Chapter 11 The Southeast is on Fire

"Fire in the southeast direction…" a guard whispered to Bi Xiaoqing.

"Heh, so it really is today… They got the news fast." Bi Xiaoqing seemed relieved. Now that they were here, he didn't need to overthink it. "Tell the brothers not to move. No matter how chaotic it gets outside, ignore it. Han Dong will receive the news and send people to handle it. Have those three brothers outside withdraw."

A fire breaking out just a block away couldn't be ignored. Although the courtyard wasn't directly connected to the main part of the inn, there was already a faint commotion there.

"Enemy attack!" a guard ambushed in the northeast corner shouted loudly, kicking off the night battle.

"My lord! You and Miss Sophie should get in the carriage first." Meng Tian pulled the carriage into the courtyard, running over various plants in the garden, and stopped directly in front of Ye Tao's room.

"Sophie… get in the carriage." Ye Tao didn't refuse. The cold expression on Meng Tian's face made him realize something. His carriage was souped up. In terms of comfort, it was an RV; in terms of function, it could double as an office car; in terms of safety, it was an armored car; and in terms of armament… it was practically an infantry fighting vehicle. Small doors were opened in the doors and roof, which could be used to fire crossbow bolts.

Sophie naturally had no objections. She wasn't flustered, but instead tried to control her emotions and steadily entered the carriage, opening the two storage cabinets inside, taking out various items, including soft armor and even crossbows. Sophie held a crossbow, skillfully cocked it with a ratchet, loaded the arrows, and lay sideways in the corner.

"What's the situation?" Ye Tao asked anxiously when Bi Xiaoqing appeared beside him.

"The brother who raised the alarm is already dead. Lao Lü and the others are entangled with three people… they’re tough customers. My lord, get in the car, we'll leave here immediately. Chief Steward Xu has gone to wake the others, but the others should be fine… They only have so few people, they’re fighting for every second to come after you, my lord, they don’t have time to care about anyone else," Bi Xiaoqing said calmly. "My lord… please allow us to use that thing…"

"I've never forbidden you from using it." Ye Tao was stunned for a moment, then realized what Bi Xiaoqing was talking about. Bi Xiaoqing immediately whistled to notify the brothers.

A long shout from outside the first courtyard made everyone's heart tremble. It was one of the clerks in their group. Immediately afterwards, a violent "How dare you, you scoundrel!" rang out, it was Wu Ping'an's voice.

"My lord, let's go quickly." Bi Xiaoqing turned his attention back. "Meng Tian, move!"

Just as Meng Tian was about to urge the horse to set off, an inconspicuous flash of a blade swept down diagonally from the roof, directly severing the shaft. The carriage couldn't move. As the figure that unleashed the blade landed in the courtyard, he turned and swung his sword, aiming for the carriage. The sharp edge of the sword pierced through the bottom of the carriage, eliciting a suppressed scream from Sophie.

"Sophie!" Ye Tao's expression changed. He pulled out his stone hammer from behind the carriage and swung it at the figure.

The carriage was still very sturdy. There was a layer of wire mesh between the two layers of wooden body. Given the difficulty of processing wire in this era, this layer of wire alone was much more expensive than ordinary carriages. This extremely bold guy wanted to pull out his sword, but heard a clang, the sword broke and got stuck in the carriage. His face changed, and he rolled on the spot to avoid Ye Tao's hammer, but at this moment, Bi Xiaoqing's sword had already been thrust in front of him. And this man rolled again.

"I'm fine, just a small injury," Sophie said in time. The sword that pierced the carriage only left a shallow wound on her forearm.

Ye Tao's heart was slightly relieved. He knew that in this kind of situation, he couldn't help much with his martial arts, but it was impossible for him to hide in the carriage at this time. A powerful palm force fell from the roof, Meng Tian leaped up with all his strength and forcibly took the palm. He spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

Two guards hurriedly protected Ye Tao behind them, letting Ye Tao lean against a pillar. From the廂房 (xiāngfáng – wing-room), a guard raised a thick stone rod and rushed out. He pointed the tip of the stone rod at the masked man who had landed on the roof of the carriage and pulled a rope on the stone rod.

Boom— a stream of orange-red flames spewed out of the stone rod, engulfing the masked man. The masked man screamed and fell down, his clothes all burning, turning him into a human torch. In another courtyard, there was also a boom, followed by another… The screams obviously didn't come from anyone in Ye Tao's group.

What is this? Mo Leng, who was watching from the roof of the inn, was startled and suspicious. It should be known that the one being sprayed by the pillar of fire on the roof was Jing Xiaochán, one of the Four Heroes of the Eagle Hall. Jing Xiaochán actually fell just like that. Judging from his miserable state, he obviously couldn't survive. In the other courtyard, what about Zang Jin and the other two?

Mo Leng's suspicion didn't stop him. He floated down silently like a falling leaf and crept towards the courtyard where Ye Tao was at high speed.

