Chapter 222: Urgent Military Dispatch

In the relay station, there is a tea room. A minor official lit incense, and a faint scent of sandalwood drifted from the hollow copper furnace.

Chen Ji and Zhang Zheng sat opposite each other on a soft couch. In front of them was a chessboard, and the game was already nearing its end.

Amidst the surrounding blue smoke, Chen Ji placed a white piece. Across from him, Zhang Zheng pondered deeply for a long time, finally placing a piece. Chen Ji casually placed another piece, and then Zhang Zheng again fell into long thought...

Zhang Xia sat on the side, cracking melon seeds, watching her elder brother being utterly defeated, yet having no intention of speaking up to help.

Zhang Zheng was so anxious he became angry. He kept winking and signaling to his sister. Zhang Xia curiously asked: "Brother, what's wrong with your eyes? Did you get sand in them?"

Zhang Zheng suddenly deflated: "You should at least give me some pointers on how to play! You can't just watch your elder brother being bullied like this."

Zhang Xia's white teeth met, lightly cracking open a melon seed: "Watching chess without speaking is the mark of a true gentleman. I won't do that kind of thing."

Chen Ji raised his head to look at Zhang Zheng: "Brother Zhang, didn't you want to come find me to play chess? Your chess skill... it doesn't seem like someone who likes to play chess."

Zhang Zheng was tongue-tied: "I..."

Zhang Xia asked Chen Ji: "When you arrive in the capital, what are your plans? Will you live in the large Chen family residence or buy your own courtyard to live in?"

Chen Ji thought for a moment: "I should be living in the large Chen family residence."

Bai Long letting him return to the Chen family certainly meant he wouldn't be sidelined. He would definitely be as close to the core as possible.

Zhang Xia asked again: "Will Lord Chen arrange for you to be a student at the Guo Zi Jian? He definitely will, right? But you don't want to study the classics, so how will you handle that?"

Chen Ji teased with a smile: "Didn't Second Miss Zhang just now reproach me for being unlearned and unskilled?"

Zhang Zheng hurriedly explained: "You misunderstood. My sister just looks down on those without capability, but this capability doesn't necessarily refer to classics. Wait until you arrive in the capital, and you'll know. She has a big reputation there; the Guo Zi Jian students all fear her."

"Oh?" Chen Ji became curious: "Why is that?"

While Chen Ji's gaze wasn't on the chessboard, Zhang Zheng, while explaining, secretly placed several black pieces on the board: "You don't know, the Guo Zi Jian doesn't just teach the Four Books and Five Classics; it also includes studying calculations, numbers, and laws. Our little uncle Xu Shu is not only the Deputy Director of the Tianwen Yuan, but also concurrently the numbers doctor of the Guo Zi Jian."

Zhang Zheng continued: "Little uncle is lazy and unwilling to get up at Mao Shi to teach, so every few days he calls my sister to substitute. Initially, the Guo Zi Jian students saw her as a woman and were completely unwilling, even sitting in protest. Later, my sister posed a problem, and after half an hour, only one person could answer, and then they became honest."

Chen Ji lowered his head and looked at the chessboard with the extra pieces, but he didn't expose it. He just placed a white piece, capturing the extra black pieces together, and then asked: "What problem? It actually took them half an hour?"

Zhang Xia, from the side, said with a laugh: "Looking far at the towering pagoda of seven layers, red lights dotted, increasing. The total lamps are three hundred eighty-one. Ask, how many lamps are at the pagoda tip?"

Chen Ji, without raising his head: "Three lamps."

Zhang Xia's eyes widened: "Eh? You've heard this problem before?"

Chen Ji smiled: "Mm, heard it before."

Zhang Xia held a melon seed at her mouth and suspiciously sized up Chen Ji: "Really heard it? Then I'll ask you again. Now there are beasts, with six heads and four feet, and birds, with four heads and two feet. Above are seventy-six heads, below are forty-six feet. Ask: how many birds and beasts are there each?"

