Unparalleled Women in the World

After Mei Wangqing exchanged pleasantries with Xue Qin and the others, they got on their horses again and headed towards the City Lord's Mansion.

Xue Qin took the reins and steered the horse forward. She turned her eyes to Mei Wangqing and said:

"Qing'er, your Aunt Zhao Fei wanted to come to see you, but Yixing County has not been peaceful recently, she can't get away, so she has to wait for a while!"

Mei Wangqing understood: "Military affairs are important. If we meet, we will have a brighter future!" She raised her eyebrows and smiled: "I will see my uncle later. I don't know how elegant it is? To take in such a bold and unruly daughter like my aunt!"

Xue Qin's brows and eyes were full of gentle smiles: "A Ling, he is naturally the best in my eyes! You will know when you see him..."

Mei Wangqing said "Oh" with anticipation on her face.

Xue Qin sized her up with a pair of phoenix eyes, and suddenly said: "That Chi girl who is close to you, why didn't you see her?"

"Are you guys broken?"

The meaning of these words is intriguing!

Mei Wangqing was embarrassed for a while, she swallowed:

"Auntie, what are you talking about? Yan Fei is going to send Xiaoyan to marry, and she will come to the southern border in a while!"

Xue Qin had a strange look on her face, and raised her eyebrows at her again:

"There's your fiancé in the carriage behind. Tell me, what should I do?"

"The peach blossoms of Qing'er should be carefully opened!"

Mei Wangqing blushed, glared at her, and stopped talking.

Xue Qin laughed out loud, she turned her head and called out: "Twelve."

Mei Wangqing glanced back, and saw that among the twelve horsemen, one of them rushed out, and immediately sat a young general in white robes. She rode her horse and came with a crisp voice:

"Sister Qin, what's the matter?"

Xue Qin narrowed her eyes slightly, she half-truthfully said:

"Hey! Qing'er and I are so far apart in age that we just talked about this conversation, which actually offended her... Twelve, you are us

The youngest among them is about the same age as Qing'er, so let's have a good chat with her! "

Twelve understood, her eyes turned to Mei Wangqing's face, a strange color flashed in her pupils, and she said:

"Prince Anping, if you don't dislike him, Twelve will be bothering you a lot in the past few days!"

Mei Wangqing saw that Twelve was only in his early twenties, with tall black hair, bronze complexion, a pair of sword-shaped eyebrows, eyes as bright as stars, a beautiful nose and red lips, a rare dashing and handsome man!

"You call me the county king, I call you the general, or aunt?"

Twelve's eyes lit up slightly, and the corners of her lips raised, and she said, "You and I are not much different in age, so don't be polite, it's better to just call them by their first names."

Mei Wangqing nodded: "Okay, twelve."

Twelve is straightforward and eloquent. On the way to the City Lord's Mansion, he explained a lot to Mei Wangqing, such as their military affairs, such as the situation in southern Xinjiang in recent years.

Mei Wangqing's eyes darkened, some of which she knew a long time ago, such as the southern border of Daliang, located in the southwestern border, adjacent to the Baiyue tribe, barbarian kingdom, and Nanyue kingdom in the southern border.

The southern territory is independent of the states, and there are only four counties in it, Leyang County, Lingling County, Yixing County, and Yutong City.Among them, the two counties of Leyang County and Lingling County are the fiefdoms of King Anping, and the lord of Yutong City is the third-rank town guard general—Xue Qin; the prefect of Yixing County is the third-rank Pingyi general——Zhao Fei. In the past, they were all forwards under the command of Anping Wang Mei Yiqing. Because of their military exploits, they were promoted all the way to the captaincy, and then served as the prefect and city lord successively.Governing the county and city and managing the soldiers are only secondary, and the most important task is to guard the southern border.

These Twelve Horsemen of Yutong are the ace soldiers of Xue Qin, the general who guards the town.These 12 people are all extraordinary in skill, proficient in all kinds of weapons, good at using hidden weapons, fighting together, cooperating with each other, they can beat an ordinary battalion of soldiers!The 12 of them have accompanied Xue Qin through life and death all these years, and they have long been in love with sisters.

Zhao Fei, the general of Pingyi, also had a sudden battalion under his command. There were 800 people in the battalion, and these 800 people could fight ten thousand people.It was the Second General Xue and Zhao, and the soldiers under them, that gave the Southern Territory a few years of respite.

When Mei Wangqing came to the City Lord's Mansion, she met Xue Qin's husband - An Ling. He was around 24, his hair was like splashed ink, his eyes were like spots of paint, and his facial features were deep and three-dimensional. He was actually very handsome. Generous, sharp-spoken, without the appearance of a man's tweaking!

An Ling was very excited when he saw Taijun Anping and his party: "Second brother, you are finally here!" When his eyes fell on Mei Wangqing, he was slightly startled, and his eyes were hot: "This is Qing'er, it really looks like me!" your mother!"

Mei Wangqing called out: "Uncle."

An Ling smiled gratifiedly: "Good boy!" Then, he took Taijun Anping's hand again, chattering non-stop.

Taijun Anping frowned, and sighed: "A Ling's temperament is still the same!"

In the main hall, good wine and good food have been prepared to entertain the group. Mei Wangqing took a pleasing look, and found that every table and furniture in the city lord's mansion was not luxurious, but very frugal. The dishes on the round table were mostly home-cooked dishes. The second one is fishy, ​​but it is roasted chicken and fish, and most of the rest are vegetarian dishes.

The male guests, Taijun Anping, Xu Youzi sat with Xue Qin's husband, An Ling, and the married husbands of the twelve cavalry, while Mei Wangqing had a drink with the twelve cavalry.They ate wine in the main hall, and the accompanying guards and armored soldiers, due to the large number of people, set up more than a dozen tables of banquets in front of the spacious courtyard.

