Chapter 213

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

In early April, this heavy snowfall that had been drifting down finally ended smoothly.

It was both unexpected and yet expected; such abnormal weather had occurred in various places throughout Qi State.

Qi Chen returned from outside with an ugly expression; even though Shen Yao knew he was not venting his anger at her.

"Your Highness"

"Yao'er"

Qi Chen was full of grievance and heartache, not knowing whom to tell; now seeing Shen Yao come over, he was like a child, saying everything he should and shouldn't say.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao sat beside Qi Chen, took his wrist, and comforted him in a relaxed tone.

It was indeed infuriating, but the one who sent the letter was the Emperor; the other party's face could not be denied.

Qi Chen:...

"I plan to set off immediately for Changzhou Prefecture; once we reach the fiefdom, let's see who still dares not give us face."

The Emperor still didn't think others were easy to bully outside; Luo Zhou Fu wasn't enough, and he had also gone ahead to Changzhou Prefecture to conscript a batch of grain laborers.

You have to know that the situation in Changzhou Prefecture was not as good as Luo Zhou Fu; leaving him a mess in one place was meant to deliberately disgust people? Qi Chen had never once felt the Emperor disliked him; clearly, he was quite well-connected in Jingcheng.

Shen Yao advised Qi Chen to make a horizontal comparison; not just Changzhou Prefecture, but also other surrounding prefecture cities.

It could only be said that this disaster caused a problem in Jingcheng; the Emperor wanted to protect his own territory's safety, so he could only harvest wool from other places.

"Your Highness, only if Qi State is stable can we live comfortably in the fiefdom.

For this matter, given the relationship between the Emperor and Your Highness, there will definitely be compensation in the future."

Even if not, there won't be few useless imperial edicts commending people.

According to her understanding, the Emperor of Qi State was very good at being a person; matters of face would not easily give others a handle.

To make the Emperor act out of character and Qi Chen so angry, it could only be said that this disaster truly caused serious damage.

Unlike Qi Chen who only needed to consider his small family and fiefdom, the Emperor had to take care of the entire Qi State.

Under Shen Yao's thoughtful soothing, Qi Chen recovered; he patted the back of his hand, "Imperial Brother didn't say how Jingcheng is, but Yanggui is less than a hundred li from Jingcheng.

This heavy snow before our eyes is coming with great force; the related bad consequences have already been brewed."

The most obvious thing was that every household was about to run out of grain; inside and outside the small county city were crowded with common people buying grain.

The grain shop business, originally not very hot, rose step by step, causing grain prices to double and keep rising.

Qi Chen no longer bought grain; their stored grain was temporarily enough, and once they reached the fiefdom, they wouldn't need to worry about grain problems at all.

It was also because of the existence of this great Buddha Qi Chen that even though grain prices in Yanggui County City rose, there was still a bottom line, unlike other places.

Just like Mianzhu, which borders Yanggui closely, its grain price was double that of Yanggui County, forcing Mianzhu common people to have to rush to Yanggui to buy grain, just to buy a few more jin and let their family members last a few more days.

The miserable state of the lower-class common people had nothing to do with Shen Yao for now; right now they were packing their luggage, seizing time to leave Yanggui and return to Changzhou.

"Concubine Shen, the wife of the Guanling sent a visiting card; I don't know if you want to see her?"

Qi Chen had no Principal Wife; Shen Yao now did the Principal Wife's work under the name of Concubine.

Qi Chen had already promised Shen Yao that once they reached Changzhou Prefecture, he would formally submit a memorial to appoint Shen Yao as Principal Wife.

Qi Haochen's liveliness and robustness made Qi Chen feel Shen Yao was his lucky star.

So he didn't care whether it was suitable or not; as long as he was willing, other people's opposition was invalid.

"The wife of the Guanling?"

Shen Yao stood up and patted her palm, her gaze falling indifferently outside the window.

"Please let her in; we are just about to leave, and by both emotion and reason we should meet this wife of the Guanling."

But the other party chose to visit at this time; did they have a request?

Indeed they had a request, and it seemed they also had the meaning of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

Looking at the various gifts placed on the table, Shen Yao's fake smile face could hardly be maintained.

What did it mean? Did they want her to go blow pillow wind for Qi Chen to keep those landlords and rich merchants who wanted to leave with them? On what basis!

"Lady Zheng, I am just a woman; some words I really can't understand.

Please take these gifts back, Lady; otherwise, if left, accepting them would make me feel ashamed."

After Shen Yao finished speaking, she then used bodily discomfort as a reason to have her maid send this Eldest Mistress in front of her away.

Lady Zheng also didn't expect Shen Yao to have this attitude; she had investigated before; clearly this Concubine was of low birth and was also a remarried woman.

She thought it was just good luck, and she herself was a person who couldn't make it to the stage.

So when arranged by the Guanling to come over, she was still somewhat resentful, and even her speech carried a superior feeling of looking down on others.

Unexpectedly the other party was like this; not only slapped her face but also casually brushed her off.

Lady Zheng was somewhat anxious; opening her mouth she asked Concubine Shen to consider more; the thank-you gifts she sent were worth a thousand gold.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao signaled her maid to hurry up and act; she herself stepped around the other party and went to Pian Dian.

"Truly funny; looking down on me yet asking me to handle matters, thinking I have a good temper?"

Just because something is worth a thousand gold they dare to show off in front of her; not to mention the things in the space, just Qi Chen alone had given her many treasures.

"Host, why not accept? The things are not bad;" as for whether the requested matter was done or not, did a small Guanling dare to cause trouble for the Concubine of Qin Wang Fu?

