Chapter 56: War Begins

On this side, the matter of the Lu family proposing to the Lin family was quickly settled.

A good day was chosen, and the betrothal gifts were sent. Both families agreed that the children would marry in October of this year. There is still over a month left for both families to prepare for the wedding.

There was no need to rush. However, Lu Ke would have to go to the capital with Lu Song next year.

By then, with the distance between the mountains and rivers, they wouldn’t return until May or June of the next year.

In the span of half a year, who knows what could happen?

There were rumors from the capital that many people were looking to marry a talented man, and if Lu Ke were to pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, even if he were just a fellow scholar, many people would be interested in him.

Mainly because of his looks—he was clean, neat, and appeared upright. In ancient times, people placed great importance on appearances, and in terms of looks, Lu Ke was among the better ones compared to a lot of other men.

The Lu family’s children were all handsome, and with just their looks, they could probably marry into the capital.

Aside from the possibility that the Lu family might change their mind after getting wealthier, they also considered that it would take time for the couple’s feelings to develop.

By the time the Lu and Lin families were married in October, the couple would still have two months of honeymoon period.

Although the two families were not entirely blind to the marriage, the couple didn’t have a strong emotional foundation yet.

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Meanwhile, Qinghe County was still peaceful, but on the other side, the court had already begun fighting the Xiongnu in the northwest.

Feng Kingdom’s customs were simple, but when it came to war, they were not inferior to the Xiongnu.

Since the previous dynasty, when the central plains fought the Xiongnu, they never hesitated to strike them down.

Now, although the dynasty had changed, the people were still the same.

After the founding of Feng Kingdom, they had rarely sent people to serve as governors in the Xiongnu territories.

The main reason was that the Xiongnu’s living conditions were harsh, and most of them were nomads. The central plains people looked down on the barbarian tribes and didn’t want to go suffer there, a sentiment that had been around for ages.

The Xiongnu, on the other hand, had been stirring trouble at the borders since the founding of Feng Kingdom. After being defeated once, they had calmed down.

However, since the central plains hadn’t sent envoys, the Xiongnu seemed to have been uneasy for a long time.

Over time, this unease turned into greed.

Since the central plains weren’t sending people, the Xiongnu decided to take the initiative and invade.

This had been happening in the past few years. The Xiongnu had started stirring up trouble at the Feng Kingdom’s borders again, and since the Feng Kingdom was busy with internal strife, they had no time to manage the border. This had emboldened the Xiongnu.

They were robbing food, kidnapping people, raping women, and killing. Their actions grew increasingly vicious.

Unlike modern governments, where advanced weaponry can be used to deter aggressors and calm down warmongers, in ancient times, when a country faced provocation at its borders, the only option was to go to war.

No matter how skilled the diplomatic techniques were, “truth” was still more effective.

War—until the enemy knelt and begged for mercy!

Only then could long-term peace be achieved at the borders.

Wen Ruyu knew that the court had already declared war, but she knew little of the other details at this point.

The original owner of this body wasn’t very interested in politics, so Wen Ruyu had to slowly adapt to these matters.

At lunch, Wen Ruyu asked Lu Songnian about the situation with the war.

“With the war going on, I wonder if the food from the north has been harvested. It’s only just entered autumn, do you think the war can end before winter? If the war isn’t over by winter, the soldiers on the front lines must be freezing, right?”

Lu Songnian, who had a mouthful of rice, replied, “The Xiongnu always choose this time to raid people and steal food. Once the harvest is done, they’ll come. That’s why we’ve harvested early this year. There’s no way around it; if we don’t fight, we’ll have to wait for them to come.”

“Alas!” Wen Ruyu sighed in feigned distress, “Who knows how long the war will last? If something goes wrong, who knows if they’ll come to our side?”

Lu Songnian exchanged a glance with Zhao Shu.

Zhao Shu quickly put some egg and meat soup into Wen Ruyu’s bowl. “Don’t worry, Madam. The capital is in the north, even if the Xiongnu come, the change of dynasty won’t bring the war here.”

Wen Ruyu thought to herself that this wasn’t necessarily the case. After all, there have been many emperors throughout history who were forced to relocate their capitals due to enemy invasions.

Songnian also said, “Yes, the country’s troops are strong and well-equipped. The court has recruited twenty thousand soldiers to fight on the front lines. How many soldiers do the Xiongnu have? Our side has fifty to sixty thousand soldiers, not to mention the rest of the country’s forces. They can’t even supply their army properly—what could they use to break through our defenses?”

Actually, Lu Songnian wasn’t very serious about analyzing the war; he was more concerned with how happy his mother would be. Wen Ruyu didn’t need him to be too serious; she just wanted to learn more about the war.

Fifty or sixty thousand men wasn’t a particularly large number in the history of Feng Kingdom.

Perhaps it was because Feng Kingdom’s territory wasn’t that vast, so their population wasn’t as large either.

At present, the national population was only a few million, not even reaching the ten million mark.

However, there were unregistered people, so the total might reach ten million.

The main issue in ancient times was food shortages and limited resources, so it was difficult to sustain large populations.

