Chai Rong returned to his sleeping tent with a heavy heart, and although Lin Xiaoyu, who had already received the situation of the military discussion from Ma Ping'an, who had returned to the tent in advance to report to her, knew that Chai Rong was in a bad mood at this time, and it was very likely that he would be angry with himself, the only member of the "Qingyuan" brothers he could see, but as a wife, she still greeted him and prepared to help her husband change his clothes. Fortunately, although Chai Rong has a bad temper, he still disdains to do the matter of finding his wife to spread fire when he is in a bad mood. Therefore, although his face had been gloomy, he still cooperated with Lin Xiaoyu and Ma Ping'an to change into home clothes, sat down on the low couch, and drank the tea brought by Lin Xiaoyu himself without saying a word, and the entire sleeping tent fell into silence.

After a long time, Ma Ping'an, who was very uncomfortable with such a state, for fear that Chai Rong would not be able to express the depression in his heart and hold back his illness, finally decided to break the uneasy silence. He stepped forward and asked Chai Rong softly carefully, "Official, noon has arrived, do you want to pass the meal?" ”

After waiting for a while, Ma Ping'an saw that Chai Rong did not respond to his request, and thought that the voice he had just spoken was too small for the other party to hear, so he came closer and planned to ask again. As a result, without waiting for him to speak again, Chai Rong, who had been bowing his head and not saying a word, raised his head at this time, waved his hand and said, "I'm not hungry now." You go down first, I have something to say to Concubine Lin Xian. ”

Chai Rong naturally had something to say to Lin Xiaoyu in private, although Ma Ping'an was a little worried about Lin Xiaoyu's situation at this time, but he did not dare to disobey Chai Rong's will. He agreed, peeked at Lin Xiaoyu next to him, and saw that the other party did not have any abnormal expression, so he withdrew from the sleeping tent and went to ask the chef of the imperial dining room with the army to prepare lunch - although Chai Rong said that he was not hungry, the imperial dining room must prepare everything for dinner on the premise that the emperor will change his mind at any time.

Seeing Ma Ping'an exit from the sleeping tent, Chai Rong pondered for a while, then put down the teacup in his hand, looked up at Lin Xiaoyu who was standing aside, and said word by word: "Concubine Xian, those brothers of yours have deceived me so hard. ”

"Why did the official family say this, the official family is the true dragon son of heaven and the king of a country, how dare those brothers of the concubines deceive the official family even if they have the courage to do so?" Lin Xiaoyu pretended to be puzzled.

"How dare they deceive me?" Chai Rong smiled bitterly and said, "They are in the Land of Clouds, but I am thousands of miles away, and the Land of Clouds was previously occupied by the Khitans, and it is difficult for the imperial court to get news from here." As long as they manage to dredge up the local Khitans, they can do whatever they want in Youzhou, and I have no way of knowing what they are doing. Concubine Xian, let's talk about it, how come they don't dare to deceive me with such haode conditions?"

"Although what the official says is true, just because you have the conditions to do it does not mean that you will definitely do it." Lin Xiaoyu argued, "The brothers of the concubines have always had their hearts towards the court and the official family. If it weren't for this, he would not have risked being discovered by the Khitans and punished for it, and traveled thousands of miles to the capital to meet the officials' families and present muskets and artillery; The starling brother of the concubine will not enter the court as an official, and he has made various contributions to the official family's training of the 'Divine Machine Army' and the official family's southern and northern wars. The concubine heard that a few days ago, the concubine's starling brother also issued a military order to the official family, promising to provide food and grass for the imperial army, and handed over the private soldiers under the concubine brothers to the court commander to jointly deal with the Khitans. All of this proves that the brothers of the concubines are loyal to the court and the official family, how can they deceive the official family. ”

Lin Xiaoyu didn't mention Xu Shaoan, but when he mentioned Xu Shaoan, Chai Rong's mood was even more depressed. He said angrily: "My heart is to the court, to offer firearms, to provide grain and grass, and to hand over private soldiers, if it weren't for what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, I would really be moved by this so-called righteous act, and regard those brothers of yours as loyal and righteous people and pillars of the country." ”

