Rebirth of the High Gate Mistress

Chapter 145 Emperor Ming’s favorite eighth princess

After Li Ling returned, he organized the defenses of the military fortresses on this southward trip, and then took Zhou Jin into the palace to resume his duties with Emperor Ming.

Emperor Ming took the military report from Li Ling. He carefully looked through the military information compiled by his nephew, and a satisfied smile gradually appeared on his face.

Emperor Ming closed the military newspaper, looked at Li Ling and asked: "In Bo Yue's opinion, when will it be best to recover the five cities of Gunzhou?"

Li Ling replied: "After the five cities of Gunzhou were lost, Chaozhou and Nanjun became isolated cities. The Gaoshan Kingdom is eyeing them and will definitely raise troops to capture them when the time is right."

 Di Ming nodded.

Li Ling continued: "It's just that in recent years, Nanjun has suffered from natural disasters for many years. The people are not hungry, and the military pay is not enough. Now the morale of the city defense and the army is low. If you want to recapture the five cities of Gunzhou, I think we must first strengthen the Nanjun area." In the city, provide sufficient pay to the troops and improve the morale of the soldiers. Once the soldiers have sufficient morale, they can attack the Central Army and the Chaozhou Nanjun garrison from the north and south, and then the five cities can be recaptured."

The military pay for each city in Da Qi was partly issued by the imperial court, and the other part required local states and counties to turn in money and grain to support the soldiers.

There have been natural disasters in the Nanjun area for many years, and the powerful are vying for land. The people can't even feed themselves, and they can't even pay the grain to the court, and there is nowhere left to support the local army. If soldiers and generals cannot get military pay, how can they have the strength to fight?

After listening to Li Ling's words, Emperor Ming nodded slightly and replied: "I know this situation, and I will find a way to raise money as soon as possible to allocate military pay there."

Li Ling deeply cupped his hands and said: "If this can be done, when the army in Nanjun has sufficient pay and the soldiers have their morale up, then the five cities of Gunzhou will be recovered."

Emperor Ming Long Yan was overjoyed and said, "Okay! Then I will order you to be the commander-in-chief and take back the five cities."

Li Ling replied solemnly: "I will fulfill my mission."

 In the imperial study room of Qinzheng Palace, the emperor and his ministers were discussing the plan to recover the territory. Outside the Qinzheng Hall, a young girl was happily teasing Emperor Ming's pet dog.

This girl is the eighth daughter that Emperor Ming loved most, the eighth princess born of Concubine Meng, named Qingyuan.

The eighth princess fiddled with the snow-white lion for a while, then lost interest. She looked bored and said impatiently to Li Dequan, the chief chamberlain: "When will our father and the emperor be able to finish talking? I still have something to do with him."

When Li Dequan saw that the Eighth Princess was displeased, his face immediately turned into a flower. He narrowed his eyes and said coaxingly: "Your Majesty is discussing important matters with General Li and General Zhou inside. Princess, please wait patiently. The conversation will be over in a moment.”

The Eighth Princess pouted and said displeasedly: "My father is always busy, and I don't know if my father took it to heart about the matter of building a palace for me that I mentioned to him last time."

Li Dequan hurriedly coaxed the princess and said: "You are the apple of His Majesty's eye. As long as the Princess asks for anything, the Holy Emperor will not agree to it. In this matter, there is no one who can pick the stars and the moon. If there is, even if the princess wants to If the stars miss the moon, the Holy Emperor will order someone to bring them to the princess, right?"

Li Dequan was trying to make the eighth princess happy here. Li Ling and Zhou Jin came out of the imperial study one after another after meeting the emperor.

The eighth princess stood outside the Qinzheng Palace holding the lion in her arms. She glanced at the two people leaving and asked Li Dequan, "Who is that person following the heir apparent of the Li family?"

Li Dequan quickly came forward respectfully and said, "That little general is the only son of Marquis Zhongshun and Princess Lanling. His name is Zhou Jin." "Zhou Jin? Zhou Jin! Zhou Jin -" the eighth princess muttered these two words. , she glanced at the handsome figure, with a smile on her lips.

It wasn't until Zhou Jin's figure was no longer visible that the Eighth Princess came back to her senses. She dropped the lion Cong, and the pet dog was suddenly thrown to the ground, causing the dog to make a "yoyo" sound from its mouth. The Eighth Princess But without even looking at it, he stepped into the imperial study room.

When Emperor Ming saw his beloved daughter coming in, he put down the memorial in his hand, showed a loving smile on his face, and asked, "Why are you here if you are not studying in Shang Shu Yuan at this hour?"

The Eighth Princess pouted and came to Emperor Ming's side, complaining: "The things taught by those tutors and female officials are so boring, and my daughter doesn't like them."

Emperor Ming said angrily to his beloved daughter: "You don't want to learn just because you don't like it?"

The eighth princess replied with a sullen face: "My daughter has grown up to have hairpins and is already an adult. Do you still want me to learn this or that?"

The princess is planning to get married as soon as she gets her hairpin. When she gets married, she leaves her parents. How can she be so happy with her?

Emperor Ming saw that his daughter was displeased and said dotingly: "Since you don't like it, then you don't want to learn. As long as your father doesn't restrict you."

The eighth princess smiled again. She looked at Emperor Ming and asked, "My father promised to build me a palace outside the palace a while ago as a gift for my daughter's hair extensions. Can this still be counted?"

Building a new palace is not a small expense. Emperor Ming remembered that he had just agreed with Li Ling today to allocate military pay for the soldiers of Nanjun. He patted his daughter's hand and replied: "Didn't I just build a palace for you the year before last? Yours Just exchange the hairpin gift for something else."

When the Eighth Princess heard this, she immediately quit, pouted again, and complained: "The palace my father built for me the year before last was too small. My daughter got tired of playing with it. I want a bigger one. At least it can’t be worse than Aunt Huang’s Deer Park.”

As she said that, she pulled Emperor Ming's sleeves and begged: "You have nothing to say, my father has promised my daughter to build a splendid palace for me to hold my haircut ceremony. You are the emperor, do you still want to break your promise to your daughter?"

Emperor Ming comforted his daughter and said: "You and Qingluan are both my princesses of the same age. I built a palace for you, but not for her. Those officials said that I favor one over the other. The Zhenguo Duke's office also said that Don’t go there.”

When Qingluan was mentioned, the eighth princess became angry. She said with a sullen face: "It turns out that this is why my father refused to agree to me. Ninth Sister has the support of the Zhenguo Palace, so my father will do anything good to her." , since Father is so fond of Ninth Sister, then let her be your good daughter, and I will never bother Father again."

 Speaking, the eighth princess flicked her sleeves and turned to leave.

Emperor Ming hurriedly grabbed his daughter and patiently comforted her: "Who in this palace and outside the palace doesn't know that you are my most beloved child. It's just that the treasury is insufficient now. When the treasury is full, my father will build another one for you." A bigger and better palace. When the time comes, my father will collect all the rare and rare treasures in the world and put them in that palace, just for my beloved daughter to play with, okay?"

Even though Emperor Ming was coaxing her like this, the eighth princess still refused to give up. She threw her father away willfully and cried: "Father, please stop trying to deal with me. I think you are lying when you say you love me. In fact, you feel hurt in your heart." It’s Ninth Sister who’s in charge.”

With that said, the eighth princess ran out of the imperial study room crying angrily.

 (End of this chapter)