Chapter 33: Where Did Grandpa Rabbit Go?

  At midnight, the Clear Spring County government office was in an uproar, with horse teams neighing loudly. The commander led two thousand guards to attack the prison gate, shouting slogans: "Kill the prisoners, rescue Lord Wang!"

  The defenders carried ladders and leaned them against the stone gate, climbing up along the green-painted bolts. Another team of crossbowmen shot arrows carrying oil, sending it into the wind towards the prison courtyard. They didn't care who was at the door or what was behind it; they just wanted to rescue Master Wang, but where was he?

  Behind the gate, a fireball suddenly bounced back and rolled on the ground, causing the crossbowmen to dodge in all directions. They gathered together, ready to form an array and shoot fire arrows again, when several fireballs rolled out from the other side of the courtyard wall, with a momentum as if it were a storm of sharp arrows.

  For a time, the archers and crossbowmen were unable to withstand the counterattack from behind the gate, and their firepower was suppressed.

  The soldier who climbed up high stretched his neck and took a look, then clicked his tongue: "There's someone behind the door fanning the fire with their bare hands, and they managed to blow out the fire like that!"

  When the news was transmitted back to Duwei's ears, Duwei was also shocked and had not expected that there would be such a powerful master in the county government. He asked the bailiff and knew that Li Peinan was guarding the entrance of the second courtyard, but did not guard against the strongholds behind the gate. Soon, he understood what had happened.

  After using the palm wind to blow out the fire, he pulled over a felt blanket and threw it on top of the gate wall, suppressing the thorny locusts. He then leaped onto the blanket, standing high above. He drew out his soft sword, shook it in the wind, and coldly asked Du Wei: "The prince is inside suppressing the rebels, how dare you recklessly shoot fire arrows at his camp, are you trying to rebel?"

  Dou Wei was fueled by his ambition, and now seeing Fei Yi questioning him, he coldly sneered: "The two young masters have been suppressing for a whole day, but they haven't seen the rescue of Master Wang. If I don't take action, I'm afraid Master Wang will be gnawed to the bone." He beckoned with his hand and ordered his subordinates to bring over the copper-plated battering ram to crash into the gate, no longer listening to Fei Yi's accusations.

  The prison gate and walls were the thickest buildings in the entire government office, high and heavy, making it difficult to attack strongly. Li Peinan at the passageway caught many movements in front of and behind him, and to control the situation, he transferred the entire guard team to the big courtyard to assist Fei Yutu in guarding the gate.

  In the corner of the Second Institute, hidden behind the railing and the chaotic crowd, the laughter of the repeat offender still echoed: "Tuzi's so angry he's vomiting blood, I wonder if there's any intact flesh left on his body, take off your clothes and let me see?"

  Li Peinan furrowed his brow as he listened, took a few steps forward with the sword in hand, and pondered the overall situation. In the end, he stopped moving. At this time, Li Qun climbed onto the wall of the courtyard and handed the bow and arrow to Fei Yi, who hastily asked, "Is he all right?"

  Lü Qun couldn't guess who he was referring to and vaguely replied: "It's fine, it's fine." He turned his head and continued fighting the enemy with Fei Yi.

  The sound of fighting outside the prison gate grew louder.

  Li Peinan hesitated for a moment, abandoned the prisoners in the second courtyard, and walked back to the gate of the main courtyard, saying: "Open the door."

  After a burst of mechanical noise, the thick gate slowly opened in the darkness. Li Peinan walked out with his long sword, its cold light gleaming menacingly. Whenever he encountered an attack from bows, crossbows, or long spears, he would surely counterattack fiercely, striking down those who dared to challenge him. His sword flashed brightly, and with each swing, it seemed to stir up a half-circle of red mist, its aura awe-inspiring. However, in just a moment, the fierce battle before the gate gradually subsided.

  Dou Yu looked at Li Peinan who walked out alone and dismounted his horse to pay his respects: "Greetings, Young Master."

  Li Peinan didn't return the gift and instead said: "I'm here, you dare to cause trouble?"

