Chapter 171
When Xing Xingyue learned that her sister-in-law was about to open the Yichun Girls' School and would serve as the principal of the Yichun Girls' Academy, she felt a little jealous and immediately took her son back to her parents' home.
In her mother's yard, she saw her choosing fabrics for Yao Chunnuan's daughter. She said with some envy, "Mom, why are you treating other people's children better than your own grandson?"
Xing's mother was selecting materials. The child's skin was delicate, so she didn't want anything that wasn't soft enough. Without even raising her head, she said, "Nonsense!" It was obvious that she treated little Yao Xi and her grandson equally well!
Xing Xingyue: I’m going crazy!
But Xing Xingyue also knew that no matter how angry she was, her mother would still do as she pleased in this matter.
She thought about it and changed her mindset, "Mom, since you like Yao Chunnuan's daughter so much, how about arranging a marriage between that little girl and your grandson?"
Xing's mother ignored her.
"Mom, what do you think of my proposal?"
Xing's mother glanced at her grandson, then looked at her daughter for a few more times, and finally looked away with a slight disgust, "Not so good." Her son-in-law Jiang Ming is also handsome, but her daughter is pretty enough. She gave birth to an ugly grandson, and she still has the nerve to dream of having a child marriage with little Yao Xi?
Xing Xingyue echoed with mysterious confidence, "Indeed, my brother will have great fortunes in the future, but it's still uncertain how far Yao Chunnuan will go. In the end, she may not be worthy of my son."
"You are ugly, but you have beautiful thoughts."
Xing Xingyue: ???
I'm so angry. Is there anyone who would say that about his own daughter?
Xing's mother didn't want to tell her that her son was too ordinary and not worthy of Yao Xi. In the words of later generations, it was an ugly rejection.
Although her mother didn't say it explicitly, she somehow understood what her mother had left unsaid.
Xing Xingyue gritted her teeth, hating her mother's habit of judging people by appearances alone! But she tactfully kept quiet, knowing that if she said anything more, her mother would have countless sharp words waiting for her. She also didn't want to have anything to do with Yao Chunnuan!
Suihua Prefecture
The outside world was not optimistic about Ganhuacheng's rebellion suppression army, and many people in Suihua City were also not optimistic about him, including Suihua Governor Bai Ruisong. Precisely because he saw the weakness of the court's rebellion suppression army, Bai Ruisong had been very annoyed recently.
In the prefectural governor's mansion, most people were just as annoying as him. Birds of a feather flock together. Bai Ruisong was just like him, and so were most of the people in the prefectural governor's mansion. If you weren't of the same kind, you wouldn't be able to survive in the prefectural governor's mansion.
"How about we surrender to Yichun like Songhua Prefecture and Huining?" Someone among the subordinates suggested.
Bai Ruisong pondered in silence. There was no problem with surrendering, but after surrendering, they were afraid that they would not have a good ending.
As the governor of Suihua County, Bai Ruisong knew his own business. As the saying goes, one becomes an official for money. Being a good official is difficult, but being a corrupt official is all too easy.
After he became the governor of Suihua County, he took advantage of Suihua's distance from the capital and the emperor's distant position, acting without scruples. To amass wealth, he devised various schemes. His family members were no exception. Having tasted the sweetness of success, his methods of amassing wealth became somewhat drastic over the years, earning him a bad reputation among the public and behind the scenes. This also affected his family members, some of whom were even involved in murder cases.
After Xing Changfeng started the uprising in Yichun, he didn't think anything of it and even dreamed of making a fortune from the war. However, as the territory he conquered grew larger and Yichun's reputation became more and more famous, he began to worry.
In fact, as long as there is an official position, he does not mind betraying Daliang. However, the current situation is that even if they betray Daliang and surrender the city, they will probably not have a good ending, let alone think about getting an official position.
Huining and Songhua Prefecture voluntarily surrendered to Xing Changfeng. He paid special attention to various matters after the surrender, especially how the members of the parent official system of Songhua Prefecture and Huining were handled after the handover with Yichun.
He had inquired about it. When Yichun took over these places, it did not accept all the existing officials. Those who were guilty of serious crimes or had committed many crimes were dealt with and became sacrifices for the Yichun City Lord's Mansion to win over the people.
Yichun City Lord's Mansion
Yao Chunnuan introduced the person she used to work with when preparing for the Yichun Public School to Huo Wei, and she was responsible for initiating and following up on the matter of setting up the girls' school.
She began to prepare for another major event in the coming year besides spring plowing and military operations - road construction.
She wanted to build an official road, made of cement, which would also be a main road. This main road would connect Yichun, Huining and Songhua Prefecture. After taking Suihua and Jiachuan, it would be extended to the two places, and finally even the northern border would be opened up.
At the Lord City Lord's wedding, a representative from the Gaoshan tribe arrived, brought gifts personally by Pan Buyi. During this period, the two sides had been in contact, and the other party said that if they could capture Suihua and cut off the connection between Jiachuan and Daliang, then Jiachuan would be like a tree without roots, floating outside Daliang. He could persuade the Lord City Lord to take Jiachuan back to Yichun.
Therefore, although Suihua and Jiachuan have not yet been incorporated into Yichun's sphere of influence, the road construction plan can be started first.
"Road construction?"
In the meeting room, when Yao Chunnuan proposed this plan, everyone was somewhat confused. To be honest, few of them could see the benefits of building roads.
Yao Chunnuan nodded affirmatively, "Yes, build a cement road! We'll start after the snow melts in the spring."
As the saying goes, to get rich, you must first build roads. Later generations' experience has shown the importance of road construction and smooth transportation to local economic development, as well as military importance. Once these main roads are built, no matter where the enemy attacks, they can quickly dispatch troops.
