The meeting at the Right Chancellor's residence didn't last long. Many matters had been discussed before; today was merely a rehash. The only new topic was the Right Chancellor's grand banquet in three days to celebrate the Northern Victory.

After chatting with Qin Siyuan, Yao Zunian, Jueming, and others for a while, Ning Yi emerged from the courtyard without much joy on his face. After the initial elation over Guo Yaoshi's victory, new problems weighed him down. The rope of the north-south situation was drawn tighter and tighter.

Since the start of the Northern Expedition, Qin Siyuan had primarily handled domestic affairs. However, the Secret Intelligence Division's earlier efforts in the north were still paying off. The matter of Zhang Jue, the prefect of Pingzhou, was one such case. Zhang Jue was originally a Liao general who surrendered to the Jin after the Jurchens invaded and the Liao dynasty collapsed. However, a member of the Secret Intelligence Division was planted among Zhang Jue's staff. After discovering Zhang Jue's inclination to surrender to the Wu dynasty, they had been pushing for it. Pingzhou was important among the Sixteen Prefectures, and Zhang Jue commanded tens of thousands of troops. If successful, it would be a great achievement.

Before Guo Yaoshi’s victory, the northern war situation was bleak, and the Jin were consistently dominant. Although the current Emperor Zhou Zhe was angered by the Jin's reneging on the return of the Sixteen Prefectures and had spoken of taking a tougher stance, Qin Siyuan didn't dare to provoke them easily. Only after Guo Yaoshi's victory did he have some confidence.

It might seem from the perspective of the common people that the Wu dynasty was somewhat naive and made numerous mistakes in dealing with the Jin and Liao situation. But from Ning Yi's current position, it was clear that it was unfair to accuse the Wu dynasty of being unprepared for potentially disastrous consequences. In recent years, while pushing for the Northern Expedition, everyone had also been actively expanding the rear defenses, including massively increasing border defense forces. Knowing they couldn't win, they tried to absorb defectors from the Liao side as much as possible, giving them preferential treatment, forming legions, ensuring logistics, and so on.

Neither Tong Guan, nor Cai Jing, nor Li Gang, nor the Emperor, including Tan Zhen who might soon replace Tong Guan, most of the high-ranking officials in the court weren't fools. Even if the possibility of the Jin invading the south was extremely low, they understood the necessity of strengthening the rear defenses. Especially for people like Tong Guan, the collapse of the Northern Expedition had prompted them to actively promote and cooperate with such efforts.

The Jin's forces were not large in the first place. After occupying the Liao territory, even if they were truly insane and chose to go south, the thousand-mile depth from Guo Yaoshi and others north of Yanmen Pass all the way south, from Taiyuan to the banks of the Yellow River, with hundreds of thousands of troops – even if many were just shoddy constructions – would be enough to bog down the Jin's forces.

In the Right Chancellor's residence, quite a few people were aware of this. The original Cheng Zhouhai, Wang Shanyue, and others were staunch proponents of the "Jin Threat Theory," but even Ning Yi couldn't constantly harp on the issue anymore. At least everyone was doing something, even if some things were done poorly, just for the sake of face or political achievements. The most the Right Chancellor's residence could do was try to steer things in the right direction. This wasn't about right or wrong; it was simply the only thing to do given their position.

But regardless, Ning Yi still felt some concern.

The trajectories of the Wu and Song dynasties were similar, but before this, he hadn't paid much attention to true history. This was related to his extremely pragmatic personality in his previous life.

To him, history and stories had something in common. It's just that because history really happened, it was more persuasive to others. But ultimately, what was truly useful, whether history or stories, were the lessons they contained, a process of reflecting on oneself based on the experiences of predecessors. However, in the impetuous society of later generations, people who lacked the ability to discern and think were everywhere. They were sometimes swayed by the so-called truth of history but never reflected on themselves using any true history. Most people only used the truth to compare with others, gaining a little sense of superiority, but never realized that their actions were identical to many foolish things in history.

When people ridiculed the foolishness of their predecessors and denounced the brutality of their enemies, but never examined themselves, never saw their own stupidity and indifference, or even the acts of undermining the rules and hollowing out the country, these true histories became worthless. If this historical truth also gave people a sense of superiority that "I know a lot," allowing them to mock others, then the meaning of this truth was actually negative for society.

Because of this understanding, Ning Yi had extreme contempt for the truth of history, always believing that pursuing the truth of history was inferior to pursuing the educational significance of fables. At least fables could clearly tell readers what was right and what was wrong. But also because of this habit, he now found it difficult to confirm the development of the overall situation. The Song dynasty had the Jingkang Incident; would the Wu dynasty have one? It was really hard to say.

