Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Jinyang, Wang family.

"Brother is truly crazy! Crazy!! He actually wants to force the king to marry me in this way?!"

After reading the letter from her brother Zhen Yan, Zhen Mi, who always paid attention to etiquette and respect for hierarchy, could not help but scold her brother.

"The princess and the king are deeply in love, how could they allow others to interfere? Has he ever considered the consequences of doing this? Has he ever thought about my future? He's absolutely crazy! Crazy!!"

Zhen Mi's fourth sister, Zhen Rong, sighed beside her. "Brother, you've really been inconsiderate about this matter. My Zhen family is a prominent clan in Zhongshan. The Zhongshan clan rebels are causing chaos, and you're evading the issue by saying you didn't know about it. This is simply an insult to the princess's intelligence. It would have been fine if you knew about it but kept it a secret. Now you're trying to bargain with the king. Isn't he afraid of the king's retribution later?"

Zhen Mi sneered repeatedly, "He is too confident in me, this 'noble lady', and delusionally believes that I can really replace the princess in the king's heart and become his favorite concubine. Little does he know that by doing so, he is sending me and the Zhen family to a dead end! Most of the Tang Kingdom was conquered by the princess. How can I compete with the princess? This noble lady? It's just a fortune teller's nonsense, but my brother has been obsessed with it all these years. Sister, what should I do? I really don't want to marry the king."

Zhen Rong was in a dilemma. "I can't make the decision on this matter. My brother even asked me to go find my husband and ask him to be the middleman. You know how much my husband dotes on the princess. If he knew about this, he would definitely scold me, and might even divorce me and break off relations with the Zhen family."

"Sister!" Zhen Mi thought for a moment, then suddenly grasped Zhen Rong's hand and said anxiously, "We really need to discuss this matter with my brother-in-law. My brother has already prepared food and fodder. As long as he doesn't mention the marriage and offers the food to the king, and my brother-in-law pleads for him, his merits can atone for his crime."

Zhen Rong said helplessly, "Brother is determined to have you marry the king. How could he be willing to offer grain without the marriage? He concealed the rebellion of the Zhongshan clan bandits and did not report it. I think he was planning to wait and see from the beginning. If the king marries you, he will certainly offer grain and fodder, and will also mobilize my Zhen family connections to help the king eliminate the clan bandits. Then the Zhen family will be a great hero, and you will also gain the king's favor. If the king refuses to marry you, he may defect to Gongsun Zan or Cao Cao. He will definitely have you, his 'noble man', taken away, but he has abandoned me. If brother rebels against the Tang Dynasty, even if I am not divorced, my life will be difficult in the future."

"So, we must be honest with my brother-in-law about this matter. He is not an unsympathetic person. Even if he cannot change my brother's mind in the end, he will not blame you anymore."

Zhen Rong hesitated, "So...are we considered to be betraying the Zhen family?"

Zhen Mi said anxiously, "Sister, you are confused. We are trying to save the Zhen family. Even if you don't confess, your brother-in-law will eventually find out about the marriage. It's better to tell him about your brother's plan and force him to make a choice: either be completely loyal to the Tang Kingdom or surrender to the Yan Kingdom. In the end, the fate of the Zhen family will be decided by the final victory of the Tang and Yan Kingdoms. But if we conceal it and let your brother force the king to marry me, once the Jizhou incident is over, the Zhen family will inevitably be slowly liquidated. Do you think the Zhen family can defeat the princess?"

"Perhaps the king is willing to marry you for food and fodder? Or perhaps you can really win the king's favor? Or perhaps the princess will accept you? She seems quite kind."

Zhen Mi sighed and said, "If the king really marries me, then the Zhen family will be finished, and my life will be ruined. As for favor, don't even think about it. He can't even touch me."

Zhen Rong said, "That's because you're still young. If you grow up a few more years, my sister will surely be the most beautiful woman in the world. What man wouldn't be moved by her? As long as you can win the king's favor, who can threaten the Zhen family?"

"The most beautiful woman?"

Just as Zhen Rong finished speaking, a cold voice suddenly came from outside the door. Then, Wang Ding pushed the door open and walked in. He walked up to Zhen Mi with an expressionless face. In the astonished eyes of the two sisters, he lifted Zhen Mi's chin with his folding fan, looked her up and down, and said lightly, "The appearance is not bad, but it's still not as good as my sister's!"

