With legs weak, the sickly stable boy became a mad regent.

Before the commander's hand could even touch his shoulder, his wrist was grabbed.

The next moment, the person who could barely walk suddenly twisted his waist and turned around, throwing him to the ground.

The movement was so fast that only a blur remained.

The commander slammed his back against the stone steps, and even the knife slipped from his hand.

The palace guards following behind drew their swords at the same time.

The dozen or so veterans inside the door also raised their heads at that moment.

His hunched back straightened.

With a slight tug, the bandaged arm revealed the wristband hidden underneath.

The once empty corridors and the area behind the eaves are now filled with archers.

The sound of the bowstring being pulled taut blended together.

The cold arrowheads were all aimed at the people who had broken into the palace.

"you……"

The commander's expression changed drastically. The limping veteran flexed his wrist, which had just been used in the attack. "Who told you that a leg injury means you can't wield a knife?"

In his youth, he followed Shen Ce in his campaigns across the north and south.

That leg had indeed been hit by an arrow, and it would ache terribly whenever it was rainy.

Unable to make the long journey to the northern border on horseback, killing a few rebels in the capital city was a task that required little effort.

The commander finally realized something was wrong.

The troops assigned to Xiao Yunzhao by the court were clearly a group of old, weak, and disabled soldiers.

These people were indeed not young, and they carried old wounds.

But a group of veterans who survived mountains of corpses and seas of blood are not the same as a group of cripples who are truly unable to wield weapons!

"retreat!"

The commander struggled to his feet.

The gates of the Prince's mansion behind them had already been slammed shut.

When they came in, they thought that the opening of this door meant that Prince Zhao's mansion was powerless to resist.

Only now do I realize that the door was opened on purpose.

It's not about inviting them in.

It's like closing the door to beat a dog.

The arrow came hurtling through the air.

The first few guards of the Eastern Palace fell to the ground.

The remaining people frantically searched for cover, but the front courtyard of the Prince's Mansion seemed empty, and all places where they could hide had been sealed off in advance.

There are people on the roof.

There were people behind the corridor.

Even the servants who had been standing quietly by the door drew their weapons the instant they drew their swords.

The dumpling that had run into the front yard earlier was startled by the shouts of killing.

It hid behind the stone lion with a vegetable leaf in its mouth, only revealing its pair of dark eyes.

One of the palace guards was forced to retreat repeatedly, and happened to step in front of the dumpling.

The dumpling suddenly darted out and bit his ankle.

"What is that?!"

The guard cried out in pain and stumbled.

The next moment, the veteran's knife was already at his neck.

The dumpling opened its mouth, turned around and ran away.

The veteran stared at the rapidly disappearing white figure, momentarily unsure who had helped whom.

Inside the front hall, Shen Nannan heard the shouts of battle outside, but her expression remained unchanged.

She only slowly raised her eyes when the commander of the Imperial Guards was brought in.

The commander was hit by two arrows.

They all avoided the key points.

Xiao Yunzhao had given instructions when he left these people behind.

Those who broke into the Prince's mansion tonight may be injured, but not all of them may be killed.

A few people had to be left alive to testify for the crown prince what he had done.

"Princess Consort Zhao"

The commander knelt on the ground, still trying to maintain his composure, "We are here on His Majesty's orders to bring you to the palace. How dare the Prince's residence attack the Imperial Guards? Do you really intend to rebel?"

Shen Nannan looked at the imperial edict that had been brought in.

It bears the seal of the Imperial Study.

The handwriting was also imitated very well.

Under normal circumstances, this might actually fool many people.

However, the seals used by those around the emperor were never just stamped at the end.

One of the seals on this imperial edict is missing.

is fake.

"By order of His Majesty?" Shen Nannan placed the edict back on the table.

"His Majesty sent you to fetch me, so why didn't you use the main gate for announcement? Instead, you hid armor under your robes. And why did you only arrive at the Prince's residence after the palace alarm bells had rung?"

