readx(); After a few days of lobbying, almost 80% of the concubines in the harem had already voluntarily joined the Eighth Prince's party, willing to assist the Eighth Prince to ascend to the throne wholeheartedly, and to do everything they could to suppress the Ninth Prince and Concubine Yun. For a while, the Eighth Prince's wings, which seemed to be depressed, became full again. And he was not vague. He was not afraid of losing the money. He had already transferred more money from various places. After so many years of operation, his foundation was not only that in the Sheng Palace. Especially in the Biannan area, his wealth was even richer than that of a country.
With money and connections, Xuan Tianmo was confident even if he was lying in the mansion recovering from his injuries. He just didn't believe that he couldn't compete for the throne? Xuan Tianmo was no worse than Lao Jiu. If he really was worse, it was only in the degree of favor of his biological mother. But this was also his advantage. He wanted to ask the people of the world, do you want an emperor who fought for the world by himself, or do you want an emperor who sat on the throne by relying on his mother's favor.
On the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month, in Yuehan Palace, a female guard was standing in front of Concubine Yun, telling her expressionlessly about some of the major and minor events that had happened in the capital in recent days. When she mentioned that the Eighth Prince had united with the maternal families of the concubines in the palace, Concubine Yun shrugged and smiled: "What did those old guys do in the early years? Now they think of defending their daughter? But it is true. Morally speaking, I stole their husbands, so we are not right."
"Oh! Your Majesty, you must not think like that." An old maid beside Concubine Yun quickly spoke up after hearing this: "This is how concubines compete for favor in the palace. It has nothing to do with morality. I have been in the palace for a long time and have seen everything. No matter how favored you are, at least you have never hurt anyone. But before you came, those people died and were injured in order to compete for favor. Although our emperor has nine sons, he also has princesses. It's a pity that none of them were born and all died in the womb. Why? It was all because of the competition for favor. So you must not feel sorry for anyone. According to this old servant, it was you, Your Majesty, who saved them. At least these twenty-something harems are peaceful and there are no deaths or injuries."
The head maid Su Yu also nodded and said, "That's right, your majesty, there is no such thing as morality in the harem. It's just like on the battlefield, only the fittest survive, and only the strong survive."
"Is that so?" Concubine Yun asked quietly, but she didn't expect anyone to give a real answer. She understood the truth, but she just didn't like this palace, so everything she saw was distorted, and she couldn't fully agree with the survival rules in this palace. "Su Yu, go to the Imperial Observatory. The story of the two stars accompanying the moon that the director told last time hasn't ended yet!"
Su Yu touched her forehead. The Imperial Observatory was a sacred and mysterious department in the palace, and even the emperor valued it very much. But when it came to Concubine Yun, it became a storyteller. Su Yu had no choice but to bite the bullet and ask for the favor. As expected, she heard the Observatory complaining again.
However, the Supervisor did not dare to complain in front of Concubine Yun. He stood there and told her the story of the two stars accompanying the moon. He told Concubine Yun: "The Phoenix Star is bright and dazzling. Although it has left the capital, its blessings will last for a long time. Your Majesty does not need to worry. The other star in the binary is also blooming. If the two stars fight, the main star will win!"
In the southwest direction, Feng Yuheng and his party have already reached Kunzhou in Yuntian Prefecture. If they continue forward through Haizhou and Yuzhou, they will enter the scope of Ji'an County.
Because they were delayed in Shuzhou for a few days, they had been traveling all night these days. They would not stop unless the horses needed to rest. They often slept in the carriage at night and woke up the next day to continue their journey.
Today, they passed by a small village. Wang Chuan asked Feng Yuheng, "Miss, why don't we find a farmer's house to stay overnight? Although the conditions in the village are limited, it's still possible to take a bath and wipe the body."
Feng Yuheng also lifted the curtain to look outside, but was not very optimistic about the idea of staying overnight. "This village is too poor." There are no more than 20 households, and each has a thatched house with at most two rooms. They are just staying overnight, but where can they find a place to stay for so many people?
Wang Chuan looked at it for a while and felt that the proposal just now might not work, so he said helplessly: "It seems that we have to sleep in the carriage tonight. We servants don't mind, but it will be hard for Miss and the Third Miss."
Feng Yuheng waved his hand, "I'm not that delicate. When I went to Qianzhou to fight, the conditions were not as good as they are now."
Xiangrong followed up with, "Yes, yes, I'm not that delicate and can endure any hardship." In fact, she already felt very happy to be able to follow her second sister. It really didn't matter where she lived or what kind of life she led.
Wang Chuan nodded and said nothing more. He just stopped the carriage and took Huang Quan to look around. When he came back, he reported to Feng Yuheng: "Miss, let's stop in the middle of the village. Wang Lin has greeted several farmers. There is no place to live in the thatched house, but we can borrow their stoves to make a decent dinner."
This is a good idea. Feng Yuheng said, "Let's count what's left in our car, or we can use the silver to buy some from the villagers. It's okay to give them more silver. They look quite poor. If we eat their food, we should at least be able to let them buy more food."
