During the Han Dynasty, there was a saying that bathing took place on three days and bathing took place on five days. There was even a special bathing holiday for officials every week.
When Yuan Xi was in Beixin City, there was no special bathroom due to limited conditions, but obviously there is no shortage of places like Yuan's Mansion in Yecheng.
By the time Yuan Xi came out of the shower, half an hour had passed, and the fatigue of the past month was almost gone.
When he came out wiping his hair, he found Wu Zhao kneeling on the ground, struggling to turn over his armor, holding a wet linen cloth in one hand, and wiping the blood off the armor.
If the blood on the armor is not cleaned in time, it will cause the armor to rust if it remains attached for a long time.
Wu Zhao cleaned the nail leaves piece by piece, pulled the leather rope on it to make sure it was firmly attached, and then dipped another piece of linen cloth in a piece of lard and applied a layer of grease on the nail leaf. Only in this way can the nail leaf be prevented from rusting.
Yuan Xi walked over and said, "Let the soldiers and servants take care of these things. Why bother you so much?"
Wu Zhao shook his head and said, "I'm not worried if they do it."
She saw many new marks from weapons on the armor, and knew that Yuan Xi had encountered another vicious battle this time, and she was frightened.
Yuan Xi took the linen cloth from her hand, and together they wiped and smeared the remaining nail leaves clean, and put them aside in a cool place to dry.
Wu Zhao picked up a piece of bath bean, which was made from plant ash mixed with soap and soap. She soaked her white fingers in water and washed away all the remaining oil on her hands. A fresh fragrance filled the air.
Yuan Xi took a wooden box, opened it, took out a gold hairpin, and inserted it into Wu Zhao's bun.
Wu Zhao saw it and said, "Isn't it appropriate for me to bring such a valuable thing?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Whatever is suitable or not is all the people's wealth that Old Man Cao has plundered. If I save his life, these things will be mine."
"In the future, when I use those things on the people, it can be regarded as giving back to the people."
Wu Zhao wiped his hands, sat on the mat, and said with a smile: "I'm afraid he hates you."
Yuan Xi took the opportunity to sit behind Wu Zhao and put his hand into the sleeves of Wu Zhao's clothes.
Wu Zhao's body trembled, but he didn't stop it. He just sat there, but his occasionally trembling fingers betrayed her.
Yuan Xi began to push further, and Wu Zhao's breathing became rapid, and he said softly: "It's still daylight, and I might have to attend a family banquet in the evening."
As soon as Yuan Xi heard this, he thought of what happened at the last banquet and said, "This Yecheng Mansion is much more dangerous than Beixin City. As soon as things happen here, let's go back to Beixin City as soon as possible."
Wu Zhao chuckled: "When an official takes office, he cannot bring his wife with him. If you marry the daughter of the Zhen family and then leave, won't you make her sad?"
Yuan Xi sighed: "I'm afraid that the marriage with the Zhen family will not go so smoothly. My third brother is determined to ruin the marriage between the two families. I can't think of a good way yet."
Wu Zhao thought of Zhen Rong and said sadly: "Zhen Rong was also taken advantage of. She became a widow and was deceived by the third young master. She is also very pitiful."
Yuan Xi put his head over, smelled the scent of Wu Zhao's back neck, and said, "Don't worry, Gao Lan is not dead yet."
Wu Zhao heard this and breathed a sigh of relief: "This is best. If General Gao dies, the relationship between You and the Zhen family will be forged, and marrying the daughter of the Zhen family will be even more troublesome."
Yuan Xi exerted a little force and said, "You keep talking about the Zhen family, but what about yourself?"
"If you regain your identity, you will be more than enough to be a legal wife."
Wu Zhao immediately shook his head and said, "I can't."
"I am still the Widow of the Wei family. If the incident with you really gets out, the reputations of the three families will be ruined."
"Let me be Wu Zhao, at least I have nothing to worry about."
Yuan Xi had a headache. It was indeed the case. Wu Zhao wanted to regain her identity as Cai Zhaoji. As a son of the Yuan family, he had no way to explain to the world.
Maybe when I have enough strength in the future, I can completely solve this problem.
Wu Zhao saw some disappointment on Yuan Xi's face, and said with a hint of slyness: "Besides, as your wife, I have to stay in Yecheng and stay alone as a widow just after getting married. What's the difference between that and being a widow?"
"As a maid now, I can follow you back to Beixin City in good faith. I'm better than a lady."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "I guess we won't be able to return to Beixin City for the time being."
"I had a conversation with my father a while ago. I'm afraid that my father still has to fight against Tian Kai and Kong Rong in Qingzhou before he can free up his hands to deal with Gongsun Zan in Yijing."
Wu Zhao nodded and said: "This is actually good. There are many noble families in Yecheng, and the young master can take the opportunity to cultivate and establish his own power."
"So it is still necessary to marry the Zhen family, but Zhen Rong's problem still needs to be solved before."
Yuan Xi nodded and said: "You are right, let me think about it carefully."
"But those nobles paid a very high price. It's hard to persuade them not to give them benefits."
"The common people of the humble people are better, but in terms of governing the land, they are indeed lacking compared to the big gentry."
"I want to follow Liu Jingsheng's example and establish a free school, but it will take at least three to five years to see the effect. Time waits for no one."
Wu Zhao leaned in his arms and said softly: "Master, do you think the local nobles in Youzhou are not trustworthy?"
