Jiangshan is hired [rebirth]

Chapter 40

Every year at the beginning of March and the end of September, the emperor would lead his officials and a group of princes to hunt in Yanle Mountain, and this year is no exception.

The palace set up a date for spring hunting early in the morning, and notified all civil and military officials. Not only Huo Lan appeared on the list sent to Yunfu, but Yun Miaoqing was also on the list.

Yun Miaoqing is not too surprised about this: "The two hunts every year, on the one hand, let everyone not forget the mountains and rivers brought down by the ancestors on horseback; All the female family members in the show will be invited to watch, and if they are attracted to someone, they can ask His Majesty for permission to marry them on the spot."

That being said, no matter whether the man or the woman, there are still very few people who actually ask for a marriage at the hunting scene every year, and sometimes there may not be one for several years.Aristocrats, how can there be so many people who can get married after seeing each other? Even if one party is willing, the other's family may not be happy. If you ask for a marriage rashly, it is easy to make trouble. In the end, you have to go back and discuss it with everyone before you can make a decision. .

The marriage is not so hasty, but this does not prevent a group of vigorous young men from expressing their love for the girls they like.According to the consistent custom, any unmarried man can dedicate the prey he catches to the girl he likes. Of course, this is only counted as pursuit, and you have to go down if she agrees or not.

In this way, there are both gimmicks and dignity, adding a bit of wild and romantic color to the hunting activities.

"So there were many people who gave you prey in the past?" Huo Lan asked after Yun Miaoqing.

"I was punished by my father and imprisoned in the mansion for four years. Where can someone send me something?"

Yun Miaoqing's answer was obviously evading the important ones, and Huo Lan didn't accept being fooled: "What about before? You were sixteen when you were punished, what about before?"

"Are you going to settle an old score with me?" Yun Miaoqing laughed when Huo Lan pressed her.

She didn't tell Huo Lan that she could have guessed that Yun Miaoqing was at the age when she was about to get married, and her father was still a prime minister. Not to mention her outstanding appearance and talent, even if she was really ugly, there would be people willing to post it under such conditions please.

"I'm just asking..." Huo Lan lowered her head, rubbed her toes on the ground, and once again felt jealous of Yun Miaoqing's past life that she didn't participate in.

"I've only been there once." Yun Miaoqing sat down on the stone bench in the garden and talked about the past with Huo Lan.

"Boldly pursuing the girl you like and presenting gifts to the girl you like may have good intentions. But on that occasion, it is indeed very beautiful to receive a lot of gifts when the women who have not left the cabinet sit together, but What about those who didn’t receive gifts? Many sisters may not be of bad character. They have lived in the boudoir for a long time. How could the men outside recognize them?

Yun Miaoqing was only 14 years old when she attended hunting activities with her father for the first time. There are many sisters around her age. It will take a year or two, and I just get married at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

That year Yun Miaoqing had the most prey in front of her, even more than the princesses.After all, being a son-in-law means that the official career can be seen to the top, and there are many inconveniences after getting married. Not everyone is willing to take this path, but Yun Miaoqing is the best choice in comparison.

"I don't know what other people think. Anyway, I always feel like I'm sitting there for people to pick and choose. It's very boring, so I can't complain about it afterwards."

Yun Miaoqing sat lazily, but Huo Lan sat upright, with a trace of nervousness on his face: "Then are you going this year?"

"You want me to go?"

"I don't want... and I don't want to." Huo Lan struggled and said, "I think it's because others have given you prey in public, and I haven't, and I don't want it because I don't want you to sit there and be stared at by others."

Yun Miaoqing propped her head and looked at Huo Lan with a smile in her eyes: "I will go."

"Is it because I told you I want you to go?" Huo Lan was still a little hesitant. Miaoqing just said that she didn't like this kind of form, and she didn't have to do it if she wanted to give her something to pursue her. Besides, if Yun Miaoqing Going there means that others can openly pursue her...

Huo Lan's thoughts were written all over her face. Yun Miaoqing looked interesting, so she deliberately didn't answer right away, watching her wrestle with herself for a long time before replying leisurely: "I didn't go in the past because I found it boring. I want to go this year." I went because I had someone I wanted to see."

Yun Miaoqing hadn't been in the capital for several years, so it was self-evident who she wanted to see.

The invisible little tail behind Huo Lan stood up all of a sudden, and he grabbed Yun Miaoqing's hand excitedly: "I will definitely hunt the most prey for you, I'm so anxious to admit that you are in a hurry!"

