The person who came was a girl with a heroic appearance and majestic air. Xi Duanhong had long heard that Daqi had a young female general named Hua Siyin. She had been on the battlefield with her father since she was a child. Now she was only in her twenties and was already in command of the three armies. General, and this woman is also the niece of the current queen.
Xi Duanhong greeted him with a smile, "Xi Duanhong has met General Hua."
Hua Siyin cupped his fists and smiled back, "Young lady, you don't have to be polite. My dad said you were kind to him and asked me to bring some thank you gifts. Now, these are all for you." Hua Siyin clapped his hands as he said that, "Erhua Bring your stuff in.”
"Come on, General." The accompanying female guards moved the thank-you gifts into the courtyard.
Xi Duanhong was a little at a loss. Just when he didn't know what to do, Hua Siyin came over and said, "Although this thing is not very valuable, it is my father's heartfelt wish. Please accept it, little lady."
Looking at the general in front of him, Xi Duanhong was a little embarrassed to look at him, "Thank you, General Hua. General, would you like to come in and have a cup of tea before leaving..."
Hua Siyin happily stayed, "Okay, thank you very much for the hospitality, little lady."
Xi Duanhong took Hua Siyin to the side hall and personally made tea for Hua Siyin to drink. The fragrance of tea overflowed and lingered on his lips and teeth.
Hua Siyin marveled that Xi Duanhong had such a good tea-making skill, "My little lady's skill is rarely matched by others."
"Little madam, I heard that you are a female official?"
Xi Duanhong held the teapot in his hand and smiled, "Yes."
"Oh, you have to be careful as a female official. There are too many traitors in this court. Don't let them catch your eye, otherwise you won't be able to protect yourself."
"Thank you, General, for reminding me. I will keep this in mind, little lady."
Hua Simiyin got a little carried away while sipping tea here. When he looked at the time, it was already very late. Hua Simiyin hurriedly got up and said goodbye, "There have been a lot of disturbances today. My dear, we are destined to meet again."
"Goodbye by fate, Ting Xue will see the general off for me."
"It's Miss."
After seeing Hua Siyin off, Xi Duanhong hurried back to the main hall. When he saw the two of them outside the door, they had not finished talking, so he went to order the kitchen to prepare dinner.
When he returned to the main hall, he saw Nangong Che about to get up and leave. Xi Duanhong knocked on the door and walked in. Nangong Che became interested again as soon as he saw Xi Duanhong.
"You two can stay for dinner, I've ordered someone to prepare it."
Nangong Che sat down again very shamelessly, "Since Miss Xi invites you so kindly, let's stay and have a meal."
Ouyang Zhu looked at him like this and said silently, "Shameless."
Xi Duanhong sat down and asked, "Sir, what do you think of a name for this mansion?"
"Just do whatever you want."
The three of them were silent for a while, Xi Duanhong secretly thought in his heart: If she can be so casual about what she writes, it really means nothing, and rotten wood cannot be carved.
During meal——
Nangong Che suddenly said: "There is an undercurrent surging in Daqi right now. Zhuzi, what are your plans? Do you really want to save Daqi who is terminally ill as a national master?"
"This is not absolute. Maybe one day I will leave the court and continue to be the master of my concubine pavilion."
Nangong Che put down the chopsticks in his hand and wiped his mouth gracefully, "The old woman must have been in bad health these years. She has to pave the way for her descendants, but who else in the Daqi royal family is related to her by blood? You know, the seriousness of the incident had already spread throughout the five countries, and such a cruel and ruthless person should not live long."
Ouyang Zhu had no objections to this, nor did he comment on it. On the contrary, it aroused Xi Duanhong's interest.
"Nangong, I have questions and I don't know whether to ask them or not."
Nangong Che stretched out his hand to signal her to ask, Xi Duanhong then put down the bowls and chopsticks in his hands, "Then who is the Queen Mother Xu, and why has she endured so long?"
"Good question. Your adults can answer this question. Didn't he tell you?"
"I never asked."
Nangong Che nodded with a half-smile, and poked Ouyang Zhu who was sitting next to him, "This old woman is from the Xu family. You must know that back then, the Xu family was at its peak. In Daqi, you could say that one person was inferior to tens of thousands of people. And Xu Lingxiang, as the eldest daughter of the Xu family, naturally married the then crown prince and became the crown princess."
"Xu Lingxiang was able to remove obstacles for the then crown prince to ascend the throne. She also became the queen. After that, it was rumored that she never helped the then majesty in the palace, so that everyone in the court was dissatisfied, and Xu Lingxiang's real Her ambition is not to be a queen but to be the emperor herself and to be the first empress in the ages."
