During this celebratory banquet, the old ministers of Xin State were absent-minded.
Luan Cheng, who was following Luan Xin, also couldn't eat.
"Don't you like the food?"
Luan Xin keenly noticed something strange about his nephew.
Luan Cheng looked embarrassed, because most of the people present were scholars with a good sense of literature and warriors with excellent hearing, so whispering was no different from shouting. If they had private words, they would whisper them in secret and chat privately to avoid embarrassment.
Luan Xin said, "When did you become so unhappy?"
Just say whatever you want!
No one would mind him even if he said something wrong.
Luan Cheng was about to transmit a secret message when he was stunned.
His uncle refused to create a small group for private chat.
Luan Cheng felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, twisting his butt on the mat back and forth, and finally uttered, "Uncle, Miss Shen is really as outstanding as the rumors say. I have admired her for a long time. Today I get to see her in person, and I am a little, a little nervous."
The old ministers of Xin State seemed to be eating their meals, but they were actually paying close attention to the conversation between the uncle and nephew of the Luan family, with their hearts tense.
"Don't be nervous. The lord is a very kind person."
The seemingly calm eyes are full of approval.
My nephew has good vision.
Seeing that his uncle did not reprimand or correct the name "Shen Nujun", he assumed that the name was correct. Luan Cheng and a group of Xin country's old ministers felt even more complicated - this Shen Nujun sitting at the top, she was actually a real girl
Xie Qi looked at the faces that were hesitant to speak, and sighed. His reaction to the truth was not much better than theirs. He was about to pick up a piece of barbecue when Danfu Wenxin trembled. Xie Qi lowered his eyes and accepted the words.
A former colleague passed on the secret message.
Former colleague: Shi Zang, did you know she was a woman
Xie Qi answered in a literary way: I know.
There was a long silence from my former colleague.
Xie Qi smiled and said: What are you worried about
My former colleague uttered four words: The hen crows at dawn.
Little did he know that as soon as he said this, many eyes in the audience were looking at him, some openly and some secretly, but he was completely unaware.
A former colleague said: This is an unprecedented omen!
When strange omens appear, there will be bad luck!
Xie Qi secretly wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and said, "Why do you think so much? In terms of strange signs, can anyone be more strange than Zheng Qiao? Come on, don't worry about it. Your life was saved by someone else. Sitting in someone else's place and spreading these misleading words... repaying kindness with hatred is the least of it. If you can't accept it, continue to live in seclusion and indulge in the mountains and rivers.
Zheng Qiao can do whatever he wants when he is in power.
If she was working for Zheng Qiao and said something she shouldn't have, she would die without knowing how; if she was working for Lord Shen, she would probably not bother to pay attention to the complaints of common people, and there would be no risk of being punished for her words. She should be thankful for this alone.
End one private chat and another one starts.
Xie Qi dealt with them one by one with good temper.
To summarize the core, one sentence -
Nujiao has been the ruler of many countries, so what if she is a woman
Those who are interested in becoming an official can take this opportunity to make careful plans, and those who cannot accept it can just stay at home and take a break. There is no need to force them.
One of his former colleagues asked him: What do you mean by this, Shi Zang? Are you prepared to assist this female monarch wholeheartedly
Of course. Xie Qi admitted it openly, and then said that the eldest and second daughters in the family have Ning Tunan as their teachers, and the youngest daughter has also found a famous teacher to guide her. You can't be so stupid that you can't even recognize Ning Tunan? We were classmates. This life is destined to be childless, and the Xie family will have to rely on three daughters to support it. Hey, three! My three daughters have at least above-average qualifications...
If it wasn't allowed, Xie Qi would have wanted to slap his thigh.
The proportion of good seedlings with the qualifications for cultivation is very low!
Former colleague: …
Just because parents have talent doesn't mean their children will have it. The advantage of aristocratic families lies in their heritage and heritage. Every household has a large collection of spiritual books, plus the cultivation experience left by the ancestors, which can help talented children in the family avoid detours. In addition, their network of contacts is extremely wide, and through resource exchange, they can easily obtain the teacher resources that ordinary people dream of.
Of course, even the best cook cannot cook without rice.
If a family cannot produce a qualified member in a generation, life will be difficult. In order to protect the family from decline, many aristocratic families either give birth to more children, and they must be sons, or find one or two qualified children from the people and send them to the unqualified heirs. The two grow up together, using feelings and interests as bargaining chips to make the other party willing to be their right-hand man.
Whether a child is a boy or a girl, or whether the child has the qualifications or not, these are not things that can be controlled by human power. Daughters are the bond for marriage, exchanging benefits, and maintaining in-law relationships. When the family is prosperous, they add icing on the cake; when the family is declining, they are used to delay the pace of decline.
