Chapter 144 Two Places

Fengxin City now has two places that are the most heavily guarded and also of the highest status.

One is the small courtyard where Prince Jinnan currently resides.

The other is the temporary residence of the Marquis of Pingxi.

And at this time,

Marquis Zheng was sitting in the signing room of his mansion, separated by a curtain, giving the storytellers their final instructions.

Reputation,

The more, the better;

Marquis Zheng was not afraid of having too much, nor did he have so many scruples;

He didn't have the mentality of fearing that his merits would overshadow the monarch;

He couldn't bring himself to intentionally tarnish his own reputation.

Having climbed to where he was, he would just face whatever came his way. He used to occasionally bow his head and say a few nice words, that was for survival, but now that he was a marquis, he couldn't possibly go backward.

A small portion of these storytellers were selected from the displaced people, some of whom used to work as funeral arrangers instead of storytellers.

But that didn't matter, as long as they were good with their tongues.

The majority of them came from Yingdu.

In any era, those who can earn money without relying on blood relations are bound to be smart.

The owners of teahouses and taverns naturally knew whose stories were most popular with their customers in recent years, and could see whose performances best accompanied their guests' drinks;

Therefore, many of the resident storytellers were sponsored by their employers for the expenses of the journey, allowing them to cross the Wangjiang River and come to Jinyang.

They thought that just catching a glimpse of the marquis investiture ceremony would be a great satisfaction, and they could boast about it when they returned. At that time, they could hang a sign at the entrance of the teahouse or tavern, or spread the word that their storyteller had just returned from the marquis investiture ceremony and had brought back first-hand information.

But who knew that things would turn out so smoothly, so smoothly that they themselves found it hard to believe.

They were found one by one, gathered together, and sent into this temporary residence of the Marquis of Pingxi.

Then,

They all knelt on the futons in rows and columns, with a cup of tea and a plate of snacks for each person, as well as writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

Seven or eight clerks stood in front, holding books and began to recite the "deeds" of Marquis Zheng.

At first,

These professional, amateur, and newly employed storytellers were a little confused,

But soon,

They realized what was happening,

And began to write furiously.

In this era, those who could use their tongues and make a living in the martial world were not stupid.

Moreover, most of these people were literate.

How could a storyteller who couldn't read look at the script?

How could a funeral arranger who couldn't read write elegiac couplets?

What no one knew was that,

Behind a curtain,

Marquis Zheng was sitting in a grand master's chair, drinking tea.

Public opinion propaganda,

Was something Marquis Zheng valued very much.

In fact, even if there were no actual benefits, it was still very satisfying to have his story spread around.

This alone was in line with the fundamental principles of the Demon King's code of conduct.

Not to mention, it could also enrich and improve his public persona among the people.

The Zhenbei Marquis Manor had a foundation of a hundred years,

Li Liangting could continue to live off his old capital even if he sat there and did nothing.

The Pingxi Marquis Manor had just been established, and as the first-generation marquis, there were many things that Marquis Zheng needed to do.

The clerks recounted all the achievements and battles of the Marquis of Pingxi, from his meritorious service in the militia camp to his investiture as a marquis.

Although these deeds were no longer secrets among the people.

Especially for these storytellers, the most popular stories in the teahouses and taverns in recent years were those about Marquis Zheng.

But after everyone gathered here, sat down, and was re-infused with these stories from beginning to end,

Even those who were mostly white-haired and bearded,

Could not help but feel their hearts surging.

No need to embellish, no need to add, no need to exaggerate,

Just state the facts as they were,

And it was already more like a story than a story.

After the clerks finished speaking,

The storytellers below began to whisper to each other, exchanging ideas and sharing notes. After all, some wrote faster and some wrote slower, so there would inevitably be omissions.

These omissions were worth a day's reward money, so they couldn't be missed.

At this time,

Marquis Zheng put down his teacup behind the curtain,

And coughed.

