Chapter 335: Don’t Spoil Me

"Mr. Gu said in his letter that Beili sent an envoy to Daxing to ask for the princess' hand in marriage. Concubine Shu and Prince Rui have already hastily married off the twelfth princess. Now, the only princess of marriageable age in the royal family is Yanran."

Chunzhi handed the letter in her hand to Huo Zheng as she spoke. Queen Wang could not hastily marry the princess off at such a time, nor could she do this.

The current situation is exactly as Gu Yuanjia said, the Thirteenth Princess is in danger.

Huo Zheng took the letter and saw that Gu Yuanjia used concise words in the letter. After explaining the matter clearly, he asked the prince to remain calm after reading the letter. The prince was not allowed to return to the capital without being summoned. Even if the prince was worried about the situation of the Thirteenth Princess, he could not rush back to the capital.

Master Gu also said in the letter that in the long run, it would be more beneficial than harmful for the prince if the emperor married the Thirteenth Princess to Beili.

Beili came to Daxing to ask for the princess' hand in marriage with a friendly and even submissive attitude. For them, Daxing marrying the princess to them meant that the princess could bring them books, silk, food and various supplies. If the people in the barbarian land could be educated, it would be of immeasurable help to Daxing's unification of the world in the future.

The emperors of Daxing had this in mind, so they made princesses of royal family members or housekeepers and married them off to Beili.

The current emperor obviously shares this idea.

No emperor could resist the temptation to unify the world and establish a lasting legacy.

The downside is that there are many customs in the barbarian land that are difficult to accept. If the Thirteenth Princess marries there, her life will be miserable as she will be a person who has learned poetry, books and etiquette and is completely contrary to the customs of the barbarians. Moreover, the Beili Royal Court and the Daxing Capital are thousands of miles apart. She can only look at her homeland from afar and miss her relatives all her life and can never return to her hometown.

Gu Yuanjia said that he knew that the prince was a man who valued friendship and loyalty, and even if he knew the pros and cons, it would be difficult for him to support the emperor's decision to marry the Thirteenth Princess to Beili. If the prince really wanted to submit a memorial to oppose this matter, he should be careful with his words and not be too radical, and he must not rush back to the capital because of this matter.

After reading Gu Yuanjia's letter, Huo Zheng felt that this person had almost figured out what he was thinking, and even anticipated what he was going to do and wrote down words of advice in advance.

Chunzhi had already read Mr. Gu's letter, so she naturally knew what he said in it.

At present, the matter has fallen into an extremely difficult situation.

She stood up and asked Huo Zheng, "What should we do now? We can't just watch Yanran being married off to Beili by our father..."

"Don't worry."

Huo Zheng held Chunzhi's hand, and then ordered the attendants outside the door to gather all the staff in the mansion and the officials of Xizhou to the front hall to discuss countermeasures.

He said to Chunzhi, "Come with me and let's hear what advice everyone has."

"good."

Chunzhi responded in a low voice.

The more urgent the situation, the calmer you should be.

The more people, the more solutions.

The staff in the palace and the officials from Xizhou quickly gathered in the main hall of the palace. Since the Prince of Chang'an and his wife came to Xizhou, they often called them over to discuss various matters, so everyone came quickly.

But today was more urgent than usual, so when Chunzhi and Huo Zheng entered the main hall together, an official asked, "Your Highness summoned us so urgently, has something big happened in the capital?"

Huo Zheng said, "Beili has sent envoys to Daxing to ask for the hand of the princess, intending to marry my sister, so I invite you all to come here to discuss countermeasures."

When everyone heard this, they were shocked.

Someone said, "Beili has asked to marry our Daxing Princess more than once. Everyone knows his ulterior motives lie elsewhere, so previous emperors always chose a princess from among the royal family or the housekeepers. Beili only wanted the dowry the princess brought, so he never investigated whether the one marrying was a real princess. Why is he targeting our Daxing Princess this time?"

The current queen had no children, so she adopted the seventh prince and thirteenth princess who lost their mother at a young age. The ministers who supported Prince Chang'an all believed that Huo Zheng was the legitimate son because he was raised by Queen Wang.

Huo Zheng said that the Thirteenth Princess was his sister, which meant that the Thirteenth Princess was the legitimate princess.

Everyone present was furious: "Beili has been taking advantage of us in Daxing and is getting even more arrogant!"

"We can't get used to this!"

"Your Highness..." A civil servant also said, "Beili sent an envoy to ask for the hand of Princess Daxing, intending to establish a long-term friendly relationship. If the Thirteenth Princess really does marry Beili, it means that Beili can become a great help to Your Highness. In fact, this is not entirely a bad thing..."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's eyes fell on the person who spoke.

General Wang interrupted sharply, "Listen to what you're saying, are you even talking like a human being? If His Majesty is willing to let his sister marry off to such a barbaric land and suffer, why would he summon us to discuss this? You civil servants are truly filthy-minded, thinking this is a good thing at a time like this?"

The man who had just spoken was scolded by General Wang and his face turned red. "I was just speaking the truth. I didn't say that Your Highness would definitely do this!"

General Wang said, "You are heartless for saying such things. Shut up!"

The civil servant wanted to argue, but Huo Zheng interrupted him at the right moment, "Alright."

Chunzhi said, "The most important thing right now is to come up with a useful strategy and avoid unnecessary arguments."

After hearing what the prince and princess said, everyone started to think seriously and offered their opinions one by one.

Mu Kaiji said, "Your Highness has come to Xizhou, so it's not appropriate for him to interfere in the affairs of the capital. Now that the envoy from Beili has come to ask for the princess' hand in marriage, Your Highness would be better off submitting a memorial to the Emperor to urge him not to agree so easily. Slow things down and then think of other solutions."

Everyone knew that the emperor at this moment would not listen to anyone's advice, and if Prince Chang'an could win the emperor's favor, he would not be demoted to the poor place of Xizhou to be a vassal king.

There is no point in persuading him, so I can only drag it out and find another way.

Most people agreed with Mr. Mu's idea.

Chunzhi also nodded. "It's good to be able to delay it for a while, but it won't last much longer. We have to resolve this matter thoroughly."

Huo Zheng said, "Beili came to Daxing to ask for the princess's hand in marriage. Their original intention was to obtain Daxing's food, cloth, and various supplies. Daxing married the princess to Beili in order to send people to educate the people and make them loyal to Daxing, so as to achieve a common goal."

To put it bluntly, Beili's request for the princess to marry is just a title. It would be the same to directly send officials and skilled craftsmen to Beili. In fact, the two countries need this marriage to achieve a political marriage.

Everyone present knew this.

Someone said, "So it doesn't matter who marries Beili. The choice can be discussed later."

"That's right. Xiling sent her princess to Daxing for marriage. Isn't it enough that she picked and chose our Daxing princes? Now Beili comes to ask for money, and even picked our legitimate princess?"

"Choosing a royal daughter to marry is giving them face. In my opinion, choosing a commoner daughter is more appropriate!"

Huo Zheng disagreed with their argument and said sternly, "Not only do I not want Huo Yanran to marry off to Beili, I also want Daxing to no longer have to rely on political marriages to achieve its goals. No matter if they are daughters of royal families, officials, or commoners, they will no longer have to endure the pain of marrying off to a distant country and being unable to return home."