Song Zhi followed the sound and, upon seeing who it was, a sense of realization flashed through his eyes. He spoke with a blank expression:

"Su Zixiao, it’s you indeed.

As an imperial guard Colonel, colluding with rebels and disregarding the Su Family’s century-old reputation, do you know what you are doing?"

The young man in imperial guard’s golden armor rode out from behind Gu Lan, his sword-like brows and bright eyes conveying a slightly mocking smile.

"Commander, you must be mistaken. Where does our Su Family still have any century-old reputation? Besides, I’m all alone. So, rebellion it is — the Emperor might as well just execute my whole family, it’s not like it hasn’t happened before."

Su Zixiao’s thin lips curved upward slightly. Despite speaking such carefree words, he exuded a righteous aura.

Song Zhi: "..." He had forgotten that the Su Family’s century-old reputation was long gone; the scandal of Empress Dowager Su’s improprieties in the palace had even spread among common folk.

The situation became quite awkward.

Su Zixiao looked around at the surrounding imperial guards, the smile fading from his lips as he spoke with strength and conviction:

"Gentlemen, I, Su Zixiao, am just an imperial guard Colonel. I don’t know how the Emperor defines Prince Xiang’s rebellion, but I know that Rong Heng and Gu Lan are my brothers and moreover heroes of Dayan, such people shouldn’t die!"

Song Zhi confronted Su Zixiao, glanced at Gu Lan, and couldn’t help but shake his head, letting out a sigh.

"Initially, to balance your position, His Majesty restored Rong Heng’s status as a Prince and made him the Military Discussion Captain of Dingyuan Army, and he appointed Gu Lan as Pingnan General to balance against Prince Xiang. But unexpectedly, it all ended up as a benefit for others; you had already conspired together."

"This isn’t called colluding, Commander Song, it’s called brotherly love."

Rong Heng thought to himself, who considers him a brother?

Su Zixiao stepped forward and loudly questioned, "Commander Song says Prince Xiang is treacherous, then show evidence of his treachery."

Song Zhi said in a deep voice: "Prince Xiang secretly brought troops back to the capital with ulterior motives. The evidence is clear as day."

Rong Heng spoke unhurriedly, "I returned to the capital by His Majesty’s order to report on the Southern Border military situation. Didn’t His Majesty allow me to return? You claim I brought troops back, but there are only about a hundred personal soldiers with me. Where are the troops?"

Song Zhi’s expression was grave; he had guessed that Rong Heng would certainly bring a small number of vanguard troops back first, which is why he laid an ambush here. Moreover, who didn’t know, his army was on its way, but indeed, the hundred or so people around Rong Heng right now couldn’t be counted as a rebellion.

Su Zixiao added: "The Prince fought valiantly on the frontier. I don’t know why someone so loyal to the country could be considered a traitor. On the contrary, His Majesty has issued many decrees recently that have caused instability in Dayan, with people in the capital living in fear, unable to sleep soundly at night."

"Are you suggesting that His Majesty is confused?"

"The Emperor is surely misled by treacherous ministers. Moreover, at the last court assembly, the Emperor appeared pale and weak, and lost temper publicly, even killing Lord Chen from the palace compilation department on the spot. The Emperor is afflicted with chronic illness, and whether he was momentarily confused, who can say." Su Zixiao said indifferently.

Song Zhi clenched his fists but saw that Gu Lan also restrained his smile and asked, "Commander Song claims to have an order to arrest Prince Xiang. Where is your decree?"

All around, the eyes of Song Zhi’s imperial guards showed complete loss of fighting spirit.

Without numerical superiority over the Dingyuan Army, and facing fellow imperial guards as adversaries, coupled with Gu Lan and Su Zixiao’s words, they hoped even more that Song Zhi would withdraw the troops.

Prince Xiang merely brought around a hundred men back to the capital, how could that be considered rebellion? Moreover, Prince Xiang had protected the country in the past and was a hero of Dayan. They all deeply respected him, whereas His Majesty had been arbitrarily killing innocents both in court and among the populace recently, earning resentment from the people of the capital.

Though they followed Song Zhi’s orders and were loyal to His Majesty, they really did not wish to fight amongst themselves and cause mutual harm.

"There is no decree; I am acting on a verbal order from His Majesty," Song Zhi stared at Gu Lan and retorted, "Young Master Gu, you disguised yourself as a man, and the matter of the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion deceiving the emperor has not yet been resolved. You should be in the palace, who allowed you to leave privately?"

Gu Lan met his gaze calmly, her words steady and revealing a hint of mockery: "Why doesn’t Commander Song guess how I left the palace?"

Song Zhi had left Yan Capital a day earlier to ambush Rong Heng on his return route and hadn’t received news from Rong Jing’s side.

He didn’t know how Gu Lan had escaped the palace, didn’t know that the people of the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion had fled, and didn’t know she had wounded Rong Jing, leaving the Imperial Palace in chaos.

Looking at the stunningly beautiful woman before him, Song Zhi’s eyelid twitched, and a sense of unease suddenly arose in his heart.