Dingjiangshan

On October [-]th, Xie Jue and Ning Huaijin arrived at Xinyang Mansion one after another, and on that day they flanked Zheng Shaohui's left army, causing the defenders of Xinyang Mansion to suffer a lot.

With the reinforcements from Xie Jue and Ning Huaijin, Zheng Shaohui was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

After the left and right armies joined forces, the command was naturally handed over to Xie Jue.General Xie has dealt with foreigners a lot in the border towns over the years, with 10,000+ soldiers and horses in his hands at every turn, and he hasn't paid much attention to a mere Xinyang City.

In the next few days, good news came frequently, and Ning Yan reckoned that it was not far from good news.

It's just that the rain in Nanyang Mansion has been pattering down for four or five days, and when the sky finally cleared up, the weather outside has completely cooled down, as if it was no different from the early winter in the capital.

When Ning Yan was in the capital, there were earth dragons and hand stoves to keep warm all day long, but when he arrived in Nanyang, he did not have such a good life.With the continuous rain in the past few days, his whole body is like an eggplant beaten by frost. He has no energy all day long. He drinks bitter medicine soup day by day, and even his appetite has lost a lot.

Fortunately, the news from Ning Huaijin came in a timely manner, perhaps because Ning Yan was worried. At first, Ning Huaijin reported every two or three days, but after the fight, it became a daily report. Hovering over the mansion, although the letter is getting shorter and shorter, it has not been left behind in the end.

When there is a military report, I will talk about the situation on the front line. If I really have nothing to say, I will pick up some gossip. Today the kitchen made white flour buns, and tomorrow I accidentally scratched a hole on the battlefield.

Ning Yan followed him in fear all day long, and almost put most of his energy on it.

Moreover, Ning Yan came out in the name of a personal expedition. Although he only stayed in Nanyang City and did not go out with the army, he had to go over the trivial matters such as the dispatch of food and grass in the rear and the progress of the army. It was no easier than Ning Huaijin on the front line.

Linglong's body grew bigger day by day, and after four months, her body began to gradually become pregnant.

Ning Yan gradually handed over some of the errands around her to Shili to do, and Linglong only needed to serve Ning Yan's books and meals every day.

After half a month, Linglong's figure has plumped up a lot, and she looks more and more like the master of an ordinary family.

Ning Yan seemed to value this "emperor's heir" very much, and had ordered Shi Jiarong to find a doctor and a midwife in the local area, for fear that she might make a mistake.

Things in the court are complicated, but fortunately, because of the war this year, all arrangements have to be postponed, without the major event of scientific research, there is less time for arguing in the court.

But a few days ago, a crooked in-law of Shu Qinghui's family committed a crime. I heard that the master's family drank too much alcohol and killed the concubine in the family. He was sued by the concubine's family and entered Dali Temple , got into trouble all over.

Seeing this, Jiang Xiaohan also led the disaster to the Shu family a little bit—the in-laws were not close to the Shu family, but the disadvantage was that Mrs. Shu was soft-hearted, and relatives came to beg for mercy. People ate tea several times.

Jiang Xiaohan just pretended he didn't know, and let Dali Temple make this matter worse, and finally took the opportunity to take advantage of this shareholder, and made Shu Qinghui "profess his illness and self-cultivation" before it was over.

Shu Qinghui probably also guessed that there was Ning Yan's instruction behind this, so he didn't make a fuss, and honestly closed the door to "recover his illness".

In addition, Jiang Xuan in the palace seemed to regard Ruan Yin as her last refuge, and she did not come out after fleeing into Renshou Palace, so she meant to live there forever.

Although this is not very in line with the rules, since Ning Yan is not in the palace, no one can control her.

And Ruan Yin has been struggling with the rumors about the "Emperor's Heir" recently, and she doesn't have the time to pay too much attention to Jiang Xuan.

Since Ning Yan's emphatic instruction last time, Jiang Xiaohan has adjusted some of the imperial guards' defenses in the name of changing defenses in winter.During the period, Ruan Yin threw a few people in, but Jiang Xiaohan pretended not to see it, and just wrote down the situation blindly, and sent it to Ning Yan.

There were mixed opinions on Ning Yan's expedition from inside and outside the court. Although most of them were praises, a small number of clan members still criticized Ning Yan. It's okay to send Xie Jue to suppress the meeting before, but the movement of the personal conquest is so big, there is no need for the world to laugh at it.

Ning Yan accepted all these words, turned a deaf ear to them, and just pretended not to hear them. Anyway, the clan members had nothing to do in daily life, and when they got together, they knew how to gossip about these trivial matters.

So Ning Yan listened to the gossip of the capital from time to time, and was busy collecting and arranging the adjustment of grain taxes in various provinces.

It's wartime now, and although Ning Yan's treasury is still plentiful, but the autumn grain is on the market, whoever can block the grain opening first means that whoever can gain the upper hand in this protracted war.

Ning Zheng had already stockpiled a lot of food before, if he was allowed to stockpile without end like that, this battle would be even more futile.

