185 Aching Teeth (Part 2)
"If my daughter and I fell into the water together, who would you save first?"
At dusk after the beginning of the dog days of summer, even the breeze is hot.
But the wind was quite strong today, rustling the leaves and bringing a little coolness.
At the hour of Xu, Xu Qinghe and his daughter had dinner, strolled for a while by the lotus pond in the mansion, and then returned to the yard to swing.
Hearing that Xie Qi had sent another letter, she asked Nanzhi to push her daughter on the swing, and she sat on the beauty's cushion under the eaves and opened the letter to read.
This sight made me laugh and cry.
On the letter paper, there were a few large words written in bold: How is my daughter? Is she happy? Has she suffered any injustice?
The first few sentences were normal, but the latter part became a little strange.
Xu Qinghe, I think I need to ask you a question.
If my daughter and I fell into the water at the same time, who would you save?
I feel like you don't care about me as much as before. Now your heart and eyes are full of your daughter.
Otherwise, why don't you write to me on your own initiative?
Is it possible that the princess's mansion is short of stationery? Or that the ink sticks at home are gone, or that your favorite wolf-hair brush has worn out?
So why on earth don't you write to me?
…
"Mother, mother?"
The daughter's voice brought Xu Qinghe back from the letter.
"What's wrong?" she asked her daughter.
Ping'an stood on tiptoe, wanting to read the letter, but couldn't reach it, so he asked, "What did Daddy write? Why is Mom so happy to read it?"
Xu Qinghe folded the letter and only showed Ping An the first half.
Ping An also laughed.
Daddy is caring about her.
"Then Ping An also wants to write a letter to Daddy!"
After saying that, he ran to his small study with his short legs.
The envelope felt heavy, as if there was something inside.
It is a small jumping frog made of an arrow shaft. There is a spring made of a wooden stick under the frog's body. With a slight twist, the little frog can jump several steps.
Ping'an was having so much fun that he even forgot to write the half-written letter.
Finally, he got tired of playing with the frog and fell asleep unknowingly.
The next morning, she woke up early and hurried to her mother's bedroom, asking her mother to send the letter to her.
But then she found out that her mother's letter had been sent last night.
Xu Qinghe pinched her daughter's disappointed face and said, "Who told you to sleep in last night?"
Ping'an whimpered into her mother's arms, begging her to send Ping'an's letter as well.
**
Xu Qinghe's letter was placed on Xie Qi's desk this morning. He didn't have time to read it for the time being. When he was about to go to bed at night, his daughter's letter arrived.
He first read his daughter's letter. Her handwriting was still a little immature, but it already showed a sense of elegance and grace.
There was a simple poem written in the letter, expressing her longing for her father directly.
Finally, the daughter wrote: "Daddy, I wrote a poem for you, but I like bunnies more. Can you make me another bunny?"
Xie Qi laughed, as if he could already see his daughter opening a pair of big eyes that looked just like his own and acting cutely in front of him.
But he was a little afraid to read Xu Qinghe's letter.
People might even accuse him of being jealous of his daughter at his age.
Who would have thought that Xu Qinghe actually seriously discussed with him the question of who she would save if he and his daughter fell into the water together.
"My daughter can swim, and so can you. You don't need me to save you."
Just these few short words were enough to make Xie Qi imagine the girl's reserved look as she tried to hold back her smile while writing the letter.
But he refused to give up and insisted that she make a choice between him and his daughter.
So when Xu Qinghe received the letter, he saw that it said: If my daughter and I were trapped in a fire, who would you save first?
Before she could come up with an answer, the second piece of letter paper clearly read: Let me tell you, Xu Qinghe, I have escaped death from fire twice, but I am very afraid of fire.
In the lower right corner of the letter paper, he simply used a pen to outline his own figure.
He had a vicious face, as if he would emerge from the paper and settle the score with her if she didn't give him the answer he wanted.
Xu Qinghe pondered for a moment, then wrote a reply with a stroke of his pen.
Xie Qi almost laughed out of anger when he saw the letter.
She said she naturally had to save her daughter first.
Xu Qinghe wrote in the letter: I also want to remind you that my daughter was caught in a fire not long ago because of you and was frightened. She is less than five years old. And what about you?
This rhetorical question made Xie Qi so angry that his teeth itched.
Three days later, Xu Qinghe finally received his letter.
He said she had no conscience.
"If you and your daughter were trapped together, I would definitely rescue them both. I wouldn't be like you, showing favoritism!"
Ping'an also received a little rabbit from her father, which could jump just like the frog.
She wrote to her father again, saying that she wanted an eagle that could fly.
