Chapter 364 – The Golden Woven Armour
But even though Marquis Kang brought a troop, at the end of the day, those soldiers were just skirmishers. Being raised in Jingzhou, they were a.s.signed with gate-keeping tasks. They were not on par with the pa.s.sionate and aggressive soldiers on the battlefield.
This was exactly why Qi Zhen Emperor did not bother about it for so many years.
However, it was still an army, neither old nor shrivelled. It was still reasonable to use it to ambush the village.
But Duke Kang had already left the court, and had argued with Qi Zhen Emperor for so long with no end in sight. Why would he lend his troop to Jing Rong?
A son always bore a father’s debt.
Naturally, Jing Rong would always be seen as a thorn in Duke Kang’s flesh.
Jing Rong frowned as he pressed on his aching chest. “Although Duke Kang is stubborn and his temper is really bad, but he loves treasures a lot. Lang Po, tell him that this Prince will grant him a golden woven armour if he is willing to lend out his troop.”
‘A golden woven armour?!’ Lang Po was astonished.
There were only two golden woven armours on earth. One was buried with the late Emperor’s body in the royal tomb, and another was kept inside the royal ancestral hall.
Even though Marquis Kang was part of the royal family, but no matter what, he was from the extended family. After tens of years, the royal extended family tree branched out to quite a number of generations. Frankly, the relations.h.i.+p between Marquis Kang and the royal family was so distant you could only see it if you squinted.
But Marquis Kang was an exceptionally greedy person. He coveted the armour so much so that he would think about it for days and nights. He frequently groused that since he was royalty, why was the armour being kept inside the ancestral hall instead of being gifted to one who would appreciate it, like himself?
Fortunately, his greed was only towards the precious items on earth, but not the power of the monarchy. Otherwise, Qi Zhen Emperor would already have come out with a way to fix him.
Lang Po tried to reconfirm, “Prince, are you sure about the golden woven armour? It has always been guarded in the royal ancestral hall. Even the Emperor is not allowed to grant the armour to Marquis Kang.”
This was a reminder!
“Do as I say, leave now and come back as soon as possible.”
Lang Po did not argue anymore. He received the order and left immediately.
Jing Rong turned around and ordered s.h.i.+ Zijin, “Head to the gates of Gaoshan Village immediately. You must get in once you seize an opportunity. I need to know Yunshu’s situation, even if you can’t save her right away.”
“Yes!” s.h.i.+ Zijin did not say much more before leaving to complete the task.
Jing Rong’s body could not withstand the pain any longer. He clenched his fist and pressed against his mouth, started coughing softly. He almost coughed up some blood.
“Now that you have a.s.signed all the tasks you wanted them to do, hurry up and take a rest,” Mo Ruo said.
“I am still worried.”
“But you can’t lose your life for this.”
“Mo Ruo,” Jing Rong called him suddenly.
It was as if Mo Ruo knew what Jing Rong was going to say to him. He frowned and said, “I know what you want to say. Don’t worry, I know what to do.”
“Thank you.”
Mo Ruo lowered his voice and reminded again, “Hurry up and take a rest. Don’t waste my medicine. Those are not things you can buy with money.”
Having nothing to retort with, Jing Rong closed his eyes and did not speak a word anymore.
After Mo Ruo left, he went to find the county governor, “Tell me where is the Gaoshan Gang.”
“Huh?”
“Quick!”
Zhang Huanping was stunned for a while. Then, he quickly summoned his people to draw a simple map. Mo Ruo memorised the route on the map, then tore it into pieces and discarded it. He then ordered again, “Get me a set of poor-quality clothes, the shabbier the better.”
“Gentleman Mo, this is for…?”
“Move quickly!”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Zhang Huanping did not dare to delay anymore and promptly ordered some of his people to get the outfit ready.
Eventually, what they got was a set of clothes from a beggar. Not only that, it had an unpleasant odour. The stench permeated the air. Mo Ruo held his nose and picked up the clothes gingerly with his fingertips, full of disdain and disgust.
Zhang Huanping carefully asked, “Young Master Mo, are you satisfied with this outfit?”
‘Of course I am not satisfied! But I have no choice, only this kind of outfit would work for this disguise.’
“Of course I am satisfied!” Mo Ruo reluctantly kept the outfit. The next instance, he thought of something else. “Zhang Huanping, this matter happened within your territory. By law, you should be the one handling it. But now, Prince Rong is personally settling it. Hence, you have to keep this a secret and tell no one. If this spreads to the capital, Prince Rong will not spare you. Do you understand?”
“The humble one understands. There will be no mention of this matter at all.”
“You may leave.”
“Yes, sir.” Zhang Huanping then exited.
Although Mo Ruo was still disgusted by the beggar outfit, but he had no other choice. He could not just sit by and do nothing when both Ji Yunshu and Wei Yi were missing. Since that rascal Jing Rong was currently immobile, this important mission naturally landed on his shoulders.
Eventually, the sky gradually turned bright. At the Gaoshan Village, Zhao Huai was sitting on the chair covered in tiger skin. After much thought and contemplation, he was still undecided. On one hand,revenge for his comrades was at stake. On the other hand, he wanted to know who destroyed his wine and he had always wanted the Jade Extraction Bottle in Zhao Qing’s possession.
Da Chui and his underlings were staring from the side. Then, they moved forward and asked, “First Master, have you not decided yet?”
“…”
“First Master, not that I want to say, but the guy with that scholar appearance, he must have spoken without any intention of upholding their promise. He would not be able to find out the truth. Not to mention, what’s left inside the earthen jar is just a skeleton. How can he be sure about its ident.i.ty?”
“…”
“First Master… Ouch!”
Before Da Chui even finished talking, Zhao Huai raised his leg and mercilessly gave a kick at Da Chui’s torso. “Shut up!”
Da Chui covered his belly and moved away painfully. He did not dare to mutter another word.
At this moment, Zhao Qing came.
Zhao Huai glanced at him coldly, said, “Why? Have you stayed here long enough? Thinking of leaving now?”
“I want to know if you have decided,” said Zhao Qing.
“What?”
“Do you want to kill Teacher Ji, or do you want to find out about the skeleton?”
‘Isn’t he throwing a difficult question to me?’ Zhao Huai thought.
He had been struggling for the whole night and he could not come to a conclusion yet!
Zhao Qing said honestly, “Zhao Huai, if I were you, I would not want to worsen the situation. I would choose to stop what I was doing and let the person find out about the truth of the skeleton. Moreover, I will pa.s.s you my Jade Extraction Bottle. Eventually, the person who will benefit is you.”
Zhao Huai rebuked, “Those who died were my brothers, not yours.”
“But if you keep doing this, there will definitely be more deaths. So what if you win?”
“…”
Zhao Huai stared at Zhao Qing with his burning eyes. He stood up and walked towards him.
He then asked, “Who are those people to you? Why do you want to help them so much?”
“You do not have to know.”
“Unless, they bribed you with money and valuables to save these people?”
Zhao Qing did not look pleased, he said, “Zhao Huai, I am not you. I will not harm lives for money. Besides, it was your people who stirred up this incident. If you did not stall and robbed those people, none of this would have happened.”