Even though Concubine Su was standing at the head of the city, facing the threat of death, Ye Guogong's expression did not change. However, the news from the messenger made his expression suddenly become extremely ugly, and he frowned.

, the muscles on his face twitched, as if he was thinking about something.

Will there be an army outside the city?

This operation of the rebels was carefully planned. It seemed like just a group of soldiers had invaded Kyoto City, but the intelligence work, resource work, manpower work, material work, and confidentiality work before that were all done to the utmost.

Proceeding harshly.

Liu Guogong and Ye Guogong are both figures who have been immersed in the muddy waters of politics for decades. Their families have been prominent in the political circles of Chu for hundreds of years. They will never take action against such a major rebellion without careful and rigorous planning.

In other words, since they took action, they were at least 90% sure... no... at least 99% sure.

According to the series of scenarios they planned out, the army outside the city could not possibly exist.

After His Majesty the Emperor's death, the royal family's coalition attacked Kyoto, and under the banner of the fourth prince, even as a precaution, royal spies were tightly deployed within dozens of miles of Kyoto, in order to prevent the news from spreading quickly.

As long as the news can be blocked for a day or two, the overall situation in Kyoto will be decided, and the world will know about it, but there is nothing they can do. Everyone just thinks that this is just a battle for imperial power among the royal family, and there will not be much reaction.

Without the existence of His Majesty the Emperor, the Chu court would no longer have local armies that really wanted to participate in the struggle for imperial power.

But...the army has already appeared ten miles outside the city.

…

Ye Guogong quickly rode back to the military formation, looked at Liu Guogong, and said after a long while: "There is an army outside the city!"

Liu Guogong's body trembled and his face darkened.

"Whose troops?"

"Don't know yet!"

"At this time...!" Liu Guogong's eyes were extremely cold: "Whose army dares to march into Kyoto? There are no military symbols and no Privy Council documents...!"

At this moment, the faces of the two scheming princes were surprisingly the same, both extremely ugly.

Ye Dao obviously also saw some unknown clues. Seeing that the fourth prince was about to wave his flag and attack the palace at any time, he whispered: "Your Highness, the situation has changed, please wait!"

"Has there been a change?" The fourth prince's pupils shrank, he looked at Concubine Su at the top of the city, gritted his teeth and said, "What happened?"

As soon as he finished saying this, he suddenly felt that the earth seemed to be shaking slightly, like an earthquake, and the rebels also felt this vibration. Although the army formation was still strict and orderly, their eyes couldn't help but look around.

Everyone wanted to know what happened.

At this time, the soldiers at the rear of the Minzhou camp spread out quietly and surrounded the rear of the rebels in a fan shape.

A horse galloped over, knelt down in front of the two princes, and said respectfully: "Report, five miles outside the city of Kyoto, there are thousands of cavalry charging towards the city."

"Cavalry? Thousands?" Ye Guogong's expression was even more gloomy. He had already heard the rumble of the hoofbeats of the thousands of troops, and the trembling of the earth was caused by the hoofbeats of the cavalry outside the capital.

The defenders on the top of the city naturally heard the rumble of cavalry hooves.

"Are they...their reinforcements coming?" Pan Zhenhai, the deputy general guard of Xiulin Battalion, suddenly thought that the follow-up troops of the rebels were coming to support him.

Xue Poye frowned and said: "According to the current strength, they are enough to capture the palace, and even if reinforcements are arranged, they should be archers or sword and shield soldiers to attack the city. Although these thousands of cavalry are extremely powerful in combat, they are still

If it is used in siege warfare, might it be a mistake? Their royal family is very knowledgeable about military affairs, and they must understand this truth. In this case... I'm afraid those cavalry may not be theirs."

He even wondered in his heart whether Ximen Lei Zang had transferred a large army from other states and counties?

But this thought was just a fleeting thought. Just imagine that the nearest state army to Kyoto, apart from participating in the rebels' Mzhou camp, is the Huizhou camp, and the Huizhou camp is two days' journey from Kyoto. Even if it is inserted into

The wings cannot arrive so quickly.

The most important thing is that the number of cavalry that I heard is probably more than 3,000, and according to the rules of Chu, the number of cavalry in each state's camp cannot exceed 1,500, so it can be concluded that this batch of reinforcements is by no means a single one.

The cavalry could be dispatched from the state capital camp, not to mention that even Ximen Lei Zang, the captain of Habayashi, would not be able to dispatch cavalry from the state capital camp.

Xue Poye's eyes twitched as he thought of an almost impossible possibility.

With Emperor Deqing's wisdom, he might not have expected that after his death, the powerful royal family would make some rebellious actions. Could it be that these cavalry were the traps he laid before his death?

This is almost impossible.

After all, these were thousands of cavalry. How could they assemble so quickly and accurately when the royal family started to rebel? How could they hide it from the royal family's eyes and ears?

This is not one or ten cavalry, not even a hundred cavalry, but thousands of cavalry. If such a huge army is always on guard against the rebellion of the royal family, how could the royal family not be aware of it given the intelligence network of the royal family in the Great Chu Kingdom?

Xue Poye fell into deep thought.

He himself did not believe that reinforcements from the imperial court would arrive at this time.

