Chapter 261 The Princess Marries (Part 2)
After dinner that night, Li Shimin went back to her palace with Concubine Wei. Now that there was no queen, Concubine Wei was the first person in the harem. Even for the sake of harem balance, he had to give Concubine Wei this face.
Before leaving, Concubine Wei looked at Concubine Sun with contempt. Concubine Sun gritted her teeth in hatred, and her nails left marks on her palms. However, she had to maintain a dignified and decent smile on her face, and sent the emperor off in a gentle and generous manner. Concubine Wei sneered in her heart. She was not the mother of the country. Who was she showing that to?
Li Shimin got on the dragon sedan and took in their expressions. These two people were the two strongest forces in the palace. In comparison, he still liked Concubine Wei's temperament more. Whether it was scheming or framing, at least she was clear about love and hate and didn't make people hate her. Concubine Sun was used to pretending to be a good person, but she was treacherous inside and it was annoying to see her.
However, if there were any kind-hearted women in the palace, they would not have survived for so long. He had made many calculations when he was dressed as the queen mother in the past. As long as they did not provoke him, he would not care. Although he was dressed as the emperor this time, with three palaces and six courtyards, he did not intend to accept these women. No matter how he changed, his sexual orientation would not change. Fortunately, he had a high level of cultivation now, and when he needed to deal with them, he could just throw an illusion over and solve it. It was not a big deal. In his eyes, these concubines were no different from the concubines he faced when he was dressed as the queen mother.
After Li Shimin washed up, Concubine Wei brought a bowl of soup with a smile, "Your Majesty, I know you're coming back today, so I stewed your favorite milk-stuffed fish at noon. It's just the right temperature now, would you like to try it?"
Li Shimin looked at the milky soup and was aroused to eat. He sat at the table and stirred the spoon, "My beloved concubine, you've worked hard. Sit down and have some with me. I've been away from the palace these days. Is everything okay?"
Concubine Wei holds the power of the harem. Even if there is something wrong, she can't expose her shortcomings. She only picked some interesting things to talk about, and then smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I want to congratulate you."
"Huh?" Li Shimin glanced at her, "Where does the congratulation come from?"
Concubine Wei smiled and said, "It's Zhaoyang. I wanted to choose a noble son-in-law for her, but she got ahead of me and chose one for herself. She said, I fell in love with the second son of the Jin family at first sight on the Chinese Valentine's Day, and now I will not marry anyone but you."
While talking, Concubine Wei paid attention to Li Shimin's expression, and Li Shimin pretended to be gloomy. Just as the midnight snack was almost finished, he simply threw the spoon into the bowl and scolded, "Nonsense!"
"My beloved concubine, does the Concubine have any say on this matter?"
Concubine Wei suppressed her smile and replied, "The Concubine just learned about this matter and received the news that you returned to the palace, so she asked you to make the decision. After all, it is a major event in Zhaoyang's life and cannot be taken lightly. But today, Sister Sun swore that Zhaoyang and the second son of the Jin family are in love with each other, and I think it may be a good marriage. "She would not miss a chance to trip up Concubine Sun and Zhaoyang. Those two usually pretended to be like mother and daughter and were against her. She wished they would be unlucky!
Li Shimin narrowed his eyes and thought for a while, then asked in a deep voice: "You said before that you would choose a prince consort for her. Is there a suitable one?"
Concubine Wei smiled and said: "I have looked around and found that there are really no good candidates in the capital. It just so happened that you mentioned to me that Songtsen Gampo proposed marriage. I think this person is suitable in terms of status, so I mentioned it to Zhaoyang. But... Your Majesty, Zhaoyang seems to have a lot of opinions about Tubo, saying... saying..."
"What did you say?"
"Zhaoyang said that Tubo is a barbarian tribe, the people there eat raw meat and drink blood, and there is a queen in Tubo, and it would be more painful for her to marry there than to die." Concubine Wei's voice was a little lower. Seeing that Li Shimin was silent with a gloomy face, she said a little aggrievedly, "Your Majesty, you have to make the decision for me. I am only thinking about the children. Which of Yonghe's marriages was not arranged by me? But this time Zhaoyang really misunderstood me because of the marriage, and thought that I wanted to harm her. A few days ago, the second son of the Jin family appeared, and they were in love. Your Majesty... It's okay for me to suffer a little grievance, but you can't let Zhaoyang choose a son-in-law so foolishly. "
Li Shimin was silent for a while and nodded, "I know, I'm tired today, let's rest first, and I'll investigate this matter first."
Seeing that he looked tired, Concubine Wei helped him to the bed to rest. The beds in the palace were big enough, and there were rules for sleeping. Two people, one quilt each, slept on both sides, and there was a distance of one person in the middle. Concubine Wei was from a noble family, and she was afraid of disturbing the emperor, so she almost didn't even turn over.
Li Shimin breathed a sigh of relief. This was not much different from sleeping by himself. He slowly practiced the exercises, practicing while sleeping, and rested well that night.
The lights in Concubine Sun's bedroom were on for half the night, and many things were broken. The next day, Concubine Wei found out and laughed at her for a long time with the servants around her.
Li Shimin dealt with the backlog of government affairs and did not enter the harem for three consecutive days. He did not see any of his children. Zhaoyang came twice, but was rejected by Gao De because of the busy government affairs.
