The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 739: Yanwo
Chapter 739 Yanwo
“Then, should I not be rewarded for offering advice to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince? Hongmei has a hard life and is a lowly one. I dare not ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for a position. I only ask that if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince uses the advice I offer tomorrow and is praised by His Majesty, he can cherish Hongmei for a few more days.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Hongmei’s boneless little hand reached into the prince’s clothes.
The prince quickly grabbed Hongmei’s hand and said in an ambiguous voice, “I couldn’t stand it just now, why are you teasing me again now?”
Hongmei bit her lower lip, pretending to be embarrassed and angry. She turned around with a red face and pulled the quilt to wrap herself tightly, so that the little temper would ignore the prince.
The room was filled with the prince’s laughter and the sweet words of the young lady in the tent, but Quan Yu, who was standing outside, was only concerned about Bai Qingyan’s frail body.
·
On the second day, before dawn, Shen Qingzhu rode his horse straight to the gate of Princess Zhenguo’s mansion and knocked on the closed door.
The door was opened a crack and the porter looked out through it.
The sheepskin lanterns outside the Zhenguo Princess’s mansion were still burning, and the warm and soft light reflected Shen Qingzhu’s face, which had turned blue due to the cold wind. Her lips were cracked due to lack of water. The doorman hurriedly opened the door: “Miss Shen!”
Shen Qingzhu casually threw the whip to the doorman, stepped into the door, and said, “Take good care of the horse at the door. I’m going to see the young lady!”
As soon as the doorman went out, he saw that the mane horse that Shen Qingzhu was riding was sweating profusely and had fallen to the ground, with its abdomen heaving violently and steam coming out of its body.
The servant was suddenly at a loss and turned around to call for help.
This was the precious horse that the eldest girl had given to Shen Qingzhu. It was so precious, yet Miss Shen had used it to such a state.
Shen Qingzhu held Ji Tingyu’s letter in his arms. He did not dare to delay and ran all the way to Qinghui Courtyard and knocked on the door.
The maid of Qinghui Courtyard was startled by the knock on the door. She put on her dark blue quilted jacket, stood up, and walked out of the side room in her slippers. While buttoning her clothes, she asked, “Who is it?”
“Shen Qingzhu!”
The maid in Shen Qingzhu Qinghui Courtyard knew about this, and she said respectfully, “Miss Shen, please wait a moment. I will go tell the eldest and second young ladies right away!”
Last night, Bai Jinxiu stayed in Bai Qingyan’s Qinghui Courtyard. Bai Jinxiu sent a night watch girl and said that she would take care of Bai Qingyan personally at night.
When Shen Qingzhu knocked on the door, the lights in the upper room of Qinghui Courtyard were already on. The maid walked to the window and whispered, “Eldest Miss, Second Miss… Miss Shen Qingzhu is here!”
“Let Qingzhu in!” Bai Qingyan’s voice came from inside.
“Yes!” the maid responded and ran over to open the door for Shen Qingzhu.
Bai Jinxiu put on a coat and was about to help Bai Qingyan up when she saw that she had already sat up.
Soon Shen Qingzhu came in through the curtains. She was so cold when she came in that she was afraid that the cold would spread to the eldest girl, so she stood behind the screen and took out the small bamboo tube from her chest, saying, “Eldest girl, second girl, Ji Tingyu has brought back a letter!”
Bai Jinxiu and Bai Qingyan exchanged a glance, then hurriedly came out from behind the screen, took the extremely thin bamboo tube, and said to Shen Qingzhu, “There is hot tea on the stove. Drink some tea first and eat some snacks to fill your stomach.”
Shen Qingzhu nodded.
Shen Qingzhu rode at a high speed all the way and didn’t even dare to drink water, for fear of wasting time.
Shen Qingzhu didn’t care that she hadn’t washed her hands or changed her clothes yet. She picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea, blew on it, and drank it.
