Chapter 247: The Battle of Public Opinion

Lian sneered inwardly, but pretended to share a common hatred for the enemy. "That's right, these are her usual tactics to confuse the enemy. Think about it, the people of Qianzhou Prefecture only let her seize the city because they believed her words! Lord Zhou, as an official appointed by the court, you must not sit idly by! My late husband sent several letters for help, but all fell on deaf ears. Now, you are my only hope for revenge!"

Having said this, Lian wiped away the tears of nothingness.

As expected, a woman's tears are the best weapon. This cry made Zhou Cangwu dispel all his worries. Instead, he gave her a light hand and said, "Madam Xu, it is my unshirkable responsibility to wipe out the rebels. Don't worry, as long as I, Zhou Cangwu, am in Xingyuan Prefecture, I will never hand the city over to anyone else!"

"In that case, I will wait for good news from you, sir—"

Not long after sending Zhou Cangwu away, Lian finally felt relieved. At least, she had somehow made Zhou Cangwu feel neglectful towards her, and she had avoided going to jail.

Look at Zhou Cangwu's hurried back as he left. He must have gone to ask the prefect for instructions.

According to Lian, since she was captured, Feng'er would definitely take action soon.

Now she just needs to wait patiently.

Feng'er was trained by Xu Zhenying personally. She learned all of Xu Zhenying's methods and must have a lot of tricks up her sleeve.

As for her, she first protected herself and then cooperated with Feng'er. Even though they were two women, they could still muddy the waters in Xingyuan Prefecture.

Who knows, maybe they can take advantage of the chaos and take over Xingyuan Prefecture?

Lian felt excited just thinking about it. For a moment, he threw away all his fear, uneasiness and anxiety. The only thing in his mind was to achieve great things.

If they can really take Xingyuan Prefecture without bloodshed this time with minimal casualties, the city lord will completely trust her and Yin Xi, right?

In this way, Yin Xi's position will be more solidified, and Le Zhi and Fu Wei will have hope in the future.

Only at this moment did Lian realize how exciting the power was.

No wonder Xu Deyuan always tried his best to climb to a higher position.

It’s really… the scenery from above… is so beautiful… so fascinating…

Sure enough, in the second half of the night, Feng'er passed the news through the jailer.

There was only one sentence written on the note.

Lian looked at the note, then stuffed it into her mouth and swallowed it with a half-vomiting motion.

Very good, the water in Xingyuan Prefecture will soon become muddy.

But this time, who is the fish?

About two days later, Lian met Zhou Cangwu again.

Zhou Cangwu is only about thirty years old. He is tall and mighty, with bright eyes. The long sword at his waist makes him look very powerful and should not be underestimated.

"Madam Xu." This time, Zhou Cangwu's tone was intimate. "Do you know that Xu Feng and the remaining one hundred or so women from Jinzhou Prefecture knelt in front of the government office, begging the prefect to let you go? Now everyone in Xingyuan Prefecture knows about it. The prefect is in a difficult situation and may release you soon--"

Lian pretended to be surprised, then calmly said, "Oh, this is their usual tactic. They just want to make things worse."

Seeing Zhou Cangwu's face full of embarrassment and hesitation, Lian's face flushed with anxiety. "Master Zhou, you should report this to the prefect immediately and have them arrested as well. Don't let this escalate! They just want to make a big fuss and let everyone in Xingyuan Prefecture know that the people in Jinzhou Prefecture are living well. All this talk about distributing land and grain to the people is fake!"

Zhou Cangwu also looked anxious. "That's right. Rumors have been spreading in the city these past few days, and the people are uneasy. I'm worried that if this continues, our soldiers will mutiny before the rebels even arrive!"

"How could this be?"

"Madam Xu, you don't know that the imperial treasury is empty. Because of the wars this year, the army has been expanded, but the wages are insufficient. To be honest, the soldiers of the Xingyuan Prefecture Guard haven't received their salaries for three months!"

This time, Lian could hardly hide her surprise.

Although she knew that the Great Zhou Dynasty had been in a bad state in recent years, she didn't know that they couldn't even pay the military salaries!

"Then Lord Zhou should have informed the prefect immediately! Otherwise, if they really make a big fuss, things will get out of control!"

Zhou Cangwu sighed, his face showing a look of anger and resentment. "Lord Yan has always valued civil officials over military officials and looked down on military officers, especially those like us who relied on family donations to get into the officialdom. He never even looks at us straight in the eye."

