Chapter 1080 We Fell into a Trap
The city of Luoshui was shrouded in thick smoke from the burning of mugwort, and the crisp sound of soul-calling bells could be heard from time to time in the streets.
Jiang Xiaoan rushed into the government office clutching the blood-stained pulse case: "Third cousin, the existing medicinal materials can only suppress mild symptoms for five days."
He swept his sleeves, which were stained with medicine, across the sand table: "The most bizarre thing is that the seven-leaf lotus used to treat miasma in the three surrounding states was bought up by drug dealers last month."
Xiao Zhan used a dagger to cut open the collar of the infected person, and the purple and black stripes were shocking under the candlelight.
He turned around and ordered: "Let Qingming lead the men to split into three groups and disguise themselves as Hu merchants to go to the Nanzhao border to purchase."
He then pulled out the token from his waist and threw it to the deputy general: "Inform all the checkpoints that anyone transporting anti-epidemic medicines will be allowed to pass without inspection."
In the dark night, Jiang Xiaoan put the last half penny of rhino horn powder into the medicine furnace.
Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves thundered outside the city, and the guards shouted in fear, "The refugees are rioting! They are carrying corpses and trying to break through the city gate!"
Xiao Zhan grabbed his sword and rushed out of the medicine hut. The moonlight reflected a cold arc of light on the scabbard.
As the wisps of medicinal mist rose from the medicine shed in the city, Xiao Zhan's fingers holding the secret report suddenly tightened.
It has been more than four days since Qingming led the secret guards out of the city to prepare medicine. Not only have the medicinal materials been delivered smoothly, but even the official roads on the outskirts of the city have become unusually quiet.
He looked at the lights gradually lighting up outside the window, and the edge of the teacup left a red mark on his palm - this game of chess was played too smoothly, and there was something fishy about it.
"Be careful of the burn."
Jiang Xiaoan handed over the handkerchief that had been soaked in cold spring water, his eyes were dark blue: "The resurrection of Luoshui City is a happy event, why is my cousin becoming more and more uneasy?"
Amid the dripping sound of the copper clock, Xiao Zhan suddenly stood up.
The copper bells on the eaves were startled by the night wind, and the tinkling sound was shattered in the moonlight. "We've fallen into a trap."
He grabbed his cloak and walked quickly to the stable: "How could someone who could accurately poison at the junction of three states fail to calculate the route taken by the secret guards to mix the medicine?"
Jiang Xiaoan's medicine box fell to the ground, and the crisp sound of porcelain bottles colliding startled the birds sleeping under the eaves.
When the two men rushed out of the courtyard on horseback, the torches lit by the secret guards illuminated half of the street.
The night wind wrapped Jiang Xiaoan in a trembling voice and asked, "If the plague is a false move, who is worth them going through so much trouble?"
"Xiaoxue is about to give birth."
The veins on the back of Xiao Zhan's hand bulged as he whipped the horse, and the horse's hooves crushed the night dew condensed on the bluestone slabs: "The Privy Council just discovered the deficit in military pay in the North last month. Those people must have calculated that she is now..."
The galloping carriage rolled over the dead branches on the ground, and sparks flickered from the copper stove in the carriage.
Jiang Xiaoan clutched the jade bottle containing the heart-protecting pills, and suddenly remembered Jiang Yuyin's joke before she left: "If Imperial Doctor Jiang causes my aunt to lose a hair, I will give you all the hundred-year-old Ganoderma lucidum in the Imperial Hospital as an apology."
At this moment, in the princess's mansion thousands of miles away, Jiang Xue was leaning on the couch, holding her pregnant belly.
At the end of the night watch, the maid came in a panic and reported: "Mrs. Lan is eight months pregnant and insists on seeing Your Highness."
As the candlelight flickered, wisps of green smoke rose from the gilded incense burner.
Jiang Xue paused as she stroked the secret report on the table. The file of the Northern Border Military Food Case was still on the table, and the ink had not yet dried.
As dusk fell, the maid led Jiang Xiaowei through the corridor.
The candlelight flickered in the study. Jiang Xue put down the file in her hand and saw the bulging belly of the visitor was gilded by the sunset light. She hurriedly stood up and helped him: "Why did you come here in the middle of the night when you are pregnant?"
Jiang Xiaowei stroked the back of the sour wood chair with her fingertips, her usually gentle features now shrouded in shadows. "Today during my lunch break... I dreamed of these horrifying scenes."
She choked up a little, "In the northwest, the smoke of war obscured the sun, Lan Feng's silver armor was shattered into pieces, and the black flag of the Huangfu clan was planted on the city wall..."
