Chapter 40... Prince?
Is it impossible to leave the country today?
It only takes a moment to go from ecstatic joy to bewildered shock.
Yunzhu and Ayan exchanged bewildered glances again, completely unaware that there was a quota for leaving Liangzhou. Shouldn't such a thing be available to everyone before the designated time?
The leading general was a burly man, feared by most. After hearing his words, they dared not say anything more, and simply bowed their heads and left with regret. Only Ayan, fearless and unyielding, raised her head and asked directly, "Since when has there been a quota limit for leaving Liangzhou?"
"Just had it today, how is it?" The general lowered his head, his thick eyebrows filled with oppressive intent, and he approached Ayan directly.
Ayan trembled instantly.
But this oppression did not frighten her; instead, it made her even more rebellious.
She raised her head, wanting to speak to the general, but Yunzhu suddenly grabbed her sleeve.
"Alright, let's talk about it tomorrow!" Yunzhu gently tugged at Ayan's sleeve. Seeing that the person in front of her was no ordinary person, she wanted to go back to the inn with Ayan to think of a solution.
Ayan wanted to continue pestering her, but after receiving another look from Yunzhu, she became completely obedient.
Indeed, they have already arrived in Liangzhou and are only one step away from leaving the pass. If the quota is gone today, so be it; they can come again tomorrow. At this critical juncture, it is really not a good time to cause trouble.
Most importantly, the general in front of me looks very unapproachable, and there's no need to offend such an unpredictable person for the sake of a single day's difference.
"This is strange. There was never such a rule before, but now there is? Is some important person coming into the city today?"
Although Ayan had left, she was still resentful. As soon as she and Yunzhu turned the corner, she couldn't help but mutter complaints.
“Princess, I feel there’s something strange about this!” she said with certainty.
"Hmm." Yunzhu nodded, then turned around and found that no one was following her. She then said to Ayan, "I'm afraid you'll have to come back again later."
Ayan understood instantly.
Yunzhu noticed the strangeness at the city gate today, and she wanted to continue observing to see what was going to happen.
"Does the princess have any suspicions?" Ayan asked hurriedly.
"Not yet." Unfortunately, Yunzhu shook her head.
She had no reason to doubt anything yet, but she felt that the strangeness at the city gate was not simple, so she wanted Ayan to keep a close eye on things in case anything else happened.
Liangzhou is located at the border of the two countries, and it is not uncommon for people from the Western Regions to intermarry with people from the Central Plains. So it is not surprising that the man on horseback who looked like a man from the Western Regions could speak fluent Central Plains dialect.
It wouldn't be surprising if he even became an official in the Central Plains, because he might only have the appearance of a Western Region person, but was actually a person from the Central Plains.
The only thing Yunzhu cared about from beginning to end was leaving the seclusion.
Ayan roughly understood that nothing was more important than leaving the pass now, and Yunzhu was worried that things might change if things dragged on.
"Princess, don't worry, I'll accompany you back to the inn first, and then I'll go back to the city gate right away to keep a close watch!" Ayan immediately assured her.
Yunzhu breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the inn with Ayan.
—
After the two returned to the inn, Ayan settled Yunzhu back in, and then, as they had agreed beforehand, they set off for the city gate again.
Last time, when Ayan went to the city gate, she led a horse and openly disguised herself as a man to leave the city. This time, however, it was different. Ayan changed into women's clothing and set off directly from the roof of the inn, scaling walls and rooftops all the way to the city gate.
The passes of Liangzhou City are unlike those of other cities. As a strategically important frontier location, the number of soldiers guarding this city is more than double that of previous cities. When Ayan returned to the city gate, she indeed saw that the gate, which had been wide open just moments before, was now tightly closed, and all the soldiers had retreated back into the city.
This kind of setup didn't seem like they were welcoming any important figures. As Ayan was wondering about this, she lay on the roof of the teahouse and saw two men who looked like soldiers coming out below.
One of them asked as he walked, "Well, have the people from the Western Regions arrived today?"
"Not yet," the other replied. "I wonder if they know we've closed the city gates, so they're deliberately not coming today."
"If you ask me, His Majesty is too lenient with them. If they dare to harass us, why don't we just fight them back? Why make a fuss about closing the city gates and hiding from them? What kind of behavior is this? It makes the people of the Western Regions think that we are afraid of them!"
"Well, we're in the wrong. Their princess died here. She was only married into the family three years ago. Who knows how she died? Let them use this as an excuse to cause trouble. We'll just ignore them."
"Didn't they say that the princess died of her own accord? Knowing that Jeju was suffering from drought and famine, she still insisted on going there. Wasn't that just courting death? And now she's complaining about us!"
"But this is only the Huan Prince's side of the story, isn't it? Sigh, these things are really hard to say. Apart from a few people at the top, who would know the real truth? We subordinates just need to listen to the orders from above."
"This is really troublesome."
The person who spoke spat on the ground, looking unwilling, whether it was because the current job was troublesome or because of some other kind of trouble.
