Once he was fully conscious, Qi Chengjun stopped dwelling on these matters and instead sent a messenger to the capital to inform the emperor that he had won this bloodless battle.
Now, it's time for His Highness the King of Chu to pay the price.
Qi Chengjun stayed in the epidemic area for several months. Apart from having people continuously send medicinal materials in, Qi Chengjun himself never showed his face.
To the King of Chu, he was a man who was already dead.
Jiangnan was, after all, his own territory. During the floods and epidemics, the King of Chu did not interfere much, but now that the weather was favorable, the King of Chu naturally wanted Jiangnan to recover as soon as possible.
He directly appointed two people to serve as temporary prefects in Yangzhou and Huizhou, completely taking over their official duties. At the same time, he further reduced taxes in these three places to win over the people.
Everything in Jiangnan was gradually returning to normal. However, news soon came from the capital that His Highness Prince Wen had discovered new grain, which angered the Prince of Chu so much that he smashed another tea set.
"Gu Yuzhi! Gu Yuzhi! It's all this Gu Yuzhi!"
The King of Chu was so angry he almost ground his teeth to powder. He slammed his fist on the table. He was about to use these methods of winning people's hearts to curry favor, but who knew that Gu Yuzhi would pull off such a big move!
Now that everyone in the Sang Dynasty is focused on these two new species, who has time to care whether the Jiangnan region has actually reduced taxes?
"I never would have guessed when we were in the palace that Xiao Liu was a dog that couldn't bark."
Ling Changshi and the others listened silently, none of them saying a word. When the King of Chu finished scolding and was resting with tea, Ling Changshi finally spoke up: "Your Highness, I have received news that many merchants have already set off for the northern desert, hoping to buy the seeds of these two new grains from His Highness Prince Wen."
All the seeds that Prince Wen presented to the court were controlled by Vice Minister Su. The merchants had no choice but to focus their attention on Prince Wen and try every means to obtain the seeds this year.
The King of Chu glanced at Chief Secretary Ling and understood the meaning behind his words: "I have already sent Li Yanping back to the northern desert."
Mentioning Li Yanping made the King of Chu feel sullen again.
He didn't contact me, so he didn't contact me. He could have just done everything as instructed. But he actually went all the way to Jiangnan. Now he's been stuck in Jiangnan for months, and he's practically blind to the situation in Mobei.
Otherwise, how could Xiao Liu only find out now that he planted such an important new species?
He had a feeling that Xiao Liu was specifically designed to counter him. He had only been in Mobei for a year, and Mobei was no longer entirely under his control.
Seeing that the Prince of Chu's face was turning pale and then red, clearly not thinking of anything good, Chief Secretary Ling immediately changed the subject: "Your Highness, the northern frontier is not the most important thing for now. The most important thing is still Jiangnan. We haven't reported to the Emperor about the prefects of Yangzhou and Huizhou yet."
The appointment of the prefects of the two prefectures is not something that the princes can decide. The Prince of Chu can say that they are temporarily appointed, after all, Jiangnan is currently in a critical period. However, if the emperor is not informed, it would be a great disrespect if he finds out.
The Emperor could even cut off the King of Chu's head.
The northern deserts were never a pleasant topic, and the south of the Yangtze River was even less pleasant. The King of Chu became even more irritable: "I know. Tomorrow I will send someone to the capital to contact the people there. It would be best to send your own people down here."
Although Yangzhou and Huizhou were not his fiefdoms, the two previous prefects were his men, and he had taken a lot of benefits from these two places over the years.
If someone from the imperial court were to take over, not only would these two places be out of control, but it would also likely expose his true strength.
How could the King of Chu allow such a situation to occur?
Ling Changshi then said, "I have already contacted people in the capital, and we will find a way to transfer Fan Qiu here this time."
Fan Qiu was also a man of the King of Chu, but he was unassuming and unassuming. After passing the imperial examination, he went to the Lingnan area to serve as a prefect, a position he held for many years.
He never took the initiative to contact the King of Chu, so no one knew that Fan Qiu was the King of Chu's man. However, the 100,000-strong navy in Jiangnan was trained by Fan Qiu himself.
His life in Lingnan was like an exile, and the recent floods in Jiangnan made it just right to transfer Fan Qiu over.
The King of Chu, thinking of the navy Fan Qiu had built for him, nodded in satisfaction: "Alright, Fan Qiu will stay in Yangzhou. Yangzhou is relatively close to the navy. As for Huizhou..."
He was pondering who would be suitable to transfer when he heard the steward frantically say, "Your Highness, Your Highness, something terrible has happened! He's coming out, he's coming out..."
The King of Chu restrained himself after much hesitation, finally managing not to throw the teacup: "Explain yourself clearly, what's out?"
The butler said in a trembling voice, "Qi Chengjun, Qi Chengjun is out! Not only him, but more than a thousand people from the epidemic area have also come out!"
Those people who were already deemed dead and better off burned alive actually emerged from the epidemic area unharmed.
With guards protecting him, Qi Chengjun led the more than one thousand people to stand outside Jiangzhou City. He still held the Shangfang Sword in his hand and looked at the city wall of Jiangzhou, saying, "Your subject, Qi Chengjun, a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, leads many surviving people to request an audience with His Highness the Prince of Chu."
He didn't enter Jiangzhou, but instead shouted loudly outside the city. After he finished shouting, the people behind him knelt down in unison and shouted, "This humble subject requests an audience with His Highness the King of Chu."
Commander Chen was completely bewildered. What did he want to see?
You lowly people, just live and do what you're supposed to do, what are you yelling about?
Commander Chen almost wanted to order the slaughter of all these idiots!
But he couldn't. Not only could he not, he quickly stepped down from the city wall and knelt before Qi Chengjun.
There was nothing they could do; after all, Qi Chengjun held the imperial sword!
Qi Chengjun didn't even glance at Commander Chen. He just waited quietly, wanting to see when His Highness the Prince of Chu would come out and how he would face the more than one thousand people who had just survived!
At that moment, the King of Chu was gripping the corner of the table tightly as he listened to the steward describe the situation outside the city gate. He couldn't resist and broke off a piece of the table corner.
He threw it aside with obvious disgust. A servant quickly brought him a basin of water to wash his hands. Only after his hands were completely clean did the King of Chu look at the advisor who had previously suggested throwing Qi Chengjun into the plague zone: "Didn't you say that if Qi Chengjun entered the plague zone, we could use him to kill someone else?"
The staff member never expected Qi Chengjun to survive.
After all, in their view, those people in the epidemic area, whether they were infected or not, were just waiting to die.
The aide knelt down with a thud: "Your Highness..."
It's too late to say anything now!
Qi Chengjun survived and brought more than a thousand people out with him. He led the people to surround Jiangzhou City, and the people of Jiangzhou will soon know about his actions regarding the epidemic!
Compared to Qi Chengjun's deep involvement in the epidemic area, what he did was simply the destruction of innocent lives.
After this incident, Qi Chengjun's prestige in Jiangzhou will rise instantly.
He had a very bad feeling...
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