Chapter 149: Everyone Has a Background, Only I Am a Commoner
The cicadas outside suddenly began to chirp loudly and shrilly.
After being slapped, Heir Han felt his ears buzzing, and every sound outside seemed louder than usual.
It felt as if something inside his ear had shattered, letting the sounds pierce straight through.
The noise gave him a headache.
His face hurt too.
He watched Lady Qin flick that giant black ant far away.
The guards watched helplessly as Heir Han took a slap.
They hadn’t even had time to react.
Then they heard Lady Qin say in surprise, “Oh, it’s swollen. Heir, I didn’t mean to. I was really just helping you swat an ant. You don’t know this, but last time a Kidnapper in our county was bitten by an ant and died. You’re lucky to be alive.”
As Lady Qin spoke, she gently patted her daughter, making a soft sound.
Jiang Mianmian realized what happened and let out a loud wail, “Wah!”
When Father arrived, she cried even louder.
She was gasping for air.
Father asked what was wrong.
She sobbed, hiccuped, and complained at the same time.
“The uncle wanted to see the ant, so I showed him the ant, and then the uncle threw me away. Wuwuwu, and the uncle hit the ant too, wuwuwu…”
Jiang Changtian held his wailing daughter and looked at Heir Han’s swollen face. He actually smiled at Heir Han.
He comforted Mianmian, “It’s alright, it’s alright, don’t cry. The uncle just hasn’t held a child before, it was an accident.”
Jiang Mianmian thought about how she really could have been dropped, and she truly cried.
Although jumping down from trees didn’t hurt, and it wasn’t as painful as Mother spanking her.
But having found someone to complain to, her tears flowed uncontrollably.
Resting her chin on Father’s shoulder, she continued to howl.
Hearing his young daughter wailing, Jiang Changtian felt her body trembling slightly as he held her.
Jiang Changtian didn’t like Heir Han to begin with. The way he looked at Sister Xia made him want to add a vertical line on the windowsill.
Heir Han’s behavior in the capital was notorious, yet he was always protected by the Emperor. No matter how absurd he acted, the Emperor seemed blind to it.
Heir Han had actually grasped the Emperor’s heart in certain ways. By doing evil and causing trouble everywhere, he made the Emperor feel as if he were the Emperor’s dark side. If it were the Emperor himself, he also had a bad side, but it was suppressed, and no one dared to speak of it.
The Emperor looked at Heir Han as if he were looking at a manifestation of his own evil thoughts.
Jiang Changtian had invited Heir Han to his home because he was connected to the Jiang Family. The first place he went upon arriving in Ming County was the Jiang Mansion. Heir Han was likely the response to the letter Old Madam Jiang had written to the Prince Consort.
Old Madam Jiang’s letter had been very cautious. It appeared to have no hidden meaning, just routine greetings.
She greeted the Princess, the Prince Consort, and the Heir, and sighed about the passage of time.
Now, the Heir had actually come.
He wondered when the Seventh Prince’s people would arrive.
Jiang Changtian was somewhat expectant because he had discovered that among their group of Rebels…
Not only did Great Marshal Zi not seem like he came from a grassroots background.
To be able to recruit so many ambitious people—some suspected Great Marshal Zi was related to The Former Crown Prince.
There was another group of Rebels that had suddenly risen to prominence near the Seventh Prince’s territory, in the northwest. This group was well-equipped with strong soldiers, all of them tall and invincible.
Last year was a disaster; many places had no harvest. That region was a severely affected area, littered with corpses of the starved.
Yet, how could such physiques be raised on ordinary vegetation?
He hadn’t liked eating meat before, but he would force himself to eat it because without meat, he had no strength.
When times were hard, his Fenger was so thin his spine stuck out. Without meat to eat, there was no strength, and when going out to make a living, he was always the one easily bullied.
The leader of this group was said to be a man eight feet tall, with a majestic face and a beautiful beard.
He was known as the Beautiful-Bearded Tang the Righteous.
He also pledged allegiance to Great Marshal Zi.
He fought with exceptional bravery.
