[4300 words, so it's a bit late]
Southeast of the Imperial City.
The scattered teams of one-to-one riders were marching in the snow.
Shen Lian turned his head to look at the end of the team, which was getting longer and longer, and his already anxious mood became more urgent. He couldn't help but ride his horse to catch up with Sun Shaozong, who was in the lead, and suggested: "Sir, since there is no such hot ball near the imperial city. We don't see the soldiers and horses dispatched by the palace, it seems that they have flown far away, why should we give up these half-hearted patrolling and chase after them with light cavalry, it is better than being dragged down by them!"
He had heard the term 'hot air balloon' from Sun Shaozong before, but he didn't remember it very clearly, so he called it hot air balloon.
Sun Shaozong gave him a sideways look: "As the saying goes, 'Whenever there is a big event, there is stillness', you have always been a calm and stubborn old man, how can you be so uneasy?"
Shen Lian was speechless, he swallowed with a bitter smile, he also realized that his emotions were wrong, but in this situation, how many people can be as stable as Mount Tai like Master Sun
He didn't know that after Sun Shaozong retracted his gaze, he looked at the snow-covered sky, and he was so anxious that he could hardly control himself.
Although the snow was not big, it was enough to cover up the footprints on the street. The wind was blowing from east to west, south or north, and it was even more difficult to judge the direction of the hot air balloon based on the wind direction.
Coupled with falling snow affecting visibility...
Probably only by sending people from house to house to ask those people who are behind closed doors, can it be possible to confirm the correct direction of pursuit.
But…
Sun Shaozong also glanced back at the patrolling who were like scattered sand, and he was in a dilemma.
Shen Lian's personal soldiers were originally few. When they forced their way in before, they had fewer enemies and more enemies. Almost everyone was injured. It was not easy to send them along the street to search for them, so they could only use the latter patrolmen.
But the patrolmen were all forced by him, and if they really wanted to spread it out, it is estimated that they would run away before they could find any trace of the hot air balloon.
unwise!
I should have called some servants to follow.
After being in a dilemma for a long time, seeing that there was another crossroad in front of him, Sun Shaozong gritted his teeth and decided to throw the patrolmen out to explore the way. If the hot air balloon can't be rushed over before the hot air balloon hits the ground, even if there are many patrolmen, what's the use
"Master, Master Sun!"
Just at this moment, several people came on horseback from the slanting side.
"Hong Jiu? Why are you here?"
Recognizing that the person was Baozheng, the beggar he had promoted, Sun Shaozong's heart moved, and he rushed up to meet him.
When the two got together, Hong Jiu hurriedly got off the saddle and knelt down on one knee: "I heard that your lord was implicated in the prince's case, and the villain was really upset, so he sent a few men to guard the vicinity of your house. on."
Having said that, he probed to look at Shen Lian, who was catching up from behind, and continued: "When Shen Qianhu crossed the border, they all saw it, so..."
"Without further ado!"
Sun Shaozong interrupted his words and asked: "How many people did you bring? Isn't it just a few?"
"The 100 people behind will be here soon!"
Hong Jiu stretched his chest and said proudly: "The other young man has already ordered someone to notify the twelve families in the inner and outer cities to protect the righteousness, saying that you want to track down the criminals of the imperial court, and you will be able to mobilize thousands of troops within an hour!"
"Good good!"
Sun Shaozong couldn't help but be overjoyed. He really didn't expect that he could get such a reward today for his idle chess move to solve the evil of the beggars in the city!
However, a beggar head in Hongjiu District was able to pull up thousands of people in the capital in a short period of time. Obviously, there is no end to it. But this is another story. Right now, I only hate few people, how can it be too much
When the back team of the beggar gang arrived, Sun Shaozong immediately ordered two beggars and one patrolman, and divided more than 30 teams to call the door from the southeast of Donghuangcheng along the street to ask if any officers and soldiers had crossed the border before.
Although the beggars are half-incorporated by the official government, and they are usually responsible for some prevention and control tasks, they are still at the bottom of the society in the final analysis. Relying on it, it is a man who shakes his feet with prestige.
Many people are looking for the big family to disturb them, and they have been making trouble for a while.
During this time, another 'beggar gang disciple' arrived one after another, which made the search team gradually expand.
After a quarter of an hour, I got the exact news.
Sun Shaozong immediately led his team to pursue along the road, and stopped and went all the way to search for Mimi. When he saw Lingchun Square in the outer city, a local beggar came to report, saying that there were four or five hundred dragon guards in front of him, and they were spreading out. search.
Sun Shaozong hurriedly ordered to gather the team to inquire about what happened. He learned that the officers and soldiers were searching around and looking up to the sky, and guessed that it was probably because the snow was blocking the view, and the dragon guard sent from the palace also lost the hot air balloon. .
"Sir, what should we do now?"
