Plan to cut off the nine states

(Chapter 344: Riding a Car)

Zhang Shiqing likes riding horses, but on the way to the frontier, she has to ride a car and sit in a stuffy carriage in a proper manner. In addition to her maid Binfen, there are two servants accompanying her, one is an old lady in the family, and the other is a woman from the Herong tribe. They sit at the door of the carriage like statues, never chatting with each other. When the princess occasionally moves, the two will look at her at the same time.

Zhang Shiqing is now a princess. On the first day of the new emperor's accession to the throne, he canonized her sister as the eldest princess, and still added the title of Fangde. Zhang Shiqing didn't feel any change. She was still herself. The many benefits of the princess were all moons in the water and flowers in the mirror. She was sent to the cage-like carriage before she even had time to accept the congratulations of many partners.

Before the trip, some people visited the princess with different feelings, and persuaded her to accept her fate in a roundabout way. Zhang Shiqing always smiled and said: "Are you worried that I will run away again? No, I will go wherever the court sends me, whether it is the frontier, Huaizhou... Even if it is an isolated island on the sea, I will not object, let alone run away. If this is what you call accepting your fate, I think I am accepting my fate. In short, the world is important, and Zhang is important. Whoever is the emperor's sister cannot avoid such a fate. What's special about me?"

There was a hint of dissatisfaction in these words, which made Feng Ju Niang sigh, the King of Jibei embarrassed, the new emperor smiled, and the princess cried bitterly.

Zhang Shiqing wanted to comfort his mother: "Don't cry anymore, maybe this is a farewell, I will never see my mother again, at least let me remember your smile."

The princess cried even more sadly - although her son became the emperor and her daughter became the princess, her title had not changed, and she was still the princess. She had to wait for the ministers to discuss repeatedly before she could obtain the corresponding status - she cried for her daughter to tell the truth, and this might really be a farewell.

The day before the departure, the news of the capture of the two kings came, and Zhang Shiqing had no choice.

Emperor Zhang Shiyu came to visit his sister again and said, "We all have to grow up, not as soon as possible, but immediately. Yecheng needs 100,000 cavalry, because the Zhang family has nowhere to retreat. When you get there, you must work hard, even if not for me, but for your father."

"What if He Rong's troops are unwilling to lend troops, or have ulterior motives, and lending troops will become a wolf into the house? What should I do?"

Zhang Shiyu could not answer his sister's question, and could only smile and say, "Impossible, absolutely impossible, He Rong's troops have been waiting for me to ascend the throne, and now everything is as expected, why would they have a different mind?"

Zhang Shiqing did not ask any more questions. After getting on the car, he kept thinking about this matter in his heart, secretly wondering, if he asked Xu Chu, what answer would he get? At least he would not blindly deny the existence of the problem.

When they stopped to rest in the evening of the first day, He Rongpingshan came to visit his fiancée. There was no red tape in the frontier, and Zhang Shiqing was not a shy princess. One of them stood outside and the other sat in the car, looking at each other.

He Rongpingshan said, "Are you tired, princess?"

"Why can't I ride a horse?" Zhang Shiqing asked. In fact, she felt very tired, more tired than walking. "It is said that everyone in the frontier rides a horse, even children who have just learned to walk. Why do I have to ride a car?"

He Rongpingshan smiled, "Because you are Princess Tiancheng."

"So?"

"So you have to look like Princess Tiancheng. If you are no different from a woman in the frontier, why would I travel thousands of miles to marry you? I have heard a lot about the princess. I don't care, but I hope that the princess can correct her little faults from today and behave politely, so that the Tiancheng court will be proud and I will also be proud."

"Your face is bright now." Zhang Shiqing couldn't help saying.

He Rongpingshan raised his hand and touched his cheek, "This is the oily shine on the face. The princess will get used to it in the future, but you must not have it."

The people of He Rong's tribe did not want to stay in the post station, so they set up tents on the roadside and fed the horses.

Entering the tent, two maids went to arrange food and drink. There were no outsiders around. Zhang Shiqing's eyes turned red and he almost cried. He forced himself to hold back, bit his lips, took a deep breath, and smiled again.

Binfen understood the princess's feelings best, and stepped forward and whispered: "Princess, don't be sad. Master Xu might..."

"Don't mention him."

"Don't you believe him, princess? Although Master Xu didn't say it clearly, I think he made a promise and he will definitely not watch the princess marry someone else."

"He... He has done everything he can and taught me many useful things, especially watching the so-called general trend. I saw it, so I didn't resist, and he couldn't resist, no one could. I used to hate my brother and father, and I also hated Huanyan, but now I just sympathize with them. They are also being chased by the general trend, running desperately, just to get ahead of others, how can they have the energy to take care of others?"

"Ah... This 'general trend' is really bad, but I think the emperor, Princess Huanyan, and Master Xu will still take care of the princess." Binfen didn't understand what the princess was saying.

"Today's world can only protect itself, no one can take care of others, and I don't need to take care of it."

"Aren't I still taking care of the princess?"

"We are not talking about the same thing." Zhang Shiqing smiled.

"Princess, do you want to drink? Those two old hens won't give me wine, so I'll go steal a bottle." Binfen was increasingly confused by the princess' words, so she used the most effective means to please the princess.

Thinking of the two plump maids, Zhang Shiqing couldn't help but laugh again, and his mood improved a little, "I'm not going to drink. I've only been away from home for a day, why would I cause those troubles?"

The princess was actually not interested in drinking at all, and Binfen was very surprised, "It's just drinking, who are you causing trouble for?"

