In 1855, Vienna was one of the largest cities in Europe.
However, like many European cities at the time, Vienna's layout was not compact.
The Danube River flows from northwest to southeast.
The main city of Vienna is built on the southwest side of the Danube River.
The entire city of Vienna is centered on the inner city where the Hofburg Palace is located, and develops radially to the surrounding areas.
The manors of nobles are usually far away from the center of the inner city. Because they cover a large area and have independent guards, they do not need to rely on the protection of the inner city.
In addition to palaces, concert halls, and squares, the city center also has some commercial facilities.
Most of the people living in those business districts are middle- and lower-class civilians in Vienna, that is, merchants, craftsmen, and some service industries.
Today's banquet was held at Ball's manor. This manor is in the south of the inner city.
Wang Tao lives in a high-end hotel in Deblin District in the north of the city.
Wang Tao got on the carriage, which was a four-wheeled carriage with two rows of seats at the front and rear, and was pulled by two sturdy black draft horses.
The two bodyguards who had been following him took the coachman's seat and were responsible for driving the carriage.
In the car, besides Wang Tao and his assistant, there were three other people. The three people had stayed in the car. They came with him in the car, but they did not get out of the car.
After Wang Tao got in the car, he didn't say hello to them.
Ji Mingshan has said before that as long as Wang Tao carries out normal activities, he can just pretend that the people in these action groups do not exist.
Wang Tao also didn't have much favorable impression of these rough and strong men full of murderous intent.
These people have cold faces all day long, no other expressions, and no idea what they are thinking.
Wang Tao seemed to rarely see these people chatting with each other.
A carriage roared past Wang Tao's carriage and headed north quickly.
Wang Tao didn't pay attention. There were many carriages leaving, and there must be some people living in the same direction as them.
After his carriage left the manor, he drove north along a ring road along the outskirts of the city.
After the carriage passed Medellín Cemetery, a large number of passing carriages headed east toward the inner city. They should be returning to their embassy.
Wang Tao's embassy is in Berlin, which is currently China's only embassy in Europe. So in Vienna, he can only stay in a hotel.
There are also some carriages that are no longer visible due to different speeds.
Wang Tao's carriage gradually became lonely.
At this time, several members of the action team in the car tensed up their nerves. They had been in the world for a long time, and they had developed sensitive intuition.
The carriage continued to move forward in the dark night. The roads outside the city of Vienna were well maintained, so the carriage could move forward at full speed with confidence.
The weather was very clear, but there was no moon, but the sky was full of stars.
Although the starlight is dim, it can dispel the darkness a little.
There is a horse lantern hanging on the left and right sides of the front of the carriage.
From a distance, the carriage looks like a giant beast with two glowing eyes, moving quickly on a straight road.
Wang Tao on the carriage fell into deep thought, recalling the scenes at the evening reception.
The diplomats stood in groups in the banquet hall, seemingly in disarray, but in fact the factions among them could be seen.
Belgian and Dutch diplomats always followed British diplomats.
Diplomats from the German Confederation also seem to be very united.
Those Italians seem to be very close to the French.
Russians are somewhat isolated, with no one around them.
Wang Tao did not take the initiative to talk to the Tsarist Russian ambassador Gorchakov.
Of course, the other party ignored Wang Tao.
Gorchakov felt that there was no need to flirt with this yellow man. Wang Tao thought the same way.
The carriage continued to move forward, and the street trees on both sides flashed by quickly.
From the perspective of the people in the carriage, the two rows of trees were like two fast-moving queues, passing by the carriage.
In Wang Tao's ears, he could only hear the clatter of horse hooves and the noise of wheels rubbing against the ground.
The messy noise made him a little irritated, and he simply stopped thinking about what happened before.
He leaned back in the chair with his eyes still closed, trying to clear his mind and prepare to rest for a while.
At this moment, the carriage seemed to hit a wall and the rear wheels left the ground.
Wang Tao and his assistant were sitting at the back of the carriage, and they were screaming and couldn't control their bodies moving forward.
Two horses whined loudly from outside the carriage.
Fortunately, at this time, the shaft of the car suddenly disconnected, and the wheels that had flown into the air hit the ground heavily.
The two bodyguards sitting in the driving position flew out directly in front.
After the carriage landed, it followed its inertia and ran to the ditch on the right side of the road before stopping.
Fortunately, the carriage's carriage was still strong and was not broken apart by the impact. One of the horse lanterns was smashed, and the lamp oil that flowed out ignited a large fire on the ground.
The fire is one meter away from the carriage, so there is no need to worry about it setting the carriage on fire.
There was a soft lining inside the car, and Wang Tao and his assistant suffered minor injuries. However, they were still dizzy at this time.
The three members of the action team did not appear to be greatly affected.
They quickly climbed out of the car, pulled out the pistols from their waists, and lay down on the side of the road ditch.
