Chapter 53: Sun Family Brothers

After the Spring Festival, Xu Zaijing followed his parents to his maternal grandmother's Sun family.

As before, after paying New Year's greetings to his elderly grandmother, the children went out to play with the cousins of the Sun family.

Sun Shi chatted with her sister-in-law and nieces; the children who had received the cotton-padded jackets before had shown off quite a bit when their mothers visited other families.

Before the New Year, Pingmei had also been betrothed to the Ningyuan Hou Fu; in an instant, the number of matchmakers coming to inquire about the Sun family's young ladies also increased a lot.

Not inferior to those civil officials' daughters.

As for the sisters Pingmei and Anmei, they were in the room with the cousins and nieces of the Sun family who couldn't visit relatives, cracking melon seeds and talking about some gossip in the capital.

Among this group of sisters, the one with the highest future status might be Pingmei.

Naturally, she became the object of the sisters' teasing; of course, there were also quite a few who flattered and said nice things.

This made Pingmei, who usually bullied her cousins by relying on her height, blush uncontrollably.

But fortunately, the topic was shifted by a sister to the gossip about Xu Zaijing beating Rong Xian at the Qi family,

and there were sisters asking if Pingmei had seen Princess Pingning's very ugly expression at the time, as rumored.

Princess Pingning, for the sake of Qi Heng, consciously did not let the young ladies of relative families get close; this hadn't been much of a big gossip in the last two years.

A group of young girls chirped and chattered; there was another lively scene because of a sentence about whose marriage in the family was inquired about by a matchmaker.

In the courtyard, the Sun family also had a small martial arts field; after all, the Sun family had too many descendants, and Bianjing was an inch of land worth an inch of gold.

The Sun family's place for practicing archery was just a long corridor; three people stood in a row to compete in archery, and others could only watch from the side.

In the courtyard,

Six or seven married cousins were also serving in the Western Army; some were under the Cao family, and some were under their own uncle's command, chatting with the family descendants under the eaves.

They looked at the family descendants in the courtyard, their eyes full of joy.

They were accustomed to life in the army; some had also seen blood and killed people, and often there would be youths asking about the things they had experienced with eyes full of admiration.

Several elder brothers would also choose some things to tell the family descendants; they had also grown up being taught by their uncles and brothers like this.

Xu Zaijing was also on the side, listening to his cousins talking about the flag commands between the lowest-level squad leaders (25-100 people).

And the combat command techniques of the higher-level military envoys (cavalry) and commanders (infantry).

This was also influenced from childhood, so the Sun family descendants who entered the army started at least as squad leaders, because most of them were already familiar with flag commands,

saving a lot of training costs.

"Before in the Western Army, we were already sharpening our knives and preparing to deal with the Bai Gao Kingdom; it's a pity that the old men in the court were too slow; their internal fighting was over, and we still hadn't finished arguing."

"Once the war starts, it's like flowing water spending money! The civil official old men can't bear it. Haha."

Xu Zaijing did not point fingers at the country, but asked with curiosity: "Jing Jing Biao Ge, how many people's battle formations have you participated in?"

"More than five thousand people, I guess. The brothers of two armies were pulled out. At that time, it was when the Bai Gao Kingdom's internal fighting was the most intense; often there would be Bai Gao Kingdom nobles or generals wearing luxurious robes or iron armor coming to surrender to our Great Zhou."

"Uncle, was that scene very big?"

"Big? You stand in front of the formation and can only see long spears like a forest; besides people, there are still people, what's big about it."

"Jing Jing Biao Ge, are you afraid?"

"Afraid, but after being beaten by my father too much, once I really saw the thieves of the Bai Gao Kingdom, I just slashed over. Once you see blood, you will get used to it next time."

In the courtyard, the seventeen-year-old and nineteen-year-old who were a few years older than Xu Zaijing had faces full of longing.

"Hey, let Jing Ge'er go next, who wants to compete with him?"

"I won't go, so as not to spoil the brothers' fun." Xu Zaijing waved his hand.

After speaking, Xu Zaijing turned to hand his cousin a handful of melon seeds and said: "Brother, are the civil officials in the army really more powerful than us military officers?"

"That is natural, their pens are more powerful than our guns, that is, the several generals of the Cao family are not afraid of them."

"Brother, how heavy is our Great Zhou's armor?"

"More than fifty jin."

On the side, Xu Zaijing's other cousins and nephews who heard this for the first time also showed surprise.

"Doesn't this mean it's equivalent to me carrying the twenty-first brother to fight?"

"Brother, are there any armies in the Western Army that fight to the death and are extremely fierce?"

