Chapter 22 Audacious

Chapter 22 Audacious

Chapter 22 Audacious
The homemade grenade that Pei Yuan made with his own hands turned out to be unreliable. Before it landed among the crowd, a beam of white light exploded in mid-air!
Although no one was killed directly by the explosion, fragments and iron filings flew everywhere, and almost all of the dozen people who were hit were injured.

The loud noise caused their horses to run wildly, and many people were thrown off their horses.

Xue Songqi didn't understand what it was, but his instinctive sense of crisis made him dodge at the critical moment.

Although the vital parts of the head and face were avoided, many iron filings were hit into the shoulders, causing unbearable pain for a while.

He was filled with hatred, and seeing that the iron filings had not penetrated deeply into the flesh, he bandaged the wound hastily, grabbed a stray warhorse, and chased after it into the night.

Pei Yuan, who was running ahead, was also startled by the loud noise.

The burning time of the fuse was much faster than he expected. Although everyone was injured, they did not completely lose their combat effectiveness.

If I had delayed for a second or two when throwing it out just now, I might have ended up hurting myself.

The three men fled for their lives and only returned to the official road at dawn.

To everyone's surprise, the pursuers behind were either frightened by Pei Yuan's treasure or took the wrong road and did not catch up with him at all.

In addition, they actually found a complete post station that was not affected at all.

Pei Yuan immediately realized the reason.

They rode their horses all night long, fearing that the news of the massive influx of Bazhou bandits had not yet spread.

Think about it.

Last night they were still enjoying a comfortable meal in the post station, listening to the scholars discussing poetry with each other. Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, horse thieves would attack them.

The civil unrest in Bazhou has been suppressed and never publicized.

For those people far away in Shandong, they never thought that their peaceful lives would be affected by this.

The three of them looked at each other, their eyes flickering.

When they arrived at the post station, the three men did not show their official documents, but relied on their Jinyiwei official uniforms to quickly start collecting water bags, meat, and dry food that were easy to carry.

Then Chen Toutie guarded the horse farm, Cheng Leixiang went to look for a long weapon that could be used, and Pei Yuan arrogantly snatched the check-in book from the postmaster and began to look through it.

Pei Yuan's eyes swept over the various titles of the prefect of Yuanzhou, the magistrate of Caizhou and others who were passing by. Knowing that they were taking up their posts, he was not very interested at the moment. When he saw the name of Hu Ang, the deputy envoy of the Huguang Censorate, he paused.

If Pei Yuan remembered correctly, Censor Zhang Lian had just impeached Hu Ang last month.

This man was charged with embezzling money and bending the law for personal gain while supervising officials in Huguang. Fortunately, he had a strong backing and was able to retire.

Pei Yuan held the embroidered spring knife with a fierce look on his face, pointed at the list and asked, "Where does Mr. Hu live?"

The postmaster had long heard of the bad reputation of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and quickly pointed to the side courtyard where Hu Ang lived to Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan was not in a hurry to look for Hu Ang. He took a look at the side courtyard and then went to meet up with the two small flags under his command.

Chen Toutie had already selected the horses according to the pattern of three riders per person, and the long weapons that Cheng Leixiang had found, as well as water bags, meat, dry food and other items were also tied up on the horses.

Although the postmen did not dare to stop the two men from doing their work, they refused to let the horses out of the pen without seeing the official documents.

Pei Yuan solemnly instructed the two, "No rush."

He turned around and said to the postmen fiercely, "Watch these horses. If anyone dares to move, I will send him to prison!"

The postmen were trembling with fear and could only say yes.

Then the three of them went to the hall and asked for food and drinks as if no one was around.

After Pei Yuan finished eating, he pushed the cups and plates aside and fell asleep on the table. Cheng Leixiang had fought a tough battle yesterday and took a nap beside him without any hesitation.

Chen Toutie was used to interrogating people all night long, so he could endure it. He gave the other people who were eating a threatening look and then went outside to keep watch.

In fact, most of those who can stay and rest in the post station have official backgrounds.

Many people have powerful connections behind them, so they may not be afraid of these Jinyiwei.

