294, meeting

294, meeting

Watching their prince drive away in a carriage, the maidservant, unable to catch up, stamped her feet anxiously. But their prince had already left, and in the end, she had no choice but to return to her master to report.

When Nanny Li heard the news brought back by the maid, she glared at the maid with a sharp look. She could only bite the bullet and go into the house. She whispered in their princess's ear, "Princess, the prince..."

Princess Ding frowned slightly when she heard that her eldest son had left the palace with his guards, ignoring her birthday party and the guests. However, since her eldest son had already left, she couldn't send someone to chase him back, lest others learn of the situation and say something unpleasant behind his back.

After thinking for a while, Princess Ding had no choice but to wave her hand to the nanny beside her, telling her not to bother with it.

When Nanny Li saw this, she understood what was happening and stepped aside to wait.

Almost all the guests who came today were here for the position of Crown Prince and Crown Princess, but except for meeting the Crown Prince at the beginning, he did not show up at the end of the banquet.

Therefore, many ladies who came to the palace with their daughters for the banquet had some doubts in their hearts, but they were not in a position to ask anything in front of Princess Ding.

However, just because the guests don’t dare to bring it up doesn’t mean that our family members don’t dare to bring it up.

Today is the birthday of the mistress of the house. Concubine Li and Concubine Yang, as well as several concubines in the palace who have children, all attended my sister's birthday party.

Zhao Lang didn't show up until the banquet started. Concubine Li deliberately asked her sister, who was sitting at the top, in front of all the guests: "Sister, wasn't Erlang here just now? How come he's gone in the blink of an eye?"

"In previous years, the prince was not in Beijun, so he couldn't spend my sister's birthday with her. But now that he has returned to Beijun, why doesn't he come to spend my sister's birthday with her?"

When Princess Ding heard Li mention that her son was sent to Kyoto as a hostage, she was so angry that she wanted to smash the bitch Li to death with the wine glass in front of her!

However, as the mistress of the house, she couldn't do such a thing in front of so many guests, so she could only suppress her inner anger and cast a cold gaze at Li, who was sitting below. She said with a cold face, "The prince is now in the army. He originally took leave to come back this time to spend his birthday with me, his mother."

"Just now, the prince came to give me a gift, greeted everyone, and then went to do his business. I celebrate my birthday every year, but it's not as important as his business."

Princess Ding was very unhappy that Li always called her son "Erlang" on purpose, reminding her as the legal wife from time to time that Li, the concubine, had given birth to the eldest son before her.

Concubine Li could see the warning in Chai's eyes, but if she was afraid of Chai, she, Li Wan'er, would not be able to sit here today.

However, the guests who came today were all the wives of the principal wives of the various mansions. These principal wives would not sit idly by and watch Li, the concubine, challenge the authority of Princess Ding, the principal wife, in front of so many of them.

Therefore, the wife of the prefect, who wanted her daughter to marry the prince the most, was the first to jump out and support Princess Ding. "Princess, you are right. There are no trivial matters in the army. The prince's affairs are the most important."

"Yes, since the Crown Prince is so busy, there's no need for him to chat with us," another lady chimed in. A concubine of the Li family, rising from a concubine, dared to challenge Princess Ding, the principal wife. How different was that from a concubine challenging the authority of so many principal wives?

After four or five wives spoke up for Princess Chai, Concubine Li knew she couldn't go too far in such a situation with outsiders present. Otherwise, before Chai could tear her apart, these women would spit at her and drown her.

Zhao Lang, who was already far away from Prince Ding's Mansion at this time, had no idea what was happening at home.

The courtyard he bought for Lu Mingfei to live in was not far from Prince Ding's Mansion. His carriage came out of Prince Ding's Mansion, turned two corners, and stopped in front of the door of a house.

As soon as the carriage stopped, Zhao Lang lifted the curtain and got out of the carriage without waiting for anyone to invite him.

The guards in the courtyard saw their prince coming and hurriedly opened the courtyard door and came out to greet their prince: "Greetings, Prince."

Zhao Lang waved his hand and stepped over the threshold. "Where's he?"

"Your Highness, the young master is in the room." Knowing that their prince was looking for someone, Guard Ma quickly led their prince to the room where their Lord Lu was.

Zhao Lang walked hurriedly. Without waiting for the guards to take action, he lifted the door curtain in front of him and stepped inside.

Guard Ma stopped in front of the door curtain, not daring to follow the prince into the house. As he turned to leave, he waved to his brothers outside, asking them to stay away.

***

“Crash—”

Hearing the sound of the door curtain fluttering, Lu Mingfei opened his eyes and looked at the person who came in. He couldn't help but laugh and asked the person, "Why did you come so soon?"

Zhao Lang did not answer this question. He took a few big steps forward and hugged the person sitting on the chair. He pulled the person up and held him in his arms tightly, as if he was afraid that the person would disappear from his sight.