Lian was delighted.

The civil and military officials in Xingyuan Prefecture are actually not in harmony!

"Then what Master Yan means is..."

"He thought it was just a few troublemakers causing trouble, nothing serious. Instead, he thought I was deliberately exaggerating military information to gain merit, and he scolded me severely." Zhou Cangwu couldn't help but curse, "What a useless scholar! He relied on Xingyuan Prefecture's convenient geographical location and never fought a war. Xingyuan Prefecture, from top to bottom, has long been emaciated!"

Lian was silent for a moment, pondering the message Feng'er had passed on. Then she hesitated, "Lord Zhou is a loyal and patriotic man. He's reached the rank of seventh-rank military officer at such a young age. Given time, he'll surely soar to prominence, perhaps even becoming a marquis or a prime minister. It's just a pity he was born at the wrong time, and met such a timid superior. Even if he had made great achievements, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to seize them!"

Zhou Cangwu immediately understood the hidden meaning behind Lian's words, "Madam Xu... do you have an idea?"

Lian waved her hand. "Forget it. It's useless for me to say anything. First, Lord Zhou doesn't trust me. Second, even if Lord Zhou did, I'd still be blamed by the higher-ups later. Why would I be the bad guy?"

Zhou Cangwu thought about this sentence over and over in his mind, then laughed and said, "What are you talking about, Madam Xu? If I didn't believe you, every torture instrument in this prison would have been used on you one by one. How could you even stand and talk to me?"

Although Zhou Cangwu is a martial artist, he is naturally not a simple-minded person as he has been able to enter the officialdom.

He was always skeptical about Lian's words.

After thinking about it over and over again these past two days, he realized that there were some flaws in Lian's words, but because he was severely reprimanded by his superiors in front of his colleagues, he lost some of his rationality.

Lian still refused to say.

Zhou Cangwu could only patiently ask again and again, and after lowering his attitude to a very low level, Lian finally spoke: "Okay, I want to eliminate Xu Zhenying to avenge my deceased husband, and Master Zhou wants to wipe out the rebels and establish his cause. Our goals are the same, so I sincerely offer you advice. I am not talented, but I am willing to be bait. I will write a letter back to Jinzhou Prefecture, asking Xu Zhenying to come rescue me, and you can set an ambush here to attack them."

Zhou Cangwu frowned, "But didn't you say that Xu Zhenying doesn't value you?"

"Xu Zhenying is a good person. My late husband died under strange circumstances, and rumors are rife in Jinzhou Prefecture. Even if she dislikes me, I'm still her second aunt. To silence the gossips, she has to come and save me."

Zhou Cangwu didn't seem to agree.

Let Xu Zhenying's people come to Xingyuan Prefecture to rescue the Lian family?

Not to mention whether Xu Zhenying would come in person, even if Xu Zhenying was killed, the rebels were not completely wiped out, which is not a great achievement.

If Zhou Cangwu wants to completely step on the prefect's head, he needs a huge achievement!

Lian seemed to have anticipated Zhou Cangwu's reaction long ago, and thought that Feng'er was really amazing, and could actually guess Zhou Cangwu's thoughts.

So Lian followed Feng'er's instructions and asked, "I wonder how many troops are there in Xingyuan Prefecture now?"

Zhou Cangwu hesitated for a moment, as if considering whether to tell the truth.

Lian feigned anger and said, "If you don't trust me, you don't have to tell me."

Zhou Cangwu quickly laughed and said, "No, it's just three or four thousand people."

When it comes to military defense, it is obvious that Zhou Cangwu is unwilling to tell the truth.

Logically speaking, the two states of Jinzhou and Qianzhou fell, and Zhou Cangwu repeatedly requested reinforcements. However, the Great Zhou Dynasty was surrounded by enemies. On the one hand, it had to deal with the Tartars heading south, and on the other hand, it had to deal with the rebellious Prince Ming. However, the court did not take the small bandits here seriously.

Jinzhou and Qianzhou are not rich and are located in remote areas. Even if they are occupied by rebels for a while, there will always be a time for reckoning in the future.

Qianzhou had never been a battleground for military strategists. Its remote location, poverty, and seclusion, along with frequent local riots by the Tusi (local chieftains), necessitated a war every few years. The imperial court had long been accustomed to Qianzhou's fall, recapture, and subsequent fall.

