"Ah Jue and A Yun... must be very tired by now. Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu should stay and accompany Fourth Aunt, and play with the children." Bai Qingyan’s words had just fallen when she saw Bai Jinzhi dozing off, and she laughed, saying, "It seems we’ll have to trouble A Qi and A Yu to accompany ."
"Earlier, Wei Zhong ca to say that the Sima family has already gone to invite Sima Ruodan back to the Sima family." Bai Qingyan changed the topic, turning to look at Bai Qingqi, "If you want to see them, you need not follow to the military camp."
"What does Sima Ruodan returning to the Sima family have to do with ? Eldest Young Lady, your words are peculiar..." Bai Qingqi picked up the tea cup by his side, lowered his eyes, remaining calm.
Bai Qingyan smiled and nodded, deliberately saying, "What a pity that we let Xue Renyi leave early this ti. He should have t Sima Ruodan, since the two are engaged, perhaps we could even arrange a wedding. A Commandery Princess marrying a Top Scholar... would be quite the story."
Bai Qingqi maintained his calm deanor, not responding to Bai Qingyan, simply finishing the water in the teacup.
"Recently, Mother and the aunts held a flower appreciation banquet to find brides for you. It seems they already have their favorites, so it won’t be long before they tell you." Bai Qingyan turned to signal Chun Tao to pour more tea for Bai Qingqi, "If you have no interest in Sima Ruodan, you can choose carefully."
"Eldest Young Lady, I don’t want to talk about this now..." Bai Qingqi’s voice was heavy, "The southern border needs soone to guard it. I plan to return and accompany Mother for a while, then go back to the southern border."
His grandfather, father, and uncles were all buried there. He must take their place, guard the people... guard the Eldest Young Lady there.
Moreover, in the southern border, he’s on defense against the Tianfeng Kingdom watching like a tiger, not knowing when he might die, why implicate a good family’s daughter? Why let a girl suffer like his mother, experiencing the pain of losing a husband?
An ancient saying goes, wise n... do not fall in love.
Bai Qingqi chose solitude, not to implicate others, alone in the world.
Bai Qingyan did not imdiately refute Bai Qingqi, but smiled as she pushed the teacup to Bai Qingqi: "There’s no rush for this matter, it can be arranged slowly later..."
·
Military camp.
"What did you say?" Wei Zhaonian stared wide-eyed at the ssenger—a small lieutenant with grass all over his head, looking disheveled—supporting himself on the table.
"General Cheng, General Shen Liangyu, General Liu Pinggao, along with General Lu, General Sima, General Du Sanbao, General Wang Jin, and other twelve generals have returned to Dadu City, saying they want to petition the Emperor for a death battle with the Yan Kingdom and ask the Emperor to revoke the command given to King of Hancheng to manage the navy!"
Wei Zhaonian felt his right eye under the eye patch twitch. When returning to Dadu City, Cheng Yuanzhi, Shen Liangyu, and Liu Pinggao learned that Bai Qingyan wanted to gamble the kingdom against Yan, which was t with a million disagreents. To prevent them from embarrassing Bai Qingyan in front of civil and military officials and the people when the army arrived at Dadu City today, Wei Zhaonian forcibly suppressed Cheng Yuanzhi and Shen Liangyu together with Liu Pinggao from the Anping Army, not allowing them to appear.
Unexpectedly, after returning to camp, these people still impulsively caused trouble.
"How long have they been gone?" Wei Zhaonian asked.
"Reporting to the general, it’s been almost half an hour since they left. They tied up and threw into a horse trough. If General Sima Ping hadn’t gone easy, I might not have woken this hour to report to you!" The young lieutenant said as he moved the straw from his eyes, maintaining a clasped-fist posture. "General Sima said he would stall Cheng and the others on the road."
Sima Ping had whispered to this young lieutenant to report to Duke of Loyalty and Courage Wei Zhaonian imdiately upon waking up, while he would stall the reckless squad.
Half an hour, with regular fast horses, they might have already reached Dadu City by now.
Wei Zhaonian knew he had to rush to Dadu City imdiately and hurriedly said, "Go! Prepare the horses!"
Cheng Yuanzhi was muscle-bound and simple-minded, too reckless! Even if there was sothing, couldn’t he wait to speak privately with Young General Bai, instead of dragging a crowd to the Imperial Palace? This is called petitioning in good terms; in bad terms, it’s a mob!
Cheng Yuanzhi is a veteran of the Bai family army. Even if he petitions his own Young General Bai, it should be done behind closed doors amongst themselves, but taking a crowd of generals to the palace, this could be construed as rebellion if spun by ill-intentioned people.
Wei Zhaonian donned his cloak, ready to leave, when another ssage arrived: "Duke of Loyalty and Courage, the Emperor and King of Zhen, King of Protection, and King Gaoyi have co, without alerting anyone, dressed in plain clothes accompanied only by Bai Mansion guards, arriving secretly, not allowing us to make any noise!"
Wei Zhaonian, fastening his cloak paused, Bai Qingyan arriving at the camp now, though unexpected, was reasonable. He hurriedly ran outside without another word.
The ssenger followed Wei Zhaonian, jogging alongside.
Wei Zhaonian, being an old hand of the Bai family army, knew it was ti for the army’s dinner. Bai Qingyan coming to the military camp now would surely first visit the Huotou Army, then the training grounds, which was customary for the generals of the Bai family.
Sure enough, when Wei Zhaonian arrived at the Huotou section, he saw Bai Qingyan tasting a bowl of at soup, smiling, and praising the Huotou Army cook.
"Xiao..." Wei Zhaonian was about to say Young General Bai but quickly corrected himself, "Your Majesty!"
Bai Qingyan held a steaming ceramic bowl, smiling as she glanced at the person behind Wei Zhaonian, and asked, "Why don’t I see General Cheng and the others?"
Wei Zhaonian stepped forward, whispered to Bai Qingyan: "Cheng Yuanzhi took Shen Liangyu and Liu Pinggao and... a total of twelve people, to Dadu City, saying they want to petition your Majesty for a death battle with Yan and withdraw the military command given to King of Hancheng."
Seeing Bai Qingyan’s unchanged expression, Wei Zhaonian did not hide, "They’ve been gone for half an hour. Sima Ping said he would stall them, yet it’s unknown if they’ve reached Dadu City or not. I was originally going to chase after them, then your Majesty arrived."
"Elder Sister..." Bai Qingyu put down the ceramic bowl in his hand, said, "I’ll go back and pursue General Cheng and the others."
"No need." Bai Qingyan shook the fragrant at broth in the ceramic bowl, drank it, put the bowl down, said, "Let’s go see the training grounds."
Wei Zhaonian noticed Bai Qingyan’s unconcerned deanor, glanced at Bai Qingyu and Bai Qingqi. Seeing that King of Zhen and King of Protection had also finished their at soup without urgency, he thought perhaps Bai Qingyan had full confidence, not worried about Cheng Yuanzhi’s recklessness causing trouble.
"Just right, the training grounds are practicing archery now, your Majesty could give so guidance." Wei Zhaonian, relieved, spoke with a smile.
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