Cui Lang smiled and said, "It's the rule about not marrying people outside of the four major clans..."
Although the five major aristocratic families have all suffered severe blows in recent years, with some, like the Zheng family of Xingyang, being dispersed or massacred by the rebel army, there are still too many people who adhere to the principle of not intermarrying with the "commoners", claiming that they must preserve their noble bloodline.
For those traumatized aristocratic families, this seems to be the only way to resist and persist.
Anyone in the clan who tries to disobey them will be spurned by them and condemned as a person who has fallen into depravity and brought disgrace to the clan.
With this background, Cui Lang is now the head of the family, so he is bound to take many things into consideration when it comes to marriage. He is afraid that someone in the clan will take the initiative and inevitably consider changing the clan rules.
Seeing his mother and sister staring at him, Cui Lang said hurriedly: "... Didn't mother just ask me to help my eldest brother with planning? I am thinking about my eldest brother's marriage!"
Mrs. Lu looked at him and said, "But your elder brother has long been expelled from the family and is no longer under the Cui family's care."
Cui Tang: "Even if my eldest brother has not been expelled from the clan, the clan has never been able to control my eldest brother."
Lu blinked her eyes and said, "Yes, then who will be controlled by the clan?"
Cui Tang raised his eyebrows: "Maybe it's the new head of the family."
"..." Cui Lang: "You two are performing a duet!"
Mrs. Lu: "Tell me, which family's wife do you want to marry?"
"It doesn't matter which family I want to marry..." Cui Lang's eyes dodged for a moment, and he stood there, taking a step to the side, facing his mother and sister, with his hands behind his back, and coughed lightly, saying, "What's important is that our Cui family is destined to never go back to the past. Since we want to have a new look, we must get rid of all the old things as soon as possible."
"It's true that a new official has three things to do when he takes office, but why would he focus on marriage first?" Mrs. Lu looked at her son and pointed out his fault mercilessly, "It seems that the head of the family is very selfish."
Cui Tang was still staring at his brother: "Brother, do you have a girl you like?"
Cui Lang blushed: "Don't talk nonsense!"
Cui Tang's eyes widened slightly in shock.
What surprised Cui Tang was not that his brother had someone he liked, but that someone as thick-skinned as his brother... could actually blush.
Mrs. Lu had already raised her hand to signal the maid to close the door.
Cui Lang was frightened by this scene - how could it be like a trial of a criminal in court! "Oh, wait!" Cui Lang was nervous, and suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly shouted to the outside of the door: "Yihu, bring me the things you brought!"
Yihu responded and walked in quickly, holding two small porcelain jars the size of a palm in his hands. After bowing, he presented them to Madam Lu at Cui Lang's signal.
Lu couldn't help but ask, "What is this?"
Cui Lang: "The cream for face application is good for the cold north. Applying it can keep your skin from cracking!"
Cui Tang couldn't help but ask: "Where did you get it, brother?"
"…Miss Qiao gave it to me. She asked me to pass it on to you and my mother!"
Cui Tang was stunned - Miss Qiao? Lu was also stunned.
It was during this brief interval that Cui Lang winked at Yihu, took two steps back, and ran out.
Yihu bowed hastily and ran to catch up with her husband.
"Hey!" Mrs. Lu stood up, but failed to stop him: "Why are you running, you useless guy!"
Mrs. Lu held a pottery jar in her hand, took a look, and asked thoughtfully: "…Which Miss Qiao?"
Cui Tang pursed his lips and smiled: "It must be Qiao Jijiu's family."
Mrs. Lu thought about it and had an impression: "The girl from the Qiao family who suffers from eye disease?"
"Mother, you don't know that Madam Qiao's eye disease has long been cured." Cui Tang knew more about the circle of officials and noble ladies in the capital than his mother did. "And I heard that Madam Qiao has become a female doctor, and now she seems to be following Envoy Chang."
Mrs. Lu was surprised: "Your eye disease has been cured, and you have become a female doctor?"
Cui Tang nodded.
Lu frowned slightly and asked, "You are still following Envoy Chang and entering and leaving the army?"
Cui Tang nodded again. The next moment, Ah Niang's brows furrowed even deeper. She asked worriedly, "How can others look up to your brother?"
Cui Tang: “…” Suddenly I felt that it was wise for my brother to run away.
"Has Miss Qiao come to Taiyuan with me?" Madam Lu said, "If she does, I will go and see her... I'd be glad if I can help her!"
If sons are not enough, mothers will have to make up for it.
In the past, marriage was also based on the character of the people in the family. Mrs. Lu was not confident in anything else, but she firmly believed that she would be a very capable mother-in-law - especially after she was no longer under the control of her unlucky husband.
Lu wanted to make this marriage happen from the bottom of her heart - it would be a wonderful thing if the two could fall in love with each other and get married.
What she didn't have, her children will have.
Besides, the daughter of Qiao Jijiu... no matter how you look at it, it's her son who is lucky. If she behaves like the dandy she used to, how can he be a match for her!
