealed a flaw. Seeing this, the assistant on Sun Feng's right thought he had an opportunity to hit him with a stick, but he deflected the stick and kicked him over. A hole was immediately exposed in the formation.
Coach Hou entered deeply through the opening, slashed one person with the knife in his left hand, and then turned around and sliced open Sun Feng's back shoulder with the knife in his right hand.
Sun Feng staggered and shouted, "Stop him!"
Several people immediately turned around and rushed towards Coach Hou, causing chaos in the formation. Coach Hou didn't even notice how many people were following him, and immediately rushed towards the largest building in the garden.
Zhou Yuanlu immediately led several guards to meet him, but the guards were no match for him, and within a few breaths, two of them had been chopped down. Zhou Yuanlu had no choice but to loudly call for help from his subordinates, and the encirclement in front could no longer be encircled.
Several of the subordinates commanded by Hou Jiaotong to follow him entangled Zhou Yuanlu, and he jumped up to the steps in front of the corridor. Suddenly, he saw a strong man flashing out of the door, holding a five-ring steel knife in his hand and making a Vajra gesture. .
This sword and this move all looked familiar. Instructor Hou was stunned for a moment: "Are you...faxin?"
"Haha, Senior Brother Hou is fine. I haven't seen you for so many years, but you are still so impulsive!"
"Humph, isn't it the same for you?" Coach Hou sneered. It turns out that he
When he was young, he was a lay disciple of the Shaolin Temple, so he was matched with Li Tiedao master's brother. "I didn't expect you to be a hawk dog for King Ding?" He gritted his teeth and said.
"Senior brother, you are being rude. Li is working for Yu Qian and Li Sanlang. It is our responsibility to protect the country and the people. You are instigating and inciting rebellion. I wonder whose eagle dog you are? For the sake of my fellow sect, I can excuse you. Senior brother, please put it down. Become a Buddha immediately with your butcher’s knife!”
Instructor Hou laughed loudly: "If we have different paths, we will not work together, so it is difficult to obey orders!"
"Brother," Li Tiedao stopped his posture and pointed his knife at the room: "There are still two hurdles to pass here. If you can't even put me down, how can you get in front of King Ding? It's better not to do anything in vain. …….”
"Stop talking nonsense, I will try this opportunity today even if I die!"
"But this is not a chance, you are going to die." Li Tiedao sneered: "The fire blunderbuss inside is packed with medicine. With how powerful you are in martial arts, can you still resist firearms?"
"You guys are shameless!" Coach Hou was furious.
"Anyway, you won't be able to reach Chitose." As soon as he finished speaking, Li Dan appeared at the door: "Don't worry about the tricks, just win!"
"Are you...Li Sanlang?"
"That's right." Li Dan walked down the steps with a smile, looked at Coach Hou and his group who were looking at each other, and waved his hand. The crowd immediately gathered on both sides, leaving all the men in black in the middle.
"I don't think it's easy for you to retreat like this. After all, face is here. Okay, I'll just stand here, and whoever can fight me in three moves can enter this door!"
"Okay! Just a word from a gentleman!" Coach Hou thought for a moment and replied. There are fewer and fewer of his men, and if he continues to fight like this, there may be no one left, so he would rather take a risk.
Li Dan held a whistle stick in his hand. The first person to rush towards him was hit on both wrists as soon as he came face to face with him. He could no longer hold the weapon. The second one came up and all the weapons were released, the tiger's mouth was shattered and he screamed in pain.
Instructor Hou saw that this man should have some strength, so he stopped the others: "I'll come, if I can't do it, then you don't have to suffer."
After saying that, he took a few steps forward, posed with both swords in his hands, the wild horse parted its mane, and then the black tiger rushed towards Li Dan secretly. Li Dan turned slightly and wanted to strike with his stick, but the opponent had already withdrawn and started attacking again.
Unexpectedly, Li Dan fell down like "Han Xiangzi was lying drunk". He turned over and waved a stick and hit Coach Hou on his ankle. The pain caused him to fall to the ground with an "ouch" sound. Several men in black hurriedly stepped forward to protect him.
Li Dan smiled and said, "Is there something more powerful that you want to try?" No one in the courtyard answered. "How can this work? How can you get in and complete the task of assassinating the king and killing the driver?" Li Dan teased, and everyone on both sides laughed.
"Okay, it's getting so late, you should go back when you should!" Li Dan sneered: "It's been hard enough for you jumping up and down all the way. It's not yet dawn, so you can sleep a little longer."
"You, are you going to let us go?" Coach Hou asked in surprise.
"Are you still allowed to have breakfast?" Everyone laughed again. Li Dan said: "Go back and tell your master, don't think about those useless things! Your Majesty is so kind that you want to leave it in the hands of Emperor Taizong for a try?"
Don't think that just because you have a yellow belt around your waist, you can do whatever you want. Whoever comes to sit in this world can't do whatever they want. Li Sanlang is here, please give up this idea! "
After speaking, he turned to Li Tiedao and said, "Please, Master Tiedao, please disarm their weapons and send the guests off, asking them to leave the city immediately!"
With the support of his entourage, Coach Hou limped out of the gate of Qianzhai. He suddenly found that outside the door were already full of officers and soldiers from the city guard camp and people led by Liu Huaqiang. All the people they stayed outside to respond had been arrested. Kneeling on the ground in despair.