In fact, the best time to build the road was after the autumn harvest, but at that time Yichun was still at war with the Northern Di. Moreover, the craftsmen had not yet successfully researched cement and only produced semi-finished products.
Fortunately, in the north, road construction can begin after the spring. Unlike the south, where spring is always rainy, the north has relatively little rain. Furthermore, cement hardens quickly; it only takes one night, and even a light rain the next day is fine, as long as it's not a downpour.
Yu Chen said, "Spring plowing is very important at the beginning of spring, and we probably need to send troops to Suihua." Manpower is in short supply.
"Don't worry, I've already taken all of this into consideration. I'll have my subordinates take the Dilo prisoners as the main force in road construction. Also, let these prisoners be responsible for the initial sand and gravel, and I'll have engineers operating catapults to assist them."
Yu Chen looked at her in surprise. Using a catapult to capture prisoners? This wasn't quite her style.
In fact, it was not just Yu Chen, other members present were also surprised.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Yao Chunnuan scolded him seriously. "Even if the captives are useful, they must be used with care. That way, they can be used for many more years."
Oh, I see. So Lord Yao was only doing this to extend the useful life of the captives. They were saying, "How could Lord Yao have become soft-hearted?"
After the meeting, the members listened to her analysis of the benefits of building the road and, out of their confidence in her decision, unanimously passed the decision. Because every decision she had made since joining the Shogunate had proven to be correct, she believed this time would be no exception.
After the meeting, Yao Chunnuan called to his capable subordinate Feng Xiudong, "Conclude the negotiations with Beidi regarding the redemption of the captives as soon as possible. Give them the price we agreed upon earlier. It's up to them to accept it or not. Stop wrangling."
Feng Xiudong nodded and agreed.
In fact, after Wei Xizhe retreated, he rested for a while and thought of the captured warriors of his tribe, so he wanted to negotiate with them to get them back.
Faced with the defeated side's request, Yao Chunnuan and his men, of course, put forward their terms without hesitation: they could take the captives back, but they had to pay a ransom. They wanted no more than two hundred taels of silver per person, for a total of four million taels of silver.
Hearing this price, the Beidi people were about to vomit blood. If their tribe was so rich, would they still need to go south to rob Daliang every year? In response, the Beidi people protested loudly.
In response to their protests, Yao Chunnuan asked someone to do a calculation for them, which was titled "The Wealth Created by a 20-Year-Old Beidi Man in His Lifetime."
An average Beidi man would create about six hundred taels of wealth in his lifetime, and after deducting his food, clothing, and other expenses, he would probably still have more than four hundred taels of wealth left. They only asked for two hundred taels each to redeem the person, which was already extremely kind.
Upon hearing the Yichun men's calculations, the Beidi negotiating leader's eyes widened. What did these people think of their Beidi warriors? A ruthless money-making machine? The kind that worked 365 days a year? Devil, what kind of devil were these?
Of course, the Northern Di people were unwilling to pay such a large ransom, and they even protested to the Daliang court, spreading rumors about the Yichun City Lord's Mansion, saying that they abused the prisoners and that their exploitation and oppression of the prisoners were not what a country of etiquette should do, nor what a great country should do.
The Daliang court did not respond to this. Even if it did respond, Yichun would not accept the rebuke. So the prince wisely ignored it.
Yao Chunnuan did not prohibit the spread of news about the tragic plight of the Di Luo captives and related matters. Therefore, some foreign tribes also heard about it. For example, the Western Rong people, after retreating to their homeland, were very wary of them.
Ultimately, Beidi had to face Yichun's demands. The chief negotiator from Beidi turned grim, saying they didn't have that much silver. They couldn't even come up with one million taels, let alone two.
At that time, Feng Xiudong's people asked, "Well, how many do you have now?"
"Six hundred thousand taels, we only have six hundred thousand taels! If we make a deal, we will give you two hundred thousand taels, and you must return all the Northern Di captives to us!" To squeeze out these six hundred thousand taels, their entire clan would have to work very hard to come up with this amount.
Facing the impoverished Beidi tribe, six hundred thousand taels want to redeem twenty thousand young and strong captives? I'm afraid they are just dreaming! "Six hundred thousand taels, we can redeem some of them."
Although the Beidi negotiating team was reluctant, they had no choice but to accept the Yichun side's firm stance. However, they requested that they personally select the man. After all, some Beidi families were willing to sell everything they had to redeem their men. If they couldn't select the man, the deal would be difficult to close.
After hearing the other party's reasons, Yao Chunnuan signaled Feng Xiudong to agree, but there was a condition: each of the Beidi generals had to pay two thousand taels of silver, not even a tael less.
Finally, Feng Xiudong told the Beidi negotiation team that they could redeem 2,500 people, excluding those at the general level.
When the other party heard the number of people being redeemed, he thought, "No, shouldn't six hundred thousand taels be enough to redeem three thousand people?"
Feng Xiudong told the other party, "Oh, you said two million to redeem 20,000 prisoners, and then two hundred taels per prisoner. That was the package price, the most favorable. Since you are only buying a portion now, of course I can't give you the most favorable price."
"You're using 600,000 taels to redeem some of the captives, and you have to personally select them. It's like you're picking the best ones first. Of course, the price of the first batch will be different."
Di Luo Negotiation Team Member: ...
Damn it, the people in Yichun City Lord's Mansion really treated their captured warriors as merchandise! But unfortunately, the situation was stronger than people, so they could only hold their noses and accept it.
As soon as the six hundred thousand taels arrived, Yao Chunnuan waved his hand and ordered the entire army to have an extra meat dish! The silver spent would be deducted from the delivery payment to Beidi.
Upon learning the result of the negotiation, everyone was speechless. Lady Yao was indeed Lady Yao. She had used war as a means to make a fortune.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
