"The Farmer's Fat Wife" - Fat men are all potential gems (Twenty-six...)
People can do anything when they have free time.
All the major powers are trembling with fear as they work for the Green Wood Army to conquer Huzhou and advance north to Qi, further increasing their power.
Then came the shocking news: Aoki Tenno openly proposed to the son-in-law of the new leader of the Manichaeism.
All the local warlords and even government troops: Huh?
It must be admitted that humans are very primitive animals, and gossip news like this is always eye-catching, especially since this matter involves two regional warlords.
Ye Xiqing's love letter was written in a very high-profile manner, and was sent over as a formal letter of credence.
Our king and your chieftain Chen are from the same hometown and have a long-standing marriage alliance.
The old dynasty did not care for them and sent them north, separating the lovers.
After being separated from his beloved, the king, deeply devoted and loyal, left his harem empty, longing only for the one who would never return.
I had thought that the north was plagued by disasters and that people would have difficulty returning home, fearing that we would be separated forever. Therefore, I diligently served my mother-in-law and treated my husband's younger brother well.
Unexpectedly, an old friend appeared on the battlefield, only to find that he had already gone to another. It was truly disheartening.
You are truly ungrateful, but the Heavenly King does not hold grudges and has returned now, treating you as before.
Return immediately upon receiving this letter, for then the world can be shared by the two of us.
Although the male protagonist had conquered several states in Qi, he failed to achieve his strategic goal and was intercepted by the Qingmu Army. He was feeling extremely frustrated when he received the official letter and immediately exploded. What?
There are still barriers to communication between the North and the South. Although the male protagonist knows that this Aoki Tenno is from the same hometown as him in Yang County, he was implicated because of this in the past.
But he never imagined that the Aoki Heavenly King was none other than his former "ex-wife" Li Sanyue, who was both foolish and fat and unreasonable!
People admire strength. Although he was implicated because of Aoki Tenno, the male protagonist still admires this female Tenno who is capable of raising an army and has extraordinary talent in all aspects.
In this kind of world, it is not easy for a woman to build such a large business, so the image of Aoki Tenoh is automatically idealized.
In his imagination, Aoki Tenwang should be like Mei Jun, decisive and resourceful, like a fairy descended to earth.
And because she calls herself Aoki, she is perhaps more like a mysterious witch like the Mountain Spirit Wu Luo, who is both wild and cunning.
The male lead's character is well-developed. With such an image, even if he loses to her, he would still feel a sweet sense of resentment. Who would have thought that Aoki Ten-wang would actually be Li Sanyue!
The male protagonist felt as if he had been punched, and all his romantic thoughts vanished instantly. He quickly realized the sinister intentions behind the official letter.
Generally speaking, the male lead's father-in-law, whether it's the female supporting character's father or the female lead's father, is the type who quickly becomes a father, but unfortunately, he hasn't become a father yet.
After Manichaeism suffered a major defeat and its power dwindled, the protagonist's father-in-law gathered the remaining forces of Manichaeism and quickly rose to power. Following the example of the Green Wood Heavenly King, he also created his own Earth Virtue and proclaimed himself the Yellow Soil Heavenly King.
It implies that he is acting in accordance with the will of Heaven and will replace the Li Dynasty.
The Yellow Earth King had sons, but both sons were less than capable, while his son-in-law was extremely capable.
The Yellow Soil King had a fondness for the male protagonist's talent, but was also conflicted by the fact that he wasn't his biological son.
When Aoki Heavenly King delivered a formal letter, Yellow Earth Heavenly King's expression immediately changed.
The tallest tree in the forest is bound to be felled by the wind. The male protagonist is too conspicuous, which has earned him a lot of prestige, but has also made many enemies, especially the two biological sons of the Yellow Earth King.
The Yellow Earth King usually used his son-in-law to discipline his two good-for-nothing sons. The two sons held a grudge and immediately jumped out to question him.
"Well, I knew you always acted so arrogantly, but this time you slunk away without any success. So it turns out that Aoki Tenno is your old flame!"
The marriage never actually happened; it was Ye Xiqing who ruined it. The male lead didn't take it to heart and naturally didn't mention it when discussing marriage.
Now that Ye Xiqing is spouting nonsense and there are no witnesses, she can say whatever she wants, and the male lead can't explain himself no matter how hard he tries.