After eating the food and wine, Mei Wangqing talked with Xue Qin again, and walked around the city lord's mansion. Afterwards, Mei Wangqing led a group of people to Yutong City. , there is a mansion, which is Meifu.

This was Mei Yiqing's residence in the southern region in the past.Although the Mei Mansion is large, it is far inferior to the prosperity and splendor of the Anping Prince's Mansion in the middle of the capital. The decoration is very simple and orderly, and it looks neat and generous.

The next day, Twelve came to Meifu.

Mei Wangqing was sitting at the table, eating breakfast, she had just had a bowl of clear porridge, when she looked up to see Twelve, she asked in surprise, "So early?"

Twelve sat down directly facing her, opened his lips and smiled: "I said, I want to show you around!"

Mei Wangqing picked up a fried dumpling, took a bite, and said vaguely, "Have you eaten yet?"

Twelve was slightly stunned, but she didn't make a sound.

Mei Wangqing directly ordered Jiufang to add more chopsticks. After a while, Twelve raised her eyebrows and took the bowl and chopsticks from Jiufang. After eating a bowl of porridge and a bun, she put down the chopsticks.

Mei Wangqing said: "Your appetite is quite small."

Twelve shook her head: "It's not too young." She sighed inwardly, but she had eaten breakfast twice today.

Mei Wangqing had eaten breakfast, sat for a while, got up and followed Twelve, and walked around the Yutong City again. She saw that the people here were thin, and their skin was darker due to the sun, not as good as those in Jiangzhou and Fengzhou. The people in the state are fair, and because of the perennial wars, the population has withered, and the consumption of strong women is too large. There are more lonely old people and children on the streets.

"This is still the case in the city, what will the countryside look like?"

Twelve saw her frowning tightly, and suggested: "Why don't you go to the countryside for a walk and relax"

Mei Wangqing thought about it, and felt that it was time to take a walk and have a look.

Since the countryside is far away from the city, Mei Wangqing and the others mounted their horses and headed for the countryside.The farther you went outside the city, the road became narrower and narrower, but the trees became denser and denser.

Mei Wangqing saw that the trees here were very tall, with luxuriant branches and leaves, and some of them required several people to surround them.

Half an hour later, several people came to Yongxiang Village.

Mei Wangqing got off the horse and led the horse slowly.

A curving path divides the village into two halves. There are barefoot children running around at the entrance of the village; by the pond there are men and women talking and laughing while doing laundry; old people are walking around the entrance with crutches.

Beside the winding path, surrounded by a few villagers, there were two villagers standing on the thick branches. Mei Wangqing saw that the villagers cut off the branches and leaves of the trees, and the villagers under the trees peeled the bark to extract the fibers and squeeze out the excess water.

Mei Wangqing was full of curiosity: "What is this for?"

Twelve smiled and let it go: "I'll take you to have a look!"

Twelve Dangtou brought Mei Wangqing to a farmhouse. Under the thatched canopy in front of the yard, and in front of the loom were two middle-aged men. They twisted the fiber into silk, and finally weaved it into cloth. Stepping forward, she took a closer look, and saw that the white and slightly yellowed cloth was not evenly woven.

She held it in her hand and touched it, but it was still rough, even a little prickly.

"Uncle, are you knitting and selling this, or wearing it yourself?"

The man who weaved the cloth smiled and said: "This cloth is not only cheap, but also very durable. In the countryside, no one would buy it, and they would only weave it into cloth and wear it by themselves."

Another husband said: "This is the treasure of our country people."

At noon, the group stayed at the villagers' house for dinner. When the meal was brought to the table, Jiufang frowned:

"Master, it's so poor, why don't you tell me to go down and buy some meat and make it again!"

Twelve stared straight at Mei Wangqing, her eyes were full of interest.

Mei Wangqing glanced at the adobe room, there was a dark square table, on the table was a plate of brown pickles, two plates of green vegetables, and a plate of scrambled eggs.Inside the wooden rice cup was slightly yellowed rice and even a few unhulled grains. She took a closer look and found that it was not whole rice, but mixed with red, green and green cooked beans. , this should be called bean rice.She heard the sound of swallowing saliva, which came from outside the door. Looking around, the two children were staring straight at the food on the table with their dark eyes, swallowing saliva fiercely.

Mei Wangqing sighed, the food that they despise in their eyes, but in the eyes of these country children, it is a rare delicacy!

"This is to experience life, you should sit down and taste it together!"

Twelve picked up the chopsticks on the table, took a bite of the rice, and said:

"That's right! It's rare for Wang Qing to come to the countryside, so let's experience life in the countryside!"

Country life?

A few months ago, Changlinyuan fell off the cliff and went to the mountain village, but she and Ji Huan lived in the countryside for a few days. Mei Wangqing was slightly stunned:

"I have experienced it before! However, this is the first time in the southern border."

For this meal, the vegetables were less oily and watery, only sprinkled with salt, and they could be eaten after they were cooked. The rice had a watery smell of beans, and with the occasional grains, the few people ate very badly taste.

Jiufang was puzzled and said, "In the countryside, this rice grain is an ordinary item, why, on this dinner table, it has become a rare item!"

Twelve said in a deep voice: "The southern border is a place of poverty."

Mei Wangqing stared. Although Xue Qin is good at defending the city and defeating the enemy, and governing a county and a city, she is not good at the development of people's livelihood. It is stuffy and hot, with four seasons, the longest summer, warm winter, short spring and autumn, dense mountains and forests, but the land is very barren. In this remote southern border, the development of agriculture is so backward.

Due to years of fighting, this strong woman withered too quickly, and the development of the countryside needed strong labor, and the old and weak, men and Confucians were powerless... The southern border is indeed a poor place!