After entering winter, most of the complicated things were on track. Although Li Yuan was very busy every day, he still tried his best to squeeze out time to chat and laugh with his wives and concubines, and to accompany his adoptive mother Liu's staggering steps in the yard. Come and go.
On November 15th, Emperor Zhou E felt dizzy and vomited after getting up early, and felt extremely unwell. So the family immediately invited the best doctor in Langzhou City to come for diagnosis, and the result was great news. Emperor Zhou E, who was going crazy with the idea of having a baby, finally got her wish and became pregnant. According to the judgment of the doctor, Emperor Zhou E was pregnant before Li Yuan went to Xizhou to announce the decree.
This great event immediately made everyone in the Dudu Mansion beam with joy. The mistress's pregnancy meant that Li Yuan would have a child, which was an exciting event for the entire Dudu Mansion and even Wuping.
Li Yuan was naturally very happy. When he heard the good news at first, his mind was at a loss for a moment. He was obviously a little slow to react to the fact that he was about to become a father, but he soon fell into extreme excitement.
Since getting married, Li Yuan has always understood that Zhou Ehuang has always been worried about not being able to conceive a child, so he has wild thoughts that his position as mistress is not guaranteed. For this reason, Li Yuan has been tossing Zhou Ehuang's belly. Now, after having a child, this kind of worry seems unnecessary, and I will also welcome my first child. This is such an exciting thing.
Although Li Yuan knew in his heart that with wives and concubines by his side, there would be a situation of children in groups sooner or later, but after all, as the head wife, Zhou Ehuang was the first to feel something in his stomach, but it was of great significance. The one he would give birth to in the future would be Li Yuan's. Legitimate son and legitimate daughter.
After Zhou Ehuang learned that she was pregnant, she was extremely happy and immediately left all the housework to others, saying that she would no longer worry about housework and could raise her baby with peace of mind. She should not tell herself any housework because it would affect herself and the fetus. So Wang Jingyao, Peng Qingying and others had to take over the affairs of the family so that Emperor Zhou E could raise his child in peace.
She was only two months pregnant, and there was no obvious bulge in Zhou Ehuang's belly yet, but she was already walking with her hands on her waist as if she had been pregnant for ten months. She walked carefully and moved very slowly, and Qiu'er had to let Qiu'er go in and out. He was accompanied by four or five maids to support him, fearing that something might happen to the baby in his belly.
Not only that, Zhou Ehuang soon moved from the joy of pregnancy to another worry, which was whether the child in her belly was a boy or a girl. Although Li Yuan said that he didn't care whether he had a boy or a girl, strangely, everyone in the family took the matter very seriously because Zhou Ehuang's child was the first child.
Since the Tang Dynasty, there has been a bad custom among the people, that is, the first child in a wealthy family must be a boy, which indicates a prosperous population. Many families do not hesitate to drown their newborn girls because their first child is a girl, so as not to affect the luck of their heirs and the family. For this reason, many people even spend a lot of money to hire fortune tellers before pregnant women give birth to calculate whether the newborn will be a boy or a girl.
Although Li Yuan could not understand these bad habits at all, even if he was a baby girl, he would not drown his own flesh and blood, but Emperor Zhou E was still very anxious about this problem.
So after she got pregnant, she often checked some of her behaviors and asked the doctor Wenpo for advice. For example, if she liked to eat sour food, she told her that she was a "sour son and spicy girl". After that, Emperor Zhou E was extremely happy. , and one day I ate something spicy and thought it tasted delicious, so I became worried.
Moreover, Zhou Ehuang continued to calculate the day on which Li Yuan conceived in the same room, whether the moon was full or waning, whether it was an even day or an odd day, whether it was a lucky day or an unlucky day. Because according to folklore, these will affect whether the child is a boy or a girl.
Emperor Zhou E even came to ask Li Yuan whether they were sharing a room in the first half of the night or the second half of the night. These strange questions made Li Yuan dumbfounded. Li Yuan wanted to tell Zhou Ehuang that the gender of the child in your belly has already been determined, and it is useless to worry about it. And I really don't care about whether I have a boy or a girl.
But Li Yuan knew that even if he told Zhou Ehuang these words, she would not listen to them, so he could only let her do the work.
One day in early December, Li Yuan got up from his nap, chatted with Emperor Zhou E for a while, teased Wang Jingyao and Peng Qingying respectively, and then went to the front hall to prepare to sit in the Dudu Mansion. As he was sitting down and opening official documents, a general, led by his bodyguards, came to Li Yuan and saluted.
"The general has met the Grand Governor."
Li Yuan snorted casually and looked at the official document in his hand.
The general hesitated for a moment and stood in front of him without leaving. Li Yuan was a little strange and looked up at him suspiciously: "What's going on? Is there something to report?"
The general quickly raised his hands and bowed his head and said: "Grand Governor, do you still remember the last general? The last general Zouping."
Li Yuan suddenly remembered, isn't this Zouping the same general who led the five thousand Sizhou soldiers outside the city to surrender when King Zheng and Zhou Xingfeng planned the incident?
