Just as Xu Shiqiu's promotion decree was sent out, and when the young people who joined the army with him were bestowed the title of level seven or eight Martial Officer, the news of the Mrs. Jiang's illness spread out in the capital Jiang Family.
Originally, those who heard of this matter did not take it to heart. After all, this was not the first time Mrs. Jiang had gotten sick in this year.
Xu Yanzhu didn't take it to heart, even though they were in-laws with the Xu Family. It wasn't until Xu Yanzhu had Cui Hua deliver the news to the Xu Family in person.
"That is to say, Mrs. Jiang is really seriously ill?" Dong Shu looked at Cui Hua who was standing in the middle of the hall in disbelief. She had never thought that the Mrs. Jiang was really going to collapse.
After Cui Hua heard the question, she first nodded seriously, but then said: "Originally, this First Miss did not believe it as well. However, last night, after First Miss returned from a trip, she did not know why but she had been in a daze for a long time. This morning, First Miss sent a servant back to visit Old Madame and Madam so as to return the news. "
Just as Cui Hua finished speaking, Old Madame Xu felt her heart jumped. She subconsciously looked at Dong Shu, only to see that she did not notice anything.
A moment ago, Old Madame Xu was still rejoicing over Dong Shu's slow change in attitude. After teaching her many things, in the next moment, Dong Shu used Cui Hua's words to understand what it meant for her to come back.
"Mother, is there some secret behind the Mrs. Jiang affair?" Dong Shu was not sure about her guess, but she couldn't think of another possibility.
Hearing Dong Shu's words, the Old Madame Xu first nodded his head in satisfaction, then said: "You didn't guess wrong, Yanzhu probably really did discover something." After saying that, the Old Madame Xu paused for a moment before continuing, "Earlier, you had told Yanzhu that her family's banquet guest, who was promoted to Third Uncle, needed her help, and thus took this opportunity to have her come back to help. This way, you could also ask her what exactly happened."
Receiving Old Madame Xu's instructions, Dong Shu immediately got busy, and also got Cui Hua to bring back news for her, telling her to come back early in the next few days to help.
Without mentioning what Xu Yanzhu thought when she received the news about the Third Aunt, because of Xu Shiqiu's promotion, the Xu Family was bustling for a few more days.
The people in the capital all knew about the agreement between Xu Shiqiu and Emperor Ruikang. Seeing that the Emperor Ruikang was not only generous in giving Xu Shiqiu a promotion, and even allowing him to recruit new recruits, they could guess that the new recruits that Xu Shiqiu had trained for were really not bad.
Otherwise, the Emperor Ruikang would not have ordered him to recruit new soldiers. Although this time he had to pick new recruits from the other generals in the military camp outside the capital.
Now that Xu Shiqiu's official position had been promoted, the officials who were previously at the same level as him or at a lower level naturally became his subordinates.
With Emperor Ruikang's words, even if they were not willing to surrender the soldiers in their hands, they could only bear with it and allow Xu Shiqiu to choose from among them.
However, the criteria that Xu Shiqiu had chosen was still for the people they had chosen to win against the support soldiers in his hands.
Even though they weren't his trusted aides, they were still soldiers that had been in the army for many years. Right now, they were going to compete with the auxiliary soldiers in Xu Shiqiu's hands.
This made some of the already dissatisfied people become even more displeased with Xu Shiqiu. Because of this matter, there were one or two people who were holding their breaths and wanted to properly teach Xu Shiqiu a lesson.
There were two ways they had thought of. The first way was that since Xu Shiqiu did not give them any face, they did not have to give Xu Shiqiu any face either. Didn't Xu Shiqiu let the auxiliary soldiers under his command out as the object of the competition? They would send out their best soldiers, but they would say that these were just ordinary soldiers under their command.
Whenever these people thought of their 'ordinary' soldiers defeating the soldiers under Xu Shiqiu's command, then Xu Shiqiu, who had been awarded with outstanding training as a recruit, would naturally be suspected of being real.
Of course, they would send someone to help spread the news. When that time came, as long as they were able to operate well, who knew if the ordinary soldiers under their command would be the best? Furthermore, Xu Shiqiu's subordinates were naturally not only sent to take the examination as support, they were bound to have something else spread.
No one would believe that they were actually Xu Shiqiu's subordinates, but they had to make it clear to the world that Xu Shiqiu's ability to train new recruits was not that amazing at all.
Besides this, there was another method, and that was Xu Shiqiu himself.
They all guessed that the reason Xu Shiqiu had gotten promoted two levels consecutively was because he had married a wife that the empress liked, especially since this lady was lucky.
Since that was the case, they naturally had to bring Xu Shiqiu to experience the gentleness of the other women in the capital.
As long as Xu Shiqiu was contaminated with another woman, when the time comes, they would spread the news.
At this point in time, Xu Shiqiu still did not know that he had already been targeted. When he received the Emperor Ruikang's orders for him to recruit more soldiers, he got thoroughly busy training his Iron Eagle Brigade soldiers.
Adding on the hints given by the Prince Duan, Xu Shiqiu understood that he would probably be leaving the capital for another place in a while.
