concubines

Li Chen said: "Xiao Qi, do you know what kind of person I like the most?"

Qi Yunruo looked at him, thought for a while, and replied, "Someone like Brother Ji."

Li Chen didn't answer, and said as he walked: "I was in my grandmother's palace when I was young. When I was young, my grandfather suffered from Emperor Taizong's doting on concubine sons. Although he was the only legitimate son, Taizong favored King Fu and King Yu who came from his concubine. After the imperial grandfather came to the throne, he only had one grandmother, and he was married to his grandmother, but he was seriously injured by the poisonous concubine and concubine brother in his early years, and his father was just eight years old, so he left his grandmother and his father."

Qi Yunruo said: "I've also heard that Emperor Mingzong and the Empress Dowager are deeply in love with each other."

"Grandfather and grandmother got along well as husband and wife, and they never deceived each other. Grandfather did not shy away from grandmother in government affairs. That's why later, grandmother had the courage to support father and take down King Fu and King Yu who wanted to force the palace until father became an adult. pro-government."

Li Chen said indifferently: "Every time my grandmother talks about my grandfather, she always has a smile on her face. Everyone says that my grandmother has power over the government and the people, and she is trying to imitate Emperor Wu. To protect the youngest son, he walked from the harem to the front."

Qi Yunruo couldn't help sighing when he thought of the Queen Mother's current situation.

"I thought at the time that ascending to the highest position was the most magnificent thing, but also the most lonely thing, but my grandfather was lucky, he met his grandmother."

Since the current emperor ascended the throne, he gradually eliminated the influence of the Empress Dowager Lan in the court, and promoted the two aristocratic families where the empress Zhou and the imperial concubine Yuan belonged. It became the No.1 of Li's country and mountains.

The height is not cold.

Qi Yunruo looked at Li Chen's tall figure in a daze, and suddenly an inexplicable emotion spread in his heart. He realized that the man in front of him was not only the gentle prince, but also an ambitious contender for the throne, but he was a little lonely .

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qi Niqun gave birth.Li Chen went to the palace, but still hasn't come back, Qi Yunruo stood in Qi Niqun's courtyard, wearing a thick fur collar, looking in the direction of Qi Niqun's main room.

The four of Liubai were busy going around, the palace had already reported to Uncle Ziyang's mansion, although it was not customary to go to her daughter's house on the first day of the Lunar New Year, it was just that her daughter gave birth, Mrs. Zhao couldn't be relieved, she even studied at home Qi Yunshan was also called by her.

If Qi Yun didn't want to be in the same room with Mrs. Zhao, Qi Yunshan didn't stay in the same room for some reason, and walked out, Qi Niqun's screams could be vaguely heard a few times, Qi Yunruo was expressionless, but Qi Yunshan paced back and forth Stepping forward, always frowning and looking in that direction.

After a while, Qi Yunshan was probably as anxious as himself to get someone to win over, so Qi Yunruo said, "Aren't you worried?"

Qi Yunruo glanced at him, and said: "I've asked the mother, women give birth like this, and the doctors are waiting, the princess will be fine."

Qi Yunshan was still walking nervously, Qi Yunruo didn't even want to look at him, it was really annoying.

Although Qi Niqun's pregnancy was not difficult, the birth was not smooth, she had seizures since Li Chen entered the palace in the morning, and there was no movement until the afternoon.

Qi Yunshan couldn't eat, and Mrs. Zhao just had a bowl of soup and porridge. Qi Yunruo went back to He Tingzhou to eat, and then came back slowly, watching Qi Yunshan anxiously unable to sit down.

After entering the palace, Li Chen kowtowed to the empress with the prince and clan, followed the empress to salute outside the Empress Dowager's Ci'an Palace, and then offered sacrifices to the ancestors. At lunch time, he hadn't heard the news of the concubine's birth, so he felt a little depressed. .

Li Chen was a little distracted while watching the song and dance, the queen told him to go over and talk, looked at him, smiled and said, "Are you worried about the princess?"

Li Chen smiled, "My mother laughed at me, and my son thought, it's the first time for the Qi family, so I feel a little uneasy."

The queen said: "Blessed is the Qi family, this baby will be safe."

Li Chen said: "I thank my mother for the good words."

After a while, the fourth prince came in without notification, first saluted the queen, then smiled at Li Chen: "Second brother is also here."

The queen called the fourth prince over, and said angrily: "You are still so unstable, I see, the title your father proposed for you is the word 'yong', which means you are stable and moderate, don't act like a child."

