Chapter 332 Shameless
Just when the Crown Prince and the First Prince returned to the capital, Qi Beiming, the King of the Canglang Kingdom, also arrived in the capital in the name of visiting Dayuan.
When Qi Beiming arrived at Dayuan, he first met Qi Jiaqing in secret.
Qi Beiming's voice rang out in the darkness, "Have all the previous items been hidden?"
"Don't worry, my royal brother. Everything is well hidden. When you leave the Great Abyss, we will be able to bring it back to the Canglang Nation."
The man nodded in satisfaction. "Well, my sister has done a good job on this matter. When my brother conquers Dayuan, my sister will be the biggest contributor. At that time, I will make you the eldest princess."
Qi Jiaqing said happily, "Thank you, my dear brother. I will do my best to help you accomplish your great cause."
After saying that, Qi Jiaqing sighed with regret, "It's a pity that the map of Lingzhou City was lost. Among the four strongholds, the iron ore in Lingzhou City is the most abundant, and a large number of weapons were wasted in vain. Brother Huang, is it really impossible for us to find the place where the weapons are hidden?"
Qi Beiming shook his head. "I have sent people to search for it, but have not found any clues."
"But weren't the weapons made and hidden by our own people? Apart from the map, is there no other clue?" Qi Jiaqing couldn't help but ask the question that had been in her mind for a long time.
"Although the weapons were made by our own people, for safety reasons, the weapons made by each stronghold were buried by the stronghold leader himself. Every time, those who helped bury the weapons would be immediately killed by the leader. We can find the weapons by finding the stronghold leader and the map they left behind. Unfortunately, the leaders of the four strongholds were all killed by Prince An's men. The only way to find the burial site is to rely on the map."
Qi Jiaqing then understood, "So that's how it is. Although we lost the weapons in Lingzhou City, we have obtained the weapons in the other three strongholds. Father is always cautious. We can't find the remaining weapons without a map, but hasn't the God of War General of Dayuan been unable to find out the secret of our stronghold?"
"Well, this is exactly the wisdom of my father. It's getting late, so I'll take my leave now."
Seeing Qi Beiming was about to leave, Qi Jiaqing kindly reminded him, "Royal brother, the girl Qianhuan that you like will soon be given to the prince of An by the old emperor, and you will also be marrying the princess of Dayuan country. I'm afraid there will be no chance for you and that girl anymore."
Qi Beiming looked confident. He smiled and said, "It's too early for me to say that. The imperial decree for marriage has not been issued yet, so I still have a chance. Besides, I didn't say that I must marry the princess of Dayuan Kingdom."
After saying that, Qi Beiming disappeared into the night, leaving Qi Jiaqing with a thoughtful look on her face.
Emperor Jingxi ordered the awarding banquet for the eldest prince and the crown prince to be held together with the welcoming banquet for the king of Canglang State. Important officials in the court, their wives, and legitimate sons and daughters were all invited to the palace to attend the banquet.
After the palace banquet began, the dancers came to the palace to perform singing and dancing. Then Emperor Jingxi raised the wine cup and said some polite words to Qi Beiming. The two toasted each other.
The emperor first rewarded the eldest prince, and then prepared to reward the crown prince.
The prince then pulled Qianhuan up and walked to the center of the hall together.
Then the prince stepped forward and said to Emperor Jingxi, "Your Majesty, I do not want any reward of promotion or rank."
Although Emperor Jingxi already knew what his nephew was thinking, he still pretended to be curious and asked, "Oh? You don't want these rewards, then what do you want?"
The prince looked at Qianhuan beside him with gentle eyes, "I have been attracted to Princess Jingrou for a long time. I only want to marry Princess Jingrou as the prince's consort. I beg Your Majesty to grant me the marriage."
Emperor Jingxi said with a smile, "Princess Jingrou is gentle and intelligent, with both talent and virtue. Thanks to Princess Jingrou's selfless dedication in helping the refugees, we didn't cause a refugee riot. I admire her very much. Ziyu, you have good taste. Princess Jingrou and you are a perfect match. I will be the matchmaker today to help you two lovers."
After saying this, Emperor Jingxi turned to the chief eunuch and ordered, "Li Dequan, quickly draft an edict for me."
When the noble ladies present saw that the emperor agreed to grant the marriage, they all looked at Qianhuan with jealous eyes, as if they wanted to stare a hole through Qianhuan.