Shancha felt a little embarrassed to sit in the car, so she took the initiative to go with Wangchuan Huangquan to do the errand. Xiangrong also found it interesting, so she went down to take a look. Not long after, she came back with a bitter face and said, "Second sister, we are too poor. Every family's rice jar is empty. Not to mention rice, we can't even find a bowl of brown rice. The villagers said that their daily food is only enough to eat for one day, and they will have to find a way the next day. We arrived after dark, and even if we bought all the brown rice in the village, it would not be enough for one person to eat."
Feng Yuheng was speechless. He stood up and stood outside the carriage, looking outside. He saw that the village was surrounded by mountains on both sides. If they lived off the mountains, they wouldn't be so poor. Even in winter, almost all the men in the mountain village would hunt, kill a few pheasants to eat or exchange for money, so they couldn't live like this all the time, right? What's more, the Kunzhou area of Yuntianfu is not as cold as the capital. The trees on the mountain have sprouted, and it can be seen that it is a very wealthy mountain range.
She was very puzzled, so she got off the car and started chatting with a nearby farmer. The farmer was an old woman with her wife and a three-year-old boy. When she saw her, the old woman said apologetically: "There is really no place to live at home. There are only two rooms, and one of them doesn't have a kang, so it's uninhabitable."
The wife also explained: "We are in Lijia Village, a village on the roadside. There are often passers-by who want to stay overnight, but unfortunately the villagers are too poor and no one can build a house. Fortunately, you have a carriage. If you can't walk anymore, you can stay overnight in the carriage. But I can't help you with food. The family can only eat two meals a day, and they don't have any." She said a little embarrassed and hugged the child in her arms. Feng Yuheng took a look at the child, who was skinny and obviously malnourished.
She asked the woman, "Are there only three of you at home? Why are there no male children?"
The mother-in-law said, "My son has gone to work in Queensland. He earns more than 200 copper coins a month. He comes back at the end of the month. It will only take a few days for us to see him."
"Go to Kunzhou to work?" Feng Yuheng asked again: "Do all the men in the village have to go out to work? I see that your village is sandwiched between two mountain ranges, and it's not bad to live by the mountains. Why do you have to go to such a far place to work for more than 200 copper coins?" More than 200 copper coins, what can you do? She really has no idea about such a small amount of silver.
"Alas." The woman sighed helplessly after hearing her question. "As for going into the mountains to make a living, it's not uncommon to do so in the past. Life in our village used to be pretty good. We dug wild vegetables and picked wild fruits in the mountains. There were mushrooms after the rain, and we could hunt some game from time to time, which was pretty good. But since the bandits came more than a year ago, no one dared to go up the mountain anymore. Even firewood can only be picked up at the foot of the mountain, so even firewood has to be saved in this small mountain village."
"Bandits?" She frowned and looked into the deep mountains again, but the mountains were so majestic and the moonlight was so dark tonight that she couldn't really see anything. "Are bandits out to hurt people?" she asked the woman, "Or will people who enter the mountains be robbed and killed?"
The woman thought for a moment and said, "No one has seen any injuries to the villagers. As for whether they will be robbed and killed when entering the mountain, no one has tried it, because since they knew that a group of new bandits lived in the mountain, no one dared to go up. But we often see those bandits coming down the mountain to rob and kill passing merchants. As for our villagers... Miss has seen it, we are so poor here, even if they want to rob, I am afraid they don't know where to start." As she spoke, she glanced at Feng Yuheng's convoy and said helplessly, "Miss, you have to be careful, so many carriages, there is no guarantee that they will be targeted by bandits. Alas, the world is uneasy!"
"Mom." The daughter-in-law pulled the old woman, "It's getting dark, let's go back to the house quickly." As she spoke, she pulled the old woman and the little boy into the house, and at the same time said to Feng Yuheng, "I'm sorry, I really can't help you, take care of yourselves." After that, the three of them went back to the house.
Wang Chuan looked helplessly at the hastily closed door, spread his hands and said, "It seems that we can't ask them to borrow the stove. Even firewood is precious. What else can we use?"
Feng Yuheng also smiled bitterly, "Forget it, let's go collect firewood ourselves, and eat whatever is in the car, and then have a good meal when we get to Haizhou."
Huang Quan stuck out his tongue and said, "It's the only way! Don't worry, Miss. We have some cakes bought in the small county in the car. I'll go into the mountains to see if there are any pheasants to hunt. It'll be good to make chicken soup with cakes. The villagers are afraid of bandits, but we are not."
Feng Yuheng nodded, "Go! Call two secret guards to come with you and bring back more firewood. We need to light it at night to keep watch." After she finished speaking, she turned around and was about to return to the carriage. There was a lot of food in the space, and a lot of it had been secretly added to the carriage along the way. It was just right to add some more tonight. It was not convenient to eat pork elbows, but at least small biscuits or something could satisfy hunger.
But just as she turned around, she suddenly heard the sound of a weapon breaking through the air. Feng Yuheng subconsciously dodged, and a hidden weapon passed by her ear, just a little bit away from hitting her cheek. But the wind brought by the hidden weapon also made her feel painful.
"Who?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