Unlike Jiang Changtian, who managed his own small plot of land, stayed in the rear, quietly training troops and farming, providing money and grain to support Great Marshal Zi, and only occasionally going out to fight for the sake of training.
Thus, here in Ming County, it was as quiet as if there were no famine and no rebellion.
Life was peaceful, even more fulfilling than before the rebellion. At least there were no people starving to death or being forced to death by landlords.
More and more young men were joining the Jiang Family Army.
The Jiang Family did not turn anyone away, regardless of gender or age.
The elderly who had skills utilized their expertise; those without skills could look after children, teach them, keep watch, or do light work, and they could also gather and filter information.
Other armies absolutely refused old men, but here, Jiang Changtian was polite to the elderly, providing them with food and drink and promising to support them when they could no longer move.
The young adults went without saying; they ate a lot and consumed a lot, but they were the main force.
Jiang Changtian gathered the young children and teenagers, first teaching them to read, nourishing their bodies, and shaping their values.
The same went for women. Although women were physically weaker, they could do delicate work. Moreover, taking in more women made it easier for the men to marry. One couldn’t have a team consisting only of men, fighting to the death with no one at home; it was very easy to become lost.
If they were married with a family and children, they would fight even harder to forge ahead.
Here in Ming County, Jiang Changtian appeared inactive and rarely went to battle, but in reality, he was constantly recuperating and slowly changing things.
The Jiang Family Army was also expanding at an exceptionally fast rate.
In reality, they had the largest number of people among the rebel factions, but since there were so many old, weak, sick, and disabled, it didn’t attract the attention of those above. Instead, they thought Jiang the Second had been made foolish by reading, that he was too benevolent, and that a scholar’s rebellion would never succeed in ten years.
Conversely, the Beautiful-Bearded Tang the Righteous’s side was much more fierce.
Their momentum was fast overtaking Great Marshal Zi’s. At first, they were just followers, but now there was a sense of them being on equal footing.
They were the most opposed to accepting amnesty.
Jiang Changtian felt that Tang the Righteous also didn’t come from a grassroots background.
With strong soldiers and horses, what commoner could afford to keep good horses?
People couldn’t even eat their fill, where would there be food for livestock?
Jiang Changtian didn’t know why, but he always suspected that group was related to the Seventh Prince.
Although he heard the Seventh Prince had been beaten very badly.
Thinking about it, it was quite poignant. A group of people rebelling, everyone had a background, while he was the only one who was a true commoner with no status.
Sigh, he still needed to work hard.
Otherwise, a dog like Heir Han would dare to covet his family.
Jiang Changtian smiled. His health had been very poor before; his foundation was basically ruined. Even without illness or disaster, he was not a person with a long life.
He had the look of someone who would die young.
He naturally had the air of a sickly beauty.
Even though his body was better now, that air of frailty had not disappeared.
Jiang Changtian was currently just a small Commander Jiang.
He asked Heir Han with concern if his face hurt.
“Heir, you know I used to work in the Herb Preparation Bureau and know a little about medicine. For a swollen face, it’s best to find bear feces, mix it with honey, and apply it thickly to the face. It will be better in a day. This is a folk remedy and very effective. You could try it, though bear feces is hard to find. Cow dung might work as a substitute, but the effect might not be as good.”
Heir Han wanted to open his mouth to speak, but for a moment, he couldn’t make a sound.
He only felt as if his face were crooked, and when he opened his mouth, he could only make a hissing sound.
The child was still wailing, crying until his head ached.
He had seen women in his uncle’s harem slap each other before. Often, after being hit, those women could still cry beautifully like pear blossoms in the rain, winning his uncle’s sympathy.
But here, after being slapped, he felt dizzy and unsteady.
Looking at Lady Qin again, she looked panicked, “Husband, I was just swatting the ant for Heir Han. I didn’t think his face would get swollen. Husband, it’s all my fault, I used too much strength.”
Heir Han felt as if his brains had been shattered. He tried to speak, but couldn’t get the words out for a long time. At this moment, he blurted out, “It’s not big. Sister-in-law’s strength is not big at all. It’s just that I can’t take a hit.”
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