For several days, Song Nan was busy with the expedition, almost touching the ground; Fortunately, under the current situation, no one in the DPRK and China dared to show their heads for the time being, and with the full assistance of Yang Yiqing, the newly appointed secretary of the Ministry of War, things went quite smoothly, and the preparations before the expedition were basically completed in three days.

In this expedition, Song Nan still mobilized several battalions of soldiers and horses from the Shenshu Battalion and the regimental battalion of the Second Foreign Army, but in order not to favor one over the other, in addition to the regimental battalion led by Jiang Bin and Xu Tai, the new three battalions of soldiers and horses in the regimental battalion went out with him. Five battalions of the 12 regiments and battalions went on the expedition, and if it had been before, some people would have jumped out to point out and draw west, saying that the regiments and battalions should not go out to Beijing to fight, but this time, no one came out to oppose it.

Yang Tinghe and others have stopped showing their heads since that day of the court meeting, quiet and a little unlikely, that day the cabinet was ordered to strictly investigate the interception of Sun Sui's performance, and at the same time, Yang Tinghe in order to lose the pawn and protect the car Lu Wan of the military department as an abandoned son, and also lost the important position of the military department, and the loss was quite large. This time should be the time to lick the wounds and calm the situation and people's hearts, so they will stop and avoid the limelight for the time being.

Song Nan also had no time to pay attention to them, suspecting that the court had instructed the cabinet to investigate the matter of the collusion between Prince Liang and King Ning, and Song Nan was also happy to see if Yang Tinghe could find out what he could do.

In fact, from the bottom of his heart, Song Nan did not want to cause eternal hostility with the cabinet, nor did he want to step the cabinet into the eighteenth layer of hell; From the heart, the cabinet and the outer court under the leadership of Yang Tinghe still have some ability, and there are many large and small affairs of the Ming Dynasty, and the reason why various affairs can still be orderly naturally benefits from the guidance and management of the outer court. However, Song Nan has a bottom line in his heart, if Yang Tinghe and the others can do their part in peace, instead of putting the cabinet and the outer court above others, or even affecting the future of the court, Song Nan can coexist peacefully with them.

But Song Nan also faintly felt that his thoughts might be too naïve; No matter from which point of view, Yang Tinghe is not a person who is easy to succumb, judging from Yang Tinghe's resolute abandonment of Lu Wan, this person is decisive and scheming, and his courage is not under him; The so-called one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, when there are two opposing power groups in the DPRK and China, it will be an endless battle, and when this storm will come, although it is not clear, but it is obviously not far away, Song Nan understands this.

The atmosphere in the Song Mansion has been very tense these days, since the rumors of Song Nan's death in Jiangxi a few days ago spread to the capital, Song's mother was frightened for several days, and secretly cried more than a dozen times, and her health was not very good; Although the wives and concubines of the Song Mansion all thought that they would never believe that Song Nan would die if they did not see Song Nan's corpse, the news spread all over the sky, and everyone was very panicked.

After Song Nan returned to Beijing, he was pleasantly surprised, and everyone was worried about it, because Song Nan was going to lead the troops again, and every time he went out on the expedition, all the wives and concubines were worried, after all, going to the battlefield was a life-and-death fight, and Song Nan was an adventurous person, and it was not once or twice that he encountered the worry of his life, and it was inevitable that there would be a time when he would miss something, if there was really such a day, everyone would not know how to face it.

Although Song Nan rarely sat in the mansion, he could clearly feel this atmosphere, so before he set out on the expedition, he specially took half a day to gather everyone in the family together, first, to express his guilt, and secondly, to appease everyone's uneasy feelings.

This time, Song Nan specially invited Zhu Fengtong and Yang Qian'er to the mansion, if it weren't for Zhu Xiufu's inability to come openly, Song Nan wanted to invite her to the mansion to get together, in Song Nan's opinion, these will be women who will accompany her all her life, they have all been close to each other, and they should show their hearts at the right time.

In the garden of the back house of the Song Mansion, a long table is placed on the grass of the rejuvenation, and the snow-white tablecloth is placed with all kinds of snacks and fruits, although it is only February, but this year's spring comes very early, the afternoon sun is full of warmth and comfort, and occasionally there are bees and butterflies buzzing in the ears, making this moment of time long and leisurely.

Song Nan helped Song's mother sit at one end of the long table, and then accompanied the dressed women to sit down one by one; Although Song Nan has emphasized many times that there is no need to stick to the so-called ranking of status in the house, the women have a scale in their hearts, and they know their own position, so they are also very particular about their seating. Song Nan's right head is the Duchess Zhang Peicheng, the first position on the left hand is very particular, originally according to the order of entering the door, Lu Qingli should be sitting, but everyone knows that Song Nan's favorite is Dai Suer.

But Dai Su'er didn't want to sit there, Dai Su'er actually knew very well in her heart, on the surface, Song Nan liked herself the most, but in fact, it was not her Dai Su'er who should sit in this position, but Ye Fanggu. is not only the reason for being the oldest, Ye Fanggu is actually the one Song Nan respects the most, and she has also experienced the test of life and death with Song Nan, in her heart, Ye Fanggu is the person Song Nan can't live without, with Dai Suer's cleverness, she naturally refuses to incur words for this position.

