The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1286: unfavorable
Chapter 1286 Unfavorable
In the shallow sweet porcelain wide-mouthed fish tank, the red koi fish swung its tail violently, and the water in the tank splashed on Queen Dowager Yan’s hand, which brought her back to her senses.
“This beast…” The personal maidservant beside Queen Dowager Yan hurriedly stepped forward to take the fish food from her hand, took out a handkerchief to wipe the back of her hand, and ordered someone to prepare clothes immediately and help the Queen Dowager change her clothes.
Queen Mother Yan was absent-minded. She pulled her hand out of the maid’s and asked, “The Ninth Prince… is already outside the palace. I heard that Ah Li personally led the court officials to greet him. Why didn’t anyone come to tell me if the Ninth Prince has arrived?”
“Now that the Great Zhou army is approaching, the Ninth Prince will definitely discuss countermeasures with Your Majesty as soon as he returns. After the serious matters are discussed, Your Majesty and the Ninth Prince will definitely come to the Queen Mother. Your Majesty, don’t worry.” The maid comforted Queen Mother Yan.
Queen Mother Yan lowered her eyes and saw that there was no one else in the hall. Then she whispered thoughtfully, “I’m afraid…Ayan will blame me for not letting anyone tell me.”
The maid looked around nervously, wiping Queen Mother Yan’s sleeves while saying, “Queen Mother, please don’t let your imagination run wild. Even if the Ninth Prince is angry, the Second Prince has always been filial to you. He always comes to pay his respects to you after going out. The Second Prince has not come yet, so he must be discussing with Your Majesty how to deal with the affairs of the Great Zhou!”
Hearing this, Queen Mother Yan nodded, comforted herself, smiled and patted her personal maid’s hand and said: “Thanks to you for being by my side and always guiding me all these years!”
“Your Majesty, what are you talking about? I am just a bystander and I see things more clearly. How can I be said to be blaming my master?” Queen Dowager Yan’s personal maid smiled and said.
Queen Mother Yan smiled and took the hand of her maid and went into the back hall to change her clothes.
Empress Dowager Yan had just changed her clothes when she heard the eunuch outside come in to report that the king’s uncle had secretly sent a letter asking the empress dowager to go to the front hall.
“Didn’t you say what it was about?” asked Queen Mother Yan.
“Her Majesty, I don’t know…” the eunuch who came to report the news said in a low voice, “The uncle of the emperor only asked me to come quickly and invite the empress dowager to the front hall, and he didn’t say anything else.”
“Queen Dowager, are you going?” the maid asked Queen Dowager Yan.
After thinking for a while, she said, “Let’s go and have a look!”
The maidservant of Queen Mother Yan responded, knelt down to straighten the hem of Queen Mother Yan’s clothes, stood up again, supported Queen Mother Yan’s hand and walked out, saying loudly: “Call the sedan chair!”
Soon, Queen Mother Yan arrived at the front hall in a sedan chair. Before she went in, she heard noisy sounds coming from the main hall. She paused and hid outside the hall, listening quietly.
“To meet our Queen Mother?! Ha… You two prisoners, what qualifications do you have to meet our Queen Mother of Yan? You are just dreaming!”
“You said that you came to Yan State to make a deal for Cui Shanzhong and our Queen Mother Yan. Even if the evidence is conclusive? Who knows if you destroyed Xiliang and then deliberately provoked the relationship between our two allies, Yan State and Da Zhou, and said so on purpose!”
“Yes! Otherwise, maybe the Great Zhou relied on its own strong army to attack our Yan State and deliberately found such an excuse. You were bought by the Great Zhou. Maybe… you are not the confidants of Cui Shanzhong of Xiliang, but people of the Great Zhou. Then it is reasonable for our queen mother to meet people sent by her own allies. This may be a trap set by your Great Zhou!”
The ministers of Yan State spoke one after another, and their words became more and more angry.
“So?” Xiao Rongyan spoke slowly, “Even if this was a trap set by the Great Zhou, and now the main force of Yan is trapped in Xiliang, and the Great Zhou army is stationed on the border of Yan, and Yan gives the Great Zhou an explanation, saying that this was a trap set by the Great Zhou… can the Great Zhou army be withdrawn?”
As soon as Xiao Rongyan said this, the ministers who had been very emotional just now…and who had accused the Great Zhou of setting a trap, immediately looked at the old uncle-in-law Zhong Xingxiao with nervous expressions, and quickly retreated into the ranks of court officials.
“At that time, General Chu admitted to betraying the Great Zhou in the military camp. Later, the Great Zhou captured the confidants of General Cui Shanzhong and learned that it was the Queen Mother who betrayed the Great Zhou army!” Murong Ping stood with his hands behind his back, frowning, “So even if we don’t consider the military strength, just talking about reason, this matter… no matter how you look at it, it is our Yan State that is wrong! The Great Zhou gave us a larger share of the spoils of war, but we stabbed them in the back. This will definitely make people all over the world ashamed, and it also gives the Great Zhou a legitimate reason to send troops to us.”
“This matter…it is indeed our Yan State that betrayed the Great Zhou. I have already investigated it clearly, and there is no need to discuss it further.” Murong Li spoke slowly, “But it is meaningless to investigate who is right and who is wrong in this matter. This time it is our Yan State that gave the reason for sending troops to the Great Zhou, and we are in the wrong first!”
He raised his head and glanced at the ministers in the hall.
“Your Majesty, do you admit that it was our Yan State that betrayed the Great Zhou?” A courtier who followed the Ninth Prince pretended to be surprised and looked at Murong Li with wide eyes. “Could it be that what these two confidants of the old general Cui Shanzhong said is true, and that the Queen Mother secretly ordered General Chu to betray the Great Zhou allied forces? So that the Great Zhou emperor’s brother, the fifth son of the Bai family, was captured alive?”
The court officials who followed the Regent Murong Yan were eager to pull down the ignorant woman in the harem of the Queen Mother of Yan from the position of regent. Not only was she unable to help with important matters, but she often made things worse. It was already a headache enough for the Regent to assist a young master, and now he had to clean up the mess for the Queen Mother all day long. It was simply nonsense.
Murong Li pursed his lips and said nothing. After a while, he raised his hand to signal the guards to take Cui Shanzhong’s two confidants away.
After there were no outsiders in the Yan court, Murong Li slowly said, “I know that when the fifth son of the Bai family was captured alive, the Emperor of the Great Zhou was furious and deployed troops on the border of Yan State. From that time on, I have been thinking about how we should deal with it if the fifth son of the Bai family and the seventh daughter really died this time, and what would happen to the future of Yan State…”
Xiao Rongyan sat on a chair next to the emperor’s throne, leaning lazily on the armrest. Knowing that Murong Li was going to talk about the strategy of merging the two countries, he listened quietly.
“I have thought about it carefully, calculated the military strength of our Yan State, and also calculated with the Minister of Revenue how much grain our Yan State can still draw.” Murong Li looked at the Minister of Revenue.
The Minister of Revenue bowed quickly to indicate that this was exactly the case.
“General Xie’s main force cannot return, and Yan State does not have enough food and troops. Once the Great Zhou Army marches westward…” Murong Li said in a heavy voice, “Our Yan State…actually has no chance of winning!”
The ministers in the court were silent, even the king’s uncle Zhong Xingxiao was silent. He knew that what Murong Li said was true, and the current situation was very unfavorable for Yan.
Second update…