“Songnian, tell me, how many countries are there among the Xiongnu?” Wen Ruyu asked. She could have found this information in books, but she thought it would be quicker to ask her eldest son.

Lu Songnian was happy to chat with his mother. Since she rarely paid much attention to him, he was naturally happy to talk.

“It’s complicated. If we count the smaller tribes, there are seven or eight. The countries we’re fighting now are among the larger ones. One is called Huoyao Country, and the other is Tiuo Country.”

“Large countries? How many people do they have?” Wen Ruyu asked, curious.

“I don’t know for sure, but they’re much smaller than us. Each country probably has only a few hundred thousand people at most. The two countries together may have a million people. But their people are rough and warlike, everyone is a soldier, and they fight to sustain themselves. They pillage and kill as they go—it’s not easy to deal with.”

Lu Qing, listening from the side, suddenly piped up, “When I grow up, I want to lead an army and become a great general! I’ll come back and ask Grandmother and Mother for a title!”

He was still at the age where he had just stopped breastfeeding, but hearing such words made everyone laugh.

Zhao Shu added some meat to his son’s bowl and said, “You should focus on studying. Stop thinking about things that don’t make sense.”

“I want to be a general! I don’t want to study!” Lu Qing huffed angrily.

Lu Songnian couldn’t stand hearing his son say he didn’t want to study. “What are you going to do if you don’t study? You’ll end up begging for food. Besides, do you think generals don’t study? You’re underestimating military commanders.”

Lu Mingzhu, sitting at the table, watching the interaction between father and son, smiled and said, “Big Brother, don’t scold Qing. This child wants to be a general because of Second Brother’s influence. He’s been learning from Qingluan and Hongyu lately. The other day, he even had a sparring match with Tiexue. Tiexue deliberately let him win, and they ended up in a tie. Since then, he’s been bragging about it.”

“Also, he’s been reading a lot of military strategy books, but he doesn’t understand them, so he’s been reading strange historical stories and believes they’re true. He’s been telling all these tales to Qing, and now Qing is acting all strange.”

Qingluan and Hongyu were used to seclusion. Wen Ruyu, considering their possible awkwardness, allowed them to eat in their own room instead of with the Lu family.

Hearing this, Lu Songnian said, “Alright, when he comes back, I’ll make sure to burn those books.”

After lunch in the afternoon, Mrs. Wang from the Song family came over to play cards.

After chatting about the drama between Song family’s two concubines, Mrs. Wang suddenly changed the topic to the Xu family.

“I haven’t seen Fu’er for several days. She hasn’t been out recently.”

Everyone in the neighborhood knew about the troubles with the Qin family.

Mrs. Wang was a kind-hearted person, so the Lu family understood that she wasn’t gossiping.

“She’s pregnant, and then her family had such a disaster. It’s really pitiful.” Zhao Shu said, continuing to play cards.

The conversation shifted as Zhao Shu started talking, “A few days ago, Fu’er wasn’t feeling well. The old lady sent one of our maids to check on her and help out. A few days later, her family sent the maid back. I heard she hasn’t fully recovered, but I went to see her yesterday.”

“How is she?” Mrs. Wang asked with concern.

Wen Ruyu also looked at her daughter-in-law. She hadn’t heard about this.

Since the Qin family had involved the Lu family in their matters, Wen Ruyu didn’t really want to get involved with Qin Fu anymore.

But when her daughter-in-law mentioned it, she couldn’t help but pay attention.

Perhaps she still had some affection for Qin Fu.

Zhao Shu continued, “She does look better, but she still seems to have some illness lingering. I think her body is recovering, but her heart illness is harder to heal. When I saw her, her eyes were still red. I’m sure she must have cried a few times in secret.”

Mrs. Wang, listening from the side, furrowed her brows. Even her cards didn’t seem interesting anymore.

“Ah, that’s so pitiful.”

“Yes,” Zhao Shu sighed too.

Seeing that they were talking about Qin Fu, Wen Ruyu changed the subject and asked Zhao Shu, “Did you handle the preparations for the hundred and fifty taels of silver? A hundred taels for the banquet at home, and the remaining fifty taels to arrange the feast in the village. Did you take care of everything?”

“It’s all ready. We’ve arranged the musicians, and if you want a grand banquet, we’ll invite the chefs from Chunmanlou in the city to cook. The invitations have already been sent out. Only a few families have something urgent and can’t come, but most will be able to attend. We just need to arrange the seating, buy the food, and reassign the servants.”

Wen Ruyu nodded after hearing this and said, “Good. You’ve done well.”

Zhao Shu smiled with a faint smile at her mother-in-law’s praise.

Mrs. Wang, familiar with Zhao Shu, knew that Wen Ruyu treated this daughter-in-law of hers with warmth and kindness, which made her smile and say, “The old lady is going to have another daughter-in-law soon. I heard your third son’s future wife is a clever and educated girl from a good family. She’s a perfect match for him. Truly enviable!”

Wen Ruyu nodded and said, “I’ve met Xiao Yin before; she’s a good girl.”

“Your judgment is absolutely right!” Mrs. Wang said flatteringly.

Wen Ruyu smiled at the praise, enjoying the conversation.