Chapter 18 is now

  Thanks for the support from Feng Dongyun Sui and Xinggan Yumi 2!

  The moon was above the willow tips, and the night fog had already spread over Gaogezhuang. The wet fog grew thicker and thicker, covering the sky and the earth, finally enveloping the entire village.

  The housekeeper, Xing Niang, lifted her skirt and went upstairs, bringing a pot of hot tea to the people in the living room. Then she took scissors and trimmed the wicks of the candles one by one before quietly going back downstairs without making a sound or stopping for a moment.

  In the main hall, the bride, Gao Qianshuang, was still wearing her emerald green wedding dress and had not had time to change. Today was her big wedding day, and at this moment, she should have already bowed to the ancestors, entered the bridal chamber with her husband, drunk the nuptial cup, and enjoyed the most exciting and happy moment of her life. However, instead, she had left her groom behind and was now in the living room with her sister Mingyue, butler Gao Bo, and other elderly servants from the estate, including Qian Shu and Zhang Shu, all looking serious and worried.

  Gao Yi took twenty servants to scout out the situation, and it's been almost two hours now. There hasn't been any news coming back yet. This can't help but make everyone worried; the longer they wait, the worse the outcome might be.

  "I'm going to tell Yirang about our Gao family's situation!" Gao Qianshuo said suddenly.

  Several elderly people were shocked and Old Gao looked at the young lady who had been treated like a granddaughter by him over the years, saying in a low voice: "Are you sure you want to tell him?"

  "We are now husband and wife, I don't want to keep it from him forever, he should know."

  "Is the timing suitable now?" Gao Bo hesitated to ask, it's already a season of troubles, they were originally planning things that could get them beheaded at any moment, let alone with the sudden appearance of many unexpected events. He didn't think it was a good time to reveal his identity to Xinguniangye, especially since they still hadn't figured out Xinguniangye's true identity yet.

  "Because of the current situation, I feel that I should tell him my true identity. What we're doing could go wrong at any moment, and I don't want it to be too late by the time he finds out." Gao Shanshuo said, her mindset had gradually changed. Initially proposing to let Yi Feng join their household was just a sudden idea, perhaps just wanting to be a real woman in uncertain times, get married, have children. Yi Feng was a good person, saved her and lost his memory, no strings attached, she thought it was pretty good. But after these days of interaction, especially when he rescued Gao Ding today and said those words, saying that from now on he would be a member of the Gao family, that they would be one family, this conversation kept echoing in her mind, unforgettable. He was so sincere, making her feel that hiding her identity from him was wrong. Maybe tomorrow they would be surrounded by government troops, their lives at risk, and she didn't want it to be too late when he found out his wife's true identity. Unconsciously, her views on her new husband had greatly changed.

  "But we haven't figured out Young Master's identity yet, is it too early to reveal our identities to him?" Accountant Zhang Shu also expressed his opinion. Their identities were indeed too sensitive. If Yi Feng remained amnesiac, it might not be a problem. But if Yi Feng recovered his memory one day and couldn't accept their identities, what would they do? Perhaps that would harm the Gao Family Village.

  It's not that they are overly cautious, but rather that being a Gaojiazhuang person is too sensitive.

  Gao Qianxue is not an ordinary northerner who migrated south, her true identity is a princess of the Northern Qi imperial family. Her father was Gao Shaoyi, the last emperor of Northern Qi. Gao Shaoyi was the third son of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi, younger brother of Emperor Fei, nephew of Emperor Xiaozhao and Emperor Wucheng, cousin of Emperor Houzhu and Emperor Yuanzong, and uncle of Emperor Youzhu.

  Gao Shao Yi was initially enfeoffed as the Prince of Guangyang, and later changed to the Prince of Fanyang. He served as a servant in the Northern Qi court and as the governor of Dingzhou. During the reign of the last ruler of Northern Qi, Gao Wei, the state was defeated by the Northern Zhou and lost control of the strategic city of Jinyang in Hedong. Many Northern Qi generals in Hedong were unwilling to surrender to the Northern Zhou and secretly plotted a rebellion, planning to welcome the Prince of Rencheng, Gao Jiong, as their leader to resist the Northern Zhou. However, when Gao Jiong failed to arrive, they invited Gao Shao Yi, the governor of Dingzhou, instead. Gao Shao Yi, with his imperial family background, led a rebellion and over 280 cities in Hedong responded to his call. He marched south towards Jinyang but was defeated by the Northern Zhou general Yuwen Shenjie. He fled with 3,000 men to the Turks, where he received support from the Khan of the Turks and declared himself Emperor of Northern Qi, with the era name Wuping. At that time, all the Northern Qi officials and civilians who had escaped to the north came under Gao Shao Yi's leadership.