The fourth prince turned fifteen years ago, but anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the emperor wanted to wait for a big victory before granting a reward to the fourth son.

The fourth prince said to Li Chen: "The mansion chosen by my father for my younger brother is not far from my second brother's Prince Chun's mansion. My younger brother will often go there in the future, so my second brother should not bother me."

The queen knocked the fourth prince on the head amusedly, "Before I left the palace, I thought I was a nuisance."

Li Chen looked at this scene with a calm expression, and said with a smile, "You and my dear brother, of course I won't dislike you."

After not saying a few words, a little eunuch came in and kowtowed: "I want to report to the Empress, His Majesty the Emperor Xuanchun, come over."

The Queen signaled Li Chen to go out, and said with a smile: "Probably there is good news."

Li Chen retreated, and the fourth prince continued to stay by the queen's side.A palace man bowed and ran in from the outside, leaned into the queen's ear and said, "Princess Chun gave birth to a daughter half an hour ago."

The queen smiled calmly, and the fourth prince stood behind the queen and squeezed her shoulders, and said lightly: "Congratulations to the second brother."

The queen clapped his hands, "Tomorrow the honorable and important ministers will enter the palace, and I will show you what kind of character Su Shi is."

The fourth prince said: "It's just that the current family status of Marquis Wuding's mansion is not as good as Ziyang Bo's mansion anyway."

"...It is not comparable now, and it may not be comparable in the future." The queen said calmly.

The current emperor is the only son of the first emperor, and his closest uncle and his whole family have been demoted to common people, so the relationship between the highest-ranking clan and the royal family is a bit far away. Only King Li was not liked by Emperor Taizong back then. He has no ambitions. In charge of Zongzheng Temple, he is closest to the royal family.

In addition, there are princesses' son-in-laws and clans whose titles have been descended for several generations. For example, Li Su, Marquis of Jingchuan, whose ancestors were enshrined in Jiangnan, and several generations from princes to marquises, may really be a supporter of Jiangnan. Li Su has a plump figure, The first two sons were really "white and fat" as Li Yue said. Sitting together as a family, Li Yue seemed to be adopted.

Li Yue didn't know that his father would come to Beijing in person, he looked awkward, Li Su was broad-minded and fat, and didn't care about him, but the two elder brothers kept asking around him, mostly about the current situation in Beijing.

Marquis of Jingchuan is Fuyu, and he also has a big mansion in Beijing. Li Yue didn't want to move in, but stayed in Prince Chun's Mansion. Li Su used to talk about it for a long time, but this time he didn't know if he was bored or why, so he didn't even ask.

When Li Chen went, the emperor called him by his side. The emperor smiled at him and said, "Just now people from your family came to the palace to announce the good news. I have an extra granddaughter."

Several people around congratulated Li Chen, the emperor's granddaughter is still only two in Prince Chun's residence, Jing Wang said: "Second brother is very lucky, as a brother, there are still only two naughty boys."

Li Chen said with a smile: "Brother is in his old age, and the blessings of the children are yet to come."

The emperor twisted his beard and smiled, "This child was born on the first day of the new year, at the beginning of the new year, when the family was reunited. She was born well. I will name her 'Chu'er'."

Li Chen knelt down and said respectfully: "I thank the emperor for giving me the name."

Li Chen's second daughter, Chu'er, is the prince's concubine's daughter, and in the future she will at least be a princess, and the palace has rewarded her a lot. When Li Chen returned to the mansion, the child had been washed, wrapped up, and had already fallen asleep.

Li Chen looked at the child before going in to look at Qi Niqun.

Qi Niqun's expression was tired, she tried her best to talk to Li Chen, Li Chen said: "This child was born well, and the emperor gave him the name on the spot, it's really a blessing."

Qi Niqun felt sore and unbearable, forced a smile and said: "My concubine thanked the Holy One for his kindness."

"Rest well, don't waste your energy anymore." Li Chen tucked the quilt into Qi Ni's skirt, told her to take good care of her, and then said: "Princess, don't think too much."

Qi Niqun was taken aback for a moment, Li Chen had already gone out, she bit her lip tightly as she endured the soreness in her heart.

...how is it a daughter?What a daughter!

I gave birth to my second child in a year and a half at the earliest, but the prince's eldest son is also four or five years old!And Concubine Wei... If Concubine Wei also gave birth to a boy...

Qi Niqun used to think that she was more confident than Princess She, but now she didn't feel that way, she was only confident after giving birth to a boy.