Ye Fanggu was pressed by Dai Suer and Lu Qingli to sit down next to Song Nan, Song Nan smiled silently, and Song Nan was quite proud of the well-behaved and harmonious wife and concubine at home; Looking at them one by one, the women around them have their own characteristics, and they all have a common advantage that they understand the general situation and understand the reason, and they will never worry about these things. Maybe this is also due to the enlightened style of his own house, never engaging in hierarchical suppression, otherwise, like his mother, in the hierarchical Song Mansion in Ulzhou at the beginning, in order to compete for the position of a side room, it is impossible to get it.

Zhu Fengtong and Yang Qian'er, who did not have the name of the Song Mansion, sat on the other side of the long table, and they were accompanied by the maids next to the two; The two of them are very satisfied with being able to participate in the family banquet of the Song Mansion, Song Nan returned to Beijing for a few days, they did not have the opportunity to meet Song Nan, and it was not good to come to the Song Mansion to see him, to appear on this occasion is to show Song Nan's attitude, that is, they regard them as their own people, and the Song Mansion also has a consensus in their hearts on this point.

After settling down, Song Nan got up first, bowed deeply to Song's mother and said, "Mother is above, the child has apologized to you here." ”

Song Nan sighed silently, Song Nan said: "The child has spent too little time in the house recently, too little time to accompany his mother, and there are some people with ulterior motives outside who have made rumors to make his mother worry, the child is really unfilial, please punish my mother." ”

Mother Song is obviously a little old, but in fact, Mother Song's actual age is only in her forties, but she looks like she is in her fifties, and Song Nan is also a little worried when she looks at her. It stands to reason that my mother has lived a comfortable life since she came to the capital, how can she age so quickly; Maybe it's because I'm on the cusp of the storm every day, and my mother is worried too much? Or maybe he lost his husband when he was young, was widowed for more than 20 years, couldn't get the comfort of love, and people grew old quickly?

"Son. My mother is old, and I can't figure out a lot of things. You are busy every day, my mother knows that it is difficult for you, since you entered Beijing, have you ever spent a comfortable New Year with us? Mother is not concerned about anything, mother remembers the festivals you have had in the house over the years, in the past seven years, how many times have you spent the Shangyuan Festival, Lantern Festival, and Double Ninth Festival with your family? Maybe my mother doesn't understand your heart, but my mother said something heavy in front of her daughters-in-law today, my mother doesn't like you now, and my mother even regrets coming to the capital, how much my mother misses the days in the small stone bridge house in Ulzhou. ”

The audience was silent, Song Nan hung his head and was silent, feeling guilty in his heart.

Mother Song's eyes were full of mist, and she looked elsewhere and said softly: "At that time, although our family's life was difficult, maybe the food and clothing were not as good as now, but our family could see each other every day, everyone lived together peacefully, the neighbors were also harmonious, and my mother was very satisfied." But now, how many days of the 365th day of the year can you spend in the house? When you're not at home, you're out fighting, do you know how worried your family is? What's so fun about fighting? Why are you always at war? Look at the house again, your children are already knee-high, did you once hold them, take them out to see the lanterns, and go to the capital? The daughters-in-law are very virtuous, but what they don't say is said by their mother, do you think that the higher your position and the more honorable your title is, the happier they will be? Mother is a woman, and Mother knows that the happiest thing is that you accompany them and coax them. ”

The eyes of the women on the table were red, and the words of the mother-in-law were said to their hearts, if it was said that in the early years, they were still happy for Song Nan's continuous progress and promotion to the knighthood, and they also enjoyed it with a certain vain state of mind, but now they are more eager to be able to hug Song Nan, and their mood is no longer the same as before.

Yang Ko'er and Zhu Fengtong also felt these words, there were fewer opportunities for the two and Song Nan to meet, and they were also sneaky and hurried when they met, especially Zhu Fengtong, who had strong self-restraint before, since she had a moonlit night kiss with Song Nan, the passion in her heart was as unstoppable as a volcanic eruption, and she was lovesick to Song Nan, if she didn't inquire about Song Nan's whereabouts every day, if she didn't know what he was doing, she wouldn't be able to spend that day. Hearing these words of Mother Song, the tears in Zhu Fengtong's eyes couldn't help falling, and Qingluan on the side hurriedly handed over a handkerchief for her to wipe away, so as not to be rude in front of everyone.

Mother Song sighed and continued: "In the past, in Ulzhou, my mother had a very good relationship with the surrounding villagers, but now it is good, there are guards and soldiers and horses inside and outside the house, and dozens of people follow to protect every door, and it is impossible to say a word to the people on the side of the road." Although the villagers from Ulzhou are doing things in the house, they don't dare to talk to the old body anymore, every time they speak, they must bow and nod their heads, and my mother doesn't know what's wrong? If this is what you worked hard to earn for us, my mother really doesn't know what to do with these things? Maybe my mother is old, my mother's ideas are outdated, what my mother said today may not sound good to you, but my mother held these words in my heart for too long, and today I finally said it, whether you are happy or unhappy, my mother always said it. ”