Bai Qingyan poured out the letter from the small bamboo tube and unfolded the soft paper inside. There were only a few words: Snow disaster in Yanwo and food shortage in Huweiling.
Bai Qingyan’s palms tightened. Huweiling is between Hushui and Yanwo.
Ji Tingyu was short of food, probably because he was helping the disaster victims in Yanwo.
Yanwo has indeed suffered many disasters in the past two years.
The year before last, there was a severe drought in Yanwo in July, and a snow disaster in the winter. Three years after the New Year, heavy rains lasted for a month, causing floods. The fertile fields were submerged, and the people of Yanwo became refugees.
Just last year, Ji Tingyu robbed soldiers from three places. Because the government kept sending people to search for him… he had to hide in the deep mountains. Later, Ji Tingyu ordered people to spread rumors everywhere, portraying the incident as a ghost story. Local officials did not dare to investigate it carefully. At the end of October, not long after the news arrived in the capital, the court had not had time to send people to investigate it in detail, and the Wude Gate Rebellion occurred.
Later, when the Wude Gate Rebellion was quelled and the capital city returned to peace again, the prince sent three officials to three locations in mid-November to investigate the matter, but these three officials were afraid of ghosts and gods and did not dare to investigate further.
As the matter dragged on until the end of the year, there were signs that it was causing panic among the people. Families whose husbands and sons were called up to join the army even made a scene in front of the government office. The prince was afraid that if the matter was dragged on for too long, it would become a big deal.
In addition, no soldiers had been lost elsewhere, so the prince discussed with Mr. Fang that the number of lost troops was not large, and came up with a plan to announce to the outside world that the troops had been found. In this way… the food and wages of these soldiers could all go into the prince’s pocket, and the money could be used to please the emperor.
Moreover, the prince has this convenient condition. After all, the Bai family army is now the prince’s soldiers. The prince can give Shen Kunyang a secret order, saying that these soldiers have been transferred to southern Xinjiang, and let Shen Kunyang accept it. Only in this way can the panic of the people in the country be calmed.
The emperor was obsessed with elixirs and the pursuit of immortality and had no time to care about this matter, so the prince acted in this way.
The prince announced first that the new soldiers had been sent to southern Xinjiang, and by the time the secret order reached Shen Kunyang, the matter had been settled. Shen Kunyang sent a message back to Shuoyang. When Bai Qingyan knew about it, he said nothing, but only sent a letter to tell Shen Kunyang that he could take the soldiers in Bai Qingjue’s hands to the military camp with legitimate reasons, call them new soldiers, and train them well.
“Yanwo snowstorm?!” Bai Jinxiu was quite surprised, “The capital city has not received the news!”
“During the last famine in Yanwo, if the imperial examination cheating case had not been exposed, Li Mao would not have chosen to release him. Now that there is a snow disaster in Yanwo, I guess… the news is still suppressed.” Bai Qingyan frowned and began to think about the food issue.
“Eldest sister, I can find a way to deal with the food issue. Shuoyang is currently training troops. I am the daughter of the Bai family, so it is not surprising for me to purchase food and send it over there. But… I need to think carefully about how to send it to Ji Tingyu.” Bai Jinxiu said.
“It would be too conspicuous if you were to do this. I’ll do it…” Bai Qingyan tapped his fingers on the agarwood table. “Huayang and Qinhuai were hit by a severe epidemic and Yanwo was hit by a snowstorm. If the Bai family is willing to use their private property to purchase and donate some grain, I think the prince will be willing to do so.”
Bai Qingyan thought of a person, Shuoyang Prefect Shen Tianzhi.
Since Shuoyang Prefect Shen Tianzhi said that he was the escape route his father left for the Bai family in Shuoyang, then… Bai Qingyan will use him this time.
The place called Yanwo can be regarded as the fertile land of Jin State because of its fertile soil and abundant grain production. During the reign of Queen Ji, it was called Yanwo, and this place name continues to this day.
First update! Little ancestors are asking for monthly tickets…