Chapter 180: Proposing marriage.

This has been the knot in the Queen Mother's heart for many years. For the sake of the Zhan family's imperial power, she has sacrificed her daughter's happiness and taken away her freedom as a woman. It must have been hard for her to endure humiliation and pretend to be a man for so many years!
Faced with the gradual doubts in the court, although Zhan Doudou married four commoner women and brought Si Lili, a descendant of the former royal family of Nanqing, into the palace, she still did not give birth to a prince for many years.

Now there has appeared a man who is a perfect match for her daughter in terms of status, appearance, talent, and even martial arts skills. Moreover, this man happens to be the one her daughter likes. How could the empress dowager not be happy?
"I heard that Master Ku He mentioned this in a letter. But now is a time of trouble. Although I also want to restore my daughter's status as soon as possible, I also know that now is not the time."

She seemed a little distressed, but she changed her identity and said, "Li An, I will call you this from now on. Are you really sure?"

What the Queen Mother was talking about was obviously what happened in the court today.

"I am somewhat confident." Li An shook his head and said, "I also know that it is not the right time to come here to propose marriage. As for the marriage, it will take three years, but I am here today anyway."

"Your Majesty, you should know that what I said should still be somewhat credible. However, today's proposals are related to the future development of Da Qi. How many people can fully predict the future evolution and outcome?"

"After the farce, I came to ask the Queen Mother for marriage just to comfort her and His Majesty. Although today's measures have temporarily shut up the ministers in the court, if I want to implement all of this thoroughly, I'm sure the resistance I'll face in the future will not be small. All of this is only possible because the Queen Mother and His Majesty trust me."

Li An expressed his thoughts without reservation. As for what would happen next, it would depend on the decision made by the Queen Mother.

"I understand your intentions." The Queen Mother hesitated to speak. Things had become so bizarre only because of the cause she and Ku He had planted more than a decade ago. She simply said, "Please let go of what's going on! If it's good for Da Qi, I'm sure the late emperor would agree if he were still alive!"

Countless memories flashed through the Queen Mother's eyes. She sighed and said, "It's just that His Majesty is still angry with you for calling a horse a deer today."

"It's good to have the Queen Mother's support!"

Li An cupped his hands and smiled bitterly: "I will explain to His Majesty, and I hope the Queen Mother can forgive my nonsense today. After all, time is not waiting for me. In my opinion, in two years at most, Qing will make a comeback. I don't think the Queen Mother wants to see that Qi is not ready to resist in two years, right?"

Afterwards, Li An explained the smuggling issue in detail.

In the final analysis, Fan Xian was also thinking about himself. He would get married after returning to Nanqing, and he would be able to take over the financial power of the inner treasury soon after the beginning of the year. However, this would completely cut off the financial resources of Xinyang and Jiangnan. What would the princess have to support the prince in his fight for power?
Although nothing happened on Fan Xian's way back to Nanqing, it was only because of his influence that many things happened ahead of time. Fan Xian also completed his mission in the shortest time possible. At this time, the Second Prince and the Crown Prince in the capital of Qing had not received any news from Northern Qi, so there was no way they could kill Fan Xian.

But Fan Xian's life will definitely be more difficult after he returns to Nanqing.

In addition to the Second Prince and the Crown Prince making trouble for Fan Xian, the Princess would never sit back and watch Fan Xian take over the inner treasury. In addition to putting obstacles in the way of Fan Xian taking over, Fan Xian would also have to deal with all the accounts in Nanqing and the various deficits in secret. If he couldn't handle it in the end, Fan Xian would have to bear the consequences himself.

"The inner treasury is indeed a mountain of gold, but it is also a basin of sewage." Li An's explanation here is very clear. It is impossible to replenish the national treasury through smuggling in a short period of time, unless the transaction object becomes Li Yunrui.

"Then why did you agree to this matter before?" The Queen Mother changed her official address to Li An again and seemed very anxious.

"The power of the inner treasury is already a foregone conclusion and it's just a matter of time. Just because we can't make money in the short term doesn't mean we can't in the future." Li An frowned and said, "The reason I agreed to this was first to paralyze Fan Xian and Qing State, and second, of course, to buy time to develop the country."

The inner treasury was so valuable that Fan Xian could openly advertise it to increase his chances of completing his mission. So why couldn't he do the same?
Agreeing to cooperate in smuggling in the Northern Qi imperial palace, where even words are leaked, will surely be known to the world in no time. Won't the merchants come rolling in by then? This matter has its pros and cons. In addition to losing some reputation, Li An's "calling a deer a horse" today can also show his strength. And these will enhance the sense of security and confidence of the merchants. The Queen Mother nodded thoughtfully and just said, "Thank you for your hard work, sir."

"Your Majesty, you are too kind. I just want to let you know that you should not think that I have become a saint just because Ku He has created momentum for me. If you want to accomplish something, you need the cooperation of many parties." Li An smiled self-deprecatingly: "The Queen Mother may not believe me, but I really just want to do something for these people."

The Queen Mother looked at Li An quietly for a long time.

Li An also looked at him fearlessly. After a moment, the Queen Mother agreed, "I will ask Zhuang Mohan to write an article."

"Thank you, Queen Mother!"

Li An said goodbye and left without going to see Zhan Doudou. Instead, he returned to Wanshizhai and started preparing.

On the second day, many carriages loaded with goods drove out of Wanshizhai and into the deep palace, attracting the curiosity of countless people.

······
More than a month has passed since the last court meeting, and the news of Fan Xian's marriage in Qing Kingdom has also spread back, but now both countries do not have much energy to target each other.

The reason is that the Spring Examination has begun.

According to the original development of the situation, Fan Xian will experience various changes in the court and rectify the Supervisory Office after returning to the country. In addition to taking over the Supervisory Office, he also has to resist the difficulties from the second prince and the crown prince.

The reasons for making things difficult were all ready-made. The news that Shen Zhong brought to Qing Kingdom was: Sean was not dead!
After this incident, he will preside over the Spring Examination of Qing State, and some major events will happen one after another: the Spring Examination fraud case, going to Jiangnan to check the account books
And this period of time is Ang Lee's opportunity.

Countless eyes were attracted to it, and the pressure and resistance from Qing State was much smaller. However, Li An of Northern Qi did not intend to participate in the Spring Examination, as he was still busy with the construction of those newly created departments.

It took these departments a month to build only a framework, but filling it with staff was the biggest headache for him.

It's just that the ministers and officials of Qi State are not good at other things, but they are very good at adapting to the situation and taking advantage of opportunities. In such a short period of time, a large number of grassroots officials entered the office, and in the early stage, there was not only no shortage of manpower, but also a surplus.

They also understood that these newly created departments would dominate Northern Qi for a dozen or even dozens of years, so they did not hesitate to arrange for as many of their own people as possible to get a piece of the pie.

Ang Lee did not stop this from happening, but was happy to see it happen.

He even happily thought that the more the better, and when faced with the grassroots officials who came, he accepted all of them at once.

Just when he was about to do something big, good news came from Qing Kingdom!

(End of this chapter)