Zhao Ming in Chen County somehow heard about this matter, and without saying a word, directly sent Zhao Hanzhang two sketches—wedding garments he had drawn.

Remarkably, Zhao Hanzhang loved them at first sight and looked toward Fu Tinghan.

Fu Tinghan was also stunned, feeling these were exactly the wedding garments he wanted, so he nodded repeatedly at her.

Neither of them had any objections, but Wang Shi, Zhao Song, and her dear various court ministers all had opinions. Even the young emperor in the palace quietly expressed a small viewpoint.

Then these two sketches didn’t pass. Everyone began making modifications to the sketches, during which Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

Using Ji Yuan and Ming Yu’s words: “The wedding ceremony is not only about uniting two surnames, but above to serve the ancestral temple, and below to continue future generations. The young lady now holds high position and great power, with all the nobility and common people of the realm watching and imitating her, so her wedding must conform to ritual propriety.”

Ji Yuan’s view was: “The young lady expelled the Xiongnu and brought peace and stability to the nation—this is world-changing merit. According to ritual propriety, the young lady should conduct a princely wedding ceremony.”

Ming Yu also thought this way: “This is an opportunity to proclaim to the realm. If the young lady doesn’t seize it, won’t she let people look down on herself?”

What does it mean to give an inch and take a mile?

First you must give that inch. Ming Yu and Ji Yuan both harbored ulterior motives, naturally pushing her forward step by step.

The princely rites were what Zhao Hanzhang deserved.

Zhao Hanzhang felt what they said made sense, then said: “Aren’t Uncle Ming’s sketch wedding garments already following princely rites?”

Ming Yu said without changing expression: “I believe Regional Inspector Zhao has misunderstood princely rites. The dark ceremonial color occupies too much proportion in the ritual garments—the reddish-yellow ceremonial color proportion should be increased.”

Ji Yuan nodded deeply in agreement.

Zhao Hanzhang: …Don’t bully her for reading few books. If they changed it this way, it would infinitely approach the emperor’s ritual garments—already violating regulations.

Dark ceremonial and reddish-yellow ceremonial were two very special colors, representing people’s reverence for heaven and earth.

The masculine principle represents heaven, its color dark ceremonial. Zhao Hanzhang always believed dark ceremonial was the black with hints of red from the lightning and thunder when heaven and earth first opened—black with red showing through, the darkness of heaven, hence dark ceremonial.

While reddish-yellow ceremonial was the combination of red and yellow, like the brilliance of sunset mixed with earth’s colors.

The feminine principle represents earth, color yellow, but earth has no fixed position, so it borrows position from the south. South signifies fire, fire’s color is red, and adding humanity’s longing for and worship of fire, red is incorporated. The mixture of these two colors is reddish-yellow ceremonial.

In the “Rites of Zhou,” these two colors were the colors of imperial auspicious garments. In pre-Qin times, recorded wedding garments were these two colors, continuing as mainstream wedding attire until now.

Among them, the groom’s wedding garment was dark ceremonial upper garment with reddish-yellow ceremonial lower garment, signifying harmony of yin and yang.

The bride’s wedding garment was entirely dark ceremonial, with only the sleeve borders and garment edges being reddish-yellow ceremonial. What were sleeve borders? The garment edges. This design’s meaning was devotion.

But people inevitably have complex thoughts. When attributing these two colors to distinctions of status, everyone believed different proportions of dark ceremonial and reddish-yellow ceremonial represented different statuses.

Otherwise, why would the emperor’s auspicious garments have a higher proportion of reddish-yellow ceremonial than princely kings?

In the sketches Zhao Ming drew for them, Fu Tinghan’s wedding garment colors were normal, with only some small modifications made to the garment’s patterns.

But hers differed from ordinary brides’ wedding garments—it was modified in comparison to Fu Tinghan’s wedding garments, greatly increasing the use of reddish-yellow ceremonial and red, almost comparable to the auspicious garment colors of princely kings.

Ji Yuan and Ming Yu still felt it was insufficient, wanting to add more proportion, which touched Zhao Song’s bottom line.

