Chapter 371 Mission 035

The fourth prince Xiao Shengtian was completely confused after receiving the imperial edict. It was true that he liked his cousin from the Zhao family very much, but at most he admired her beauty and never thought of marrying her as his principal wife!

He was originally a third prince whose family was not as good as the queen's legitimate son. His mother's family could not help him at all and he had to rely on him to support him. So he wanted to marry a principal wife of noble birth like the eldest prince to win over a large family to work for him.

The eldest prince's mother, Concubine Zhang, was of a very humble birth and had no favor from the emperor. She was only able to be conferred the title of concubine by her son. The eldest prince's situation was even worse than that of the fourth prince. He only had the title of the eldest son and was hostile to the third prince, who was born to the queen. However, the eldest prince had his own team by marrying a principal wife from a noble family and began to emerge.

The fourth prince Xiao Shengtian was the son of a favored concubine. He only regretted that he did not have a prominent mother's family like the third prince, so he wanted to find a prominent wife family who could help him in the fight for the throne.

Now that Emperor Cheng'an has issued an imperial decree to grant him a marriage with his cousin from the Zhao family, it is undoubtedly a severance for him. Even if he can marry a concubine in the future, the concubine's family background cannot be higher than that of the main wife. This simply cuts off his path to marrying into a noble family!

The Fourth Prince received the decree with a smile on his face and hatred in his heart. He did not dare to resent Emperor Cheng'an, and could only put all his hatred on the Third Prince. If he had not fought with him for his cousin at the flower-viewing banquet that day, how could his father force him to marry his cousin as his main wife? Then he took his anger out on his cousin, thinking that if his cousin had not danced in front of a man without any dignity, how could she have seduced the Third Prince to fight with him? In the end, he took his anger out on the Third Prince's sister Xiao Han, who proposed that women also perform talents together. He felt that Xiao Han, this sister, was born to be his enemy. She had competed with him for the favor of his mother since she was a child, and when she grew up, she had competed for the favor of his father. Now she has prevented him from marrying a noble wife!

Anyway, everything was someone else's fault. It was someone else who made him unhappy. He didn't think he was wrong at all. However, no matter how much he felt that he was innocent, the imperial edict came down, and he could only do things according to the imperial edict.

But what made him happy was that the third prince was soon granted marriage by Emperor Cheng'an. The future third prince's wife was just a daughter of a nobleman who had a high title but no real power. The title sounded good, but it couldn't help the third prince.

The third prince and the fourth prince got married one after another, which caused more undercurrents in the court.

Emperor Cheng'an didn't have many sons. Even with the fake princess Xiao Han, there were only five sons in total. It wasn't that the harem's secrets led to the death of the princes. Emperor Cheng'an's protection of the princes and princesses was still very powerful, but Emperor Cheng'an never cared about women. Not many concubines got pregnant, and most of them gave birth to princesses.

Among the five princes, except Xiao Han, whose identity was not exposed, the other four princes, the eldest prince's mother's family was humble but his wife's family was powerful, and he was the eldest, and now he was ambitious to fight for the throne. The second prince's mother had been convicted and sent to the cold palace. He had shown his attitude of being just an idle prince from the beginning, and even the morning court was three days of fishing and two days of drying the net. The third prince was the queen's legitimate son, with a noble status and a powerful mother's family. He fought fiercely with the eldest and fourth princes. The fourth prince won a lot of support by relying on his mother, the favorite concubine, and his favorite "sister". He also had some ability, so he also participated in the fight for the throne.

The third and fourth princes have already married and opened a mansion outside the palace, which symbolizes that the fight for the throne has gradually entered a white-hot stage.

The court has changed from undercurrents to open and covert struggles. The princes formed gangs and parties, and confronted each other in various ways.

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Xiao Ying often stayed by Emperor Cheng'an's side, watching him worry about the princes who were fighting each other to the death, and silently became a caring little cotton-padded jacket.

None of the princes who were fighting each other took him, a princess who was quite favored by the emperor, seriously. The fourth prince did talk to him about "brother-sister love" and wanted to win him over to speak well of him in front of Emperor Cheng'an, but he was angrily cut off contact with him after being rejected by him.

Xiao Ying did not expect that this cheap brother would be so stupid to tear him apart, which caused him a lot of trouble. The other three princes saw that the fourth prince was not on good terms with him, and often came to win him over, which made him very annoyed.

In fact, Xiao Ying has also gathered a lot of his own power in private now, but he cannot reveal his identity as a prince, and can only recruit people as a princess, which is extremely inconvenient. Therefore, he only has low-ranking officials to rely on.

However, what surprised him was that the male protagonist Situ Zhen, who should have been lured by Miss Zhao, the current Fourth Prince's wife, to join the Fourth Prince's army, did not join the Fourth Prince. It was probably because the female protagonist, as the middleman, was now busy fighting with a group of concubines in the Fourth Prince's backyard!

Xiao Yan just paid attention to Situ Zhen, and Emperor Cheng'an suddenly said to him: "I plan to send Situ Zhen to Pingxi Prefecture as a prefect."

Xiao Yan was stunned: "Pingxi Prefecture?"

Pingxi Prefecture is close to the border and is the front line of the war with the Hu people and barbarians, so there is a large army stationed there all year round. However, since this dynasty had already crippled the Hu people and barbarians as early as the time of the previous emperor, there has been no war for many years.

