The other person was clearly excited to see her: "Marshal, it's me, it's Xie Feng!"
What?! Xie Lanzhi immediately took a step back, and saw Xie Feng brush off the rotten vegetable leaves from his head and body. He clasped his hands and knelt on the ground: "Greetings, Marshal!"
Suddenly, the man became emotional and cried out in utter desolation, "Waaah, Marshal, you're finally back!"
Xie Lanzhi helped him up, looking him over as she asked, "Did you just come back from fighting? Or were you attacked?"
"Your subordinate, your subordinate just fell into a garbage dump and climbed out." Xie Feng wiped away his tears and said, "I fell into it once the day before yesterday. I had covered the pit, but I fell into a new big pit the next day."
After saying that, Xie Feng couldn't help but look her over and asked with concern, "Marshal, you didn't fall, did you?"
“I heard from people in the clan that you are more unlucky than everyone else.”
Xie Lanzhi was at a loss for words and finally didn't know what to say. She could only pat him on the shoulder and comfort him, "What is this setback? We men of the Xie family never frown at minor troubles."
Xie Feng immediately became excited again. He quickly clasped his hands in greeting and was about to say something when someone on the second floor of the inn, lacking any sense of public decency, threw a fruit platter down, pelting Xie Feng with apples and oranges.
Before Xie Feng could even utter a "yes," he immediately rolled up his sleeves, ready to rush up and beat someone up.
Then, An Yi's voice came from the second floor: "How strange! I wanted to eat fruit, but the fruit platter flew out. Is this inn haunted?"
Ah Zi's voice came over: "Come on, you were the one who wanted to eat the fruit on the balcony, but your hand slipped."
"Waaah, don't be so loud."
Xie Lanzhi immediately pulled Xie Feng aside and shook her head at him: "Just bear with it, those are your mistress's sister and brother-in-law."
Xie Feng immediately suppressed his anger, held his breath, and clasped his hands in a fist salute to her again: "I came here to do business. Now that the business is done, I will return to the city with my brothers."
"Go back." Xie Lanzhi waved to him.
She couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache when she saw Xie Feng get hit by a child's ball before leaving. Xie Feng, on the other hand, skillfully covered his head and pulled his leg back with practiced ease.
I never expected the Xie family to have such bad luck.
But she wasn't so unlucky along the way. She thought the boat would capsize, but it miraculously made it through smoothly.
Si Xitong and the women of Anyi had already entered the inn's private room and waited for Xie Lanzhi for a long time. When she still hadn't come up, Si Xitong ordered someone to invite the marshal up.
She also thought that Lanzhi, who had been unlucky for so many days, should have a chance to rest. The newly promoted military captain hurriedly went upstairs and knelt at the door to report something: "Your Highness, General Ma has been dragged into a brothel. The madam and the local magistrate are trying to extort money from him."
"As a result, the brothers were so angry that they smashed up the brothel."
Si Xitong sighed, realizing that such a scandal had occurred in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
"He wasn't going to rest, so how did he get pulled inside?"
Afterwards, the captain found that there weren't enough inns in Fengxi Town, so he had to arrange for Ma Hong to stay at an inn on the next street. Unexpectedly, there was a brothel right across from the inn. Ma Hong was so sleepy that his eyelids were drooping when he felt someone helping him up, so he followed them in, half asleep.
Si Xitong waved his hand: "Summon the local magistrate. If he doesn't handle this properly, he won't have to continue as the magistrate of Fengxi Town."
"Yes, sir!" The captain immediately went downstairs.
Just then, Xie Lanzhi came towards him. When the captain saw her, he slipped as if he had seen a ghost and fell down the stairs in a tumble.
Xie Lanzhi was completely bewildered. How could these people not have eyes when they walk?
She entered the side room and casually recounted her encounter with the imperial guards. Si Xitong also casually mentioned that Ma Hong had been extorted. The two masters immediately stared at each other in disbelief.
"Little Phoenix, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that I haven't had any bad luck these past few days."
