Chapter 13: Guardian
The eighth day of the first lunar month, early morning.
In the northwest corner of the Haojing Imperial City, separated by a wall from the Hanzhang Hall where the emperor studied and worked, there was a huge urn city.
The city wall encloses an area of nearly two thousand acres, with numerous palaces inside that are completely black, as if cast in iron. They are as majestic as an iron wall, and as murderous as a devil's den in hell.
Such a huge building complex, at a glance, there is not even a blade of grass or a tree to be found. The floors between the independent palaces are all paved with smooth stones that are three feet square. The cracks between the stones are filled with iron liquid, making it truly airtight and the defenses extremely strong.
The city wall has only one gate entrance and exit on the west side.
The city gate, which is only about two meters high and three meters wide, seems extremely cramped compared to the city wall that is hundreds of meters high, making people feel extremely depressed.
Lu Yi stood at the street corner, across a square of dozens of acres from the narrow city gate.
Green light flashed in Lu Yu's eyes, and he could see clearly the small black iron plaque above the city gate. On it were three large characters that sounded as sharp as the strokes of a knife or an axe - 'Gong Gong Jian'.
It was almost dawn when the footsteps and rubbing sounds of armor of the patrolling guards could be heard in the distance.
Just when the day was at its most tiring, there were suddenly hurried footsteps on the street, heavy breathing, and deliberately suppressed curses.
Three figures staggered and ran wildly along the street from the south.
With every step they took, they ran forward seven or eight feet, and the corners of their clothes pushed the air forward, making a rapid sound of breaking wind.
Behind them, dozens of sturdy figures dressed in black, with rhinoceros-hide soft armor on the upper body, wearing conical hats and short cloaks were also running wildly, with standard scimitars flashing coldly in their hands, and some were holding exquisite short crossbows.
While running and chasing, some of the pursuers behind suddenly took off into the air and jumped onto the houses on both sides of the street.
They raised their right hands, and the wind exploded with a whoosh sound.
The short crossbows used by these pursuers were all powerful repeating crossbows forged from fine steel. Each small crossbow could fire three arrows. More than a dozen people fired at the same time. Dozens of willow-leaf-shaped fine steel arrows, less than half a foot in length, broke through the air with a piercing whistle and hit the three people fleeing in front.
The three of them cursed in unison, and three strangely shaped scorpion-tail whips swung up. Three balls of black light and shadows hit the crossbow arrows with a dull sound of breaking wind.
Dozens of crossbow arrows exploded in all directions, and the lagging one among the three suddenly staggered and cursed hoarsely.
"You lackeys of Sikoutai, I'll fuck your grandmother!"
Lu Yi put his hands in his sleeves and shrank his body towards the street corner.
Sikoutai, a government office headed by the Grand Sikou of the Dayinwu Dynasty, was responsible for arresting lawless people and suppressing bullies and tyrants.
In short, the Sikoutai only handles major cases. They are too lazy to deal with ordinary petty thefts, murders and arson.
Someone who can be hunted down by Sikoutai.
Especially, those who were hunted down by the Sikoutai in a high-profile manner outside the imperial city of Haojing.
It can be basically guaranteed that they are all a bunch of damn bastards who deserve to die.
The man who was cursing loudly was hit in the calf by a crossbow arrow, and his speed suddenly slowed down.
He struggled forward a few steps, hopping on one leg, and watched blood gushing from his calf, leaving a long bloody mark on the street.
His two companions whistled at the same time, accelerated forward suddenly, and left their companions behind.
The pursuers from Sikoutai in the rear swept by like the wind. Four men from Sikoutai holding long swords shouted softly and surrounded the man who was shot in the calf.
There was a flash of swords, and the men of Sikoutai cooperated well. The man who was shot by the arrow was unable to move, and the long whip in his hand was knocked out of his hand in a few hits. He was stabbed seventeen or eighteen times and fell to the ground crying.
In just a few breaths, the other two fleeing people had run across the long street, across the small square, and all the way to the gate of the Palace Guard Prison. One of them kicked the gate of the Palace Guard Prison heavily.
There was a loud 'boom' sound.
Right above the gate of the Shougong Prison, at a height of five or six feet from the ground, there were flickering lights. On the metal lampstand on the city wall, a row of more than a hundred huge butter lamps suddenly lit up, and the bright lights illuminated the small square in front of the gate of the Shougong Prison.
With a click, a mechanism sounded, and at a height of sixty to seventy feet above the ground, a series of metal secret doors on the city wall opened, revealing shooting holes one foot wide.
Nearly a hundred elite soldiers wearing iron armor and holding powerful crossbows showed their upper bodies expressionlessly from behind the shooting holes, pointing the crossbows in their hands at the Sikoutai who had just run to the middle of the small square.
"end!"
A man from the Sikoutai who was wearing a bamboo hat and had bloodstains on his body suddenly raised his left hand, clenched his fist, and shouted.
Dozens of Sikoutai officers stopped at the same time.
They stood in a row in the small square, looking up at the soldiers behind the shooting holes.
"I, Sikou Tai Tie Qianjun, have been ordered to hunt down the three brothers of the Three-tailed Black Scorpion , a notorious bandit. Please help me."
With the sound of "Gudong", the two men who had escaped to the gate of the Palace Guard fell to their knees at the same time and kowtowed heavily towards the tightly closed gate of the Palace Guard: "We three brothers sincerely join the Palace Guard and are willing to be your running dogs and work hard for the prison master!"
"We know the rules!"
The two men screamed almost heartbreakingly.
