Do you know: I am Yuan Wenshao

Chapter 329 Arrival
"Grandma, my granddaughter can handle this," Minglan said.

"Can you handle it?"

Mrs. Sheng said angrily: "I heard that Gu Tingye has been looking for this woman for so long, but there is no news at all. Now that Gu Tingye left Bianjing, this woman suddenly appeared. Don't you think there is a problem?

And now that you are pregnant, you still dare to keep that woman in your house. What do you think? "

"Grandma, my granddaughter knows there is something wrong with this. But the officials no longer have feelings for her. They have been looking for her all these years because she took Brother Chang away. Now that she has finally appeared, I want to see if I can get some information from her. Ask about the whereabouts of the child," Minglan said.

"You, you, I have taught you all these years in vain."

Old Mrs. Sheng glared at Minglan with hatred, pondered for a while and said: "No, you can't go back there now. That Manny suddenly appeared now, and she might be plotting with your mother-in-law to harm you. . It’s too dangerous for you to hold your belly up now.”

"But if my granddaughter doesn't go back, there will inevitably be some gossip." Minglan said.

"Just say that I'm sick and can't bear to leave you, so I'll leave you here to take care of me." Old Mrs. Sheng said.

"Grandma, the official won't be back in a short time. You can't keep pretending to be sick, right? Besides, my granddaughter is pregnant, so it doesn't make sense to stay and take care of her." Minglan said.

"Don't worry, if others scold me, they'll scold me too," said Mrs. Sheng.

Minglan's eyes turned red and she said, "Grandma, it's okay. Mannia only wants me to agree to be her concubine, so she doesn't dare to do anything to me."

"I think you've lost your mind! That concubine doesn't dare to murder his wife, but is she a concubine?" Mrs. Sheng said with a pale face.

There are laws in the Zhou Dynasty that stipulate that concubines are not allowed to be straightened.

A concubine is always a concubine. Even if the main wife dies, the concubine house cannot be restored.

Therefore, Lin Xiaoniang dared to murder Minglan's mother, but no matter how hard she fought with Mrs. Wang, she never had the intention to murder Mrs. Wang.

Because Lin Xiaoniang understands that Mrs. Wang is really dead, even if it is not found out that she did it, she will not be able to become the main wife.

And Sheng Hong will definitely have to renew his relationship, and the new lady who comes into the family may not be as easy to deal with as Madam Wang.

But Mannia was different. Although she had a lowly status before, Gu Tingye had spent money to help her change it to a good status.

She used to be Gu Tingye's concubine, but she had no status and was not even considered a concubine.

Once Minglan dies, she can be taken as his wife.

Although whether you want to marry or not depends on Gu Tingye.

But I couldn't bear Mannia to think so.

What's more, Xiao Qin got her back. If Xiao Qin had promised her privately that she could kill Ming Lan and let her come in as his wife, who could guarantee that she wouldn't be tempted?
"Yes, Sixth Sister, just listen to grandma." Hua Lan advised.

During this time, Yuan Wenshao was away, so she often went to the Orange Garden to talk to Minglan.

When Mannia appeared, she knew it was not that simple, but she couldn't persuade Minglan.

I had no choice but to tell Minglan to come back to visit Mrs. Sheng, trick her into coming to the Sheng family, and tell Mrs. Sheng about the incident.

Faced with the two people's persuasion, Minglan still hesitated.

It is said that a married daughter throws away water.

As a married person, if she had been living in her natal family, there would inevitably be some rumors.

With Sheng Hong's temperament, although he couldn't say anything about what Mrs. Sheng decided, he definitely had opinions in his heart.

Seeing that Minglan was still hesitating, Mrs. Sheng said, "Even if you don't think about yourself, can't you think about the child in your belly?"

"Grandma, please stop talking. I'll go back and clean up later and move here." Minglan said.

What Mrs. Sheng said just now completely moved her. For the sake of the child in her belly, Minglan decided to move to the Sheng family temporarily.

"Just ask the servants to go back and get some changes of clothes. Can you still be hungry here?" Old Mrs. Sheng said.

……

Gu family
Xiao Qin was in a good mood during this period and had a rare opportunity to eat an extra half bowl of rice at night.

After taking a walk in the garden, I returned to my room to wash up and go to bed.

"Sanlang will be back tomorrow. You will tell me about the kitchen later. Come back tomorrow morning to buy some more of Sanlang's favorite dishes. Then I will personally cook some of his favorite foods. Sanlang has never traveled far in his life. This time It must have been a lot of hardship," Xiao Qin said.

"Yes." Mother Su responded.

"By the way, is there any action from Mannia?" Xiao Qin asked.

Last time, the four-bedroom and five-bedroom people were involved in the rebel king's party.

In order to ask Gu Tingye to help plead for mercy, Gu Tingyu took out the suicide note left by Gu Yankai before his death.

