Alone, he took Ruhua to the Empress Dowager's Cining Palace.
With a calm expression, Xu Lejin accompanied the Empress Dowager, kneeling in the small Buddhist hall of Cining Palace, chanting Buddhist scriptures for half a day. Finally, the Empress Dowager spoke in a deep voice, "I have heard that the Consort Gui advised the Emperor not to allow the First Prince to marry a princess from Khorchin as his primary consort in the future?"
"Your Majesty, please allow me to report..."
Xu Lejin lay prostrate on the ground, her mind racing with thoughts.
"Empress Dowager, the First Prince is the Emperor's eldest son. Although Consort Rong has passed away and the First Prince is in poor health, he is still the eldest son and is inevitably vulnerable to being taken advantage of by those with ulterior motives."
"If the eldest prince marries the daughter of a prince from the Khorchin tribe, then his four younger sisters will remain in the capital when they grow up."
After a pause, Xu Lejin glanced at the Empress Dowager out of the corner of her eye.
"Empress Dowager, although His Majesty has many princesses, besides Consort Rong, the princesses born to me, the eldest princess who has already been betrothed to the son of the Prince of Khorchin, and..."
"Besides the two princesses of Consort Hezhi, there aren't many left."
With gritted teeth, Xu Lejin forced herself to speak.
"The intermarriage between Manchus and Mongols is an old custom, a rule established by our ancestors. I also have my own selfish motives; I have to consider the sake of the princesses I have given birth to."
With a cold snort, the Empress Dowager looked at Xu Lejin with a scrutinizing gaze.
"The Imperial Concubine is quite frank, not hiding anything. I don't understand why the Imperial Concubine and the other concubines in the palace avoid our Qing princesses like the plague. What's wrong with marrying a princess to Mongolia?
Xu Lejin glanced quickly at the Empress Dowager and respectfully said, "Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with the princess marrying far away to Mongolia for a political marriage. However, as mothers, we only wish for our children, hoping that our daughters will marry closer to home, bear children and grandchildren, and be surrounded by their grandchildren. But the princess who marries far away to Mongolia..."
With a hesitant look on her face, Xu Lejin swallowed the words that were about to come out.
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