"Since everything is fine, I will go back first." After saying that, Xia Jing stood up, adjusted her skirt, and smiled lightly: "Thunder, rain, and dew are all your kindness. Since I have received the imperial edict from the emperor,
Then, no matter how reluctant we are in our hearts, we should still make a show of it and tell Zeng Yan to get ready in the evening so that everyone can celebrate."
Mr. Zhang nodded happily: "The princess is right, we should celebrate, so that the father-in-law who delivered the decree can inform the emperor of our loyalty and patriotism when he returns."
Xia Jing: "Well, it's hard work for you this time. The memorial written to the emperor should tell more about our difficulties. We suffered in the past without money and property. The emperor and courtiers must know this. Otherwise, they will
I thought we got a bargain and could go to Lingnan as long as we wanted."
"Thank you, Princess, for reminding me. I will do my best to complain to the emperor." Mr. Zhang laughed.
"Too much is not enough, sir, just stop when it's enough."
"What the princess said is that I didn't think carefully."
When Xia Jing saw that everything had been explained clearly, she got off the carriage without stopping.
The celebration is just in name. It is impossible for Prince Qian's palace to reveal its wealth in front of the eunuch.
Celebrating is their attitude towards the court, and the quality also shows their loyalty to the court.
Even though Prince Qian was poor, he still supported the emperor's decision.
As night falls, we camp in front of the campfire.
When the father-in-law who delivered the message sat at the banquet and noticed the food on the table, he couldn't say anything for a while and had mixed feelings.
The best food for the majestic first-class prince of the Yu Dynasty was the ordinary food of ordinary families. In the past, King Qian despised all the delicacies in the palace. How could he endure this?
The entire dinner was not long, and King Qian never disliked the food on the table throughout the whole process, especially Princess Qian who was sitting next to her, eating seriously, as if the things on the table were not vulgar things, but even the palace.
There are no delicacies.
Because when my father-in-law was in the palace, he had never seen any nobleman eating so satisfactorily.
Eating rough pancakes in his mouth, his throat got stuck even if he wasn't paying attention. After my father-in-law choked for the Nth time and recovered, his heart had already burst into tears. When will these days end?
At the same time, he was a little worried and uneasy. The world was about to be in chaos. As a father-in-law who specialized in serving others, he fled south and experienced it firsthand.
The next day, the team carrying the decree was sent off, and the team from Prince Qian's Mansion did not delay any longer and headed all the way to Jingzhou.
Now that they had the emperor's imperial edict in their hands, it was clear that they could go to Lingnan. They changed their usual low profile and marched towards Jingzhou with great fanfare.
Whenever she met young adults who were alone on the road, Xia Jing would ask Li Chengmu to recruit them. As long as they were willing to follow them to Lingnan, Xia Jing would provide them with food, shelter and personal safety.
On this day, when I was resting in the evening, Anu came over again and said, "Princess, the prince asked you to come over. He said he had something to discuss."
Xia Jing put down her account book and frowned slightly, "I know, I will pack up and go over."
Li Chengmu guessed, "Mother, my father doesn't know why he is looking for you? Isn't it about food and grass?"
Xia Jing pushed the account book in front of him, raised her eyebrows and said with a smile: "Don't worry about it. Now we are recruiting more and more people, and our daily expenses are also increasing exponentially. We can't make ends meet with money and food. If we include the expenses
In the palace, not only your father, but also your other brothers will have opinions."
Li Chengmu pushed the account book away and scratched his head in frustration, "What should we do? Although the drought in Jingzhou is not serious now, the crop harvest has been reduced and it is difficult to buy food."
In the past, when he was in the capital, as the fifth master of the palace, his daily task was basically to ignore what was going on outside the window and only focus on reading the books of sages.
Now he was caught by his mother and concubine to deal with the general affairs. He wanted to say that she thought highly of him too much.
"If food is hard to buy, go borrow it. I believe the governor of Jingzhou doesn't want King Qian to pass by the place under his jurisdiction and be so hungry that he is skin and bones."
"Borrow?" Li Chengmu was shocked. Lending this grain to them was equivalent to borrowing without repaying it. Would the governor of Jingzhou be willing to lend it?
Xia Jing nodded: "Well, I'll send someone to try it tomorrow."
"Well, my father may be impatient, so go ahead and I won't waste your time."
"Okay, then I'll go and come back."
Anu walked in front and led Xia Jing to the main tent.
Xia Jing stared at his back and asked with a smile: "Who went to see the prince before you came to my place?"
Anu looked back at her and answered as she walked, "General Yuan."
There's nothing you shouldn't tell anyone about this.
