Chapter 51
After seeing Wei Zhen off, the eunuch was about to return to his study to wait when a young eunuch hurried over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and then went back into the study.
"Your Majesty," the steward stood respectfully beside the Saint, "Princess Pingyang has already left the capital on horseback."
The sage was only busy reviewing memorials and ignored them.
The steward rolled his eyes, as if he was about to speak but hesitated. The sage glanced at him and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it."
"Please forgive my boldness, but why did the Saint allow the princess to leave the capital? Although the princess is going to Pingzhou, she is alone. What will happen if she escapes along the way?"
"Just run away. You're just a straw bag. You can't cause any trouble."
If Wei Zhen hadn't cared about her, Chu Miaomiao wouldn't have been in the Saint's eyes. It was also for Wei Zhen's sake that he was willing to give Chu Miaomiao a chance to live.
"If she were smart, she would have stayed away from Pingzhou and found an inconspicuous village to live in anonymity. That would have been the best solution."
The sage paused his writing, hoping that Chu Miaomiao would not let him down, and also hoping that she would never appear in front of Wei Zhen again from now on.
The Crown Princess of Yongchao, the future Queen, cannot be the daughter of a traitor.
However, in reality, Chu Miaomiao was not what the saints called a "wise person." After leaving the shackles of the capital and regaining her freedom, she did not seize the opportunity to escape to save her life, but instead rushed towards Pingzhou at full speed.
She wanted to go to Pingzhou City to see her mother before Wei Zhen, and then go to the front line of the battlefield to ask her father.
In her final moments, she had a question she wanted to ask them in person. Perhaps she wouldn't get the answer she hoped for, but if she didn't ask the question that had been accumulating in her heart for years, she would never hear the answer again.
It’s the last minute anyway, so it doesn’t hurt to be willful one last time.
Thinking of this, Chu Miaomiao whipped the horse again, urging the horse to gallop faster.
*
After Wei Zhen returned to the Eastern Palace, the housekeeper worried that he might lose his mind due to emotional distress. Unexpectedly, Wei Zhen did not mention Princess Pingyang again after his return, but simply asked him calmly if he had prepared his luggage for the next day's expedition.
Normal, yet abnormal.
The housekeeper had mixed feelings, but given his status, he couldn't say much. He just silently followed Wei Zhen's instructions and made arrangements, preparing everything for his expedition.
After watching the housekeeper leave and dismissing the palace maids around him, Wei Zhen looked dejected.
He took out the ink seal from the brocade box and recalled the scene when he gave it to Chu Miaomiao. At that time, he told her that she could not escape. Now that she returned the ink seal, did she really think that she could escape completely?
This is the second time.
The second time, Chu Miaomiao abandoned him.
"Chu, Miao, Miao."
Wei Zhen read out Chu Miaomiao's name word by word, and every word and every sound revealed a strong sense of resentment.
Run away, run away wherever you want. Because no matter where she runs to, no matter what means he uses, he will definitely find her back.
At that time, he will repay today's pain double.
*
This is a race against time.
Chu Miaomiao didn't dare to stay for long on the way, she traveled day and night to Pingzhou.
The closer you get to Pingzhou, the more dangerous it becomes.
A large number of refugees who became refugees due to the war became bandits, but because they had been unable to obtain food for a long time, they were so weak that they could not even stop Chu Miaomiao's horse.
In addition, there were deserters among the rebels. Most of them were idle ruffians who had originally thought that they could gain some benefits by joining the rebellion against the King of Chu, but the cruelty of the war was beyond their expectations, so they became deserters and real robbers.
Chu Miaomiao had no advantage against these people. She had no choice but to abandon her steed and escape while those people were staring at her with shining eyes. Then she pretended to be a refugee and blended into the crowd as she continued her journey to Pingzhou City.
The refugees who dispersed from Pingzhou went to other places to seek a living. For a time, a large number of refugees also poured into other states and counties.
To the north of Pingzhou lay the front lines of the war, and to the south lay the scourge of refugees. Much of the southern region was drawn into this chaos.
Prince Yu and Prince Huai, who were on a salt inspection tour, naturally felt the harm and trouble brought about by the Chu King's rebellion. However, their main task was to investigate the salt administration, and the local officials would deal with the refugees and bandits.
"The King of Chu is in rebellion. I heard that the Sage personally appointed the Crown Prince to lead the army to suppress the rebellion?"
Prince Huai's words were extremely tentative. Prince Yu glanced at him sideways and said with a half-smile, "You and I are both inspecting the salt administration, and we were also appointed by the Sage. We both work for the Sage and the court. What's the difference between us and the Crown Prince?"
King Huai smiled awkwardly, thinking that this was a huge difference.
The salt inspection made him a thorn in the side of certain factions in the court, a thankless task. The Crown Prince commanded the army, a position of real power. A saint's partiality must not be too obvious.
"After this battle, the prince's position can be said to be as solid as a rock." King Huai couldn't help but sigh, with a hint of resentment in his tone.
Prince Yu was too lazy to continue paying attention to him. He just said, "You can talk, but don't interfere with official business." He pointed the pen in his hand at the account book on the table and said, "Get to work."
