Chapter 45: Confiscation of Property

  Luckily, they didn't listen to Li Su's words. After leaving the imperial palace, Long Fei and Li Su hastily rushed back to the barracks, mobilized 500 soldiers, and hurriedly arrived at the Yuan family's residence. From a distance, they could hear the commotion inside. At the gate, more than a dozen horse-drawn carriages were parked, with large trunks stacked neatly on top of each other. Dozens of servants were busy moving things out of the mansion, one trunk at a time. Long Fei smiled: "Good, saves us the trouble!"

  According to the imperial court's rules, as it is said that "punishment does not extend to high-ranking officials", when searching the homes of officials above the rank of ninth grade, one must first go to the Huangmen Shilang to handle the imperial edict, then go to the Tingwei to get a fire ticket, and then go to the Dajiangjun to borrow a military tally. Holding these three items, one would then go to the Shangshu Ling to request the emperor's re-approval. This is to ensure that the emperor's decision was not made on impulse, and also gives the emperor an opportunity to reconsider. However, this process takes at least a whole day.

  Long Fei thought this matter was urgent, with Yuan Wei and the Yuan family's relationship and connections in the court, after all the formalities were completed, the people of the Yuan family had already run away. He absolutely could not give Yuan Wei another chance to turn things around, he did not follow the rules, but instead went straight to his own barracks, gathered 500 soldiers and brought them to the Yuan residence. The servants who were cleaning up at the gate saw the arrival of the large army, scared and dropped everything in their hands, rushing into the mansion.

  "Surround the Yuan Fu, no one is allowed to enter or exit!" Long Fei turned his head to Zhao Yun and said: "Second brother, give you 300 people, go and seal off all the shops of the Yuan family, not a single one can be missed!"

  "Bang!" The gate of the Yuan family was tightly closed. Long Fei glanced at Li Su: "Alright, Lord Li, now they can't escape, you can follow the imperial court's rules and I'll wait here, as soon as the emperor's edict arrives, I'll lead the troops to break in immediately!

  As Li Su walked away, Long Fei glanced around at the onlookers and dismounted his horse to approach the carriage. He casually opened a large wooden chest. The moment the chest was opened, everyone let out a gasp of surprise. Inside, it was filled with glittering gold, neatly stacked in blocks. A rough estimate would put the value of this one chest of gold at no less than ten thousand taels.

  "So much money?" Di Wei's mouth was agape, he looked up at the long row of over a dozen horse carriages: "Are all these carriages full of gold? I, Old Di, have lived to such an old age but have never seen so much money!"

  "I've never seen it before!" Wang Wei followed suit. The villagers gathered around, stretching their necks to take a look. Long Fei was also seeing so much gold for the first time. Before, he had only seen gold in jewelry stores or on TV. Having such a large pile of gold in front of him was a first. Under the sunlight, it shone brightly and truly looked like glittering gold.

  Long Fei hastily covered the box lid, looked up at the long convoy and said with a quivering voice: "Take it back! Take everything back!"

  "What?" Wang Wei asked: "Where are you going? Where are you going?"

  "Escorted back to the barracks, all escorted back to the barracks?"

  People die for wealth, birds perish for food. If you see money and don't get excited, it's because you haven't seen enough to excite you. Long Fei saw it today. Seeing these boxes of gold, silver, and jewels, he only had one sentence in his mind: These are all mine. Long Fei suddenly turned around, grabbed Di Wei's collar, and greedy eyes flowed out: "You, take a few people with Wang Wei to transport all these things back to the military camp, I'll be watching, no one is allowed to move! Hurry!"

  Dian Wei had been a bandit and could see Long Fei's thoughts, he smiled slightly and nodded vigorously: "What are you still dawdling for? Let's get to work!"

  As soon as the carriage started, the gate of the Yuan Mansion opened immediately. Dozens of house slaves holding knives and swords rushed out from inside under the leadership of a small general in full armor. This man had a somewhat scholarly appearance, with a tall and straight figure, a face full of bookish air, and a handsome appearance that was matched by his physique, making him a beautiful young man. With a large spear in hand, he stood on the steps in front of the mansion gate, with dozens of house slaves guarding him on both sides. He was majestic and powerful, with a face full of anger. He was Yuan Yi, the youngest son of Yuan Wei.

  "Stop right there!" Yuan Yong shouted loudly, his voice arrogant and overbearing: "How dare you, you're actually moving things from our house?"

  Everyone's movements came to a halt. Wang Wei looked at Long Fei, who sized up Yuan Yin from head to toe: "Who are you? Is there only one of you left in the Yuan family?"

  "Hmph!" Yuan Yong coldly snorted: "Afraid to say the great name of Young Master, it will scare you to death! Young Master is none other than Yuan Yong, known as the number one gun king of Luoyang! If you know what's good for you, quickly put down our family's things. Otherwise, Grandfather's long spear can kill without seeing blood!"

  "Luoyang's number one gun king? Haha... " Long Fei laughed: "You also dare to call yourself a gun king?"

  Long Fei smiled and said to Yuan Yun, "I've never heard of the number one spear king in Luoyang. I only know that there are three people in this world who can be called spear kings. The first is my second brother, and the other two are Zhang Xiang, a lower military officer, and Zhang Ren, a man from Shu! As for you, you've never heard of them? Come on, Spear King, do you have the guts to exchange blows with me?"

  Watching Wang Wei and Dian Wei still urging the carters and soldiers to leave the street, Yuan Yun's anger was overwhelming, shouting loudly: "Hei Da Ge, you haven't heard Young Master's words, hurry up and stop, or else I'll poke your eyes out!"

