Sheng Weiqiao took Ju Li, accompanied by Xu Lianshan, to the house where Master Wu and his family were resting. On the way, they met Xuan Yu Feng who was standing under the corridor feeding sparrows. When he found out, he said, "I'll go too!"
So Sheng Weiqiao waited for her to go back to the room and change into the clothes for the guests. The aunt and nephew reached the place arm in arm. When they were invited into the room, they happened to see Master Wu taking a silk handkerchief and carefully wiping the saber on his waist.
The handle and sheath of the knife looked tattered, and it was obviously very old and experienced.
However, the blade is still as clear as autumn water and as bright as moonlight. Even if you stand a few steps away, you can still feel the compelling edge.
Sheng Wei Qiao said in his heart: "Comparing this sword with Xu Baomo's soft sword that can't be broken, I don't know who is better? But even if this sword is not as good as Xu Baomo's soft sword, it's probably not that bad." ’s... I’ll just say that this group of people has extraordinary origins. Where can ordinary bandits come from such good weapons?”
She kept her face low and politely explained her purpose. She also thought that these women were all women, and she didn't know if she was interested in the hairpin that her daughter's family liked.
What's more, at the dinner party later, the main thing is that Mr. Wu chooses a husband, not someone else who chooses her. To put it bluntly, even if the eldest lady went to sit there with disheveled hair, it would not affect the scope of her choice of husband.
The reason why Rong Suihe reminded his wife to give her something for dressing up was actually to be prepared and to bring the relationship between the two parties closer.
But what I didn't expect was that Master Wu and others were very interested in the rouge and pink hairpin dresses brought by Sheng Weiqiao and Xuan Yu Feng. They all nodded without any persuasion and distributed the things in an instant. tried.
"I think the headmaster is the most suitable for this pomegranate red." As the leader, the headmaster Wu was not as eager as his subordinates, but he still laughed and cursed a few times, "Little hooves, leave some for me."
When Sheng Weiqiao saw this, he gave her an adviser, "This set of pomegranate red underskirt with gold thread and embroidery with a bird's-eye pattern was made at home before I left the cabinet. I haven't even worn it yet. If you don't mind it, why don't you change it?" Try it on? But the eldest master is a little taller than me, so it might not fit properly. Fortunately, there was some leftover material from the same material when this dress was made, so I can ask the maid to change it."
Xuanyu Feng added with a smile: "Golden hairpins inlaid with precious stones and figures, red gold inlays with butterflies and flowers, red gold figure pavilions on the temples, tortoiseshell gold and beaded flower bracelets, gold folded silk pavilion figure beaded earrings. , the carved brocade pattern of Pisces, the coral beaded jade sachet, and the gold-folded silk treasure-covered pavilion pendant collar are the ones my mother-in-law suggested for Qiao Er to wear with this dress. What do you think?"
Master Wu smiled happily and said, "I'll try it!"
She went behind the screen and quickly changed her dress, then chased away one of her men who was occupying the dressing table, and asked Xuanyu Feng and Juli to help her tie up her hair, put on various hairpin rings, and finally cleansed her face with imperial facial cleanser. She applied jade paste, pearl powder on her face, traced her eyebrows with snails, put on golden flower rouge, put on vermilion lipstick, put on jade tinsel, and dotted her dimples. Sheng Weiqiao personally painted her a vine-like slanted red... This kind of slanted red Hong had helped Feng draw several times before, and she was pretty good at it, but she couldn't do anything without just watching.
Looking at the queen again, she is dressed in red like fire, which perfectly sets off her wild and charming temperament, but...
Sheng Weiqiao looked at it carefully for a moment, then turned to ask Xuan Yu Feng: "Are there too many hairpin rings?"
Xuanyu Feng nodded: "The master has outstanding appearance, unlike Qiaoer, you are soft-tempered. As long as you are dressed in red to highlight it, you are very elegant! These hairpin rings are a bit cumbersome, I think I will use the most ordinary ones. A long red gold hairpin with few decorations, just tie it into your hair and that’s it!”
However, Master Wu looked at the mirror for a while and shook his head: "I think this is good! What you said is too plain and not festive at all, right?"
Xuanyu Feng opened her mouth and said to herself that you are just choosing a son-in-law today, and you are not planning to get married soon. Why are you dressing up like the bride right now
But I'm not very familiar with this big boss, and maybe the aesthetics of Xijiang are different from those of Chang'an and Nanfeng County
So he smiled when he heard this, held down his niece who still wanted to explain, and said, "Whatever the boss thinks is good, we are used to staying in the south, where it is more fashionable and quiet, maybe it is different in Western Xinjiang."