  At that time, the Northern Qi Emperor Gao Wei and the Young Master Gao Heng were both killed by the Northern Zhou. The land of Northern Qi was almost entirely incorporated into the Northern Zhou, with only one exception: Gao Mingyue's father, a distant member of the Northern Qi imperial family named Gao Baoning, who served as the governor of Yingzhou and garrisoned Huanglong. Gao Baoning was brave and had great vision, having long defended Longcheng, and at that time, both within and outside the passes, the barbarians and Chinese alike respected his authority, making him a rare great general among the Northern Qi imperial family in its final years. When he heard that the two emperors of Northern Qi were dead, he submitted a memorial from Longcheng urging Gao Shao Yi, who was then in Tujue, to ascend the throne and continue the Qi dynasty. Later, when Gao Shao Yi ascended the throne with the support of the Khan of Tujue, he immediately appointed Gao Baoning as his Chancellor and enfeoffed him as the Duke of Beiping Commandery. In the following years, Gao Shao Yi and Gao Baoning led their armies to repeatedly invade the borders of Northern Zhou, advancing into Youzhou in an attempt to retake Northern Qi.

  But two years later, the Northern Zhou sent an envoy to send Princess and marry the Turks, finally reaching a deal with the Turks, the Turks no longer supported Emperor Gao Shaoyi, pretending to invite Gao Shaoyi to hunt, but let the Northern Zhou general He Ruoyan capture him, handed over to the Northern Zhou. The Northern Zhou brought Gao Shaoyi back to the Central Plains and imprisoned him in Shu, where he died several years later.

  Gao Mingyue's father, Gao Baoning, continued to resist the Zhou and in the third year of Sui Kaihuang, he united with tens of thousands of troops from various tribes including Goguryeo, Mohe, Khitan, and Han people to launch a massive invasion against the Central Plains. However, this grand campaign ultimately ended in sudden defeat and fragmentation into two factions. Gao Baoning was defeated while invading Youzhou and was killed by his own subordinates outside the pass.

  Gao Shansheng was born when Gao Shaoyi was proclaiming himself emperor on the grasslands with the support of the Turks and Gao Baoning. She became a princess of Northern Qi from birth, although Gao Shaoyi's reign only lasted two years. When the Turks betrayed Gao Shaoyi to the Northern Zhou, Gao Shansheng was not on the grasslands; she had been secretly sent to Hebei by Gao Shaoyi when she was just over a year old.

  Gao Mingyue's situation was similar to Gao Shansheng's. When her father Gao Baoning was killed by his subordinates in 583, she was still in her mother's womb and became a posthumous child. Later, it was the imperial attendant Gao Xun who was arranged by Emperor Gao Shaoyi to take care of Gao Shansheng that sent Gao Ding to explore Liaoxi to find Gao Mingyue. Gao Mingyue's mother died in childbirth, and she lost both parents from birth, sharing the same tragic fate as Gao Shansheng.

  Over the years, they have been hiding in Hebei. Although they had many secretly wealthy properties at first and didn't need to worry about their livelihoods, life was still not easy for them. The little princesses and young ladies of the past had grown up into adults, but only a few elderly members of high-ranking families knew their true identities over the years. They did not originally live in Gaojiazhuang, Yangzhou either, but often changed places and rarely lived in the same place for more than three years. The current Gaojiazhuang had actually been inhabited for less than a year. Most of the people in the village were ordinary servants and tenant farmers, and only the old steward and Gao Ding's loyal guards knew their true identities.

