The Crown Prince Chases His Wife
Chapter 38 Missing (1/2)
In the middle of the night on the fourth day of the autumn hunting.
The Emperor of Hui personally went out of the imperial camp and was escorted and led by Xie Changyuan, the Commander of the Northern Yamen Imperial Army, to whistle deer in the paddock forest area.
The so-called whistle deer was a hunting method that used an artificial imitation of the sound of a deer to attract other deer and then shot them.
The Emperor of Hui liked to whistle deer very much, so this event was indispensable every autumn.
Today was after White Dew* and before the autumn equinox.
(White Dew* – the third solar term in autumn)
At this time, it was the mating season of male and female deer, and it was the nature of deer to like to call. If the deer whistle was blown, the real deer would come quickly after hearing the call, and it never failed.
But after dawn, the deer were too lazy to call. If the deer whistle was blown at this time, it would not be able to attract the real deer. Therefore, they must enter the forest before dawn to whistle deer.
At dawn, Xie Changyuan dispatched several soldiers in advance, wearing deer heads and deer clothes, to imitate the deer’s movements in the forest and walk slowly.
After discovering the deer herd, the soldiers blew the deer whistle, making the deer calls, and the rest waited with bated breath.
Soon after, the real deer answered the call and gathered here.
When the deer herd approached, the Imperial Army blew their horns, and the Emperor of Hui, who was hiding in the dark, was at the pre-ambush site, leading the accompanying soldiers to draw the bow and shoot the deer.
After the deer was killed, the blood would be drawn and drunk, which was said to prolong life.
No matter how big or small the deer herd was, few of them eventually escape, and their condition should be appalling…
——
Because of the encirclement yesterday, most of the wild animals in the paddock were driven out of the cave and shot to death.
Today, there were only a very small number of wild animals left in the forest, as well as some less dangerous animals like deer, roebuck, wild boar, hares, wild pheasants, and so on.
Therefore, today, except for the Emperor of Hui and his entourage’s whistle deer, everyone else who went to the western suburbs paddock went to the forest area to hunt alone or in teams.
Compared with yesterday’s huge encirclement hunt, this was wilder and more interesting.
Since the early hours of the morning, in the western suburbs camp, young masters and young ladies form teams and took their servants out of the camp to the forest on horseback.
Qin Ming, the son of the Right Prime Minister Mansion, urged Qin Nian to dress up early in the morning. Qin Ming vowed to hunt presentable prey today. He couldn’t fall behind anymore, and he was eager to show off his skills.
After Qin Nian left the tent, she was surprised to see that in addition to Qin Ming, other young masters and young ladies were waiting outside the tent.
The fathers and brothers of these young masters and young ladies were all from the Right Prime Minster Qin Wenzheng’s faction in the court, and everything in the paddock was centered on Qin Nian and Qin Ming. Therefore, even if Qin Ming wanted to go hunting early in the morning, they had to suppress their sleepiness and get up to play with the young master and young lady of the Right Prime Minister Mansion.
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After everyone greeted each other, they surrounded the Qin siblings and set off toward the hunting ground.
The second son of the Left Prime Minister, Wang Jingyu, only slept a little while and left the camp with the young masters who always played with him.
Wang Jingyu was very familiar with the course of hunting in the western suburbs. Yesterday’s encirclement was for His Majesty to watch and play. With so many soldiers guarding, there was no danger or excitement.
But today was different. Because everyone was hunting everywhere, there were still many unknowns in the forest and there had been many incidences in previous years.
Wang Jingyu had no intention of hunting, but he knew that there might be many good shows to watch today.
Wang Jingyu slowly mounted onto the horse’s back, and the group of pampered young masters rode their horses lazily, chatting and laughing, and walked towards the forest slowly.
——
This time, Qin Yan only showed up at the Autumn Hunting Ceremony in the western suburbs on behalf of the Duke of Zhenguo and Princess of Zhaoren Mansions.
When she was in Gu City in the Northwest, she used to be busy all the time, and camping in the wild was not uncommon.
However, since returning to the capital, because the climate of the capital was much more comfortable than that of Gu City, and living in the main mansion of Zhaoren County, which Mister Ji specially remodeled for her own habits, Qin Yan had been lazy and seemed to be no longer used to the accommodation and food in the Western Suburbs Camp.
She didn’t plan to go out hunting today. She only planned to go to the horse field for a few laps later, and then return home after the banquet tonight.
Moreover, her business had been busy recently, and she has been in the camp in the western suburbs for more than two days. It was hard for Mister Ji to take the lead on his own, but Mister Ji had always been dependable, and there should be no mistakes.
After Qin Yan cleaned up, she took the teacup that Shen Ying handed over, took a sip, and put it down. Then she got up slowly, and ready to go to the horse field.
At this moment, the voice of the guard sounded from outside the tent: “Princess, the secret guard is here to report.”
Qin Yan’s eyes narrowed suddenly.
Secret guard?
Shen Ying heard the words and hurried out.
Shen Ying was alert.
Usually, if there was no major event, the secret guard’s information was first reported to Mister Ji, then screened by Mister Ji, and only then reported to the master about important things. There would never be a situation where the secret guard took the initiative to directly report to the master.
What happened today?
After a while, Shen Ying came back.
Shen Ying’s complexion was not very good. She stepped in front of Qin Yan and said: “Master, the secret guard who protected Young Master Jiang is here to report that Young Master Jiang disappeared after entering the forest area this morning.”
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Qin Yan frowned slightly.
Shen Ying told the news of the secret guard one by one: “According to the secret guard, Young Master Jiang has not been in contact with anyone who looks suspicious recently.”
“There is only one, which is slightly different from usual.”
“Qin Ming, the young master of the Right Prime Minister Mansion who repeatedly entangled Jiang Shao and was beaten by Young Master Jiang.”
“This morning, Young Master Jiang rode out of the camp alone and headed straight to the forest area. Because the fog had not cleared away, nothing was visible from five steps away. After the secret guard followed him in, Young Master Jiang was nowhere to be seen.”
“Later, the secret guard was searching in the forest for two hours, and he also ran into the secret guard sent by His Highness Taizi to follow Young Master Jiang.”
“However, they found that there was more than one group of killers in the forest in addition to the people who sent to whistle deer.”
“His Highness Taizi’s secret guard is fighting with them, dragging the time, and letting our secret guard come back to ask for help.”