"Yes, uncle." King Huai was forced to shut up, and very passively picked up the account book that had been calculated by the Ministry of Revenue official who came with him and began to check it.
Prince Yu glanced at Prince Huai helplessly, wondering why this child was getting more clueless as he grew older. What was the point of just focusing on the crown prince? He couldn't even figure out what he was supposed to do, and yet he wanted to be the crown prince? If we really handed the government over to someone like him, there would be no hope.
King Huai only knew that the prince held military power, but he forgot the pressure behind this power.
For Wei Zhen, he had to resolve the Chu King's Rebellion beautifully with controllable casualties, so this battle had to succeed!
Speed was of the essence in war, and Wei Zhen dared not delay even a moment. He marched south at high speed, and within four or five days, he encountered the King of Chu's army heading north, and a fierce battle ensued between the two sides.
Compared with the regular army led by the prince, the soldiers temporarily recruited under the King of Chu had received a period of systematic training, but they were still much inferior in comparison.
Within a few days, the once unstoppable Chu rebels were repeatedly repelled. The imperial army had achieved a temporary victory, and morale was even higher. Seizing this powerful momentum, they launched a decisive attack, forcing the Chu rebels into a panic and fleeing, nearly forcing them back to their main base camp in Pingzhou.
As a result, the once prosperous and peaceful Pingzhou City was now in chaos. Citizens scrambled to flee Pingzhou City, but the King of Chu controlled the city gates, allowing only entry but not exit. The "chase and escape" drama played out daily at the city gates, and some even lost their lives.
The man's blood splattered onto Chu Miaomiao's dirty shoes.
That blood color is just like the setting sun in the west.
The blood is still hot.
Chu Miaomiao suppressed the fear and nausea in her heart, calmed herself down, forced herself not to listen to the heart-wrenching cries, and walked straight to the soldiers guarding the city.
"I'm going into town."
*
Ever since the King of Chu rebelled, a lingering gloom had enveloped the entire city of Pingzhou. The gloom was particularly heavy within the Prince of Chu's palace.
After the King of Chu started the rebellion, the Princess of Chu found out what her husband was doing behind her back. She was so shocked that she felt like she was struck by lightning and almost collapsed.
The child! Her child would die!
The thought of this pierced the heart of the Princess of Chu. She and the King of Chu had a huge argument, and the couple almost broke up. The furious King of Chu imprisoned the Princess in the courtyard and handed over the power of managing the household to Concubine Zhou.
Princess Chu looked coldly at Aunt Zhou's smug look and smiled coldly.
Since we are all going to die together, it doesn’t matter who takes care of this palace.
Since then, Princess Chu has been staying in her courtyard, repeatedly reading the letters Chu Canglang sent from the capital. Often, tears would roll down her cheeks as she read.
Her eldest son was about to become a father, but she never expected that he would encounter such a misfortune.
He should be imprisoned now, right? Prison is a place that any normal person would not be able to endure. With a body as weak as Canglang, he might have been too sick to be a human.
The more she imagined this, the more her heart felt like it was being cut by a blunt knife, and the pain was so severe that she could hardly breathe.
"princess!"
Just as the Princess of Chu was once again worrying about the safety of her child and suppressing her tears, the head maid Lianyue walked into the room with an excited look on her face, bringing a ragged man with her.
"Princess, look, who's back!"
Princess Chu looked up and thought Lian Yue had broken her rules by even bringing a beggar into her house. Dissatisfied, she was about to scold him when he cried out "Mother" in a sobbing voice and then flew into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
The Princess of Chu, who was standing there in a daze, realized that the little beggar in front of her was none other than her daughter.
"Miao Miao!" Princess Chu exclaimed, caressing Chu Miao Miao's face with great joy, "You're back, Miao Miao!"
"Yes! Mom! I'm back!"
The Princess of Chu was so surprised that she hugged her daughter tightly in her arms, fearing that her daughter would disappear from her sight.
Chu Miaomiao buried her head in her mother's arms and cried loudly.
She finally saw her mother! She wanted to tell her how scared she was, how tired she was, and how wronged she felt. But every word she said turned to unstoppable tears.
However, the warm moment between mother and daughter did not last long. Princess Chu asked Chu Miaomiao anxiously, her eyes full of hope: "Miaomiao, where is your brother? Since you have already escaped, what about your brother? Did he also escape from the capital? Where is he now? Is he safe? Where is your sister-in-law? Are your sister-in-law and nephew in any danger?"
Chu Miaomiao didn't dare to look into her mother's eyes. The burning expectation in her mother's eyes hurt her deeply.
Yes, how could she forget? How could she forget that her brother was the most important person in her mother's heart?
She lowered her eyebrows and said in a trembling voice: "Mom... I'm sorry..."
"You...what do you mean?"
Princess Chu's hands, tightly gripping Chu Miaomiao's arms, couldn't stop shaking. Chu Miaomiao didn't dare to face her mother anymore. She sobbed, "Mother...it's my fault. I couldn't--"
“Bang!”
Before Chu Miaomiao finished speaking, Princess Chu swung her hand, and Chu Miaomiao turned her face to the side as her palm exerted force. Her messy hair obscured her face, making it difficult to tell her emotions at the moment.
"You! How could you abandon your brother? He's your own brother!"
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