I traveled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and was actually outmaneuvered by Yue Fei.

Chapter 077: Standoff

The fire alarm bells on the outer watchtowers continued to ring, followed by two short blasts after a series of rapid sirens.

"Your Highness, fire alarm—"

"I heard that." Zhao Bozong pondered. "Minister Tui, shouldn't you send someone to check the watchtower first?"

The magistrate was taken aback. He felt that the prince's attitude was a bit strange, but since he was not of high enough rank, he dared not refute him. He could only call two jailers to run towards the watchtower.

Just as the two prison guards left the prison area, a commotion suddenly broke out outside the main gate of the Dali Temple.

Someone shouted sternly, "The Imperial City Guard is on duty, all idlers must step aside!" This was followed by the sounds of clerks from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs trying to stop them and the clanging of inspectors pushing aside the wall of people.

Wanqixie has arrived.

Before the footsteps approached, Qin Keqing made one last move. She winked at Zhao Bocong behind his back, then stuffed the bronze box from the Imperial Clan Court into Xiao Bieli's arms.

"At the bottom of the bronze box, there is a transfer document from the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs. The receiving unit is the old camp in the southern suburbs. Your name is written on it." Her voice was so soft that only the two of them could hear it. "Take this. From now on, you are a registered document escort for the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs."

Xiao Bieli accepted the bronze box.

He didn't ask her when the document was issued or whether it had been filed with the Ministry of Personnel. He chose to trust Qin Keqing, just as he chose to trust everyone who guided him on his journey into exile, without asking any questions.

The footsteps at the end of the corridor grew closer.

When Wan Qixie entered the prison area, he was followed by twelve guards, all dressed in black boots and with iron rulers.

He first glanced at Zhao Bocong, then at Qin Keqing, and finally at the bronze box from the Imperial Clan Court in Xiao Bieli's hand.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the faded red string on Xiao Bieli's wrist.

"Prince Puan, the Inspector of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs." Wan Qixie bowed respectfully. "The fire alarm is because someone is illegally modifying the copper bell equipment on the outer watchtower of the Court of Judicial Review."

"By order of Prime Minister Qin, I hereby immediately close all entrances and exits of the Dali Temple, suspend the review of all detainees, and request that the Prince and Registrar Qin move to the main hall to cooperate with the investigation."

Zhao Bocong did not move. He looked at Wan Qixie in front of him, thinking about the past year's dealings with Qin Hui's forces.

In Lin'an City, Qin Hui now holds absolute power, to the point that anyone working for him can act with impunity.

Although he has now been granted the title of Prince of Puan, as the adopted son of a steward, he does not yet hold a significant position in the eyes of Qin Hui and his henchmen.

"Wanqi, the outer watchtowers today only had clothing carts from Cining Palace going in and out. If you have evidence that the fire alarm was a false alarm, please show the search warrant from the Imperial City Guard. If not, according to the old system of Emperor Taizu, the registration of imperial clan members before the end of the year cannot be suspended."

Zhao Bozong spoke in a cold tone, unlike that of a young man. Members of the imperial family had no real power and no authority over these people, but this Prince of Puan had been frequently appearing in their ears over the past year.

"The search warrant is on its way; Your Highness will see it shortly."

As soon as he said that, everyone understood.

Wan Qixie was stalling; he was waiting for Qin Hui to send over the search warrant, but why was Qin Hui delaying?

If this search warrant is actually signed, it will not only be for the fire investigation of the outer watchtower of Dali Temple, but also something even more deadly.

Qin Hui intended to use the name of the Imperial City Guard in this search warrant to investigate the "Jin Dynasty spy case" and the "fire alarm bell alteration case" simultaneously, thus trapping the Zongzheng Temple's inspector within the Dali Temple prison area and completely severing Zhao Bocong's connection with the old camp in the southern suburbs.

Xiao Bieli slightly turned to the side amidst the encirclement of the twelve inspectors, holding the bronze box even tighter.

Xiao Jinluo watched all this from behind the iron fence. Although she was only eleven years old, she could understand what it meant when her brother's back was slightly hunched.

