Chapter 183
Xuzhou
Prince Ruyin and Sima Xian were discussing matters.
"The King of Annan has asked for help. Should we rescue him or not?" The King of Ruyin had previously received a secret letter from the King of Annan. After reading its contents, he was momentarily unsure. He thought, "Save them?" Qing and Xu provinces had also recently suffered severe flooding. While their response wasn't as swift as Yichun's, it was still well-managed. Therefore, while Qing and Xu provinces were experiencing unrest, they weren't facing the kind of collapse that had hit Qiannan.
He was reluctant to send troops at this time. If he didn't rescue them, he was worried that after the imperial court destroyed the King of Annan, they would gather forces and attack them. In that case, he also had to consider whether he could hold his own.
Thinking about the current situation, the Prince of Ruyin sighed. Originally, of the three factions involved in the rebellion, their Xuzhou faction was the strongest, followed by the Annan King, who had revolted in southwest Yizhou. Xing Changfeng, with his sole possession of Yichun and Zhu Fugui guarding the same territory, was the weakest. Now, judging by their overall strength, the Prince of Ruyin believed they were on par with Xing Changfeng. The Annan King had become the weakest faction.
Sima Xian thought to himself that the court's decision had finally been right. The court had chosen to pick on the weak, and the King of Annan was the weakest target. The court was now concentrating its efforts on eliminating the King of the Southwest. Now, under the pressure of the court's concentrated firepower, the King of Annan was on the verge of collapse, and so he had hurriedly written to them for help.
"My lord, the King of Annan wants us to send troops at this time, mainly because he wants us to share the firepower of the court with him."
Prince Ruyin agreed with this. "Well, what he meant was that he wanted to form an alliance with us so that we could rely on each other. If we send troops this time, he will owe us a favor. In the future, if he is asked to help, he will definitely help without hesitation."
Sima Xian said, "The King of Annan has not yet faced the reality. My lord, instead of sending troops, we will send people to persuade the King of Annan to submit to us." Judging from the current situation, the three-way balance of power in Daliang is already very clear, and the King of Annan is just making a last-ditch effort.
"Do you think it is possible for the King of Annan to submit to me?" asked the King of Ruyin.
"Anyway, it is impossible for him to surrender to the court. If he doesn't want to die, he only has two ways to go. One is to submit to them, and the other is to join Yichun." They have some friendship with the King of Annan, "Send someone to talk to the King of Annan." Sima Xian felt that they had a better chance of winning over the King of Annan than Yichun.
When talking about Yichun, one cannot help but talk about the new cement official road they built.
The news of Youzhou's unique new cement roads spread like wildfire among passing merchants. Commoners dismissed it as a novelty, believing Yichun always had something new to offer, and now it was just another thing called cement. They said it, when mixed with sand, gravel, and water in the right proportions, made roads incredibly smooth. But those with a keen eye for detail reacted differently.
Almost immediately, Prince Ruyin and Sima Xian realized the military significance of this new cement road. Once Xing Changfeng and his men had completed the construction of the cement road in Youzhou, their future attacks on Youzhou would become much more difficult. Unless they could dismantle Youzhou from within, was that even possible?
"Why are there so many talented people in Yichun?" Prince Ruyin murmured again to his military advisor.
Han Chaosheng: Can he say that at the beginning of the uprising, all the craftsmen who were not doing well in Daliang were plundered by his Lord Yao using the caravan?
In Qingzhou and Xuzhou, there was a severe shortage of local officials, talents in internal affairs, and various craftsmen and artisans. The shortage was so severe that he wanted to cry out to the heavens and call out loudly for his thirst for talents!
Due to the shortage of talent, they are always passive when trading some items that are unique to Yichun.
Now, there's one more item to trade with Yichun: cement! It's said that cement mixed with sand to make walls is stronger than sticky rice paste. He wants to trade with Yichun for some cement; it's excellent for building walls or roads. Even better would be the recipe for cement, so they can make it themselves!
King Ruyin ordered someone to take out the map, his eyes fell on the location of Youzhou, his brows furrowed tightly.
Firstly, Youzhou's location was inherently easy to defend but difficult to attack, as it only bordered Jizhou and Bingzhou in the southwest, with long coastlines in both the southeast and north directions.
King Ruyin then looked towards the two states of Qing and Xu where they were. Their states were close to the sea in the east and also had a long coastline. To the north of Qingzhou was the Bohai Sea, which was only separated from Youzhou by a sea.
Prince Ruyin asked, "Is it possible for us to engage in a naval battle with Yichun in the future?"
Sima Xian nodded. After they took Qingzhou, he realized that they might encounter a naval battle with Yichun.
"I heard you mention before that Yichun is training the navy now?" Prince Ruyin suddenly thought of this.
"Yes, this is recent news." Sima Xian continued, "Yichun's ships are better than ours. My lord, I think the later we fight Yichun, the better."
Sima Xian was also helpless when he talked about this. The other side had thought about developing a navy earlier than they did. Yichun's maritime power was originally based on river transportation. In the beginning, it was just a matter of spending money to buy a few large ships. This could be traced back to before the Xing Changfeng incident.
One step behind, every step behind. Developing a navy requires ships. By the time they realized what was happening and went looking for shipbuilders to build them, it was already too late. The talented people they could leverage had already been snatched up by the other side.
Sima Xian was somewhat helpless. He didn't know what those people in Yichun were thinking. They were making moves all over the board, seemingly making random moves here and there. Only later did they realize that every move was meaningful. When they thought of intervening, the other party had already made their move.
If Sima Xian knew about octopuses, he would definitely say, "Are you a fucking octopus? You've completely cleared the path."
