Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 20: British Mansion
Faced with the continuous visitors, the Duke of England simply closed the door and claimed to be sick. He did not meet any of them and sent back all the gifts.

In the main hall of the Duke of England's mansion, the Duke of England and his wife sat at the top of the table. Apart from the maids serving them, no one else was present in the hall.

"Sir, would you please say something? I asked you to submit the petition earlier, but you said you wanted to test his character and kept dragging it on. Now you say that your daughter has become the Crown Princess and it is not appropriate to submit the petition at this time. Then when is the right time?" Lady Sun, the wife of the Duke of Yingguo, looked at her husband who remained silent and said angrily.

"Madam, haven't I told you already? The emperor is just about to enthrone a crown prince, and has also designated our daughter as the crown princess. Now, how many people in Bianjing City are rushing to give gifts to our family? What will others think if I submit a petition for adoption at this time?" Duke Yingguo said earnestly.

The Duke of Ying is also a veteran on the battlefield, and now he is in charge of the Western Suburbs Camp. He has always been known for his strict military discipline.

But facing this wife, he really couldn't be tough.

"You are thinking about how others see you, but have you ever thought about how the Zhang family's ancestors will look at me when I meet them in the future? As the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, I have not been able to expand the family, and now you are not the successor. When the time comes, there will be no one to inherit the title. How can I have the face to meet the Zhang family's ancestors?" Sun asked.

"I didn't say I wouldn't adopt the child. We can adopt the child first, but we have to wait for the paperwork first." said the Duke of England.

"Wait until how long? Now my daughter is only engaged, but she hasn't married yet. If you wait until she really becomes the Crown Princess, won't you be even more unable to speak?" Sun said.

The couple had a good relationship, but the quarrel was caused by the issue of adopting a child.

The couple did have sons, but both of them died in the war with Western Xia.

The Duke of Yingguo insisted on not taking a concubine. In order to continue the Zhang family bloodline, Sun risked her life to get pregnant at the age of nearly 40.

When she was giving birth, she almost lost her life, but she still said that she wanted to save the baby first.

Unfortunately, she gave birth to a daughter.

After that incident, Duke Ying was afraid to let Sun have another child, but he was also unwilling to take a concubine, so he proposed adoption.

The Zhang family has been passed down for many years and is also a large family, so there must be many children from the same family.

However, the Duke of England was worried that the adopted son might behave badly and bring ruin to the family, so he decided to examine him carefully before making a decision.

Some people may find it strange that what does the Zhang family's adoption of a son have to do with whether or not to submit a petition?

If you simply want to adopt a child, then of course it doesn't matter. You can adopt as many children as you want, and the court cannot interfere.

But the Zhang family is different. The Zhang family is a noble family, and their adopted sons will inherit the title.

As mentioned before, the inheritance of a title cannot be determined by whoever you want; it requires approval from a memorial.

In fact, according to official history, the titles of the Song Dynasty could not be inherited.

However, this world is somewhat different from official history, and the title can be inherited.

Of course, the prerequisite is that when the title is conferred, it must be a hereditary title. Those downgraded titles and temporary titles naturally cannot be inherited from generation to generation.

Although it could be inherited, there was a problem: the imperial court wanted to take the title back.

The imperial court wanted to take it back, but if it wanted to strip the title, it had to have a legitimate excuse.

In order to take back the title, the imperial court had very strict regulations on the inheritance of the title.

If one has no children and wants his brothers or nephews to inherit the title, he must report to the government, and only after the government approves can the brothers or nephews have the right of inheritance.

But generally speaking, the government won't get in the way of such relationships.

But if you don't have close relatives like brothers or nephews, and want to adopt a person of the same clan with a more distant blood relationship to inherit the title, then I'm sorry, that's not possible.

In this way, the title was naturally taken back by the court.

However, this is not absolute. The court said that those who have made contributions but have no brothers or nephews can inherit the title through adoption from distant relatives. The "meritorious" here refers to the current generation of the title holder, not the ancestors of previous generations.

Although the Duke of England has no brothers or nephews, he has made great contributions.

