Mongolian envoys knocked on the gate of Youzhou
Chapter 65: Mongolian Envoys Knock on the Gate of Youzhou City
After planting all the potatoes, she watered them once to help them establish their roots, and then instructed the woman, one of the three, to take the lead in caring for the sweet potatoes. After a day of getting along, Chu Huaibei clearly noticed that although they were all farmers, the woman was more able to calm down and think carefully and follow her instructions. The other two, even though they did what she told them to do, relied on their previous experience and disagreed with her new planting method.
They were all shocked and surprised that the woman was elected as the team leader. The oldest one clenched his fists. It was obvious that she was the leader before they started working on the first day.
Chu Huaibei, no matter what they think, in her eyes, the one who is capable will naturally get the job.
"These seeds are extremely valuable. If the inspectors discover that you are not diligently serving them, or deliberately destroying them, don't blame me for speaking harshly. None of you three will escape punishment. Of course, if you do a good job, I will not treat you unfairly."
Chu Huaibei first tightened the leather for the three people, and then ordered the soldiers stationed at the sugar factory to assign four people to guard the greenhouse to ensure the safety of the sweet potatoes.
In the next ten days or so, she needs to prepare for the large-scale patrol and will not have time to come over frequently to check. She must nip any bad things in the bud.
After arranging the sweet potato breeding, Chu Huaibei returned home with his mother, riding in a new carriage with her. As expected, it was very comfortable. He opened the secret box and took out the cakes prepared by Aunt Wen and enjoyed them.
In her previous life, she had a tendency to get carsick. If she looked at her phone for more than ten minutes in a car, she would inevitably vomit, so she would close her eyes and rest as soon as she got on. Now, she could finally eat and drink in the carriage. Before, the jolting made her carsick, and she could only drink a little water to moisten her mouth. If she drank more than a sip, she was afraid she would vomit.
Tonight, Chu Huaibei finally stopped indulging in Hu Zhi's beauty and discussed the previous problems with Hu Zhi.
"Huzhi, do you know that the aristocratic families of Fengjing like to send singing and dancing girls to each other?"
"I know, it's a habit."
"Ahem, has there ever been such an incident that the son in the backyard of this minister is actually the biological son of that minister?" Chu Huaibei has some gossip genes in him.
"Ah? Such a secret matter should be kept secret. As far as I know, it has not been leaked yet." Sun Mingsi didn't know why Chu Huaibei asked this.
"Well, didn't my uncle tell me that most of the singing and dancing girls have taken the sterilization soup? That means there are some who haven't. If they don't send it back and forth, who can guarantee that the baby in the belly is their own? It's normal to give birth ten days more or less than ten days. It's easy to make a mistake."
"Huh? Who would give his pregnant concubine to someone else?" Sun Mingsi couldn't understand. In his mind, how could his own child be born in someone else's family?
"Oh, I'm just making a random guess. For example, if a man's wives and concubines all gave birth to daughters, then another person with evil intentions would give his concubine, who is suspected to be pregnant, to someone else. The person would often favor her, and a month later the doctor would confirm the pregnancy. If she gave birth to a boy, the boy would be secretly recognized as his own when he grew up. Then wouldn't the family property belong to the thief?" Chu Huaibei described it vividly.
Sun Mingsi didn't take it seriously at first. Offspring are precious. Who would give their offspring away? Otherwise, they might be included in someone else's family tree and become a member of someone else's family.
But if he has his own motives, then it is not impossible for him to give away his son in exchange for huge benefits. There are many cases in the world where people die for money and birds die for food.
Seeing that Hu Zhi had listened, Chu Huaibei told him his plan: "Hu Zhi, could you ask your guards to secretly investigate this secret matter of mixing bloodlines? Start with the people sent out by the prince and the three dukes and six ministers. Don't rush and investigate slowly. I have a feeling it will be interesting."
"Okay, I'll arrange for someone to do this."
Sun Ming thought about it and agreed. Although it would be troublesome to investigate, as long as something is done, there will always be traces left.
"Oh, yes, there's one more thing. This time when I returned to Fengjing, the Second and Third Princes both sent me beauties. What's wrong with these two brothers? They're not afraid of attracting attention."
Sun Mingsi could guess some of the brothers' thoughts. At the end of September, the eldest prince's wife gave birth to a healthy grandson. This was the emperor's first grandson, so he was naturally very happy.
However, because the eldest prince was still in seclusion and reflecting on his mistakes, he did not invite anyone to a banquet. But the court officials saw that the emperor's attitude was unusually friendly during those days, so it was not difficult to guess what he was thinking.
However, the other two princes have worked hard for more than half a year but still have not achieved any results. So they want to take a different approach and get close to the Prince of Zhenbei to win the favor of a frontier commander, which will also be a favorable factor in their fight for the throne.
Sun Mingsi told Chu Huaibei his guess. Chu Huaibei was speechless after hearing it. If she couldn't get pregnant, she should go see the imperial physician. Don't get involved with her. Doesn't she think she is troublesome enough?
Yesterday, I received a letter from Jin Yi, in which he stated that he had taken urgent action and had arbitrarily framed the Third Prince on the Second Prince's secret agent, leaving a tail. The Emperor and the Second Prince's men were able to find out that the Third Prince had leaked the information about Censor Su's report on the First Prince.
It was also discovered that on the first day when Censor Su implicated Prince Zhenbei, people from the Ministry of War and the Third Prince were involved.