It was no wonder that these noble ladies were envious, jealous and resentful. He was the most handsome man in their Dayuan Kingdom, a dignified general who was the god of war, and the prince of Prince An's Mansion. He had an extremely noble status and was the dream husband of countless noble ladies in the capital. They didn't expect that in the end he would be won over by a powerless peasant girl. This was really a huge blow to them.
Meng Yuanzhou also attended the palace banquet with the eldest princess today. Looking at the perfect couple in the center of the hall, his face was full of bitterness.
But when he thought that Qianhuan didn't like him at all, he smiled with relief. A forced melon is not sweet. Since Qianhuan doesn't like him, as long as Qianhuan is happy, that's all that matters.
The eldest princess saw that her son was in a very low mood, and she also had a complicated expression on her face at this moment.
If she had known that this woman named Qianhuan was so capable, and could climb to the position of princess on her own so quickly, and also gain the recognition of His Majesty, she would not have opposed her son being with her. But now nothing she said could help.
The princess said to Meng Yuanzhou with a guilty look on her face, "Zhou'er, maybe it was really my fault. I shouldn't have opposed you two being together."
Meng Yuanzhou was still angry about his mother's disdain for Qianhuan. He said bluntly, "Mother, you are indeed wrong. You should not look down on Qianhuan because she comes from the countryside. It is said that a hero does not care about his origin. Mother, you should be more attentive when judging people in the future, instead of just judging them by their status."
The princess was choked by her son's words and didn't know how to answer. After thinking for a long time, she blushed and defended herself, "Since ancient times, marriage has been about matching the family background. We are royal relatives, and our status is extremely noble, while that woman was just a peasant girl of humble origin. Mother was against it because she wanted you to be good. But this time, mother really made a mistake. I didn't expect that this woman had such great ability to climb to the position of princess in such a short time. It's mother's fault for delaying your good marriage."
Meng Yuanzhou picked up the wine glass and drank it in one gulp. Then he laughed at himself and said, "Mother has indeed made a mistake. Qianhuan is not only talented, but her mind and bearing are also impressive. But even if mother hadn't been here, Qianhuan and I wouldn't have had a relationship, because she didn't fancy your son at all. She fancyed Ziyu. I'm convinced that I lost to Ziyu."
The eldest princess choked again. She looked down on Qianhuan at the beginning and even ran to warn her. In fact, Qianhuan never liked her son at all. Thinking about it now, it was so embarrassing.
Li Dequan was just spreading out the bright yellow imperial edict and preparing to write it when a sharp and urgent female voice suddenly rang out, "Your Majesty, you must not agree to the marriage."
Everyone in the hall looked towards the source of the voice. It turned out that the person who said this was Princess Ning Jia.
When Princess Ningjia's father, Prince Duan, saw his daughter standing up from her seat and making trouble, he quickly pulled her aside and said, "Yinyin, stop messing around. Sit down quickly."
Princess Ningjia didn't listen to Prince Duan at all, "Dad, I'm not kidding."
Princess Ningjia walked to the center of the hall, knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, please do not be deceived by Princess Jingrou's appearance. This woman is not worthy of the prince. You must not agree to the marriage."
The emperor didn't expect someone to stand up and sing a different tune. He patiently asked, "Oh? Why did Princess Ningjia say that?"
"Your Majesty, I have sent someone to inquire. Princess Jingrou was once engaged to a scholar named Jiang Lin in the countryside. During the period of their engagement, Princess Jingrou was always trying to please her ex-fiancé. They were in love with each other. Princess Jingrou was also broken off by Jiang Lin. Your Majesty, a woman like Princess Jingrou who has been involved with other men and whose engagement was broken off by others is really not worthy of being a good match for the prince."
"Princess Ning Jia, is what you just said true?"
"Your Majesty, everything I said is true. Jiang Lin is outside the palace right now. If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, you can call him in for questioning."
Emperor Jingxi nodded to Li Dequan, who immediately shouted, "Summon Jianglin to the palace."
Qianhuan really didn't expect that Princess Ningjia would go to her hometown to dig up her private affairs in order to stop her from marrying Ziyu, and even brought the scumbag Jiang Lin back to the capital.
She wanted to see how they were going to stop her from marrying Zi Yu?
