Chapter 116 Fusu: I guessed who it was in a second...
The north wind howls, and the northern regions are bitterly cold.
Large snowflakes fell in a flurry, bringing the ominous news of winter's approach. Within an hour, everything in sight was shrouded in a white blanket. In the village, every door was tightly shut, the smoke from chimneys had dissipated, and even the cattle and sheep huddled together in their sheds for warmth, afraid to step out for fear of being swallowed by the bitter cold and leaving no trace.
In the silent world, only one point moved slowly. Upon closer inspection, it was a woman. She was covered from head to toe in a thick cotton coat, even her face was covered with cloth, making her look like a penguin strolling in the snow. But her expression was very relaxed, without the slightest fear of facing the cold winter.
The woman walked into the village and knocked on each door. After the thin wooden planks rattled a few times, a faint voice could be heard from behind the door: "Who is it?"
The woman took off her mask: "It's me."
She didn't introduce herself, but the person behind the door immediately opened it wide and welcomed her in, for which they drank several mouthfuls of northwest wind. The door closed again, and the room was pitch black without any lights, but the whole family, young and old, looked at her with eyes that lit up as if they had seen a savior.
"Miss Apu, you've finally arrived! This time, this time, did you...?"
The woman who took off her mask was none other than Apu, a former palace maid of the Liao Dynasty and now a special envoy of the Imperial City Guard. She smiled sternly at the expectant yet worried gazes of the family she was looking at: "This time, there will be plenty of cotton-padded clothes and potatoes."
"Hey, hey..."
The old man brought out the last bowl of hot water, and his wife said embarrassedly, "Thank you, Miss Apu, but... but... the white calamity last night froze our cow to death. Do you still want to take it in... Miss, my youngest son doesn't have any warm clothes to wear, and he can't sleep at night because he's so cold."
"A cow that froze to death?" Apu pictured a little kid in his mind: "As long as the cow died of normal freezing and not from illness, it's fine. When they arrive, you can go and choose clothes. Don't let the child get cold."
The family thanked them profusely, and the baby in the new bride's arms cried twice in response. They wanted to talk to Apu a little longer and let her see the child. Apu, however, cupped her hands in thanks and said, "I have to go to the next house, so I'll take my leave now. Oh, I almost forgot to wish the youngest child a long and healthy life."
After saying that, he turned and went out into the wind and snow.
She didn't close the door properly when she did, and a gust of cold wind, carrying a sliver of sunlight, squeezed into the room through the crack. Everyone froze for a moment, their faces stung by the wind, before they snapped out of their daze and began stuffing the crack in the door with straw.
"That's wonderful! Our little one has nice clothes to wear now." The new bride's joy was palpable. "Now that our whole family has cotton-padded clothes to wear, we won't have to worry about getting through the winter."
A sigh crossed the old man's face: "My youngest son is lucky. We never had any nice clothes before. The whole family only had one shirt and one pair of pants, enough for one person to wear out. It was only after Miss Apu came along that things got a little better... If it weren't for her, I don't know how we would have survived the winter!"
The wife pursed her lips but didn't refute.
She also agreed with the statement that her son was indeed lucky. To be born with perfectly tailored clothes—wasn't that a privilege usually reserved for the sons of officials?
The son in the family said, "Those were our horses, our cattle and sheep, that we traded for."
The old man chuckled and fell silent. The old woman, however, patted him lightly: "When you delivered cattle, sheep, and grain to the government, did they give you any cotton-padded clothes? Or potatoes?"
Not only did they not do that, but it would be incredibly lucky if they didn't take the opportunity to extort money from people or abduct them to do forced labor!
Now it was the son's turn to fall silent. After a while, he finally spoke up: "But the cow froze to death. How are we going to survive in the spring? How will my older brother and the others manage?"
"Foolish, truly foolish." The old man shook his head. "The ox is dead, but will you, the human, not survive? There's a way to live next spring; we'll figure that out then. What you should be thinking about most is how to get through this white disaster!"
