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The dozen or so masked men in the courtyard started to stir for a while, but immediately calmed down. They held steel knives and formed a defensive circular formation back to back. They were on alert and looked well-trained...)
"Brother, what should I do?" someone asked in a low voice.
The masked leader's eyes were sharp and he cursed: "I have fallen into a trap. Today will be very unlucky. Listen to my orders and rush into the house together, taking Chen Laogen and others inside as hostages. Otherwise, it will be difficult to escape."
.”
Everyone nodded, and the formation slowly moved towards the house. Ouyang Xiu waved his hand, and the soldiers slowly approached with swords and guns, slowly compressing the formation of the masked men.
Suddenly, the masked leader shouted: "Kill!"
The soldiers were startled, but saw that the masked man did not rush towards them. Instead, he roared, turned around and pounced on the door and windows behind him, slamming into the windows and doors with a knife.
They thought they would be able to break through the window and rush into the house just like they did in the study. However, there were several "dong dong dong" sounds, and these people were bounced back like a ball hitting an iron plate, making them dizzy.
Eyes full of stars.
The door and window were obviously reinforced with bars nailed from the inside, and could not be broken through at all; the masked leader shouted: "Get out of the way!" He reached out to grab a steel knife, turned the handle upside down with both hands, and fiercely slammed it toward the window edge.
There were several banging sounds, and as expected, two big holes were made in the window frame by this brave guy.
The two big men were overjoyed. They jumped up and bumped straight up. They heard two pounces, and two spears came out of the hole like poisonous snakes, stabbing the two big men to their cores.
The masked men looked at the two twitching corpses that fell to the ground like ripped bags and were frightened. No one dared to rush up.
Su Jin laughed loudly and said: "Surrender, don't waste your efforts, so what if you can get in? We only need to burn this house with a fire, why don't we burn you idiots into roasted turtles?"
The masked leader shouted: "Fight!"
He raised his knife and turned around and rushed towards the ranks of officers and soldiers. Masked men followed closely behind him, shouting and rushing towards the officers and soldiers.
Ouyang Xiu shouted: "Fire the arrow!"
Dozens of archers on the roof had already prepared their arrows. After giving the order, there was a loud roar. The arrows coming from above were so powerful that they killed five or six masked men in an instant. However, each person could only fire one round of arrows.
He couldn't shoot any more, because the masked man had already engaged the officers and soldiers, and if he fired any more arrows, he would accidentally injure one of his own people.
This group of masked men were all tough-minded. Once they fought, several officers and soldiers were chopped to the ground. In the blink of an eye, several more fell down. Suddenly, there was a loud wailing and screaming. The officers and soldiers were frightened to death and retreated one after another.
, which actually allowed them to fight their way out with overwhelming force.
Ouyang Xiu stamped his feet and cursed: "On top, on top, those who retreat will engage in military law."
The soldiers clamored and launched a round of charge, but several more were killed in an instant. Most of the soldiers no longer dared to attack anymore. They could only wave their swords and guns and shout loudly from behind, but did not dare to actually step forward.
Ouyang Xiu was anxious. If he was rushed out of this alleyway, he would be in trouble, and they would most likely escape. It would be a joke to spread the news that more than a hundred people could not defeat a group of twenty gangsters. What's more, more importantly,
If we can't get anyone, we can't ask for confessions, and we can't know who ordered this group of people to come.
"Envoy Su, what should I do?" When the matter came to a close, Ouyang Xiu could only ask Su Jin. After all, this man had led troops to exterminate bandits, and his combat experience was better than his own.
Su Jin shouted: "Cha Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long and Zhao Hu, go up and block the entrance of the alley. We must not let them rush to the front yard."
Chao Chao and others were originally standing near Su Jin and Ouyang Xiu as guards. They were already red-eyed and eager to try. After hearing this, they picked up their swords and rushed forward like a whirlwind. Before the masked men were about to rush out of the alleyway.
For a moment, they were able to withstand their forward momentum and blocked them in the alleyway.
