Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 651 Veterans will not die
According to the original plan before the emperor left Beijing, this military review of the Song Dynasty was merely a parade to boost the morale of the troops.

But now, because of a great victory that is extremely rare since the founding of the Song Dynasty, this military parade has become of great significance in showing off strength to other countries.

The presentation of prisoners therefore became even more significant than the previous military parade.

When the veterans marched past the Zongyang Palace with their heads held high and Li Xianzhong led his troops to escort the prisoners, the tune of the military music suddenly changed from solemn and dignified to passionate.

Shui Fu, who was standing solemnly at her post, suddenly had a sharp look in her eyes, fixed on Li Xianzhong, who was walking in front of the prisoner surrender team.

The heads of Yelu Yuanyi and other dead senior generals of the Jin Dynasty were embalmed and placed in boxes, held in the arms of Song soldiers.

The captured Jin generals had their hands tied behind their backs and were escorted by soldiers holding knives.

This time, not all of the 20,000-plus Jin soldiers were escorted to Lin'an for the prisoner-surrendering ceremony. Instead, more than a thousand high-ranking officers were selected to attend the ceremony.

Amid the sound of inspiring military music, the old army continued to move forward, the prisoner-surrendering team entered the parade ground, and the front and back teams were about to change positions in front of the main gate of Zongyang Palace.

The emperor stood on the high palace, with a yellow silk umbrella on his head and flags fluttering beside him.

Next, Li Xianzhong would personally lead three higher-ranking Jin generals as representatives of the prisoners to the palace gate and order them to kneel down.

All officials will immediately congratulate the emperor together with all the people watching the ceremony.

Afterwards, the emperor would sit majestically on the throne and announce in public the outcome of their punishment - beheading or pardoning the death penalty.

Two ceremonial officers from the Ministry of Rites have begun to guide the officials to their seats.

When Li Xianzhong ordered all the captives to kneel down and surrender to the Emperor of Song, they would be the first to kneel down and congratulate the emperor on the city wall.

All the soldiers and civilians at the gate tower must also salute.

At that time, the emperor will sit on the throne and accept congratulations from everyone.

The emperor's throne had been taken out from the city gate tower and placed on a platform that had been built long ago.

The emperor has to sit here so that the people under the city gate can see clearly.

"Your Majesty, please take a seat."

Two ceremonial officers arranged the positions of the civil and military officials on the city wall, and then came to invite the emperor to take a seat.

Zhao Yuan nodded and looked towards the city again.

Li Xianzhong was walking in front with his head held high, holding his ceremonial sword.

The reason why the swords of the three commanders are made of wood is because they have to hold the swords all the time during the entire ceremony. If they were real swords, it would be quite tiring.

The generals who can become inspectors are basically quite old and will not be able to handle the physical effort.

Behind Li Xianzhong were three Jin generals with their hands tied behind their backs and their upper bodies naked, two Meng'ans and one Mouke.

Zhao Yuan turned around and walked towards the platform. The platform was covered with red felt and had nine steps.

Two ceremonial officials in charge of ceremonies from the Ministry of Rites led the emperor to sit on the throne. The four eunuchs accompanying him followed in sync, holding whisks in their hands and standing on the left and right of the emperor's throne.

The veterans' phalanx had just left the main gate of Zongyang Palace, and the captive team had just stood facing the gate of Zongyang Palace, when several burly men dressed in civilian clothes suddenly rushed forward from the crowd.

Originally, although the people rushed forward like a tide hitting a dam from time to time, impacting the imperial guards standing in rows in front, this cordon was not broken.

But suddenly a few burly men rushed forward, and the people in front could no longer stand.

They screamed and rushed forward, falling down one after another, breaking through the defense line of the imperial guards.

Dozens of Jin spies protected Zhao Chen and rushed forward.

The fifth pagoda rushed to the front, raised the Jin people's talisman high, and shouted loudly: "The envoys of the Great Jin have been ordered to come to the Song Dynasty to return the Crown Prince Chen of the Great Song Dynasty, in order to ask the two countries to stop fighting and make peace again!"

At this time, Yang Yuan had just walked up to Li Xianzhong and whispered a few words to him.

