Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 321: Fighting Through the Years

General Huo, who was very arrogant outside, now looked like a good boy. He sat in front of Wei Zifu and listened to the instructions obediently.

Seeing Huo Qubing's obedient appearance, even Wei Zifu, who was furious, couldn't help but sigh and ask, "Is there anyone you like for the time being, or what? If there is someone you like, then tell me."

"I will go and ask His Majesty to grant you a marriage."

Huo Qubing then raised his head and looked at Wei Zifu in front of him, with a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

Finally, he had to speak honestly: "I was afraid that the other party's family would look down on me, so I didn't dare to mention it."

The other party’s family looks down on Huo Qubing?
Wei Zifu was completely stunned.

Who is Huo Qubing?
He is now one of the three most powerful men in charge of the military of the Han Dynasty and also the Champion Marquis of the Han Dynasty. Is there any family in the world that could make Huo Qubing so cowardly?
In just a moment, Wei Zifu had reviewed almost all the candidates of the right age in Chang'an City, and then she subconsciously looked at Huo Qubing: "Could it be the girl from the Chen family?"

Only a woman from the Chen family could make Huo Qubing retreat like this.

The Chen family is the most aristocratic family in the Han Dynasty.

Not to mention Huo Qubing, even her child, Liu's eldest son, now the crown prince, and the future emperor, could not be forced to marry Chen's daughter. In the end, it was the emperor of the day who personally went to find King Lao'an who was already in Guandu, and only then was the marriage settled.

Wei Zifu stood up and walked back and forth in the hall.

After a moment, she sighed, "Does that woman like you? If so, I will shamelessly go to His Majesty and ask His Majesty to ask Prime Minister Chen. If not, you should just honestly look for another one."

Huo Qubing suddenly raised his head. In fact, he had been wanting to ask the emperor for a marriage for the past two years, but he was always too embarrassed to ask. Now that the queen had spoken, he immediately agreed.

"Reporting to the queen, that person and I have met several times, and I have no idea what he said."

Wei Zifu looked at Huo Qubing and asked, "But is she Chen's legitimate daughter?"

Huo Qubing said, "No, she is Chen's concubine's daughter."

With the Queen taking charge, Huo Qubing looked much more relaxed. "When Your Majesty was choosing a princess consort for the Crown Prince, there were two candidates. One was the current Crown Princess, and the other was the eldest granddaughter of Marquis Pichen."

"My nephew is attracted to the eldest granddaughter of Marquis Pichen - Chen Yue."

Speaking of Chen Yue, Huo Qubing was somewhat eloquent: "In the past, when my nephew returned from the war, I saw her once at the gate of Chang'an City. In recent years, I have also met her many times at some banquets in Chang'an City."

"only."

Huo Qubing, who was always arrogant and bold, was always a little shy when talking about his new mistress: "I just didn't dare to talk to her."

"I think she must have seen my nephew, but I don't know if she has any impression of him."

After hearing this, Wei Zifu completely put her mind at ease.

First, she was a concubine's daughter, and second, she had met Huo Qubing who had just returned from the expedition.

She looked Huo Qubing up and down, and after seeing Huo Qubing was a little confused, she said, "You wait here, I will go to find His Majesty and ask him a question."

Among the women in this world, how many would not like Huo Qubing, who had seen his high-spirited look when he returned from the battle?

not to mention.
Huo Qubing didn't understand the twists and turns involved, but Wei Zifu understood it all too well.

She had heard of "Chen Yue", a famous talented woman in Chang'an City. But there was one thing about her: she didn't like going out. Instead, she always liked to study books at home, many of which included military books.

How come it is such a coincidence that every time this monkey Huo Qubing goes out to attend a banquet, he meets Chen Yue?
It's just intentional and deliberate.

Weiyang Palace
Liu Che was sitting in the hall handling affairs when he heard someone beside him whisper that the queen had arrived. He looked up and saw Wei Zifu walking towards him. She didn't even glance at the group of dancers around her, but just looked at Liu Che as he saluted.

Liu Che also waved his hand, ordering the maid and the young men beside him to leave.

"What's the matter with you, Mr. Zi, coming here today?"

He pointed to his side: "You seldom come to my place."

Wei Zifu took over the maid who had been massaging Liu Che's shoulders before and continued to do so gently, listening to Liu Che's words. She then told him how worried she was that Huo Qubing would not get married. She then asked Huo Qubing about it and finally learned that Huo Qubing's sweetheart was Chen's concubine's daughter.

