Luo Huai was very good at recognizing and utilizing people, and he also arranged the succession of power in a very orderly manner. Even though he had been recuperating for four or five years and had almost never left the main courtyard of the Luo family, there were no reports of internal strife among Luo Cuiwei and her generation. This shows that he had already made proper arrangements for each of his children.
Just by looking at the infighting among the younger generation of the Xu family in the north of the city and the Huang family in the south of the city, both of whom are in the business world, one can tell that Luo Huai was no ordinary person.
If he hadn't been seriously injured and bedridden, and had never had any desire to retire, he probably could have easily managed things even if he had been given a minor official position.
Luo Cui smiled slightly. "What do you address His Majesty?"
No wonder there are rumors that His Highness Prince Zhao has not been favored by His Majesty since childhood.
After the sound of water subsided for a while, Yun Lie slowly walked out from the inner room. "Don't worry, if it's in his presence, I will still show him some respect."
“But you don’t look well, you should see a doctor…” Luo Cuiwei paused, blushing as she looked away, “Hey, even though it’s hot, you can’t just run around naked like this, can you?”
Yun Lie chuckled and said, "But I have to apply the medicine first."
****
The ointment was brought back from Linchuan and was made from common mountain herbs. Judging from the recovery of Yun Lie's wound, the ointment was effective, but the healing was ultimately slow.
After Yun Lie begged and pleaded, Luo Cuiwei resignedly accepted the ointment and stood in front of him.
Yun Lie sat obediently in the chair, his chest wide open.
Now, looking directly at his hideous wound, Luo Cuiwei no longer felt the shyness and nervousness she had before, only heartache remained.
She picked up the ointment with her fingertips, bent down, and gently applied it to his wound, bit by bit.
Since the wound hadn't healed yet, as soon as the ointment was applied, Yun Lie couldn't help but tense up and hiss in pain.
In fact, he has never been used to being served too much. In the past, when he was injured in the camp in Linchuan, as long as the other person was still conscious and the wound was within his reach, he would just apply medicine and bandage it casually in the tent by himself. No matter how painful it was, he would grit his teeth and bear it.
Like an innocent child, if they fall down and no one is around, they can get up, dust themselves off, pout, and be lively and energetic again.
It's not that it doesn't hurt, it's just that I know no one will come to comfort me.
But things are different now. After all, he has a beautiful wife now. In front of Luo Cuiwei, he deliberately acts pitiful, only feeling comfortable when she cherishes him dearly.
Hearing him cry out in pain, Luo Cuiwei hurriedly blew on it to soothe him, speaking softly and urgently, "It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt."
After the stinging pain subsided, Yun Lie let out a long breath, looked down at Luo Cuiwei's hair, a warm smile appearing in his eyes, and smiled contentedly.
"You are the upright and unyielding Prince Zhao, how come you can't help but cry out when applying medicine?" Luo Cuiwei lowered her eyelashes to hide the thin tears in her eyes, teasing and mocking.
"I read in a book that during the Tongxi era, His Highness Prince Ding fought on the battlefield for ten years, suffering countless injuries. He could even endure the pain of having poisoned arrows removed and bones scraped without uttering a sound."
As she spoke, she applied the ointment to her fingertips again and gently touched his wound once more.
Yun Lie gritted his teeth, his aggrieved protest bursting out from between them, "Then, in the history books two hundred years from now... ouch... they won't write about me... that I'll cry out in pain when they apply medicine!"
He felt that even the Prince Ding back then would not have been able to maintain his heroic and indomitable demeanor in front of his own Princess Consort.
If he were foolish enough to try to be a hero in front of his beautiful wife, how many sweet and tender benefits would he miss out on? Hmph, anyway, Yun Lie isn't foolish.
Disturbed by his cries of pain, Luo Cuiwei bit her lip, frowned, and looked distressed. After a long pause, she seemed to have made a decision and raised her head.
She blushed and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
Overwhelmed with gratitude, Yun Lie was momentarily stunned and looked up at her in surprise.
Luo Cuiwei's face was burning with anger, but she forced a righteous and indignant look, "What are you looking at? You said earlier that I can 'stop pain, prolong life, and replenish qi and blood,' but I didn't really believe it, so I just wanted to try it!"
45. Chapter Forty-Five
Logically, Yun Lie should have entered the inner city to pay homage to His Majesty today. However, not wanting anyone to know about his injury, he only wrote a memorial and had it sent to the inner city to apologize, stating that he needed to confirm the details of the wedding with the Minister of the Imperial Household Department first, and would go to pay homage a few days later.
Marriage is a major event. Previously, due to the urgency of the situation, Luo Cuiwei was forced to enter the Prince Zhao's residence with only a marriage certificate. In this respect, the Yun family was in the wrong, so Emperor Xianlong naturally did not say anything.
However, the officials from the Shaofu who were preparing for the wedding ceremony would not arrive at the Zhaowang Mansion until tomorrow, which gave Luo Cuiwei and Yun Lie a day of leisure to be alone together.
During lunch, Luo Cuiwei couldn't help but ask a few questions about the previous battle in Linchuan.
Yun Lie didn't dare to frighten her, so he could only try to say things in a milder way.
It turned out that the urgent report Emperor Xianlong received at the Quanshan hunting grounds in February was a message sent back by Da Jin's secret agent who had infiltrated the Northern Barbarians.
Linchuan has not seen a major battle for two years. The reason is that a leader with an extremely strong style and lofty ambition has suddenly emerged among the Northern Di people. He first unified the originally loosely organized nomadic Northern Di tribes in one fell swoop. Then, following the system of Dajin, he led the originally nomadic Northern Di people to start building cities, settling down, and expanding their fields for farming.
However, the Northern Di people had been nomadic for hundreds of years and had no inheritance of agricultural skills. Whether they had a harvest or not depended entirely on the will of heaven. As a result, after two years, the lives of the Northern Di people seemed to be even more difficult than when they were nomadic.
To quell the doubts from various tribes, the leader argued that "the land of the Northern Barbarians is not as fertile as that of Dajin." Before the new year, he gathered almost half of the Northern Barbarians' available troops, intending to seize several cities from Dajin in order to continue implementing his agricultural and educational policies.
Five days after Yun Lie and Xiong Xiaoyi arrived in Linchuan, the entire Northern Di army was mobilized.
However, due to insufficient clues in the messages sent back by the spies, when everyone thought that the Northern Di people should attack Linchuan, which was closest to them, they split into two groups, with one of the main forces taking a detour to directly attack Songyuan, a major town in the northwest.
Songyuan, who had assumed the battlefield was in Linchuan, was caught off guard and unprepared.
Fortunately, Yun Lie personally led most of the central army of Linchuan to the rescue, thus averting the crisis of Songyuan falling.
After relieving the crisis at Songyuan, Yun Lie rushed back to Linchuan without stopping. The continuous fierce battles had left him somewhat exhausted, and as the battle in Linchuan was nearing its end, he was unfortunately struck in the chest by an enemy's sword, which resulted in serious injury.
Yun Lie glossed over the details of his injury and turned to Luo Cui with a smile, saying, "Songyuan suffered a sudden calamity this time, and the Huang family of Nancheng lost everything in Songyuan."
The Huang family had been blocking the Luo family in Songyuan for several years, and finally at the beginning of this year, they successfully forced Luo Cuiwei and Luo Fengming to give up the northern trade route that the Luo family had been operating for many years.