He could only argue with his father-in-law: "Father-in-law, it was I who proposed attacking Qi in the first place. If I had any ulterior motives, why did I make that suggestion in the first place?"
"When Aoki saw that we had raised an army to attack Qi, he actually abandoned the battlefield of Shazhou and turned to compete with us for profit. This was something no one expected."
"How could someone who is capable of such decisiveness and strategy be someone who would be swayed by personal feelings?"
"Even if we do have a past relationship, we are now serving different masters. How could we let personal feelings interfere with important matters? Besides, what is said in the letter is full of nonsense."
"This letter is clearly a divisive message from Aoki Jun; father-in-law, you must not believe it!"
The male lead has excellent communication skills, and the Yellow Soil King believed him immediately.
He may lack other skills, but he is self-aware enough to know that in this chaotic world, he desperately needs the male protagonist's military capabilities.
He immediately waved away his two good-for-nothing sons, pointed at the messenger and roared, "Where did this scoundrel come from, spreading rumors and inciting unrest? Take him out and execute him!"
When two countries are at war, envoys are not to be killed. One of them is just a nobody, and killing him would only serve to vent one's anger, but would not achieve any other purpose.
One reason is that killing an envoy is a major diplomatic incident. If an envoy is killed, the envoy's country will immediately have a reason to send troops.
The envoy was not an orphan; he had the support of a nation and an army.
The fact that the Yellow Earth King could send the envoy out to be executed is enough to demonstrate his trust in the male protagonist.
However, Ye Xiqing was not worried at all about her envoy being killed. Why? Because the person she sent to deliver the message was the male lead's younger brother, Chen Erlang. Hehehe.
Therefore, after the Yellow Earth King issued the execution order, the one who tried to stop it even before the other ministers was the male protagonist.
The Yellow Earth King was a little confused. He was helping him vent his anger, so why should he stop him?
At this point, continuing to conceal the truth would only make things worse, so the male protagonist had no choice but to tell the whole story.
But after he said that, even if King Huangrang believed that he and King Qingmu had no affair, how could he believe that his mother and younger brother were right there on the other side and would not have any effect on him?
...
Chen Erlang went out to deliver a letter and never returned. The protagonist forcefully kept him there, and the brothers reunited, embracing each other and weeping bitterly.
When the male protagonist asked him about his recent situation, Chen Erlang could only weep silently, tears streaming down his face.
Huaizhou was the first to prosper under Ye Xiqing's rule. Before the male protagonist appeared, Ye Xiqing did not pay much attention to the Chen family, and their lives were still fine.
However, in ancient farming families, population was very important.
In the past, the Chen family had three sons, which meant that their family would not only have the labor of three sons, but also the labor of three wives, and in the future, they would have children to help with the farm work.
It can even free up some surplus labor for other things, such as doing business or studying.
But later, the customs of Huaizhou changed drastically. Giving birth was considered a great achievement for women, so no one would be foolish enough to give their daughter away as before.
Without a woman to take over, the three roosters will naturally be one less, one less, and then one less.
Previously, Chen's mother could spend five taels of silver to find a plump wife for Chen Dalang, but now she can't even find a woman willing to marry into the family even if she spends fifty taels.
Chen Erlang was good-looking and was quite popular when women were choosing a spouse.
However, men's obsession with having an heir is too great. Sometimes, even after buying a match and claiming that the money and goods are settled, they still go and pester the man.
To curb this trend, the government has official matchmakers, and private matchmakers also exist to record eligible men who can afford to have children, and to matchmake women of childbearing age, thus standardizing the selection process.
Having been a matchmaker for so many years, Hua Xigu naturally managed the matchmaking office herself.
Who you are in a relationship with and who you have children with are two different things. A person who is suitable for being in a relationship may not be suitable for having children. You must be clear about this distinction.
It doesn't matter whether a woman prefers mature, youthful, healthy, sickly, or has pica, or likes old and ugly men.
When having a child, it is essential to choose a suitable method for childbirth.
State media will enter information on men of childbearing age, including their portraits and a clear description of their merits and demerits, for women of childbearing age to choose from.
Chen Erlang's ranking among matchmakers was probably first-class in appearance, first-class in intelligence, first-class in health, first-class in everything, except that his mother gave birth to three sons.
In order not to hurt the feelings of our compatriots, this cannot be called inferior, but it should be marked separately because some people really need this information.