"What do I want so many prey for?" Yun Miaoqing held Huo Lan back comfortingly, "Don't forget our purpose, when the time comes, all the prey you catch will be dedicated to His Majesty, to make His Majesty happy."

Hearing what Yun Miaoqing said, Huo Lan immediately lost interest in this kind of spring hunting. She thought for a while and said, "Then I'll catch a lot more, and leave the rest to Your Majesty. I'm so sorry. you!"

"The biggest one has to be given to His Majesty, otherwise His Majesty's side will not look good."

Huo Lan let out a listless "Oh", lying on the table with Ji Fangke's arms in his arms, his eyes rolled, and he thought of a good idea.

On the day of spring hunting, the crowd gathered at the foot of Yanle Mountain early in the morning.

In the past, Emperor Zhong Yu would personally participate in hunting when he was in good health, but his physical condition has declined sharply in the past two years, and he fell ill again and again last year.

The hunting has not yet started, and the people involved in the hunting are still staying with their family and friends.

Huo Lan is leading the horse, and beside her are two servants from Yunfu, who will go into the mountain with her in a while to help her carry the prey she has caught.Originally, Wen Taicang should have been asked to follow Huo Lan to be more at ease, but Yun Miaoqing considered to avoid people telling the truth that Wen Taicang had helped Huo Lan, so in the end she only found two ordinary servants.

"After entering the mountain, be careful, especially on the side of King Yu. You have become popular in front of His Majesty these days. King Yu is narrow-minded and will definitely seek revenge. He should not dare to kill in public, but he will use some despicable methods Disgusting people are indispensable. If you meet them, try to be patient and don't fight with them in the woods."

Yun Miaoqing made this arrangement a few days ago and thought it was quite appropriate, but in the end she had a lot of worries. The scene of King Zhuang hurting Huo Lan that night uncontrollably reappeared in front of her eyes repeatedly. His sword seemed to be cutting through her heart.

It's still time for Big Brother Wen to accompany Huo Lan...

Reason told her that her decision was not wrong, but emotionally she couldn't let it go.

"I will. Sit down and rest, and wait for me to come back with peace of mind." There were so many people around, it was inconvenient for Huo Lan to cuddle with Yun Miaoqing, so he secretly squeezed her hands.

Yun Miaoqing was still waiting for a few more instructions, the eunuch started to line up in the direction of the stand where His Majesty was, and she had no choice but to let Huo Lan go.

After all the people participating in the hunt lined up, Zhong Yu began to give an encouraging speech before departure.These words are said every year, nothing more than remembering the ancestors, inspiring the descendants, and admonishing the younger generation to work hard and not to delay the comfort.

After finishing the mental mobilization, Zhong Yu talked about substantive rewards: "...the first winner will be granted a thousand household registration and a yellow jacket; the second winner will be rewarded with 500 taels and 300 pieces of silk; Three, the bounty is [-] taels..."

The hunting rewards this time are not small, except for the top three, basically all participants can get rewards according to the amount of prey harvested.

After listening to everyone in the audience, the older princes and military generals like Yu Wang and Zhuang Wang who already have titles are better. Leshan is on the way.

Finally, the guard in charge of passing the order blew the horn, and with the sound of intensive drums, everyone got on their horses and sank into the forest, shouting.

Yanle Mountain is a mountain range running north-south, spanning thousands of miles, three to five times larger than Bailu Mountain.In order to allow everyone to show their talents to the fullest, the emperor did not delineate a specific scope for this hunting, but only one requirement - to come back before sunset.

There are often pedestrians and hunters on the outskirts of Yanle Mountain. The prey here is limited and there are many people competing. Huo Lan didn't intend to stop at the entrance of the mountain at first, and rode straight to the depths of Yanle Mountain.

There are not a few people who have the same idea as her, but Yanle Mountain is too big, and after an hour, the surrounding people have almost dispersed.

These rich and powerful children are only occasionally invited to hunt outside the city, and Huo Lan has often run to the mountains since he was a child, almost every day, and he knows the habits of the birds and beasts in the mountains much better than her opponents, and it takes only half a day. They hunted many hares and pheasants, as well as a dozen or so pieces of foxes, roe deer, deer and badgers.

These should be enough for her to get the reward, but it's not time to go back, she hasn't found anything to give to Yun Miaoqing yet.

Huo Lan got off the horse, bent down to carefully identify all the traces in the mountains and forests, and after a while, she really found them.

She handed the horse to the servant who followed her: "You guys wait for me here, I'll go ahead and have a look."

