Chapter 933 My eldest brother is back!
Li San Niang simply nodded and smiled at Lu Zhu'er, but she didn't really take Lu Zhu'er's words to heart.
The first one is that Dewdrop is just a young girl of ten years old, and her heart is not yet open to love;
And there was also a father like Prince Heng who had done such things, setting an example for them;
Even at a young age, Dewdrop had already seen Fang Chengxian and Xu Jingzhen, who looked like true noblemen.
He also had the love and care of his brothers, Li Dalang and Li Erlang, at home;
Even when Dewdrop falls in love, she will be a woman who has high standards for the man she likes, and she will not be someone who can be easily swayed by a few sweet words.
Even though Lu Zhu'er is saying that as long as the man is willing to marry into the family in the future, who can predict what the future holds?
Even though Li San Niang only has this one child in her life, she doesn't intend to actually find a husband for Lu Zhu'er and just keep Lu Zhu'er "trapped" by her side.
Of course, she had no intention of marrying Dewdrop off somewhere far away.
According to Li San Niang's plan, it was impossible for Lu Zhu'er to get married before she turned eighteen. It would be best if Lu Zhu'er had children after she turned twenty.
Li San Niang had already started saving up for Lu Zhu'er's dowry, and it would be best to find a man Lu Zhu'er liked in Chang'an City.
Thus, even if Chang'an is a very large city, it is possible to reach it within a day by fast horse.
In the future, no matter what happens, as long as Dewdrop sends a message, Li San Niang can arrive on the same day, and that will be fine.
However, it's too early to talk about all this now. Li San Niang is only thinking about these things prematurely because she has a daughter at home.
In fact, according to the customs of the Tang Dynasty, it was not considered early for children to consider marriage when they were just over ten years old.
Recently, Li Erxiong and Li Ersao have been preparing for Li Sanlang's wedding.
Since the Li family had not officially separated, the two brothers continued to live together.
Although Li San Niang moved out of the Li family, she still lived in Changshoufang, which was not far from the Li family. Moreover, Lu Zhu'er, Li San Niang's only child, ate at the Li family almost every day.
Therefore, thanks to the influence of Li Da-xiong, Li Da-lang, Li Er-lang, and Li San-niang, all four of them were officials, which elevated Li San-lang's status.
They were all surnamed Li and lived in the same family.
There are quite a few families who want to marry into Li Sanlang's family. In fact, two or three matchmakers have come to the Li family recently to sound them out.
In fact, given Li Sanlang's age, he should have been married long ago according to old customs.
Isn't this because the Imperial Medical Bureau announced that men and women should not marry too early, as this would be more beneficial for their offspring?
This resulted in wealthier families wanting to keep their children alive longer. While boys could marry at fifteen or sixteen, this delayed it to seventeen or eighteen, and some even didn't marry until they were twenty.
Therefore, Li Sanlang followed this trend, and now that he is almost eighteen, Li Erxiong and Li Ersao have finally put the matter of finding a match on the agenda.
Of course, there were some hidden agendas involved. Firstly, the eldest grandson, Li Dalang, was away from home for many years, and no offspring had yet been born in the fourth generation of the Li family.
Then there's Li Erlang, who's the same age as Li Sanlang, and he still doesn't seem to be married;
With the two eldest children in the family in such a state, the others were no longer in a hurry for Li Sanlang's marriage.
Secondly, Li Ersao was holding back her ambition. She thought that if she waited a few years, the Li family's status would rise again, and perhaps Li Sanlang would be able to marry a daughter of an official.
Therefore, it was only at this age that Li Sanlang's family began to worry about his marriage.
As for Li Erlang, he was only a few months older than Li Sanlang, but he entered officialdom early and had a lot of autonomy over his marriage.
He had told his elder brother and sister-in-law Li that he would only consider marriage after he turned twenty.
Li Dalang, the eldest of the third generation of the Li family, got married very early.
However, due to Li Dalang's military service, he had rarely returned home in recent years, leaving Jiang Shengnan alone in the Li family. As a result, the couple had no children.
Therefore, when the news of Li Dalang's impending return home spread, Li Dalang and his wife had already discussed it in advance.
Once Li Dalang returns home, Jiang Shengnan will accompany him to the border town of Shule to join the army. How can a young couple be separated for so long?
On September 13th, the sky was high and the air was crisp.
Li Dalang, whom everyone in the Li family had been thinking about, finally returned to the land of Chang'an!
Led by Shi Le'an, they traveled by ship from Annam to Guangzhou, then to Qiongzhou, and finally north to Hangzhou. After disembarking and regrouping, the group continued their journey to the Central Plains. After many hardships, they finally returned to Chang'an before all the nations came to pay tribute.
The army's return to Chang'an was a major event. Apart from the commander-in-chief who was allowed to enter the city to meet Emperor Wu, the remaining soldiers set up camp outside the city near the main camp in the suburbs of the capital, waiting for orders from above before they could move.
Li Dalang and his soldiers will participate in the military exercises during the "All Nations Paying Homage" ceremony, along with the soldiers from the main camp outside the capital.
Most importantly, Emperor Wu would personally attend to reward Li Dalang and the other soldiers who had won battles and returned alive.
Why risk your life, fighting day and night with a sword in hand?
It's all about fame and fortune, about bringing glory to one's ancestors and securing a good position for one's wife and children.
Therefore, one can imagine how spectacular the scene must have been on the day of the military exercise.
The night was as still as water, and the soft moonlight shone on people.
We're already at our doorstep, but we still can't go home. It's really making us incredibly restless and itchy.
Li Dalang sat on a large rock outside the military tent, looking at the moon shining softly overhead, his heart filled with longing for his family.
Wang Dadan, Gao Haiping, and their brothers, including Shiwu and Shiliu, sat around two chickens roasting over a fire in the middle. The chickens, sprinkled with only a little coarse salt, emitted the unique aroma of animal fat after being roasted by the flames.
"The boss has spent money again, hehe."
Li Dalang smiled at Fifteen, who was speaking, and reached out to stir the fire to make it burn brighter: "It's just a matter of finding a fire starter to get two chickens, what's the big deal?"
After the international assembly, we'll have leave to visit our families. You'll all come home with me. My mother's pancakes are absolutely delicious—even better than meat!
Meanwhile, in the Li family's Changshoufang neighborhood of Chang'an City, Jiang Shengnan lay on her bed with her eyes closed, unable to fall asleep at all.
She tossed and turned, but finally opened her eyes and stared blankly at the vermilion curtain above her head, her mind filled with thoughts of Li Dalang.
This curtain was specially made by Sister-in-law Li when they were newly married; she went to the shop to buy red cloth and had it made.
Jiang Shengnan already knew from Li Dasao that when Li Dalang returned home this time, and when he returned to the military camp in Shule, she wanted to go with him.
Thinking of this, Jiang Shengnan couldn't help but feel excited.
She originally came from the border town; her mother, father, and brothers all lived there. Everything she knew was in the border town; it was where she had grown up.
If she could really return to the border town with Li Dalang in the future, even if she still longed for the prosperity and liveliness of Chang'an, she would still be happier to return to the border town.
Meanwhile, Li San Niang was holding her precious Lu Zhu'er in her arms, listening to her say: "...Today I heard people in the school say that the army has returned and is in the military camp outside the city."
I was so happy to think that my older brother must be inside!
"Mother," Dewdrop snuggled into Li Sanniang's arms, "Big brother is finally back!"
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