Master Wu said: "I really don't know what is fashionable here. After all, I didn't have time to worry about everyone's food and drink, and I didn't have time to worry about dressing up. But maybe I like bright colors by nature. I think this kind of thing The head is full of pearls and green, and it looks beautiful.”
Of course, Sheng Weiqiao would not tell her anything that was too much or too little. After all, it was the first time that the two parties met today. Saying such words was tantamount to denying her aesthetics and might lead to unpleasantness.
The two aunts and nephews exchanged a few words with Master Wu and gave advice on how others should dress. Seeing that it was almost time, they left Juli to help change the size, so they excused themselves to see how the preparations for the reception banquet were going. .
What they didn't know was that they had just left, and Master Wu sent Juli to work next door, and hurriedly urged people to remove their makeup: "Hurry up, this hairpin is made of some kind of person or precious stone, hurry up and give it to me I took it off, and it was so heavy that it hurt my scalp! I wonder how those two people just stuck a bunch of them on their heads without changing their expressions?"
The subordinates came over to help and said with a smile: "I don't have a lot of people involved. Those two are very good at dressing up. The jewelry and dresses, even us who have never touched the dressing table a few times in our lives, can still see it." It turns out that everything has been carefully selected and matched. My dear, are you obsessed with me today? You are like a village girl who has never seen the world, and you are so tacky!"
"What do you know?" Master Wu took the gold hairpin with a character pattern inlaid with precious stones that he had removed, turned it around in the palm of his hand, shook it, and said proudly, "This princess of the county has a well-known background. Rich and rich, the dowry is outrageous! Didn't you see any maids around her? They were all wearing silk, silk and gold and silver. She was about to win over us for her husband right now. Can the things she brought here be bad? ?”
Then he threw the gold hairpin inlaid with gems and figures and passed it around to everyone, "Just such a small hairpin, if you take it to a prosperous place like Chang'an and exchange it for silver, believe it or not, it will be enough for you to live for a year and a half." Yes? Why let go of such a good opportunity to take advantage?"
Everyone was speechless: "You are the boss of Jishan after all. How can you be so short-sighted? We have a lot of savings in the mountain."
"Then you will take all the clothes, dresses and jewelry back to the princess after attending the reception banquet later?" Master Wu looked at them sideways.
Everyone said in unison: "No! How can we return the things that have come into our hands? What's more, the county princess doesn't lack these at all. Looking at her, she has no intention of taking them back! Let's go and return these. Aren’t you embarrassing her?”
Afraid that Master Wu would make fun of them, the group of people quickly talked about the reception banquet, "Master Wu, what kind of person are you going to choose as your husband later? In my opinion, you must choose someone handsome. All day long. We’ve really had enough of those cheap goods in the village!”
"What's the point of being handsome? He's a pretty boy, and looks so soft that he looks like an embroidered pillow! He can fall over when the wind blows. If you don't know, you might think that our boss has a little boy! He must be tall, burly, and strong!"
"If you ask me, whether you are handsome or not is a matter of speculation. The key is to have talent! The military advisor has long said that the future of Prince Mi Zhen is unlimited. Since the head master failed to give him a side chamber, why should he be under his command? Choose the most capable person, and you will be able to make progress in the future!"
Master Wu looked at them chattering with a smile, but there was a calm indifference in his eyes.
When a small town in Xijiang was holding a banquet called "Jie Feng Shi" to choose his son-in-law, it was in Chang'an, Zheng Guogong Mansion.
Looking at the news just delivered by the carrier pigeon on the table, the three brothers Zheng Guogong looked at each other in rare silence.
After a while, Chengyang Hou broke the silence: "Jia Gan is not to blame for what happened this time. After all, no one expected that he would be assassinated on the first day of departure."
... Most people don't know about this now. When Rong Suihe and his party encountered arson at the inn, the Meng family in far northern Xinjiang was almost stabbed through the throat by a sudden assassin.
After all, he grew up in the army and was favored by his father Meng Boqin. He was not a mediocre man. He avoided the critical point in time and chose his life. But in the end, he was stabbed in the heart. If he hadn't persisted, he would have been sent back to the Hussar General's Mansion to recuperate, and the trip to Northern Xinjiang would have come to an end!
