In the bustling Taifeng Tower, Tan Xiong's resounding laughter echoed.
"Haha! Receive the imperial edict? Receive the imperial edict?"
Tan Xiong slapped the table and said to Song Yinghuai, "My lord, he wants us to receive the imperial edict. What shall we do?"
Song Yinghuai sat upright in the top seat, calm as a mountain, and said with a gentle smile, "Brother Tan, don't be impatient. Let's listen first."
Huang Shan's eyelids fluttered nervously at his smile, and his hand holding the imperial edict trembled.
He was about to read it out!
Read it out in front of everyone!
Suddenly, his hand shook, and his eyes widened like copper bells as he looked at the blank imperial edict in disbelief:
"This... This... How is this possible!"
"Where is my imperial edict?"
The next second, he looked up and suddenly saw Song Yinghuai's cold and smiling face.
"Prince of Yan!" His eyes widened desperately, and his shrill voice was like a thin thread, "Was it you? You switched my imperial edict!"
Song Yinghuai was sitting on the chair sipping tea. Hearing this, he slightly raised his eyes, shook his head with a faint smile, and said:
"What is Lord Huang talking about? I don't understand. It's clearly you who falsely spread the imperial edict and came to the land of Yan with a blank imperial edict to act tyrannically. Do you think this prince is a paper tiger?"
Sheng Jiangli's escape made Song Yinghuai change his plan on the spot.
Originally, he planned to create a false appearance of a fight between them. Now, he quickly came up with a new excuse for killing.
"Ah!" Huang Shan realized that he had been deceived, and Sheng Jiangli had escaped. Frightened, he slumped back into his chair and stammered, "I'm going back to the capital! I'm going to report to His Majesty and the Crown Prince! The Prince of Yan has rebelled... Ah!"
A huge scream suddenly rang out!
Under Tan Xiong's sharp blade, Huang Shan's head rolled to the ground, and blood splashed all over the table and the floor!
The dancers' screams rang out one after another, and the nobles retched continuously.
Everyone turned pale, but it seemed as if they had expected this. Except for looking ugly, they didn't run around.
A few drops of blood splashed on Song Yinghuai's wrist.
The man frowned slightly, picked up a white silk handkerchief in disgust and wiped it hard until his wrist was clean again. Then he hooked his lips again and said to everyone with a smile:
"Thank you all for your cooperation during this period. You've been acting in front of the eunuch... Calling me a traitor. Did you all enjoy scolding me?"
Everyone swallowed hard and looked at Song Yinghuai nervously. They didn't know if he was joking or serious.
Although it was Song Yinghuai who asked them to act as if they were on bad terms with the Prince of Yan, after all, they acted so realistically that they couldn't help but get into the role.
There were times when they slapped the table and scolded Song Yinghuai in front of Huang Shan and Sheng Jiangli.
There were also times when they cursed Song Yinghuai with red faces and thick necks, wishing him a bad end.
Just as everyone was feeling uneasy, Song Yinghuai suddenly stood up and said with a loud laugh:
"Why are you all so nervous? I'm just joking with you!"
"Everyone here is a witness today. Huang Shan, the chief of the Eastern Depot, brought a fake imperial edict to the land of Yan with evil intentions. Sheng Jiangli, the commander of the Kaiping Huqi Cavalry, was indiscriminate and led his troops into the pass without permission. This prince will arrest him immediately. Does anyone have any objections?"
Everyone was shocked and quickly stood up and shook their heads. "We will all follow the prince's orders!"
The cold rain was like silk, and the spring in the land of Yan was faintly cold.
Song Yinghuai mounted his horse and led everyone straight to the eight major gates of Yanjing.
However, on the way, they met Zhu Xiao galloping towards them on horseback.
Tan Xiong's face changed, and he couldn't help shouting from afar, "What's going on?"
Zhu Xiao rode his horse up to them. His face was extremely ugly. "Where is Sheng Jiangli? None of the eight gates saw the soldiers of the Kaiping Huqi Cavalry charge out! Where is he?"
Tan Xiong let out a strange cry. "You're asking me? Who should I ask? Lao Fang?"
Fang Kuan cursed angrily. "I don't know either! I followed for a long time and found that the person who came out of the toilet was a stranger!"
"After interrogation, I found out that he was a waiter in the restaurant who had taken the silver and hidden in the toilet long ago!"
"My lord?" Zhu Xiao's eyes, as big as copper bells, stared. "Thirty thousand Huqi Cavalry. Are they still in the city or have they left? Can this guy fly?"