The two servants obeyed the order to lead the horse, and Huo Lan continued to go deep into the forest alone with a bow and arrow on his back.

Soon, she came to the place she was looking for, which was a tiger's cave. There were some hairs and food remains dropped by the cave owner, but the cave owner was not in the cave at the moment.

Probably went out for food...

Huo Lan didn't rush into the cave. He stood at the entrance of the cave and looked around. After making sure that the tiger was not in the cave, he went to look around here.

As soon as she turned around, she heard a low growl, and a big tiger with a white forehead appeared in front of her eyes.

At such a short distance, it was too late to shoot arrows. Huo Lan rested his right hand on the hilt of the saber, and watched each other vigilantly, feeling the danger from each other.

Suddenly, an arrow flew from behind Huo Lan. Huo Lan heard the sound of piercing the air, and quickly dodged to avoid it.The arrow didn't hurt her, but it angered the tiger parked opposite her. The tiger roared and rushed towards her.

Huo Lan has been training in Bailu Mountain for more than two years, and has a lot of experience in fighting fierce beasts. He didn't panic at the moment, he saw the direction where the tiger landed, rolled, and stabbed the tiger with his backhand.

The tiger's threat to her was second, and what was even more hateful was that the arrow that flew from the dark was clearly cooperating with the tiger to harass her.

The archers were quite cunning, and they didn't aim at Huo Lan, presumably because they didn't want to leave Huo Lan with arrow wounds.Rather than directly hurting people with cold arrows, the man hoped that Huo Lan would be killed by the tiger's claws.

Those arrows missed Huo Lan, but they hit the tiger several times. Except for making the tiger go wild, none of the arrows hit the tiger's vitals.

While dealing with the tiger, Huo Lan avoided the flying arrows.After going back and forth several times, finally when the tiger flew towards her again, he knelt down and raised his sword. With the force of the tiger's pounce, the sword edge completely sliced ​​open the tiger's stomach.

The blood that fell from the tiger's belly splashed Huo Lan's face, and at the same time another arrow shot out.This time the arrow didn't shoot sideways on purpose, and hit the tiger's forehead.

Several people came out of the woods, and the leader shouted: "Oh, Your Highness shot a tiger to death!"

The rest followed suit.

"Congratulations, Your Highness!"

"This time the number one must belong to His Highness!"

"Your Majesty said earlier that he wanted to get a tiger skin to make a carpet. His Majesty got this tiger today. His Majesty will be happy to go back and present it to His Majesty later!"

Huo Lan rubbed the potion and often got up and looked at the people in front of him coldly.

Surrounded among these people was none other than King Yu, who still held a longbow in his hand, making no secret that he was the one who had just shot an arrow at Huo Lan.

"I killed this tiger." Huo Lan stared straight at King Yu, with anger hidden in his eyes.

"Hey, why are you so ignorant of good and evil? If His Royal Highness King Yu hadn't shot this tiger to death, you would have been eaten by it long ago!"

"That's right, Your Highness saved you, yet you don't know how to thank His Highness. Sure enough, the wild boys from the countryside are so uneducated. They really think that they are human beings wearing human skin."

These people are all under King Yu's family, and they have known for a long time that King Yu doesn't like Huo Lan recently, and they themselves also look down on Huo Lan, and their words are more mean than the other.

Today's hunting, in order to avoid disputes and facilitate identification of the prey, the arrows used by everyone participating in the hunting are specially made, and each arrow has a corresponding number.

Although it was true that Huo Lan killed the tiger first, and Queen Yu shot the arrow that hit the tiger's head, the sword wound on the tiger's body was unknown, but the arrow was clearly numbered.As for who comes first, there are only people like Huo Lan and King Yu at the scene, and the other party wants to turn black and white, and it is Huo Lan himself who will suffer when he goes out to fight in front of His Majesty.

Huo Lan clenched the hilt of his sword tightly, remembering Yun Miaoqing's advice before setting off, and ignored people like King Yu.She sheathed her sword back and turned away, leaving the tiger to King Yu.

At the end of the day, people came back from Yanle Mountain one after another.Those who came back early were either full of confidence and sure that they had harvested a lot, or they were really unlucky and poor, and they were in a mess, so they gave up early and came back to wait for the event to end.

When it was time to apply, most of the people had arrived.Among these people, Zhuang Wang gained the most, but Yu Wang's tiger was particularly conspicuous.

