Chapter 1191 Letter, Border, Expedition
It arrived in August of the seventh year of Longqing.

At the grand court meeting, Emperor Longqing appointed the Tenth Prince, who was just over a hundred days old, as the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, and his biological mother, Jia Yuanchun, as the Empress.

For this purpose, a grand enthronement ceremony was held.

After the ceremony.

According to the rules, as the queen's father, Jia Zheng was promoted to Marquis Cheng'en.

Su Mingzhe, the emperor's brother-in-law, was promoted to the rank of second-class cavalry general.

Grandmother Jia, Mrs. Wang, and everyone in the Jia family received rewards.

At a time when all the civil and military officials and nobles were in panic and silent, the experience of the Jia family helped to dilute the solemn and crisis-ridden atmosphere.

However, while everyone else was happy, Su Mingzhe was the only one who, after receiving the imperial edict, had a cold face and came to Lin Daiyu's place in the green gauze cabinet in the backyard.

Zijuan, who was doing needlework, was startled when she saw her brother-in-law walk in with a sullen face.

As an old man in the Jia family, Zijuan had seen Su Mingzhe's original appearance as the "Devil of the World". At this moment, she thought that this Mr. Bao was ill, and immediately came to him nervously and asked:

"Second Master, who made you angry?"

Su Mingzhe saw that Zijuan was frightened by his appearance, and he didn't want to embarrass her, so he could only restrain his emotions and said in a low voice:
"No one made me angry, I was angry with myself!"

"That's strange!"

Seeing that Su Mingzhe had not lost his mind, Zijuan felt a little relieved and comforted him gently:

"Today is a day of great joy for the whole family. You are now a legitimate uncle of the emperor, so you can't be unhappy!"

Zijuan tried to persuade him a little, but seeing that the man still had no intention of being happy, she smiled and said:

"My daughter is still with the old lady. How about I go and call her back to chat with you?"

"No need! Sister Lin came back and she refused to let me see her. I'll just sit here for a while and leave when everything is fine."

Seeing that Zijuan was worried because of him, Su Mingzhe couldn't help but sigh, drank the tea in one gulp, and left with a sullen look on his face.

After a while.

When Sister Lin came back and didn't see her lover, she couldn't help asking:
"Just now I heard Xueyan say that the second brother came. Did he leave again?"

"gone."

Zijuan pondered for a moment, then told Su Mingzhe's situation, then looked at her daughter and said in surprise:

"Miss, today is a happy day for the whole family. The Second Master has been appointed as the Second Class Cavalry General. How could he not be happy?"

Sister Lin was very smart and guessed why her lover was depressed almost instantly:
"In the past, the Rongguo Mansion was a noble family, and they only needed to observe mourning for a year before they could get married. Now that my eldest sister has been crowned as the queen, the Rongguo Mansion has been promoted to royal relatives. As royal relatives, they need to observe mourning for 27 months before they can get married!"

"what?"

Zijuan finally understood why Su Mingzhe was sad:
"Then, young lady, your marriage to the Second Master will have to be postponed for another year and a half?"

"Yes."

Sister Lin sighed softly, pondered for a moment, returned to the inner room, quickly wrote a few words on a piece of letter paper, handed it to Zijuan, and said:
"It's not convenient for me to go see my second brother right now. Please give this to her. Also... send Huang Ying and Jin Ling over as well."

Huang Ying and Jin Ling were the skinny horses from Yangzhou bought by Aunt Liu to serve as Lin Daiyu's maids. They had even been sent to try out the bridal chamber.

Now, Lin Daiyu sent Huang Ying and Jin Ling to show her feelings.

After hearing this, Zijuan immediately did as she was told.

The No. 1 Scholar’s ​​Mansion.

Su Mingzhe, who was drinking alone, saw Zijuan coming and hurriedly greeted her and asked:

"Isn't Yu'er here?"

"Although my young lady didn't come, she wrote a letter to the Second Master."

Zijuan took out the letter with a smile.

Su Mingzhe opened it and saw the inscription of "Magpie Bridge" by Qin Guan from the Song Dynasty.

"If love lasts for a long time, how can we stay together day and night?"

Su Mingzhe looked at the letter and remained silent for a long time.