Immediately, the storytellers quieted down. They had long known that someone was behind the curtain, probably a steward from the Marquis's residence.

However, they really didn't think that the world-renowned Marquis of Pingxi was actually sitting there, listening to the review and narration of his life experiences along with them.

What a joke,

Would the Marquis of Pingxi be so bored?

But,

Marquis Zheng really would.

With the "capital" relocated to Fengxin City, there were as many things to do as mountains. The Demon Kings were all assigned work, but Zheng Fan, the master, could only watch them work, without any specific task that he could take over;

So, he found something to do and came to listen in.

"Everyone."

Marquis Zheng spoke.

The storytellers immediately listened attentively.

"My Marquis, fought for the country and made contributions to the nation and virtues to the people. The reason for summoning you all here is not to sing praises for my Marquis;

But because the stories of my Marquis are often spread among the people, and these stories are inevitably flawed and erroneous. In order to not damage my Marquis's wise reputation, I have summoned you all.

I hope that in your future work, you will be cautious and careful, so that you will not waste the tea and snacks of the Marquis's residence today."

The storytellers immediately stood up and bowed down:

"We understand."

"We understand."

Zheng Fan nodded and continued:

"Storytelling is your expertise. You know more about the tricks of the trade than I do, but I have a suggestion here. If it's useful, you can listen to it. If it's not useful, just treat it as entertainment.

That is,

When telling a story, you can divide a story that can be finished in one day into two days to tell……"

At this time,

A hasty young storyteller spoke up:

"Esteemed sir, how can a one-day story be divided into two days?"

The other peers around him cast envious glances at him,

This ability to play the foil,

They were one step behind!

After all, everyone on stage now has apprentices, and the apprentices are the ones who do the foil work. They were rusty, rusty.

Behind the curtain,

Marquis Zheng took another sip of tea,

And said unhurriedly:

"That's easy, add things to it. Of course, you can't add things randomly, you can't make things up. The butchers have long figured this out. They inject water into pork, we can learn from that too, it's called watering."

"May I ask, esteemed sir……"

"May I ask, esteemed sir, how to water it down?"

Now, there were more people who could play the foil; they were all professionals.

"At the beginning of each story, first talk about the political situation of various countries, talk about the Four Great Swordsmen, talk about the customs and practices of various countries;

Then introduce the story,

After introducing the story,

Then review the previous story, talk about the Marquis's life, that is, the past, and talk about the scenery at that time,

Finally, leave a section,

Master the timing,

And then talk about this story. Of course, you have to remember to leave suspense."

For a moment,

The hall was filled with:

"I see."

"We are enlightened."

"A sudden awakening."

"Deafening."

Marquis Zheng just smiled and didn't really think he had any ability. Limited by the speed and scope of information dissemination in this era, if these storytellers didn't know the above tricks, the goods in their stomachs would have been emptied long ago. What would they use to exchange for food?

Standing up,

Marquis Zheng walked out of the back door.

This mansion was not big, and a new mansion was being planned, along with a new round of construction for the entire Fengxin City.

Let's put it this way,

After the war against Chu,

Marquis Zheng dug up a lot of aristocratic ancestral graves in Chu, and there was too much hard currency like gold and silver jewelry on hand.

It was impossible to distribute the money directly;

Therefore, according to Blindman's planning ideas, he planned to start large-scale infrastructure construction to provide work as a form of relief.

In this way,

The newly arrived displaced people would have money in their hands,

With such a large demand market,

Merchants would naturally come to seek profits,

And that would drive the local prosperity.

Marquis Zheng was not really interested in gold and silver treasures. He was not a lizard dragon who liked to build nests with gold coins.

To a certain extent, the reason why the living standards of the soldiers and civilians in Xuehai Pass were so high was precisely because the upper echelons, with Marquis Zheng at the core, had a very low desire for wealth and preservation.

Money comes and goes,

With soldiers and food, what can't I get?

Didn't I snatch the princess?

