The Possession of My Beloved

Compared with Cui Xingzhou’s worries, Miantang was much happier.

She didn’t expect that the battle ahead was tight, and her husband could even take the opportunity to buy medicinal materials to come out of the military camp.

So she let Servant Li prepare meat dishes and let her husband have a good meal before he heads back.

The mansion in the Wuning Checkpoint is too small, and the former owner left many sundries. Miantang didn’t have time to ask people to clean it up, so the kitchen used for cooking seemed to be smaller too. Besides, there was only one stove in the kitchen thus, they are unable to cook dishes that are too fancy.

Servant Li simply cook some dishes of the locals, learned the northwest cuisine, and cooked a pot of stew.

In addition to the green vegetables bought from the farmers in the northwest, there are also pheasant meat, potatoes, and green peppers given by the secret sentries who returned from hunting when they went up the mountain.

The mountain chicken was marinated beforehand. The soup was stewed with green vegetables. The broth of the soup was very fresh and thick. Servant Li also learned to make a local steamed bun, which was filled with jujube powder. It was very sweet and sticky and diligently took care of The Prince’s southern taste.

There is no bed in the room, but there’s a unique fire tunnel (Kang) from the north. As long as the connected cooking pits are heated, the Kang will be warm, warmer than the earthworm.

Bi Cao put a small square table with local characteristics on the Kang in the lady’s room, so Cui Xingzhou and Miantang could eat on the Kang.

When Miantang was having dinner, she suddenly remembered and ask her husband about his camp.

Normally, when the other husband has a chat with their family members, they will talk about the barracks to which their officials belong. However, after several conversations, Miantang found that the battalion to which her husband belonged was the most mysterious. No one knew it, let alone heard the name of Commander Master Cui Jiu.

So, taking advantage of the husband’s rare time coming home, Miantang asked about it.

Cui Jiu thought it over and said, “Our battalion is different from others. It is specially responsible for going out to explore confidential matters. We don’t have contact with other battalions normally, so we don’t know each other very well… Don’t talk too much with those women, so as not to let it out and be discovered by people with bad intentions.”

Cui Xingzhou can now tell lies just like lady Liu’s prescription, which is also speaking the untruth without blinking with full confidence.

Miantang nodded convincingly. It turns out that her husband is different from other people’s husbands in the Wuning Checkpoint. He belongs to the elite division. No wonder those officials and family members do not know him.

However, because the Wuning Checkpoint is close to the Jinjia Checkpoint, every foreigner who comes from other places must pass the strict registered residence examination of the local mayor.

Miantang is not worried that there will be barbarian spies in the dependents of their husbands. However, she should still better be safe than sorry. Since her husband has reminded her that she should never reveal his identity and position in the barrack.

Cui Xingzhou was very fast when eating and hurried back to the Jinjia Checkpoint. Miantang hurried to pack the jacket she had made these days and some food for him, along with the things entrusted to her by the military dependents in the neighborhood.

He has no choice. The Marshal insisted on pretending to be a Commander. Naturally, he had to bring something to his fellow soldiers. After a while, he returned to the camp and let one of his entrusted soldiers pass on one by one so that they will not know who the original carrier was.

When Cui Xingzhou came out of the town of the Wuning Checkpoint and returned to the camp of the Jinjia Checkpoint, a courier from the post station quickly sent a stack of letters to the Marshal.

Cui Xingzhou, while drinking the sweet-scented osmanthus lotus seed dessert brought back from the Wuning Checkpoint, stretched out his long finger to pick out the letter. One of the letters was written in beautiful handwriting. It was a letter from his cousin, Lian Binglan.

Cui Xingzhou didn’t even dismantle it and directed it to one side by hand. After all, since he set out, his cousin Lian’s letters have not been interrupted. The rhythm of the letters is about one in a few days. If she persists in this way, the post station horses along the northwest road will be made too exhausted by her.

There is also a letter from his mother too. Cui Xingzhou picked up the letter opener and took a look.

In the letter, apart from urging him to pay attention to his health and send more letters back to the residents, nearly half of the words were accusing Cui Xingzhou of making his own decisions and breaking his marriage without telling his mother. Now he’s impulsive, but the sky of his aunt’s family has fallen in half. Cousin Lian’s face is full of tears all day. She says that if she doesn’t solve the misunderstanding with her cousin, she won’t marry anyone else in her life…

Cui Xingzhou considered her tone and felt that her mother’s writing has improved. Half of the words in her letter should be written by her aunt.

