Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 91

Chapter 91 Disputes Between Men and Women
At this moment, Guang Ling City was bustling. There were both soldiers who had struggled after the war and wanted to rest against the wall for a while. There were also people who breathed a sigh of relief. Their faces were filled with excitement. In addition, there were the women in the city who had brought food to reward everyone. It was as if everything they saw was human.

However, Lu Zhen only glanced at her in the crowd and saw her-a woman with a blue cloth bun head and a simple dress, smiling as she handed out simple meals to the soldiers and civilians-Chu Yunrong!

Actually, Lu Zhen wasn’t the only one looking at him. Many men’s gazes also lingered on her body and face, because compared to other women, she was truly too beautiful. It was as if the rising of the red sun would cause the stars of the night to disappear. Her existence also caused all the women around her to pale.

Chu Yunrong, who was busy distributing the food, seemed to have sensed it as well. She noticed Lu Zhen’s gaze on her and raised her head to look back. There was concern in her eyes, as well as some admiration and joy in her eyes. Without hesitation, she took a pottery bowl from Cuimei and walked towards Lu Zhen.

The men who had originally intended to receive food from the beauty immediately showed regret when they saw her suddenly leave. However, when they saw that she was heading towards the county magistrate, they did not dare to have any thoughts, because Lu Zhen’s status in their hearts was too high now, and no one dared to be disrespectful to him at all.

Chu Yunrong smiled and handed the bowl over. “Are you in any danger here?” She said softly. As he said this, a flush appeared on his face.

Lu Zhen took the pottery bowl, but he didn’t eat it or thank it. He only said with a heavy face, “Why are you here? This is not the place you should be.” His tone was rather solemn and unhappy.

Originally, he wanted to say a few words, but he didn’t expect to receive such a firm answer. He even looked a little disgusted. This caused Chu Yunrong to be stunned for a moment, and then she became somewhat angry, “Why can’t I come here? As the county magistrate guarding the city, you have the responsibility. Since I am the wife of the county magistrate, I should naturally join the people in offering our condolences to everyone!”

Because of the anger in her heart, Chu Yunrong’s voice was quite loud, causing everyone around to hear it clearly. Only then did everyone know her identity. For a moment, those who had originally coveted her immediately gave up, and more people admired and respected Lu Zhen even more.

Only a hero like County Magistrate Lu was worthy of such a virtuous wife! Normally, the wives and concubines of the people with the slightest status in the city would not take the risk to come up to the city to deliver food to everyone. As the wife of the county magistrate, she actually came without caring about her safety. This made everyone feel very grateful and admired.

However, Chu Yunrong felt somewhat wronged and shy in her heart. To publicly admit that he was the county magistrate’s wife was to publicly say that he was Lu Zhen’s wife, but in reality, the two of them had nothing to do with each other. What was even more hateful was his kindness in delivering food, and he was even more worried about what dangers he might encounter in the city these past few days. He was lucky, not only was he not happy to meet him, but he directly accused himself. This was truly outrageous.

Looking at the sparkling eyes of the woman in front of him, as if tears could fall at any time, Lu Zhen felt a headache in his heart. He could naturally clearly feel her intentions towards him. However, the current situation at the city wall was not safe. Although the Meng people had temporarily retreated, no one knew when they would attack again. If they stayed here for a while longer, it would be more dangerous.

For the sake of Chu Yunrong’s safety, Lu Zhen could only disappoint the beauty. Even though she looked very aggrieved, she stiffened her heart and waved her hand, “This is not the place for you to stay. Hurry up and go back. Don’t be a burden to us.” Also … “Lu Zhen glanced at the women and said,” You guys are also ordinary. Guarding the city is a matter for the men in the city. You all should hurry back. ” If you want to deliver food in the future, you can just send it to the city gate. This official will naturally send someone down to retrieve it! ”

“You” Seeing that he was so merciless, Chu Yunrong felt even more annoyed. However, in the end, he still replied with a dull voice and turned around to leave. In front of so many people, she clearly wanted to save face for Lu Zhen.

Even the county magistrate’s wife could only obediently listen to her orders, so the other women naturally didn’t dare to disobey. Very quickly, these women left one after another. After the men in the city communicated with each other, they understood County Magistrate Lu’s painstaking efforts, so no one said anything.

In fact, they did not have the mood to talk about these trivial matters. Although the Meng people outside the city had suffered setbacks, the danger was far from over. No one knew when they would launch the next wave of attacks. Everyone’s attention was still focused on the enemy.

However, this time, it was clear that they had really hurt Meng Ren and were afraid of him. From noon until the sky darkened, the Meng people did not attack again. Even the corpses at the gates did not dare to be cleaned up, as if they were afraid to fight.

