Chapter 596 Powerful Ridicule!
Shen Lanxi was stunned for a moment, and only after being reminded by the eunuch did she reply.
"Mother, Huang Yu's mission is a secret. How did you know about it?" she questioned coldly.
Zhou Xinrou's eyes flashed, and she evasively said, "I don't know. It was Huang Yu who sent me the letter asking for help."
"When? Where is the letter?"
Why did she send a letter asking for help to her mother instead of to the imperial court?
The questioning made Zhou Xinrou very unhappy.
Are you still questioning your mother?
Are you suspecting your mother of colluding with your courtiers?
Shen Lanxi said solemnly, "Mother, I dare not. I only suspect that the letter asking for help is a scam."
Zhou Xinrou's face was cold, and she said sharply, "Are you doubting that I, as your mother, am lying to you?"
Shen Lanxi raised her hand, and the eunuch immediately presented her with a box.
"This contains all sorts of messages sent to the palace every day, including five or six letters requesting assistance every day."
She opened the box, took out the letter, and handed it over.
“There are letters of appeal for help from Dongchuan, as well as from the Northwest, Southwest, and Tianjin. They clearly state where battles have occurred and that the imperial court needs to send troops, money, and food. In fact, those places are very peaceful, and there is no so-called battle at all!”
"These messages are all from those people who want to bring my daughter down, using despicable methods!"
"If I believe them, I will fall into their treacherous trap."
Zhou Xinrou realized that Shen Lanxi was unwilling to send anyone to rescue Huang Yu.
"This letter is definitely not fake!"
Shen Lanxi ran her fingers over the box: "Every letter here says it's genuine."
Zhou Xinrou became anxious and excitedly said, "Huang Yu's letter requesting help is genuine."
Shen Lanxi said as if she was used to it: "Mother, I will send people to verify the situation. After determining the truth, I will naturally send people to rescue you."
"Huang Yu is truly incompetent. I only sent her to wipe out a small group of low-level bandits, and she couldn't even handle such a small matter."
Zhou Xinrou looked at Shen Lanxi with a gloomy expression.
"The matter is not yet settled, and we should not jump to conclusions." Hmph, if she had been more generous and let Huang Yu lead the troops over, would this have happened?
"I will investigate this matter. If Huang Yu is truly unfit for important tasks, she will remain in the Imperial Guard and no further assignments will be given to her."
Zhou Xinrou's face turned even uglier.
"Mother, weren't we just talking about the marriage alliance? How did we get onto the topic of yellow jade?"
"Let's not talk about her, it's a downer. I just heard from the eunuch that Mother came to discuss Yuan Tang's marriage with me?"
Zhou Xinrou was in no mood to listen to what Shen Lanxi was saying.
"We must be cautious about the matter of Huang Yu. If other officials were to hear about it, it might discourage them."
Shen Lanxi seemed to be listening attentively.
"Mother, rest assured, I will have someone verify the authenticity of the news shortly."
What she wanted was not verification, but the dispatch of troops.
Zhou Xinrou was furious; if she didn't leave soon, she was afraid she would yell at them.
~
Shen Lanxi didn't believe the news was true or false, and when she actually sent someone to investigate, it took a month or two to find out the results.
Huang Yu was clearly impatient, and she couldn't wait any longer either.
Upon returning to the Shen family, Zhou Xinrou immediately wrote a letter and had it sent out.
"Princess, something's not right," she whispered a reminder.
Zhou Xinrou couldn't care less about anything else anymore.
"Once Huang Yu comes back this time, we can't let her go out again."
Every time she went out, she seemed to be doing good deeds, but in reality, she lost a lot of people.
Those people were people she had painstakingly trained over many years. They had been hiding for so long, and no one suspected their backgrounds, yet they were all destroyed in one fell swoop; it was truly a pity.
Every time she heard the number of items lost, she would feel heartbroken for a long time.
"Be careful during this period, and don't give yourself away."
The old woman was confident that she would not arouse suspicion in her actions.
"Princess, I'm afraid that if so many people suddenly disappear from the army, the higher-ups will investigate."
Zhou Xinrou was also worried about this matter.
"Now that the imperial court is hostile to Tianjin, they are spreading rumors that those people have gone to defect to the enemy."
"I believe the court won't leak this information to save face." They'll let the court clean up the mess for them then.
The old woman nodded.
Furthermore
Zhou Xinrou had some thoughts about the marriage alliance. The Turkic envoys hadn't arrived yet, and she wanted to consider it further.
Two days later, Shen Lanxi received news that Zhou Xinrou had recognized the daughter of the Taicang County Magistrate as her goddaughter.
This wasn't a rescue, but a chance encounter on the street, what people commonly call fate.
Recalling her previous remarks about a marriage alliance, Shen Lanxi replied with a positive response in her letter home.
In the following days, the Shen family held a flower-viewing banquet, and invitations were sent to the homes of many high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital.
The following day, it was reported that Zhou Xinrou had adopted three women as her goddaughters.
Amidst the conflicting opinions, someone released a message.
The Turks wanted to establish a marriage alliance with the Zhou Dynasty.
A princess is definitely needed for a marriage alliance, but even if the Great Zhou royal family has a daughter, can they use her?
The one in power is Shen Lanxi, whose surname is Shen, not Zhou.
Even if there were royal women with the surname Zhou, they could not be used; only women from the Shen family could be used.
Everyone in the capital knew that the Shen family had no unmarried women, but rather a bunch of divorced women living in the house.
Can a woman who has already been married go to a political marriage alliance?
Isn't this a provocation against the Turks?
The only solution is to adopt a godparent and act as a princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The family that Zhou Xinrou initially took in as her goddaughter initially thought it was a sign from their ancestors, but after this news came out, they felt like the sky was falling.
Throughout history, none of the princesses who went to marry foreign rulers for political reasons had a good ending.
This is sending their daughter to her death!
Unfortunately, the family members who were considered the adopted daughters all held low-ranking official positions and had no way to resist. They could only wait in gloomy silence for the knife to fall.
The Shen family found it unbelievable that Zhou Xinrou suddenly adopted so many goddaughters.
"Why has my mother changed so much lately?"
"Not pushing us out for a marriage alliance is an act of kindness."
"Something is definitely amiss. There must be something going on here. We need to be careful."
Shen Yuanxin breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving the news; she had long sensed something was amiss at home. Did those people really think they could be made princesses and enjoy wealth and luxury upon returning home?
She now understands that it was all wishful thinking. If they had wanted to bestow titles upon them from the beginning, they would have done so during the grand ceremony.
It would be best for her to visit the Shen family less often in the future.
After Huang Yu escaped again, the imperial court received the news and Shen Lanxi immediately ordered a reward.
"Huang Yu has made a meritorious contribution in capturing the bandits and has been promoted one rank."
Before Huang Yu could return to the capital, the imperial edict sent by Shen Lanxi to suppress bandits in the Qilian Mountains had already been delivered to her.
Along with the imperial edict arrived official robes, a waist badge, and a sword.
"Commander Huang, His Majesty hopes that you will wield this precious sword and annihilate all the bandits in the world, restoring peace and prosperity to the Great Zhou Dynasty!"
The eunuch solemnly handed the imperial edict and the sword to Huang Yu.
"His Majesty also said that he has high expectations for Commander Huang."
Huang Yu secretly slipped a few silver notes into the eunuch's hand.
The eunuch changed the subject, smiling, and said, "This servant heard His Majesty say before that he wanted to properly train the general. Judging from His Majesty's intentions, he will definitely give him an important position in the future."
Huang Yu's eyes flickered. What kind of important use was this?
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