The Empress of China Episode 13

ep 13 spoilers ahead

13/96!

Let me preface this with a simple statement: I feel bad for the horses...

1.The Mongols secure a victory, it seems, and receive an award of flowers (?) not sure what the meaning behind this is. Maybe it is hard to see these types of flowers during this kind of weather (it looks like early winter/late fall). Crown prince is able to have the match turned into a tie, because neither side followed the rules 100%. In order to avoid the unspeakable precedent of not naming a victor, the advisor to Mutu suggests a riddle: select the prettiest flower, and you cannot retrace your steps. Xu Hui points out that this is a trick because beauty cannot be defined. But Ru Yi is clever and comes up with a plan.

This is a great exchange: Mutu Prince says, 'You dress like a Cairen, you think you can answer it?' and Ru Yi says, 'You dress like a prince, don't you know not to judge a book by its cover?' (OWNED)

2.The emperor warns her to 'not be a hero'. She selects a flower and the Mongols laugh at her and say there is a prettier flower out there. But men torch the flowers, so she naturally has the only (and prettiest) flower. This earns her a great deal of respect from the Mongols. They suggest one more contest, archery, and challenge the emperor. After the Mutus go, Ru Yi gets on a horse (she has excellent horsemanship) and she places the flower in her mouth and the emperor shoots it off at the stem in an impossible shot. It is a perfect ending because the crowd has had entertainment, the Mongols did not have their pride offended, and the Tang maintain their image.

3.The emperor is so proud of her he gives her a new name, Wu Meiniang, after a river goddess. At the same time, Li Zhe, the young prince (and as we all know, the future husband of Ru Yi, seems dazzled and struck by love)

4.Elsewhere, Xiao Q. is raging (worse part is, the emperor has all but forgotten her...she has to compete with Xu Hui who is smarter and Ru Yi who is more daring/clever). Consort Wei strolls in, and basically tells her to go to the hall or destroy everything and kill herself (I almost pity Consort Wei because she just has Xiao Q to work with, but Consort Wei is the kind of person who lands on her feet)

5.Elsewhere, the Qiuzhou army is preparing, just waiting for the signal that let's them know the emperor is dead. If they fail, then they will enter the city and attend the ceremony, as if nothing happened. (This kid seems sort of out of touch with the severity of his actions--)

6.Back at court, they are celebrating. There will be acrobats (coincidently, the assassins). Here a painter named Liben gifts the emperor with a painting of Wu M. on horseback (Ru Yi) The emperor is pleased and has it sent to his palace. He then asks Ru Yi to join him to privately watch the fireworks. Xu Hui again seems anxious/uneasy. Consort Yang takes advantage of the girls unease and tries to plant some seeds of doubt: she tells her that the incident of the fan is being handled by another department because anyone who came in contact with it, including Wu, could have poisoned her. Xu Hui excuses herself...

(I forgot, prior to this, the emperor gives Wu M another gift (her request) of having Consort Yin's house arrest being revoked. This is apparently an extremely presumptuous request, but he satisfies it. Her actions also confuse the ministers, who say she broke the cardinal rule of the harem by splitting her loyalties so openly)

7.Elsewhere, a Zheng gong gong is being aided by Wanyan's father, who has been supporting the rebellion in order to learn who killed his daughter. I genuinely feel bad for him. He won't wait three days as ordered and pulls a knife on the eunuch. Rebelling guards seize him, and before he is murdered, he learns his own family, Consort Yin, killed her...

8.Elsewhere, Consort Yin is visited by the eunuch. She tells him he should stop playing these games (essentially) however she is horrified to learn that her brother has instigated a rebellion. She tells him to halt it, that she doesn't care about (essentially) the anger and fear among the surviving clan members (they were almost wiped out because of loyalty to the previous Sui emperor. I have also read that during this time period, entire clans were not wiped out in order that some surviving relatives could honor the deceased)

9.Eunuch tells her it is too late, so she challenges him to kill her because she will warn the emperor....

10.Meanwhile, Crown Prince (who is getting wasted) receives a message that Mongol troops are at the border (not sure if this is true or not) prompting him to be distracted...

11.Wu M is walking with the emperor when a messenger arrives, planning to tell of the Mongol news, but wait, he's an assassin! The emperor dodges the poison arrow he shoots out and Wu catches the sword (not sure how come this did not cut her hand off)

-----It is a good thing she intervened because she just spoke up for Yin....this makes her less likely to be accused of being involved in rebellion later...---

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