During this period, she also had some of her own speculations, such as that the daughter of the Chen family also had a crush on Huo Qubing.

After hearing everything, Liu Che was stunned, and then laughed: "Hahahahaha, that fearless brat also knows how to be shy in front of his sweetheart?"

"But now that you mention it, it's time for him to get married."

"I was just thinking about arranging a marriage for him, but who would have thought that he already had a sweetheart?"

After pondering for a moment, he looked at the eunuch beside him and asked him to summon "Chen Wu Shi" to come.

Half an hour passed quickly, and Chen Wushi arrived at the Weiyang Palace. He looked at Liu Che with a smile on his face and was very curious: "Your Majesty, you summoned me here, but what's the important matter?"

Liu Che said with a smile: "I have something happy to tell you."

Happy event? Where does the happiness come from?
When Liu Che finished speaking, Chen Wushi finally reacted. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "Your Majesty, although this marriage is decided by our parents and the matchmaker, I really cannot make the decision."

"The Chen family never forces their descendants to marry."

"Why don't you wait until I get back and ask Yue'er?"

Liu Che was in high spirits at the time, and he also wanted to verify the queen's guess, so he asked someone to summon Chen Yue.

After seeing Chen Yue, Liu Che simply asked: "I want to arrange a marriage for you, what do you think?"

"But are you willing?"

Liu Che deliberately did not reveal the candidate for the marriage, because he wanted to test Chen Yue and see whether Chen Yue had Huo Qubing in her heart. If so, Chen Yue would definitely resist him.

If there is, and she is unwilling to resist, how can such a woman be worthy of his title of Champion?
Chen Yue was not afraid. She raised her head and looked at Liu Che: "Your Majesty, I already have a lover in my heart. Although that person looks down on me, I don't want to marry anyone else. I only want to return to my hometown ancestral hall in Guandu and guard the ancestral hall and light the lamp for the rest of my life."

Liu Che narrowed his eyes and asked, "Who is that person?"

Chen Yue lowered her head and said, "Your Majesty, I cannot tell you, or I will ruin that person."

"Please punish me, Your Majesty, instead of taking your anger out on that person."

Liu Che felt more and more that Wei Zifu's guess was correct. He smiled and said, "Then you should at least tell me what kind of person that is?"

"The man I want to marry you to is the most talented man in the world."

A top-notch talent?
Although Chen Yue was very thoughtful, she did not react. She just whispered, "In my heart, he is also a first-class talent and a young hero. In my heart, no one can compare to him except my great-uncle, Lord Lin'an."

When Liu Che heard this answer, he immediately determined who Chen Yue's sweetheart was. But he still asked, "Why do you look down on me? But you are already married?"

Chen Yue was also somewhat helpless: "He is not married yet, but I have met him many times, but he has never looked at me straight in the eye, so I think he may have someone else in mind."

Having said this, the other three people present looked at each other and saw the smile in each other's eyes.

Originally I thought that the flower had feelings but the water was heartless, but who would have thought that the flower had feelings and the water also had feelings, but the flower didn't see the water's feelings?

Liu Che pretended to sigh and said, "That's a pity."

Before Chen Yue could perform the salute, Liu Che continued, "Marquis Guanjun has even begged the Queen, saying that he wants the Queen to ask me what Prime Minister Chen thinks, saying that he has waited for so many years and only wants to marry you."

"Since you don't have this intention, shall I reject the offer of Champion Marquis for you?"

After saying this, he deliberately waited to see Chen Yue's reaction.

Chen Yue suddenly raised her head and her face turned red instantly.

"Your Majesty, who are you talking about?"

Liu Che said with amusement: "That's my champion marquis."

"There is nothing we can do if you don't want to. It seems that such a young talent will have to be alone for the rest of his life."

Chen Yue stammered and was unable to speak. Chen Wushi coughed lightly, not wanting to see Liu Che deliberately bullying his niece like this: "Ahem."

He looked at Chen Yue and asked, "Yue'er, your uncle has one more question for you: are you willing to accept the marriage granted by His Majesty?"

Chen Yue lowered her head, her face red all the way down to her neck: "The marriage of children has always been decided by parents and elders. Now that your majesty and uncle are here, how can a niece have a say?"