However, it was a little pity that he was in the northwest. He could not see his aunt and cousin’s tears, and there was much less wordiness.

So he put the letter aside and waited until when he was free. He then wrote back a letter to his mother to keep her updated and reassure her.

As for the other letters, there are not only letters of encouragement and advice from his teacher, but also words of concern from his old friends.

Zhao Quan, Marquis Zhennan, is quite interesting. He only said in the letter that he was not being a good friend. Since he joined the army, why didn’t he inform him so that he could fight alongside Master Cui Jiu to kill the enemy in the battle?

Zhao Quan, who has always been idle, applied to the Ministry of Revenue for a position as a provision officer responsible for escorting materials. Because the State of Zhen is a land of fish and rice, many provision officials are selected from the local area and do not need to be appointed by the Capital.

Therefore, Zhao Quan took the opportunity of his business trip to meet his friend in the Northwest for a while, and he did not have to fight against the enemy, thus avoiding the danger of breaking the bloodline of his Marquis Zhennan Mansion.

However, Cui Xingzhou suspected that he had bad motives. Otherwise, why did he keep asking him the whereabouts of Lady Liu in the letter? Nevertheless, his Brother Jiayu never cut the connections with him when his life was hitting a downfall in time. Cui Xingzhou also kept this friendship in mind. However, he and Zhao Quan never needed those bureaucratic courtesies, so he wrote back a letter to Zhao Quan with three big characters, “Send more food”!

He hopes Brother Zhao will fulfill his mission and send life-saving food to the soldiers from the State of Zhen.

As for the secret report sent by his informer in the State of Zhen, it was much more interesting. The offer of amnesty to the Mountain of Yang went smoothly without the obstruction of Prince Huaiyang.

That Ziyu had married the daughter of Commander Shi and became the son-in-law of the Commander. Moreover, because of the use of troops at the border, the defense of the four commanderies in the Capital was empty, and military generals from many places were temporarily assigned to the Capital to guard.

Shi Yikuan was one of them, and his new son-in-law who he just got naturally did not give up this opportunity and would go to the Capital with his father-in-law to meet The Emperor.

Cui Xingzhou thought about it for a while and thought that the scene in the Capital would be very lively. Empress Dowager Wu did everything she could, and she never expected that the orphan of the Crown Prince whom she persecuted would return to the Capital in a dignified manner this time.

The forces of the Grand Empress Dowager, represented by Prince Sui, will never idly watch the situation, nor will they know what kind of shocking situation will occur with the Crown Prince’s orphan, Liu Zhen.

If Cui Xingzhou was in the State of Zhen at this time, he wouldn’t be able to avoid the situation and would have to make clear his position.

It’s a pity that whether it’s Liu Zhen of the Mountain of Yang, Prince Sui of the State of Hui, or the evil concubines in the Capital, these forces were all up to no good. He doesn’t want to stand with any of them.

Because of this, he thought about it all night by the canal that day and then decided to take the imperial edict to this dangerous place of Jinjia Checkpoint in the northwest.

Those who are proficient in playing chess know that sometimes death is the only way to survive. This Jinjia Checkpoint is a chess piece that he dropped carefully. However, whether can he play this chess game, depends on his ability.

At this time, under the Jinjia Checkpoint, the tigers and wolves swarmed, roaring and howling day and night. However, Cui Xingzhou has a clear idea. He can only see the situation after the thunderstorm in the Capital.

It is precisely because of Cui Xingzhou’s arrival that he changed the mind of the former guards who wanted to make contributions to recover the lands that are lost. He only kept the city safe and splash oil and shoot fire arrows under the city from time to time. The patience of the barbarian soldiers was almost exhausted, and the number of times they are swearing in the battle was gradually reduced.

Seeing that winter is coming to an end, the best time to fight will also be missed. The barbarians in the northwest are nomadic people who live in pursuit of water and grass. When the summer comes, the whole tribe will have to move. Where will there be the intention to continue blocking the Jinjia Checkpoint by then?

With time, they can see that the most difficult period will be over soon. But at this time, the imperial decree came.

In the decree, Cui Xingzhou was reprimanded for being the Commander-in-Chief, yet he was timid and afraid of fighting. He only stayed in the Jinjia Checkpoint to passively resist the enemy. The edict of “The Emperor” has clearly instructed. To pacify the army, he is required to take back at least one county within one month.

These words are all laymen’s words, but if they are written in the imperial edict, people can’t refute them.

