The warm winter sun shines on the pavilions and towers of the capital, but the sky above the imperial city seems to be full of haze.

The news of Xue Lu's defeat had already been spread to the court's Tongzheng Envoy; of course the court would not make a big fuss about such things, from the palace to the Qianbulang, they were shrouded in strange silence.

The emperor Zhu Gaochi heard bad news in the past two days. Only one thing reported by the imperial doctor gave him some comfort. Zhang Fu's eldest daughter, Zhang Miaohua, who was more than 10 years old, was newly granted imperial concubine. A few months after entering the palace, he was diagnosed with joy by the imperial doctor!

Zhu Gaochi took the opportunity to put down the military and national affairs that were very troubled, and immediately returned to the harem to visit Zhang Miaohua.

There were many people in the imperial concubine's palace, including Empress Zhang and Concubine Zhang Tai, who were not long ago. Everyone held tribute to the emperor. The queen continued to say some auspicious words and told Zhang Miaohua to eat, live and other things, and she was very concerned about her.

Zhu Gaochi stretched out his hand and gently touched Zhang Miaohua's abdomen in public. Zhang Miaohua's childish face suddenly turned red. She whispered: "I'm not happy for a long time, but the emperor can't see it now."

"Haha...that's the case!" Zhu Gaochi laughed out loud.

Queen Zhang looked at Zhu Gaoxu's appearance and smiled with a pursed lips; while Zhang Miaohua's aunt Tai Guifei looked at the queen sideways, paying great attention to her expression.

Zhu Gaochi said: "It must be a prince!"

After hearing this, the queen smiled and blamed her a little, "My sister is still young. The emperor said so, so she is not afraid of scaring her. If she is a princess, you wouldn't like it?" Zhu Gaochi smiled and said, "It's good for princesses, but she has to pay a lot of dowry when she gets married. At that time, the father spent a lot of money on my sisters."

The queen said: "The emperor is rich in all over the world, and the treasury will recover in two years."

At this moment, the eunuch Haitao brought the prince Zhu Zhanji and Zhu Zhan'an in. The two children bowed together and said, "My son and son pay homage to the father and mother."

Zhu Gaochi's face immediately pulled down and said with a stern expression: "Zhanji, don't run around with your brother all day long, you have to read and write well!"

Zhu Zhanji shrank his neck, lowered his head angrily and replied, "Yes, Father."

His younger brother Zhan Yi was still young, chubby, and stood there very well, neither crying nor making a fuss.

Originally, Zhu Gaochi liked Zhan's son very much, and thought Zhan's son was very similar to him and had a gentle temperament; but Guo Yan was involved in a very serious matter and was still locked in the East Palace. Gradually, Zhu Gaochi became more and more cold to her son. Now Zhan's mother has no care and has been handed over to the queen for raising him.

Zhu Gaochi asked a few questions about the princes' reading, and waved their hand to let them go.

At this time, Concubine Zhang Tai stood up and said, "I don't know that the emperor and the emperor will come to the imperial concubine's palace today. If you are rude, please forgive me. I'll say goodbye." She was the imperial concubine of the previous dynasty, and it was rare that she did not enter the cold palace to live; but she belonged to the elders in terms of generations. If she often appeared in front of the emperor and the empress, it would be inappropriate.

Zhu Gaochi nodded and said politely: "Concubine Tai is walking slowly. Come and send Concubine Tai back to the palace."

Queen Zhang also stood up and said tactfully: "I originally wanted to talk to my sister, but the emperor suddenly arrived. I will come and walk around tomorrow."

Zhu Gaochi said: "Why are you talking about yourselves?"

Zhang showed a coquettish expression, glared at Zhu Gaochi, and immediately smiled and said, "I will leave."

...As the emperor's first wife, Zhang almost never interferes with the emperor's search for other concubines or even palace maids. This matter is called a wise man in the palace.

After the death of the late emperor, the emperor looked for all kinds of women, first changing to different palace maids every day; later he returned to his original state and was mainly close to a woman for a period of time. However, over the years, the emperor has never changed: in a rare month, he would sleep with his wife Zhang.

After Guo Yan was detained, Zhang Miaohua, as the daughter of the Duke, was noble and well-educated. She was still young, white and tender, and immediately received the favor of the emperor. In recent months, the emperor has been in the palace of the imperial concubine for a long time in the middle of the night.

After Queen Zhang came out, she took a car to Kunning Palace on the south side.

A group of people surrounded the imperial chariot and just arrived near Jiaotai Hall, the eunuch Haitao chased after him. Zhang turned his head and looked at him, and Haitao immediately bowed and stood on the brick floor to salute. But Zhang did not say a word and continued to go to Kunning Palace.

Queen Zhang went straight into the bedroom and said, "The weather is getting colder and colder. Haitao, go and add more charcoal to me."

"Hey!" Haitao looked willing and hurried to work. At this time, Queen Zhang waved her sleeves and asked the other servants to go out. Haitao magically took out a bamboo tube from his arms and gently blew up the charcoal fire, as if he had expected that he would do this.

Zhang sat down gently on a large soft fur chair and asked, "Has Xue Lu defeated in Sichuan?"

Haitao moved his mouth away from the bamboo tube and turned around and said, "Go back to the Empress, yes. The emperor was very angry when he heard the news yesterday! However, the rebel King Han led the official soldiers of the Sichuan Guard, and there were many old acquaintances; and Qu Neng had led troops in Sichuan for many years. It was reported that there were many surrenders from various departments in Sichuan! This battle was indeed difficult for the Marquis of Yangwu."

