After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 650: The Prince Chooses a Wife
The Tang family actively worked for their dream, but the Zhou family had no interest in the marriage with Yingchuan Marquis Mansion.

Marquis Yingchuan decided to send his eldest son to Shanxi for training instead of continuing to Shaanxi. The entire Zhou family secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It was hard to say whether the Zhou and Zeng families had any feud, but their relationship was definitely not harmonious or close. It was already a great achievement to be able to maintain superficial peace. Both sides were very satisfied with this state of affairs, and had no intention of really falling out, nor did they intend to get any closer to each other.

Although it is generally safe for young people to go to the army for training, the world is unpredictable, and no one can guarantee that the training trip of the son of Yingchuan Marquis will be safe. In order to be on the safe side, the Zhou family and the Northwest Frontier Army did not want to take this risk. Anyway, the commander of Shanxi is an old friend of the Yingchuan Marquis Mansion, so let them discuss it among themselves. No matter what the result of the training of the son of Yingchuan Marquis in Shanxi is, it has nothing to do with the Zhou family.

As for the Tang family's calculations, the Zhenguo Mansion and other people in the Zhou clan all turned a blind eye. They would not provide any help, but they would not hinder the Tang family either. If Tang Ruo really had the ability and successfully married the son of Yingchuan Marquis, then the grudge between the Zhou and Zeng families might have a hope of being resolved. If she didn't have this ability, it wouldn't affect the overall situation. Anyway, the Zhou family would definitely not join in the fun.

Zhou Xuejun mentioned this gossip to Haitang in her letter, but it was just a passing mention. She was mainly complaining to her friends that some of the noble families of today were so obsessed with marrying people for power and wealth that they would do it reluctantly, no matter if it was appropriate or not, as long as it could achieve their goals.

She had such complaints mainly because her parents, General Zhou Si and his wife, had originally planned to take her to Beijing for a reunion after they settled down in the capital. They had already agreed to send someone to pick her up next spring, but in the latest letter home before the New Year, General Zhou Si changed his mind and decided to let his daughter stay in Chang'an for two more years to serve her parents and fulfill their filial piety on behalf of them. This disappointed Zhou Xuejun, who had been thinking about reuniting with her parents. She was very sad, but she couldn't say anything.

The reason why General Zhou changed his mind was because the atmosphere in the capital was not right at the moment.

Although the discussion about the heir to the throne had calmed down for a while due to the elimination of Prince Ji, it was soon revived. The court officials were mainly arguing about who was more suitable to be the heir to the throne, the legitimate seventh prince or the eighth prince preferred by the emperor. Although the two princes loved each other, and the seventh prince had mentioned in front of Wumen Gusheng that he hoped the eighth prince could become the heir to the throne, and that he was in poor health and hoped to rest in peace, the debate about the heir to the throne could not be stopped. Even though the emperor was very annoyed by this controversy and repeatedly rebuked the ministers who were stirring up trouble in the court, there would always be someone who would come up and bring up the issue again.

As long as the crown prince is not decided, this kind of debate will probably never end.

Under such circumstances, the people of Sun Ge Lao's faction seemed to have calmed down, but some people intentionally or unintentionally raised the question that the Seventh Prince was not young anymore, so was it time to choose a princess? It didn't matter if he was in poor health, as long as he gave birth to a grandson as soon as possible, there would be a successor, and being the crown prince would also make the ministers feel at ease.

Even if the emperor wanted to suppress it, he could not stop the royal family, nobles and officials from thinking that this was the right thing to do. People kept advising the emperor to choose a wife for the seventh prince. As for the candidate, since the second daughter of the Sun family had already married her widowed brother-in-law and became the new Prince Consort of Prince Ji, it was too late to regret it now, and the daughters of the side branches were not qualified, so the Sun family was not included in the candidacy. Only among the Sun faction, there were three or five high-ranking officials who had daughters or granddaughters of the right age and could compete for the position of the seventh prince's consort.