He held the bronze box to his chest, turning his back to the scouts. This was not to show weakness, but to find an angle so that if a fight broke out, he could immediately turn and kick the two scouts closest to the iron gate, creating an opening for His Highness. They had surrounded him and his sister in the same way before in the Jin camp.

She reached her hand through the iron fence, touched the hem of her brother's shirt at the lower back, and whispered, "Brother, don't move, there are too many of them."

Xiao Bieli did not turn around, and the arch in his back relaxed slightly.

Wan Qixie surveyed the prison area. In the lowest-class cells, there were only two living people: an eleven-year-old girl and a man who had been tortured half to death.

Then he looked around at the people Zhao Bozong had brought: a lame old general, a female official, a water clock scholar, and a prince.

These people have no troop deployment tokens or orders from the Privy Council, so what gives them the right to confront the three hundred scouts of the Imperial City Guard?

The answer is: they don't need to confront each other head-on.

They just need to wait.

Wait until the copper bell rings again.

Yuwen Xu finished tuning the copper bells on the outer watchtower of Dali Temple in the cotton quilt cart, and was now squatting under the north window on the second floor of the watchtower.

He inserted the concealed bell tongue into the groove of the bell holder, tightened the last reed screw, and then looked up towards the prison area.

He waited a moment until Wanqixie's men focused all their attention on the corridor of the Dali Temple prison area.

Then he shook the bell tongue.

The copper bell rang, with a rhythm completely different from the secret code hidden in the noon hour chime.

The trembling sound of the copper bells carried far under the clear winter sky, spreading layer by layer from the outer watchtowers of Dali Temple towards Deshou Palace. Each time a watchtower was passed, the copper bells on that watchtower would ring in sync, like the chain reaction of dominoes falling.

This is an extremely simple signal—an incident has occurred, proceed according to the pre-arranged plan.

When the bronze bell on the west wall of Deshou Palace rang, Feng Yi was paying his respects to Consort Zhang.

He listened to the subtle changes in the rhythm of the copper bells outside the window, and calmly finished refilling Consort Zhang's teacup before leaving the palace.

As soon as he stepped out of the palace gate, he quickened his pace, passed through the East Gate of Deshou Palace, and headed straight for Cining Palace along the internal shortcut he had memorized over half his life.

In a side chamber of Cining Palace, Zhang Quwei knelt before Consort Wei before the lingering sound of the copper bell had faded.

"Your Majesty, the bronze bell on the outer watchtower of the Dali Temple has rung for the second time. His Highness is in the prison area, and Wanqixie has surrounded the entire Dali Temple."

Consort Wei sat before the shrine, holding a string of plain wooden prayer beads in her hand. An ebony box rested on her lap, its lid slightly ajar.

"Have the search warrants for Qin Hui arrived?"

"Still on the way, Wan Qixie is dragging his feet."

"Send Shao Chengzhang to the Ministry of Personnel," Consort Wei said authoritatively. "Tell Qin Hui that I have heard that the Court of Judicial Review falsely reported a fire and attacked the Imperial Clan Verification Commissioner. If he does not come forward to explain within half an hour, I will go to the Court of Judicial Review to question him personally."

Zhang Quwei raised his head, his voice slightly tense. "Empress Dowager—if you go to the Dali Temple in person, Qin Hui will surely use this opportunity to impeach you for interfering in politics."

"I was imprisoned by the Jurchens in the north for sixteen years." Consort Wei slowly wrapped the prayer beads back around her wrist and closed the lid of the ebony box. "Now that I'm back in my capital, I don't need his permission to go anywhere."

In the old camp in the southern suburbs, Xin Qizong stood up the moment the second copper bell rang.

He waited on the training ground for nearly two hours. During this time, he checked the configuration of each squad twice, fed all the horses with plenty of feed, sharpened the blades overnight, and re-stringed all the crossbows.

Before the echo of the copper bell had even faded, the three squad leaders had already stepped into the barracks gate at the same time.

"Did you hear everything?" Xin Qizong asked as he fastened his helmet.