Married the Princess First, Fell in Love Later - Chapter 2

In the fifteenth year of the Dongning era, the national strength of Dongning was deteriorating day by day. The Emperor’s health was failing; even after hundreds of doses of tonic, there was no sign of improvement.

The National Preceptor, “deeply concerned” for the Emperor, brought in a white-haired Taoist from an unknown origin.

That Taoist used some form of sorcery, and surprisingly, it made the Emperor appear glowing with vitality, as if he had never been ill at all.

From that moment on, the Emperor of Yongning became obsessed with so-called immortal arts and Taoist magic, dreaming of achieving immortality.

Thereafter, the Emperor ceased attending to state affairs. He used a vast amount of gold and silver from the national treasury to have a Palace of Longevity built.

Once the Palace of Longevity was completed, the Taoist who had saved the Emperor’s life was granted the title of “Heavenly Master,” bestowed with an official rank and a residence, and became the manager of the Palace of Longevity.

Dongning is a small nation bordering the sea. To the west lies the Zhongshu State; to the north is the fierce and battle-hardened Beiyan State; to the south is the Nanchu State; and further west of the Zhongshu State is the Xiliang State.

These small nations had kept each other in check and lived in peace for over twenty years. However, no one knew how or when, but news reached the monarchs of these other nations that the Emperor of Dongning was neglecting the morning court sessions due to his obsession with immortal arts.

The monarchs of Xiliang and Beiyan grew greedy, wishing to take Dongning for themselves.

These two nations initiated a war, especially Beiyan, whose arrival was fierce and threatening, leaving Dongning without peace.

Although Nanchu and Zhongshu did not invade as openly as Xiliang and Beiyan, Zhongshu did not stop the Xiliang army from passing through its territory, and Nanchu watched from the sidelines, likely waiting for Dongning and the other two nations to exhaust each other so they could reap the spoils as the fisherman.

With the enemy at the gates, the Emperor of Dongning finally could not sit still and dispatched the Guardian General, Wen Changsheng, to meet the enemy.

Several months later, at the General’s residence, a group of people was holding onto a woman dressed in military uniform, preventing her from leaving the estate. The reason she intended to leave the residence was to go to the battlefield to support her husband.

The woman was Hua Qiuyu, the wife of the Guardian General Wen Changsheng, who had been married to him with all the proper wedding rites.

Beyond the identity of being the General’s wife, Hua Qiuyu held another identity: she was the youngest daughter of the founding General Hua.

General Hua had met his wife in a small border village. At that time, General Hua had been severely wounded and was hanging between life and death. It was the Lady Hua who had nursed him back to health with meticulous care. Although Lady Hua was born in a small border village, she was extremely beautiful and well-versed in medicine. Once General Hua regained consciousness, he fell in love at first sight and immediately promised that he would marry no other.

After the war ended and the five nations were established, General Hua fulfilled his promise and brought Lady Hua home in a grand eight-bearer sedan chair.

After their marriage, the couple lived in harmony and deep affection. They soon gave birth to two sons and one daughter.

Hua Qiuyu was that beloved, only daughter of the Hua family.

The two sons of General Hua took after their mother; they preferred studying medicine over practicing martial arts. Only the youngest daughter, Hua Qiuyu, took after her father and preferred practicing martial arts, often following him to learn how to brandish swords and spears.

General Hua, who considered himself a mere martial artist, did not hold the view that “women should not touch weapons and should only concern themselves with raising children and serving husbands.” Instead, every time he saw his daughter master a new set of sword techniques, he would smile with gratification. If others were present, he would proudly declare, “Look, that is my daughter!”

But General Hua’s joy turned to sorrow when Hua Qiuyu went to the battlefield; at that time, he wished he had never taught his daughter any martial arts. Fortunately, she returned victorious without any trouble, and she was even praised by the monarch. That title, “Heroine,” was not something just anyone could hear from the lips of an emperor.

Because of that title of “Heroine,” Hua Qiuyu was unwilling to sit idly by; she had to go to the front lines to provide support, but everyone in the Wen residence was trying to stop her.

“Mistress, you have just conceived the General’s child! You must not follow the General to the battlefield!” the maid Xiangqin pleaded, holding her left hand with worry.

Hua Qiuyu dared not use too much force, fearing she would hurt the person holding her, so she could only urge, “Let go! The country is about to be lost, and even if the child is born, there will be no good life ahead! Since my Hua family was able to help the Emperor secure this empire, we can also hold the empire for him!”

She was dashing and heroic with a powerful aura. Although her figure appeared somewhat delicate compared to a man, she looked majestic, truly living up to the title of “Heroine” bestowed by the Son of Heaven.

Hua Qiuyu possessed great strength, but the few maids tried their utmost to stop her, managing to delay her for a long time.

If these were servants from another household, they would not have dared to block their mistress. But their mistress was different from others; while other families treated servants like livestock and beat or scolded them at will, she did not. She treated them as kin and was polite to everyone.

This remained true even now; the mistress could have easily broken free, but she did not use her internal strength because she feared hurting them.

During the struggle, an old woman dressed in rich, elegant silk clothing was helped over and spoke up, attempting to stop this farce: “Stop! Hua Qiuyu! Can you stop causing trouble? Is the battlefield a place for the likes of you?”

This old woman was Wen Changsheng’s own mother, Wen Liu. She was born into the family of a minor, ninth-rank petty official where there was a rigid distinction between the primary wife’s children and concubines’ children, and where men were valued over women. As a daughter born to a concubine, she was not favored at all.

At sixteen, she was given away by her family as a favor to be a concubine for the Minister of Justice, who was thirty years her senior. That man was Wen Changsheng’s father. Later, when the father fell from power, she used all her strength to escape with her son from the assassins who came to ransack their home.