If I'm interested in the future, I can snatch the Empress Dowager back.

In this era, the mainstream was to buy land, save family wealth, and bury treasure troves for future generations.

It could only be said that Marquis Zheng and the Demon Kings had never thought that far ahead. Even the "century-old marquis estate" mentioned in Emperor Yan's imperial decree did not move Marquis Zheng much.

Otherwise, why would everyone often say that they would just find a place to open an inn?

This was simply the mentality of sitting on a boat, watching the flood and drinking wine.

"Master, the guest has been waiting for a long time."

Zheng Fan nodded, indicating that he knew.

The guest had come, and the guest had been waiting for a long time. Marquis Zheng had known this for a long time, but he still listened to his story there.

Opening the door,

He entered the study,

Jing Renli immediately stood up from his chair,

And knelt down to salute Zheng Fan:

"Your subject pays respects to the Prince Consort."

Zheng Fan grunted and walked behind the desk, sitting down.

He habitually reached out to open a small lid on the table to take a jujube to throw in his mouth,

Hesitated for a moment,

And then closed it again.

Jing Renli got up and said to Zheng Fan:

"Your Royal Highness, my King heard that you have been conferred the title of Marquis in the Yan Kingdom and is very happy for you. This time, your subject has also brought some congratulatory gifts."

"Hehe."

Zheng Fan smiled.

This matter,

Was indeed interesting.

He was conferred the title of Marquis of Pingxi in the Yan Kingdom, but the Regent of the Chu Kingdom was going to give him rewards.

"Rewards and the like are not important. After all, we are one family, aren't we?" Marquis Zheng said kindly.

"Your Royal Highness is right, you are right."

Zheng Fan tapped his fingers on the desk a few times and said, "Since we are one family, there's no need to mince words. Talking about money hurts feelings."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes."

"Then since we are one family, it's okay to bum a meal, right? I haven't heard of any proper family that wouldn't even spare a bowl of rice for a poor relative, right?"

"Um……"

"Tell my brother-in-law, I'm short of food, just short of this bite to eat. Can he help me out a little? I will be grateful for his kindness."

"This……"

Jing Renli raised his head, looking at the "Prince Consort."

But he saw that the Prince Consort had a very serious expression.

For a moment,

Jing Renli was a little dazed,

Which side won in the end!

"Your Royal Highness, we, the Chu Kingdom, don't have any food either. It was you who led the troops……"

Originally, if the battle line had been at Zhennan Pass, although it would have been quite difficult for the Chu Kingdom to supply grain and grass, it wouldn't have been a particularly big problem. By squeezing it out, it could still meet the needs of the front line.

If the war had stopped there,

The Chu Kingdom could squeeze a little more and provide some grain to befriend this "Prince Consort."

After all, with the size of the Chu Kingdom, one Jinyang region was far from comparable.

But the problem was that the war was not only at Zhennan Pass. In fact, Zhennan Pass was the place where the war had the shallowest impact. To the point that when they finally withdrew from the Zhennan Pass line, the Yan and Chu armies had not even launched a real siege and defense war there.

Hundreds of thousands of Yan cavalrymen entered the territory of the Chu Kingdom. They didn't bring any grain and grass, and they burned, killed, looted, ate, and took along the way. If they couldn't take it, they burned it.

Therefore, after the Yan army retreated, the northern border of the Chu Kingdom was almost devastated. Not to mention that Yingdu was destroyed in the fire.

If we were to talk about the shortage of grain,

The Chu Kingdom was now more short than the Yan Kingdom.

However, everything had to be looked at from two sides.

The Yan Kingdom and the Jinyang region, these two countries located in the north, might encounter great natural disasters in the next two years. To be precise, they had already started to suffer disasters this year, and because of the years of war, their families had long been emptied. Now everyone was waiting with their hands tied, waiting for what?

Waiting for civil unrest, waiting for bandit suppression, or waiting for appeasement.

