Tibet

At night, Li Ye came specially to accompany his wife. His mother Pei Sanniang told Li Ye that his wife had been a little depressed after giving birth to their daughter, which shocked Li Ye. His wife was suffering from postpartum depression.

Li Ye also specially brought Dabao'er over, and the family of four stayed happily in the house.

At this time, Dabao'er was sleeping soundly in his mother's arms. Looking on was the little Bao'er who was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Dugu Xinyue simply put the two sisters' heads together and looked at the two little rosy faces. Yue's heart was filled with the joy of maternal love.

It has to be said that Li Ye's trick was very good. He asked the wet nurse to take care of the little baby, and let his wife take care of the big baby by herself. He spent time with his eldest daughter every day, so that his wife had no time and energy to be depressed.

Dugu Xinyue thought of something and said to her husband: "Husband, Qiming will return to Chang'an the day after tomorrow. Send an army to escort her back!"

Li Ye immediately agreed, "I asked Chenghua to arrange a team of female soldiers to protect me. Why is she in a hurry to go back? Didn't she go back with her third uncle?"

Dugu Xinyue smiled and said: "There is an important palace draft in early April, and she has to go back to prepare."

Li Ye was startled, "She wants to participate in the palace selection of maids?"

Dugu Xinyue shook her head, "She is not participating in the selection of palace maids, she is selecting princesses for young princes. It is actually a clan blind date. Only Guanlong nobles and a few big families are qualified to send their daughters to participate. She originally wanted to come to Xiangyang to try her luck. , to see if she could become her husband’s concubine, but her husband didn’t know what he said to her in the afternoon, which scared her, and she came to me again to confirm.”

"Confirm what?" Li Ye asked with a smile.

Dugu Xinyue sighed, "She came to confirm that I was not assassinated, or that I was assassinated by thirty assassins on the street."

"What did the lady say?"

"What can I say? To be honest, this is what happened. Thirty-two assassins intercepted the carriage that assassinated me on the street. The coachman died, and the carriage was riddled with crossbows. Fortunately, I was not feeling well at the time. I only escaped the disaster when I went out, but I didn’t know it was sent by the emperor, did my husband tell her?”

Li Ye nodded, "I told her that behind my glory is the emperor who wants to kill me, and assassinates me when he can't be killed. Our family is actually standing on the edge of a cliff, with an abyss behind us. I also told her that the emperor sent me More than thirty assassins came and failed to assassinate the princess twice, and now you don’t know where they are hiding?”

Dugu Xinyue was startled, "Have they not been caught yet?"

Li Ye held her hand and comforted her: "Of course they were caught, and they were all executed, but they were not sent by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but the assassins sent by the Emperor of the Yan Dynasty. Aunt Gongsun had already taken away the assassins' lair in the Yan Kingdom. , no more assassins will come for the time being."

Dugu Xinyue sighed, "I promised Qiming that I would let her be your concubine in the future. Now it seems that I was stupid at the time and should not have made such a promise. Now I am very passive. She asked me to fulfill it as soon as she came. How can I keep my promise? Fortunately, I gave birth to the baby in time, and she was too embarrassed to mention it again, otherwise I would have been annoyed by her to death."

Only then did Li Ye understand the reason for his wife's depression. In addition to not having a son, the other reason was that she could not fulfill her promise back then.

Li Ye held his wife in his arms and said: "Marriage is not a charity, let alone emotional, especially a marriage from a famous family. Qiming is the legitimate daughter of your second uncle. How could the Dugu family let her be my partial concubine? Even if it is a shame, There is no use in agreeing. She also knows it well. At this time, she also needs a step up, so I told her the truth about my political risks. I did not scare her. She will ask you to confirm. Once confirmed, , she gave up decisively and rushed back in time to participate in the concubine selection."

"My husband is right. She has liked to compare with me since she was a child. She wants what I get, and she wants what I have, from clothes to husbands. But at the same time, the relationship between us sisters is very special. So profound, sometimes I really can’t tell which one is the real her?”

"Actually, both of them are real her!"