The more the Ruyin prince listened, the more frustrated he became. Just looking at the sheer number of talented people in Yichun, he knew how thoroughly they had prepared. Who would believe that they weren't well-prepared and plotting rebellion? Those Yichun people were truly wicked. Not only had they long been planning a rebellion, they had also plotted to make themselves the instigators! It had to be said that the Ruyin prince was a conspiracy theorist.
How come Yichun has so many talented people? The prince asked himself this question.
Compared to the depression of Ruyin King Sima Xian and the others, the prince was very upset. He felt that the Yichun gang were thieves! They had secretly stolen all the useful craftsmen before they could react.
With these craftsmen and artisans, Yichun has produced so many new things, including new wine, perfume, essential oil, cement, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc., as well as wool sweaters and other items. These things are deeply loved by the wealthy people in Daliang, and also make Yichun's group of people earn a lot of money.
When these new gadgets emerged like a hundred flowers blooming and brought back countless gold, silver and resources to Yichun, they realized how important craftsmen were.
But they were unable to stop the dumping of new products from Yichun in Daliang.
In order to prevent the flow of gold, silver, currency, raw materials and other resources into Yichun and strengthen Yichun, the prince even issued a ban, prohibiting the sale of new products from Yichun in Daliang.
But this ban not only sparked public outrage, but those who liked it continued to secretly purchase it. The prohibition on alcohol and drugs in particular angered many drunkards and the general public. Those who drank heavily, in particular, would go to the local government office and cause trouble to express their dissatisfaction.
There were also many ordinary people who were forced to flee to Yichun by the imperial court's ban.
The prince was also powerless in this regard.
Yichun
It was another regular meeting every ten days. At the meeting, Feng Xiudong reported some information compiled by the intelligence department.
"Currently, Wang Lang is stationed in Guangyang, Jizhou, and has intercepted civilians heading towards Youzhou. We estimate the number to be close to one million. The key point is that the number is increasing."
The attendees looked at each other. Could they really say, "Wang Lang is truly worthy of being their old rival?" He started a fight the moment he arrived.
Yao Chunnuan sneered, but Wang Lang was still as clueless as ever.
"If he wants to stop us, let him. This is a time of famine, with millions of disaster victims. It's just the right time for him to shoulder this burden! He won't act like we've gained a million people and taken advantage of us!"
How to accommodate so many people is really a big problem and a big problem. She dared to say that among these people, the sick and weak accounted for at least 30%. Even if they were to accept them, Youzhou would have to spend a lot of medical resources and food. With nearly a million people, the daily food consumption is not a small amount.
Even in Yichun, where grain reserves are relatively high, they recently encouraged residents to dig up more wild vegetables. Wild vegetables from the fields and mountains are gifts from nature, life-saving food in times of famine. They even arrange for people to buy them, and any leftovers are dried and stored for future use.
Yao Chunnuan was most annoyed by such clueless people. They couldn't carry the burden themselves, yet they wouldn't let others do it. Then, they kept messing around, ultimately causing public resentment and even sparking riots. It would have been fine if he had just suffered the consequences, as he had brought this upon himself. The real shame was the lives lost as a result.
Jizhou, Dongyang
Wang Lang was horrified to see so many common people, all dressed in rags and crowded together.
"Lord Wang, our granary is already two-thirds full. We're only getting two meals of porridge a day, and the refugees down below are making a lot of noise. Several factions down below are slowly uniting, and they're strongly demanding an explanation from us."
Wang Lang remained silent. He didn't want so many people to flow to Youzhou to become their soldiers, their workers, their farmers, and create wealth for Youzhou.
But just as Yao Chunnuan expected, Wang Lang was also troubled by the problem of feeding a million people. "Shouldn't we just ask them to dig up some more wild vegetables to use with the relief food?"
The subordinate said nothing. The season for digging wild vegetables has passed, and so many people have gone to dig them. To put it bluntly, the wild vegetables are almost dug out. Where can we find wild vegetables now?
At this moment, a man stood on the pile of rocks and shouted, "Master Wang, please let us out! We have patients, elderly people, and children here! We want to survive, we want to get out, to Yichun!"
"Open the city gate and let us out!"
"We are going to Youzhou, we are going to Yichun!"
"Why are you holding us here?"
"People in Yichun provide medical care, food, shelter, and even jobs. What about you? You can't accommodate so many people, and you won't let us leave the city. Do you want us to fend for ourselves?"
"If you want to learn from Yichun, you have to have that ability!"
The angry shouting and questioning made Wang Lang look very unhappy.
Wang Lang's subordinates shouted, "How dare you?!"
The leading man raised his head and shouted back, "We're not very courageous, but our lives are almost gone. What's the point of being afraid?"
Wang Lang lowered his eyes and looked at the man, "Aren't you afraid that I will order you to be killed?!"
The man sneered, "Kill them if you want. It's not the first time that officials from Daliang have killed civilians. Before, there was the massacre of the town of Ganhua, and then there was the massacre of the whole city by your Lordship Wang Lang. It's normal, isn't it?"
Wang Lang's subordinates were choked by his words.
"Sir, please open the city gates and let them out. Otherwise, I'm afraid they will cause a riot."
Wang Lang was dejected, stopped, and signaled his subordinates to open the city gate.
The subordinates breathed a sigh of relief.
"The city gate is about to open, hurry up!"
Upon hearing this, the man immediately shouted and organized everyone to line up. "Everyone, line up and leave the city one by one. Don't let any accidents happen at this time. It would be too much of a loss!"
As the city gates opened, countless victims rushed out, as if escaping from a cage, or running towards a new road of hope.
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