But these three men behaved as viciously as mad dogs.

Since the trouble has not affected them, naturally no one wants to provoke these guys.

Pei Yuan had slept for less than an hour when he was woken up by Chen Toutie.

He said hurriedly, "Here it comes!"

Pei Yuan immediately came to his senses. The rebels in Bazhou were mainly horse thieves. When they invaded a region, they would definitely attack two places first: one was the post station with a large number of post horses, and the other was the warehouse with stored grain.

Pei Yuan and his men fled here on horseback overnight. Given the current reaction speed of the local government, there is absolutely no time to notify the lower levels to evacuate.

If there are cavalry approaching, they must be thieves!

Pei Yuan jumped up and kicked Cheng Leixiang awake, "Quick, quick! The thief is coming!"

The noise made by the three people also caused the diners who were eating and resting in the hall to become noisy.

Many people asked each other in panic, but no one knew what had happened.

The three men drew out their Embroidered Spring Swords, and the clanging sound of the blades rubbing against the scabbards immediately quieted the noise in the hall.

Chen Toutie went straight to the horse farm, while Cheng Leixiang silently followed Pei Yuan with a knife in hand.

Pei Yuan's official boots trembled as he rushed to the backyard.

Everyone in the post station was silent, and no one dared to stop it.

Pei Yuan arrived at the gate of Hu Ang's side courtyard and kicked the door open.

When the family members and servants in the courtyard saw two Jinyiwei rushing in with knives, they couldn't help shouting and screaming, and the situation became chaotic.

Hu Ang had just been impeached and dismissed from office. When he heard that the Jinyiwei had broken into the courtyard, he was so frightened that his face turned pale.

He saw Pei Yuan walk straight into the hall and shouted in panic, "I am the man of Zhang Gao, the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate! Who told you to touch me?"

Pei Yuan's face was stern, and he shouted, "What Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief? I don't care who you are, I'm here to save your life!"

Hu Ang was stunned.

Before he could say anything, Pei Yuan said in a stern voice, "The rebels of Bazhou have already arrived at the gate. You used to be an official appointed by the imperial court. In order to prevent you from being held hostage by the thieves, you should follow us now!"

When Hu Ang heard this, his face turned pale.

"Bazhou rebels? They're at the gate?!"

Before he could think about it, Pei Yuan grabbed him and pushed him to Cheng Leixiang, "Go, send this gentleman away quickly!"

Then, Pei Yuan's eyes flashed with ferocity, and he looked around with his sword drawn.

"Why don't you protect your master and leave quickly? Are you going to follow the thieves?"

Hu Ang's family and servants had already suffered a shock when their master was impeached by the censor Zhang Lian, so this time they were like frightened birds.

Hearing Pei Yuan's fierce words and seeing that he was clenching the steel knife tightly in his hand, they fled out without caring about anything.

Pei Yuan knew that time was running out, so he didn't care about anything else. He just kicked open the door of the wing and went to search Hu Ang's luggage.

After searching several places, we finally found some wooden boxes with big locks.

Pei Yuan was afraid of damaging the steel knife, so he relied on his immense strength to lift the box and threw it to the ground.

The box shattered into pieces in an instant, and dozens of silver ingots rolled out from it with a clanging sound.

Pei Yuan didn't even bother to look at them, and opened a few more wooden boxes. Some of them contained silver ingots, some contained precious silks, and some gold and jewelry.

Pei Yuan picked up valuables and packed a large bag, and not giving up, he stuffed a few more heavy silver ingots into the bag.

By the time we rushed out of the post station, the smoke and dust in the distance had already approached.

Chen Toutie and Cheng Leixiang had already mounted their horses and were anxiously waiting for Pei Yuan.

When they saw the bag on Pei Yuan's body, their eyes lit up, but Pei Yuan asked first, "Where is Hu Ang?"

Cheng Leixiang pointed to the distance and said, "I helped the horse onto the stage myself and stabbed it in the buttocks."

"Okay, I'll do him justice!"

Pei Yuan patted the bag and said, "This is his life-saving money."

Then he spurred his horse and whipped it, saying, "Go!"

(End of this chapter)