" Mother "
Cui Wenshen's shadow appeared under the eaves of the palace, his tone cold, "Your Majesty will not see you, please go back."
Snow was falling outside Jingyang Palace.
Concubine Xu Xian stood in the snow, wearing only a cloak, her figure was thin, and her whole body was shaking with cold.
The palace maid standing next to her held an umbrella and whispered to her: "Your Majesty... It's snowing heavily, but your health is the most important thing. Let's go back to the palace first."
Concubine Xu Xian avoided her support and said He exhaled white air to warm his hands while looking up at Cui Wenshen under the eaves.
"Your Majesty cannot see me, or is he unwilling to see me?"
Cui Wenshen was silent.
Concubine Xu Xian was still unwilling to give in and said in a loud voice: "If Your Majesty does not see you, I will be waiting here. When you see His Majesty, I will meet you!"
"If you keep waiting like this, even if you freeze to death, It will only make your majesty angry."
Concubine Xu Xian gritted her teeth and said, "Master Cui, I am pregnant with a dragon heir, but I beg your majesty to show mercy to me."
Cui Wenshen's eyelids twitched, and his eyes were slightly surprised. .
But he quickly returned to his expressionless look and turned around and entered the hall.
Soon, Fuzi came out with a smile on his face: "Your Majesty, your Majesty, please come in." Concubine
Xu Xian's anxious mood finally calmed down a bit, and she stepped into the hall with a cold face.
The emperor was sitting on the dragon chair, with an incense burner burning beside him. Li Shi's face looked a bit sickly pale, and he looked very tired. He coughed from time to time while holding the memorial in his hand and reading it.
When he looked up and saw Concubine Xu Xian, he had a strange expression.
After Concubine Xu Xian saluted, she asked eagerly: "Your Majesty, I heard that you want Pingyi to go to Northern Hungary for marriage? Is this true?"
She has a straightforward and domineering temperament, and she always says what she says, and the emperor also I have always liked her character and praised her innocent nature.
However, at this time, the emperor did not answer
the question: "You said you are pregnant?" Concubine Xu Xian paused. It was rare that she was not easily brought up by the emperor as usual. Instead, she stubbornly said: "Your Majesty, I want to ask you, Pingyi." Is it your idea to be sent to get married?"
This question was much sharper than the first time.
Li Shi glanced at her in surprise, but he didn't lose his temper - if what Concubine Xu Xian said was false, she shouldn't have avoided saying it, but she avoided it with a guilty conscience.
She had the confidence to question Li Shi, which indirectly proved that she was not lying.
Li Shi thought about it for a moment and nodded: "It's true."
He knew that he couldn't hide this matter, and it was useless to hide it. Concubine Xu Xian would know sooner or later.
It's better to tell the truth, lest Concubine Xu Xian trouble him again in the future.
Sure enough, Concubine Xu Xian's eyes widened and she immediately said in disbelief: "Your Majesty - are you crazy? How old is Pingyi?!"
"Ten years old, I know."
Li Shi sighed: "But the Northern Hungarians are coming fiercely this time. , the urgent report was sent back yesterday, and the desire for peace talks has been sent back to the north this morning. It is too late to stop them at this time." Concubine
Xu Xian took a deep breath and tried to calm down: "...This. Is this your own idea, or do all the courtiers know about it?"
Li Shi coughed, feeling guilty and unhappy: "I am the emperor, I decide what to do without their nodding."
Concubine Xu Xian frowned tightly. As if he didn't recognize him anymore: "But...but don't you love Pingyi the most? She is still so young, how can you send her to get married?"
Li Shi said patiently: "Pingyi is the only one in our Daxia now. Who would send a princess who has not left the palace? Besides, there is no precedent for marrying at the age of ten. If she marries the Northern Hungarian King, for the sake of Daxia, the Northern Hungarian King will definitely not treat her badly... Concubine
Xu Xian couldn't stand it any longer and interrupted him loudly: "Your Majesty, is peace necessary? ... Is the only way to peace negotiate is marriage! The late Emperor was bloody on the battlefield with King Zhao? After fighting hard, is he just using this great land to send his daughter out for peace talks? "
Xian Fei!" Li Shi was angry.
He slammed the table hard, causing Concubine Xu Xian to tremble subconsciously, and stretched out her hand to hold her already pregnant belly.
Seeing this, Li Shi's expression softened again, but he still said in a serious tone: "Peace talks are a last resort. You are a woman with long hair and short knowledge... I don't blame you, but you also have to know that the Great Xia Treasury is now Too much money is spent on people's livelihood construction, which can no longer support the huge consumption of war. "
"What's more, the harm caused by war is the common people," Li Shiyan said firmly, "Why not exchange one person's life for the peace of a country? Concubine Xian, you can't be too selfish. Having this honor and getting married is also a good thing that will leave your name in history. You have to understand the general situation and be happy for Pingyi... don't make it difficult for me."
Concubine Xu Xian looked at him blankly. for a long time.
She twitched her lips, as if she was happy as he said -
but she couldn't be happy.
Seeing that she seemed frightened by him, Li Shi paused and said in a gentler tone: "Since you are pregnant, you shouldn't bother yourself with such trivial matters... Besides, Pingyi is gone, won't we still be together?" Do you have a child? Now that the position of queen is vacant, if you give birth to a prince for me, I can consider raising you as queen..."
Concubine Xu Xian couldn't help but ask: "If I give birth to a prince... can I keep it? Are you going to Pingyi?"
Li Shi paused again.
Then he looked at her with a silent, slightly accusing look, without saying a word.
This is actually the answer.
Concubine Xu Xian lowered her eyes for a long time and whispered: "If you give birth to a prince and become a queen, but you still can't leave the concubine's home, does that mean that one day, your majesty will sacrifice my second child and ask him to die too? I still can't keep him?"
