Winter comes earlier in Western Province than in the South, so spring comes later.
The southern border is already covered with wild flowers, and here the willow trees are just beginning to sprout.
The matter of setting up a private school has been put on the agenda. The government has selected a foundation, and carpenters and bricklayers are busy building the house. Any man with free time will spontaneously go to help.
A group of half-grown children often gathered outside to watch, their eyes filled with joy and admiration.
It has always been a luxury for children from poor families to go to school, but now they have the opportunity to read and learn to read. The joy in their hearts is self-evident, and Feng Shuo’s popularity among the people has reached an unprecedented level.
Jiang Yanyi heard that when Feng Shuo first went to western Sichuan, the people there supported that group of bandits and did many things to trip him up.
When facing the army and bandits, you can still confront them head-on and rely on your strength. If the people resist, you cannot suppress them with gentle means, and if you use tough means, you will be accused of oppressing the people.
Fortunately, Feng Shuo has a good reputation now, and the people who support the bandits have started to fight among themselves.
After the bandit leader had a fight with Feng Shuo once, he fled back to the mountain and never dared to confront Feng Shuo again. He took Chi Qing as a hostage and used the terrain to defend himself.
The war situation is currently at a stalemate. Jiang Yanyi heard from Duke Chen that the bandits are popular in western Sichuan. If Feng Shuo can recruit them, it would be equivalent to taking over western Sichuan without losing a single soldier. After that, his reputation and power will be further enhanced.
Feng Shuo probably had the same idea, but it would be difficult to persuade the bandit leader to surrender, so it would take some effort.
The more difficult issue was the battle in Yuzhou. Han Tuo went to reinforce with 30,000 soldiers and 5,000 heavy cavalry, but he had never had a head-on confrontation with the imperial cavalry before and did not know how powerful the heavy cavalry was on the battlefield. Furthermore, the commander of the opposing troops was an old general in the court with a lot of experience, so Han Tuo was defeated.
Although Yuzhou was barely defended, the soldiers suffered heavy losses and Han Tuo himself was seriously injured and could no longer fight. For a time, the morale of the Yuzhou side was low and the situation was precarious.
When Lady Xing'an learned that Yuzhou was about to fall, she led the 3,000 soldiers who had escorted her and her daughter to Xizhou and returned to Yuzhou on the same day the news reached Xizhou.
Later, Feng Shuo's transfer order was sent from western Sichuan. An Yongyuan had to guard Xizhou, and Chu Changping led 50,000 troops to Yuzhou to replace Han Tuo.
Jiang Yanyi was good at doing business, but he felt helpless when it came to these major events that determined the fate of the world.
When marching to war, food and fodder were always sent before troops moved. The military rations for Yuzhou were not transported from Xizhou, but were transported by water from Hengzhou and Yuzhou.
Instant noodles may not fill you up, but they can fill your stomach in an emergency and they taste good, so many soldiers prefer them. The Huotouying in the Xizhou camp was in no hurry to make them, so they allocated some to Jiang Yanyi's noodle shop.
Since blacksmith Luo used fine iron to make a manual simple noodle pressing machine, he has made several more in this period of time. The output of the noodle shop is several times higher than before.
Jiang Yanyi knew that it was useless to worry about the war on the front line, so he put all his energy into his business.
It is much easier to open a franchise store of Ruyilou than that of noodle shop. While Manager Xu and those people from the Chamber of Commerce were still eyeing the piece of cake of Ruyilou in Sishui City, Jiang Yanyi had quietly opened a noodle shop in the provincial capital south of Xizhou.
Instant noodles were selling like hot cakes in Xizhou, but due to restrictions on transportation and war, they had not yet become popular in other places. At the beginning, the noodle shop's business among the people was not very good, but with the support of demand from the army, it did not go bankrupt.
When the common people accepted this kind of miraculous cake that can be eaten dry or soaked in water, some clever merchants wanted to get a piece of the pie, but they found that they could not do business at all.
After all, noodles are easy to make, but no matter how you mix the sauce that goes with noodles, you can't get that flavor. In addition, Jiang Yanyi's noodle shop has already occupied the market there and has a mature business model, so it is difficult for the new store to surpass the old one.
***
It is easy to neglect time when you are busy. In the blink of an eye, it is mid-March and it is time for Okra to get married.
Blacksmith Luo bought a new house and didn't have much money left, but he still rented a sedan chair and asked people to come to the bride with gongs and drums, and gave all the respect to Qiu Kui.
In Xizhou, the more affluent families usually prepare six loads of dowry for their daughters.
Jiang Yanyi treated Qiu Kui as a half-sister, so he prepared six large dowries for her, and also added two small ones of clothes and jewelry.
