Mingdefang, Songying Lane, southwest of Bianjing City.
There are twenty or thirty houses in this alley. Although it is not a place of wealth and wealth, it looks quite prosperous. In the eyes of outsiders, it is no different from other surrounding alleys. However, all of this is just an appearance. If someone who is really observant and shrewd is watching nearby for a period of time, they will find that there is a big problem with this entire alley.
Firstly, the residents here can hardly see a few people during the day. Even if someone does come in and out, they are in a hurry; secondly, the residents are mostly young and strong men, not to mention the elderly and children, even women rarely appear. , this is really unusual in an alley with hundreds of people.
But even so, for some unknown reason, both the surrounding residents and the people from various yamen in Beijing turned a blind eye to this suspicion, and everyone just regarded it as an ordinary residential alley. Until this day, suddenly a large group of soldiers and horses blocked the entire Mingdefang, and two to three hundred people surrounded the entire Songying Lane. After cutting off the people inside, those who stayed at home to avoid the snow The residents became a little nervous.
Seeing that everything here has been arranged, Zhao Kangming waved his hand: "Go into the alley to get someone. Anyone who dares to escape and resist will be punished as a traitor, no need to hold back!"
The street soldiers who followed him were still a little confused, and their eyes widened when they heard such a strict order: "Sicheng, this is a big event, is there a warrant from Wei Sizheng?"
"Why, my order is not accurate? You just follow the order, and all the responsibilities will be borne by me." Zhao Kangming narrowed his eyes in displeasure and said.
"But... someone said hello here..."
"If you dare to speak more, you will be punished as an accomplice! Go into the alley and arrest the person!" Seeing what this subordinate wanted to say, Zhao Kangming lost his patience, and suddenly pulled out the sword from his waist, staring at the opponent with murderous intent and shouted . The street department official was so frightened that he trembled violently. Finally he didn't dare to say anything anymore, so he took the lead and walked into the alley with a knife.
At this moment, other officers and soldiers quickly followed suit and rushed straight to the house next to the alley. There was no unnecessary knocking on the door to ask. They had already obtained the military order and immediately launched an offensive as soon as they arrived at the door. Some people slumped their shoulders and slammed into the closed courtyard door, while others ran a few steps in the distance. When they reached the courtyard wall, they jumped high. With one hand, they had already jumped over half a person. The high low wall fell steadily into the courtyard.
At this time, the residents who were warming themselves by the fire heard the banging on the door outside and ran out to see what was going on. When they saw someone climbing over the wall, the reaction of the four men was not to scream, but to subconsciously go to the house. He touched his waist, obviously trying to take out some weapon, but his touch was in vain, and then he remembered that they had put away the weapons after returning home.
After a while, two of them quickly retreated, while the other two came to their senses and asked loudly: "Who are you, and why do you break into people's houses without permission?"
"Bang!" Just as they spoke, the courtyard door burst open, and dozens of street department soldiers rushed in, shouting loudly: "The street department has been ordered to arrest bandits, and anyone who dares to resist will be killed!" Then he pounced fiercely to kill him.
The two of them felt weak when they saw this, and quickly stepped back and retreated inside.
And this move further exposed their problematic nature, which also made the officers and soldiers more emboldened and rushed towards the door. But at this moment, a dozen figures suddenly jumped out of the houses on the other two sides, scattering and running to both sides of the courtyard. There are several rooms in this courtyard. Just now, only the person facing the courtyard door came out to take a look, but the others were still hiding. Now when they see that the situation is not good, these people immediately take action and flee directly.
"Where to go!" Fortunately, these officers and soldiers were well prepared. In addition, they were often catching thieves everywhere on weekdays. At this time, they reacted very quickly. They immediately sent out people to outflank and intercept them on both sides. They quickly waved their swords and guns and headed towards The fleeing person greeted him.
But these people were also very skilled. They rolled on the spot and jumped up and down to avoid these attacks. They also rushed to the side courtyard wall and climbed up to the wall with all their strength. But at this moment, spears suddenly came from outside, sealing their way in. Two of them reacted too slowly and were stabbed in the shoulder. They screamed and fell back. , and then he was stabbed to the neck with a knife and a gun, and he didn't dare to move anymore.
Several other guys who still wanted to rush towards the courtyard wall also quickly stopped their actions after seeing this, and turned around to find other escape routes. But in just this delay, soldiers from all sides had already surrounded them, completely surrounding them, making it difficult for them to escape.
In the room in the middle, there was a burst of shouting and fighting, and then it stopped. The four men were also captured by the officers and soldiers, and several of them had some injuries.
