Thousand Miles of Bright Moonlight

Chapter 1 - Seventh Princess (part 2)

　The Li family had been defending Wei county for generations and were thus a powerful clan in Wei county. Li De was the son of a concubine in the family, having a childhood of loneliness and hardship. Only at the age of twenty-five did he take Tang shi, a merchant's daughter, as his wife. At the age of twenty-eight, he joined the army and gradually rose to prominence, soon replacing his elder di brother as the head of the Li family, and was conferred the title of Wei county's military ambassador.

Later, when war broke out and chaos grew in various places, Li De responded to the current situation by recruiting soldiers and horses in the name of defending his hometown. Leading his clan in an uprising, he gathered tens of thousands of people and won a few small battles.

　　Li De frequently led his troops away from home, while Tang shi stayed home to take care of their son Li Xuanzhen.

　　When Li Xuanzhen was two years old, a group of rebellious soldiers fled to Wei county. Taking advantage of the vacant guard, they entered the county and looted the city.

　　The family servant who stayed in Wei county sent out news: Mother and son of Tang clan were killed by the swords of the rebels.

　　Li De was so angry that he had mistakenly fallen into the other party's trap in battle, losing his own soldiers and personal men. He himself was seriously wounded. Within a month, he had lost several cities.

Seeing that the Wei army was defeated like a collapsing mountain and the Li family's years of foundation would soon go down the drain, the clansmen advised Li De to join forces with noble families to consolidate their power.

The Li family was a powerful clan, but could not be considered a noble family. They had never been accepted by the noble families.

　　After Li De recovered from his injuries, he took the advice of his strategist. He went to the Xie family, which was the strongest among the strong and rich noble families at that time, to ask for a marriage. Promising that if he could achieve great success in the future, he would enthrone the di daughter of the Xie family as Empress.

The Xie family had money, people, and prestige, but lacked generals who could lead the war. Promising to marry down their di daughter to Li De, the two families set a wedding date, reaching an agreement to share their wealth and riches.

　　Little did they know that Tang shi was still alive.

　　She, a weak woman, escaped through the chaos of the soldiers blockade with Li Xuanzhen, wandering desperately and enduring countless sufferings. She found Li De at last, just in time to witness with her own eyes the di daughter of the Xie family with her ten miles of rich dowry, grandly get married to her husband.

　　Tang shi made a big scene, however, the ceremony was already done. It was impossible for Li De to repent the marriage.

　　With the backing of the Xie family, Li De quickly grew in power and revived his war banner.

As he was invincible on the battlefield, his rear court was ablaze with war.

Xie shi was from a prestigious family and looked down on Tang shi whose ancestors made their fortune by selling timber. Tang shi hated Xie shi for snatching away her husband and cursed Xie shi all day long.

　　One was the di daughter of the Xie family, the other was the original wife. Li De's two wives were both difficult to offend, putting him under momentary pressure.

　　Li De was in a dilemma, the people below were even more in a dilemma. Due to an unfortunate turn of events, both furen could be considered Li De's legitimately married legal wives, so how to address them?

　　Finally, they could only vaguely call one Tang furen, the other Xie furen.

　　The two furen fought for several years. The eldest son Li Xuanzhen and Xie shi's second son Li Zhongqian had grown up and their confrontations stretched to the position of shizi.

The Xie family was extremely noble, experiencing the switching of dynasties and generations without declining. Li De's success could not have been achieved without the full support of the Xie family. The elders of the Li family felt that Tang shi's status was humble, while the second son Li Zhongqian's mother was noble and should inherit the position of shizi.

　　Seeing that her son could not compete with Li Zhongqian, Tang shi, who had a fierce temperament, wore the wedding dress she had worn when marrying Li De as she died by self-immolation.

At death's door, she laughed heartily: "Husband, my lord, you have failed me in the end!"

　　Li De was in the army at that time. When the news of Tang shi's death was sent to his tent, he coughed up blood on the spot, fainting to the ground.

　　Within half a month, this generation's hero who had ridden the battlefield for many years seemed to have aged more than ten years, his head full of black hair turning half white.

　　Only then did the world know how much love Li De had for his first wife Tang shi.

　　Li Xuanzhen became shizi.

　　Xie shi's soul turned to ashes.

　　The son did not kill Bo Ren, but Bo Ren died because of him. Li Xuanzhen felt that Xie shi was the main culprit that forced Tang shi to die, hating to the bone Xie shi and the children she had borne.

　　Li Yaoying's birth mother was none other than Xie shi, and second son Li Zhongqian was her full-blooded brother.

　　With one foot in the grave, Tang shi repeatedly urged her son to avenge her in the future.

　　In the novel, Li Xuanzhen kept the task his mother entrusted him in mind, borrowing other people's hands to force Xie shi to death, setting a trap to kill Li Zhongqian, not even sparing the Xie family's distant branches.

　As for Xie shi's youngest daughter, the novel only mentioned her in passing. Not even having a name, she probably died at a very young age.