Chapter 206 I Don’t Want to Be a Loyal Servant!
Marquis Zhenbei is still thinking about the Fang family's property. Although the Fang family lost 200,000 dan of grain, the remaining property is also a considerable fortune. The Huimin Chamber of Commerce controlled by the Fang family is also a large chamber of commerce that spans the north and south. If he can control it in his own hands, he will definitely be more confident in conquering the world.
The Marquis of Zhenbei looked down on businessmen, but at the same time he was aware of the benefits and value that businessmen could bring to him.
Otherwise, no matter how wonderful Wang Jinyun's words were, he would never marry into the Fang family, even if it was just a nominal marriage.
Isn’t it because he covets the huge profits?
Wang Jinyun said, "My Lord, we still have to get married. The Fang family may not be able to raise 200,000 shi of grain immediately, but we can let the Fang family raise some grain first to deal with the emergency. After the marriage is completed, won't the Fang family be in your pocket?"
The Marquis of Zhenbei agreed with this, so he wrote a letter to the Fang family, asking them to continue the marriage contract. However, the betrothal gift of 200,000 shi of grain could be paid in installments, and 50,000 shi of grain only needed to be sent first.
However, the letter never reached the Fang family as it was intercepted by Prince Pingyang's men.
After Prince Pingyang learned that the news that he had robbed the 200,000 dan of grain betrothal gift from the Fang family to Marquis Zhenbei had spread, he knew that Marquis Zhenbei would definitely not let it go, and he had already made sufficient preparations.
However, Prince Pingyang did not expect that he had sent people to keep an eye on Marquis Zhenbei, but would be so lucky as to intercept the letter Marquis Zhenbei sent to the Fang family in time, and once again successfully prevented Marquis Zhenbei from marrying the Fang family of Huimin Chamber of Commerce, preventing Marquis Zhenbei from obtaining food and grass replenishment.
Lin Shu, who has kept his achievements and fame hidden, said that Prince Pingyang can't be the only one so lucky, and Marquis Zhenbei can't be kept in the dark either.
So the scouts of Marquis Zhenbei "accidentally" discovered that the person they sent to deliver the letter was killed by Prince Pingyang's men, and Marquis Zhenbei also knew that the letter he wrote to the Fang family fell into the hands of Prince Pingyang.
The Marquis of Zhenbei was furious, and he did not want to wait until he got some food and fodder from the Fang family before starting a war, so he directly led his troops south to engage in a head-on battle with the Prince of Pingyang.
In terms of military strength, the army of Prince Pingyang is not as strong as that of Marquis Zhenbei, because Marquis Zhenbei is far away in the north, and he has been training troops for a long time and has made no secret of his intention to rebel.
Later, uprisings broke out all over the country, and the smoke of war filled the air. Marquis Zhenbei was the first rebel leader to officially raise the banner of rebellion.
Precisely because the Marquis of Zhenbei was open about his actions of recruiting soldiers, he recruited quite a number of people, and he also trained his soldiers openly and without much restriction.
It is different for Prince Pingyang. He has not yet separated from the imperial court under the banner of rebellion, so he trains his private soldiers secretly. He also has to compete with those officials around him who are still loyal to the imperial court. He also has to recruit soldiers under the guise of the imperial court. The soldiers he recruits may not be loyal to him, Prince Pingyang, but are more likely to be loyal to the imperial court.
After all, the imperial court holds righteousness. Even though the current imperial court is rotten to the core, more than two hundred years of imperial rule has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and will not collapse in a short period of time.
The army trained by Prince Pingyang under such restricted circumstances was naturally inferior to the army of Marquis Zhenbei.
However, Marquis Zhenbei was the attacking party and Prince Pingyang was the defending party. Prince Pingyang had the advantage of defending the city. However, Marquis Zhenbei knew that the food and grass were insufficient. If he could not capture Pingyang City and seize the food and grass in Pingyang City as a supplement, the hungry army would mutiny.
The Marquis of Zhenbei was fighting a battle with his back to the river and no way to retreat, so no matter how great the losses were in the siege, he had no intention of retreating.
Prince Pingyang thought that if he persisted in defending the city for a while, the Marquis of Zhenbei would withdraw his troops sooner or later when he saw that there was no hope of taking the city. However, he did not expect that the Marquis of Zhenbei had some deep hatred against him and was determined to fight him to the death.
Prince Pingyang was shocked by the ruthlessness of Marquis Zhenbei. Thanks to the reminders from his staff, Prince Pingyang remembered that Marquis Zhenbei had no food and was fighting a desperate battle.
Prince Pingyang decided to buy time until the army of Marquis Zhenbei was exhausted and the army mutinied, thus winning without fighting.
But with the desperate army of Marquis Zhenbei, Prince Pingyang was unable to defend Pingyang City at all. Eventually, Prince Pingyang abandoned the city and fled to the capital in a panic.
Prince Pingyang hated Marquis Zhenbei for fighting him like a madman and almost exhausting his private soldiers. However, he was also glad that he had not yet raised the banner of rebellion and was still a prince of the royal family. When he went to the capital, the emperor would treat him well because of their blood relationship as he was his cousin who had defended Pingyang City and fought against the rebel Marquis Zhenbei for months.
