Getting married?
Murong Xue and Dong Tianxing were both confused and looked at each other, wondering what the emperor meant.
Li Bing smiled faintly and continued: "When I was the crown prince, the late emperor once said that he wanted Zhongshu Ling Liu Shiming's granddaughter Liu Yanru to be the crown princess. However, Liu Yanru was still young at that time and was not suitable for marriage. , so I will let this matter go for now. Now that I have ascended the throne, and the young lady from the Liu family is sixteen or seventeen years old, I think that I should grant the late Emperor's wish."
Murong Xue said happily: "Your Majesty, are you planning to ask me to come to propose marriage?"
"Going to propose marriage? Hahaha," Li Bing couldn't help but laugh: "What you said is quite interesting. However, an imperial wedding cannot be called a marriage proposal like the common people do. As my special envoy, you have carried out the order and went to Yili. The prefecture held a reception ceremony and a welcoming ceremony, read out the edict of canonizing the queen, and then escorted my wife to the Eastern Capital."
Murong Xue cupped her hands and said, "I am extremely honored."
Li Bing nodded: "Don't worry yet. In addition to Liu Yanru, there are two other concubines who have been conferred the same title. Please bring them back to me."
"Ah? There are two more?" Murong Xue was a little stunned: "You want to marry three people at once?"
Li Bing smiled and said: "Why not? The fifteenth emperor of the Holy Tang Dynasty canonized a queen and eight concubines in one day. Compared with our ancestors, this is nothing to me."
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I was so rude just now. I just don't know who the other two imperial concubines are?"
"One is Ma Hongjie's niece Ma Yunfang, and the other is your cousin Murong Ling."
Hearing this, Murong Xue was stunned on the spot. At this time, he finally smelled the unusual meaning behind the emperor's marriage.
Zhongshu Lingliu Shiming is the leader of the civil service group, his disciples and old friends are all over the world, and he has a huge influence on the court; Ma Hongjie is now the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, with hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, but he is at a distance from the emperor; and the Murong family is the world's leader The famous wealthy merchants of Western Shu are not only connected with Murong Xue, but also possess unimaginable wealth and power themselves.
Marrying a woman from these three families is tantamount to establishing a profound connection with the political, military and business circles, firmly binding common interests together.
These are clearly three special political marriages!
Murong Xue looked at Li Bing on the throne, and suddenly felt that she did not recognize this young emperor.
"Murong, you are my most trusted imperial minister," Li Bing said softly: "Only you are the most qualified to handle these three major events on my behalf. At the moment, Liu Yanru, Ma Yunfang and Murong Ling are all in Yizhou , you take a hard trip to visit your family and give them the good news."
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As soon as the news of the emperor's wedding came out, it immediately shocked the world.
The people of Shengtang love to be lively. Even in the years of war, the new king canonize the queen and concubine, which can still attract people to talk about it.
Besides, the fact that the emperor was willing to marry three wives in a row, doesn't it mean that the war situation is becoming more and more favorable to Shengtang?
Amid the laughter of the common people, the civil and military officials in the court also began various speculations and analyses.
The first is the name of Zhongshu Lingliu's poem.
Of course he is very happy about his granddaughter's marriage. As a veteran of the three dynasties of the Holy Tang Dynasty, the late emperor Li Chengwu gave a secret edict to Liu Shiming and two other veterans, clarifying Li Bing's position as the crown prince. Therefore, Liu Shiming has always been a representative figure in the Yizhou court who firmly supported the prince.
Now that Li Bing has become the emperor of the Holy Tang Dynasty, he has abided by the former emperor's promise and canonized Liu Yanru as queen, which directly elevated the status of the Liu family in the court, and naturally won the full recognition of Liu Shiming and the civil officials of the faction behind him.
All of a sudden, there were endless voices praising the emperor.
Compared with Mr. Liu, Ma Hongjie's reaction is worth pondering.
Ma Yunfang is both Ma Hongjie's niece and his adopted daughter. When his eldest brother died in the battle, only a young daughter, Ma Yunfang, was left behind. Ma Hongjie kept her with him and raised his niece for him, making him closer than his own daughter.
Logically speaking, Ma Yunfang was canonized as a concubine, and her status immediately became extremely noble. As an uncle, Ma Hongjie should be happy. It's a pity that Shengtang did not catch up with the good times. Not only was it invaded by foreign enemies, but it also faced complicated internal situations.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows the reason why Li Bing married Ma Yunfang. This may not be a good thing to be happy about for his niece.
At first, Ma Hongjie planned to reject this royal family, but Yan Huiqing's words made him give up his mind.
"Hong Jie, you have already made the emperor unhappy for the sake of Shengtang. Are you going to put the entire Ma family under more pressure? If you refuse the emperor's wife, who will dare to marry that girl Yunfang in the future?"
The person who was more entangled than Ma Hongjie was Murong Qianqiu, the patriarch of the Murong family and Murong Xue's nominal father.
Murong Ling, whom Li Bing wanted to marry, was the legitimate daughter of Murong Qianqiu's younger brother Murong Shengshi.
Murong Shengshi was smart, talented in both literature and martial arts since he was a child, and he wanted to compete with his elder brother since he was a child. Especially after Murong Qianqiu inherited the family business, Murong Shengshi always felt dissatisfied and had to confront his brother everywhere.
