Chapter Twenty: Life and Death in One Shot

  The materials provided by Lao Zhang are limited, but they clearly indicate that Jiang Biao and Zhang Zhidong have a very close relationship. In fact, it can be inferred from the language used that there must be a deep reason why Jiang Biao was able to become the educational commissioner of a province after serving as a Hanlin compiler for less than three years. It is not easy for even a top scholar to achieve this in such a short period of time. Normally, one would have to sit on the cold bench in the Hanlin Academy for several years before being considered for a position as a prefect. However, Jiang Biao achieved this after only two years in the academy and was appointed as the educational commissioner of Hubei Province, setting a small precedent in Qing dynasty history.

  Based on this situation, it is not difficult for Tan Yanqing to infer that Jiang Biao should be a very open-minded and progressive scholar-official, at least one who is extremely inclined towards the洋务派 (Westernization Movement). Zhang Zhidong's tenure as Governor-General of Huguang was also known to him in his previous life. Although Old Zhang comrade had put in a lot of effort, the industries he operated later on still suffered overall losses. However, it cannot be denied that Zhang Zhidong represented the most open-minded part of the洋务派 at that time. On the other hand, Li Hongzhang, who is now in power, will have the worst decade in the next ten years, and his misfortunes are probably unprecedented - his name is left on the《马关条约》(Treaty of Shimonoseki) and 《辛丑条约》(Boxer Protocol). Even the infamous Yuan Shikai was promoted by him in the next decade. Poor Li Hongzhang thought he had a great reputation, but in his old age, he encountered so many misfortunes, becoming the biggest loser in late Qing history. If there is anyone who suffered more than him, it would be Emperor Guangxu, who was imprisoned for ten years and died alone after attempting to reform.

  Now that the young and promising Jiang Biao's "political inclination" has been determined, Tan Yanke can guess this year's exam questions with his eyes closed - most of them are related to the Westernization Movement. And Tan Yanke's main theme in the provincial examination essay is also settled, he wants to take "Quan Xue Pian" as the foundation, and make a little further progress in political inclination, flattering the Westernization faction - anyway, this volume will not be known to the world, the old man only needs to get the title of Jinshi without looking at his own means.

  "Miss, after the third young master returned to Hunan, he stayed in the Xie Book Hall by the Lotus Pond. Although many people came to visit every day, they were all turned away and no one has heard that the bookworm was able to see the third young master..." said a slightly short middle-aged man.

  A middle-aged man sat opposite a young girl, wearing a moon-white blouse, intently staring at the red clay teapot in front of her. Seeing that the water had already boiled, she picked up the teapot and gently poured some tea into a purple sand cup. Although it was evening and the room was dimly lit with only three or four candles, the girl's body seemed to have a white halo around her, shining brightly, especially her bright eyes, clear as a autumn water, as if flowing slowly in her eye sockets, moving people's hearts.

  "Uncle Zhao, I'm really troubling you to go and investigate personally. I've long heard from my father that Director Tan is extremely strict with the Third Young Master, forcing him to study diligently after his coming of age, and I saw him being punished for not completing the writing assignments set by Director Tan a few years ago... it seems nothing has changed after all these years..." The young girl said in a soft voice, although she poured a cup of tea for Uncle Zhao and handed it over, her expression revealed that her mind was elsewhere.

  "Miss, last night the lamp in Third Master's room didn't go out until the fourth watch. I bought off one of Tan Manor's servants and learned that Third Master gets up before dawn every day to practice fist techniques in the courtyard. I didn't dare linger, so I didn't see what style he was practicing, but considering his relationship with Director Tan and Huang Fengqi, it's probably an external school technique..."

  The girl frowned slightly and said: "Uncle Zhao..."

  "In the Tan Manor, apart from Director Tan's two sons and their families, the rest were just servants. There was no one in the manor who was skilled in martial arts. I only saw from afar that the third young master's room had a light on. Director Tan is a kind person and has never provoked any enemies throughout his life. The Tan family is also a respected family in the area, and many locals have benefited from them, so no one would dare to harbor malicious intentions towards the Tan family..." Zhao Shu explained, knowing that the young girl was worried about him."