In addition, his two sons died in battle, so he petitioned the emperor to adopt his sons to inherit the title, and there was no way the emperor would refuse.

Otherwise it will chill the hearts of people all over the world.

After all, the Duke of England’s son died in battle for his country, and the court did not allow him to adopt a son to inherit the title. Who would work for the court in the future?
Therefore, the Duke of England was not in a hurry about this matter, and wanted to carefully select a suitable candidate for adoption from among his own clan.

However, ever since the emperor came to him and said that he wanted his daughter to marry the prince, the Duke of England became a little anxious.

He was worried that if the government agreed to have his adopted son inherit the title, people would gossip about him.

Fortunately, the government said that it would not be announced for the time being, so he still has time to slowly examine and select.

But just recently, when he had selected a candidate for adoption and was preparing to choose an auspicious day, and complete the adoption under the witness of the clan elders, and then write to the emperor, the emperor announced that the prince would be enthroned on a certain day, and announced that the daughter of the Duke of England would be the Crown Princess.

Therefore, the Duke of England wanted to postpone the adoption.

Otherwise, if the government decided to make his daughter the Crown Princess, and then he adopted his son and wrote a letter to the emperor requesting that his stepson be the heir to the title, how would people in the world view him?

Sun's eyes turned red and tears flowed out. She said, "I'm not a jealous person. I don't allow you to take a concubine because you don't want to. You don't know what others say about me behind my back. They say I'm better than the women of the Hai family who got married. The Hai family allowed concubines even though they were forty years old and childless. I would rather the iron tree bloom than let you take a concubine. I can bear a little injustice while I'm alive, but if I lose my title, I won't be able to face the ancestors of the Zhang family when I die."

"Who is gossiping? Just tell me, and I'll come to their house to ask them what my family's affairs have to do with them. Is it their turn to gossip?"

It was the first time that the Duke of England heard such rumors outside, and he was extremely angry.

"Sir, do you have the courage to come to my house and question me? Why are you afraid of people criticizing you behind your back and don't dare to write a letter?" Sun said, wiping away her tears.

"Madam, can this be the same? I didn't write the petition not only because I was afraid of criticism, but because I didn't want to make things difficult for the emperor. The Marquis of Nanping had no brothers or nephews, so he adopted a son and wrote to the emperor many times, but the emperor didn't agree. If our daughter hadn't become the Crown Princess, I would have written to the emperor and asked for his approval, and no one would have said anything. Now that our daughter has just been designated as the Crown Princess, I wrote the petition. Even if it has nothing to do with this, some people will use this as an excuse. You should always consider your daughter, right?" said the Duke of England.

When talking about her daughter, Sun was silent. She said that her adopted son was not as close to her as her own biological daughter.

Seeing his wife relent, Duke Ying continued, "I didn't say I wouldn't file a petition. Anyway, my daughter is still young and it will take many years for her to get married. I will file a petition after the disturbance has calmed down in two years. You don't have to dwell on this matter all the time. When you have nothing to do, watch your daughter learn some housework or something. She will be the Crown Princess in the future. It won't look good for her to wield spears and sticks all day long."

Sun looked at her husband and said, "Who can you blame for your daughter's martial arts? It was you who taught her. I told you in the beginning that girls shouldn't learn these things. You said your daughter liked them and insisted on teaching her, but now you blame me!"

"Look at you, why are you talking about this again? I didn't say I blame you." The Duke of England said with a wry smile.

……

While the couple was chatting, they didn't notice that everything was heard by Zhang Guifen outside the door.

There were servants guarding outside the hall, and they should have informed Zhang Guifen when she came.

But the Duke of England only had this one daughter, and he spoiled her very much.

Zhang Guifen told the servants not to inform, but the servants dared not to.

Seeing that she couldn't hear anything useful, Zhang Guifen quietly slipped away with her maid Cui'e.

Back in the room, Zhang Guifen sat down at the table, put her hands on the table, and supported her chin, lost in thought.

Thanks to book friend 2019…8011 for the monthly ticket and reward.

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(End of this chapter)