When the guards left, Cui Xingzhou’s Deputy Generals looked at each other one by one, only to see what Cui Xingzhou meant.

In the past few months, the days of the Jinjia Checkpoint are not as easy as those in the imperial edict. It takes a lot of effort to raise army provisions alone.

They have no other way to do it. The Court was crying out for poverty. When Cui Xingzhou, the King of the State of Zhen, was appointed as the Marshel here, they were suspected of stealing his wealth. They hoped that Prince Huaiyang would figure out himself and scrape off his family and fill the big hole in the court.

But the Empress Dowager Wu’s gang now are greedy and unsatisfied. They are scraping the profit from Prince Huaiyang. But they also think that the profits are not rich enough. It is annoying.

However, when he received the imperial edict, Cui Xingzhou still looked as usual and never asked the Imperial censors to get any evidence that will use against him.

The Court did not know who slandered in the face of The Emperor and let The Emperor make such an arbitrary decision. Although “the general will not accept the orders of The Emperor outside”, it must be with a wise monarch. Otherwise, disobeying the Imperial edict is also a great crime that leads to nine clans of the family being beheaded.

Fortunately, after such a long delay, the barbarian soldiers have been almost drained to the max outside the city. As for the army provisions, they were all well prepared.

Moreover, he has been training the soldiers and horses in the city these days, and has not slackened and waited passively.

Listening to the daily curses, the hot-blooded young men in the city have long been holding their temper and can’t wait to fight the barbarians who invaded their homes to the end.

Just half a month after receiving the imperial edict, a Great Yan Dynasty army provision convoy escorting the army provision from the West Checkpoint got lost and entered the territory of the barbarians because of heavy snow blocking the road.

The barbarian soldiers who had been out of food for a long time were very happy. The sentry and a team of people hijacked the army provisions. After testing that the army provision was non-toxic, the barbarian camp celebrated like it was the Spring Festival, and they were cooking in the big pot in a very lively atmosphere.

Also, their horses can also eat hay and they are snorting one by one.

On the second day after the barbarian camp was having a feast, the gate of the Jinjia Checkpoint, which had been closed for a long time, was suddenly opened. A bunch of generals and soldiers rushed out to face the barbarian soldiers head-on.

This is an opportunity that the barbarians have been waiting for for a long time.

There’s no other way. The gate of the Jinjia Checkpoint is too thick. If the defenders don’t take the initiative to open it, the losses of the siege will be heavy. They fought for so long, just to destroy the morale of the Great Yan Dynasty, and let The Emperor in the Capital pay the annual tribute to them.

Now that the city gate is open, Prince Huaiyang, who has been pretending to be a grandson for a long time, must completely be defeated. Only in this way can the Great Yan Dynasty be convinced to pay the annual tribute to them.

According to people who fought on the battlefield later, the battle was extremely fierce!

The cavalry is better, but the infantrymen are unlucky. As long as the horse of the barbarian soldiers shakes its tail, a bunch of horses poop will spurt out! If they are not careful enough, it will be splashed all over their head and body.

The horses of the barbarian soldier’s hay they ate last night all turned into thin and soft “gold” spurting all over the sand fields. After the horses pooped several times, all of them collapsed with weak legs. The barbarian’s cavalry was caught off guard. All of them fell from the horse’s back one after another and were stabbed by the soldiers of the Great Yan Dynasty. Blood spattered.

This head-on encounter was not clean, but it was splendid.

The soldiers of the Great Yan Dynasty defected the barbarian army who was surrounding the Jinjia Checkpoint in disarray and the withdrawal turned into a rout. The remaining wounded soldiers and disabled generals fled in confusion.

The soldiers with high morale chased a distance of ten miles at one go and took back the villages near the Jinjia Checkpoint. However, the marshal didn’t want to pursue too far ahead, so he ended the fight with the sound of the horn.

The barbarian soldiers who suffered heavy losses retreated to the Feiying County they acquired to recuperate.

This beautiful counterattack can be regarded as a great boost to the morale of Jinjia Checkpoint. Cui Xingzhou’s clerks can also have a list of military achievements that can be presented to The Emperor.

However, the official’s family members in the Wuning Checkpoint were glad that their husband had won, but it also added a lot of trouble for them.

The source of the stream flowing through their villages and towns is on the side of the Jinjia Checkpoint.

After the war, for two consecutive days, the water flowing down from upstream gave off the smell of horse dung. It resulted that every household in the Wuning Checkpoint dare not go to the stream to wash clothes and fetch water. Even the playful children don’t like to play by the water.

