Yu Xin cautiously pressed his ear against the crack in the door to listen for any sounds outside. Seeing that there was nothing amiss, he turned and walked towards Zhen Wanwan and Zhu Yuan.

Suddenly, without warning, he knelt down in front of the two men and kowtowed three times, saying, "My lords, the Yu family is willing to follow your lead. In the future, whatever you command, the Yu family will do its utmost."

Zhen Wanwan was shocked; this was too sudden.

She subconsciously looked at Zhu Yuan, who squeezed Zhen Wanwan's hand and looked at her reassuringly.

Then he looked at Yu Xin and asked, "What do you want?"

Although the Yu family's net worth is far less than before, even though they are no longer the richest family in the country, their wealth and influence remain.

The country is now beset by internal and external troubles. In addition to the princes and nobles who want to dominate, many small mountain strongholds have set up their own independent groups, wanting to compete for that position.

During this period, in addition to investigating the Yang King's inside man, Zhu Yuan also investigated all the bandit dens in various places.

Except for one particularly troublesome bandit stronghold, the rest of the bandit strongholds did not amount to much. Most of them were occupied by ordinary people who had been driven to desperation and had no other choice but to take over a mountain.

Anyone with even a little influence would extend an olive branch to the Yu family, but Zhuyuan never considered recruiting them.

He had never had the money to support the military before, and he never thought of relying on others.

His wife's sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes are now producing an astonishing yield; the first half of the year's harvest is enough to supply the army for a year.

Once these things are planted throughout Anqing Prefecture next year, they will be able to provide the people of Anqing Prefecture with enough grain for one or two years.

As long as they cultivate crops such as sweet potatoes every year, they will not have to worry about food.

As for military pay, once we win the battle, we won't have to worry about not having money to spend.

In terms of medical skills, they already have a herbalist and his wife.

Aside from terminal illnesses, there's no need to worry about minor ailments or injuries.

Zhu Yuan thought that they were basically able to take care of themselves in terms of daily life, so whether the Yu family relied on him or not was not very important.

Yu Xin frowned slightly, seemingly not expecting Zhu Yuan's reaction to be so cold.

In his original plan, shouldn't the emperor and his ministers have held hands, their eyes filled with tears, saying they regretted not meeting sooner?

Therefore, he couldn't bring himself to utter his original lines.

"Sir, our Yu family only asks that you provide us with a place to settle down and protect us from persecution."

Having already grasped Zhu Yuan's personality, Yu Xin didn't bother with formalities and directly stated what they wanted to know.

In recent days, many forces have been openly and secretly trying to win over the Yu family, with the prefect of Mingzhou Prefecture, led by Prince Yang, being the most aggressive.

Because of the proximity, they came to persuade them almost every other day, using both soft and hard methods.

Sure enough, in the last half month, the Prince of Yang has given orders that if the Yu family does not comply, they will be completely wiped out.

As for the assets, they left only their younger sister and transferred them to her name to cover up their despicable behavior.

His elder brother, Yu Cheng, went out to gather information so that the Yu family could find a wise ruler to protect them as quickly as possible.

Moreover, they must safely evacuate Mingzhou Prefecture right under the nose of the Prince of Yang.

Zhu Yuan smiled coldly and said calmly, "I can protect your Yu family, but what will you give in exchange?"

Aside from showing some humanity towards Zhen Wanwan and her family, Zhu Yuan had no possibility of cooperating with anyone else except through exchanges of interests.

After Zhu Yuan finished speaking, Yu Xin visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

It took him half a year to discover the existence of Zhuyuan and to vaguely know the extent of his influence.

"besides…"