"In that case, what's the use of this post?"
It would be great if it can be given. How many concubines have dreamed of it, but she is still not satisfied?
Li Shi frowned and looked worried.
What else was he going to say? Fuzi hurriedly appeared at the door of the palace and saluted: "Your Majesty, Master Qiu has entered the palace and is waiting outside."
Li Shi thought for a while: "Where is Lehe?" "
Her Royal Highness the Princess is unwell. She said she fell asleep again."
Li Shi frowned, waved his hand, and told Concubine Xu Xian to go to the side hall to wait, and then said: "Forget it...send her to come in."
When Qiu Che entered the hall, he saw nothing. The empty imperial study room, and the frowning expression on Li Shi's face sitting in front of the desk.
She bowed steadily and didn't hear the voice calling her to get up, but she still straightened up as if nothing had happened.
"I wonder why Your Majesty called me into the palace?"
"Qiu..." Li Shi paused, as if he didn't know what to call her for a moment, hesitated, and then called Qiu Che by her real name, "You can come out, right?" My sympathy for your hard work does not mean that your previous crime of bullying can be wiped out... Do you understand?"
A cold light flashed in Qiu Che's eyes, but he said calmly: "Your Majesty is teaching you a lesson."
Li Shi nodded with satisfaction: "We should have let Le He come with you, but Le He couldn't come, so it's the same thing with you - before, you and your wife concealed my affairs together, I'll let it go, but from today on , you can just make peace."
Qiu Che: "...What does your Majesty mean?"
"Don't you understand?" Li Shi was surprised, "Since you are a fake couple, you are not tied together now. It is necessary to spread the word. How do the people view my royal children?"
Qiu Che was silent, and finally chose the latter between "agree first and go back to ask Li Qingwu for his opinion" and "reject directly": "Sorry, I cannot accept this."
Li Shi was even more surprised: "What's the reason?"
"I have the same heart as the eldest princess, and have regarded her as my only wife in this life," Qiu Che bowed and said neatly, "I believe she does too. So."
"If she doesn't nod, I will never be separated from her in this life."
Li Shi was confused for a moment and couldn't understand what she meant. He subconsciously asked, "What if she nodded?
" She won't."
"How do you know she won't?"
Qiu Che glanced up at him, a little speechless.
But considering that he was the emperor, he still responded patiently: "I have already said that I and Your Highness have the same mind."
"Ha."
Li Shi laughed as if he had heard a big joke, " You mean - woman, with a woman? Stop joking, how can a woman be with a woman? Are you
talking nonsense again? "Qiu Che knows that it doesn't make sense with someone like him. This society said that it was really hard for people to accept this, so he straightened up again and said calmly: "Hearing that the Northern Hungarians declared war, Your Majesty did not worry about how to deal with the Northern Hungarians, but instead wanted to interfere with the love affairs of his children. Could it be that he was a little confused about which is more important? What's more serious..."
"It's not your turn to tell me how to do things." Li Shi glared at her and became unhappy again.
He coughed violently for a while, and it was not until Fuzi thoughtfully and silently handed him a cup of tea that he slowly calmed down, "I naturally have countermeasures against Northern Hungary."
"The countermeasures Your Majesty mentioned were before sending Princess Pingyi to her. Are you going to Northern Hungary to get married?"
In the side hall, Concubine Xu Xian silently clenched the handkerchief in her hand.
Li Shi could hear the light disdain in her words, and said displeasedly: "What's wrong?"
"Everything is wrong." Qiu Che finished speaking calmly, and before Li Shi could get angry, he continued, "As a ten-year-old girl "You are young and close to the Northern Hungarians. Let's not talk about whether the Northern Hungarian King is a pedophile, but how will the people talk about His Majesty?"
His words were getting more and more rude.
As if he couldn't see Li Shi's darkened face, Qiu Che said leisurely: "You are so stupid and cowardly that you sell such a young daughter to seek peace? Your Majesty, this looks too ugly."
Li Shi said unhappily: "Then Just make peace with Lehe! Let Lehe get married!"
This idea was not new just now. He asked Qiu Che and Li Qingwu to make peace with each other. "If the Northern Hungarian King is not satisfied with the young daughter, then let Li Qingwu do it. This alternative is the idea of getting married."
But after all, Li Qingwu was married before. Although he was married to a fake man, if the Northern Hungarian King heard the rumors and was dissatisfied with it, it would not be easy to solve.
ââThatâs why Li Qingwu is said to be an alternative.
Qiu Che naturally understood what he was planning, and sneered in his heart, but on the surface he was still righteous: "This move is even more inappropriate. Her Royal Highness, the eldest princess, is deeply loved by His Majesty. She has been the most representative of the royal children for many years. One of them is the face of the royal family. Your Majesty wants to send the eldest princess to get married. I'm afraid he won't be able to convince everyone."
Li Shi thought about it and felt that what she said was somewhat reasonable. He gritted his teeth and said: "...Then find a few ordinary women. , brought her to my knees, entered the palace, made her a princess, and then sent her out for marriage. "
This is not unprecedented.
But if the Northern Hungarian King discovered it, it would probably be even more difficult.
Qiu Che sighed deeply: "At this point, your Majesty still doesn't understand what I'm going to say?"
"The Northern Hungarians had previously suspected of joining forces with the Southern Yi, and the declaration of war was just the beginning. Your Majesty really thought that a marriage with a woman would be enough. Do you want them to show off?"
"It's just a suspicion, there's no definite information."
"It'll be too late to find out."
"This won't work, that won't work eitherâ" Li Shi stood up and slapped the table angrily, "Then what did you say? Can it be done? If peace talks are not possible, will there be a war?â