The candle wick burst into sparks of fire, which startled Jiang Xue so much that her fingertips trembled slightly.
She grasped the other person's cold hand and said, "Do you know that if it were someone else, just these nonsense would be enough to punish them?"
"It is because of you that Xiao Wei dares to confess."
Tears rolled down the collar of the lotus embroidered on it: "Those screams are still ringing in my ears, and the suffocating feeling of the blood mist covering my mouth and nose has not dissipated yet."
Amid the ticking sound of the copper clock on the desk, Jiang Xue took out the fox fur and wrapped the shivering pregnant woman. "I just received a letter from Lan Feng the day before yesterday, saying that the newly built city wall is as solid as a rock. Don't worry, I will write a letter to remind him to be extra vigilant."
"really?"
Jiang Xiaowei's eyes sparkled. Seeing the princess spread out the Xuelang paper, he said anxiously, "Don't mention the dream. Just say... you saw the Seven Killings in the sky when you looked at the stars. Be careful of night attacks."
The wolf-hair brush moved slowly on the rice paper, and Jiang Xue incorporated the key points of border defense into the casual greetings.
When the document was about to be sealed with wax, she suddenly felt something heavy on her wrist - Jiang Xiaowei had actually fallen asleep leaning against the desk, with tears still lingering between her eyelashes.
"Fudong, use my warm sedan to send Madam back home."
Jiang Xue looked at the gradually sinking moonlight, and inexplicably recalled the night three years ago when Lan Feng was ambushed, and it was also the same eerie purple-red sky.
The next day in the imperial study, the red pen was hanging above the "Northwest Grain and Grass Memorial" and had not yet fallen.
When the maid staggered into the palace, the red sand on Jiang Xue's wrist had already stained half of the memorial.
"Madam, on the way to Longquan Temple this morning..."
The glazed tiles of the Donghua Palace reflected the pale sunlight. Jiang Xue's red brush "clicked" on the memorial, and her knuckles turned blue and white due to the force. "Eight months? There's not even a proper delivery room in the deserted temple outside the city?"
She stood up, holding her sore waist, and her seven-month pregnant belly showed a round curve under the thin silk palace dress.
When Fu Dong lowered his head to report, the copper bells on the eaves were ringing loudly in the strong wind.
The maid who brought the news knelt in front of the steps and trembled: "Mrs. Lan suddenly had bleeding at 3:30 in the morning, and the accompanying doctor said that the fetus was in a transverse position..."
Before she finished her words, Jiang Xue had already clenched the corner of the agarwood desk.
She remembered that three days ago Xiaowei came into the palace holding a pair of tiger-head shoes embroidered by herself, and said with a smile that she wanted to recognize the child as Yaoyao's sworn brother.
"Take this palace's token and summon the royal judge to bring the gynecologist here quickly."
She pulled off the dragon-shaped jade buckle from her waist and threw it to the captain of the guards. The scarlet palace belt drew a sharp arc in the air.
The "Qian Jin Fang" on the desk was rustling in the wind, and it stopped at the chapter about women with difficult labor. The folk proverb "eight out of ten will survive and seven out of ten will not" was like an icicle piercing my heart.
When Jiang Heng looked up from the pile of memorials, he saw his aunt wrapping the gold-thread soft armor around her bulging belly.
The young emperor tightly grasped the peach wood amulet in his sleeve, which was given to him by Xiaowei Shangyue: "Aunt, the road ahead will be bumpy..."
Before she finished speaking, Jiang Xue had already buttoned up her silver fox fur collar, the snow-white fur making her eyes look sharp as a knife: "Lan Feng is suppressing a rebellion in Longxi right now. If his wife and children are lost, how can you teach the soldiers to defend the border with peace of mind?"
Three green-curtained carriages were speeding like arrows in front of the palace gate, and the royal physician Wang's beard was shaking in the bumps.
Doctor Li, who was in the same carriage, took out the silver needle bag from his sleeve and counted them repeatedly. Suddenly, he heard the princess ask through the curtain: "If the clothes don't fit, what should I use?"
The three of them were all startled. This was clearly a test of their response strategies.
Amid the sound of wheels rolling over the bluestone road, Jiang Xue pressed the hand warmer against her abdomen.
Yesterday Xiaowei said that she wanted to bury her daughter under the plum tree, but now the figure in the goose yellow skirt was overlapping with the color of blood.
She closed her eyes and silently recited "Essentials of Pregnancy and Childbirth". Suddenly, she felt the baby in her belly kick hard, as if responding to the mother's anxiety.
The clepsydra in the imperial study was ticking, and Jiang Heng's red brush was hanging in the air, but had not yet fallen.
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