Si Xitong nodded: "The Xie family is the most powerful family in Fengxi Town. If this kind of extortion of travelers still happens in the Xie family's territory, you should do something about it."
Hsieh Lan-chih: "Local areas are always easy targets for flies, who think that, like in the past, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, so we can't control them."
"What a joke. Little Phoenix has had a bumper harvest these past two years, and the granary is just full. I bet there are some big rats mixed in with it."
Si Xitong felt reassured. She took Xie Lanzhi's hand, and the two went into the room to wash themselves with hot water, preparing to take a nap before going back in the afternoon.
There was a constant clanging sound from the next room, like two people wrestling. There were also some panting sounds, which roused Xie Lanzhi: "Little Phoenix, they're quite open in broad daylight."
Si Xitong blushed.
She covered Xie Lanzhi's ears, pressed her down on the bed, and covered her head with the blanket.
In the next room, An Yi remained silent as she lay on the bed being repeatedly pounded by A Zi, who was straddling her: "Did you just look? Did you look at that woman?"
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 19:24:59 on January 17, 2022 and 19:31:45 on January 18, 2022!
Thank you to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Lianghuan (5 bottles); Ahe and Xinxin (2 bottles each); 52993966 (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 153 Xie Lanzhi Relinquishes Power
The reason was that An Yi was looking at the street scene from the balcony when he accidentally glanced at an eighteen-year-old girl who happened to be passing by, and then he was caught red-handed by A Zi.
Azi argued with her about this.
"Isn't she prettier than me? You heartless bastard. Do you think I'm too old?"
An Yi lay on the bed, clutching his head and desperately trying to defend himself against her attacks.
"Fine, since you're so heartless, I'll be heartless too. I'll go to the balcony and look at men right now!" Azi said, and she did just that. As soon as she got out of bed, An Yi suddenly became jealous and grabbed Azi, hugging her waist.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have let that woman into my life."
The two wives finally quieted down a bit.
Xie Lanzhi eavesdropped and heard no sound from next door. She assumed they were tired.
Si Xitong lay on the bed and glanced at her: "I didn't expect you to have this hobby."
"They have such a good relationship as a couple." Xie Lanzhi reached through the blankets to hug Si Xitong's waist, nuzzled her head against the back of her neck, her breathing quickened, and her hands were itching to move.
Si Xitong sensed someone's movement, and she pulled the blanket over both of their heads, turning daytime into nighttime in the bed. It was quite a self-deceptive act.
In the afternoon, after catching up on his sleep and punishing the people, Ma Hong ate his meal on the street. Then he waited in the carriage for his masters to come down.
Xie Lanzhi carried the still somewhat tired Little Phoenix down from the carriage, followed closely by the women of Anyi. The four of them boarded the carriage and continued their journey.
The Xie family of Tianjing City knew that the Marshal would be returning today. Everyone was both excited and melancholy.
They were excited because there might be a way to resolve the bad luck plaguing the Xie family, but also worried because if the marshal returned, they might be even more unlucky.
The Xie family upper echelons concealed the source of their misfortune from the lower echelons, fearing that the lower echelons would create more conflict and target the Marshal. Therefore, apart from Xie Guang, Xie Xia, and the elder clan leaders and matriarch Xie Lan, everyone else, including the Wang family, was unaware of the situation.
Wang vaguely guessed what was going on, but she cleverly pretended not to know anything.
The Xie family believed that their misfortune stemmed from bad feng shui at their ancestral graves. Some members even jointly petitioned to relocate their ancestral graves to Tianjing (Nanjing).
This decision was rejected by the matriarch, Xie Lan, who also strictly forbade anyone to mention it again.
Even if they still wished for the Xie family ancestral graves to emit auspicious smoke, they still needed the right fate. Those in the know, including the matriarch, realized that the Xie family's fortunes were beginning to decline and would never regain their former glory. They could only try to remedy the situation.
