roccoschili Chapter 148 Spring Hunting
Chapter 148 Spring Hunting
That night, countless people were troubled by their deep thoughts and could not fall asleep.
The next day, the gate of the East Palace was opened early.
Jiang Wanyue brought Xiuchun and others onto Li Ce's carriage. As for Li Ce, he did not ride with her, but went to the front to accompany the emperor.
The spring hunting team was much smaller than the team that went to the palace to escape the summer heat last year. There were fewer carriages and more people on horseback.
Before long, people started arriving one after another.
As soon as the auspicious time arrived, the team set out and slowly moved towards the north gate.
This walk lasts a day.
After arriving at the palace and taking a short rest for a night, the emperor led everyone excitedly to Wangwu Mountain the next day.
People had already been sent to clean up the place, and the nearby residents had all been relocated. There were also guards guarding the outer perimeter to prevent outsiders from sneaking in.
In order to make the emperor enjoy himself, Prince Liang had a lot of wild animals such as rabbits, pheasants, deer and roe deer released two days ago.
As soon as the emperor entered the mountains, he hunted a frightened deer.
The people who were traveling with him congratulated him and said compliments, then dispersed and each looked for prey.
Several princes had been following the emperor, and when they saw everyone leave, Prince Liang was the first to lose his patience.
"Father, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, I am leaving first. I heard that there are wild foxes on the mountain ahead. It just so happens that my princess is in need of a fox fur cloak."
The emperor laughed out loud.
"go Go!"
Prince Liang bowed, called his guards, and rushed forward.
The emperor watched him walk away, then turned to look at Li Ce and Li Zhu.
"Why don't you two move around? You are the elder brothers, don't let Xiaoliu outsmart you!"
Li Zhu looked at Li Ce, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
"The prince has been very good at riding and shooting since he was young. Why don't you show us?"
As he spoke, he fiddled with the ring on his thumb.
"I have been practicing archery recently. Today is a good opportunity. I would like to ask the prince for advice."
The emperor was very happy and laughed.
"Okay, you two will compete to see how many prey you can hunt."
Li Ce raised his eyebrows at Li Zhu and turned to speak to the emperor.
"Does the emperor have any plans?"
The emperor touched his increasingly fat chin and thought for a while before speaking.
"There is a bow in my study, which was passed down by Emperor Taizong. It is said to be modeled after the legendary Overlord Bow. Whoever wins today will be awarded this bow!"
Li Ce and Li Zhu both bowed and accepted the order.
The two looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
There was a determined light in Li Zhu's eyes. Without waiting for Li Ce to speak, he drove back the way he came.
Li Ce was calm and composed. He called out to the guards, chose another direction, and walked forward slowly.
Hunting is not a difficult task for Li Ce.
In just over an hour, he hunted several pheasants, two rabbits, and a deer.
However, if you want to surpass Prince An, this is not enough.
Li Ce waved his hand and asked the guards to search everywhere for traces of prey.
He skewered the pheasants and hung them on his saddle, thinking that Wan'er loved chicken soup, so he would go back and have someone cook the pheasants well and send them to her.
As for the rabbits, you can make sheaths for your daughters.
Two don’t seem enough, I’ll get a few more later.
He was just thinking about it when suddenly a guard reported back with a surprise.
"Your Highness, there are traces of a bear ahead!"
"Bear?"
Li Ce widened his eyes slightly and looked at the guard.
The guard nodded vigorously. "I have checked and confirmed that they are bear footprints. There is also dry bear feces nearby. They must have originally lived in this forest."
Naturally, the guards who came out with him were all skilled in hunting.
Li Ce raised his eyebrows and a smile appeared on his face.
"Lead the way, call the brothers, and set off!"
The group was excited and headed towards the foot of the mountain under the leadership of the guard.
Soon, they came to a col.
This col is a low valley sandwiched between two mountains. The terrain is quite narrow and steep, but it also forms a stream.
It is called a stream, but it is not the gurgling stream of an ordinary mountain stream, but an extremely turbulent one.
The leading guard stepped forward to test the speed of the stream and hesitated.
"Your Highness, this stream is too fast and it may be dangerous. It is better to take a detour!"
Another impatient guard retorted.
"What danger can there be in such a shallow stream? Don't exaggerate! The bear is right across the way. I just saw its shadow! What if I take a detour and miss the opportunity? What if it runs away?"
The guards had different opinions and turned to Li Ce for instructions.
Li Ce just kept looking at the stream without saying a word.
If it were the him of the past, he might have just rushed over.
The stream didn't seem deep and wasn't far away, so it didn't look dangerous.
But somehow, when Li Ce looked at the water surface, he suddenly thought of Fu Da.
Among this group of guards, none is as good at swimming as Fu Da.
