Chapter 159: Thousand-Killer

…

"Your Majesty, absolutely do not act rashly!!!"

The one who spoke these words was Li Lin; because she was so frantic, her wording was slightly inappropriate. How could one use "act rashly" when speaking to the Emperor?

But the problem was, Li Lin was genuinely panicked.

Huang Jingchen, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, Yang Jian—these eunuchs had ability, yes, but they were all ordinary civilians from peaceful regions, utterly ignorant of military affairs.

If Tong Guan were here, he would never have advised Zhao Yu to hastily retreat from Xuande Tower.

After all, Xuande Tower has defensive works like horse-face bulwarks.

In such a place, even if only dozens of defenders held it, armed with ample firepower, the enemy would find it nearly impossible to storm up without sending a thousand or two thousand death seekers.

Conversely, if they fled outward, in this chaos, they would truly be in danger.

Even if Zhao Yu could safely retreat back to the palace, what of his concubines and maids? Would these frail women suffer casualties during the escape?

Crucially, this is right before the palace, with imperial guards nearby—they need only hold for a moment, and reinforcements will surely arrive to rescue the Emperor.

Even if other armies are unreliable, the Divine Mechanism Army, personally forged by Zhao Yu and Li Lin, will surely come to rescue the Emperor.

In short, in Li Lin's view, as long as they do not act rashly and court death, they are absolutely safe.

Yet these fools—Huang Jingchen and the others—insist on dragging Zhao Yu toward death; how could Li Lin not panic?

As Zhao Yu's trusted eunuchs, Huang Jingchen and the others knew well that this Li Imperial Consort, who dared warn Zhao Yu not to act rashly, was no ordinary woman; the Divine Mechanism Army, the most formidable in the Zhao-Song dynasty, was deeply entangled with her.

So the moment Li Lin spoke, Huang Jingchen and the others—who still had some self-awareness—immediately clamped their mouths shut.

In truth, Zhao Yu himself was also a little panicked, having never experienced anything like this.

But fortunately, Zhao Yu knew Li Lin had substance and would never harm him.

So Zhao Yu feigned calm and asked Li Lin: "What do you think, beloved consort?"

Li Lin wasted no words; she cut straight to the point: "This place is easy to defend and hard to attack. Those fools don't even have crossbows—how could they possibly succeed?"

Northern Song arms control largely continued the Tang system.

Early in the Song, Zhao Kuangyin had issued a ban: residents within Dongjing Bianliang were forbidden to privately possess any weapons. Crossbows and other long-range weapons with high lethality were strictly prohibited for private ownership—let alone appearing on the streets with them.

And upon careful observation, it was clear that the assassins below carried only short weapons like knives, hammers, and bone clubs; at least for now, no one had been seen with long-range weapons like crossbows.

No sooner had Li Lin finished speaking than a burly general spoke up: "The Imperial Consort's words are absolutely correct. These hundred or so vermin are nothing to fear."

Seeing this general, Zhao Yu's heart grew steadier.

Zhao Yu smiled: "I've long heard Wang Banzhi is an expert archer—could you demonstrate for me?"

Wang Banzhi—Zhao Yu's specially requested bodyguard, Wang Shunchen, whom he had taken from General Zhong Pu—immediately bowed: "Your servant obeys!"

As he spoke, Wang Shunchen took his precious bow and several quivers of arrows and stepped forward to the horse-face bulwark.

At this moment, a circle of over ten meters in radius had cleared around the road, yet the chaos had not lessened—fighting, screams, flames from falling lanterns burned along the road; children cried far away; crowds shouted, searching for companions; some were knocked down and struggled to rise; a tied old horse ahead had panicked, thrashing and neighing wildly—in short, the area before Xuande Tower was utter chaos.

Meanwhile, six or seven assassins took advantage of the chaos and surged to within fifty to sixty paces of Xuande Tower.

Seeing this, Wang Shunchen laughed loudly: "I'll make the first one to advance wear a flower between the brows!"—and three consecutive arrows shot out in rapid succession.

The three assassins at the front, still bewildered by what had happened, were all killed instantly with exploded skulls.

The remaining few, sensing disaster, tried to retreat.

But Wang Shunchen moved with astonishing speed; before those four assassins had taken more than a few steps, four more consecutive arrows followed, piercing them all through the back, killing them.

These seven were likely among the most valiant and renowned assassins; after their deaths, the others were so stunned they froze in place, unable to advance, uncertain of the situation atop Xuande Tower.

Wang Shunchen was no ordinary man; during his time in the Western Army, he had risen through battlefield merit to the rank of Grade 7 Senior Chongyi Envoy with the honorary title of Remote Prefectural Inspector.