Of course, at the moment, recruiting Zhang Jue was definitely a good move to increase their own strength, without much need for further thought. As for the issue of grain prices in the disaster area, which the people in the Right Chancellor's residence saw as extremely difficult, Ning Yi certainly didn't underestimate it, but since preparations had begun more than a month ago, he didn't plan to pay too much attention to the specific details of this matter.

Because...many people would starve to death here...

**************

In the summer of the eleventh year of Jinghan, droughts and floods struck the Wu dynasty. More than twenty prefectures and counties in various regions, including Jingzhao Prefecture, Hedong, Hebei, and Jinghu, suffered varying degrees of disaster. Due to the court's effective disaster relief efforts, the number of direct deaths from the disaster was far less than in previous years. Also, because there were too many survivors, the hidden danger of soaring grain prices in the disaster-stricken areas and the adjacent prefectures and counties began to brew.

This phenomenon was concentrated in several areas in the north and south. The north, with Jingzhao Prefecture and Hedong Road—that is, later Shaanxi and Shanxi—being the most serious. In the south, the problem appeared in Jinghu, which was originally a grain-producing area, but the overlapping of drought and flood problems caused even greater panic. However, for the time being, starvation deaths were not as serious as in the north.

At this time, the Right Chancellor's residence was still trying to mobilize grain to maintain the distribution of basic food rations for disaster relief. However, the increase in grain prices on the market would only lead more and more people to join the ranks of disaster victims. Now, in order to guarantee the Northern Expedition, the Wu dynasty could only provide limited grain reserves. Coupled with the corruption and diversion at each level, it was basically unrealistic to maintain this until the next harvest season.

Theoretically speaking, in the face of such a thing, what the court could do was strictly regulate grain prices, execute a batch of officials, and then execute a batch of merchants. But this time, the scope of the impact was too wide, and the people involved were really too numerous.

The Zuo family, led by the great scholar Zuo Duanyou, was involved; the Cai family forces, led by Cai Jing, participated in it; the Han family in the Jingnan area was a royal in-law, relatives of the Empress Dowager; the Qi family in Henan Prefecture was a family of scholars for generations, and the head of the family, Qi Yan, was a great scholar in the court, with close ties to many officials in the capital, and friends with Li Gang and Geng Nanzhong, and also closely associated with Zhong Shidao of the Western Army.

These were just some forces that could be seen with a casual investigation. In fact, the intertwined relationships and the drive for profit made the solution of many things not just a matter of determination. Even if Li Gang nodded, Qi Yan nodded, and even Cai Jing nodded, suppressing grain prices, the low-priced grain would dry up instantly like water entering sandy ground once it reached the market. Because those involved in hoarding grain often included not only these big households, but also every ordinary person shrouded in panic.

Basically, in this era when productivity was not developed, every man-made or natural disaster was a new process of aristocratic prosperity and land annexation. They certainly had some countermeasures right now, and the Right Chancellor's residence had naturally shown determination, but the most bottom-level people would still die, and those with a little family property and farmland would inevitably have to sell their land, sell their children. The only difference was that when measures were appropriate, there would be fewer such people.

As Ning Yi, he could accept all kinds of darkness in the world and could also accept all kinds of deaths. But as someone who came from later generations, he found it difficult to watch the process of one or two women and children being starved to death with his own eyes. Therefore, whether it was hypocrisy or turning a blind eye, he would rather sit in the capital when such things happened and treat everything as numbers.

**************

The carriage came out of the side door of the Right Chancellor's residence. There were not many pedestrians on Wen Yuan Street. It was still afternoon, and the leaves on the street-side trees were dissolving in the golden light. Two children ran past the street with flapping sounds.

After withdrawing his gaze from the window, Ning Yi held a charcoal pencil and modified and wrote on a book in his hand. The carriage moved forward, the wheels occasionally crushing fallen leaves, making a rustling sound, and pedestrians occasionally passed by on the road. After a while, he heard a burst of talking coming this way: "...What do you know? What courtesan? I'm telling you, the Little Candle Workshop is the most boring. The Fan Lou is also meaningless. I...Ah? Huh! What are you doing? You're blocking this young master's way! Do you know...What are you doing? You walk this way when I walk this way. Are you looking for trouble? The Zhu Enterprise is amazing--"

Along with this arrogant voice, the carriage stopped. Ning Yi had a total of three carriages when he went out. He was sitting in the middle one. Hearing this voice, he knew who it was. After the carriage stopped, he sat there and wrote the last few words before getting up and lifting the curtain of the carriage. Sure enough, he saw Gao Mu'en, the playboy, blocking the way with his hands on his hips. Following him was still a group of capital idlers, but many of these people had officials in their families, and Ning Yi's identity as a merchant theoretically made him unable to afford to offend them. He put on a smile and arched his hands to greet him.