So, this is the right time.
Now that the opportunity has come, the rest is up to man.
Seeing her mother's happy and approving expression, Cui Tang nodded and agreed: "Then my daughter will go and ask around tomorrow."
“I can’t find her even after asking around…” Cui Lang ran a long way in one breath, guessing that his mother must want to see her, and said to himself, “Miss Qiao is busy, she didn’t come to Taiyuan with me.”
Actually, he did want to take this opportunity to let Miss Qiao meet his family...but Miss Qiao told him that she was going to Fan Yang with the army.
Cui Lang came to Taiyuan with Chang Suining for important matters of the clan.
Chang Suining only brought 10,000 soldiers and horses, and was stationed outside Taiyuan. The remaining troops were commanded by Bai Hong and Tang Xing, who continued to head towards Fanyang to recapture the city, and Kang Zhi also followed.
The troops were divided into two groups. Chang Suining was a member of the Cui clan in Taiyuan, and he came to pacify Guannei Road. Among the troops heading to Fanyang, there were many wounded soldiers, and many soldiers were unable to adapt to the cold in the north and caught a cold.
Qiao Yumian had been busy with this, so she chose to go to Fan Yang without hesitation.
She told Cui Lang that having her as a medical assistant might help save more soldiers. As long as the army still needed her, she could not abandon her responsibilities.
Cui Lang was stunned when he heard it. The slight sense of loss in his heart was completely washed away, and instead he was left with a feeling of shame.
After that, I felt proud of it.
Cui Lang returned to his residence with a proud look on his face. After taking a bath, he sat in front of the mirror, scooped a lump of milky white ointment from a porcelain jar, applied it on his cheeks and forehead with his index finger, and then rubbed it carefully.
The sight of the pot made me shiver.
Cui Lang asked himself in front of the mirror with great satisfaction: "Why is it so fragrant? How do you think it was made?"
After saying this, he stood up, humming a little tune, and lay down on the couch, resting his head on his arms, and closing his eyes contentedly.
The next day, Cui Lang, who slept late, still got up early and ordered a pot of tea, which was very unexpected.
When she followed her husband out of the house, Yihu looked back at the jar of ointment and felt that this thing of Doctor Qiao's was magical and could also cure laziness.
Cui Lang went to discuss matters with the tribesmen.
Next, these members of the Cui clan will go to the states recovered by Chang Suining to handle local affairs.
After occupying a city, garrisoning it with troops is only the first step, and many heroes in troubled times often only stop at this step - if we talk about real governance, we need to have scholars involved, but ordinary rebels do not have such a large group of scholars to support them.
Therefore, after a war, order often collapses and people are displaced. Although the winner may gain a city, it is difficult to win the hearts of the people.
This is also one of the reasons why Chang Suining went to Taiyuan in person. She must finalize the governance of various places as soon as possible.
There are hundreds of Cui clansmen here, and many of them have a huge network of scholars behind them. With them around, the states in Hebei Province that have been trampled by the Fanyang army will have hope of quickly rebuilding order.
The children of the major aristocratic families learn how to be an official and govern the country since childhood. This is their innate advantage.
Even though the order of the gentry was overturned, the gap between them and most of the children from poor families could not be quickly narrowed in just a few years, and large-scale changes in cultural and academic affairs would take time to catch up.
Chang Suining had previously decided to work with Cui Jing to save the Zheng clan members in Xingyang and save them from being massacred because he was worried that the Heluo culture would be interrupted or even regress, which would be a loss for the country and the world.
The act of throwing a stone into the water in the past seems to have an echo today. Some members of the Zheng family in Xingyang who were in a difficult situation wrote to Taiyuan a month ago, and their words seemed to indicate that they wanted to seek refuge and help.
Cui Lang and others quickly finalized the distribution of the clan members, and letters to various places were sent out of Taiyuan one after another.
Most of those letters, whether invitations or lobbying, were written by Cui Lang himself. Using the name of the head of the "Taiyuan Cui Family" and his eloquent tongue, he praised his own master Chang Jieshi in the letters and spared no effort to recruit talents.
At this time, Chang Suining had already left Taiyuan Prefecture and headed west.
Wei Shuyi and his entourage of imperial envoys escorted the coffin of the Shuofang Jiedushi. After many hardships along the way, they finally arrived at Guannei Road.
Of the thousand imperial guards who left the capital, only five hundred remained, more than half of them.
What they saw and experienced along the way made the remaining people feel sad, but they also knew that entering the pass was the beginning of the real danger.
What they are about to face is the Shuofang Army, which is fierce and good at fighting and full of resentment towards the imperial court.
The seat of the Guannei Dao Jiedushi was in Lingzhou, which had a city wall defense line that was much higher than other places. It meandered for over a hundred miles, isolating the city from the wind and sand and protecting the people inside the pass.
