After this happened, and with memorials being submitted to the court more and more frequently, the emperor announced his departure for the capital within a few days.
After returning to the palace, Ye Lingyi was locked up in her own palace and began a one-year house arrest, but the queen and the prince often visited her.
Because Danruo was wronged, the emperor not only often rewarded Danruo, but also often stayed in the imperial concubine's palace. There were rumors in the palace that the imperial concubine was even more favored. The queen smashed a room full of porcelain. Although she knew that the emperor's heart was with her, she felt very aggrieved that the queen had behaved like this.
The Emperor, influenced by the previous dynasty, has been prone to temper lately. The autumn military pay is due, but the court doesn't have much money. On the one hand, the past decade or so has been unlucky, with many disasters, and relief funds cannot be spared. On the other hand, the construction of the imperial mausoleum and the imperial palace is also ongoing.
Today, news came that there was an earthquake in Pingzhou in the north. The earthquake collapsed houses and people were displaced. The emperor issued an order to send the prince to Pingzhou with troops and disaster relief money.
Under the leadership of the Queen, the harem also began to spontaneously raise money and save money.
The imperial concubine suggested that the empress hold a charity sale and invite officials and their families to participate. The empress readily agreed, but was secretly unhappy in her heart, as if the imperial concubine was very smart. After the emperor heard what the imperial concubine said, he looked at her with affection.
At the charity sale, Danruo took out all the rewards given to him by the emperor since he was a child, winning unanimous approval from the court.
The ladies who had previously been on good terms with Ye Lingyi, and who had said things like, "Princess Rong'an is arrogant, hard to get along with, and so on," were now all being lectured by their own fathers or mothers.
In order to conceal the fact that Ye Lingyi was under house arrest, the Queen said that she was ill and could not attend. Although she did take out a few treasures, they were completely inconspicuous, only slightly better than those of the younger princesses whose biological mothers were not conspicuous.
The other concubines all speculated that the Queen and the Imperial Concubine had completely fallen out, otherwise why would Princess Rong'an trample on the face of the legitimate princess of the Central Palace like this.
After making inquiries, they deliberately prepared two or three less items than the legitimate princesses. Princess Rong'an actually prepared more than ten times more than the legitimate princesses.
The charity sale ended successfully, but the autumn military pay was about to arrive, and the soldiers still needed cotton clothes in winter.
The Empress had already privately discussed with the Emperor the possibility of obtaining five million taels of silver from the wealthy Lin family in exchange for the princess's marriage, which would have solved the immediate problem. The Emperor could have directly ordered the Lin family to be raided, but he had to save face, and the Lin family had a good reputation among the people, so he was afraid of causing them to curse him.
The emperor agreed in his heart and specially called the empress and the imperial concubine to the imperial study that day.
She asked the two of them to listen to the Minister of Revenue's report in person, and then after he left, the Queen spoke with a virtuous look on her face:
"The imperial court and the harem are one, and the treasury is not well-off, but we cannot allow our soldiers to starve or freeze. I have thought of this idea, and I wonder if the emperor thinks it is feasible.
The Lin family has been in business for a century and has considerable wealth. Their donations to support the Pingzhou earthquake were the largest among all the wealthy families in Beijing.
However, the Lin family has made many donations in previous years, and the amount the court is asking for is still enormous. It would be better to marry the daughter of the royal family to the Lin family as a token of favor. It is perfectly normal for in-laws to help each other."
The Emperor nodded happily and said, "The Queen's idea is very clever, but we just need to decide which princess to marry."
The queen glanced at the imperial concubine, who vaguely felt something was wrong, and sure enough, she listened to what the queen said.
"The General is currently fighting bloody battles with his soldiers at the border. As the General's niece, Rong An will definitely want to contribute to the Yue army. If the soldiers knew about this, they would only feel grateful to Princess Rong An and would be even more willing to follow the General."
The imperial concubine's eyes turned red with anxiety. "No, I don't agree. How can you marry Jiaojiao to a mere merchant from the Lin family? What's more, the head of the Lin family is over thirty years old and has no descendants. There are so many princesses in the royal family, just make any one a princess and marry her into the Lin family."
The Queen shook her head. "We must be sincere. What noble lady from the royal family is worth five million taels of silver? Doesn't that make us seem mean and ungrateful?"
The imperial concubine sneered, "If you want to show how great the emperor's grace is, why not just marry the legitimate princess to the Lin family? Besides, the entire world is the emperor's soldiers. There's no such thing as the Yue family's army. They're all the emperor's soldiers, guarding the Ye family's territory. Marrying the legitimate daughter Ye Lingyi to the Lin family will truly make the Lin family grateful, and all the soldiers appreciate the emperor's kindness."
The Queen was furious: "Marrying a legitimate princess to a merchant is like putting up a humiliating face for the royal family. If the other princesses weren't so young, I wouldn't want to give up Rong'an either."
The imperial concubine left with a cruel remark, "You must marry my Jiaojiao to the Lin family, unless I die."
"presumptuous······"
Seeing that the imperial concubine still did not stop, the emperor was so angry that he threw all the memorials on the table to the ground. The queen hurriedly comforted her and tried to please the imperial concubine.
After the imperial concubine returned, she decided she couldn't just sit there and wait for death. She had to quickly arrange a marriage for her daughter to prevent her from being sold out by the emperor and empress. The military pay was clearly over a million taels of silver, but they were actually asking for five million taels. It seemed they were really planning to trade a princess for silver.
The imperial concubine urgently summoned Bai to the palace. After the two discussed, Bai held a flower-viewing banquet and invited unmarried men and women of appropriate age, mainly to find a suitable son-in-law for Rong'an.
At that time, the imperial concubine will take Danruo to stay in the General's Mansion for a day as if she is going home to visit her relatives.
The flower viewing banquet is scheduled for three days later.
The imperial concubine deliberately pulled Dan Ruo to her side and said: "Marriage is a major event in a woman's life. You should take a good look at the flower viewing banquet to see if there is anyone you like."
Dan Ruo probed, "Father wants his daughter to marry into the Lin family, and we can't resist. My daughter thinks the Lin family is pretty good too."
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