He was in deep thought for quite a while when the horse under him suddenly sneezed and pawed its hooves as if urging him to hurry up.
Li Ce patted the horse's neck, bent down and whispered in its ear.
"Bear with it."
Then, Li Ce suddenly jumped off his horse and pointed at the most active guard.
"Come down and change your clothes."
Although the guard was a little confused, he took off his clothes without saying a word and put on Li Ce's light armor.
"The four of you wait here for a quarter of an hour, then cross the river. The rest of you, abandon your horses."
The guards moved quickly and silently, tying their horses nearby, then took off their armor and carried bows and arrows.
The same is true for Li Ce.
He led the remaining eight guards upward, taking a detour but crossing the stream more smoothly and arriving at another mountain.
The guard in charge of reconnaissance habitually stood on a high place and looked down, and suddenly his expression changed.
"Your Highness, there are people down there!"
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In the palace.
The emperor took people hunting early in the morning. Several female relatives accompanied him, but most of them stayed in the palace.
Jiang Wanyue led the palace servants to pack the luggage and tidy up Li Ce's residence before going to her own room to rest.
She curled up on the couch, drinking warm tea and listening to Xiuchun report on the situation in various places.
Before I finished listening, I heard Princess Jiayin coming over.
Jiang Wanyue immediately asked someone to invite her in.
The two greeted each other, and Jiang Wanyue asked with a smile.
"Why is the princess here? Didn't she go to the hunting ground with everyone else?"
Jiayin waved her hand slightly.
"I don't know how to hunt. My third brother said I'm too weak to hold a bow. So I shouldn't go and make a fool of myself. I'll just wait for them to hunt and eat the meat."
Jiang Wanyue was speechless for a while.
"Your Highness is really..."
This statement doesn't care about others at all!
Jiayin pursed her lips and smiled.
"Third brother is also concerned about me. He is worried that I will lose face and get hurt by arrows! I just heard that my sister-in-law didn't go either, so I came to play with you!"
"The princess is so open-minded, which is rare." Jiang Wanyue said politely, "But I'm busy..."
Before she finished speaking, Jiayin hurriedly spoke again.
"Then I'll help my sister-in-law!"
After she finished speaking, perhaps because she felt her tone was a little too hasty, she hastily added another sentence.
"My mother often complains that I don't know how to handle household affairs. Today is a rare opportunity. Can you teach me, little sister-in-law?"
Jiang Wanyue noticed the eagerness and hidden shyness in her eyes, and wondered, could it be that her marriage is about to be settled, so she is in a hurry to learn how to manage household chores?
She paused for a moment before nodding.
"Since the princess wants to learn, then just follow and listen!"
She nodded slightly to Xiuchun, indicating her to continue.
Xiuchun bent her knees and continued the previous topic.
In fact, there are not many people in the temporary palace, and the affairs are not as complicated as those in the Eastern Palace. But they have just arrived, and many things are disorganized. In addition, there will be conflicts between the palace servants who bring with them and the original palace servants, so Jiang Wanyue, the master, is needed to take charge and sort things out.
What Xiuchun just talked about was the matters of the palace maids.
Now, let’s talk about the warehouse.
"Everything has been registered and put into storage. Here is the booklet. Please have a look, Master."
Xiuchun presented several booklets.
Seeing Jiayin looking like a curious baby, Jiang Wanyue picked up two books and handed them to her.
"Princess Lao, help me take a look."
These books only record things that are obvious and there is nothing that cannot be seen by others.
Jiayin's eyes lit up and she took the booklet with both hands.
Jiang Wanyue lowered her head and looked at the book in her hand.
She saw these things a lot every day, and could tell the difference at a glance, so she read them very quickly.
Soon, she finished flipping through the two books. When she turned around, she found Princess Jiayin staring at the page in her hand very carefully, and she couldn't help but smile silently.
She is a serious little girl.
She waved at Xiuchun and whispered, "Add a few more dishes for lunch."
Xiuchun nodded and was about to go out to pass on the message when suddenly, Princess Jiayin called out.
"Ah! This place is so weird."
Jiang Wanyue and Xiuchun turned to look at her at the same time.
Jiayin raised her head and pointed to the page in the booklet.
"Are these medicinal herbs? Why do the names look weird?"
Xiuchun was the first to react. She slapped her head and said, "This is the pharmacy's booklet. I got the wrong one."
Then she turned to Jiang Wanyue.
"It was my fault for neglecting it."
But Jiang Wanyue seemed not to hear it.
She frowned and stared at the lines that Jiayin pointed to.
This booklet is a register of the use of medicinal materials. The first column contains the names of the medicinal materials. The ones Jiayin mentioned seem ordinary, but upon closer inspection, one finds that there are two more.
Parsnip, and benzoin.
Seeing that Jiang Wanyue’s expression was not right, Jiayin hurriedly explained.
