Emperor Zhou was pleasantly amazed that Yan Chu could return to his present appearance and drive his horse. He thought that this time, Yan Chu nominally escorting the Harmony Princess40Harmony Princessrefers to the princess or emperor’s princess who has been married to another country in history, also actually had to ride in a carriage like his eldest daughter all the way.

Zhou Mingzhu and others were similarly startled, but when they saw Yan Chu only ride a distance, his fingers began to tremble slightly, and they knew that the other side must be holding on, merely to avoid losing face in public.

It was purely tenacious self-esteem, but it was useless. It was already extreme to recover to this present level.

Auspicious time almost arrived, Emperor Zhou said some occasional words, and the bridal procession officially set off.

Yan Chu, as the leader of this time, took the lead in the procession. He separated a distance away from the position of the eldest princess’ carriage.

It was an extensive road to send the bride. One of them was a princess, and the other was a procession leader. There was scarcely any contact amongst them. What Zhou Mingli liked to do every day was to take advantage of the short time to open the curtain when the palace maid delivered food and water to her and looked at that tall and broad back in the distance.

Most people in the palace thought that she was specially named and let Yan Chu come to send her because she wanted to humiliate him, but nobody knew how much she loved that man.

Zhou Mingli’s memory of her childhood was not deep, and it was full of self-righteous people’s non-physical abuse, as well as some jeering and shoving, which made those people hard to hurt her as they still dare not.

However, Zhou Mingli, who was still a child, often felt deeply hurt by those people’s indifference and irrational disgust. She envied her imperial second sister very much. They were unmistakably Emperor Father’s daughters, but because the other side was from the empress, she could appeal to everyone without doing*2doing*from 干 [gàn] that can mean as to do or to f*ck (vulgar) anything. It was not the case that she plainly could decide to be born, or could she control Emperor Father, who took a fancy to her imperial concubine mother and had her.

Why did not everyone go to the main culprit, Emperor Father, but love to come and trouble her?

At that time, Zhou Mingli, a child, did not understand because her Emperor Father was Zhou’s emperor, in here, no one dared to disobey and accuse him, which was the charm of power.

At that time, she paid the most attention to Young General Yan, who often appeared in the palace. Among his peers, he was always the tallest and loudest one. For Zhou Mingli, who was always facing her depressed imperial concubine mother, she liked people full of energy and vitality, which would make her feel that the world was still good and beautiful.

At that time, she looked at him from afar. Because she did not know if that boy was the same as other cabinet ministers’ children in the palace, who hated her and would help other princes and princess bully her.

Their first close contact was after she got bullied by both Imperial Eldest Brother and Imperial Second Brother.

On that day, she hid in the rockery and cried secretly. She dared not go back to her palace, because once her imperial concubine mother saw her like this, she would only complain more.

Yan Chu found her to pick up a ball that he had thrown away. He did not know that she was a princess because the clothes she was wearing at that time were dirty, nevertheless the most common cloth. He regarded her as a little maid, but looking at her sad appearance, he came forward to comfort her.

He asked if she got bullied, and he could help to avenge her.

She replied that those who bullied her were the most compelling people in the Great Zhou’s imperial court, and he could not stand and get her out of a predicament.

The little boy, who was still young and inexperienced, did not hesitate at all when he said so at that time.

He was the son of the Yan family. The men of the Yan family were born to protect Great Zhou. As long as she was the people of Great Zhou, he would protect her for a day. No matter how powerful the person who bullied her was, as long as the wrong person was the other party, he could help her out.

This act was the first time that someone had come forward to protect her, including her imperial concubine mother. She always also merely asked her to bear it and not to make trouble. Every time she came back to the palace dirty, she just asked the servants to boil water quickly but never did anything for her.

Because her imperial concubine mother knew, in this imperial palace, only children of the empress who dare to make fun of her like this.

From that moment on, a boy named Yan Chu lived in Zhou Mingli’s heart.

She did not know if the boy had forgotten his promise to a little girl, but she took it seriously and remembered it all her life.

After that day, Zhou Mingli no longer chose to be silent. She began to try to please her Emperor Father.

Although she was only a concubine-born daughter, she was also flesh and blood of Emperor Zhou, after all. This kinship could not cut off. Moreover, Emperor Zhou was such a soft-hearted man. Facing a daughter who was quiet but always revealed worship and adoration for this Emperor Father, he unconsciously paid more attention to this eldest daughter.

Gradually, no one in the palace would dare to bully her anymore and left her alone. Everyone knew that this princess was the one His Majesty cherished now. There were only a few who dared to tyrannize her like the eldest prince and others. They also stopped under the warning of Empress Zhou and ignored her as a mass of air.

Zhou Mingli’s life gradually returned to peace. Her favorite thing to do was to listen to the palace maids talking about the famous Young General Yan.