Speaking of this, Chai Rong couldn't sit still anymore, he put the teacup on the table, stood up, walked back and forth in the sleeping tent, and said loudly: "Since it is the heart of the court, why is it that the thirty-six brothers of 'Qingyuan' except Xu Shao'an really entered the court as an official, only Concubine Xian, a weak woman, is willing to stay in the capital, and everyone else is far away in Youzhou to develop their own shili?" If they want to sacrifice firearms, why are the firearms used by their own private soldiers far sharper than those offered to the imperial court? Since it was to provide grain and grass, why did he Xu Shao'an keep saying that he would go to meet the grain cart, but he never returned? Since it was a private soldier, why did Xu Shao'an report to the imperial court several times different from the actual number, and why did the 'Qingyuan' private soldiers not report to the imperial court after arriving on the battlefield, but suddenly attacked the Khitans? ”…,

Seeing Chai Rong angry, and said some contradictions in what the crossing team has done in the past few years, Lin Xiaoyu realized that now is not the time to say good things for the brothers, the wisest choice is not to argue with and stay out of the matter as much as possible, so as to reduce Chai Rong's suspicion of himself and avoid intensifying the conflict - if Chai Rong is angry with himself, punishes or even kills himself because of this, then no matter whether he does it justificially or not, the crossing team will not let him and his subordinates go.

Therefore, in response to Chai Rong's questioning, Lin Xiaoyu hurriedly knelt down and replied: "The official family is angry. The concubine is just a woman, she never participated in the brothers' deliberations when she was in Youzhou before, and she didn't know much about the brothers' affairs after entering the palace. Every time the starling brother came to the palace to visit the concubines, he only talked about some family matters, and rarely mentioned what the brothers did in Youzhou. Therefore, the concubines are really speechless about these things that the official family said. ”

Lin Xiaoyu said with an aggrieved Chen here, and Chai Rong also realized that he had found the wrong object of anger. In his opinion, what Lin Xiaoyu said was true. On the one hand, in this era of male superiority and inferiority, unless the male members of the family are gone, or they are really not the material for big things, otherwise women like Lin Xiaoyu will indeed not participate in the decision-making of major family or family affairs at all, as she said. On the other hand, Lin Xiaoyu has been concentrating on the royal diagnosis since he entered the Tai Hospital, and it is rare to have leisure to go to Xu Shao'an's house to sit, and after entering the palace as a concubine, he almost broke off the contact with the "Qingyuan" brothers. In addition, Fang Cai's shouting also vented a lot of anger in his chest, so as soon as Lin Xiaoyu reported his grievances here, he couldn't lose his temper anymore, but walked over quickly to help Lin Xiaoyu and comforted: "Concubine Ai, please get up quickly." I was angry that Wang Kunjun, Zhang Weixin, Xu Shaoan and others were not blaming Concubine Ai. ”

Chai Rong helped Lin Xiaoyu up and sat down with her. However, sitting down and sitting down, the injustice in Chai Rong's heart has not completely dissipated, but it is not good for him to be angry with Lin Xiaoyu at this time, so he can only sit there and sulk alone. Seeing that Chai Rong's face was ugly and depressed, considering that his husband's health was not good, and he suffered from the cold when he was inspected at Waqiao Pass a few days ago, Lin Xiaoyu was afraid that he would really be sick because of this matter, so he hesitated slightly, but still said with relief: "The official family, although the concubines did not participate in the major affairs of the family when they were in Youzhou, with the concubines' understanding of the brothers, although their expulsion of the Khitans was resolute and resolute, they were not merciful, but they had no malice towards the Great Zhou court. This can be seen from the fact that in the battle of Baoxingzhuang, they defeated and annihilated the Khitans in one fell swoop with thunderous momentum, but they did not commit any offense against our Great Zhou military camp. The concubine thought that no matter whether the concubine's brothers really deceived the official family and the court, they were still full of goodwill towards the official family and the court. It can deal heavy hands on the Khitans, but it will not have any disrespectful actions towards the officials and the army of the imperial court. Moreover, based on the concubine's understanding of the eldest brother, fifth brother, sixth brother, starling brother and other main brothers, they have always been prudent, reasonable, advantageous, and modest. This time, since he fought in front of the officials, the military generals and tens of thousands of soldiers in front of the Khitans, he naturally thought of the reaction of the officials and the imperial court to this matter, and should have been prepared to explain this matter to the official family and the imperial court. As the saying goes, 'there must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge', instead of being entangled in the brothers of the concubines to deceive you, blindly guessing what their plans will be next, it is better to wait and see what happens, and wait for the brothers of the concubines to explain to the officials. ”