This repetition is not uncommon.

As a result, no one in the court came to his aid, leaving him with only five thousand old, weak, sick and disabled people to garrison Xingyuan Prefecture.

But this is also his chance to soar to the sky!

Using five thousand old, weak, sick and disabled people to reclaim the territories of Jinzhou and Qianzhou, such an achievement is enough to make him famous in history, right?

Lian couldn't tell the truth, but she had a vague feeling that Zhou Cangwu might have underestimated him, so she offered a second suggestion. "Since our forces are almost equal, we must outsmart them. Otherwise, you can release me first, and I'll write a letter saying that the guards at Xingyuan Prefecture are lax, urging Xu Zhenying to bring all his elite troops to attack Xingyuan Prefecture. You can then set an ambush along the way and capture all of their troops in one fell swoop."

Zhou Cangwu's eyes lit up, and then he looked at Lian in disbelief.

Lian knew this suggestion was a bit eye-catching, so she pretended to say, "Anyway, I don't know much about war. I did hear my late husband and Lord Sun mention it before. They said that if we want to wipe out these rebels, we have to use clever tactics."

Zhou Cangwu believed it a little more, and after thinking about it carefully, he felt that Lian's idea was simply ingenious!

In this way, he could bypass the prefect and simply lie about being out for training to set up an ambush on Hushan Hill in Jinzhou Prefecture. If he killed several thousand rebels, the credit would be enough to allow him to jump several levels.

Zhou Cangwu had completely let down his guard and clung to Lian as if it were a lifeline. "Okay, this is a brilliant plan. I will release Madam Xu right now. Please write a letter immediately and I will have someone send it to Jinzhou Prefecture!"

He added, "Madam, I'm risking my life to let you out. Please don't let me down!"

Lian was moved and said, "Of course!"

Zhou Cangwu smiled with satisfaction, feeling that he had the Lian family completely under his control.

The woman has no knowledge and is easy to manipulate by using both coaxing and deceiving people.

Now that the gang is making such a big fuss at the gate of the government office, given the magistrate's cowardly nature, he will definitely let them go.

It would be better to just go with the flow and let the Lian family remember this favor and be more loyal to him.

In front of the government office, Feng'er brought hundreds of female workers to kneel in front of the door, begging the lord to release the people. The women kept saying that they were wronged, sometimes crying loudly, and sometimes pulling the people around them to tell their stories. The lord was upset by the women's crying, and at the same time thought to himself: Zhou Cangwu was so anxious to achieve success that he was really crazy. These women in front of him were clearly a group of people who came from Jinzhou Prefecture, but he insisted that they were traitors.

Of course, the prefect also learned about the incident from his subordinates. Some of his subordinates had accepted large bribes from Feng'er, so they naturally spoke in favor of Jinzhou Prefecture. They just said that they were a group of women who went out to work. After saying a few words about the situation in Jinzhou Prefecture, they were locked up by Zhou Cangwu.

There had always been discord between civil officials and military officials in the Zhou Dynasty, simply because military officials had no access to the imperial examinations and could only rely on their family connections to get a position. Moreover, most military officials were illiterate and acted impulsively and recklessly, so they were naturally despised by the literati who were trying to rise step by step through a serious career.

Now the prefect saw that those crying and making trouble at the government office gate were a group of real women, so he became even more impatient. After having someone threaten them a few times, he ordered Zhou Cangwu to release them.

Feng'er achieved her goal and pulled the crying women up.

As soon as the women saw the prefect leave, they immediately surrounded Feng'er and started chattering, "Minister Xu, I smeared ginger juice on my handkerchief. I cried so hard just now! Minister Lian and Sister Liu should be able to be released this time, right?"

"That's right, I almost strangled myself!"

Feng Er quickly made a gesture to silence the others, "There are too many people here, let's go back and talk."

Just as they were about to leave, they were grabbed by a hunched woman who took Feng'er's hand and said, "Miss, do you... Jinzhou Prefecture... really have medicine to cure smallpox?"

"Old man, this isn't medicine, it's the cowpox vaccine. As long as you get this vaccine, you won't get smallpox in your lifetime!"

Another bold woman came forward and asked, "Does Jinzhou really allow women to go out and do business, even widows?"

"You'll see when you go there, our streets are full of women!"

“What if someone harasses me?”

"Are they harassing me? That's great. We're short of laborers in the mines anyway. Wouldn't it be better to send them to dig the mountain?"

