Chapter 345: Prime Minister Gu wants to take the Archer Princess Sun Shangxiang, Qiao Rui wants to offer beauties!

Huainan.

Jiujiang Commandery.

Hu Cheer, known as "traveling seven hundred miles a day," served as a messenger and, under Gu Yi's order, delivered the letter to Sun Ce's hands.

"What!?"

"Gu Linzhi wants to take Xiang'er as a concubine?"

Sun Ce was straightforward and directly expressed the surprise in his heart.

Hu Cheer saw Sun Ce call Gu Yi by his name and couldn't help but feel some displeasure in his heart.

He immediately retorted:

"General Sun, with the status of my Prime Minister, could it be that taking your sister as a concubine would wrong her?"

Kan Ze, standing to the side, hurriedly smiled and took over the conversation:

"Envoy, please forgive us; my lord had no intention of offending the Prime Minister, he was just a bit surprised by this matter."

Hu Cheer nodded noncommittally upon hearing this.

Being a concubine was certainly not a glorious thing.

But the person who wanted to take a concubine was Gu Yi!

He was highly likely to become the founding monarch of a new dynasty in the future.

At that time, Sun Shangxiang's status and position would also rise accordingly.

At the very least, she would start as a "Beauty."

If she could gain Gu Yi's favor, she might even be promoted to "Noble Lady" or "Madam."

(PS: The harem ranking system of the Eastern Han and other dynasties in later generations is not quite the same; the harem of the Eastern Han is roughly divided from top to bottom into Empress, Madam, Noble Lady, Beauty, Palace Maid, and Selected Maid.)

Therefore,

in Hu Cheer's eyes,

marrying Sun Shangxiang to Gu Yi as a concubine was actually climbing the social ladder for the Sun family.

Sun Ce was about to open his mouth to say something,

when Hu Cheer suddenly took a silk pouch from his pocket and said to Sun Ce:

"My Prime Minister has already ordered that if General Sun agrees to this marriage, he will offer a great gift to General Sun."

Hearing this, Sun Ce raised his eyebrows slightly.

He hurriedly signaled Kan Ze to take the silk pouch from Hu Cheer's hand.

After opening it, Sun Ce's face instantly showed shock!

He cupped his hands and said to Hu Cheer:

"I ask the envoy to report back to Prime Minister Linzhi."

"As Xiang'er's elder brother, I will certainly fully support this marriage between Xiang'er and Prime Minister Linzhi!"

Good fellow, are you playing a face-changing game here?

Kan Ze glanced at Sun Ce with disdain.

One second he looked unwilling, the next second he was directly "selling his sister for glory."

However, Kan Ze also knew in his heart

that the "great gift" Gu Yi sent must be of great help to the Sun family army.

Otherwise, Sun Ce could not have changed his mind so quickly.

Seeing this, Hu Cheer said with a smile:

"General Sun is truly worthy of being a minister of the state."

"Since that is the case, I will go back first to report this matter to the Prime Minister."

After speaking,

Hu Cheer ignored Sun Ce and Kan Ze's attempts to keep him, and left Jiujiang that very afternoon to return to Chang'an.

And what exactly did the great gift Gu Yi sent to Sun Ce refer to?

After Hu Cheer left,

Sun Ce summoned his civil and military officials for an emergency meeting to inform them of this news.

Upon learning the news, all the civil and military officials felt extremely excited.

With this great gift, a mere Liu Bei was no match for Sun Ce at all.

Occupying the entire Huainan land would certainly be no problem!

……

Shouchun City.

Liu Bei received a secret letter from Qiao Rui and was instantly overjoyed.

Qiao Rui was the General of the Flying Cavalry of the Zhong Dynasty established by Yuan Shu.

Previously, in order to guard against Liu Bei and Sun Ce,

Yuan Shu had specially dispatched Qiao Rui to lead forty thousand troops to station at the southernmost end of Yizhou to block the two from moving north.

But before Sun Ce and Liu Bei could officially lead their troops north to compete for the territory of Yizhou, Yuan Shu's Runan City had already been breached by Xia Houyuan. ===== CHAPTER 346 =====