Ministers Begging Me to Ascend the Throne

Chapter 607: Chapter 306: A Winning Start

Since the beginning of this year, the Prince Mansion of the Eighth Prince has been under renovation and decoration. After several months of repairs, his residence is finally completed.

Of course, most of the renovations for the Eighth Prince’s residence were arranged by the Crown Prince, making it elegantly refined.

After the residence was built, the Eighth Prince moved out of Xingde Palace, as living in the palace wasn’t convenient.

Zhao Yao was very envious; he also wanted to move out of the palace, but unfortunately, he was too young. However, he could stay at the Eighth Prince’s residence from time to time.

The Eighth Prince’s residence had a courtyard specifically for Zhao Yao, which was decorated very luxuriously—more so than the Eighth Prince’s own courtyard. If the Eighth Prince didn’t have things to attend to occasionally, Zhao Yao would want to stay there every day.

In a while, the Eighth Prince will come of age, at which time he will also get married.

The Eighth Prince’s marriage was arranged a year ago. The bride is the daughter of a collateral branch of the Duke Zhen Country Mansion, named Xie Ning.

Zhao Yao had met her before—she was a gentle and beautiful woman, with a mild and tranquil demeanor, seemingly unbothered by worldly matters.

The Crown Princess Consort, of course, helped arrange the marriage of the Eighth Prince. Knowing that the Crown Prince valued the Eighth Prince greatly, she decided to betroth a daughter of the Xie Family to him.

Although Xie Ning was not the daughter of the main line of the Duke Mansion. The daughters of the main line had either married already, or were yet to reach marriageable age, so could not be betrothed to the Eighth Prince, which is why the Crown Princess Consort arranged a daughter from a collateral line for him.

The Eighth Prince was naturally very grateful for the marriage arrangement made by the Crown Prince and Crown Princess Consort.

After the Eighth Prince comes of age and is conferred as a Prince, he will get married, and during this time the Crown Princess Consort will further help in preparing his marriage.

The emperor was not interested in the marriage of the Eighth Prince and did not interfere. The Crown Prince, feeling for the Eighth Prince, asked the Crown Princess Consort to take extra care in helping out.

As Empress, Empress Xie was naturally supposed to manage the Eighth Prince’s marriage. Seeing the Crown Princess Consort was concerned with the Eighth Prince’s marriage, she became a hands-off shopkeeper, letting the Crown Princess Consort take full charge of preparing the Eighth Prince’s marriage.

Lady Liang and others could do nothing else but contribute their own little efforts to prepare some items needed for the Eighth Prince’s marriage.

The matters of the Eighth Prince being conferred as a Prince and getting married were of little concern among the ministers in the court. Their attention was now focused on the Shudi region.

Prince Chu had arrived in Shudi some time ago, joined with Zhang Gong to dispatch troops to support Han Zhong’s eldest son. Just a few days ago, good news arrived from Shudi: Prince Chu had won his first battle, and it was a brilliant victory.

According to the dispatched report, Zhang Gong did not partake in this battle; it was led by Prince Chu alone. He led the troops he brought from Liangzhou to the battlefield, defeating the rebels with a smaller force.

Zhang Gong wrote to the emperor, lavishly praising Prince Chu, stating that he had the demeanor of the emperor in his youth, with a great aptitude for leading troops in battle. Although it was Prince Chu’s first time leading troops in battle, he showed proficiency and no fear. Most importantly, he arranged everything meticulously, with no oversights.

The emperor naturally praised Prince Chu’s outstanding performance during the morning court session.

Upon hearing this, Prince Dai felt contemptuous, as compared to him, Prince Chu was still lacking. However, hearing this, the Crown Prince felt quite jealous, as this battle allowed Prince Chu to establish his position in the military camp.

Zhang Gong voluntarily went to assist Prince Chu, but his subordinates were not necessarily all willing. They had fought countless battles, large and small, with Zhang Gong, earning many military achievements, and had developed some arrogance. In their view, bringing along someone like Prince Chu, who had never been on the battlefield, would only be a hindrance. They believed they could defeat the rebels in Shudi themselves.

Although they didn’t express it explicitly, they were dissatisfied with assisting Prince Chu in Shudi. Zhang Gong naturally noticed, but he didn’t say anything. He straightforwardly told Prince Chu that many soldiers in the military were not convinced by him, a prince with no combat experience. If Prince Chu wanted to win over these soldiers, he had to prove his strength by winning the first battle, showing them that he could fight even though he had never led troops to battle before.

Prince Chu, upon hearing Zhang Gong’s words, not only did not get angry but was very grateful that Zhang Gong told him this. He told Zhang Gong that for the first battle, he did not need his help and would win by himself.