Rumors cannot arise out of thin air. Most of them are caused by things or are deliberately done by someone.
Huang Yi became a third-grade military general and a garrison master. Even at the end of the Ming Dynasty when the nobles were noble and the military was low, this official position was not low.
Therefore, my aunt, who had met Huang Yi and had a few drinks with Huang Yi, hoped that her daughter could marry him even more.
So when someone asked about Geng Yueling's marriage, she wanted to make it true and she said that the old lady had made the decision and she was betrothed to Mr. Huang, the guard of Dongshan Fort.
Geng Yueru's personal maid knew the lady's thoughts best and wanted to cook the rice.
So there was a rumor that the master and his wife made the decision, and that Miss Yueru had made an engagement with Huang Yi...
Therefore, word spread, and it became known that Huang Yi wanted to marry the two sisters Yueru and Yueling.
However, Huang Yi knew nothing about such rumors. He was a time traveler and a middle-aged uncle with a wife and children. He did not realize that he had become a young man after time traveling and should think about marriage.
He was familiar with history and had always been ashamed of the fact that the Han people were colonized by the barbaric and ignorant Jiannu slaves. When he came to the late Ming Dynasty, of course he tried his best to change history.
Huang Yi, who has known since he was a child that political power comes from the barrel of a gun, will of course spare no effort to build a strong army.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. So far, the total population of the base area, excluding the peripheral Mongolian tribes, has exceeded 30,000.
This number is still growing, because Geng Zhanghua is still accepting Liao people, war refugees, and refugees to be sent to the base areas. On average, he can send one or two thousand people a month.
This momentum may come to an end when the snow falls.
Huang Yi already has a thousand armored cavalry with skilled bows and horses under his command.
There were 800 mounted infantry, including 300 musketeers, 100 archers, and 200 heavy infantry equipped with iron armor, cotton armor, and leather armor.
There are also 800 auxiliary soldiers in the base area. These auxiliary soldiers are equipped with cotton armor or leather armor. There are also 800 militiamen, half of which are musketeers.
If the base area is really attacked, everyone must be united as one.
The strength of the auxiliary troops and militia, together with the combined efforts of nearly 30,000 men, women and children, is enough to guard the base city, and 1,800 regular soldiers can conquer the east and west.
When launching a crusade, you can also recruit knights from the Mongolian tribe, and the number should be no less than two thousand.
The extremely prosperous Governor of Xuanda, Geng Ruqi, has everything going as he pleases, but people are never perfect.
Now his daughter's marriage has become Geng Ruqi's concern.
In Xuan Mansion, in the study room of the official residence of Governor Xuan Da, Geng Zhangguang, the Qilin son of the Geng family, was chatting happily with his father Geng Ruxi.
Gradually, it was talked about that Geng Zhanghua was going to leave the customs and go to the base area to discuss the matter with Huang Yi.
Geng Zhangguang said: "Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. Father, I want to go with my third brother to the base area that Huang Yi has worked so hard to have a look at!"
"Hmm! I'm also curious about the so-called base area. Zhang Hua should have sent tens of thousands of people to it. Is Huang Yi really capable of feeding those many people?"
"I heard from Zhang Hua and Geng Qi that the base area has been very successful and has basically solved the problem of food and clothing. So I really want to see it with my own eyes."
"If you want to go, just go! If I couldn't help myself, I would also like to see it!"
"Not only me, Yue Ru and Yue Ling also want to see the scenery outside the Great Wall!"
Geng Yueru learned that the third brother was going to the base outside the customs to invite Huang Yi to the Xuan Mansion for a banquet, and felt that it might not be possible to invite Huang Yi.
She dragged Geng Yueling and entangled Geng Zhanghua, asking him to go out and have a look.
Geng Zhanghua was in trouble, and it happened that Geng Zhangguang also planned to visit the base area, so Geng Zhanghua asked Geng Zhangguang to speak to his father.
There are too many restrictions on women these days, especially in the houses of scholar-bureaucrats. Even if Geng Zhangguang asked, Geng Ruqi would not agree.
He pondered: "This, this..., how decent is this?"
Geng Zhangguang added: "I think it's okay, their sister-in-law will go too!"
It turned out that the two daughters-in-law accompanied their son, and the two sisters-in-law accompanied the sister-in-law. It made sense. Old Geng relaxed and said:
"That's right! Then why don't you bring your aunt along with you?"
"Okay, my aunt likes to go out the most." Seeing that his father was very happy, Geng Zhangguang asked tentatively: "Father, do you know about the rumors about Xuanfu and Zhangjiakou?"
"About what?"
"As for Yueru and Yueling, my aunt seems to be quite satisfied with Huang Yi. But Yueru also said that you and my mother have agreed to this marriage."
"Alas! Your mother and I used to think that Huang Yi could get married, but now we feel it's inappropriate. In the end, your mother agreed to marry Yueru to him.
The reason why I haven't decided is because I don't know whether the base area can survive.
I really didn’t expect that what was being talked about in the streets was that my family married off two daughters in order to repay their kindness. "
"What are you going to do now?"
The Geng family has many daughters, and the daughter born from a concubine has no sense of existence at all. The legitimate daughter Yue Ru has become a big wife. If the daughter Yue Ling, a concubine, is willing to be a concubine, Geng Ruqi and the old lady will be happy to see it happen.
Because it was normal for upper-class families in ancient times to have wives and concubines, and they often had multiple concubines, with many having seven, eight, or even a dozen concubines.
Huang Yi is still a third-grade military attache. After marrying his wife, he will inevitably take concubines. The first concubine is the eldest wife's biological sister. Who can shake the eldest wife's status as the master of the backyard?
I originally thought about recruiting a son-in-law because I couldn't bear to have my legitimate daughter marry far away and suffer.
Now that he has to get married, he has a concubine to accompany him and the two sisters have a caregiver. In principle, Geng Ruqi has no objection, and the old lady is happy to see it happen.
I just feel unconvinced, why? That arrogant warrior who took advantage of two beautiful and intelligent girls?
"Since you took them to see the base, let them see it. Alas! If they are willing to go and suffer outside the Great Wall, I won't stop them!"
After expressing his stance, Geng Ruqi looked desolate.
Geng Zhangguang said: "Understood! I will definitely explain to Yueru and Yueling how powerful they are. If the base area is really miserable, I will definitely be able to persuade them."
"Yeah! Let's do it like this!"
Just over half a month after Huang Yi left for the expedition, Li Weida accompanied Geng Zhangguang and Geng Zhanghua out of customs, with more than two thousand people in attendance.
One thousand, five hundred are the last batch of Liao people, refugees, and war refugees sent to the base area this year, and five hundred are the armored cavalry from the Xuanda Governor's Model Barracks.
There were nearly three hundred men, grooms, servants, boys, maids, mothers-in-law, etc. in total.
In order not to burden Huang Yi, Geng Zhanghua brought his own provisions and marching tents.
The Li family business carried a fully loaded cart of one hundred and twenty taels, and the goods on the cart could be described as everything you need.
This kind of team moved slowly, only covering forty or fifty miles a day, and was discovered by the sentries in the base area on the third day.
Early on the fourth day, Wang Baishan, who had learned the news the night before, led more than 30 people to greet him.
Geng Zhanghua, Geng Zhangguang, Auntie, Geng Da, Geng Qi, etc. were all a little unhappy when they didn't see Huang Yi come to greet them in person.