Those familiar with Song officialdom knew that Tang-Song official ranks were highly esteemed; reaching this level meant his military status was equivalent to that of a modern-day colonel.

Moreover, Wang Shunchen had temporarily served as Department Magistrate of Lanzhou, succeeding the peerless warrior Wang Wenyu, and was a core member of the military leadership of the Xihe Road.

Later, however, he was caught up in the White Grassland fraud case and received severe punishment: ten official titles were stripped, and he was dismissed and erased from the rolls.

Fortunately, Emperor Zhao Xu did not pursue him to the point of annihilation, allowing Wang Shunchen to continue commanding a regiment.

Clearly, beyond his extraordinary bravery, Wang Shunchen's command abilities were also outstanding.

With his feat of seven consecutive shots, Wang Shunchen immediately stabilized the morale of the Imperial Dragon Guard and the Archery Guard's personal attendants; they all moved to the horse-face bulwarks, ready to shoot anyone who dared approach Xuande Tower.

In an extremely short time, Wang Shunchen had established a flawless defense.

After giving these orders, Wang Shunchen stood behind the horse-face bulwark, embodying the image of one man holding the pass against ten thousand.

Only then did the assassins realize: the bow is drawn, there is no turning back—they had been exposed; whether they killed Zhao Yu or not, they would die anyway. So they might as well fight to the end.

Thus, some assassins launched another full assault on Xuande Tower, while others continued slaughtering civilians, trying to drive them toward the palace to create confusion.

But the Imperial Dragon Guard and Archery Guard's personal attendants, under Wang Shunchen's command, shot with precision and ruthlessness—killing anyone who dared approach Xuande Tower, even if they were unarmed civilians.

Seeing this, no civilian dared charge the palace anymore. Even when driven by assassins, they fled to either side.

The assassins had no choice but to charge themselves.

Yet these assassins had made a great show, but in truth, they numbered fewer than a hundred.

That many were not even enough for Wang Shunchen to kill alone.

Recall that historically, Wang Shunchen fired continuously from the hour of Shen to the hour of You—four hours straight. According to the Longbian and Song Shi, Wang Shunchen "fired over a thousand arrows, none wasted," until dusk, when his fingers cracked and blood streamed down his elbows, successfully covering the retreat of the Song army's main force; in that battle, he killed over a thousand men—truly a human Gatling gun.

Even if this "thousand arrows fired, none wasted" record had some exaggeration, it does not diminish Wang Shunchen's right to be eternally celebrated in history for this feat.

In truth, the Song Dynasty never lacked fierce generals during its northwest expansion, but in this era, only Wang Shunchen was recorded in history with the title "Thousand-Killer"—even superior marksmen like Yao Si and Liu Changzuo either faced more favorable battle conditions and didn't need to fire a thousand arrows themselves, or their terrain didn't permit machine-gun-like firing; compared to Wang Shunchen's performance in this battle, they fell short, making his "Thousand-Killer" record highly credible.

To speak bluntly, with Wang Shunchen, the "Thousand-Killer," in Zhao Yu's hands, from the moment the assassins failed to drive civilians toward the palace, their defeat was inevitable.

Soon, dozens of assassins were shot dead by Wang Shunchen and his men.

Meanwhile, Fan Chunli, the Prefect of Kaifeng and concurrently Director of the Longtu Pavilion, personally led imperial guards to rescue the Emperor.

Slightly behind Fan Chunli came Zong Ze, leading the cavalry of the Divine Mechanism Left Army in pursuit to rescue the Emperor.

Soon after, more and more troops arrived to rescue the Emperor.

Finally, all five Divine Mechanism Armies arrived on the scene.

After Fan Chunli, Zong Ze, and others brought the situation under control, they unanimously chose to seal off the scene, preventing anyone from leaving, determined to capture all the assassins.

To everyone's surprise, with the help of Yuwen Huangzhong, Zhao Ding, and Li Guang, Li Gang managed to capture an assassin attempting to flee.

After the crisis was resolved, Zhao Yu immediately ordered Fan Chunli to calm the civilians, telling them the court would soon allow them to return home, that the court would compensate the families of the dead, and that imperial physicians would treat the wounded.

Knowing this incident would end his official career, Fan Chunli realized his only hope now was how well he handled the aftermath.

Fan Chunli did not explain, because he lacked manpower and did not believe Zhao Yu and his group—protected by numerous personal guards—were in danger; he redirected the guard forces to maintain public order. He also did not mention that every Kaifeng Prefect over the past dozen years had done the same—because, in hindsight, he was utterly wrong.

And for this mistake, Zhao Yu could punish Fan Chunli however he wished.

