Yucheng, Youfu.
You Ke brought a glass of water to the Twelve Lang of the Cui family, but smiled silently.
"Don't mind, I don't have any good tea cakes, so I can only serve a glass of water."
For these noble families and noble families, if there is no good tea cake, it is better to drink only water. The Cui family was married to the most prosperous clan in the north, which was completely different from You Ke, a side branch of the You clan who grew up poor.
If You Ke hadn't accidentally won the favor of Duke You's clan, Duke Duke of You, he would never have come to this Yucheng to be a county magistrate if he was still farming and studying in the countryside.
You Ke watched Cui Lin take the water with a wry smile, but did not take a sip, slightly surprised.
"Is the situation in Beijing already so bad?"
It made the Twelve Lang, the most free and easy man in the Cui family, worry to the point of having trouble sleeping and eating
This Cui Lin is the grandson of Cui Hao, the current great Wei Situ. Like his grandfather, he is also the most amazing child prodigy in the third generation of the Cui family.
Situ Cui Hao is very fond of literature, has extensive knowledge of scriptures and history, mysterious images, yin and yang, and the words of a hundred schools of thought. After three generations, he assisted the three Tuoba leaders. He could be said to be the leader of the Han courtiers, and was deeply loved by Emperor Wei Tuoba Tao.
"My grandfather wanted to restore the Wei-Jin nine-rank system, let everyone follow the Han family's way, and then set the clans in the world to be superior. This move is enough to offend all the Xianbei clans and nobles. Together with Kou Tianshi, he persuaded His Majesty to abolish the Buddha, but..."
Cui Lin sighed wearily.
"He is getting older, and his strategy is no longer as meticulous as he was when he was young, and His Majesty is not the His Majesty he used to be. Now that the north has been settled and the world is peaceful, this Majesty has become more and more moody..."
"Huai Jin, be careful!" You Ke was taken aback.
Although his friend was a madman on weekdays, he never talked about state affairs.
You Kejiu was in Yucheng, but he often communicated with his cousins in Beijing. Naturally, he knew that Cui Hao, who believed in Taoism, and Kou Qian, the celestial master, wanted to persuade the emperor to worship the Tao and abolish the Buddha. Burning monasteries, destroying statues of Buddhas, and killing so many monks that "there is no more monks within one territory".
Many of the Xianbei nobles believed in Buddhism, and Cui Hao had already planted a curse on himself by doing so.
But he is only a small county magistrate, so Cui Lin said that he can only listen. Hearing those who have gone too far, can not help but comfort and persuade a few words.
"Huaijin, if the situation is so tense, you should persuade your grandfather to start his career as soon as possible. Now that he is in his sixties, His Majesty is in his prime. It is a good thing to retreat bravely at this time."
"It's easier said than done, the Northern High Sect takes my grandfather's lead, how can my grandfather be the kind of person who retreats bravely? It's not bad that he doesn't face difficulties." Cui Lin waved her hand, "stop, stop, don't mention these annoying things. I am today I'm here for your female general in Yucheng, Hua Mulan."
Hua Mulan
In You Ke's mind, the tall woman in Xianbei fur with a cold expression appeared.
"What, looking at your expression, you have already met the Hua family?" Cui Lin looked curiously, "I remember you don't like to join in the fun, why, could it be that you still went to Yingguo Township?"
Yucheng is still about a day away from Yingguo Township, which is under his jurisdiction. That's why he said this.
When he thought about it, Hua Mulan, who was disarmed and returned to the field, should be living the days of men farming and women weaving, and would not come to Yucheng. That was the only reason for You Ke to see Mulan.
"You don't use 'Hua' to call General Hua." You Ke shuddered inexplicably, hearing this name unusually harsh.
In his impression, the strange woman who is seven feet tall and the charming "Hua" are completely incompatible.
She shouldn't be "shi" at all, she is herself, Hua Mulan with a name and a surname.
Cui Lin became interested and sat upright, waiting for You Ke, who was behind the table, to tell the whole story.
You can see that your friends have become interested, knowing that if you don't make it clear that there are no clean days to live in these few days, then you will talk about what you have seen and heard a while ago.
"One day, I was a director of the Yazhong, and suddenly a police officer came to report that it was Liu Jiaji's murder case. The case was complicated and involved the adults of the Xianbei clan, so I..."
You Ke recalled that day and explained his own experience.
When he was young, his family was poor, and his widowed mother guarded the family's fields and pulled him up. You Ke must have had a marriage when he was young. On his twelve-year-old side, because his family was poor and had no future to speak of, the wife's family sent someone to withdraw from the marriage.
After that, he no longer liked the so-called "girls" in the world, and devoted himself to studying. He finally got the green eye when the senior officials and elders of the clan tested the clan middle school, and was taken to the Beijing middle school to study.
You Ke admits that his vision is very high, and after his widowed mother left, he has no interest in women, but because he is a parent official in the same place, he has seen a lot of women of all kinds, such as Hua Mulan, who has never seen one before. .
He confronted his friend and told him that when he arrived at the scene of the crime, how did he see a Xianbei man examining the body, how did the Xianbei man see him coming, how did he analyze the case as suicide rather than homicide, how did he instruct Zuo Zuo to look at the wound, and the clerk looked for evidence …
At that time, when he heard the headman say that this man was actually Huwei General Hua Mulan, he did not lose his composure in public by biting the tip of his tongue to eat the pain.
Afterwards, how Hua Mulan faced the Liu family's children, and how to testify with the villagers, he also explained clearly to his friends one by one.
When the legend of Hua Mulan resounded in Pingcheng, Cui Lin was traveling abroad, so she had never seen this "celebrity". But he knew that from the gentry in the north to the people everywhere, they all praised this Hua Mulan.
It's not easy to get such a good reputation.