Wang Tao and his assistant were still in the car. They were a little dizzy and needed to wake up for a while.
The carriage was quite strong and you could hide inside it temporarily. At this time, the action team was not in a hurry to get the two people out.
They are not soldiers, so they will inevitably panic in this situation, and will be even more dangerous when they come out.
The three members of the action team have been hiding in the car, and these people may not be aware of their existence.
There was a broken wire on the street tree that the carriage just passed.
This was a premeditated assassination.
Two poor black horses, with their front legs broken, were lying on the ground struggling and neighing.
The two bodyguards were thrown into the ditch on the other side of the road. Fortunately, the soil in the ditch was soft, and they were stumbling to get up.
The action team could see that they were staggering as they walked, obviously injured.
They were going to cross the road and inspect the carriage.
At this moment, six figures flashed out from behind the street trees. The six figures were like ghosts, their steps were light and fast. They were obviously professional assassins.
The six people quickly ducked behind the two bodyguards, and two of them shot the bodyguards once in the back.
The two bodyguards screamed, then fell facing the ground, and there was no more movement.
The six people, all wearing night clothes, were like six shadows, running quickly towards the overturned carriage.
This scene completely fell in the eyes of the three action team members.
However, the three of them did not move from beginning to end. It was not until the six of them reached the middle of the road that the three of them raised their guns and fired. Immediately, the three gangsters were shot and fell to the ground.
The remaining three people quickly rolled on the ground twice at the moment of the gunshot, and retreated into the ditch on the opposite side again.
Almost at the same time, bullets on both sides were fired.
The two sides were now separated by the road, only five or six meters apart.
A few firelights lit up in the darkness.
The action team has kerosene lighting on the ground in a bright place.
But the other three were in darkness.
The action team obviously suffered a loss.
After a round of gunfire, the two sides entered a stalemate.
The gunshots just now had exposed their respective numbers. Everyone was planning their next move.
This road section is in the suburbs, and there seems to be a factory in the distance. But it is night now, and the workers have already got off work. The guards of the factory must be guarding the factory first and will not come out to interfere with other people's business.
So there is no need to think about the Austrian police taking care of this matter. There is no 110 or 911 yet.
The assassins were also very anxious at this time. There were only six of them, and now there were three left. There was another assassination team five miles ahead of the road.
But it was so far away, and it would still take a lot of time for them to catch up. In such a long time, Wang Tao and the others could even run away along the ditch.
So one of the assassins quietly moved north along the ditch, preparing to cross the road a hundred meters away.
The three-person action team was not idle either. They sent one person to quietly go back to the carriage and pull out Wang Tao and the frail-looking assistant.
The two of them cooperated fairly well and did not make any sound, but Wang Tao hit a big bump on his head.
Fortunately, he is also a young man with a fairly strong body and is even in better condition than his assistant.
The action team member pointed to the north and motioned for the two of them to follow him and move north.
He took advantage of the situation and put away his pistol and pulled out a large spray gun from under the seat in the carriage.
As a classic weapon of the Renaissance Army, the Big Troll will never be absent at any time and anywhere.
"Crash" sounded twice, and the big sprayer finished loading.
There is no need to hide this kind of sound from the other person, but it can intimidate the other person.
Hearing a strange sound coming from the other side, the two remaining members of the assassination team shrank their necks, as if they sensed danger.
The sound of loading was the signal. The member of the action team with the spray gun led the way. Wang Tao and his assistant imitated others' behavior and moved forward quietly, closely following behind.
After the three people passed by, the remaining two members of the operation team quietly stood up and followed them, keeping watch behind them as they walked.
At this time, there was a "bang" sound, and the team member leading the way opened fire.
A scream came from the darkness.
Everyone's nerves immediately became tense.
At this time, two figures also flashed out from behind, and two other men in black rushed out at the same time.
Both sides fired almost simultaneously. Two black figures fell to the ground.
However, one of the two action team members at the rear was also shot.
According to their judgment just now, all the enemies should have been eliminated by now.
"Erhei, how are you?"
"I can't die. I was shot in the arm. Wait for a while and I will bandage it."
As he spoke, he took out a circle of gauze from the pouch on his waist.
"Let me help you." It was Wang Tao who spoke.
The man didn't refuse. His teammates were on alert and had no way to bandage him.
If Wang Tao helped him, it would definitely be faster than bandaging it himself.
In the darkness, Wang Tao could only vaguely see a dark area on his upper arm with a black hole in the middle.
This should be where the wound is.
There is no way to do more treatment at this time. I can only temporarily rinse it with alcohol and then wrap it directly with gauze.
Wang Tao could feel that the man was holding back the pain without saying a word. From a close distance, he could see that his forehead was already covered with large beads of sweat.
Wang Tao himself has a little arrogance like a literary man. These action members who are former special forces members have all been in the world, and they never look good to others.