The commander's expression froze.

Shen Nannan didn't give him a chance to continue arguing. "Take off his outer robe."

The veteran immediately stepped forward, tearing open the outer robes of the Imperial Guards to reveal armor bearing the insignia of the Crown Prince.

"This... is this the Imperial Guard sent by His Majesty?"

Shen Nannan looked at him, her voice not stern, yet it made the commander's face gradually turn ashen.

"The Crown Prince led his troops into the palace late at night, and you broke into the Prince's residence with a fake imperial edict."

"Who exactly is plotting a rebellion will be judged by public opinion at dawn."

The commander struggled to lift his head. "Prince Zhao has clearly returned to the capital in secret! You have been secretly amassing troops; you have long harbored rebellious intentions!"

"These troops were originally allocated to Prince Zhao by His Majesty himself." Shen Nannan gently placed one hand on her abdomen. "When the prince led his troops to war, he was worried that my unborn child would be left unprotected, so he left some wounded soldiers who were not suitable for long-distance horseback riding to guard the palace."

"Is something wrong?"

The commander was speechless for a moment.

The soldiers allocated to Xiao Yunzhao by the imperial court were indeed mostly old, weak, and disabled.

They were indeed wounded, but no one expected that these wounded soldiers would be even more terrifying than the guards carefully trained by the Crown Prince when they actually picked up a knife.

"Take him away," Shen Nannan said. "Find someone to treat his wounds; we can't let him die."

"Yes."

The veteran escorted the commander away.

As they reached the door, Shen Nannan suddenly called out to them, "Was there a rabbit outside just now?"

The veteran paused for a moment.

He was so focused on killing people that he didn't even notice where the white figure had gone.

Qiu Yun has already led her people to search the area.

Not long after, she finally managed to pull the dumpling out from behind the stone lion.

The vegetable leaf in the rabbit's mouth was gone, and there were a few drops of blood on its white fur.

Shen Nannan's heart tightened suddenly. "It's injured?"

"It's not its blood." Qiu Yun carefully examined it before letting out a sigh of relief. "It probably ran too fast and accidentally brushed against someone else."

The dumpling nestled in her arms, belatedly trembling twice.

Shen Nannan had someone bring it over.

The rabbit, which usually loves to hop around, was unusually well-behaved today, nestled against her arm without moving. "Now you know fear?"

Shen Nannan touched its ears.

Tuanzi buried his head in her arms.

"Gurgle..."

Her voice sounded somewhat aggrieved.

Shen Nannan's tense expression finally relaxed a little.

"Go wash it clean." She handed the rabbit to Qiuyun, "Don't let Achao see blood on it when he comes back."

Otherwise, given that man's personality, he would probably make the doctor examine even a rabbit three times over.

The attack on the Prince's mansion ended quickly.

Meanwhile, the troops of the Eastern Palace in other parts of the city encountered a similar situation at the same time.

They were ordered to take over the city gates.

They encountered little resistance along the way.

The guards even opened the inner gate on their own initiative after seeing the East Palace's waist token.

Someone took off their tattered straw hat.

Someone tore off the strips of cloth wrapped around their arm.

On the city wall, torches lit up one after another.

The people in the Eastern Palace finally realized that those guarding the shadows were not some old soldiers temporarily conscripted.

They were all former subordinates of Shen Ce and Qiu Lie.

They may have been away from the battlefield for many years.

Some people opened butcher shops, some guarded the gates of wealthy households, and some farmed the land in the suburbs of Beijing for a long time.

But when Shen Ce handed the weapons back to them, not one of them forgot how to kill the enemy.

The prince's soldiers were caught between the front and back before they could even touch the city gate chains.

"Didn't they say Xiao Yunzhao took everyone away?"

Some people finally panicked.

The old soldier on the city wall chuckled.

"take away?"

"It was Wang Qi who left the city, not your grandpa!"