Chapter 444

It could be said they had personally arrived at the scene of a dangerous incident.

Fortunately, there were no major casualties.

Su Qiao himself was also unharmed!

What made them unable to sit still, dropping their bowls and chopsticks, was this:

Su Qiao, the imperial envoy sent by the court, had actually been ambushed and targeted for assassination; just after the meeting at dawn this morning, several families of the Lu clan launched a sudden attack.

This caused Sun Chuanting, who was listening to the report, to widen his eyes in utter shock.

They are far too bold!

I have seen bold people, but I have never seen anyone so arrogant as to directly target an imperial envoy for assassination.

An imperial envoy sent by the court represents the face of the Great Ming Emperor and represents the court itself.

What they did is no different from raising a banner and rebelling!

It can truly be called courting death!

What exactly is the situation with these major families of the Lu clan that they would do such a thing? Did their heads get kicked by a donkey or crushed by a door?

Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng were the first to react.

The four great merchant families doing this must be because of their identities!

They knew that Su Qiao had encountered many ambushes and attacks by the Bai Lianjiao on his journey south.

Besides the Bai Lianjiao, it seemed no one else was so obsessed with Su Qiao!

With this turn of events, Sun Chuanting felt the pressure on him grow even greater.

He had already stayed in Fuzhou Prefecture for several months, yet had not discovered a single thing.

Does this not count as dereliction of duty?

298, truly shocking!

By then, he too would bear responsibility.

More importantly, this old fox was quite alert.

He felt the matter was not that simple; there might be other things involved.

That is why people say an old man is cunning and an old horse is slippery; Sun Chuanting's suspicious mind was indeed remarkably accurate.

He had not yet digested his previous news, and the following report from the man made him spit out the porridge in his mouth.

Pfft!

"What is going on? You say the Embroidered Uniform Guard entered the city, went straight to Prefect Liu's residence, and immediately began slaughtering people?!"

Sun Chuanting truly suspected he had just misheard.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard is indeed ruthless and quite domineering in handling cases.

But Liu Minghe is also a Fourth Rank, Senior Grade official of the court; although he cannot compare to a First Rank official, he is still a high-ranking administrator governing a frontier region.

Even if the Embroidered Uniform Guard obtained evidence of his illegal acts, they would still need to escort him to Jingcheng and report to the Emperor before taking action.

But what is happening now?

Killing anyone they see directly; what kind of operational style is this?!

"Grand Preceptor, not only that, but the soldiers of the Fuzhou Prefecture Guard were also mobilized; it seems they are executing the orders of Imperial Envoy Su, directly taking control of the entire city of Fuzhou!"

"Are you saying the city defense has been taken over and changed hands? Or was it an order from Su Qiao?"

"Yes."

Sun Chuanting fell into silence.

If it were someone else, he might have thought they were doing something bad, that the situation was abnormal.

But with Su Qiao, he knew clearly, he was absolutely not someone who acted recklessly.

When he first arrived, he had also given him face, showing no intention of stealing his credit.

Now, Su Qiao was attacked on the one hand, and on the other, sent people to take over the city defense.

Whether it was venting anger or not, Sun Chuanting found it difficult to step forward and dissuade him.

Unless Su Qiao truly acted excessively.

Furthermore, do not forget, Su Qiao holds the Imperial Edict in his hand; he is the imperial envoy sent by the court.

Who could stop him?

"For now, do not worry about it; wait and see!"

Sun Chuanting thought for a long time and finally issued this order.

"Yes!"

Just as the subordinate turned to leave,

Sun Chuanting called him back, "Wait!"

"Grand Preceptor!"

"I ask you, is there any movement from the other imperial envoy in the guesthouse?"

Zhu Di had also disappeared for half a month, basically never appearing from the guesthouse again.

Sun Chuanting was also quite curious about Zhu Di and wanted to understand him better.

But this person seemed to have entered seclusion and vanished; he was completely invisible.

Those who wanted to get close to him could not even see the person; what else could they do but return in despair?

"Making quite a mystery of it!"

Sun Chuanting muttered a sentence, then cast the matter aside.

"Very well, send someone to keep watch; if he appears, remind me. Also, send people to constantly monitor the follow-up regarding the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Su Qiao; if anything happens, tell me immediately!"

"Your subordinate understands!"

"Go!"

"Yes!"

……

Not only did Sun Chuanting's side closely watch Su Qiao's reaction.

Liu Minghe's opponents, Vice Prefect Zhao Hui and Assistant Prefect He Yunyi, were also watching intently.

When they learned that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had stormed directly into the Liu residence, with shouts of battle echoing everywhere.

The two nearly thought of each other at the same moment, then immediately drew close, discussing with excited expressions.

They were just one step away from setting out some snacks, sipping a little wine, singing a tune, and watching the show from the side.

It was simply that, while Liu Minghe and the Four Great Families still held power, they had crushed these two too severely within Fuzhou City.

They had nearly been unable to catch their breath.

Now that the Four Great Families had assassinated the Imperial Envoy, they were essentially finished.

Liu Minghe, the Prefect, had also had the Embroidered Uniform Guard storm into his residence—better yet, kill him.

Then they would be utterly liberated and at ease!

……

Sun Youxu had already ordered someone to wake up Liu Minghe, who had pretended to faint.

"Awake?"

Sun Youxu asked Liu Minghe with a faint sneer on his face.

Liu Minghe opened his eyes, appearing dazed.

Had Sun Youxu not firmly believed Su Qiao's words and confirmed Liu Minghe as the Empress Dowager's hidden hand, he might have been deceived by his superb acting.

He had planned nicely, intending to bluff his way through.

But Sun Youxu and the others would not allow it.

"You're Embroidered Uniform Guard—where am I?"

"You're still in the Liu residence, in your back courtyard. We don't care whether you truly fainted. We want to know: were you the one who killed the two men in the neighboring courtyard? One of them was the head of the Sun family."

This script is wrong!

Faced with the Embroidered Uniform Guard's aggressive stance, Liu Minghe's eyelid twitched slightly.

According to his own legal logic, a high-ranking official like himself had just fainted and had only now regained consciousness.

By normal reasoning, they should first have inquired after his health.

Even if they desperately wanted to extract information from him, they should have properly nursed him back to strength first.