  The girl nodded and said, "Don't take risks from now on. However, Third Master can't keep going like this either. Does Uncle Zhao have any way to tell him to be more careful with his body?" Before she finished speaking, the girl's face turned a bit red.

  "Ah, it's nothing difficult," said Uncle Zhao with a smile. "Just write a letter, Miss, and I'll deliver it to him for you..."

  Hearing Zhao Shu's teasing, the girl's face turned even redder...

  This girl was Tang Yanqin's fiancée, Fang Congqing. The so-called "Zhao Shu" was a martial arts expert who had been saved by her father, Fang Ruyi, in his early years. He had been wrongly accused and imprisoned, but after Fang Ruyi cleared his name, he followed Fang Ruyi to repay him. For such a martial arts expert, Fang Ruyi would never refuse. Fang Congqing wanted to go out and take a look at Tang Yanqin's daily life to see if it was really "clean". Fang Ruyi had no choice but to let Zhao Shu protect her on the side.

  After the second watch, Tan Yanqin walked around the courtyard as usual. Every day, he would face his books, and although he had a reputation for being a bookworm in his previous life, he couldn't help but feel some annoyance after a long time of facing these classics. He would come out to the courtyard at regular intervals to relieve his frustration. When Tan Yanqin felt a bit better, he thought about going back to his room to continue reading the books on his desk and then go to sleep. Just as he was thinking this, he heard a faint cough, and his heart sank. Without even turning around, he used his inner energy to kick out a flower pot at his feet.

  Since Tan Yanqing created the detox pill, he has been waiting for the revenge of the underworld gang. Now it's already two watches in the night, and he doesn't believe that someone who comes to the door at such a late hour is a decent person. The only possibility is that the long-awaited revenge has finally arrived. Tan Yanqing practiced marksmanship with the guards, and Friedrich was the only one who could match him, but the box cannon he carried with him was left in the house. Although Changsha had not yet reached its hottest time, it was already very sultry, and he wore only a thin silk shirt, of course, without carrying the box cannon. Fortunately, he knew martial arts, so he kicked out a flower pot to block his opponent first.

  The flower pot that was kicked out, however, seemed to have entered the sea like a mud cow and did not make any shattering sound. It was clear that it had been caught by an unexpected guest. This made Tan Yanqin's heart feel somewhat cold - if his opponent was an assassin with external martial arts skills, even if they were holding a knife, as long as there weren't many of them, he could still defend himself and make some noise to attract the attention of the guards. However, someone who could catch the flower pot kicked out by Tan Yanqin's internal energy must be a master of internal martial arts. In his previous life, Tan Yanqin didn't encounter many people with external martial arts skills, let alone internal martial arts masters. Although he also practiced internal martial arts, he had no problem dealing with some thugs in his past life. However, facing an internal martial arts master from this era, he didn't have the confidence to handle it. This further solidified his idea of getting the handgun in the house first.

  "With a 'whoosh' sound, Tan Yan heard the wind sound coming from beside his ear, and without hesitation, he raised both hands to block. When the other person's knife hit his arm, he immediately borrowed force to jump up and spin half a circle in mid-air. By the time he landed, he was face-to-face with the sneak attacker. As soon as he landed, he charged forward without hesitation, starting his counterattack - although it was dark, he saw that the other person was alone, so he decided to take the initiative to attack first, and then run back into the house. Now he's starting to regret not arranging a patrol system for his guards; even if he shouted loudly now, they might not be able to hear him."

