The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

After this day, Xie Yuzhen did not see the emperor for five days.

Not only her, but all the concubines except the queen were unable to see the emperor.

It was approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, which should have been the time for families to prepare for the family reunion festival. However, at this moment, a major event occurred in Lingzhou, north of Kyoto. The old king of the Danzhu royal tent on the grassland died suddenly. His sons were fighting for the throne. One of the princes used a vicious and stupid method to kill most of the cattle and sheep in the royal tent. Seeing that the whole Danzhu would starve this winter, they temporarily stopped their infighting, gathered troops, and marched south to plunder Dasheng.

Fortunately, the governor of Lingzhou County was alert and fought off the first wave of attacks from Danzhu King’s tent. The urgent battle report, which was sent over a distance of 800 miles, was delivered to Kyoto within a day.

During the Great Sheng Dynasty, both civil and military talents were given equal importance. Officials who had a bit of ambition were both good at writing poems about love and romance, and good at wielding swords to rule their country. Under the rule of the current emperor, there is no shortage of brave and resourceful generals.

Therefore, when the battle report came, the generals rushed to the palace to pay their respects, and begged the emperor in various ways to send them to Lingzhou to lead the troops and give those ungrateful grassland people a good beating.

The reason why the empress was summoned by the busy emperor was because the emperor himself was thinking of leading the army in person.

After hearing this, the queen almost fainted from anger.

The battlefield is ever-changing and swords are ruthless. Even a veteran general may make mistakes.

There are five princes in the palace now, the oldest is only nine years old, and the eldest son of the Empress can't even walk steadily. If something happens to the emperor, the country will be in turmoil, and the whole Dasheng will be in turmoil.

The empress rolled up her sleeves on the spot and wanted to personally submit a petition to the emperor as the empress to advise him. The emperor tried to persuade her again and again, and repeatedly assured her that he would not lead the army in person, before the empress gave up the idea.

After the emperor settled down, he began to busy himself with state affairs.

He selected the soldiers and generals, prepared military rations and supplies, inspected the weapons and armor in the warehouse, and also caught a number of corrupt officials. The emperor was furious at not being able to fulfill his wish of leading the army in person, so he took those corrupt officials out on the spot, confiscated their properties and beheaded them. The atmosphere in the entire Kyoto suddenly became clear.

Xie Yuzhen, who was unable to meet the emperor, received a letter from outside the palace.

The person who wrote the letter was her close friend when she was in the boudoir, Jun Yuexin. The Xie and Jun families were originally neighbors. Jun Yuexin was one year younger than Xie Ruizhen and had an older brother. They had known each other before their teeth even grew. When Xie Ruizhen was detained in the yard by her two mothers to embroider, Jun Yuexin pestered her brother for help, climbed up the wall between the two families, and took fruit from her purse to give to Xie Ruizhen.

At that time, Xie Yuzhen was quiet and introverted, the most typical little lady of that era. She had never seen such a naughty girl before, and she was so scared that she called for adults immediately. Then she heard Aunt Jun from next door crying and beating her brother.

Xie Yuzhen later learned that the Jun brothers and sisters lost their father at a young age, and there was only a widowed mother who was a vegetarian and chanted Buddhist scriptures at home. They were not an ordinary family like other neighbors in the alley, but the wives and children left by the former general who defended the country.

General Xian Zhenguo had no parents and was an orphan from an orphanage. He joined the army headlong and did not marry until he was in his thirties. However, when Jun Yuexin was still in her mother's belly, the vassal state of Muli in the south rebelled, and the old general was ordered to go and suppress it. However, he was ambushed by a spy in the army and was poisoned by the miasma in the south. The medicine he took was also replaced.

Even so, the old general who went into battle despite his illness broke directly into the palace of King Muli and captured the royal family of Muli alive. On the way back to the capital, he finally succumbed to his illness and died of exhaustion on the way.

After the old general died, Madam Jun quietly moved out of the general's mansion with the reward bestowed by the late emperor and moved into the most ordinary civilian alley in Kyoto, where she happened to become neighbors with the Xie family.

Holding the letter carefully, Xie Yuzhen's face was dazed. When she was dazzled by Zhou Ting's gentleness, Jun Yuexin also reminded her that most of the marquis' mansions looked glamorous on the outside but corrupt on the inside, and there was no telling how many undercurrents were hidden underneath.

It's just that Zhou Ting hid Xiang too well at that time, and Xie Yuzhen, who was just beginning to fall in love, also chose to lose her brain. The two good sisters who grew up together gradually became estranged after several quarrels.

But when Xie Yuzhen and Zhou Ting confronted each other in court, Jun Yuexin still desperately dragged Xiang out of her hiding place and brought her directly to the court.

Later, they could no longer sleep side by side or chat about each other's recent situation like before, but they only needed a glance to understand each other's feelings without too many words.

Jun Yuexin said in the letter.

Her mother finally agreed to let her register as a female household, but unfortunately she was still unwilling to let her join the army like her brother... There had been female generals and female soldiers in the Great Sheng Dynasty. Jun Yuexin had practiced martial arts since she was a child and had always been yearning for marching and fighting.

She said that her brother did not tell their mother and secretly followed the team to Lingzhou. After their mother knew about it, she was finally willing to come out of the temple. This time, she took the blame for her brother, which was also a way to repay the many beatings her brother had endured for her when she was a child...

Jun Muchen went to Lingzhou?

After reading his friend's letter, Xie Yuzhen looked at the gradually darkening sky, feeling a little worried.

In fact, Madam Jun still has the imperial title of the wife of a first-rank general. Logically, Jun Yuexin and her brother Jun Muchen are also children of officials, but this family does not like to be a noble family. They would rather stay in the alley and live an ordinary life. I don't know if I can summon Yuexin into the palace. I have a lot of things to say to her.

Touching his belly that didn't show any sign of pregnancy, Xie Yuzhen called Xia Zhi in: "Let Xiaoxi go to the imperial kitchen and ask the imperial chef to make some refreshing side dishes."

After she got pregnant, her taste became more sophisticated. She was craving for soft and juicy roasted sweet potatoes the day before, but today she wanted to eat spicy and sour pickled vegetables: "A bowl of thick white rice porridge, and if there is fish, steam one too..."

As a pregnant woman, Xie Yuzhen had many privileges in terms of food, but it was inconvenient that Jinghua Tower did not have a small kitchen. After giving instructions to Xia Zhi, she began to think about another palace in Shouning Palace that was more spacious and grand, and had a small kitchen.

Xie Yuzhen, who was thinking about how to persuade the emperor to change his residence or build a new small kitchen, turned around and saw Chunfen walking in.

"what happened?"

Chunfen walked closer and lowered her voice, "Just now I saw Xiaoxi leave after receiving the order, and Huizhu also found an excuse to follow her out."

Xie Yuzhen narrowed his eyes.

She had been secretly observing several palace maids for quite some time, and she actually managed to find out two unusual ones. One was the palace maid named Huizhu, and the other was the young eunuch named Baoxi.

Baoxi had only disappeared once after going out, but Huizhu was much more restless and often found excuses to go out. Chunfen had almost figured out her whereabouts.

"This time, I can basically confirm that Huizhu has indeed gone to Jiangyun Palace."