Lu Yanzheng did not answer his question, but strode back to his temporary residence.
After sitting down behind the large table that served as a desk, Lu Yanzheng finally spoke, "In your opinion, what kind of person is Prince Yong?"
Qin Shen was stumped by the question and asked with some confusion, "Didn't he say that he was forced to rebel against the court so that the people could live a better life? And originally he wanted to attack Yongshan County, but in order to avoid starting a war, he wanted to discuss cooperation with you, General."
The implication is that Prince Yong was basically a good person.
Lu Yanzheng shook his head. "Don't look at what he said, look at what he did." As he spoke, he reminded him, "Start with the performance of Qiongzhou during the droughts of the past few years."
"Performance?" Qin Shen rested his chin on his hand, his brow furrowed slightly, and began to recall seriously.
Lu Yanzheng lit a small tea stove on his desk, boiled two cups of water, poured them into two small cups, handed one to Qin Shen, and slowly drank the other himself.
He wasn't in a hurry. If nothing unexpected happened, Qin Shen would continue to follow him. So, he would have to learn to think for himself instead of always seeking answers from him.
Qin Shen wasn't stupid. After thinking about it carefully for a while, he suddenly opened his eyes wide and said, "Prince Yong has wanted to rebel for a long time!"
Lu Yanzheng gave a faint "hmm".
“He started hoarding grain three years ago. I remember that news reached the border town at that time that people in Qiongzhou were buying grain at high prices, and many people joined together to transport the grain to Qiongzhou to sell in order to make more money…”
Qin Shen became increasingly alarmed as he spoke. The reason given for the grain confiscation in Qiongzhou was that the prefecture was suffering from a severe drought and had no grain. However, the situation in other prefectures was not much better.
Prince Yong's actions directly resulted in more grain in Qiongzhou than in other places, but the price of grain in Qiongzhou never came down, and the people continued to live a miserable life, often going hungry.
So, where did all the grain collected in Qiongzhou go?
Looking back now, it's self-evident.
"Prince Yong hoarded grain not to alleviate the people's plight, but solely for his own selfish desire to rebel. Hoarding grain was merely his first step. The subsequent three-year drought likely made life difficult in Qiongzhou as well, thus hindering Prince Yong's rebellion. However, he still failed to properly settle the people's affairs, focusing solely on opposing the court. The people of Qiongzhou scattered and fled, and some unfortunate individuals were even captured and forced into military service..."
As Qin Shen spoke, a hint of doubt appeared in his eyes. "But General, why would Prince Yong choose this time to rebel?"
Lu Yanzheng glanced at him. "You know about when I went to meet the Seventh Prince, right?"
"Yes, you sent me a letter mentioning it." Qin Shen nodded.
After all, Lu Yanzheng was still feared by the court at the time, and the court even sent people to arrest him and the Seventh Prince. However, they both escaped in advance, and the court's people were led around by their own people. Later, they went back to the capital. Now the court has not mentioned replacing Lu Yanzheng at all.
They hadn't brought it up openly before, mainly because they were afraid of unrest in the border troops. They thought they could catch Lu Yanzheng off guard by sending someone to deliver the imperial decree and then take him away. They didn't expect Lu Yanzheng to run away first.
Now that Prince Yong has rebelled, the border troops are of utmost importance, and the imperial court dares not touch Lu Yanzheng lightly.
"Prince Yong is the Seventh Prince's man." Lu Yanzheng suddenly dropped a bombshell.
Qin Shen was dumbfounded. "What? Prince Yong is the Seventh Prince's man? But isn't the Seventh Prince in Yukang Prefecture right now? Besides, the Seventh Prince didn't say he was going to rebel!"
“Originally, Prince Yong was a backup plan that the Seventh Prince had left for himself, intending to help him escape when he was in trouble. But I don’t know when, Prince Yong betrayed the Seventh Prince.” Lu Yanzheng looked out the window, his eyes dark and unfathomable.
What's so good about this power? All that scheming and maneuvering, and in the end, who knows who benefits from it all?
Qin Shen felt a jolt in his mind and suddenly said, "Could it be that Prince Yong rebelled because he saw the Seventh Prince being held captive in the palace? What benefits does he want to get from the Seventh Prince?"
“Yes, from the day he started his rebellion, he obtained what the Seven Emperors had originally prepared for him.” Lu Yanzheng nodded in confirmation of his guess.
As for this thing, it is naturally about mobilizing the power that originally belonged to the Seventh Prince. Once the rebellion begins, it will be unstoppable, whether the Seventh Prince likes it or not.
As far as he knew, the Seventh Prince's men committed suicide after learning that Prince Yong's rebellion was only due to his own selfish desires, so that Prince Yong would not have the opportunity to smear the Seventh Prince. Therefore, now only Prince Yong has to bear the blame for the rebellion.
"Then we absolutely cannot cooperate with Prince Yong!" Qin Shen said anxiously. "This kind of villain even tricked the Seventh Prince. We are all grown men, and we don't have the mind to play tricks on him. It would be bad if we ended up becoming his pawns."
Lu Yanzheng smiled faintly, "We and Prince Yong are indeed on different paths and cannot work together, but... who says we can't cooperate with them?"
"Huh?" Qin Shen was a little confused. "General, we already know who he is, so why do we still want to cooperate with him?"
Lu Yanzheng looked at him and asked, "Do you want to fight a war with him, then let the people of Yukang Prefecture suffer from the ravages of war, and finally let Dayuan and Xiqiang benefit from it?"
"Of course we don't want to!" Qin Shen shook his head repeatedly. "But if we cooperate with Prince Yong, won't we also be branded with infamy?"
Lu Yanzheng calmly said, "We only do business with Prince Yong. Let him bear the infamy for now!"
"Doing business?" Qin Shen was completely baffled. Why did he find that after not being by the general's side for a while, he could hardly understand what the general was saying?
Lu Yanzheng said, "There are quite a few businesses we can do with Prince Yong. For example, we can sell some of the improved version of the Thunderclap Bomb to them at a high price after the autumn harvest next year. We can also sell some special products from the border town and Yukang Prefecture."
"This..." Qin Shen hesitated, "Will Prince Yong agree?"
Lu Yanzheng countered, "When you're rebelling, if someone is willing to sell you weapons and food, would you refuse?"
"No." Qin Shen shook his head subconsciously.
Lu Yanzheng took another sip of water. "Make arrangements so that you can see Prince Yong again tomorrow."
By next year, the entire Yukang Prefecture will be planted with high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes. In addition to feeding themselves, some of these crops can be exchanged for peace.
The most important task for Yukang Prefecture now is to maintain stability and allow it to recuperate. For this purpose, Lu Yanzheng is willing to offer some benefits.
...
The following day, Jiang Qinyu, along with Aping, left Dingshui Village with Xiao Rui.
Chen Xiuer accompanied Madam Chen to see them off. After the carriage left, she pretended to be worried and said, "Aunt, I hope nothing bad will happen to my cousin-in-law. After all, we don't really know what kind of person that Young Master Rui is."
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