After a few days of lobbying, almost eighty percent of the maternal families of the imperial concubines and concubines in the inner palace had voluntarily pledged their allegiance to the Eighth Prince's faction. They were willing to wholeheartedly support the Eighth Prince in his ascension to the throne and do all they could to suppress the Ninth Prince and Consort Yun. In an instant, the Eighth Prince's wings that seemed to be weak once again filled up. And he was not careless. He was not afraid of losing that money. He had already brought back even more money from various places. After so many years of operation, his foundation was not just limited to what he had in the Sheng Palace. Especially in the South, his wealth could rival that of a country.
With money and people in his hands, even if Xuantian Mo was lying in his palace recovering from his injuries, he was still full of confidence. He did not believe that he would not be able to compete for the throne. He, Xuantian Mo, was not inferior to old ninth in any way. If there was a real difference, it would be the degree of favor his birth mother received. But this was also his advantage. He wanted to ask the people of the world, do you want an Emperor who relied on himself to fight for the world, or do you want an Emperor who relied on his mother's favor to ascend to the throne?
On the twenty-sixth day of the first month, in Winter Moon Palace, a female guard was standing in front of Consort Yun. She expressionlessly told her about some of the major and minor matters that had happened in the capital recently. When she mentioned that the Eighth Prince had already allied with the maternal families of the imperial concubines, Consort Yun shrugged and smiled: "What were those old fellows doing in the past? Now they want to fight for justice for their daughter? But this is indeed the case. From a moral point of view, I stole their husband. We are not in the right. "
"Aiyo! Niang niang, you must not think like this. " An old mama at Consort Yun's side heard this and quickly spoke up: "The imperial concubines fighting for favor in the palace is like this. This has nothing to do with morality. This old servant has been in the palace for a long time and has seen everything. No matter how much favor you receive, at least you have not harmed anyone. But before you came, in order to fight for favor, those people either died or were injured. Although our Emperor has nine sons, it's not like he has never had a princess. Unfortunately, not a single one was born. All of them died in the womb. Because of what? Wasn't it all because of the fight for favor? So you must not feel that you have wronged anyone. As this old servant sees it, it was Your Highness who saved them. At the very least, the imperial harem has been peaceful for over twenty years without any casualties. "
The palace maid in charge, Su Yu, also nodded and said, "That's right, Your Highness. There is no such thing as morality in the harem. It's the same as on the battlefield. Only the fittest and the strong survive."
"Is that so?" Consort Yun asked faintly, but she didn't expect anyone to really answer her. She understood the principles, but she didn't like this palace, so everything she saw was distorted. She couldn't completely agree with the rules of survival in this palace. "Su Yu, go to the Imperial Astronomer. The story that Jian Zheng told last time about the two stars accompanying the moon hasn't ended yet!"
Consort Yun rubbed her forehead. The Imperial Astronomer was a sacred and mysterious department in the palace. Even the emperor regarded it with great importance. But when it came to Consort Yun, it became a storyteller. Su Yu had no other choice. She could only brace herself and ask. As expected, she heard Jian Zheng grumble again.
However, Jian Zheng didn't dare to complain in front of Consort Yun. He obediently stood there and told her the story of the two stars accompanying the moon. He told Consort Yun: "The phoenix star is bright and dazzling. Although it has already left the capital, its good fortune will last for a long time. Your Highness need not worry. The other star of the two stars is also blooming. When the two stars fight, the main star will definitely win! "
In the southwest direction, Feng Yu Heng's group had already reached Yun Province's Kun Province. If they continued forward, they would pass through Hai Province and reach Yu Province. They would enter Ji 'an County's territory.
Because they had been delayed in Shu Province for a few days, they had been traveling through the night. They wouldn't stop unless the horses needed to rest. They would often sleep in the carriage at night and continue traveling the next day.
Today, they passed by a small village. Wang Chuan asked Feng Yu Heng: "Young miss, how about we find a farmer's house to stay for the night? Although the conditions in the village are limited, it should be fine to take a bath and wipe our bodies. "
Feng Yu Heng lifted the curtain and looked out; however, she was not too optimistic about the idea of staying for the night. "This village is too poor." There were no more than 20 families, and each family had a thatched house. There were at most two rooms. If they were to stay for the night, where would they go to?
Wang Chuan looked around for a while and also felt that his earlier suggestion might not work. He could only helplessly say: "It seems that we will need to sleep in the carriage tonight. These servants are fine with it, but young miss and third young miss will have to suffer."
Feng Yu Heng waved her hand, "I'm not that delicate. Thinking back to when I went to fight in Qian Zhou, the conditions were not as good as they are now."
Xiang Rong also said: "Right, right, I'm not that delicate. I can endure any sort of hardship." In truth, she was already very happy to be able to follow her second sister. What sort of place they lived in and what sort of days they lived, it really did not matter.
Wang Chuan nodded and did not say anything else. He only called for the carriage to stop then brought Huang Quan out to take a look. When he returned, he reported to Feng Yu Heng: "Young miss, let's stop in the middle of the village. Wang Lin went to greet the farmers. There are no more rooms in the thatched houses, but we can borrow their stoves. In any case, we can make a decent dinner."
This was a good idea. Feng Yu Heng said: "Check what things we still have in the carriage. Otherwise, we can use some money to buy some things from the villagers. It's fine to give a bit more money. They seem to be quite poor. We've eaten their food, so we need to at least have them buy some more food."
