The old general Chun Yu An was not optimistic about this royal selection. In his opinion, the first thing the new emperor had to do was to find a way to secure his throne. Now the war with Dashun was imminent. What was the point of selecting a show at this time if he didn't study the war carefully?
But think about it from another angle. Having a rich harem is not without help in securing the throne, but it will make his daughter suffer.
"Master." A secret guard stood in front of Yu Chunyu'an and reported to him the recent situation in the palace truthfully. "Duanmu Anguo has been with the emperor these days. He even stayed in the palace last night and did not leave until dawn this morning. It is said that Duanmu Anguo also selected several beauties to enter the palace during this selection. The portraits of those beauties were first handed to the emperor, and the emperor was very satisfied."
"Yes." Chun Yu An nodded. "When the emperor was still a prince, he trusted and relied on Duanmu Anguo very much. Now, the relationship between the two seems to be getting better and better. Well, as long as Duanmu Anguo can help my Sui Dynasty conquer Dashun, I will tolerate his arrogance for a while."
"Sir." The staff beside him said worriedly, "Duanmu Anguo's wolfish ambitions can be seen at a glance. Aren't you afraid that he will replace you one day?"
Chun Yu An laughed loudly upon hearing this. "Replace him? He has to be capable of that. Duanmu Anguo is so old that the lower half of his body is buried in the ground. How many days can he still jump around? In the confrontation with Dashun, he lost all his descendants. His Duanmu family has no descendants left. How can he still stir up trouble in Zong Sui?"
The staff member thought about it and felt that Chun Yu An's words made sense, but he just couldn't figure out one thing: "Duanmu Anguo has no descendants now, and he himself is already in his twilight years, why is he making such a fuss?"
"Humph!" Chun Yu An snorted coldly, "He wants to use Zong Sui's successor to defeat Dashun and regain the lost territory of the three northern provinces, dreaming of reviving the Duanmu clan again. But he never thought about what's the point of regaining the three northern provinces at his age? Can he still have a son?"
Chun Yu An was very disdainful of Duanmu Anguo, but he was somewhat suspicious of the attitude of the new emperor of Zong Sui. Duanmu Anguo did bring a lot of troops to Zong Sui, but he was not trusted by the new emperor to such an extent. Even under Duanmu Anguo's instigation, the new emperor had a rather extreme change when thinking about the Dashun issue.
Initially, the new Emperor of the Sui Dynasty only intended to stop obeying the rule of the Dashun. However, under the instigation of Duanmu Anguo, he actually planned to send troops to the Dashun and subdue the Dashun under the protection of the Sui Dynasty! This made Chunyu An a little frightened.
It sounds exciting that Zong Sui is fighting against Dashun, but in fact, Zong Sui does not have that kind of strength!
Chunyu An was puzzled by this, but the new emperor was particularly confident in conquering Dashun for some reason. Chunyu thought to himself that perhaps Duanmu Anguo was confident of winning, and with Bu Cong, a former general of Dashun, the chances of Zong Sui's victory were indeed better. This was a gamble. If they lost, Zong Sui would be overthrown, and if they won, Zong Sui would achieve the great cause of unification.
"Have you found out which women were sent in by Duanmu Anguo?" Chunyu An asked the secret guard in front of him.
The secret guard nodded, "We have already found out that there are four people in total. Their identities should not be concealed. According to the eunuchs in the palace, they will be made public during the selection."
"Four people... these are the ones that are out in the open." The staff member interrupted, "Since the eunuch said it would be made public, it must be made public, but how could Duanmu Anguo be so kind as to only send beauties to please the emperor? In my opinion, in addition to these four people, there must be other women who entered the palace to participate in the selection under Duanmu Anguo's arrangement, but no one knows about it. What we need to pay attention to is not the four public beauties, but we must try our best to find the other hidden beauties."
"Yes." Chun Yu An nodded and ordered the secret guards: "Go tell the Queen to pay more attention to the girls in this year's selection. If there are any outstanding ones, their arrogance must be suppressed."
Today, the new Emperor Zong Sui held his first beauty contest, and the first batch of beauties were ready to enter the palace.
Early in the morning, except for the north gate, the other three city gates were all opened to welcome the carriages of the beauties who came from all over the country to participate in the selection.
The first batch of beautiful ladies entering the palace consisted of 58 people, all of whom came from officials' families from all over the Sui Dynasty. All of them had good family backgrounds, and their family backgrounds had been carefully checked to ensure that there was no risk of error.
However, if one person hides something, even a hundred people cannot find it. In the team participating in the selection of beauties, there was a carriage with two people sitting in it, a young lady and a maid. The young lady was about 16 or 17 years old, wearing a light green dress, with a beautiful face and simple and elegant clothes. It seemed that she did not deliberately draw eyebrows, paint eyes and wear flowers like other beauties, but it was precisely because of this that she was different. It was like a stream of clear water under the scorching sun, which always made people unable to help but take a few more glances.
The green-dressed woman had a calm expression, not showing any joy or curiosity about coming to Beijing for the first time. She just sat quietly in the carriage and even said to the maid who was looking out through the curtain: "Put down the curtain! There's nothing to see here. It's just a little bigger and more lively than where we were before."
