Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Just in case, after subduing Sima Wu, they immediately sent men to seal off the restaurant. Then, under the pretext of searching for Eunuch Pao and his group, they attacked the Imperial Palace Inspector in the north of the city and took control of everyone in the restaurant, claiming to have rescued the accomplices of the criminal clan.

After some questioning, everyone else in the restaurant was released, but Li Qing and his group were detained.

Li Qing and his group protested, saying that they were weapon refiners from Zhongyuan City and had not been involved in the matter of the remnants of the criminal clan, so they should not be detained.

At this moment, Huo Chengde ordered the Falcon Guard to bring over Sima Wu, who was already half dead, and also brought out four blood-stained knives.

The reason given for detaining them was that Eunuch Pao and his entourage colluded with Sima Wu to secretly frame the inspector of the Feather Palace. The main culprit, Eunuch Pao, had already confessed that Sima Wu had forged many weapons for them and provided them with the convenience to enter Shangyuan City smoothly.

Now that there are witnesses and physical evidence, and Li Qing is Sima Wu's master, and he also arrived in Shangyuan City on this day, even luring the city's officials here in the most prosperous area under the pretense of holding a new product launch.

It's clearly a case of using a diversionary tactic.

However, the ringleader, realizing that his scheme had been exposed, attempted to bite his tongue to commit suicide. Although he was stopped in time, it was too late; his tongue had already been bitten off, and he was now unable to speak. Therefore, they had no choice but to detain them temporarily until the seriously injured and unconscious Inspector woke up and was handed over to him for disposal.

When Li Qing saw that they had been unjustly implicated in the investigation of the criminal clan by the Feather Palace, he was so frightened that he trembled and immediately cried out that he was innocent. He said that they were not with Sima Wu. Although he and Sima Wu had a master-disciple relationship, it was a long time ago and they had not been in contact for a long time.

But Huo Chengde would not let them go easily, so he naturally took them under control and imprisoned them separately for individual interrogation.

To prevent them from colluding and making it impossible to extract useful information.

After detaining Li Qing and his entourage, Sima Wu was secretly executed, but it was publicly stated that he committed suicide out of fear of punishment to protect his accomplices hiding in the Great Xia Empire.

After hearing Huo Chengde's report, Mo Yuming exclaimed that the matter had been handled brilliantly.

Using this fabricated incident, they could have even more reason to conduct a large-scale purge of Wu Ji's hidden agents.

Mo Yuming immediately ordered Huo Chengde to draft a proclamation to publicize Sima Wu's collusion with Eunuch Pao in attacking the Imperial Palace Inspector in Shangyuan City and assisting the criminals in escaping. The proclamation was to be posted in Shangyuan City, Luoxia City, Jian'an City, Wangxiang Town, and Wushuang Hotel.

After everything was arranged, Mo Yuming led fifty Falcon Guards, led by Sun Min, disguised as aristocratic family guards, and set off from Shangyuan City early in the morning, driving three carriages towards Jian'an City.

One of the vehicles carried a dozen or so young Eagle Guards in disguise. These were outstanding Xuanxiu talents selected by Sun Min from various places, the oldest being no more than fifteen years old and the youngest between seven and eight, serving as the reserve force for the Falcon Guard.

Mo Yuming and his group made a grand entrance on the official road, all to mislead the hidden assassins and make them believe that the people in the carriage were remnants of a criminal clan, thus creating an opportunity for them to jump out and walk into their trap.

The finest Crimson Cloud Horses were incredibly fast, and they arrived in Luoxia City before noon. The large group then checked into the upscale Fushan Restaurant in Luoxia City. The passengers dined in private rooms on the second floor, while the horses were led by waiters to the restaurant's stables to be fed.

After noon, the large group left Luoxia City. After leaving the city gate, they split into three groups: one group drove a carriage directly towards Jian'an City, another group headed towards Wangxiang Town, and the third group drove a carriage towards Luoxia Ranch on the outskirts of Luoxia City.

After traveling for more than an hour on the official road, the carriage heading towards Jian'an City saw a giant tree lying in the middle of the road blocking its way as it rounded a bend in the road.

The location is quite prominent, as it was the place where Mo Yuming ambushed Wu Ji's supply convoy last time. On one side is a riverbed with jagged rocks, and on the other side is a high hillside. Halfway up the hillside is a hidden valley.

Sun Min, who was driving the carriage, immediately realized that he had been ambushed, because he had been involved in that battle.

Knowing that the only place the enemy could hide was in the valley halfway up the mountain, he immediately ordered his men to retreat and stop in an open area, ready to fight at any time.

As expected, the masked men who were lying in ambush halfway up the mountain saw that the convoy had not fallen for the trap and had instead moved the trees and retreated. They knew that their ambush had failed, so they all jumped out of the valley and pounced on the retreating convoy.

The convoy heading to Jian'an City was the largest of the separate convoys, consisting of eight Young Eagle Guards and twenty Falcon Team members dressed in black outfits.

The current Falcon team members all have at least the fifth level of Earth Rank cultivation, and they are equipped with the best gear among soldiers.

These are all Xuan Tie swords, refined with thunderstone and cold iron essence. They have the added damage of lightning strikes and frostbite to the enemy during war, and are considered to be of high quality among Xuan Tie treasures.

In addition to the Xuan Tie sword, it was also equipped with a miniature powerful bow and crossbow, and twenty Xuan Tie arrows mixed with poison dragon stone and flaming iron.

These tailless arrows are only six inches long, with tips made of black iron and infused with poison dragon stone and flaming iron, so that when an enemy is hit by the arrow, he will suffer both burning and poisoning damage.

While the poison from the Dragon Stone isn't particularly deadly, it causes excruciating pain and renders the victim unable to fight. Similarly, the Flame Stone inflicts burns, causing similarly unbearable suffering.

Although it was a light and simple outfit, underneath the battle suit was an inner armor made of thin sheets of black iron and precious fire-earth pig hide. Its defensive capabilities were in no way inferior to heavy armor.

Because the space was narrow and not suitable for mounted combat, the Falcon Guards, under Sun Min's command, all dismounted, dispersed the horses, and blocked the front of the carriage.

The twenty men, each holding a powerful crossbow in their left hand and a black iron sword in their right, formed a defensive formation to guard against the enemy's attack.

Nearly fifty masked men came down the hillside and stood at the other end of the road, slowly approaching the Falcon Guards. Nearly half of them were armed with bows and arrows.

Although bows and arrows can shoot far, they are not as flexible and accurate as crossbows. Because the arrows are relatively long, they can be easily blocked by the opponent with weapons. Moreover, they require both hands to use, so the archer cannot defend himself while shooting.

Those who use crossbows can use one hand to shoot, while using the other hand to hold a knife for attack and defense.

Therefore, bows and arrows are only suitable for long-range shooting and not for close-range combat.

Now that the Falcon Team has not entered the ambush zone, the masked men have lost their advantage in long-range shooting. With the two teams facing off, the masked men have entered the firing range of the miniature crossbows.

We no longer have the advantage in numbers.

The fact that the masked men abandoned the advantage of a sneak attack and opted for a head-on confrontation shows that they were determined to win and had left themselves no way out.