"Why, the brothers have been busy all night, so you just let them go?" The boss, the county chief, and Liu Huaqiang were all a little unhappy.
While they were in a stalemate, a chamberlain came out and shouted loudly: "It is passed down from the mouth of a thousand years old: These people are instigated by others, deceived and deceived. They are pitiful. Let them go back and bring a message to their master for me!"
After speaking, he walked up to Instructor Hou, cleared his throat and said, "What Chitose said about Li Sanlang is what I want to say. In addition, I also ask Mr. Hou to bring this." After speaking, he reached out and gave Instructor Hou a loud slap in the face.
"What are you doing?" Several people immediately roared. "Don't move!" Instructor Hou shouted, then gritted his teeth and bowed and said, "Servant, please come back, I understand."
Now that he has disarmed, Coach Hou won't be able to do anything in a short time. Even if he is released from the city and joins the people outside, there will be less than thirty people left, and his strength has been greatly weakened.
Three more Lujiang candidates joined the convoy. Qian Min unexpectedly decided to follow Li Dan to Beijing, so Qian Shi sent Liu Huaqiang to lead more than 20 standard retinues;
Zhou Yuanlu was ordered to select fifteen soldiers with good martial arts skills and innocent family backgrounds from the city garrison to serve as the ceremonial guards to replace the fallen soldiers. Therefore, the total number of soldiers in the team increased a lot, and they were no longer afraid of these few remnants along the way.
Li Dan suggested that King Ding simply rest in Lujiang for three days so that the injured guards could receive timely treatment. At the same time, Gao Can and Lai Wubao should seize the time to train Liu Hua's gunners to learn the Golden Flower Formation.
Judging from last night's observation, their junior formation was pretty good at bluffing the bandits, but it wasn't enough when they met people with experience in fighting formations.
During the three days they had rested, the Winged Dragon Guard had already taken action. Lu Rui not only ordered the tracking of Coach Hou and his party who were released from the city, but also immediately reported what happened to the capital as quickly as possible.
When this report was delivered to Liu Mu, the commander of the Winged Dragon Guard, he was stunned. Liu Muzi read it carefully three times, then with a gloomy look asked someone to find a tray, put the fold in it, and immediately set off to enter the palace.
Zhao Tuo was watching at the archery range with a matchlock blunderbuss produced by the Anren Military Factory. In front of him were also a matchlock blunderbuss produced by Cochin and a matchlock blunderbuss produced by the Nanzhili Ministry of Industry.
In comparison, the latter two are similar in shape. The barrel of the Jiaozhi product is one and a half feet long, and the caliber is divided into two parts in the shape of a trumpet. The front half of the handguard can be held by the hand, and the back half of the wooden handle is bent downwards and can be held in the hand. The full gun is three feet and two inches long and weighs eighteen kilograms and forty taels.
The barrel of the gun produced by the Ministry of Industry is one foot and seven inches long, the caliber of the six-sided barrel is two and two centimeters, and it weighs twenty kilograms.
The Anren gun has a barrel length of two feet and three inches, a caliber of two, and a round and smooth barrel. It weighs eighteen pounds and forty taels, and the handle of the gun can be extended backwards to shoot over the shoulder. There is also a strap installed on the handguard that can be carried over the shoulder.
"Yang Qing, what was the result of your test firing just now?" the emperor asked.
Yang Zhong (left minister of the Ministry of Industry) quickly bowed and replied with a smile: "Your Majesty, each gun fired three rounds just now. The result is that the Anren gun is the best. It has high shooting accuracy and is easy to operate. It is light and easy to carry on the shoulder."
The ministers and others all thought that the twenty fire guns sent as tribute this time had completely surpassed the Jiaozhi guns, and there was no need to go far away to buy them. However... Lord Shangshu seems to have different opinions. "
"Oh? What do you say?"
"Your Majesty, you have a clear warning!" Liu Fangpin, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, saluted and said, "I still can't accept the merchants making firearms. Besides, the projectiles made by the Ministry of Industry are large and powerful. It's not that they can't be used. Why let the merchants make them?"
"Sir, do you think our country can completely rely on the Ministry of Industry from now on, without having to spend money to buy guns in Jiaozhi every year?" Zhao Tuo smiled and asked people to charge and load each gun, and then looked up at the man who was holding back his blush. Liu Fangpin glanced at:
"If I decree a ban on Cochin firearms, can you guarantee the supply and use?"
"I am... incompetent, please forgive me!" Liu Fangpin had no choice but to reply: "Although the quantity made by the Ministry of Industry can be guaranteed, the iron quality cannot pass the test. Each gun can only be fired for forty rounds before it is scrapped. It is not as good as the sixty-round Jiaozhi gun." .”
"So, how many hits can the Anren gun do?" The emperor said, picking up the Jiaozhi gun, aiming it, and fired a shot. He waved his hand to drive away the smoke and coughed twice.
"Back to Your Majesty, we have fired the seventy-fifth round of the Anren gun, and the barrel is still intact." Yang Zhong glanced at his superior and answered softly for him.
After the "bang" sound, Zhao Tuo put down the Ministry of Industry gun, waved his hand to disperse the smoke, took a few steps back and looked at the two ministers, and said in surprise: "That's not bad, is it better than the Cochin gun? I thought it was just light. ." He stretched out his hand: "Bring it here, I will try to shoot it myself!"
