The State Preceptor turned to look at Ye Xiaoxian again.
Her face was dainty, her eyes slightly slanted. With rouge on her cheeks, her each and every move was gracious.
“Please take a seat, Madam Xiao.” The State Preceptor pointed at the seat in front of him.
Ye Xiaoxian noticed that Xiao Baoshan had left. And the bowl, wine cup and chopsticks he had used had been replaced with new ones.
It would seem the State Preceptor wanted to talk to her in private, presumably trying to convince her to be his lobbyist.
Knowing that she had no other choice, she sat down without hesitation.
“Would you like some wine, Madam Xiao?” said the State Preceptor, “This is the Immortality Wine from the palace, top-of-the-line.”
Ye Xiaoxian took a sip. It was not very strong, but indeed much tastier than what they sold on the street. She nodded. “It does taste good. They made it with early morning dew, right?”
Seeing that she had some acquaintance with wine, the State Preceptor said, “It would seem Madam Xiao is an expert. I heard that you’re from the countryside and used to own a restaurant.”
“That’s true.”
“No wonder. You must’ve dealt with all kinds of people when running a restaurant, which is why you’re pretty spunky.”
“Thank you for your compliment, State Preceptor. It seems that you’ve done a detailed background check on me.”
“I only look into the Xiao family.” The State Preceptor took a sip of wine and then asked casually, “May I ask where your parents are, Madam Xiao?”
“They’re dead!” Ye Xiaoxian said firmly.
She knew nothing about the parents of the original owner of her body. According to Li Hongmei, she had been purchased from a human trafficker. In this dynasty, there were people selling their children everywhere. A man could buy an underage girl to be his future wife at the price of two taels of silver.
Given that the couple had sold the original owner of this body, they must be destitute and have little love for their daughter, so they were as good as dead to Ye Xiaoxian.
Surprisingly, the State Preceptor asked, “Dead? How did they die?”
Little Ye thought for a moment and said, “I’m not sure. I just know they’re dead. Maybe they drowned in a river, or maybe they got killed in a mudslide.”
The State Preceptor thought to himself, “So it’s not her.”
Xiao Baoshan’s hometown was in Qinghe County which was very remote. His daughter could never have got that far.
The State Preceptor then said to Little Ye, “I heard from Zhang Deshui that your cooking skills are pretty good. The recipes for these side dishes are all from you. Where did you learn to cook?”
“Who is Zhang Deshui?”
“He’s one of my cooks.”
Little Ye said, “Oh, his culinary skills are good, but not perfect. Many of these dishes could have been improved, such as the pork legs and the duck’s gizzard.”
“You like cooking?”
“Of course,” Little Ye replied curtly.
“Well, you may pay a visit to the kitchen and have a little cooking contest with Zhang Deshui when you have the time, so that I’ll get to taste the food made by you.”
Little Ye said, “No problem.”
There were so many precious ingredients in the State Preceptor’s residence, and she had plenty of leisure at hand, so why not practice with those ingredients?
……
At the imperial court.
On this day, the State Preceptor specially brought a lunchbox to the court. After entering the palace, he handed it to his subordinate and instructed him to deliver the snack to the empress dowager for her to enjoy.
After the court meeting, the State Preceptor specially visited the empress dowager’s palace.
The empress dowager was stroking her cat. At the sight of the State Preceptor, she asked, “I’ve tasted the snacks you had my men deliver to me in the morning. They’re very delicious, more delicious than what the imperial cooks could make, to be honest. They’re light and had the ingredients’ original flavor. The pork legs were particularly tasty. Normally I have to gnaw when having pork legs, but the ones I ate in the morning were boneless. They’re soft and glutinous and tender, and the flavor was very lingering. I heard that that kind of stuff is very good for skin health.”
“Is that so? I’m glad you like it. But do you know who cooked them?” asked the State Preceptor.
“Who was it? Did you recruit a new cook? The former one… Zhang Deshui, I believe that’s his name. He resigned?”
Zhang Deshui used to serve the former emperor, and the empress dowager had had the food he cooked before, which was why she knew his name.
State Preceptor said, “He did not resign. I have a young female visitor staying in my place. She’s Xiao Baoshan’s wife. Her culinary skills are divine. What’s more surprising is that she bears some resemblance to what you looked like when you were younger.”
“Oh? When I was younger?” The empress dowager showed a disdainful expression. “When I was young, I was the most beautiful woman in this country. Are you sure she compares to me?”
“Of course she cannot hold a candle to you. She just looks a bit like you. Apart from anything else, she’s from the countryside, and her temperament is different from you.”
The empress dowager was a little unhappy. “Did you miss the younger version of me when you saw the girl who looked like me? All men like young women, and they dump old ones when they have younger alternatives.”
“That’s not true. You’re not old. Your skin is still so delicate. You’re the woman I love the most, and also the only woman I love,” said the State Preceptor, giving her cheek a playful tweak.
“Then why did you keep her in your house?”
“To make Xiao Baoshan toe the line.” Then the State Preceptor told her his plan and added, “That’s why I can’t let Madam Xiao go for the moment. I need to put her under house arrest, otherwise her husband will refuse to do my bidding.”
The empress dowager heaved a sigh.
“What’s that sigh about?” the State Preceptor asked.
“I’m sighing because I wonder if you guys will ever get tired of scheming against each other, and because women always end up becoming the victims.” The empress dowager recalled how she had been sent into the palace.