"Hu... Husband..."

Zhen Rong was so frightened that he could hardly speak clearly. However, Zhen Mi was stunned for a moment but quickly regained her composure and bowed, "Brother-in-law!"

Wang Ding walked over to the table, picked up Zhen Yan's letter, read it, and said, "I heard everything you two just said. I'm still quite sane and know not to covet things that don't belong to me."

He turned to look at Zhen Rong, "You are confused. Do you think that all men in this world only care about appearance and only think with their lower body?"

"I know I was wrong... please punish me, my husband!" Zhen Rong lowered her head hurriedly.

Wang Ding walked slowly to the side and sat down on a couch. He flicked open his folding fan and gently waved it as he spoke, "I know you all think it's okay for a man to have three wives and four concubines. What's more, since Your Majesty has been such a powerful and handsome man, many people have sent him women since he took over Bingzhou. At first, they were some wealthy families, and later they became more and more senior, including officials and wealthy families. The status of the women sent to him has also become higher and higher, not to mention their beauty. But have you seen any of them taken in by Your Majesty?"

"I'm telling you, this is impossible! When you were eleven or twelve, who wasn't spoiled and whimpering for ages when you scraped your hands? My sister was already leading troops to the border to fight the Hu people when she was twelve. For the past ten years, she's mined, built factories, and recruited refugees and bandits to build this family business. She's helped the king resist foreign enemies, govern internal affairs, and recruit talented people. Without her, the king wouldn't be where he is today. Her only wish is to be together forever. If you want to destroy my sister's family, you have to ask my permission first!"

He stared coldly at Zhen Rong, "From this letter, I can tell that your brother is quite ambitious. Now he's thinking of having the king marry my younger sister. Is he also thinking of having my younger sister's child replace Qian'er in the future? Hmm?!"

Zhen Rong was terrified. His legs gave way and he knelt on the ground, trembling. "Brother, brother, I would never dare to have such thoughts... He, he just... just wanted to get married..."

Zhen Mi was also frightened by the coldness emanating from Wang Ding. She stood aside timidly and did not dare to argue, because her brother did hold the same idea.

Wang Ding was furious and wanted to break with the Zhen family immediately, but he knew that Ah Mo really needed food right now, and it was not good for him to make decisions without knowing her intentions. He suppressed his anger and snorted, "Send him a letter to persuade him. If he can change his ways, I will pretend I don't know about this. If he still has thoughts that shouldn't be there, even if he succeeds temporarily, your Zhen family will suffer in the future."

"Yes!" Zhen Rong replied softly.

"You rest by yourself tonight!" Wang Ding didn't even look at her. He stood up, flicked his sleeves, turned around and left, but went straight to the front to find his two brothers.

As luck would have it, Wang Jing, the current record-keeper of the Tang Palace, had just returned from a meeting at the Tulou. Seeing him, Wang Ding couldn't wait to step forward and ask, "Second brother, what does A-Mo say about the Jizhou matter?"

Wang Jing sighed, "The King and the Princess insisted on a large-scale purge of the internal thieves, but due to insufficient food and fodder, they couldn't mobilize a large army. The Princess was sending a letter to the Zhen family to borrow food!"

"Humph, that fellow really predicted it!"

"What did you expect?" Wang Jing asked in confusion.

Wang Ding curled his lips and said, "Nothing! I just think that we can't rely too much on the Zhen family. We have to find a way to get some food for my sister."

Wang Jing spread his hands and said, "Where can we get it? There was a disaster two years ago, and all the grain in our Wang family's warehouse was loaned out. This summer's harvest only left a few tens of thousands of dan, which is a drop in the bucket."

Wang Ding thought for a moment and said, "If each family borrows a little, the wealthy families in Taiyuan can finally come up with more than 100,000 dan."

Wang Jing said, "This is of no use. Besides, the money and grain you borrowed from me two years ago haven't been repaid yet. How can you ask for more?"

"Borrow it in the name of my Wang family and gather the money first. I'll find other ways later. I can't bear to see my sister being held hostage by others."