Suddenly, he saw some people falling to the ground due to the crowd, and in the crowd behind them, Li Fengniang and Zhao Ning'er were still sitting on high poles. Yang Yuan felt something was wrong.

Yang Yuan was afraid that they would fall, so he whispered "Oh no" and rushed over like an arrow.

At this moment, the fifth pagoda's loud shouting voice was reaching his ears.

Almost in an instant, Yang Yuan understood the purpose of Shui Fu's appearance here.

Although Shui Fu was released at the beginning because of insufficient evidence and her patrons were either rich or noble, Yang Yuan never gave up his suspicion of her.

That was why spies were placed in Cuiyu Tower before she was released from prison.

At that time, Shui Fu was imprisoned because she was involved in the Jin people's "fake Jiaozi case", so Yang Yuan naturally suspected that she was a spy for the Jin Kingdom.

He had just whispered a few words to Li Xianzhong, telling him that there was something wrong with the guard Shui Fu.

After Li Xianzhong had surrendered the captives, the emperor pardoned the captives' death sentence and put them into the prisoner team. Yang Yuan would join Li Xianzhong in the team.

At that time, the two of them would suddenly attack and subdue Shui Fu together, and then bring her into the prisoner team.

There were Song soldiers guarding the prisoner team, so Shui Fu was able to capture them smoothly with minimal noise.

Now hearing the Fifth Buddha shouting that he was an envoy of the Jin Kingdom, and that he came to return the Crown Prince of the Song Dynasty, how could Yang Yuan not understand the viciousness of this plan?
At this time, Yang Yuan did not think that the Jin people had a backup plan to assassinate the emperor. How could he think of so many things at this time?

But when Yang Yuan heard the words "Prince Qinzong", he immediately had his first reaction:

We must not allow them to step forward and publicize this matter in a high-profile manner, and we must not let all officials and the people know about this.

The passionate military music had not stopped at this time, and the people who fell down because they could not stand were screaming and shouting, so not many people heard the Fifth Pagoda's shout.

Yang Yuan was always quick-witted. His mind raced and he had figured out the pros and cons. He immediately shouted, "If the captives provoke me, I will kill them at my command!"

Before he could finish his words, he had already unsheathed his beautiful wooden ceremonial sword and chopped it towards the face of a Jin man who was rushing forward with Zhao Chen held hostage.

The golden man had no idea that the shining knife in his hand was actually a fake.

Besides, even if the knife is fake, the wooden sword will tear the skin and flesh if it hits the head, so you should draw the sword immediately to meet the attack.

Yang Yuan hurriedly drew his sword to avoid the Jin army's sword. He turned the wooden sword again and shouted again: "If the prisoners provoke trouble, they will be beheaded!" The officers and soldiers who were escorting the prisoners were still standing there in surprise.

Of course they understood what the inspector said, but they didn't understand why the prisoners were "provoking trouble."

The emperor is on the city wall. Is this an unreasonable order from the inspector? Should we obey him?
They were still hesitating, but the few people at the end of the veteran team in front heard Yang Yuan's words clearly.

Although they didn't understand why Yang Yuan gave this order, they had no doubt about Yang Yuan.

Because, among those standing at the end of the line of veterans were Old Man Song, Uncle Ji, and Uncle Gou.

When his son-in-law shouted for the first time, Old Man Song was still hesitating whether he had heard it wrong.

Then, when Yang Yuan shouted the second time, he let out a loud roar and rushed over like a tiger out of its cage.

The person Yang Yuan was fighting against was a man dressed as an ordinary citizen.

Why would a commoner break into the prisoner-surrendering team and fight with Yang Yuan, the inspector general?

Ben Lier thought about it and Old Man Song also knew that there must be something fishy going on.

So, if the son-in-law asks him to kill someone, then he does it.

Any doubts in your mind?

After the killing, let the son-in-law release him.

The lame man ran as fast as the wind, rushed forward, and chopped down with his knife without hesitation.

Immediately afterwards, Uncle Ji and Uncle Gou rushed over.

As soon as the three of them started to fight, the old soldiers followed them quickly.

Most of them didn't know what was going on.

But... they believe in Old Man Song, Uncle Ji and Uncle Gou, who are also veterans.

