Love Lock

Chapter 319 Like the Morning Star He Had Seen
Da Jiu was deeply shocked.

The situation in Dongguan has deteriorated to this extent! He had always thought that His Majesty had formed this new army to deal with Zhao Zun, the Prince of Cangzhou. He never imagined it would be used to attack Dongming?
He almost instinctively realized the importance of the news and the enormous risks and opportunities it contained.

Da Jiu suppressed the turmoil in his heart, but his face showed no sign of anything amiss.

He clasped his hands and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty's trust is enough for me to die for you! The soldiers of the new army have been training day and night and are eager to fight. They are willing to die for Your Majesty and go to the country in times of crisis! I will immediately muster the troops and set off. I will travel day and night to reach Dongguan as quickly as possible to help Marshal Li consolidate the defense line and strike the enemy army of Dongming hard!"

His answer was firm and resolute, full of determination and confidence, which reassured the distraught Emperor Jing and his anxious officials somewhat.

"Good! Good! I knew I hadn't misjudged you!" Emperor Jing finally showed a hint of relief on his face, and the fatigue of the past few days and the weakness after vomiting blood seemed to have lessened considerably.

"Li Zhongxin, draft the decree! Promote Da Jiu to General Who Pacifies the Barbarians, and put him in charge of all matters concerning the reinforcement of the new army at Dongguan. All provisions and military equipment shall be supplied with priority! The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue shall immediately cooperate in handling this matter without fail!"

"Your subject accepts the imperial decree and expresses gratitude!" Da Jiu knelt down again, his voice booming.

However, a strange light, unnoticed by anyone, flashed deep within his lowered eyes.

The defeat at Dongguan was disastrous, Lu Chengyun was captured, and the court had no troops to send at the moment, so it could only use this new army of 10,000 men... This news had to be delivered to the prince in Cangzhou immediately.

The officials in the hall all watched with bated breath as Da Jiu left to receive his orders, his tall figure seemingly offering a glimmer of hope.

But they could never have imagined that Dongguan had fallen and that Marshal Li Jianyong had been captured. This "General Who Pacifies the Barbarians," who had been deeply favored by the Emperor and appointed in a time of crisis, already had someone else to whom he held the most important loyalty.

At this moment, Da Jing's fate hangs on a secret message that is about to quietly fly north.

The sunlight outside the palace was still intense, but it seemed unable to dispel the heavy gloom that shrouded the imperial city.

The gears of war, turned once again by the changes in Dongguan, swept everyone along and led them into an unknown abyss.

Stepping out of the heavy vermilion gates of the palace, Da Jiu strode confidently toward the hitching post, and with a swift movement, mounted his warhorse.

He tightened the reins and spurred his horse through the bustling Imperial Street until it turned into a quiet, deserted alley, where he finally reined in his horse and stopped.

The only sound was the wind whistling past the eaves.

He took out the walkie-talkie he kept close to his body from his pocket, turned it on, and pressed the call button.

He lowered his voice and said urgently, "Thirteen, thirteen. Can you hear me?"

The walkie-talkie crackled once, and then Da Shisan's voice came through: "Ninth Brother, I'm here. What is it?"

"Dongguan is in grave danger! Marshal Lu Chengyun has been captured, and the enemy is on the verge of breaching the city!" Da Jiu's tone was somber, yet his speech was rapid.

"Huh? How could this be?" Da Shisan's voice was full of astonishment.

“Listen,” Da Jiu said cautiously, glancing around to make sure no one was watching before continuing, “His Majesty has just appointed me General Pinglu and ordered me to immediately lead new recruits to reinforce Dongguan. I’m leaving right away, and the other five members of the Da Zi team will also come with me.”

He paused slightly, his voice becoming even more solemn: "You will remain alone in Consort Ru's palace, and you must be extremely cautious in all matters. Any disturbance in the palace—even just a few words of gossip—must be reported immediately."

"Okay! Don't worry, Ninth Brother," Da Shisan solemnly replied over the walkie-talkie.

With the cooperation and assistance of the King of Jingzhou and the Prefect Song Peilin, communication stations between Jingzhou and Cangzhou have now been established to the edge of the capital region.

The messages sent by the Thirteenth Prince from the inner palace only needed to be transmitted to Uncle Liu at the "Youjia Inn" outside the palace, and within half an hour, they would reach Zhao Zun, who was far away in Cangzhou.

“Remember,” Da Jiu concluded, “the Prince is outside the capital, but his ears and eyes are still sharp and his connections are still intact. Although we are a hundred miles apart, we must not lose touch.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he released the button and put the walkie-talkie back into the inner pocket close to his chest.