Ah Yan was lying on the teahouse floor. If Yun Zhu hadn't told her beforehand not to alert the man, she would have picked up a tile and smashed it on his head.
Complaining about the city's defenses is one thing, but why are they suddenly blaming their princess? Is her princess someone these people can blame?
But they seemed to have resolved some of the doubts she and the princess had had today... Watching the two walk further and further away, Ayan continued to lie on the roof, thinking that, based on their conversation, it could be concluded that the Western Regions were using the princess's matter to launch an attack on the Central Plains, and this was not the first or second time.
The border defenses in the Central Plains showed no intention of retaliating.
But why?
There were two things that Ayan didn't understand. First, when Yunzhu and Xiao Mingzhang got married three years ago, the Central Plains and the Western Regions had already signed a ceasefire agreement and the two countries were on good terms. Logically speaking, as long as the king was still in power, he would not take the initiative to harass the Central Plains again, unless the king did not want this short-term peace.
The second concern is the border defense of the Central Plains.
Having lived in the Central Plains for so many years, Ayan could basically deduce from the Huan Prince's Mansion that the military strength of the entire Central Plains was actually not weak at all. If the Central Plains really wanted to counterattack the Western Regions, just like they had three years ago, they would definitely be able to do it. So why did they choose to avoid it now? And keep the city gates tightly closed?
With these two questions in mind, she lay on the teahouse in front of the city gate for a long time.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the same luck as before this time. No matter how long she lay there, she didn't get any more useful information.
She could only return to Yunzhu in the evening, carrying her two remaining doubts with her.
After hearing Ayan's words, Yunzhu, like her, was full of incomprehension about the actions of the Central Plains and the Western Regions.
"Princess, tell me, if one day the two countries really go to war again, can we still go back to the grasslands?" Although Ayan's doubts were deep, her worries were simple. She didn't care whether the two countries went to war or not, nor did she care about any other messy things. She just wanted to simply return to the grasslands that belonged to them with Yunzhu, where the sky was high and the land was wide, and no one could control them anymore.
Ke Yunzhu looked deeply at Ayan and silently shook her head.
If the two countries were to truly resume hostilities, then without a doubt, the various passes leading to the Western Regions would no longer easily allow ordinary people to leave the city, making it even more difficult for her and Ayan to return to the Western Regions.
“But we don’t know yet whether war will break out. Tomorrow, we should still have a chance,” Yunzhu said.
If the Central Plains truly decided to fight, she thought, they would definitely not keep the city gates tightly shut, but would directly send troops to meet the enemy.
"What exactly is the Central Plains thinking?" Ayan wondered. If they want to fight, they should fight; if they want to negotiate, they should negotiate. Could it be that the Central Plains really feels guilty because of their princess's situation, and therefore chooses not to fight the Western Regions head-on? Ayan didn't believe it.
There is not a single good person in the Central Plains; this is the only truth that Ayan learned during her three years there.
Yunzhu was both amused and exasperated, but she couldn't really refute Ayan's idea.
Would the Central Plains turn a blind eye to the Western Regions out of guilt towards her? If Yunzhu were to believe such a thing again, all the suffering she had endured over the past three years would have been in vain.
That night, Yunzhu and Ayan went to sleep with a lot of confusion and unease.
Neither of them slept soundly, and they both got up at the crack of dawn the next day.
They exchanged a glance and decided that no matter what happened, they would go to the city gate and line up today.
So, before dawn, the two of them led their horses to the city gate of Liangzhou once again.
However, after yesterday's battle, many people had the same idea as them and came to queue up early this morning.
So even though they arrived early enough, they were still not considered to be in the front row.
Seeing the long queue ahead, Yunzhu and Ayan both sighed inwardly that things were not going well.
"Princess, are we going to have to stay in Liangzhou for another day?" Ayan asked with a worried expression. Her intuition told her that things that went wrong again and again would not end well.
"It's alright, good things come to those who wait."
Although Yunzhu shared the same thoughts as Ayan, since Ayan had already become melancholy, she couldn't let their spirits be dampened no matter what she said.
The two stood in front of the city gate, slowly waiting for it to open.
Although the city gates closed early yesterday, they opened on time today. At Chenshi (7-9 AM), the soldiers pushed open the heavy gates and began allowing people to enter and leave the city.
Seeing that the procession was finally starting to move slowly and there weren't many abnormalities being checked, Yunzhu and Ayan approached the city gate, and the flame of hope in their hearts grew stronger and stronger.
Judging from the situation, it shouldn't be a problem for them to leave the city.
They counted, eagerly anticipating their turn.
The neighbors next door were people who had come to the city sporadically from the Western Regions.
Yunzhu was focused on queuing and had no interest in anything else, but unexpectedly, a casual glance to the side revealed an incredible figure in the crowd.
It was a morning in Liangzhou before the golden light of dawn had risen. A light mist shrouded this important border town, the yellow sand of the desert swirled, and a cool breeze blew. Yunzhu looked at the man with a turban wrapped around his head in surprise and murmured two words: "...Brother?"
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