The Legend of the Concubine in the Harem

As early as a year ago, Xie Yuzhen had already given Jun Yuexin the first half of the cultivation technique that he had snatched from the world consciousness. It was not that he was reluctant to give her the second half, but it would take a long time for this world to be upgraded. In the words of Dream Maker, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth is still very thin and is in a state of slowly recovering. It will not take effect for a while, so it would be useless to give Jun Yuexin the second half of the technique.

So Xie Yuzhen only gave her the first half to practice first. After she got better at it, he let Jun Yuexin take care of the girls adopted by the Yongjia Marquisate.

Although the dynasty was peaceful and prosperous, there were still orphans in the orphanage whose family origins were unknown. Among them, there were eight girls and two boys. Most of the abandoned girls were healthy, while almost all of the abandoned boys had illnesses that ordinary families could not afford. Even if they were taken in by the orphanage, most of them would not live to adulthood. The few remaining boys with intact limbs and faces were mostly abducted by human traffickers, and because they were too young to remember their family origins, they had to be placed in the orphanage.

When Xie Yuzhen was giving birth, Meng Yanshou tried to bring in a boy from outside the palace to replace her daughter. That man kept several pregnant women in his private residence, waiting for them to go into labor as soon as they started. Of the seven or eight pregnant women in total, two died of heavy bleeding, and although the remaining ones gave birth safely, the children were congenitally weak, and half of them died after only a few days.

After the Meng family completely fell, the pregnant women and surviving children were rescued by people arranged by Jingzhao Prefecture. However, most of these pregnant women were Meng's own children. They were loyal to the end and took the initiative to participate in confusing the royal bloodline. They were also proud of it. Not long after they recovered, they were sent to be punished together with the Meng family.

The remaining pregnant women were "sold" to the Meng family by their families.

The Da Sheng government does not allow selling good women for slavery, only hiring them is allowed. The Meng family's excuse this time was that there would be a newborn in the mansion soon, and they had to select a few women who had just given birth to be wet nurses. They also specifically emphasized that this was to ensure that their milk was clean, so they had to be taken in advance to recuperate.

The families of these pregnant women were indeed completely unaware of the Meng family's plan. They only thought that their wives were really going to be wet nurses. They happily took the money and asked the wealthy family to pay for the upbringing of their wives and children. However, they did not expect that they had stepped into a dangerous situation...

After being rescued, one of the pregnant women would rather die than return to her original home, and begged the manager of the orphanage to take her and her child in. However, her family members did not dare to easily offend the orphanage, which had the support of the queen, so they left a few dry words, saying that they would break off all ties with her and her daughter, and went back in disgrace.

The woman's surname was Hu. From then on, she stayed in the orphanage with her child to work. Her life was pretty good. Everyone in the orphanage called her Mother Hu.

When Jun Yuexin went to the orphanage to pick a child, she immediately took a liking to the character of Hu Mama's daughter. Not only did she recognize her as her goddaughter, she also wrote several letters to Xie Yuzhen to complain about the vicious behavior of the man surnamed Meng. If her goddaughter had not been harmed this time, her character might have been even better.

Hu Ziyi, who was born on the same day as Lu Weiyuan, was running around the palace babbling annoying baby talk, while the latter had already demonstrated excellent physical fitness at a young age. When Jun Yuexin was training with the orphans, she was rolling around on a straw mat nearby, clutching a wooden knife and sword.

"When the child grows up, ask her to come to the palace and be Yuanjun's study companion." After Xie Yuzhen listened to her friend explaining the progress of the orphans' martial arts training for a while, he said to her, "I really can't make it in time to see them today, but before I left the palace, I told Chunfen and the others to send over all the prepared things..."

Today is not only the day Xie Yuzhen comes to visit her parents, but also the day when the Yongjia Marquisate is opening. Although she has time to try cases for the princesses and to joke with Jun Yuexin, these are actually some leisure time stolen from her busy schedule. “By the way, there is one more thing I need to let you know in advance. Recently, the Xinnan Kingdom in the southwest annexed the Puyun Kingdom, which was originally bordering Dasheng. They... seem to be a little restless. I’m afraid that they will start fighting again soon.”

"New South?" Jun Yuexin was familiar with the place name, but not completely. "I only heard that they treat men as women and women as men. It seems that the customs are very different from our Central Plains. But before, there was Puyun between New South and us, so I don't know how much truth there is in the news."

"We'll know what's going on when we send troops over to fight." Xie Yuzhen said calmly, "I think your majesty wants to use this incident to train the young and strong men in the army."

"If you and your brother are interested in taking this opportunity to make more contributions and move up a level, it would be best not to miss it."

Hearing this, Jun Yuexin couldn't help but fall into silence. After a while, she spoke again: "I won't miss this opportunity."

"Oh?" Xie Yuzhen understood what she meant by that, and she was actually going to go into battle herself. He couldn't help but ask in confusion, "You have a way to join the army, don't you need my help?"

Jun Yuexin's brother served in the Cavalry Battalion, and she herself often went there, but Jun Yuexin was a woman after all, and her rebellious and restless behavior had already been the subject of countless unbearable rumors in the capital.

It's just that Madam Ye is devoted to worshipping Buddha and doesn't care about her daughter. Jun Muchin is the type of person who only fights with her sister verbally but actually protects her very much. The current general of the Cavalry Battalion is an old subordinate of the father of the Jun siblings. In addition, Xie Yuzhen has been whispering in the emperor's ear for her best friend. Therefore, the frequent visits of Jun Yuexin to the military camp have fallen into a strange calm.

But if Jun Yuexin wanted to actually fight in the battlefield and earn merit, this peace would undoubtedly be broken in an instant.

"There are many mountain people in the southwest. Although most of them have been naturalized in our dynasty, they still retain some of their previous customs. For example, the tribes headed by women continued to be granted official positions and managed the affairs of the area after naturalization. However, when the court reports mentioned them, they only wrote their official positions without mentioning their gender. So if my brother and I had not visited the southwest border many times to investigate the cause of my father's death, we would not have known that there was such a group of female officials."

Jun Yuexin's dark eyebrows raised. "When I went to the southwest, I also saw that there were still female soldiers among them. They were more agile than men in the mountains. If a war really breaks out in the future, the imperial army will have to rely on the assistance of local female soldiers who are familiar with the geography of the mountains and forests. At that time, my chance will come."

Xie Yuzhen didn't really know much about marching and fighting, so he could only nod with some worry when he heard this: "I'm glad you succeeded. I prepared some medicines for you that might be useful. I'll sort them out carefully when you get back."

She didn't know how to fight a war, but she knew how to put the right people in the right positions.

Xu Yueyuan, who was lying on the side and had already applied medicine to his thigh, was the one who was truly confused. He could only weakly wish him a successful start and hope that his wish would come true.