His gaze was sharp as a knife. He glanced one last time in the direction of the palace, then turned his horse around, cracked his whip, and galloped off towards the camp on the outskirts of the capital...

...I am a lazy dividing line...

The new site of the school in Qingshui County, Cangzhou.

It was early summer, and sunlight filtered through the leaves of newly planted elm trees, casting dappled shadows on the cement ground.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of tung oil and sawdust, and craftsmen were bending over in the courtyard to apply varnish to a newly made cedar bed frame.

Zhao Zun was not wearing royal robes today, but only an indigo cotton casual dress with the cuffs slightly rolled up.

Beside him followed a large, slightly protruding-bellied man, the two of them accompanying the white-haired and bearded Grand Secretary Zhang as he slowly walked through the corridor.

At each open window, Zhao Zun would pause for a moment, pointing to the newly made cedar wood tables and chairs inside the room, and the walls plastered with white lime, explaining them in detail to Grand Secretary Zhang.

When the craftsmen saw the prince approaching, they all put down their work and bowed. Zhao Zun waved for them to continue working, his brows bearing his usual solemnity, but when he spoke to Grand Secretary Zhang, he revealed a rare gentleness.

"The west wing is the student dormitory, with twenty students per room, and all rooms are designed with heated brick beds." Zhao Zun pushed open a wooden door that still smelled of paint. "The winters in Cangzhou are bitterly cold, and we can't let the children get cold."

Grand Secretary Zhang leaned over and saw that the long, communal sleeping platform was covered with brand-new straw mats, and each kang (heated brick bed) was marked with a number. In the corner stood a uniform pine trunk.

As they walked through the courtyard planted with roses, Big Fat Head's loud and boisterous laughter startled the sparrows under the eaves.

"Grandpa, look at this stove in the canteen! Han Lei specially had it built as a double-eye backdraft stove, which can steam three hundred buns in one meal!" He patted his round belly and gestured. "Han Lei said the children are growing and their food must not be lacking. Our Qingshui County has its own farm, so we can have meat every other day. The staple food is corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes harvested last year, and we also have white flour buns during festivals!"

Elder Zhang, his steps trembling, traced the painted windowpanes of the classroom. Sunlight streamed through the newly installed glass, illuminating the room. The cement floor was smooth as a mirror, the ink lines still freshly drawn…

This bright, orderly, and novel place is actually a school?
The old man vaguely saw children dressed in coarse cloth sitting upright at his desk, listening to his lesson, their clear voices echoing through the hall—

The four words "education for all" rolled silently between his lips, and his withered fingers trembled slightly in his sleeve.

His thoughts drifted back to the moment he first entered Tuomugou Fortress yesterday.

When the carriage passed through the barbican, the gleaming black weapons on the arrow towers had startled him.

His grandson, Big Fat Head, was waving his short, chubby arms and spitting as he recounted how the imperial army had been defeated outside the fortress.

Big Fat Head said, "The imperial army's arrows couldn't even reach the top of the wall! Those soldiers didn't even manage to scrape off a single piece of plaster before they fled in a panic!"

The official road leading from the fortress to Qingshui County was like a hidden paradise. Crops rippled across the fields, and farmers stood on the ridges, hoes in hand, chatting and laughing. When they saw Zhao Zun and his party, they took off their straw hats and cheered.

A barefoot child ran by with a grasshopper in his hand, and Han Lei laughed as she ruffled his hair.

The peasant women working in the fields wore coarse cloth clothes, their skirts stained with mud, but their eyes shone with a light brighter than that of the ladies of the capital.

Standing in the schoolyard, Grand Secretary Zhang sighed softly as he looked at the bronze bells hanging under the eaves.

Everyone said that the King of Cangzhou was plotting a rebellion, but here he saw the light in the eyes of the people and the will of the people. This poor and remote place was clearly radiating a vitality that he had never seen in his life.

A warm breeze brushed past the newly painted lintel, bringing with it the mournful sound of distant pine trees. Suddenly, Grand Secretary Zhang understood why Zhao Zun dared to invite him.

Because, no matter what outsiders say—where the seas surge, the heavens above remain.

After wandering around for a while, I suddenly heard the faint sound of reading coming from a classroom.

Are there already children studying here?

Grand Secretary Zhang became very interested and immediately strode towards the classroom. Zhao Zun and Fatty followed behind, repeatedly telling him to slow down.