The worst is to fall into the situation of the Luan family. Not only is there a small number of people in the main line, but the only bloodline is a girl, and the head of the family and the mistress died young. The other side branches will pounce on them like wild beasts that smell blood and eat them up. Luan Nujun was lucky enough to pick Luan Xin, who was qualified enough, to adopt her, thus avoiding being wiped out.
Xie Qi's wife was pregnant with three children, all of them were golden flowers. When these former colleagues occasionally mentioned him at small gatherings, they were all worried about him. Some of them had a good relationship with him and had no shortage of sons. They had thought of adopting one of their children to Xie Qi - their family property was fixed, and the majority was given to the eldest son, and the other sons had limited shares. Rather than having a big tail that could not be removed, it would be better to give it to Xie Qi, who would have a better future.
Xie Qi naturally didn't agree, and with Zheng Qiao, a high-pressure generator, above him, the Xie clan members who wanted to wipe out the whole family didn't reach out to Xie Qi for the time being. Who would have known that Xie Qi would actually come up with a Jedi counterattack - three!
How many son blind boxes do I have to open to get all of them
Hearing Xie Qi's smug tone, the qualifications of the Three Golden Flowers were definitely better than Xie Qi's, and his colleagues' faces were twisted with jealousy!
No wonder he accepted it without any hesitation.
It turns out that I got such a huge bargain!
Several colleagues stared at the food on the table.
If their family's daughters of marriageable age can produce three qualified seedlings at once, they will also be happy to accept it! Let their daughters find a son-in-law, and if they are worried about the safety, they can also choose a few outstanding male concubines to prevent the three generations from returning to the clan.
If the son-in-law is restless, then deal with it secretly.
Several people glanced at Luan Cheng in unison.
We can’t cause a farce like the Luan family’s that would make a fool of ourselves.
Luan Xin: “…”
Haha, these people are using the Luan family as a stone to cross the river, right
On the surface, the celebration banquet was lively, celebrating the hard-earned achievements; secretly, they turned into a melon field, eating all kinds of gossip. Specifically, it refers to Chen Tang eating the private chat gossip of the old ministers of Xin State, and the content gradually transitioned from "Shen Nujun is a strange omen" and "hens crow at dawn" to the younger females in the clan. Qualification is something that can be roughly felt at birth.
In the past, women could not practice cultivation, and if they gave birth to male heirs, they could open a blind box, but daughters had no hope. Even if they knew they had the talent, they could only sigh why they were not male, or sigh why this talent was not in their brothers.
Now the situation is different.
Shen Jun, who was sitting at the top, obviously mastered the tricks of women's cultivation, and the previous cognition was broken by the iron-clad facts.
Those who have no shortage of heirs are not too concerned about this. After all, the prejudice against daughters has been around for a long time, and if it is suddenly reversed, they will subconsciously resist it. Those who are jealous of their lack of heirs have different ideas, because it is profitable for them and it is easy for them to accept it.
Chen Tang did not interfere in this matter.
Firstly, these were not her subjects, and no matter how long her hands were, she could not interfere in their family affairs; secondly, it was not a good thing to have too much of an aristocratic family background. It was true that getting their investment would save a lot of trouble, but Chen Tang wanted them to lower their posture and beg him, instead of begging them shamelessly. If you rely too much on them, you will be controlled by them.
If we want to move them one day, it will be difficult.
Chen Tang has his own rules in mind for making the choices.
Following their conversation, Chen Tang also got a rough idea of their identities, family backgrounds, and connections. Overall, the gains from this celebration banquet were greater than expected.
Because Cui Xiao is a newcomer, Chen Tang has paid more attention to him these past two days, and basically takes him with him wherever he goes. On the one hand, he can get to know Cui Xiao better, and on the other hand, it allows Cui Xiao to have more contact with her team. This move inevitably caused Gu Chi's sour remarks.
Gu Chi said thoughtfully: "Like! So much like! I heard that every time a new person comes to the inner court, they will be favored for a while.
Chen Tang: …
Because of Gu Chi, the way she looked at Cui Xiao was strange.
On the third day of the celebration banquet, Chen Tang was still worried about the medicinal materials.
She now has Chaoli Pass as a natural barrier, so the pressure of fighting is a little less. What worries her most right now is the epidemic in Yanzhou.
These days, the flood has completely receded.
The soldiers under Chen Tang's command are proficient in the dismantling and reconstruction of various buildings, and dredging rivers and reinforcing dams are even easier to do. Once the situation in Yanzhou stabilizes, they can send people out to start. The only thing that makes her feel very difficult is the epidemic. She is really short of medicinal materials!
If the delay lasted one more day, countless patients would die from the disease, and Chen Tang did not have enough medicinal materials in stock.
