At the border, Gu Qian occupied Youzhou City of Northern Qi overnight.
Regarding prisoners of war, of the original five thousand Northern Qi soldiers in Youzhou City, three thousand remained, and all three thousand surrendered to Gu Qian.
He ordered all the guards on the Youzhou city wall to wear Northern Qi armor and wait in comfort for the Northern Qi crown prince.
A few days later, the Crown Prince of Northern Qi arrived late with an army of 30,000.
As for why there were only 30,000 soldiers, it was because he had gone out on his own, and these 30,000 soldiers were the private troops of his beloved general, General Chu.
The emperor of Northern Qi did not approve of their military action and turned a blind eye to it.
"Your Highness, Youzhou City is just ahead. The soldiers are exhausted from the journey. Should we rest for a day?"
This military expedition was instigated by General Chu, because he admired the Northern Qi princess and wanted to do everything in his power to prevent the marriage alliance.
The crown prince of Northern Qi happened to share the same idea, and the two hit it off immediately.
The crown prince glanced at the soldiers behind him, who looked listless from the long journey. "Very well, let's rest for a day."
Although the two countries were evenly matched, Northern Qi had a vast territory and a sparse population, and its land area was larger than that of Dongjin.
Their capital was much farther from the border than Dongjin.
This is why their army arrived later than the Dongjin army.
As far as the Crown Prince of Northern Qi knew, the number of soldiers at the Dongjin border was no more than 30,000, so he was very confident about this battle.
"Stop!" Suddenly, the crown prince waved his hand to halt the march.
General Chu: "Your Highness, why have you stopped?"
Something's not right.
"Something's not right?"
"We've come all this way, why is no one here to meet us? And don't you think everything around us is too quiet?"
Those who lead armies into battle must thoroughly investigate everything; otherwise, they won't even know how they died.
After the Crown Prince's words, General Chu also sensed something was amiss. "Could it be that the garrison commander of Youzhou has fallen seriously ill, or perhaps he has surrendered to Dongjin?"
The Crown Prince said, “Our Northern Qi generals are all brave and skilled in battle; they would never surrender! Furthermore, if he is seriously ill, why doesn’t he ask the Emperor for permission to resign?”
General Chu immediately summoned the scout cavalryman beside him, "Go and check Youzhou City first, see if there's anything unusual?"
"That's not advisable!" the Crown Prince exclaimed, stopping the attack. "To avoid alerting the enemy, let's bypass Youzhou City, find a place to set up camp, rest for a day, and then directly attack Ganzhou!"
General Chu nodded and accepted the order.
The Northern Qi army arrived fifty li outside Ganzhou City, and the Crown Prince ordered that the camp be set up there.
By the time they had settled into their tents, it was already late at night.
In the middle of the night...
"Oh no, there's a fire..."
"Protect the Crown Prince! Quickly, protect the Crown Prince..."
"..."
The crown prince, who had just fallen asleep, was startled by the sudden shout. At first, he thought it was a nightmare.
After getting up, he looked at the blazing fire outside the tent and felt a sudden panic; it wasn't a nightmare.
He quickly donned his armor, just as General Chu stormed into his tent.
Under the cover of General Chu, the crown prince fled in panic.
With a flick of his wrist, Ling Zhi unleashed a hail of arrows upon the Northern Qi army.
At the same time, tens of thousands of Dongjin soldiers appeared around the camp.
"What's going on? Why are the Dongjin Army here? How many of them are there?" The Crown Prince waved his hand to knock away a long arrow and looked at General Chu with a bewildered expression.
General Chu was equally at a loss, and at this moment, he could only do his best to protect the crown prince from harm.
That same night, Qiu Yan slept poorly, constantly keeping an eye out for any sounds outside.
The warbler huddled in a corner of the woodshed, sobbing softly.
At first, Zhu Si Niang and her husband thought it was a ghost in the middle of the night, but then they remembered that there was still someone locked in the woodshed, so they went back to sleep.
Ms. Xu strolled around for a long time during the day, and the commotion outside did not disturb her; she just snored away.
Just after midnight, Qiu Yan suddenly heard a gust of wind and her eyes snapped open.
She had already fallen asleep fully clothed, but she quickly got up and peered out the window.
With a whoosh of wind, a masked man scaled the courtyard wall and landed in the center of their yard.
Fortunately, Qiu Yan remained calm in the face of the situation; otherwise, she would have been startled by the man outside and cried out.
Qiu Yan fixed her gaze on the man outside the house.
She was right; there really was someone behind Hu Ying.
The man looked at the large lock on the woodshed, and just as he drew his sword from his waist, preparing to cleave the woodshed open, Qiu Yan called out to stop him.
"stop!"
The man paused for a moment upon hearing Qiu Yan's words, but continued in his original position.
Until Qiu Yan stopped him from moving.
Upon seeing Qiu Yan, he turned to leave.
Qiu Yan went straight up to him, intending to stop him. Seeing the man climb over the wall, she followed his movements and also climbed over the wall to go outside.
"If you came to rescue someone, why are you running away before the person has even been rescued?"
As Qiu Yan spoke, she had already stepped in front of the man.
The man stopped and glanced at Qiu Yan in front of him again.
Moonlight streamed down her profile, making her beautiful without being gaudy, and inspiring one's imagination.
The man's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. He stopped running, stared at Qiu Yan's small face, and smiled, saying:
“Girl, you’ve kept her locked up for most of the night, you should be over it by now.”
Qiu Yan held out her hand, "I only want money. If you want to ransom her, hand over three hundred taels of silver, and you can take her away as you please."
The man's face, hidden behind the mask, stiffened for a moment. He coughed lightly. "That woman isn't worth three hundred taels."
"If you think it's too much, then forget it!"
After Qiu Yan finished speaking, she turned slightly to the side and prepared to go back.
Her purpose in going out was simply to tell this man that she only wanted money.
As for anything else, even if she wanted to know, this man wouldn't tell her.
She was no longer comfortable leaving Hu Ying behind; she had to inform the magistrate tomorrow to redeem her.
Just as she was thinking this, the man stopped her this time and then took out three hundred taels of silver from his pocket.
"Money for the person!"
"good!"
Qiu Yan got her three hundred taels of silver notes as she wished, and in the middle of the night, she let Hu Ying go.
When Hu Ying went out, she was terrified by the whistling wind and wanted to wait until daylight to leave, but Qiu Yan wouldn't allow it.
"If you want to stay, that's fine. One hundred taels of silver per night."
Hu Ying glanced coldly at Qiu Yan in the shadows, then shrank back and stumbled back to the Tang residence in utter fear.
The next day, at Xingyue Tower, Qiu Yan looked at Tang Yi on the second floor and thought to herself, Hu Ying suffered such a great injustice here, yet she didn't complain.
It seems I'm not hopelessly stupid.
Because she temporarily reduced the prices of her meals by 50%, her business gradually recovered.
Meanwhile, at Shuangxi Restaurant, Manager Gao stood on the second floor, watching their business, which had only recently flourished, decline again, unsure of how to face their current predicament.
Now that Xingyuelou's restaurant prices have been reduced by 50%, if he lowers them to 50%, he certainly won't be able to bring Xingyuelou down. If he lowers them below 50%, how will he explain it to his boss?
He had originally thought that Xingyuelou wouldn't lower its prices.
Just then, his employer appeared at Shuangxi Restaurant again.
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