"White Disaster" is another name for a snow disaster. Every winter, the Liao emperor would migrate south to warmer areas to spend the winter. If a white disaster occurred, large numbers of cattle and sheep in the north would freeze to death, and the sixteen prefectures in the south would have to collect more grain. Their cattle and sheep also risked being used for public purposes. Therefore, when winter arrived, the people of the sixteen prefectures would start to let the snow fall lightly to avoid being affected by the disaster in the north.
But this year's famine was exceptionally severe, with large numbers of cattle and sheep freezing to death even in the sixteen prefectures. The granaries had long been emptied by requisitioning grain. If Apu hadn't followed Wang Anshi's horse smuggling route to this village, most of the families would probably have either frozen to death or starved to death this winter.
"When they arrive, don't say a word. Let your mother and wife speak to them. Otherwise, they might not give you anything because of your sour face."
No sooner had he finished speaking than there was a knocking sound at the door. Several men dressed similarly to Apu stood in the doorway, as tall as a wall.
"Squeak—" The door opened.
The tall, imposing man at the head of the group spoke up: "Is the cow that froze to death outside yours? We'll take it. Here, take your cotton-padded coats and potatoes."
Before the new bride could even manage a tear to greet the guests, she hurriedly accepted the cotton-padded coat. The rest of the people left a pile of potatoes and departed. Unlike Apu's warm friendliness, they were much quieter, but their actions in distributing supplies were decisive and efficient.
The family didn't care about anything else and braved the strong wind to collect potatoes. The wind chilled them to the bone, but their eyes burned with fervor. These potatoes—enough to last them through the entire winter. And with warm clothes to keep them cozy—they were saved!
"Dad, those people you just saw were so strong, and the horses carrying the loads looked so familiar... Could they be...?"
Song army, perhaps?
Before the son could even utter those two words, he was immediately scolded by his father: "What nonsense are you thinking! What does it have to do with you? Have you figured out why there are no oxen to plow the fields in the spring?!"
The son dashed off to grab the child, sticking out his tongue as he left: "So what if they're Song soldiers? I'm not going to tell anyone. Everyone in this village knows who's who; we've all been horse thieves and done business with the Song army!"
Otherwise, how could he recognize those people's horses as familiar?
Who knows, one of them might have been stolen by himself!
Similar conversations frequently occurred in this village, and even throughout the outskirts of Yunzhou. The horse smuggling route that Wang Anshi had established a few years earlier had played a significant role. The three forces of Apu, the Imperial City Guard, and the army joined forces to carry out large-scale relief efforts in villages where horses had been stolen during the White Day, with remarkable results.
The Imperial City Guard was responsible for contacting smuggling informants to secretly stockpile relief supplies within Liao territory. Apu was appointed by Fusu as a cotton-selling guide for preaching and teaching. The army was responsible for escorting the supplies and assisting Apu in providing relief to the impoverished local residents.
Fortunately, the snowstorms this year were exceptionally heavy, keeping the officials and clerks of Yunzhou huddled in the city during the winter, afraid to venture out. This created ideal conditions for them to go to the countryside.
Wearing thick cotton-padded clothes and braving the bitter cold, they traveled to several towns and dozens of villages in Yunzhou, distributing countless supplies. By the time the news reached Fusu, they had already consumed thousands of kilograms of potatoes and saved the lives of countless people in the north.
This also created conditions for them to pave the way from Yunzhou and for their army to directly attack Yingzhou, Huanzhou, and Shuozhou.
These states together formed the later Shanxi Province. Compared to traditional northern strongholds like Hebei, Youzhou, and Jizhou, its strategic significance was less important, and the Liao Dynasty devoted relatively less effort to it. However, they mostly bordered the Song Dynasty, making them the first step in the recapture plan jointly devised by Fusu and others.
The "sugar-coated bullets" were the first step in attacking Yunzhou. Now that everything was going smoothly, Fusu was naturally in a good mood, and a genuine smile appeared on his face.
