novelhk Chapter 638 Hug the thigh
Chapter 638 Hug the thigh
Zhou Chang naturally knew this, but he was too overwhelmed to take care of anything else and could only nod to show that he understood.
Yuan Qi made another turn: "As for Taojia Village, since everything is fine for now, Your Majesty doesn't need to worry about it anymore. The Yuan family has some roots in the north, so I will just have someone secretly take care of it in the future."
On this point, Zhou Chang is certainly not as good as Yuan Qi, so there is not much to say.
In the following days, the collection of military rations and medicinal materials depended almost entirely on Yuan Qi.
Zhou Chang was a "hero without a place to use his talents" in the north, so he could only cling to Yuan Qi's thigh.
The military rations were raised by Yuan Qi after he entertained nearly a hundred wealthy merchants in northern Vietnam and publicly donated 200,000 shi of grain, which barely won the trust of the people.
Yang Yi had previously said that only 10,000 shi of grain could be moved from the Beiji government warehouse, but in the end, 30,000 shi of grain were actually taken out.
As for Lindong City, because Zhou Chang and Yuan Qi made the trip in person, Lindong garrison commander Lin Mu and prefect Ma Bo discussed it and "voluntarily" moved out 300,000 shi. They were really "rich and powerful" and their contribution was ten times that of Beiji.
However, the prerequisite is that Prince Yi cannot rely solely on the "wartime order", he must also give them a "receipt" before he can feel at ease.
Zhou Chang readily agreed, saying that even if it was ten thousand, let alone one, it would not matter.
Anyway, the "receipt" was stamped with the official seal of the Ministry of War, so it must not leave any "sequelae" for Prince Yi.
In the future, these people can either look to the imperial court or find other places, or they can wait until the war is won and then seek compensation from the three states. In short, it is none of Prince Yi's business.
The food problem was initially solved. After being reminded by Jin Run, Zhou Chang remembered that there was a batch of cotton-padded clothes, cotton hats, gloves, cotton boots and other supplies in the military supplies, but they were either burned or soaked in water and could no longer be used.
Although spring has arrived after the Chinese New Year, it is still snowing in northern Vietnam.
Therefore, frontline soldiers must also wear warm clothing.
But because of the cotton disaster last year and the reduced production, even if Zhou Chang wanted to use silver to buy from merchants at a high price, he couldn't buy much, not to mention the ready-made clothes.
Finally, this item still needs Yuan Qi's help.
Yuan Qi not only obtained cotton and coarse cloth, but also employed the female workers from Beiji Kunyufang. These hardworking, kind and skillful women worked tirelessly day and night without sleep, and finally recovered the lost 10,000 sets of cotton-padded clothes.
The last and most difficult thing to deal with is medicinal materials, which are also the most critical and scarce on the front line.
Although Yuan Qi can help purchase from the south, the shortage of medical care and medicine in northern Vietnam has not been a problem for just one or two years.
As early as three years ago, the entire northern Vietnam region had emptied its inventory. Now every household is using the new products that were purchased last year, which means that there will still be no inventory left by next year.
Yuan Qi was unable to handle the situation alone, so Zhou Chang had no other choice but to write to Zhong Yu for help. He also dispatched people from the Jin Cao Si to cooperate, asking Zhong Yu to find a solution in Jindu and the Jin Cao Si to cooperate.
As a last resort, Fu Ming would have to dispatch some people from the Siwei Medicine Shop to go north and deliver whatever medicinal materials were available to hold out for a while.
A war will take at least a year and a half, and at most three to five years or even ten to eight years. Now that this war has been going on for more than a year, everyone is prepared for a long-term struggle.
Yuan Qi, on the other hand, had come to the north with the intention of staying there for a long time, so he sent Yuan Jie back to the palace as a companion before the New Year so that she could concentrate on her career in the north.
