“Blind your dog eyes. Look clearly. This is Young Master Zhou from the Duke’s mansion. In the capital, when leaving the city gate, even the imperial guards dare not stop us.”
A family slave stepped forward, took out a token, and cursed at the mansion soldier, “Quickly clear the way. If you delay my young master’s journey, I’ll break your legs!”
“The young master from the Duke’s mansion?”
The mansion soldier was indeed intimidated by the family slave’s words.
He was hesitating on how to handle it when Houzi suddenly said, “You say it’s the young master from the Duke’s mansion, and it is? Who knows if you’re swindlers from the jianghu pretending?”
“Are you blind? Didn’t you see this token?”
The family slave waved the token in his hand again.
Houzi stepped forward two steps, snatched the token, and looked it over repeatedly, “Sorry, we’ve never seen the Duke’s mansion token, so we need to verify it. Please wait here everyone. I’ll be right back.”
The mansion soldier did not know that Houzi verifying the token was fake. Delaying time to call for reinforcements was the real purpose.
But he was also very displeased with the family slave’s attitude. Seeing Houzi making things difficult for them, he immediately chimed in, “Yes, we do not recognize the Duke’s mansion token. We need to verify!”
With this reason, even if argued to the heavens, he would be in the right.
The family slave was so angry he jumped and cursed, but Houzi ignored him and walked away with the token.
The guard stared at Houzi’s back for a while, then rode to the carriage window, bent down, and whispered in Young Master Wen Yuan’s ear, “Young master, that person just now has a problem.”
Young Master Wen Yuan’s heart tightened, and he asked, “What problem?”
Actually, he also felt that Houzi’s reaction earlier was somewhat off, but he could not pinpoint what was wrong.
“That person, when he saw me earlier, his body immediately stiffened, and he subconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword. This all indicates he had killing intent.”
The guard whispered, “Also, his speech afterward was very strange. I suspect he has already recognized me.”
Upon hearing this, Young Master Wen Yuan’s pupils involuntarily contracted.
“Are you sure?”
This was the situation he worried about most.
“This cannot be confirmed. I have been careful enough, but was not Tang Xiaobei still found by Jin Feng?”
The guard shook his head, “Perhaps I revealed a flaw elsewhere without noticing, and this person discovered it.
If that is the case, his going to verify the token is just an excuse. He must have gone to fetch reinforcements.”
“Then what do we do?”
Young Master Wen Yuan could no longer maintain his usual calm and became somewhat anxious.
“If my guess is correct, given Jin Feng’s character, it would be dangerous for us to stay here.”
The guard thought for a moment and said, “The only option now is to force our way out of the city.
Even if I am wrong, at worst, have the Duke send a letter to the Guangyuan prefectural governor afterward to explain.”
“Yes, yes!”
Upon hearing this, Young Master Wen Yuan’s eyes lit up slightly.
He was a clan relative of the Duke’s line. Forcing through a city gate in a remote place was nothing?
He did not even need the Duke’s letter. His father could send one to the prefectural governor afterward.
Thinking of this, Young Master Wen Yuan regained some calm and nodded to the guard.
The guard understood and said to the family slave, “The young master is in a hurry to travel and has no time to wait here. Drive them away for me.”
The family slave was best at bullying others with borrowed power. Earlier, without the young master’s word, he did not dare act on his own. Now with the young master’s backing, it was like having the imperial sword. His arrogance immediately flared up.
Pointing at the mansion soldier, he said, “I am giving you one last chance. Clear the way. If you anger my young master, even your prefectural governor cannot protect you!”
The mansion soldier had started to doubt earlier, but now he was intimidated once again by the family slave.
Because this was the proper way for a dandy of Da Kang to act.
Earlier, Young Master Wen Yuan being so polite seemed fake instead.
Seeing the mansion soldier like this, the family slave became even more smug, stepped forward, and pushed the mansion soldier, “Get lost!”
The mansion soldier was pushed back two steps and stood aside at a loss, neither blocking nor not blocking.
He was the squad leader. If he did not move, the other mansion soldiers also stood aside watching.
The family slave snorted coldly and led the carriage forward.
Houzi had already reached dozens of meters away and turned back just in time to see this situation.
“A Shuo, stop them!”
Houzi shouted while taking out the folding crossbow, and launched the signal arrow that had been prepared long ago.
Whoosh!
The sharp whistling sound rose into the air, spreading across most of the county city.
The mansion soldier squad leader was already hesitating. Hearing Houzi’s shout, he subconsciously dodged in front of the carriage, “You stop for me…”
Seeing this, the guard’s face changed drastically. Without waiting for the squad leader to finish, he rode forward, extended his leg, and kicked, directly sending the squad leader stumbling back over a dozen steps until he hit the city wall and stopped.
The other mansion soldiers, seeing their captain beaten, immediately surrounded with weapons.
“Charge out!”
The guard led the way, successively kicking away the two mansion soldiers in front.
But the city gate tunnel was only so big, and the mansion soldiers were a whole squad. After kicking away two, four more immediately filled in.
Moreover, more mansion soldiers were attracted by the signal arrow and were rushing this way.
Seeing that they could not get away like this, the guard directly dismounted, drew his war knife, and started killing.
He successively hacked to death four mansion soldiers before intimidating the others.
The scene was too chaotic, with mansion soldiers and commoners everywhere. Houzi at the back held the crossbow for a long time but could not find a shooting opportunity. With no choice, he took advantage of the guard fighting the mansion soldiers to sneak to the side of the carriage.
Young Master Wen Yuan just happened to poke his head out to look outside and was grabbed by the collar by Houzi, dragged out of the carriage, and heavily thrown to the ground.
The guard had just stopped at this moment, heard the noise behind, and just saw this scene.
“Scoundrel, how dare you!”
The guard roared angrily and turned to pounce on Houzi.
Houzi had heard from A Lan that this guard was formidable and knew he was no match, so he wanted to hold Young Master Wen Yuan hostage to threaten the guard.
But he did not expect the guard’s speed to be so fast.
Before he could pull Young Master Wen Yuan up from the ground, the guard had arrived.
Without a word, he flew up a kick straight at Houzi’s chest.
The lesson of the tooth row thug was still fresh in memory. Houzi did not dare be careless. Discovering he could not dodge in time, he quickly raised both arms, crossing them to protect his chest.
The next second, the guard’s right foot fiercely kicked Houzi’s arms.
Bang!
Houzi was directly kicked flying five or six meters, successively knocking over three or four passersby before stopping!
The left arm kicked by the guard hung limply, obviously fractured.
But Houzi did not retreat. He flipped over and got up, raised the crossbow with his still functional right hand, and shot an arrow at the guard.
As a result, the guard dodged with a flash, the arrow grazing under his armpit and hitting an unlucky mansion soldier’s shoulder.
Houzi clamped the crossbow with his legs, quickly turned the winch with his right hand to restring the crossbow.
But this time, when Houzi raised the crossbow again, he no longer aimed at the guard but at Young Master Wen Yuan who had just climbed up from the ground!
