Chapter 1658

He ran off cleanly, but he left Zhao Song in a terrible fix.

The palace attendant followed, his face displeased: "Commander Zhao, what's going on here? Where is He Xiong?"

Zhao Song was flustered and pale, not knowing how to explain, when a palace guard rushed out from the house and said: "My lord, there's a letter on the table!"

Zhao Song took it and looked; the envelope bore He Lingchuan's handwriting:

For Qiu Long, my lord, to open personally.

Below, in smaller script: Please have Zhao Song forward it.

This bastard! Zhao Song nearly gritted his teeth to pieces—He Xiong ran off himself and still didn't forget to order him around! But he didn't have the guts to tear open the envelope and read the contents.

He looked again; the ink on the envelope was still wet, so he immediately ordered: "Pass the word—expand the search perimeter around the manor!"

Though Zhao Song also vaguely understood in his heart that, given He Xiong's abilities, once he escaped the manor, it would probably be hard to catch him again.

Yu the attendant also understood, his face equally pale: "He Xiong—he, he ran away?"

Zhao Song choked out: "At least he's not in this room or courtyard anymore."

Yu the attendant urged anxiously: "Commander Zhao, how could you let him escape!"

"Me? Is it solely my fault?" Zhao Song flared back with a bitter laugh, "Didn't Lord Yu also agree to let him return to his quarters to change clothes?"

If the king blames them, the two of them will have to share the blame!

They stared at each other, eyes wide, both hearts in turmoil.

After a few breaths, Yu the attendant managed to squeeze out five words: "What now?"

Zhao Song didn't answer, pacing back and forth in the room.

As time dragged on agonizingly slow, the palace guards from outside the garrison finally returned, bringing them bad news:

"Not found."

Several hundred people went out, yet they found no trace of He Xiong near the manor, only a few refugees in the woods.

They possessed elemental power; ordinary disguises and concealment arts would hardly fool their eyes.

Zhao Song and Yu the attendant's hearts sank halfway, yet they dared not waste more time, so they left personnel to continue the search while they themselves grabbed He Xiong's letter and left the manor to return to the city to report.

……

Qingyang and the Bei Jia envoy had just entered the palace when Tianshui City erupted in chaos again! In the past few days, opening the granaries to distribute grain had relieved the refugees; although petty theft never ceased, large-scale, mass riots had basically ceased.

Tianshui City had finally regained its former tranquility, and Yaowang thought his orders had been appropriate and his deployment effective.

However, this riot at dusk struck everyone in the face, for its scale was unprecedented and its speed astonishingly swift!

The cause of the riot was that, during evening porridge distribution, a few refugees began arguing with officials: this side said the porridge was too thin—even dogs wouldn't eat it—and accused the officials of embezzling the refugees' food; that side then cursed, saying those who drank porridge were worse than pigs and dogs and were wasting food.

At this tense juncture, whose nerves could withstand such provocation?

A few officials were shouting, spittle flying, when they didn't expect the refugees opposite to suddenly draw their knives—one slash, one person, one slash, one person—blood spattered five paces! Another life was taken.

How could the authorities let murderous refugees run rampant? Over a hundred officials rushed in to seize people, while other refugees hurled objects at them indiscriminately, among which were even several firecrackers and several hand-thrown grenades!

Boom—several times they hit the ground and blossomed, completely igniting the fury on both sides.

Thus began the large-scale mass brawl.

Previously, when the authorities suppressed refugees, they just needed to clear out each thatched hut one by one—each hut held at most dozens of refugees, rarely more than two hundred—and officials and patrol troops had absolute superiority in numbers and weapons, so fighting them didn't take much effort.

But now is not then! To strengthen refugee management and prevent the arrival of the imperial gruel from triggering citywide unrest, Yaowang adopted Bai Tan's suggestion and drove the city's refugees into the four major camps, where they were monitored day and night.

However, this led to massive refugee concentrations: the smallest camp held over ten thousand people, the largest reached an astonishing forty thousand!

In terms of numbers, the authorities no longer held the advantage.

This riot began in the camp of forty thousand refugees.

Suddenly, the refugees surged forth like water released from a gate—whoosh—and rushed outward!

The military police guarding them numbered about two thousand, and they couldn't hold them back no matter how they tried.

Although their weapons were excellent, facing a twenty-to-one enemy-to-ours ratio, they were still willing but unable. Moreover, the refugees had eaten relief rations for several days; though not bursting with vigor, their spirits were actually better than before.

Just thinking of Tianshui City opening the military granaries to distribute military grain, thereby breeding this gang of troublemakers, the officials felt a bellyful of grievance.

Moreover, it's not worth mentioning that suddenly someone among the refugees produced swords, spears, swords and halberds, and kept swinging them at the officials!

These paupers had no family wealth; occasionally having a hoe or a pitchfork would be considered not bad—but where did they get so many fine standard-issue weapons? And the more they took, the more they had: among ten people, three could now arm themselves with weapons and armor! Overall, the refugees' combat strength was far inferior to that of the patrol troops, but given the overwhelming numerical disparity between the two sides, for a moment the patrol troops were actually being beaten back steadily!

"Where are the Western and Eastern City patrol troops?" Bai Tan roared furiously, "Also transfer them over and defend! Quickly!"

The refugees who rushed out of the camp did not scatter, but instead clung together as a mass and attacked northward into the northern district!

The northern district of the city was where upper-class officials and nobles resided, with high walls and grand mansions, imposing and magnificent.

Relying on their numerical superiority, the refugee mob easily crushed the garrison of the northern district and then stormed into several large mansions!

Coincidentally, the protective formations of these several mansions had just failed, rendering them unable to repel the enemy from outside.

The first mansion to fall was actually the Gu family's official-merchant estate! Yes, that Gu family which monopolized the exclusive operation of the Wei Yin Agent, one of Yaoguó's largest official-merchant houses, and the top elite of Tianshui City.

Even when He Lingchuan first came to Tianshui City, he was turned away at the door at the Gu family's residence.

The Gu family's residence in the northern part of the city was the largest and most luxurious, its defensive works naturally the most thorough. Yet somehow, both the front and rear formations had failed, and even the backup formation could not be activated!

Even if the Gu family's estate guards and retainers were more numerous, could they outnumber forty pairs of hands? The result of two fists against forty hands was that the refugees stormed into the manor, dragged out the Gu family members and servants! Gu Xuan was dragged from his hiding place, hearing only the screams of family members everywhere, seeing only shadows and torches everywhere, and before he could even see clearly who was leading the enemy, he was chopped at the neck with a single blow!

The headless corpse had not yet fallen to the ground when several refugees nearby began fighting over his waist jade pendant and neck necklace, brawling fiercely! The Gu family's decades of glory and wealth collapsed in an instant.

Sharing the same fate were another seven or eight elite mansions attacked and overrun by the refugees.

Besides mass slaughter and plunder, the refugees also occupied the mansions, using the high walls and thick doors here to resist the patrol troops' attacks! These refugees, who had formerly acted without any pattern, now actually understood how to first find a stronghold for themselves, then firmly hold and defend it.

Having a stronghold, having defensive works, having weapons and armor, and also having the large stores of grain stockpiled in the mansions.