Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 536 Seizing the Door
Fan Sanbo never expected that such a thing would happen. Zhu Qiuqi killed the maid as easily as killing a chicken. In the blink of an eye, a life was gone.

Although the life of a maid was not worth anything, this action frightened Fan Sanbo greatly. He had never seen such a scene in his life. The slight drunkenness he had just felt disappeared instantly, and he couldn't help shaking all over.

"See?" Zhu Qiuqi showed no fear after killing someone. He smiled at Fan Sanbo with a relaxed look and said, "Killing is so simple. If you want to live, just listen to me. Otherwise, not only will your life be in danger, but even your children will be in danger!"

"Villain...I...you...who are you?" Fan Sanbo was not stupid. Of course he knew by now that these two were not the new provincial judges, let alone the imperial guards sent by the emperor.

In his opinion, Zhu Qiuqi and Liu Bo were clearly daring bandits who had great ambitions by using this method to sneak into the Fan family compound.

"You don't know who told us this, but don't worry, as long as you obey, we will spare your life. This time we came to your Fan family just to seek wealth, and we have no intention of killing anyone, do you understand?"

"Understood, understood. I understand. Just tell me how much gold and silver you want. As long as I can afford it, I will definitely give it to you with both hands." Fan Sanbo nodded his head like a chicken pecking at rice. What does a few properties mean to save his life? Besides, how many people did they come with? Even if such a small number of people moved silver, they couldn't move much. As long as they were safe and sound, everything could be discussed. We could think of a way to deal with the rest later. If you dare to come to the Fan family to do such a thing, the Fan family would not be a pushover. As long as they were out of danger, Fan Sanbo would definitely get it back.

Without much ado, the two men escorted Fan Sanbo out, talking and laughing all the way, as if they were drunk. Liu Bo supported Fan Sanbo, and Zhu Qiuqi on the side also seemed to be drunk and spoke with a slightly slurred voice.

On the way out, although they met the servants of the Fan family, Fan Sanbo was held hostage and did not dare to say much. He scolded the servants and said that he would personally send the distinguished guest back to the courtyard. Seeing Fan Sanbo's instructions, the servants naturally obeyed and went to the courtyard where Zhu Qiuqi was settled before. However, after arriving at the place, they did not enter the courtyard but continued to walk forward. After a while, they arrived at the inner and outer courtyards. Liu Bo whispered in Fan Sanbo's ear and asked him to open the gate leading to the front yard from the backyard. Fan Sanbo did not dare to disobey and took them to open the door. As soon as the door was opened, Li Hu, who had been waiting nearby, rushed over. When he saw Fan Sanbo being held hostage by Liu Bo and Zhu Qiuqi, he immediately grinned.

Then Ye Se winked at Li Hu, who nodded in understanding to indicate that everything was going well. Then, the group continued to escort Fan Sanbo out. The further they walked, the more nervous Fan Sanbo became. He had no idea what the other party wanted to do. If they were just asking for money, shouldn't they force him to tell them where the gold and silver were? Why were they heading towards the main gate of the compound now?
With his mind in a mess, Fan Sanbo was involuntarily led by them towards the gate, and they arrived at the destination soon.

On the outer side near the gate, there are guards from the Fan family. There are quite a few of them, more than a hundred of them in the entire Fan family compound. They are all strong and skilled in martial arts. They were recruited by the Fan family from all over the place over the years. There are more than 30 people on duty at the gate alone. The leader is the head of the guards, who is also an old man from the Fan family.

"Who is it?" Hearing the noise, the security guard who was guarding the gate immediately became alert, raised the lantern in his hand and looked forward, while shouting.

"Speak! Just say that the Censor needs to go out of the compound to do some business!" Liu Bo said softly, with the dagger against Fan Sanbo's waist.

Fan Sanbo's expression tensed up, and he quickly said, "Yes...it's me!"

"Oh, it's Master San!" Hearing Fan Sanbo's voice, the guard's tone was much more relaxed, and he immediately asked, "It's dark, Master San, why are you here at this time?"

"I... I..." Fan Sanbo's eyes rolled around. He didn't dare to act rashly in front of the servants just now, but now his guards were not far away, and their number was much more than Zhu Qiuqi's. Although Fan Sanbo was afraid, he still wanted to find a way to get away. He was thinking about how to reply without letting Liu Bo and others notice and at the same time alerting the guards. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his waist and almost cried out. Liu Bo beside him was staring at him with a grin, reminding him with his eyes that if he didn't answer according to the reminder just now, he would not be polite.

Helplessly, Fan Sandbo could only follow Liu Bo's instructions and answer that the Censor wanted to leave the compound, and asked the guard to open the gate so that he could see him out.

The guard was surprised. It was already dark, why didn't the provincial governor stay overnight? Why was he out so late? Just as he was about to ask, Liu Bo took over and explained that he had just received news that the Taiyuan government had something urgent to do and that he couldn't stay overnight and had to travel overnight.

This statement has a lot of loopholes. You know, they are all in the Fan family compound. How can there be any news from outside? However, the guard did not think much about it. Besides, the other party was accompanied by Fan Sanbo himself. He immediately responded and called a few brothers to prepare to open the gate. Seeing those guards went to the gate, removed the huge bolts one by one, and prepared to open the door. When the gate was about to open, Zhu Qiuqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the gate was opened and the brothers outside were brought in, everything would be fine, and there would be no worries about the overall situation.

