Chapter 387: As Eternal as the Sun and Moon
It was not surprising that Yuan Xiang failed to recognize Meng Lie accurately. For one thing, when Meng Lie was in the capital, he was the owner of Dengtai Tower. He always dressed luxuriously and elegantly, and was tactful and exquisite in dealing with people, which was very different from his indifferent temperament now.
At this moment, Meng Lie was wearing cloth clothes, and he suddenly looked more than ten years older, with most of his hair turning white.
Besides, Yuanxiang had only met him a few times before, so they were not very familiar with each other. In many cases, people's impressions would have a certain fixed combination. For example, an old lady selling vegetables on the street could always be recognized at a glance at the street vegetable stall, but if she moved to another place, that face suddenly became difficult to recognize.
At this time, listening to Yuan Xiang's question, Meng Lie was silent for a moment and then shook his head.
In order to reduce trouble, he had no intention of revealing his identity, so he always kept a low profile. However, he did not deliberately hide too much from the trustworthy people around Chang Suining. However... since the other party could not recognize him, there was no need for him to deliberately make it clear.
Seeing him shaking his head, Yuan Xiang confirmed it by asking, "Excuse me for asking, but I heard that you are also a businessman?"
"Old friend in Beijing", "doing a small business", "surname Meng", these are the information Yuanxiang heard from Tang Xing.
It was just that Tang Xing pretended to be confused even though he knew the truth. However, what Tang Xing didn't expect was that Yuan Xiang was truly confused.
Meng Lie nodded.
Yuan Xiang lowered his voice and revealed his true enthusiasm: "To be honest, when I first met you, I felt that you were quite similar to Mr. Meng from Dengtai Tower... I heard that Mr. Meng had no relatives and was about ten years younger than you. I wonder if you have any lost nephews or relatives in your family?"
Meng Lie: “…No.”
Then, without waiting for Yuanxiang to say anything more, he bowed and left.
Yuan Xiang was still a little confused. Were they really not the lost family? Back then, he had tried to help Miss Chang and "Mr. Chang" find their relatives in the same way.
At that time, everyone blamed him for thinking too complicatedly. He never thought that "Young Master Chang" was actually Madam Chang in disguise.
etc……
Yuan Xiang suddenly stopped and looked back in the direction where Meng Lie left... No, he seemed to understand something! "Miss Xier... Could this be Mr. Meng himself?" Yuan Xiang asked Xier for confirmation and promised: "I will never tell anyone!"
Xier nodded with a slightly complicated expression.
Yuan Xiang slapped his forehead and suddenly realized: "It's true!"
He really knows how to learn from experience! It's worth it that he has read so many military books. He is worthy of being called such a great man.
A sense of self-affirmation and amazement arose in Yuanxiang's heart. From a bystander's perspective, it was not difficult to understand why he was so favored and valued by Madam Chang and General Chang.
"But... why would Mr. Meng from the capital come here?" Yuanxiang asked Xier in a low voice.
Xier said without looking away: "I don't know about this. Since the girl didn't say anything, we naturally don't need to ask any more questions."
Although she was extremely curious, she had to pretend to be completely loyal! She could not let Ah Che outdo her! And it turned out that this awareness was contagious.
Yuan Xiang said "Oh" and nodded in agreement. So, he wouldn't ask any more questions. After all, he was not a gossipy person like Wei Changji with no sense of boundaries.
Thinking of Changji, Yuanxiang felt even more superior.
Just considering the weight that his Grand Commander has in front of Madam Chang, he is already far ahead of Mr. Wei from Wei Changji's family!
At this moment, Madam Chang was reading the letter from her Grand Commander.
Originally, when Cui Jing sent letters, he would ask someone to deliver them directly to the Jiangdu Governor's Mansion.
Not long ago, Yuan Xiang suggested to his own commander-in-chief that future letters could be sent directly to him, and he would hand them over to Madam Chang personally. In this way, Madam Chang could read them first, and they would not have to be mixed with other letters received by the governor's mansion and sorted out several times before being handed to Madam Chang.
Delivering a letter is a small matter, but Dai Changshi said that it is very important to subtly establish the order of status through details.
It is not too much to think that Yuan Xiang works diligently and tirelessly every day, and he takes advantage of this to become a carrier pigeon and find a shortcut to send letters for his own Grand Commander. This shortcut is available to his Grand Commander, but not to the young man of Wei Changji's family! Little did he know that the "young man of Wei Changji's family" mentioned by Yuan Xiang had not exchanged letters with Chang Suining for half a year.
Therefore, after Chang Suining finished reading Cui Jing's letter, he was quite surprised when he turned to Wei Shuyi's letter.