  "You are just worried about the safety of the king," Dou Wei said, but before he could finish speaking, a red light flashed across his neck and beheaded him.

  The soldiers were in an uproar, holding their crossbows and about to rush forward. Li Peinan looked around at the gradually rising commotion and calmly said: "Chu State has strict laws and clear orders, rushing against a noble is a capital offense, who dares to be the next?"

  The surrounding soldiers hesitated, but no one dared to take another step. The cavalry on the periphery did not know what had happened in front of the gate, and they urged their horses forward, making the encircled circle tighter. The non-clothed man on the wall looked carefully, drew his bow and shot an arrow that pierced the throat of a cavalryman.

  The disturbance spread like a tidal wave to the distance, finally conveying the situation in front of the door to the ears of each team leader. The soldiers lost their leader, lowered their weapons in the darkness, and silently confronted the people of the prince's mansion in front of the door.

  Until the moment of midnight, the tense situation of various struggles in the county government was no exception to Min An, who was left in the corner of the second courtyard. Although he also begged in his heart for someone to come and save him, whoever it was, he would definitely repay them with his life in the future. However, when the black and sinister hand of the criminal reached out to him, his mind suddenly cleared up.

  When in trouble, one can only rely on oneself.

  This was Min An's only thought; before resolving the predicament, he must spit a mouthful of blood at his opponent.

  So he accurately spat a mouthful of blood onto the face of the recidivist who was pinching his chin, and said weakly: "If you touch my mouth a few more times, I can pass the illness on to you."

  The recidivist saw something wrong with Min'an, and was so frightened that he dropped his hand. Min'an's forehead broke out in a cold sweat, his face flushed with heat, and blood foam and black phlegm rolled down from the corners of his mouth, flowing onto his collar and wetting his neck. Those water stains made the wound on his neck, which had been covered with birch bark, look even more festering, it was simply pitiful to behold.

  Min An pinched his own neck and coughed: "The old man on the ground... was he killed by you guys? ... Didn't know if he had a plague on him... Now it's transmitted to me... I'm suffering to death..."

  Liu Er shouted from the side while observing Min An's expression: "Everyone, don't believe what he says, this guy is full of evil intentions!"

  Min An turned his head to look at Liu Er, stumbled and fell towards him, and suddenly coughed: "If you don't believe me, what are you avoiding?"

  Liu Er hastily dodged to one side.

  Liang Shangjun squatted down to take a look at Wang Huaili, who had been tormented by the prisoners for a whole day and was now left with only his last breath, without any reaction to the outside noise. After watching for a while, Liang Shangjun couldn't help but exclaim: "Master Wang seems to have contracted the plague too!"

  Min An stretched out his hand to grab the prisoners beside him, and they all dodged. His wrists and neck were exposed outside his clothes, perfectly displaying several dark purple festering wounds, just like Wang Huaili's lifeless body at the foot of the tree. At this time, the prisoners had no choice but to believe the rumor of the plague, and they squeezed out to run towards the outer courtyard.

  Min An stumbled and fell to the ground on the side of Li Fei's corpse, just as he was about to grab Li Fei's belt in an attempt to bind him to himself and take him out intact. Suddenly, a commotion came from the distant mountain forest, and it turned out that Li Peinan's trusted army had finally arrived.

  As the torches seemed to be approaching like a swimming dragon, the sound of horseshoes shook the sky. The deputy general of the 2,000-strong garrison at Qingquan was forced to react. Under the cover of his soldiers, he shouted towards Li Peinan: "The two young masters have been blocking us from rescuing Master Wang and even dispatched other troops to surround us. What do you mean by this? If the news reaches the imperial palace tomorrow morning, won't it be a blow to Master Wang's face?"

  Li Peinan said in a low voice: "With just your small name as a deputy officer, can you calm down the scene?"

  The deputy commander turned his head and looked around, gritted his teeth and said: "Everyone retreats first." He made a living in the military camp and was not unfamiliar with the laws of Chu State. As long as the prisoners did not escape from prison, he had no excuse to kill them. If he rashly led soldiers into the prison to kill the prisoners, the main responsibility would be on him. On the other hand, if he wanted to make a profit by killing a few prisoners, he could only wait for them to escape first.