Xi Duanhong was surprised. He thought that as a female official, she was ambitious enough, but he didn't expect that she actually wanted to become the empress. However, Xi Duanhong was still puzzled, "Then why is she not the empress now but still living in the harem? "
"Because her hands are stained with too much blood, she is no longer suitable to stand in the court, let alone be a wise king. Therefore, she can only treat the emperor as her puppet as she is now. Little girl, do you know that fifteen years What about the extermination of the Xu family?"
"Have heard a little bit."
"That was her family, and she was so determined to send people to massacre her entire family. You know, no one of the hundreds of people in the Xu family survived!"
"That's enough Nangong, stop talking. These things have already passed. Why bring them up? Let's leave after eating."
Nangong Che left the dining table helplessly and walked out. Ouyang Zhu noticed Xi Duanhong's strange behavior and did not make a sound, but just kept company quietly.
When Xi Duanhong heard that hundreds of members of the Xu family had not survived, his heart felt like it was being cut by a knife. His heart ached so much. Xi Duanhong looked at Ouyang Zhu, his eyes filled with red tears.
When he saw the tears in her eyes, Ouyang Zhu couldn't help it anymore and said, "What's wrong?"
"Sir, why would Xu Lingxiang kill her own family? Wouldn't the power behind her be gone?"
Ouyang Zhu sighed, "I don't know either, but the demise of the Xu family did greatly weaken her vitality. This is why she rarely speaks in court, but this does not mean that the power behind her has completely disappeared. On the contrary, Tan Yanxian and others still follow her lead, do you know what this means?"
"What?"
Ouyang Zhu took out a letter from his arms and put it on the table, "This is the information given by the Trading Pavilion. The Xu family is not the only Xu family. What Nangong said just now was the head of the family, Xu Chengli, but the news we got is that Xu Chengli There is also a cousin who fled to Jiangnan with part of the Xu family, which is another branch of the Xu family, and the reason why Xu Lingxiang can still be like this is because of the help of this person."
Xi Duanhong couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She didn't know why she wanted to cry, but she couldn't help it after hearing Ouyang Zhu's words. She couldn't control her want to cry.
Ouyang Zhu's eyes were full of worry, but he still didn't say anything to comfort him.
"Sir," Xi Duanhong looked at Ouyang Zhu with red eyes, "Sir, I want to go back to the concubine's pavilion. I, I don't want to be here anymore, I..."
"You are not from the Xu family, why are you so concerned about this matter?"
"I don't know, I, it's just that every time I hear about the Xu family being destroyed, my heart hurts so much. Sir, I want to go home. I, I suddenly don't know what I should do... …”
Xi Duanhong became choked up more and more as he spoke, and it was difficult to speak. This made Ouyang Zhu doubt him.
On the other side, inside the palace
Xu Lingxiang came to the Imperial Garden accompanied by her maid. Xi Duanhong had been the center of attention in the court for the past two days, making her lose face in front of all the civil and military officials. How could she swallow this?
When Xu Lingxiang was thinking about how to deal with the situation, the maid came to report, "Your Majesty, Mr. Tan wants to see you."
Xu Lingxiang waved her hand, "Let him come over."
Tan Yanxian came over with a smile, holding a secret letter in his hand, "Tan Yanxian came to see your empress, your empress, at this time, there was a letter from Tuwa Yiyi of Shabu. Soon the old Shawang will pass away." .”
Xu Lingxiang finally wrote a secret message and laughed loudly after reading it, "Reply to him and ask him to deal with it as soon as possible. I want Shabu to open the door of this great country!"
"Yes," Tan Yanxian looked around and whispered: "Your Majesty, I have received a letter from the Xu family in the south of the Yangtze River. This year, the price of merchant ships is higher than before. Moreover, there are turmoils everywhere. The old minister thinks that your Majesty, it is better to send someone I'm going to patrol south of the Yangtze River to take the opportunity to investigate this matter. The salt merchants and horse traders are no longer what they used to be. I'm afraid someone is trying to do harm to you secretly."
Xu Lingxiang's eyebrows rose, "In your opinion, who can be sent to the Central Government?"
"Gu Zi'ang, the eldest son of Gu, your Majesty does not need to give the order in person. She only needs to be by your Majesty's side to remind you."
"Well," Xu Lingxiang said to the maid beside her, "go and invite His Majesty to come over."
"yes."
