Cultivation Begins with Caring for Sister-in-law-Chapter 471: Madam Xiao: Marquis, I Can No Longer Betray the Prince

Chapter 471: Chapter 471: Madam Xiao: Marquis, I Can No Longer Betray the Prince

"Ah..."

Upon hearing this, Madam Gan’s face turned deathly pale.

Currently, her husband is cold to her, suspicious of her, and her only hope is that her son can become the Crown Prince and eventually inherit Prince Huai’s Mansion.

But if Fengzhou is gone, will he inherit thin air?

At this moment, footsteps sounded from outside the room.

The eavesdropping maid had already left, and another person arrived, saying, "Madam, it’s not good. The Prince has coughed up blood and fainted. You should go see him quickly."

...

On the other side.

In Madam Xiao’s room.

Madam Xiao was taking a nap.

She lay on her side on a soft couch, wearing a light palace skirt. It was the height of summer, so she wasn’t covered with a blanket. Her figure was full and inviting, revealing a large expanse of snow-white skin beneath her slender neck, catching the light in such a way that it cast a moon-like shadow on the floor.

Unclear if she was dreaming or something else, her originally peaceful expression flushed red suddenly, her eyebrows twitched, and her hands gripped the bedsheet tightly.

Her pearly teeth instinctively bit down on her pink lips, producing a muffled whimper. Her slender white ankles pressed together, kicking against the embroidered orchid bedsheet, then stiffened, pulling her bright red painted toes upward.

Soon, Madam Xiao’s mouth opened slightly, instinctively speaking, "No, Marquis, no, I... I can’t wrong the Prince anymore..."

As the words left her mouth, her tense white ankles completely relaxed. She noticed the color of the palace skirt beneath her had darkened, causing her face to flush even redder, cursing herself in her heart.

"Knock knock..."

Just then, a knocking came from outside the room.

Madam Xiao, already near the end of her dream, was startled awake by the sound, sitting up suddenly.

Cursing herself quietly, she heard the knock again and quickly tidied herself up, asking, "Who is it?"

"Madam, it’s... it’s the maid."

"Xiaocui?" Madam Xiao had a thought and got out of bed to lower the curtains. She sat down behind the long desk before speaking, "Come in."

Soon, a sneaky figure slipped into Madam Xiao’s room.

If Madam Gan were here, she’d surely recognize this person as her maid.

It turned out, in the struggle for the Crown Prince position, although Madam Xiao had teamed up with Madam Gan, she had taken the opportunity to bribe the maid next to Madam Gan to provide her with information.

"Speak, what news have you gathered?" Madam Xiao waved her hand.

"General Gan has returned and just entered the mansion to see Madam Gan. He said..." The maid Xiaocui recounted everything she had overheard to Madam Xiao.

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Madam Xiao felt darkness cloud her vision, and if she hadn’t held onto the long desk before her in time, she might have fainted on the ground.

Xiao Yi was her second uncle, the strongest martial artist of the Xiao Family, her support, but he was now ambushed by enemy troops in Yi County, with his fate unknown.

Madam Xiao’s face paled even further.

"No, I must go find the Prince..."

Madam Xiao stood up, stumbling towards the outside of her room.

Only to find out that Prince Huai had a rush of blood, coughed up blood, and fainted.

Having no choice, she could only leave the mansion to find her second aunt, asking if she had any solutions.

But her second aunt, after learning the news, was in tears, begging Madam Xiao for help, insisting they see him dead or alive.

Finding no other way, Madam Xiao contemplated contacting Chen Mo.

Regardless of whether her brother is alive or dead, perhaps he might remember their kinship, and release or return her second uncle’s body.

...

Madam Hui was, on the contrary, the last one in the mansion to find out about the Yi County matter.

Upon learning that both her elder brother and uncle had defected, Madam Hui was stunned, her heart sinking to the bottom.

She knew that her elder brother, Li Mingfan, was not only the strongest martial artist of the Li Family but also its head. Now that he’s defected, would the Prince still trust the Li Family?

This way, Shou’Er’s hope of becoming Crown Prince became even slimmer.

At this moment, Madam Hui felt as if her soul had left her body.

Even during that time at Wuguan, she hadn’t felt this desperate.

At the same time, in the Li Family.

The entire Li Family heard the news of Li Mingfan and Li Mingzhong’s defection, and all clansmen panicked.

Fearing that Prince Huai would link this matter to them.

So they all went to ask Madam Hui’s father, Li Ye, what should be done next.

After much discussion, to be safe, they decided to send some young members out of Fengzhou to preserve the Li Family’s legacy, and Li Ye immediately went to see Madam Hui.

After all, in cases of defection, the punishment could easily wipe out all nine generations.

How could the Li Family not prepare in advance?

Among the Li Family’s discussed solutions, one was that if Prince Huai really decided to implicate the entire Li Family due to Li Mingfan and Li Mingzhong, then the Li Family might as well pledge allegiance to Chen Mo.

After all, Madam Hui’s daughter Chu Juan was already Chen Mo’s concubine, and considering this relation, the Li Family might well be able to establish and develop on Chen Mo’s territory.

...

Far away in Gaozhou, Chen Mo was still unaware of the events in Yi County.

After the incident in Yao’er City, the Jin Xia Eastern Army was utterly frightened by the Chen Army and directly retreated from Gaozhou due to the Chen Army’s steady advance.

The First Year of Yong’an, early September.

Chen Mo recaptured Gaozhou.

On a wild hillside.

Chen Mo picked up the whip left on the ground by the fleeing Jin Xia Army, gazed at the hoofprints scattered on the ground, and looked into the distance, saying softly, "We can’t go on like this. Even if we take back the entire North, these beasts will just run away."

"But at our marching speed, we can’t catch up to their cavalry at all," Xia Zhining, aware of this issue, said with some frustration.

"It seems we should slow down our marching speed," Chen Mo pondered for a while, then gestured to the person behind him.

Sun Meng, following him, immediately brought over a map and spread it open in front of Chen Mo.

"Judging by the withdrawal speed of the Jin Xia Army, they don’t want to leave so easily, otherwise we wouldn’t even see their shadow. Clearly, they still want to head south but haven’t found a way to deal with us and are just temporarily retreating."

As he spoke, Chen Mo drew a route on the map with his finger, saying, "So I’ve decided to split the army. I will personally lead a contingent of light cavalry, march from here, traveling day and night, to flank the enemy from behind.

And you will slow down the marching pace to buy us time to circle around because if the enemy sees we’re not chasing closely, they won’t retreat quickly, either."

"Isn’t this somewhat risky?" Xia Zhining expressed her concern.

Although the Brave Cavalry Guard had seized some warhorses, there wasn’t time to train them. Even if they were unloaded, they could form a light cavalry of around five thousand at most, with two riders per horse.

This number of troops flanking from behind was quite risky.

"We’ll bring along the Pottery Bombs. Their morale is low, and if caught off guard, we might win. It’s a risk worth taking." Chen Mo said.