The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 302: The Beauty in the North

Two ladies of noble birth, plus the stunningly beautiful Zhang Yan, came to the Wendeng County Court all at once, and the whole county court was flourishing.

As the person involved, Liu Zhaosun did not feel the happiness of having three wives. On the contrary, the three women made him exhausted.

Jin Yuji came to Shandong alone this time, and also brought along nine-month-old Fei'er. Naturally, Yang Qing'er was not willing to be outdone, so she directly brought Zhang Yan along.

Zhang Yan just turned eighteen this year. She is beautiful and talented, and can be described as stunning.

After Kang Yingqian was exiled, she chose to stay in the capital and later moved into the Yang Mansion. Yang Jinglue instructed his wife to win over this woman and make her his strong ally.

Although Yang Qing'er disdains these palace fighting tricks, but seeing that her husband favors Jin Yuji more and more, she becomes more and more suspicious that this Korean enchantress has some evil magic to seduce men. After much thought, she has no choice but to join forces with Zhang Yan to deal with the enchantress in order to win back a city.

Zhang Yan had been a student of the Confucian classics since childhood, never putting her books down. She was incredibly clever, and she saw the situation clearly at a glance. She knew she had no choice but to actively participate in this palace intrigue.

She could not return to her home in Henan, as her parents sold her for eight thousand taels of silver.

From then on, she was no longer a daughter of the Zhang family. She had no one to rely on in Kaiyuan, and could only rely on Yang Qing'er, and advance and retreat with the imperial concubine, and then wait for the opportunity to ascend to the throne.

Ping Liaohou had never watched a palace fighting drama in his previous life, and knew nothing about weird dramas like Zhen Huan. In addition, all his energy was used to deal with Japan, so he had no time to pay attention to the war between three women.

In late September, typhoons struck various parts of the Bohai and Liaohai seas, temporarily halting sea transport and the Spirit of Tsushima. Military supply deliveries and landing exercises were shifted to land. The Marquis of Ping Liao summoned Xu Guangqi, Jin Nige, and Deng Changxiong to analyze the weaponry and tactical characteristics of each of the Japanese feudal domains.

After repeated research, everyone made corresponding adjustments to the weapons and tactics of the landing troops.

Simply put, the soldiers were equipped with more firearms, bows and arrows, and the chariot formation of a thousand people was changed into a thirteen-man mandarin duck formation that was convenient for mountain warfare.

The use of the Crouching Tiger Cannon and the Divine Fire Flying Crow was changed from division and regiment to battalion-level deployment, facilitating fragmentation on the battlefield. Furthermore, a mountain infantry training corps was formed, gathering veterans of the White Spear and Wolf Soldiers, along with the Jianzhou Bayala. This corps, consisting of 3,000 soldiers drawn from various armies, underwent assault training to equip them for the mountainous terrain of Kyushu.

During wartime, these 3,000 soldiers will serve as the spearhead of the entire army and break through the enemy's defense line on Kyushu Island from the front.

On October 5th, the Mino-e guards, who had infiltrated the mountains and forests of Tsushima Island, reported that hundreds of Japanese red seal ships had suddenly appeared in the waters east of Tsushima Island and were rapidly advancing towards Busan. They were primarily composed of samurai and ronin from the Satsuma, Nagasaki, and Kaga domains, totaling approximately 8,000 men.

The war between Ping Liaohou and the Shogun is about to break out.

One day at the end of September, Ping Liaohou sent Jin Yuji and Yang Qing'er away and summoned Zhang Yan alone.

That night, there was a storm and Zhang Yan came to the bed of Ping Liaohou in high spirits.

Ping Liaohou got straight to the point and told her to return to Henan immediately to reunite with her parents. He also told her not to repay the eight thousand taels of silver Kang Yingqian had spent on her. He could consider it as money Ping Liaohou had borrowed from Kang Jianjun.

Anyway, Liu Zhaosun had already borrowed a lot of silver from them.

Zhang Yan refused to leave no matter what.

"If Marquis Ping Liao despises my humble family background, I will be a maid in your mansion and will never leave."

Liu Zhaosun was amazed and looked up at Zhang Yan secretly.

Although he has the nickname "Liaodong Daniel Wu", he is not the Ming Dynasty Daniel Wu after all, and he does not win by his looks.

Even when facing a beauty like Zhang Yan, he still felt a little nervous. He took a deep breath, looked at the slightly blue whale oil lamp above his head, and sighed:
"I come from the military, and my family background is probably not as good as Miss Zhang's. How can you say you despise me?"

Zhang Yan's eyes moved as she listened to him quietly.

"There are many alarms in the north and south, and the people are living in dire straits. The Japanese are slaughtering merchants from Kaiyuan in Korea. There are still tens of millions of people trapped in dire straits within Japan, waiting for my rescue. No matter what, this war must be fought, but I don't know how many years it will take. I am busy with military affairs and will be away for most of the year..."

Ping Liaohou sat at his desk, staring at the map of Japan on the wall, chattering to himself.

There was a violent storm outside the window. A flash of lightning streaked across the night sky, casting a shadow of the towering walls of the county government office. The inside of the wing was as bright as day, with two whale oil lamps burning quietly.

Before I knew it, I had been in Daming for five years.

When he thought about it carefully, his three views seemed to have remained in the past. Apart from the compromises he had to make in military and political aspects, when it came to matters between men and women, he still upheld the cautious attitude of the "Yonghe Otaku" in his previous life.

