Chapter 1647: Intensifying

"Stopped at the entrance of the Youhu Small Abode?" "Yes, the carriage drove all the way in, crossed the bridge, and drove onto Huaji Island before stopping."

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered: "Visiting Qingyang openly, what kind of background could this be?"

At this juncture, the King of Yao is busy filling the prisons; with so many precedents, which official would dare to go against the wind and visit Qingyang openly?

"Hey? The new head of the Green Guards beside Qingyang, called Yuan something..."

"Yuan Xuan."

"Hmmph, Yuan Xuan walked out to welcome this person into the Youhu Small Abode." Zhu Danniang relayed the scene, "Quite respectful, saying 'Special Envoy Wu has come from afar, the Palace Master has been waiting for many days.'"

Come from afar, and the head of the Green Guards came out to welcome them personally? Hmm, but it wasn't Qingyang who came out to welcome them personally, which shows the guest's status wasn't that noble.

Special Envoy?

The situation is delicate right now; where could this visitor be a special envoy from?

Forget it, He Lingchuan turned his thoughts back to Bai Ziqi and suddenly said: "Perhaps, we can be more active."

Zhu Danniang got excited as soon as it heard the word "active": "How active, is there a fight to be had?"

"I have to wait for a message before making a decision." He Lingchuan smiled, "Don't worry, you will have a fight sooner or later."

Sooner or later.

The Yao Court actually recovered a small portion of the missing grain, but it was scattered and a drop in the bucket, unable to quench Tianshui City's thirst. Several officials of the Yao Court submitted a joint memorial, painfully stating that the situation was critical, and proposed relief measures.

First, open all public granaries and a portion of military granaries to transport grain to the market to stabilize prices; second, purchase grain from surrounding countries to alleviate the domestic grain famine.

The grain in the price-stabilization granaries was simply not enough, so they had to use the salary granaries and the royal granaries. The former was for issuing salary grain to officials, and the latter was the rice jar of the royal family.

These were both emergency measures, but the Yao Nation had used them before, so the King of Yao had no objection and said:

"Purchase grain from surrounding areas as soon as possible. The money in the national treasury was originally taken from the people and used for the people."

But there was one more point in the joint memorial of the seven officials: suspend material and grain aid to Pixia.

Every batch of military grain transported to Pixia was no less than 50,000 shi. Now that the Yao people themselves couldn't eat their fill, where was there grain to aid others? Regarding this point, the King of Yao hesitated for a moment and agreed.

Stop aid to Pixia! This was bound to have a huge impact on the war between Pixia and the allied forces.

What surprised him was that Qingyang, who was supervising state affairs on the side, lowered her eyes and didn't say a word.

Recently, she rarely expressed opinions in court, unlike when she first arrived in the Yao Nation, when she was stern and severe. Was this softening, or was there some other secret plan?

The King of Yao truly hoped it was the former. Unfortunately, he also knew that the truth could only be the latter.

At the same time, before the new grain arrived, the situation in Tianshui City was further deteriorating.

News of refugee riots spread throughout the city, and the employers and workshop owners who originally hired refugees to work were scared, dismissing the refugees under their hands one after another.

It would be one thing if one or two families did this, but hundreds or thousands of families did so simultaneously. The number of refugees who lost their source of income surged, their resentment grew stronger, and they joined the ranks of the rioters without hesitation. A perfectly prosperous capital city of two hundred years is now filled with panic, and commoners dare not go out at night.

Some officials tried to destroy the shacks and drive the refugees out of the city, but the refugees knew very well that leaving Tianshui City was a dead end, so even if they were chased like rats, they wouldn't take a single step out of Tianshui City.

And these refugee teams quickly gave birth to their own leaders, who organized robberies, directed refugees to maneuver with government troops, and within a few days, they had a small scale and a small climate. Moreover, the shacks protected each other, harboring and hiding refugees pursued by the government.

Of course, there were spies in many shacks, often reporting to the Yao King's Court in exchange for grain to fill their stomachs. The problem was, in this situation, sending troops was of no use. The number of refugees was staggering, and they were stuffed into every corner of the city—sending troops to attack one's own city was not something the army was good at.

After the Yao army wiped out more than a dozen shacks in a row, it provoked strong opposition; and the refugees arrested by the government and the army also became a thorny problem: what should be done with them? In just a few days, the authorities arrested seven thousand refugees who participated in the riot, which was not inefficient.

But then what?

Kill them all? After killing these seven thousand people, there would be the next seven thousand, and the next seven thousand; after all, the root cause hadn't been solved.

Lock them up? People need to eat and drink. Now even the bailiffs couldn't eat their fill; did the government want to raise these seven thousand people for free? Were these seven thousand prisoners, or seven thousand ancestors?

Then release them? If they were released, where would the government's face go? Once the refugees won, they would know even better how to resist the government in the future.

In short, the path of forceful suppression seemed to be a dead end.

The city was in an uproar, and He Lingchuan sat firmly in the Yongquan Villa, not eating or sleeping, just practicing martial arts with monkeys. Anyway, the Tianshui eastern expansion and Youhu Villa projects had stopped, and he was rarely this leisurely.