Among the Sikoutai's men, several men suddenly took two steps forward.
Inside the city wall, in the shooting hole, the sound of heavy bowstrings exploded, and several one-and-a-half-foot-long pure steel crossbow arrows broke through the air and landed heavily in front of the toes of several members of the Sikoutai.
The force of the crossbow arrow was so great that it penetrated two inches into the bluestone ground. The crossbow arrow was deeply embedded in the stone slab, vibrating and making a dull "buzzing" sound.
Tie Qianjun shouted, and several men who rushed forward gritted their teeth and took two steps back unwillingly.
"Crack, crack, crack." The harsh sound of door hinges rubbing against each other was heard, and the two-foot-thick iron and wood-clad steel gate of the palace guard opened. A little eunuch dressed in green brocade clothes, holding a whisk, with a white face, no beard, a small nose and small eyes, giggled and trotted out quickly, surrounded by a large group of people.
Behind the young eunuch, the men in white were all wearing white brocade robes with three-clawed gecko patterns embroidered on the sleeves. They wore square black hats, thick-soled black boots, one-inch wide black leather belts around their waists, and carried three-foot-six-inch long goose-feather knives.
Some of the men in white had chains, shackles and other items hanging around their waists.
There were also a dozen men in white behind them, carrying heavy crossbows and strong bows on their backs and wearing quivers on their waists.
Lu Yi also saw that the men in white at the rear of the palace, in addition to wearing swords, were actually holding heavy weapons such as 10-foot-long horse lances, gilded tiger-head spears, and bronze maces.
Compared with the men under the Guard Palace, the dozens of men in the Sikoutai are tough and elite, like an army that obeys orders.
And this is the subordinate of the Palace Guardian.
Each of them has a strong and fierce aura, and many of them even have a hint of murderous intent. They are all as fierce as tigers and wolves, but there is no tacit understanding between them. You would be right to say that they are a group of 'rabble'.
The young eunuch ignored the two brothers kneeling on the ground. He waved his whisk, staggered in front of Tie Qianjun, and patted Tie Qianjun's shoulder with the whisk with a smile.
"Come on, our family will take over the affairs here."
"Go, go, don't make yourself miserable!"
Tie Qianjun gritted his teeth, and the sound of "crunch" could be heard clearly even by Lu Yi who was standing behind him.
The young eunuch took two steps back and shouted in surprise, "Ouch? You still want to hit me?"
Higher up, on top of the city wall that was a hundred feet high, more lanterns and torches lit up, and more armored soldiers poked their heads out from the battlements.
The city wall is a hundred feet high, and when laid flat it is almost a mile long, so it would take an ordinary person a long time to walk along it.
At such a high altitude, it is difficult for ordinary people to see what the people above look like.
The wall is so high that an egg thrown from it can kill someone.
The sound of bowstrings rang out, and the soldiers on the city wall pulled their bows and set up crossbows.
Tie Qianjun's face turned pale, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, let's... go!"
The young eunuch rushed forward two steps and grabbed Tie Qianjun's shoulder: "Hey, there is another person, stay. Leave him behind, or you can stay together!"
Tie Qianjun's body trembled violently. He gritted his teeth and said coldly, "They are evildoers who have killed countless people and harmed countless civilians!"
The young eunuch didn't say anything, he just raised his palm and slapped Tie Qianjun in the face.
'Snapped'!
The slap from the young eunuch was not very powerful, but it was extremely insulting.
Several members of the Sikoutai who were around Tie Qianjun drew their swords angrily.
Arrows fell with force like thunder, and several Sikoutai men who had drawn their swords were hit in the right shoulder. The arrows were so powerful that the rhinoceros hide soft armor on their bodies could not block the arrows, and the arrows penetrated three inches into their shoulders.
Several members of the Sikoutai cried out in pain and took several steps back!
The young eunuch smiled at Tie Qianjun and said slowly, "You dare to touch the people of the palace guards, do you want to rebel?"
Tie Qianjun coughed, remained silent for a while, and bowed to the young eunuch with difficulty: "I dare not, I dare not, I am from the Sikoutai, and I am loyal to the court wholeheartedly, I dare not."
Tie Qianjun raised his left hand and waved it gently: "Release him, we will go back... The case of the three-tailed black scorpion is closed. We will hand over the case file to the Guardian Prison later."
The fighting spirit of Sikoutai's men disappeared in an instant. They lowered their heads, sheathed their swords, and weakly followed Tie Qianjun, leaving step by step.
The man who had just been stabbed more than a dozen times and whose calf was still bleeding from the arrow wound laughed wildly, struggled hard, and walked towards the gate of the Palace Guard Prison step by step.
"Big brother, second brother, from now on, we can finally eat the emperor's food!"
"Haha, haha, the Sikoutai and the lackeys from other government offices can no longer do anything to us!"
Amid the big man's wild laughter, Lu Yi walked out of the street quietly, came to the young eunuch quietly, and bowed to him.
"This young eunuch, my name is Lu Yu. I have heard that the Guardian Palace is eager to recruit talented people. They only care about their ability, not their background. I am not talented, but I came here today to join the Guardian Palace."
"Excuse me, what procedures do I need to go through?"
The young eunuch was startled by Lu Yi's sudden appearance beside him. He took two steps back and was about to yell at him when he suddenly saw Lu Yi's resolute and masculine face and his tall and strong figure. The young eunuch's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Hey, we, the palace guards, don't accept just any low-class people."
"But, looking at your figure, you look like a good man."
"Come on, come in with us!"
