What? One hundred thousand dan?
The Seventeenth Prince stared at the Thirteenth Prince in disbelief, unable to recover for a long time. He asked incredulously, "What did you say? One hundred thousand dan of grain?"
Thirteenth Master quickly and timidly explained, "Actually, I don't think 100,000 dan is too much. If I hadn't offered a sufficiently tempting number, how could they have taken the bait so easily..."
The Seventeenth Master sighed, rubbing his head in distress, and said, "Let me calm down... This is simply a fantasy... One hundred thousand dan of grain is no small amount..."
The Thirteenth Prince glanced at the guard beside him, who shrugged, waved his hand, and gave an awkward, wry smile. The Thirteenth Prince couldn't help but ask curiously, "Did I say something wrong?"
Seventeenth Master immediately turned around and roared, "It's not just too much talk, it's practically impossible! Don't you even think about how huge a quantity 100,000 dan is...?"
Thirteenth Master panicked and hurriedly said, "Three days! They promised me they would come in three days. If they don't see 100,000 dan of grain by then, they will definitely suspect something is amiss, and then all our plans will be exposed..."
Seventeenth Master frowned and said with annoyance, "I know! But even if we are very capable, where are we going to get so much grain?"
The Thirteenth Prince paced back and forth anxiously, saying, "We've finally come this far, and success is just around the corner. We can't afford any mishaps at this crucial moment..." He slapped his forehead in regret, blaming himself, "Oh dear, it's all my fault. I got carried away and didn't think things through. Now look what's happened! No matter what, we must get 100,000 dan of grain within three days. If all else fails, the capital should have 100,000 dan..."
Seventeenth Master rolled his eyes and said, "Thirteenth Brother, the capital is thousands of miles away from us. It will probably be a month before the grain from the capital arrives!"
Thirteenth Prince racked his brains for a long time, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and slapped his thigh excitedly, "That's it! We can borrow from Songjiang Prefecture! Such a large prefecture must have a lot of grain stored up. We only need to borrow 100,000 dan, and we can pay it back later..."
Seventeen sighed and said helplessly, "Thirteenth Brother, it seems you don't understand how much grain 100,000 dan is. I'm afraid it's far from enough for Songjiang Prefecture alone..."
"What? Songjiang Prefecture can't even spare 100,000 dan of grain? What should we do? Time is of the essence, we must find a way to get grain immediately, even if we have to rob it, we must get 100,000 dan!" Thirteenth Master said worriedly.
Seventeenth Master shook his head helplessly. He hadn't expected his usually clever and steady Thirteenth Brother to be such a mathematical idiot, completely lacking in concepts of quantity and volume. After pondering for a long time, he glanced at Thirteenth Master and said in a deep voice, "We can only borrow grain from the surrounding areas of Songjiang Prefecture as soon as possible… If we speed things up, three or five neighboring counties should be able to gather enough grain by traveling day and night…"
Thirteenth Master breathed a sigh of relief and almost burst into tears, saying, "That's great! What are we waiting for? Let's go to Songjiang Prefecture right now. We have no men or horses, and no caravan. We can only ask Songjiang Prefecture for help with borrowing grain..." After saying that, Thirteenth Master didn't even change his clothes and pulled Seventeenth Master to rush to Songjiang Prefecture overnight.
The magistrate of Songjiang County knew the identities of the Thirteenth Prince and the Seventeenth Prince, and knew he couldn't afford to offend them. Moreover, the two had come with an imperial decree, so he had no choice but to agree to their every request, no matter how outrageous they were.
So they immediately made secret arrangements for five caravans to rush to the surrounding counties overnight to borrow grain in the name of the government.
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