The Prince of Ming Raised an Army

As everyone was arguing, someone came in and whispered in Cen Hanchang's ear, "Prince of An's Consort has sent someone."

Upon hearing that his granddaughter had sent someone, Cen Hanchang immediately got up to receive them.

"That eunuch said he wanted to come in and speak with everyone," the man added.

Cen Hanchang frowned in confusion, but still had someone bring the eunuch in. He then addressed the arguing crowd, saying, "Prince of An's Consort has sent someone with something to say."

In the past, if anyone spoke of Prince of An's Consort, everyone would wait respectfully and do their best to flatter Cen Peixuan's servants.

At this moment, no one wanted to pay attention to Cen Peixuan. However, the crucial vote of Cen Hanchang was still needed to decide whose daughter (granddaughter) would marry Prince of Qi as a concubine, so everyone could only quiet down and wait for the servants from Prince of An's Consort's side to arrive.

A eunuch entered the room, carrying a carrying stand, and surveyed the room before saying, "My princess said that you uncles are probably troubled about which family's daughter to choose as a concubine for Prince of Qi, right? She said that if a concubine is to be chosen for Prince of Qi, it must be Twelfth Lady Cen."

"Why should we choose her?" An elder from Sister Fu's family protested, jumping up and saying, "Why choose Twelfth Lady? We've never seen Prince of An's Consort and Twelfth Lady have any particularly good relationship before!"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the eunuch in confusion. "Did Her Majesty say what the reason was?"

It should be noted that Cen Peixuan had been engaged to Xiao Lingpu since she was ten years old. As the niece of Noble Consort Cen, she was extremely arrogant and somewhat domineering. No one, whether older or younger than her, dared to provoke her.

Only Twelfth Lady, perhaps because she was the legitimate daughter and was pampered by her parents and brothers, was not afraid of Cen Peixuan at all. She was strong-willed and very resourceful, and she held her own in their back-and-forth exchanges with Cen Peixuan. The two were practically enemies, unable to bear seeing each other do well.

Now that Cen Peixuan's dream of becoming empress has been shattered, she's come to support Twelfth Lady, something no one could have imagined.

"Her Majesty said that she has dealt with Zhao Zhiwei before and knows that Zhao Zhiwei is extremely capable. If a weak girl were sent, she would only be bullied. Her Majesty is also a daughter of the Cen Family. If you were to marry a Cen Family girl and become a concubine, you would be left with nowhere to stand. She cannot bear that disgrace."

These words were as arrogant as ever. Normally, hearing such words would have Gao Xing many people in the room. But this time, not only most people, but even Sister Fu's family members had no objections.

Cen Peixuan's words make perfect sense.

The Cen Family wanted to marry their daughter to the Prince of Qi, wasn't it simply to strengthen the ties between the Prince of Qi Cen Family, and to ensure that the son born to the Cen Family daughter would become the King of Prince of Qi's first son, inherit the throne, and thus continue the Cen Family's glory?

Marrying a useless girl won't achieve this goal at all.

At this moment, everyone united on the same side.

Sister Fu's family was the first to agree, "Alright, let Twelfth Lady go."

If he insists and actually marries Sister Fu into the family, and Sister Fu fails to rise in rank, and the Emperor forbids Prince of Qi from taking another girl from the Cen Family as a concubine, wouldn't their branch of the family become sinners against the Cen Family?

He could still tell what was important and what was not.

Once the candidate was chosen, the Cen Family sent someone to inform Noble Consort Cen of their decision.

"Your Highness, the head of the family says it would be best if Your Highness could persuade the Emperor and Prince of Qi to allow the Twelfth Miss and the Miss Zhao to enter the household on the same day," said Cen Family.

Noble Consort Cen was unaware that the Cen Family had, without her knowledge, finalized the selection of her youngest son's concubine and the wedding date.

Her chest heaved, and her face looked terrible.

Seeing that she was angry, Cen Family was also somewhat displeased.

With a forced smile, she said in a sarcastic tone, "The head of the family said, Your Highness, don't forget that you and Prince of Qi will need the support of the Cen Family in the future. If Prince of Qi's harem doesn't have Cen Family girl, how can the Cen Family feel comfortable assisting His Highness? This is a mutually beneficial arrangement. It's just a concubine; it's not like you're going to ruin Prince of Qi's marriage to Miss Zhao and marry Cen Family girl as his principal wife. What's there to be unhappy about?"

"I'm angry that you only told me after you had already made the decision. Do you even respect me? Do you consider me a concubine, or the mother of Prince of An and Prince of Qi?"

Noble Consort Cen naturally dared not reveal her true thoughts, so she could only make an excuse to lash out.

Cen Family was a personal attendant to Noble Consort Cen's mother, and she usually acted rather arrogantly in front of Noble Consort Cen.

Hearing Noble Consort Cen's words, she knew the Cen Family was in the wrong and dared not say anything more. She smiled obsequiously and said, "Isn't it because the head of the family is Your Highness's biological father and Prince of Qi's maternal grandfather that he's acting this way? If it were an outsider, the head of the family wouldn't be willing to interfere either."

Noble Consort Cen waved her hand weakly.

She already knew what kind of people the Cen Family and her own parents were when she was sent to the palace.

She said, "Alright, I understand. I will discuss it with the Emperor and Little Five. However, although Little Five has woken up, he cannot speak or move. We don't know how well he will recover. I cannot tell him about the marriage now; we need to discuss it slowly after he has recovered."

"Of course. Your Highness's health is of utmost importance."

Noble Consort Cen sent someone to escort Cen Family's nanny out of the palace, and then went to Xiao Lingyan's place to inquire about his condition from the imperial physician.

The expressions on the faces of the imperial physicians were unusually grave. "His Highness has not shown any further improvement in the past two days. Let's try again."

When Xiao Lingyan woke up, they thought they had found the right medicine to cure his illness, and they were overjoyed. They were also very confident that they could completely cure Xiao Lingyan.

Unexpectedly, despite their continued use of medicine and acupuncture, Prince of Qi's condition remained stagnant and did not improve as they had hoped.

Hope followed by disappointment is truly unbearable. Even the Emperor was furious about it.

They both have blisters on their lips these past two days.

Noble Consort Cen glanced at Zhao Ruxi, who was carefully tending to her youngest son, sighed inwardly, and was about to leave when a young eunuch from her palace rushed in, his face full of panic, saying, "Something terrible has happened! There are rebels outside!"

Noble Consort Cen stumbled and almost fell.

"What happened?" she asked anxiously.

The young eunuch shook his head. "This servant doesn't know either. I just heard from people outside that rebels have appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the palace gates. Some are also shouting that the Prince of Ming has escaped from prison and is preparing to coordinate with the rebels from within."

Everyone's face turned deathly pale.

The doors to the main hall were wide open, and the young eunuch's voice was loud enough for Zhao Ruxi to hear from inside.

She and Xiao Lingyan exchanged a glance, both seeing the understanding in each other's eyes.

So, old ginger is spicier.

Why did the Emperor only strip the Crown Prince of his title and punish his faction, but let Prince of Ming go? It wasn't that he was still so soft-hearted, but that he knew Xiao Lingheng dared to enter the palace that day to claim the spoils of victory because he held some military power.