"Will the concubine's brother come to see me? I'm afraid this is just a rhetoric you use to comfort me, concubine. Chai Rong said with some disbelief, "The 'Qingyuan' brothers are so deceitful and reckless to hide from me, how can they take the initiative to come to see me, they are not afraid of me to punish their crimes?" ”

Lin Xiaoyu naturally understood Chai Rong's doubts, and explained: "It is not a lie for the concubine to say that the concubine's brothers will come to see the official family, but a speculation made by the concubine based on her understanding of the brothers. The brothers of the concubines were naturally afraid of the official family's punishment, but they were even more afraid of falling out with the court because they did not make the matter clear with the official family. The crime of deceiving the monarch can still be offset by the credit of annihilating the main force of the Youyun Khitan army, but once there is a dislike with the official family and the imperial court, causing mutual distrust between the two sides, I am afraid that no matter how great the credit is, it will be difficult to recover. Therefore, the concubines firmly believed that they would rather risk being punished and killed by the official family, and would send competent candidates to meet the official family. ”…,

On the one hand, Chai Rong believed in Lin Xiaoyu's judgment of her brothers and her eyesight, and did not think that the "overseas returnees" who were still respectful to her and served her a few years ago would really be rebellious and really enemies of themselves and the Great Zhou court - if they had this intention, they would not have to travel thousands of miles to the capital to meet them, let alone sacrifice their firearms to the imperial court. On the other hand, the strength of the "Qingyuan" private soldiers also made him believe that the "Qingyuan" brothers had the courage to meet him. After all, with such a powerful private soldier behind him, even if he really came to the Zhou army camp to see him, he couldn't risk his own life, the lives of the Manchu Dynasty civil and military and tens of thousands of soldiers in order to get back a little face, and he would really be punished in the future.

"Wait and see what happens" is the countermeasure proposed by Zhao Kuangyin during the court discussion, and now coupled with the explanation of Lin Xiaoyu, the person who knows the "Qingyuan" brothers best, Chai Rong finally had no other thoughts, and decided to follow Zhao Kuangyin and Lin Xiaoyu's advice, and waited for the "Qingyuan" brothers to send someone to explain to him in his own camp.

Of course, the taste of waiting is always unpleasant, especially when the whole army only has two days of rations left - although the main force of the Liao army in Youyun has been destroyed, until the Liao army's partial division is cleared, the Zhou army's grain route will still not be clear. From the afternoon to the evening to the palm lamp, Chai Rong, who had not waited for the "Qingyuan" brothers to send someone to ask to see him, couldn't help but start to be a little impatient again. Fortunately, Lin Xiaoyu had already prepared for this, and on the grounds that the Battle of Baoxingzhuang had just ended, his brothers needed to clean up the battlefield and clean up the prisoners, and it was difficult to take time to see Chai Rong, so he persuaded his husband and asked him to promise to wait for another day for the "Qingyuan" brothers. At that time, if the other party does not send people again, it will not be too late for the court to take action.

The next day, on the morning of the fourth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Xiande (the ninth year of the corresponding calendar), Chai Rong convened the imperial meeting again to discuss countermeasures with a group of civil ministers and military generals. With the example of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhang Yongde arguing with each other yesterday, which led to Chai Rong's early end to the court meeting, the imperial meeting on the morning of the fourth day of the new year was even more dull than the previous day, except for Zhang and Zhao who continued to express their opinions there, the other ministers were basically just spectators and listeners, and they became completely decorations.

Just when Chai Rong was a little annoyed by the argument between Zhao and Zhang, and was about to leave again as he had done the day before, the Chinese officer who was waiting outside the imperial tent came in to report that it was news from the pioneer battalion's horse scout, and that there was a new movement in the "Qingyuan" private army, which had defeated the Khitans the day before. Its main force, more than 10,000 people, marched north and headed for Liangxiang. The rest of the men and horses were divided into two routes, one of which was an army of 800 horses crossing the Baigou River and galloping southward, and the specific destination was unknown. The other 4,000-foot army went straight south, five miles to the east of the vanguard camp, three miles from the main camp of the Chinese army, and lined up on the Baigou River, and erected two pontoon bridges over the river. In addition, Xu Shaoan, the commander of the vanguard and the commander of the "Shenji Army", and the general of Yunlu, led more than 100 relatives to the camp of the Zhou army, and at this time they were almost at the camp gate.