Xiaoqi

A gust of evening wind blew across the valley, making the bonfire burn more vigorously, and the flames roared with the wind, flying several feet high.

"My lord is really brave! It took a full hour and a half. It didn't take so long when he fought with Zilong a few days ago. It is really beyond my reach. He is really a god!"

The person who said these words deliberately lowered his voice when speaking, as if he was afraid of being heard.But when he tucked his voice in, his voice was louder than most people's voice with open voice, and he said it in front of Li Xuan, Guo Jia, Xu Chu, Chen Dao and others, who could not hear him!Perhaps, in his opinion, as long as the protagonist Li Li can't hear what he said, it's fine, and other people don't have to shy away from it, because everyone thinks so, but dare not say it, only he dares to say it in public.

The identity of this person is self-evident, there are not many people in the Xiliang army who dare to talk about the lord Li Li in private, and Huan Fei by the campfire happens to be one of them.

Hearing Huan Fei's words, Li Xuan, Guo Jia and the others looked at each other and smiled, then turned their eyes to Huan Fei and shook their heads helplessly.

With an indifferent smile on Li Xuan's face, he whispered to Huan Fei: "Feihu be careful, don't talk about the lord in private in the future, if you let the lord hear it one day, I'm afraid you will be in disaster. What's more As a subject, it is impolite for us to speak presumptuously about the Lord. It is not the duty of a subject, nor is it the way to be a subject. Just say what you said just now, let it go, and do not discuss it again, otherwise I will definitely ask the Lord for instructions. I will punish you severely!"

"Hey hey!" Huan Fei nodded slightly, then pretended to be stupid and smirked and said: "Thank you, brother Yuan Zhong, for reminding me, I understand. But I didn't say anything bad about the lord, it's just a matter of fact, it's not a criticism!"

Guo Jia said with a smile: "General Feihu's words are wrong. Although you didn't speak ill of my lord, what you just said is related to my lord's reputation and the private affairs of my lord and his wife. This is something that I and other officials cannot discuss. The matter. The lord has already determined the identity of Mrs. Yunluo. This time I am traveling, and I am not in the military camp. It is reasonable to bring my family to the same room. Besides, the lord is our master. All words and deeds are beyond our ability Discussion. Therefore. However, even if we hear or see the secrets of the lord, we must not talk nonsense. We should keep our mouths shut and keep silent. Doing so is good for others and ourselves; otherwise, it will be a disaster. Say it out of your mouth and cause unnecessary trouble for yourself."

"Is that so, my lord won't be so stingy. Don't even let people say a word?" Huan Fei muttered in a low voice.

"Hmph!" Before Huan Fei could finish his sentence, he heard a cold snort from behind, which made him crooked in fright, and nearly fell onto the fire.

"Uh, the lord is here!" Huan Fei, with his body tilted to the side, didn't need to turn his head to see who was coming behind him, he knew that the lord Li Li was coming just by hearing the voice, and he must have heard what he said just now.So he got up and said with a simple and honest smirk: "My lord, you got up so early, and you killed a few hares and pheasants in the evening, and they are burning in the fire. I wanted to send them to the lord after they were finished." , I didn’t expect you to come by yourself. My lord, please sit down, this is just wiped by the last general, it’s clean! Hehehe”

"Excuse me, sit by yourself!" Li Li walked slowly to the campfire, motioned Guo Jia and the others not to get up, and then sat down beside Li Xuan.Then he glared at the restless Huan Fei with a sullen face, and said in a deep voice: "Feihu, you kid is becoming more and more daring, dare to make up bad things about you and me behind your back, and say that I am stingy and narrow-minded. Do you want me Let me be stingy now and punish you not to eat at night?"

"This,,, wronged!" Huan Fei looked at Li Li in astonishment, and hurriedly argued: "My lord, the conscience of heaven and earth, when did the general speak ill of you! Just now the general was still saying that the lord is wise and powerful , the extraordinary talent, the spirit of the dragon and the horse, is really a god who came to the world, and it is by no means comparable to ordinary people like us. Is this also a bad word?"

Before the words finished, Huan Fei added another sentence: "The last general speaks from the heart, and he worships the lord so thoroughly, it's like a torrent of river!"