In the rebel army formation, just as Liu Guogong and Ye Guogong were discussing some matters in a low voice, three messengers had arrived: "Report, thousands of cavalry and over ten thousand infantry have arrived at the city gate and stopped there.

Entering the city...they have already raised the flag!"

"What flag?"

"Chu Ziqi!"

"Chu character flag?" Ye Guogong suddenly changed his color: "Then...are those reinforcements from the imperial court? Where did the imperial court get the reinforcements?"

Liu Guogong tightened his grip on his horsewhip. He had gone through countless storms. Although he was shocked, he still maintained his composure and said in a deep voice: "Send the order, and the soldiers of the Minzhou camp will guard the streets separately. If there are rebels, stop them."

Since less than a thousand people from the Inspectorate and Kyoto Prefecture could hold off the elite garrison on more than a dozen long streets for more than an hour, then there were still ten thousand people in the Minzhou camp, so they could naturally hold back the imperial reinforcements.

"Brother Ye, given the current situation, we can only capture the palace as soon as possible and capture the Queen Mother and Prince. With them in hand, even if all the reinforcements from the state capitals in the world arrive, there is nothing we can do." Liu Guogong said calmly.

Ye Guogong glanced at the top of the city. The Yulin guards at the top of the city were already ready for the battle, and once the war started, his daughter, Concubine Su, would be pushed off the top of the city alive.

"I just hope that the Minzhou camp can hold on and buy us some time..." Ye Guogong stroked his beard and said calmly: "Having said that, even if the incoming army is reinforcements from the imperial court, our military strength is far superior to theirs...

…just some guys who came to die."

"Brother Ye, I'm afraid things won't be that simple." Liu Guogong said calmly: "They have thousands of cavalry, and the cavalry wants to fight one against ten. What's more, these reinforcements have obviously been ambushed a long time ago. What I'm worried about now is... this is

Who left behind? Who in the world has the ability to deploy such a powerful cavalry regiment?"

Ye Guogong frowned and opened his eyes suddenly, with deep fear flashing in his eyes: "You mean...?"

Liu Guogong nodded and sighed: "Who else has this ability except our Emperor?"

"But...he is already dead." Ye Guogong said with great certainty.

Liu Guogong also had doubts in his eyes.

He was extremely certain of this. On the day when the Holy Emperor passed away, due to his and Ye Guogong's special royal status, they had seen His Majesty the Emperor's body. With their decades of vision and observation, they were sure that His Majesty the Emperor was dead.

Otherwise, they would not dare to launch a mutiny without the death of His Majesty the Emperor.

But...how to explain the reinforcements from the imperial court?

Just when the two princes were confused, four cavalrymen came galloping over.

This time, the cavalry did not report anything, but only presented a letter. Liu Guogong took the letter and saw a trace of blood on the envelope at a glance.

The blood stain had obviously been wiped off recently, and it still smelled like blood.

Liu Guogong frowned, took out the letter, opened it gently, and after just one glance, his face became even more ugly, or in other words, a look of real fear appeared on his face.

Ye Guogong reached out to take it and took a look at it. His hands could not help but tremble.

The two wealthy princes were so shocked by the small letter that they lost their composure.

There were only three words written on the letter.

"Death to the traitors!"

Not one word too many, not one word too little. Such words may seem vulgar, but in this case, they have shocking power.

The two princes have experienced countless trials and hardships. Even if the words are ten times more powerful, they will sneer and dismiss them. They are not afraid of the literal meaning. What they are afraid of is the handwriting of three characters.

They could tell at a glance that the handwriting on the letter... belonged to His Majesty the Emperor!

The deceased Emperor actually left such a letter. In other words, this letter confirmed that the army outside the city was arranged by His Majesty the Emperor during his lifetime.

What a deep city!

"Who sent this letter?"

The messenger cavalry replied: "The commander of the incoming army shot it in."

"What does the coach look like?"

The messenger thought for a while and then cautiously reported: "He is wearing a black cloak and a gold helmet. I can't see his face clearly."

Liu Guogong suddenly realized something. He had just ordered the soldiers of the Minzhou camp to guard more than a dozen long streets. However, after the order was sent down, he discovered that the officers and soldiers of the Minzhou camp had not moved at all.

"Huang Da!" Liu Guogong roared in a deep voice.

Huang Da was always not far behind him, but after calling him this time, he didn't hear Huang Da's response.

A lieutenant behind him replied: "Your Majesty, Mr. Huang has gone to mobilize the troops and set up defenses."

Ye Guogong frowned and said: "Even if the troops are mobilized and deployed, why hasn't the Minzhou army made any move?" A cold murderous look flashed in his eyes, and he glanced at Liu Guogong, only to see Liu Guogong looking at him, and the two exchanged a look.

They all noticed a trace of suspicion in each other's eyes that was extremely difficult to detect.

The rumbling sound started again, and the shaking feeling came to every rebel in the square again.

Xue Poye, who was at the top of the city and was extremely confused, finally saw the black cavalry rushing into the city from outside the city. The Imperial Palace is the most majestic building in Kyoto City, the tallest building. Standing at the top of the Imperial Palace City, overlooking Kyoto City, although it is

In the dark night, it is quite clear.
To be continued...