But Lu Zhen knew that this might just be the calm and preparation before the storm. Once they didn’t retreat and decided to attack the city again, their offensive would definitely surpass any previous one!

Another thing that had been in Lu Zhen’s mind was the reinforcements. It had been a day and a half, but the surrounding counties had yet to see a single soldier come to their rescue. This was a serious problem.

He didn’t know what had happened to the other garrisons because of what he had done earlier, but what had happened to the other states and counties. This was also conceivable. After all, the Mongols had never formally attacked the Great Ming Border City in the past few years. Perhaps this time, it was a targeted attack by the various tribes of the grasslands.

Although Lu Zhen did not remember such a great battle before the Civil Castle Incident, he did not dare to guarantee that it would not happen. After all, history was made up of many details, and he had already caused a great deal of trouble in the grasslands, so it was hard to guarantee that he would not cause such a chaos.

If that was the case, would Great Ming’s current frontier forces be enough to defend against an army led by a strong man like Ye Xian? Or would the tragedy of the Civil Castle happen years ahead of schedule?

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Lu Zhen felt. But very quickly, he laughed again. Why did he think so much about it? Right now, he was only a small county magistrate, so all he could do was help defend the city. As for the rest, even if it really happened, it was not something he could handle.

Lu Zhen exhaled a mouthful of turbid air and looked at the Mongol barracks outside the city again. He frowned again, “The enemies outside the city are still not going, and the initiative is all in their hands. It’s not easy to do. Unfortunately, there are too few troops available. Otherwise, we should have taken advantage of the victory to fight back. Perhaps we can beat them back.”

When the sky completely darkened, the soldiers and civilians who had been nervous for more than half a day heaved a sigh of relief. With yesterday’s experience, they knew that they had finally managed to survive this day, because it was impossible for the Meng people to launch another attack at night.

Moreover, even if reinforcements from nearby counties and prefectures hadn’t arrived, reinforcements from Datong should have arrived by tomorrow. Only then would Guang Ling City be truly defended. This thought made many people’s faces brimming with joy. In their hearts, the battle had ended, and they no longer had to fight to the death with the Meng people.

This emotion reached its peak when the food was served again at night. Unfortunately, there was no wine, otherwise, they would have drunk a lot to celebrate. When Lu Zhen saw this, he was quite satisfied. After a lesson from the daytime, those women finally didn’t deliver food this time. This meant that his prestige was still very high.

But soon he was pleased with himself, for very quickly, a familiar and slender figure came leisurely towards him. When the surrounding soldiers saw this, they all walked away. Even Lin Lie quietly walked to the other end and made way for a large part of the city.

When she arrived in front of Lu Zhen, Chu Yunrong fiercely stuffed a large bowl into his hand. When she looked at it, it was a bowl of spicy noodles. Afterwards, her pair of eyes glared at the man in front of her fiercely with a provocative look.

Lu Zhen smiled awkwardly, “Why do you like to take such risks? There may be war here at any time, and everyone will have to take care of you at that time …”

“I don’t need you to take care of me.” Chu Yunrong quickly interrupted him, “I said before, since I am the county magistrate’s wife, I should set an example. Men are protecting us and this city in front of us. Can’t we women just hide behind us and not even do a small thing for you?” As he spoke, he even rolled his eyes at him angrily.

Lu Zhen could be considered to have experienced this young miss’ temper, and he also regretted the rashness in his previous words, as if he had really hurt her. If it were in the future, Chu Yunrong would definitely be a firm feminist. After all, in this era when women’s status was low, she actually dared to drive her husband aside. Moreover, she was a rank seven county magistrate with a high status. How dare she speak to her like that?

Lu Zhen could only lower his head to understand this point. “Alright, I said the wrong thing. I apologize to you. I hope you, Miss Chu, are generous. Don’t blame me anymore.” If it weren’t for the noodles in his hands, he would have bowed and bowed.

Seeing him admit defeat, Chu Yunrong snorted and her expression softened. “This noodle was made by me and Cuimei. Hurry up and eat it while it’s hot.”

“You actually know how to cook?” Lu Zhen subconsciously said, then thought of something and hurriedly lowered his head to eat.

Chu Yunrong originally wanted to explode, but seeing him like this, she was a little happy. “Hey, am I really that scary?”

“That … is more or less the case.” “This noodle tastes good,” Lu Zhen said vaguely. “If I can put more sugar in it, it would be even better …”

Just as the two of them were chatting, the atmosphere became softer. Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound came from below the city wall. A sharp arrow suddenly flew up from below …