Minglan at last got drowsy listening to his words. The next morning when she woke up, she concluded: One should follow his leader"s orders, but not all of them. Human is a changeable creature. Never look at others with the same old eyes. Eighth Prince used to be very reliable but might not still be reliable after he became the emperor. Therefore, it is necessary to make cautious judgement before following all of his orders blindly.

As a result, when Gu Tingye acted as a go-between for the unmarried soldiers, he had been overplaying with the worried look on his face all the time. But the truth was… After Minglan had offered a great reward and promised to let all the family members of the maids who got married with the solders free from their slavery ident.i.ty, she was only able to set up seven or eight couples.

The quant.i.ty was low, but the quality was high.

Liao Yong"s wife had specifically picked the young and promising girls who were pretty and gentle. After both sides had agreed to the marriage, the solder would glimpse at his future wife through the screen. Most of the time, the girl would bite her handkerchief with redness on her face. Then, Minglan would offer the girl a dowry. After that, the wedding would be held under the condition that this was a consensual relationship. Everyone was happy.

The girls Minglan had betrothed to the soldiers were all strong and beautiful maids of low cla.s.s. They were upright in behaviors and loved labor with healthy bodies, which meant they were able to survive in the north border. Some female relatives of the soldiers with sharp eyes were also satisfied with those girls secretly while thinking that this was much better than accepting the girls who had been forced to marry those boys.

In the military camp, some girls who had been unwilling to marry the soldiers always made a scene by crying and shouting all day. However, the girls whom Minglan had sent there enjoyed a great time with their husbands and those men didn"t even want to leave their rooms. The sweet couples made the rest bachelors so jealous that they were about to get crazy.

As a result, more and more soldiers started to ask Gu Tingye to set them up with girls. At last, there were even a few captains and leaders asking Xie Ang to find girls for them in a shy way. However, Gu Tingye remained calm about this with no expression on his face.

Yao Yiyi, as an activist of party, couldn"t help but censure his behavior.

Gu Tingye laughed and said, “There were more than thirty thousand soldiers in the army. After we rule out the married ones, the men who could find girls themselves and the ones who would marry the women from the border, there will still be five to six thousands men waiting to be matched. Even Taozi, Lizi, Lizhi, and all your private maids are counted, it"s still not enough. Also, how many families in the capital do you think would do the same thing like us?” This method was not able to solve the problem.

“Then what should we do?” Minglan was at the end of her wits.

At first, Gu Tingye had turned his eyes to the Huaizhong and Huainan area where the wars had just taken place. There should be lots of homeless women who were the best choices to be sent to the north border, which would also benefit the country and the people. However, during Minister Yao (when he hadn"t entered into the cabinet)"s half years" term of service there, he had stabilized the situation at a fast speed. After he had distributed the food and the land to people and cut the rent and the tax, the homeless citizens all returned to that area and started to build their hometown again.

The people in the ancient times had a strong sense of belonging. As long as they could earn their livings in their hometown, they would never leave.

Next, Gu Tingye targeted at the capital. As long as there were two thousand imperial maids in the Royal Palace being betrothed to the soldiers, the problem would almost be solved. As for the rest bachelors, they could only stay single then.

However, as an official as well as a military officer, Gu Tingye couldn"t talk the emperor into reducing the imperial servants. (Advising the emperor was the civil official"s duty, it was inappropriate for his to cross the line.)

The most ideal way was to let Empress Shen"s Brother to give her a hint. Then she could advise the emperor to let some maids of the low cla.s.s who were over the marriageable age out, which could also help her gain a good reputation.

However, Shen Congxing couldn"t get the point at first. After all, five or six thousand bachelors who wanted to get married were not a serious problem, comparing to the state and military affairs which had been piled up on Gu Tingye"s desk. Therefore, he didn"t bother to give that matter any attention anymore. A few days ago, Minglan had told Gu Tingye what had happened in the Palace of Tranquility anxiously, being afraid that she had irritated Empress Dowager De. However, Gu Tingye shook his head and chuckled, “There are so many people who are unpleasant to the eyes of Empress Dowager De, such as Official Shen, that old fox, and the people from the Zhang, Shen and Zheng families. You are still not qualified to be hated by her. Also, she is probably very busy right now…”

Perhaps because Minglan had woken up too early, she was still in a daze when eating breakfast. While she was setting the table for Gu Tingye, she kept drooping her head from time to time with drowsy eyes and blushing face, looking quite adorable with that sleepy face. Seeing that, he suddenly had a naughty idea with his eyebrows knitted and put a few slices of ginger and pepper into her bowl.

Minglan, head drooping, put all those slices in her mouth with the porridge. Hss—Too spicy! She went stiff right away with her neck tilted, not knowing if she should swallow or spit those slices out, while holding her chopsticks tightly with tears in her eyes.

“Spit it out, now!” The handsome man said that with a serious look and scolded her in a soft voice, “I"ve told you to be careful when you eat. How can you be so careless? You can"t eat spicy food.”

“I picked those spicy things by myself?” Minglan asked in a trance and looked at the things she had just spit out. "Was I really that drowsy?"

“Still feel spicy in your mouth? Come here, have some water.” The man handed a cup of tea to her thoughtfully and walked over to pat on her back.

Minglan held his wrists and drank the water in his hand. Then she raised her head and gave out a beaming smile, feeling quite touched, “Thanks, you are so sweet.”

Gu Tingye, with his white teeth exposed, flashed a light in his eyes and then bit her lips which turned very red due to the spicy food. After that, he raised his head and laughed loudly as if he had got a few years younger.

Xiahe and Qinsang who were standing by the door looked at each other at a loss, then they both lowered their heads tamely.

After the verbal battle in the Royal Palace, that walk-on actor helped promote the development of the plot. Empress Shen realized something which never occurred to her brother"s mind. What"s more, after the emperor and the empress had been enlightened, they suddenly realize that the opportunity had come.