No one knew who had brought the matter of Nanny Xia to the Emperor’s attention. The Emperor, who had been in poor spirits these past days, actually sent someone to summon Nanny Xia to Hanliang Hall for an audience.
Upon seeing this familiar face from years past, the Emperor’s eyes filled with tears: “It is like seeing her — my beloved departed Empress.”
The Emperor took comfort in the loyalty of those who had served the Empress’s palace, and in his mind, all such loyalty naturally belonged to him.
Whatever the case, the Emperor’s audience with Nanny Xia was accompanied by generous gifts — it was, all things considered, not a bad thing.
Xie Yuzhang’s dowry had begun to be prepared from the day she was born. Even after the Empress died, the matter had never been halted in the Court of the Imperial Clan. Only, no one had anticipated she would be sent as a peace bride to Mobei — many things now had to be reorganized and adjusted from the inside.
Each bureau and office busied themselves.
In the capital’s garrison camp, when the roster was announced, the mood was every bit as dreary as within the palace walls. Only Wang Shitou, Li A’da, and the others looked completely stunned.
A promotion?
Li A’da and the others had been promoted to squad leaders and platoon commanders — shocking enough in itself. But Wang Shitou had been bumped up all the way to Captain of a Hundred?
And his Captain’s post was unlike an ordinary one. Normally, two platoons formed a unit, and a unit had one Captain. But the princess’s guard detail had five hundred men — a full five platoons. That meant this Captain’s authority was far greater than that of an ordinary Captain.
Even if it was only a deputy rank.
This group of men were mostly from the same hometown, and they had always gotten along well — not the sort to flatter superiors or curry favor. When word got out that they were selecting five hundred soldiers to serve as the princess’s escorts and go north with her, Li A’da had said early on: “We’re sure to be on the list.”
Everyone had cursed him for his bad mouth. Though they cursed, they were nervous in their hearts too. They discussed amongst themselves whether they should spend some money and pull some strings — but on one hand they had little money, and on the other hand… they had no strings to pull.
When the roster was announced, Li A’da’s unlucky prediction proved true.
The one thing none of them had anticipated was also getting a raise in rank. And looking at the roster, the ones who’d been promoted were not strangers — they were all the brothers they’d been close with all along.
Strange indeed.
Still, however you looked at it, this was good news within bad.
A bunch of penniless bachelors — after their initial sorrow and dumbfounded confusion had passed — flung all those feelings aside.
“Come on! Let’s go drink! Captain Wang is buying! You’re a Captain now and you’re still not buying drinks!”
Wang Shitou was in the most bewildered stupor of all.
He had been summoned to speak with the superior of the superior of the superior of his superior, and only then learned that he had not only been promoted to Captain but was being made the deputy commander of the princess’s guard detail.
Second only to one — in authority over five hundred men!
Still in a daze, he was swept along by his brothers to go drink.
Three rounds of wine in, the floodgates opened, and everyone was talking over each other about just how bizarre it was that they had all been promoted together. Wang Shitou, who had been sitting in brooding silence, suddenly spoke: “It was the princess.”
“What?” Nobody had caught up yet.
“Princess Baohua. The one being married off to Mobei.” Wang Shitou explained. “What they said was — the princess personally circled our names, and everyone got moved up.”
A group of men sat there dumbfounded.
After a moment, the whole table burst into laughter.
“You had us going — we almost believed you!”
“‘What they said was’! Listen to him!”
“Well, now that he’s a Captain, he really is something else!”
No matter how Wang Shitou turned red in the face and sputtered his explanations, not a single one of them would believe him.
Who did they think they were? Princess Baohua was of imperial blood — how in the world would she know them from whatever backwater corner they came from? This story Wang Shitou was spinning was so implausible it fell apart at the first poke!
The men joked and carried on, and talk turned to following this princess out to the frontier — and someone started crying. That set off all the emotion the rest had been holding down, and suddenly everyone was overwhelmed at the thought of possibly ending their days in a foreign land alongside this princess.
Wang Shitou saw this, and shared ahead of time what his superiors had told him about the “settlement money” for these five hundred soldiers. The moment everyone heard there was money coming, their attention was immediately captured.
This selection was the same as conscription during war — they had prioritized men who had brothers at home. None of these men were only sons; all had siblings.
So now they crowded around Wang Shitou, wanting to know: after all the layers of skimming and deducting, how much of this money would actually reach their hands? Would it be enough to leave something for their parents in their old age, enough for their brothers to build a house and take a wife?
Ah.
Time flew, and by the beginning of the eighth month, both inside the palace and in the garrison camp, those who were to go out to the frontier with Xie Yuzhang had slowly made their peace with it. Their spirits were no longer as low as before.
The princess’s full staff had been assembled. The princess’s household steward was named Yuan Yu — a man recommended by the Duke of Merit’s estate. Both the Emperor and the Crown Prince knew he had been specifically chosen for Xie Yuzhang by her mother’s family, so they approved his appointment without any objection whatsoever.
In her past life, he had died of a sudden illness from not adapting to the local conditions within half a year of arriving in the Khanate. Though Xie Yuzhang’s time dealing with him had been brief, she knew him to be solid and practical — a man of genuine administrative talent.
Not long after the roster was announced, the Duke of Merit’s estate invited Xie Yuzhang to pay them a visit.
Ordinary princesses would open their own establishment and have their own subordinates only after they received a residence. The princess’s establishment was the princess’s own domain. But Xie Yuzhang still lived within the palace, which was quite inconvenient.
Yang Changyuan had invited her to the Duke’s estate so that, before the peace marriage, she could meet her future household staff for the first time.
Led by the household steward Yuan Yu, a full complement of household managers, secretaries, recorders, attendants, and others — together with the interpreter and the imperial physician Bao Zhongjin, who would all accompany Xie Yuzhang — bowed and presented themselves to her.
In Xie Yuzhang’s eyes, they were all familiar faces. She accurately addressed each person by name and title, which left them all rather flattered and moved.
Yuan Yu couldn’t help glancing at his old patron Yang Changyuan. This Duke had said that his princess niece was simple-minded and a bit naive, not worldly-wise.
A little naive and unworldly was fine enough — what he most feared was a bad temperament: the sort who had soft ears, was easily talked into things, and could be manipulated by petty people — that was the worst of all.
Yuan Yu observed Xie Yuzhang; Xie Yuzhang observed him in turn. He was thin and lean, but looked healthy enough — how on earth had a man who looked like this died suddenly from a simple illness?
After the introductions, Xie Yuzhang said to Yuan Yu: “I came today primarily to hand over three matters to Master Yuan. The first: the majority of those accompanying me in my dowry procession are from the capital area, or have at least lived there for many years. As we travel northwest, the road is long, and the further we go, the more the food, water, and conditions will differ from what they are used to at home. I have been told that people traveling to unfamiliar regions often fall ill from the change — it sounds like a minor ailment, but it can sometimes be fatal. We need to make arrangements early.”