Feng Er quickly pretended to be hesitant to speak, and sighed, "Please don't ask any more questions. What happened just now was just a quarrel. Didn't you hear us? The prefect didn't allow us to talk about the situation in Jinzhou Prefecture! Besides, our people will go to jail again!"

"But...but why? Why aren't you allowed to say it?"

"If you all go to Jinzhou Prefecture to enjoy yourselves, what will happen to Xingyuan Prefecture's tax revenue and population?" Feng'er waved her hands hurriedly, a look of horror on her face. "Alright, alright, stop asking. We really can't say more! If you want to know the situation, why not ask the peddlers who go there to transport goods? They know the situation very well!"

For a while, everyone was so excited by the talk about dividing the land and grain that some people even secretly inquired about the peddlers who had recently been to Jinzhou Prefecture.

"Hey, isn't that Jia Lang? His family ships goods to Jinzhou Prefecture!"

Jia Xiaochun, who was watching the excitement, was surrounded by people. When he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately ran out, but was stopped by the enthusiastic people of Xingyuan Prefecture.

"Jia family boy, why are you running? I just want to ask you a few questions!"

"Don't dare to say it, don't dare to say it. If you say it, you will go to jail! Didn't you see that those women were thrown into jail?"

"Well, the prefect has already released them, which proves that there's nothing to hide. Besides, it's just to understand the situation over there, why should I go to jail?"

Jia Xiaochun was coaxed by everyone, and because he was a soft-hearted person, he blurted out the truth in an instant.

"To be honest, we secretly went to Jinzhou Prefecture last month! Wow, the people there are all very wealthy. You know the pigs in Lan County? Every household there raises pigs, and they are sold at a low price here. Unlike in Xingyuan Prefecture, where they are only available to the rich!"

"Let's not talk about anything else, just talk about smallpox. Do they really have that cowpox vaccine? Can that thing really cure smallpox?"

At this point, Jia Xiaochun smiled somewhat complacently. "I don't know if it can cure smallpox, but all those kings have been vaccinated. If they dare to vaccinate, so can I! And now they offer free vaccinations as long as you go to Jinzhou Prefecture. They say doctors will come to other places to help with vaccinations next year. Tsk tsk tsk tsk, the price will probably be the same as Lan County pigs. It's only for the rich again!"

There was a cry of surprise from the crowd.

But someone immediately questioned, "Where in the world is there a medicine that can cure smallpox? Even if there is, how could it be developed in the rebels' territory? We have so many doctors in the Great Zhou Dynasty, are they still no match for the rebels in the remote countryside? I think it's probably some kind of magic trick, or they are just trying to trick us ordinary people!"

Jia Xiaochun looked unhappy. "So you're just sitting in a well and looking at the sky from afar. No wonder those rebels are prospering so fast! Let me ask you, have you ever seen a pencil? That was also passed down from Jinzhou Prefecture! They have a research institute over there, and they support one person with one tael of silver a month, and they specialize in researching these things, pencils, cement, cowpox experiments, Lan County pig farming, and sweet potatoes! I'm afraid you haven't even seen those things, and they can produce one or two thousand kilograms per acre! Tell me, what's life like for people over there?"

Everyone gasped, and couldn't help but imagine, "Doesn't that mean that every citizen in Jinzhou Prefecture is rich?"

"It's more than just money. Jinzhou Prefecture has taken in 70,000 to 80,000 refugees. It's almost full. There's gold and opportunities everywhere. You can even pick up money just by bending down. Some people can earn half a penny a day just by selling water. Why? There's a lot of labor over there to open up the wasteland. Who wouldn't drink water? Don't you think this is picking up money?"

Jia Xiaochun has always been outspoken, and he couldn't stop talking after this one. "You still call them traitors, but I think their people live much better than us! Forget about other things, just take food. Every household has rice, fish, and meat. Ordinary people here can't even eat a bowl of white rice all year round. How can we compare with them? No wonder the people of Jinzhou Prefecture stand up straighter when they come out!"

Jia Xiaochun was still sparing no effort to exaggerate the situation in Jinzhou Prefecture. He had never enjoyed such a high-profile moment in his life. His heart was floating for a while, and he kept praising Jinzhou Prefecture to the point that it was the best in the world. This made people itchy and they just wanted to pack their bags and take their whole family to seek refuge there!