343, It's a pity we met too late
343, It's a pity we met too late
After discussing with Captain Guo and obtaining his consent, Lu Mingfei sent people to the nearest county town to hire a batch of horse-drawn carriages and mule carts. He also bought more than a dozen more and gave them to Captain Guo and others for transportation.
In this way, Captain Guo and others rode horses, while the prisoners rode in horse-drawn carriages or mule carts.
Everyone won't have to work so hard on the road, and the prisoners can arrive in Beijun earlier. The officials who escort the prisoners to Beijun can also return to Kyoto Prefecture earlier after sending the prisoners to their destination.
It's like having the best of both worlds.
Lu Mingfei and his group were also going to Beijun, so he planned to follow the team escorting the exiles all the way. This way, he could help take care of the Fu family and the other imprisoned officials on the way.
He was going to be the county magistrate of a small county in Beijun. Lu Mingfei planned to move all these people to the area under his jurisdiction to serve as population.
Moreover, many of these people were educated and could be quite useful. These convicted officials, in particular, were former officials with some real skills. If they went to the local area, they could help him with his work.
While on the road, he planned to establish good relationships with Captain Guo and others, which would also make it easier for him to act in the future.
Therefore, when he saw that they had nothing to do on the road, Lu Mingfei often invited Captain Guo to get into his carriage for tea.
What's rare is that the two of them have similar temperaments.
Lu Mingfei has lived two lives and has seen a lot. Although he has lived in this world for so many years, he is not bound by those rules and regulations, and his words and deeds are not like those civil servants in the court.
Captain Guo was a military commander and not one who followed the rules.
So when the two of them started chatting and got to know each other, they both felt like they had met too late, and they quickly started to call each other brothers.
"I originally thought that a scholar like you, Brother Lu, would be the same as the civil servants in the court. Unexpectedly, you are not like them at all." After getting to know each other, Captain Guo changed his address from Lord Lu to Brother Lu.
"Haha, everyone has their own personality. It doesn't mean that just because you are a scholar you must speak in all kinds of nonsense." Lu Mingfei said with a smile.
With the carriage and horses, their journey became much faster.
After walking like this for seven or eight days, they entered the territory of Tong County.
However, when they arrived here, Lu Mingfei didn't dare to lead this group of people directly into the county town. He was afraid that Captain Guo would notice something.
Fortunately, because they were carrying prisoners, the officials escorting them could not leave. So when they arrived at the post station here, Captain Guo and his group stayed at the post station outside the city to watch over the prisoners.
However, Lu Mingfei had to go into the city to see his parents and family, and also arrange for Fu Lianxin to come to the post station to meet his parents.
Because Mr. Fu is still a prisoner, even though he has a good relationship with Captain Guo, it is still difficult to take a prisoner away from the team.
Before leaving, he said goodbye to Captain Guo and said that his family had come here to do business and he was going to find them.
Along the way, Captain Guo also heard Lu Mingfei say that he had offended Prime Minister Wan in order to avenge his dead cousin, so he also knew that Lu Mingfei's family was forced to leave Kyoto Prefecture and go out to make a living.
It was precisely because of this incident that Captain Guo felt that Lu Mingfei was a man of affection, righteousness and courage.
Now, when he heard that Lu Mingfei was going to see his family, he said, "Okay, go ahead. We're a little tired from the journey, so let's stay here for another day before continuing on our journey."
This is meant to allow Lu Mingfei to spend more time with his family.
"In that case, thank you very much, Brother Guo." Lu Mingfei knew Captain Guo was trying to do him a favor. He still had a lot of things to do here, and he really needed some time to stay here to deal with them.
After saying hello to Captain Guo and leaving half of his men at the post station, Lu Mingfei went into the city with a few personal guards.
Lu Youtian and Liu Sanniang in the city had already received the news that their eldest son was coming, so they were waiting at home early.
Lu Qingfeng also brought his wife and children to the Lu family to wait for his adopted son.
After they came to Tong County, the two families lived in adjacent courtyards. Now, if one family shouts in their own home, the other family can hear the sound.
After the two families discussed it, they decided to open a door on the wall they shared, so that one family could go to the other without even going through the main door.
So now, it is more convenient for the two families to visit each other than when they were in Kyoto Prefecture. The happiest people are the two children in the family. The two brothers now live in the same yard and their relationship is still as good as when they were children.
“Da da da—”
Hearing the sound of horse hooves, the adults and children standing at the door stretched their necks to look at the other end of the alley.
Seeing the carriage coming in, Liu Sanniang shouted happily: "Here it comes, it's Fei Ge'er."
"elder brother……"
The two boys, Lu Mingrui and Lu Mingcong, had no adults to hold them, and they had already run in the direction of the carriage.
Zhang Xiaobao ran two steps behind and then stopped.
