The general galloped all the way and finally arrived in the capital on the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month.
As soon as he entered the city, he rushed to Songshan Academy without stopping, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he finally arrived at the gate of the academy.
"Why is there no one here?"
The military advisor looked at the anxious general and said with a smile, "General, you are confused. It is school time now. The students will not come out until after lunch or afternoon."
The general nodded and said, "Then let's wait until lunch time!" After that, he walked to the threshold next to the academy gate and sat down.
Upon seeing this, the deputy general hurried forward, took off his cloak, crumpled it up and rolled it into a ball, saying, "General, please use my cloak to cushion your pants! Your pants will get wet soon."
The general hurriedly stood up, patted his butt, and continued to rest against the wall. "You dress yourself! We are running low on medicine at home. It would be troublesome if you catch a cold."
After a long while, he suddenly thought of something and asked the deputy general: "Chen Cheng, do you think my son can recognize me?"
Chen Cheng was stunned for a moment, and said unsurely: "This... should be recognized! Children all like their fathers." After speaking, he looked at the military advisor and said, "Isn't it! Qin Wen."
Qin Wen thought for a moment and said, "That's the theory, but..."
The general looked at him nervously, "But what."
Qin Wen looked up at him and said, "General, I suddenly remembered a question. Who has raised that child for so many years?"
"Hiss! I seemed to hear him calling a young girl next to him "sister" last time?" Chen Cheng said as he thought.
"Boy? Sister? Could she be a woman disguised as a man?" Qin Wen speculated.
Then he thought carefully about the situation that day, and the more he thought about it, the more certain his inference became.
He immediately looked at the general excitedly and said, "General, you may have more than one child. The two younger ones called the older one "sister" that day."
The general looked at him somewhat flattered, and pointed at himself helplessly: "You, you mean me, maybe..."
Qin Wen nodded. "It's possible, but not certain. We still have to find them first to confirm."
"Yes, yes, we have to find the person first..." the general murmured excitedly.
One person was thinking and suddenly laughed, like a fool, without any appearance of a mighty and murderous general in front of others.
It was noon, and the three of them stared at the academy gate without blinking.
However, a quarter of an hour passed, two quarters of an hour passed... half an hour passed... there was still silence at the entrance of the college. Looking around, there was no sign of a single person, let alone students.
The general turned to look at Qin Wen: "Didn't you say someone would come out after lunch?"
Qin Wen was also a little confused. "Logically speaking, yes! But this..."
Suddenly, he thought of something and hurriedly pulled Shen Cheng to ask, "What day is it today?"
Shen Cheng thought for a moment and said, “Today should be the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month.”
"Are you sure?"
Chen Cheng calculated the date carefully again, and this time he was sure: "It is indeed the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month. What happened? Is there any connection?"
"Oh!" Qin Wen suddenly yelled and slapped his thigh. "It's related, it's so related. We might be too late. The academy might have already closed for the holiday."
Hearing this, the general's eyes widened in anxiety. "Holiday? The academy is on vacation, so how can I find Zhao Yiming and my son and daughter?"
Qin Wen knew that he was anxious, but who knew that he could be given the final push even when he was already at the door?
However, no matter how anxious they were, they could not wait any longer. "General, we can't wait any longer. We still have to report to the palace! It will be too late if we are any later."
The general looked at the academy gate, then looked in the direction of the palace, and finally had no choice but to leave.
Here, the Zuo, Wei, and Song families in the capital simultaneously received the letter sent back by their sons.
After reading the letter, the mistress immediately ordered someone to rush the letter to her master in the palace. Then she immediately ordered the servants in each courtyard to sort out the unwanted winter clothes.
In the palace, the emperor summoned officials of all ranks to discuss the resettlement of refugees and ordered them that they would not be allowed to go home unless they came up with a solution. A group of people discussed the matter in the main hall for a whole morning and were finally allowed to have lunch in a side hall with great difficulty.
Just as the Minister of Rites, Lord Zuo, picked up the bowl, a palace servant came to him and said that there was an urgent letter from his family.
Lord Zuo had no choice but to put down his bowl and check the letter. The more he read, the more surprised he was. Although this method could not help them solve the refugee resettlement problem, it could temporarily alleviate the most serious problem at the moment.
You have to know that not to mention refugees, many ordinary people also freeze to death every year.
He immediately stopped eating and ran to the imperial study with the letter.
Outside the imperial study, several families who received letters gathered together and looked at the letters in their hands. Lord Zuo still had something unclear.
He immediately stepped forward and greeted them with a smile, "It seems that all of you adults are here for the same thing!"
Several people laughed awkwardly: "Could it be that Lord Zuo is also like this?"
Lord Zuo nodded, "Then let's all go in together!"
…
In the imperial study, the emperor listened to the idea of collecting old clothes and nodded, saying, "This method can indeed solve the current problem of refugees suffering from cold in the shortest possible time. Did you four come up with this idea together?"
Upon hearing this, the four of them bowed their heads in shame. Then, holding the letter high above their heads, they said in unison, "Your humble servants are ashamed. This was written by me and a few classmates out of compassion for the refugees and our shared understanding."
The chief eunuch, Eunuch Fushou, stepped forward, took the letter paper from the gentlemen and placed it in front of the emperor's desk.
After the emperor reviewed them one by one, he looked up at the others and asked, "Whose family is Zhao Yiming's fiancée mentioned in this?"
"This..." Several adults looked at each other in confusion. They had never even heard of Zhao Yiming, so how could they know who his fiancée was!
The emperor understood and raised his voice, "Don't you know Zhao Yiming?"
The general who had just arrived outside the imperial study was stunned when he heard the three words Zhao Yiming. He raised his foot to step into the imperial study, but was stopped by the guards outside the door as expected.
The deputy general hurriedly grabbed him, and military advisor Qin Wen hurried forward to apologize, and asked someone to go in and report. He also specifically instructed the eunuch to tell them that they knew Zhao Yiming.
Sure enough, after the young eunuch made the announcement, he respectfully invited the general in.
When the emperor saw him come in, before he could even salute, he glanced at him and asked, "Does General Tian know Zhao Yiming?"
The general did not dare to act rashly. He knelt down and saluted politely before saying, "I know a little bit. My son is following him, and maybe my daughter too."
"Hmm? Your son? Your daughter?"
The others were also confused and couldn't help asking, "When did General Tian have a son and a daughter?"
The general explained, "Recently, they followed Zhao Yiming."
As he spoke, he looked towards the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, do you know where Zhao Yiming is? I want to find him to claim my daughter and son."
Before the emperor could speak, he continued, "I finally found out I have a daughter and a son, and I rushed to complete the task assigned by the emperor. I just returned to the capital to look for Zhao Yiming. But, the academy was closed for the holiday."
As he spoke, he began to wipe away tears with a sad look on his face.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