Besides Jing Xiaochán, there was another guy who hadn't shown his face, lurking on the roof, waiting for an opportunity to move. The sudden appearance of the pillar of fire, the screaming Jing Xiaochán, and the companion who was desperately dodging Bi Xiaoqing's pursuit didn't shake his resolve in the slightest. He knew that the situation was irreversible, but he still wanted to save his companion who was being forced into a dead corner by Bi Xiaoqing. However, just as he was about to get up, an insignificant but perfectly timed palm wind struck his neck. He almost immediately lost consciousness. He didn't understand at all how his opponent could have gotten so close behind him without him noticing. What made him even more desperate was that, just before the spreading darkness completely enveloped him, he heard a shrill scream from the companion he wanted to rescue…

The battle came and went quickly, and a crucial factor may have been the stone rod. This thing wasn't rare. It was just a derivative product of the special combustible paste used in Mars bullets. Entrusted by Grandpa Qi, Ye Tao wanted to give more play to the role of that paste. He added some gunpowder to the paste with a formula that was inevitably unscientific and mixed in some iron filings. This thing could actually become a weapon for close combat. Since the principle of attack was spray-type combustion rather than explosion, the chamber pressure wasn't high, and naturally, the range wasn't far either, at most about three zhang (approximately 10 meters). There was no need to use high-quality copper or iron pipes for this kind of thing. Ye Tao thought of the famous tripod brand Gitzo in later generations, which had the innovation of using volcanic rock to make tripods. He drilled holes in lightweight rock and wrapped the outside with heat-insulating cork and leather, which cost much less than copper and iron pipes. This thing, called a flamethrower, was only recently successfully trial-produced in his workshop. He hadn't made many of them. Part of them were sent to the Ministry of War and the army to assess their use value, and the other part was all brought by Bi Xiaoqing, who was extremely worried about safety issues. Unexpectedly, it played a miraculous role in this operation against martial artists. Although this thing was a bit cumbersome to use, it had a wide coverage area, and even those experts who were extremely skilled at dodging hidden weapons couldn't avoid the overwhelming flames. As for the flames and paste that stuck to the body after the spray, they were even more like death warrants.

"My lord, what about this guy?" Zhou Zhi jumped to the ground with the guy he had knocked unconscious. Although he only made that one move from the beginning to the end of the battle, in this battle that burst out and ended in an instant, the value of capturing a living person was quite high.

As soon as the Eagle Hall man was thrown to the ground, two guards immediately rushed up, grabbed him, and dragged him away.

"One clerk died, it was that rash Xiao Chen, who rushed out to escape, and as a result… two servants died. The groom Lao Yu and the coachman Lao Zhang went to hold the frightened horse and suffered some minor injuries. Master Feng is already treating them. …Of the eleven guards, four were killed in action, and only one was uninjured," Xu Han Kang reported to Ye Tao after consulting with Bi Xiaoqing. Although the garden was a mess, there was no better place to go for the time being.

Sophie's wound wasn't a problem. For a group like them, how could they lack good wound medicine? But the other injured people, including Meng Tian, were more troublesome. They had already asked a waiter from the inn to call Le Ping from Bao Shan Tang to send some Shengji powder (生机散 - Life Creation Powder). It was really because Bao Shan Tang and Shengji powder were available that they had greater confidence in the recovery of the injured. And now, they had too few people around them. Wu Ping'an, who had assisted several guards in resisting the Eagle Hall's attack and won time for the guards to retrieve the flamethrowers and launch them, was also injured, but at this moment, he also knew that the situation was tense, and he didn't take those minor injuries seriously. He was helping to clean up the scene and continued to be on guard in case of any accidents.

Although they suffered quite significant losses in this short surprise attack, at least Ye Tao was fine, and so was Sophie. In the eyes of these guards who were becoming more and more familiar with the people around the Governor, Sophie was not just Ye Tao's maid, or a future concubine accepted into the room. They knew that almost all the various drawings Ye Tao was making now were officially drawn by Sophie and handed over to the construction site or workshop. Not to mention how much of the various machinery and buildings Sophie knew were highly confidential, just the highly technical work of copying drawings was done by officials in the Ministry of Works who had formal titles and whose ranks were not low.

After sending Meng Tian and all the other seriously injured people into the room, the lightly injured people helped each other bandage their wounds and apply medicine, and the courtyard suddenly became deserted again. After sending Sophie back to her room, Ye Tao, Bi Xiaoqing, and Zhou Zhi stood in the courtyard and looked at each other.

Ye Tao said somewhat guiltily, "If I hadn't insisted on going out with so few people, this wouldn't have happened." Although he had been tempered on the battlefield, Ye Tao still couldn't easily accept the fact that others died for him.

"My lord, this is what we do," Bi Xiaoqing said nonchalantly.

A burly man wearing a servant's uniform appeared at the hexagonal doorway at the end of the porch, bowing and hurrying, "My lord, at the door…"

The servant seemed to want to turn back and point in the direction of the courtyard gate, but suddenly took advantage of the momentum to turn around and launched two palms fiercely at Ye Tao.

"Be careful!" Without any hesitation, Zhou Zhi pushed Ye Tao away, also pushing out two palms to meet them.

That servant was Mo Leng in disguise. Zhou Zhi still had a considerable gap compared to Mo Leng after all, and couldn't see through him in advance. Although Zhou Zhi pushed Ye Tao away, he couldn't prevent Ye Tao from being grazed by the palm force. But he himself took the full force of the two palms and was sent flying against the courtyard wall.

Seeing Bi Xiaoqing loudly calling for the guards who could still move and that he himself was blocking in front of Ye Tao, Mo Leng knew that he would no longer have a chance. Any later, and he might not be able to escape. He smiled dryly and said, "You're not bad!"

It was unknown who he was talking about.

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This is the second chapter scheduled for update today. The next bonus chapter may be later. I want to write more to make up for yesterday's two short chapters. It's the last day for monthly tickets. I'll shout one more time. Just don't let me fall on the last day, thank you.