The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

"Oh? Do you even need to ask? Isn't that the most popular one over there? He just got lucky, killed a few Northern barbarians, and maybe even picked up the heads of other Northern barbarians he killed." The short, stout man glanced at the old man, pointed to Jia Mao who was surrounded by people, and then asked, "Aren't you from the Jia family?"

He noticed that the old man had arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, and he had never seen such a person in the Jia family mansion.

"I was just passing by and asked out of curiosity," the old man said with a smile. "Thank you for telling me."

After speaking, the old man glanced in Jia Mao's direction before turning back to the carriage.

"Hu Dahe, you've done something despicable again." Someone nearby noticed the situation and couldn't help but speak up.

"Hmph, what? Did you see them kill the Northern barbarians with your own eyes?" Hu Dahe sneered.

Because of their son Hu De's affair, both father and son have now been expelled from the Jia family mansion.

It's important to know that working in the Jia family not only provides a monthly wage, but more importantly, it elevates one's social status and allows one to reap considerable benefits.

Now that's gone, even if they still have their daughter's relationship with Lai Da, their family's status has plummeted.

In his view, all of this was because of Jia Mao and Jia Chen.

He hated the two of them to the core.

If someone asks him about these things, can he say something nice?

"The imperial court has already approved it, and you're still here making comments?" the man sneered. "You're just jealous."

Hu Dahe glanced at the other person, snorted, and walked away.

The other party also works in the Jia family and has some influence behind him, so it's not advisable for me to clash with him right now.

Lai Da told himself to keep a low profile recently.

Once this matter has died down, we'll arrange some work for the father and son.

When the old man returned to the carriage, the curtain on the carriage moved slightly, and the gap that had been open closed.

"Miss Baozhu, I've found out that the young man who was surrounded by people just now is the son-in-law. Did you see him clearly?" the old man said in a low voice.

"I've seen him clearly, but what should I do? The young master looks like this..." Baozhu whispered from the carriage. "How should I answer the young lady?"

Jia Mao's appearance is indeed not flattering; he's rather ugly.

Anyone seeing it for the first time would inevitably feel a little scared.

Qin Ye has already informed Qin Keqing of the marriage arrangements.

Qin Keqing was very anxious about her future husband, as she knew very little about him.

All they knew was that the other party was a member of the Jia family, who had just distinguished himself by killing northern barbarians in Datong Town and had become a centurion.

Aside from these people, I don't know much about what they look like or what their personalities are like.

The matchmaker sang his praises, describing him as a promising young man, full of heroic spirit and charisma.

Qin Keqing didn't completely believe any of this.

In the end, it was her two personal maids, Baozhu and Ruizhu, who came up with a plan: to find a way to check on Jia Chen.

So Baozhu begged the steward of the manor to secretly take her out.

Just now, Baozhu glanced at Jia Mao from afar while in the carriage.

Since Jia Chen had not yet come out, and considering Hu Dahe's words, she and the housekeeper clearly mistook Jia Mao for Jia Chen.

Jia Mao's appearance was vastly different from the image of Jia Chen they had imagined.

Upon returning, Baozhu could only hesitantly tell Qin Keqing what she had seen.

Upon hearing that her husband was in such a state, Qin Keqing could only sit on the edge of the bed and sob.

"Should we talk to the master and cancel this marriage?" Ruizhu said.

"That's the Jia family, and they've already proposed marriage. How can Master refuse?" Baozhu said.

If you really want to refuse, you should refuse from the very beginning.

It's impossible now.

"Isn't this pushing the girl into a fire pit?" Ruizhu said with a worried look. "I heard that the soldiers are all brutes, while our girl is well-educated, graceful, and delicate..."

"Don't talk nonsense, you can't judge a book by its cover," Baozhu quickly interrupted Ruizhu.

She didn't want to hurt Qin Keqing anymore.

Since things have come to this point, breaking off the engagement is impossible; we can only try to think of the positive aspects.