The suicide note not only contained information on how much property should be divided among the four-bedroom and five-bedroom families, but also a list of Bai's remaining dowry from that year.

Gu Yankai said in his suicide note that all these dowries belonged to Gu Tingye.

Afterwards, Gu Tingye took back all his mother's dowry.

The Gu family itself was an empty shell, otherwise they would not have owed the court so much money back then.

After Gu Tingye took these away, life became difficult for the Gu family.

Xiao Qin had never worried about money before, but now in order to maintain a wealthy life, she had to spend her dowry and let the house manager do business to make money.

However, Ningyuan Houfu has not done this for many years, and the managers in the house have little experience.

Not only did I not make any money, I also lost a lot.

At this time, due to a thorough investigation of the salt affairs in Jiangnan, private salt in Jiangnan disappeared, and there was a serious shortage of salt.

The imperial court issued more salt to solve the problem of salt shortage in the south of the Yangtze River.

Gu Tingwei thought this was a good business opportunity and mentioned it to Xiao Qin.

Xiao Qin also felt that this was a good opportunity, so she took out all the dowry and asked her brother, now the Marquis of Dongchang, to help her win part of the salt.

Because the amount of salt this time was large, Xiao Qin was not worried about the managers in the house, so Gu Tingwei took the initiative to ask for help and led people to transport salt to the south of the Yangtze River.

Some time ago, I received letters one after another saying that I had made a lot of money.

Not long ago, he even received a letter saying that someone from the Jiangnan Salt Gang had contacted him and wanted to cooperate with him.

Xiao Qin knew that this matter could not be done as soon as he heard it. The officials were now thoroughly investigating the salt affairs, and getting involved with the people of the Salt Gang was simply looking for death.

But they gave her a gift that she couldn't refuse, and this gift was Mannia.

Xiao Qin's favorite thing is to kill with a borrowed knife.

Kang Wang was the knife she was going to use against Minglan.

However, this knife is very useless. If you send it to a concubine, she won't even know it was sent away.

Now that Minglan is pregnant, Xiao Qin is even more eager to deal with Minglan, but has no knife to use.

She was dealing with Minglan because of her title, so naturally she couldn't involve herself in it. Now that the Yan Gang had sent her a knife, she naturally couldn't refuse.

And according to Gu Tingwei, the person who contacted him was just a small leader of the Salt Gang.

The reason why they contacted Gu Tingwei was that Jiangnan was conducting a thorough inspection of the salt affairs, and they were not allowed to sell private salt, which made life very difficult.

I want to use Gu Tingwei's help to help them sell a batch of private salt.

Mannia was just a meeting gift, and Gu Tingwei would not lose his benefits by helping them sell their private salt.

Xiao Qin thought about it and finally agreed.

First of all, they shipped a lot of salt to Jiangnan this time, and they were just helping to sell some of the private salt. As long as the quantity was small, it would be difficult to detect.

The second thing is that she really needs Mannia's knife.

The people from the Salt Gang were also very happy. Not only did they send Mannia directly to Bianjing, but the private salt they asked Gu Tingwei to sell was not a lot.

Now, the salt that Gu Tingwei transported to Jiangnan, as well as the salt gang's private salt, have all been sold, without causing any commotion.

After Mannia arrived in Bianjing, Xiao Qin met her once and promised her that as long as she was obedient, she would become Gu Tingye's official wife.

Then Mannia was asked to go to the Ningyuan Hou Mansion, and she sent the person to the Orange Garden.

"Not yet. It's said that they are very strict with her over there and can't find any chance." Su's mother said.

Xiao Qin said coldly: "What a waste, let her hurry up, otherwise she will have no chance at all when Gu Tingye comes back."

"Yes." Mother Su responded.

At this moment, a maid came in and saluted: "Old madam, there is news from the Orange Garden. The second young lady sent someone back to the Orange Garden, saying that the old lady of the Sheng family is seriously ill and needs to stay there to take care of her. I haven’t been back to Orange Garden in the past few days.”

"What?" Xiao Qin's expression changed.

Mother Su waved her hand to ask the maid to leave, and whispered: "Madam, don't worry, maybe Mrs. Sheng is really sick."

"Impossible, how could it be such a coincidence? Besides, even if the old lady of the Sheng family was really sick, she was not served by a married man who was still healthy. She must have been alert and found an excuse not to return to the Orange Garden. "Yes." Xiao Qin said with a gloomy expression.

If Minglan never returns to Orange Garden, Mannia will have no chance to take action against Minglan.

When Gu Tingye comes back, given Gu Tingye's character, he may keep Mannia temporarily because he wants to find out the whereabouts of his son.

But it was difficult for Mannia to find an opportunity to attack Minglan.

"No, we can't let Minglan stay in the Sheng family all the time." Xiao Qin thought for a while and said, "Tomorrow morning, you go to the Kang family and invite Prince Kang to me."

……

"General!"

