Chapter 89 Kill me to cheer you up, blow me up to make you two hear the noise
"The once parched and cracked land of Qiangzhou is now covered in vibrant crops, and every county in Qiangzhou has been given many more ditches. Now that Qiangzhou is no longer the devastated place it was when Prince Rui and I arrived, we plan to return to the capital to report."
When these words were spoken, many women covered their faces and cried.
"We haven't even begun to repay the Princess and His Royal Highness Prince Rui for their great kindness, and you're already returning to the capital?"
"Princess, the children love you very much, and the entire village where we live is also very grateful to you. We have agreed: when the crops are harvested at the end of the month, each of us will give you more than half of our grain to thank you for your and Prince Rui's out-of-pocket purchases of food for us during this time. So please stay until the end of the month before returning to the capital."
"Yes! Please stay a few more days and give us all a chance to thank you and His Royal Highness Prince Rui!"
Looking at this group of lovely people, Su Yuyan placed her fair index finger between her lips and made a gesture of silence.
As soon as this action was performed, the whole place fell silent again, and the women who had been crying just now also covered their mouths tightly.
Feeling the cooperation and respect of the people again, Su Yuyan smiled.
"You don't need to send food. Your good life is the best way to express your gratitude."
"Next, I will explain it to the villagers."
"After the drought struck Qiangzhou, the emperor first exempted Qiangzhou from taxes for three years and then allocated a large amount of money to Qiangzhou. When the emperor learned that Prince Kang had embezzled more than half of the disaster relief funds, he immediately sent a group of officials from the capital as imperial envoys to Qiangzhou to help the people."
"My fellow countrymen, the fact that a ruler of a country can do so much shows that your presence is truly in the heart of the emperor. As for the inaction of King Kang and the officials, it is not something that the emperor could have predicted."
"When officials from Kyoto arrived in Qiangzhou for several days but the disaster situation showed no improvement, my father knew they were ineffective. So he dispatched Prince Rui to Qiangzhou to rescue the people."
After saying that, Su Yuyan glanced at Ling Yun.
Ling Yun understood and gestured to Fang Mingyuan and others who had been waiting behind the government office.
Fang Mingyuan and several others stood in a row in front of the people, carrying whips on their backs, and then bowed deeply to the people together.
"We were ordered by the Emperor to provide disaster relief, but we are sitting idle and neglecting our duties. This is truly unjust. Today, we come to the elders and villagers to apologize. Please forgive us once."
Fang Mingyuan and his colleagues' actions and remarks left the people unable to react for a while.
Throughout the dynasties, officials were the masters. They didn't bully or exploit the people, and the people were thankful. How could the people have imagined that one day an official would come to apologize for their crimes? And he was a high-ranking official from Kyoto!
Looking at the stunned people, Su Yuyan spoke again.
"Prince Kang embezzled disaster relief funds, causing widespread famine and destroying countless families. He has been killed by Prince Rui himself."
"The imperial envoys who now stand before you to apologize were specifically ordered by our father to apologize to all the people of Qiangzhou after he learned of their dereliction of duty from the memorial submitted by Prince Rui."
"My fellow villagers, there have been many emperors throughout the dynasties who have humiliated and exploited the people, but the emperor of Dafeng is a wise ruler who cares about the people. Your Majesty truly cares about you."
"Everything Prince Rui and I did in Qiangzhou was just following the emperor's orders."
As soon as these words were spoken, the people all bowed towards Kyoto.
"Long live our emperor!"
After Su Yuyan waved away Fang Mingyuan and others, she ordered people to spread out thirty meters of silk on the large table prepared in advance.
"Fellow villagers, would you please write down your true feelings for the Emperor? Let him see the care and gratitude of the people of Qiangzhou. How about that? I'm very happy to feel everyone's care and gratitude, and I also want to make my father happy."
The crowd was silent for a moment, then erupted in enthusiastic response.
An old man came forward, tears glistening in his cloudy eyes.
"My wife starved to death, and my four sons, desperate to have children, fled to Kyoto with their grandchildren. I never expected that while I was waiting to die at home, His Majesty would send a prince to provide disaster relief!"
"I haven't read much, so I can't write beautiful words, but these four words, 'Long Live the Emperor,' come from the bottom of my heart!"
When the old man took the pen, his fingers were shaking so much that he could hardly hold it. The tip of the pen dipped in ink paused on the silk several times before he wrote the crooked words "Long Live the Emperor" stroke by stroke.
After finishing writing, he refused to let go and insisted on watching the person behind him continue writing. There was an astonishing light in his cloudy eyes.
The following scene even moved Su Yuyan:
The woman holding the child put the child on her back, held the pen with trembling fingers, and wrote very slowly, stroke by stroke. After writing the two words "Long Live", she suddenly kowtowed to the scroll.
The burly men thought the brushes were too delicate, so they simply dipped their fingers in thick ink and wrote large, rough characters, with the ink dripping through their fingers onto the silk.
