Chapter 1474: Chapter 1473: Exhausted in Mind and Body
It was a tug-of-war of public opinion.
Chu Qianli had never experienced such verbal battles in the court.
But for characters like Chu Jiangnan and Chu Lingyang, such confrontations had been countless over the past decades.
In fact, everyone knew that today, it was imperative to release the Prince.
If he were to remain locked in the Sky Prison, the soldiers at the border would truly revolt. This was not a threat, nor was it a joke.
Midway, Chu Jiangnan, on the pretense that the Princess was unwell, instructed her to return to rest first.
After leaving the Emperor’s sleeping quarters, Chu Qianli quickly summoned Xi Jiu.
"Tonight, I’m afraid the Prince will return to the Prince Residence. Go find Chu Feiyan immediately and tell her that if she has nowhere to go, she can hide at my place for now."
Chu Feiyan pointed directly at the Prince on the spot. Though they say, a tiger does not eat its cubs, for the Prince, not necessarily.
Otherwise, the Prince would not have sent Chu Feiyan away just to win over Lan Fan.
"You think that Commandery Princess Feiyan is in danger tonight?" Xi Jiu’s face changed, "Alright, I’ll go find Commandery Princess Feiyan now."
... That night at the Prince Residence was indeed not peaceful.
The Prince returned in the latter half of the night.
As for Chu Feiyan, Xi Jiu unexpectedly could not find her.
By the time Xi Jiu arrived at the Prince Residence, Chu Feiyan had already left.
Afterward, Xi Jiu immediately searched throughout the Imperial City.
But after searching day and night, there was still no result.
The Imperial City still appeared quiet, but in fact, everyone knew a storm was about to come.
The Prince was about to leave the city.
Not daring to leave openly, on the night he was released from the Sky Prison, three teams from the Prince Residence left the city.
Chu Wang and Chu Lingyang immediately took people to pursue them.
Unexpectedly, the first two teams to leave the city were not the Prince.
"There’s another team leaving through the east gate. Fourth royal brother, you stay here, I’ll chase after them."
The Prince led a team towards the east gate.
But even the one who left through the east gate was not the Prince.
Chu Wang had already ordered the gates to be guarded, but unfortunately, there were people of the Prince among the gatekeepers.
If they hadn’t intercepted personally, those guarding the gates wouldn’t have been able to stop them.
Chu Wang dared not be careless and continued to send people to guard the Prince Residence.
But carrying his own burden, Chu Wang was besieged by a large number of jianghu people before reaching the Prince Residence.
Returning to the palace safely was already a stroke of luck.
By dawn, Chu Wang returned wounded, and Chu Lingyang had not encountered the Prince.
The Prince Residence was still heavily guarded, and unless a full assault was mounted, there was no way to know if the Prince was still in the residence.
But the Prince had been released by the Emperor’s order, so there was absolutely no justification to force entry into the Prince Residence.
The Prince was in the shadows, they were in the open. They couldn’t mount an assault, couldn’t probe the truth, yet had to prevent him from escaping the Imperial City at all times.
After several rounds of this, both Chu Lingyang and Chu Wang began to feel exhausted!
"Prince Ling, Prince Jing, two more teams have left the Prince Residence, and the Imperial Army does not dare to stop them. Lords, what should we do now?"
Yang Xun sent someone back with the report, while he went to guard the city gate himself.
While the Prince was moving within the Imperial City, no one dared intercept or check the carriages.
But if they tried to leave the city, Yang Xun could at least attempt to intercept.
But he could only guard one city gate.
The Imperial City had several gates, and no one knew which gate the Prince’s people would head to after they emerged.
Continuing to guard like this, everyone was becoming exhausted, truly unable to hold the defense!