The four people blocked the road like a copper wall and an iron wall. After being slashed and kicked with knives and kicks, the two masked men fell down. The officers and soldiers who had regained their strength were holding long spears and hiding behind the human shield formed by the four people and stabbed them randomly.
Stab, stab the last person again in an instant.
More than half of the more than 20 masked men were killed and injured, and only seven or eight people were left. The leading masked man swung his knife to stop Zhang Long's head. The shock made his arms sore and numb. In the middle of his busy schedule, he twisted his body to avoid Zhang Long's armpit.
A big gun was thrust at him, and everything was immediately in a panic.
"Rush back, the alley is very narrow, go back to the courtyard and go up to the house to break out separately, and escape one by one." The leading masked man shouted loudly.
When the masked men heard this, they turned and ran back. Su Jin shouted: "Fire the arrow."
The masked men who were halfway running were rained down by a hail of arrows from their pockets. Seven or eight of them were hit by arrows, and two were seriously injured and fell to the ground motionless.
Until then, they understood that there was no way to escape today. There were four door gods in front of them, there were arrows blocking them from behind, and there was death before and after death. Resistance was meaningless.
"Put down your weapons and capture them without restraint. If you resist again, you will be killed immediately." Ouyang Xiu became more energetic and shouted majestically.
The leading masked man let out a long sigh and lowered the knife in his hand. The sound of the steel knife falling to the ground was heard repeatedly. The five masked men who were still standing dropped their steel knives and stopped resisting.
"Tie them up!" Ouyang Xiu said: "Count the casualties and let the doctor treat the injured."
The statistics of the war situation were soon reported. Of the twenty-one masked bandits, twelve were dead, six were slightly injured, and three were seriously injured. Ouyang Xiu's personal guards, together with the seven or eight soldiers guarding the front yard and the miscellaneous people from the official post who were poisoned, were reported.
A total of twenty-eight servants were killed and nineteen were injured.
Ouyang Xiu was very angry. The bandits who captured more than 20 people suffered such heavy casualties. This was because Su Jin designed and surrounded them. If Su Jin had not planned and arranged in advance, he and his nearly a hundred relatives would have died.
Wei was afraid that he would have to finish them all, and just thinking about it made people break out in cold sweat.
Su Jin stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "Master Zhongcheng, you are shocked. It is unexpected that these people are so brave."
Ouyang Xiu said angrily: "This account will all be attributed to someone. Special Envoy Su, you and I should not rest. We will interrogate these people overnight and get their confessions before we talk."
Su Jin said: "I follow your orders, but there is still something that must be done quickly."
Ouyang Xiudao: "I understand what you said. I have already contacted the 13th Forbidden Army in the capital, which has sent Huainan Road to block roads and ban food supplies. There are a total of 1,300 people. As long as they take the confession, they will immediately hit the road and head to Luzhou."
Su Jin said: "Then I can rest assured. My home in Luzhou is probably in a mess. If we can't get to Luzhou as soon as possible, our family members may be in danger."
Ouyang Xiudao: "The news of the failure here will not reach Luzhou so quickly. It is nothing serious. Don't worry. I hope Zhu Shiyong will not openly harm your family. Let's act quickly."
Su Jin shook his head and said: "That's not entirely true. I can't take this risk." After thinking about it, he turned to Wang Chao, Mahan and others: "The four of you are rushing back all night. You must arrive in Luzhou at dawn. There is no need to go to the South Gate House.
Now, I will only go to the new house to protect the old lady and Miss Yan. If something happens, we will risk our lives until we arrive."
Wang Chao, Ma Han and others agreed in unison and did not dare to delay, so they immediately left on horseback. Seeing Su Jin's look, Ouyang Xiu knew that Su Jin was very worried, so he said: "It's not too late. After the interrogation, we will go to Luzhou immediately. We must not leave."
Something went wrong."
Su Jin shouted: "Escort the five gangsters to the study."
One of the guards said: "Sir, these people all have arrow wounds on their bodies. I'm afraid they need medical treatment."