Pushing open the classroom door, I found a dozen or so young teachers sitting in the classroom listening to Han Lei's lecture.

Han Lei stood on the podium with her large pregnant belly, her clothes a little tight.

She was teaching her students to learn, with one hand supporting her lower back and the other pointing to the pinyin on the blackboard.

Her belly really grew like an inflated balloon, almost as big as someone else's six-month pregnancy.

Upon seeing Zhao Zun enter, everyone rose and bowed, saying in unison, "Greetings, Your Highness." Zhao Zun introduced Grand Secretary Zhang to the assembled scholars, speaking respectfully, "This is my esteemed teacher, Grand Secretary Zhang."

Grand Secretary Zhang nodded slightly as a greeting.

His gaze shifted between the peculiar symbols on the blackboard and Han Lei's round belly, finally settling on Han Lei's face, which was slightly flushed from standing for too long.

A ripple appeared in the old man's cloudy eyes.

He had seen too many noblewomen who were pregnant and resting at home, but he had never seen a woman who was so heavily pregnant yet still standing on the podium.

After everyone finished exchanging pleasantries, Grand Secretary Zhang's gaze fell on a few rather peculiar symbols on the blackboard.

"ao", "ou", "iu".

He stroked his beard thoughtfully, a hint of confusion in his eyes, and asked, "Miss Han, what kind of new markings are these winding and convoluted ones?"

On his way to Cangzhou, he had several conversations with Han Lei and found her to be quite knowledgeable, so he respectfully addressed her as Miss Han.

Han Lei chuckled upon hearing this, walked to the podium, picked up the thick dictionary, randomly flipped to a page, lightly touched a word with her fingertip, and turned to explain it to Grand Secretary Zhang.

"Your Excellency, please look, this is the pinyin used in the dictionary. Once you learn this pinyin, you can pronounce any unfamiliar character on your own. You can also look up the pronunciation and meaning of each character here."

Grand Secretary Zhang grew increasingly curious, leaning slightly forward to examine her closely before looking up at Han Lei: "Are you teaching them? You actually understand this system?"

Han Lei nodded with a smile, about to reply, but accidentally stepped on the edge of the podium, causing her body to suddenly tilt.

She gasped softly, almost falling, but Zhao Zun caught her with lightning speed, his brows furrowed with worry and affection.

"You don't even care about yourself," Zhao Zun said, his tone reproachful but unable to hide his heartache. "You've just returned to Cangzhou after a long journey. You should rest more at home. Why rush to teach?"

Han Lei just smiled, patted his hand lightly after regaining her balance, indicating that she was fine.

“I know what I’m doing. But the school is about to start, and we need to make sure the teachers have mastered pinyin before then. Otherwise, how will they teach the children?” She said firmly, glancing at the group of teachers in the classroom who were studying diligently. “Adults learn quickly. Look, they’re already familiar with the initials, and now they can read and recognize most of the finals.”

Zhao Zun sighed softly, his brows still furrowed: "But your body now..." Before he could finish speaking, Han Lei gently interrupted him.

"Almost done, almost finished teaching," she said lightly, but her tone left no room for negotiation. "We can't let my actions delay the entire school's progress, can we?"

She thought to herself, "How could I be so delicate? In modern times, many pregnant women continue to work until delivery."

With the school opening imminent and time running out, she still has so much to do.

At the very least, she needs to teach the teachers all the Chinese and math content up to the third grade level before giving birth. For lessons beyond that, she'll probably have to rely on video tutorials.

Grand Secretary Zhang was quite interested. He pulled Zhao Zun to sit down in the seats below and began to listen attentively to Han Lei's lecture.

Han Lei's voice was soft and gentle, and her lectures were insightful yet easy to understand. Grand Secretary Zhang listened attentively, finding the lectures increasingly interesting.

"Look, everyone," Han Lei's voice was clear as a spring, and the chalk drew clear lines on the blackboard.

“Ao is pronounced like ‘ao’ in ‘boiling porridge’; ou is pronounced like ‘ou’ in ‘Europe’; iu is pronounced like ‘you’ in ‘excellent’.” As she pronounced each sound, the scholars below, dressed in coarse cloth gowns, followed along, their voices uneven but extremely earnest.

Sunlight streamed through the bright glass, gilding her sweaty forehead.

Zhao Zun kept his jaw taut, his fingers tapping unconsciously on his knees, as if he were ready to rush onto the podium at any moment.

Old Meng, a bodyguard, brought out a grand chair from somewhere, but Zhao Zun stopped him with a look, unwilling to interrupt this rare class.

