Slave to Queen: One Night Bride

Chapter 102 Confession
Yue Pengju said respectfully: "The key to a military strategist lies in surprise and unfathomable knowledge, and only then can victory be won. The formation and the battle, the regularity of the art of war, and the clever use of it all come from one mind." These few words have become famous military mottos in later generations.

Zong Ze was overjoyed: "Peng's words mean that he has won the military opportunity." He paused for a while, then changed the subject, "In your opinion, how should we use troops in the future?"

Yue Pengju said: "I have been fighting with Xixia for many years. Guanzhong has fine horses and fat horses. The Jin army has been repatriated on a large scale. At present, it is better to send a large army to garrison the two rivers, and then plan to Guanzhong. When the imperial court is first established, then take advantage of the hot summer to launch a large-scale northern expedition..."

Zong Ze said: "This move is exactly what I want."

The two discussed for a while, Yue Pengju was about to leave when he remembered again and knelt down: "Master, please forgive me..."

Zong Ze was very surprised: "What happened?"

"The teacher once protected the matchmaker for the young general, but the young general has already resigned from the marriage contract with the princess, please forgive me."

Zong Ze was taken aback. He had just responded to Tian and didn't know the news yet.

"Pengju, why is this?"

"The young general loves Hua Rong. He wants to marry Hua Rong as his wife..."

Zongze suddenly got up and said angrily, "Yue Pengju, are you crazy?"

"The young general and Hua Rong are not siblings..."

Zong Ze remembered the intimacy of the two of them that he saw tonight, and only then did he understand why Yue Pengju was not promoted.In his life, he has experienced many winds and rains, but he has never encountered such embarrassing things. He remembered that he had witnessed the situation where the emperor and Hua Rong had a conversation.

"Yue Pengju, do you know that the current emperor intends to accept your sister into the palace?"

"I know. He once proposed marriage in Xiangzhou before and wanted to accept my sister as a side concubine, but my sister refused!"

"You are so courageous! Knowing this, you still dare to regret the marriage? Do you want to kill yourself?"

"The young general hopes to grow old with his sister forever, even if there is a thunderbolt, he will not waver!"

Zongze was surprised and angry: "Pengju, you have to give up. The old man has seen with his own eyes that your sister can say a few words in front of the emperor. Nowadays, treacherous officials are in power, and Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan are courting them all day long. If there is someone around the emperor who dares A person who pleases him with his words is a good thing for the common people in the world..."

Yue Pengju retorted: "Accompanying the emperor is like accompanying a tiger. How often have you seen concubines who can really interfere in the government?"

Zong Ze couldn't answer for a moment.Women in the palace are favored when they are prosperous, and they are judged when they are weak. It is too absurd to rely on a woman to control the political situation of the king.

He didn't know how to continue to correct Yue Pengju's "shocking" behavior, so he waved his hands weakly: "Go down first."

The next day, Xu Caizhi was ordered to look for the two of them: "Miss Hua, Pengju, the official has invited you to a family banquet in the palace."

The two knew that their relationship was not good, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go forward.The banquet was held in the harem, and there were not many people there. It was nothing more than the emperor, Wu Jinnu, and a few old friends Xu Caizhi.

She knelt down to salute, and the emperor immediately stood up and helped her up: "Rong'er, you don't need to be too polite. We are all acquaintances. I just want to invite you to catch up on the past and practice for Pengju by the way."

Yue Pengju was answering the emperor's military situation, and when he saw his posture and eyes supporting his sister, he felt a "thump" in his heart.

When Hua Rong saw Yue Pengju, the siblings nodded and sat down according to their rewarded seats.

The banquet begins, and each person has a few cases.In the first course, there are ten kinds of fruits such as goose pear, golden apricot, spring peach, pine nut, lotus seed meat, ginkgo, and steamed jujube; Carved and honey fried", the third course is salty and sour purple cherry, salty musk plum, salty sour ringo, salty pomegranate and other ten kinds of "fragrant and salty"; the fourth course is bacon, pickled chicken, pickled rabbit, wine vinegar Ten kinds of cured dried meat such as mutton.After tasting each dish, the guests began to toast.