"I just feel strange looking at this benzoin. Isn't it a fragrance? Why is it listed here with medicinal materials?"
Jiang Wanyue pursed her lips tightly.
"Benzoin can also be used as medicine, and it has the effect of promoting blood circulation and relieving pain. However, I don't remember using benzoin recently."
She turned around and looked at Xiuchun.
Xiuchun frowned and thought about it carefully, then shook her head: "I also remember not using it."
She paused, lowered her voice a lot, and added.
"Your Highness does not like this fragrance."
Jiayin didn't hear what Xiuchun said, and thought that she had made a fool of herself. She handed the booklet back to Jiang Wanyue embarrassedly.
"I am making a fuss, please don't blame me, little sister-in-law."
Jiang Wanyue took the booklet, looking normal.
"It's your first time to be careful. There's nothing wrong with that. If the princess gets married in the future, even though she'll have a nanny as a dowry, she still has to understand these things herself to avoid being deceived."
Jiayin nodded repeatedly.
"That's what I thought!"
Jiang Wanyue suddenly smiled.
"So, the princess is about to get married? Then I would like to congratulate the princess first. I wish the princess and her husband a long and happy marriage."
Jiayin's eyes widened. She didn't expect that Jiang Wanyue had guessed it so quickly.
She was a little surprised and embarrassed, and her face turned red.
"Oh! Sister-in-law, you...I won't pay attention to you anymore!"
She stamped her feet and ran out.
Her two palace maids hurriedly bowed to Jiang Wanyue and chased after her.
The smile on Jiang Wanyue's face fell in an instant.
She tapped the booklet in her hand with her fingers.
"This page was registered after I returned from Prince An's Mansion that day."
Xiuchun looked down at the date and nodded.
"Yes."
Then she looked puzzled again.
"Strange, I remember that among the herbs sent to Prince An's mansion, there was no Fangfeng and Benzoin! Could it be that the maid in the pharmacy wrote it wrong?"
Jiang Wanyue lowered her eyes, stared at the two medicinal herbs, and moved her index finger back along the names of the herbs little by little.
The column after the medicine name contains the weight of the medicine.
After the windbreak, the number written is four.
After the word benzoin, the number thirteen is written.
When Jiang Wanyue's fingers touched the word "Thirteen", her pupils suddenly shrank.
"Xiuchun, what day is today?"
Xiuchun was stunned.
"Master, have you forgotten? Today is April 13th! Yesterday was the 12th, a good day to travel. We even checked the almanac before leaving."
Jiang Wanyue closed her eyes.
"Windproof...benzoin...windproof."
"Four...thirteen...that's today."
"This is the news conveyed to us by Princess An."
She touched her chest and felt her heart beating faster, so she took a few deep breaths.
Xiuchun's face changed drastically.
"Could it be that Prince An intends to rebel?"
She was anxious.
"Master! Do you want to inform His Highness or the Emperor?"
Jiang Wanyue shook her head slowly.
"Without evidence, the Emperor will not believe this alone. As for His Highness, I believe he will be fine. What is more important now is to prevent Prince An from taking control of the palace's defenses like Prince Qi did before, and taking us hostage to threaten His Highness and the others."
She stood up and walked out.
Xiuchun hurried to follow.
"Where are you going?"
"Looking for Princess Ding."
Several princes are not here, and several close princes and crown princes are not here either. Now the person with the highest status in this palace is Prince Ding.
Prince Ding didn't know how to hunt, so he didn't go with them this morning and stayed behind.
At this moment, he was playing a game of tag with two young eunuchs in the palace where he lived.
Princess Ding sat not far away and watched, with a smile on her face and an especially gentle look in her eyes.
Many people speculated that since she married Prince Ding, she must be resentful and disgusted with him, but that was not the case.
They have always gotten along well as a couple.
Prince Ding was a very sincere and kind-hearted person. His mind remained at the age of five or six, and his temperament was like that of a five or six-year-old child, naive, but also extremely sincere, and he listened to her in everything.
Even when she was reprimanded by the Imperial Concubine for her previous selfishness, Prince Ding stood up to protect her.
Such a husband is better than most men in the world.
Princess Ding saw that Prince Ding was sweating from running, so she waved her hand and asked them to stop.
Prince Ding ran up to her, half squatted down and raised his head.
Princess Ding carefully wiped his sweat with a handkerchief.
"You're all sweaty. Take a break and have a cup of tea. I'll take you out to see the flowers later."
As he was speaking, a palace maid came over with a cup of tea.
Prince Ding took the tea, but did not drink it immediately. Instead, he pushed it in front of Princess Ding.
"Drink, my lady."
Princess Ding lowered her head and took a sip. Prince Ding grinned happily and drank the tea in a few gulps.