The maid was also very obedient. She put it down as her mistress asked her to, then straightened up and faced her mistress. No one spoke anymore.
The carriage went a little further, and Miss Green finally spoke again, asking the maid in front of her, "Do you know who else, besides us, came to the capital under his arrangement?"
The maid shook her head, "I don't know. It is said that his daughters are all over the world, but so many years have passed, and we have secretly inquired, but we still don't know where the others are hiding. It's the same when we enter the palace this time. The person who came to give the order said that we don't need to know each other's identities, and we don't need to care about others after entering the palace. We just need to do everything we can to make ourselves live well. After all, being able to survive in the harem and be favored by the emperor is the most important thing. If we can't achieve this, we are useless."
"Yes!" The woman in green sighed, "You are right. Only by surviving and being favored by the emperor can we help him. Otherwise, we are of no use to him. He will not care about our life or death." She snorted coldly, "What father? Having such a father is the most unfortunate thing."
"Miss," the maid quickly advised, "Please don't say such things anymore. We have come to the capital, so we must accept this fate. Think about the master and mistress who are still in Jinzhu Prefecture! If we don't cooperate with Duanmu Anguo, the lives of the master, mistress and everyone in the mansion will be in danger. Duanmu Anguo is ruthless. If he gets angry, it is entirely possible that he will kill everyone in our mansion."
The woman in green couldn't help but shudder. Thinking of her home in Jincheng, her parents who raised her since she was a child, her grandmother, and her brothers and sisters, her heart, which had been indignant for herself, gradually calmed down, and a smile appeared on her face. "Yes! For them, all this is worth it. As long as they can continue to live in peace, it doesn't matter if I suffer some grievances?" As she spoke, she looked at the maid in front of her and asked her, "All of us are tools he gave birth to. I am, and so are you, but I have adopted parents who love me since I was a child. They don't even know that I am not their biological daughter until now. I have lived a happy life for the past sixteen years. But you are different. We are sisters, but from childhood to adulthood, I have been the master and you have been the servant. Do you... feel it is unfair?"
The maid smiled bitterly and shook her head: "There is no such thing as fairness or injustice. I have been assigned this role since I was born, and I have to accept it whether I want to or not. Miss, although we are both tools, once tools become successful, they will no longer be controlled by that person. I hope you succeed, so that I can live in peace under your wings. If you fail, it is very likely that I will have to complete the task for you, and I... don't want to."
The maid lowered her head with a sad look on her face.
The woman in green understood what she said, and now, they only had this one way to go. The maid was right. Only by rising to prominence could she have a chance to get rid of Duanmu Anguo's control. If she had the chance in the future, she would do everything she could to kill Duanmu Anguo. Only when Duanmu Anguo died could she live a peaceful life. Her parents would still be her parents. She would pretend that nothing had happened, live a good life in the palace, and seek the greatest benefits for her mother's family.
In the Sui Dynasty Palace, Empress Chunyu Qing was sitting in the pavilion, holding a book in her hands and reading it carefully with her eyebrows furrowed. The pavilion was surrounded by maids and eunuchs, some of whom were serving tea, some were serving cakes, and there were chairs placed next to two eunuchs so that the Empress could sit down and enjoy the scenery anytime and anywhere.
The new emperor Li Jian loved his first wife very much. He not only gave her the most honorable position of queen, but also gave her great power in the palace.
But Chun Yuqing knew that all this was just because she was the daughter of the old general Chun Yu'an. Her father held most of the military power of the Sui Dynasty, and it would take some time for the new emperor to take it all back, so he had to stay away from the Chun Yu family. In fact, Li Jian didn't have much affection for her, and their relationship was just plain and respectful.
This state may seem very harmonious to others, and may even be praised. But for couples, treating each other with respect is the greatest sorrow.
Chun Yuqing looked at the list in his hand, feeling inexplicably irritated. The maidservant beside him saw that although the queen held the list in her hand, she had not turned a page for a long time, and said helplessly: "Your Majesty, I know you don't want to see this, but the girls participating in the selection today have already entered the city. Although the first round was hosted by Concubine Wu, these people have also been interrogated three times and six times, but you still need to take a look before giving your opinion, otherwise Concubine Li will not dare to keep any of them."
"Then let's not keep any of them." Chun Yuqing threw the booklet in his hand onto the table and snorted coldly, "It will be peaceful if we don't keep any of them. What's the point of bringing so many people into the palace?"
"But this is approved by the Emperor." The little maid was also very helpless, "Your Majesty, just think of it as more people coming to the palace to relieve your boredom! You are tired of managing the harem, and there will be more people to share your burden in the future, which will relieve a lot of worries!"
"Yes! There is someone to share the harem affairs, and there is also someone to share the emperor's affairs." She shrugged and smiled, with a bitter look on her face.
But at this moment, a young eunuch came running over and whispered something in front of Chun Yuqing. Chun Yuqing suddenly became puzzled and asked in surprise, "How could this happen?"
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