"My niece listens to your majesty and uncle."

As soon as these words were spoken, the three people present burst into laughter, and Chen Yue became even more shy due to their laughter.

The fifth year of Taichu, spring.

The emperor issued an edict granting a marriage between Chen Yue, the daughter of Chen family, and Huo Qubing, Marquis of Guanjun, and Chen family agreed.

Because Huo Qubing had no parents or elders, the general and grand marshal Wei Qing went to Chen's house to propose marriage on behalf of his nephew. The proposal team started from the Guanjun Marquis's Mansion and went all the way to the Prince An's Mansion.

The team carrying the betrothal gifts walked for more than three hours. Someone carefully counted them and found that there were a total of 188 loads. This was only the betrothal gifts from Marquis Guanjun. On the way, subordinates of Marquis Guanjun and Duke Changping kept adding more loads of betrothal gifts.

Even at the end, the empress and the emperor came to join in the fun.

Empress Wei Zifu added eighty-eight loads of betrothal gifts, while the emperor rounded up the number, bringing the total to three hundred and sixty loads, which was exactly the number of the celestial sphere.

The fifth year of Taichu, autumn.

After nearly half a year of three matchmakers and six betrothal procedures, one evening in the autumn of the fifth year of Taichu, Huo Qubing finally married his sweetheart.

Since then, the four families, Huo, Wei, Liu and Chen, have been closely bound together again.

The emperor was also more excited.

And this year, Crown Prince Liu Ju was eleven years old.

The stability of the world made the emperor more peaceful, and his control over the world became more and more terrifying, almost to the point where just one word from the emperor could make almost all the ministers in the court tremble.

Why do you say almost?

Because there are still a few people who are not afraid of death, or who do not need to be afraid of Liu Che.

In the sixth year of Taichu, the emperor asked the twelve-year-old Crown Prince Liu Ju to attend court to observe government affairs. At this time, the crown prince had grown from a child into a handsome young man.

His "keen" judgment on politics also made the emperor and his elders excited. With such a prince, the next generation of the Han Dynasty would also be stable.

In the winter of the sixth year of Taichu, Liu Che sent all his other children to their fiefdoms, but only left behind "Liu Fuling".

Liu Che was nearly forty years old this year. He ascended the throne when he was a teenager. After the third year of Jianyuan, the seventh year of Yuanshou, and the sixth year of Taichu, he had been in power for a full sixteen years.

In the sixth year of his reign, he had almost controlled most of the power of the Han Dynasty, and now the entire Han Dynasty was under his feet.

Because of the Enfeoffment Order, the kings were greatly weakened and had almost no power to confront the imperial court. They could only passively accept the court's "exploitation."

They also knew that the emperor would not relax his vigilance against them, but they also knew that the emperor would never simply eliminate them all.

In that case, just give up.

It was also during the two years between the seventh and ninth years of Taichu that some stories happened that people in later generations found ridiculous.

In just two short years, Emperor Liu Che reduced the fiefs of more than 20 kings for all kinds of messy reasons, and these reasons were really messy.

The most famous incident was that Liu Che suddenly choked while drinking. Because he was facing north when drinking, he thought that the five princes in the north were cursing him, so he directly reduced the fiefs of these five princes.

And how did the kings react?

Lie down and accept it.

In the ninth year of Taichu, Liu Che was already in his forties and his health began to decline.

His teacher Chen Qiu and the important minister Pi Chenhou who served in the court had long passed away. Now even Chen Wushi has inherited the throne of King An, and Chen Wushi's eldest son is already eleven years old!

The magnificent "Guan Du City" was finally completed in the tenth year of Taichu after many years of construction. It was a truly magnificent city. Even Chang'an City was not as big as it. It was about the size of four Chang'an Cities.

It was also in this year that the emperor fell in love with the path that every emperor would take as he grew older.

"Seeking the immortal way."

At this time, Crown Prince Liu Ju was already sixteen years old. In order to pursue immortality, the emperor would sometimes leave the government affairs to Liu Ju to handle, and then he would take Liu Fuling and some not-so-good ministers to seek immortality.

The end of the eleventh year of Taichu.

When Liu Che returned from his quest for immortality, there were two more people beside him. One of them was an official named "Jiang Chong", who seemed to be from a Confucian family.

The other one was a young man from Miao who was dressed strangely.

This winter seemed particularly cold.

(End of this chapter)