Ye Suijin slept very soundly. She had a regular schedule and naturally woke up when it was light. She didn't need to get up right away, just wake up slowly.
Zhao Jingwen also woke up and turned over to hold her.
The morning tent was filled with an ambiguous atmosphere.
After a while, Zhao Jingwen rolled over on top of her...
Waking up this way in the morning was quite comfortable and pleasant.
The young man's body was firm, his skin tight.
Ye Suijin gently stroked his muscular back, the texture was excellent.
This is probably the last time, she thought.
When he leaves today, their lives will likely fork apart.
Before leaving, Ye Suijin gave Zhao Jingwen a box.
Zhao Jingwen asked: "What's this?"
He opened it and saw a flash of gold. He was surprised and laughed: "No need to bring so much travel money, right? I already put some in the baggage train."
Ye Suijin said: "Better to be rich on the road, take it with you."
At least in their past life, Zhao Jingwen had never been stingy with her in this regard. The best things were always first sent to the imperial palace.
Zhao Jingwen just liked to present the best things in front of her.
He also generously rewarded the Ye family, though he held power tightly, he was not miserly in granting them wealth and nobility.
Zhao Jingwen was generous, Ye Suijin could not be petty.
Zhao Jingwen felt warmth in his heart, Ye Suijin still cared for him after all, though her status prevented her from formally taking him as a husband or granting him titles.
He held Ye Suijin's hand: "Leave outside matters to me, don't worry."
Ye Suijin didn't speak, just squeezed his cheek and smiled.
Zhao Jingwen mounted his horse, taking Xiang Da, Ye Mancang, and the hundred men Ye Suijin gave him, and set off vigorously after bidding farewell to Ye Suijin.
He had just realized, since he couldn't rise up internally, he should seek external development instead. Being sent abroad was good for him after all.
In any case, he, an outsider, could not intervene in the Ye family. So it was better to take a good look outside.
It was an opportunity.
Ye Suijin rode on horseback watching the hundred plus people depart into the distance.
At this point, their lives diverged.
Zhao Jingwen, from now on, we will each rely on our own abilities.
It had been two lifetimes.
She had always known what Zhao Jingwen wanted from her - he thirsted to stand tall before her, he thirsted for her recognition and praise, he even thirsted for the day she would look up to him.
But that was impossible.
It was impossible in their past life, and even more impossible in this life.
In this life she had given him gold, but did not even give him a Ye family rifle.
After all, Ye Suijin was not the Ye Suijin who had once wholeheartedly devoted herself to her husband. She only wanted a clear conscience, with no debts between them.
With a flick of the reins, Ye Suijin turned and headed back to the fortress without lingering.
After subduing the county magistrates of the various counties, Ye Suijin had begun establishing postal stations within Deng Prefecture's territory, ensuring fast communication between Nanyang, Ruan, Neixiang, and Fangcheng with Ye Family Fortress.
If fast horses ran urgently at about 100 li per day, messages from any corner of Dengzhou could arrive at Ye Family Fortress within a day.
Four days later, Zhao Jingwen sent word.
He had already discovered the trail of the rogue soldiers and was chasing after them. It seemed they would leave Dengzhou's borders, so he specially sent someone to report to Ye Suijin not to worry.
Six days later, he sent over twenty severed heads of the rogue soldiers.
Fourth Uncle Ye said: "Jingwen handles things cleanly."
Teacher Yang asked: "Were you able to find out their background?"
The scout reported: "They were from Xiangzhou."
The scout said: "Sir Zhao interrogated them and found out they had been following a general around Yangcheng. That general lost a battle at Mount Xie. Some of them got captured by the other side, the rest scattered and turned into roaming soldiers and bandits, wandering to Ruan County."
He reported the name of that general, one they had never heard of before.
Now the land was filled with people calling themselves "General". Du Jingzhong in Fangcheng was the same.
It could be said, big and small, genuine and fake, generals were everywhere.
Ye Suijin led the scout: "What about the other side?"
Scout: "Still unclear. The ones interrogated didn't know either. Sir Zhao said they were useless now. We are few in number and can't spare men to bring them back. And they had killed commoners in our Dengzhou too, so he beheaded them."
Teacher Yang asked: "Why didn't Sir Zhao come back?"
The scout said: "We only ran into a small group. There's probably a few hundred of them total, scattered around. Sir Zhao said, we've come all this way already, might as well clean up as many as possible, to avoid them harassing Dengzhou again some day."