After the government affairs were almost dealt with, he thought about the sons of the original owner, called the leader of the secret guards and ordered: "Arrange people to keep an eye on the crown prince, the fourth prince and the ninth prince, and also keep an eye on those who instigated them."
The leader of the secret guards was dressed in black, knelt on one knee, bowed his head and responded with a "yes." Then he disappeared silently in the room.
Li Shimin recalled the original owner's impression of several sons. Crown Prince Li Chenggan was inferior because of his foot disease, and he was a little restless when provoked; although the fourth prince Li Tai was dignified and talented, he was not visionary enough, too eager, and had no brotherly feelings. If he came to power, his two legitimate brothers would definitely not survive; as for the ninth prince Li Zhi, he was kind-hearted and a famous glutinous rice dumpling. Zhangsun Wuji and Chu Suiliang valued him very much and wanted to use him as a puppet emperor. He was not a good candidate at all.
When thinking of Li Zhi, Li Shimin thought of Wu Zetian, who was a talented person in the original owner's harem before she married Li Zhi. Although he admired this only empress in history, now he occupied the body of the original owner. The original owner had fourteen sons, and she could teach an heir anyway. He had no reason to hand over the country to an outsider.
He knocked on the table. He did not find the existence of Wu Zetian in his memory. He was in a comedy, and he could not use the history books in the space to check the years, so he ordered Gao De to secretly check whether there were any concubines of the Wu clan in the palace.
Gao De was very familiar with the affairs in the palace, and he found out that there were two Wu clans in the palace in two hours. Li Shimin looked at the backgrounds of these two people and confirmed that they were not Wu Zetian. He was relieved. It was not a comfortable thing to let such a person who could do great things stay in his harem. Even if he was not afraid of her, he did not want to cause trouble for himself.
After looking at the sky, it was time for dinner. "Gao De, see what the prince is doing and call him to have dinner with me."
Gao De was a little surprised, but he responded calmly. He went out and told his apprentice Li Cheng to run an errand. As soon as he finished speaking, he looked up and saw Princess Zhaoyang coming. He hurriedly stepped forward and saluted with a smile, "Your servant greets the princess."
Zhaoyang was blocked by him twice and was already unhappy. When she saw him standing in front of her and not giving way, she frowned and waved her hand impatiently, "Okay, okay, go and inform him. I have something to see my father."
Gao De smiled and said, "Third Princess, the emperor is busy now and has told him not to see anyone. Please go back first and wait for me. The emperor will definitely summon you when he is free." Zhaoyang stared at him, "How do you know that the emperor will not see me? Go in and report immediately!" Yinping stepped forward and said angrily: "You stood outside the first two times. Didn't you report it? How could the emperor not see the third princess? What conspiracy do you have? Who ordered you to do it?" Yinping was a good martial artist after all. With full momentum, Gao De immediately felt a tightness in his chest. He stepped back two steps and smiled reluctantly: "This... Third Princess, everything I said is true. The emperor has ordered that you must not disturb her. Please go back." He followed the emperor every day and understood the changes in his preferences best. In his opinion, the third princess was afraid that she would fall out of favor, so he naturally didn't need to please her too much. After all, he was also a favorite of the emperor. It was fine for the princess to make him angry, but who was Yinping! How dare she question him? The eunuch's temper was really small. Gao De had already blacklisted Yinping in his heart, waiting for the third princess to fall out of favor and settle accounts with her. Zhaoyang was anxious about her marriage. She was afraid that Li Shimin would listen to Concubine Wei's instigation and marry her to Tubo. She discussed with Concubine Sun and planned to talk to Li Shimin about Jin Duolu first. However, she didn't even see Li Shimin after two visits. She was even more panicked. At this moment, she was no longer in a good mood towards Gao De and insisted on letting him go in to report.
There was a lot of noise outside the door. Li Shimin frowned. Although Situ Yinping was good at martial arts, she had no rules at all and had a worse temper than the princess. I really don't know how she stayed in the palace for so many years. Could it be that she relied on the original owner's favor for Zhaoyang and followed the chickens and dogs to rise to heaven?
He walked out of the hall slowly with his hands behind his back and said in a deep voice: "What are you doing? Zhaoyang, you are becoming more and more unruly. It seems that Concubine Wei has to teach you well."
Zhaoyang was about to call someone when he heard his voice, but he didn't expect Li Shimin to say such a thing. Suddenly, his smile froze on his face and his heart was chilled.
Concubine Wei really tried to sow discord in front of her father!
Although he was furious, Zhaoyang immediately showed an aggrieved expression when he thought of his marriage, and shouted: "Father, you have been away from the palace for so long, and I missed you, so I lost my sense of propriety. Please don't be angry with Zhaoyang."
Yinping saw that the emperor actually scolded the princess with a stern face, and she was more determined to believe that the princess was framed. Although she didn't know the details, it didn't affect her heart to protect the princess, so she hurriedly interrupted and said: "Your Majesty, when you left the palace, the princess was worried day and night, couldn't eat well, couldn't sleep, and prayed to Buddha to bless you. The princess was so anxious and filial!"
Li Shimin looked over, and his sharp eyes scared Yinping. He immediately realized that he had said too much, and knelt on the ground, lowered his head and dared not speak again.
Li Ruo Huanmeng threw a mine
Lancer threw a mine
Thank you for the mines, dears\(￣︶￣*\)) Hug~