"It's really a great flood washing the Dragon King Temple, Young Master Gao, gentlemen, what a coincidence, we meet again. It's my people who are ignorant, quickly move the carriage to the side!" Ning Yi scolded the coachman in front, and then said with a smile, "Where are you going to have fun, my noble friends?"

Ning Yi's smile was amiable, but he didn't look like he was easy to bully. Seeing that it was him, Gao Mu'en's eyes changed, but then he straightened his chest even higher: "What's it to you! Mind your own business! Why are you walking so close! If you have the guts, come and hit me! Don't think I'm afraid of you because you killed Lu Qian!"

"Young Master Gao, I've said it before, it's a misunderstanding. Not to mention that I know nothing about Lu Qian's affairs, even if there was such a thing, how could I be a match for Lu Qian's martial arts? Look, it's been almost a year... If you still have anger in your heart about the little misunderstanding back then, I will personally apologize to you with dozens of tables of wine in Zhu Enterprise tonight, okay?"

Hearing Ning Yi say this, the people behind Gao Mu'en started to clamor, but Gao Mu'en stopped his chest and thought of something: "Humph! False kindness! Forget it! I'm telling you, I, Gao Mu'en, am irreconcilable with you. Take care of your subordinates in the future! Humph... Get out of the way!"

After saying this, Gao Mu'en led the people around him to walk past Ning Yi in large strides. One or two people also said to Ning Yi: "Wait for it!" "Be careful!" Ning Yi just smiled, arched his hands, and nodded.

In fact, the enmity between the two sides had lasted for a year. It was not until the first half of this year, when Ning Yi expanded Zhu Enterprise, that it became more intense. Young Master Gao first found hooligans to smash the place, and after the Secret Intelligence Division intervened, he himself united some people to open a restaurant to compete with Zhu Enterprise for business, and then he also tried to give Zhu Enterprise some trouble through the officialdom. However, these things were ultimately blocked.

The Kaifeng Prefecture could not afford to offend the Right Chancellor's residence, nor did it dare to offend Gao Mu'en. Too many things happened, and various complaints were inevitably passed on to Gao Qiu. Officials, businessmen, and literati all complained to Gao Qiu, hoping that he would restrain his son and not do too much. Although Gao Qiu was a courtier, he also paid attention to the input and output of this kind of thing that created enemies. The other party had more connections, but after all, he was just a merchant. His son's nonsense could not handle the other party, which meant that there was not much need for entanglement, so he scolded Gao Mu'en a few more times. In this way, every time Gao Mu'en made a move, it was like hitting a ball of cotton, and investing in grabbing business lost everything, so he had to give up in frustration.

Of course, giving up on the action did not mean that he could swallow this breath in his heart. After a few encounters, he would inevitably quarrel. It's just that Ning Yi's business was getting bigger and bigger, including a few things that Gao Qiu revealed to let him stop, which made Gao Mu'en feel a little short of breath. At this time, after separating from Ning Yi, one of the idlers around him said: "Since Big Brother Gao can't stand that kid, let's beat him up. Even if he has connections, we'll just beat him up! He can only sue us afterwards, right! I don't believe the things around him dare to fight back--"

This idler was also from an official family, and what he said was actually very reasonable. Their families were all officials, and no matter how many connections the other party had, he was just a merchant. If their group rushed up and beat up the other party, at most they would apologize afterwards. It's a pity that he had just finished speaking when Gao Mu'en had already picked it up and slapped him on the back of the head one after another.

"Beat your sister! Beat your sister! Beat your sister! If I could beat him, wouldn't I have beaten him? Why would I need you to say it! Do you know that Zhou Tong didn't kill him! Do you know that Sikong Nan and Lin Zongwu were bullied by him! You bastard! Do you know who Zhou Tong is! Do you know who Sikong Nan and Lin Zongwu are! They are even more powerful than Lin Chong--fuck your mother! That guy looks refined, but he's actually a madman. If he suddenly goes crazy, do you think I and my...the few of us with the cat skills can stop him!" Saying this, he kicked the man, but this kick was a little off, and the other party staggered forward, while he took a big step and almost fell.

"Do you know why I stood in front of you just now? It was to block that mad dog for you! Humph!" With a cold snort, Gao Mu'en patted his clothes, "Learn from me in the future!"

He said so, but after all, he was still a little indignant. Lu Qian was already dead, and no one could play with him so happily. The things that the guys around him did were a mess, and he couldn't believe them. Thinking like this, he suddenly felt that the capital had lost some fun, and the autumn colors were becoming more and more bleak...

Ning Yi couldn't possibly have thought of these things in the other party's heart. After Gao Mu'en left, he shook his head and smiled. Since the destination was not far, he would not get in the car next. He took out the booklet he had just modified from the carriage and handed it to Zhu Biao: "I have revised this 'Jianghu Celebrity List' again. Take it to the Wang family and see how the printing preparation is going. Don't rush back tonight."

