Half a month after the army left, a document came from the front line, claiming that the army had arrived in Liangzhou and was ready to fight. The Western Kingdom seemed not to be very concerned about the Northern Emperor's personal expedition, and still let General Qianye take charge of the battle. In addition to sending Except for some reinforcements, the rest remained unchanged.
After Shen Huan read the document, she frowned deeply. She was not worried about anything else, but her brother was no longer the supreme external commander of the Western Kingdom. Was it because Ye Cangqiong didn't trust his brother, or was it something else? If he did, then he should It’s only right to let my brother fight!
But that's okay, because her brother's strategy and ability to lead troops in battle are really too strong. She will be worried that Xichen will be defeated by her brother because of this. Or, when the two of them fight, Shen Huan doesn't know which side to help. No brother would be merciful to Xichen. Shen Huan didn't want anything to happen to Xichen, and Xichen wouldn't be merciful to his brother. Shen Huan only had such a brother left, so naturally she didn't want him to get hurt!
Now that both of them are fine, Shen Huan doesn't have to be caught in the middle, so she feels relieved.
The person who delivered the document asked, "Why don't you send me something to the emperor? You might as well bring something with me."
Shen Huan thought for a while and said: "There is nothing to send over. If you have anything to say, I will tell him personally when he comes back."
"Yes" The messenger understood that the queen must want the emperor to come back safely and did not want to distract the emperor.
Winter in the North comes very early, and it will start to get cold in late September, so now is the time to prepare winter clothes. There are still hundreds of thousands of troops on the front line who need to make winter clothes. Shen Huan no longer cares about anything else and calls for cloth. The people from the Political Bureau gave him many instructions to prepare winter clothes, and they must not cut corners! She herself had stayed in the Western Country and knew that it was colder there than the Northern Country, so the winter clothes must be thicker!
There was no hunting this year, but fortunately there were still a lot left over from previous years. Shen Huan ordered people to find them all and make them into leather coats. Although the quantity was not large, they could still make a certain number. They called people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and asked them to sew them. I also kept a piece of bearskin for myself, and wanted to sew it myself and bring it to Xichen.
She had never learned sewing since she was a child, and she couldn't even embroider the simplest purse, let alone make clothes. So, she had to learn to make a big fashion dress. This was simple, but it was a bit difficult to sew a hat on the collar. Fortunately, the people around me are not that bad, so I asked Xiangming for advice.
Shen Huan sighed while threading the needle: "When I was a child, my father asked me to learn how to use women's red household goods. I was not happy and asked me to learn these useless things. I will not be a housekeeper in the future, but now I know. As a woman, these are still necessary. !otherwise……"
Chun'er continued: "Otherwise, I wouldn't even know how to sew a robe for my sweetheart!"
Shen Huan raised his head, glared at her and said, "Even you are making fun of me! I'll see how handy you are at sewing robes for your sweetheart in the future!"
Chun'er stuck out her tongue and said, "I don't have a sweetheart. If I have time to sew robes, I might as well embroider a few more skirts for myself, hehe."
Xiang Ming also glared at her and said to Shen Huan: "Actually, I don't have to do it myself, I can just leave it to the slaves."
Chun'er smiled and interjected: "How can you express your Majesty's feelings in that way?"
Before Shen Huan could raise her head and glare at her, her finger was pricked by a needle. She frowned, put her finger in her mouth and sucked it for a while. When the finger stopped bleeding, she continued to sew.
Chun'er didn't dare to speak anymore, Xiangming said distressedly: "Why don't you forget about it..."
Shen Wen said lightly: "How is this possible? Just like Chun'er said, what you brought with you is my heart! Don't disturb me, or I'll get it again, oh!" Sure enough, Shen Wen was pricked again, and Shen Wen again frown
Xiang Ming and Chun'er both shut up and stopped talking. If the empress is distracted again, she might sew another big dress. I don't know how many times it will be done.
It only takes a day or two for others to sew a large dress, but it took Shen Huan twelve days. According to Chun'er's incomplete statistics, the Queen's fingers were pricked a total of seventeen times in these twelve days! You can vaguely see blood-colored little red dots next to the needle and thread. Fortunately, these little red dots were covered up by the processing of fragrant tea.
When the next battle situation on the front line was reported, it happened to be late September. Shen Huan took a look and found that the Northern Army had high morale because the emperor was personally in charge. It only took more than ten days to capture another city, Bian. Zhouzhou! The morale is still strong now. If it continues like this, it is estimated that it will be a big deal to capture the other two in one go!
Shen Wen was very pleased and asked someone to carry the big dress she had made. Chun'er said at the side: "The Queen sewed this herself, it took a lot of effort!"
The messenger was slightly startled, glanced at the queen, and immediately felt admiration, saying: "The emperor and the border officers and soldiers know this, and they will definitely not disappoint the queen!"
Shen Huan smiled and said: "That's all, there are some others made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. You can take them back too. Those injured soldiers are afraid of the cold, so you might as well give them to them."
"Yes! Your Majesty has a kind heart, and the soldiers will definitely fight bloody battles for her!" The messenger's teeth chattered with excitement.
Shen Huan raised her hand and motioned for him to go down. She looked at the sky outside and wrapped herself tightly in her jacket. She murmured: "It's winter, it's time to change into cotton clothes."
This battle lasted longer than any previous one, from September to October, October to November... From time to time, there were reports of battles. Our army fought bravely and was about to capture the third state, but suddenly It snowed heavily, so our army had to withdraw its troops
It snowed heavily for three days in a row, and neither side fought again. On the fourth day, the Western Kingdom launched an attack. Fortunately, our army prepared for it in advance and fought bloody battles. After dark, we withdrew our troops and made a surprise attack in the middle of the night. The enemy was caught off guard and suffered heavy casualties!
Our army defeated the Western Kingdom and captured Youzhou!
This is the last message. It came from ten days ago. Now it has entered November, but there has been no news.
During the emperor's personal campaign, the harem was naturally calm, and even the outer court had no commotion. However, recently, there seemed to be some unusual movements in the outer court.
As a last resort, Shen Huan invited Xichao into Chen Palace and asked him about the frontline affairs.
After Xichao had a cup of tea quietly, he said: "Our army encountered a heavy snowstorm, and the news from the front line cannot be sent to the palace for the time being. You don't have to worry too much. Once the snowstorm stops, everything will be fine."
"Where is the Emperor?" Shen Huan didn't want to listen to his high-sounding words, so she asked straight to the point.
Xichao was silent for a while and said, "Fourth brother is fine."
"Xichao, I want to hear the truth!" Shen Huan became a little angry.
Only then did Xi Chao raise his head to look at her, and said with a forced smile: "Fourth brother is really fine... It's just that the concubine Ruogui who followed us is missing."