The wine is two famous wines, Yinguang and Suiyu, both of which are millet wine, originally produced in Xiangzhou.The color of the wine is clear, the silver light wine is mellow, and the sweetness is quite heavy; while the broken jade wine is fragrant and refreshing.Most of these wines are rice wine with low alcohol content.

There are two kinds of persuasion dishes for each cup of wine.The first dish is cooked milk mutton and roasted chicken drumsticks; the second dish is gold shredded lamb tripe soup and sheep's head sticks. There are [-] dishes before and after, and there are [-] dishes in total, which are not repeated.

The soup served after drinking is a sweet soup decocted with medicinal materials such as licorice.

The utensils used in the whole set of banquets are all the top-grade Jun kiln with carmine.When everyone was eating, there was also a troupe of musicians playing, one played the pipa and the other played the flute.

Both Hua Rong and Yue Pengju came from poor families, they had never experienced such a feast in their life, they felt dazzled, every dish in front of them seemed to be not tableware, but a high-quality work of art, and they couldn't let go to enjoy it.

The emperor sighed: "If in the past, the banquet given by the court would have 108 dishes; now in times of crisis, everything is kept simple..."

Hua Rong thought in his heart, if this is still simple, what about being extravagant?
She looked up at the emperor and saw that he was also staring at her. Because he drank some wine, I don't know if it was the alcohol or something else, his face was a little red, and his eyes were a little strange.

Wu Jinnu, who was next to him, casually observed the expressions of the officials, smiled slightly, and turned to Yue Pengju: "General Yue is a young hero, and Miss Hua has both talents and looks. Your brother and sister are really rare in ancient and modern times."

"Thank you madam."

The emperor also laughed: "Pengju, you have made great achievements this time, but you have not been rewarded. Have you ever regretted it?"

Yue Peng put down his wine glass: "Reporting to the emperor, I know that I have committed a crime, so how dare I regret it? I also thank the emperor for forgiving the sin and repenting of the marriage."

"Now, the villain Jin Wushu is persecuting him endlessly. He is leading an army to gather at Yingtian. Pengju, General Zong recommends you, so I order you to obey his orders. You have to set off again in the future and follow him to lead the army. Ying Zhan, alas, now I pin all my hopes on General Zong, you must not disappoint the love of General Zong and me."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness. I will definitely do my best."

Wu Jinnu smiled and took over the conversation: "General Yue is loyal to the government and has no time to worry about the family. Your sister has no one to take care of her. I thought about it and came up with a good way to take care of my sister for you."

Hua Rong knew something was wrong, so he chuckled: "Your Majesty, don't worry, Hua Rong will take good care of herself."

"That's not what you said. Girls, you have to rely on someone for your lifelong destination. Now that the official is enthroned, you have been following for a long time. The credit is not small, why not..."

Hua Rong didn't allow her to say the sentence she was most worried about, and interrupted her at the right time: "Your Majesty doesn't know, Hua Rong has already betrothed to someone else."

The emperor was displeased and said: "Rong'er, I have known you for many years, but I have never heard of your marriage. Why do you try to evade it?"

"This..." At this moment, he suddenly remembered King Qin's admonition, and only vaguely realized that once he said Yue Pengju, he might really bring about his death.

She was still hesitating, but she heard Yue Pengju speak loudly: "Back to the emperor, the young general Yue Pengju has married Hua Rong, but because of the busy war, he didn't report to His Majesty in time, please forgive me!"

Hua Rong wanted to stop it, but it was too late, her heart was pounding, even Xu Caizhi was shocked, only to see Yue Pengju looking at the emperor with no fear on his face, and his voice was very calm.He had known the emperor's mind, and this opening was to put him to death and survive, leaving no room for himself at all.

What Yue Pengju clearly said was "already married"!
In order to please the official family, Wu Jinnu had tried his best to arrange this feast in order to fulfill a "wish" for the official family. In front of Yue Pengju, he wanted to call his "sister" into the palace. It will be like this, his face is pale with anxiety.

