Chapter 215: The Court War Everything seems to be back to...
Everything seemed to be back on track, except that when Fu Li and Nezha went out, they were always accompanied by a burly man with snow-white skin and a pretty girl who liked to wear pink skirts.
Oh, there's one more thing that's different from before.
That is the couple Fu Li and Nezha. It seems that at some moment a certain meridian was opened up, and they were set free all of a sudden, completely free from their previous "entangled" state.
The two of them now only take charge of the business they were passionate about before, and check the progress regularly. Unless their subordinates encounter insurmountable bottlenecks, they almost no longer do anything themselves.
In response to this, Ying Zheng, who was planning to get married and rule the country at the age of 18, said: “…………”
——I, who am full of confidence and want to work hard, seem so stupid.
But if he were to change his goals because of this, he would feel even worse.
It is October 1st again. According to the calendar at that time, October 1st is the first day of the first lunar month every year, which is also Ying Zheng’s birthday.
After this day, Ying Zheng officially turned seventeen from sixteen.
He entrusted Zheng Cuo as envoy, and the clan elder Wei Yangjun and the Shu scholar Yang Pan as deputy envoys to lead the Qin delegation to travel to Shu to ask the King of Shu for the princess and to be the queen of Qin.
Although students from the Central Plains and Shuzhong traveled back and forth across the mountains many times, exchanging ideas and learning from each other, Qin was the first to send envoys to formally establish diplomatic relations.
Even though the Zheng family had lost most of their control over the Sichuan-Tibet region and was in dire straits, the rulers and ministers of Jinguan City still showed sufficient attention and offered the highest reception standards of the Shu Kingdom.
The chief envoy of Qin was from Shu, and one of the two deputy envoys was also from Shu, and the other was a member of the Qin royal family. It can be said that this gave Shu enough face.
Although Shu was stronger than the Central Plains in culture and economy, it always looked down on the Central Plains.
But this is one time, that is another situation.
The Shu Kingdom was now at its twilight years, at its weakest. The areas westward, encompassing Jiulong, Luding, and Jinchuan, had become separatist, and areas bordering Qin across the mountains, such as Jialing, Nanchong, Cangxi, and Jiange, were also gradually losing control.
The Zheng royal family's dignity was completely destroyed. The attention from the powerful Central Plains country, Qin, made King Zheng Jin of Shu feel emotional and think that Qin was still quite kind.
But she quickly retracted her sentiment.
——The Qin State is not kind at all, it is clearly here to take advantage of the situation!
A King of Qin who had just ascended the throne and was not yet an adult dared to send people to Shu to act wildly and openly ask to marry a noble lady from the Shu royal family!
Don’t think that just because the Shu Kingdom didn’t establish diplomatic relations with the Central Plains, they don’t know the rules of the Central Plains.
——A prince married nine daughters. As the party marrying off the daughters, he not only had to marry off the two illegitimate sisters of the married princess as concubines, but also had to have three cousins, three daughters of the same sex from the clan of the princely state, all of whom had to be married off as concubines.
It is said that once the State of Qi married off a princess, and because there was no suitable person of the same generation as the princess in the royal family, even the princess's aunt was given as a dowry.
Although Zheng Jin could understand that this was to maximize the interests of both countries.
But the women of Shu Kingdom are all capable of standing on their own two feet, and any one of them has the opportunity to become a pillar of the country. How could they allow Qin Kingdom to humiliate them like this?
King Zheng Jin of Shu changed color in the court. The civil and military officials on both sides stood up and pointed at the Qin envoy and started to curse.
At this time, civil and military officials differed only in their duties, but all were talented individuals who had cultivated both civil and military skills since childhood. Those who could stand in the court had to undergo numerous tests of character, ability, and eloquence.
Zheng Cuo and Yang Pan were fine. They both came from official families and had been influenced by them since childhood. They had some understanding of the Shu court and had made preparations before coming.
