Chapter 229: Heaven Has Unexpected Storms

"I think Commander Zhong is also happy to see them go back." Sun Fuling was marking the last few characters. "Since Weicheng has been recaptured, the city needs people to guard it, and the land needs people to farm it. In three months, the spring will come and the snow will melt, and there are good farmlands outside Weicheng; what a pity to leave them abandoned." In the Panlong Wasteland, food has always been a big problem.

"Will the Baling people snatch Weicheng back again?" Actually, He Lingchuan already knew the answer: Yes.

"Yes." Sun Fuling said lightly. "As long as the Baling Kingdom does not give up the heart to destroy us, they will definitely attack Weicheng again."

He Lingchuan couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and then heard Sun Fuling say leisurely: "The world is like this. Good death and hard living, you always have to choose one."

She carefully blew the ink dry: "Alright, I've finished marking. Let's start our first lesson."

The sparrowhawk by the fire basin immediately tucked its head into the feathers on its back.

Sleep quickly.

The sunlight hitting the window lattice became more and more slanted, and more and more hazy.

Sun Fuling explained very seriously, but He Lingchuan was a bit distracted. The two sat very close; from this angle, her chin line was exquisite, her lip beads perfect, and although her complexion was pale, her nose bridge was very straight, and her almond eyes were exceptionally agile and bright. How did that saying go, two black mercury balls raised in white mercury? Other beauties have eyes like cut water, dripping with emotion, also described as affectionate as water; but Sun Fuling had light in her eyes, as if cold stars were twinkling in the night, capturing people's souls.

Such eyes, if there was no experience, how could they appear on a young girl? Although he knew this was Sun Jiayuan's younger sister, He Lingchuan's doubts about her deepened.

"Did you understand?" Sun Fuling saw he was distracted and shook the brush twice in front of his eyes.

"Under—understood." He Lingchuan forcibly suppressed the urge to yawn.

This lecture lasted for two hours!

How did she manage to talk for two hours without almost drinking water?

As expected of a professional.

The sparrowhawk on the side was already snoring, and he was envious to death.

He could still concentrate on the lecture in the first hour, but by the second hour, those characters crawled off the paper and twisted into little tadpoles in his head.

Sun Fuling also saw his guilty conscience and stood up: "Let's stop here for today; you won't remember even if I say more."

"Yes, yes, Teacher Sun has worked hard!" He Lingchuan hurriedly climbed up and quietly stretched his stiff lower back.

"I'm going back, you rest early." Sun Fuling nodded at him and walked out.

Someone helped out of kindness, shouldn't he also show some appreciation? He Lingchuan scanned the oil paper bag of roast chicken on the stove and suddenly remembered the new thing he had obtained.

"Please wait a moment!" He reached into the flowerpot and touched a candy snail.

After leaving the warm and humid Yan Mountain cave, it had become a frozen item in the icy air. He Lingchuan used a toothpick to pick out the snail meat, washed the shell clean, and handed it to Sun Fuling.

"Having nothing else, I'll use this to pay the tuition."

"Sugar shell?" Sun Fuling took it and shone it against the light, her voice becoming brisk. "You really want to give this to me? This thing is very expensive, enough to pay for half a year's tuition!"

She actually knew the goods.

The one He Lingchuan gave was grass green in the center spiral, pure black in the outer circle, and bright gradient apple red in the outermost large circle, beautiful and natural.

Candy snails grow colorful shells due to different food they eat, sometimes even due to the order of eating.

He Lingchuan spread his hands: "A precious sword to a hero, powder to a beauty."

Sun Fuling tucked the loose hair at her temples, the light in her eyes brighter, and even her voice became soft: "Thank you for your generous gift, I like it very much."

The two said goodbye, and Sun Fuling returned with the sugar shell.

He Lingchuan had to sigh at the great attraction of jewelry to women. Even a cold personality like Sun Fuling couldn't take her eyes off the candy snail shell.

He looked at the remaining snails and sighed.

If only he could find the cave where this thing grows in reality, then he would have an endless source of funds.

When he walked back to the kitchen, he found that a bag of roast chicken was missing, and the sparrowhawk by the fire basin was gone.

￥￥￥￥￥

Early the next morning, people in Dunyucheng heard two major events as soon as they woke up.

The first was that three more people died in the Zhan family last night.

Strictly speaking, three and a half.

Two of them were seriously injured in the fight the day before and died after lingering until dawn; the last half was the most miserable: the pregnant wife of the Fourth Master Zhan was gone.

The Fourth Master Zhan was already fifty years old, and the wife he married four years ago was thirty-two years younger than him.

An old husband loves his young wife, which is inevitable.

Yesterday, the Li family's private soldiers rushed into the Zhan Mansion and knocked down his wife, who was seven months pregnant; her belly hit the rockery hard, and she bled from under her skirt on the spot and lost consciousness.

The doctor found by the government went to save her immediately, but unfortunately, it didn't work.

After dragging on until midnight, both mother and child died.

That was a baby boy, and the Fourth Master Zhan almost went crazy.

Anyone who heard this news would say "Alas" and shake their heads with a sigh.

However, the probability of children dying in childbirth in this era was high, and there would always be one or two out of ten. Moreover, the Zhan family was one of the four great families of Dunyu, and their reputation wasn't very good, so commoners talking about this would always add a sentence: "The adults are wicked, the descendants suffer retribution," and then treat it as after-dinner talk.