It is said that in the past two days, the number of soldiers and men who came back from the battle at the Jinjia Checkpoint who took a bath and wash their clothes in the upstream water was particularly large, and there was no other way but to pollute the stream.

Fortunately, there is a deep well in Miantang’s yard, and using water is very convenient.

For a time, the neighbors all came to Miantang’s house to borrow water and Miantang’s small yard was very lively.

When Cui Xingzhou rode to the front of the mansion of the Wuning Checkpoint, he saw the scene of a bunch of women in the yard fetching water and washing clothes.

And his wife Miantang is directing two servant girls to set up bamboo poles on the drying field in front of the door and pull the clothesline to make it convenient for the neighbors to hang their clothes!

After she came to the Wuning Checkpoint, she consciously put away the beautiful clothes and clothes she had brought from Lingquan Town, and there were no more gold hairpins and jade rings on her head.

She only dressed up as most poor women in the Wuning Checkpoint in coarse green clothes. She only chose a square scarf with plain flowers wrapped in her black silky hair, and her thin waist was covered with a wide cloth and green scarf, showing a charming posture…

In other words, even though she was dressed in coarse cloth, people could not help being attracted by her beautiful appearance at the first glance…

But in Cui Xingzhou’s heart, she should have been a beautiful peony to be carefully served in the greenhouse. But now he has gradually discovered that she is the afternoon flower in the wilderness, with indescribable toughness and vitality. No matter where she is, people can see the bright and unfolding flowers…

When Miantang turned her head, she saw her husband wearing a bamboo hat riding on the horse. Although he was covered with gauze, he was tall and upright, and his calm temperament on the horse’s back is the trait that she could not be mistaken for.

Miantang immediately picked up her skirt and ran to her husband happily. When she came to the horse, she pulled the reins of the horse and asked, “When did you come back, husband? Why didn’t you call us?”

Cui Xingzhou looked at the women looking at him over the low wall in the yard. He did not take off his bamboo hats but said softly, “It’s too noisy in the yard. I’ll take Mo Ru to the nearby mountains and hunt for some wild animals back… What would you like to eat?”

Miantang tilted her head and thought for a while, and said with a smile, “The rabbit meat is best to roast…”

Cui Xingzhou also smiled and said, “Got it, I’ll hunt more for you.” With that, he turned his horse’s head and rode away with Mo Ru and several followers.

Lady Wen poked her head out of the gate of the courtyard and saw Cui Xingzhou’s back view galloping away. She said to Lady Liu, “I haven’t seen your husband before. So he has such a manner… He’s not like a Cheif, but more like a General… My husband has explored the barracks and had never heard of the Ninth Master of Lingquan Town…”

Miantang remembers her husband’s exhortations. The tasks he accepted were all secret tasks, which were hard to find out. So when Lady Wen was curious and wanted to find out the name of her husband, Cui Jiu, she interrupted her with a smile and said something else.

In the evening, when the sky was dark, the women in the yard dispersed. Cui Jiu came back from hunting under the starry sky.

He came back with a handful of preys. Besides a pair of rabbits, he also had a wild boar. They were carried into the courtyard by the guards.

The righteous man Fan Hu, because of his injury, was approved by her husband and has been staying at her mansion for a while. He is a good helper at cleaning and chopping firewood normally.

At this time, Brother Fan quietly carried a knife and helped cut and peel the meat with several guards.

According to the meaning of Miantang, it is hoped that Brother Fan will be introduced by her husband to join the army after his illness. If not, she is willing to give them rich money as a reward.

However, in the presence of the heroes Brother Fan and his brothers, her husband said with a stern face, “The soldiers of the State of Zhen do not accept those who are not proficient in learning. Although you pay for the blood of the country, you cannot protect your life. If you have nothing to do, you can do some rough work in the yard of Lady Liu. I will give you the salary…”

At that time, Miantang was shocked by his embarrassment. She didn’t think that her husband, the Commander, would be so harsh! How can he talk to the people who helped her like that?

And those big brothers, who are warm-hearted, were indeed ashamed of what her husbands said. Some of them even had tears in their eyes, but they endured with red eyes…

That night, Liu Miantang once again lost her temper with her husband. She thought that after he became the Commander, he was being too powerful and aggressive.

So she was so cold that she didn’t pay any attention to the Ninth Master Cui all night.

In the early morning of the next day, the Ninth Master Cui hugged his fist and apologized to the several righteous men.