  "Wow, that's strong!" Tan Yanqin took advantage of the opponent's explosive power during their brief exchange and flipped himself into the air, landing at the door. Without hesitation, he turned around and rushed inside. The previous blow had left his wrist numb and tingling, as if it had been electrocuted. Blood was dripping from his fingers onto his clothes due to the severe injury on his palm. Although the opponent hadn't delivered a fatal blow, Tan Yanqin didn't want to continue fighting with him. It was unclear whether the opponent was overconfident in his abilities or unaware that Tan Yanqin had martial arts training, but he hadn't brought any weapons. If he had, Tan Yanqin wouldn't have known if he could survive this round. With such strength, if he were to be caught and his joints broken, being crippled would be a light punishment - the worst-case scenario would be death! At that moment, Tan Yanqin didn't want to fight anymore and directly pushed open the door to enter the house, where his gun was placed under the pillow on his bed.

  "As long as I've got a gun in my hand, you little brat, even if ten more of me came, I'd still let you leave horizontally!" Tan Yanqian thought to himself in anger.

  Tan Yanqin entered the house and rolled into the inner room, pounced on the bed, and pulled out a twenty-shot box gun from under the pillow. He lay directly on the bed with the muzzle pointing at the door. In his previous life, he was also very proud of his kung fu skills. Although, except for that one time when he was cornered by thugs in an alleyway, he had never shown off his martial arts skills in front of people, but he was secretly very proud of them. This time, however, he was in big trouble. He believed that if the uninvited guest outside didn't make another sound, he could easily take him down with just a dagger.

  "This is the real master of martial arts, from now on I won't let go of this gun!" Tan Yanqin lay on the bed with his spirit tense, aiming the muzzle at the door, and dense small sweat beads oozed out of his head. Although he had a gun in his hand, the opponent's skill just now scared him badly, and for a moment it seemed like a year had passed for him.

  Tan Yanqun saw that there was no movement for half a day, and he didn't think his opponent would give up this assassination opportunity so easily. However, what made him curious was that he felt the other party wasn't really trying to kill him. If they were, with their skills, they might have followed him closely after their last encounter, and he wouldn't have had a chance to grab the gun from under his pillow even if he ran into the house. He carefully got out of bed, holding the gun and slowly walking towards the outer room. After making a thorough search around, he didn't find any trace of the person from earlier, and only then did he confirm that the uninvited guest had left quietly.

  Tan Yanqun tore a strip of cloth from his own silk shirt and bandaged his hand, the force of the blow he had just exchanged with his opponent was enormous, both sides were using internal strength, his kung fu was really hard to compare with his opponent's, the brief exchange of blows had caused his tiger mouth to burst open, directly rendering his left hand useless for combat, and prompting him to retreat into the house without hesitation to grab a gun. Tan Yanqun no longer believed in kung fu, building strength and physical fitness was one thing, but in real life-or-death battles, bullets were still the fastest way to solve problems. This era wasn't a hundred years later, there were already countless people with impressive external kung fu skills who could be called masters, not to mention those who excelled at internal kung fu, Tan Yanqun wouldn't be able to catch up with the sneak attacker even if he practiced for another ten years.

  When Tan Yanqing calmed down, he sat on the chair in the outer room and habitually picked up the teapot to pour a cup of tea. As a result, an envelope appeared on the handle of the teapot.

  "Hmph! Are they going to come at me with a combination of courtesy and violence? How outdated and intimidating is this strategy!" Tan Yanqin muttered to himself, his mouth curling up into a cold smile. He didn't regret creating the detoxification pills. Tan Yanqin wanted to live freely in this era, but opium had been poisoning China for far too long. Anyone who had seen the suffering of an addict would condemn this evil trade, as long as they had some conscience. Tan Yanqin asked himself if he still didn't have the heart to do it, despite having just received a blow. However, he still believed that as long as he was careful, preserving his life shouldn't be too difficult.

  The letter was not sealed, and Tan Yanqin pulled out the letter paper from it, but he was a little distracted. The letter paper was written in beautiful small characters: "Third Master should pay attention to his body, and wish Third Master a smooth examination!"

  "What is this about?!" Tan Yanqin stared at the inexplicable letter, unable to make sense of it for half a day: "Did the other party send the wrong letter? After beating himself up and then worrying about his own body, but the opponent just now was definitely a middle-aged man, not a woman?!"

