On the other hand, the soldiers guarding the city were all looking nervous at this moment, and some even stood on high places and watched from a distance.
Although Yangzhou Prefecture is located in the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River and has no external troubles, it can be said that there has never been any war in a hundred years of peace.
In this case, there is almost no need to worry about any foreign enemies suddenly appearing. It is precisely because of this that even though they noticed that a large group of people was approaching, the soldiers guarding the city did not choose to close the city gate, but chose to wait and see.
Suddenly someone shouted loudly: "It's coming, everyone, look at it."
Hundreds of people came on horseback, and the speed was naturally quite fast.
At this time, Li Huan naturally held the Imperial Guard of Honor.
Before revealing their identities, perhaps some people could pretend they didn't know Li Huan's identity.
But when Li Huan assumed his status as an imperial envoy, if something unexpected happened again, among other things, Li Huan could definitely use his status as an imperial envoy to deal with the opponent in an upright manner.
As the flags were fluttering, each flag was flying in the wind, bearing Li Huan's official position. It could be said to be majestic, especially when surrounded by hundreds of royal guards, the scene was huge.
As Li Huan and his entourage approached under the imperial guard of honor, they were naturally stunned by the crowd of people at the city gate.
For these common people, most of them have never even seen their parents and officials, so how have they ever seen such a grand scene of imperial envoys and honor guards?
The Jin Yiwei who opened the way in front shouted loudly. Many people on the official road were obviously frightened and almost immediately ducked aside for fear of blocking the imperial envoy's honor guard.
Of course, although these imperial guards who cleared the way looked fierce, they did nothing to the people who were blocking the way. They didn't even need to take action, and the people who were restrained took the initiative to get out of the way.
A group of common people who were hiding on the edge of the official road secretly watched the large group of people whizzing past them. Someone looked up secretly and saw a dark crowd of guards in rich uniforms surrounding several officials.
Because surrounded by Jin Yiwei, few people could see Li Huan, Chen Ke and others.
At this time, Li Huan was riding on his horse, looking at Yangzhou City getting closer and closer, with a faint smile on his lips and said: "Yangzhou City has arrived, send a few brothers to notify the Yangzhou Prefecture Yamen."
Chen Ke responded when he heard the words, and immediately sent a few guards in royal robes to gallop towards Yangzhou City.
At this time, the city gate was filled with darkness, almost all of which were people lining up slowly to enter the city.
Several officials guarding the city came over tremblingly, bowed to Li Huan and his party who had stopped, and said, "I have met all of you, sir."
Li Huan just glanced at a few people lightly.
I don't know why, but when Li Huan glanced at them, the hearts of these officials suddenly suddenly broke out, and cold sweat even broke out on their foreheads.
In fact, Li Huan and his party had just fought with a group of desperadoes not long ago, and many of them were even stained with blood. It can be said that the evil spirit was at its peak.
Not to mention the officials who were guarding the city, even the common people subconsciously hid far away when they saw the blood stained on the bodies of some of the imperial guards and the invisible evil aura.
One of the inspectors suppressed the fear in his heart and trembled: "I will clear the city gate and make way for you adults."
With that said, the inspector ordered his men to drive away a group of people who were blocking the entrance to the city.
Li Huan couldn't help but frowned when he heard this, and noticed the change in Li Huan's expression. Ma Ming stepped forward, looked down at the frightened gatekeepers and said, "Who gave you permission to drive away the people? How can these people be allowed to drive away?"
Just enter the city first.",
As for Li Huan's purpose, Ma Ming naturally knew that they had no intention of entering the city immediately, otherwise they would not have sent people to notify the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture.
The officials were stunned for a moment when they heard this, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, there are so many people crowded at the city gate right now, and even if they want to be driven away, it probably won't be a matter of time.
Especially once they are evicted, no one can guarantee what trouble will occur. If another accident occurs, they cannot bear the responsibility.
Fortunately, the people in front of them did not insist on clearing out the people and making way for them to come out as they feared.
Because of the arrival of Li Huan and his party, so many people gathered at the city gate, which was somewhat chaotic. Fortunately, Ma Ming stopped these officials from driving away the people, otherwise there would have been chaos.
Yangzhou Fuyamen.