Although Weiyang Jun Ying Xi had been reminded by the two of them, he could never imagine something he had not seen before, which led to his lack of preparation. He was soon scolded until his face turned red. He covered his face with his hands and wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
In particular, one of them sneered and asked, "Since we want to establish friendly relations between our two countries, why must the daughters of my Shu clan surrender to Qin? I've heard that the Qin royal family is large, and my queen's harem is empty. Why not select a few handsome men from your clan and send them to Shu? I'm willing to treat them as my ministers in the future!"
In terms of succession, the Central Plains and Shu felt that each other was the opposite of Tiangang.
The women of the Shu royal family were equivalent to the men of the Qin royal family.
The thought of someone daring to ask for a man from the Qin royal family would make Lord Weiyang's blood boil. Having been reduced to his current situation, he felt even more ashamed.
Zheng Cuo wanted to explain, but the Shu Kingdom had so many people and so much power, and they were talking at once, creating a cacophony of noise, and she had no chance to speak.
Someone even dragged her mother, the Minister of Justice, to Zheng Shangshu to lecture her. Zheng Shangshu smiled bitterly and simply said that Zheng Cuo's mission was a public duty and she couldn't use personal feelings to interfere.
Seeing this, Zheng Cuo had no choice but to pretend to be calm and composed, standing there with a wry smile on his face and taking the scolding.
Yang Pan was in a similar position. Among the three envoys, the only one who truly felt ashamed was Ying Xi, a true Qin citizen.
Fortunately, not long after, a eunuch reported that the queen had arrived.
The Shu civil and military officials did not want to be disrespectful in front of the queen, so they glared at them fiercely, bowed and clasped their hands towards the inner hall to welcome the queen.
A moment later, a tall, handsome man, surrounded by a crowd, emerged from the inner hall. He approached Zheng Jin and paid his respects. He then turned back, exempting himself from the formalities of the civil and military officials, and asked Zheng Jin with a smile, "Your Majesty, are these three envoys from Qin?"
"That's right." Zheng Jin helped him sit down and pointed at Zheng Cuo and said, "The queen should have seen the envoy too. She's a member of our royal family."
The queen took a closer look and suddenly realized, "It's Sister Acuo. Why is she arguing with everyone?"
He pushed the blame onto the Qin State with just one sentence. He is really good at speaking.
Zheng Cuo smiled wryly and bowed, "Your Majesty, you may not understand. It's not that the Qin envoys were impolite, but rather that the Shu monarch and his ministers were too impatient and didn't even wait for him to finish his words."
—Are we the ones who want to argue? It's clearly you, Shu, who are acting too quickly, both civil and military. We, Qin, are a nation of propriety, coming here with sincerity to establish diplomatic relations. How could we initiate a dispute?
Zheng Cuo actually knew Queen Zheng Jin.
He was born into the Sha clan, a descendant of the royal family of the previous dynasty. The Sha queen's father's family's home was not far from Zhengcuo's.
Seriously speaking, the two can be considered childhood sweethearts.
However, Zhengcuo was five or six years older than him, and when she got married, the Queen was not yet an adult.
Marriage is a watershed. Even if the age difference is not big, married people and unmarried people will naturally be divided into two circles.
So gradually, the two sides rarely played together.
The Queen of Shah was merciless in her words, but Zheng Cuo was not to be trifled with either, and he quickly fought back.
"Hmph!" Minister of Rites Zhou Lan sneered, "You, the Qin State, immediately ask to marry a noblewoman from the Shu royal family. You're spitting in my king's face. If I, your subjects, don't react, are we just waiting for my king to wipe his spit in our face?"
The term "spit in the face and dry it" was also brought by Fu Li from the Song Dynasty to the pre-Qin period.
However, in the pre-Qin period, both men and women were hot-tempered and passionate. At that time, "to swallow one's own spit" was a completely derogatory term.
Zheng Cuo said calmly, "Since my king is sincere in his request, I naturally have no intention of humiliating him. This time, I, a foreign minister, have come to Shu with the sole purpose of seeking a daughter of the Shu royal family as his empress. How could I dare to ask for anything else?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the people of Shu State calmed down.