"Miss, everyone says that your husband is brave in battle and will surely achieve new merits. Perhaps in a few years, he will be able to earn you an imperial title." Baozhu tried to say the good things to Qin Keqing, hoping to soothe her emotions.

In Baozhu's opinion, there's nothing that can be done about someone being ugly.

If other aspects can make up for it, life might still be bearable.

"Sigh~~" Qin Keqing calmed herself down.

She understood that Baozhu was trying to comfort her.

In truth, she would definitely prefer a scholar who could pass the imperial examinations.

The top scholar was the ideal husband in the dreams of these women.

Qin Keqing never imagined that her husband was a soldier.

It can't be said that she thought all soldiers were brutes, but compared to scholars, their social status was worlds apart.

But this was a marriage proposal from the Jia family, so even if her father wanted to break off the engagement, she couldn't let him do that.

The Qin family cannot afford to offend the Jia family.

"Baozhu is right, miss. Let's look at it from a brighter perspective; maybe things aren't so bad." Ruizhu quickly realized this as well.

"You don't need to say anything," Qin Keqing said, shaking her head.

Arranged by her parents and a matchmaker, this marriage was something she could neither escape nor avoid.

At this time, Jia Chen and Jia Mao had already arrived outside the Beijing garrison.

Liu Tianwang had not yet arrived, so the two of them could only wait outside the camp.

The two of them are no longer members of the Beijing Garrison and cannot enter without permission.

Wang Shen saw Jia Chen and Jia Mao at the entrance of the Jingying camp.

He had figured it out: Jia Chen was indeed a centurion, and Jia Mao was a regimental commander.

Unexpectedly, the two of them made a contribution in Datong.

He was very unhappy.

However, he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Because Jia Chen is no longer with the Beijing Garrison.

Previously, Jia Chen had been superior to him in the Beijing garrison.

Without Jia Chen, he believed that few others could rival him.

If there are any more martial arts competitions in the Beijing garrison in the future, that will be his domain.

Isn't it just a hundred households?

In two years, I should be able to get a promotion.

Thinking of this, Wang Shen felt much better.

About half an hour later, Liu Tianwang arrived at the Beijing garrison under the escort of several personal guards.

He was greeted by a deputy commander of the Fifth Army Battalion from the Beijing Garrison.

Liu Tianwang's status and position were not enough to prompt Wang Ziteng, the military governor, to intervene.

"Jia Chen, go and make your selection, and report back to me as soon as possible," Liu Tianwang said to Jia Chen.

After much negotiation, the Beijing garrison finally allowed him to select one thousand men.

Logically speaking, he could have led a battalion of men, or about three thousand men, to Datong.

Unfortunately, the military is now plagued by serious issues of soldiers receiving salaries without working, making it impossible to actually provide the full quota of 3,000 personnel.

Half of Liu Tianwang's troops from the Beijing garrison in Datong will return, meaning that even if he selects a thousand men here, he will still only bring less than two thousand Beijing garrison troops to Datong.

Liu Tianwang was already quite satisfied that he could select a thousand people.

Jia Chen and Jia Mao quickly found the person.

In fact, they had already contacted some of them in the past two days.

Jia Chen had a pretty good idea of ​​who wanted to go to Datong and who didn't.

In the end, Jia Chen selected 35 people, including 10 people related to the Jia family and 20 people like Liu Cheng who came to the Beijing garrison from various places but were unable to return to their hometowns.

Of these 25 people, ten had followed Jia Gan, and the other fifteen had some interaction with Jia Gan and had a good relationship with him.

Back then, Jia Gan had very good relationships with people at the bottom of the Beijing garrison.

Now that Jia Gan is gone, the fact that they are still willing to follow Jia Chen to Datong Border Town speaks volumes.

Border towns offer opportunities for meritorious service, but they also bring far more death.

The main reason they were willing to go was because Jia Chen was Jia Gan's son.

Jia Chen finished in less than an hour, while Liu Tianwang didn't finish until dusk.

When Jia Chen learned that Liu Tianwang had only selected more than 700 people, he was quite surprised.