Meanwhile, Wang Batian, the Vice Minister of War, stepped out from the ranks.
"Your Majesty, I have something to say."
Li Shimin, displeased, cast a glance at Li Jing.
"Are your henchmen coming out to stir up trouble?"
Li Jing was helpless. He couldn't very well beat him up like Li Xiaogong.
"These are people from the Wang family of Taiyuan. Their family isn't as ruthless as ours!"
Li Shimin said indifferently.
"Speak!"
Wang Batian said.
"Replying to Your Majesty, they are merely a few petty thieves and do not warrant the intervention of the Ministry of War. It would be best to let the officials of various prefectures investigate first."
"Furthermore, the military rations and salaries for the various guards are already insufficient. If we are to dispatch troops to suppress the bandits, please ask Duke Fang to replenish the provisions first."
Fang Xuanling, stroking his beard, grumbled internally, "Damn it, how did this get onto us?"
Cheng Yaojin was displeased.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to lead the Yangwei Army out of the city to suppress the bandits. It can serve as training!"
But Wang Batian immediately retorted.
"As far as I know, the Yangwei Army's firearms and ammunition have not yet been delivered. If you have the time, it would be better for Duke Cheng to urge the Marquis of Liaodong more."
As soon as Wang Batian finished speaking.
Fan Jian, Vice Minister of Rites, and Wang Defa, Right Minister of Rites.
Fan Tong, Right Minister of Justice, and Fan Ren, Left Minister of Justice.
Lu Guan, Left Minister of Personnel, and Lu Bu, Right Minister of Personnel.
The six men stepped forward together.
"Your humble servants oppose the deployment of the guards. We implore Your Majesty to reconsider!"
"We implore Your Majesty to reconsider!"
Good heavens, with these six men stepping out, officials of all ranks chimed in with their agreement.
Li Shimin's face turned green!
"This is almost as bad as a palace coup!"
"Li Xiaogong! You deal with it yourself!"
"Court dismissed!"
Angrily, Li Shimin flicked his sleeves and left. He feared that if he stayed any longer, he might lose control and start hitting people!
Li Xiaogong was dumbfounded. This wasn't how he expected things to go.
Cheng Yaojin and Chai Shao surrounded him from either side.
After the other court officials had dispersed, Chai Shao said.
"Kid, it's not appropriate to ask the Emperor to handle this. Go find my son-in-law. That kid is clean with his work."
Cheng Yaojin added.
"Don't do anything within the city, otherwise, it will be difficult for the Emperor."
After saying this, the two left, arm in arm.
Li Xiaogong felt a bit disgruntled and walked out of Chengtian Gate with a somewhat dejected gait.
As soon as he reached the entrance, he saw a man walking towards him.
"Yanyun Cavalry Sima Yi pays his respects to the King of Hejian."
"My Marquis has ordered us to come and assist the King of Hejian!"
Saying that, he pointed to six armored vehicles in the distance.
On the vehicles were twenty thousand copies of newspapers, printed overnight.
Li Xiaogong nodded and walked to the armored vehicles, casually pulling open a car door to look inside.
Besides the newspapers, there were several men inside.
They were the other members of the Yanyun Cavalry.
Li Xiaogong no longer walked, he got into one of the armored vehicles and asked Sima Yi, who had also gotten in.
"What did your Marquis say?"
Sima Yi said.
"The Marquis said for us to escort the newspapers to various prefectures and counties in groups of three. If anyone has malicious intentions, deal with them on the spot."
After speaking, he patted the Dragon Fang sniper rifle on his back.
Li Xiaogong's heart was greatly reassured!
"The Marquis of Liaodong handles things so reliably!"
To lure the noble families into making another move, the newspapers were transported by ox carts, not armored vehicles, just like last time.
As soon as the newspapers left the city, the news was delivered to the second-generation heirs of several noble families.
Cui Zhengyu pointed at the servant in front of him and said.
"This King of Hejian is truly persistent! This time, he doesn't just want the goods! He wants to kill!"
"I will make sure the people of the Li mansion dare not step out of Chang'an by half a step!"
The other families echoed similar sentiments. Since Li Xiaogong was being uncooperative, they would deal with him ruthlessly!
From afar, six groups of people left the city, following the ox carts carrying the newspapers.
Guan Chang, Zhang De, and Si Cheng, a team, had already spotted the people following behind.
The three exchanged knowing glances.
Then Sima Yi said to the servant of the Li mansion.
"Make the ox cart go faster. Wait for them by the edge of the woods ahead."
The servant shivered slightly.
"I was stripped naked myself yesterday, and when I got home, my wife looked at me with disdain and didn't even let me into bed."
However, looking at the large rifle on Sima Yi's back, he nodded in agreement.
The convoy slowed down as it reached the woods, where the road took a turn.
Sima Yi, Guan Chang, and Zhang De jumped off the ox cart and entered the woods.
The Li family's servant urged the ox cart to slow down.
The pursuers were house servants of the Li family of Zhaojun. Upon catching up, they noticed three people were missing and assumed they had gone into the woods for a private moment, not giving it any further thought.
It would be better to leave a few survivors to report Li Xiaogong's demise.
The leader drew his long saber from his back.
"Kill!"
He shouted, then charged forward on horseback.
Behind him, more than twenty people charged forward together.
Zhang De, being impatient, had already aimed at one person and was about to fire when Sima Yi stopped him.
"Don't rush, let them get closer. Otherwise, it would be bad if a few escaped later."
When the people from the Li family of Zhaojun charged to within thirty paces of the ox cart, Sima Yi fired first.
"Bang!"
The leader was shot off his horse by a bullet.
Guan Chang and Zhang De followed suit, firing one after another.
"Bang! Bang!" Two more were shot off their horses.
The people from the Li family of Zhaojun were stunned. There were snipers!
"Retreat! This is a trap!"
Saying that, they turned their horses and fled in the direction of Chang'an.
Guan Chang and the other two quickly reloaded and aimed at their targets again.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" three shots rang out.
However, due to the panicked flight and their jerky movements, the impatient Zhang De missed.
Only two fell.
Guan Chang cast a disdainful glance at him.
"San Dezǐ, your skills have declined! You'll be punished with five hundred target practices when we get back!"
Guan Chang, Huang Sheng, Zhao Long, and Zhang De, considering themselves descendants of the Five Tiger Generals, arranged themselves by age.
Zhang De was the third eldest. Fang Er accidentally called him San Dezǐ, and the nickname stuck.
From then on, San Dezǐ became his nickname.
Zhang De had no objections to this.
But missing a shot was unacceptable to him!
When had the Eighteen Riders ever missed a shot!
So, he quickly reloaded and fired another shot at the same target.
The three sniper rifles fired in succession.
The more than twenty people from the Li family of Zhaojun were all brought down before they could even escape the effective range.
Sima Yi jumped down from the tree, smiling at the group of riderless horses standing in place.
"Hahaha, a good haul!"
Saying that, he walked over, picked out a horse for himself, and mounted it.
"Boss Guan, San Dezǐ, I'll leave the rest of the work to you. I'll take the horses back to the manor first."
After that, leaving the dumbfounded Li family servants behind, he led the horses, bypassed Chang'an, and headed back to Fang Family Manor.
It wasn't just this route.
The other five routes met with almost the same outcome.
Under the actions of the Yanyun Cavalry, nearly two hundred house servants from the noble families across the six routes were dealt with cleanly!
The young masters of the various families waiting for news in the city did not see anyone return until dark.
Sensing something was wrong, they immediately sent out more people to scout the routes.
As a result, they only found a ground full of corpses, stripped bare!
And the obvious bullet holes on the corpses!