Chapter 682 Fighting

"Why hasn't the baby been born yet?" Not long after, a thin layer of sweat appeared on Mu Qing's forehead.

He pinched his palm, feeling lost: "No, I have to go in and look after Xin'er."

He ran into the house, and the maids and midwives inside were a little surprised to see a grown man like him rushing in.

Only Hu Xin'er was in so much pain that she burst into tears: "Husband!"

She only said two words and continued to adjust her breathing under the guidance of the midwife.

Yin Li also wanted to rush in, but was stopped by Zhao Yunxuan.

"What we really need to do is over there." Zhao Yunxuan pointed outside.

Following the direction of his finger, one can see that the officers and soldiers were "inviting" the people out after they had finished dinner.

"We are the officers and soldiers in the city. We were patrolling here and learned that bandits were attacking, so we came here specifically to protect you!" Lord Chu shouted as he rode his horse.

The people were very dissatisfied: "My family has lived here for generations, and when have we ever heard of bandits?"

"Who knows whether you are soldiers or bandits?"

"Are you the deposed prince's men?!"

…

The voices of doubt continued to ring out, and Lord Chu almost laughed out loud: "If we were really bad guys, would you still have any power to fight back?"

The people were silent for a moment. In fact, if the officers and soldiers in front of them had not been polite, they would not have dared to complain.

Yin Li was also a little confused when she saw this. Hu Xin'er had just given birth to a child, so why did the soldiers drive all the people into one place? Wasn't this making a fuss over nothing?

However, everyone looked very serious.

He speculated, "Are you worried that the Crown Prince will send back? But the whole journey has been peaceful. Didn't you also say that the Crown Prince is like a lost dog now, so how could he spare the time to deal with us?"

What's more, using the prince's strength to fight against them is like hitting a rock with an egg.

Zhao Yunxuan unconsciously twirled the nonexistent Buddhist beads, his eyes darkening as he asked, "The Crown Prince's strength alone isn't enough, but what if the Zhou family is included?"

"Didn't the Zhou family already be wiped out?" Yin Li felt it was absurd and funny at first, but soon his expression changed drastically.

There is still a fish that has slipped through the net in the Zhou family, and that is Mr. Zhou!

Moreover, the Zhou family's power is not limited to Qingzhou. A few days are enough for Mr. Zhou to learn of his daughter's death, and in a rage, he mobilizes all his forces to avenge his daughter!

He jumped lightly and landed on the highest tree to look into the distance. His expression suddenly became more solemn. He saw a large group of people coming there.

It was snowing right now, and the large crowd that came showed that they clearly had bad intentions.

"Sir, there is a village of common people not far ahead!" A man hurried back to the team on horseback.

At the front of the team was a man in black, wearing a cloak. His voice was childish, and it was difficult to tell whether he was a male or a female. "They stopped for no reason. It must be because Hu Xin'er needs to give birth. This time, even if the Jade Emperor comes, they can't escape!"

Beside him, a stern-looking man hissed, "After following her for so many days, I've finally found the perfect opportunity to strike. I will definitely avenge my junior sister!"

In the village, Lord Chu seemed to have noticed something and began to urge the soldiers and civilians to move faster.

Yin Li and Zhao Yunxuan stood together in front of the rich family's door. Behind them was the busy production process, and in front of them was the first crisis they encountered on the way back to Beijing.

"You mean, the Zhou family is colluding with the Crown Prince and planning to kill us for revenge?" Yin Li gritted his teeth and said, "If we had known this, we shouldn't have left so many soldiers in Qingzhou."

Zhao Yunxuan shook his head. "This is because we left some officers and soldiers in Qingzhou City to maintain order in Qingzhou City."

Otherwise, if Qingzhou was directly disrupted and Lu Yunjue and others were taken hostage and used to hold them hostage, then people would be truly helpless.

The servant next to him was shocked: "Someone actually dared to assassinate us... But sir, if you knew there was danger, why did you deliberately lead people here?"

If they don't lure people into the village, they won't have to allocate extra troops to protect the villagers, and their chances of winning will be greater.

Zhao Yunxuan sighed softly, "Given the Zhou family's vicious nature, if we don't protect these villagers, they might resort to despicable tactics—massacre the villagers in exchange for the collapse of our psychological defenses."

Several people were speechless because this was indeed the fact.

Imagine if they stayed where they were just now, with Hu Xin'er nervously preparing to give birth in the cramped carriage, while the enemies outside slaughtered innocent people just because they refused to hand over the people...

In such a scenario, even if Hu Xiner would not suffer any real harm from them, she would probably feel guilty, which would lead to a difficult labor.

With current medical conditions, giving birth has always been a difficult task. Zhao Yunxuan has tried his best to consider everything carefully.

"They've been following us for several days, just trailing behind us." Zhao Yunxuan said slowly, "I didn't expect the princess to give birth prematurely at this time."

A woman is pregnant for ten months, but that doesn’t mean she will give birth until that tenth month. It is normal for the baby to be born a few days earlier or later, or even a week or two later.

Zhao Yunxuan was a man, and had been cultivating in the mountains, so naturally he hadn't considered this. But even if he had, it would have been useless, because the imperial decree was difficult to disobey, and he couldn't possibly not return to the capital just because of this matter.

After all...if I can't return to the capital on time, the whole world may face turmoil.

He pinched his brows, only to hear Yin Li say irritably, "This child was born at the wrong time! If I had known that the Crown Prince would collude with the Zhou family to intercept us, I should have spared Zhou Qingyan's life back in Qingzhou. We could have used her as a hostage."

It was Zhao Yunxuan who personally ordered the execution of Zhou Qingyan. He only had a vague guess at the time, but he did not expect that people from the Zhou family would come so quickly.

"The origins of the Zhou family seem to be even greater than we imagined." He said thoughtfully.

Soon, the sound of horse hooves was heard at the entrance of the village.

There were about one or two hundred people coming, and in order to hide their identities, they were all dressed in black.

Without any unnecessary words, the leading man in black gave the order: "Kill!"

The sounds of swords being unsheathed rang out one after another, and in the cold night, they flashed a cold light.

A snowflake fell on the tip of the sword, bringing with it an infinite murderous aura.

Innocent civilians screamed in fear. The bloody fight came so quickly that they were not mentally prepared at all.

As the soldiers of both sides fought each other, several shadowy figures with extremely high martial arts skills quietly arrived, preparing to harm Hu Xin'er who was in labor...