  "Uncle Zhao, is everything all right?!" Fang Qiong asked anxiously. After returning, Zhao recounted in vivid detail to her his encounter with Tan Yanqing in the small courtyard, causing Fang Qiong's heart to be filled with anxiety.

  "Rest assured, Third Master will be fine. It's just that his left hand won't be of much use for the next few days. He'll recover soon. I didn't expect Third Master to be so skilled in internal martial arts! If I hadn't caught that flower pot first, it would have been me who got hurt!"

  Fang Zhongqing's eyes, which had been frantic with anxiety, calmed down after hearing this, but he still spoke uneasily: "Then won't he hate me to death after reading that letter?"

  "It was all my fault, but I didn't expect him to kick over a flower pot as soon as he heard the sound, which gave me quite a fright and sparked my curiosity..." Zhao Shu said with some self-reproach.

  "Can't blame Uncle Zhao for this, if I hadn't taken matters into my own hands, things wouldn't have turned out like this. I heard Father say that Third Master created the detoxification pill only after thinking of training the guard squad, probably to deal with harassment from the jianghu underworld, and in the middle of the night, suddenly appearing is naturally an enemy not a friend... his vigilance is quite high..." As she spoke, a hint of a smile appeared on her face.

  "With the Three Young Masters' skills, they can roam the Jianghu with ease. Even if someone from the underworld dares to take a risk and offend Director Tan, they will not be able to get away with it under the Three Young Masters' hands. A few ordinary people are no match for him, and even if there were more people, they would not be able to enter the Governor's mansion. The Three Young Masters' 'Cloud-Piercing Hand' is truly overbearing, I don't know which family it comes from. Even now, my wrist still feels a bit numb, if an ordinary person had received that blow, their arm would have been severed for sure. If they hadn't reacted in time and the blow had landed on a vital spot, it would have been fatal..." Zhao Shu said with some excitement.

  "Uncle Zhao, I'm really sorry to trouble you this time. If it weren't for your protection by my side, Father wouldn't have let me out. And now, I've even dragged you into getting hurt..."

  Uncle Zhao chuckled and said: "If it weren't for Master saving me back then, I would have died unjustly in prison... The higher the Third Young Master's martial arts skills are, the better his ability to protect himself will be. This injury is nothing, it'll heal in a couple of days... Miss should come out and meet the Third Young Master to see what kind of person he is, otherwise she might marry the wrong man and regret it later... But now I'm a bit worried, with the Third Young Master rarely leaving his courtyard all day, has he become stupid from being cooped up?!"

  Uncle Zhao is fine in every way, but unfortunately this mouth of his just won't stop nagging and he's especially bad at reading the atmosphere. Whatever comes into his mind, he says it out loud. Fang Rong has almost wanted to dig a hole in the wall and hide several times already.

  Tan Yanqing did not spread the news of this midnight attack, but he divided his escort team into three groups and stationed four soldiers on guard in his courtyard at all times. Due to space constraints and because they were in Changsha Prefecture, Tan had already ordered his guards to put away their Type 93 rifles, with only the box cannons hidden in their chests; under these circumstances, just having the box cannons was enough to deal with sudden events, regardless of whether or not they had Type 93 rifles.

  Since Tan Yanqin turned the small courtyard of Xishu Hall into an iron barrel formation, Zhao Shu had not dared to approach. He knew that the soldiers of the Imperial Guard were not easy to mess with. Although he didn't know where they put their foreign rifles, seeing the bulge in the soldiers' chests made him think that the box cannons that were originally hung on their waists must have been hidden inside. The Imperial Guards had practiced before, and in his eyes, the power of those box cannons was much more formidable than the long-barreled foreign rifles. Foreign rifles could only shoot far, but those box cannons fired twenty rounds in a row, and with the Imperial Guards' exceptional marksmanship, as long as they were discovered within range, even if Zhao Shu's kung fu was high, he couldn't dodge the continuous shooting of four soldiers. Seeing this scene, Zhao Shu knew that Tan Yanqin had strengthened his vigilance around him, so he retreated very tactfully.