Time was of the essence, and he could not wait for more than forty-eight hours a day.
That day, Xu Shiqiu was busy all day, he did not plan to return home tonight, but his family sent someone to say that they had something to discuss, so he ended his training half an hour earlier than the day before yesterday and prepared to return home.
However, before he could leave the military camp, a few generals who were not familiar with him came up to him with smiles on their faces and invited him to a restaurant in the capital for a drink.
The reason was to celebrate his promotion to an official position.
If these people had invited him to drink when he first arrived here, Xu Shiqiu might have agreed.
In addition, his decree to be promoted to the next level had been out for quite a few days. Only then would they take action, which seemed a bit unreal.
But now, his position was much higher than theirs, and now, he wanted to steal someone from their hands. How could these people invite him to drink wine and celebrate with such good intentions?
Xu Shiqiu was not stupid, he was also raised by his family, although he had always stayed at home, but he understood the workings of government officials.
Xu Shiqiu knew that he definitely could not drink today's wine.
"Everyone, I appreciate your kindness, but today the family sent a letter saying that there is a matter at home that we need to discuss once we return." Some other day, we will definitely have a banquet to entertain all of you. " Xu Shiqiu had originally wanted to not fall out with everyone, and quickly left after explaining his intentions.
Who knew that after he finished this sentence, one of the bearded martial general immediately feigned displeasure, "Could it be that General Xu is not willing to give us brothers some face? We have specially arranged a banquet for General Xu today. Could it be that with so many of us, we won't be able to invite General Xu? "
"That's right, is General Xu not willing to give us brothers any face today?" As soon as the bearded general had finished speaking, another general spoke up, "We've already reserved our seats at the restaurant in the city for today. Is General Xu looking down on us brothers just like that?"
As soon as the long-faced officer finished speaking, the rest of the generals all opened their mouths to echo, saying that if Xu Shiqiu was not willing to go to the banquet, then they were looking down on him.
If Xu Shiqiu had only suspected them from the beginning, then he was sure now that this group of people did not come with good intentions.
Since this group of people were not pure, then Xu Shiqiu would naturally not stay and act friendly with this group of people. If he had the time, he might as well go home early and play with Yuanxi and the Young Girl.
Thinking about it, Xu Shiqiu then said to the rest of them with difficulty: "Everyone, I'm afraid you have forgotten that this general's life has been peculiar since he was young. It was just that the Master Xuan Ling had given some instructions previously, allowing this general to stay with his wife as long as he had time. "Today, Japan has already sensed that something is not right. That is why they are preparing to return home early to accompany Madam." After saying that, Xu Shiqiu sighed again: "If everyone didn't mind, I would have been willing to accompany everyone else to the banquet, but if I had …"
There was no need to finish speaking, once Xu Shiqiu said that, the people surrounding Xu Shiqiu immediately took half a step back in fright.
In this period of time, Xu Shiqiu was just too normal, causing them to forget how terrifying his rumors were.
Seeing their actions, Xu Shiqiu understood that these people definitely did not mean to interact with him sincerely. Otherwise, they would not have avoided such an uncertain situation.
Thinking about it here, Xu Shiqiu continued: "Today, unfortunately, Japan will host a feast at the best restaurant in the city." After saying that, Xu Shiqiu took the opportunity to take a few steps forward, and then turned to look at them and said: "Everyone, there's no need to send me off. It's better to stay away from me for the next two days."
Throwing out these words, Xu Shiqiu did not care about what they were thinking, and directly walked forward, until he was beside his own personal guards, he immediately took the reins of his own horse, and jumped onto his horse, and left the army camp without looking back.
After Xu Shiqiu left, the group of people finally regained their senses.
The long-bearded officer asked: "Are Xu Shiqiu's words really true today?" They all knew about the misfortunes on Xu Shiqiu's body, but they had not seen who he had affected in the past few months.
"Even if it's not real, we still have to be careful. After all, the matter regarding Xu Shiqiu from back then is not fake." After the long-faced warrior said this, he sighed and continued: "This move is still not appropriate, if it really isn't, we should just use another method, it's not appropriate to interact with Xu Shiqiu too much."
As soon as the long-faced military general finished speaking, the other military generals all nodded their heads in agreement with his suggestion.
Only, they didn't know that as soon as Xu Shiqiu left the camp, he had ordered a thorough investigation of this group of people's plans. Other than wanting to pull him to a restaurant in the city to drink, they had no other plans.
After giving out the orders, Xu Shiqiu did not speak anymore, immediately riding on his horse, bringing his guards back to the Jing Residence.
When Xu Shiqiu just arrived home, he heard from Dong Shu that he had already returned home today, but she had been unwilling to speak the entire time. He had to wait until Xu Shiqiu returned before he was willing to say what he had discovered.
Hearing Dong Shu's words, Xu Shiqiu immediately said: "Since that's the case, then let's go to the Main Yard to see Yanzhu and hear what exactly has happened." After saying that, Xu Shiqiu immediately brought Dong Shu and walked towards the Main Yard.