In the deepest part of the imperial palace lived the woman who actually ran the emperor's harem with absolute power and not even the empress consort could oppose her. The Emperor's most beloved person and his greatest enemy;
The Empress Dowager.
This woman was scary. From an abandoned concubine to an empress dowager, a story is worth her own. However we will think about it later. Let me explain who this remarkable woman is.
Hua Shen Miao.
Youngest daughter of the Hua family. Because of her family's traditions her father had no concubines, but that didn't matter as her older sister had been groomed from an early age to enter the palace, however fate wanted her death and Shen Miao was used to replace her. there.
Shen Miao had then been forced to live the life that was to be her sister's. Disputes, betrayals, manipulations and especially politics. When her father, who at the time was an influential marquis, died his family fell into disgrace, her mother followed her father and soon only her brother was left who was nothing. Without her family protection Shen Miao also fell, but for good luck or bad luck she was pregnant.
Being the target of other concubines and later despised by the emperor, she found strength where she did not have to protect herself and her son. She betrayed, manipulated and even bloodied her hands. A blood that she still tries to wash away.
Thanks to her, Zhang xian and Qin Shao were trained to fill the position they hold today, but who knew that when she reached the peak of power that a woman at that time could reach, she would take a tumble.
Her son stripped her of political power and imprisoned her in the harem when he decided to marry the daughter of the late empress consort to the prime minister. Qin Ruan was a good girl, but for Shen Miao that she went from hell to heaven and discovered the power to summon winds and rains she was a thorn in the eye.
For this reason, Shen Miao is currently planning his return to the country's politics through the marriage of Zhang xian, as his son clipped the empress's wings and keeps her family under control and consort Ling is not a potential ally for the widow's plans, there was only that way left for him.
What she didn't count on was that her son would find a bride for Zhang Xian, powerless or inuential and adamant as the general was, he would never accept concubines. When she heard the news the inner palace trembled and all the concubines and maids who passed her eyes were brutally punished.
Qin Shi had surrounded her from all sides, but she would never admit to being locked up in the palace by her own son. Who she's dedicated half her life to.
The Dowager Empress was very intelligent, but years of hostile palace life made her thirsty for power, something she had long ago lost control of. She got to the point where she didn't mind fighting her own child.
At the same time the emperor received the report from the silver palace. The dowager empress's palace. Despite being her mother, Qin Shi knew he couldn't trust her and in her thirst for power so he installed several spies in the silver palace to watch over her closely.
In reality, the entire imperial palace was surrounded by their spies and even the houses of Zhang Xian and Qin Shao had their men infiltrated. If they both knew? They pretended not to. After all, that was what it meant to be a friend of the emperor.
Qin Shi shook his head as he read about the fuss her mother made and the possibility that she might be up to it again.
In fact, being emperor only brought problems.
Let's see, we already know that the Empress Dowager won't be quiet like our protagonists, but what about Mulan? Will the interesting part of the story just accept her unspoken fate?
Well the answer is...
Ten soldiers at the prime minister's house with an eye on Mulan and another twenty maids placed by the princess. So even if Mulan wants to do something, she kind of can't. And her magical and mighty dragon? He doesn't even want to worry about her.
Mulan had his fate at the mercy of others and his hands and feet were tied to an invisible rope.
- Damn the day I wished I wasn't alone anymore! β She cursed the night as she cried her fate.
A weak person like her, a pessimist like her, how could she have been chosen by the gods? There were so many with better orders. Because she?
While Mulan wept, the emperor issued a decree.
"The young Mulan of the prime minister's family is beautiful and virtuous (plus compliments). The Emperor pities the Great General's loneliness and hopes that soon his branches will blossom, so he bestows Hua Mulan in marriage to Zhang Xian."
- Give thanks for the emperor's blessing! β The Eunuch shouted in a shrill voice.
The decree was given in the house of the general and the prime minister at the same time, barring the dowager empress's decree from granting a marriage. No one could be above the emperor, not even his mother.
Mulan received the apathetic decree and Zhang xian showed no reaction. The people were surprised. They thought it was just a rumor, but the general was actually going to marry a young woman from the prime minister's house. State councilors were on full alert. What did the emperor want to do? What did that mean?
But the main question was, who was Hua Mulan?
That was what the Dowager Empress wanted to know.
No matter how much she investigated all she found were rumors made by the prime minister and the princess, it left her deeply annoyed with them both.
And she couldn't call the girl in the palace because she was barred by the emperor and the general. It was always go to the temple, or she is sick, even if she is traveling together with the princess, but the worst was "praying for the nation". Mulan spent so much time praying for the nation that if everyone didn't know they would say she would be marrying the emperor and not the general.
The dowager empress was angry anyway, and nothing was worse than an angry woman, even more so if it involved the peace of an entire nation.
- The dowager empress is furious - Qin Shao reported - A cornered animal is more dangerous than a wounded one.
-Leave it as it is β Qin Shi spoke indifferently as if it wasn't her own mother β If she makes a mistake she will be punished by the laws of the empire.
"Ahh," Zhang xian sighed. The last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of this troubled mother-son duo's power struggle. But who sent your father to send you to the palace to be that emperor's playmate.
If his parents were alive he would surely curse them both.
Was it too much to ask for quiet time? He needed a vacation, not a wedding to a girl from another world.
But who would listen to him?
All he could do was keep his whining to himself.