Shan Cha felt a little embarrassed to continue sitting in the carriage, thus she took the initiative to go with Wang Chuan and Huang Quan. Xiang Rong also felt that this was something new, thus she also went out to take a look. Not long later, she returned; however, she said with a bitter expression: "Second sister, they're too poor. Every family's rice jar is empty. Not to mention rice, they can't even find a bowl of brown rice. These villagers said that they only have enough food to eat for one day. The next day, they will have to think of something. We only arrived when it was dark. Even if we bought all of the brown rice in the village, it would not be enough for one person to eat their fill. "
Feng Yu Heng was speechless. She stood up and stood outside the carriage, looking outside. She saw that the village was surrounded by mountains on both sides. Even if they relied on the mountains to eat, they should not be this poor. Even if it was Winter, practically all of the men in the mountain village knew how to hunt. They would hunt some pheasants to eat or sell them for money. It was impossible for them to live this sort of life, right? Moreover, Yun Province's Kun Zhou was not as cold as the capital. The trees in the mountains had sprouted small buds. It could be seen that this was a very rich mountain range.
She was extremely puzzled and got out of the carriage to personally chat with the people of a nearby farmer's family. That farmer's family was an old woman with a daughter-in-law and a three-year-old boy. When the old woman saw her, she was very apologetic and said: "There truly is no place to stay at home. There are only two rooms. There is also one that does not have a kang bed and cannot be lived in."
The daughter-in-law also explained: "This place is the Li family village. It's a village on the side of a road. There will often be people passing by that want to stay the night. Unfortunately, the villagers are too poor. No one can build more rooms. Fortunately, you have a carriage. If you truly can't move, you can just stay in the carriage for the night. It's just that we cannot help with food. The family can only eat two meals a day, and we can't even eat one. "She spoke with a bit of embarrassment and pulled the child closer to her chest. Feng Yu Heng looked at the child. He was very thin and was clearly malnourished.
She asked the granny: "Is there only the three of you in the family? Why have I not seen any males? "
The granny said: "My son went to Kun Zhou to work. He can earn more than 200 copper coins a month. He comes back once at the end of the month. If I calculate, you can see him in a few days."
"Go to Kun Zhou to work?" Feng Yu Heng asked again: "Do all the men in the village have to go to work? I see that your village is sandwiched between two mountains. It's not bad to rely on the mountains to make a living. Why do you have to go so far to work for more than 200 copper coins? "More than 200 copper coins, what could they do? She really had no idea about such a small amount of money.
"Alas." When the granny heard her question, she helplessly sighed: "Speaking of going to the mountains to make a living, it's not like we haven't done this before. Our village's life used to be quite good. We dug wild vegetables and picked some wild fruits in the mountains. After the rain, we could also eat mushrooms. From time to time, we could also hunt some game. It was very good. But since the bandits came more than a year ago, no one dares to go up the mountain. Even the firewood is only collected from the foot of the mountain. In a small mountain village, even the firewood has to be saved. "
"Bandits?" She frowned and looked at the deep mountains again. However, the mountains were majestic and the moon was dark tonight. She really couldn't see anything. "Do the bandits come out to hurt people?" She asked the granny, "Or do people who go into the mountains get robbed and killed?"
The old woman thought for a while and said, "I didn't see any villagers get hurt. As for whether they will be robbed or killed in the mountains, no one has tried it because no one dares to go up the mountain since they know that a new group of bandits live in the mountains. But we can often see those bandits coming down the mountain to rob and kill passing merchants. As for our villagers … Miss, you have seen that we are so poor. Even if they want to rob us, I'm afraid they don't know where to start. " While she spoke, she glanced at Feng Yu Heng's group of carriages and helplessly said: "Young miss, you must be careful. With so many carriages, it's possible that they will be targeted by bandits. Hah, the world is truly unstable!"
"Mother." The daughter-in-law pulled the granny, "It's already dark. Let's go back to the house." As she spoke, she pulled the granny and the little boy into the house. At the same time, she said to Feng Yu Heng: "I'm sorry, I really can't help you. Take care of yourselves." After that, the three returned to the house.
Wang Chuan helplessly looked at the hurriedly closed door. He spread his hands and said: "It seems that we can't ask them to lend us a stove. Even firewood is precious. What else can we use?"
Feng Yu Heng also smiled bitterly, "Forget it. We'll go pick up firewood ourselves. We'll make do with whatever we have in the carriage. When we get to Haizhou, we'll have a good meal to make up for it."
Huang Quan stuck out her tongue: "That's the only way! Miss, don't worry. We still have pancakes in the carriage that we bought in the small county. In a while, this servant will go into the mountains to see if there are any pheasants to hunt. It's good to make chicken soup with pancakes. The villagers are afraid of the bandits, but we are not. "
Feng Yu Heng nodded, "Go! Call two shadow guards and bring back more firewood. We need to burn it at night to keep watch. "After she finished speaking, she turned around to return to the carriage. There was a lot of food in her space. Along the way, she had secretly added a lot of food to the carriage. Tonight was just the right time to add some more. Pork shoulder was inconvenient to eat, but at least small pancakes could fill her stomach.
But as soon as she turned around, she suddenly heard the sound of a sharp weapon whistling through the air. Feng Yu Heng subconsciously dodged, and a hidden weapon flew past her ear. It was only a hair's breadth away from hitting her cheek. But the wind brought by the hidden weapon made her feel pain.
"Who is it?"
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