As the carriage approached the gates of Tianjing, the familiar sound of gongs echoed along the way, and the people quickly moved to the sides, all guessing that the marshal had returned.
Many people were watching, and when a yellow cloth carriage drove by, cavalrymen followed.
"The Marshal has finally returned."
"I heard she won another battle abroad."
"The Huayin Kingdom can even fight the Hu and Xiongnu head-on. It's true that only the Marshal can now rival the Hu and Xiongnu in the Southern Central Plains!"
"Perhaps in a few years we can pacify the northern barbarians."
"But this time it was His Highness's army that conquered Huayin Kingdom."
"Both the Marshal and His Highness are invincible."
One of them couldn't help but bring up something: "The Marshal is winning battles outside, but the Xie family is having bad luck in the city. It's really strange."
"Do you think the marshal used...?" The man's mouth was quickly covered.
The Xie patrolmen glared fiercely at the gossip, who was too frightened to continue speaking.
Regardless of whether it has anything to do with the marshal, it can only be ignored. A collapse in morale will only cause unrest at the lower levels. This man's words were enough to warrant execution, but recently the Xie family has become much more benevolent through vegetarianism and Buddhist practices, so he hasn't died.
Normally, the Xie family would have already taken action. The Xie family is particularly strict in controlling public opinion.
When Xie Guang heard that the marshal had returned to the palace, he couldn't wait to go in and report something, but Wang Shi stopped him.
Xie Ying rushed back that night, and the father and daughter both had tears in their eyes when they met.
Xie Ying had a long talk with her father. Although Xie Guang didn't approve of her taking such a risk, since she had already gone, and was even helping with defense outside the borders, he understood the importance of cooperating with his own people in battle. He didn't rush to claim credit like Yi Jin had.
Xie Guang was very pleased to hear this, but then he took a sip of tea and choked, causing him to cough violently.
Xie Ying patted her father on the back, and then learned that everyone in the Xie family was having bad luck, which she found very strange.
How come she's alright?
Xie Ying had heard in Huayin Kingdom that Xie Bing had been particularly unlucky for a while, but she just thought it was because he couldn't adapt to the new environment. However, after her father said that, she began to think that it was not a coincidence.
Meanwhile, upon hearing that His Highness had returned, Li Ling and his son prepared their memorials overnight, intending to pile them up.
Recently, there have been too many affairs in Jiujin. The newly promoted army has overshadowed the Xie family, and the Xie family is now very dissatisfied and is secretly plotting to make a move.
At first, Li Ling was still afraid, but now that His Highness and the Marshal have returned, they are all relieved.
That night, news of the two masters' return to Lanzhang Palace spread throughout Tianjing.
The people of Tianjing were finally at ease, and the Xie family, who had been living in constant fear of misfortune, felt a sense of security. Tonight, Tianjing became a city that never sleeps. Lanterns hung throughout the city, illuminating every corner.
All the streets and village roads in Tianjing have been newly paved with cement. They are no longer those half-gray, half-sand roads that would get stuck in heavy rain. Now, most villages near Tianjing have a cement road.
After the rooster crowed at dawn, villagers began to flock to the city market. Even the relatively poor areas of Tianjing became more prosperous because of the road construction, and the locals made a fortune from the land sales.
Country folks bring out their produce to sell, while city dwellers rush to enjoy the freshest vegetables and meats of the morning.
The laborers ate breakfast at the various docks and then went to work one after another. Some clever laborers even used handcarts to travel along the good roads to their employers' doorsteps.
Wealthy people are paying for convenience. Unbeknownst to many, home delivery is becoming a new avenue for employment.
At the end of the month, tax collectors in various regions began knocking on the doors of merchants to collect commercial taxes and audit their accounts.
Grain officials and agricultural commissioners went to the countryside to collect grain while also recruiting experienced farmers to cultivate new rice, vegetables, and so on.
Each department was performing its duties, ensuring the smooth operation of order.
Xie Lanzhi had no intention of resting for a few days before going to the Golden Palace; she announced the start of the morning court session as soon as she woke up.