In the past, I could exchange medicinal materials with Zhang He, but now—
The two families have already torn their faces apart, and there will be a war!
When she told the newcomer Cui Xiao about her difficulties, Cui Xiao's reaction was a little strange: "My lord, please forgive me for speaking frankly, but the most important thing right now is to deal with Huang Lie and others, not to help the victims."
If we don't resolve the root cause and stabilize the situation everywhere, no matter how hard we try, we will be easily destroyed by a war.
Chen Tang sighed and said, "How could I not know?"
But the problem is that she has already absorbed the refugees and transferred them in batches to Chaoliguan, where the disaster was relatively less severe.
If we ignore it, even if Chen Tang takes over Yanzhou and Qianzhou in the future, it won't work if there are few living people.
Besides, she had another consideration.
"… The Dragon Slaying Bureau coalition has spent all its resources to fight this war, so how much food do they have? If we don't transfer all these people away, when Huang Xiguang and his men run out of food and grass, they won't know where to get food when they are forced to do so."
Because of the chaos of more than 200 years, the moral bottom line has been broken through countless times. At the beginning, there is still a psychological burden, but once there are more examples, it is more justified to fall.
The other forces in the Dragon Slaying Bureau were more or less burdened by their family backgrounds, and they would have to have some shamelessness and would not do such things until it came to that point, but Huang Xiguang was different. He was not afraid of those who wore shoes when he was barefoot.
Chen Tang said softly: "If I want to restore order, I must set an example and let everyone in the world know what order is."
Even if her persistence will make simple things complicated.
Cui Xiao behind him did not respond. Chen Tang laughed at himself and said, "You sound very indecisive, don't you?"
Cui Xiao finally responded.
"No, absolutely not."
Compared to decadence and indulgence, it is very difficult to stick to one's original intention.
Because it was difficult, it could show the lord's determination to establish order. This made Cui Xiao feel as if he had found a treasure. If he only expected seven points from Chen Tang, then the latter's performance made him see ten points of possibility.
However, ideals are good while reality is cruel.
Medicinal materials are a scarce strategic resource, and the private reserves are very small. Most of them are concentrated in the treasury of each family, such as the group of old ministers of Xin State. They were gathered by Zheng Qiao to Qianzhou as hostages, and most of the family resources were in their ancestral hometown, which was relatively well preserved.
Chen Tang also had this thought.
Cui Xiao said: "It is okay to deal with them, but the lord must remember the lesson of Wu Gong."
Every chip obtained from them is like an IOU, which must be repaid with interest in the future.
Chen Tang said: "This is natural."
I don’t know if it was Wu Xian who couldn’t help but mutter, but just after he mentioned this person, a troop of soldiers approached the outside of Liguan City.
Shen Tang didn't frown either.
"How many people?"
"Thirty-four people!"
Just so few people
Chen Tang asked again: "Which flag is it?"
"Tianhai Wu!"
The guards on duty on the city wall were Zhao Wei and Xu Quan. When they knew each other's origins, they waved their hands to signal the arrows in the arrow tower to be lowered. They ordered people to arrest the person and inform the lord of the news without stopping. Gu Ziyi was destroyed, and the only one who had a good relationship with the lord in the Dragon Slaying Bureau was Tianhai Wuxian. This might be the only ally!
Shen Tang summoned the leader of this team.
The leader of the troops was a strange face.
When the other party saw Shen Tang in a woman's shirt, he was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head, clasped his fists and said, "Hello, Mr. Shen."
Chen Tang asked, "Is Brother Zhaode okay?"
Just look at the messenger status and you will know that it is not very good.
This group of people broke out of the encirclement. At the beginning, there were more than a hundred people, but by this point, less than 40% were left...
The messenger took out a letter from his bosom and gave it to Chen Tang.
Chen Tang opened it and read through it at a glance.
Judging from the content of the letter, Wu Xian's situation is not too bad. He is like a greedy snake, and he has eaten up several small forces along the way. If he is unlucky enough to run into Huang Lie, he can still fight.
However, Huang Lie is a guy who can mobilize people.
After receiving the battle report from the front line, Zhang He and Huang Lie formed an alliance.
It would be very difficult for Wu Xianruo to be attacked from both sides by these two.
In order to increase the chance of survival, forming an alliance is the best option. He sent news to both Chen Tang and Gu Ziyi, but heard that Gu Ziyi had been martyred, and the only hope was placed on Chen Tang.
Chen Tang looked at the letter with his eyes lowered in deep thought.
The messenger said sadly, "Mr. Shen, do you know that the lips and teeth are cold?"
She placed the letter upside down on the table and said righteously, "Shen and Brother Zhaode Tangdi have a deep relationship and have received a lot of help from him. Everyone knows it. Now that Brother Zhaode is in trouble, how can I be ungrateful?"