Chen Erlang was good in every way, except that his mother's giving birth to three sons was a point of contention.
However, there is always a market for those who have more daughters than sons and want to have a son to balance things out.
However, to avoid entanglement, when the matchmaker is collecting the child, the man's eyes are covered so that he cannot see who the employer is, and the matchmaker is not allowed to reveal the information of either party.
Chen's mother was old, his younger brother was still young, and Chen Erlang was a scholar who was lazy and ignorant of farming. After Chen Dalang left, they were immediately in dire straits.
He wasn't good at business, so he could only "sell his children for personal gain".
Born into a patriarchal society, he felt ashamed to be treated like a commodity by women, and he felt even more tormented because he didn't know where his blood and bones were going.
He was simply not cut out for farming, and selling his son for personal gain was not a sustainable business. Even the best talent has its limits, so he made a tough decision to kill himself and seek a minor official position.
However, he changed his thinking too late. When Aoki Army first started out, he could be admitted by dictating 150 words. Three years later, he had to take a preliminary exam, and three years after that, he had to take a professional knowledge exam.
He not only had to face the new textbooks compiled by the imperial court, which were so advanced that men would be overwhelmed at a glance, but the court also created a new font, rendering all the old foundations obsolete, and everyone had to learn them all from scratch.
In the past, his mother and older brother could take care of most of the miscellaneous things, leaving him some time to study. Now, those conditions are nowhere to be found.
He not only had to relearn, but also compete with a group of women who had "fertility skills." His "purification skills" were also competitive, but there were still women who could give birth to twins!
The competition for civil service exams becomes increasingly fierce as the exams progress, and those extra points are not something you can simply give up.
Chen Erlang went through tremendous effort to pass the exam and get a clerical job, where he was responsible for roster entry in the trade department.
The job is actually quite easy; all you have to do is register the names of people coming and going. There are shifts, with people taking turns to work and taking turns to rest on weekdays and weekends off. The pay is quite good, and many people envy it.
But doing this kind of work every day without learning anything makes you feel like a cog in a machine, worthless. For someone who is unwilling to be ordinary, it is too torturous.
The only advantage might be that with a salary, he could hire people to farm.
There are many opportunities for advancement in Huaizhou, and many intelligent people have developed businesses that are more profitable than farming.
However, once the imperial court granted the land, it did not allow for resale or abandonment; the land had to be cultivated or leased to others, and the ownership was not transferred.
In ancient times, most people couldn't abandon their land. Rather than renting it out, they preferred to hire people to farm, making a one-off deal so that the grain would still come into their own homes.
The new government paid laborers very high wages and did not allow them to keep private slaves; they could only be hired by paying money.
For ordinary people, this kind of life is already wonderful. In the past, they not only had to do farm work every day, but the land was not necessarily their own. Now, the government pays them well when they go out to work.
But for Chen Erlang, who was pampered by his family and respected by those around him in the patriarchal era, and who could devote himself to his studies half-time and had a promising future, it was as if he had fallen from heaven into hell.
I was suddenly promoted, and I thought my luck was about to change, but I never expected to be sent to do this kind of thing.
When Chen Erlang saw his elder brother, he burst into tears and recounted the torments he had endured over the years.
Chen Dalang never expected his family to live like this while he was away, so he immediately kept his younger brother behind and wouldn't let him go back.
Seeing his brother succeed, Chen Erlang was overjoyed, but what would happen to his family if he didn't go back?
Even with his good temper, Chen Dalang couldn't help but grit his teeth: "Just leave it there! Didn't that woman say she was deeply in love with me?!"
For the sake of his family's safety, the male protagonist took the opportunity to admit his past relationship, saying, "Since you say you have feelings for me, of course you should treat my family well!"
Upon receiving the reply, Ye Xiqing couldn't help but laugh wildly for three days, imagining all the possible scenarios that might occur when his brother reunited.
The officials of the Aoki faction had never seen such a boring person. Zhu Niangzi said speechlessly, "Isn't it a bit inappropriate to give someone who has been in Huaizhou for a long time and knows our system very well to the enemy?"
Ye Xiqing held back her laughter for a long time before she could finally suppress it.
"It's alright, it's time for outsiders to get to know us."
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Author's note: Qingqing: I'll teach you everything you want to learn.
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