Chapter 110
Hearing the sorrowful sobs, the silent crowd initially tried to suppress and restrain their crying, before it turned into the rising and subsiding sound of weeping.
Several months ago, they sent off the Seventh Princess here, seeing her off beyond the Great Wall, hoping she would be well and safe all her life.
Several months later, the Seventh Princess risked her life to remind the border pass’ guards. Great Wei was peaceful and sound, but the Seventh Princess died in a foreign land.
When the Ministry of Rites official sent the Seventh Princess off in marriage, when the procession passed under the Great Wall, the official asked the Seventh Princess if she had a message for him to convey to Li De.
The Seventh Princess looked back at the majestic mountains and rivers and cities behind her and smiled lightly: “May the Yellow River be clear and the sea be calm, and the waves of the sea peaceful.”
The princess left for a political marriage, her body worth a million soldiers.
Men, women, and children kowtowed to the ground and cried.
On that day, Zheng Biyu stood on the city gate tower, listening to the tidal wave of cries coming from the main street, and her eyes could not help but grow wet.
She did not find Li Xuanzhen’s figure in the triumphal procession and sent someone to inquire.
Qin Fei reported back to her, “Your Highness, His Highness the Crown Prince… has gone to Helong with his flying cavalry.”
Zheng Biyu was alarmed: Helong was now the territory of the Northern Rong! Li Xuanzhen had not yet recovered from serious injuries; did he not want his life?
“Why did he go to Helong?”
Qin Fei sighed: “When the Northern Rong attacked, His Highness sent a team to Yelu to bring Princess Wenzhao back to the capital. When the Northern Rong retreated, those people came back to report: the Yelu tibe had already been wiped out. They searched for a few days but did not find the princess. Besieged by a group of Northern Rong cavalry, they did not dare to stay longer, and could only first return to Liangzhou.”
Li Xuanzhen was furious when the team returned without success. After dealing with military affairs, he ordered the Chief Historian to stay in Liangzhou. Ignoring the injuries on his body, he personally led the flying cavalry to the Yelu tribe to look for her.
This search lasted more than a month. Li Xuanzhen not only did not find anything but was also surrounded and intercepted multiple times by the Northern Rong. With half of the personal soldiers by his side dead, he narrowly escaped and returned to Liangzhou.
North of Liangzhou had completely fallen into the hands of the Northern Rong. There was nothing they could do.
The heavily-injured Li Xuanzhen was painstakingly advised by his subordinates to return to the capital for treatment, but Li Xuanzhen flatly refused and insisted on finding Princess Wenzhao. Since he could not lead his troops to cross the Northern Rong border, he would blend in disguised as a herdsman!
The local defenders of Liangzhou were horrified: Li Xuanzhen was the dignfied heir of a nation. If he died at the hands of the Northern Rong, they could not escape blame for his death!
Everyone was scared, doing their all to dissuade Li Xuanzhen. Only Qin Fei did not say anything.
He knew the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was usually open to advice, but when he went crazy, no one could persuade him.
In order to save Zhu Luyun, who had sneaked out, the Crown Prince broke into the enemy camp by himself and fought for a bloody night.
Now, the whereabouts of Princess Wenzhao were unknown. Unless Princess Wenzhao was found, the Crown Prince would not return to the capital.
Qin Fei could only leave all the soldiers behind and return to the capital to report to Zheng Biyu.
Zheng Biyu was torn with anxiety. If she had known that Li Xuanzhen would go crazy, she should not have sent the letter explaining the birth of the Seventh Princess. He must have read the letter and felt ashamed to face the Seventh Princess. That was why he went so insane.
She immediately ordered the maid to grind ink and spread paper, ready to write a letter to persuade Li Xuanzhen to return to the capital, when a servant suddenly entered the hall with a letter.
Zheng Biyu looked at the letter she had sent out not long ago, silent.
The servant explained to her that the letter did not reach Li Xuanzhen. With battles were going on everywhere in Liangzhou, the messenger had an accident on the way, and the letter was sent back by someone else.
With a clack, the pen in Zheng Biyu’s hand fell to the ground, the ink falling and dripping down the folds of her skirt.
Li Xuanzhen did not receive the letter.
He did not know of the Seventh Princess’s birth. Even though she was Noble Consort Xie’s daughter, even though he was tormented by hatred every moment all these years, he still had to save the Seventh Princess.
Zheng Biyu suddenly understood a lot of things.
Understood why Li Xuanzhen had such a hatred for the young Seventh Princess, so much so that he sent people to monitor the Seventh Princess day and night, so much so that he would gnash his teeth and call out the Seventh Princess’ name when he got up in the night from a frightening dream.
Zheng Biyu sat in front of the window, closed her eyes, her expression in between smiles and tears.
If he had the foresight, the future would not be this way!
He acquiesced to Wei Ming’s scheme against the Seventh Princess, personally sending his delicate younger sister to the bed of the crude and barbaric Yelu Khan. He said he would not regret…
He had long regretted it!
No wonder Wei Ming had been targeting the Seventh Princess. He, as Li Xuanzhen’s advisor, must have seen something amiss between Li Xuanzhen and the Seventh Princess. Using the Seventh Princess as a replacement for marriage not only saved Zhu Luyun but also completely rid Li Xuanzhen of his feelings!
Zheng Biyu crumpled the paper, not continuing to write the letter to persuade Li Xuanzhen to return to the capital.
Sharing a bed for several years, she and Li Xuanzhen had mutual respect for each other. No one in this world knew Li Xuanzhen better than she did; she could not persuade him.
Zheng Biyu began to plan for the future. She sent her son to Taiji Palace, teaching him how to please Li De. Within a few days, Li De issued a decree that he would personally teach the imperial grandson.
The position of the Eastern Palace remained secure.
A month later, Li Xuanzhen returned.
He was so wounded that he could not even ride a horse and was carried back by his personal soldiers.
The soldiers also brought back the bad news: Seventh Princess Li Yaoying perished in the hands of the Northern Rong. Someone saw with their own eyes that the Northern Rong killed all the princess’s guards, leaving not even the horses.
Li Xuanzhen was dispirited, not saying a word all day.
Zheng Biyu performed a ceremony for Li Yaoying.
Everyone knew that the Seventh Princess’ situation was more or less dire. She first secretly bribed a dozen Hu people to report for her, then sent dozens of her personal soldiers. The Hu people, for the most part, succeeded with only one lucky personal soldier surviving. The situation was so critical—the Yelu tribe was destroyed in a night—how could the Seventh Princess escape?
The news of Li Yaoying’s death spread throughout the Central Plains. The people wept and paid tribute to Li Yaoying, building temples and planting flowering trees in Jingnan in her honor. Li De decreed that Li Yaoying be posthumously crowned Princess Zhenguo, and Empress Xie was rewarded with a title—the Empress lived away from the palace, unaware that her daughter had died outside the country, while Li Zhongqian, who was recovering from his wounds in Luoyang, was still kept in the dark.
Hello! I’m finally on spring break so I have time to come and post this. I’ve neglected you all, so I’m very sorry for that. My only excuse is that school took a lot out of me, but that doesn’t really make up for it. I won’t make any promises anymore but my goal is consistent weekly updates. I want to especially apologize to the Ko-fi buyers who expected their donations to come with a faster update and I did not deliver. I didn’t plan accordingly and that’s on me. I’ll try to post an additional chapter a week to catch up on the missed Ko-fi chapters. Thanks to everyone who is still sticking with Yaoying and with me :)