But the peasants are living a hard life, and if they blindly increase the grain tax, it will only make the people complain. Ning Yan has suffered a loss in this battle, and if he loses his reputation in this, the gain will not be worth the loss.

So Ning Yan could only think of a more ingenious way, setting a standard of "exemption" and "low tax".

Generally speaking, except for the waizhuangzi of the high-ranking officials, other ordinary farmers will find their own way to sell the rest, except for the levied to the officials, or hand it over to the grain dealers. Or it is sold in the nearby market or the like.

This year's fortune is special, so Ning Yan ordered the officials of the prefectures to collect grain.The price of grain is [-]% lower than the market price, but if farmers sell more, they can reduce the grain tax payable this year according to the amount of grain sold.

For example, if you sell more than [-]% of your own harvest, the grain tax can be reduced by [-]%.

If farmers choose to sell more than [-]% of their harvest to government grain merchants, they can simply exempt this year's grain tax and use it for farmers to survive the winter.

In this way, although the price of grain collected by the government is slightly lower than the market price, there are still a large number of farmers who are willing to sell grain to the government.

It's just that the food tax affects the whole body, and it can't be changed just by changing it. There are too many things to be involved in the period, and Ning Yan is not in the capital, so he can only rely on sending letters back and forth to discuss with the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs one by one.

When this matter was finally finalized, more than half a month had passed, the tail of late autumn had quietly disappeared, the last crop of withered grass outside was covered with frost, and the days gradually became cooler.

At the beginning of winter, good news came from Ning Huaijin.

The front line fought dozens of battles, large and small, with the defenders of Xinyang City. You advanced and retreated, and finally took Xinyang City on the fifth day of the winter month.

Even if Ning Yan had foreseen such a result, he couldn't help being in a good mood that day, and drank half a bowl of porridge for breakfast.

Ning Huaijin's military report said that because of the timely command, neither the left nor the right armies suffered too many casualties, most of them were minor injuries, and they were all settled properly in the barracks outside the city.

It's just that Xinyang City was damaged a bit, and many local merchants and civilians fled the land of right and wrong with their families. Most of the city has been emptied, and it may take a while to regain its vitality.

In addition, Xinyang City was originally divided into Ning Zheng's fief, but now that the government has changed, all the deployment and policies in the city have to be reorganized, which is not as easy as it was in Tongbai County.

Xie Jue is a general, not to mention that he doesn't know anything about these things, and his knowledge is very limited. Most of them have to be handled by Ning Huaijin, so since they settled in Xinyang City, even Ning Huaijin's letters that don't drop every day have become less. stand up.

But this doesn't matter to Ning Yan. Once Xinyang City is broken, there will be no major battles when he comes in. He just needs to be sure that Ning Huaijin is safe, and there is no need to force him to spend time to deal with it. Own.

It can be said that this is the case, Ning Yan still closed the door and calculated Ning Huaijin's return date.

It is a trivial and troublesome matter to sort out the government affairs of a city. Ning Huaijin is no better than being in the cabinet now, and there is no one around to help him. Come back around Wintermoon 26.

It's nothing. Although Ning Yan hoped that he would come back as soon as possible, he didn't want him to be too tired for such a time limit, so he just forgot the previous verbal agreement and never wrote to urge him.

But who knew that Ning Yan didn't mention it himself, Ning Huaijin was more concerned than him.

The days in winter were tough, and Ning Yan gradually stopped going out. The house was filled with charcoal fires and steamers all day long. Except for Ning Yan, everyone else became groggy after staying for a long time.

A few days later, Ning Yan even sent Linglong out, telling her not to wait on her, leaving only Shili by her side.

On the [-]th day of the winter moon, just in time for the winter solstice, Ning Yan was in good spirits today. After walking around the room twice, he felt a little bit missing Ning Huaijin.

But the closer it was to Dongyue 26, the harder it was for Ning Yan to urge Ning Huaijin.He bit his pen and thought for a long time, and finally he could only dryly write a letter to his family, only telling him not to forget to eat dumplings.

It was only after Ning Yan handed the letter to Shili to send it away that he realized that it was already tomorrow when the letter was delivered to Ning Huaijin.

Ning Yan pinched his forehead, feeling that he had been soaked in too much in those memorials recently, and he couldn't even use his brain well.

He was about to call Shili back, but when he got up together, before he could speak, he saw that Shili had gone and returned.

"Your Majesty." Before Ning Yan could ask, Shili said, "Your Majesty..."

Before the ten-mile speech was finished, Ning Yan saw the person walking behind him through the wide-open door.

——Ning Huaijin was wearing light armor, and was walking towards him in a hurry.

Ning Yan froze in place, almost unable to tell for a moment if this was real or if he himself was still in a dream.

Ning Huaijin's cloak was covered with a thin layer of water, which seemed to be crystals formed by the dew on the road overnight.

The thin ice flowers glowed with a little clean light under the sun, Ning Huaijin strode into the door, and when she saw Ning Yan, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's okay." Ning Huaijin said hoarsely, "Catch up."