Little did he know that the Crown Prince was still 500 li away from him, and his army, mostly infantry, would take at least three days to arrive.
With a whoosh, Gu Qian's long arrow shot straight at the enemy general of Youzhou.
The enemy general was, after all, a Northern Qi garrison commander. He did not retreat, and suddenly used a soldier in front of him as a human shield.
Before he could react, whoosh... another arrow shot out.
The enemy general cursed Gu Qian a thousand times in his heart, and then used the same method to lose another of his soldiers.
Gu Qian charged through the crowd, killing enemies while targeting General Fan, and soon rushed up the city wall.
The enemy general gritted his teeth and shouted angrily, "Despicable! This man deliberately diverted his main force, leaving him isolated and helpless."
Gu Qian: "Do you even know what 'all's fair in war' means?"
Unable to resist, the enemy general tried to leave the city wall, but Gu Qian gave chase. The two then engaged in a life-or-death struggle on the city wall.
Below the city walls, a chaotic battle raged until, a quarter of an hour later, Gu Qian pierced the enemy general's chest with his sword...
Lingyun's side continued to maintain the illusion of fleeing.
The enemy general led 20,000 troops in hot pursuit, chasing them all the way to the walls of Ganzhou City, only to find that he had been led into Qin Xiaowei's ambush by Ling Yun.
Upon closer inspection, they found a full 50,000 Dongjin soldiers waiting for them.
The enemy general sensed something was wrong and turned to order his troops to retreat immediately. But could they really escape?
...A few days later, at the Tang residence, Tang Yi sat inside and casually asked the county magistrate beside him, "Have the refugees settled down these days?"
Actually, Tang Yi wanted to ask if they had been driven away by Qiu Dafu.
He just wanted to deliberately provoke Qiu Yan and her nephew.
However, County Magistrate Zheng's answer was unexpected.
"Reporting to Your Excellency, the refugees are all helping Miss Qiu build her house."
"What? Build a house?"
Tang Yi's previously calm expression was now clouded with gloom.
Qiu Yan is really something, she dares to take advantage of anyone. He really underestimated her.
At noon, he had just finished eating when he went to the south of the city again.
When he discovered that Qiu Yan and her group's foundation had been completed in just a few days, the expression on his face was extremely unpleasant.
"Next……"
When Tang Yi saw that his officials were still distributing porridge, he became even more furious.
He was still using public grain to feed these refugees, but these people turned around and went to build houses for Qiu Yan, which made him feel very resentful.
He looked at the official distributing the porridge, "Starting tomorrow..."
“My lord,” Qiu Yan interrupted him, smiling as she said, “Lord Tang is a compassionate and kind official, a rare find. The villagers were able to survive because of the rice porridge you gave them. They were telling me that they wanted to thank you in person, and then you came. What a coincidence.”
Qiu Yan's words were full of respect and gratitude for Tang Yi, without the slightest disrespect.
Her words moved the refugees to tears, and they knelt down once more, all expressing their gratitude for Tang Yi's charity.
"This humble subject is deeply grateful to Lord Tang for providing us with this porridge, which has saved our lives. This humble subject is deeply grateful to Lord Tang..."
"Lord Tang is like a second parent to us..."
Their sincere kneeling made Tang Yi choke on his words.
He coughed lightly at the refugees, "This is merely my duty. There is no need for you to thank me. Please rise."
After saying that, he glared at Qiu Yan. No wonder she was the woman Gu Qian had his eye on. What ordinary woman would have such courage?
Qiu Yan felt incredibly relieved when she saw Tang Yi sulking.
It's still uncertain who's scheming against whom.
At Xingyue Tower, Zhou Zifang was too busy with his studies to attend to many business matters.
These past two days, Qiu Yan has been busy with her second uncle's house construction, and has handed over the management of Xingyue Tower to Qiu Dayu.
To help her brother-in-law develop his literacy and arithmetic skills, she taught him to read and do math every night.
Qiu Dayu was quick-witted and could do math very fast.
He had been working at Xingyue Tower for a long time and was already familiar with all aspects of it. Moreover, he was always confident and believed that he could handle things on his own.
However, to Qiu Dayu's surprise, a tricky problem arose as soon as he got started.
Today, when he saw Qiu Yan come to Xingyue Tower again, his face showed a hint of shame.
"Xiaoyan, Xingyuelou's business has been rather unsatisfactory lately, and even the food delivery business is pitifully small."
Qiu Dayu was somewhat troubled. He had only been in business for a few days, but their customers were decreasing day by day. Wasn't this making Qiu Yan doubt his abilities?
Qiu Yan, thinking about the increasing number of Shuangxilou waiters on the street, already had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but she still asked, "What's the reason?"
"It's Shuangxilou Restaurant; they deliberately lowered their vegetable prices."
Hearing Qiu Dayu say this, Qiu Yan flipped through the account book.
Their daily income has been reduced by more than half.
Apart from Zhang's cloth shop and Jiang Liu's clothing store, no one else ordered her food delivery service.
This Manager Gao actually thought of malicious competition.
"Xiaoyan, should we also lower the vegetable prices?" Without Qiu Yan's consent, Qiu Dayu could not make the decision on his own.
Qiu Yan thought for a moment and said, "Reduce it to 50%, and put up a notice at the door that whether you dine at Xingyuelou or have food delivered, it will be 50% off."
After hearing this, Qiu Dayu slowly shook his head, somewhat disapproving. "Xiaoyan, Xingyue Tower's total profit is also 50%. If we lower it by 50%, we won't make any money at all."
“Just do as I say. Manager Gao likes to drive down prices, so let’s let him drive it down to the bottom.”
Qiu Dayu originally thought that if Manager Gao continued to lower the price, it would only affect the business of Xingyuelou.
However, he now seems to understand Qiu Yan's thoughts.
But, "Will they continue to push for lower prices?"
Qiu Yan replied, "What do you think?"
Qiu Dayu: "I guess they won't." He thought to himself, if Shuangxilou pressed them again, they'd be left with nothing.
"Girl, if you follow your method, Star Moon Tower will be in danger."
As the voices were heard, a middle-aged man, around thirty years old, entered through the main gate of Xingyue Tower.
Qiu Yan took a closer look at the man. She didn't know him and naturally wouldn't discuss the Star Moon Pavilion business with him.
"This way, sir," Qiu Dayu greeted the newcomer warmly.
The man glanced coldly at Qiu Yan, scrutinized Song Jiao for a moment, and then went straight upstairs with his two attendants.
Who is this man, and why does he seem hostile towards me as soon as he arrives?
Qiu Yan didn't think much of it. Since the guests were guests, she just told her uncle to take good care of them, and then she turned and went to the wonton shop.
At the wonton shop, Qiu Yumei's mother-in-law, Xu, was leading her sister-in-law, Zhao, and her two daughters.
When they saw Qiu Yan arrive, they quickly stood up. Madam Xu said:
"Xiaoyan is here."
Qiu Yan nodded to them, "Grandma Xu, please sit down."
She didn't have many memories of her aunt's in-laws; the only thing she knew was that Xu and Yang had a bad relationship.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
