The dark clouds hung low in the sky.
Coming out of the medical academy, a cold wind blew outside. It looked like a heavy rain was about to pour down.
Xiao Ming looked at the rapidly changing Qingzhou Province with a smile. Hard work paid off. Although almost eight years had passed in a hurry, the Great Yu Empire was now undergoing incredible changes in his hands.
Industry, medicine, chemistry, architecture—knowledge from the technology crystal was transforming the Great Yu Empire from a feudal dynasty into a modern nation.
However, for Xiao Ming, this was not enough, because for him, the Great Yu Empire still lacked its final unification.
Lin’an.
Li San was eating in a restaurant. Due to the influence of Qingzhou Province, stir-fried dishes had now spread throughout the Great Yu Empire. Many merchants in Lin’an purchased iron woks and cooking oil from Qingzhou Province, so restaurants now also offered stir-fried dishes.
“The appearance is there, but unfortunately, the taste is still lacking,” Li San was somewhat dissatisfied with the restaurant’s stir-fried dishes. For him, the taste was too far from Qingzhou Province.
A young man sitting opposite him said nothing. Instead, he silently looked at the grand procession outside the restaurant. This was the Prince of Chu’s hunting party. Li Chuyuan’s return seemed to not have disrupted the annual hunting day.
“Time to go!” Taking a bite of food, the young man said coldly, completely disregarding Li San as his superior.
Li San was used to the young man’s attitude. This young man was named Wang Hu. He came from a family of hunters and seemed to have a natural talent for firearms.
In a very short time after encountering firearms, he became the top assassin of the secret guards.
“Sigh, let’s go. It’s time to end this Prince of Chu’s life anyway. Even if we don’t kill him, the Cao family will kill him sooner or later,” Li San’s eyes gleamed with wisdom.
These past few days, he had had much contact with the secret guard members ambushed in the city. He had basically grasped the current situation in the State of Chu. It could be said that the changes happening here exceeded their predictions.
After days of analysis and reconnaissance, he basically held no hope for a peaceful recovery of the State of Chu, because even if the Prince of Chu died, they would still face the merchants’ council.
Because according to what they knew, besides inciting the Prince of Chu to open up private militias, the merchants’ council had also bribed some generals under the Prince of Chu. These generals all led new armies. From this, the merchants’ council’s sinister intentions were clearly evident.
From the very beginning of forming the merchants’ council, Cao Kun had decided to sideline the Prince of Chu and establish a country similar to Western systems.
Having paid the silver, Li San and Wang Hu left the restaurant. On the way to the Prince of Chu’s royal hunting grounds, they had already made preparations. Now, they only needed to rush there.
Looking at the procession stretching for several li, and then at the hundred or so hunting dogs in the procession, Li San frowned. He had to admit that this Prince of Chu indeed put on a grand display, even grander than the Emperor’s.
No wonder everyone said the State of Chu was the wealthiest under heaven.
Following the hunting party out of Lin’an City, Li San and Wang Hu quickly galloped towards the ambush point. Whether they could assassinate the Prince of Chu depended on this single attempt.
Half an hour later, the two arrived at a hillside. Then they led their horses into a forest and tethered them. They did this to prevent the horses from being discovered.
Then the two crossed the hill and ran towards another hill three li away. For caution, the previous location was not the ambush spot; that was the real ambush spot.
Upon reaching the designated position, a row of secret guard members, camouflaged with wild grass, suddenly stood up. They immediately helped Li San and Wang Hu disguise themselves.
The withered yellow grass quickly made the two blend with their surroundings. This time, for safety, Li San also put in a lot of effort, even using the camouflage techniques the Emperor had taught him.
In addition, they also carried smokeless gunpowder this time, precisely to avoid exposing themselves as much as possible.
Having completed their disguise, Wang Hu and Li San lay down. At this point, Wang Hu picked up the first breech-loading rifle manufactured by Song Changping.
Taking out a paper cartridge and placing it beside him, Wang Hu calibrated the aiming scope, then licked his finger to test the wind direction and strength.
This sniping knowledge came from the information provided by the imperial palace.
Besides Wang Hu, the other twenty ambushing secret guard members carried Conqueror Muskets. To ensure a successful assassination, they would launch a second wave of firing if Wang Hu failed.
Of course, for Li San, he hoped there would be no second time.
All preparations complete, Li San then saw through his telescope the Prince of Chu’s entourage walking along the mountain road.
Two quarters of an hour later, the hunting party entered their firing range.
At this moment, Wang Hu’s eyes suddenly became like an eagle’s. His gun muzzle slowly moved, aiming at the Prince of Chu, who was surrounded by everyone in the middle.
For concealment, and for their own safety, their position this time was three hundred meters from the Prince of Chu.
At this time, the Prince of Chu was completely unaware that the gate of death had opened for him. Li Chuyuan’s return had made him somewhat agitated.
For him, any decision by Xiao Ming made him annoyed. Perhaps only hunting could make him forget his current troubles.
Looking at the scenery on both sides, the Prince of Chu let out a soft breath. Suddenly, he saw a flash of light in the distant grass.
This light was similar to the sun shining on glass. In an instant, the Prince of Chu’s body stiffened. Instinct told him he should dodge immediately.
But before he could react, he saw a flash of fire from the grass on the distant hill. Then he felt a sharp pain in his forehead and immediately lost consciousness.
After all this happened, the sound of gunfire only then reached them.
“Assassins! Assassins!”
Blood gushed from the Prince of Chu’s forehead. He slowly fell from his horse. For a time, the entire hunting party fell into chaos.
The guards protecting the Prince of Chu quickly galloped towards the hillside three hundred meters away. At this point, they saw a group of people covered in grass stand up and quickly flee to the other side of the hill.
This assassination plan was meticulously planned. Li San naturally left himself a retreat route. Below the hill, someone had already prepared horses and was waiting for them.
Shedding their disguises along the way, they mounted their horses and fled according to the predetermined route towards Jinling Province.
“Wang Hu, well done! That shot hit the Prince of Chu squarely on the forehead. He can’t possibly still be alive!” Li San said excitedly. This time, he had something to report to the Emperor.
He would no longer lose to Wang Xuan in terms of merit.
Wang Hu remained silent, his face unperturbed, as if the assassination had nothing to do with him. However, the excitement in his eyes still betrayed him.
The Prince of Chu’s guards pursued relentlessly, but by the time they reached the ambush site, there was no trace of the assassins.
They looked at each other, then scattered in disarray.
Now that the Prince of Chu was dead, even a fool knew that the State of Chu was about to change. Whether to follow the merchants’ council or Li Chuyuan, they now had to choose.
As for the Prince of Chu, who would still care about a dead man?
The novel has already been fully translated up to the final chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/caleredhair