He had made great achievements at that time, and Li Yuan had also promised to let him serve in his personal army. However, because Li Congjia had not returned to Beijing at that time, it was difficult to appoint him immediately. Now it seems that Lin Sichang or Wumu Special Qin has already taken care of this matter. After it was done, Li Yuan didn't ask much about the matter.
"You are a meritorious person. I will naturally remember that you have joined the army and joined the army? Very good, very good. When did you come here to be on duty?"
"To the Commander-in-Chief, about a month ago, Governor Lin personally arranged for the general to join the army personally. Now he serves as the commander of the first army in the army. I am honored to be able to guard the city with the Commander-in-Chief. I would like to thank the Commander-in-Chief. The grace of support.”
Li Yuan waved his hand and said: "No need to thank you. If you have merit, you will be rewarded. Since I have made a promise, I will never break my promise. Do your best in the future and don't let me down."
Zouping said hurriedly: "Please rest assured, Commander-in-Chief, I will never let you down and will do my duty faithfully."
Li Yuan nodded and said, "Very good. If nothing happens, just step back."
Zouping hesitated and did not move. Li Yuan frowned and said, "Why, do you still have something to do?"
Zouping mustered up the courage to raise his hands and said: "The general is so abrupt, I do have something to report to the governor! That is, the father and mother of the general have come to Langzhou from Lizhou, and they want to boldly see the governor."
"Lizhou?" Li Yuan was stunned and said: "Isn't Lizhou under my rule, Wu Ping? I didn't expect that your family is also from the Chu region? Are your parents here? Where are they now?"
Zouping lowered his head and said: "Go back to the Governor. They came in the morning, but they have been outside the door of the mansion. Without the permission of the Governor, I dare not go to see them. How can you show favoritism when you have a heavy responsibility?"
Li Yuan thought for a while, then smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, it just so happens that I am free now. Since your parents have traveled all the way here to see me, I thought they must have something important to discuss, so I asked your parents to come into the house and let them know. Old man, let’s have a cup of tea and rest, then go.”
Zouping didn't expect that the Governor would actually agree, so he immediately beamed with joy, agreed quickly, and went out quickly.
After a while, the old couple Zou entered the Governor's Mansion under the guidance of their son Zouping.
As soon as he arrived at the steps of the main hall, Old Man Zou quickly pulled the old woman beside him to bend down and bow at the foot of the steps. Then he carefully supported each other and walked into the magnificent main hall under the leadership of Zouping.
"The villain pays homage to the Governor! Oh my, the Governor's mansion is really a noble one, and he is so particular about style!" Old Man Zou couldn't help but raise his head furtively and admired in a low voice.
Li Yuan smiled easily, waved the Zou family and his wife to excuse themselves, and asked Zou Ping to take the two elderly people to sit down. He also ordered the maid to bring tea to quench their thirst, and asked a maid to bring a plate of exquisite snacks.
His son had served in the army in the south of the Yangtze River to eat food. Old man Zou and his wife had lived in the countryside of Lizhou for a long time. How could they have ever been treated like this? He looked at the plate of delicious snacks presented by the maid in front of him, swallowed his saliva, waved his hands and said: "The Governor is too polite. How dare I trouble the good girl in the Governor's house?"
Li Yuan smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, my father-in-law."
Old man Zou then carefully wiped his hands on his old shirt, then picked up a piece of pastry and handed it to his wife beside him, looking very happy.
"I heard from Zouping that you two came from Lizhou to visit your son. You can rest assured that Zouping works under the governor's account. As long as he does his job well, the governor will not treat him badly." Li Yuan laughed. road.
When Old Man Zou heard this, he hurriedly pulled his old wife to stand up from his seat and said, "What are you talking about, Governor? Look, you are so young, but you are already famous all over the world! Zouping can be under your account, and If we are lucky enough to become a general, what else can we worry about?
Grand Governor, do you know that this child was originally in Jinling, which is far away from our couple. He has not been home for many years. This time, he is fortunate to be placed in Langzhou, not far from home, and is still under the governor's tent. , it is already a great kindness to our whole family. From now on, whenever Zouping does something wrong, the Commander-in-Chief will just teach him a lesson. If he does something that violates military law, it is appropriate for the Commander-in-Chief to chop off his head. "
Looking at this pair of extremely simple old people, Li Yuan was filled with emotion, nodded and said with a smile: "My father-in-law, you are sensible people, I understand."
Old man Zou continued to laugh and said: "Actually, the villain and his wife came to Langzhou this time not specifically to see their son. We set out from Lizhou early in the morning three days ago and rushed all the way to Langzhou without stopping. . I entered the city this morning and found out about the Governor's residence. I kept waiting outside the door, not daring to ask for permission.
Just now I happened to see Zouping entering the house, so I had no choice but to show up to inform my son. This is not considered a violation of military law... My husband and I came here specifically to see you, the Governor. "
"It doesn't matter." Li Yuan said with a smile: "It's just that since you have something to come to see the governor, you can just report it directly to the guards outside the mansion. After three days of journey, you still stayed outside the door for half a day. It’s not very hard work.”
"I did ask the military masters outside the mansion to inform me, but -"
Before he finished speaking, Old Man Zou swallowed his saliva, and then said with a smile: "Hey, it doesn't matter... after all, you have met the Governor, haven't you?"