The one sitting in Pingxi Prefecture is the Pingxi County King. The previous generation of Pingxi King was the great hero who led the troops to cripple the Hu people. The previous emperor was excited and named him the Pingxi King of a different surname. Later, the son of the Pingxi King inherited the title and was demoted to the County King.

Xiao Ying was a little confused: "What's the point of letting Situ Zhen go to Pingxi Prefecture as the prefect?"

Pingxi Prefecture has not been attacked by barbarians for decades, and there is no plot about the barbarians coming back in the original work. It is obvious that they were maimed decades ago and have not yet recovered. The Prince of Pingxi County has long been pampered and turned into a useless snack. The local army is also controlled by someone whom Emperor Chengan can trust. Is it possible that he is still afraid of him uniting the army to rebel? Let Situ Zhen go find out the evidence of Prince Pingxi's rebellion?

Emperor Cheng'an said: "I heard that Situ Zhen has a lot of insights into sandstorm control. Pingxizhou is poor and has been troubled by sandstorms, so I sent him there to give it a try. Let him practice and practice, so that he can be promoted in the future!"

Xiao Yu: "..." Then why are you talking to me?

Emperor Cheng'an: "Go and practice it for him yourself!"

Xiao Yu frowned slightly, but still agreed.

Although he didn't know why Emperor Cheng'an wanted him to practice with Situ Zhen in person, he still had no objection as long as he didn't want Situ Zhen to be his consort.

When Emperor Cheng'an said these words to Xiao Yu, the official department had already completed the transfer procedures for Situ Zhen, and Situ Zhen also knew where he was going.

In the past few years, the Duke of Qi's palace has been completely cleaned up by Situ Zhen, and the restless brothers have also been separated. But now that Situ Zhen has been sent to Pingxi Prefecture as a small prefect by the emperor, others think that the emperor does not want to see him, so many people are gloating about his misfortune.

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Xiao Yu agreed to Emperor Cheng'an's request and drove to the Duke of Qi's mansion without much delay.

He didn't care if he would be rumored about another scandal when he came here, but after meeting Situ Zhen, he conveyed Emperor Cheng'an's intention: "The reason why Duke Qi went to Pingxi Prefecture is because my father heard that Duke Qi was very concerned about wind and sand control." I have learned something, so I sent you there. I just hope that Duke Qi will not let down my father’s high expectations and do his job well!”

Situ Zhen didn't look surprised, and saluted respectfully: "Thank you for your attention, Your Majesty! I will live up to Your Majesty's high expectations!" He remembered His Majesty's private instructions to him when he was summoned by Emperor Cheng'an a few days ago. He took a deep look at the third princess, and then lowered his head silently.

Situ Zhen's mother, Mrs. Qi Guogong, was very happy to express her gratitude to Xiao Yu, and her originally worried face turned into joy.

As the princess Xiao Yu practiced for Situ Zhen, of course she had to hold a practice banquet, and many courtiers had to come to support her.

These courtiers only felt that Emperor Cheng'an was trying to show off to Tu Zhen of the Qi State Company. No one thought that Emperor Cheng'an was no longer interested in sending Situ Zhen to Pingxi Prefecture as the magistrate. They all said that they were training him for future use.

Everyone focused on the Duke of Qi, but no one noticed that in the past, the people who were ordered by His Majesty to see off courtiers or attend banquets to show His Majesty's respect were all princes, but this time Emperor Cheng'an asked the three princesses to come.

After Xiao Yu sent Situ Zhen away, he was sent out many times by Emperor Cheng'an to reward important ministers in the name of Emperor Cheng'an. For example, when the elder of Sanchao Pavilion celebrated his birthday, Emperor Cheng'an sent Xiao Yu to celebrate his birthday with many rewards in his name. , if in the past Emperor Chengan always sent a certain prince he valued.

After several times, everyone was only surprised by Emperor Cheng'an's favor for the third princess, but Xiao Yu came to his senses. Is this the beginning of letting him show up more to gain his reputation?

There has never been a queen in the history of this world, so Emperor Cheng'an had to slowly boil the frog in warm water if he wanted to be the first.

After Xiao Yu understood Emperor Cheng'an's intention, he was very cooperative. He would also get involved in many occasions where the princess rarely appeared.

Later, when Emperor Cheng'an met with important ministers in the Xuanyi Hall, he talked with those ministers and began to ask Xiao Yu's suggestions in front of the ministers. It goes without saying that he valued him.

Some ministers with bright minds were shocked to guess the truth, but they did not dare to say anything without Emperor Cheng'an's permission. And these ministers were favored by Emperor Cheng'an and did not get involved in the fight for the direct descendants. With Emperor Cheng'an's acquiescence and Xiao Yu's active performance, these neutral factions began to stand silently behind Xiao Yu.

Maybe it's not a position, they just support Xiao Yu according to Emperor Cheng'an's arrangement, but if Emperor Cheng'an no longer chooses him, they will be the first to abandon him.

But for Xiao Yu, this level of support is enough. He originally thought that as a woman, he would be greatly hindered in his bid for the throne, but he didn't expect that Emperor Cheng'an would consider so much for him and silently help him gain a foothold.