Wukou Town is located in the south, August is thick, the weather is sunny on this day, there is no cloud in the blue sky, the white sun is shining, and it is hot. Xiao Haotian moved the meeting place from the study to the appreciative pavilion in the garden, facing a pool of new lotus, the cool breeze was slow, and he felt a lot more comfortable.

Zhou Ze, who is used to living in the north, still feels that the heat is unbearable, Mo Li looked at Zhou Ze who kept letting the little guy fan and smiled, "The heart is calm and naturally cool, you will only get hotter if you are so impetuous and impatient!" ”

Seeing him like this, Xiao Haotian ordered the little guy standing behind him, "Bring a chilled watermelon!" After a pause, he said, "Go and call Ling Yatou to serve!" ”

Zhou Ze muttered in a low voice, "I also said that I called her to serve, I think I asked her to eat chilled watermelon." ”

Xiao Haotianfeng's eyes narrowed slightly, but he just squinted, and he was already so imposing that Zhou Ze closed his mouth.

"Lord Wang, I heard that our mother gave birth to a dragon son for the saint!" Mo Li shook the feather fan gently.

"Yes, Yingyue gave birth to a boy!" Xiao Haotian called his sister in private, and his sister added a dragon to the emperor, which was a happy thing, but there was no joy on his face.

"The emperor is very happy this time, and has already ordered an amnesty for the world!" Zhou Ze added next to him.

Xiao Haotian just nodded quietly, "The emperor also revealed the news that he wanted to make the little prince the crown prince, but Lord Batu in the court strongly opposed it, and he wanted to respect the ancestral system and still set up the eldest son as the prince, I think the emperor will issue an order for me to return to the court in the next two days." ”

"The emperor must want to use your strength to suppress Lord Batu!"

The Northern Desert Kingdom was originally composed of various nomadic tribes in the north, a total of one person was elected as the Great Khan, as the supreme leader, after Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne, he adopted the advice of the Han scholars, overthrew the system of electing the Khan in the clan society, defeated the hostile forces, and established himself as the emperor, and the country was called the Northern Desert.

However, Emperor Zhongzong did not rebuild it completely, in order to prevent the high concentration of military power, he still divided the soldiers and horses into six departments, the leaders of each department are called chiefs, and the chiefs of the six departments are managed by the 'Lord Batu' and another leader in charge of military affairs on weekdays. And now this other person in charge of military affairs is Xiao Haotian, and Lord Batu is Hebao.

Because Xiao Haotian's military talent and military exploits are much higher than those of Hebao, the current six divisions, both in terms of military power and military strength, have almost completely fallen into the hands of Xiao Haotian, and Hebao has almost been erected.

"As long as the eldest brother goes back, no one in the chiefs of the six departments dares to support Lord Batu, he is a paper tiger! He dared not to let the little prince born to our mother be the prince, he was tired of life! Zhou Ze slapped the stone table.

"I'm not going back yet." Xiao Haotian's answer surprised both Mo Li and Zhou Ze, "The emperor may be testing me, now eighty percent of the Northern Desert's troops are in my hands, if Yingyue's child becomes the crown prince, then the entire Northern Desert Country will not have the surname Xiao, how can he, the emperor, sleep peacefully."

Zhou Ze, in two days, you will lead the troops to the south of Qinhe Town to feint, Qinhe Town faces water on three sides, although the place is small, but it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, you don't have to work hard to attack the city, as long as you create a big momentum, I will use this war to delay for a while, and I will not return to the dynasty for the time being, if the emperor really sets up Yingyue's child as the prince, he will definitely issue an edict to return to the court, if he is just tempting, he will give up! ”

Mo Li and Zhou Ze nodded in admiration for Xiao Haotian's clever and wise arrangement.

At this moment, the butler commanded the two little servants, carrying a table, on which a large watermelon was placed, and it was put in a large copper basin with ice cubes, and there were some peaches and plums on the side. Ling Dongwu also followed them into the Appreciation Pavilion.

Looking at the chilled peaches, she cheered and stretched out her hand to the peaches.

"Smack!" Ling Dongwu slapped Zhou Ze on the hand: "There are no rules!" ”

Ling Dongwu glanced at Xiao Haotian with his eyes, and saw that his face was not harmonious, so he honestly stood behind him.

Xiao Haotian's eyes were sharp, and as soon as he lowered his head, he saw that her little hand like a snow lotus was hit by Zhou Ze with a red mark, knowing that this stunned young man would not show mercy to his subordinates, he smiled faintly at her, "Come over and cut the watermelon, you can eat it after it is cut!" ”

Ling Dongwu happily walked to the table, rolled up her sleeves, and revealed a piece of frosty wrist, which was wearing a white jade bracelet given to her by Xiao Haotian, her complexion and jade color were extremely white, and she could hardly tell which was the wrist and which was the jade bracelet. Picked up the knife and swung it at the watermelon. After stopping, regardless of the surprised and strange expressions of the three of them, he smiled at Zhou Ze: "General Zhou, please help me break it from here." ”

Zhou Ze glanced at her, broke the watermelon in half as he said. It turned out that the watermelon had been divided into many equal pieces on the skin, but the pulp was still connected together, and it looked like a whole.

Ling Dongwu quickly broke off the two pieces and handed them to Xiao Haotian and Mo Li, while beckoning: "Do it yourself, do it yourself, have enough food and clothing!" He broke another piece and ate it to himself.

She didn't notice the fleeting glint in Xiao Haotian's eyes and Mo Li's slightly frowning brow.

Zhou Ze asked curiously, "What kind of knife technique do you have?" Where did you learn? ”

"This is called the watermelon knife method, and I naturally learned it from the melon seller."

"You learned the watermelon knife technique from that melon seller?" Xiao Haotian asked her casually.

"Yes, it's from our hometown." Ling Dongwu realized at this time that he had gone too far, and lowered his head to eat watermelon. In order to learn this knife technique, she bought two watermelons from him every day for half a month and took them back to practice.

Fortunately, all three of them bowed their heads and ate watermelon, and they didn't ask her everything about the watermelon knife technique.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Ling Dongwu began to bury her head in eating watermelon. She ate very quickly, swallowing a piece of melon into her stomach in a few bites, then spit out a handful of melon seeds from her mouth, and then marched to the next one.

"You're really useless! Haven't you eaten watermelon in your life? Zhou Ze scolded in a low voice beside her.

"Hey! You still eat! Are you going to nibble on the watermelon rind? Zhou Ze muttered dissatisfiedly.

"It's so hot, I'm going to eat a few pieces of iced watermelon what's in your way!" Ling Dongwu said vaguely.

"This Wukou City is really embarrassing in the summer. Tomorrow, let's go to the Qin River to take a boat, and the hot wind passing through the water surface will bring a little bit of moisture, which can be cooler than the high-walled compound here. ”

Ling Dongwu heard Xiao Haotian say this, and clapped his hands happily, "Okay, it's good to take a boat to cruise the river!" ”

"What are you happy about! I didn't say I'll take you there! Zhou Ze said angrily.

Ling Dongwu hurriedly handed the watermelon he had just taken in his hand to Zhou Ze, a pair of long eyelashes flickering like butterfly wings, "Here, this watermelon is for you to eat!" ”

"Who rarely eats the watermelon you break, you think everyone is like you, and you don't want to die when you see it!" Zhou Ze said with a straight face, he didn't know why, he wanted to quarrel with her as soon as he saw Ling Dongwu's face, especially when she smiled, there was a shallow pear vortex on her left cheek, which was infinitely delicate, and it made him upset.