Zijuan was afraid that the man would get stuck in a rut, so she smiled and said:

"Second Master, my daughter has written poems for you. Won't you write one in reply?"

"Wait a moment!"

Su Mingzhe had a lot on his mind. After a moment of silence, he went to the inner room and told the maids to grind.

After a while, Su Mingzhe finished writing the reply. Zijuan didn't even peek at it, but put it in her arms and hurried back.

Not long after.

Lin Daiyu unfolded the reply from her lover and after reading it, she felt warm and sweet:
"In this world of three thousand, I love three things: the sun, the moon and you. The sun is for the morning, the moon is for the evening, and you are for me morning and evening."

With the letters, the postponed wedding doesn't seem so far away.

In the blink of an eye, it was early October.

The border is in crisis.

In early summer this year, Choros, the leader of the Junggar tribe, led an army of 200,000 to capture the plateau. In September, they were in a dominant position and marched southward from Qingtang area to attack the plateau.

The Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu was besieged and killed in battle.

The border troops lost their command and were defeated one after another.

Emperor Longqing was forced to convene a grand court meeting to discuss strategies to defeat the enemy.

The Prince of Nan'an was already prepared and immediately requested a fight.

The four kings and eight dukes, led by many nobles, expressed their support.

Among them, Jia Zhen and his son Jia Rong each donated 50,000 taels of silver.

Jia She and his son Jia Lian donated 50,000 taels of silver.

Jia Zheng originally wanted to donate 50,000 taels of silver together with his son.

Unexpectedly, Su Mingzhe suddenly stood up and expressed his willingness to fight together with the Prince of Nan'an.

Emperor Longqing did not expect that Su Mingzhe would be so "scholarly-minded" and agreed immediately.

As a second-class cavalry general, Su Mingzhe can command up to 50,000 troops.

However, the Prince of Nan'an would naturally not give so many people to a new recruit. Instead, he gave Su Mingzhe five days to let him prepare as many troops as he wanted.

If Su Mingzhe could not gather enough troops, the Prince of Nan'an would give Su Mingzhe 5,000 men and make him a minor general.

If Su Mingzhe could gather enough troops, no matter how many he gathered, the Prince of Nan'an would not care.

The meeting is over.

Men, women, young and old from the Rong and Ning mansions all gathered in Lady Jia's backyard.

Mrs. Wang was crying, and Li Wan was standing by to persuade and comfort her.

The three sisters Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun and Lin Daiyu couldn't stop wiping their tears.

On the contrary, Mrs. Xing's expression was secretly flashing with excitement and joy.

"Okay, stop crying!"

After all, Grandmother Jia had experienced a lot, so she suppressed her reluctance, looked at her beloved grandson, and asked:

"Baoyu, why do you suddenly want to join the army?"

Everyone also turned their eyes to Su Mingzhe.

Su Mingzhe looked calm and said with a carefree smile:

"Grandfather, please don't look at me like that. My family is a noble family with four kings and eight dukes. If the border is in danger, we have to send people."

"There are so many people in our Jia family, there is no need for you, a child, to go!"

Grandmother Jia sighed. In her opinion, it would be best to let Jia She, the unfilial son, go to the battlefield. His death would be a contribution to the Jia family.

After hearing what Grandmother Jia said, Jia Zhen and Jia Rong, father and son, as well as Jia She and Jia Lian, father and son, immediately lowered their heads.

They don't want to leave the wealthy capital and go to some crappy battlefield.

Su Mingzhe couldn't help but smile when he saw the expressions of the two pairs of father and son, and then said with a relaxed look:

"Grandfather, I don't agree with what you said!"

“As the saying goes, ambition is not limited by age!”

"As for the thesis, when I was three years old, my elder sister began to teach me how to read and write. When I was seven, I could recite the three hundred and thousand by heart! When I was fourteen, I became the first top scholar in the Daqing Dynasty to pass the imperial examination."

"As for martial arts, when I was seven, I had already started practicing horse stance and archery. When I was nine, I could already ride a horse and shoot a bow to go hunting. When I was twelve, I could shoot an arrow through a target from a hundred paces away without missing a single target. I easily wiped out more than thirty bandits."

"Tell me, is there anyone in our Rongning Mansion who is more suitable for going to the battlefield than me?"

(End of this chapter)