Chapter Fourteen: The Spirit of Knocking Down the Bride

  The next day, Li Yujue tidied up and went to Lijiazhuang early in the morning. Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao, who followed him, were now full of energy and dressed neatly, no longer showing the depression and decadence they had when they blocked the road and robbed people.

  Xu Wanting and the two Li brothers had left the day before at noon, Xu Wanting returned to Lijiazhuang and after saying hello to Li Qing, she hurriedly returned to her hometown of Gaoping in a neighboring county.

  Li Qing was also delighted to hear his daughter's intention. Although Li Yujiao was not a legitimate child, she was very respectful and filial, and Zhao Xing, as an outsider, had already shown off his exceptional abilities and talents over the past few months.

  And not to mention that Zhao Xing has made a fortune since becoming the "chairman", just the two sets of new furniture sent by the seller have made Li Qinglao feel comforted, thinking that although he is an outsider, he is much better than those useless things in his own family.

  Recently, Li Jingsi under the second son's knee and Li Jinwu under the third son's knee have been fighting fiercely with Zhao Xing, and they are always together plotting something. Li Qing even feels that Li Family Village has hope again.

  So, regarding the marriage mentioned by Li Yujiao, it was a resounding approval with both hands and feet. Immediately, he sent his family servants to the Xu family to invite Xu Mantang and his wife - his third daughter and third son-in-law - to come and discuss the marriage between their granddaughter Xu Wanting and grandson Zhao Xing.

  That's right, it's a granddaughter and grandson, and they are close relatives. Many people may say at this point that you are talking nonsense, how did you come up with the idea of close relatives getting married?

  In the eyes of modern people, Zhao Xing and Xu Wanting are indeed not suitable, directly violating the basic national policy, but in the view of the Han Dynasty people, this matter is normal, and even will be strongly promoted.

  Don't you see, Emperor Wu of Han and Empress Wei Zifu were originally cousins, Liu Che called Wei Zifu's mother "Aunt". There's a saying that goes like this: "Cousins are close relatives, even if they're not related by blood, they're still connected by tendons!" Those of you sitting in front of the computer, who dares to say that when they were young and dashing, they didn't secretly cast wolfish eyes on their own cousins? Hehe, got a bit off track.

  In just a few days, Zhao Xing received good news in the study of Li's family - the Xu family had agreed to this marriage and was only waiting for the Zhao family to send over the betrothal gifts before publicly settling the engagement.

  "Should I eat or should I not, or should I just keep eating?" Zhao Xing's face was filled with confusion after hearing the news, and he muttered some incomprehensible words to himself.

  Li Jinsi and Li Jinwu, who were sitting opposite the desk, thought he was hungry and shouted to the next room: "Auntie, Xiaoxing is hungry, hurry up and serve dinner!"

  "I'm giving you a slap in the face!" Zhao Xing said with a bad tone, rolling his eyes at Li brothers. Actually, our Zhao Xing was entangled in his heart that once he got engaged to Xu Wanting, it would definitely not take long before they get married and enter the bridal chamber. Although Zhao Xing had already gained experience from his past life and was no longer a rookie, facing 16-year-old Xu Wanting now made him somewhat unable to make a move or say anything!

  However, after Zhao Xing thought of some other things, he was determined that once they got married, no matter if he was a "Lolita complex" or not, on the wedding night he would push Xu Wanting down. What do you think Zhao Xing thought of?

  The population decline at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was severe. If it had gone through the turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period, the population of China would have dropped from nearly 60 million during the prosperous Han Dynasty to 8 million! It's even more than the population loss of the Chinese nation during the Anti-Japanese War. If readers are interested, they can look up relevant information about the sharp decline in population at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is absolutely shocking and thought-provoking.

  Zhao Xing had been in this era for half a year and was familiar with many of the major historical events at that time. He knew that due to the plague and locust infestations, several hundred million people had died in the nine states in previous years. He also knew that after the Three Kingdoms were established, Sun Quan had encouraged his subjects to have more children by requiring all men over 11 years old to get married.

  In the era of agricultural civilization, human resources are the foundation of a country's and nation's prosperity. The Chinese nation has been able to exist for 5,000 years, despite the decline of other three civilizations, mainly because the Han people have always maintained a certain population advantage, even after the Five Barbarians' invasion, the Mongol rule, and the Manchu rule.

  People are the foundation! This is a conclusion that ancient sages have long drawn. "Putting people first" is also an important perspective that Zhao Xing came into contact with when studying political theory in his previous life. With the pragmatic idea of "starting from oneself to cultivate people", Zhao Xing decided to be a model and example for this era's multiple births and large families!

  In the following period, the villagers of Li's family courtyard were all enthusiastically discussing the good news of Zhao Caishen and Zhao Quxing's upcoming wedding in their spare time after farming. Some gossipy big girls and young daughters-in-law were busy preparing the wedding room for Zhao Xing, and Li Qing also rarely had a good mood swing, personally taking charge of his grandson's wedding ceremony.

  At the time when everyone was busy with Zhao Xing's wedding, our male protagonist was wandering around leisurely, running through all the large and small wine workshops around Changzi County, and often staying in Xu Mantang's Xujiu Wine Workshop for several days. Those who knew the inside story thought to themselves: it turns out that what Zhao Xing called "research" was actually just touring around; those who didn't know the inside story thought that Zhao Xing was thinking of his future wife who hadn't crossed the threshold yet.

  The wedding was set on May 8th (it must be the lunar calendar or summer calendar, as there was no solar calendar and Gregorian calendar at that time. From now on, all dates mentioned in this text are in the lunar calendar), with more than two months of free time in between.

  Zhao Xing was busy examining the ancient brewing techniques of white wine during the day, but at night he had Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao accompany him in practicing martial arts.

  After a winter of recuperation, Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao burst out with their true strength. Although Zhao Xing had been trained in military subjects since his previous life and was skilled in the three sets of martial arts, he was still clearly inferior to these two brothers when it came to fighting, and at first, he could only be abused.

  However, as Zhao Xing's physical strength grew later on, and with his practice of Tong Lao's gun technique, Zhou Cang clearly felt the pressure. At first, he only used 60% of his strength, but now he had to use 100% of his spirit, otherwise he would be beaten by Zhao Xing's unpredictable gun technique at any time. Of course, most of the time, it was still Zhao Xing who got abused.

  Unconsciously, more than two months have passed. The Li family's other courtyard is decorated with lanterns and streamers, joyfully welcoming Zhao Xing's wedding.

  Following the customs and etiquette of the time, Zhao Xing was like a puppet on strings, following the instructions of the master of ceremonies, making all sorts of movements and poses, putting on a smiling face, and finally led Xu Wanting into the bridal chamber, which was his own bedroom at the time.

  The red candle shines brightly, warming the spring-filled bed. A pair of lovers entwined in sleep, Zhao Xing once again fulfilled his "historical mission" from boy to man; Xu Wanting also transformed from a maiden to a woman, with a gentle and charming voice. As the saying goes, the spring night is short, not long after, the pink bed curtains were turned red, a great battle rose and fell... (The rest of the more than 10,000 words are omitted.)