When she entered the palace, she was only sixteen years old and had just given birth to a daughter. At that time, the latest emperor was already more than sixty years old. Though in favor with the emperor, she was very unhappy. Every day, she had to figure out new ways to please the latest emperor, and she had to guard against tricks from his concubines in the harem.
Fortunately, she had been extremely beautiful, and the latest emperor had been a lecher, and the State Preceptor had offered her a lot of constructive advice, which was why she had risen to the top of the hierarchy in the harem.
The State Preceptor swept the empress dowager into his embrace and stroked her shoulder. “I know you feel wronged, but look where you are now. Even the emperor now has to respectfully call you mother, let alone the others. And you have inexhaustible wealth and infinite fame.”
“I just miss our daughter. I wonder if she’s still alive.”
“Come on, not again.” The State Preceptor kissed her on the lips to stop her from saying anything else.
Soon, the empress dowager was lying limply beneath the State Preceptor, unable to speak.
……
It was already evening and Li Chengkun was still dealing with memorials to the throne.
When the first batch of memorials were handled, he asked the eunuch waiting on the side, “Is the State Preceptor still in my mother’s palace?”
“I… I don’t know, Your Majesty.”
“Go find out. If he’s still there, bring him to me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The eunuch took his leave.
About half an hour later, the State Preceptor arrived.
Since he had been rolling on a bed, his clothes were rather dissheveled.
Li Chengkun couldn’t help frowning. “State Preceptor, next time you come here, make yourself presentable.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Has Xiao Baoshan replied?” Li Chengkun asked.
“Not yet, but his wife has been put under house arrest in my place. I don’t think he’ll wait for long. Besides, we’re not in a rush to make a decision. Messages from the north suggest that the war is still in a stalemate. There’s no telling if Xiao Baoshan is there to put out the fire or to add oil to it.”
Li Chengkun’s eyes fell on the memorial in front of him.
Yan Zijing and his men had been fighting in the north for over a month, and the eventual winner was indeed still unknown, but provisions were decreasing and the casualty number was rising by the day.
Indeed, they had no idea whether Xiao Baoshan was going there to add oil to fire or to put it out.
But no matter what, he had to go to the battlefield.
Li Chengkun then asked the State Preceptor, “We can’t send Xiao Baoshan there for no apparent reason. And he needs a good cause to lead the army. Should we bestow a title upon him?”
The State Preceptor said, “Well, about the title… He used to serve the Sixth King stationed in the south-west, so we might make him Left Envoy of the West General, and we send him north as backup.”
“What about Qian Qi?” Li Chengkun’s then asked.
“Qian Qi will remain West General.”
“But Xiao Baoshan is stronger than Qian Qi.”
“That’s even better. Xiao Baoshan is clearly stronger but his rank is lower, so he will be sure as hell to feel unbalanced, which means he will be on bad terms with Qian Qi, and they will not join hands.”
Li Chengkun looked at the State Preceptor, and sighed inwardly, “It’s true what they say, the tactics of experienced people are just ruthless.”
The State Preceptor added, “We may have Qian Qi stay here for the time being. If you want to send someone north, it has to be Xiao Baoshan. Or, we may transfer Qian Qi back to Baoning City after some time.”
“So Qian Qi will be our pawn used to hold Xiao Baoshan in check?”
The State Preceptor smiled, “Exactly. Qian Qi is also a tough guy. At present, we have no goods on him in the capital city. It is very difficult to tie him down. If we order him to go north to put out the fire, he will almost certainly refuse. Besides, we’ve already sacrificed Qian Dong to make the big plan work. If Qian Qi dies, the bloodline of the Qian family will be cut off for good.”
With that, the State Preceptor and Li Chengkun smiled at each other.
In the past, Qian Qi’s big brother had been sent to ‘put out the fire’. Originally, after completing the task, he could have returned to the capital where he would be made a marquis, but as a member of the Qian family, he had been very stubborn. After quenching the flames, he had chosen to destroy the army of the Northan Qing Kingdom at the cost of his own life.
Otherwise, they would not have got the chance to throw mud at Xiao Baoshan.
……
In the north.
The war had been going on in full swing.
As expected, Yan Ziyan was a born field commander and had what it took to be a general. Originally, there had not been many men in Ziyan Villa, but with the help of the fifty thousand men sent by the imperial court, they had managed to hold back the enemy until now.
Moreover, under his leadership, the fifty thousand men had done what a hundred thousand men might not be able to do.
The Northern Qing Kingdom had sent reinforcements three times in a row, but they were still unable to take Heihe City. The city used to be very vulnerable, but now, it was like an impregnable castle.
The supreme commander of the enemy was so angry that he almost vomited blood. They had lost several generals, all of whom had great fighting skills.
However, Yan Ziyan and his men had never received any military training, and they never adopt any conventional tactics when fighting. Their strategies were erratic and ever-changing, and the enemy never knew what their next move might be.
However, the Northern Qing Army did not have time to guard against it and thus started fighting back with no elaborately formulated battle plans. They could only send in reinforcements repeatedly, intending to win the war with the outweight of numbers.
Yan Ziyan and the others were fighting more and more fiercely, and thus the war continued without any rules.
That night, they intercepted a group of Northern Qing soldiers coming to attack the city, surrounded them and annihilated them with hails of arrows.
