At the beginning of October, the Wanli Emperor issued a holy decree to reward the soldiers who aided the court, and each was rewarded from top to bottom - Li Rusong was crowned as the crown prince and Taibao, and the official was the governor of the Central Military Governor's Mansion Zuodu; Yang Yuan, Wu Weizhong and other Liaodong generals also had their own promotions. In Shandong, Qingzhou Staff General Shi Changting took a step further and was transferred to Jinan and promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of Shandong; Zhong Nan was promoted to Dongchang guerrilla, in charge of the military affairs of Dongchang Mansion, in addition, the emperor specially explained: At the Spring Festival celebration ceremony, he wanted to meet this lucky general who had repeatedly performed miraculous feats. As for the ordinary soldiers, they will have a different amount of silver, and those who die in battle will also have a settlement fee to their families.

Among all the rewards, the part that everyone talks about the most is about Zhong Nan - especially the reward that the emperor personally received, in the ancient royal society, this is what many soldiers dream of! Although Zhong Nan was promoted from a low-level soldier to a guerrilla general, thanks to the good words of Li Rusong and Shi Changting, only he knew the dangers and hardships best.

After receiving the order, Zhong Nan immediately set off from Qingzhou to Dongchang, and everything went smoothly after that. Whether it is the government officials of Dongchang Mansion or the generals of the Dongchang military camp, no one has stumbled on him or made a conspiracy, because these people, no matter who they are, know very well that with the new guerrilla generals favored by the emperor, they will definitely have a great future in the future, and they have a good relationship with Zhong Nan now, and there will always be benefits in the future.

Dongchang Mansion is close to Hebei on the left and Jinan on the right, and it is not far from Beijing. Compared with Deng, Lai Erzhou, may not be so prominent in military status, but it is more or less a place, so there are still nearly 5,000 soldiers stationed, and most of them are infantry, Zhong Nan, the guerrilla is the leader of 5,000 soldiers and horses in Dongchang, as brothers in life and death, Chen Kepeng and Cui Dazheng, their official positions have also risen, and the two were promoted to sentry officers by Zhong Nan. A few days after Zhong Nan took office, Shi Changting, the newly appointed deputy chief soldier, also made a special trip to Dongchang Mansion to inspect the military situation, but in fact it was a platform and support.

Although it is not difficult to get his brother promoted, it is difficult to deal with the enthusiasm of a group of officials and gentlemen in Dongchang, but it is difficult for Zhong Nan. It turned out that I didn't know who leaked the news and spread the news that "the guerrilla adults have not yet married", so after Zhong Nan arrived, whether it was officials from all walks of life in Dongchang or dignitaries in Dongchang Mansion today, they all introduced him to him through various relationships, which made Zhong Nan not know how to deal with it. Although he repeatedly emphasized that he already had a wife, but there was no basis for his words, everyone only knew that the guerrilla adults did not even have a woman with a warm bed, let alone a wife and concubine. In view of this, Zhong Nam can only put the matter of finding Qiu Xiang on the agenda in advance and make it a top priority in the near future.

It has been a month since the affairs of the Dongchang military camp were straightened out, but fortunately, these are not a problem for Zhong Nan, who has been a sales manager in the 21st century. The subordinate is nothing more than co-opting or suppressing, and the superior is to contact more feelings or share interests, not to mention that the interpersonal relationship in the army is much simpler than in the government, and soldiers are born with the gene of obeying orders, so they have not encountered any trouble.

After everything was in order, in mid-November, Zhong Nan set off for the south.

The first stop was Suzhou Mansion, where Zhong Nan crossed and where many events left a deep impression on him took place. After arriving in Suzhou Mansion, the first person he was looking for was Zhou Bing'er, this woman had given him a lot of help, and she had a relationship with Qiu Xiang, maybe there would be some news.

With the memory of the former Cao Mansion, but found that the word on the plaque at the gate was replaced by "Jia Mansion", and after sending someone to inquire, I learned that Cao Governor's Mansion went to Beijing, and the people of Jia Mansion were not very clear about other specific situations, but they just said that Lord Cao was in a hurry, and this house was still handled by someone. After listening, Zhong Nan was a little frustrated, it was not good to be a teacher!

Since he couldn't find Zhou Bing'er, Zhong Nan could only go to Ma's house to try his luck. Qiu Xiang had lived in the Ma family for many years, and if she wanted to leave Suzhou, she would definitely say goodbye to the Ma family.

Fortunately, the Ma family is still in the old place, and the old lady is still alive. After meeting, the old lady gave Zhong Nan a lot of useful news: Qiu Xiang left Suzhou alone a month after Zhong Nan left, saying that she was going back to her hometown in Henan, and came to bid farewell to the old lady before leaving. Zhong Nan asked Qiu Xiang's hometown where in Henan, the old lady may be old, I don't remember exactly, I thought for a long time before saying that it should be in the Shangqiu area of Guide Mansion, but I can't be sure. She asked some of Qiu Xiang's sisters who were usually close to her, and everyone said that they only knew that Qiu Xiang's hometown was Henan, and Qiu Xiang didn't say the specific location. Seeing that the clues were about to be interrupted again, Zhong Nan was in an extremely low mood, but he still specially invited everyone in the Ma family to thank them for their care of Qiu Xiang and himself.