"Didn't you hear? The Barbarian King wanted me to look like a 'Tiancheng Princess'... Anyway, I'm not in the mood. Let's go to bed early after the meal. Don't let the two old hens stay in the tent."

The two servant girls came back to serve the princess for dinner, and they had to sleep in the tent afterwards.

Binfen stood up for her master and said to the two women: "You can't stay here. When we are in the car during the day, you snore and make it very noisy. The princess needs to have a good rest before she can go on the road tomorrow. You can sleep somewhere else."

"Oh no, I haven't closed my eyes all day. I'm definitely not the one snoring."

The two maids blamed each other, but were eventually pushed out by Binfen and never dared to come in again.

Zhang Shiqing snickered, and suddenly thought that he would probably only be able to find some fun in such small things in the future. He couldn't help but feel sad, and didn't want to show it in front of colorful, so he went to bed early.

She had been pampered since she was a child, and she slept everywhere after getting drunk. She did not feel uncomfortable with the hard bed under her. What made her sad was that she was far away from her parents' homeland. It was fine when she was awake, but once she fell asleep, she was surrounded by all kinds of people. In the scene of abandonment, no matter how much she begged and shouted, she could not bring back the distant figure.

"Princess! Princess!"

Zhang Shiqing was woken up, her eyes were dark, and Binfen was pushing her.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Shiqing asked in a hoarse voice, still immersed in sadness. He stretched out his hand and found that his face and pillow were covered with tears.

"The princess had a nightmare. She shouted out. I was afraid... of attracting others, so I pushed the princess to wake up." Binfen touched the wet mark, took out the silk handkerchief, and carefully wiped the princess's cheek.

"I... dreamed about my parents."

"Really? The princess keeps calling 'Xu Chu'."

"Huh? Why did I call him? He...he didn't even send me off."

"I don't know. It sounds like the princess is complaining about him."

"It's even weirder. He doesn't owe me anything. What's there to complain about? You must have heard wrong. Go to sleep. I'm fine."

"Oh." Binfen walked away, leaving the silk handkerchief behind.

Zhang Shiqing lay quietly, and fell asleep again after a while. This time, his dream was clearer. There were no outsiders, only Xu Chu, who showed a boring smile and said boring commonplaces. Even walking seemed boring and always unhurried. No matter how anxious Zhang Shiqing was, he didn't dare to speed up.

Even in his dream, Zhang Shiqing knew that he was crying, and tried not to make any sound, so as not to wake up Binfen again.

The rest of the itinerary remained unchanged. Zhang Shiqing had to dress up and sit in the car every day, being looked after and monitored by two old women. He Rongpingshan occasionally visited and saw the princess sitting still. He nodded to express his satisfaction. If he saw When the princess was tired or had tears on her face, he would severely criticize the two servant girls and the maid colorful, saying that they did not try their best.

Zhang Shiqing defended the three of them at first, but then she was too lazy to talk anymore, so she could only make her makeup impeccable. But at night, she still kept dreaming, some nightmares and some sweet dreams, which made her laugh out loud, and suddenly she returned to past.

She didn't count the time. When she was really bored, she thought about what Xu Chu had said and figured out how to fight openly and covertly with the Shen family's wife after arriving outside the Great Wall. Although she didn't calculate a single move, she thought of many winning scenes. Every day Each time he ended up leading his troops south to save Yecheng.

Of course, she understood that this was impossible. Even if He Rong sent troops south as promised, it would not be her turn to lead them.

What saddens her the most is that even if she really "wins", she won't be happy.

It rained that day, so the team set up camp early.

The rain didn't stop after nightfall, pounding on the tent, Zhang Shiqing held a cup of hot tea, unable to sleep, and didn't want to chat, so he sat silently on the bed in a daze.

Fanfen saw it and felt heartbroken, but she didn't know how to persuade her. She could only cut off the candles from time to time to keep the candlelight bright.

A He Rong soldier came in uninvited, and the rain kept dripping from his body, and soon his footsteps were soaked.

Except for He Rong Pingshan, no one from He Rong's tribe had ever dared to approach the princess. However, Zhang Shiqing's interest was waning. He raised his head and lowered his gaze to continue in a daze.

Binfen was startled, and immediately stood up and stood in front of the princess, "Who are you? Who allowed you to come in? Don't you know this is the princess's residence?"

The soldier said: "My name is Tian Jiang, and I'm here to ask the princess to go on her way."

"What Tianjiang?" Fanfen was confused.

Zhang Shiqing knew the name. He was shocked at first, and then overjoyed. He threw away the teacup in his hand, didn't even put on his shoes, stood up without asking for details, and said directly: "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Tian Jiang was surprised, "The princess knew I would come? Forget it, let's not talk about it. This opportunity is rare. Let's leave now and go to Yuyang to hide for a while."

"Okay. Colorful, will you follow me?"

"Of course I want to follow the princess, but...who is this person?"

"He is a good friend of Xu Chu and Sister Feng." Zhang Shiqing showed an irrepressible smile.

"Friend?" Tian Jiang was not very sure about this. He came here to ask about the princess's intention first, but now seeing the princess's expression, he felt that it was not necessary, "The princess can ride a horse?"

"If you throw me ten steps away, I lose."

Tianjiang also smiled.

"When will Xu Chu come?" Zhang Shiqing asked.

"Xu Chu's behavior is secretive and no one can guess it. It is said that he went to see the King of Liang and did not go north."

Zhang Shiqing felt a little disappointed, but immediately became happy again, and said with an unprecedented certainty: "He will definitely come."