Shen Lian also came up with the same answer. He wasted a lot of time before. He was afraid that the hot air balloon had already fallen into the hands of the enemy. Now that he heard that the other party had also lost it, he was greatly excited.
Sun Shaozong pondered for a while, and immediately ordered: "Gather all the patrolling in one place and arrange the queue - and then pick some strong beggars and hang them at the back of the queue to make a strong presence."
"I will understand at the end!"
Immediately, he instructed Hong Jiu: "Look for a few clever men and find a way to find out where the leaders of the dragon guards are!"
"Don't worry, adults, let's make arrangements!"
The two took orders separately.
After another quarter of an hour, Shen Lian managed to form a team of more than 300 people—after all, the beggars were mainly old and weak, women and children.
Fortunately, it was in the snow, and the visibility was relatively low, otherwise, it would be obvious at a glance that there were some scumbags behind the team.
At this time, Hong Jiu's side also got accurate news-mainly, among the five hundred dragon guards, there was only one civil servant who was guarded.
Following Sun Shaozong's order, the team set off again. Because of the need to maintain the queue, and to change the route according to Hong Jiu's information, it took another half an hour before they met with Long Jingwei's team.
The previous few times, there were small groups of people on the opposite side, and since they didn’t dare to confront this side, they just shouted a few times from a distance, and quickly withdrew without getting a response.
After walking for another mile and a half, they finally collided with the opponent's core team.
Due to the fact that they had been reported earlier, there were two or three hundred people gathered on the opposite side, led by a blue-robed civilian riding on a horse, with three layers of rice dumplings wrapped in three layers outside.
"People stop, people stop!"
"Which team are you from? Don't you know that there is a will of the Holy One, that the three battalions and one guard must stay in place and not move without authorization?!"
Several sentries on the opposite side stepped forward and shouted, but Sun Shaozong ignored it, until the two sides were not far away, and then raised the giant sword in his hand.
"Array!"
The heavy guards on both sides pulled out their weapons without hesitation, but the guards behind them had different thoughts, sparse and hesitant, and in the end, only half of them raised their weapons.
Fortunately, the visibility was low, and the opposite side didn't notice anything unusual for a while. Seeing that there was already a formation here, they were also hurriedly waiting in a panic.
At this time, Sun Shaozong took a few steps forward on his horse, and shouted with Frostmourne: "This official is Dali Shaoqing Sun Shaozong, where are you from? Who is the leader? Give this official a reply!"
As the so-called shadow of the famous tree of people, Sun Shaozong has been traveling for nearly seven years, and I dare not say that it is a mega-sharp China, but the officials and people in the capital are all ignorant.
In particular, he is the world's most powerful and famous in the military.
At the moment of this appearance, there were several uncontrollable exclamations immediately from the opposite side:
"Is it Sun Shiwan?!"
"It was Sun Shiwan in person!"
"How could it be him?!"
When he went to see his relatives in southern Xinjiang last year, Erlang Sun single-handedly reversed the situation in the country of Qianxiang, and he also took advantage of the situation to kill some of the coalition forces of the countries such as Zhenwa. As for saving a prince for the country of Qianxiang, it would not be an outsider.
After returning to Beijing triumphantly, he added the nickname of 'Sun Shiwan', meaning that one person can reach 100,000 soldiers.
It's just that this new nickname always makes Sun Shaozong a little awkward.
Less gossip.
However, after a moment of chaos on the other side, a horse suddenly appeared out of the crowd, but it was not the leading civil servant, but a dragon guarding a hundred households.
The hundred households slowly hit the horse, looked at the giant sword in Sun Shaozong's hand, swallowed two mouthfuls of saliva first, and then asked loudly: "Master Sun should be confined at home for investigation, but why did you come to the outer city to interfere with our military affairs? ?"
"Ha ha!"
Sun Shaozong sneered twice, then rode his horse forward a few steps, and said sternly, "Whether this official is confined at home is something you can ask a mere hundred households? Let me ask you, you say that this official interferes with your military affairs, but I don't know what military affairs you are waiting for?!"
"This… "
The Hundred Households were already full of anger, and when they were suppressed by Sun Shaozong, they became more and more panicked. I was dispatched by holy order, as for the specific military affairs, it is inconvenient to tell Lord Shaoqing."
"Sent from the Holy Order? Where is the decree? Without the decree, where is the eunuch who passed the decree? With this kind of eunuch mobilizing people to come out of the palace, and strictly ordering the three battalions and one guard not to move rashly, there will never even be an eunuch to supervise the army, right?!"
Faced with this series of questions from Sun Shaozong, the hundred households were sweating profusely in panic, and they didn't know how to respond.
"Really not?"
Sun Shaozong was originally just a test, but when he saw that the other party really couldn't come up with a certificate, he immediately pursued his victory and said, "Since this is the case, this official can't just sit back and ignore it. Either you stop disturbing the people for the time being, and ask the palace to give an official decree; or Just accept the supervision of my officers and soldiers, and let him wait for assistance!"