The emperor "huo" stood up: "Yue Pengju, you are so bold!"

Yue Pengju is still very calm, he is a foreign minister, he is not called "official" like Hua Rong, but "emperor".

"This matter is all because I didn't have time to report it, and it has nothing to do with Hua Rong, but please forgive me."

"Hello, Yue Pengju! So that's the reason for regretting the marriage! But, do you know that Hua Rong is your sister? Bullying the king is a death penalty, and incest with relatives is an even worse crime."

"The emperor forgives the sin. The minister and Hua Rong have known each other for many years. They are only siblings, but they are not real siblings. The emperor also knows about it."

"Yue Pengju, since you claim to be married, well, let me ask you, where is the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker?"

"In a troubled world, the guilty minister didn't care about so many red tapes. He only married Hua Rong in a simple way."

Seeing Yue Pengju's loud defense without fear, Hua Rong peeked at the emperor again, but seeing his angry face, Hua Rong only vaguely realized: Now, a catastrophe is really imminent.

The emperor was furious, and raised his eyebrows: "Yue Pengju, I asked you clearly when I bestowed the marriage, and you answered that you had never been married. Now, you have turned your back on your words, humiliated the princess, and deceived your majesty. In this short period of time, there is no matchmaker. You How can the two get married? Say, why are you lying?"

Xu Caizhi immediately knelt down: "Yue Pengju, you have to think clearly. Bullying the king is a serious crime of beheading. If you lie, you will not only harm yourself, but also implicate your sister..."

What Xu Caizhi meant was that he had to change his words quickly, or stop insisting, in order to keep his name.Yue Pengju knew what he meant, but he said proudly: "The guilty minister dare not lie! The guilty minister loves Hua Rong, and has long vowed to be with him through life and death, and he will live up to his promise, even if he is struck by lightning, he dare not change his original intention! Therefore, I have to repent of the marriage Princess .I don't dare to make any more excuses. I just swear to kill the gold thieves, defend the family and the country, and let the blood stain the battlefield. I will never frown a little, let alone ask for any reward. I beg the emperor to help!"

The crowd didn't dare to say a word, the emperor closed his eyes, let out a long sigh, and shook his head suddenly: "Forget it, you all step back for now."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

The two withdrew as if they had received an amnesty, and as soon as they reached the door, the emperor suddenly said, "Rong'er, you stay here."

Yue Pengju turned his head: "Your Majesty, this matter is all caused by the guilty minister, and has nothing to do with Hua Rong!"

The emperor said coldly: "Back off!"

Hua Rong winked at him, Yue Pengju hesitated before retreating.

Even all the guards have retreated, and there are only two people left in Nuo Da's hall.

The emperor slowly stepped down from the dragon chair, walked up to her, and stared at her, "Rong'er, how long have we known each other? Eight or nine years?"

Hua Rong silently nodded.

"I saved you from the pirates, and I have never disliked you. I have never liked a woman so much. Even if you don't want to, I never force you. I just want to, one day, you will marry me willingly..."

"I'm sorry! Hua Rong has a lot of love from the official family."

"Rong'er, tell me that you never married Yue Pengju! It's not true!"

Hua Rong nodded resolutely: "Hua Rong deserves to die for his crime! He has married Peng Ju, but he forgot to report to the emperor."

"No! You lied to me! You siblings only met last year, and you haven't had much time together. You have always been by my side. If you were married to Yue Pengju, how could I not know? Besides, when marrying Yue Pengju, he clearly said that he had never been married. ——At that time, you were still married! After that, where will the chance come? Rong'er, why did you lie to me?"

"I dare not lie to the officials."

"Okay, then tell me, when did you get married?"

In desperation, Hua Rong had no choice but to say: "The last time I escaped from the Golden Camp, I bid farewell to the official house to find Pengju, and found him there...In troubled times, there is no danger, Hua Rong is a mere woman, and it is really impossible to save her, so ..."

(End of this chapter)