Given the financial situation of Luo the blacksmith, it would be easy for people to talk about Qiu Kui if she wore silk and gold. Jiang Yanyi was also afraid that it would arouse the jealousy of the Luo family's gossips, which Qiu Kui would not be able to handle, so all the jewelry was made of pure silver, and he only secretly gave Qiu Kui a pair of pure gold bracelets to keep in the bottom of the box.
Qiu Kui no longer has any relatives from her mother's family, so it was Jiang Yanyi who helped her comb her hair in the morning.
Qiu Kui was very quiet the whole time. It was not until she had done her hair and was about to put rouge on her face that she suddenly called out, "Hua Hua."
Jiang Yanyi responded and asked her, "What's wrong?"
Qiu Kui turned around and hugged her waist, crying, "I can't bear to leave Hua Hua."
Jiang Yanyi smiled and comforted her: "Silly girl, what's there to be reluctant about? You can come back whenever you want in the future, and it will be the same as now."
Having said that, Jiang Yanyi couldn't help feeling a little sad.
Qiu Kui cried for a while, washed her face again and put on makeup, then she covered her head with a veil and was helped out by the bridesmaid.
Jiang Yanyi walked Qiu Kui to the gate and watched her being helped into the bridal sedan by the matchmaker. The sedan was then lifted up and walked away to the sound of gongs and drums. He felt a sudden sense of emptiness in his heart.
She stood at the door and watched the sedan chair leave the main street of the Protectorate. Only when it turned the corner and disappeared from sight did she turn back to the shop.
There was a small stool at the counter. Every time Jiang Yanyi came back from outside, Qiu Kui would sit on the stool, busy preparing the ingredients for oden, or counting copper coins with a focused look on his face.
Jiang Yan realized that when he returned home again, he would not see that silly girl anymore. He could not hold back his sadness and his eyes turned red.
Aunt Guo comforted her: "Qiu Kui is a lucky girl, the boss should be happy for her."
Jiang Yanyi wiped his eyes and smiled, "I'm happy for her."
Aunt Guo sighed, "By this time next year, you should be entering the palace."
Thinking of Feng Shuo, Jiang Yanyi couldn't help but feel worried: "I wonder what's going on in western Sichuan."
There has been continuous rain in Yuzhou since the beginning of spring, and mountain torrents have broken out, making it difficult for the imperial army to cross the river, which has led to the stalemate for so long. Once the flood recedes, it is still unknown how the situation will be reversed.
*****
Western Sichuan is located in the Central Plains, and the recent heavy rains have also affected this area.
The mountain bandits in western Sichuan occupied the mountain and became kings. Feng Shuo led his troops to station at the foot of the mountain, forming a siege on the mountain stronghold.
The raindrops as big as beans hit the roof of the tent, making a "puff" sound.
It was raining heavily and the tent was very humid. After Feng Shuo finished reading the battle report from Yuzhou, he threw the letter into the brazier. The flames started and the letter turned into ashes in an instant.
His delicate eyebrows and eyes were cold in the firelight: "Pass the order down, attack the mountain stronghold as soon as the rain stops."
Xing Yao knew that the situation in Yuzhou was tense and Feng Shuo didn't have time to waste on this side, so he immediately clasped his fists and said, "I obey your orders."
**
In the mountain village, the bandits had been besieged for many days. The food stored in the village had long been eaten up, and they could not go out hunting due to the heavy rain.
A group of ragged bandits huddled under a leaky roof, some standing and some sitting, with their arms folded. They had been eating tree bark and grass roots for several days, and none of them looked very well.
One of the yellow-faced men was squatting on the ground with half a grass stem in his mouth. He picked up a wooden stick and wrote and drew on the ground with a very focused expression.
"What a horrible weather!" A bandit spat fiercely as he looked at the raindrops pouring down from the eaves.
Someone's stomach rumbled, and the sound was particularly clear in the stuffy and damp room.
The bandits rubbed their hungry stomachs and remained silent.
Only the youngest one, who looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, with a pale face and thin body, swallowed his saliva and said to the yellow-faced man squatting on the ground:
"Brother, everyone says that the King of Liaonan is kindhearted. In the area under his jurisdiction, the people have food to eat, and those with children can go to school for free. It's not a good idea for us to keep wasting time like this. Why don't we surrender?"
The yellow-faced man didn't say anything. The room was quiet for a while before another bandit said, "I heard that soldiers under the Liaonan King had white flour buns and soba for every meal! The soba is crispy and fragrant. Soak it in boiling water and put a dollop of sauce in it. It's spicy and fragrant! It tastes better than the meat soup noodles sold in town! I can eat ten white flour buns dipped in the soup in one meal!"
These words made the bandits in the house swallow their saliva, and the hunger in their stomachs became more obvious.
Someone else said, "Brother, let's surrender."