Lu Mingfei was being held tightly in someone's arms and couldn't break free. In the end, he smiled helplessly.

He reached out and hugged Zhao Lang's waist from behind. Did he seem to have lost a lot of weight? He was a little unsure and touched him twice with his hands. "You haven't seen me for so long, have you missed me?"

"Why do I feel like you seem to have lost a lot of weight?"

"If you keep touching me, I can't guarantee what I will do next." Zhao Lang grabbed the hand that was touching his waist and warned Lord Lu.

"..." Lu Mingfei met Zhao Lang's warning eyes and couldn't help but laugh. He had no choice but to withdraw his hand and said, "I just saw that you seemed to have lost weight, and I wanted to confirm it."

"Are you sure now?" Zhao Lang lowered his head and kissed Lord Lu on the lips, with a smile in his eyes.

"It's confirmed. You've really lost a lot of weight." Lu Mingfei reached out to touch Zhao Lang's face. After not seeing him for a few months, his face was so thin that it was sunken. He felt a little distressed. "Have you not eaten properly during this period of time?"

"I'm not full." Zhao Lang looked at their Lord Lu and said with a look of grievance.

"..." Lu Mingfei looked at the aggrieved man in disbelief. He asked Zhao Lang in shock and anger, "When you came back home, they didn't even give you food?!"

Zhao Lang knew immediately that Lord Lu had misunderstood. Although he was deeply touched that someone was standing up for him and felt sorry for him, in order to avoid Lord Lu's misunderstanding, he explained, "I went to the military camp with my father some time ago. Now I spend most of my time in the army and eat with the soldiers below."

"You should also know that there is not much food in the army, and the soldiers have to eat frugally."

"Oh, I see. I'm afraid there isn't much food left in the army?" Lu Mingfei also knew that the imperial court had long stopped providing military pay and food to Beijun, and now the Zhenbei Army had to rely entirely on itself to survive.

Last year, the North suffered from both floods and droughts, nearly destroying the local grain harvest. Fortunately, this year's harvest has been relatively good, and some grain has been harvested from various locations. However, the Northern Zhen Army has a large number of soldiers, and the small amount of land they cultivate is simply not enough to feed everyone in the barracks.

So it can be imagined that there must not be much food in the army.

"Well, not too much." Zhao Lang nodded. Although he had not had the opportunity to get involved in the core affairs of the military, based on his observations inside, he could still guess some things.

Moreover, the food in their military camp is divided into different levels, and not everyone eats the same food.

The high-ranking generals may eat a little better, and this "better" is relatively speaking, that is, they have more dry rice and can eat until they are half full.

If there was a war, soldiers on the battlefield could eat two meals of dry rice a day, while those not on the battlefield could only eat two meals of porridge a day. If there was no war, the military camp would only provide two meals of porridge a day.

The porridge in the barracks was real porridge, the kind with barely a grain of rice in a bowl. An adult man wouldn't feel full even if he ate two servings of this kind of porridge a day.

There is an even worse situation, that is, when a war breaks out, the food stored in the military camp will be exhausted. The first to be cut off from food are the soldiers who are not on the battlefield. If the food is reduced, even the soldiers on the battlefield can only eat porridge until the last grain of rice is eaten up, and everyone starves to death.

The soldiers at the border have always lived a hard life. Having food to eat and clothes to wear is already a luxury.

And the people in the imperial court, from top to bottom, do nothing but talk all day long.

Seeing Zhao Lang, Lu Mingfei had many questions he wanted to ask him, but when he saw how thin he was, with his cheeks sunken, he was in no mood to ask anything else. "I'll have someone bring in some food first, and we can talk while we eat."

"Okay." Zhao Lang knew that Lord Lu was worried about him. He enjoyed Lord Lu's care and liked to see Lord Lu busying around for him.

Lu Mingfei asked Zhao Lang to sit down and wait for him. He went outside and asked someone outside to bring in some food. Then he lowered the curtain and went into the room. He sat down and continued talking to Zhao Lang, asking about Zhao Lang's affairs in the army.

While they were talking, Guard Ma came with people to deliver food.

After serving the wine and food, Guard Ma took his men out again.

After the group left, Zhao Lang picked up the wine jug, poured wine into the glass, and asked Lord Lu who was sitting opposite him, "Would you like a drink?"

"Eat something to fill your stomach first before drinking." Lu Mingfei held Zhao Lang's hand, took the wine glass and wine pot from Zhao Lang's hand, and signaled him to eat first.

Zhao Lang looked at the overbearing Lord Lu and didn't try to grab the wine pot and wine glass back. Instead, he obediently picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of meat and put it into Lord Lu's bowl, "You eat first."

The two people looked at each other from a distance. Lu Mingfei smiled and used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of meat for Zhao Lang, saying, "Eat it." Author's words: Thank you Bole 9492239 (9492239) for your support. Mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading.