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In fact, in addition to worrying about the birth, Yuan Cixian also felt a little regretful that she still couldn't spend the New Year with Lu Shiqing. He might be able to catch up with her, but there was no way he could stay up with her.
When the war broke out among the Uighurs, the Great Zhou dispatched troops to support them. In order to prevent the covetous countries from taking advantage of the situation, all borders were under martial law, and the generals guarding the border cities could not leave their posts without permission. Therefore, her father and mother could not enter the capital until the war was over.
This year is destined to be cold and deserted.
The next morning, before dawn, Lu Shiqing tiptoed out of the door.
But Yuan Cihan did not sleep well. She was awake when he lifted the quilt. She just followed his wishes and pretended not to know. On the one hand, she did not want to say goodbye to him properly and make a big deal about the separation of life and death. On the other hand, she wanted him to leave with peace of mind.
Last night she had asked Lu Shiqing about the general cause of the Uighur War.
Because the second prince had been deeply involved with the Uighurs and the Turks in his early years, Emperor Huining chose Yazhou, which was far away from the northwest, as his place of exile in order to prevent him from being forced into a desperate situation and causing trouble again.
The old emperor's idea was originally good, but there was a flaw. He did not consider that going from Chang'an to Yazhou in the southeast would pass through the Huainan area where King Ping was.
In fact, the Second Prince had never been to Yazhou. As early as when the escort team passed through Huainan, the people in the prison car had been replaced by Prince Ping's men without anyone noticing.
After that, King Ping had been actively arranging for the Second Prince to ally with the Turks to prepare for war, until today, half a year later.
To put it bluntly, the war between the Uighurs and the Turks was caused by the endless struggle for the throne in the Great Zhou Dynasty. After all, Lu Shiqing had been involved in the mediation for many years. Yuan Cixian believed that with his ability, he would be able to successfully reach an alliance with the Uighurs. However, he was still worried that he would be surrounded by enemies on the march, and the Turks would prevent him from meeting the Khan and might secretly kill him. In addition, the mountains and rivers were far away, and he was afraid that his old injuries would relapse as he followed the rapid march and suffered from wind, frost, rain and snow.
After more than a month of worry, the Yuan and Lu families and even the entire Great Zhou did not have a good New Year, until the first good news finally came from the northwest, saying that the reinforcements of the Great Zhou had successfully joined forces with the troops of the Uighur Khanate, and successively recaptured the five cities that had been originally captured by the Turkic vanguard.
When telling the common people about these things, they always report good news but not bad news. However, Yuan Cixian knew how difficult the past month had been.
Although she could not get first-hand military reports, she could roughly estimate from the few pieces of information that the Great Zhou army that Lu Shiqing was in had experienced at least three major battles before entering the Uighur territory. After entering the Uighur territory, a head-on confrontation with the tyrannical Turkic soldiers was like using human flesh to stop the enemy.
This seemingly glittering piece of news is actually very heavy.
Lu Shiqing never sent back a letter. Perhaps he was too busy to leave, or perhaps there was a war going on in the Uighur territory. If his letter was intercepted, it would reveal the whereabouts of the Great Zhou army. For the sake of the overall situation, he had no choice but to hide.
Yuan Cihan understood this, but she couldn't help but count the days on her fingers every day and ask Jianzhi how many days it would take for her to give birth.
Jianzhi answered her every day, and finally she couldn't help herself and asked, "Madam, do you really not remember how I answered you yesterday?"
She said confidently, "Remember, you said yesterday that there would be about 15 days left."
“Then you…” Just lose one day.
Yuan Cixian glanced at her and said, "I just want you to tell me."
Jianzhi had no choice but to say, "You will be due in about half a month."
She hummed, looked at the icicles outside the window and said to herself, "Only fourteen days left. It will be over soon."
Jianzhi knew what she meant by "soon". The lady thought her husband was a man of his word and would keep his word. She kept asking about the date of her due date, but in fact she was just looking forward to his triumphant return.
She was just about to say something to comfort Yuan Cixian, but Shi Cui came in hurriedly and asked her where she had put the cloak that the lady had worn on New Year's Eve last time.
She was slightly startled when she heard that, then quickly said, "Can't find it? I'll go with you to have a look." Then she looked at Yuan Cixian and asked, "Madam, I'll go find your cloak first."
Yuan Cixian nodded and looked at them both with a smile: "Go ahead."
The two nodded and left, talking about the cloak all the way. When they were far away from Yuan Cixian's house, they both restrained their expressions. Jianzhi asked first: "What happened?"
The cloak that Yuan Cixian wore on New Year's Eve was not picked up by her, but by Shi Cui, so when she heard the strange question just now, she knew there was another hidden story.
Shi Cui's face really showed anxiety. She turned back to look in the direction of Yuan Cixian and said vigilantly, "Come with me."