He paused and continued, "Sheng Yong, Ping An, Qu Neng are all under the command of the King of Han. There is news that when the King of Han fled from the capital to Yunnan, the old officials of Jianwen went to surrender halfway. However, Meng Ge from the Silijian said that perhaps the King of Han had hid them in the beginning of Yongle and had ulterior motives!"

Zhang nodded slightly, frowned and sat on the chair. He was silent in the palace for a long time.

Haitao quietly looked at him sideways, and saw that Zhang had no intention of speaking, he spoke again: "Zheng He, Hou Xian, and Wang Jinghong brought back many Western tributes. The emperor picked some supplements for health care and gave them to Duke Qi. You said this..."

Zhang said: "Now the country is in a turbulent autumn, and military officials are particularly important. The emperor knew that treating Qiu Fu, who once waved flags and drums for the King of Han, would pay extra attention to the meaning of the nobles and military officials."

Haitao looked admiring and nodded quickly.

He then said carefully: "By the way, Zheng He picked something from the Western treasures and asked his servants to present it to the Queen."

Zhang showed a faint smile, with single eyelids and small eyes looking at Haitao's face. The eunuch first mentioned a few people who went to the West, and then suddenly remembered it, and by the way, there was no trace of it. However, Zhang knew in his heart that Haitao was afraid that Haitao had taken Zheng He's benefit and had been looking for an opportunity to talk about it.

Haitao took out a box from his arms, opened it gently, then lifted the red satin inside, and held it in front of the chair with both hands.

Zhang looked down and saw a string of Buddhist beads inside.

Haitao said: "Empress, Buddha Shakyamuni is a native of India. Before becoming a Buddha, he often twisted this bead to comprehend the Dharma, and then hid it in the palace of the King of India. The Ming fleet landed on the beach on the sea of ​​India and exchanged this treasure by chance. Eunuch Zheng said that no one in the world dared to own this thing except the Empress, so he specially picked it out from the countless treasures on the ship and presented it to the Empress."

Zhang picked it up gently, found it heavy, and put it in front of him to observe it carefully. She played with it for a while, and then her eyes moved away from the Buddhist beads. She suddenly asked, "Did Zheng He have a good relationship with Gao Xu before?"

"This..." Haitao's face turned pale and he hurriedly said, "I dare not deceive the Empress, but I have been in the Prince's Mansion and the Eastern Palace before, and I rarely know about the matter before the late emperor."

Zhang said: "You either took away your white-haired godson, named Yunxiang, or the Meng brother you mentioned just now. He was an eunuch from the Yan Prince's Mansion. Go and ask him."

Haitao hurriedly said, "I will obey my decree."

Just then, Zhang suddenly asked, "Where is Zhang Fu now?"

Haitao said: "Go back to the Empress, according to the recent memorial to report to the palace, the British Duke had just entered Yunnan. The British Duke was ordered to join forces with the Marquis of Zhenyuan (Gu Cheng) in Guizhou to attack Yunnan. However, the British Duke marched very slowly and reported that the southern mountains and forests of Yunnan were crisscrossing and supply was difficult, so he had to build strongholds and warehouses along the way first."

Haitao thought about it and said in a deep voice: "The British Duke had written a letter before, and he opposed the joint attack on Yunnan with Gu Cheng. Later, the imperial court issued an order to advance north and he set off."

"Oh?" Zhang looked very concerned.

Haitao said: "After learning that the Han Wangjun went to Sichuan, the British Duke submitted a memorial to make some claims, which was very different from the intention of attacking Yunnan.

He believed that Xue Lu was definitely not the opponent of the King of Han. After the fall of Sichuan, the battlefields of Yun, Gui and Sichuan were integrated into one, and the court should first grant a general of Pinghan to coordinate the overall situation of Yun, Gui and Sichuan; instead of letting Xue Lu, Gu Cheng and Zhang Fu fight each of them. The British Duke's intention must be to want the emperor to grant him the general of Pinghan; only the three nobles in the southwest had the highest title.

The British Duke also said that the court should not be in a hurry to fight, and proposed the strategy of "surrounding the southwest, defending Guizhou, and dividing Yunchuan". After Meng Ge's explanation, I was roughly the British princess who advocated stability and wanted to block the Han King in the southwest first and seek victory in stability, so I was not willing to attack Kunming with Gu Cheng."

After listening carefully, Zhang asked only one question: "Is Zhang Fu a talented person?"

Haitao said: "I heard from the martial officials in the outside court that among the heroes of the 'Jingnan', Zhang Fu should be the most capable person."

Zhang said calmly: "There are not only heroes of the 'Jingnan'."

Haitao was stunned for a while and hurriedly said, "In addition to those under the command of the King of Han, Duke of Wei (Xu Huizu), Marquis of Jiangyin (Wu Gao), Marquis of Ningyuan (He Fu) in the court, these people from the Jianwen Dynasty gave the late emperor a headache in the "Jingnan Battle", so they must be somewhat capable! However, those people are not as reliable as Duke of England, Marquis of Yangwu and others."

Zhang said seriously: "We have received the favor of the Lord, so we have to share our worries for the Lord. No matter what kind of person we are, as long as we can help the Lord, we must consider them!"

Haitao bowed and said, "The Empress has taught her a lesson, and I will obey my decree."
Chapter completed!