Yijuan cloud

Chapter 28 Don’t try to climb high branches
My face felt hot and I blurted out: "First, I didn't know that the prince has been going to the lakeside in the evenings these days, and today is the first time for me to go back. Second, I am not the prince's personal maid. I don't see each other all day long, so how can I be charming?" What? Thirdly, the lakeside is already desolate, and there is no one there in the dead of night. If the prince goes there, it is probably for peace and quiet. Even if my sister is a personal maid, it is inconvenient to take him there. Therefore, I accidentally bumped into the prince, and I didn’t want to come. Will I inform my sister? How did my sister find out?"

Xianggui's face turned purple after I snatched her white face, her chest rose and fell rapidly, but she just pursed her lips and said nothing.

I saw that she was really angry, and I couldn't help but regret that I had exposed her secretly following the prince for my quick talk.

Just as she was about to say something to lighten the atmosphere, she suddenly grabbed my clothes, kept poking around, and gritted her teeth and said: "You have sharp teeth and a sharp mouth, so you have to hand over the flute! I'm not afraid of you knowing that I I was following the prince, and I saw you whining and playing the flute, and I didn’t know what to say to the prince. It’s only been a few days, and you have done such a flirtatious behavior. How can you still do it?...Bring the flute! Bring the flute. Bring it to me!”

During the entanglement, the flute fell from my sleeve, and the emerald-green jade flute fell on the floor tiles. It made a crisp sound and then broke into several pieces.

I was extremely angry, not to mention that this flute was given to me by Cao Yingshan. I had been playing with it for several days and had grown to like it more and more. But now that it was ruined by her, I couldn't help but feel furious.

Even though she is the princess's maid, and she is just a slave like me, she dares to bully me like this!

While she was dazed, I pulled out the golden jasper hairpin from her head and smashed it to the ground. The hairpin instantly shattered, and she stared at me in shock and disbelief.

I picked up the fragments of the jade flute on the ground and said, "This belongs to my young lady. If you follow the princess, you may have seen some good things. You should know how valuable this flute is. I will give you a hairpin to compensate. It turns out it is For the sake of the harmony between the two masters in the house, I hope that my sister will understand clearly in the future and never wrongly accuse someone without any reason again."

The maids in the same room only came to their senses at this time, and started to persuade me one after another, and they all testified on my behalf, and it was only this evening that I disappeared.

Xianggui's sleeves trembled slightly, her eyes could kill, but she finally held it back and said coldly: "I won't even let go of my father-in-law. If you say you don't want to climb a high tree, who will believe you?"

Inexplicably, my fingers became sticky, and the grievances and unhappiness accumulated in my heart, making me breathless.

After being quiet for a while, I secretly took a breath, raised my head and smiled at Xianggui: "So, my sister thinks that my father-in-law is Gao Zhi'er? Not to mention Prince Yi, he is Prince Li or Prince Zhao. What Gao Zhi'er? I don't care about it. I won’t waste my time thinking about it!”

"Okay! Very good!" Xianggui lowered her voice and said solemnly, "This is outside, there are not such big rules, but the more this happens, the more I have to be very careful, no matter what What do you think? In short, it is against the rules to play with these gadgets. Today you play the flute, and tomorrow she sings. If I don't care, and wait for you to turn upside down, I will be sorry to the master! You say, Am I right?"

Under her gaze, I said indifferently: "Sister taught me a lesson."

After Xianggui left, the others quietly packed up and settled down to sleep.

I was lying on the bed with a lump of air in my chest. I was feeling angry and half awake, thinking that I had to be careful in my words and deeds in the future. In fact, this was nothing. It was just a matter of following the rules and doing my job well. But I couldn't help but think that that person was a hot commodity, and I was afraid that others would just take one look at him and start coveting him.

A few days passed, but there was still no news of the war.

Prince Yi first wandered around the town. Seeing that the weather was calm, he began to take a group of guards to hang out in the temple wine shop. In the past two days, he became obsessed with riding and shooting on the grassland.

On this day, Prince Yi had just changed into his riding clothes. He was wearing bright clothes and angry horses, just waiting to set off.

Unexpectedly, a group of young eunuchs, maids and guards walked into the mansion surrounded by Tang Shou.

Tang Shou took a brocade, silk and jade scroll from a young eunuch, held it in both hands and offered it to the prince, saying:
"The Holy Spirit issued an oral decree, ordering the prince to go to Yehuling immediately to declare this imperial edict, and ordered Chang Dachun to send troops quickly without any violation."

Prince Yi was already depressed when he heard that he was going to Yehuling. He unfolded the imperial edict and looked at it with a troubled expression. After a long while, he sighed helplessly: "Okay, I will go change my clothes and set off." He also begged Tang Shou. , "Eunuch Tang wants to go with me, so I can have someone to keep me company on the way."

Eunuch Tang smiled and said: "Our family originally wanted to accompany the prince."

The prince is leaving the city, and a few of our servants from the prince's palace are going to follow him.

Together with the general soldiers of Xuanfu, the governor, and Tang Shou's people, they marched for several miles to Yehuling.

Probably everyone wants to know when this battle will be fought?

There had been no movement for a long time, and even the emperor was impatient with waiting, so he issued an order to hurry up.

The terrain of Yehuling is dangerous, and the hillside is full of soldiers with bright armor.

The team that came to announce the imperial edict counted about ten official sedans, walking slowly on the mountain road. The sedans were magnificent and dazzling, which was very different from the place where the troops were stationed.

The last part of the way to the campground can only be reached on foot.

General Chang Da, General Fan and the big and small leaders had already met at the foot of the mountain, and surrounded King Yi and Tang Shou up the mountain.