There were also voices of opposition, "A bunch of shallow-sighted people, we will use the money to recruit soldiers and horses, and then we can raise the banner ourselves. When the eldest brother becomes the emperor, we will be high-ranking officials, marry him seven or eight beautiful concubines, and live the life of a god like those dog officials!"
After these words came out, some bandits couldn't help but waver again.
To become successful and have a yard full of beautiful wives and concubines was something they had never dared to dream of before.
Someone murmured quietly, "We have to live to see that time. We are robbing the gold of the King of Liaonan, who is known as the King of Hell in the army."
"Damn it, Xiong San, you have always been boosting other people's ambitions and destroying your own prestige. Have you been fooled by the oily words of that damn military advisor?" The man who sang the opposite tune kicked the bench with a missing leg heavily.
The bench fell to the ground with a clang.
The mountain bandit who was scolded by him was not a coward. Seeing that the two were about to fight, the yellow-faced man who had been silent all this time threw down the wooden stick, stood up and said, "Bring the military advisor of the King of Liaonan here."
On the ground was a pile of simple maps that no one else could understand except him.
But the scratches on the ground became more and more disorganized as time went on, giving off a sense of being at the end of the road.
The mountain bandit who was kicking the bench said with a happy face: "Brother, are you planning to use that pretty boy military advisor to exchange food with the King of Liaonan?"
The yellow-faced man only uttered two words: "Surrender."
As soon as these words came out, the bandits in the room had different expressions.
"Brother, I don't agree!" The bandit who had been singing the opposite tune said with a gloomy face: "Brother, you are afraid of trouble, but I am not! If you want to surrender, then we brothers will divide the gold bars. Those who are willing to surrender with you, take your share and go down the mountain to serve as the vanguard!"
"Brothers who are willing to fight with me, we just need to hold on until the imperial court defeats Yuzhou step by step, and the King of Liaonan will withdraw his troops to support Yuzhou!"
The yellow-faced man knocked the man to the ground with a sweeping kick, drew his sword and put it against his neck and said, "Who do you think is stationed at the foot of the mountain? You are tired of snatching meat from the mouths of wild wolves! I'm afraid that the King of Liaonan will massacre the entire mountain stronghold before withdrawing his troops!"
As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent.
**
The rain stopped for a while, and a group of people had gathered at the foot of the mountain. They were all wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats, with double swords on their waists and murderous eyes.
They must be the elite in the army as they were able to follow Feng Shuo all the way south, fighting with swords and arrows all the way to today.
However, they did not wait for the final killing order - the bandit leader brought Chi Qing and more than a dozen carts of robbed gold bars down the mountain and surrendered.
Although Chi Qing was imprisoned in the mountain stronghold for several days, he was very good at fooling people with his mouth and was always well fed and well served, until recently when they ran out of food and had to go hungry for a few days.
It was not yet time for lunch in the military camp, and there was no time to prepare meals, so they had to boil water and make a bowl of noodles for Chi Qing and the group of bandits who had surrendered from the mountain stronghold.
A group of people squatted on the ground with their bowls in their hands and slurped the food in an unruly manner. After finishing the noodles, they gulped down all the soup, leaving the walls of their bowls as shiny as if they had been washed.
The young bandit squatted down near Chi Qing, holding the empty bowl and reluctantly asked, "Military Advisor Chi, do we really have noodles like this every day in the barracks?"
Chi Qing took a sip of soup, burped, and then said in a slow and anxious tone: "How is it possible?"
The bandits who were listening at the side were disappointed. They snorted and laughed: "I said there is no such good thing in the world!"
But Chi Qing said, "How can this thing help you stay hungry on the battlefield? It won't be enough to fill your stomach when you cook."
What this means is that this instant noodle is just a small snack to fill your teeth.
"If I had known that the treatment in the Liaonan King's army would be like this, I would have never been a bandit and would have joined the army directly!" Immediately, a bandit cursed: "I'm not afraid of hunger, I want to eat this noodle for every meal!"
A group of bandits nodded frantically.
When the small leaders in the army came to register them and change their names to military status, everyone rushed forward to report their names.
Chi Qing drank the last mouthful of noodle soup before leisurely walking towards Feng Shuo's tent.
**
Feng Shuo met the bandit leader alone in the military tent.
The bandit leader didn't know military etiquette, so he followed the way of the outlaws and clasped his fists towards Feng Shuo and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing Xiao's life that day."
Feng Shuo raised his eyes in surprise and looked at the man in front of him who looked like an ordinary farmer. "What's your name?"
On that day, he spared this man's life in order to force him to surrender. He spared his life in a covert manner and did not intend for this man to remember this favor. However, this man noticed it himself, which shows that he is not a simple person.