"Naturally there are, but they are all under the Cao family's command; our family's second brother is in one of the Border Defense armies."

Xu Zaijing chatted with his cousins until lunch; at the noon banquet, they were all dizzy from drinking, and Xu Minghua was also rarely drunk.

In this family gathering, Xu Minghua's position was the highest; he was in the Western Army with his wife's brothers and nephews, so naturally, there was much to talk about.

Xu Zaijing also drank some wine with his cousins,

and everyone returned to the Xu family at dusk.

Time turned around, in the blink of an eye,

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.

A few days ago, when Xu Zaijing was visiting relatives and friends in Bianjing, he saw many giant lanterns being set up along the wide Imperial Street of Bianjing.

This was for the Emperor to see.

In other places in Bianjing, there were also wealthy noble families setting up lanterns, with the ones at the entrances of the Qi Guo Gong and Xiangyang Hou being the most magnificent.

One must know that there was no curfew or gate curfew for five days after the Lantern Festival, and Bianjing would become the only city that never sleeps in this era.

Before, Xu Minghua was not in the mansion, and Sun Shi strictly guarded the gates and basically didn't go out to see the lanterns, mostly just setting up a ladder on the roof in the mansion to look.

Now Xu Minghua is in the capital, and the family has added quite a few servants, so they went to see the lanterns of Bianjing on the Lantern Festival.

Xu Zaijing was naturally happy to participate.

Then, that night, Xu Zaijing was frightened by the flow of people in Bianjing that was shoulder to shoulder.

Although there were servants from the family maintaining order, they could still only surround the Xu family in the middle and move forward slowly.

No wonder this Lantern Festival lantern show always had incidents; such a flow of people was truly terrifying.

On the way, they also saw the maids and servants of wealthy families with lanterns on their heads.

Yes, with lanterns on their heads, it was very eye-catching.

There were also petty thieves caught red-handed,

dragged by the soldiers of the City Patrol Division to the stage on the side of the road, and on the spot, one hand was broken or one leg was broken in public.

The screams were also warning those potential thieves that it was best not to make a move; making a move would be their end.

Surrounded by servants, Xu Zaijing had been holding the hand of his eldest sister Pingmei, while Anmei was held by his eldest brother Xu Zaiduan.

All around were maids and matrons, but they were squeezed crookedly by the flow of people.

Xu Zaijing did not have his mind entirely on the lanterns like an ordinary youth, but occasionally looked around; he hadn't forgotten the story of Seeing Rong Feiyan.

Although Seeing Rong Feiyan was still a little girl now.

Watching and watching, Xu Zaijing felt something was not quite right; it was also the vigilance he had developed from practicing martial arts every day at home; he always felt that the few people around were constantly looking at his eldest sister.

"What are you looking at?"

The maid beside Pingmei reprimanded a man with a quite hooligan look in his eyes.

"You little slut, your eyes are on me, I can look at whatever I want."

Saying this, he also scanned the maid very explicitly.

Xu Zaijing's mind turned rapidly:

Clothes make the man; this hooligan dared to provoke such a group of people dressed in luxury with servants?

There must be something strange when things go against the norm!

"Qingyun!"

Xu Zaijing shouted.

Qingyun beside him directly punched that person in the stomach.

"Disaster comes from the mouth, keep your mouth clean in the future."

"Ah! Murder!"

Someone in the crowd suddenly screamed.

"Rats!"

Shouting, more than a dozen rats were thrown beside the Xu family members.

The maids and matrons instantly exploded, and the surrounding crowd also became chaotic.

The flow of people became turbulent!

Plus the deliberate guidance and pushing of those with ulterior motives.

Instantly!

The Xu family members were scattered; the Xu Minghua, Xu Zaiduan, Sun Shi, etc., in front were all pushed forward by the flow of people.

Pingmei's maid was not frightened; she waved her hand to knock away the rats and stood beside Pingmei.

Several very strong men squeezed toward the Xu family members.

Instantly, only Xu Zaijing and his personal maid remained beside Xu Pingmei.

"Just a ten-year-old little thing, go!"

Someone in the crowd whispered.

Qingyun on the side had already leaned over, but the flow of people was in the opposite direction to him; he saw a flash of light from the corner of his eye.

"Young master, watch out for the knife!"

"Sister, hold tight to my clothes, they are coming for you."

"Pah, they are coming for you, Little Five." Saying this, Xu Pingmei had already pulled the hairpin from her hair and held it in her hand.

Thank you to the respected readers for the tips.

Thank you.

Bow again.

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(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 54 =====