Hearing him say this, Zhu Biao couldn't help but smile shyly. After the Lone Dragon Mountain incident, Hu Sanniang and Wang Shanyue had a friendship. After returning to the capital for a period of time, Wang Shanyue had a conflict with some capital idlers who were originally at odds. The two sides fought, and in this conflict, Hu Sanniang took action and defeated a bunch of the other party's family generals. Wang Shanyue had fought and killed for several years outside, his ferocity greatly increased, and he had also gained something - in the fight, he pinned a master with the nickname "Eight-Armed Knife King" in the other party's family generals on the ground, tore open half of the other party's arm, and bit off a few pounds of meat.

After this battle, the master was crippled, and the Eight-Armed Knife King became the One-Armed Knife, but Wang Shanyue also made a big deal out of it. Qin Siyuan felt that this kind of character would not continue to develop after all. Leaving him in the capital would be attacked by people, so he made him fill the position of magistrate of Yuyao, Zhejiang. Wang Shanyue's own temperament was biased towards literature and art, but he had been too stimulated when he was young, and his actions were a little extreme. The Yuyao area was a land of culture and ink, and his ability to eat people was not useful here, which was also a kind of training for him.

Before Wang Shanyue left the capital, he officially got engaged to Hu Sanniang. The old lady of the Wang family originally hoped that the two of them would get married like this, and let Hu Sanniang, who was highly skilled in martial arts, accompany her grandson to take office. Wang Shanyue asked Hu Sanniang to go back to Lone Dragon Mountain first to avoid gossip, but Hu Sanniang volunteered to stay in the Wang family - in fact, this can also be regarded as Wang Shanyue's unspoken wish - the Wang family was a family of women. Even if there were a few women with strong personalities, their martial arts were ultimately inferior to others. With Hu Sanniang, the female hero, sitting in town, Wang Shanyue would be able to go out with peace of mind.

As for Zhu Biao, he didn't like a strong woman like Hu Sanniang. After going to the Wang family a few times, he had some feelings for Wang Shanyue's ninth sister. The Wang family was happy to see this happen, and Ning Yi also intended to promote it. After that, he and the Wang family cooperated in paper making and printing workshops, promoted the research of movable type printing, and the two sides contacted through Zhu Biao.

At this time, Zhu Biao took the order and left on horseback. Ning Yi had also arrived at the courtyard where Yun Zhu and Jin'er lived. Li Pin now felt that he had the air of a wealthy gentleman, and it was also from this source. There were many people arranged to serve in this courtyard, which had the feeling of hiding beauties in a golden house - but the main effort was still spent on safety. Even Yun Zhu and Jin'er were arranged with two ugly but skilled female heroes.

Walking all the way in, people greeted him. It was not until he passed the two connected small buildings in front and entered the backyard that no one followed. The back of this courtyard was a small garden composed of rockeries, pavilions, and ponds. A woman in white was sitting by the pond, humming a melody that was unknown, holding a book and a brush in her hand, writing something with relish.

At this time, the sky was warm yellow, and a large plane tree stretched out its crown above the pool. The woman sitting by the pool was wearing a white dress, but her dark hair was hanging down to her waist. She took off her shoes and socks and placed them aside, and her fair slender feet were gently stirring the surface of the water, matching the music in her mouth, as if her whole person was melting into the warmth of autumn. After a while, she put the brush in her hand aside, put the book on her lap, and looked down to turn a page. When Ning Yi walked over and sat down, she subconsciously shrank her slender feet in the water, and then smiled, leaning her body towards Ning Yi.

After a while, she lay on Ning Yi's lap, holding the book and reading. Ning Yi felt the tranquility of this autumn day, looked around to see that no one was there, and stretched a hand into the other person's chest. The woman did not resist, but just reached out to gently cover it, and continued to read.

"Actually, I think the place is still too small... You said it would be great if there was a lake in front..."

Ning Yi looked at the courtyard wall at the end of the garden in front and said.

"I'm already by the lake... It's just that Li Heng's heart is still not calm."

"Is that so..." Ning Yi pursed his lips, "By the way, where is that clown, Yuan Jin'er?"

"Went out."

"Oh?"

"Ah...Uh..." As if suddenly realizing something, a shy smile suddenly appeared on Yun Zhu's face. After a moment, she squinted her eyes, covered her face with the book, and said softly, "No..."

"So, did it happen or not." By the pond, in the autumn colors, Ning Yi smiled. After a moment, he hugged Yun Zhu and stood up there, walking towards this small house. Under the white skirt, Yun Zhu gently curled up the arch of her foot, and at the same time quietly leaned her face against him.

From the time the two met and knew each other, to Yun Zhu offering him her virgin body for the first time, and to this time, this kind of intimacy was not a big deal. After all, in this year, there were not many things that could really be entertaining...

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