The prince standing in the center of the hall had an extremely ugly expression on his face. He stared at Princess Ning Jia with sharp eyes.
He had already sent people to find out some information about Qianhuan's past, and he naturally also knew that she was engaged.
At that time, he was glad that the man had the foresight to give up Qianhuan, which allowed him to get an advantage. He did not expect that at this critical juncture, Princess Ningjia would dig it up and use it to discredit Qianhuan's reputation.
Jiang Lin was very nervous when he knew he was going to meet the emperor. After entering the palace, he didn't even dare to look up.
When he reached the center of the hall, he calmed himself down, knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "I, Jiang Lin, pay my respects to His Majesty. Long live the emperor!"
"Be flat!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Emperor Jingxi looked at Jiang Lin below and asked, "Are you the scholar Jiang Lin who was engaged to Princess Jingrou?"
"Your Majesty, it is me."
"Princess Ningjia said that you and Princess Jingrou were in love during your engagement. Is this true?"
Jiang Lin said quickly, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely true. Qianhuan and I grew up together in the same village. We can be considered childhood sweethearts. Qianhuan loved me very much in the past. She often came to my house to give me gifts. We loved each other very much at that time."
The prince was already angry when he saw Jiang Lin calling Qianhuan by her name. Jiang Lin was still recklessly saying that they were childhood sweethearts and that they loved each other very much. The prince could no longer tolerate this.
He exuded a cold aura and said to Jiang Lin with a murderous look on his face, "How dare you, a rude commoner, call Princess Jingrou by her name? You have no respect for the inferiors. Are you looking for death?"
Jiang Lin didn't know that the person in front of him was the prince who was going to marry Qianhuan. He was so frightened by the prince's aura that he trembled all over and almost wet his pants.
He immediately knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, "I was wrong. I just slipped my tongue. Please forgive me, sir. I will never call you Qianhuan, oh no, Princess, Princess Jingrou again."
When the prince saw Jiang Lin being so cowardly, his anger instantly subsided by half. He didn't believe that his daughter Huan'er would like such a guy.
Princess Ningjia saw the prince threatening Jiang Lin and immediately jumped out to help, "Prince, I know you like Princess Jingrou and want to favor her. But you don't need to scare people like this. You should see Princess Jingrou's true face."
Jiang Lin then realized that the man in front of him with such majestic aura and stunning appearance was actually the Prince of An who was going to marry Qianhuan.
Compared with a man as glorious as the prince, Jiang Lin suddenly felt like a clown. He felt extremely inferior. He never expected that the village girl he had rejected would be favored by a noble man who was like a banished immortal. At this moment, he was filled with regret.
However, no one in the hall cared what Jiang Lin was thinking. The ladies only hoped that Jiang Lin would reveal more of his and Princess Jingrou's privacy so as to ruin this arranged marriage.
The prince angrily retorted to Princess Ning Jia, "I know exactly what kind of person Huan'er is. Princess Ning Jia, there is no need for you to worry about it. Bringing such a shameless thing to the palace and talking nonsense is simply polluting everyone's eyes and ears."
Princess Ningjia didn't expect that the Crown Prince would still protect Qianhuan, a woman whose engagement had been broken off. She was about to open her mouth to persuade the Crown Prince again, but was interrupted by Emperor Jingxi.
"Stop arguing, Jiang Lin. I want to ask you, since you and Princess Jingrou loved each other so much before, why did you cancel the engagement?"
When the emperor asked the question, Jiang Lin felt a little nervous and his eyes were evasive, but when he thought of the promise Princess Ning Jia had made to him, he also didn't want Qianhuan to marry such a noble man.
He immediately said confidently, "Your Majesty, that's because Princess Jingrou's family later became prosperous in small business, and she despised my poverty, and has been ignoring me ever since. That's why we broke off the engagement. Your Majesty, Princess Jingrou is a fickle, vain woman, and I've been harmed by her. Please don't let her harm the prince again."
Qianhuan was really amused by Jiang Lin's shamelessness. It was obviously him who despised her father for breaking his leg and no longer having the ability to make money, and it was obviously him who wanted to marry someone else, but now he could confuse right and wrong without blushing or feeling guilty, and even dared to lie in front of the emperor. It seemed that Princess Ningjia gave him a lot of courage.
In order to destroy my reputation and stop me from marrying Ziyu, they were really willing to do anything.