Chen Ji casually said: "Eight beasts, seven birds."

Zhang Xia was startled: "You've heard this one too?"

Chen Ji laughed heartily: "Heard this one too."

He shifted the topic: "So Second Miss Zhang relies on 'calculations and numbers' to be unbeatable in the Guo Zi Jian?"

Zhang Zheng laughed happily: "Also relies on her sharp tongue. Those students haven't passed the provincial exam for many years, so they're depressed and unfulfilled. After drinking some horse piss, they like to spray feces and scold people. One of them got drunk and went to pick a fight with my sister, saying that the reason he hadn't passed the exam was because the Guo Zi Jian had women, and he cursed loudly in front of my sister's study."

Chen Ji's expression didn't change: "And then?"

Zhang Zheng said: "Then my sister gave him a problem."

Chen Ji was puzzled: "What problem?"

Zhang Zheng picked up the teacup at hand and drank the tea in one gulp: "My sister asked him: 'Your mother and ten rabbits are locked in a cage, why are there only forty feet?' That student thought hard without a solution and said ten rabbits originally have forty feet, so why, when you add your mother, are there still only forty feet?"

Zhang Zheng put down the teacup: "My sister answered him, 'Because you don't have a mother.'"

Chen Ji looked at Zhang Xia in astonishment. What strong attack power.

Zhang Xia lightly coughed once, somewhat embarrassed, and lowered her head to drink tea to cover up.

At this time, a burst of noisy sounds came from the hall not far away. The officials there were toasting and drinking, and they were drinking very happily.

Chen Ji looked towards Zhang Xia: "Who are those over there?"

Zhang Xia poured the melon seed shells from her left palm into the dish and patted her palm: "The gentry and prominent families of Mengjin County City have come together to pay their respects to my father. My father is drinking with them now."

Chen Ji curiously asked: "Lord Zhang is about to be promoted to Left Vice Minister of the Li Bu, does he still need to socialize with the gentry of a small county city?"

Zhang Xia explained from the side: "The so-called imperial power doesn't reach the county. The human relations in the nine counties of Luoyang City are complex and intertwined. If you're not close to these gentry, father can't even collect the autumn grain. The gentry of these large counties live more comfortably than officials in the capital or Jinling. They are the real local emperors."

If the mother is weak, the son becomes a merchant. If the father is strong, he becomes a Vice Minister. If the ancestors are prosperous, they stay in their original place. If the family is poor, they go to other places. In the Ning Dynasty's concept, unless one goes out to be an official, otherwise, those without prospects need to go far away to suffer.

As they were speaking, urgent horse hooves sounded from outside the relay station.

When they got closer, they saw a soldier on horseback shouting: "Five hundred li urgent!"

Chen Ji and the others got up to go out, along with Zhang Zhuo and the others who were in the middle of toasting. They also put down their wine cups and hurriedly went out to greet him.

In the relay station, the urgent levels were divided into four hundred li urgent, five hundred li urgent, and six hundred li urgent. If it wasn't a major military matter, these three levels were absolutely not allowed to be used.

The soldier carried a fire-sealed bamboo tube and came closer, dismounting: "Where is the relay chief of Mengjin Relay Station?"

"Here!" A middle-aged relay chief with a beard stepped forward: "I am."

The soldier untied the bamboo tube from his back and took out an envelope from his bosom: "Inside is the Bing Bu's fire voucher. Prepare a meal and a top horse for me. I'll report back after eating!"

The relay chief took the bamboo tube and saw black words branded on it: "Luoyang Deputy Prefect Chen Liqin opens. Private opening punished according to law!"

Zhang Zhuo said in surprise: "It's actually for Lord Chen's... this little brother. Who sent this five hundred li urgent?"

The soldier glanced at him and said arrogantly: "The Crown Prince!"

No wonder this soldier was so haughty, not even putting the relay chief in his eyes. It turned out he had come on the Crown Prince's order.