Yuan Xi nodded: "Exactly, when Liu Yu raised his troops to attack Gongsun Zan, many of his generals, counselors and informants were there."
"Because Gongsun Zan bought a large number of local nobles in Youzhou with their land and property, so that they are extremely loyal to Gongsun Zan. Even if they are conquered, they may not betray me for profit in the future."
"I don't have that much money, and even if I did, I wouldn't waste it on them. The two sides bribe each other, and the end result will only be to bribe a group of people who are unjust for profit."
"The Youzhou noble clan is already weak, so I thought of eradicating it altogether, establishing a free school, promoting officials, and reorganizing the layout."
Wu Zhao nodded and said: "What I admire the most is that the young master not only allows commoners to enter the free school, but also allows women to enter. It is truly an unprecedented initiative."
Yuan Xi knew that some of his methods were indeed shocking to people at this time, so it took Wu Zhao a long time to accept them.
In this era, the gentry were nobles, and the common people were no different from livestock in the eyes of the gentry.
Women are often regarded as vassals of men. In the Han and Tang Dynasties, when women had the highest status in all dynasties, women also had a lot of helplessness.
In fact, women's voluntary education was not Yuan Xi's initiative. Village schools existed in the Tang Dynasty and women were allowed to attend.
But since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the status of women has begun to decline.
Yuan Xi said: "Now that there have been years of war, men have gone to the battlefield, and there is a shortage of labor. Women can actually do a lot of things."
"Moreover, scholars and common people, nobles and poor, men and women, have something that is not determined by their family background and can change their destiny."
Wu Zhao was startled: "What is it?"
Yuan Xi pointed to his head: "This."
“There are also stupid people among scholars and rich people, and there are also extremely smart people among common people and poor people.”
"What is lacking is whether you can read and understand and open your mind."
"Nowadays, the world is in chaos and there is an urgent need for talents, so I want to try it and let more people get the ability to change their lives."
Wu Zhao listened and whispered: "I also want to see how far the young master can go."
The two looked at each other, and the atmosphere gradually became ambiguous.
Yuan Xi stood up decisively and closed the door from the inside.
More than an hour later, Wu Zhao lay in Yuan Xi's arms and gasped: "Young Master seems to be very knowledgeable in some aspects."
Yuan Xiqiang smiled and said: "I said I know how to watch stars. The stars in the sky can tell me a lot of interesting things."
Wu Zhao thought to himself: Who are you lying to?
Yuan Xi looked at Wu Zhao's fair neck and quickly changed the subject: "I see that the marks on your face seem to be lighter?"
Wu Zhao blushed: "Since I belong to the young master, I don't want to bear this face all day long. Although the pine ink and cinnabar seep into the texture, it can still be washed away a little by soaking it with bath beans, plant ash, etc."
"But it will take a year or two to return to its original appearance."
Seeing Yuan Xi touching her face, she quickly turned sideways and said, "Isn't it ugly?"
Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "No, it looks beautiful inside and out."
Wu Zhao's face turned red again.
She quickly said: "Let's think about your wife who has not yet been married.
"Have you noticed that every plan of the Third Young Master is to kill two birds with one stone, and he will never suffer a loss."
"I suspect that while he was ruining the marriage between the two families, he was also trying to blackmail the Zhen family."
Yuan Xi thought about it carefully and agreed: "What you said is really possible."
The Zhen family has no hereditary titles, so what's there to think about?
Could it be that he has a crush on Zhen Mi?
It's really possible!
Then Yuan Xi became confused again. The Zhen family's daughter would not be a concubine. Yuan Shang already had a wife, what else could he do?
He vaguely felt that something had not been figured out, but it was impossible for Yuan Shang to find out.
As for Yuan Shao, Mrs. Liu and Yuan Shang have been chatting with her all day long. I am afraid that he already has preconceived ideas. If he wants to convince Yuan Shao, he needs to know the truth of the matter in advance.
Thinking of this, he said to Wu Zhao: "Let's go to Zhen's house."
Wu Zhao was stunned: "Now?"
"Now."
Inside the Zhen family mansion, Zhen Mi was sitting in front of the second-floor window of the small building. Through the window, she could see seven or eight soldiers guarding the door of Zhen's mansion.
She looked sideways at Zhen Rong, who was beside her in a daze, and sighed in her heart.
Zhen Rong's personality has always been outgoing and lively, but today he suffered a series of blows and became like this.
The husband died and was accused of seducing the Yuan family. If Yuan Shao hadn't been concerned about the reputation among the gentry, the Zhen family would have been implicated in the crime.
When her mother, Mrs. Zhang, found out what had happened, she scolded Zhen Rong severely. Now Zhen Rong is like a living dead, unconscious.
Zhen Mi couldn't help but comfort her: "Sister, things may not be that bad. The news about my brother-in-law is only the one-sided words of Mr. Yuan San."
Zhen Rong came back to his senses, shook his head and said: "Little sister, don't comfort me. How can the leading general disappear inexplicably?"
"It would be fine if he died in battle, but if he surrendered to the enemy, the Zhen family would also be implicated."
"Oh, I forgot, I have already dragged the Zhen family into trouble."
Seeing Zhen Rongyou starting to talk nonsense, Zhen Mi was about to comfort him when she saw a carriage coming down the street and stopping at the door of Zhen's mansion.
(End of chapter)