Su Jin said angrily: "Healing is nothing. Anyone who confesses will be treated. If he doesn't, he will bleed to death. If he talks too much, he will be tied up with you."
The guard stuck out his tongue and did not dare to make a sound.
…
The five gangsters were tied up like rice dumplings and dragged into the study. Ouyang Xiu asked one by one, but the five men were determined not to speak. They all stood there like clay sculptures and wood sculptures. Ouyang Xiu even threatened and coaxed him, and broke the four gangsters with his leather whip.
Five, those people didn't even glance at him out of the corner of their eyes.
Su Jin looked worried. When would he stop asking questions like this? So he whispered to Ouyang Xiu: "Sir, please go out and make preparations. How about leaving these people to me for interrogation?"
Ouyang Xiu rolled his eyes and thought: I can't even ask, how can you do it?
Just at this time, the guards came running in and reported that Wang Qinian, the commander of the road, came with troops and horses to see what happened.
Ouyang Xiu knew that it was inconvenient for Su Jin to meet Wang Qinian, so he had to go out to deal with Wang Qinian by himself. When he met Wang Qinian, Ouyang Xiu scolded him, saying that under the rule of Shouzhou, there were gangsters who attacked the official post at night, and almost killed himself. He looked at the people being carried out one by one.
Wang Qinian was so frightened by the corpse that he confessed repeatedly. Fortunately, the imperial envoy was unharmed, otherwise his family would not be able to eat and carry it around.
Wang Qinian quickly ordered the four cities to put curfews in place to search for the remnants of the gangsters. He secretly suspected that there was something fishy about the matter, but did not dare to ask further, so he left in despair.
When Ouyang Xiu returned to the study, he saw that the five confessions had been neatly placed on the desk. Su Jin was busy blowing air on the ink to dry it. Except for the movable eyeballs, there was probably no other part of the figure.
Can't move anymore.
Ouyang Xiu looked at the confessions and found that they were very similar. They all said that they were ordered by Zhu Shiyong to seize evidence of banditry and intended to murder the imperial envoy Ouyang Zhongcheng. There were blood-red fingerprints underneath.
Ouyang Xiu praised: "Expressor Su is very capable. In just a short time, he has obtained the confession. I am willing to accept the defeat. I wonder what kind of interrogation method was used to get it?"
Su Jin chuckled and said, "It's okay. Aren't they all heroes? They're not afraid of being interrupted by the whip, so I'll soften it up for them."
"How to soften it?" Ouyang Xiu was still puzzled.
Su Jin smiled but did not answer. He took the confession and said, "Sir, it's time for us to set off. We can talk about this later."
Ouyang Xiu hurriedly ordered his personal guards to prepare their troops and horses, and sent people to notify the 13 Imperial Guards who had gathered outside the city to pull out their camps. They made noisy noises until the end of the fourth watch, and then set off in a mighty manner out of the city.
On the way, Ouyang Xiu couldn't hold it in any longer, so he called the soldier who was waiting for the jury in the study to secretly ask him what methods Su Zhuan had used.
The soldier stammered: "Su Zhuan used a knife to cut more than a dozen cuts on the bodies of the gangsters. Xiao Ming went to get salt, garlic, and lard, crushed them and stuffed them into the cuts. Those gangsters
The pain was excruciating, but he still couldn't do anything, so Special Envoy Su ordered the boys to take candles and peel off the pants of those people and said they wanted to bake sweet potatoes."
"What kind of sweet potatoes are you roasting?" Ouyang Xiu frowned.
The soldier pointed to his crotch and whispered: "Just... just... burn his fucking balls."
"Damn!" Ouyang Xiu almost fell to the ground. This kid was too vicious. No wonder he smelled a burning smell in the study just now. It seemed to be... the smell of burning bird feathers.
"Then, these guys were all recruited," the soldier added.
Ouyang Xiu took a breath and thought to himself: "Is there anything we can't do? Hey, this Special Envoy Su is a cruel official. I don't know how many people will suffer if this person takes power." mdd