Chapter 22: Settlement
This cruel "carnival" lasted until dawn. When Song Yuzhu returned to the city, although he had prepared himself mentally in advance, he was still shocked by the tragic scene in the city and almost broke down.
Naked women can be seen everywhere on the street, their bodies covered with wounds, most of them have already died. Occasionally one or two are still alive, but they look crazy.
Song Yuzhu gnashed her teeth and said, "What a bunch of beasts!"
Zhao Xiao grabbed his shoulders tightly and said, "Don't look. There are spies of King Qing everywhere now. If you save them, you may not be able to save yourself."
The two men walked to an open inn to rest. The door of the inn was broken down by soldiers last night. Seeing that there was nothing valuable inside, they smashed everything together, leaving the ground covered with broken porcelain.
Zhao Xiao moved a stool for Song Yuzhu to sit down, and he went to the kitchen at the back to find the kettle and two surviving tea bowls.
"There's no hot water, so just make do with what you have."
"Thank you." Song Yuzhu held the tea bowl and gulped down three cups.
The two of them discussed on the tower last night for the whole night, and now their throats are dry and burning. Song Yuzhu has never rebelled, but he has read Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms many times in his previous life. If they want to plot for the country, how can they do it alone? It's just like playing house.
If you want to achieve great things, you must have help from others, so the first thing is to recruit talented people!
This thousand-year-old city has just experienced a painful ordeal, and there must be many people in the city who want revenge. They hate Prince Qing to the core and are extremely disappointed with the court. These are the first group of people that Song Yuzhu wants to gather.
Song Yuzhu said: "Do you have anyone in the army that I can trust? I need two followers to help me."
"Yes, the boy you rescued last time asked me several times if he could work by your side."
"Is he the one whose stomach was ripped open?" Song Yuzhu still had some impression of him. He was quite tall and strong.
"Well, there is another one named Tian Xiaobo. I saved his life on the battlefield. He is a grateful person and can be used."
Song Yuzhu nodded: "Bring those two here tomorrow, and don't forget to make arrangements in the army."
Zhao Xiao said: "Don't worry, they are just two injured soldiers, no one will care."
"Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back...it's not too late for you to regret now."
Zhao Xiao stared at him motionlessly, making Song Yuzhu a little flustered: "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I thought I made it very clear last night. Now that I have decided to walk this path with you, there is absolutely no turning back."
As the two were talking, a voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Captain Zhao, so you are here. The prince is summoning you to receive the title!" The person who came was the guard beside Yang Yuanqing.
Zhao Xiao quickly pretended to have just woken up and walked out: "I was too tired from playing last night and forgot about this matter."
The guard made a knowing expression and said, "Then let's go."
After he left, Song Yuzhu couldn't help but look at the book in her mind again.
The first task had been completed, and the second task suddenly popped up when he decided to rebel.
"Seize the military power of Prince Qing..." How does this book trigger the quest?
After his tenth birthday, it seemed that he had just started learning Chinese medicine. When Song Bai took him to the clinic to play, he helped an old man diagnose an illness, and suddenly the first task was triggered.
Could it be that the tasks in the book are triggered based on one's own experiences?
The last mission reward was a box of antibiotics, I wonder what the reward this time is. This product that is ahead of its time, no matter what it is, can be of great help!
*
Zhao Xiao followed the soldiers to the palace. The soldiers had a "party" last night, and Yang Yuanqing was certainly not idle either. He moved directly into Yang Yuanqi's mansion, captured all the maids and concubines in the mansion who had not had time to escape, and molested them, then rewarded them to his generals, and took possession of Yang Yuanqi's concubine Feng.
Feng was the youngest daughter of the Sima of Changzhou. She had grown up in luxury and had never suffered such an injustice. Unable to bear the humiliation, she smashed her head against the corner of the table and died. Yang Yuanqi himself fled to Dongzhou in a hurry an hour before the city was broken, to seek refuge with the seventh prince Yang Yuanzhen.
Yang Yuanqing had been making a fuss all night and now he was exhausted. He leaned on the couch and yawned, "That coward, the fourth brother, thought he could be safe hiding with the seventh brother. Wait for me to rest for a few days before going to Dongzhou and bringing the seventh brother back with me."
Xu Bing stood beside him and said, "Your Majesty, don't you care about what's happening in the capital? If the eldest prince ascends the throne..."
Yang Yuanqing chuckled: "That coward will never amount to anything. With the second brother in Dingzhou, he will be brought down in a few days."
Dingzhou is close to Shangjing, so Yang Yuanli would not sit idly by. He has been keeping a low profile for many years and has made friends with many powerful officials. I believe he has enough reasons to go to Beijing to "set things right" this time.
A soldier came in from outside the door and reported: "Your Majesty, Captain Zhao is here."
Yang Yuanqing's brows relaxed and he said, "Let him in!"
"I pay my respects to the prince."
"Hurry up, Zhao, Zhao Xiao, right? You are really a talent! I heard that you broke into the city alone last night, killed dozens of soldiers guarding the city and lowered the drawbridge! The money and official position I promised to reward you will all be honored. As for that young doctor, let him go home."
"Thank you, Your Highness!" Zhao Xiao quickly knelt down to express his gratitude.
Yang Yuanqing said: "I didn't find you last night, otherwise I could have given you two virgin beauties to play with."
Zhao Xiao clenched his fist calmly and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. Forget about the beauty. I have seen too many last night."
"Get up, you are young and promising, work hard!"
"yes!"
Yang Yuanqing was so sleepy that he could not open his eyes. He said a few more words of encouragement and waved his hand to let him go.
After Zhao Xiao left, Xu Bing immediately came up and said, "Your Highness, the people in the city may be upset about the disaster they encountered yesterday. You must ask the two generals to restrain their subordinates and not harass the people again..."