Lu Mingfei, who was in the carriage, was just looking out the curtain when he saw his two younger brothers running towards him. "You two boys, run slower!"
The coachman grabbed the reins and controlled the horse's speed.
As soon as the horse slowed down, the two guys who happened to be running to the carriage jumped onto the carriage from the left and right.
"elder brother!"
“Hey hey hey!”
Lu Mingfei reached out to catch it, but missed, and was tackled by the two boys. "What have you two eaten recently? Why are you so heavy?"
"Hahaha, brother, we miss you!" Lu Mingrui hadn't seen his brother for a long time, but he still put his arms around his brother's neck with both hands and rubbed his little face against him.
Lu Mingcong next to him followed suit, "Hehehe, brother..."
"..." Lu Mingfei, if I had known earlier, I shouldn't have taught these two boys this kind of behavior!
"Don't let the two of you crush your brother. Get down here right away!" As soon as the carriage stopped, Lu Youtian came over and lifted down the two guys who were crushing his eldest son.
Lu Qingfeng stood aside and laughed, rubbing his son's head with his big hand.
Liu Sanniang and Xu Yueniang were standing aside and talking. Xu Yueniang said, "The relationship between the brothers is still as good as when they were children."
"Yes, having a good relationship is a good thing." Liu Sanniang responded with a smile.
Without the two weights on his body, Lu Mingfei felt relieved and got off the car by himself.
"Father, stepfather. Mother, stepmother."
"Hey, you're back."
"I'm glad you're back. Hurry home. We have hot dishes and meals at home. Let's eat first."
"Okay." Lu Mingfei nodded with a smile.
"Sir." Zhang Qi shouted.
When passing by the Zhang Qi brothers, Lu Mingfei raised his hand and touched Zhang Xiaobao's head, motioning the two brothers to go with them, "Come on, let's go in and eat together."
After a few years, Zhang Qi grew from a little boy of eleven or twelve years old into a tall young man.
His younger brother Zhang Xiaobao is also in his teens now.
When the two brothers first came to the Lu family, one was eleven or twelve years old, and the other was only five or six years old. A few years passed, and the two brothers grew up. However, after growing up, they still chose to stay here at the Lu family.
Zhang Qi has been helping out in the workshop for many years and has become its manager. Now that their workshop has moved here, he has brought his younger brother and the Lu family to Tong County.
In the past, he was always busy at the new workshop. Today, when he heard that his master's carriage would pass through Tong County and return to the city, he hurried back to the Lu family just to see their master.
Seeing their adults enter the yard, he followed behind.
When he arrived at his new home that day, Lu Mingfei had a meal with his family, and then went to the study to chat with his father and godfather for a while.
After dark, he took a carriage to the county government office and entered the backyard directly from the side door.
"Ming Fei."
"Big Brother."
After entering the county government office, Lu Mingfei saw that his senior brother was already waiting for him there.
The two brothers hadn't seen each other for a long time. They didn't even have time to exchange greetings when they met, so they came to the study and started talking about business.
The two of them chatted until late at night.
Hearing the gong sound for the third watch, Lu Mingfei knew it was getting late, so he ended the conversation for today. "Let's stop here for today. We can talk about the rest tomorrow morning. Go and get some rest first."
"Okay." Fu Boming yawned, realizing how late it was. No wonder he felt tired. He looked at his junior fellow apprentice, who looked even more energetic than him despite the long journey, and asked, "Would you like to stay here tonight?"
"Well, I can just take a short rest here. Brother, you go to sleep first. I will go to sleep by myself later." Lu Mingfei said.
"...Okay, then I'll go first." Fu Boming really couldn't bear it anymore, so he stopped trying to persuade his junior brother.
After his senior brother left, Lu Mingfei continued to handle official business in the study.
***
At this time in the Zhenbei Army camp.
Li Qun brought the prepared medicine to their young master, "Young master, it's time to take the medicine."
Zhao Lang, who was standing in front of the sand table studying the terrain, didn't even raise his head when he heard this. He just reached out to take the medicine bowl, brought it to his mouth, and drank the medicine in three or two gulps.
His expression never changed throughout the whole process, and he never complained at all.
Only Li Qun felt a pang of distress when he saw their prince drinking the medicine with an expressionless face. He pulled out the candied dates he had bought beforehand, opened them, and placed them on the table. "Prince, I went out and bought a bag of candied fruit today. I'll leave it here for you to enjoy whenever you like."
"Don't stand there too long. It's getting late. You should rest early."
After putting the things down, Li Qun quickly picked up the empty bowl and turned to leave, as if he was afraid that someone behind him would call him to take the candied fruit back.
Hearing the footsteps leaving, Zhao Lang raised his head and glanced at the swaying curtain. His eyes fell on the candied fruit on the table, but he did not reach out to take it.
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