Chapter 140: The Empress Dowager Arrives 2

The next morning, just dawn, we arrived at the dock next to the slums and waited patiently for the Queen Mother to arrive in Shangling by boat.

After the establishment of the ship, the four wharfs were uniformly allocated functions. After the development of supporting facilities such as commercial streets and other supporting facilities in Dengjiayuan, the dock will mainly dock passenger ships, and a small number of cargo ships can also be docked. The Li family wharf is mainly docked with cargo ships, and a large number of cargo warehouses have been built on the docks to facilitate merchants to store goods. At the same time, nearly half of the cargo shipped from Shangling to all parts of the country accounted for.

Last night, we sent a fast ship to pick up the ship that the Queen Mother was riding as a guide ship, just to prevent the boat owner from knowing the road and stopping at the wrong dock. If we parked the boat at the cargo dock and welcomed the Queen Mother without local gentry, no cheering crowds, only a mountain of goods, it would be really rude. The Queen Mother was not angry and would not say it for the time being, and we, the locals in Shangling, were ashamed.

Today we are here to welcome the empress dowager. Almost all the dignitaries and nobles in Shangling have arrived. The entire dock is densely packed with people. Today, as the main venue for the check-in ceremony, Xinjian District, is crowded with people. After yesterday's day of rest and recuperation, Feixue's face has recovered well today, so she also welcomes the empress dowager. Now she is talking to Princess Yunluo, Murong Sanniang, Jing'er and others next to us. These people have their own characteristics. Feixue is quiet, Jing'er is lively, and Princess Yunluo is gentle.

Zhen Yingying was charming, Murong Sanniang was elegant and luxurious, and they were all as beautiful as flowers. These people stood together like flowers blooming, and were so beautiful. When talking about happiness, they laughed from time to time, which attracted many of the men present to look at each other. At the same time, they also made the nobles and nobles, and the tigress were around, and even the sneaky ones were touched by the wives. Their wives were only jealous of the beauty. With the relationship between the Eighth Prince, none of Feixue and the others could afford to offend Feixue, and they had no choice but to expose their anger on their husbands.

The Eighth Prince's princess is here too. When the Eighth Prince came out, she didn't bring her with her, so today I met her for the first time. The princess is a talkative person and is more kind. As soon as we met, I found out that I was Deng Long, I grabbed me and asked me about it. I also gave me a valuable jade pendant as a meeting gift. I always felt like my mother-in-law was looking at my son-in-law. Even Murong Sanniang joked that her prince's adopted daughter was not as good as my half adopted son. For a moment, I made me blush and my neck thick, and I didn't know how to speak.

Everyone talked and laughed, Time flies quickly, and waiting becomes boring. Shortly after the sun climbed up the hillside, a large ship appeared far away from the canal, and there was a small boat in front of the big ship. When the ship gradually approached, we also saw everything on the ship: the ship was three stories high, and all the carved decorations were exquisite. The ship was filled with golden colorful flags representing the royal family. The colorful flags were embroidered with a phoenix spreading its wings. The ship was full of guards, all wearing heavy armor and sharp eyes. They looked at such a lively scene in front of them. They knew that they had been strictly trained at first glance.

When the ship was more than a hundred meters away from the dock, the ritual officer in charge of reception shouted: "Play music!"

The musicians in charge of the reception also began to play special songs to welcome the VIPs in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

As the boat slowly approached the dock, there were fierce firecrackers sounds soaring into the sky.

The boat slowly approached the dock under the operation of the boatman. The guy on the boat also left the cables off the boat. The dock worker below immediately tied the cables to the dock, then threw a few wooden boards between the deck and the dock, and laid a layer of carpet on the wooden boards.

After the wooden boards were laid, a group of guards immediately came down from the boat and stood on both sides of the dock at a certain distance.

After the guards were all standing, a father-in-law came out of the cabin and shouted loudly: "The Queen Mother is here!"

Just when I wondered why the sound sounded a little familiar, everyone who greeted them knelt on the ground, Feixue behind them was stunned and hurriedly pulled me. I woke up and knelt on the ground, shouting loudly with them: "Welcome the Queen Mother Feng Jia! The Queen Mother Qiansheng!"

After I knelt down for a while, I heard a kind voice: "Everyone, get up, no more polite!"

