Chapter 554 Pregnant
(Thanks to reader 20181223195119121 for casting 2 monthly tickets.)
On the last day of May, Sun Xiaoliu's team finally arrived in Jian'an!
Ahead, the boundary marker of Jian'an is already in sight.
As their convoy crossed the weathered boundary marker, the two large, mottled characters "Jian'an" came into view, and the atmosphere in the air suddenly changed.
The wind in the wilderness seemed to carry a hint of bloodshed and desolation.
It was no longer the peaceful place of Jinzhou. The wind carried a salty, fishy smell, quite different from the smell of Sanshan Port in Jinzhou.
Sun Xiaoliu's expression tightened when he saw the boundary marker. He rode his horse back and forth between the caravan, his sharp eyes scanning the overly dense forests on both sides of the road. He would occasionally raise his hand to give instructions, keeping the team in a vigilant formation.
Finally, before sunset, a camp built along the mountainside and beside the river appeared before everyone's eyes.
The fences were high and the watchtowers were numerous. The figures of soldiers patrolling among them. Although it looked somewhat simple from the outside, it exuded a solemn and imposing atmosphere.
At the camp gate, the banner bearing the character "Li" fluttered in the wind.
This is the Xuanjia Army's main camp outside Jian'an City.
Sitting in the carriage, Jiang Yining clenched her fingers tightly in her sleeve, her nails digging deeply into her palms.
We've arrived in Jian'an.
The secrets hidden within Jiang Huai, and the potential bloodshed that may follow, seem to be about to begin.
Jiang Yining knew she had to tell the only person who could make decisions—Li Shiyue—about Jiang Huai's situation and what she had discovered in the team over the past twenty days as soon as possible.
After a flurry of activity, Sun Xiaoliu settled Zheng Meiniang and the other five hundred new recruits in the camp, and by then the moon was high in the sky.
After tidying up the tent, Jiang Yining took the opportunity to go to Sun Xiaoliu and told him that she had something very important to discuss and needed to see Li Shiyue.
Sun Xiaoliu was originally going to return to Jian'an City to report the situation to Li Shiyue;
Upon hearing what Jiang Yining, the female accountant, said, he thought about it and decided to bring her along anyway.
"Accountant Jiang, can you ride a horse?"
If it were the old Jiang Yining, she really wouldn't have done it.
However, hadn't she been working as an accountant in Lijiatun for many years?
There are plenty of horses in the horse farm at the back of Lijiatun Village. Even if not every household in Lijiatun has a horse, there is usually one horse for every three to five households.
Therefore, after working as an accountant in Lijiatun for so many years, Jiang Yining had also learned how to ride a horse.
So Jiang Yining went back into her tent to put on another coat, then mounted her horse with Sun Xiaoliu and several Xuanjia soldiers, and galloped towards Jian'an City.
Inside the governor's mansion in Jian'an City, Li Shiyue, dressed in casual clothes, was sitting at a table examining a map.
After the announcement, Li Shiyue, who had looked away from the map, looked at Sun Xiaoliu, whom she hadn't seen for over a month, with some surprise.
Sun Xiaoliu could tell what Li Shiyue wanted to ask without Li Shiyue even having to speak. He shook his head at Li Shiyue and said, "I don't know. Accountant Jiang said it's an urgent matter that needs to be discussed with the general in person."
Li Shiyue, who had a very good impression of Jiang Yining, nodded. Sun Xiaoliu then walked to the door, opened it, and called Jiang Yining, who was waiting at the door, to come in.
Jiang Yining stood at the lower end of the table, looking at Chen Yong and Sun Xiaoliu, who were standing on either side of Li Shiyue. Everyone present understood that Jiang Yining had something private to say to Li Shiyue.
Li Shiyue thought that Jiang Yining was hesitant to say certain things in front of Chen Yong and Sun Xiaoliu because they were men.
So Li Shiyue waved to the two of them, and after they bowed to Li Shiyue, they went out one after the other.
Seeing that only she and Li Shiyue were left in the room, Jiang Yining took a step forward, getting closer to Li Shiyue behind the long table.
She leaned forward and lowered her voice to Li Shiyue, recounting everything she had witnessed in Jinzhou Prefecture—the secret meeting between Jiang Huai and Jiang Huijun.
She then told Li Shiyue which people in the convoy she had observed on the way from Jinzhou to Jian'an seemed to have had contact with Jiang Huai.
“General,” Jiang Yining said solemnly, “Jiang Huai is a man of deep thoughts, and has a close relationship with the Princess Consort of Zhenbei.”
The contents of their secret meeting remain unknown, but caution is still necessary.
After listening, Li Shiyue remained calm and composed, only tapping her fingers lightly twice on the map.
She looked at Jiang Yining with sharp eyes: "Why did Accountant Jiang tell me this? You should know that you are surnamed Jiang."
Jiang Yining took a step back and bowed to Li Shiyue, saying, "Since I have chosen to follow the general, I should naturally prioritize the general's interests."
"If the general falls, I see we'll lose our allegiance, and how can we continue to live such a good life?"
Li Shiyue nodded slightly: "I understand."
Do not mention this matter to any third party.
As for Jiang Huai, I know what I'm doing.
"You should rest for a few days. Chen Yong will come looking for you and arrange for you to work in Jian'an. The salary will be even better than when you were in Lijiatun."
After bowing to Li Shiyue once more, Jiang Yining tactfully left.
Inside the room, Li Shiyue's gaze returned to the map in front of her, but her eyes were colder than before.
Jiang Huai... Jiang Huijun... She remembered it.
After seeing Jiang Yining come out of the house and follow the maids in the courtyard to the guest room to settle down, Sun Xiaoliu and Chen Yong went back into the house.
Several lamps were lit inside the room, especially on the long table in front of Li Shiyue, where two white candles were lit on each side, making the map on the table very clear.
At this moment, Sun Xiaoliu took out the handwritten order from Liu Tan, which read "Decisive action on the spot, execute first and report later," and presented it to Li Shiyue with both hands.
Li Shiyue looked at the warrant again and again. After a long while, she slowly put it down, looked up at Sun Xiaoliu, and asked in a relatively calm voice, "Is there anything else going on in Jinzhou?"
Sun Xiaoliu's expression suddenly turned serious. He nodded heavily to Li Shiyue: "When I was in the prefectural city, I not only went to look for our spies left there, but also went to Xingsheng Tower as the general instructed."
As Sun Xiaoliu finished speaking, his expression changed again, turning into an awkward look as if he didn't know how to continue.
"Alright, hurry up, is there anything you can't tell us?"
How did it end up like this?
What's wrong that's making you unable to speak?"
After Li Shiyue said those words, Sun Xiaoliu finally spoke up and said, "I learned from the servants who purchase supplies in the backyard of the Prince's mansion that there are indeed Turkic women who are pregnant in the backyard of the Prince's mansion, and there is more than one."
This matter was no longer a top secret within the Prince's residence, but the General had forcibly suppressed it, strictly forbidding its dissemination.
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