In addition, the Wu family or the maternal families of the concubines of the three dynasties, who had girls of the right age and both talent and beauty, were all very enthusiastic about this matter. Even though they knew clearly that their daughters would risk becoming widows at a young age if they married the Seventh Prince, if the Seventh Prince ascended the throne, their families would rise to prominence and become the most distinguished relatives of the Chu Dynasty, with wealth and power at their fingertips. Who could resist this temptation?
Some girls whose families were not in the capital immediately wrote letters and sent people back to their hometowns to pick them up, fearing that they would miss the great opportunity to marry into a rich family. Some girls whose ages did not match those of the Seventh Prince did not plan to give up. They could not catch up with the Seventh Prince's selection of concubines this time, but the Eighth Prince would also have to choose a concubine in a few years. Who knows if the Eighth Prince will have the hope of becoming a great prince? At the very least, he would be a prince. The two princes had a good relationship, and no matter who won in the end, the other would not have a bad ending. This kind of good thing that is sure to make money, if you miss this opportunity, you will never have it again!

As a result, seven out of ten of the prominent families in the capital began to promote their daughters to Empress Dowager Zhou and Concubine Xu in the palace. Even Concubine Sun had officials from the Sun faction who wanted to use her connections to introduce their daughters to Empress Dowager Zhou, which made Concubine Sun very angry.

In such a noisy atmosphere, if General Zhou Si took his daughter to the capital, who knows what others would think? The Zhou family had no intention of participating in the competition for the prince's consort. Whether it was the seventh or eighth prince, they had already suffered the hardship of being a foreign relative once, and they didn't want to suffer again. In order to avoid unnecessary suspicion, General Zhou Si decided to postpone the plan to take his daughter to the capital until the seventh prince's consort was decided.

Of course, the selection of the Eighth Prince's wife would be at least several years away, so they didn't need to avoid it for the time being.

The Duke and his wife of Zhenguo deeply agreed with General Zhou Si's concerns and had no objection to his decision. Only Zhou Xuejun felt aggrieved, but could not speak out, lest her brother Zhou Yijun misunderstand and think that his sister did not want to accompany him and would rather leave him to go to the capital to see his parents.

Haitang read Zhou Xuejun's complaint in the letter and felt that this was really unfortunate. But the Seventh Prince was choosing a concubine? Not to mention that he was not even fourteen years old yet, it was too early to talk about marriage. Just the fact that the Sun family's followers wanted to get involved made people suspect that there was some shameful conspiracy.

Could it be that the Sun family thought that Prince Ji had no chance and planned to pick another prince as a puppet? They were too fanciful, weren't they? The deep hatred between Empress Wu and the Third Prince was there, and the truth was only revealed not long ago. The fact that they could keep their current official positions and power was the result of the Emperor's blindness and blind preference for their family. Could they still expect the Seventh Prince to forget the hatred and continue to indulge the Sun family just because he married the daughter of an official of the Sun faction?
Normal people would not have such a ridiculous idea, so what is the real purpose of the Sun family? They can't use such a laborious task to consume the energy of the Seventh Prince, so that the weak little prince will die of exhaustion, right?
Haitang discussed the matter with her brother Haijiao. Both siblings could not guess what Lord Sun's intention was, and they just felt that he must have bad intentions.

Haijiao also told his uncle Xie Wenzai about this. Xie Wenzai had already received the news from the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion, but he didn't say much. He just asked Haijiao and his sister to be patient and wait for follow-up news.

The emperor was still alive. No matter how much he favored and indulged the Sun family, he had not forgotten his plan to establish the Eighth Prince as the heir. The Seventh Prince was just a tool he used to suppress the Prince Ji. How could he tolerate the elder Sun ruining his plan?
On the day of Laba, it snowed again in Chang'an. Haitang went with her grandmother Ma to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion to deliver Laba porridge, and brought back a shocking news.

Tao Yue entered the cabinet.

(End of this chapter)