The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 882: backbone
Chapter 882 Backbone
Bai Qingping had just walked under the corridor and before he could step into Bai Qihe’s study, he heard a clan member talking about what kind of merit his family should be awarded for having contributed the most to defending Shuoyang, and whether Bai Qingyan should give them the title of prince…
“Chief, you say… Now that His Majesty has ascended the throne, as members of the clan, and those who have made contributions in defending Shuoyang, shouldn’t we be rewarded? We have no say in front of His Majesty, but I hope you can talk about our contributions in front of His Majesty. After all, we are all royal relatives, so it shouldn’t be a problem to give us some fiefdom or a hereditary princeship!”
“That’s right, the Bai family’s eldest wife, Mrs. Dong…”
“Hey! How should I address her? She should be called Queen Mother now!” An elder of the clan corrected.
“Yes, yes, yes! Queen Mother! It’s the Queen Mother! When we were protecting Shuoyang, the Queen Mother said in person that the family that contributed the most would be rewarded. In order to store food for Shuoyang, our families almost went bankrupt. You, clan leader, know all this!”
“That’s right. In order to ensure the smooth ascension of the Princess Zhenguo, we protected the ladies of the Bai family from being captured by the King of Liang’s men and threatened the Princess Zhenguo. We risked our lives to protect them and made great efforts! Clan leader, think about it, if the Queen Mother had been captured… would the Princess Zhenguo have been able to ascend the throne so smoothly? In this case, our Bai clan should be credited with the greatest contribution to the Princess Zhenguo’s ascension to the throne!”
Bai Qihe listened to the tribesmen’s delusional words, just picked up the teacup, lowered his eyes and drank tea, and endured it without saying a word.
“The first merit?! I don’t know… When did you all foresee the future and actually knew that the Princess Zhenguo would ascend the throne? I don’t know when you all risked your lives to protect the ladies of the Bai family?” Bai Qingping spoke slowly and leisurely. He came in from the study room, bowed to Bai Qihe, and then said to his fellow clansmen, “When Li Mingrui led his troops to attack Shuoyang, did you lead the troops to the city wall to resist the enemy? Or did you personally shoot the thieves and capture Li Mingrui alive? It was the two girls of the Bai family who led the Shuoyang army trained by the Princess Zhenguo to the city wall to resist the enemy, and it was the ladies of the Bai family who sent all the guards in the mansion to resist the enemy! It was also the Bai family guard Ji Tingyu who arrived in time with the Bai family army, which saved the heads of everyone present!”
“Although Bai Qingping is not very old, I have seen shameless people, ungrateful people, and people who repay evil with kindness, but I have never seen such a reversal of right and wrong… Taking the kindness shown to you by others as kindness you owe to your benefactor! You really opened my eyes.” Bai Qingping said in a cold voice.
The Bai clan members have been showing off their achievements all the time. Now Bai Qingping, who led his troops to the city wall to resist the enemy when defending Shuoyang, has returned with such sharp words. The clan members thought that Bai Qingping was dissatisfied with them for not showing off the achievements for clan leader Bai Qihe and Bai Qingping and his son.
Someone else praised Bai Qingping: “Of course, you and Qingping must have made the greatest contributions! Your Majesty must grant you and Qingping the largest fiefdom.”
“In terms of merit, Bai Qingping believes that he cannot compare himself with the soldiers who went to Hancheng to destroy Liang, nor can he compare himself with the ladies and girls of the Bai family in Dadu! It’s just that you…protected Shuoyang to protect your own lives. You have made great contributions in protecting Shuoyang this time… The ladies of the Bai family will remember it in their hearts and report it to His Majesty, and His Majesty will reward you according to your merits.”
“But…if you continue to confuse right and wrong and think that the protection of Shuoyang this time was all the work of the Bai family, I, Bai Qingping, will be the first to disagree. I will definitely tell His Majesty everything you said today… in detail!”
The clan elders saw that Bai Qingping had such a tough attitude and even refused to buy into his flattery to attribute the credit to them father and son, but they did not dare to offend them easily. After all, the only ones who could speak in front of Bai Qingyan were Bai Qihe and Bai Qingping.
Seeing this, the oldest elder of the clan smiled and said, “Alright, alright! Let’s not talk about competing for merits here, whether to be granted land or not… or whether to be crowned as a king or not, no matter whether we are granted titles or not, we are all relatives of His Majesty, His Majesty’s elders!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the tribesmen were about to argue. The oldest elder waved his hand to signal the tribesmen not to worry. Then he held his cane with both hands, pretended to be calm and sighed, turned his head and looked in the direction of Bai Qihe: “Chief, you see… We are all relatives, tribesmen and elders of His Majesty. There are some things that others cannot say. We, as elders, have to worry about His Majesty!”
Bai Qihe held the teacup, raised his eyes and asked with a smile: “Your Majesty has hundreds of officials outside, and your Majesty has the ladies of the Bai family inside. I wonder if your Majesty has any matters that need your turn to worry about?”
Even though Bai Qihe’s words were so impolite, the elder did not get angry. He waved his hand with a mature and steady look and said, “These words… the ministers dare not say them. If they are mentioned, they may make the ladies of the Bai family sad. So we, the elders, can only give advice to His Majesty!”
“Tell me about it…” Bai Qihe put the teacup on the table in front of him and motioned Bai Qingping to sit down first.
“You see, your majesty was injured in his early years and has no chance of having children! Moreover, he was injured once while trying to save the crown prince of the previous dynasty. He almost died several times while recuperating in Shuoyang…” The elder seemed reluctant to continue, and after a pause, he continued, “Your majesty’s body is already in that state, and he can no longer have children. If anything were to happen… the whole Great Zhou would be in chaos. Therefore, for the sake of national stability, we need to establish a crown prince as soon as possible to calm people’s hearts!”
“Yes!” A clan member quickly followed suit, “Your Majesty can adopt a young son from the clan and raise him as the crown prince. If something happens to Your Majesty in the future, the country will have a crown prince… and there will be a backbone, so the country will not be in chaos!”
“You are all joking…” Bai Qingping, who had already taken his seat, sneered, “Your Majesty’s health is not something you should worry about. Your Majesty will not adopt a child from the clan. Although Your Majesty is not destined to have children, it does not mean that Your Majesty will not have children. Moreover, Your Majesty has many sisters, and the Eighth Miss of the Bai family has been with Your Majesty since she was a child, and their relationship is very deep!”
“The throne has always been passed on to the son, how can it be passed on to the younger sister! What nonsense is this…”
“It’s not like there’s no precedent of passing the throne to a younger brother. Your Majesty can ascend the throne as a woman, so why can’t you pass the throne to your younger sister?” Bai Qingping turned to look at the clan member who was speaking. “Even if Your Majesty really wants to adopt a child, not to mention that your sisters are not married yet, the married Bai family girl, Madam Qin, already has a son. In terms of close relatives… aren’t they closer than the descendants of the clan members?”
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