"The Guanling doesn't dare, but the people behind the Guanling might just be waiting." Shen Yao spoke casually, "Caution is no big mistake; why covet these few treasures."

Those landlords and rich merchants who wanted to leave with Qi Chen sent better ones, still of the completely carefree type. Compared to the Guanling full of concerns, the difference was immediately clear.

The Guanling's wife leaving caused Shen Yao no trouble.

Because Shen Yao turned around and told Qi Chen about this matter, letting the other party ponder over the troublesome affair.

Qi Chen did not disappoint Shen Yao's passing of the buck, striking first by writing this matter into a memorial to have someone send it back to Jingcheng, then bringing the large force and leaving directly with the person.

Compared to when they left Luo Zhou Fu, the team had increased greatly in both number and length.

Qi Chen's originally indignant emotions eased considerably, and he resumed his daily joking and laughing with Shen Yao.

Lifting the curtain, Shen Yao gazed at the distant fields, where many commoners were bending over to plant rice seedlings.

Although the season was somewhat late, if they did not plant grain, it would mean there was absolutely no way to survive before the autumn harvest; it was better to plant some first, to grab whatever they could, and not let the good land lie idle.

"The situation in Changzhou Prefecture is somewhat better; the snow there did not fall as heavily as here."

"The fields there have already been normally planted with grain; once the grain is harvested, they can get through this year."

Qi Chen leaned close to Shen Yao, speaking softly about some of the situation regarding the fiefdom.

If Changzhou Prefecture was well, they could be well; Qi Chen recently had the team speed up, hurrying along while the weather was decent.

Otherwise, if something delayed them again on the way, it would affect themselves.

Shen Yao sat in the carriage all day, occasionally going out for fresh air only after finishing her meal.

Leaning against Qi Chen, Shen Yao sighed that traveling was not easy and hurrying along was difficult.

Even though she had not eaten bitterness or suffered, she felt unaccustomed to it, let alone those more tragic scenes of fleeing famine—just thinking about them would make one collapse.

……

Time slowly moved forward during the journey; when the time came to mid-to-late April, their entire team had also bypassed Jingcheng and officially entered the Bei Fang territory.

Changzhou Prefecture was right at hand.

"Your Highness, there is a group of refugees blocking the road ahead; we cannot proceed."

The steward appeared in the Che Xiang, lowering his head to speak of recent troublesome matters.

Qi Chen rubbed his forehead, "From here on is Jingcheng; what exactly is going on with those refugees on the road?"

Refugees in the Jingcheng territory were not unusual; what was unusual was that these refugees had not been properly settled.

"Replying to Your Highness, these refugees were originally commoners from the areas surrounding Jingcheng."

"They were supposed to receive relief grain and return to their hometowns to farm, but for some reason they actually had to migrate."

"Now they are traveling with us, but the refugees walk slowly; on foot they simply cannot compare with us, which is why they were blocked behind."

Qi Chen looked up, "You are so troubled; did they say something?"

The steward nodded upon hearing this, only saying that these refugees admired Your Highness's heroic bearing and wished to leave together with Your Highness.

Qi Chen: ……

Qi Chen reached out and tapped the tabletop, "If I remember correctly, Changzhou Prefecture is sparsely populated; arranging some people to go to the fiefdom is no problem."

"It's just that Changzhou Prefecture has rich mineral resources; mining might be more profitable than farming."

"After all, most of the mineral resources in ancient times were held in the hands of the Imperial Court; if Qi Chen went to Changzhou Prefecture, what he would inherit would be these mineral resources comparable to gold and silver."

"Let them follow behind the team; tell them the address of Changzhou Prefecture—those who can keep up can follow, those who cannot can slowly make their way."

"Anyway, he has taken in the people; once they reach Changzhou Prefecture, everything else can be negotiated."

"If they encounter other refugees on the road, they can tell them these words."

"For now the snow disaster has passed; those who can endure will not choose to be refugees with nothing."

Qi Chen predicted that even if there were more refugees on the road, the related number would not exceed a certain range.

"Only within the number tacitly accepted by everyone can the Jingcheng side sit still."

"Otherwise, if the entire Qi State is in turmoil, these Imperial Clan Relatives cannot avoid sharing weal and woe."

The steward acknowledged and withdrew, not staying long; instead, Shen Yao at one side asked softly why refugees under the Son of Heaven's feet could just leave as they pleased.

The Qi State had not yet fallen; commoners going out all had identity documents.

Even entering a city required a glance at them, let alone a situation so far from their hometowns.

"They were able to come out; most likely it was tacitly permitted. Jingcheng suffered disaster; those commoners were destined to have trouble."

"Rather than staying in Jingcheng to wait for death, it was better to send the people out early to survive; whether they lived or died in the end had nothing to do with the Jingcheng side."

Shen Yao: ……

Shen Yao felt these words sounded somewhat hypocritical, completely the posture of covering one's ears and pretending not to know.

Qi Chen smiled and drew Shen Yao into his arms to tease her, "Yao'er is intelligent; she sees through it at a glance."

Jingcheng never lacked people; after one batch left, there would be an endless stream of people coming to fill the places.

Population was indeed the foundation needed for social development, but in this era, there were many factors restricting development; population was merely one of them.

"We can take in the refugees, which counts as doing a good deed."

"The Emperor will not only not blame us, but will instead reward us; after all, the mountains and rivers of this Qi State belong to the Emperor."

Qi Chen's tone was melancholy; who did not like that high and lofty position? It was just a matter of timing and fate; he could only accept it.