After Qiqi thanked us for our kindness, we all stood up. At this time, I also realized that the more kind-looking old lady who was slowly walking down from the boat was the current queen mother. On her left was a palace maid, and on her right was the girl named Zhou Ma. Next to Zhou Ma, the one who I thought was more familiar with just now was Eunuch Qi who came to announce the imperial edict last time.

With the help of the two, the Empress Dowager slowly walked to the Eighth Prince and said, "Your Majesty is good now?"

The Eighth Prince quickly saluted and said, "I'll be fine for the Queen Mother, everything is fine!"

The Queen Mother nodded with satisfaction, pointed at us and asked, "I don't know what these are?"

The heads of our four families immediately knelt down and said together: "The grass-roots Deng Long (Ouyang Xiaotian, Li Rugang, Chen Nanshan) pay homage to the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother Qiansheng!"

The Empress Dowager smiled on her face and asked the Eighth Prince with interest: "They are the heads of the Shangling Si family?"

The Eighth Prince quickly said, "When I say to the Queen, they are the heads of the four families!"

"Oh?" The Empress Dowager smiled and said, "Get up all!" After we all got up, she looked at us carefully and asked, "Who are Deng Long?"

I quickly bowed and said, "Qi Gong, is Caomin Deng Long?"

After the Empress Dowager looked at me carefully for a while, she exclaimed: "It turns out that a hero is a young man. I didn't expect that you would do such great things at such a young age. It's a blessing for my Great Zhou!"

"I thank the Queen Mother, but I am really worthy of the Queen Mother's praise!" I replied with my eyes down.

"Oh?" The Queen Mother became interested and smiled and said, "How to bear it, please listen!"

I quickly said respectfully: "Qigong, the achievements we have made now are all based on the joint efforts of everyone, not on me, Deng Long. If there were no Eighth Prince, Li family, Chen family, Ouyang family, and Shangling people, even if I, Deng Long, have great skills, I would have done nothing. So this credit belongs to everyone, not the grass-roots!"

"Not bad, not bad! It's rare to be able to make a contribution at a young age." The empress dowager smiled and said, "I heard that you have two confidants, why don't you introduce them to the Ai family?"

Feixue and Jing'er on the side immediately stepped forward and said with great blessings, "Minister Ouyang Feixue (Qian Jing) has met the Queen Mother!"

The empress dowager stepped forward, pulled one with one hand, and said, "Raise your head quickly and let the Ai family see!" After seeing the appearance of the two girls, she sighed, "It turns out that they are two symbolic beauties. No wonder Deng Long would resist the order and not marry the princess?"

Zhou Wu, who was next to the Empress Dowager, blushed at this time, and looked at me with some blame. Two red clouds rose on the two women's faces and said in unison: "Thank you for the praise of the Empress Dowager!"

Some officials who came together looked at me all at this time, all of whom were recalling the words of the Queen Mother, and they were wondering when the emperor issued an order and did not marry any princess. But the only thing they knew was that the Shangling now belonged to me, except for the Eighth Prince, even though he was a wise man, even with the words of the Queen Mother, the officials were a little polite when they saw me.

When the Eighth Prince saw that the Queen Mother always talked to me, and everyone was still waiting at the dock. At the same time, there was a relocation ceremony to be held soon, he interrupted and said, "Mr. Queen Mother, it's getting late. We still want to ask the Queen Mother to cut the ribbon for the completion of the renovation project of the poor and the relocation ceremony?"

"Cutting the ribbon?" The queen mother was slightly stunned and asked, "I wonder where the renovation project of the poor people is referring to?"

The Eighth Prince pointed to the fully completed reconstruction area and said, "It's that house!"

The Empress Dowager looked in the direction of his finger. It was the very exquisite buildings she had seen on the boat just now. When she was on the boat, she thought it was the house where the rich man lived, but she didn't expect it to be the reconstruction project that Wu mentioned when he went back.

So she hurriedly said, "Take Ai's family to have a look!"

The Eighth Prince bent down and made a gesture of invitation, saying, "Empress Dowager, please!"

Following them, our four families and a group of officials. On the way to go, Eunuch Qi and I casually asked a few words, and asked Zhou Hua’s true identity. The answer I got was that Zhou Hua was the Eighth Princess!

Under the smiley eyes of Eunuch Qi, I smiled bitterly, and two words popped out in my heart: I kao!
Chapter completed!