Just when everyone was slightly relaxed, Fan Sanbo suddenly twisted his body and broke free from Liu Bo's hands. As soon as he broke free, Fan Sanbo ran towards the guards, shouting at the top of his voice: "Close the door! Close the door quickly! These are not officials appointed by the court, but bandits! Help! Help me!"

"Cao!" Liu Bo was stunned. When he came to his senses, Fan Sanbo had already run three steps away. He didn't know where this kid got so agile. He could run far away like a rabbit.

Unable to help but curse, Liu Bo chased after him with the dagger in hand. However, the two sides were not far apart, and there was only about ten meters between them and the Fan family's guards. Fan Sanbo ran so fast that it was too late to chase him considering the distance. Liu Bo gritted his teeth and simply stopped. He stared at the running Fan Sanbo and threw the dagger forward with force. The dagger cut through the night sky and went towards Fan Sanbo's back. With a "puff", it pierced directly into Fan Sanbo's back, but did not pierce his heart.

Just as Fan Sando's sharp shout was heard, the guy fell to the ground with a thud, but he was not dead. He was still struggling to crawl towards the guards.

"Oh no!" Fan Sando suddenly ran away, and Zhu Qiuqi was also shocked. When Liu Bo threw the dagger, Zhu Qiuqi no longer hesitated. He immediately ordered to fight directly. Li Hu and others who had been prepared long ago took out the prepared weapons without saying a word, assemble them in a blink of an eye, set up the Mandarin Duck Formation, and killed directly towards the door that had not been fully opened.

The guards reacted quickly too. Although the change happened suddenly, it only took a few breaths for Fan Sanbo to shout for help and fall to the ground. When he came to his senses, he saw a dozen people from the other side rushing towards him with strange things in their hands. The leader of the guards reacted immediately and asked the men who had just opened the door to close it immediately, and he led the remaining twenty or so people to meet them directly.

As soon as Li Hu and others came up, Zhu Qiuqi took out a cardboard tube and a tinder from his arms. He shook the tinder and then lit a fire rope under the paper tube. The fire rope lit up and burned with a sizzling sound. Then he placed the paper tube facing the sky. When the fire rope burned to the end, the paper tube made a bang and a ball of fire came out from the top of the paper tube, shooting straight into the sky and then exploded in the sky. Dazzling fireworks fell from the sky and illuminated all directions at the same time.

After doing all this, Zhu Qiuqi threw away the paper tube that had been fired, and called Liu Bo, and the two of them took out two muskets from their arms. These two muskets were clearly the plum blossom lances that Zhu Shenzhu had made in Zhaowuling. However, they were slightly different from the plum blossom lances equipped by the new army. These were short guns. Although the range was short, the principle was the same, and both guns were already loaded with bullets, so they could be fired directly after aiming.

The noise at the gate soon caught the attention of the Fan family, especially the fireworks launched by Zhu Qiuqi. For a moment, the whole Fan family compound was in turmoil. In addition, Li Hu and his brothers had already engaged in a fight with the Fan family's guards. From time to time, the wounded screamed during the exchange of weapons, which made the Fan family members who heard the news rush over from all directions.

Li Hu and his men were the elite of the new army. They formed a complete mandarin duck formation. Although they were unable to carry big killer weapons like the Portuguese arquebus and the tiger squat cannon because they had to enter the Fan family, they could not be resisted by ordinary guards with just cold weapons and the use of new muskets.

At first, the head of the Fan family's guards thought that the other side only had a dozen people, while he had more than 30 people, twice as many as the other side, so he had the advantage and it was easy to deal with. But he didn't expect that the other side's fighting power was very strong in the first fight. Not only were they extremely elite, but the weapons they held were also very strange, which restrained him faintly.

Even though the people on his side were all experts in martial arts who had practiced for many years, they could easily defeat a few ordinary people in a one-on-one fight, and they were not afraid even if they encountered elite border troops. However, after a short fight, they were beaten back step by step, and several brothers were killed or injured.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the head of the guards fought and retreated, and at the same time, he did not forget to take Fan Sanbo, who was lying on the ground and didn't know whether to live or die. He was ready to wait for the arrival of reinforcements before counterattacking. In his opinion, although the enemy was powerful, this was the Fan family compound, and what kind of waves could the enemy with only a dozen people make? When his people arrived, they rushed forward and piled up the enemy to death.

But he didn't expect Li Hu's group to be so fierce, and he didn't expect them to have firearms in their hands. As soon as he retreated slightly, Li Hu rushed forward, led his men in a few moves, and arrived directly in front of the gate.

The guards who were closing the door were so frightened when they saw this that they didn't care about whether the door was open or not. They turned around and ran away without saying a word. In this way, the door was taken away by Li Hu. Li Hu and his men leaned against the door and defended it with all their strength. Zhu Qiuqi and Liu Bo went straight to the door, and they worked together to open the bolt that had just been closed, and then pushed the door hard. With a creaking sound, the heavy door finally opened slowly.

(End of this chapter)