strictlysupreme Chapter 1235: Being fooled!
Chapter 1235: Being fooled!
"Your Majesty has ordered that the Chu envoys be hunted down and killed, leaving no one alive!"
A roar shook the earth and pierced the sky, causing the soldiers guarding the gate of Chang'an to retreat.
Amid the sound of horse hooves, a cavalry unit rushed out, quickly crossed the city gate and headed straight out of the city.
The fully armed imperial guards were filled with murderous intent, which frightened the common people along the way so much that they gave way one after another, and no one dared to block their way.
In the blink of an eye, more than two thousand imperial guards rushed out of the city gate.
Following the horse's hooves along the way, he chased after them quickly.
They were extremely fast, like lightning, and relying on their warhorses which were much faster than ordinary warhorses, they chased madly.
The emperor personally ordered that they must keep the Chu delegation in the capital and not let any of them go back.
After chasing for an hour, I finally saw dust in front of me.
The imperial guards' eyes suddenly lit up and they frantically urged their horses to catch up.
"Come on!"
"Kill!"
The Han Dynasty's imperial guards did not speak to the Chu delegation at all, they just rushed forward and started killing indiscriminately.
Amid the deafening shouts of killing, the delegation was slaughtered without any power to resist, and many people were still shouting.
But the Han Dynasty's imperial guards, who were already blood-thirsty, would not listen at all. They just wanted to complete the mission as quickly as possible.
As for the shouting of these people, they saw it as nothing more than excuses.
Now that they have been caught up, they will kill them all.
Especially Deng Hongwen in the middle carriage, they must keep him.
The envoys collapsed, and no one in the delegation could stand up to the imperial guards, and they were slaughtered and routed.
Soon, several imperial guards arrived in front of the carriage. Without saying a word, they swung their spears and stabbed at the carriage.
"Ah~"
A woman's scream was heard from inside the carriage.
The imperial guards were slightly stunned and looked at each other.
Although they had never met Deng Hongwen, they knew that he was a man.
But now, the voice coming from the carriage was a woman's.
Sensing that something was wrong, one of the imperial guards waved his gun and lifted the curtain of the carriage, revealing what was going on inside.
A woman in bright red clothes was holding a bag, with several holes on her body and blood oozing out.
"This... this person is not Deng Hongwen, the envoy of the State of Chu!"
"Just now I was wondering why the fighting power of the Chu delegation was so low. Now it seems that these people are not the Han delegation."
"That's not right. The banner they are flying is that of the Han envoys."
"Go and capture a few people alive and ask them!"
Realizing that something was wrong, the imperial guards immediately arrested several men and questioned them.
"Who are you?" the leading captain of the imperial guards asked coldly.
The man pleaded, "My lords, I am a servant of Zuixianlou, and I am responsible for escorting Miss Xiao out of the city."
"Tell me clearly, what's going on with this Miss Xiao, and why are you flying the banner of the Han envoy?" the captain asked again.
The man smiled bitterly and said, "Ms. Xiao was favored by the Han Dynasty's envoy, Lord Deng, who asked us at Zuixianlou to send her out of the city and fly the banner of the Han Dynasty, so it can be considered a marriage."
"I didn't expect to meet you all here. You guys just started killing me without saying anything. Please spare my life."
As soon as these words came out, the captain of the imperial guards' face changed drastically: "Oh no, we've been fooled, these are not the envoys from the State of Chu!"
"Stop, stop!"
Realizing that something was wrong, the centurion immediately ordered his men to stop and asked everyone to go and check.
It was a small matter of taking a look, and then I realized that the group of people in front of me were all ordinary people wearing coarse linen clothes.
At first they thought it was a disguise of the Chu delegation!
But after asking, they realized that this group of people were really ordinary people.
Some of them are from Zuixianlou, and some are common people employed by Zuixianlou.
According to them, it was Lord Deng Hongwen who fell in love with Miss Xiao, but thought it would be too embarrassing to take her back like this, so he wanted to make a bigger splash, so he hired many people to escort Miss Xiao out of the city and treat it as a marriage.
After hearing this, the centurion felt as if the sky had fallen!
They had already wasted an hour here. Calculating the time, the Han envoys had already walked a long way, and it would be impossible for them to catch up.
"Come here, tell His Majesty about this immediately!"
"Everyone else, follow me immediately to find the whereabouts of the Han envoys!"
The centurion had a gloomy face. He ordered his men to go back and report the news while he continued the investigation.
He believed that as long as he found the whereabouts of the Chu delegation, his life could be saved.
If he can't find it, then his life is probably over.
The soldiers who were sent back to deliver the message did not dare to delay and immediately rode their horses towards Chang'an City.
An hour later, when it was already dark, the soldier returned to the palace.
Liu Che, who was waiting for news in the Weiyang Palace, did not even have dinner. He stood at the door of the hall with his hands behind his back, waiting for news.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, something serious has happened!"
The imperial guards who came back to report the news came hurriedly, shouting that something bad had happened.
Liu Che, who was originally in a good mood, suddenly looked gloomy after hearing this, and asked in a cold voice: "What happened? Why are you so panicked?"
The imperial guards quickly recounted what had just happened.
After hearing this, Liu Che became furious and slapped him.
"Crack~"
The guard was beaten so badly that his face turned pale. He immediately knelt on the ground and begged for forgiveness: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. Your Majesty, please forgive me."
Liu Che stared at the imperial guard with a gloomy face and asked coldly, "Do you know the whereabouts of the Chu delegation?"
The imperial guards quickly replied: "Captain Zhang is leading people to track him down!"
At this time, Chen Pin, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, this person is not at fault. Please forgive him."
Liu Che snorted coldly: "What a bunch of rubbish! Immediately pass the order down and have the cities along the way strictly check the passers-by!
It is better to arrest the wrong person than to let him go. All suspicious persons should be arrested!"
I thought this plan was foolproof, but I didn't expect to be tricked by Deng Hongwen.
If Deng Hongwen were allowed to return safely, once the news got out, he would become a laughing stock of the whole world.
Therefore, Deng Hongwen and the Chu delegation must die!
But Chen Pin frowned and said, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely not allowed!"
"Ok?"
Liu Che frowned: "Why not?"
Chen Pin sighed: "Now that our army has suffered a defeat on the front line, if we kill the Chu envoy at this moment, we will definitely become enemies with the Chu State, which is not a good thing for our dynasty.
It would be fine if we could kill Deng Hongwen and others as soon as possible, but now we haven't killed him and are even trying to capture him with great fanfare, which means we are completely hostile to the State of Chu.
It is better to stop here, so that Chu has no reason to attack our dynasty, and concentrate on dealing with the Wei army first."
If they killed Deng Hongwen immediately, the State of Chu would not be able to do anything to them, and they could even find an excuse to get away with it.
But Deng Hongwen is still alive. If the Han Dynasty arrests him with great fanfare, it would be a clear intention to kill the envoy.
It is disadvantageous to the Han Dynasty both in terms of reputation and situation!
Upon hearing this, Liu Che remained silent.
He is weighing the pros and cons!