Li Li snorted coldly with displeasure: "Hmph! It's all true, I don't think so? Forget it, my lord doesn't care about you a lot, so I won't punish you for not eating tonight. However, you have to take over for the son tonight Sincerely guard the night, you alone guard the valley, take care of the horses, and remember to add some fodder to the horses in the middle of the night."

"This,, promise, the last general will take orders!" After a little hesitation, Huan Fei immediately bowed in response.

Then he cautiously asked in a low voice: "My lord, are we going to camp here instead of leaving tonight?"

"Well, I'm not going. I'll go tomorrow. I'll bypass Yuan Jun's barracks and go down the mountain to enter Zhongshan Country." Li Li nodded slightly.

After Li Xuan heard the words, he nodded and said: "That's fine. Just now when Zhongkang and Shuzhi came back from exploring the road, they found that Yuan Jun's guards were much tighter at night than during the day. It is obviously not feasible to take the official route. The small road sneaks into Zhongshan. As a result, we are not familiar with the terrain of this area after all, and it is extremely inconvenient to drive at night, it is easy to take side roads, and the speed is not fast, it is better to start early tomorrow morning."

Guo Jia echoed: "Brother Yuan Zhong's words are reasonable. There is no time limit for us to go to Zhongshan this time, and it doesn't matter if it's early or late, so there's no need to hurry."

After listening to Li Xuan and Guo Jia's words, Huan Fei was dumbfounded.

When the sun went down in the evening, Li and Guo were still urging to set off. Why have they all changed their minds now? The speed of change is too fast!It wasn't until this time that Huan Fei realized that his skills in flattery were really bad, far inferior to the two scribes in front of him.

While secretly slandering Li Xuan and Guo Jia in his heart, Huan Fei suddenly realized why these two agreed to stay here at night.Before this, he knew that although Ma Yunluo was called the lord's concubine, she was actually in name only.But what happened this afternoon, it was obvious that the lord had intimate contact with Ma Yunluo, which meant that Ma Yunluo had just lost her body, so naturally she couldn't rush on the road overnight.

After trying to figure out what was going on, Huan Fei suddenly felt that he was too dull.It should have been thought of long ago, but I realized it later, it is really stupid.

There was a price to be paid for being stupid, and the night watch was the punishment he deserved.

On the morning of the third day, Li Li and his entourage sneaked into Wuji County of Zhongshan State without any danger, got in touch with Duan Yao, He Man and others who had been waiting for a long time, and then entered Zhen's Mansion smoothly.

Knowing that Li Li finally came, Zhen took her five daughters and two sons out of the house to greet her, showing great courtesy to Li Li and his party.

After settling down, the Zhen family threw a feast.A grand banquet was held for more than ten people including Li Li and his party, and during the banquet, I expressed my thanks again to Li Li for his rescue.

The banquet was not withdrawn until evening, and the generals Huan Fei, Xu Chu, Duan Yao, He Man, Chen Dao and other generals were so drunk that they withdrew from the banquet one after another, and were escorted into the wing room by the maidservants to rest.

After the feast.Led by Mrs. Zhen and her fake son Zhen Yan, Li Li, Li Xuan and Guo Jia walked into the second hall for tea break.Ma Yunluo was accompanied by the five daughters of the Zhen family.The six girls left early.Intimately step into the backyard and tell private stories.

At the luncheon, Li Li met Zhen's two sons, Zhen Yan and Zhen Yao; and during the conversation, he learned that there were three sons under the Zhen family's name, the eldest son Zhen Yu died early, and now there are only two deceased concubines left. Born fake.The Zhen family is a well-known and prestigious family in Jizhou, a real big family.The biological mothers of Zhen Yan and Zhen Yao died young, and the son of Zhen's family was not prosperous, and Zhen's ex-husband, Zhen Yi, also died young, leaving several daughters and sons who took Zhen's mother as their mother.In this way, they will be descended from the direct line of the Zhen family.

After all, the Zhen family is now the head of the Zhen family, her children are considered to be descendants of the main family, and the rest are all descendants of the collateral descendants.Because she is the head of the Zhen family, her maiden surname is Zhang, but now she is regarded as the "backbone" of the Zhen family by outsiders, and everyone is called "Zhen's family" before and after.