"Oh~"
Xia Jing had a good idea and could probably guess why Yuan Shen was going to find the prince.
Main account.
Anu announced and invited Xia Jing in.
Inside the tent, there were several tables. King Qian, the boss, the second boss and the two gentlemen were all there.
"Oh, the battle is quite big. What big thing are you planning to discuss?"
Xia Jing walked to the only empty seat and sat down, then looked at the others curiously.
Isn't this the Hongmen Banquet?
The eldest brother Li Chengshang and the second child Li Chengzhan both stood up and bowed to Xia Jing.
The two gentlemen bowed and then said with a smile: "The most important thing is that the prince got a can of grape wine from the Western Regions today and wants to share it with everyone."
Xia Jing raised her eyebrows. She didn't believe it, but she didn't expose it. If you say you are drinking, just drink at the bar. If you have wine now, you will get drunk now.
Not long after, slaves filed in carrying meals.
When the meal was put on the table, Xia Jing unexpectedly discovered that there was a meat dish and a fish dish.
"Now we have entered the territory of Jingzhou. Jingzhou is no better than the Gyeonggi area. The water system here is developed. Today the guards caught a lot of fish and also caught some game in the mountains." Mr. Zhang greeted Xia Jing: "Princess, what do you want?
Give it a try, it should taste good."
"Everyone is interested, I will definitely try it today."
Speaking of which, the period of oral ulcers tortured her so much that she lost at least a few pounds.
King Qian just glanced at her and said nothing. He picked up the chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat to eat first before the others took action.
Xia Jing stared at the meat dishes and fish on the table, a little hesitant. She said that she had not eaten much meat dishes since she came to this other world. Except for chicken soup, this meat dish and fish was her first exposure to meat dishes.
Smelling the smell of the dishes, Xia Jing knew that the taste of these two dishes was not very good.
After the meal, Xia Jing only took two bites of the meat dishes and then stopped eating them.
It’s not that she’s a picky eater, in fact she’s really easy to feed, but she can’t put food in her mouth that smells too bad.
But as long as the food enters her mouth, she will not spit it out and will definitely eat it in her stomach.
She believed that the remaining food would not be wasted. There were still many people down there who did not have access to meat dishes.
Li Chengshang saw that the meat dishes that the maid had taken away from Xia Jing's table had not been touched much.
He then opened his mouth and asked with concern: "Today's meat is not to your mother's taste?"
Xia Jing smiled and said, "It's okay, you guys like to eat more."
King Qian curled his lips and muttered: "Squeamish!"
However, his voice was too low and others did not hear it, and Xia Jing was too lazy to argue with him.
After the maids served tea to everyone, Mr. Zhang got to the point.
"Today Zeng Yan came to Lao Cao and said that there was not much food and grass left in the team. Except for the few Houfus who were following us, our team numbered more than two thousand people, and we consumed a lot of food and grass every day.
But it is a bit unrealistic to buy grain in the towns we pass by. It seems that they have discussed it and restricted external purchases. This has led to a situation where we have money but cannot buy grain. The prince is very troubled by this matter. I wonder what you think, princess.
?”
Xia Jing, however, did not answer the question, with a faint smile on her lips, "Mr. Zhang should not ask me what I think about this matter, but what do you think about it yourself?"
She didn't believe that they didn't have a solution, she just wanted to ask for her opinion before implementing it to see which one was more suitable and convenient.
Mr. Zhang glanced at everyone in the tent and looked hesitant.
Xia Jing smiled and said, "Tell me about it. No one will laugh at you even if the method is inappropriate."
Mr. Zhang stroked his beard and laughed to himself, "I don't know when I started to lose confidence in front of the princess."
Xia Jing said solemnly: "This is not a good sign. Sir, please do not belittle yourself. For a counselor, self-confidence is very important."
Mr. Zhang opened his mouth and finally said what they were thinking of.
There are two ways. They are just to try their best to buy food with money every time they pass through a town.
Secondly, it is to borrow grain from the Jingzhou governor. Although this method is harmful, it has a good effect.
Whether the governor of Jingzhou wanted to show the world that he was loyal to the court or simply did not want King Qian to cause trouble in his jurisdiction, he had to bite his teeth and swallow blood.
He lent the extremely precious and life-saving food to King Qian in troubled times.
Of course, if you want the lent food to be enough for the team, that would be a mistake.
The governor of Jingzhou cannot be so stupid.
The food he gave was only so that King Qian's troops would not starve to death, but if they entered Jingzhou territory with a body full of fat, they would definitely be skin and bones when they came out.
Therefore, the food was borrowed, but the rest that was in short supply had to be raised by oneself.