Besides the good news, the intelligence report also recorded some other information.
Fusu: "...Three oxen that froze to death?"
He couldn't recall ordering the collection of any frozen cattle; he only said to exchange goods with the local people as much as possible, whatever they had. This was to prevent the locals from taking their kindness for granted and becoming greedy, thus avoiding a situation like the farmer and the snake story.
So, who specifically ordered the collection of "frozen beef"?
Fusu figured out the answer in less than a second.
He put down the report and glanced at the smirking official beside him: "Your Majesty, what do you have to say about the three frozen oxen brought back?"
The emperor, however, began to feign ignorance: "Hmm... You can eat hot pot with beef tallow a few more times now? I can also enjoy it?"
Fusu broke down: "Who would eat that! I don't want to eat it!"
Good heavens, he couldn't even imagine what Apu and the Imperial City Guard would think of him. They would definitely think the Crown Prince was a number one glutton, right? He went through all that trouble to provide disaster relief, just to have a bite of beef?
Emperor Renzong began to feign comforting him: "The Imperial City Guard has a lot of dealings with you, and Apu was someone you found in the marketplace. They must know you very well, Su'er, so how could they misunderstand you?"
Fusu squinted: "If I'm not mistaken, the reason I'm being misunderstood is because of your orders, Your Majesty, isn't it?"
Emperor Renzong: "Haha..."
"So what should we do with those three cows? Should we cut them into pieces and distribute them to the people?"
Emperor Renzong looked as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Fusu immediately turned his head and stared at him: "Your Majesty, do you disagree?"
"I agree," Emperor Renzong said immediately.
Fusu immediately jumped off the chair and walked out of the Chuigong Hall. Emperor Renzong asked him from behind, "Su'er, where are you going?"
Fusu didn't even turn his head: "Go to the editorial department of the 'Seeking Knowledge Newspaper' and ask Lord Wang to add more pages. I want all the people of Bianjing to come and collect beef."
"Hey, Su'er, wait a minute—"
Heartbroken by his son's prank, the old man refused to speak to his father anymore. The official could only helplessly withdraw his hand, rub his nose, and sigh, "The problem is, how can three cows be enough to divide..."
Wang Anshi expressed the same sentiment.
But he was quite blunt, revealing the early signs of the stubborn prime minister's art of speaking: "Your Highness, do you have some misunderstanding about your reputation? If you add this page, the entire city of Bianjing will come the next day. How can three oxen be enough to share?"
Fusu: "..."
His impulsive idea was dampened, and he had to admit that Wang Anshi was right.
"That……"
Wang Anshi took over the conversation on his own: "Then how about writing an article? Use these three oxen as a starting point. The people of Bianjing will be even happier to see that you care about them than if they were eating beef that you personally distributed."
Fusu's face flushed slightly: "Is that so?"
Wang Anshi confidently replied, "Of course."
“…No, that’s not right.” Fusu suddenly said, “The people never force me to write anything. It’s you all who are urging me. So it’s not that the people are happy, it’s that you want to read it, isn’t it?”
Fusu grabbed Wang Anshi by the tail: "Tell me, who told you to seduce me?"
I almost fell for their trap. How infuriating!
Wang Anshi honestly confessed: "It was Minister Fan and Minister Fu."
He then added, "However, I also sincerely wish to see it. Your articles have not been published for a long time, and everyone wants to witness the talent and elegance of the Three Scholars."
So stop focusing on your short science articles and write something serious to broaden everyone's horizons.
Wang Anshi's sincerity completely won over Fusu, who was resistant to force but easily swayed by gentle persuasion. Looking into his earnest eyes, Fusu couldn't bring himself to refuse.
“Alright,” Fusu said, “then I’ll write one. But it absolutely has nothing to do with cows or anything like that! Just pretend this never happened.” Based on the intelligence reports from the north, Fusu already knew what he should write.
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Author's Note: This chapter, written after a whole day of travel... I'm completely exhausted... [cracked]
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