Chapter 650 Xie Mingyue and Li Wangzheng in Youzhou
Xie Mingyue in Youzhou received a congratulatory gift from Li Shiyue, sent from the Eastern Sea Kingdom by a golden eagle.
Is there something that requires Li Shiyue, the King of the East Sea, to send a congratulatory gift?
It turns out that Xie Mingyue, at nearly 30 years old, finally gave birth to her eldest daughter.
Yes, after resolving the crisis in Youzhou, Xie Mingyue realized from Li Shiyue that if she really wanted to be responsible for her family, she had to first obtain power!
Therefore, she refused her father's arrangement to marry and began to participate in military affairs, communicating with Li Shiyue every three to five months through the Golden Eagle.
Finally, when Li Shiyue was already the King of Donghai and the chaos in the Central Plains of Dalong gradually subsided, she, Xie Mingyue, the eldest daughter of the Xie family, defeated the Xie family's original heir—her eldest brother Xie—and became the new head of the Xie family!
(If I remember correctly, this is how I arranged Xie Mingyue's family background before. If any observant readers find any errors, please let me know and I'll correct them.)
As for the daughter?
She was born to her and a handsome young man from Youzhou. The Xie family and even the young man's family all knew that this girl was born to the two of them.
However, the young master neither married into the Xie family nor came to the Xie family to present a betrothal gift. The child between the two was simply a result of Xie Mingyue needing an heir.
At this moment, Xie Mingyue smiled slightly as she looked at the letter delivered by the golden eagle and the leather bag taken from its sharp claws and legs. She put down the baby's swaddling clothes and instructed the maid beside her, "Did you feed the golden eagle some fresh meat?"
"Don't worry, my wife, it's a freshly killed lamb, absolutely fresh."
Xie Mingyue nodded, and then opened the letter in the copper tube. The letter contained only one page, and it was full of congratulatory messages for Xie Mingyue on the birth of her daughter.
Another point is that Li Shiyue subtly expressed her gratitude to Xie Mingyue in the letter for passing on news from the capital to her back then, and sent a promise along with the letter, a promise from the King of the East Sea.
After reading the letter, Xie Mingyue opened the small leather bag.
What was poured into her hand was a round silver coin that was about three fingers wide!
The obverse of the silver coin features the characters "Donghai" along with wave patterns, while the reverse depicts a golden eagle spreading its wings and soaring high!
This is a commemorative coin of the Donghai Kingdom, with only a hundred issued to the public.
Xie Mingyue stretched out her fingers and carefully stroked the silver coin a few times. A smile curved her lips. This silver coin was a promise that Li Shiyue had given to Xie Mingyue.
Xie Mingyue couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Who would have thought that the female general from back then would become a queen today?"
Before Xie Mingyue could think it through, the baby's cries startled her from her thoughts.
She turned around and saw that the wet nurse had already picked up her eldest daughter.
The wet nurse discovered that the tiny baby hadn't wet or soiled himself, but was actually hungry.
Then, the wet nurse put the child down, asked the maid to pour hot water, wiped her body with a clean cloth, and then, with her clothes open, picked up the baby again and began to breastfeed.
"This child really can eat a lot."
Seeing the baby suckling so vigorously, Xie Mingyue said this to the maid beside her.
Raising a child is difficult. After watching the wet nurse finish feeding the child, Xie Mingyue said to the maid, "Double the allowance for Wet Nurse Zou. She has worked hard for the past six months. I will reward her with the silver hairpin with plum blossoms on my table."
While Xie Mingyue was rewarding others so that her eldest daughter could have enough milk, Li Wangzheng, who was also in Youzhou, received news from the Donghai Kingdom.
However, he did not receive the letter written by Li Shiyue delivered by the mechanical golden eagle;
Instead, they received a letter from a caravan.
This letter was not written by Li Shiyue, but by Zheng Meiniang.
Although the two had divorced, Zheng Meiniang did not allow the sisters Li Qiutian and Li Xiatian to change their surnames; they retained the surname Li.
As long as they share the surname Li, even if they are separated by the ocean, Li Wangzheng will always be the sisters' father.
Of course, nowadays, this father is only a father in name only.
As for why Zheng Meiniang wrote the letter?
This was to bring good news to Li Wangzheng—Li Qiutian and Qin Fen's second child was twins!
And they are twins!
Now that the twins have turned three, Zheng Meiniang finally sent someone from the caravan to inform Li Wangzheng.
The Li family has had another child, so naturally they must inform Li Wangzheng, who also shares the surname Li.
Li Wangzheng was delighted as he read the letter delivered by the caravan.
However, when he saw Wang Xiulian carrying a child out of the kitchen, the smile on his face quickly disappeared.
Although Zheng Meiniang never sent any letters to Li Wangzheng except for the letter of divorce that she had Li Wangtian bring from Lijiatun to Li Wangzheng that year, and the letter that Li Qiu sent after Xiao Yu'er was born.
However, Li Wangzheng would send a letter of reassurance to Zheng Meiniang through a merchant caravan from Youzhou every late autumn.
Zheng Meiniang once privately showed this letter of peace to Li Wangchun and said, "Chunniang, tell me about your elder brother, I don't even know if he did it on purpose?"
What do you mean by "intentional"?
It turns out that every year around the winter solstice, caravans returning to Andong from Youzhou would send Zheng Meiniang letters informing her of Li Wangzheng's safety.
They were escorted all the way until Li Shiyue sent someone to fetch Li Wangchun and Zheng Meiniang to the East Sea Kingdom. Before that, they were escorted every year.
If they were lucky, the caravan would deliver the message just one or two days before Zheng Meiniang's birthday.
If they were unlucky, the letter would probably arrive about ten days after Zheng Meiniang's birthday.
Therefore, Li Wangzheng had estimated the caravan's journey and "deliberately" entrusted the caravan to deliver the peace letter from Youzhou to Zheng Meiniang at the end of autumn.
Whether it was intentional or not, only Li Wangzheng himself probably knows the answer.
At that moment, Li Wangzheng, who had quickly put the letter away, took two steps forward and reached out to take the child from Wang Xiulian's back.
Yes, this child is Wang Xiulian's sixth child with Li Wangzheng.
Over the years, Wang Xiulian has given birth to four sons and two daughters for Li Wangzheng.
The youngest child is the little boy, who is not yet two years old, and is currently being held in Li Wangzheng's arms.
In fact, when he had his third child, Li Wangzheng told Wang Xiulian, "From now on, I... won't have any more children. I have enough."
But Wang Xiulian disagreed. She said to Li Wangzheng, "How can the children have enough?"
Honey, to tell you the truth, you're so much older than me, so in the future... you'll definitely be the one to leave before me.
At that time, the only ones who will be with me are my children.
I want to have more children; eventually, one of them will be there to take care of me in my old age!
Wang Xiulian has already said all this, how could Li Wangzheng say he wouldn't have children?
Therefore, over the years, Wang Xiulian gave birth one child after another. By the time news of Li Shiyue establishing his kingdom in Donghai reached Youzhou, Wang Xiulian had already given birth to five children.
At this moment, Wang Xiulian looked at the obviously aged man in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.
Of course she knew that the letter Li Wangzheng had been holding was from his first wife, and she also knew that his niece, Li Shiyue, was now a queen!
If it weren't for... if she hadn't "framed" him back then, he wouldn't have been divorced by his first wife, he would have gone to find his children, wife, sister, nephews and nieces, and lived a good life with them;
Instead of staying in Youzhou with her and having so many children...
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