This strange phenomenon of respecting the wife as the mother can only occur in rich families. Ordinary people's families don't need to be so troublesome, and they don't pay much attention to it.However, for a child born in an official family, his birth is undoubtedly very important. It is directly related to his future future and destiny, and it is also related to his status in the family, and is closely connected with the family property.

Zhen Yan is 20 years old now, only eight years younger than Zhen's. She has the appearance of a gentle scholar, with a slightly thin body, a well-rounded appearance, and a personable demeanor.He was in his prime, but his eye sockets were sunken, circles of dark blue appeared around the eye sockets, he walked lightly, and his spine was slightly bent, obviously because of excessive sexual intercourse, loss of essence, and a look of premature aging.Two months ago, when he was just 20 years old, he was promoted to Xiaolian, and now he works in the county government.

Zhen Yao was only 14 years old, and he was half a boy, about the same age as Emperor Xian Liu Xie.Fortunately, he is still young after all, not as sickly as Zhen Yan, who is prematurely aging and knows no restraint.

After seeing Zhen Yan's listless appearance, Li Li deliberately observed carefully and found that the whole house of Zhen was full of young maids of Yingying and Yanyan, who could be seen in any courtyard in the mansion. Roughly, there were at least a thousand maids. A maidservant named Miaoling.Moreover, most of these maids are good-looking, graceful, wearing colorful and bright skirts, and they speak and act in an orderly manner, with a good appearance, obviously they are maids and servants who have undergone strict training.Except for the maids, there are very few guard men in the courtyard. It must be that the main courtyard of the Zhen family forbids the servants from entering; access.

After some observations, Li Li knew that the Zhen family was really a family with yin and yang, no wonder most of the men in the family did not live forever and died young.Surrounded by so many beautiful young girls all day long, even any vigorous man would not be able to sit still and be self-disciplined.After a long time, even an iron man can't bear it. Sooner or later, his vitality will be seriously injured, and he will die from exhaustion.

In fact, Li Li also knew why the Zhen family recruited so many beautiful maidservants. It was precisely because the Zhen family's men were not prosperous, so the mansion recruited a large number of young girls, hoping that these girls would be able to bring in more young girls for the Zhen family, and their offspring would prosper.I have to say that wishes are good, but too much is too much, and things often backfire.The current situation of the Zhen family's thin male population is a living example.

In addition, according to He Man and Duan Yao's reports, the Zhen family's mansion occupies a very large area. There are twelve courtyards in the mansion, six in the front yard, three in the middle courtyard, three in the back yard, six large gardens, and four pools. There are more than [-] large and small pavilions and water pavilions, and the east and west wing rooms stretch for several miles. There are thousands of wing rooms alone.A Zhen Mansion occupies almost one-third of the area of ​​Wuji County. If other courtyards are added, most of the huge city is owned by the Zhen family.

At the same time, more than [-]% of the shops in the city were also opened by the Zhen family, extending to the entire Zhongshan country, and even the counties and counties of Youzhou and Jizhou. Zhen's shops accounted for about [-]% of the shops in almost every state and county.It can be seen from this that the Zhen family's financial strength, money and food, and connections are really immeasurable. At least it is difficult for Li Li to imagine how rich the Zhen family is at this time.

Chapter 439

After learning about the financial resources of the Zhen family, Li Li couldn't help but feel suspicious about this trip to Zhongshan, so that his previously planned goal was also shaken. He was uncertain about the attitude of the Zhen family and the entire Zhen family. Thinking, hesitating.

In the second hall, Li Li and the Zhen family sat side by side in the upper hall, Li Xuan and Guo Jia sat on the right side of the lower hall, and Zhen Yan and two old uncles sat on the left.

On both sides of the hall, more than a dozen young maids waited on the left and right, and stepped forward from time to time to refill tea for everyone in the hall.

"Your Majesty has traveled all the way, and the journey has been smooth, have you encountered no obstacles?" Qianqianyu stroking the exquisite teacup in her hand, Zhenshi looked at Li Li with a smile, and asked softly.