Feng Guang hurriedly walked into the commander's tent. He didn't bother to salute and said hurriedly: "I just received the news from the spies. Kelsang Norbu asked for help from Zhou Dynasty. Now the soldiers and horses of Zhou Dynasty have passed Yulong Pass and entered the river." It’s within the borders of Huang.”

"what?"

Feng Rushan suddenly stood up and said with an ugly face: "This Kelsang Norbu has some tricks."

"General, according to what the spies said, Kelsang Norbu only allowed the Zhou Dynasty to send 3,000 soldiers and horses, and they have not yet reached the capital of Tubo. There are still 1,000 Xixia soldiers in the Tubo capital. If we send troops at this time, we should be able to get them Go to the capital of Tubo," Feng Guang said.

"No!"

Feng Rushan shook his head and said: "Your Majesty has just taken control of the imperial court, and the treasury is empty, so it is not suitable to fight for a long time. If we take the capital of Tubo at this time, and after Zhou learns about it, we can break the Yulong Pass with the help of those three thousand troops. . By then, the Hehuang plain will be under the attack of the Zhou Dynasty. Even if we capture Hehuang, we will need to send a large number of troops to garrison it, which makes no sense. "

"General, is it possible that we have just let it go? That Zhou Dynasty has no good intentions. If they send troops to occupy the capital of Tubo, we will be passive. And His Majesty will not be able to explain." Feng Guang said.

At the beginning, Feng Rushan issued a military order to capture Hehuang within half a year.

Now more than two months have passed. If Dazhou were to occupy part of Hehuang first, it would be unrealistic for them to capture Hehuang.

Feng Rushan was silent for a while and said: "Today, Tubo is still on guard against Da Zhou. Once we send troops, Kelsang Norbu will have to rely entirely on Da Zhou, and will instead give Da Zhou a chance.

By the way, I asked you to win over various Qiang tribes. How did you do? "

"Back to General, there are eight Qiang tribes willing to surrender, but they are all small tribes." Feng Guang said.

The land of Hehuang was divided between Tubo and the Qiang people. The two sides seemed to be equally matched, but in fact the Qiang people were much stronger than the Tubo people.

Tubo was half-farming and half-grazing, and in its heyday it had only a few hundred thousand soldiers and horses.

But the Qiang people are different. They are nomadic people, and basically all the people are soldiers.

There are more than 200,000 soldiers and horses.

However, the Qiang people are not unified, and no one of the tribes obeys the other.

This time, taking advantage of the civil strife in Tubo, only two tribes sent troops to attack.

Otherwise, with the few troops Mavis had, how could he defend the Qiang people while surrounding the Tubo capital.

According to Feng Rushan's plan, by first provoking civil strife in Tubo, some Qiang tribes would definitely take the opportunity to attack Tubo.

He secretly recruited some Qiang tribes, and when the fight was almost over, he captured Hehuang in one fell swoop.

Now Da Zhou intervened and disrupted his plan.

"Continue to win over. Now that Dazhou is involved in Hehuang's affairs, you tell them that Dazhou is preparing to send troops to Hehuang. If they don't want to be annexed by Dazhou, surrendering to Xixia is their only choice. As long as they are willing to surrender to Xixia, their original The tribe is still in charge of themselves, Xixia will not interfere!" Feng Rushan said.

"General, what about Da Zhou?" Feng Guang asked.

"The Great Zhou only has three thousand soldiers and horses, what kind of trouble can it cause? When the news of the Great Zhou sending troops to Hehuang spreads, the Qiang people will inevitably withdraw their troops, and Mavis will be able to use his hands to deal with Kelsang Norbu and the Great Zhou The soldiers and horses are gone." Feng Rushan sneered.

"But doesn't this give Zhou an opportunity to continue to increase his troops?" Feng Guang asked doubtfully.

"The troops sent by Dazhou this time are only five thousand, and including Wu Xiong's army, there are less than twenty thousand. What if he increases his troops?" Feng Rushan said.

"But Dazhou has millions of troops. Once they lose here, they will probably continue to increase their troops." Feng Guang said.

"Then tell me, since Dazhou has millions of troops, why did it only send 5,000 people this time?" Feng Rushan asked.

"This..." Feng Guang didn't know how to answer for a while.

"Haha, because Dazhou is afraid that we Xixia will misunderstand. You do as I say, and I will write to your majesty, asking your majesty to send envoys to question Dazhou. In this way, as long as we do not send troops, Dazhou will not continue More troops." Feng Rushan said.

……

Yuan Wenshao took five days with his troops to arrive outside the Tubo King's city.

Although it is said to be the capital of the country, it is actually not as good as some of the state cities in the Zhou Dynasty.

The soldiers and horses surrounding the capital had already received the news. The day before Yuan Wenshao arrived, they had reduced their strength, retreated dozens of miles, and stationed themselves.

When Kelsang Norbu saw Yuan Wenshao arriving, he went to the city gate to greet Yuan Wenshao in person.

(End of this chapter)