"Next is Annan, and the north, the north of the north, and a wider world."

Ping Liaohou pointed to the location of Sakhalin Island and continued, not caring whether Zhang Yan could understand him or not.
"You always ask me why I keep fighting. Why? I want to restore the land of the Han and Tang dynasties. Or to put it another way, I want things to return to their original state. Therefore, it is my fate to die on the battlefield. Did Madam Yang ever tell you that I haven't been home for six months?"

Zhang Yan nodded.

"So, Miss Zhang, I don't want to delay your future any longer. You should be with the Carpenter Emperor right now, but because of me, everything has been messed up. I actually feel very ashamed..."

The time traveler was still chattering, and when he looked up, Zhang Yan handed him a glass of wine.

"I don't drink." Zhang Yan smiled with deep affection.

"How can the Marquis of Ping Liao, a hero among men, not be able to drink? Is he not as good as a little girl?"

Liu Zhaosun had no choice but to take the wine glass and drink it all.

Zhang Yan filled another cup, looked out the window at the desolate night, and murmured:

"Ten years of lanterns under the night rain, a cup of wine in the spring breeze. I heard that the general married Mrs. Jin. Ten miles of spring breeze, peach blossoms all over the sky. It's a pity that my daughter was so young at that time..."

"Stop talking, I'll just drink it."

After drinking a few glasses of wine, Liu Zhaosun felt an irrepressible joy in his heart.

The rain outside was getting heavier, and the raindrops hitting the ground sounded like a galloping army.

Ping Liaohou was so drunk that he would get drunk after three cups. He forced himself to sit up and asked the guards to come in and see the guest off.

Zhang Yan held her breath, tiptoed up, and walked gently behind him. She blew out the whale oil lamp in front of him with one breath, and covered his eyes with her hands.

The light in the room suddenly dimmed, and Liu Zhaosun immediately turned his head.

Bright eyes and white teeth are right before your eyes.

"What future and wealth? General Liu is the future."

Marquis Ping Liao was speechless.

I didn't expect that such explicit love words could come out of Zhang Yan's mouth.

"My daughter doesn't want any status. Being born into this world with a hero like the general is enough to comfort me."

Liu Zhaosun listened and shook his head and said with a smile:
"After just a quick meeting, can you be so sure?"

"can."

"Why?"

Zhang Yan released her arm from around Liu Zhaosun and said solemnly:

"Marquis Ping Liao is different from others. He doesn't look like someone from the Ming Dynasty at all."

Zhang Yan was at a loss for words and pointed at the thunder that resounded through the heavens and earth.

"It's like someone came down from the sky..."

Liu Zhaosun was afraid that she would reveal that she had traveled through time. In the past two years, for various reasons, there were at least eight hundred women who had taken the initiative to throw themselves into the general's mansion and were willing to serve as concubines. To use a statement from a later movie, their number could be lined up from Kaiyuan to Wendeng.

Zhang Yan lowered her slender hand from Liu Zhaosun's eyes and pointed at the lamp on the wall.

"Just like this lamp before us, Sima Qian wrote in the Records of the Grand Historian: '...it has astronomical data on the top and geographical data on the bottom. It uses mermaid fat as a candle, which is expected to last for a long time." I think the mermaid fat the ancients referred to was whale oil. The Taiping Yulan and Sanqin Ji also record the use of whale fat as lamps."

Ping Liaohou said with great interest, "Miss Zhang, you are well-read. I admire you! I have only read the Records of the Grand Historian, and that was to prepare for the college entrance examination. But what do you mean by all this?"

Zhang Yan naturally didn't know what the college entrance examination was, so she didn't ask in detail, but continued:
"The last time I left Liaodong, I happened to see civil officials setting up whale oil lamps on the streets. Liaodong's winter days are short, and whale oil lamps are expensive to make. They cost a fortune, but they're solely for the benefit of the people. I imagine the treasures of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor, now in the hands of Marquis Ping Liao, have become commonplace artifacts that benefit the people. I'm not as knowledgeable about military affairs as Madam Yang, nor as experienced as Madam Jin in fighting on the battlefield, and I've only met the general once. However, from this one object, I know that the general is a great hero, a great hero, whose achievements must surpass those of the Qin Emperor and Han Emperor... My little girl is uneducated, and I'm just saying a few random things. Please don't laugh, Marquis Ping Liao."

Liu Zhaosun opened his mouth wide and remained speechless for a long time. He was stunned by Zhang Yan's eloquence. He didn't expect that this woman could be so eloquent.

It seems that the one who can become the Queen of the Ming Dynasty is not just a vase.

At this time, a thunder sounded above the county government office, like the roar of cannons in the ears. A moment later, a dazzling white light flashed past the window. A flying saucer-shaped ball of lightning took advantage of the rainy night and quickly passed over the sky above the Wendeng County Government Office. Before Liu Zhaosun could see it clearly, it disappeared in the western sky.

Zhang Yan screamed in surprise and snuggled into the arms of Ping Liaohou, acting like a little bird.

But seeing: the silk skirt was half taken off, and the embroidered shoes were doubled up. Liu Zhaosun was immediately confused.

Looking at Zhang Yan's marble-like face and black crystal-like eyes, he felt that he could no longer bear it, so he stretched out his hands and pinched her arms.

The bed swayed gently.

(End of this chapter)