…
Cui Jing's letter was very long, a full three pages.
He wrote down for her everything, no matter how big or small, from what he knew about the affairs of the court and the movements of various forces to the latest situation in his army.
He also mentioned that the internal affairs of Dongluo were still unstable and there might be unrest on the Andong defense line, but he reminded her not to just focus on the Andong area, but also to be wary of the possibility of Dongluo colluding with the Japanese army to attack the inland of Jiangnan together.
When talking about the internal affairs of Dongluo, Chang Suining couldn't help but think of "Xi Zhiyuan".
More than ten years ago, after the Japanese army was defeated and asked for peace, Dongluo successfully annexed its neighboring country Bairong with the help of Dasheng. Xuan Ce's army was present in the wars that led to this result.
It was also after that that Dasheng established the Andong Protectorate to govern military and political affairs and garrison the area bordering Dongluo. Since then, the exchanges between Dongluo and Dasheng have become increasingly close.
When the Andong Protectorate was established, Chang Suining secretly left a group of soldiers in Andong for safety reasons. Guarding the border was a big deal, and she needed to monitor the movements of various forces on the Andong border in a timely manner.
All her secret agents involved in intelligence in the past were under the jurisdiction of the Intelligence Building in Beijing. This was one of the reasons why Chang Suining took the initiative to write to Meng Lie this time.
She wanted to know whether the secret agents who had been left in Anton were still there and whether they could still be used.
Meng Lie's answer was "Everything remains the same as before, nothing has been abandoned", so Chang Suining ordered Meng Lie to summon the secret agents in Andong and asked them to collect as much information as possible about the internal affairs of Eastern Romania. She needed to know as much as possible about the internal affairs of Eastern Romania before she could consider whether there was any possibility of "prescribing the right medicine".
Now we are waiting for news from the secret agent.
While Chang Suining was thinking, he turned to the third page of letter from Cui Jing.
On this page, he did not talk about the actual situation - but even though he spent most of the first two pages talking about the actual situation, Chang Suining could feel that he was thinking about her, so that she could have full access to information and be able to understand the developments in various places in a timely manner.
On the last page, he mostly “asked” about her recent situation and “whether there was anything he could help with”, and if so, he told her to just ask.
Chang Suining read until the last few lines.
He wrote at the end: [The Qiqiao Festival is approaching, and I heard that you can worship Kuixing. In this way, I hope you will be wise and can make all kinds of plans without making mistakes; I also hope that you will be healthy, like the sun and the moon, which are eternal and unharmed.]
Chang Suining looked at these two words of blessing and thought that, in layman's terms, this was wishing her... a bigger brain and a bigger body, smart and healthy? How could someone wish her smart and healthy during the Qiqiao Festival?
But thinking about the fact that when she was drinking mutton soup just now, several subordinates had given her festival wishes such as "May the commander find his ideal husband soon" and "If the commander takes a fancy to any one, just tell the subordinates and we will grab him for you"... Chang Suining felt that Cui Jing, who was "smart and healthy", was more to her liking.
Wisdom is multi-faceted and never fails, like the sun and the moon, eternal and undamaged.
Chang Suining read it twice more, a smile appearing in his eyes.
To be honest, she had previously suspected that Cui Jing's kindness to her was intended to disrupt her ambitions, but now, step by step, it seems that he not only has no intention of disrupting her ambitions, but is instead the person who wants to help her achieve her ambitions.
Knowing that she wanted to win, I wanted to help her win more beautifully, to make her win more easily, and to take her direction as my own direction.
Cui Jing, who is so beautiful and has such outstanding abilities, has such feelings... There should be no one who would dislike such a person, right?
Chang Suining looked at the three pieces of letter in his hand, which were written with seriousness, blinked his smiling eyes, and put them back into the envelope properly.
She picked up her pen and wrote a reply.
There was no need to elaborate on all the serious matters. Finally, she felt that she should write a few words of festival greetings, but she would not be able to make it in time for the Qiqiao Festival, and it would take time for the letter to be delivered to the north...
Then it’s Mid-Autumn Festival, which is next month.
However, the Mid-Autumn Festival is about the reunion of people and the moon, and Cui Jing was expelled from the Cui family, so there was no one to help him. Considering this, Chang Suining wrote: "I wish you a happy Mid-Autumn Festival. If there is no one to share mooncakes and sweet-scented osmanthus wine with, you can lend it to me."
Well... at critical moments, brother is still quite useful.
Chang Suining was satisfied and pleased. At the end, he drew a rabbit eating a mooncake in the lower left corner to make up for the fact that the number of words was less than Cui Jingzhi's.
