Seven years ago（1）
"That blood came from seven years ago. I am Qiu Jin, the only daughter of General Zhen Guo, Qiu Ji, and back then, I was the Crown Princess appointed by the late emperor. When I married Jiangchen Huo, I was twenty years old, and he was three years younger than me. On that day, fireworks exploded from the south of the capital to the north, and the Crown Princess's residence prepared twelve carriages with three sets of six rituals. The sound of gold hairpins and flowery ornaments jingled as grapes from the Western Regions mixed with agate, rolling in a glass plate, reflecting colorful light. I only brought one dowry item, which was a military warrant to mobilize three hundred thousand troops.
What awaited me was the happiness and misfortune that Jiangchen Huo could not escape for the rest of his life. This military warrant did not come out of nowhere. When I was eighteen, my only older brother, Qiu Yu, and I went to the battlefield together. The army was defeated repeatedly, losing nearly thirty percent in less than half a month. My older brother was filled with fighting spirit and was determined to make a last-ditch effort to attack the enemy's camp with the remaining troops. The enemy army was heavily ambushed, waiting for our side to be wiped out completely, which was a losing move.
Despite my desperate dissuasion, my brother insisted on his decision, so I had to put poison in the farewell wine. He fell down ungracefully, and I wiped the wine stains from his lips with an embroidered handkerchief before leading the army to break through the encirclement. Although the army suffered heavy losses, we barely won the battle in the end.
When I brought my brother's body back to Muzhou capital, I cried until my eyes were swollen and my voice was hoarse. I told my story of surviving a life-and-death situation, which was particularly heartbreaking and tragic, but I didn't mention the farewell wine incident. My father spat out three mouthfuls of blood and never asked about the battle again. Since the Qiu family didn't have another son, I took over the military power and held the military warrant but never set foot on the battlefield again. It was also at that time that the son of the Qiu family, whom my father had carefully trained, began to show his talent and became a generation of generals.
The late emperor wanted to balance the power of the Qiu family and the Crown Prince. He thought that as a woman, I would not be able to cause any trouble after marrying someone and would eventually hand over the military warrant. Therefore, he assigned me to the unpopular Second Prince, the Crown Prince's younger brother, who was Huo Jiangchen, and calculated when he could take back the military power that should belong to the royal family from me. Unfortunately, the old emperor did not live to see that day.
When I entered the Crown Prince's residence, Jiangchen Huo was only seventeen years old, and he was a formidable young talent. Not being treated well since childhood made him develop a patient personality, but he had a martial arts spirit and excellent learning abilities. "Do you want to be the emperor?" I lifted the red veil myself and asked him. That was our first meeting."