Therefore, although Wang Tao is protected by them every day, he has no friendship with them at all.
But what happened today overturned his understanding of these soldiers. Although they were vulgar, they were all people worthy of respect.
They are willing to leave their homes and come to Europe thousands of miles away for the rejuvenation of China, and are always ready to sacrifice for China.
Isn't such a person respectable?
Wang Tao knew that these people were not doing it for himself, but for the benefits they could bring to China.
The five people continued to move forward along the dry street ditch.
The team member who was shot in the arm held the gun with one hand while holding on to his other arm.
The reason why they continued to move north was not to return to the hotel, but because there was a stronghold ahead of them.
As long as they reach that stronghold, they will be safe because there are still a group of brothers stationed there.
They walked for about half a stick of incense, when the spray guy who was leading the way stopped.
Others know that something must have happened before.
The three team members got together.
All five people lay down on the edge of the ditch. Fortunately, there was no water in the ditch. The ditch was more than two meters deep and three meters wide, which was just enough for these people to hide.
Six black figures gradually appeared on the road ahead, exactly like the six men in black just now.
The six people all had pistols in their hands and ran south quickly.
They seemed to think that the group in front was enough to complete the task, so they ran over to join those people openly.
The action team looked at each other, as if seeking each other's opinion on whether to ambush these people.
In the end, the three of them nodded at the same time. The sprayer brother held the sprayer in his hand tightly. He was the assaulter.
The six people had entered thirty meters away, and further forward they could find the five people lying in the ditch.
At this time, the troll suddenly raised his troll and fired at the six people.
This shotgun was enough to hit three or four people thirty meters away, injuring them.
One of the other two people held two guns, and the other held a gun with one hand, firing continuously and shooting out bullets rapidly.
"Bang." Brother Spray fired another shot, and the last enemy fell down. The six enemies were successfully eliminated without any danger, and the five of them continued to move forward.
The group continued walking north for a while, then turned onto an east-west road and headed towards the inner city. After walking about four miles, they arrived in front of a small white building. This was a clinic.
Because someone was injured, they came to Shi Yang's clinic.
"Bang bang bang..." The knock on the door sounded, not loud but very rhythmic, as if sending a code.
After a while, a big man opened the door. This was the concierge of Shiyang Clinic.
Although the clinic is not big, Shi Yang is not the only one there. There are also more than a dozen people including the concierge, coachman, and assistants.
"what happened?"
After everyone entered, the concierge Zhang peeked at the door for a while, then closed the door. Then he asked several people.
Lao Zhang is not old, he is just a relatively larger middle-aged man, and he is also a combatant.
"We were escorting Ambassador Wang and were attacked by unknown assassins," said a member of the action team.
Lao Zhang saw a member of the action team with a bandage on his arm. One of the two scholar-looking young men must be a prince. At this time, they were all looking gray, and both of them had scratches on their bodies.
"Wait a moment, I'll call the stationmaster."
Shi Yang usually goes to bed very early, which has always been his habit. Maybe it's because of his status as a Taoist Chinese medicine practitioner.
But he was already awake at this time. After all, he was sleeping upstairs. There was no way he could not hear the loud noise of five people entering the door.
"Stationmaster." Everyone shouted when they saw Shi Yang coming downstairs.
"Mr. Wang, we meet again." Shi Yang greeted.
Wang Tao smiled awkwardly.
"Let me help Er Hei take care of his gunshot wound first! Please give Prince Wang a moment."
Wang Tao had no objections to Shi Yang's arrangements.
When treating the injury, Shi Yang was very focused and did not even ask about the assassination process.
It wasn't until he helped all three of them take care of their injuries that Shi Yang asked, "Didn't anyone get caught alive?"
The troll in the action team shook his head and replied: "No, we didn't know the situation at the time, so we killed him."
Shi Yang nodded to express his understanding that in this dark night, it was impossible to release water just to catch people alive.
"This is their gun."
The troll took out a Colt revolver made in the United States. Unexpectedly, this kind of gun was so popular in Europe.
Shi Yang took the pistol, opened the magazine and looked at it. It was similar to the revolver they used, except that the bullets were not upgraded, and they still used paper shell bullets and flash caps.
"Oh, this is the cross they wear." The troll took out another cross, the kind that hangs around the neck.
Most Europeans are religious, and many people wear crosses.
Shi Yang took the cross and looked at it carefully, and Wang Tao also looked over curiously.
"This is the Orthodox cross." Wang Tao said.
He has been in Europe for more than a year and has done some research on European religions.
This cross has the Cross of Christ on it. It also has an extra horizontal line on the top and an extra cross on the bottom. This is the cross often used by the Orthodox Church.
For believers, they would not wear the cross casually under any circumstances.
For enemies of Orthodox Christianity, the answer is readily apparent.
It seems that just as Ji Mingshan said, these Europeans don't follow the rules that much.