Your Majesty said that my life is worthless, so why are you crying when I increase my troops?

"Hongying, what are you doing?"

Looking at the black mass in the pot, not knowing what it was, Xia Mingyuan turned around and looked at Zhao Hongying in confusion.

"I, I saw that you were not at home, and I was a little hungry, so I wanted to cook something..."

Zhao Hongying tiptoed to take a look at the food in the pot, her pretty face flushed.

As the daughter of a former general of the imperial court, she had never been in the kitchen since she was a child. Even when she later fell into misfortune and fled, Li Chun and others cooked for her.

Now that he had arrived at the princess's mansion, although he had enough clothes to wear, he had no servants to take care of him.

The only maid in the princess's mansion, who was also the personal maid of Her Royal Highness the Princess, left early this morning.

In such a huge princess mansion, there is not even a cook who can come back to cook.

Xia Mingyuan had quite a few guards under his command, from the Tiger Guards to the Yellow Turban warriors, but every one of them was a rough man who knew nothing except how to cook porridge for military rations.

This is really hard for our Miss Zhao Hongying.

After being accustomed to Xia Mingyuan's cooking, Zhao Hongying couldn't get used to these dishes. She helped Xia Mingyuan for a few days and learned some cooking skills. She simply wanted to cook by herself and show off in front of her aunt Xia Xue.

I never thought that cooking looks simple but it is not easy at all.

Those things that seemed easy to Xia Mingyuan were extremely difficult to accomplish in her hands.

Look, in less than half an hour, two dishes were burnt. The pot looked like it was filled with pieces of black charcoal. Not to mention eating it, just the smell was enough to make people frown.

Xia Mingyuan smiled when he heard this, rolled up his sleeves, and removed the firewood from under the pot first.

"Let me do it today."

"After a few days, we have to find a few cooks to come back to the Princess' Mansion. Otherwise, if I, the guard commander and executive chef, am not home for a day, you will all starve to death."

Xia Mingyuan said, and skillfully began to wash the pot and knead the dough...

Zhao Hongying held her cheek with her hand, squatted by the doorstep, and watched Xia Mingyuan busy attentively.

"I didn't expect cooking to be so complicated. It would be great if it could be as simple as practicing martial arts." Zhao Hongying couldn't help but sigh as she smelled the aroma of rice coming from the pot.

Xia Mingyuan stumbled and turned to look at Zhao Hongying, who had a serious expression on her face.

"Hongying, this Versailles thing isn't a good habit. You might get punished for it."

"The pancakes are almost out of the oven. Go call Auntie to come and eat with us."

After the three of them had lunch, Xia Mingyuan practiced sword swinging and drawing under the guidance of Zhao Hongying.

After a few days of practice, Xia Mingyuan clearly felt that his right arm had become much stronger, and his whole body became more energetic.

Early the next morning.

Xia Mingyuan was having breakfast when Li Chun disguised himself and entered the palace.

Seeing Xia Mingyuan, he quickly bowed and said, "Commander, you asked me to inquire about Pan Yue's matter, and I already have some clues."

"Oh?" Xia Mingyuan raised his eyebrows and put down the bowl of porridge in his hand. "Tell me, what kind of person is this general of our city defense camp?"

Li Chun scratched his head and chuckled, "Commander, I didn't know until I checked. I was shocked. This General Pan Yuepan is really a rare good official."

"In the past, we at Fengyulou were in Hanyang, and we didn't even get to know him in detail."

Xia Mingyuan nodded slightly without interrupting Li Chun, motioning him to continue.

"According to my investigation, General Pan is a loyal and honest man. He never allows his soldiers to take bribes from civilians entering the city. He supports his family of five with a monthly salary of 180 taels."

"Over the years, Sun Yaozu and his son Sun Wenju have tried to bribe him many times. Pan Yaozu even gave him a pure gold plaque, but he refused them all."

"In addition, he also had to set aside a portion of his money every year to provide relief to the relatives of soldiers who died on the battlefield. This led to his family being extremely poor. They didn't even have a house in Hanyang City and had to live in the countryside outside."

"Sun Yaozu once offered him a house, but Pan Yue refused it."

Li Chun told Xia Mingyuan everything about Pan Yue's situation, like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube.

Xia Mingyuan looked a little surprised. He never expected that in a place like Hanyang, where everyone was thinking about making money, there would actually be someone who remained untainted by the mud.

He really underestimated the ethics of some people in this world.

"What's the situation with Pan Yue's son Pan Hongxing? Have you found out how he got involved with Chen Ah Si?"

After a long silence, Xia Mingyuan suddenly asked.

Li Chun answered without hesitation, "There are probably many reasons for this. In short, Pan Yue's family is poor, and his son Pan Hongxing has a hard time. He is always looked down upon by his classmates at school. This Chen Ah Si is very generous and always gives Pan Hongxing a lot of money."

"I see."

Xia Mingyuan nodded slightly, feeling a little relieved.

No wonder Pan Hongxing, this young and foolish man, would protect his bastard friend so much.

It turns out that Chen Ah Si used his wealth to force a poor young master out of the water.

In this way, it would be easy to prevent Pan Hongxing from taking the initiative to contact Chen Asi.

The Pan family father and son should no longer have any further connection with the Poison Dragon Gang.

"Li Chun, you did a good job. Thank you for your hard work." Xia Mingyuan stood up and patted Li Chun's shoulder with a smile.

"I'll go to Old Lu's account office and get an approval for three thousand taels of silver. This will serve as the funds for gathering intelligence at Hongbinlou in the future."

Li Chun was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling and nodded immediately.

at the same time.

The Poison Dragon Gang, its base in Hanyang City.

"boom!"

The third in command, Chen Qing, slammed the table so hard that the teacup on the table fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

He suddenly grabbed the trembling minion beside him with a ferocious look on his face.

"Tell me! What's going on?"

"Ah Si was fine, why did his whereabouts get exposed? Who killed him?"

Monkey wiped the sweat from his forehead, his face pale. "Third, Third Boss, we don't know why Fourth Brother was exposed. It is said that he was jealous of Pan Yue's son from the City Defense Battalion, which made Pan Yue want to kill him."

"Pan Yue brought his men to our house and burned Fourth Brother's house to the grounds, killing more than a dozen of his men inside."

"Fuck your mother's fart!"

Chen Qing slapped him and cursed, "Ah Si followed my orders to approach Pan Yue's son and try to curry favor with him, so how could he be so jealous of this man over a woman?"

"Third boss, Fourth Brother was killed by Pan Yue. This is absolutely true and there is no way it can be wrong!" Monkey's face was full of panic and his voice was trembling.

"Brother Si fell in love with the little girl from the widow Zhang's tailor shop, and then he died there inexplicably. We brothers can only speculate..."