Chapter 713 Precognitive Painting

Several paintings were spread out on the imperial desk. Nangong Yue, who was still half asleep, yawned. "Didn't I ask you to meet after lunch? Why are you here so early in the morning?"

Hu Xin'er immediately dropped a bombshell: "The deposed Crown Prince might soon launch a rebellion. We must prepare as soon as possible."

Nangong Yue was almost startled awake, but then she thought, "Where did the deposed crown prince get his troops? Are you talking in your sleep?"

As she spoke, she touched Hu Xiner's head.

Hu Xin'er said helplessly: "You will know after you see my paintings."

She took out the painting of the prince raising an army in the cave and explained the miraculous feeling she had this morning: "This magic brush has saved me from danger many times. I think the images I saw today are very likely hints of something."

Except for Mu Qing, everyone was skeptical about her words. In desperation, Hu Xiner could only take out a pen and personally demonstrate to them the technique of changing appearance.

"How can there be such a magical pen in the world?" Both mother and daughter were shocked, but they also raised a question.

The Queen said slowly, "Even if this pen has illusionary powers, it shouldn't be able to predict scenes thousands of miles away. Xin'er, could it be that you were frightened yesterday, and that's why these images keep flashing through your mind?"

"But if those things didn't really happen, how could I draw the emblem of the Seven Kings that I had never seen before?" Hu Xiner retorted.

Originally, she thought it was an illusion caused by excessive mental stress, but Mu Qing said that she was drawing the emblem of the Seven Kings, which made her certain that this was a precognitive picture given to her by the magic pen.

The eldest princess thought for a moment, but finally shook her head.

Hu Xin'er was very disappointed. "Yue'er, don't you trust me either? The Crown Prince has raised an army. We must take precautions early. He is a man of deep thoughts. Once he gets a chance to breathe, he will definitely turn the whole country upside down."

Not to mention how many soldiers the prince can recruit with his ability to deceive the people, and whether he can make a complete comeback and overthrow the dynasty.

Judging from his temperament, it is more likely that he will unite with other princes, directly attack the capital, and then defeat the remaining princes one by one, so that the entire dynasty will fall into his hands again.

At that time, people like Hu Xiner who had opposed him before would definitely not have a good ending.

Nangong Yue and the Queen exchanged a glance, then said awkwardly, "It's not that we don't believe you, but this is truly a bit outrageous. Even if this is true, what are you going to do? Or rather, what do you want me to do?"

"Of course we have to stop him!" Hu Xin'er said without hesitation. "We can send troops to intercept him and put an end to all the troubles before they become serious."

Nangong Yue sighed: "But now even the capital is in chaos. If we send out troops, it will definitely cause criticism from the ministers."

"So what if there's criticism? If the Crown Prince attacks the capital, those officials will most likely be the first to rebel!" Hu Xin'er said angrily, "We don't need to consider their opinions."

Nangong Yue scratched her hair irritably: "I don't want to care about them, but..."

She sorted out her wording, and then the Queen and she explained it to Hu Xiner.

Although nominally she and the Duke now control most of the power in the capital, this does not mean that she can do whatever she wants without considering the opinions of her ministers.

This was not because she cared about her reputation or the opinions of outsiders, but because if most of the ministers disagreed, then this matter would not be able to be implemented at all.

Is the rebellion of the deposed crown prince important? Of course it is! And it must be suppressed.

But where is the evidence?

In everyone's eyes, the prince could only flee across the country in a panic, but Hu Xiner now said that he was hiding somewhere and had even trained a force that was strong enough to threaten the capital?

How long had it been since the crown prince's escape? Was this even possible?

As Hu Xiner listened, her expression gradually became depressed.

Nangong Yue looked at the painting, feeling extremely helpless. "If the ministers in the court disagree, even if we forcibly mobilize troops, we won't be able to get enough support. Instead, we will be easily annihilated by the deposed crown prince. And this is not the worst problem."

She said irritably, "Sending troops out of the city is a major matter, especially during a sensitive period like now. Our every move is being watched by the seven princes. If we don't have sufficient evidence, they will make a lot of assumptions."

"For example, they would think that sending troops out to eliminate the deposed crown prince was just an excuse, and they actually wanted to assassinate some prince." Hu Xiner raised her hand to stop Nangong Yue's explanation. She was not a stupid person, but she made a fool of herself because she involved an unfamiliar area.

Sending troops out of the city at this time is like walking through a battlefield with a knife. Even if your original intention is just to cross the battlefield to kill a pig, you will definitely be misunderstood as having other intentions.

What's worse is that someone might use this name to assassinate other princes and frame others.

By then, the scene will be in complete chaos and a war will be imminent.

Nangong Yue saw that she was in a very low mood, so she comforted her, "It's okay. Father had already thoroughly investigated the deposed Crown Prince before his death. He doesn't have the capital to maintain such a large army. Besides, how can the troops trained in such a short period of time compare to the army led by the Duke?"

She felt that even if they really clashed, the Duke would not be at a disadvantage.

This made sense, and Hu Xin'er felt more confident, but she still felt uneasy for no reason: "What if he joins forces with the other princes?"

The Queen said at this moment: "Don't worry, I will go talk to Concubine Li and the others. After seeing the cruelty of the deposed crown prince, how dare they cooperate with him? And even if they really cooperated..."

She took a sip of her hot tea and said, "No one knows a son better than his mother. Their mother is still in the palace. How could she dare to collude with the deposed Crown Prince to commit treason? We can also ask them how we can persuade the princes to stay."

To put it nicely, it was persuasion, but in reality, it was to place the mothers of the princes under house arrest in the palace as a handle, leaving them no choice but to agree.

Due to insufficient evidence, the discussion did not produce any results.

Instead, the couple was dragged by the eldest princess to review memorials with her, and it took them a whole afternoon to finish.

Hu Xin'er tried to find evidence for her precognitive painting.

In the next few days, the capital seemed calm on the surface, but the shadow guards sent out said that they had found out information about the prince's activities.

The princes stationed in various places also requested to return to Beijing to attend the funeral.