Although Shu women were the masters of the household and there were few precedents for women marrying out of the family, and there had never been a precedent for women from the royal family, the king of Qin was a man, so he couldn't marry a man as his queen, right?
Nowadays, people are willing to abandon the ancient Central Plains custom of "princes marrying nine women" and only want to marry one, and even make him the queen. This is definitely a sign of their sincerity.
However, King Zheng Jin of Shu has three siblings. His younger sister Zheng Yu is now an official in the Qin State, and has already hired a son from a branch of the Qin royal family as the male ruler; his younger brother Zheng Wei also changed his name to Li Yong and accompanied the Queen Mother of Qin Zhao.
Where could she find another sister to marry the King of Qin?
As a member of the royal family, Zheng Cuo naturally knew about this situation and had discussed it with Ying Zheng. She came prepared.
"Your Majesty, I have heard that the Marquis of Yiyang has a daughter, eighteen years old, of beautiful appearance and great talent. I sincerely seek her in marriage, so that we may rule the country together."
Marquis Yi Yang was stunned. She never expected that it was directed at her daughter.
"No, no. My son is already engaged to the daughter of the Qian family. The wedding ceremony will take place in March next year. How can I go back on my word?"
Her only daughter, Zheng Jia, was eighteen years old. Although she was not the eldest daughter to inherit the family line, she had been carefully nurtured since childhood. How could she bear to send her to Qin to live under the yoke of others?
"Marquis Yiyang is wrong!" Yang Pan said with a smile, "The people of Shu have always put public interests before private ones. The second young lady is only engaged, not married. I believe the Qian family is not someone who cannot distinguish between public and private interests. As long as both parties sit down and talk it out, for the sake of the country, why would they be unwilling to cancel the engagement?"
There was no corrupt tradition in Shu Kingdom. It was just a cancellation of the engagement, which had no impact on the man and woman getting married.
"This..." Marquis Yi Yang was speechless. Only then did she understand the sinister intention of Qin State in sending the people of Shu as envoys.
——The people of Shu are familiar with all the customs and systems of Shu, so she can’t fool them even if she makes up a lie.
Seeing that the two sides were in a stalemate, Weiyang Jun Ying Qi knew it was his turn to take the stage.
He stepped forward, drawing everyone's attention. He bowed to the King of Shu, then saluted the Marquis of Yiyang. He said with a smile, "Everyone, please listen to what I have to say. Since we're discussing the marriage of the Second Miss Zheng, why not invite her over?"
If she truly doesn't want to, we in Qin won't force her. We can ask the King of Shu to find another willing lady. If Miss Zheng Er is willing, but Marquis Yiyang arbitrarily turns her down, wouldn't that affect the relationship between mother and daughter?
The reason why the Qin State chose Zheng Jia was after careful consideration.
Although Zheng Cuo was a distant branch of the royal family, her mother, Zheng Shangshu, was one of the few with outstanding talents in the royal family, and both the direct and close relatives were happy to be on good terms with their family.
When two parties get closer, they naturally have the opportunity to understand each other's temperament.
As far as Zheng Cuo knew, Zheng Jia's talent far surpassed that of his sister Zheng Ji, and he felt quite dissatisfied with his mother for allocating most of the resources to Zheng Ji.
However, due to etiquette, she couldn't show it in front of her mother, but she often complained to her good friends.
Marrying into the Qin State and becoming a queen, or a minor ruler, would only allow her to obtain a small portion of the resources compared to staying in the Shu State. She might even have to go through troubled times and retire after the change of dynasties.
Zheng Cuo believes that Zheng Jia will make the right choice.
The roles of the three envoys were agreed upon. As a Qin person, Wei Yangjun could pretend to be unfamiliar with the customs of Shu and boldly suggest that Zheng Jia make his own decision.
As expected, Marquis Yi Yang did not raise any suspicions. She was confident that her daughter would not be content to be inferior to others, so she immediately asked the King of Shu to summon Zheng Jia.
Zheng Cuo lowered his eyes slightly, a smile flashed in his eyes: Done!
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