The next day, Zhong Nan went to the flyover alone and found the small restaurant he once ran, which is still a restaurant. He walked into the shop by surprise, looked around, and found that the furnishings had completely changed, and he could no longer find the original shadow.

Although it was neither human nor human, Zhong Nan still sat down and simply ordered two dishes. At this time, it was past lunch, and there were not many customers in the store, so the speed of serving the food was very fast, Zhong Nan tasted it, the taste was relatively ordinary, and he didn't mind, so he ate the rice in a big gulp.

After eating, he was about to settle the bill, he heard someone called "Zhong Shopkeeper", the voice was a little familiar, Zhong Nan turned his head to see that it was a middle-aged man who had just entered the door and was greeting him, he recognized the other party as Wei Wenming, and escorted him to Shandong.

The two are old friends, and they have to talk about wine when they meet this time, and after a few glasses of wine, the two briefly described their recent situation. Thinking that Wei Wenming was a member of the yamen, maybe he would know the news of Lord Cao, Zhong Nan mentioned it, "Master Wei, I went to Cao's Mansion to find the young lady, only to know that Lord Cao went to Jingshi, do you know their specific situation?" ”

"If you don't mention it, I'm about to tell you," Wei Wenming put down his glass and sighed, "It's hard to say!" ”

It turned out that Cao Yunjin went to Beijing to have a hidden secret: the Cao family was originally a famous family that had been officials for generations, and its foundation was in Beijing, and in the second year after Zhong Nanchong's army, the Cao family was impeached, and in desperation, the Cao family abandoned the car to protect the handsome, and the car was Cao Yunjin, the prefect of Suzhou. As for Zhou Bing'er, she went to Jingshi together, but Wei Wenming didn't know what happened after that.

Listening to Wei Wenming's narration, Zhong Nan was silent for a long time, and said in his heart No wonder the people in Jiafu said that Cao Yunjin was in a hurry when he left, it turned out that there was a major change in the base camp, but he didn't know if Zhou Bing'er would be implicated.

Wei Wenming saw that Zhong Nan was in a bad mood and was very interested, so he left not long after. Zhong Nan did not stay in Suzhou Mansion for long, and took his entourage north to Henan early the next morning.

A few days later, Zhong Nan came to Shangqiu County, Guide Prefecture, Henan, first went to the county government to open the way with silver, and the other party was very cooperative, helped check the household registration information, confirmed that Qiu Xiang was a local person, and then asked him to go to Qiu Xiang's original residence to inquire. After working for a long time, I finally had some eyebrows: Qiu Xiang's mother's surname is Wu, and she lives in a place called Wujia Village below Shangqiu County.

Zhong Nan did not delay, and the group immediately came to Wujia Village, and found one of Qiuxiang's own uncles through the village, and after meeting, what the other party said gave Zhong Nan a slap in the face.

It turned out that after Qiu Xiang returned to Wujia Village, she found this uncle of her own family. Because her uncle's family is very ordinary, except for a leaky house, she can't provide too many other things for Qiu Xiang, so she can only look for work everywhere. Although when she left Suzhou, the old lady of the Ma family and Zhou Bing'er gave her some silver, but after all, the amount was not much, not to mention that on the way back to Henan, she had an illness and spent a lot, Qiu Xiang thought about doing some work to save some money while her stomach was not too pregnant. Unexpectedly, within a month, Qiu Xiang was bleeding heavily due to overwork, and finally saved her life, but she lost the child in her belly. Then she was depressed for a few months, and suddenly one day she found her uncle to resign, saying that she was going to Shandong to find her husband, and there was no news after that.

After hearing all this, Zhong Nan's heart was dripping blood, he felt that he had brought too much suffering to Qiu Xiang, if he hadn't killed Hou Zijun by mistake, where would there have been these things later, God knows where Qiu Xiang is suffering and suffering now? But after thinking about it again, it's not because he has no power or power, if he is a dignitary, who would dare to tease Qiu Xiang around him! Thinking of this, Zhong Nan deeply felt the importance of power, in today's royal society, only by holding his own power can he protect Qiu Xiang and give her a better life, so he wants to be promoted, make a fortune, and be a master!

The trip to Henan did not find Qiu Xiang, but fortunately confirmed that she went to Shandong, since this was the case, Zhong Nan did not stay in Wujia Village for long, and took the team to embark on the return journey overnight.

The time came to 1593, that is, the winter of the twenty-first year of Wanli, and now it was early December, and it was almost time to leave for Beijing, so Zhong Nan came to Jinan Mansion first to meet other Shandong officials who went to Beijing to participate in the celebration.

Since it was the day of departure of the Shandong delegation ten days later, Zhong Nan took advantage of the gap to visit Shi Changting and other important military and political officials in Shandong. In the next few days, he fell into a state of idleness, thinking about it, since there is nothing important in the past few days, it is better to look around in Jinan Mansion, in case he can find the trace of Qiu Xiang.