This method is very different from Xia Jing's.
King Qian sat at the top and saw Mr. Zhang talking for a long time, but the most important point had not been brought up yet.
He said impatiently with a sullen face: "Xia, you just heard what my husband said, the team is really in difficulty right now. You have recruited a lot of young adults, right?"
Xia Jing smiled and took the initiative to report the number, "Currently there are exactly one thousand strong men."
King Qian raised his eyebrows in surprise. He didn't expect that she had recruited so many young people in a short period of time.
"There are a lot of people. The team is now facing many difficulties and is struggling. Do you think your team should be reduced or disbanded?"
Xia Jing suppressed the smile on her face, looked at him indifferently, and asked: "Do you think this is possible?"
King Qian also suggested, "If we don't disband, we can also merge it into the guard camp."
"You are not beautiful, but you think you are quite beautiful!" Xia Jing retorted unceremoniously.
If you want to pick her fruit, you have to see whether she agrees or not!
Seeing her such an attitude, King Qian became angry and said, "Xia, don't-"
Xia Jing rolled her eyes at him, "It's mine. If you want to raid my private room, there's no way!"
"When did I search your private house? These people were just picked up by you on the road. How come they are related to your private house?"
Xia Jing retorted confidently, "I support these people with money from my private house, so they belong to my private house! The men of your Li family have become more capable, and they have begun to care about your wife's private house!"
King Qian became so angry that he really wanted to hold this woman down and rub her!
Mr. Zhang was afraid that King Qian would annoy the princess again, so he coughed lightly to attract everyone's attention.
Then she smiled and asked Xia Jing: "Princess, you must be short of food and grass now. If your team is not merged, how do you plan to feed these one thousand people for the rest of the journey? They are all young and middle-aged, and they should have a lot of food.
!”
"You can even think of going to the Jingzhou governor to borrow food. Why can't I borrow it?"
King Qian's anger had not dissipated just now. Hearing these words, he almost choked to death on his own saliva.
The second master, Li Chengzhan, couldn't help laughing, "Mother and concubine, my father's people have already borrowed her once. We are also gathering wool. Will Yuan Governor let us do it twice?"
"He can lend it to the prince, why can't he lend it to me?"
Xia Jing's words were quite arrogant. They were completely unreasonable and yet she wanted to create a three-point sense of momentum.
Li Chengzhan swallowed, "I mourn for Governor Yuan!"
Mr. Yan said at this time, "Even if there are two ways to buy and borrow, the food is still not enough for the team. I wonder if the princess has any good ways to raise food and grass?"
Xia Jing thought for a while, looked up at everyone and said with a smile, "I really have a solution today."
Mr. Yan asked excitedly: "What can we do?"
"That means we all work together to collect intelligence on bandits and go up to the mountains to suppress the bandits."
"Suppress bandits?!"
This idea is a bit unexpected.
Mr. Zhang stroked his mustache and his eyes sparkled, "I probably understand what the princess means. We have no food and can go to suppress the bandits. This can not only solve the food problem, but also train troops.
Especially the princess's one thousand strong men, if they suppress the bandits all the way, by the time they reach Lingnan, your one thousand strong men will basically be ready to go into battle to kill the enemy."
"This is a wonderful move! It kills two birds with one stone!" Mr. Yan high-fived excitedly, "Such a wonderful idea, why didn't we think of it?"
Mr. Zhang smiled and handed over to Xia Jing, "This shows that the princess is superior in skills, and we admire her!"
Xia Jing raised her hand and pressed it, "Sir, I am so impressed. I will leave it to these two gentlemen to collect information about the bandits."
"Don't worry, Princess, just leave this little matter to us."
Xia Jing nodded with satisfaction. In fact, she wanted to rob the noble family.
This world is not so much ruled by the royal family as it is by aristocratic families.
The royal family changes from generation to generation, and the dynasty will change within a few hundred years at most, but the aristocratic family has been passed down from generation to generation.
The aristocratic family is deeply entangled in this world and cannot be easily shaken.
Seeing his princess and the two gentlemen chatting happily, King Qian was in a very complicated mood. Faced with state affairs and family affairs, he, the master of the family, was like a bystander, standing in the middle and unable to integrate into them.
Would you say it's annoying?
The other two companions, Li Chengshang and Li Chengzhan, were in a bad mood.
In fact, they also want to take in some strong men these days to increase their strength.
It's just that the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny.
They recruited some of their strong men, but they had no money or food to feed them.
In the end, in order to save money, some staff had to be laid off, and the remaining dozens of young men had to be supported by their wives with dowry money.