But this time, she waited for five days before she received a reply from her father, but the letter did not contain the eagle she wanted.
"Daddy can't be an eagle, so I'll make Ping An a little rabbit as compensation, okay?"
From one letter a day, to one letter every two days, one letter every three days, and one letter every five days.
Xu Qinghe knew that this made him even busier.
She put her arm around her daughter's shoulders on the swing and coaxed her softly, "Daddy's been busy lately and really doesn't have time to learn how to be a little eagle. Mommy will learn how to be one for Ping An, okay?"
Although Ping'an felt a little disappointed, he also understood that his father had indeed tried his best.
She snuggled into her mother's arms and shook her head.
"Daddy said that Mom's hands are for painting, and she can't do anything else!"
Speaking of painting, Xu Qinghe came up with an idea.
The next day, Xie Qi was busy all day and finally received a letter from his wife and daughter at night.
There was not a single word, only a portrait of the daughter and a handkerchief.
The daughter in the portrait was lying on the table, wearing a silver-red skirt, with two buns on her hair, and two brocade ribbons of the same color tied on the buns. She was playing with the frog and rabbit he had given her.
My daughter had a smile on her face, she looked so cute.
Although Xu Qinghe is not in the painting, this painting was created by her stroke by stroke.
And the handkerchief made of expensive materials was clearly made by her stitch by stitch.
This was the first time since she grew up that he had embroidered a handkerchief for the girl. When she was young, no matter how many times he coaxed her, she refused to do it.
Xie Qi thought a lot in his mind, and finally took out a pen and paper and wrote down only four words.
"Wait until I come back."
Later, I felt like something was missing, so I added five more words.
"Get married when you get back."
Later, the communication between the family of three gradually became less and less.
Xu Qinghe turned his attention elsewhere and ordered the remaining soldiers in Jizhou to strengthen the guard, especially the defense at the city gate, and demanded that the people entering and leaving the city in the past few days must be strictly checked.
Since everyone seemed to have smelled some signs in advance, they always felt that there would be another war in the southern border, and it would be a big war, so some people packed their luggage and wanted to leave the city temporarily.
Similarly, because Jizhou was protected by Lanzhou and Yingzhou, people from the two states also escaped, but were unwilling to leave the southern border, so they flocked to Jizhou.
Therefore, there are especially many people coming in and out of the city gate in the past few days.
Xu Qinghe then sent more people to investigate, to find out their place of origin and identity, and only then would they be allowed to pass.
One day, the guard at the city gate met a handsome young man.
But the young man looked unwell and a little pale.
But the guards continued to question him as usual.
"Where are you from?"
"Lanzhou has more than 100 counties than Che Township."
"What are you doing here?"
"Escape from the war."
"Are there any relatives or friends here?"
“No.”
The soldiers guarding the city questioned diligently. Everything seemed normal at first, but then something went wrong.
"Are your ancestors all in Lanzhou?"
"yes."
"If that's the case, why are you here alone? Without any relatives or friends?"
The man slowly replied, "My hometown was hit by a flood and then a plague. Everyone in my family died, and I'm the only one left."
The guards knew that Lanzhou had suffered a flood, but they didn't remember whether there had been a plague as well?
The guard was about to ask more questions when an ox cart came unsteadily, and the fresh vegetables in the cart were scattered all over the ground.
His attention was drawn away for a moment, and when he turned around, the young man was no longer in sight!
The guard suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.
After the matter was reported to Xu Qinghe, Xu Qinghe immediately ordered people to take the booklet and conduct a thorough investigation of the residents in the city.
There are many family members of generals in the Southern Border Army in Jizhou City. If the Nanyi Kingdom wants to capture them and use them to threaten the powerful generals, it is not impossible.
But she never expected that the other party's target was only her.
**
On the third day of August, Xie Qi counted the number of soldiers in the army and assigned tasks to everyone. Then he took the initiative and headed towards the mountains in the south.
There was a continuous mountain range between Daying and Nanyi Kingdom, which was originally Daying's best defense. However, when Wei Yiqun was there, he gave up the position of these mountains, allowing the people of Nanyi Kingdom to occupy it quietly.
There must be secret sentries and ambushes among the mountains.
However, Xie Qi was very familiar with this mountain range.
At that time, the prince was in his prime, and he was still young, and the place where he and the young soldiers trained was in the mountains.
So he followed the terrain he remembered, took the lead, and with the resentment that had been accumulating for many years and had nowhere to vent, he waited for the soldiers who were here to avenge their previous humiliation to charge into battle.
He led his men to behead enemy generals one after another and dismantle complicated mechanisms one after another. In just three days, they broke through the defenses set up by the Nanyi Kingdom and went straight through the mountains.
