"Da'an and his men want Huang Ranhu's head in exchange for their most favored princess. Prince Zhenbei, tell me, what should I do?"
Today is the grand court assembly. Huo Xiaolong stood in the first row on the side of the military officers and sighed deeply.
"Let's return it. Are we going to hang Huang Ranhu's head on the city wall every day?"
"As for Princess Mingzhu, since she doesn't have a prince she likes, she should go back. What's she doing here? Who knows, she might end up as the principal wife, what if..."
Huo Xiaolong didn't say what came next, just in case it happened that Princess Mingzhu's man would ascend the throne and she would become the empress.
Hasn't Da Yan been working for nothing all these years?
Yuwen Xuanhong frowned on the dragon throne. Huo Xiaolong was right, but her recent popularity was really too high.
"Let's set the matter aside for now. If there's nothing else, let's adjourn the court."
"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"
Grand Tutor Xu was kept behind again. The emperor took him to the imperial study and asked him somewhat anxiously.
"Any news from the spies? When is Lan Tingche going to reopen the case?"
"It should be soon, Your Majesty. Do not worry. Last time, our spies reported that the Prince of Zhenbei will definitely take action before the New Year."
“But…” Grand Tutor Xu hesitated halfway through his sentence.
"Just what? Tell me."
"But Your Majesty, after you deal with Lan Tingche, what will happen to the Prince of Zhenbei?"
"She has a powerful army, what if... what if she..."
What if Huo Xiaolong rebels?
"If she truly harbors such rebellious intentions, then let her go with Lan Tingche to see the late Crown Prince!"
Yuwen Xuanhong felt annoyed when he thought of the eldest princess kneeling before the Prince of Zhenbei.
Recently, his harem has also been in turmoil, not because of his own women, but because of his own mother.
I don't know what my mother is busy with, but I can't let myself get hurt.
Grand Tutor Xu had already left the Imperial Study, leaving Yuwen Xuanhong alone in the large room, feeling somewhat lonely.
Inside the Princess's residence, the woman's three male lovers were looking at the paper that Yuwen Helan was fanning herself with, and the atmosphere was somewhat tense.
"Helan, are we really going to give this to the Prince of Zhenbei?"
"I think we should give it to her. Otherwise, if she keeps it, I'll always want to kill Yuwen Xuanhong. What do you guys think?"
Li Yi nodded and said...
“I think so too. It would be safer for her to go after the Emperor; the blood wouldn’t spill into the Princess’s residence.”
"It's settled then, we'll go tonight."
"Tonight?" the man asked.
"Why don't you invite my grandson and granddaughter-in-law over?"
The eldest princess was very relaxed, as if she were holding a paper fan rather than evidence to convict Yuwen Xuanhong.
"Okay, I'll go and bring them over."
The lights outside the window were a bit dazzling. Yuwen Helan stared at the evidence in his hand, realizing that he had grown old in the blink of an eye.
The girl who was once terrified and helpless in the face of palace chaos is gone. Now, she can also contribute to avenging her brother.
In the princess's memory, her elder brother, the late emperor, was a very good person, very, very good.
There were only a few concubines in the harem. At that time, even if Da'an had Huang Ranhu, the Great Yan would not dare to make any rash moves against Dongyu.
The current Empress Dowager, formerly a concubine, was not prominent in her father's harem, and received no reward even for giving birth to a child.
She was from a foreign tribe, from the grasslands, a fact known to everyone in the palace.
Everyone knew that currying favor with her was useless; she had no chance of becoming empress.
Later, her father died, and her brother succeeded to the throne, ordering all the princes to bring their birth mother out of the palace to live out her old age.
It seems that in those few years, the Dowager Consort changed a lot. She hid in the Prince's Mansion and didn't like to go out. She also stopped attending palace banquets.
What was her real name again?
Yuwen Helan tried hard to think, but still couldn't figure it out.
It seems that no one in the palace ever mentioned her name; she was only called Consort Xian.
When Huo Xiaolong and Lan Tingche arrived at the Princess's residence, the woman was still sitting in a chair reminiscing about the past, going through the events before Yuwen Xuanhong's rebellion frame by frame.
I always felt there was something wrong with the Empress Dowager.
"What's up? Why did you call us here?"
Huo Xiaolong sat down opposite the eldest princess and then asked a question.
The woman didn't waste any time and threw the evidence directly on the table, saying...
"Here you go. Aren't we looking for physical evidence lately? I have one here."
The girl took it directly and looked at it with the person next to her. After looking at it, she glanced at the princess's absent-minded expression.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
These two couldn't even manage a basic courtesy, leaving the men nearby looking at each other in bewilderment.
"What are you thinking about?" Long'er asked first.
"I'm wondering why Yuwen Xuanhong was able to suddenly rebel back then."
"It's one thing for him to rebel, but my brother is just unlucky. Who told him to have the people in his heart?"
"But, after he became emperor, when the Empress Dowager was purging the harem, the speed and efficiency she displayed was unlike anything I'd ever seen her do, you know?"
The eldest princess stopped lying down, sat up, and looked at Huo Xiaolong.
"I know, I understand."
"You've barely even met her a few times, what do you know?"
"She's a spy sent from the grasslands, what don't I understand?"
Huo Xiaolong stared at the Princess, his face full of "I understand perfectly."
"She's from the grasslands, everyone in the palace knows that. As for spies, do you have any evidence?" Yuwen Helan was somewhat skeptical. She was the Empress Dowager; how could Huo Xiaolong possibly catch her red-handed?
“Yes, I have it. The King of the Grasslands told me.”
"..."
"..."
"..."
Okay, you're amazing. Your sister is the queen of the grasslands. You're incredible.
"She was also quite close to the grassland national advisor, who was holding a red flower before he died."
Do you know what safflower is?
Yuwen Helan shook her head. She looked at the men in her backyard, but they also shook their heads.
That must be a secret, so the eldest princess asked.
What is safflower?
"Red Flower is a spy organization of the grasslands. In the past, Red Flower people often went to the border town to cause trouble, but I killed them all."
"Then why didn't she collude with the grasslands to invade, but instead went to great lengths to put Yuwen Xuanhong on the throne?" the princess asked rhetorically.
"Look, Brother Tingche told me that back in your father's time, she had no status. She came from the grasslands, so she definitely couldn't reach a high position, right? Even if she did, it wouldn't have mattered. The harem can't interfere in politics, and she didn't have a family to rely on. What would she know about the affairs of the previous dynasty?"
"Then your father died, and you saw your brother. He was a good man. He got those princes to take your birth mother away, but she couldn't let the grasslands fight with your brother."
"Even if your brother makes the Great Yan army strong and powerful, they still can't win. They might even lose some cattle and sheep to the bears."
"So, she personally trained a fool, and the fool rose to power. When the grasslands attacked, this tactic worked best, resulting in fewer casualties."
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