"My name is Xiao Dan." The yellow-faced man lowered his head three inches as a sign of respect for Feng Shuo.
When he fought Feng Shuo that day, others thought he had escaped by luck. Only he knew that Feng Shuo valued his talent and intended to let him go.
These days he has been thinking about how to break the situation in the village, and finally found that everything was just a fight between trapped beasts.
The heavy rains for several consecutive days not only hindered the court's attack on Yuzhou, but also gave Feng Shuo time to think.
This man was intelligent and insightful. Feng Shuo really wanted to use him. He hesitated for a moment and said, "I will appoint you as a captain, commanding 10,000 soldiers. The people you brought down from the mountain will be re-incorporated into the army. Do you have any objections?"
There were only a few thousand guerrillas in the mountain stronghold, far from being comparable to the regular army under Feng Shuo.
Whenever they recruit troops, they will break up the original troops and reorganize them. One reason is to facilitate management, and the other is to prevent any ulterior motives.
Since Xiao Dan decided to surrender, he did not think about leading his original troops again. He bowed and said, "I will obey the prince's orders in everything."
The army broke camp that night and rushed to Yuzhou at full speed.
Due to the urgency of the march, the firemen hardly cooked any meals along the way and just used boiling water to make instant noodles.
The army had run out of noodles, but even Feng Shuo was a little surprised that they could still get military supplies from the local noodle shops in any state they passed through.
He hadn't asked about Jiang Yanyi's business for a long time, and didn't know that she had now opened a noodle shop in another state.
For a moment, he was truly proud of Jiang Yanyi.
Even though he had no sense of taste, he couldn't help but smile when he picked up the noodles with the wooden chopsticks.
******
Jiang Yanyi, who was far away in Xizhou, just happened to pick up a mouthful of slippery, fragrant, and chewy hot and sour noodles. After taking a sip, he sighed, "There is no news from western Sichuan, and my uncle is also having a hard time in Yuzhou. Now I dare not go back to the Chu family, nor do I dare to see the Grand Empress Dowager. I am unsure in my heart and don't know how to comfort them."
Mrs. An Shao is now two months pregnant. She has been suffering from morning sickness all the time. She often eats little and vomits a lot, and she has become thinner.
When Jiang Yanyi heard that she was vomiting badly, he came to see her and made her some delicious hot and sour noodles, so that Mrs. An could have a full meal.
Madam An Shao said, "I admire you. No matter how big the problem is, you have never panicked."
This time, Jiang Yanyi made the hot and sour noodles by pouring chili peppers over oil. Jiang Yanyi only added a little chili pepper to Mrs. An's bowl. Mrs. An gasped because of the spiciness, but she was reluctant to put down her wooden chopsticks.
The bright red soup base is topped with a layer of sweet potatoes fried with minced meat. When picking the vermicelli, there is also a lot of minced meat on it. It is fragrant and juicy when you take a bite.
Jiang Yanyi was praised, but his expression was somewhat helpless: "I am also panicking, but if I don't eat or drink and just worry all day, I will wear myself out and cause trouble, and I won't be able to help much. If enemies come, we will stop them; if floods come, we will block them with earth; if the sky collapses, there will always be someone taller to hold it up. What matters is to do the current task well."
Madam An was amused by Jiang Yanyi and said with emotion: "I wish I were half as open-minded as you."
Jiang Yanyi frowned: "You are pregnant now, Madam An, why don't you just stop?"
Madam An Shao looked sad: "Although my mother-in-law didn't openly put someone in the general's room, when she interacted with the ladies of other families, she couldn't help but say that I was jealous, took advantage of my favor and disrespected my elders, and was disrespectful to her..."
As a result, when Mrs. An Shao appeared at other people's banquets, the attitudes of those ladies towards her became very subtle.
Jiang Yanyi asked: "Does General An know about this?"
Madam An Shao shook her head and said, "After the prince went south, the general had a heavy burden on his shoulders. He was still handling affairs in the study in the middle of the night. I can't bother him with these trivial matters."
The gossip among women would hardly reach An Yongyuan's ears.
Jiang Yanyi said, "You can't be so depressed during your pregnancy. I bought a farm for my brother on the outskirts of the city. I'm going to go check on the peppers that the tenants planted for me in a few days. You can stay with me on the farm for a while. I'll make some delicious food for you to nourish your body."
After she coaxes Madam An away, she will find someone to pass on those words to An Yongyuan's ears. She is not afraid that An Yongyuan will not stand up for Madam An.
The time before Qingming Festival is when the snails in the fields are the most delicious. This trip is a good opportunity to see how many snails there are in the fields. If the number is good, Jiang Yanyi plans to make the snails into Ruyi Tower's seasonal signature dish.
The author has something to say: Bandits: Bandits will never be slaves unless they are provided with food and shelter!