He knew very well that he was about to break away from the center of this vortex in the Yao Nation.

Fan Shuang asked him several times, envious of his leisure.

The King of Yao had been very angry recently, scolding officials until they were bloody, and he had also entered the palace to accompany his superior to be scolded several times, deeply understanding what thunderous rage was.

When no one was around, the Soul-Absorbing Mirror asked He Lingchuan: "If it were you, how would you handle the riot problem?"

"If no one organized it, it would be a pile of loose sand." He Lingchuan said without hesitation, "Just need to divide, win over, and suppress."

Refugees also pursue private interests, how could they have any loyalty to a temporarily formed team? As long as he enabled the strategy he implemented in Longchuan, the speed at which the refugees collapsed would be faster than water bandits.

"If someone organizes it—it looks like someone is indeed organizing it—this matter becomes very complicated." He continued, "Look at the way the refugees resist the bailiffs, the method of breaking the whole into parts, it was clearly guided by someone. They even have quite smooth escape routes; who planned it for them?"

The mirror understood: "Qingyang's partner?"

"Fan Shuang just said that the large temples in Tianshui City are widely distributing relief, moving out a large amount of food to distribute to the starving people. This move made the nobles click their tongues in praise, and the poor people ate the grain, crying and thanking the gods. Do you hear that? Refugees are gathering in large numbers around the temples, and temple attendants can easily contact refugee leaders; the government doesn't realize this at all."

Buying grain to push up inflation on one side, and inciting refugee riots to impact Tianshui City's order on the other, this was an organized and planned action.

Moreover, this should only be the prologue to Qingyang's plan.

The mirror asked him: "Do you know how they plan to rise up?"

"Ten out of ten." He Lingchuan said sternly, "Qingyang's side should be the first to launch. Once that signal appears, it will be the time for us to withdraw!"

"Signal?"

"The speed of the Yao Nation's chaos is in line with my estimate, and Qingyang's plan is indeed good. Within today, all non-combatants in the villa, as long as they are Yangshan people, must all withdraw!"

The King of Yao was restless, and the documents in his hands were roughly looked at and then thrown aside.

Why did the Beijia envoy come at this juncture?

Every year or every year and a half, Beijia would send envoys to the Yao Nation to greet each other and communicate. The King of Yao would warmly welcome the envoys from the upper country every year, hoping that the envoys would speak well of the Yao Nation when they returned.

But this year was special; there was already a Qingyang stationed in the Yao Nation, and she was still stirring up trouble here. The King of Yao was in no mood to receive the noble Beijia envoy right now.

But the envoy was about to arrive in Tianshui City, so the surface work of diplomacy still had to be done.

The King of Yao approved it casually, leaving the reception matters to You Rongzhi.

What made him particularly annoyed now was not only the grain famine and refugee riots frequently occurring in Tianshui City, but also another matter: Wang Sili.

This was the candidate he sent to the northern border of the Yao Nation to replace Chong Wu and command the army. To reduce resistance and accidents, this matter was still carried out secretly.

If it were announced in the court, the officials would have many things to say. They were not good at anything else, but they were experts at finding trouble for the Monarch.

If Qingyang knew, she would definitely interfere. So everything was done quietly.

From the timeline, Wang Sili should be arriving or had already arrived at the northern front. After all, it was galloping at full speed.

Then Wang Sili would first meet with Yuwen Yong, and enter the northern camp accompanied by him and the army, publicly announcing the Monarch's decree, and showing the festival banner and the seal.

In this way, Wang Sili replacing General Chong Wu would be justified.

Even if General Chong Wu was unwilling, he couldn't help but hand over military power in full view of everyone. After all, the soldiers at the front line saw and heard it with their own eyes and ears—

The Monarch changed generals! Chong Wu had been operating the northern line for only two months, and it was impossible to have won over all the soldiers at the front line. So as long as this ceremony was held in public, Wang Sili would definitely succeed.

The King of Yao was now on pins and needles, waiting for his reply.

Did the replacement succeed, did he get military power? The King of Yao had already concluded that Qingyang was plotting an uprising, and Chong Wu must be her accomplice!

These two had close dealings when they were in the Spirit Void City. To help him get to the top, Qingyang even exchanged conditions with the King of Yao, stopping the reporting of corruption—this was her most powerful weapon before.

The King of Yao now finally understood why Qingyang had to fight for this position for Chong Wu: this was her most important move.

He now regretted deeply why he had to withstand Qingyang's pressure and give this important position to Chong Wu, leading to today's disaster!

At this time, Qiu Long strode in: "My King, news from the north!"

The King of Yao turned around abruptly: "Speak quickly!"

"The cliff at Yanmu collapsed, and the road to the northern camp was blocked."

The King of Yao was stunned: "What?"

He thought it was Wang Sili's flying message.

"A few days ago, there was a blizzard at Yanmu Cliff. The rocks there were weathered and couldn't bear the heavy snow, so it collapsed." Qiu Long naturally knew what the King of Yao cared about. "Perhaps, perhaps General Wang took a detour, and hasn't arrived yet?"