Chapter 801 Taking a Soft Approach

The city lord kept predicting the worst, which dampened Lin Yuesha's spirits. She knew this path would be difficult, but she hadn't expected it to be this difficult.

"Miss, you've dealt with the Forty-Eight Villages before. How could those villagers be more powerful than the Forty-Eight Villages?"

Bai Cha trusted her mistress; no matter how difficult the matter, her mistress would always find a way.

"Don't flatter me. The Forty-Eight Villages are businessmen, and they belong to Qincheng. These villagers have been used to a life of leisure and freedom for generations. Do you think you can use your status to intimidate them?"

Not only is it unworkable, it will also backfire. A hard approach won't work; a softer one is necessary.

Lin Yuesha racked her brains but couldn't come up with a good plan. It seemed she would have to go to the village and act according to the circumstances.

At night, Lin Yuesha slept fitfully, dreaming that Xu Da was being tortured by foreigners, his skin torn and bleeding. She woke up in a fright, but couldn't fall back asleep.

"Miss, it's not dawn yet."

Bai Cha quickly got up from the small couch and draped a robe over Lin Yuesha's shoulders.

"I can't sleep."

Nightmares are terrifying. Lin Yuesha rubbed her eyes and prayed silently.

Several days had passed without Qi Heng sending any news. Lin Yuesha sensed something was wrong; perhaps the situation in the border town was even worse than the rumors suggested. Solving the immediate crisis was of utmost urgency.

"Tell the driver, we're going to the village now."

Lin Yuesha took a sip of hot water and didn't even have breakfast, instead eating cakes and pastries to stave off hunger in the carriage.

The cakes had been sitting for a day and were now dry and hard. Lin Yuesha choked on them and kept drinking water to relieve the discomfort.

At least the cakes and pastries were sweet and delicious, while the soldiers of Daqi could only eat dry and hard cakes. If they couldn't get any more food, they would soon run out of food.

Lin Yuesha set off before dawn and arrived in the village close to noon.

Who is it?

According to the city lord, several nearby villages joined forces and organized their own teams to guard the villages, intercepting the inhabitants at the village entrances.

"Uncle, we are businessmen and we've come to buy grain and fodder."

Lin Yuesha opened the car window and greeted them with a smile.

Unexpectedly, the uncle didn't buy it at all, but stared at Lin Yuesha's face carefully, as if he could see something in it.

The other party's behavior was rude, but Lin Yuesha had asked for help first, so she had no choice but to endure it and let the other party look her over.

“You are not a merchant, you are General Qi’s wife.”

The uncle opened a painting in his hand, compared it with Lin Yuesha's face, and finally confirmed it.

The people from Daqi are not welcome in their village, and they won't sell them any grain or fodder!

"Our village chief said he wouldn't be a lackey of the Great Qi, and besides, our village chief doesn't have a daughter and doesn't want to marry a general from the Great Qi!"

Xu Da's feat of exchanging one city for another was already common knowledge in Wucheng. The city lord was severely criticized, but since the Qi army had entered Wucheng, no one could stop them.

Just because we can't stop them doesn't mean we accept it; they simply won't accept it!

Lin Yuesha's mission got off to a bad start, as the older man fired off a barrage of rebuttals, finally making her understand why the city lord kept predicting her downfall.

The people of Wucheng are quite individualistic.

"Uncle, how did you recognize me?"

Lin Yuesha couldn't see clearly from the carriage, but she noticed the uncle constantly looking down to make comparisons, and she wondered to herself.

"How could you not recognize me!"

The uncle, displeased by the questioning, opened the portrait to show Lin Yuesha, saying, "Every military camp in the Great Qi has this portrait. I don't know who spread the rumor that you are a lucky charm incarnate, and that as long as you pray to it before going to war, you are guaranteed to win the battle..."

Anyway, among the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Great Qi, probably no one was unaware that General Qi had married such a wife, and that the wife was even more popular than General Qi.

Lin Yuesha: ...

Is that so? She's not as well-informed as the village elders; she had no idea!

Recalling the details of the soldiers greeting her, it's highly suspicious that so many people recognized her. Who exactly is boasting about this? A lucky charm reborn? Why not say she's the reincarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva?

Lin Yuesha rubbed her temples. The uncle's words made her feel even more pressured. If she couldn't get some food to tide her over, her public image would be in jeopardy.

"Uncle, you make money doing business with merchants, and you make money doing business with me too. Can you treat me as a merchant who comes to buy things?"

Lin Yuesha spoke in a very humble tone, saying that she still had to fight for the soldiers' supplies.

"Hmph, young mistress, I advise you to give up on that idea. We'd rather burn our grain supplies than sell them to the Qi people!"

For them, the incorporation of Wucheng into the Great Qi meant they were slaves of a conquered nation. What slave of a conquered nation would willingly become a dog? Selling grain and fodder to the Great Qi, which would bolster the morale of the Great Qi's soldiers, would bring them no benefit.

It's not a matter of money; no matter how much money you give them, they can't do something like this.

Moreover, this was a decision that several village chiefs had been making.

They have grain and fodder in stock, but they won't sell them. They've tried everything to persuade them, but the bottom line is still the same: they won't sell!

"Where is the village chief? Can I see him?"

The Qi army entered through Wucheng, which was unavoidable. Even if the Qi army did not intend to attack Wucheng, the foreign invaders would definitely target it after the invasion.

Compared to the soldiers of the Great Qi, the soldiers of the foreign tribes had no military discipline and did not come to her door with sincerity.

"I am the village chief. Now that you've met me, I'm refusing you. Get out of here."

The uncle rolled his eyes. He wasn't a warmonger; otherwise, it wouldn't have been impossible for him to arrest General Qi's wife and threaten Qi into withdrawing its troops.

In order to find a suitable son-in-law, the city lord was willing to exchange one city for one person, and they could exchange the young general's wife for him!

Lin Yuesha clasped her hands in a fist salute to the village chief; her unique way of thinking is truly admirable.

"Uncle, can't we really discuss the matter of supplies anymore?"

Lin Yuesha could exchange her wool sweater or down jacket for something else.

"We can buy it with money, why should we use you to exchange for it?"

If they can't buy it in Wucheng, they can still buy it in Qincheng. They're not short of money; they're doing this to uphold their bottom line.

The village chief remained unmoved, instead saying in a sly tone, "With a lucky koi fish in this world, getting food is easy. Just blow a bubble, and it will turn into a mountain of food..."

Lin Yuesha looked up at the sky speechlessly. Had the village chief been reading too many myths and legends?

"The koi is just a minor demon; the truly powerful one is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

Lin Yuesha had a sudden inspiration. She glanced at the village chief with disdain, as if mocking his shallow knowledge.

"What the hell is that?"

The village chief took a sip of hot tea. The villagers loved reading stories about the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, and his family had quite a few of them, but they had never heard of a monster called the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.

"It's a monkey that has become a spirit."

Lin Yuesha put on a down jacket and sat at the village entrance, telling stories to the village chief and the villagers who gathered around her.

At first, only the village chief and a few patrolmen listened to the story. While Lin Yuesha was drinking water and resting, the patrol team returned to the village to inform them. After Lin Yuesha rested for a while, she was startled by the scene in front of her.

A group of several hundred people, some carrying small stools and others with straw mats and quilts, gathered neatly around her, intently waiting for her to start singing.