The group of people who had been waiting for news about Xu Wei in the garden of the Xu family were now gathered in the government office with red eyes.
In the huge meeting hall, more than a dozen well-named officials of all sizes, headed by Xu Lin, were all fidgeting.
Xu Lin, who had not slept a wink all night, looked quite tired, but at this moment Xu Lin was staring at Jia Yuan, who had just returned not long ago and said: "Master Jia, I asked you to contact Commander Pang, has Pang Hui ever done it?"
Bringing people into the city?"
Jia Yuan's face seemed to be a bit wrong. Hearing this, he squeezed out a bit of bitterness and said: "Sir, Pang Hui has indeed entered the city, but...but..."
Xu Lin frowned and said, "But what!"
Jia Yuan gritted his teeth and said, "But Pang Hui just brought dozens of soldiers."
With a bang, Xu Lin slapped the table with his hand, and said with an angry look on his face: "What a Pang Hui, is he going to sit on the wall and watch?"
According to Xu Lin's idea, Pang Hui should lead some of the guardsmen into the city, and then look for an opportunity to repeat what happened in Yangzhou when thousands of Jinyiwei households were wiped out.
Just wanting to destroy Li Huan and his party would definitely require strong enough force. Xu Lin thought about it and found that only the soldiers and horses of the guard station controlled by Pang Hui had such ability.
But what Xu Lin didn't expect was that Pang Hui only brought dozens of soldiers into the city, which clearly showed that he didn't want to get involved.
"Damn, damn it!"
Xu Lin, who was cursing Pang Hui, had a ferocious look on his face.
There was no news at all from Xu Wei, but after not returning home all night, there was no news. Even if they reacted slowly, Xu Lin and others could realize that Xu Wei and his party were probably in serious danger.
The two teams brought by Jing Kui and Xu Wei can be said to be most of the strength they can mobilize. As for gathering a group of trustworthy people, it is not impossible.
But I'm afraid it won't be that easy in a short time.
An official said in a trembling voice: "Sir, does Pang Hui think that we are not sincere enough? If he thinks that there is less money, we can increase the price. If hundreds of thousands are not enough, then one million. I don't believe there is anyone else in this world."
Things you can’t do with money.”
When he said this, the official's eyes flashed with a somewhat crazy look.
When Xu Lin heard this, he also looked towards Jia Yuan.
Jia Yuan, on the other hand, showed a bitter smile after hearing what the official said and slowly shook his head and said: "That Pang Hui is totally unwilling to accept hard or soft advice. He didn't even accept the two hundred thousand taels of silver notes I brought."
.”
Hearing this, the official's face showed a look of astonishment and murmured: "How is this possible? Pang Hui even dared to swallow the food and wages of his soldiers. How could he not be tempted by leaving a lot of gold and silver?"
An official said coldly: "Because Pang Hui is afraid. Everyone should know who Li Huan is. He has a life to get money, so he also has a life to spend..."
When many officials heard this, their faces suddenly turned pale, and their hearts became even more frightened.
"It's over, it's all over now!"
"I just said that I shouldn't have done everything right last time. Now I've brought in the murderous god Li Huan!"
The hall was in chaos for a while, and it could be said that there were different reactions.
At this moment, Xu Lin, who had been sitting there with a changeable expression, slammed the table and shouted: "That's enough, Li Huan hasn't come here yet, so you are in chaos. If he really comes, will you?"
He was captured and left to die!"
Looking at Xu Lin's appearance, an official grasped at straws and said to Xu Lin: "Sir...Sir, is there anything else you can do? As long as it can save lives and let everyone escape this disaster, we all will listen.
Yours.”
When I think about it, after Li Huan arrives, he will definitely not let them go. Even the family members behind them will be implicated. It is inevitable that their close relatives will accompany them on the execution ground.
After all, they are not fools. As long as Li Huan is willing, no matter how clean the endings of the things they did before are, they may not be able to escape Li Huan's clutches.
People looked at Xu Lin eagerly. They could only hope that Xu Lin, who was always resourceful, could come up with a solution.
Xu Lin took a deep breath, glanced at everyone and said, "Don't worry, everyone, it's just Li Huan. I have my own countermeasures."
Seeing Xu Lin's confident look, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and looked at Xu Lin expectantly: "I wonder what you can do?"