This is the shrewd and careful Mrs. Zhen.

There were so many people at the banquet just now, she didn't ask anything, she just blindly expressed her gratitude and welcome to Li Li, she didn't mention anything else, and she didn't even mention Li Li's real identity to anyone.However, after transferring to the second hall, she no longer concealed it, because apart from Li Li, Li Xuan and Guo Jia, the rest of the second hall were the important clan elders and trusted servants of the Zhen family, so there was no need to worry about it.

Li Li took a sip of hot tea unhurriedly, with a calm and calm smile on his face, he nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you Madam for your concern. I'm waiting for this trip to be smooth. It was a surprise and no danger, and I arrived at your residence smoothly. It is a great honor for Mrs. Li to be treated so warmly by his wife and clan elders. If there is any impoliteness, I hope you will forgive Haihan."

"Huh?" Seeing Li Li talking like this, as if he was a superior, he was a little overbearing. An old Zhen family member in the hall looked a little displeased, and then looked at Zhen with a pair of cloudy and deep eyes, and his eyes were full of questions. meaning.

That's right, it's a question.rather than questioning.

The Zhen family is in charge of the family as a widow and widow's daughter, so she must have extraordinary means. If she can't subdue several clan elders, she will definitely not be able to take charge of the huge family business of the Zhen family.Therefore, the Zhen family has a very high status in the family and is very prestigious. Even the respected clan elders respect her very much, and they dare not violate the etiquette and family law at all.

"Hehehe!" Seeing the different expression of the clan elder, Zhen smiled, and said in a clear voice: "The clan elder doesn't know something, the prince next to me is named Li Mingli. His name is Wenchang, and he is now the court guard. The general, Marquis of Wuwei, is in charge of the conquest of the world and the mobilization of soldiers and horses. In addition, the prince is also in charge of the governor of Yongzhou. The governor of Liangzhou holds an army of 40 Xiliang. His power shakes the world. He is a powerful young man. What a talent!"

"Ah! Young master,,, oh, the prince is Xiliang Li Li?" The two clan elders and Zhen Yan in the hall were shocked when they heard this, and looked at Li Li who was smiling calmly in disbelief. The one who questioned Li Li just now The elder of the clan stood up immediately and said in panic.

"Clan elder, please sit down and talk. I am Li Li and Li Wenchang from Xiliang. I think no one in the world would dare to impersonate this general, let alone borrow this name." Li Li said calmly.

After hearing Li Li's words, the two clan elders and Zhen Yan, whose expression changed greatly, immediately got up and knelt down: "My lord, I was rude earlier, please forgive me!"

"Those who don't know are not to be blamed. The three clan elders, please stand up and sit down." Li Li nodded slightly, raised his hand and said.

After the three people got up and took their seats, Li Li said with a smile: "During my trip to Jizhou, I came across the Zhen family caravan. I feel very honored to have met such a heroine as my wife. This time I came to Wuji, one At the invitation of my wife, I came to visit. Second, I have admired Zhen Taibao, the ancestor of the Zhen family, for a long time. Since I passed through Zhongshan Kingdom, I naturally wanted to come to your mansion to meet the famous people in Zhen's mansion. Third, I still have some private matters to discuss with my wife and several clan elders .I hope you don’t blame me for coming to your mansion rashly today. I’m bothering you a lot. Hehehe!”

"Your Majesty has said it. You can come to Zhen's mansion. My Zhen family is full of glory. I feel very honored. Why bother! My Zhen family has been blessed by the emperor and protected by the ancestors, so it can continue to this day. If you have something to do, just tell me, as long as I can do what I can, I will obey." The elder of the Tangxia clan said in a respectful voice.

Seeing the sincere expression on the clan elder's face, Li Li had no doubts about the authenticity of his words.Because the two senior clan elders in the hall are definitely old ministers with a heart for the Han Dynasty, and they must have been county officials of the Han Dynasty in their early years, and their loyalty to the Han Dynasty is beyond doubt.

It's just that this time is now and then, and the world is chaotic, with new generations replacing old ones, the real master of the Zhen family is this charming mature woman beside her.As for the two clan elders in the hall, Li Li only needs them to show support, and he doesn't expect them to succeed.