A literate scholar offered to help those who couldn't write, teaching them how to trace the Chinese characters. An old woman tremblingly brought dried wild chrysanthemums and insisted on putting them inside a scroll, saying they were the best of Qiangzhou and should be presented to the emperor. A half-grown child stood on tiptoe and wrote his nickname in the corner, next to which he scribbled a crooked smiley face, saying he was thanking the emperor on behalf of his still-weaned brother...
This touching scene made Su Yuyan's eyes red. She looked up at the sky and tried to restrain herself.
She was a person whose cries always brought with them a strong sense of mourning, so from her childhood to her childhood, whenever there was a funeral in the neighborhood, they would call her over to cry...
Su Yuyan knew that if she dared to cry, with so many women and children here, the whole scene would immediately become like a funeral in the village.
Jiang Qinyue and Jiang Daiyun, who were standing side by side with Su Yuyan, were also moved.
Jiang Qinyue controlled herself while wiping the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.
Jiang Daiyun, who had a carefree personality, tried to hold back her tears several times but couldn't help but burst into tears.
While crying, she tried to put her hand on Su Yuyan's shoulder so that she could hug Su Yuyan's shoulder and cry.
At the same time, Jiang Hanyu, who had been standing diagonally behind Su Yuyan, saw his wife looking up at the sky and instantly understood everything.
He strode forward and took his wife into his arms.
"Yuyan, you must be tired after working so hard for so long. Go back to your room and rest. I'll take care of the rest."
Jiang Daiyun, who failed to hug Su Yuyan's shoulders, cried even louder. She moved a few steps and lay on Jiang Qinyue's shoulders.
Because this scene was so touching, Lin Heqing, who was standing next to Jiang Hanyu, couldn't help but feel tears in his eyes.
Perhaps because he was afraid that crying in public would be unmanly, Lin Heqing turned around and followed Su Yuyan and Jiang Hanyu, preparing to leave the overly tense scene to calm down.
He talked as he walked.
"You two are so good at it, I love watching you, please kill me to cheer you two up."
"It's okay if I blow myself up just for the two of you to hear."
Su Yuyan rolled her eyes at him.
"Daiyun has done a lot for the people these past few months and has been very influential. There are so many women and children here. If you don't want to hear a lot of 'wows' soon, quickly get your sweetheart away from here."
After sending Su Yuyan back to her room, Jiang Hanyu returned to the scene.
By the time the moon reached its zenith, the thirty-meter-long scroll was already filled with words.
The dense handwriting was crammed together: there was neat regular script, clumsy official script, and more unstructured graffiti, but they all repeated the same words - 'Long Live the Emperor', 'The Emperor's Grace is Enormous'.
There are wild chrysanthemums, wheat ears, and even a polished pebble pinned to the edge of the scroll. It is said that these are "treasures" picked up by children and are to be given to the emperor.
Jiang Hanyu looked at the scroll being carefully held in the arms of the people, and suddenly felt that this thirty-meter-long silk was heavier than any gold or jade.
Let me explain this in two ways.
At this moment, the Queen's Palace in Dafeng Kyoto was also very busy.
In Fengyi Palace, the prince gnashed his teeth and beated his heart.
"Mother, it hasn't rained in Qiangzhou for nine months, yet how come it rained heavily as soon as Prince Rui arrived? Now, all the people in Qiangzhou regard Prince Rui as a sign of good fortune, a man destined by heaven!"
"If I had known that it was time for the rain in Qiangzhou, I would have volunteered to go there to provide disaster relief! I only needed to go through the motions there and the people would have regarded me as their messenger!"
"Prince Rui has military merit, his work in the disaster relief mission to Qiangzhou is a testament to his political achievements, and he also founded the Wuxiang Pavilion! If he does something else, my position as Crown Prince will be meaningless!"
The queen's face also looked very ugly.
"Prince Rui's luck is indeed better."
"We sent all our assassins to kill him some time ago, but they were completely wiped out. We spent countless years training those 150 assassins!"
"We can't just sit there and wait for someone this powerful and lucky to die. We have to get rid of him as soon as possible."
"Since we can't get rid of him, let's find external help."
"I've inquired, and the Crown Prince of Yuheng Kingdom also has a formidable rival. The biological mother of Yuheng King Jing holds the title of Imperial Noble Consort, the most powerful figure in the harem besides the Empress. Not only have the Imperial Noble Consort and the Empress been battling openly and covertly for decades, but Yuheng King Jing and the Crown Prince have also been engaged in deception for over twenty years, each day hoping for the other's demise. So, wouldn't they need external help?"
The prince nodded.
"To be honest, Mother, ever since the people of Qiangzhou have hailed Prince Rui as the Chosen One, I have been thinking of collaborating with the prince of the enemy nation to deal with him."
"After some investigation, I found that the most fiercely competitive princes in Yuheng Kingdom are the Crown Prince and Prince Jing. I will send a secret letter to each of them to see who is willing to cooperate with me."
Two days later, in the early morning, Jiang Hanyu and Su Yuyan set out on their journey back to Beijing.
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