In the wind and snow, Wei Shuyi, who had looked much thinner, stepped down from the carriage and looked at the endless city wall in the distance. He then turned back to look at the coffin of the Shuofang Jiedushi, his eyes filled with complex and sad expressions.
The imperial guards escorting the coffin stayed in an inn outside Lingzhou.
Before they could even enter the city to pass on the message, nearly a thousand Shuofang cavalrymen came braving the wind and snow, drew their swords and surrounded the entire post station.
The imperial guards, already exhausted to the extreme, were in a state of panic.
Wei Shuyi straightened his clothes and did not allow the imperial guards to draw their swords to confront him. He walked forward, and under the flash of the opponent's swords, he saluted to the leader and revealed his identity.
The leader was a military commander, wearing animal skin armor, with a sword on his sturdy waist, a messy beard on his face, and a pair of triangular eyes with slightly drooping corners that concealed a fierce and murderous look.
Without even looking at Wei Shuyi, he stated his purpose: "Just hand over the envoy's coffin to us."
"That's right." Wei Shuyi said, "I am about to escort the coffin of Envoy Yue Jie into the city, so you can come with me."
The general slightly raised one corner of his dry and chapped mouth and sneered.
At this time, a voice sounded from behind the general: "No need!"
He was a young man about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a linen coat and a white silk tie on his forehead.
He walked forward, staring at Wei Shuyi with red eyes: "My mother doesn't want to see you guys! I'm here to take my father home!"
"Mr. Yue." Wei Shuyi understood the young man's identity. He raised his hand with a guilty look and bowed deeply.
The young man Yue Chunyan looked at him, his eyes filled with even more anger: "No need to act so hypocritical!"
"My dear, please accept my condolences." Wei Shuyi stood up and raised his hand again, saying, "Please allow me to enter the city and personally apologize to Madam and the generals."
"Apologize..." The young man clenched his fists. "What's the use of apologizing? Can it bring my father back?"
The young man raised his hand and pointed at Wei Shuyi: "You are the ones who killed my father! My father was wounded in battle and spent half his life guarding the northern border. Isn't that loyal? Why did you force him to go to the capital alone?!"
No one stopped the young man from venting and questioning. The Shuofang soldiers behind him all had red eyes due to grief and anger as they heard these words. They looked at Wei Shuyi with more and more hatred, and murderous aura filled the air.
Wei Shuyi bowed again, and when he stood up, his eyes, which usually were always cheerful and talkative, were now slightly red.
At this point, he had already realized that this young master of the Yue family was most likely instigated by someone.
But today he must enter Lingzhou City with the coffin.
Making an apology was one thing, but more importantly, he had to meet Lady Yue and more powerful generals before he could possibly calm and resolve the anger of the Shuofang Army.
Wei Shuyi knew very well that if he could not go today, he would never have another chance to speak. Afterwards, there was a possibility that someone would use this as an excuse to accuse the imperial envoy of being arrogant and thereby incite the Shuofang Army to rebel.
He couldn't just stay in this inn without making any sound, otherwise this trip would be in vain.
No matter what he does, it will be a huge risk. However, he can risk his life, but he cannot do it in vain.
Facing the accusations and even scolding from the young man, Wei Shuyi never refuted a word.
Only when he saw the young man crying did he speak at the right time: "It is precisely because of this that we cannot let Envoy Yue die in vain, and we cannot let his heroic spirit rest in peace in the underworld—"
"The court was guilty of the crime of Yue Jieshi, so I came here to apologize on behalf of the court." Wei Shuyi looked at the young man and said, "But the person who is truly hateful and deserves to be killed is not the murderer who killed Yue Jieshi?"
The general shouted angrily: "The murderer Wan Yantai is already dead, what's the point of saying these empty words!"
"Although Jiannan Jiedushi Wan Yantai is dead, the mastermind behind him is still alive." Wei Shuyi still only looked at the young man and said, "The person who ordered Wan Yantai to commit the crime is none other than Prince Rong Li Yin."
Wei Shuyi's words made the Shuofang soldiers behind the young man change their expressions, and they exchanged uncertain glances.
Not every ordinary person has a keen sense of political conspiracy. They were stationed in the north, and the only news they received was that Yue Guang was murdered in the capital, and the murderer Wan Yantai was executed on the spot - the murderer was dead, so they naturally transferred all their anger to the court.
But this is just the perception of most ordinary soldiers.
Yue Chunyan and the leading general did not look surprised when they heard this. Their positions and identities meant that they would hear and see more comprehensively, and naturally they also thought deeply about the possibility that Wan Yantai was acting for King Rong.
"Even if it was ordered by Prince Rong, so what... Prince Rong deserves death, does that mean the court is innocent?"
As the young man finished speaking, he suddenly drew out the long sword behind him, took a big step forward, and pointed it at Wei Shuyi.
The sword pointed directly at Wei Shuyi's chest, but Wei Shuyi did not dodge and took a step forward. (End of this chapter)
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