  "Gun King? Let's practice first, if you win against me, I guarantee those things will be returned to you without a single one missing."

  "Who are you? I, young master, never engage in physical altercations with nameless individuals!"

  "I am Long Fei, the newly appointed Colonel of the Dragon Guards!"

  "Are you Long Fei?" Yuan Yue surprisingly knew: "Wasn't it you who made my father furious last time? A house general from Wang Yun's mansion defected to Dong Zhuo and got lucky, becoming a military officer! Today I'll let you know what a great general is!"

  As they spoke, Yuan Yong suddenly raised his long spear and sprinted a few steps before leaping high from the stairs, thrusting his spear straight at Long Fei's chest. As he soared through the air, his front leg bent slightly while his back leg stretched out straight, with his toes pointed tightly. With one hand supporting the spear, his other hand stretched backward. The cloak on his armor fluttered in the wind. It was simply stunningly handsome. This move was even more elegant and graceful than those performed by martial artists on TV. Some people in the crowd even shrieked in amazement.

  Long Fei shook his head, and with one look at this stance, he knew that this guy was a fake expert. A fight or a battle often happens in just a moment of thought. This move may have looked good, but it had no effect whatsoever, and all he needed to do was dodge to the side to avoid it. Long Fei took a step to the side, dodging Yuan Yin's spearhead, reached out and grabbed the spear shaft, and with great force pulled it backwards. Yuan Yin, still in mid-air, suddenly lunged forward, almost falling to the ground.

  Long Fei didn't give his opponent any chance. Just as Yuan Yu was about to pounce, he suddenly kicked out. A ruthless kick landed squarely on Yuan Yu's chest. All of a sudden, Yuan Yu let out a loud cry, dropped his long spear and flew backward. He crashed heavily onto the steps. Long Fei sneered: "So that's all the skill the Spear King has? It seems there's no one in Luoyang after all!"

  "Ah! Ah!" Several servants rushed over to help Yuan Yong up. Yuan Yong pointed at Long Fei and said two "you"s, then spat out a mouthful of blood, closed his eyes and fainted.

  Looking at the long gun in his hand, he tried to dance with it a couple of times and found it quite handy. Although Yuan Yu's martial arts skills were not refined, this spear was a good thing. The Yuan family had been studying literature for generations, but only Yuan Shao's generation had a fondness for martial arts, which made Yuan Wei very happy. If the Yuan family could produce another great general who excelled in battle, their reputation would be even more glorious. Yuan Wei spared no expense to hire masters from all over to teach Yuan Yu martial arts. At the same time, he sent people to various places to purchase high-quality steel and spent a lot of money to find craftsmen from the Western Regions to custom-make this long gun for Yuan Yu, which was named "Broken Space".

  The Po Kong spear is one zhang two chi three cun in length, with a spearhead of one chi one cun and a hilt of five cun. The total weight is thirty-nine jin six liang. The spear shaft is made of refined iron, while the spearhead is made of xuan tie from the Western Regions, combining flexibility and sharpness. The tassel is made of top-grade wolf hair, all in pure white without any impurities. The spear shaft is carved with dragon patterns and inlaid with nine precious stones. The spearhead is triangular in shape, extremely sharp, able to cut off a hair. On the hilt are carved the two characters "Po Kong".

  "Martial arts aren't great! But the weapon isn't bad!" Long Fei couldn't bear to part with it, playing with it back and forth: "I was just worried that I didn't have a long-range weapon, now that I have this one, I can learn some spear techniques from my second brother too!"

  "Congratulations, Lord Long, on obtaining the precious sword!" Zhang Liao, who was standing beside him, had seen Dragonfly move for the second time and naturally knew what would happen to Yuan Yin. He just didn't expect it to be so quick: "However, Lord Long's martial arts are indeed extraordinary, allowing me to witness them, a true master!"

  "Haha!" Long Fei laughed and put the broken kite on his horse: "Really? I have time to teach you a couple of moves, but won't Mr. Zhang also teach me some gun skills?"

  "Hahaha..." The two burst out laughing.

  The people of the Yuan family carried Yuan Yi back to their residence, and no one dared to show their face again. As the sky gradually darkened, Long Fei ordered someone to light torches and went to a wine shop to fetch some food. He moved a table and chairs to the entrance of the Yuan residence and chatted with Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and others while drinking wine. Zhao Yun had sealed off all the shops owned by the Yuan family, and according to Long Fei's orders, he transported all the grain and cloth from the grain stores and fabric stores to the West Garden.

  Zhang Liao took a sip: "Lord Long, was it the Emperor and the Grand Tutor's intention to confiscate the Yuan estate? Is it not somewhat improper for us to privately transport so many things back?"

  "It's nothing!" Long Fei took a bite of his food and drank a cup of wine, saying: "The Yuan family has plenty of things, this is just a drop in the bucket, the Taishi won't blame us! Besides, I'm doing this for our brotherhood, with these things we can walk freely in Luoyang!"

  Xu Huan said: "That's what I'm saying, but sir, don't forget that the Grand Master ordered you and Lord Li Su to investigate together. If Lord Li reports back to the Grand Master..."

  Zhang Liao was taken aback: "Right! This Li Su is the son-in-law of Taishi! What if..."

  "There's nothing to worry about!" Long Fei took another sip: "All of you, put your minds at ease, I've already had Wang Wei move a box to Li Su's residence, he's a clever person, he knows what to do! Come on, let's drink!"

  Several people were drinking happily, but they didn't know that in a nearby corner of the wall, two men in black clothes were watching their every move in the shadows!