He couldn’t help but block Ji Yuan and Ming Yu to scold them, saying they had sinister intentions: “Sanniang is loyal and righteous, wholeheartedly devoted to the sovereign and the people. You two, as Jin’s chief ministers, not only don’t advise against her improper behavior, but instead bewitch her into violating regulations and extravagance—your treacherous hearts are plain as day.”

He scolded them for “pursuing personal gain, disregarding the sovereign’s grace, even abandoning loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, and filial piety.”

Both Ji Yuan and Ming Yu maintained unchanged expressions, completely unconcerned with Zhao Song’s insults, still persisting in their views to change the wedding garments.

They weren’t Jin’s chief ministers—they were Zhao Hanzhang’s chief ministers!

Their service as officials wasn’t for Jin, but first for the realm’s common people, then for Zhao Hanzhang. Their loyalty naturally belonged to her—what did it have to do with the Sima family’s young emperor currently sitting in that position?

The two maintained firm attitudes. Standing behind them, the court ministers single-mindedly pushing Zhao Hanzhang toward that position naturally wouldn’t yield. Since Ji Yuan and Ming Yu couldn’t scold back, they would scold.

Thus, when Zhao Hanzhang just received news that Zhao Song had blocked Ji Yuan and Ming Yu, before she could arrive, the various ministers had already angered Zhao Song into seeing a physician.

Oh, he was carried there.

With matters reaching this point, it was impossible for Zhao Hanzhang to wait for them to argue out a result—she had to take a stance.

Sure enough, political struggle always arrived in unexpected ways.

Who could have imagined that just getting married, the color and style of wedding garments could stir up such a great battle?

Even Beigong Chun in Bingzhou and Shi Lei in Youzhou got involved.

Beigong Chun was a loyal minister. Though he acknowledged Zhao Hanzhang as his lord, he was also loyal to the Jin court, and from the bottom of his heart believed Zhao Hanzhang and he were the same.

They both had loyal hearts—it was only because of their outstanding abilities that they were misunderstood and guarded against by the world.

He was familiar with this experience, so he first wrote a letter to Zhao Hanzhang comforting her, telling her not to take the world’s misunderstanding to heart.

Then he wrote to Ji Yuan, believing they were forcing Zhao Hanzhang to betray her original intentions. Using himself as an example, he believed the more they did, the unhappier Zhao Hanzhang would be.

Ji Yuan and Zhao Hanzhang upon receiving the letter: …

So naive!

Shi Lei was different—he directly encouraged Zhao Hanzhang to use the emperor’s auspicious garments for the wedding, telling her: “You have merit in pacifying the chaotic age, your achievements already compare to princes. Newlyweds are supreme—there’s always been a tradition of exceeding rank. Why can’t you use imperial auspicious garments?”

“If not for your Zhao clan’s foolish loyalty, you should have ascended the throne long ago. That Sima family isn’t some prestigious orthodox lineage—as long as one has ability, who can’t seize their realm?”

“And you not only have merit, but also virtue and prestige. If you claimed the throne, I, Shi Lei, would be the first to respond.”

The two letters arrived one after another. Zhao Hanzhang was speechless again. As soon as she put down the letters, she received news that Zhao Song had been angered into being carried to see a physician.

Zhao Hanzhang knew she couldn’t let them continue arguing, otherwise disputes would spread from the capital to the provinces, and then…

She suddenly felt that indeed everyone was too idle. Because of the approaching New Year, everyone had nothing to do and had time to think about such miscellaneous matters, right?

Zhao Hanzhang put down the letter and hurried out of the palace.

At the palace gate she encountered Ji Yuan and others with worried faces.

Seeing Zhao Hanzhang, they all lowered their heads in a gesture of acknowledging fault.

They knew Zhao Song’s identity was special, and hadn’t expected his temper could be so great—just a few words had actually made him faint with anger.

Zhao Hanzhang shook her head at them, but still said: “I will resolve this matter. You lords attend to court affairs.”

She hurriedly rode after Zhao Song.

Ji Yuan and the others all breathed a sigh of relief, looking at Zhao Hanzhang’s retreating figure with some emotion and some guilt.

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