She led her to the main room next door and said, "Brother Cao just received a secret report saying that the day before yesterday morning, two cavalry teams of the Uighurs and the Turks encountered a snowstorm when they clashed at the border of the Great Zhou, and both armies were annihilated. Young Master..." She said nervously, "Young Master seems to be in that team."
Jianzhi's face changed. He saw Cao An in the room, anxiously holding a letter. He asked him directly, "Why is my dear in the Uighur army?"
Cao An explained: "Young Master was in a hurry to come back, but our soldiers were too busy with the war. The Uighur Khan was concerned about his safety. After reaching an alliance with our Great Zhou, he proposed to send troops to escort him back to Chang'an first. Judging from their movements, it is very likely that they were sent by this cavalry team."
Jianzhi's breath caught in his throat when he heard this. He was silent for a moment and said decisively, "Since we can't be sure, we must not let Madam know about this. Brother Cao, please find a way to check first..."
When she had said this, she suddenly heard the rustling sound of clothes outside the lattice. Turning around, she saw Yuan Cixian standing there with a pale face. She had no idea what she had heard.
The three of them were all stunned. Shi Cui was the first to stammer, "Madam..."
Yuan Cixian had just arrived at the door, and just hearing the last sentence was enough for her to understand what was going on. She didn't look at them, but only stared at the secret report in Cao An's hand and said coldly: "Give it to me."
Cao An subconsciously hid the secret report behind him, but he realized it was unnecessary, so he bravely presented it to her, saying, "Madam, this news is ambiguous, and I think it is absolutely unreliable. Please don't worry too much. I will go find someone I can trust to discuss countermeasures."
The trustworthy person he hinted at was naturally Zheng Zhuo.
Yuan Cixian read the letter at a glance, but he was not as flustered as the three people imagined. He was even calmer than them and said quickly: "Give me a topographic map of the border between the Uighurs and the Great Zhou, and paper and pen."
Shi Cui hurried to get it for her. She spread out a cowhide map on the table. After reading it once, she quickly circled a few places with a pen and said to Cao An, "The Turkic and Uighur armies are fighting, and the border of the Great Zhou is right in front of us. He couldn't just waste time getting involved in this muddy water. He should have gotten away before the snowstorm. But since he failed to send a message back to report that he was safe before this bad news reached Chang'an, he must have encountered other troubles. What you should pay attention to is not this snowstorm, but the return journey and the potential dangers in the Great Zhou."
Cao An's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded and said, "Madam is right."
Yuan Cixian scanned the map again, pointed at a point at the top, and drew a line with her index finger: "No need to consult with anyone else, you set out now and lead people to meet them along this road. Remember not to reveal your tracks."
Seeing Cao An taking the order and running away, Yuan Cixian grabbed the edge of the table as if he had lost his strength, and beads of sweat soon broke out on his forehead.
Shicui and Jianzhi were startled and hurried forward to support her on both sides: "Madam, please go back to your room and rest first."
Yuan Cixian grabbed their arms, frowned, and slid down uncontrollably: "I can't go back, I think I'm about to give birth..."
*
The Lu family was in chaos. Shicui and Jianzhi had never expected that Yuan Cixian would be so calm the moment before and so calm the next. Thinking back carefully, they realized that her face was indeed unusually pale. She was probably already pregnant when she heard that word outside the lattice fan, but she had been holding it in to think of a countermeasure.
The Lu family had already arranged for midwives some time ago, and they should have asked them to move into the house and be on standby the next day or the day after tomorrow, but they never expected Yuan Cixian to come so early, so they had to call for help at the last minute.
Fortunately, there were a few old ladies in the mansion who knew a little about childbirth and had made preparations early. The two midwives who came were also very skillful and arrived quickly. When they saw that the hot water and medicine were ready, they washed their hands and went into the bedroom.
Xuan was so anxious that she paced back and forth outside the door. Seeing that there was no sound of Yuan Cihan crying out in pain from inside, she became worried and kept asking the maid why she didn't make any sound.
It was not until half an hour later, perhaps because the medicine for inducing labor was finally enough, that Yuan Cixian entered the stage of labor. However, the sounds she made were different from those of ordinary women.
"Why...it hurts so much!"
"Lu Shiqing... You're really mad at me, mad at me to death!"
"Who said you'll definitely come back in time for my birth? When you come back I'll... pull out your tongue!"
Xuan shuddered when she heard that, and then she said, "I'll peel off your skin! I'll pull out your tendons! I'll hang you up and whip you with a whip! Ah, it hurts..."
Lu Shuangyu, who came to accompany Xuan, was also shocked and looked at her with some embarrassment: "Mother, in order to make sister-in-law more motivated, let's ask brother to bear with it a little."
Xuan nodded in agreement, holding her hand for support, and shouted inside: "Ci Xian, you can curse as much as you want! Mother tells you, the harder you curse, the smoother the birth will be!"
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