After escaping, she and her son lived under assumed names, relying on each other for survival. It was not until her son became successful and was appointed a General, and the monarch waived the punishment against them, that she finally stopped living a life of hardship.

During the years she spent raising her son, Wen Liu suffered from the cold stares and criticism of others. Every night, she would think to herself, “If only I were a man, how good it would be.” Then she would not have been sold like merchandise to that thief, Cao Xin, as a concubine, and she could have studied and achieved success just like the men of her family.

This viewpoint caused her to become obsessive. She saw that her son and daughter-in-law had been married for many years without bearing a son, so she was quite dissatisfied with Hua Qiuyu and even pressured her son to take a concubine, purely to leave behind heirs for the Wen family.

Although Hua Qiuyu did not agree with her mother-in-law’s views, believing that daughters were also a continuation of the family line, she could not withstand her mother-in-law’s tactic of “weeping, making a scene, and threatening suicide.”

She was annoyed, and her husband was annoyed as well.

To avoid her mother-in-law bothering them further, Hua Qiuyu made a wager with her. If the next child was still a girl, she would allow Wen Changsheng to take a concubine.

Wen Liu stared intensely at Hua Qiuyu’s belly, her face full of displeasure.

No one knew whether the child in Hua Qiuyu’s womb was a boy or a girl. To Wen Liu, if it were a girl, then it was of no consequence; the family already had three daughters. But if it were a boy and it died in the womb, and Hua Qiuyu reneged on her promise and refused to let Changsheng take a concubine, then the Wen family line would be broken.

Wen Liu could not tolerate such a situation, so when she heard the servants say that the General’s wife was going to run off to the battlefield, she could not sit still and hurried to the front courtyard.

Seeing that the old lady had arrived, the maids who had been blocking Hua Qiuyu seemed to have found someone to back them up, and they finally dared to let go of their mistress.

Once freed, Hua Qiuyu did not leave immediately. Instead, she bowed slightly to the old lady and asked, “May I ask, Mother, why I cannot go to the battlefield?”

“Blades have no eyes! You are carrying my Changsheng’s child! If it is a boy, and if you have any mishaps, you will be the great sinner of our Wen family!”

The old lady was aggressive, showing no respect to Hua Qiuyu at all.

Hua Qiuyu sneered in her heart: What a truly ignorant, foolish old woman.

Even though she felt quite dissatisfied, she remained polite in the face of her husband’s mother. She said, “You yourself said that blades have no eyes. If Changsheng dies on the battlefield, our whole family will lose its backbone. Even if there is an heir, what good will it do? Won’t we just end up as slaves to Xiliang and Beiyan?”

“Pah, pah, pah! You wicked woman, how can you curse your own husband? Who says my Changsheng will die on the battlefield? My son is so brave; Xiliang and Beiyan are definitely not his match! You are just a weak woman; stay home and continue the family line for my son, and stop running to the battlefield to hold my son back!”

The old lady grew more and more furious, her chest heaving with excitement. If she were twenty years younger, she would have certainly rushed forward to grab Hua Qiuyu’s hair and teach her a lesson.

Hua Qiuyu did not want to entangle herself further with her mother-in-law; their paths were different, and they could not work together. In her heart, women had infinite possibilities and were not meant to live in dependency upon men. Her mother-in-law, however, held deeply rooted, bizarre ideas, believing that a woman’s only purpose was to reproduce.

“The Imperial Edict has arrived!” A sharp male voice sounded from far to near, breaking the standoff between Hua Qiuyu and Wen Liu.

Following the intrusion of a group of imperial eunuchs, Hua Qiuyu and the old lady, as if welcoming the Emperor himself, lowered their heads and knelt to receive the edict.

The leading old eunuch glanced at Hua Qiuyu and spoke slowly: “By the order of the Heavens, the Emperor decrees: Currently, foreign enemies covet our territory, and war rages at the borders. General Wen cannot hold against the armies of two nations alone. I request General Hua to go and provide support. My beloved subject, Hua Qiuyu, receive this decree!”

Once the decree was read, Hua Qiuyu was overjoyed; this was exactly what she had been waiting for. Having received this imperial decree, no one would dare stop her from rushing to the battlefield.

Contrary to the beaming Hua Qiuyu, the old lady was miserable but dared not complain. She did not want Hua Qiuyu to go, but she lacked the courage to defy an imperial edict. Overcome with extreme frustration, the old lady fainted on the spot.

“Old Mistress! Old Mistress!”

In the ensuing chaos, Hua Qiuyu instructed her maid, “Take good care of the Old Mistress.”

Then, holding the imperial edict, she strode out of the General’s residence in a dashing, heroic manner. She whistled, and a swift horse immediately ran toward her. She leaped onto the horse, shouted a command, and the horse bolted away.

Before long, she had vanished without a trace.

A few days later, on the city walls of a Dongning border town, a man in armor and a cloak, with sharp brows and star-bright eyes, was observing the movements outside.

The enemy forces were lying in wait ten kilometers away, setting up camp like beasts in a state of rest, waiting for the right moment to pounce on their weak prey and devour them whole.

“Report! General Wen, the imperial court has sent reinforcements!” a soldier reported urgently.

Wen Changsheng was confused. Ever since the founding war, the five nations had lived in peace. Since that time, the Emperor had valued civil officials more, and in the last two years, it had become even more absurd; he neglected the hundred officials and cared only for Taoist arts and sorcery.

Those in the court were all incompetent, good-for-nothing fools; there was no way they could send a general.

“Changsheng!” Just as Wen Changsheng was deep in thought, a voice he had missed day and night called out to him.

His tears, which had not fallen when he was severely wounded, now flowed like a spring.

His good wife, as always, never broke her promise; since she had said she would live and die with him, she would certainly do it.