Ye Suijin and Teacher Yang both nodded.
Zhao Jingwen's thinking was right. In fact, early on in their past life, Ye Suijin had ignored that small group at first. It was because of repeated harassment that she eventually sent Zhao Jingwen to deal with them.
Ye Lang was already looking at a map, locating Yangcheng and Mount Xie: "Not too far from us. It's good for Jingwen to go clear them out."
Ye Suijin's gaze also fell on the map, but skipped over Yangcheng and Mount Xie.
Ye Lang followed her line of sight and asked: "Sister, what are you looking at?"
Ye Suijin was looking at the intersection between Xiangzhou, Junzhou, and Fangzhou, in the area between Mount Xie and Zhijing River.
She also knew who had defeated this rogue general - Pei Lian's father Pei Ze, the son of the former Sword South Circuit protector.
When his father passed away, Pei Ze was still too young. His father's deputy Wang Rong had seized power in Sword South Circuit. The same one who now claimed himself emperor in the Shu region.
Wang Rong had even obtained recognition from the court at the time, and received an appointment decree. He got his appointment in a similar way to Ye Suijin.
Anyway, Pei Ze had a rough time those years, fleeing in panic during the unrest. He was constantly chased and killed by Wang Rong's men, living as a fugitive.
Later, when Wang Rong was purging Pei family remnants in Sword South Circuit, another group fled Sword South Circuit. They found Pei Ze and took him as their leader. The two groups merged and settled in the intersections between Xiangzhou, Junzhou and Fangzhou, between Mount Xie and Zhijing River. By now Pei Ze probably occupied half of Fangzhou.
But his wife and daughters had been abandoned at the time. Later his wife disappeared, likely dead.
The two-year-old Pei Lian was protected by two loyal servants as they drifted for years before finally finding her father, suffering great hardship.
Pei Ze always felt guilty for abandoning his wife and child in his panicked escape that year. Although he later had a son, he still doted on Pei Lian exceptionally, as compensation.
So when she came looking for him later, Pei Ze couldn't refuse Pei Lian's insistence on taking Zhao Jingwen as husband, even though he already had a wife. She loved Zhao Jingwen deeply, and would not give him up even if it meant sharing a husband. Pei Ze had no choice but to acquiesce.
And Ye Suijin - Zhao Jingwen begged her for forgiveness and entreated her endlessly. He also persuaded her on the benefits of an alliance between the Ye and Pei families.
Moreover, Zhao Jingwen promised she would be the primary wife and Pei Lian a concubine.
Pei Lian was also seduced by him into agreeing.
The Ye family leadership only had one woman, Ye Suijin. The men didn't really see an issue with a man having multiple women.
Moreover, Ye Suijin was barren and could not bear children with the Ye bloodline. No matter how many children Zhao Jingwen had with others, it was unrelated to the Ye Family Fortress, which would not change surnames. Sacrificing Zhao Jingwen's fidelity in exchange for an alliance with the Pei family seemed beneficial for the Ye Family Fortress at the time. Better than the two families fighting over a man.
Even Fourth Uncle Ye agreed then.
Only Teacher Yang was clear-headed at the time, advising her to break ties with Zhao Jingwen.
But she couldn't do it.
Ultimately, things progressed down the path Teacher Yang had predicted early on.
Relying on both the Ye and Pei families, Zhao Jingwen drew nourishment from both.
From relying on both families, he changed to controlling both families.
His rise also sealed Ye Suijin's inability to withdraw. Otherwise, the Ye Family Fortress would lose its heritage.
Worse, there were others on board who were also frantically investing. She didn't want to lose or be seen as the loser who let the other become the big winner, so she invested even more.
She was the primary wife. Pei Lian bore a son. Both felt they were in too deep to withdraw from the boat.
The art of rulership lies in checks and balances. Zhao Jingwen was naturally skilled in this, early on applying the ruler's techniques on the two wife tribes of the Ye and Pei families.
Gradually, the power dynamic inverted and the secondary became primary.
With his own power, Zhao Jingwen went from relying on both families to controlling both families.
His rise also sealed Ye Suijin's inability to withdraw. Otherwise, the Ye Family Fortress would lose its heritage.
Ye Suijin could only grit her teeth and persist until she could accompany Zhao Jingwen as he ascended the steps to the throne.