While waiting for the letter paper to dry, Chang Suining was not idle either. He opened a few letters that had just been sent from the governor's mansion.
To her surprise, she actually saw the letter from Wei Shuyi.
She hadn't seen Wei Shuyi for quite some time, nor had she heard anything about Duan Zhenyi. She was almost certain that she had been recognized.
This mother and son are both afraid of ghosts.
Now that Wei Shuyi has written to him, has he finally overcome his innate fear? Chang Suining curiously unfolded the letter, and indeed saw that the content of the letter was "very unlike Wei Shuyi". There were no more casual jokes or attempts to dig holes in the words, and even the handwriting was visibly less elegant and more "proper"...
He doesn’t look like “Wei Shuyi”, but very much like “Wei Shilang” – he has a kind of serious official air that he puts on with forced composure.
He tried to use the calm exterior of officialdom to cover up the tension behind it.
His seriousness lies in the fact that everything in the letter is about official business.
He meant to remind her that the Dong Luo might attack the heartland of Jiangnan, and that she was in a difficult and critical situation at the moment and must be extremely cautious.
He also told her that the saint had agreed to send another 30,000 troops to Jiangdu.
Although 30,000 soldiers and horses cannot be used in naval battles in a short period of time, the defense on land must not be relaxed. For Chang Suining at the moment, this is a benefit that he must not miss.
After talking about the troops, Wei Shuyi mentioned food and military supplies. In the letter, he told her not to worry about it. He had urged the Ministry of Revenue to speed up the matter. Preparations were also being made for the cold-weather supplies for autumn and winter. He would follow up on this matter later. She just had to focus on defending against the enemy.
Therefore, whether it was the 30,000 soldiers or the food and military supplies, they were all extorted by him on her behalf from the now tight-fisted court.
In the past, if Wei Shuyi had done all this, he would have definitely tried to take credit for it with her and asked her to remember him as a favor, but this time he didn't say a word.
He did not mention his mother's situation at home. He only added a slightly selfish question at the end of the letter, but it only had four words: [How are you doing recently?]
Chang Suining thought for a while - since there was a question at the end, it meant that he wanted her to write back, right?
So she came back?
Don't blame her for deliberately writing the letter to scare him later.
In the past six months, she has never taken the initiative to write him a letter. She is not the kind of person who likes to scare people on purpose.
So, Chang Suining wrote back to express his gratitude and extend Mid-Autumn Festival greetings. After thinking about it, he also mentioned the Double Ninth Festival.
After "I wish you a healthy Double Ninth Festival," she added "I wish my aunt a happy autumn."
After writing, Chang Suining nodded with satisfaction at the letter.
Although she doesn't like to scare people, it's fun to tease Duan Zhenyi occasionally.
…
On the day of Chinese Valentine's Day, a plaque was officially hung at Wueryuan in Jiangdu City.
Chang Suining finally rushed back.
Amid the boiling noise, Chang Suining looked up at the plaque hanging high up, with hope in her eyes. She would devote everything she could to this academy, let it grow under the sunlight, give it rain and dew, and hope that it would quickly grow into a big tree to protect the foundation of great prosperity.
With the hanging of the plaque of Wuer Hospital, although the construction inside is still intensive, the assessment for admission has also been officially put on the agenda.
The first batch will be scholars, who will be divided into two major halls, the [Literature Hall] and the [Mathematics Hall]. Each hall is divided into "four classes", and teaching will be carried out in different classes according to the qualifications and level of learning of the students.
These two schools were also the first to be built and are now nearly completed. The other three schools that have not yet opened to the public for enrollment are still under construction.
However, regarding the subjects of the remaining three academies, there have been definite rumors in Jiangdu City. Surprisingly, these three academies are not ordinary subjects, nor are they "to imitate the Imperial Academy and teach different branches according to students' social status" as initially rumored. They are not even directly related to "literature and morality", and it has never been heard that anyone has set up a special academy for this purpose.
I heard that the three major academies are the [Academy of Craftsmanship], [Academy of Agriculture], and [Academy of Medicine]...
Governor Chang actually wanted to train craftsmen, farmers, and doctors? While students from all walks of life were busy preparing for the entrance exams to the Literature and Mathematics Halls of Wuer Academy, news about the remaining three halls spread quickly, causing quite a stir among many families whose families had been practicing medicine, farming, or had special skills for generations - how could they, who could not recognize many words or even a single word, actually have the opportunity to enter Wuer Academy? !
Don’t say things like “I can’t do anything, I might as well go home and raise pigs” anymore. It is said that even pig farmers in the Agricultural College of Wueryuan are required to… Those who raise pigs well can even become teachers! Good night!
(End of this chapter)
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