The Female Lead Decides to Act Wickedly

Chapter 1257 - 470: Palace Intrigue Is No Match for Rebellion (Part 7)

Even though Emperor Yongcheng had already decided to give up his little best friend and seek to marry a noble lady of matching pedigree, he still couldn’t swallow it.

After all, for the past ten-odd years, no matter how "rebellious" he was, his real mother Lady He had always indulged him.

He was already thoroughly spoiled, used to his mother backing down and letting him have his way.

"...I don’t believe it, there’s no way Mother will really just sit back and let me marry Zheng Nianer!"

With that anger stuck in his chest, Emperor Yongcheng really did decide to dig his heels in against his own mother.

He didn’t rush to release any "I’m choosing an Empress" signal to the important Ministers at court, and instead continued to mess around with Zheng Nianer.

He even got the idea to get Zheng Nianer’s father and brothers another post with real authority.

The Emperor’s favoritism toward Zheng Nianer might still be unknown to those outside the Imperial Palace for the moment, but everyone inside the palace had long since seen it clearly.

Emperor Yongcheng had already elevated Lady Hu; sometimes even the Empress Dowager had to swallow a bit of grievance, and quite a few people in the palace secretly addressed Lady Hu as "Madam."

Now on top of that there was another Zheng Nianer, favored to this degree; in the future, even if she couldn’t become Empress, she would still surely become a Favored Consort.

Certain eunuchs and palace maids who were adept at gauging the Wind Sound all rushed ahead of time to pledge themselves, desperately currying favor with Lady Hu and her daughter.

For a time, these two women who by rights shouldn’t have been allowed to remain in the Imperial Palace were actually living it up in there, flourishing in high style, basking in unusual glory.

They were far too high-profile; even with Empress Dowager He managing the palace with tight control, a bit of rumor still leaked out.

Wang Yuan: ...

He already knew the little Emperor wasn’t smart and wasn’t reliable, but he hadn’t expected him to be muddleheaded to this extent.

Originally, he had thought his granddaughter was still young and they could wait another two or three years.

Looking at it now, wait for what?

With the little Emperor this willful and this stupid, unless reality beats some sense into him for a few years, he’ll never know to repent.

A few years later, his Nineteenth Lady would already be twenty; the pool of candidates she could choose from would be far too small.

Besides, over those years, both Nineteenth Lady and the entire Wang Family would become laughingstocks in the capital because of Emperor Yongcheng’s "slight."

Wang Yuan was an old fox good at scheming—how could he possibly let his granddaughter and clan fall into such a predicament?

"Marry her off! We must hurry and find Nineteenth Lady a solid, reliable match!"

Wang Yuan had a decisive, Thunder-and-lightning sort of temperament; once he’d made up his mind, his efficiency was especially high.

He discussed it with his son (Nineteenth Lady’s birth father), going over all the noble families and noble children of suitable age in the capital one by one.

In the end, they filtered out three candidates, then had the list sent to the inner courtyard so his wife, his daughter-in-law, and Nineteenth Lady could make a careful choice.

Half a day later, the women had their answer—

"The Heir of Prince Nanping? Mm, that’s actually a pretty good candidate!"

Seeing the particular name circled on the list, Wang Yuan slowly nodded.

The late Emperor had left the little Emperor with the Three Great Ministers, but that didn’t mean there were only those three Ministers in the Dayuan Dynasty who were the most noble and most powerful.

In truth, there were still other important Ministers at court belonging to various factions: noble families, nobles of merit, and those from poor families.

Prince Nanping’s situation was a bit special: his family was a noble family, but they had already declined back in the Previous Dynasty.

Prince Nanping’s father, the Old Prince Nanping, despite being a proper Noble son, had actually fallen to the point of having to seek a future in the army.

As it turned out, he was also lucky; this Noble son happened to run into the great chaos during the Late Emperor Period.

Taking advantage of the turmoil, the Old Prince Nanping really did raise a troop of his own.

However, just after he had managed to carve out a small territory, he was noticed by the late Emperor Zhao Jiong.

Zhao Jiong’s forces were larger than the Old Prince Nanping’s, and he was better at winning people’s hearts.

After some maneuvering, the Old Prince Nanping directly chose to "surrender," becoming one of the earliest batch of "small warlords" Zhao Jiong gathered under his banner.

After Zhao Jiong incorporated his territory, troops, and the like, the Old Prince Nanping became a general highly valued by Zhao Jiong.

Conveniently, the Old Prince Nanping was also surnamed Zhao.

Of course, their Lady Zhao had absolutely nothing to do with Zhao Jiong’s family line.

But by then, Zhao Jiong had already conceived ambitions of seizing the Central Plains.

The Zhao Family were not a noble family, not even a prestigious clan; you didn’t have to look back eight generations—Zhao Jiong’s Great-grandfather had been just a big-headed soldier.

Although the noble families’ power was much weaker than before, the people of the world still greatly revered them.

For example, in the Previous Dynasty, their founding Emperor had also been a dirt-poor bumpkin from a poor family.

After seizing the Jiangshan, for the sake of face and for the sake of looking good in the history books, he had racked his brains, inventing and forcing connections to fabricate himself a set of gloriously illustrious ancestors.

When choosing an Empress for himself and seeking Imperial Concubines for his sons, he also tried his best to marry into noble families.

During the wars at the end of the Previous Dynasty, many noble families were indeed toppled, but this notion of "revering noble families" had already sunk deep into people’s hearts.