Mrs. Xiahou's real name is Xiahou Shu, and her father Xiahou Ba is also the right-hand man of King Cao Wu, Cao Mengde, and has great power.
Of course, in order to consolidate his position, Xiahou Ba thought of giving his daughter to King Cao Wu as a concubine.
At that time, King Cao Wu was already fifty years old and suffered from a headache. When the attack occurred, he had a splitting headache and killed several of his concubines in a state of confusion.
In such a terrifying and bloody harem atmosphere, no one dared to send their daughter into the palace.
But in order to show his loyalty, Xiahou Ba took his daughters to attend King Cao Wu's annual Great Cold Banquet.
Xia Houshu, who had just passed the age of 18, had already fallen in love with the young General Yang Hu. When she heard that her father said that she wanted to marry King Cao Wu, Yang Hu would rush to the battlefield after the Great Cold Banquet, almost losing control and crying bitterly. Ask your father not to do this.
But how could Xiahou Ba lose his rights and status because of his daughter's plea? He sternly scolded: "As the daughter of the Xiahou family, you must know how to choose and sacrifice!"
Xia Houshu's sister Xia Houyuan was widowed at home. She looked a bit similar to her sister. Seeing this situation, she directly took her sister Xia Houshu back to the backyard and put forward a suggestion to get the best of both worlds.
On the day of the Great Winter Banquet, when the wine and meat were in full swing, Xia Houshu performed a stunning dance called "A Dream of the Grandmaster" and sang a very euphemistic lyrics: "The moon before the flowers, the dream of the Grandmaster." The words on the letter , the love is pious. When the smoke rises, I sigh, I can’t help it... You can see that I am deeply in love with you. I depend on each other in life and death. I can’t help it..."
It really makes those who hear it cry, and those who see it are heartbroken.
With such bold lyrics and music, Xia Houshu expressed his feelings to General Yang Hu who was present.
She even put her long red sleeves in his hands in front of everyone.
In such an occasion, King Cao Wu could not forcefully marry Xia Houshu, but he had to be extremely generous and open-minded.
After asking about the whole story, he directly granted marriage to Xiahou Shu and Yang Hu, and even rewarded him with a thousand taels of gold.
After the Xiahou family came out to express their gratitude, Xiahou Yuan suddenly stayed alone, saying that she too could make a splash and hoped to win the favor of King Cao Wu.
Facing the equally beautiful Xia Houyuan, King Cao Wu naturally would not refuse and watched the Dance of Beauty again with great interest.
After the Great Cold Banquet, the widowed Xiahou Yuan was welcomed into the palace and became King Cao Wu's concubine. She enjoyed great fame for a while, and the Xiahou family was able to continue their position as a supreme minister.
Of course, things changed later.
For example, Xiahou Yuan was killed, Xiahou Ba fled, and Yang Hu became the founding general of the Western Jin Dynasty because he followed the Sima family.
Now, the person involved has long passed away.
This secret past has long since disappeared.
If Yang Xianrong hadn't grown up with Xia Houshu and listened to her talk about the past, he wouldn't have known about such past events.
But Sima Zhong actually knew it, who told him to know it?
Just when Yang Xianrong was surprised, Sima Zhong took a sip of the hot porridge on the table and asked, "Where's the sweet-scented osmanthus cake? Why aren't you there yet?"
"Come on, come on!" Cuixi hurriedly ran in and presented several square rice cakes.
"Is this an osmanthus cake?" Sima Zhong paused, "Queen, don't you dare to tell me that this is an osmanthus cake?"
"It's osmanthus cake." Yang Xianrong immediately took the plate, pointed to the small silk flowers on it and said, "This is osmanthus. This rice cake is made with some osmanthus oil, which makes it even more fragrant."
As she spoke, she took a piece and ate it.
Indeed, the fragrance of osmanthus gradually spreads, and there is a unique fragrance.