"Third brother is lucky today. You actually met a tiger. It seems that today's tiger must be third brother." Zhuang Wang stood beside King Yu, pretending to congratulate King Yu.

King Yu snorted and refused to answer King Zhuang's words.

Zhuang Wang seemed to have been used to Yu Wang's attitude for a long time, and he didn't seem to be angry at all. Instead, he looked around the tiger several times with great interest.

"Tsk tsk, this tiger is not small. It must have looked quite majestic when it was alive. It's a pity that there are many arrow holes on its body, which ruined the fur. I'm afraid it won't be able to make a blanket for the emperor."

King Yu was still complacent, but gradually frowned upon hearing this.

However, King Zhuang was not satisfied, turned the tiger over, pointed at the tiger's belly and said in amazement: "Oh, this sword is so powerful, it directly ripped open the belly of this beast! I didn't expect that the third brother is now so proficient in martial arts. This beast must have shed a lot of blood, but Third Brother didn't get splashed at all, it's amazing, it's amazing, Brother Yu really can't match it!"

"You!" King Yu was so angry that he drew his sword on the spot.

Zhuang Wang took a step back and raised his hands: "Hey, just kidding, what is the third brother doing so seriously? With the relationship between our two brothers, can I still betray the third brother? The third brother should quickly take back the sword. Watching."

King Yu's face turned red and then green, but because his father was present, he couldn't attack, so he put the sword back into its sheath angrily, and reluctantly stained some blood on his clothes.

This little episode was caught by Yun Miaoqing. Although she couldn't hear what King Zhuang and King Yu said, she could guess one or two. It was nothing more than words that angered King Yu. Compared with this side, Huo Lan The delay in returning home made her even more anxious.

Although she told King Huo Lanyu that he would not kill her while hunting, the premise was that Huo Lan did not encounter any beasts.Yu Wang will not shoot Huo Lan himself, but he can harass her when Huo Lan is hunting, and let her die in the mouth of the beast.

Huo Lan has lived in the mountains and forests for so many years, it stands to reason that as long as she pays attention, she should be able to avoid the beasts.But... What if she just went to hunt for the beast?

Yun Miaoqing's eyes fell on the tiger again. She still remembered that Huo Lan said that he would give her the biggest prey as a gift... Yanle Mountain is so big, King Yu is so lucky that he happened to meet a tiger. Could it be that Huo Lan made a special trip to find the tiger, and King Yu followed her all the time, so he snatched the prey from Huo Lan?

The tiger was brought back by King Yu, but what about Huo Lan?How is Huo Lan now? Why hasn't he come back yet? !

Yun Miaoqing could hardly sit still, so it was Yun Shujian who held her down and whispered to her: "Wait a little longer, look at King Yu, he doesn't look like he just killed someone. Let me Said that Huo Lan probably knew that King Yu had hunted tigers, and he was afraid that he would not be able to beat him, so he went to find another one."

It's better like this... Yun Miaoqing knew that what her brother said was true, but to win against King Yu, at least she had to be a beast similar to a tiger.Was Huo Lan injured when he hunted the tiger?Will there be an accident while hunting another beast?

Yun Miaoqing understands that if she cares about it, she will be chaotic, she should calm down, just like the way she has always been used to doing things.But recently, this habit of hers has been broken frequently, and every time Huo Lan's safety is involved, she can't calm down.

Huo Lan is no longer a child, she said she would stay with her for the rest of her life, you have to believe that Huo Lan won't mess around...

Yun Miaoqing closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. After doing this several times, she finally regained her confidence in herself and Huo Lan.

The sun went down little by little, and everyone came back except Huo Lan.

Someone suggested whether to send someone into the mountain to look for it. Zhong Yu fiddled with the rosary in his hand and didn't answer.

When the last ray of afterglow was about to disappear, the sound of horseshoes sounded from the edge of the forest.

Huo Lan was riding on a horse covered in blood, and with her was a mountain of prey dragged by two domestic servants in a simple trailer assembled temporarily.

"Five hares, three pheasants, one fox, two roe deer..."

The eunuch in charge of counting the prey sang and reported Huo Lan's gains for the day one by one. Beside the pile of prey was a huge brown bear, which was as long as a person and a half.The reason why Huo Lan came back late was purely because the bear was too heavy. She and the two servants spent a lot of effort to get it out from the depths of Yanle Mountain.

"Your Majesty, Huo Lan's guards got a total of 29 prey, same as..." The eunuch hesitated for a while, but still reported the truth, "His Royal Highness King Yu has the same number."