  The deputy commander retreated after understanding the reasoning and directed the two thousand guards outside the prison gate to slowly retreat beyond the eight-character wall of the county government office.

  Li Peinan led the guard troops back to the fence outside the Second Institute, and only then did he learn from the chief clerk who had been waiting that Wang Huaili was on the verge of death.

  The chief clerk reported on Wang Huaili's physical condition with tears in his eyes, and knelt down to beg Li Peinan to show special mercy and spare the life of his superior. Li Peinan glanced around the room and asked, "Where did Min An go?"

  The steward cried so sadly that for a moment he didn't remember that Min'an was the slave who had been dressed up by him, and choked with sobs: "Min'an...who?" As soon as he finished speaking, he came to his senses, wiped away his tears and said: "I don't know, sir."

  Li Peinan heard the steward call Min An "Tuzi Ye" and seemed to confirm the rumor that Min An was his exclusive concubine, feeling somewhat displeased, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. The steward couldn't understand Li Peinan's meaning, only continuing to kneel smoothly at his feet, pointing inside the courtyard to beg for Wang Huaili's life.

  The chief clerk made a sincere request and gave a hint to the heavily sentenced prisoners in the second prison. They suddenly realized that outside, people were making a loud noise, and the young master couldn't care about so many changes, so they took advantage of the opportunity to grab Wang Huaili's life as their chance to escape. Therefore, they called two slaves who delivered night snacks to carry Wang Huaili's weak body, and a group of people hid behind Wang Huaili and threatened Li Peinan, saying that if he didn't let them through, Wang Huaili would definitely die.

  Li Peinan had been waiting for this moment all day. He quickly dismissed the guards and led his men to hide in the county government's main hall, allowing the prisoners to rush out and escape into the night. Some of the lighter offenders also ran out with them, but only those who were arrested for not paying taxes remained in their cells, not daring to follow suit and escape.

  The escaped prisoners soon found themselves caught in a trap. Li Peinan had let them escape so generously, naturally wanting to occupy the moral high ground of capturing and killing them while escaping, and being able to wipe them out cleanly without leaving any witnesses. Li Peinan had deployed heavy troops at all three gates of Qingyuan County, leaving only the road leading to Huangshi Prefecture open. The prisoners were forced to flee in the direction of Huangshi Prefecture, and as soon as they entered the forest beside the official road, a hail of arrows came flying towards them, shooting them into hedgehogs, with not one escaping.

  In the county yamen's flower hall, Li Peinan sat waiting for the results of the various transmissions. Without lifting his hand, he pushed away the tea tray handed over by Lü Qun and asked: "Where is Min An?"

  Li Peinan glanced at Lai Qun, and Lai Qun hastily replied with a bow: "I'll go find it right away."

  Fei Yi stood up: "I'll go with you." He turned back to see Li Peinan still sitting calmly, furrowed his brow and asked: "You've lost two people in a row, aren't you worried?"

  Li Peinan said calmly: "Doubt a person and don't use him; use a person and don't doubt him. Since I dared to send Min An in, naturally I believe he has the ability to come out."

  Fei Yi snorted coldly and turned to leave. A moment later, he and Li Qun searched the entire prison but couldn't find any trace of Min An. The women's ward was tightly locked up, and during the chaos, they were not affected at all, so naturally, Min An couldn't hide in there either. Fei Yi stood under the elm tree in the second courtyard for a moment, thinking back to when he brought Min An back on horseback, guessing that Min An must be exhausted by now and would probably find a secluded spot to sleep, so he called out in a clear voice: "Min An, you need to bring the jade millet to Hua Cuilian, they've arrived."

  A voice immediately came from the water tank in the courtyard: "Where? Where?" Before the words fell, a black hand with ink-like color lifted the wooden cover, and Min An's dusty face emerged, looking around constantly. "How did my corn know I was here?"

  Li Qun saw Min An's big eyes looking dull and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  Thank you very much, Pig Ears, Moon Bun, and Little P's landmine (*^__^*) l3l4