When she thought of Concubine Ji and Concubine Wei coming to congratulate her the next day, she felt a headache.

Qi Yunruo's career as a housekeeper has entered the countdown, and the servants of He Tingzhou look a little depressed. The stewards of the palace are all human sperm, and whoever is in charge should respect whoever is in charge. Otherwise, the people who live in He Tingzhou are not even regarded as serious masters. People with low status, who will look up to them in the future?

Qi Yunruo didn't realize it suddenly, and even because he wanted to hand over the power, he carefully managed the accounts and tried his best to make no mistakes or omissions.From the day of washing three days, the palace received a lot of gifts, Qi Yunruo had to register various gifts for the second lady of the palace every day, as well as supplements and medicines for Qi Niqun.

Because of the border war, Li Chen voluntarily waived Xiu Mu, went to the household department every day, and returned every day frowning, and the servants Su Ge, Feng Yuan and others were silent every day.

Qi Yunruo went to look for Feng Yuan once, and Feng Yuan's face was so dark that it was frightening. Qi Yunruo asked curiously after hearing this: "In the past, if the prince was angry, would it be the same?"

Feng Yuan whispered: "My lord sometimes talks to Mr. Ji Huan."

Qi Yunruo smiled and said nothing.

Chunwei in March, I don't know how Brother Ji is preparing.

On the full moon day of Miss Chu, the daughter of Prince Chun's Mansion, the news of the defeat in the battle was sent back to the capital.Situ Xu was killed in battle, Si De led the army to resist, and for a while there were dark clouds in Beijing.

The emperor was furious after reading the mansion report. It turned out that Situ Xu led an army of 12 to support Si De's [-] people. The two were not convinced from the beginning. At a stalemate, this time Situ Xu insisted on attacking, but Si De conservatively thought it was inappropriate, so Situ Xu directly attacked, losing tens of thousands of horses and his own life.

It was true that Situ Xu attacked rashly, and it was also true that Si De failed to rescue him in time. If it hadn't been inappropriate to change generals before the battle, the emperor would have punished Si De directly.

Both Ziyang Bo Qi Suxiao and Huwei General Zhao Wei asked for orders to lead troops, but the emperor hesitated and couldn't make a decision for a while.

At this time, Qi Yunruo was in the mansion, handing over the accounts to Qi Niqun at Dongmei Courtyard.

Qi Yunruo said, Qi Niqun listened, and looked straight at it, neither of them had any emotions.

"...Third brother has worked so hard for the palace for so long. Fortunately, I have you, so I can rest assured."

Qi Yunruo clearly remembered the details of the bills for the past few months, the congratulatory gifts, the sophistication of the world, the rewards and punishments in the mansion, and even praised Qi Niqun when she saw it, but in her heart she was more ridiculed, why did she work so hard?He can't be the master of the palace, and offended so many people for no reason, who remembers him well?

After Qi Niqun took back the housekeeping power, the first thing she did was to reward the palace. From concubines to stewards to low-level servants, everyone received something. Suddenly, the palace was full of praise. Concubine Ji and Concubine Wang In comparison, Qi Yun is much more petty. If Qi Yun is strict and harsh, he is too poor, so how can he have money to reward others.

The people in the front yard, especially everyone in the Molian Courtyard, also received the reward from Qi Niqun, and Su Ge and others were all rewarded by Qi Niqun in the courtyard. Qi Niqun said: "Everyone who serves the prince, It is harder than others, and the past few months have been really tiring."

Su Ge said with a smile: "I dare not accept these words of praise from the concubine. We are slaves. It is our duty to serve the master. If we are rewarded for doing our duty, we really shouldn't."

"My father-in-law is too modest."

Suge Bafeng didn't move, and declined many times before he took Qi Niqun's eight gold ingots and a jade pendant.

The people watching He Tingzhou were naturally not pulled away, Qi Yunruo sat behind the desk, silently stroking a bracelet given by Qi Niqun.

The bracelet is silver, engraved with gourd vines, symbolizing prosperity, and was packed in a brocade box by Qi Niqun, which was delivered by Nanny Song herself.

Like the three concubines Ying, Nanny Song smiled.

When Nanny Song was about to leave, she paused for a moment, and then added lightly: "The concubine Ying is still of high grade."

Qi Yunruo put the bracelet away and put it in the box.

When he walked out of the house, he saw that the ice on the lake was melting, and the ice was broken piece by piece in the place where the sun was at its highest, exposing the lake water.

Qi Yunruo looked at the direction in which the lake water spread until it reached an invisible place.