However, those brave men had the mind of a sea, and even forgave her husband for this, and refused to get it for nothing. They would never want the gold and silver presented by Miantang. They only stayed to do part-time work as the Ninth Master told them.

However, Miantang’s house is too small, and her husband is not at home. It’s inviting gossip to leave a few big men for nothing.

Fortunately, after Miantang purchased the medicine shop, the shop needed the help of the clerks. Finally, all the benefactors were settled properly, and some temporary work was done to earn the traveling expenses. Getting a wife was just around the corner in the future by saving money.

They were taking advantage of the heat in the yard to prepare for roasting wild boar. Miantang welcomed her husband back to the mansion. After picking off the bamboo hat for him, she asked with bright eyes, “This time the Jinjia Checkpoint was a great victory, is it the cart of Croton that played a role?”

Cui Xingzhou smiled and hugged her slender waist, kissed her pink cheek, and said, “This great victory was all due to your good cart of Croton with medicinal materials and has made great achievements!”

It turned out that Cui Jiu had just returned to the Wuning Checkpoint when he was making the battle plan. He watched Miantang command several men to grind the medicine in the yard.

However, a waiter overturned the wooden bucket soaked with croton beans with his carelessness and soaked the grass crenels on the side. As a result, the goats raised by the neighbors wandered in and ate a few bites of wet grass, and the next day, they had diarrhea.

The neighbor reluctantly came to Miantang to argue with her and asked her to compensate the goat’s money. It was at that time that Cui Xingzhou had an idea and came up with a way to reduce the fighting power of barbarians.

When the two armies face each other, they will check the food and grass they snatch. If the opposite party poisoned the army provision, the army of their own will definitely be found and there’s no way to calculate them in the plot.

When the Croton is given to people, its effect is too fast and it is easy to be found. But when the Croton was soaked in water and soaked in the hay, no silver needle could be detected. Even if the barbarian soldiers give the horse a taste first, the horse is much bigger than a human, and the medicine can’t take effect for a while.

The most important thing is that, as far as he knows, the supply of army provision on the barbarian side is also scarce for a long time. He’s afraid that they can’t bear to check it for a day after getting the army provisions.

Cui Xingzhou formulated the operation plan after considering all aspects. It’s just that Liu Miantang, the owner of the medicine shop in the Wuning Checkpoint, needs to think about how to start importing this large amount of Croton medicinal materials.

After Liu Miantang received the order from her husband on behalf of The Prince, she immediately came to the spirit.

Her medical skills are not good, her prescriptions are not very effective, and the shop is a little deserted. However, getting in touch with people and buying goods are her strong points.

Just like this, in less than seven days, Liu Miantang met a broker through the introduction of the second nephew of the third uncle of the village chief and spent a high price to buy a batch of Croton medicinal materials that were originally shipped to sixteen states.

Lady Liu spent a lot of money on this, and finally made a great contribution to her husband in front of Prince Huaiyang.

Miantang didn’t expect The Prince to reward her husband, but after this great victory, the crisis of the Jinjia Checkpoint was relieved, and her husband would have more time to return.

At this time, the wild boar meat in the yard has been put on an iron signboard and roasted on an open fire. The smell is striking.

Just as the married couple was talking about their long separation and reunion, a hearty burst of laughter came from the yard, “Ninth master, you sure know how to enjoy. Having such a feast of wild roasted boar quietly, and you didn’t call me to join!”

Miantang looked up at the window. Why did the highly skilled Doctor Zhao of Lingquan Town come to this remote place?

It turned out that after Zhao Quan took up the official post of escorting army provisions, he was conscientious and accountable. The cheeky man also used all the naughty and tricky moves of the scoundrel’s ways and found the army provision outside the State of Zhen that Prince Sui of the State of Hui concealed the news from the Imperial Court. He then took the meat from the mouth of the tiger and blackmailed a huge profit out of Prince Sui.

Prince Sui also knew that Marquis Zhennan was a layman with no knowledge and skills. He had never been taken seriously.

Although he was annoyed by his blackmail later, he caught hold of his wrongdoings, and Prince Sui did not want to make a fuss and caused trouble.

So Zhao Quan is also blessed with good luck. In this way, Zhao Jiayu fulfilled his mission and completed the task of delivering army provisions, giving the soldiers of the Jinjia Checkpoint sufficient buffer and delay time.

The hard-working and meritorious grain Officer Zhao is asking for a reward.