This absolute trust between comrades-in-arms stems from the fact that they have developed the courage to entrust their lives to their comrades-in-arms during battle, and they are able to deal with the enemy in front of them without distraction.

The new recruits who escorted the prisoners had never experienced this kind of life-and-death ordeal, and their tacit understanding and trust were far inferior to those of the veterans.

They were still in shock when the veterans rushed over and started hacking people.

Fortunately, although these young imperial guards were slow to react, they would never draw their swords to attack their veteran seniors.

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

As long as it hasn't withered yet, it can still fight!
Old Man Song swung his sword erratically, and Yang Yuan's enemy was dazzled by the silver-gilt sword in Yang Yuan's hand, and was chopped on the shoulder by Old Man Song.

With a dull "puff" sound, the knife that Old Man Song had chopped off on the golden man's shoulder immediately cut across.

At the same time, Father Song shouted, "Yuan'er, he is the Jin man 'Xuefutu'!"

Old Man Song chopped down with his sword, but was blocked by the soft armor and immediately knew the opponent's identity.

It was not like Old Man Song had never fought with Xuefutu before. Without any hesitation, he slashed across the neck of that "Xuefutu" with his knife, and at the same time shouted out his identity.

With a slash of the knife, blood spurted out.

The "Blood Pagoda" knife had not yet fallen to the ground when it was picked up by Yang Yuan's toes and fell into his hands.

Yang Yuan, Old Man Song, Uncle Ji, and Uncle Gou moved forward simultaneously and killed the other three Blood Pagodas and the Fifth Pagoda who were holding Zhao Chen hostage.

Zhao Chen stood in the midst of swords and sabers, his face pale and his whole body trembling.

In the midst of the fierce battle, Yang Yuan shouted in a low voice: "Father-in-law, control this man, but do not hurt his life!"

Old Man Song, Uncle Ji, and Uncle Gou didn't even ask why. They immediately stepped forward and sandwiched Zhao Chen in the middle.

The Fifth Buddha's eyes turned red, and he shouted sternly: "Bring him back!"

The Jin spies rushed over like crazy, but at this time more veterans had already rushed to the side of Old Man Song and his men and fought alongside them.

When these old soldiers drew their swords and hacked at people, and the Jin captives began to shout and resist violently, the escorting imperial guards and soldiers had to kill them even if they didn't want to.

Once they took action, more old soldiers would be freed up to support Old Man Song and his men.

"Oh no!" Yang Yuan took a break from his busy schedule and looked at the crowd again.

When something unexpected happened here, the people were thrown into chaos.

As much as they wanted to squeeze forward before, they now want to escape.

The two actors who were performing the balancing act in the tile house were suddenly pushed around by them and could hardly stand.

Fortunately, the two actors had received a lot of money from Li Fengniang and knew that they were girls from very wealthy families. They were afraid that if they fell and hurt others, they would suffer the wrath, so they tried their best to maintain the relationship.

Li Fengniang's personal soldiers and the guards around Zhao Ning'er were also desperately pushing away the frightened crowd rushing over in chaos, so they were not thrown down for a while.

But the two girls were already screaming with fear.

When Yang Yuan saw that the man suspected to be "Crown Prince Chen of Emperor Qinzong" had been controlled by his father-in-law, and that more and more veterans were coming to support him, he abandoned the enemy in front of him and rushed towards the two women.

Yang Yuan used the "Swallow's Three Water Jumps" move to break away from the two fighting parties, flew into the air, stepped on the shoulders and heads of the chaotic runners, and rushed towards Zhao Ning'er and Li Fengniang who were about to fall.

When the fifth pagoda shouted loudly, Shui Fu moved.

Shui Fu, who had been standing there solemnly, suddenly drew her sword and rushed to the back of Li Xianzhong with the extremely fast movement of "Eight Steps to Chase the Cicada".

Before the man moved, the knife was already raised, gleaming with a cold light.

On the tower of Zongyang Palace, the official Zhao Yuan, who had just taken his seat, looked up and saw a ceremonial officer in front of him raising his hands as if he was about to take off his hat.

What is this going to do?
Zhao Yuan was surprised, but before he could figure it out, he saw the ceremonial officer grab the wings of the black gauze hat with both hands, pulled out two iron wings in his hands, and stabbed them towards his chest!

(End of this chapter)