At the same time, sounds of fighting and running screams could be heard from time to time in the several courtyards behind, but officers and soldiers also launched surprise attacks on those courtyards in the rear. However, their forces were limited after all. In order to control the entire situation, they were unable to attack dozens of houses in the alley at the same time. Therefore, when there was movement outside, the residents in the yards behind them quickly moved. stand up.
Countless people rushed out of the courtyard, without any hesitation, and ran straight to the exit at the other end of the alley. The Wuyou Cave thieves hiding here were still very clear-headed and knew that they were no match for the well-prepared imperial officers and soldiers, so they had no intention of resisting and just wanted to escape quickly.
But just as they rushed out in a hurry, they discovered that dozens of officers and soldiers were guarding the alley over there, blocking their retreat. Now, everyone was even more nervous.
"What's going on? Didn't you say that we are safe hiding here and no officers and soldiers will come to investigate?"
"Something must have gone wrong. Someone has leaked our whereabouts... But now is not the time to think about this. The most important thing is how to escape..."
"Go back. They have bows and arrows. We can't rush out. There is a ditch behind. As long as we escape there, we can escape." In the chaos of war, there is still someone who understands. Following his greeting, these people quickly changed their direction of escape. Instead of running towards the entrance of the alley, they turned and rushed towards the side wall of the alley not far away, climbing up with all their hands and feet.
I saw about two hundred people scrambling to climb up the wall. The side wall of this alley was only made of mud, but it was not as solid as expected. After so many people kicked it and climbed it, it soon became too strong and half of it collapsed with a bang.
Right now
The person who climbed on top suffered a lot. Before he could even scream, he hit the ground with the mud wall and was unable to move for a while. But the companions at the rear didn't care about brotherhood at all at this time. Based on the principle of self-preservation, they just stepped on the collapsed wall and the bodies of their companions and jumped forward quickly.
And this time, the dozens of officers and soldiers guarding the alley were stunned. After only a moment of hesitation, they quickly detached a group of people and ran after them to catch the escaping guy. As soon as they moved, a hole appeared in the defense line. Some clever guys saw the opportunity and took advantage of the situation to rush out of the alley and rush to the nearby ditch entrances without any hesitation.
Suddenly, the entire Songying Lane and even the entire Mingde Square fell into a scene of extreme chaos. In front were the Wuyoudong bandits who were fleeing in all directions, and behind were a group of officers and soldiers from the Street Department, chasing and shouting across the long street, from shop door to shop that was open but not doing much business. He ran past and stared at the shopkeeper and waiters inside with their mouths agape.
Fortunately, there were not many people on the street today, otherwise the chaos would have been even greater. But precisely because of this, the escape of the thieves became smoother. In just a moment, they had arrived at the entrance of the ditch. They all jumped down without hesitation, without stopping. Jumping into the dark culvert.
This is something that Zhao Kangming cannot prevent. After all, his manpower is limited, and half of them have to be guarded in the alley to capture people. It will naturally become extremely difficult to hunt down thieves who have more people than himself. In the end, more than half of the thieves were able to escape, and they all fled into the underground ditches and waterways.
And as a result, all the officers and soldiers were caught blind. They didn't dare to chase them all the way into this unfamiliar waterway without starting or ending. Not to mention that the waterway is the lair of the Wuyou Cave bandits. Once they enter, the attack and defense will inevitably reverse. The complicated roads and dark environment below alone deter them from working so hard for a little credit.
So when Zhao Kangming finally led people out, he got a result that he was not too satisfied with, which made his face not so good-looking: "These guys are serious skaters, and they escaped so decisively!"
Just when he was a little confused about what to do next, another group of people rushed over on the long street ahead. When they arrived, an official asked with a serious face: "Which yamen are you from? Why?" Are you taking people here randomly?" However, after hearing the news, a forbidden army patrolling the city came over, and then they saw the chaotic scene in the alley, as well as several thieves who were pinned to the ground by the street department officers and soldiers. This made the official even more angry: "Who allowed you to act like this? Are you trying to rebel?"
"This officer must be serious. I am just following orders to capture the Wuyou Cave bandits. Pine Shadow Lane here is one of their lairs, and these people are bandits." Zhao Kangming was quite calm. He immediately opened his mouth to explain.
"Nonsense, I have been here for many years, how come I have never heard of such a thing? They are obviously good citizens of the capital. You are so brave. Let them go quickly." The officials on the opposite side were not affected at all. yelled loudly. And as he shouted, the officers and soldiers behind him raised their guns and drew their swords, and surrounded Zhao Kangming and the others...