Song Yinghuai was sitting on his warhorse. His back was as straight as a mountain, and he was silent. His eyes were cold and sharp, like a gyrfalcon in the dark night, cold and overbearing.
His silence was like a calm sea, with undercurrents surging beneath. His lips were tightly pursed like a fully drawn bowstring.
After a long time, the fingers holding the reins suddenly tightened, and the low voice carried a dangerous aura:
"Return to the mansion!"
In the middle of Fucheng Street, a mighty team of warhorses broke the silence of Yanjing City.
The leading warhorse galloped through the street. The traces of the horse's hooves stepping on the yellow flowers that had fallen by the roadside in spring were like two flashes of sword light.
Zhu Xiao and the others behind couldn't keep up with Song Yinghuai's speed at all and were left more than ten meters behind.
They didn't know why Song Yinghuai wasn't in a hurry to search the whole city for Sheng Jiangli and his Huqi Cavalry, nor was he in a hurry to go out of the city to check if they had escaped. Instead, he was rushing back to the mansion.
In the distance, the Prince of Yan's Mansion was like a sleeping giant beast. Behind its tranquility was the king's great anger.
The sound of horse hooves thundered from afar. On the majestic warhorse, the man stepped on the stirrups for leverage, leaped into the air like a roc, stepped over the tips of the tall tree branches, and landed in front of Ma Mo and Duoyan Wuliang, who were sleeping on the eaves.
Song Yinghuai looked at his two capable subordinates who had been knocked out by the sleeping drug. The coldness and murderousness in his eyes were even more fierce than a wolf's.
The next second, his figure flashed into the Lianyin Pavilion like lightning, leaving a strong gust of wind behind.
"Caiyu!"
The only response to Song Yinghuai was the empty sound of the wind passing through the bedroom.
Zhu Xiao and the others who followed closely behind saw Ma Mo and Duoyan Wuliang in this state and secretly thought it was bad. They quickly took out the bottles of medicine to refresh themselves from their bosoms and waved them under the two men's noses.
After a while, the two men's nostrils fluttered, and they sneezed several times in their dreams. Finally, they woke up from their sleep and looked blankly at the group of people surrounding them.
Zhu Xiao sighed. "Lao Ma, Wuliang, you've been tricked!"
Ma Mo suddenly came to his senses from his daze and rubbed his forehead, grimacing:
"Damn it! Lao Zhu! It was Sheng Jiangli! It was Sheng Jiangli!"
"Alright, alright, alright!" Zhu Xiao said with a headache as he pulled Ma Mo's hand off his arm. "I guessed it must be him!"
"That guy is really something! We all thought he was going to lead his troops to charge the city gate, but he had the mood to come here as a flower thief?"
"Where is Sheng Jiangli?" Song Yinghuai's cold voice sounded behind them. "Where is Caiyu?"
Ma Mo and Duoyan Wuliang were shocked when they heard this. They got up from the ground and knelt down. "My lord, this subordinate is incompetent!"
Ma Mo said angrily, "That bastard Sheng Jiangli is so sneaky. He used sleeping drugs as soon as he made a move. He has no sense of honor!"
Duoyan Wuliang had never seen such a decisive and unscrupulous person either.
In their eyes, those who used such despicable means as sleeping drugs should be the villains in the Jianghu.
Who would have thought that Sheng Jiangli, as a military man, didn't fight them openly but instead patted them on the back and then took out the sleeping drugs?
After listening to the two men's words, everyone's expressions became serious.
Looking at Song Yinghuai's face as dark as midnight, Zhu Xiao couldn't help but mutter:
"This is really bad. Did Miss Caiyu elope or get kidnapped as a hostage?"
Tan Xiong wished he could cover Zhu Xiao's big mouth!
"What are you talking nonsense about! She must have been kidnapped! Elope? What a joke!"
Tan Xiong thought that if Zhu Xiao said a few more words, he wasn't sure if Caiyu would elope or not, but his teeth would definitely be knocked out by Song Yinghuai first!
Didn't he see the prince's murderous look?
At this moment, Song Yinghuai's eyes were cold, like the lake in winter, cold and bottomless. There was a hint of bloodthirsty in his coldness, as if it was about to burst out at any moment.
Everyone was terrified when they saw this and didn't dare to say another word.
After a while, Song Yinghuai almost crushed the Buddhist beads on his wrist before spitting out a few words through his teeth:
"Where is Zhang Ce?"
Zhu Xiao and Zhang Ce were each assigned a task. One led the troops to ambush at the eight major gates of Yanjing, and the other swaggered around pretending to patrol the city but was actually ready to deal with any sudden changes at any time.
Now that the sudden change had come, where was Zhang Ce?