"Sixth Sister." Ye Jingyi stood up to speak for Eleventh Sister, "Mr. Chen praised Eleventh Sister."
Mr. Chen was Ye Jingyi's mentor in law. He was well-versed in codes and regulations. Every prominent family needed to have one or two people like him. He was specially selected by Ye Suijin from the retainers she had nurtured over the years to be Ye Jingyi's mentor.
In this life, Eleventh Sister and Ye Suijin were not that close yet.
She was young and had not gotten to play with Ye Suijin's group when she was little. Afterwards, when Ye Suijin lost her father, remarried, and managed the fortress, it was even less possible for her to play with the younger ones. There was also the obstruction of Fourth Uncle Ye between the two sisters, so there was no need to mention it.
To tell the truth, it was only in the past few months when she followed Ye Suijin to learn archery that she started to become familiar and intimate with her.
But she admired Sixth Sister very much.
When Sixth Sister looked at her with such serious eyes and talked to her seriously, unlike how Father always treated her words like a child's joke. Eleventh Sister boldly grabbed Ye Suijin's sleeve, "Sixth Sister, I want to ask you for a favor."
Ye Suijin said, "Tell me."
Eleventh Sister gathered her courage, "I want to apprentice under Mr. Chen."
Before Ye Suijin could respond, she hurriedly added, "I've mentioned it to Mr. Chen before. The teacher said I was just a child and would need an elder from the family to put in a word before it could happen."
Of course that was how it worked.
Apprenticeship was a solemn matter. How could it depend on a child's casual request? The parents had to lead her there, present apprenticeship gifts, and the student had to kowtow eight times before the teacher-student relationship could be established.
Ye Jingyi smiled. "Why are you telling Sixth Sister? You should go tell your father."
Eleventh Sister didn't let go, "Father would never agree. He would only force me to learn embroidery."
In fact, Eleventh Sister's embroidery skills were also quite poor afterwards. Fortunately, her husband's family also had plenty of maids who could sew and embroider.
But a person's energy in their lifetime was limited.
If that was the case, why waste the limited energy on something that was actually completely unnecessary, just because "everyone thought it should be this way" so it "must be this way"?
"If you want to learn, I can arrange it for you." Ye Suijin did not dismiss it as a joke, instead she responded very seriously, "But you have to know, if you really apprentice, then it won't be a matter of you learning when you want and not learning when you don't want to. I will watch over you, just like how I watch over your brothers' martial arts training."
Ye Suijin was so strict on the training grounds that even Tenth Son was afraid of her.
Eleventh Sister shrank back a little, but soon straightened her chest, "I can do it! As long as Eldest Sister is willing to help me apprentice, I will definitely not be lazy or play tricks!"
Ye Jingyi's lips moved slightly.
In another year or two, Eleventh Sister would have to get engaged. It was even possible some families had already come proposing.
At this age, a girl should be properly learning embroidery, cooking, and how to manage the inner quarters.
But when Ye Jingyi raised her eyes, she saw Ye Suijin.
She sat there upright, her chest full, waist slender, clearly a woman.
But so what? She was the military governor of Dengzhou!
Ye Jingyi could even imagine, when Ye Suijin was in the army, she also had female servants by her side. In the future, would she also have female officials?
Although it was brief, during the time when Woman Zhuang ruled as empress in Northern Wei, there were also female officials.
Ye Jingyi then closed her mouth.
Apprenticeship was not a problem on Mr. Chen's end. The problem was obviously Fourth Uncle Ye here.
When Ye Suijin returned to Ye Manor and mentioned it to him, his eyes bulged, "What's the use of her learning this?"
This was a justified, righteous retort. He truly felt from the bottom of his heart that even Ye Suijin would not be able to refute this.
However, Ye Suijin only replied, "She can become an official."
Fourth Uncle Ye: "......"
These four words left him dumbfounded.
"Why can't she?" Ye Suijin said, "If I can do it, so can she."
Fourth Uncle Ye thought, how can my precious daughter compare herself to you, a tigress.
"Fourth Uncle," Ye Suijin's soul pierced him, "I'm only asking you, if I have an official position vacancy in front of me, would you rather I give it to someone else, or to Eleventh Sister?"
Fourth Uncle Ye's expression was truly fascinating.
Fifth Son laughed until he wheezed.
Third Son rubbed his temples, "Father!"
Fourth Uncle Ye was still mumbling, "But she's a daughter..."
"What about being a daughter?" Ye Suijin said, "Eleventh Sister's temperament is clearly not suited for needlework or recognizing threads. Fourth Uncle, you don't need to worry about her living poorly after marrying either. With you and me sitting steadily in Dengzhou, Eleventh Sister's marriage will be stable."
This was the hard truth that wise people understood.
Fourth Uncle Ye smacked his lips, but could not find any words to refute her.