"Now let's pronounce the character for 'bird'." Han Lei took a deep breath and smiled, "n-iǎo, bird. Who can make a word using this pinyin?"

A young scholar in the back row raised his hand: "The kind of bird that chirps under the eaves!"

Amidst the laughter of the room, Grand Secretary Zhang suddenly stroked his beard and asked, "Is the bird the 'jujiu' from the 'guan guan jujiu' in the Book of Songs?"

The classroom fell silent instantly.

The scholars exchanged bewildered glances, but Han Lei's eyes lit up: "Exactly! Does Your Excellency know what the osprey is called now?"

Seeing the old man stunned, Han Lei smiled and wrote the words "Osprey" on the blackboard: "This is the advantage of Pinyin - no matter the ancient name or the modern name, what is spelled out is the real creature in the world."

Grand Secretary Zhang nodded in realization.

He thought of the great scholars in the Imperial Academy who spent their entire lives studying classical texts, yet no one ever told him that the osprey was the cormorant commonly seen by fishermen.

The more Zhang Ge Lao listened, the more interesting it became. He had arrived late and hadn't learned the initial consonants yet, so he suddenly had the brilliant idea to mark the characters for "Da Jing" under the pinyin, saying that he could refer to them when he got back to study.

When the copper bell rang during recess, the craftsmen carried in food boxes. Each person received cornbread with pickled vegetables and a boiled egg.

Han Lei was naturally helped by Zhao Zun to a specially arranged armchair, where a bowl of milky white fish soup appeared in front of her—clearly something he had instructed the kitchen to prepare beforehand.

Grand Secretary Zhang gazed intently at the shimmering light and shadow in the soup bowl. The steaming fish soup reflected the newly planted elm saplings outside the window, the majestic outline of the distant bastion, and finally, the spark in Han Lei's eyes—

It was a light he had never seen in the eyes of any woman in the Great Xia Dynasty. It was neither the gentleness of a woman in her boudoir nor the scheming of a woman in the harem, but rather like... like the morning star he had seen on the mountain.

Before the afternoon class started, Zhao Zun finally couldn't help but ask, "Can we review the remaining vowels tomorrow?"

Han Lei was organizing her homemade pinyin flashcards and replied without looking up, "That won't do. We're going to teach the multiplication tables tomorrow."

She suddenly pulled out a card with a frog drawn on it and handed it to Grand Secretary Zhang: "Grand Secretary, try to spell this?"

The card read "qīng wā" in a low voice, and a teacher beside him quietly pronounced it.

Grand Secretary Zhang looked at the scholar and hesitated, "You've already pieced together the...frog?"

Han Lei smiled and said, "Your Excellency, you see! Pinyin is that simple!"

She turned to the tutors and raised her voice: "Even the Grand Secretary can learn it in no time, so why are you worried about not being able to teach your children well?"

Amidst the good-natured laughter, Grand Secretary Zhang felt a slight warmth in his ears; he was quite interested in Han Lei's teaching methods.

He suddenly noticed that all the pinyin cards were illustrated: a frog squatting on a lotus leaf, a hen with her chicks, and a farmer carrying a hoe... Each picture exuded a childlike vitality, completely different from the rigid Three Character Classic in the bookstores of the capital.

The classroom was dimly lit, and Grand Secretary Zhang was listening attentively when suddenly a sharp shout broke the silence. It was Zhao Zun's walkie-talkie, which had been strapped to his waist, that had unexpectedly rang.

"Sizzle—Your Highness, Your Highness—"

All eyes in the room immediately focused on Zhao Zun.

Grand Secretary Zhang merely turned his head slightly, gave a dismissive glance, and then looked past Zhao Zun back at Han Lei, who was lecturing on the podium. He then lowered his eyes again to mark the pinyin, as if nothing had happened, and continued to listen attentively to the lecture.

He had already seen this small box that could transmit sound over long distances on his way to Cangzhou. Although he still found it ingenious, it was no longer surprising.

Zhao Zun remained expressionless, pressing a button on the side with his long, slender fingers. "I am Zhao Zun, speak."

The urgent yet clear voice of the communications soldier came from the other end of the walkie-talkie: "Your Highness! Liu Bogang from the capital has sent an urgent report—Marshal Lu Chengyun of Dongguan has been captured by the Eastern Ming army, and Dongguan... was almost lost!"

The classroom was filled with astonishment.

The commander of Dongguan was captured?

What a brutal battle that would be!

"What?!" Grand Secretary Zhang could no longer maintain his composure and exclaimed in shock.