"As you said, when Hua Mulan returned to her hometown, she was still wearing men's clothes and couldn't walk around?" This was completely different from what Cui Lin imagined.
"You haven't seen Hua Mulan, so you're so surprised...". You Ke paused slightly, and then changed his words. "It should be said that when you stand by her side, you don't even think about whether she is a man or a woman."
"Oh?" Cui Lin was a little bored sitting on her knees, lying on her side relaxedly on the seat, and said unexpectedly, "Could it be that this general Hua Mulan is actually a man of indistinguishable looks?"
"No, no, no. That general is a person who cannot be defined by gender."
You Ke looked at his friend's tired and lazy look and laughed a little. "There are people in this world, just standing there, you know that she is completely different. At this time, you don't care whether she is a man or a woman, what identity, where she is, and what her background is, but just simply want to get along with her. This 'person' is just acquainted."
"The Hua Mulan I saw was such a person."
"So, Xi's brother has already made up with her?" Cui Lin laughed mockingly.
"That's my pity."
You Ke let out a long sigh.
"In order to show my fairness and not favor Xianbei people, I didn't have much contact with her, and I didn't even say a few words except for her analysis of the cause of death of the deceased. It's really embarrassing. "
"Speaking of which, what are you doing with Hua Mulan? No matter how you look at her, she doesn't seem to be someone who has something to do with the Cui family." You Ke was a little worried about Hua Mulan.
Once you get involved with these powerful families, it is extremely difficult to want to be as comfortable as you are now.
"I'm here to persuade Mulan to go to the crown prince's side, so as to persuade the increasingly irritable His Majesty."
"What?" You Ke stood up suddenly.
"Your Majesty once intended to make Hua Mulan the 'nanny' of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but Hua Mulan rejected it. Then, His Majesty rejected the marriage request of the crawling people on the grounds that Hua Mulan 'can't maintain the friendship between the two clans without guishui'. , it can be seen that His Majesty's feelings for Hua Mulan are different." Cui Lin looked at You Ke's stunned expression,
"Why, you don't know?"
Wriggling is Rouran, Xianbei people hate Rouran people, think they are low in intelligence, and they are a group of bugs who can't think.
And "nanny" is by no means some kind of nanny and servant, but originated from the Tuoba family's system of "children and mothers die".
In Xianbei, the status of women is respected, and after the strong clans marry each other, the mother clan can often intervene in the affairs of the clan, and there are often cases of widows who have lost their husbands and return to their parents’ families with all of their husbands’ assets.
Later, after the Tuoba clan established the country, they established the system of "the son and the mother die". Once the prince is established as the heir, his biological mother must die.
When the biological mother dies, another woman must take care of the crown prince on his behalf, sometimes it is the queen who has not given birth to the prince, and sometimes it is the trusted person chosen by the emperor himself.
The so-called "nanny" means "the surrogate mother who protects the prince". This woman must have a low status, extraordinary intelligence, and she must be loyal to the Great Wei Royal Family.
When Tuoba Tao, the current emperor of Wei, succeeded to the throne, he defied the public opinion and named his "nanny" Dou Shi as the "Empress Dowager Bao", known as the Dowager Dowager Dowager. The empress dowager, who entered the palace as a criminal slave, enjoyed honor and favor all her life, and continued to raise the current prince Tuoba Huang after the death of the prince's biological mother. It's just a pity that she passed away two years ago.
When she died, Tuoba Tao buried her beautifully, and was given the posthumous title of "Empress Dowager Hui", built a monument and a temple, and worshipped her every year.
The second year after her death, it was the year when the Son of Heaven personally conquered the north of Yinshan Mountain, defeated Rouran, rewarded her merits in the army, and conferred the title of Shang Shulang of Mulan.
As soon as the Queen Mother Dou went, the crown prince Tuoba Huang lost his biological mother, and the babysitter should be Queen Helian, who has been childless. But Queen Helian was the royal princess of the Xia Kingdom who had been destroyed, and it was her current husband Tuoba Tao who destroyed the Xia Kingdom.
Based on this, the Manchu civil and military objected to Empress Helian becoming the prince's nanny.
In fact, if Mulan was willing to accept the prince's "nanny" position at that time, it might not have been a bad decision.
At least anyone with eyes could see Tuoba Tao's appreciation for her.
The young crown prince has always been in charge of the country when Emperor Wei personally conquered, and he has never had any decent martial arts, which is extremely unfavorable among the Xianbei people who value military merit.
There is a nanny who is known as "Tiger Power" in the army, which can be said to complement each other.
But not so much at this time. Hua Mulan gave up all her good intentions, and went home happily with the reward that she would never worry about food and drink for the rest of her life.
"Since Hua Mulan has refused, she will not compromise anymore. Besides, it is not something she can do if she wants to be a nanny." You Ke did not believe that such a woman would be happy to take care of her children in the palace for the rest of her life.
"Let me ask you, how did Hua Mulan live in the village?" Cui Lin sat up and asked him with her chin propped up.
You Ke was silent.
It is not that he has not heard of all kinds of strange rumors that pervade the countryside. Even like him, before seeing Hua Mulan, the first thing that came to mind in his mind was a woman with a dark and ugly face.
Whether this was a good idea, he didn't know.
He was not in Hua Mulan's position, and he had no experience with Hua Mulan, and even because he was a man, he had no idea what he would think of Hua Mulan at the moment.
Maybe she didn't care about it at all.
So he couldn't answer.
"In fact, the 'egret' under His Majesty has been instructed to keep an eye on Mulan."
Cui Lin throws out an even more surprising news.
"If I'm not mistaken, the Dugu family is the simple-minded group of idiot Shiro and His Majesty's Guards, who should be instigated by the blood of those sent by His Majesty..."
"Run to support Hua Mulan."