After Zhou Chang's further understanding, he found out that what Yuan Qi wanted to do was to open up the shipping route between the East China Sea and the South China Sea to prepare for the future maritime transportation industry.
After learning about such a grand vision, Zhou Chang couldn't help but admire Yuan Qi even more in his heart. On the contrary, she was now the Prince of Yi, and was cowardly all day long and unable to display her talents.
Moreover, according to this trend, Yuan Qi's "thigh" will not only become stronger and stronger, but it won't be long before she will become the richest woman in the world.
On the one hand, Zhou Chang felt relieved to have such a strong support, but on the other hand, she was worried. The supplies had been almost collected, and she had no reason to delay any longer. She had to set out as soon as possible to deliver military supplies to the front line in northern Vietnam.
With Liu E's company, Gao Yuan gradually recovered from the pain of losing his brother.
Zhou Chang thought that it would be better to let Gao Yuan and Liu E get married before they set off, but Gao Yun, who was in grief over the loss of his brother, politely declined.
Moreover, although Gao Yun told Gao Yuan not to avenge him before his death, how could Gao Yuan let go of this vengeance?
For this reason, after Gao Yuan took care of his brother's funeral, he took Yidanxing's men and rushed around Beiji City all day long, looking for any clues of the man in black.
There were at least a hundred black-clad assassins in total on both occasions. How could such a large number of people, all of whom were well-trained, disappear out of thin air?
Whenever Zhou Chang had time, he would analyze and discuss the matter with Gao Yuan.
Based on the black-clad men's behavior, Gao Yuan believed that they were not ordinary bandits but must be military personnel.
Zhou Chang also felt so, but when it came to people in the army, the first person he thought of was King Xian.
But why did King Xian burn the grain?
Even if he wanted to kill Prince Yi, there was no need to do so now. Wouldn't that cut off his own supply?
Then they thought that in addition to the local garrisons, the Ministry of War was also able to secretly mobilize the army.
The Minister of War, Peng Pai, is a relative of King Xian, and the two are very close. So if the Peng Pai had this motive, it must be related to King Xian.
If it was really done by Prince Xian, then the most likely motive is that he knew Prince Yi had found out about Sun Xiang, the traitor, and even exposed him for "making weapons privately and plotting rebellion". The reason why he burned the food on the ship could only be to cover up his tracks.
So you want to kill people to silence them?
After reasoning to this point, Zhou Chang still felt something was wrong.
This conclusion is too far-fetched, but I can't find any other motives for others.
If you can't figure out something at the moment, you can only put it aside temporarily and wait and see what happens next.
Zhou Chang was particularly suspicious of Prince Xian, while Prince Xian, upon learning that Prince Yi had survived the disaster and returned to Beiji, urged Prince Yi three times a day to send the supplies over.
Time passed quickly and it was already the beginning of February, and the agreement not to fight during the first month of the year had expired.
The war between Lin State and Shen State is bound to break out again, and even the people in Beiji City are becoming more and more panicked.
Zhou Chang delayed for another two days before unfavorable news came back from the front. King Xian, who was fighting the enemy in Shucheng, was defeated again at the beginning of the battle and had retreated to Maizhou.
It would be better to retreat back to Maizhou, so that we can shorten the journey when delivering military supplies.
Zhou Chang comforted himself in this way, but in fact he was anxious, because this time not only did they lose the city, but King Xian was also seriously injured. If they were defeated again, the enemy would probably break through Maicheng, and then not only would the three states be lost, but towns like Lindong and Beiji would also be in danger.
Maicheng, it’s Maicheng again. This name sounds unlucky.
Although Zhou Chang was not too worried about Prince Xian's injury, his injury urged Prince Yi to go there quickly. If she did not go, it would be like she was deliberately delaying the process.
After all, Prince Yi holds the title of "first-rank military officer" and cannot disregard the orders of Prince Xian, the powerful general.
Therefore, they could no longer delay and had to take military rations and cotton clothes and rush to Maizhou from Beiguan.