Moreover, this was truly Fan Chunli's fault: if he lacked manpower, he could have said so—there was no need to strip security from before the palace just to save resources.

So Fan Chunli could only hurry to manage the aftermath.

Following Zhao Yu's instructions, after calming the civilians, Fan Chunli went to interrogate the assassins.

But the assassin captured by Li Gang and others had already been seized by the Imperial City Office at once.

It was said that the Imperial City Office and the Eastern Depot had argued over this assassin.

Clearly, it was not only the Kaifeng Prefecture that had failed—the Imperial City Office and the Eastern Depot had also committed grave errors; otherwise, how could this assassination have occurred? Both institutions were now scrambling to make amends.

As Fan Chunli fretted over how to redeem himself, one of his subordinates uncovered an assassin who had failed to kill himself.

Fan Chunli rejoiced and went personally to interrogate this assassin.

In fact, the truth was simple.

The assassins were spies sent by the Xixia Sect, totaling eighty-seven, including three expert marksmen.

Their goal was to create chaos and force Zhao Yu to leave Xuande Tower, where the three hidden marksmen would shoot him.

As for the reason behind the assassination, it was equally simple.

Emperor Li Qianshun and his ministers had confirmed that the Zhao Song dynasty was gathering strength to reclaim Xixia and would soon launch a war to recover it.

As long as Zhao Yu lived, reclaiming Xixia was inevitable.

Thus, Li Qianshun and his ministers had no choice but to find a way to kill Zhao Yu.

Even if they failed to kill him, forcing Zhao Song to launch war immediately—rather than waiting until it was fully prepared—would still be advantageous, for it would improve Xixia's chances of victory.

In fact, Xixia had recently provoked border incidents repeatedly, hoping to force Zhao Song into war now.

But Zhang Jie remained extremely cautious, refusing to launch any offensive, instead relying on a network of fortresses to stall the Xia army while accelerating preparations for strategic supplies to reclaim Xixia.

Li Qianshun and his ministers had been driven to desperation by Zhang Jie and other Song frontline commanders, forcing them to resort to this desperate gamble.

The assassins, after careful reconnaissance, learned that during the Lantern Festival, Dongjing Bianliang experienced massive population movement; to maintain order, the Kaifeng Prefecture had traditionally drawn guards from before the palace—thus exploiting this vulnerability to plan the assassination.

Soon, Fan Chunli, Li Yan, and Yang Jian all reported the same conclusion to Zhao Yu.

Zhao Yu knew that, in history, during one Lantern Festival, Zhao Ji had encountered a similar incident.

At that time, Zhao Ji stood alone beneath the western window of Xuande Tower, with no eunuchs nearby, when a monk leapt from the crowd, rushed close to Zhao Ji, pointed at the curtain, and shouted loudly: "Are you the one? What divine power do you have to destroy our teachings? I tell you now—retribution is coming! I fear you not; how can you harm the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas?"

Coincidentally, no guards had been stationed beneath Xuande Tower then, and Zhao Ji had no bodyguards at all.

Fortunately, the monk had only come to curse Zhao Ji—not to assassinate him; otherwise, Zhao Ji would have been in grave danger.

Zhao Ji was terrified and enraged; later, he personally presided over the interrogation, ordering severe torture to extract the name of the instigator.

But no matter what punishment the monk endured, he showed no sign of pain and uttered not a word, leading Zhao Ji to believe he was a demon, and he sent for Song Chongmiao, an expert in exorcising spirits.

Song Chongmiao, skilled in Heavenly Law, was famous throughout the land, known as Master Song.

Song Chongmiao hurried to the scene, examined the monk, and helplessly reported to Zhao Ji: "I deal with demons and spirits, but this man—I cannot identify him."

Interrogators continued torturing the monk: they severed his hamstring, sliced his flesh, leaving blood and gore everywhere, until he died.

What defied explanation was that the monk never uttered a single sound until death.

This sudden incident was recorded in detail in Cai Jing's son Cai Tao's book, *Tie Shan Congtan*.

Zhao Yu knew of this event.

But originally, Zhao Yu had thought it a joke—could an emperor really be approached so easily?

Only today did Zhao Yu realize that such absurd events could truly happen.

Just as Jiaqing was attacked by a palace chef while a hundred guards stood by and did nothing to save him. Or as two hundred members of the Tianli Society launched a rebellion in Jingcheng, breaching the East and West Hua Gates of the Forbidden City and storming the imperial palace core, catching the Qing guards off guard in panic.

But knowing this, Zhao Yu could not let such a perfect excuse go to waste—if he didn't make something of it now, wouldn't his fright have been for nothing?

…

(End of Chapter)