Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 435 - 404: Killing Two Birds with One Stone
After Yu Xiaolian returned to Zhenpin Pavilion, she thought it over and decided she should tell Su Jingchen about the people on the cliff. Since they had already decided to take this path, she should do her utmost to help them.
Seeing Yu Xiaolian return after leaving, Su Jingchen knew she had come to a decision, so he felt a wave of relief.
Yu Xiaolian not only told Su Jingchen about the cliff situation but also mentioned that in the internal conflict between the princes, the first to be defeated and eliminated was Prince Yu.
Su Jingchen pulled Yu Xiaolian onto his lap and once again emphasized, "The current situation is completely different from the book you read."
The Crown Prince was not dead, the old emperor was not dead, and Great Meng Country and Great Liang had not yet gone to war. Yu Xiaolian knew this superficial peace would soon be broken, and once it was, peace would be hard to restore. The people might have to endure a long period of upheaval and displacement.
Jun Yian had not returned since last leaving Luocheng, reportedly because the old emperor had fallen seriously ill again and summoned all his sons back to the capital.
In the blink of an eye, it was August 9th, and the tri-annual Autumn Examination officially started. The exam was in three sessions, held on August 9th, 12th, and 15th.
Su Jingchen was very upset that he couldn’t participate in the Autumn Examination, so Yu Xiaolian stayed by his side to comfort him.
"You’re only seventeen, you have plenty of opportunities and time. Don’t sigh like that just because you missed this year’s Autumn Examination. Three years later, we’ll be strong men again, no rush, no rush!" Yu Xiaolian laughed joyfully.
Su Jingchen gritted his teeth and said, "Delayed exams are nothing, but I ran into Ma Jingwen a few days ago, and he was mocking me."
"What’s there for him to mock about? County Magistrate Ma died, he can’t take this year’s exam either!"
"He’s not mocking my inability to take exams." Su Jingchen looked at Yu Xiaolian with a suddenly somewhat aggrieved expression.
Yu Xiaolian suddenly had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Su Jingchen pitifully continued, "Ma Jingwen said to come to his house on August 15th; his son is having a full moon celebration!"
Yu Xiaolian was rendered speechless.
"You can just compete with Ma Jingwen in academics, nothing else... let’s not compete with him on other things, okay?" Yu Xiaolian was speechless. Ma Jingwen was ten years older than Su Jingchen, how could he be so childish?
Su Jingchen held Yu Xiaolian’s hand, "I was supposed to participate in the Autumn Examination this year..."
"We’re not in a hurry for those three years; three years later we’ll..."
Yu Xiaolian suddenly swallowed her words, then seeing Su Jingchen still looking at her expectantly, she blushed and changed the subject, "Do you think Li Wenyuan can pass this time?"
Su Jingchen was unhappy that Yu Xiaolian had changed the subject to Li Wenyuan and persistently asked, "What about three years later?"
Yu Xiaolian bit her lip mischievously and said, "Three years later... Ma Jingwen’s child should be buying soy sauce by then, haha..."
After saying this, Yu Xiaolian jumped several meters away from Su Jingchen and continued to laugh heartily.
Su Jingchen watched Yu Xiaolian’s amusement, his lips wildly curling upward. Last time, when Dao Sheng the old monk took Yu Xiaolian’s pulse, he said her body was perfectly normal and wouldn’t affect future childbirth, so Su Jingchen wasn’t afraid to bring up the topic of having children, worrying it might upset Yu Xiaolian.
"Lian’er, how many kids should we have in the future?" Su Jingchen was full of anticipation for the future.
Yu Xiaolian touched her chin, "Two, one boy and one girl, just to make a harmonious word."
Su Jingchen laughed even more happily, "We’ll do as you say!"
...
The Autumn Examination ended in a flash, and before the results were released, news came of the old emperor’s death.
The emperor’s death brought national mourning. All red lanterns had to be taken down from the streets, and people were not allowed to wear colors—no red or green on their clothes.
Yu Xiaolian’s Immortal Music House was also forced to close down.
The exact length of the closure was unknown; it was said it had to wait until the late emperor was buried and the new emperor was enthroned.
Yu Xiaolian thought the closure would last about ten days or so, but it ended up being nearly a month before things returned to normal.
The first thing the Crown Prince did after taking the throne was to deal with Prince Yu Jun Tingyuan, who opposed him the most strongly due to the Witch Clan issue.
However, such dealings couldn’t be too obvious, or it would seem like personal vengeance right after taking power. So Jun Tingye assigned Jun Tingyuan a task that wasn’t too difficult but not too easy either.
That task was to go to a border town to control a plague.
In the past, whenever a plague appeared, Great Liang would seal off surrounding villages and burn those infected by the plague on the spot.
The reason Jun Tingye sent Jun Tingyuan to control the plague was simple. The plague was spreading rapidly and was incurable. If Jun Tingyuan inadvertently became infected in the plague area, it would eliminate this major threat without any military effort.
On the contrary, if Jun Tingyuan resorted to mass burning of villagers, he could also be charged with massacring innocent civilians, serving both purposes well.
But what Jun Tingye didn’t anticipate was that once Jun Tingyuan left the capital, things went out of his control.
Jun Tingyuan quickly returned to Miaojiang and didn’t go to any border town to treat the plague at all.
As soon as Jun Tingyuan was back, Jun Tingye was furious and sent people to capture Jun Tingyuan back to the capital to face charges.
Jun Tingyuan had struggled to return and was not willing to be captured again. Knowing Jun Tingye wouldn’t leave him be, he simply declared himself the King of Miaojiang, planning to stand against Jun Tingye to the end.
Jun Tingye simply handed this troublesome issue over to Jun Yian.
The reason was simple: Prince Jin’s and Prince Yu’s territories were closest, so sending Jun Yian to face Jun Tingyuan was the best and most desired scenario for Jun Tingye.
On one hand, it prevented them from uniting; on the other, it also tested Jun Yian’s loyalty to him.
Jun Tingye dispatched Yu Zhenwu and his army of 100,000 to Jun Yian. Of course, Jun Tingye wasn’t foolish. Before making this decision, he had already brought Yu Zhenwu’s family into the palace to hold them under house arrest.
Jun Tingyuan instantly became the target of everyone.
Jun Yian and Yu Zhenwu’s army were stationed on the Miaojiang border, and war was imminent!
Miaojiang residents started to flee in all directions.
They knew that their Prince Yu had very few soldiers and matching up against Great General Yu’s army would be like an egg striking a rock, with no possibility of victory!
Yu State was close to Miaojiang, so soon many refugees fleeing from there poured into Luocheng.
Luocheng suddenly became overcrowded, both in the city and the countryside, with many unfamiliar faces.
Fortunately, the first wave of refugees mainly consisted of wealthy people with carriages. They just wanted to settle in Luocheng and didn’t resort to arson, murder, or looting. However, Yu Xiaolian knew that soon more homeless refugees would arrive, so she had to instruct Yu Changhe to suspend the hotpot workshop and refrain from picking chili peppers, telling him to bring the entire family to settle in the Xiangyang Lane area.