Li Ye smiled and said: "People are very complicated. They are not black and white. Everyone has his kind side and his evil side. Qiming has a sincere sisterly love for you. It is absolutely true." Yes, but she is more selfish and always hopes that she can surpass you. This is true between sisters and friends. This is human nature. We should not think too well of anyone or anything, let alone feel deep pain and treat it calmly. Just do it.”

"Thank you husband for enlightening me, I feel much better!"

Dugu Xinyue suddenly remembered something and said with a smile: "My mother-in-law has taken a fancy to Qingyu. I think you mother and son are really connected. Does your husband also take a fancy to her?"

Li Ye suddenly changed from a philosopher to a coward. He said, "I haven't thought about this!"

"You don't mean what you say, go ahead! Call the wet nurse in. You go to the Taiqing Palace tonight. There is a poor girl over there. She is probably craning her neck to wait for you!"

Two days later, Dugu Qiming, escorted by a group of female cavalry, left in a carriage with two maids. When leaving, he only said hello to Li Ye calmly, and then left resolutely.

Real women from aristocratic families seldom consider their feelings when choosing their marriage. They always put status and interests first, and being well-matched is their minimum requirement. Therefore, there are only two situations when a daughter from aristocratic families marries a poor boy. will appear, one in the fairy tale, and the other after the imperial examination results.

A few days later, Dugu Ming came. Interestingly, he met Dugu Qiming in Neixiang County. He was worried about his niece, so he asked his princess wife to go back to Chang'an with her. His wife didn't want to come in the first place. In Xiangyang, I complained all the way and happened to meet my niece, so I followed her back and everyone was happy.

Li Ye asked his men to arrange for Dugu Ming and his party to stay at the West Yingbin Post. There are two relatively high-grade post houses in Xiangyang. One is the Yingbin Post in the west of the city, which is relatively close to Li Ye's residence, and the other is the VIP Post in the east of the city. , this inn is going to be used to accommodate the imperial negotiator Li Yu and his party. They are still on the way and will arrive in Xiangyang soon.

In the inner hall of the Yingbin Post, Dugu Ming and Li Ye had a secret conversation. Dugu Ming came on behalf of the Dugu family. Since Li Ye is the direct son-in-law of the Dugu family, he also represents the interests of the Dugu family, so the Dugu family only met once The second place devoted its core resources to support Li Ye.

"We have discussed it among several families. We all hope that you can return to Longyou. If you have any difficulties, can we all work together to find a way to help you solve it? If you have any concerns, just speak up."

Li Ye asked: "Third uncle, can you tell me which families they are from?"

"The Dugu family, the Dou family, the Changsun family and the Helan family, headed by the Dugu family, have been married for generations and have formed a very strong alliance."

"Isn't it the Yuan family?"

Dugu Ming shook his head, "The Yuan family is allied with the Doulu family, the Houmochen family, the Daxi family and the Yuchi family. There are also four other families: Li, Zhao, Yu and Yuwen. But their strength is relatively weak. The entire Guanlong noble family is Divided into these three factions.”

This was the first time that Li Ye heard about the internal power distribution of the Guanlong nobles. Li Ye pondered for a while and said: "Our senior leaders have also discussed many times internally and decided to put righteousness first and go to Longyou and Hexi to fight against the Tubo army. For this reason, I have also raised a lot of money, but the only thing I am worried about is food supply. We hope that the court can properly support us in terms of food? But we are worried that the court will not be reliable!"

Dugu Ming nodded, "Food is indeed a big issue, and the court can only support you once, but it doesn't matter. As long as you maintain a strong transportation team, we can also do our best to support you in terms of food."

Li Ye also knew that the Guanlong nobles occupied a large amount of fertile land, but he had an army of hundreds of thousands, and his food consumption was staggering. The Guanlong nobles could at most provide some supplements, but the key was to rely on themselves. Fortunately, there was the Hehuang Valley in Longyou, and Hexi The Lingxia Plain near Shuofang is the two largest production area.

"In addition, I would also like to know the current situation in Longyou and Hexi. Does Third Uncle know anything about it?"