She had thought that by becoming Empress, she would not lose out.
But when she thought about it, she realized that she, along with Pei Lian, had lost.
The only winner was Zhao Jingwen.
"We must defend Dengzhou," Ye Suijin said, turning her gaze from Mount Ju to the waters of Zigui. She took the slender wooden rod from Duan Jin's hand and drew a line southwest of Dengzhou.
This was actually the issue they had been discussing in the study before being interrupted by the scout Zhao Jingwen had sent back.
"No matter who the enemies are, since they've already attacked Xiangzhou, we must guard against their advancing on Dengzhou," she said.
What she really wanted to guard against was Zhao Jingwen.
Given Zhao Jingwen's personality, he would have gone to investigate Fangzhou even in their past life. In this life, she hadn't even left a place for him in Dengzhou's power structure. With his intellect, he would certainly take advantage of this independent command to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Would he encounter Pei Lian again?
Ye Suijin couldn't guarantee anything else, but she could guarantee that if Zhao Jingwen met Pei Lian again, he would still be able to entrance her and cloud her judgment. In fact, Pei Ze also liked him very much, seeing him as someone with great potential.
Pei Lian's younger brother was still young, and Pei Lian was a woman, so Pei Ze had always wanted to find someone to support his son. He had taken in many sworn brothers, but Zhao Jingwen, his son-in-law, was clearly closest to his heart.
Ye Suijin suddenly understood how Zhao Jingwen had beguiled Pei Ze.
Naturally, it was with the same method he had beguiled Ye Suijin - at the Ye family stronghold, he had talked about the benefits of an alliance with the Pei family, and at the Pei family, he had naturally spoke of how an alliance with the Ye family would allow him to help his young uncle-in-law.
This must also have been an important reason why Pei Ze was willing to invest in him.
But in this life, Ye Suijin would never make the same choice as in their past life.
When she decided to send Zhao Jingwen to Guan County just as she did in their previous life, she had already made her choice.
In this life, she chose to sever all ties with him.
Since this was the case, she had to guard against Zhao Jingwen colluding with the Pei family to the detriment of Dengzhou.
"Alright, we can do that," her fourth uncle said. "Now that we're free for the moment, go ahead and busy yourself with it."
The busy farming season in July was finally over. Even Fangcheng had successfully rushed to plant a crop of beans.
The next busy period would be in November to harvest the beans, then they would enter the winter farming off-season.
August, September and October in between were quite relaxed.
"The new recruits have also trained for a month now," Ye Suijin said. "It's time to review their progress."
Thus, in the new recruit camp, someone came to pass on Lady Protector Ye Suijin's order: the new recruits' first major assessment, those who did not pass would be eliminated.
The recruits buzzed in discussion. Having eaten their fill for so long, some were unhappy. "Why are we still being eliminated? Everyone has been turning up for drills on time, no one has been slacking off."
Just as they were grumbling, someone suddenly said, "Do you think you were recruited just to show up and monkey around for drills?"
Everyone looked over at the voice, and saw a young man in brocade robes steadying himself with a hand on his saber hilt as he stepped forward.
With straight shoulders and piercing eyes, every inch of him radiated an aura of sharpness.
This youth was always by the Lady Protector's side. Despite his young age, he possessed an air of vigor equal to the Ye family scions.
He already held the rank of Attendant Counselor of the Forces, an official position.
Everyone recognized him as Duan Jin, who was said to have been raised by the Lady Protector.
At his words, the crowd quieted.
"The elimination is for your own good," Duan Jin said. "We don't give you full meals every day just so you can show up and look good at drills. Don't forget, we recruited you to become soldiers for fighting on the battlefield in the future, to win glory and promotion through martial valor."
"Those eliminated at the major assessment will be people who would just get hacked down with one stroke on the battlefield," he said coldly. "If you want to die, feel free to fail the assessment and stay loafing around the barracks. Battles are about sacrificing lives. You can throw yourself forward to block the enemies, so your comrades can kill enemies and earn deeds."
Everyone kept their mouths shut now, no longer daring to speak.
Ever since the Lady of Ye Castle, Ye Suijin, had taken charge of Dengzhou, recruiting troops, settling refugees, organizing rush planting - the whole of Dengzhou had taken on an air of peace and order.
It was true they had forgotten themselves after eating their fill for so long.
Soldiers were meant for fighting wars.
Wars meant death.
No meal came free.
