In April, the cold winter finally passed, the temperature slowly rose back to normal, and the long-awaited spring finally arrived.
With everything on track, Cheng Ruyi began scouting out her escape route. Over two months, she not only improved her lightness skill to a higher level but also scouted Chongzhou, the capital, Quanzhou, and several border cities of the Great Qin Kingdom.
The conclusion that followed was: abandon the capital and go directly to Da Qin!
Chongzhou faces the border directly. If the Western Jin army breaks through the border checkpoints, they will surely march straight in, and this place will be the first to bear the brunt and almost impossible to escape.
Quanzhou has a flat terrain, which is quite livable if there is no war. Unfortunately, if the Western Jin invades, Quanzhou will face the crisis of being attacked from both sides by the Western Jin and the Qin Dynasty. At that time, it will only be more chaotic than Chongzhou.
As for the situation in the capital, it was even more chaotic than expected. The emperor was currently bedridden and on the verge of death. As a result, the struggle between the crown prince and the fifth prince had entered a fierce stage. Almost every day, people were having their homes ransacked and being beheaded. Unidentified soldiers from both sides often fought each other in the streets. The people lived in constant fear and could not even live a good life.
After seeing the situation in Dayue, Cheng Ruyi felt extremely anxious. It seemed like there wasn't a single safe place at all.
Fortunately, this anxiety did not completely disappear until she arrived in Da Qin.
Although the border of the Great Qin is currently under martial law, she is fortunate enough to be rich enough. She first spent a large sum of money to smooth over relations with the border officials, and then gave herself a new identity. In less than ten days, she successfully infiltrated the border.
Upon entering the territory of the Great Qin, everywhere was a scene of peace and prosperity, with people living in contentment and carefree lives, completely unaffected by the war.
What pleased her most was that the situation here was exactly as she had expected. Women in the Qin Dynasty had a very high status and employment rate. At least half of the shops on the street were run by women. What surprised her the most was that the Qin Dynasty actually had female officials and female schools!
She made a special trip to several places to inquire before finally finding out the truth.
It turns out that the current emperor of Qin was of mediocre talent. The reason he was able to ascend the throne was entirely due to his wife, Mu Huaying, the eldest daughter of the powerful Mu family in the south.
This Queen of Qin was also a legendary figure. From a young age, she was skilled in both literature and martial arts and was known as the most talented woman in Jiangnan. After becoming Queen, she controlled the Emperor even more tightly. She was not only farsighted, decisive, and concerned about the world, but also meticulous in her actions. In order to improve the status of women in Qin, she disregarded opposition and vigorously established girls' schools and selected female officials. She can be said to be the real boss behind Qin.
After learning the truth, Cheng Ruyi couldn't help but sigh, realizing that she had gotten her birthplace wrong!
If she had been born in the Qin Dynasty, she wouldn't have had such a difficult life.
Although the South also suffers from frequent natural disasters, the government is extremely reliable, and various disaster relief and reconstruction measures are implemented smoothly. The people will not be displaced and become refugees like those in Dai Viet.
There was no point in thinking too much. Based on the intelligence gathered so far, the Great Qin was undoubtedly the best option for the Cheng family to escape to. So she immediately found a way to get a household registration in the Great Qin, then bought a property and rushed back to Lishan Villa without stopping.
On the way back, she didn't rest either. She made a point of renting several courtyards in important towns along the way in advance, so that she would have a good place to stay when she fled in the future.
After hearing what she had seen and heard, the Cheng family members all expressed their agreement.
And so, the family officially began preparing all the necessities for their escape.
Everyone was busy, and the Western Jin Dynasty naturally had no free time either. Sure enough, in August, they launched another attack on Dayue.
Two months later, the border was breached, and the Western Jin army swept through Gaozhou with unstoppable momentum. The army slowly advanced towards Chongzhou and Yongzhou, intending to march straight towards the capital.
Upon receiving the news, Cheng Ruyi, who had been keeping a close eye on the border war, immediately had her family pack their belongings and fled south to the Qin Dynasty without looking back.
Cheng Ruyi had already notified all the relatives and friends who needed to be notified, but unfortunately, most of them expressed their unwillingness to leave their hometown. After failing to persuade them, she gave up and chose to respect their wishes.
However, she couldn't help but tell them the locations of the houses they had rented along the way, so that if they changed their minds and wanted to escape in the future, they could stay in these places temporarily.
We are all adults and must take responsibility for our choices.
Thanks to thorough preparations, the Cheng family's escape went very smoothly, and they arrived in Da Qin in just one and a half months.
The prosperity and openness of Daqin deeply attracted the Cheng family. In just a few months, everyone adapted to life here, and the Cheng family's furniture shop and snack shop reopened.
Not long after, news of the fall of the Great Yue Kingdom arrived, and the Cheng family was deeply saddened upon hearing it.
At the end of the year, the three northern kingdoms took advantage of the chaos and sent troops to Dayue, attempting to get a share of the spoils. The Western Jin Dynasty had just finished a major battle and was severely weakened. It could only watch helplessly as the territory it had worked so hard to conquer was divided up. In the end, it could only barely hold onto a few prefectures in the south.
Enraged, the Western Jin people, for reasons unknown, thought that the Qin Dynasty was easy to bully. So they led their troops south in an attempt to attack the Qin border, but were inevitably slaughtered by the Qin army.
The Qin army pressed their advantage and successfully brought several prefectures occupied by the Western Jin under its control.
With wolves in front and tigers behind, the Western Jin Dynasty had no way out and could only choose to surrender to the Great Qi Dynasty. Unexpectedly, a few months later, the four northern kingdoms were unified and renamed Northern Qi.
A year later, the four southern kingdoms also successfully unified and changed their name to Southern Qin. Thus, the entire continent was divided into two major kingdoms, one in the north and one in the south, facing each other.
The Cheng family only discussed the outcome occasionally during family meals, and it didn't really cause any major disruption to their daily lives.
Especially Cheng Ruyi, in this country with stable public security and a strict legal system, she can do her thing without any scruples, her business is booming, and she naturally makes a fortune.
Besides making money, she naturally did not forget to do good deeds and accumulate merit, such as establishing charitable organizations, providing relief to border refugees, and issuing warnings of impending floods. Over time, Cheng the Great Philanthropist became more and more famous, and her merit points increased.
Twenty years later, Cheng Ruyi finally accumulated enough merit points, so after saying goodbye to her family, she waved goodbye and left gracefully, returning to the modern world.
The End.
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