This time Murong Xue sent an imperial edict saying that the emperor wanted to make his cousin Murong Ling his concubine. Murong Qianqiu's first reaction was that there must be a political conspiracy behind this. In order to prevent the whole family from going through troubled waters, he asked his younger brother to discuss whether he could decline the marriage on the grounds that Murong Ling was already engaged to the Nangong family.
Unexpectedly, Murong Shengshi expressed strong opposition on the spot.
"Oh, only your son is allowed to climb the dragon and the phoenix, but my daughter is not allowed to be respected? Brother is so partial!"
Murong Shengshi bypassed Murong Qianqiu and went directly to the Ministry of Rites to thank him. In front of everyone, he told Imperial Envoy Murong Xue that Princess Murong Ling could leave at any time according to the order.
After Murong Qianqiu learned about this, he could only sigh and say nothing.
At this time, preparations for the relocation of the imperial court were also almost complete.
Zhongshu Province, Shangshu Province, Menxia Province, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Industry, as well as the Dudufu, Yushitai, Guozijian, Qintianjian, Honglu Temple, Guanglu Temple, and Taifu Temple , Zongzheng Temple, Dali Temple, as well as the 24th Bureau of Qinzao, more than 3,000 officials at all levels from the Shengtang Center, together with their families, young and old, are about to leave Yizhou in batches and head towards Luoyi in the Central Plains.
Murong Xue had no intention of leaving with the large group of people. As soon as he finished delivering the decree, he decided to set off immediately to escort the queen and the two imperial concubines to the Eastern Capital.
The world is not peaceful now. Although the route from Yizhou to Yuzhou passes through territory controlled by our own army, after all, powerful enemies are on the side. There are Turks in the west and rebels in the east. Who knows if they will come and cause trouble?
Set off early and arrive early to avoid anything happening to the three noble girls on the way.
However, as the saying goes, good things don't work but bad things work. Murong Xue's worries finally came true.
After receiving the news of the emperor's wedding, Huaiyang King Li Kuang and Lao Jianhua actually dispatched a large number of experts at the same time to prepare to intercept the wedding team.
Moreover, the instructions given by both sides were very similar: humiliate, rape and kill the queen and concubine, and then frame the blame on the Turks!
Two groups of cruel killers and assassins set out from Huaibei and Jiangnan respectively, and headed straight for Xiangcheng, which was the only way Murong Xue and the others must pass.
"Xi'er, go and give Brother Xue a cup of this rock sugar stewed bird's nest." Murong Ling instructed: "Brother Xue has worked very hard these days."
The maid Xi'er agreed, and while preparing the food box, she smiled and said: "Miss, the eldest son is so majestic. His armor is shining brightly, and there are so many soldiers under his command. I passed by the side courtyard the day before yesterday and listened to the horseman The girl told her maid that she had grown up in a military camp and had never seen a general as handsome as the eldest son."
When Murong Ling heard this, she burst into laughter and scolded with a smile: "You little girl, have you learned to listen to the wall? You can no longer call me Miss Ma, you have to call me Empress."
"Then should I also call the young lady my mother-in-law?" Xi'er asked seriously.
Murong Ling's pretty face turned slightly red, and she raised her hand and patted Xi'er gently: "I call you a mouthful, so I'll get you beaten!"
Xi'er quickly smiled and begged for mercy, and then asked: "Miss, when can we go to Dongdu? I have never been there before."
"Inexperienced little girl, you have never left Jiannan. Not only have you never been to Dongdu?" Murong Ling said with a smile: "We are in Nanzhang County at this time, and the next stop is Xiangcheng, Liluo There is still half a way to the city."
Xi'er's eyes widened: "Huh? We're only halfway there? Oh my god, I thought we were almost there. This journey involves taking a boat and a car, but it's so tiring."
Murong Ling urged her: "Okay, don't complain. Move quickly and send it to Brother Xue quickly. It's getting late and he may fall asleep later."
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Murong Xue himself came.
He and Murong Ling had known each other since childhood, and they never talked about so many rules and etiquette, so he opened the door and entered the house.
"You haven't slept yet? It's okay that you haven't slept yet. Quickly change these clothes. And you, Xi'er, change together. I'll wait outside."
Xi'er took a look at the two sets of clothes and couldn't help but be stunned on the spot: "Master, isn't this a military uniform?"
Murong Ling also asked quickly: "Brother, what's going on?"
"Don't ask, change quickly, and then meet you in the flower hall in front."
After a while, the confused master and servant changed into their coarse military uniforms and came to the flower hall together.
Unexpectedly, Liu Yanru and Ma Yunfang were each waiting here with a personal maid, both wearing military uniforms like Murong Ling.
Murong Xue bowed her hands and saluted them, and then said in a deep voice: "Three nobles, I have just received news that the enemy has sent a large number of assassins to harm you. For the sake of safety, I have no choice but to aggrieve you."
"Enemies? Enemies from which side?" Liu Yanru came from a famous family and her manners and manners were unusual for an ordinary woman. She raised her eyebrows and continued: "Now that we know that the assassin is coming, the general only needs to send more people and strengthen the protection. That’s fine, why do you have to let us change our clothes at night?”