She was happy for him when he made a military achievement. She was worried about him and could not sleep all night when he was injured. But Zhou Mingli knew that Yan Chu was fated to be with her imperial second sister.

But so what? As long as there was such a person in her heart, it was already the happiest thing.

Zhou Mingli’s eyes flashed joy and bitterness, eventually becoming calm.

She looked at the figure in the distance. Perhaps, this was fate.

“Young General Yan, I’ve heard that the Yan family’s innate marksmanship is exquisite. I wonder if this subordinate has the honor to ask for advice.”

Apart from there was nothing to go before and after visiting the village, and needed to camp outside anywhere. Most of the time, the bridal procession would arrive at the relay station overnight before it got dark.

Because the bridal procession was too large, it was unquestionably unrealistic for everyone to live in the relay station, thus in addition to the princess and her servants, they also could live with numerous relatives and soldiers.

Others were either patrolling outside the relay station or camping outside to rest.

As the leader of this time, Yan Chu certainly had his private room in the relay station. However, this evening was quite unusual. Those deputy generals felt tired of the journey. Not knowing who had the idea, they sent a squad to the nearby mountains to play some games and gave them to the people of the relay station to handle it. They held a bonfire party and invited him to attend.

Now it seemed that the drunkard’s intention was not wine.

“F*** your mother’s ass, Chen Erniu. With your new Master, you forget who promoted you when you were a little infantryman. When you said that your father was ill, who gave you money to send home for your father’s treatment.”

Before Yan Chu spoke, a robust black man sitting beside him stood up.

Having been together for six days, Yan Chu also knew the name of the robust black man. His name was Gou Xiong. He was once a subordinate of Yan Chu’s father, considered to be under the Yan family’s command.

When Yan Chu had an accident, he was still guarding outside the city walls of Ming. When he knew that Yan Chu got arrested for treason, he could not stop him.

Truthfully, the majority of the Yan family’s army was loyal not to the emperor of Zhou, but to the Yan family. It was also correct that the royal family was afraid of the Yan family. It would be an easy matter for other people with massive military force like this if they wanted to rebel.

When Yan Chu got arrested for treason, many people in the army did not believe it. They even obstructed Fu Cong. At that time, it had faintly shown that as long as Yan Chu said something, they would rebel together.

But at that time, not only Yan Chu’s family members were still in the national capital, but also he furthermore had good faith in the royal family. He believed that Emperor Zhou would make himself an innocent, and immediately stopped the loyal subordinates. Thus, it was the end of his life, and that was why he lost his decisive opportunity.

In the beginning, he was a prestigious Young General Yan, who had the title of invincible general. Rebelling with him was almost a victory conclusion. However, later, he was a disabled man with broken hands and foot tendons. Even if those people valued loyalty again, they had to consider what would happen to them and their families once the rebellion failed when following a deformed master.

Gou Xiong was quite hesitant during this time. Out of his sincerity, he wanted to help the young general, but thinking about his family, he felt that he should stay away from the other.

But with more time to get along with, the shackles of hesitation became more and more fragile.

Every day, before everyone got up, he watched the young general get up and exercise secretly, trotting without interruption. He still finished one hundred squats even if sweat poured off him. He looked at the mace held by the other party from the smallest 2 jin102 jin1 kg to 3 jin93 jin1.5 kg in six days.

This exercise, of course, was easy for the former young general. Even a random person in the army could even lift a 3 jin mace.

But thinking twice, this was a man with broken hands and feet tendons. Gou Xiong felt that in the young general, he had seen unprecedented courage and the miracle of perseverance.

He felt that the flame, which was extinguished by the young general’s disability by the imperial physician’s judgment, had ignited.

Yesterday, he had already secretly let his confidant pass a message back. These days, the traitor Fu Cong had continuously been lobbying them, these veterans of the Yan family’s army. Because of the silence of the young general, it might be assumed that many people also swayed.

He wanted to tell those people that the young general was not a waste. As long as he was alive and had that heart, the Yan family’s army should be under surnamed Yan.

Gou Xiong thought, in reality, when he sent those letters, he had already clarified his current position.

Therefore, when Chen Erniu provoked Yan Chu, he stood up and refuted for him without thinking.

Now the young general was still recovering, could not let these nasty people with bad intentions aggravated the situation.

“Black Bear*, don’t get upset. You aren’t Young General. How do you know what he thinks?”

Chen Zhao frowned. Chen Erniu was his former name. The thing he disliked most was to hear people mention this old name after he excelled, which reminded others of his family background and the muddy, rustic that could not be washed off.

“Young General, if you can’t do it, you can also instruct this subordinate.” He glared at Gou Xiong and yet smiled at Yan Chu, which harbored malicious intentions.