The soldiers were enjoying killing the enemies, their morale was so high that they could not even wait to rest and shouted that they wanted to go to the gate of Nanyi Kingdom to challenge them immediately.
Speed is of the essence in war. Seeing that the soldiers were not tired, Xie Qi did not stop them. Instead, he sent out a few soldiers who were best at scolding. After a few words, they really made the generals defending the city so angry that they opened the city gates to fight.
The soldiers were unstoppable and after just five days, they captured four cities of the Nanyi Kingdom.
On the sixth day, the Southern Border Army reached the important military town of Nanyi State.
Before anyone could be sent forward to shout and curse, the guard at the city gate had already waved his hand and prepared to fight.
After all, the people of Daying were not the only ones who had made preparations in advance. Their country of Nanyi had been waiting for this day for a long time!
If His Highness had not insisted on having a real fight with Xie Qi and luring him to the city gate, they would not have deliberately given up the mountains that they had worked so hard to obtain just to exhaust the physical strength of the Southern Border Army!
Over the years, first relying on Wei Yiqun, and later relying on His Highness's influence in Lanzhou, they have obtained a lot of high-quality weapons and horses from the Da Ling people. Now that the shortcomings in the army have been made up, compared with Da Ling, which has lax military equipment, they naturally still have the upper hand!
However, what no one expected was that when compared with the swords and spears in the hands of the Daying people, the weapons they had obtained from Daying Lanzhou over the years were as fragile as paper.
After only a few rounds of fighting, the weapons in the soldiers' hands were broken!
So the defending general replaced them with cavalry, but the opposing cavalry not only had better weapons than them, but even their horses were very strong, almost half a head taller than theirs!
The commander on the tower glanced at Xie Qi's confident face across from him, then walked straight into the tower and respectfully said to the man sitting on the table, "Your Highness, I'm afraid our men can't hold on any longer. Our weapons and horses are inferior, and our morale has also dropped significantly."
The man sitting on the seat had a scar on his neck, which looked like it was pierced by a sharp weapon, leaving a small hole that made one's scalp tingle.
The commander took only one look and bowed his head respectfully.
The man sitting there pondered for a moment and nodded.
"Sound the retreat."
That night, the man called a carrier pigeon and put a letter in it, as well as a black pill in a small bamboo tube.
At midnight that night, in the southern border military camp, everyone was tired after a day of work, but someone was still needed to keep watch, so they began to draw lots while cursing.
Chen Tai caught one and his face suddenly turned dark.
He looked at Xie Qi and said, "General, I still have to guard you. So, there's no need for me to keep watch, right?"
Xie Qi was just taking a sip of water when he saw a water stain on the corner of his lips. He should have wiped it off casually, but for some reason he thought of it and pretended to take out a handkerchief from his bosom and wiped it off carefully.
Everyone was disgusted by what they saw.
It's just a handkerchief given by the princess herself. Is it necessary to show it off like this? It makes you look like you haven't got a family yet.
"You have bad luck, who can you blame?"
Xie Qi smiled nonchalantly, folded the handkerchief and put it back into his arms.
"Just beg and see if anyone will be merciful enough to do it for you."
The generals retreated one after another, saying they were unwilling.
"I do, I do!"
Chen Tai looked over and saw Xie Qi squeeze out from the crowd.
He Yu said, "Brother Chen helped me get food a few days ago, so this time I'll help Brother Chen keep watch. It's what brothers do when they give and take, right?"
Chen Tai thought about it, then handed the thing in his hand to him with a smile: "Thank you very much, brother!"
When the night was deep and everyone was asleep, except for a few dozen soldiers who were on guard duty around the place, everyone else had fallen asleep.
A carrier pigeon cooed by and landed in the palm of a familiar person's hand.
The next day, Xie Qi was discussing matters with the generals and soldiers, and his throat felt slightly dry.
He Yu observed his expression and immediately handed over a bowl of water.
Xie Qi didn't even look at him, drank the water directly, and continued to give orders for today's battle.
At three quarters past nine, the Southern Border Army should have arrived at the city gate to challenge the enemy, but there was no sign of them.
Inside the city wall, a carrier pigeon cooed and landed in front of the window.
The man who had been hiding his face in the shadows finally walked towards the sunlight where the pigeons were. After seeing the contents on the paper clearly, a smile appeared on the corner of his lips.
Then he went out with a knife.
"Comrades, come and fight with me!"
"Yes, Fourth Prince!"
【Author’s words】
End of the second update~
It's almost over~
--
Revised the text and added the setting of taking four cities in five days
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