Today's overall hunting harvest was quite fruitful, Zhong Yu was in a good mood, and asked the officials around with a smile, "Huo Lan and Ah Jin are actually the same, who do you think should be the first?"

"This...Although the number is quite similar, His Royal Highness King Yu has hunted a tiger. The tiger is known as the king of beasts. According to the old minister, King Yu is the better one." King Yu spoke.

As soon as he finished speaking, another person said: "You can't say that. Although His Royal Highness King Yu's tiger is powerful, it has too many arrow wounds and its fur is not perfect. I see that the brown bear guarded by Huo Lan has a complete fur. Even more rare."

This person belongs to King Zhuang's party, so he may not really want to speak for Huo Lan, as long as he can make King Yu unhappy, they will be happy.

The two groups of people have their own reasons for coming and going, and they argued endlessly for a while.Finally, Zhong Yu clapped his hands: "Everyone performed very well today. I am full of talents, and I am very happy. As for who will win the first place, since everyone can't discuss the result, let them be tied for the first place. "

Huo Lan and King Yu thanked Sheng En at the same time.This may be nothing to Huo Lan, but to King Yu, to be side by side with Huo Lan, a wild boy whom he doesn't like at all, is a loss in itself.After going down, King Yu's face became more and more livid, and the eyes he looked at Huo Lan became more and more resentful.

"I brought you two bear nails." On the way back, Huo Lan presented Yun Miaoqing with two bear nails.

Although she couldn't give the whole bear to Yun Miaoqing, but giving part of the spoils to Yun Miaoqing was equivalent to hunting the bear for Yun Miaoqing.

"Originally, I wanted to give you the tiger's teeth. In the past, people from the jewelry store asked Wu Shan and the others to collect these. They said they could be used to make amulets. I killed the tiger, but it's a pity that Yu The king snatched it away."

Huo Lan was very angry at being robbed by the tiger, which she was going to give to Yun Miaoqing, but later she was asked to find a substitute, so it didn't matter.As long as it can please Yun Miaoqing, nothing else can anger her.

Yun Miaoqing looked at Huo Lan silently, with a rather complicated expression.

Huo Lan lowered her head embarrassingly, she was still covered in blood, she should have been riding a horse and car back outside, but she couldn't wait for the car to see through Yun Miaoqing, so she shamelessly climbed into Yun Miaoqing's car.

The car was dirty by her...

Huo Lan secretly wiped the blanket under her body. At first, it was just a small group of stains, but when she wiped it, it turned into a large area.

"I'd better go down first..."

Huo Lan was about to get up, but Yun Miaoqing grabbed her one step ahead of her: "Where are you going? Sit down obediently, and wash yourself off when you get back."

"Oh." Huo Lan felt that Yun Miaoqing was getting a little angry, and immediately acted very well and dared not move.

After returning, the servants carried a large bucket of hot water to Huo Lan's room, and then retreated consciously.

Because it was inconvenient for too many people to know about Huo Lan's womanhood, Yun Miaoqing specially told the waiters not to enter Huo Lan's room casually, and just listen to orders outside the courtyard.Now that there was no one around, Huo Lan lay sullenly beside the bucket, fiddling with the water in the bucket with one hand.

Did she make Miao Qing unhappy again today... Sure enough, she should tell Miao Qing before doing anything, it must make Miao Qing worry.

But she wanted to give Miao Qing a surprise, she told her in advance, how could it be called a surprise?

So does Miao Qing like the gift she gave her?Miaoqing didn't say anything in the car before, but when I got off the car, I thought I still liked it...

No matter what, if Miaoqing is upset, it must be because she did something wrong, and she has to apologize to someone after washing.

Huo Lan was thinking wildly while taking off his dirty clothes. Halfway through, he heard footsteps outside.

"Who?" Huo Lan was startled, because Yun Miaoqing gave special orders, so as long as she didn't call for someone, usually no one would enter her yard, let alone she was still taking a bath.

The visitor kept walking, Huo Lan hastily stuffed his clothes, and was about to pull out the sword by the bed, but he stopped half way.

The rhythm of this step sounds like...

Before she could finish thinking, someone had already opened the door.

At the door of the room, Yun Miaoqing had already changed her clothes, with a dull face, she said something that shocked Huo Lan in a very flat tone.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to clean it yourself, so I'll supervise you."

The author has something to say: Huo Xiaolan: The surprise (scare) came unexpectedly!

I've been really sleepy recently, is it the time of spring sleepiness, I feel like I can't keep my eyes open every day_(:з」∠)_