Yang Yuanqing slammed the table in annoyance and said, "Alright, you are so tired of taking care of things every day. If you really have nothing to do, go and register the gold and silver left by the fourth brother."
Yang Yuan ran away in a hurry and did not take much valuables with him. The warehouse in the backyard of the palace was almost filled with the people's wealth that he had extorted over the years.
When Yang Yuanqing first entered, he was almost blinded. Apart from the antiques and paintings, there were nearly 30,000 taels of gold alone! The silver was even made into silver bricks, which covered an entire room.
He was just worrying about not having enough money to spend on the war, and then someone brought him a pillow when he felt sleepy!
It is said that Xuzhou is rich, and when the emperor granted land, he specially chose such a good place for the fourth son. Yang Yuanqing was born a few years later, and when it was his turn, there was no good place for him to choose.
Although Xizhou has a large area, half of it is barren desert. In addition, there are constant wars with the Uighurs, so naturally not much money can be saved over the years.
Yang Yuanqing said with emotion: "This Xuzhou City is really great. If I had known this earlier, I should have taken it over two years ago!"
Xu Bing lowered his eyes and kept silent. Is he satisfied with just Xuzhou?
*
"Yuzu!" Zhao Xiao hurried in from outside the door.
"You're back. How's things going at the palace?"
Zhao Xiao said excitedly: "Yang Yuanqing has agreed to let you go!"
"That's good. The most urgent thing for me is to find a place to stay." Song Yuzhu had several hundred taels of silver notes on him, which he brought with him when he left home that day. He had never used them in the army before, so now he could use them to open a shop.
When the two came out of the inn, the street was in a mess. Occasionally one or two pedestrians passed by, but they all walked in a hurry and did not dare to stop.
Song Yuzhu took a deep breath and said, "I don't know how many years it will take to recover from this incident in Xuzhou..."
Zhao Xiao walked side by side with him and said, "Although Yang Yuanqing allowed his men to insult the people, it was better than massacring the city. When I first joined him, he had just fought a war with the Huihe. When he reached the Huihe border town of Qule, he ordered a massacre in the city, killing no one, young or old, regardless of gender. That was truly inhumane..."
Song Yuzhu said seriously: "Whether he massacred the city or raped the city, he deserves to die." Not to mention that the people of Xuzhou are his compatriots, but he could be so cruel. This shows how violent and cruel Yang Yuanqing is!
The two men walked to the door of a restaurant and saw the owner putting a note on the door to sell the store.
Song Yuzhu walked up to him and asked, "Excuse me, owner, are you planning to sell this restaurant?"
The man turned around and saw the military uniforms of the two men, and was so scared that he ran into the house.
Song Yuzhu said helplessly to Zhao Xiao: "You wait here, I will go in and ask."
"Um."
When Song Yuzhu entered the restaurant, she found that everything in the room was new, and it seemed that it had just been renovated. The shopkeeper was hiding behind the counter.
"Don't be afraid, shopkeeper. We are not here to cause trouble."
The shopkeeper secretly looked up at him and saw that Song Yuzhu had a tender face and was not a vicious person. He then stood up tremblingly and said, "What can I do for you, young master?"
"I see there's a shop sign outside your door. Are you planning to sell the shop?"
"Yes... yes, that's right."
Song Yuzhu asked, "How much silver does this shop cost?"
"Three, three hundred taels."
Song Yuzhu was a little surprised. Such a nice place with such exquisite decoration inside the building only cost three hundred taels of silver?
The shopkeeper seemed to see his confusion, wiping the sweat off his forehead and saying, "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't sell it even for 1,000 taels of silver. I spent less than 400 taels on the renovation last month, but now that the place is in such a state of chaos, how dare I open it again!"
Song Yuzhu said, "Then give me this shop and I'll give you five hundred taels."
The shopkeeper was surprised and asked, "Are you telling the truth?"
"Of course it's true." Song Yuzhu took off the bundle, took out the silver note from the medical book and said, "If it's convenient, let's sign the contract now."
"Okay! Okay!" As if the shopkeeper was afraid that he would go back on his word, he quickly ran to the backyard to get the title deed, signed the document and put his fingerprints on it. Then the shop had changed hands.
Originally, we needed to go to the government office to register, but now the city is in chaos and the prefect has run away with the four kings. Who can we go to register with?
Song Yuzhu put away the documents and said, "There are still some things in this restaurant that you need to take away. You can take them now. After today, everything here will belong to me."
The shopkeeper waved his hands quickly and said, "I don't want anything. I'm going to take my mother, wife and children back to the countryside to retire. I wish you a prosperous business!" After that, he left in a hurry.
After seeing him leave, Zhao Xiao hurried into the house and saw Song Yuzhu sitting at the counter looking at the account book.
"Did you really buy this tavern? I thought you would buy a clinic or a pharmacy." Zhao Xiao paced in the tavern and looked around.
Song Yuzhu put down the account book and said, "I originally had this idea, but the clinic is busy and I'm afraid I don't have time to plan. The pharmacy needs to purchase and prepare medicinal materials, which is even more complicated."
"This restaurant is good, and the prices are affordable. If it is run well in the future, we may be able to make a lot of money."
The rebellion cost a huge amount of money. He couldn't just rob wherever he went like Prince Qing, so where to get the money was a problem.
Zhao Xiao said: "I'll go upstairs and take a look."
Song Yuzhu nodded and changed out of his military uniform, which was not a good thing now. The Qingzi Army's evil deeds outside had aroused public anger. If he was left alone, he might be beaten to death by the people in the city to vent their anger.
After changing his clothes, Song Yuzhu was about to post a job recruitment notice. Just as he was grinding ink, a disheveled woman suddenly broke in from outside the door.
"Young Master, save me!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