The second major news was that the Xunzhou army broke through Baichegang and tore a long gap in General Zhao Pan's defense line.

In the past, when the Gao Zu of Yuan attacked Xiazhou, he received much help, and the wealthy families near Dunyu sent grain, grass, and armor; there were often carriages and horses walking on the ridge, hundreds of carriages at a time, hence the name.

But the Yuan army now clearly didn't have the glory of the past, lacking clothing and food, with low morale, and this pass was also taken by Xunzhou.

The fall of Baichegang was Nian Zanli's irony to the Yuan Court.

More importantly, the terrain south of Baichegang is flat, with no danger to defend, and the Xunzhou army can use this as a breakthrough to march south.

When the news came, the entire Dunyucheng was shaken.

From Baichegang to Dunyucheng, the straight-line distance is only four hundred miles. The most extreme thing is that from there to the official road, the marching speed can be even faster.

The clouds of war, for the first time, hovered so clearly over the entire Dunyucheng, or perhaps in the hearts of every Dunyu person.

So much so that the Dunyu people's attention to the war exceeded the tracking of the Zhan family's three and a half lives case.

While eating breakfast, Lady Ying told He Chunhua the news about the Zhan family, and the latter couldn't help but pat the table lightly:

"Heaven..."

He originally wanted to say "Heaven helps me," but seeing Lady Ying's stunned expression, he turned the words around: "Heaven has unexpected storms." But the expression on his face was light.

The Zhan family died a few people, which itself would intensify the conflict, so his backup radical means wouldn't be needed.

Before long, the steward Old Mo also came to report the war situation in the north.

After hearing it, He Chunhua took a long breath; just as he was sleepy, someone sent a pillow, and he couldn't believe his good luck.

These two major events were truly a double happiness for him. In the eyes of others, it was danger, but in his eyes, it was a great opportunity.

The eldest son is truly a lucky general.

Facing the rising sun, He Chunhua couldn't help but feel ambitious: the brand-new chapter belonging to him was finally about to begin.

Sure enough, just after he finished breakfast, the Zhan family head, Zhan Song, brought several carts of heavy gifts to visit, his eyes red as he added crimes to the Li family, begging the Superintendent to uphold justice. Because the case of the Li family using private soldiers to commit murder had to wait until the suspects came to surrender in two days to be officially tried, the Zhan family's current demand was that they must be severely and strictly punished when the time came! He Chunhua was full of sighs and compassion, indicating that he would definitely not let the perpetrators go unpunished.

The main event came. Zhan Song was also an old fox, knowing he had requests, and what he wanted to investigate was the Li family, the top bully of Dunyu, so the difficulty coefficient was directly maxed out; if his own family didn't bleed a little, it wouldn't work. Therefore, he took an exchange ticket from his bosom and placed it on the table:

"Knowing there are tigers on the mountain, Magistrate He still goes forward despite the difficulties; the Zhan family is moved and willing to donate this exchange ticket to the Provincial Government. With this ticket, the government can collect five thousand shi of grain from the Zhan family's shops."

One shi equals 120 jin, so five thousand shi of grain is about 600,000 jin, slightly relieving the urgent needs of the front line.

He Chunhua smiled slightly: "The Zhan family is too polite."

He acted with reserve, and the moment the head of the Zhan family saw it, he understood: he thought it was too little. Zhao Pan had over thirty thousand soldiers under his command; even if they weren't fighting and just stayed put, five thousand shi of grain would only last them ten days.

"If Heaven has eyes and my Zhan family can get justice, we are willing to donate another five thousand shi."

He Chunhua stood up tall: "The net of Heaven is vast, and nothing escapes it; the Zhan family just wait for the good news."

This is a clear stance. Zhan Song breathed a sigh of relief and took his leave.

In the past, he would never have believed that the government could investigate the Li family, but this Superintendent He was newly appointed, and it was said that he had outstanding political achievements in suppressing bandits at the western border, and he climbed up the ladder by relying on the merit of killing Sun Fuping, having no connection with the big officials in the court.

Walking out of the He Mansion, the Zhan family head looked up at the sky and sighed softly. He had never been so eager for the government to handle cases impartially.

Of course, his actions were all seen by the spies waiting not far away and were quickly reported to the Li family.

As for the conversation between the Xiazhou Superintendent and the Zhan family head, it didn't even need He Chunhua to deliberately spread it; it reached the ears of the Li brothers about two hours later.

Li Rong sneered repeatedly: "Ten thousand shi, the Zhan family only took out ten thousand shi of grain, and they want to put us to death?"

Although he said so, his face was as white as paper. He hadn't closed his eyes for almost two days; the Li family was flat everywhere, but from last night to now, he had stumbled at least three times and almost fell.

At this time, a servant reported: "The Sixth Young Master is back."

Li Rong jumped up: "Quick, quick, find him and bring him in!"

The beginning of spring had long passed, and the lakes outside Dunyucheng were still frozen for two feet.

He Lingchuan took out the airs of an official's son, changing from carrying a cage to walk a bird to carrying a monkey to walk a wolf, wearing a gorgeous crown and brocade clothes, followed by four or five attendants like Mao Tao, first eating a meal at the best restaurant in Dunyu, and then going to Xiangyun Garden to listen to music.

Wherever he went, there was a grand display.

In terms of prices, Dunyu was much more expensive than Heishuicheng.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 230 =====