"I don't like such sweet food, so I put some jasmine flowers to stimulate the aroma. Smell it, is it still fragrant?"
Sima Zhong also imitated the sheep's appearance, picked up a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake and put it into his mouth.
After a moment, he narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "It's really delicious. These are mine. In the future, the queen will also prepare more pastries like this for me to eat."
"Second brother brought this here." Yang Xianrong took the opportunity to remind him in a low voice.
However, Sima Zhong just ate another piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake and asked Zhang Du to take away the rest. "Queen, I said, if you want anything, you can exchange it with me. Anything is fine. It's okay if you don't want to dance, but you must give me something in exchange for it to be fun!"
"My concubine knows." Having said this, Yang Xianrong could no longer force himself.
After Sima Zhong left, Yang Xianrong didn't say anything to Yang Xiankang and asked him to leave the palace and go home to "take care of his illness".
She touched the Yaoqin for a while, touched the Shakuhachi for a while, and asked Ranxiang to pick out several extremely gorgeous silk dresses from the dowry. Later, she rummaged through and found a set of costumes... ...From the front yard to the dormitory hall, and from the dormitory hall to the storehouse, in short, the people in Tianyuan Hall were tossed to the point where they couldn't stop.
It wasn't until nightfall that the place gradually became quiet, with only an oil lamp left in the bedroom.
Cui Xi was still cleaning up the items she found during the day. Yang Xianrong and Lan Xiang quietly walked out of the side door of Tianyuan Hall and went to Yingliu Lake in the dark.
The weather was slightly warm this night and there was no wind.
Due to the incident between Concubine Li and Ru Meiren, the palace was still enforcing a curfew, and no one dared to go out at will.
There were sporadic sounds of musical instruments playing from various courtyards, but they were all extremely light.
The melodious voice is even more beautiful in the dark night.
They also want to show off their skills at the Great Cold Banquet and get something from Sima Zhong in exchange, right?
Yang Xianrong thought and sighed.
It is said that the emperor's family has everything they want, but the emperor's women are the most humble.
Sima Zhong had many concubines, many of whom were blocked and imprisoned by Jian Nanfeng after he was deposed, and many of them could not come forward. Now, it seems that we can get close to Sima Zhong, but the emperor's weird temperament always makes people confused, and the road to please becomes extremely difficult.
Just like what happened today, Sima Zhong saved himself and his second brother, but was this his original intention?
Yingliu Lake is not small in area and has an open water surface.
There is a row of palace lanterns hanging on the treetops by the lake, which serve as illumination and warning.
After all, palace residents often fell into the water and drowned here, and there were also imperial guards patrolling here.
Yang Xianrong was not afraid at all, and even a little excited.
Lanxiang went out to inquire around in the afternoon and learned that the nanny who was good at playing the shakuhachi would appear by the shore of Yingliu Lake every fourth day of the Lunar New Year.
Today happened to be the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, so she thought she would have to give it a try. Then he quietly came here with Lan Xiang.
"Girl, you can't find anyone here, can you? Why don't you play softly for a while? Maybe someone will come out when they hear the sound?" Lan Xiang pulled her sleeves, a little nervous.
It made sense after thinking about it, so Yang Xianrong just blew two short syllables casually.
It was very quiet by Yingliu Lake, and the moonlight was getting brighter, which actually outshone the brilliance of the palace lanterns.
And because of the sudden distant and desolate sound of Shakuhachi, some water birds or mice caused a commotion, but they soon calmed down.
Soon enough, Chief Mu, who was in charge of the cleaning department in the palace, heard the sound and came over and asked loudly: "Who is this? Do you know the curfew in the palace?"
Yang Xianrong and Lan Xiang didn't say anything, and were still observing whether anyone else appeared around them.
Master Mu carried a lantern and approached and found that it was the Queen. He was so frightened that he immediately fell to his knees and said repeatedly: "I didn't know it was the Queen who arrived. I was wrong!"
(End of chapter)