When Xu Lin was about to speak, he suddenly heard a rush of footsteps coming from outside: "Sir, sir, Jin Yiwei... the people from Jin Yiwei are here!"
"What, the people from Jinyiwei are here!"
"How could it be so fast!"
"When did Li Huan enter the city? Why was there no news at all beforehand?"
The words "Jinyiwei" were like a magic spell, causing many officials present to jump up in surprise, with panic on their faces.
Xu Lin frowned and glanced at the officer and snorted coldly: "Why are you panicking? Where are the guards in brocade clothes?"
The officer hurriedly said: "Go back to your lord, the people from Jinyiwei are waiting in the front hall for your summons."
Xu Lin raised his eyebrows and said, "Bring someone to see me."
Soon I saw several Jin Yiwei walking over, headed by a Jin Yiwei flag officer.
The little flag officer of the Jinyiwei came over with several of his men, his eyes swept over the officials, and finally landed on Xu Lin, who was in official uniform in the middle.
Xu Lin's identity could be determined only from Xu Lin's official uniform, so the flag officer gave a slight salute to Xu Lin and said, "The imperial guard Di Ping has met the prefect."
Xu Lin stroked his beard and looked at Di Ping, staring at Di Ping as if he wanted to see through Di Ping.
"I don't know if you have come to see me, but what's the matter?"
Di Ping said calmly: "On the order of the Imperial Envoy, I came here to inform you all that the Imperial Envoy's honor guard has arrived outside Yangzhou City..."
Xu Lin stood up suddenly, with a look of surprise on his face and said: "It turns out that the imperial envoy has arrived. Okay, okay, that's great. Ever since I received the imperial order, everyone in Yangzhou Mansion has been looking forward to the imperial envoy's arrival.
I think the imperial envoy will arrive today."
As he spoke, Xu Lin said to the officials who were confused by Xu Lin's reaction: "What are you guys doing in a daze? Why don't you go with me to greet the imperial envoy?"
After coming back to his senses, although all the officials said they couldn't understand what Xu Lin was doing, they were all elites in the officialdom, and it was almost their instinct to speak nonsense to others.
Immediately, an official smiled and said to Di Ping and others: "It turns out that the imperial envoy has arrived, so we should greet him personally."
Di Ping just glanced at the crowd, then cupped his hands in front of them and said, "I'll excuse you."
After saying this, Di Ping turned around and took a few of his men with him under the surprised gazes of the officials and left without hesitation, giving the impression that he didn't want to stay here for a moment.
When Di Ping turned around and led the people away, Xu Lin, who was originally smiling, suddenly turned cold, and just watched Di Ping and the others disappear from sight.
"grown ups……"
At this time, all the officials looked towards Xu Lin.
One official had cold sweat breaking out on his forehead and said with a panicked look on his face: "Sir, the imperial envoy is at the gate of the city. What should we do? What should we do?"
Xu Lin took a deep breath and said slowly: "I'm still here, don't panic, don't panic!"
At the city gate
As time passed, and at Li Huan's instruction, Ma Ming sent some people to maintain order. As many people entered the city for the market, it took more than half an hour for the city gate to become sparse.
It's sparse and there aren't many people coming in or out anymore.
It can be said that at this moment, Li Huan and his party were the only ones left at the city gate.
At this time, Xu Ying stood next to Li Huan and said with a bit of curiosity on her face: "Master Marquis, what do you think the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture will do after hearing the news of our arrival."
Li Huan glanced at Xu Ying and chuckled: "Tell me, how will these people react?"
Xu Ying said immediately: "The things these people have done are enough to confiscate their homes and exterminate their clans several times. Now that their whereabouts have been exposed, why don't they run away quickly? If you ask me, these people are trying to find a way to escape far away.
If they had the courage, I'm afraid they wouldn't dare to come see the Lord."
There was one thing that Xu Ying did not dare to say in front of Li Huan, that is, there were a few people in the officialdom who did not know how ruthless Li Huan was in killing those officials who had committed the most heinous crimes.
Think of the so-called camaraderie.
Anyway, if he were one of these officials from Yangzhou Prefecture, he would definitely find a way to escape immediately, so he wouldn't be so stupid as to send him to his doorstep.