  Now that Northern Qi has been extinct for many years, and Western Liang and Southern Chen have also perished for many years. The world has long been unified, but for Gao Qianxue and Gao Mingyue, these sisters and Gao Bo, those who were destroyed by the country, it is not so easy to forget. Ordinary people may be able to easily forget about this and start being subjects of the Sui Dynasty. But their identities are fundamentally impossible, Northern Zhou, Northern Qi, Southern Chen, Western Liang, these countries that were annexed and destroyed by the Sui Dynasty, how many royal families had a good ending? Especially for countries like Northern Qi and Southern Chen that were destroyed by force, most of the men in the royal family were killed, and the women in the royal family were divided among the Sui emperor and those meritorious officials like spoils of war.

  Gao Shanshuo refused to be a obedient subject of the Sui Dynasty, Gao Mingyue also refused, and Gao Boqian and his uncle were unwilling too.

  Although they knew that the Sui Dynasty was like a giant, not something they could challenge, and even if they knew that opposing the court would lead to a bloody head-on collision, they still showed no fear. Apart from revenge, they did not know what other meaning this life had.

  However, their strength was too weak, and it was already difficult for them to avoid being discovered by the imperial court after hiding in the east and west. It was even more impossible for them to rely on their own power to deal with the imperial court again. In order to deal with the imperial court and avenge their country and family, they could only borrow strength from others. In Gao Qianxue's view, there were only two forces that could be borrowed in today's world: one was the Turkic people of the north, and the other was the Goguryeo people of Liaodong. The Turks had once been the overlords of the world, and even the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi dynasties could only look up to them, competing with each other to offer tribute and win their favor, and even intermarrying with them. However, the Turks ultimately fell at the hands of Yang Jian, and were internally divided into four or five factions. Although the Turks were split, they still had great strength, but since they had once betrayed the last emperor, Gao Qianxue and his group would not easily join forces with them without being absolutely sure. The only other force that could be borrowed was the Goguryeo people. In those days, Gao Mingyue's father, Gao Baoning, had great prestige in western Liaodong, and even had a good relationship with various tribes in eastern Liaodong, with high credibility, repeatedly leading the armies of various tribes to attack the Central Plains. They were also very clear that the Turks were being weakened day by day under the Sui dynasty's attacks, and the Sui dynasty had already set its sights on the Goguryeo people who aspired to dominate the northeast.

  They have even subdued the Khitan and Xianbei, who were once allies of Goguryeo in recent years, leaving no buffer between Sui and Goguryeo. This made the people of Goguryeo feel extremely threatened, and war broke out between the two sides. The people of Goguryeo were unwilling to be suppressed and conquered, they tried to resist. Now, Gaoshan Snow has joined forces with them, and the people of Goguryeo hope to use Gaoshan Snow's identity as a member of the Northern Qi royal family to create some chaos within Sui, distracting and dispersing the Sui dynasty's elite soldiers.

  Everything was originally going according to plan, but today, Gao Ding, who should have brought back the allies, returned alone and seriously injured, making the situation more complicated and dangerous.

  "Perhaps the imperial court has discovered us!"

  "Maybe they just ran into thieves!"

  Gao Qianxue shook his head, it wouldn't be bandits. Although Gao Ding was just a village head, he had been a palace guard in the Northern Qi dynasty, one of the thousand elite warriors who guarded the imperial palace. The villagers under him were also not ordinary villagers, but highly trained elites after years of training. No ordinary bandit could easily defeat a former imperial guard and his team of elites. "We need to prepare for the worst. There are two possibilities: either our allies have betrayed us, or Gao Ding and our incoming allies have been targeted by the imperial court. Either way, it's a bad outcome. Although no one has appeared at Gao Family Village yet, they might arrive soon. I think we should relocate immediately and prepare for the worst."

  "I agree to transfer." Gao Bo was the first to agree. Now that the situation outside is unclear, it's not wise to continue staying here. In any case, as long as we have a green mountain, we won't worry about having no firewood to burn.

  "Alright, Gao Bo, arrange for us to disperse and move to the previously prepared location immediately." Gao Qianshu ordered, then added: "I'll head back to the East Wing first."

  "Sister, just send someone from the East Wing to inform them and that's it. It's not suitable for us to stay here for long. I think you should leave first." Gao Mingyue blocked Gao Shanshan's path.

  "No!" Gaomingyue pulled away her sister's hand, "I've figured it out, I'm going to tell Yilang our true identities."

  "Does it have to be now?"

  "It's now!" After finishing speaking, Gao Qianxue walked towards the East Courtyard with big strides.