Chapter 205

When Da Wang set off, his big eyes were red; the Wei family only thought he was unwilling to part with his maternal grandfather and had cried.

Da Wang glared at his maternal grandfather and maternal uncle one by one, then squeezed into Bai Ze's carriage, insisting on going together.

Bai Ze took one look and knew this guy's motives weren't pure.

Sure enough, after bidding farewell to the Wei family, Da Wang glared at it angrily.

Bai Ze opened the scroll straight away: "Wei Tinghou faces a great calamity in his fate; for your sake I already warned him directly—what more do you want?"

Da Wang said: "Why didn't you tell me? How many calamities do I have in my fate? What about my father the emperor—how would he handle a great turmoil in the world? Which other feudal lords have rebelled? Is Prince Jiangxia honest?"

Bai Ze, unable to bear it any longer, swiped a paw to push him away: "Instantly shifting the situation—what do you think Bai Ze is?" It can only foresee the great trends of the world; only together with Wei Tinghou and the Southwest Army can it see the future; even unnamed individuals ask it, treating it as a fortune-teller?!

Of course, it knows Ningde's fate, but……it won't tell the little fool.

Da Wang pouted: "You actually didn't tell me first!"

Bai Ze: "I tell you, go tell him, say that my Bai Ze has spoken; it says if you meddle in the northwest turmoil your whole army will be trapped in the northwest and unable to return—does he believe it? I myself will make the trip, and you're still being picky!"

Da Wang's tears fell patteringly: "…It turns out my maternal grandfather really will die…"

Bai Ze: …Is it being tricked?

When Da Wang was resting at night, he wrote a letter to his father; the gist was that a wandering Daoist had come to You Prefecture, claiming he could foretell the future. According to him, he had fled from the northwest to You Prefecture. The Daoist said the northwest would fall into chaos, the Western Regions' allied army would attack Great Jin, Great Jin would suffer a crushing defeat, and the whole realm would be engulfed in war. The Daoist fled into You Prefecture, planning next to escape into Xianbei to avoid disaster.

Da Wang wrote: "This gossiping crow‑mouth spouts nonsense, yet he even wants to defect to another state; as soon as I heard the rumor I immediately had him seized and chopped up! Cut into several pieces—Father Emperor, you can rest easy! Father Emperor, did I do well～"

Father Emperor, although this Daoist is wicked, I feel that those not of our kind must have different hearts; you old man should still guard against those Wusun desert barbarians! (I am definitely not bearing a grudge against that Wuji prince!)

After Da Wang finished writing and blew it dry, he muttered: "That's all I can do; I hope Father Emperor has a clue!" Having learned a hint of heavenly secret, not reminding his father, Da Wang never felt at ease.

Even Bai Ze couldn't be bothered to splash water to wake him up; if your father had a clue, it wouldn't have come to this.

Da Wang went to contact Zhu Ti through the Myriad Realms, asking her to send this letter from You Prefecture back to Chang'an.

"By the way, has Zhao Bao returned?"

"Yesterday, the lord's retinue had already returned to You Prefecture, and the locals lined the roads to welcome them." She paused, recalling the matter of buying servants: "The caravan scattered and met many refugees; lots of them, just for a mouthful of food, sold themselves, and now we have obtained indenture contracts for a total of five thousand people, of whom two thousand have been transported back to You Prefecture."

When Da Wang heard that, he was pleased: "Fine, as long as it's population, it doesn't matter whether they're refugees or slaves."

"Leave a thousand people at the copper mine; the rest need not be rushed to You Prefecture—later I'll keep them to send to Liaodong."

Zhu Ti also said the renovation notice for the city's five wards had already been posted, causing a huge stir in You Prefecture: "…I heard Zhang Tu say the previous dynasty already found him there."

"Don't worry about them; have Zhang Tu submit the compensation form ASAP, voluntarily! Also, it must be vacated within three days—time is pressing."

Zhu Ti also asked where Da Wang had gotten to and when he could return to You Prefecture, so she could pass a bit of news to Zhao Bao.

Da Wang: "…Just set out one day ago."

Zhu Ti: "Understood." She still had to go out to sea to Liaodong, which is basically a distant, uncertain prospect.