Prince Pingyang abandoned the city and fled, but before he fled he tricked Marquis Zhenbei, who then set fire to the city.
Originally, all the buildings in the city were made of wood, and the weather was dry, making it easy for fires to break out. Once a fire started, it was difficult to put out.
King Pingyang also sent people to pour oil and set fire, and to light fires everywhere at the same time, making it even more difficult to put out the fire that burned throughout the city.
After Marquis Zhenbei led his troops into Pingyang City, he saw flames everywhere and could only grit his teeth and send people to put out the fire.
The first thing that the Marquis of Zhenbei rescued was the granary. However, the granary was also the first thing that the Prince of Pingyang sent people to burn. All the grain that could not be taken away was burned completely.
Even if the fire in the granary was put out, not a few grains of food could be saved.
The Marquis of Zhenbei looked at the granary that had been completely burned and hated it: "Damn the Prince of Pingyang, he actually burned all the grain!"
Wang Jinyun, who was following the Marquis of Zhenbei, quickly said, "My Lord, now is not the time to worry about the granaries that have been burned down. Let's put out the fires in the wealthy families first."
Wang Jinyun didn’t really care about the people in the city, but because… “The only people who still have food in Pingyang City are probably these residents.”
Wang Jinyun’s proposal was more like sending people to steal food than sending people to help put out the fire.
The Marquis of Zhenbei would never think about whether sending troops to rob the residents of Pingyang City of their food and causing them to starve to death would affect his reputation, or what serious consequences it would cause.
He only knew that if his army did not have food to support its soldiers, the first target of these powerful armies that he relied on would be him, their master.
Marquis Zhenbei agreed to Wang Jinyun's suggestion without hesitation and sent people to steal food.
They first robbed the wealthy families with large grain reserves. After that, the Marquis of Zhenbei was frightened by the food shortage crisis. In order to have more grain reserves, he even took the grain reserves of ordinary people and sent people to rob the grain reserves of all the people in the city.
The Marquis of Zhenbei was busy sending people to steal food, but was not active at all in putting out the fire. As a result, the people of Pingyang City not only lost their homes, but also lost the food they depended on for survival.
Now Pingyang City has fallen into the hands of the bandit-like Zhenbei Marquis army. The people are in panic, feeling that they have no way to survive.
Fortunately, the Marquis of Zhenbei did not look down upon Pingyang City, which had been looted and burned to the ground, and left with the huge amount of loot he had plundered, leaving behind Pingyang City with its gates wide open on all four sides, which was covered in rubble and filled with cries of grief.
Those people who were still alive fled with their families. They subconsciously fled to the more prosperous south. The best living conditions in the south were in Jiangnan, especially Licheng, which had been built into Lin Shu's base camp.
Licheng was the only city that welcomed all refugees from outside and provided them with a good place to stay.
There were countless refugees who came upon hearing the news, and Lin Shu tried every means to settle them down. His army also recruited young and strong men from among these refugees to expand its size.
Lin Shu obtained high-yield and improved varieties from Si Yuan, and secretly planted them on a large scale, harvesting a high yield of grain, which was enough for him to feed his army. He even had enough food and money to support an elite cavalry of 30,000 people.
Lin Shu, who had Licheng firmly in his hands, was almost about to make his rebellious training activities public.
The officials who nominally managed Licheng turned a deaf ear to Lin Shu's coercion and inducement, and some even secretly defected to Lin Shu.
After all, any discerning person could see that the imperial court was in decline. It was so difficult to fight against a peasant uprising, and rebel forces emerged in various places. So why couldn't they join forces with a rebel force to gain the credit of being the emperor's followers?
Anyway, it is secret support, not open support. Even if this rebellious force fails, it will not affect their continued service as officials in the court.
Nowadays, most court officials have similar fence-sitting mentality.
It was precisely because Lin Shu grasped their idea that he successfully turned the officials of Licheng into his own people.
After these people turned to Lin Shu, Lin Shu would certainly not give them the opportunity to turn to the court again. He had evidence that they would defect to him. Once they had the idea of betting on both sides, he would make the evidence public and force them to choose him.
Lin Shu certainly didn't want to do things so drastically, so he just showed these officials the leverage and evidence he had and hinted at these old foxes. Then these officials naturally knew what was going on and would not let things develop to the point where everyone would be embarrassed.
The officials who were forced to board Lin Shu's pirate ship completely also gained some of Lin Shu's trust and were able to understand some of the arrangements that Lin Shu had made in secret.
Although they were not qualified to know about the Huimin Chamber of Commerce and the high-yield grain seeds, they had already known how strong the army that Lin Shu had secretly trained was.
This was the muscle that Lin Shu intentionally showed them, and it was also to make them more confident in him.
In the final analysis, conquering the world depends on the strength of your fist, and the army is the fist. Looking at the strong and well-equipped soldiers trained privately by Lin Shu, everyone who sees them will be full of confidence.
After all, compared with the imperial army that couldn't even defeat the rebels, Lin Shu's army was simply the best of the best.
The people of Pingyang City became refugees, and some traveled thousands of miles to Licheng.
Lin Shu, who had received the news long ago, made adequate preparations and settled all these refugees.
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