In response to this, Sun Mingsi specially sent another letter to Jin Yi. In the previous letter, he asked someone to arrange some things. The second prince and the third prince would receive the same treatment. This time, he asked Jin Yi to give the third prince some extra treatment. Since he liked this kind of little action behind the scenes, he should enjoy it more.
In the next two months, the second and third princes were scolded by the emperor more and more often, especially the third prince, who had played the role of a good son for more than 20 years, but suddenly his mask was shattered. This made the emperor even more angry than the already noisy behavior of the eldest and second princes, and his scoldings became more and more harsh.
Of course, Chu Huaibei just listened to these things and let them go. The relationship between the father and son of the royal family is complicated, and it is still uncertain who will hold the throne in the end.
As November approaches, the weather in the north begins to cool down across the board. Judging from the weather, the first snow of this year will only happen in the next two days.
Chu Huaibei was sitting in the tent and rearranging the patrol tasks. Since Jin Hongye was able to take over the military affairs, the burden on others' shoulders would be reduced a lot. In the past six months, apart from her, General Song had the most military affairs on his shoulders.
Xue Zhan hurried into the tent, not even bothering to ask for instructions at the door. "Your Highness! A group of Mongol envoys has arrived from Youzhou City. I estimate there are over two hundred of them. They are holding a letter from the Mongol Khan and are demanding we let them pass."
"Hmm, huh? The Mongolian envoys are here?"
Chu Huaibei put down his brush, stood up, and rode with Xue Zhan to the city gate. Looking at the envoys' procession below the city, Chu Huaibei actually saw Na Hai in the group. This guy had obviously been sent out as a guard.
Chu Huaibei took the letter from his subordinate and carefully read it through. He extracted the core content from the pile of flowery words and simply said: Emperor of Daxia, we Mongolians are willing to exchange horses for your food.
As for the exchange ratio, it depends on the result of the tug-of-war between the Mongolian envoys and the Ministry of Rites.
"Let him go."
Seeing that there was no army ambush behind, Chu Huaibei returned the letter to his subordinates and ordered them to open the city gate to let the envoy in.
After entering the city, the subordinates returned the credentials to the leading envoy. Na Hai turned back and stared at the King of Zhenbei, who was looking down from the city wall, and bared his teeth at her, which made people itch to touch her.
Chu Huaibei immediately fought back and made a gesture towards him, but the ancients probably wouldn't understand what the middle finger meant. It didn't matter, it looked like something bad anyway. Seeing the corners of Na Hai's mouth droop quickly, it was enough to achieve the desired effect.
"Xue Zhan, send 500 men to follow this group. If they dare to cause trouble in Daxia, they will be hacked to death."
Chu Huaibei was still a little worried. She didn't see much baggage in the team of 200 people. What was going on? Had they all become immortals and lived without food and water? She was probably trying to take the baggage as they went and make them happy.
He has so many gems hanging on his body, and when he has nothing to eat, he takes them off and exchanges them for silver. He wants to get something for nothing every day. It's really eye-opening.
Chu Huaibei specifically instructed that if the envoys asked for food, they should exchange it with the gems on their bodies, one gem for fifty kilograms of wheat. If they wanted to eat food processed by the firemen, then one gem could only be exchanged for two hundred steamed buns. After all, eating one steamed bun a day would not starve people to death.
The team runs fast and will reach Fengjing in ten days. Then the people from the Ministry of Rites will naturally entertain them.
After Chu Huaibei arranged this matter, he returned to the tent to summon all the generals and began to discuss the matters of this year's major patrol in the meeting room.
Everyone had heard the news of the Mongol envoys coming to Daxia. Jin Hongye was the most direct, asking, "Your Highness, since the Mongols have sent envoys to Daxia, they shouldn't come to harass or attack the northern border again, right?"
"Oh, you think we don't need a major patrol this year, right? Fine, I'll hang General Jin at the city gate. If the Mongols attack, General Jin, remember to shout 'enemy attack' so the soldiers defending the city can quickly organize to fight the enemy. What do you think, General Jin?"
Chu Huaibei sarcastically said that the kid's brain had not been properly trained. Once his words reached the ears of his military advisor, he would probably be scolded.
Jin Hongye shrank his neck and wanted to slap his own broken mouth twice. I asked you to ask, what's there to ask?
"I spoke without thinking, Your Highness, please don't hold it against me."
"Alright, for this year's Grand Patrol, Generals Jin, Xue, and Qin will follow me. As for the others, General Song will be in charge of Ying and Chu provinces, General Yang will be in charge of Di and You provinces, and General Li will be in charge of Li and Qi provinces. If you have any objections, please raise them now. Once this is decided today, no changes can be made."
Chu Huaibei now directly designates personnel and arranges them however she wants, instead of rotating the garrison and patrol personnel every year as before.
"Yes, Your Highness, I have no objection." Jin Hongye's eyes lit up, and he responded quickly. He could now patrol with Your Highness. Last year, he arrived too late, so Your Highness didn't ask him to do anything and let him play in the barracks for a month.
General Song secretly glared at Jin Hongye. What was this guy doing? Now that he had opened his mouth, how could he start talking about anything else?
The remaining few people responded: "No objection."
"Okay, prepare the supplies and set off on November 20th this year." Chu Huaibei also set the time for the patrol and set off early, so that if they encountered a snowstorm like last year, they would have time to deal with it.
After returning home that night, Chu Huaibei went to his mother first and told her that the caravan could now trade with several small tribes in the northwest, and that the Mongolian army had most likely retreated to the royal court.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