"This this… "
The Baihu's face turned pale, and he didn't even look back. He turned his horse's head and looked at the civil servant for help, but although the civil servant looked a little anxious, he still refused to come forward and answer.
Sun Shaozong didn't give them any time to continue communicating. After waiting for a while, he saw that there was no answer from the other side, and immediately ordered without question: "According to this official's opinion, there is no need to disturb the sage anymore. If you are to blame, this official will bear it!"
With that said, Frostmourne moved forward.
Shen Lian immediately shouted: "Go forward, go forward!"
The soldiers on the left and right hurried their horses forward without hesitation. Although the patrolling at the back was reluctant in every possible way, the more than 200 beggars in the back had no idea how deep they were, and they were all excited and clamoring to move forward, and they had to go with the flow.
Seeing that the two li were getting closer and closer, the dragon guard team on the opposite side began to riot, and the civil servants couldn't bear it anymore, and suddenly screamed: "Stop them, stop them!"
When the dragon guards in the front row heard the words, many of them subconsciously raised their swords, and the back row also followed suit.
Shen Lian and his personal soldiers paid it back, but the patrolling at the back was willing to give his life in a confused way
At the moment, they are desperately pushing back, even if they can't retreat, they will not take another half step forward.
Seeing this, Sun Shaozong's brows showed a stern look, and he immediately shouted: "Who dares to stop?!"
Saying that, he urged Ma Chi to come out.
When the enemy was facing the enemy, he turned around and rushed towards the courtyard wall on the left, facing the inexplicable eyes of everyone, and suddenly swept the Frostmourne out of his hand.
Boom~
A loud noise was heard, and the epee weighing 100 kilograms slapped the wall of the courtyard. Immediately, the bricks and tiles flew into the smoke and dust. When the dust and mist dissipated, the courtyard wall had collapsed by more than ten feet!
In front of the ruins, Sun Shaozong glared at his sword and sneered: "You have neither the imperial decree nor the eunuch of the supervisory army, but now you are pushing against the officer three times, and even facing each other with swords. Are you an official or a thief?!"
"If it's an official, just accept the supervision of this official, and don't disturb the people; if it is a thief, then don't blame this official for not leaving a whole body under the sword!"
He tried his sword across the board, and after a long while, he saw the opposite side chatting with trembling fears, but none of them dared to come forward again, so he moved Frostmourne forward again.
This time the team moved forward slowly, and the dragon guards looked at each other in dismay, but they could no longer muster the courage just now.
In fact, many of them have guessed that most of the 'sale' that they did this time was to raid their homes and destroy their homes, but after all, it was not specified above, so it was inevitable that there was luck in their hearts, so they lacked the determination to kill the fish and destroy the net.
If Sun Shaozong made it clear that the chariots and horses were here to quell the rebellion, he might even arouse their bloodliness, but Sun Shaozong kept saying that he was supervising from the sidelines.
Coupled with the illustrious reputation of 'Sun Shiwan', everyone felt that they had no chance of winning if they really wanted to fight, and naturally no one dared to make the first bird.
Seeing that the two sides were connected together, the civil officer on the opposite side couldn't help but shout a few times, but unfortunately it was completely useless.
Even when he wanted to back down, some dragon guards blocked his path intentionally or unintentionally, forcing him to face Sun Shaozong.
"Ha ha!"
Sun Shaozong, surrounded by Shen Lian and others, came to the civil official, and when he saw the appearance of this man clearly, he couldn't help laughing.
It turned out that this person was actually Li Tong, the head of the royal palace of Zhongshun!
According to common sense, the team sent by the palace can't say anything to him, but this kind of thing happened.
This has almost confirmed the change in the palace!
"you you… "
Li Tong looked down at Sun Shaozong in dejection, and said a few hard words, but when he saw the giant sword in Sun Shaozong's hand, his tongue softened.
He bowed his head humbly, not knowing what to do next, when he suddenly heard someone shouting:
"Behind their ranks, there are people behind them!"
"What kind of people are clearly a bunch of begging flowers!"
"There are only dozens of them that can be beaten!"
Li Tong looked up in amazement. There were about 300 people around him, and there were nearly 200 scattered nearby. If there were only a few dozen people around Sun Shaozong, he might not be able to resist.
In fact, if he knew, the six or seven personal soldiers in front of him would be the ones who could really fight, and he would be even more regretful.
"how?"
Sun Shaozong mentioned Frostmourne, scorned Li Tong and several generals around Li Tong, and said with a smile, "Do you want to regret it now?"
The eyes of those people all fell on Frostmourne, and then the 100-pound weight seemed to press down on their shoulders along the line of sight, making them half shorter.
continue tomorrow