Ye Suijin said, "It's true she's a daughter, but she's a daughter of my Ye family. Urging the clan's sons and daughters to study is my duty. Since Eleventh Sister has this intention, and there is a ready teacher, we can certainly afford the tuition. Fourth Uncle, you can't persuade me with just 'she's a daughter'."
In the previous life, the main family's population declined.
Those who remained in the capital relying on them were mostly some side branch relatives.
Ye Suijin gave them prosperous lives, but did not fight for power for them. Being a low official was fine, but they could not touch the core of power.
That way, the Ye family members could live safe and stable under Zhao Jingwen.
Ye Suijin's hopes were all placed on Thirteenth Son.
Thirteenth Son lost a leg on the battlefield. After Eleventh Sister succeeded the title, Thirteenth Son returned to Dengzhou to inherit Ye Manor and preserve their ancestry.
"Have more children," she said to this younger brother before he returned home. "Have many offshoots and leaves, and teach the children well."
Thirteenth Son smiled bitterly as he touched his severed leg, and agreed.
Later, Eleventh Sister said, "I'm so useless."
But now, all the sons and daughters of the Ye family were vigorous and lively with youth!
Be they sons or daughters, Ye Suijin did not care. She wanted the children surnamed Ye to stand up.
With this paper clothing matter, many of the Ye clan offspring were sent out, and as expected, some who stood out in the previous life still stood out in this life, while some who had been buried before were now revealed.
These youths were all surnamed Ye, and together they were the future of the Ye family of Dengzhou.
Now, Ye Suijin wanted to place Eleventh Sister into this framework as well.
Fourth Uncle Ye was actually already swayed, showing hesitation.
After all, he was just an ordinary father who wished the best for his daughter and for her to be virtuous.
Ye Suijin thought for a moment, then said, "Then don't take office. Learning law and regulations, she can be the first to know not to let herself be bullied by her husband's family. And she can also admonish her husband to walk the proper path. It's not completely useless."
Fourth Uncle Ye clicked his tongue, "How are you so good with words?"
Everyone laughed.
"Fine, if she wants to learn then let her learn." Fourth Uncle Ye said, "When she gets tired of it after three days of fishing and two days of drying the net, I can laugh hard at her."
Third Son: "......"
Fifth Son: "......"
Listen, were those words a father should say?
"Speaking of which, it's been a while since Jingwen sent any news?" Fourth Uncle Ye also had to care about his niece's marital life.
Leaving a man outside for too long was asking for trouble.
Everyone understood.
But Ye Suijin was unconcerned, "No bad news means nothing's wrong. If he encountered someone he can't beat, he would run. If he couldn't run, he should know to send someone for help."
So no news actually indicated he was safe and sound.
"Let's not talk about him. Let's discuss the September assessments." She said.
The first stage of new soldier training was basically complete. It was time for the first major assessment. Hearing this, everyone's spirits were roused and they gathered around...
After receiving the letter, Ye Jingyi went back to Ye Family Fort to report official business and brought Eleventh Sister and Mr. Chen with him.
When Eleventh Sister heard that Fourth Uncle Ye wanted to laugh at her, she was furious!
"He thinks I can't do anything right!" She stamped her feet. "But every time I want to do something, he says 'What's the use of you doing this?'"
Always being told like this, one would lose motivation. The enthusiasm that was initially full would dissipate.
Sanlang said, "This time it was thanks to Sixth Sister speaking up for you that it worked out. If you give up halfway this time, Father would laugh at Sixth Sister as well."
Eleventh Sister swore to the heavens, "I will never drag Sixth Sister down! Just watch me!"
Although Father was a bit excessive, in the end he still helped arrange for his daughter's apprenticeship.
After going through the apprenticeship ceremony, Eleventh Sister officially became Mr. Chen's disciple.
Mr. Chen said to her, "Actually, even I don't know what use there is in you learning this."
"But I devoted myself to the Ye family very early on. I never thought that Sixth Young Lady would one day become the fort master of Ye Family Fort. I also never imagined the fort master would one day become the military governor of Dengzhou."
"People perhaps have infinite possibilities."
"Therefore, since you have apprenticed under me, I will do my best to teach you."
Eleventh Sister's matters were for her father, brothers, and teacher to worry about. This time Ye Jingyi rushed back according to schedule. Aside from official business, he actually wanted to come back specially to watch the new recruit examinations.
Ye Jingyi understood clearly in his heart-
The reason he leapt from being a commoner to become the magistrate of a county was naturally because of his surname Ye, because Ye Family Fort had troops.
He also saw clearly that Ye Suijin on one hand placed the main household's sons in the military to firmly grasp military power, and on the other hand mobilized the side branches to come out and serve.
Whenever he thought of these things, Ye Jingyi's chest burned with heat.
And he also knew, how far the Ye clan of Dengzhou could go in the end, fundamentally speaking, still depended on the troops in their hands!