The bustle of You Prefecture is far beyond what Zhu Ti's two casual sentences can describe; once that renovation notice was posted, You Prefecture was turned upside down.

These five wards are the gathering place of the poor inside You Prefecture, called the Lower Five Wards. The lowly folk of this poor prefecture need not be described in terms of poverty; the other upper wards' residents would hardly ever set foot in their territory.

Who would have thought that Da Wang still remembered their ramshackle houses and even wanted to remodel them? Hear this: as long as space is cleared, they will later be allotted new homes one and a half times larger!

Most people chose to take the houses and keep living in the Five Wards; they eagerly cooperated with officials to measure the area, and the whole city felt like it had entered the New Year early.

Those who had taken the units naturally felt they'd gotten a free apartment; idle, they'd kowtow northward and shout, "Long live Your Highness, boundless joy!"

Even those who hadn't taken a unit had something to look forward to, hearing that eight thousand laborers would be summoned to rush the work!

Even the wards just a bit better than these Five Wards were full of hope, wondering if maybe next time it would be their turn?

You Prefecture's sense of belonging had successfully gained another buff; no one would still think of it as merely a random makeshift refuge to flee when things went bad. This is home—leave You Prefecture, and where else could you find such days!

At dawn the next day, Da Wang's party set off eastward again, destination Bohai Commandery. The accompanying Zhou Huang all climbed onto the carriage with squinting eyes.

After several days on horseback, the rear carriage train had been left far behind, completely out of sight.

That day, as they were trekking through mountainous terrain, Da Wang suddenly halted, curiously staring at a newly erected round large building that had abruptly appeared in the rural fields ahead—brand new, obviously just built.

"What a strange house—whoever's estate surrounds such a huge circle, cousin, look…" Da Wang turned his head and shouted, then suddenly choked up. He was furious—Wei Shen hadn't come, leaving him without a companion!

Ling Yin also didn't know; it was his first time seeing it too.

A soldier in the troop who had seen it before stepped forward and reported: "Your Highness, this is a fort. I'm from the south; I've seen great clans build such tall forts for self‑protection. When the Li River burst its banks in my youth, refugees were everywhere; later a great clan erected this sort of fort and moved in. When outside there is natural disaster or unrest, the whole clan retreats into the fort. This kind of structure is said to be easy to defend, hard to attack… I've heard that, generally, they usually keep private troops."

Da Wang felt his heart turn ice‑cold upon hearing this; such a scale is definitely not an ordinary clan! Ridiculous—everyone under heaven knows the end is near, yet his father the emperor is still reveling in music and dance!

They went straight from Chang Prefecture in the west to Bohai Commandery in the east, crossing the territory of Great Jin; all along Da Wang had no mood for play, his mind wholly on the journey.

Perhaps it was because he'd lost his sole playmate that Da Wang lost interest in everything; or perhaps what he'd seen and heard was simply too oppressive.

Wherever they passed, either the administration was chaotic and the people could not make a living, or there were broken walls and ruined ruins with the populace gone and villages empty.

Along the way they encountered two groups of refugees; Da Wang earnestly urged each to take advantage of the absence of heavy snow blocking the roads and go to You Prefecture to seek a livelihood, though he himself did not know how effective it was.

Da Wang didn't even know whether this land truly had as many people as Chang'an's statistics claimed.

When encountering a fief with a lord, he detoured around it to avoid trouble; the various nobles who had attended the ceremony were probably already back, and their entourage of tall horses had become notorious, making it inadvisable to show their faces.

Only upon finally arriving at Bohai Commandery did Da Wang let out a sigh of relief.

We're going home—going home is good, Weini is still waiting for him to come home. As for that hateful cousin, just forget him!

Da Wang left a few people to attend to the rear carriage convoy, then he patted his rear and boarded the treasure ship to make his escape.

Chen Cang had met Da Wang two days earlier; the treasure ship headed straight across at full speed, the opposite shore of Bohai Commandery being the Liaodong Peninsula jutting into the sea.

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Soon there will be a 500,000‑word book test; does anyone have a good name?

Coming up with names is too hard!

I think the current name is just fine; nobody is more confident than that…

If you have a good name that you think will draw clicks, leave it in this comment! If it blows up, I'll stay up celebrating even without sleep! ヾ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