Munitions Empire-Chapter 967 - The target that couldn’t be found is 890

Chapter 967: The target that couldn’t be found is 890 Chapter 967: The target that couldn’t be found is 890 On the outskirts, a police car trying to ram through the old vehicles blocking the road was met with sniper fire from the surrounding buildings as it approached the barriers.

The patrol police, attempting to converge on the Prince’s Mansion, dared not make any rash moves now; after all, they were not the military and lacked any real combat strength.

It was unrealistic to expect these officials to attack amidst a hail of bullets, especially since they still had no idea what had actually happened.

Without explicit orders, they would not risk their lives to take any action; it wasn’t their place to get involved when naturally, the city’s guards and the Imperial Army were supposed to step in.

“What’s happened here? Why are there gunshots? What are all of you doing? What’s going on?” After a while, a patrol captain finally arrived, bent over and walked up to a subordinate hiding behind a police car to inquire.

The subordinate, holding his official cap, shook his head and explained, “Don’t know, boss… Two cars are lying across the road ahead, blocking everything. We tried to remove the barrier, then gunshots rang out…”

“Where did the shots come from?” the leader dared not look around and could only continue asking.

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“The sound of the gunshots seemed to come from that tall building in the distance… but no one can be sure,” the subordinate continued, equally unsure.

What a joke, earning so little each month; if it weren’t for the benefits provided by the gangs, his family would starve. In such circumstances, who would risk their life?

Although they suspected that there were probably not many gunmen lying in ambush nearby, who would foolishly expose themselves first and become someone else’s target?

“Useless!” After cursing his subordinate, the leader didn’t dare stick out his head to take a closer look. He could only dejectedly crawl back the way he came, along the convoy of police cars, to find a telephone and report the situation to his superiors.

Inside the Prince’s Mansion, the battle was still fiercely raging, as the interior was far less complex than the Imperial Palace.

At the exterior perimeter where the Crown Princess Consort and other ladies were, a courtyard entrance guarded by a soldier was breached. Stepping over the bodies lying all over the ground, several masked assailants finally stormed into the rear quarters of the mansion.

Adopting a ‘better to kill the wrong person than to spare one’ ethos, they turned everyone they encountered into sieves, even sparing none of the Prince’s beautiful concubines.

“Where is the Crown Prince?” stepping on the Crown Princess Consort’s chest, a masked assailant viciously demanded, “Speak or I’ll kill you!”

“I am the Crown Princess Consort and I will not betray the Crown Prince! Kill me if you want!” The woman was defiant, her beautiful eyes glaring at the masked man on top of her, teeth clenched.

The masked man didn’t waste words, pulled the trigger, and killed the woman. Bullets hit her body, splashing blood mist everywhere.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard these masked assailants searched, they were unable to find the Crown Prince’s hiding place. They searched every room, turned over every cabinet, but they couldn’t find their target for this operation—Zhao Ji.

“The Crown Prince! The Crown Prince… Zhao Ji, he’s not here! He’s not in the mansion!” A soldier finally broke down, facing the dark muzzle of a gun, and desperately disclosed everything he knew.

“You’re lying! We saw Zhao Ji’s car with our own eyes…” The questioning assailant said this and suddenly stopped.

They indeed saw the Crown Prince’s car drive into the estate, but they had not confirmed if the Crown Prince was in that damned car.

“Damn it! We’ve been played!” The first masked man to realize the situation cursed, “We might have been betrayed!”

“It can’t be! Maybe this bastard is trying to trick us!” Another masked man thought of another possibility—that the opposition was just concocting an excuse to buy some time for Zhao Ji, who was hidden in the mansion.

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For a moment, the masked assailants weren’t sure who to believe, hesitating, wasting precious seconds.

“There might be hidden doors, tunnels… we can’t find that damned Zhao Ji in this mess!” In their panic, a masked assailant angrily put forth his opinion, “Who planned this? How could it be so sloppy?”

“…” The leading masked man, a trusted aide of Prince Zhao Yu, naturally wouldn’t admit that the whole plan was Zhao Yu’s folly.

But actually, many masked assailants knew that if today’s operation had been planned by the Tang People, there wouldn’t have been so many problems.

“Light it up! Burn that bastard Zhao Ji alive!” With no other choice, they had to resort to such a tactic to compensate for the rough edges of the plan.

“Right! Set this place on fire! He can’t escape anyway!” As one person made the suggestion, others agreed. These masked men, having already wasted much time searching for Zhao Ji, were clearly growing impatient.

Every minute they lingered here meant another minute of risk during their breakout. They were Zhao Yu’s confidants, but they weren’t ready to lose their lives today.

Without a better plan, the masked men immediately took action. They pulled out their lighters and other tools, starting fires at various places.

As they hadn’t prepared any accelerants like gasoline, the fire-setting process was not proceeding quickly.

Moreover, inside the Prince’s Mansion, resistance continued: the remaining guards were desperately fighting to protect the little else of Zhao Ji’s household and servants.

They were holding out, hoping for reinforcements to arrive quickly and for the thieves to grow faint-hearted and leave soon.

As they fought on, plumes of black smoke began to rise from the back of the mansion, and a charred scent followed, spreading out quickly. One guard despaired, “It’s a disaster! They’re setting fires!”

Amid the rising black smoke and increasing chaos, the masked men rampaged through the Prince’s Mansion, frantically searching for Zhao Ji—even though they had already extracted from many mouths the information that Zhao Ji wasn’t there, they still refused to believe it.

But as time ticked on in this assassination attempt, these masked assailants’ ammunition dwindled. They had to start contemplating how they would break out.

“Move! We’ve got to get out of here now or we’ll never make it!” The leading masked man glanced at his watch before making the decision.

Although he hadn’t found Zhao Ji, their primary assassination target, continuing to stay would mean death for all of them.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Hearing the leader’s command, the surrounding masked men immediately responded: they were nervous and didn’t want to die there.