Under this situation, Meng Jiaqian's performance was actually good. Regardless of his serious injuries, he insisted on ordering his troops to escort him on a starry night march into Western Xinjiang, so that he could take the lead and kill Rong Suihe and his party.
As long as Rong Suihe dies, he will have plenty of time to recover from his injuries. Even if he fails to recover and becomes chronically ill, he still wins!
However, no one expected that the Jishan bandits, who had been entrenched in Western Xinjiang for decades and never accepted solicitation from any party, would surrender to Rong Shuihe!
Although the Meng family had already decided to send Meng Jiaqian to Western Xinjiang to snipe Rong Suihe, he had already ordered the secret agents previously deployed in Western Xinjiang to prepare for Meng Jiaqian's arrival, collect intelligence, maps, hand over local snakes, etc. ... But these preparations are not enough in the face of the Jishan Bandit, the real number one local snake in Western Xinjiang.
So much so that after Meng Jiagan and his party were assassinated on the night of their departure, a few days after entering Western Xinjiang, they were on their way to the scheduled ambush point when they were suddenly attacked again!
This time the opponent did not send out assassins, so Meng Jiagan, who was guarded in the middle, was not injured. However, the three thousand elite cavalry specially allocated to him by Meng Boqin to settle down in Western Xinjiang, but not to mention the loss of hundreds of people. The most terrible thing is: more than half of their horses were killed and injured, and their accompanying baggage was almost completely lost!
Although Meng Jiaqian was Meng Boqin's most admired son, he was only the fifth son after all. The Meng family had already risen when he was born. He had always been under the protection of his father's generation. When had he ever suffered such a setback? Especially this setback is closely related to his own future!
Seeing this, he was so angry that he fainted. His subordinates were busy looking for a doctor for him, fearing that something might happen to him before he was seriously injured, so they had to hurriedly report to Beijiang and Chang'an to ask for advice.
Zheng Guogong and others thought that the three thousand Northern Territory elite cavalry were enough to defeat Rong Suihe and his party. They were still waiting for good news, but when they received such news, you can imagine how they felt!
After Cheng Yanghou spoke, Zheng Guogong said expressionlessly: "His skills are inferior to those of others. You don't have to make excuses for him. Even if the assassination was done by King Gaomi for Mi Zhen, on the same night, why didn't we? Attacking Mi Zhen? Why did Jia Gan survive even though he had nothing to worry about, and Mi Zhen brought a bunch of burdens with him, but only a little bit of fodder was burned?!"
"Brother, it is indeed the first time for the family leader to travel far away. He is inexperienced and careless." Marquis Wu An coughed dryly and said, "It's just that things are like this now, and it will be useless to blame him."
He frowned and said, "I'm just surprised that after the assassination of Jia Gan, it can be said that the King of Gaomi cares about the family relationship between father and son. But the Jishan bandits... I remember that we also sent people to recruit them before, although at that time we were not able to cover Western Xinjiang because of our energy. , not very serious, but the conditions given were considered generous, but the rejection was straightforward and there was no room for change at all! Why did the Mi Zhen talent set foot in Western Xinjiang? The Jishan bandit not only accepted his offer but was also willing to follow him Fighting the family to death?!"
Pointing to the pigeon letter on the table, "Even if the Jishan bandits rely on favorable geographical conditions and sneak attacks, the ragtag group cannot compete with the elites of Northern Xinjiang, and their losses are not small! Is this the performance of a new bandit? Even if it is As a close confidant, you can probably work to this extent, right?"
After saying this, Duke Zheng Guo and Marquis Chengyang both looked serious: "You mean...?"
"There is someone behind Mi Zhen!" Marquis Wu'an said firmly, "And this person must not be King Gaomi! King Gaomi prefers the Crown Prince. If he had the Jishan Bandit card, he would never let Mi Zhen go to Western Xinjiang. It would be enough to let the Crown Prince go and make contributions. !”
"But this person may not be under King Gaomi." Zheng Guogong stroked his long beard and looked deeply, "After all, the Jishan bandits don't even give us the Meng family face. There are not many people in the country who can overpower us...! "
Chengyang Hou Xingzi was the most impatient. After hearing this, he said without thinking: "Eldest brother, second brother, what else can we guess? Either General Zhou faked his death, or it was Huan Guanlan's handiwork... I guess it's probably the latter!"
Before he finished speaking, the three Meng brothers' breathing stagnated at the same time!