I raised my head slightly and looked for the shadow of General Fan in the crowd, but I saw that among the green armor, only King Yi walking in front was very eye-catching in his crimson satin court uniform, but I couldn't tell which one was General Fan.

The mountain road was rugged and difficult to navigate, so everyone walked and rested for a while before finally reaching the camp.

After sitting down in the barracks, the camp attendants brought tea and snacks.

After a tiring journey and a mountain climb, King Yi was a little exhausted. He lay panting on a chair. He took the towel from Xianggui's hand and wiped his sweat. He hurriedly said to Tang Shou: "Eunuch Tang, please don't use their tea. I have brought some good tea with me." He said, waving to get ready.

Xianggui hurriedly arranged to place the prepared tea and cakes for King Yi and Tang Shou.

Longjing soaked before the rain.Water chestnut cake, Ruyi rolls, rouge goose breast, and chicken fat rolls are packed in small gold boxes, as if you are enjoying tea in the palace garden while admiring the scenery.

General Chang was sitting at the bottom with a solemn look on his face. He saluted and said solemnly: "The conditions in the place where the army is stationed are difficult and there are no good things to offer. I have wronged the prince and father-in-law."

When General Chang spoke, General Fan lowered his eyes slightly, looked cold and arrogant, and sat upright like a stone statue.

Just when I was about to look away, he suddenly raised his eyes and looked in my direction, his eyes like lightning. My heart skipped a beat, fearing that others would see that he and I knew each other and our eyes met, but he kept his eyes fixed. , it was still a stone statue with its eyes open. Although it was looking towards me, it seemed like it was not looking at anything.

I could only stare blankly.

Tang Shou's voice came to his ears: "It doesn't matter if we have a slave in our family, but we think that the prince is an elegant man who was praised highly by the emperor. He is always rich and noble wherever he goes. It's not just General Chang. .”

King Yi was sweating now, he was wearing red again, his complexion was getting whiter, he took a sip of tea leisurely and said: "General Chang doesn't need to blame himself, it's just that I'm used to this tea and cup. Eunuch Tang said." Yes, I do carry it with me wherever I go."

General Chang did not respond, and simply said indifferently: "I wonder what your honors bring you here?"

King Yi hurriedly put down his tea cup and took out the imperial edict from the box in the hands of the boy Zhuqing. Everyone present knelt down to listen to the edict.

After King Yi read the imperial edict, he said: "I don't understand. We have been here for more than a week. Why has the general not sent troops yet? But what is the delay? Even if General Chang came, I will not go back." I’ll write the note and submit it.”

General Chang received the order, stood up and knelt down again, and said in a sonorous and powerful voice: "Replying to the prince, it's not that the general is standing still, but that the fighter plane has not yet arrived. The Tatars have just looted a lot and have sufficient supplies. They have retreated to the hinterland of the grassland. Now they are here again. When the water and grass are abundant, the Tatars have strong soldiers and horses, but our army has just arrived, so we cannot fight in vain. We should first establish a firm foothold and look for opportunities to act."

King Yi stood up, frowned and said, "General Chang, please rise."

General Chang stood up as instructed.

King Yi then said in a cold voice: "According to General Chang's intention, our army of [-] was actually defeated by the Tatars?"

"Our army is several times stronger than the Tatars, but this is someone else's territory. The Tatar cavalry are elusive. If we attack rashly, we will probably suffer a lot of casualties. The art of war says: Be invincible first, then wait for the enemy to be victorious. The general just doesn’t want to make unnecessary sacrifices.”

King Yi flicked his sleeves, turned his back and said, "I don't know much about the art of war, so how can there be any casualties in the battle? Since I have issued an imperial edict to supervise the war, General Chang should send troops as soon as possible."

General Chang remained silent.

King Yi waited for a while, but saw no response, then turned around again, his expression already somewhat displeased.

Tang Shou smiled and sighed, stood up and said: "General Chang has received the imperial edict. I understand the emperor's intention. Our family and Prince Yi are waiting for the general's success."

General Chang said slowly and solemnly: "This is natural. However, the original food and grass in Yehuling is far from enough. I also ask the prince to raise enough food and grass for the soldiers as soon as possible."

Prince Yi simply said: "Okay! Before the troops and horses are moved, food and grass go first. I still understand this principle. General Chang can rest assured that with me here, the general will have no worries!"

Because of the promise, when he returned to the city, Prince Yi stopped riding horses, stopped going to temples and wine shops, and concentrated on raising food and grass.

Order people to post notices for the purchase of military rations.

I specially asked for a room in the General Military Department to supervise the procurement.

Go out at dawn every day and return under the stars.

After two or three days of this, there was no result.

Linghua was responsible for cleaning the outside. Although she didn't serve him closely, she said when she came back that the prince looked scary, maybe he was having trouble raising food, and he had to be careful when doing things at this time to avoid getting into trouble.

I couldn't help but sigh. Raising food has been a difficult task since ancient times. What kind of errands can such a pampered son like Prince Yi do?It's a pity that everyone is letting out big words again, but they don't want to be worried.

Unexpectedly, it was Tang Shou who helped him a lot.

On the fourth day of public grain raising, Tang Shou brought a wealthy businessman to his house as a guest.

The prince ordered a banquet to be held in the front hall.

Xianggui ordered several of our maids to go over and serve him.

After listening to a few words while delivering the goods back and forth, I found out that this wealthy businessman surnamed Jiang had met Prince Yi in the name of donating food and grass for charity, and that Tang Shou was the matchmaker.

The wealthy businessman surnamed Jiang is young and a local. His family specializes in the Han-Mongolian material trading business. He has accumulated a deep family fortune over the years.

Rich people admire power, and it turns out they want to have a big backer.

(End of this chapter)