Zhang Zhuo handed the bamboo tube to Chen Liqin: "Open and see."

Chen Liqin exhaled a breath of wine, removed the fire seal, and poured out a letter stamped with a red seal from inside. After reading it, he frowned for a long time, silent.

Zhang Zhuo was puzzled: "What did the Crown Prince say? You look worried."

Chen Liqin looked at him: "The Crown Prince orders me not to return to the capital, but to go directly to Gansu to meet him."

Zhang Zhuo subconsciously said: "You can't!"

"Mm?" Chen Liqin was puzzled: "Lord Zhang, what do you mean?"

Zhang Zhuo pulled Chen Liqin aside and, borrowing the effect of the wine, said: "Lord Chen, I'm telling you this because we've partnered for three years. If you think it's not right, just consider it drunk talk. Gansu is one of the nine borders. It's originally a mixed bag of good and bad. In recent years, the border army loyal to the Jin faction has been very disobedient to the court, withholding rations, treating killing good people as merit, and other things endlessly, but it's all been suppressed by the Cabinet. The Crown Prince going to Gansu at this time must not be simple. Don't get involved in this muddy water, be careful you lose your family and life!"

Chen Liqin hesitated: "But I am an official of the Dong Gong, a Deputy Compiler of the Hanlin Yuan, how can I refuse?"

Zhang Zhuo cursed: "Haven't you gone to the Li Bu to report yet? Moreover, according to regulations, according to the ancestral system, before taking office, you still need to fast at the Chenghuang Temple for three days and worship all the gods. Just use this reason to decline!"

Chen Liqin shook his head: "Since I am already an official of the Dong Gong, I should naturally wholeheartedly assist the Crown Prince. If I don't even go for the Crown Prince's five hundred li urgent, how can I stay in the Dong Gong in the future? How will the Crown Prince trust me?"

Zhang Zhuo's eyes widened: "Do you have to be this kind of 'follow the dragon' minister? Don't be dizzy from the pie in the sky. If he doesn't trust you, at most he'll replace you, and then you just change to another official position. You won't lose your life!"

Chen Liqin's face turned stern: "Lord Zhang, there's no need to say more. I am different from you. I don't have so many wise thoughts of self-preservation. A ruler is a ruler, a minister is a minister, a father is a father, a son is a son. If the ruler wants the minister to die, the minister has to die. The Crown Prince needs people now, how can I not go? I, Chen Liqin, am not a coward who fears death!"

Zhang Zhuo laughed in anger: "Good, good, good, you go and seek death. Your wife and children will come with me. I will escort them to the capital."

Chen Liqin's face grew darker: "Lord Zhang, don't be alarmist. The Crown Prince is in Gansu. It's within our Ning Dynasty's control. There are over twenty thousand troops stationed there. What danger is there?"

Zhang Zhuo thought for a moment: "I don't care about others, Chen Ji must follow me."

Chen Liqin angrily flung his sleeve and left: "Absurd!"

Zhang Zhuo looked at Chen Liqin's back and sighed. He cupped his hands to the gentry: "It seems we can't continue drinking. Please return."

The crowd bid farewell. He then looked at Chen Ji: "You don't need to mind Lord Chen. He goes to his Gansu, and we go to our capital. By then, you can just spend the New Year at the Zhang residence. By the Lantern Festival, I'll give you six hundred taels of silver as lucky money. You can visit the Chenghuang Temple, enjoy the Lantern Festival, drink flower wine, play however you want. Young people, it's fine to play and make noise. There's no need to worry about state affairs."

Chen Ji was silent for a moment, then took out his Jinyiwei badge from his sleeve: "Lord Zhang, with this badge, I can pass unimpeded."

Zhang Zhuo still wanted to persuade him, but Chen Ji stopped him: "I know your good intentions. Please help me take Xiaoman along and lead her to stay temporarily at the Zhang residence in the capital first... I have to follow the Chen family to Gansu."