As for the Chu Kingdom, if the Regent was given a stable period of time to recover and recuperate, this year would be very difficult, but after next year, they would be able to catch their breath.

It was impossible to restore their vitality, but at least it was a trend of going from the lowest point upwards.

"No grain?"

"Your Royal Highness, it's true. I don't know how many people in my Great Chu will freeze to death and starve to death this winter."

"Tsk."

Marquis Zheng helplessly supported his forehead,

And said with emotion:

"That's really too pitiful. How innocent are the people."

"……" Jing Renli.

If this wasn't Fengxin City,

If there weren't Yan soldiers nearby,

Jing Renli really wanted to point at the person in front of him and curse:

"Whose fault is that!!!"

Marquis Zheng took a deep breath and raised his head;

In fact, the previous words were not to ridicule or deliberately humiliate Jing Renli.

Because although Blindman had said that this winter, Jinyang would not experience large-scale starvation.

But the diet of the people under his rule,

Would probably become:

Potatoes in the morning, potatoes at noon, and sweet potatoes at night;

Well,

It was all the same taste.

If it really didn't work, it would be good to import some grain from the Chu Kingdom to improve the food. It was too worrying to eat the same staple food all the time, and in a mushy state.

Even if they imported some rice, they could at least make a hot and sour shredded potato rice bowl?

Hmm,

It still seems to be a staple food.

Seeing Marquis Zheng inexplicably start to frown,

Jing Renli thought that he was angry,

And immediately revealed his trump card,

Saying:

"The Empress Dowager loves the Princess the most, and really doesn't want to see the Princess suffer."

Marquis Zheng suddenly perked up,

Well,

There was still some meat to be had,

Marquis Zheng immediately smiled:

"Okay, this Marquis will arrange for the Princess to return to her parents' home to visit her relatives immediately."

"……" Jing Renli.

If it had been before, if the Princess had returned to visit her relatives, she would definitely not have been able to return, because this was a disgrace to the Chu people, a disgrace to the Qu clan.

Now that Zheng Fan had been conferred a marquis title and a fief, and the Qu clan only had half a life left, the Chu people would do business. Would it be more worthwhile to keep the Princess at home or to let the Princess continue to be the Marquis of Pingxi's wife.

"No, Your Royal Highness, what my King meant was that my Great Chu also has the southern border, and we can transfer grain from the south."

Zheng Fan's eyes immediately darkened.

After all was said and done,

The Yan Kingdom was still poor!

The geographical location was poor, and the land was not fertile enough.

Look at the Qian Kingdom, they were beaten up four years ago, but they recovered the following year and were able to rebuild the three-border defense line.

Look at the Chu Kingdom, although the southern border of the Chu Kingdom was still mixed with many Shanyue clan forces, it was also able to squeeze out a lot of things.

This was called a solid family background, this was called strategic depth.

Great Yan had swallowed the three Jinyang regions with great effort. They didn't see any depth, and they didn't see any foundation. Because of the war, it was equivalent to burdening another hard-hit brother.

"What do you want."

Zheng Fan's voice turned cold.

Jing Renli hesitated for a moment,

And said:

"Warhorses."

The Chu people raised horses domestically, otherwise, after the burning of Jing City, Liang Cheng would not have been able to seize warhorses from the Chu people for use.

But in fact, if you wanted to maintain a large and organized cavalry corps, a number of ten to twenty thousand horses would only be enough to fill the gaps between your teeth.

Moreover, the soil and water were different, and the cost of raising horses was also different. The Qian people's set of horse administration, even if you eliminated the corrupt officials, to be honest, it would only be enough to mend the facade.

Twice,

Once in Yupang City,

And again in the war against Chu,

The Chu people had been bullied twice by the Yan Kingdom's large-scale cavalry corps!

Therefore, the Chu people were now eager to create their own cavalry corps.

The three Jinyang regions were actually more suitable for raising horses. The former foundation of the three Jinyang knights was here. Furthermore, the vast snowfields north of the Tian Duan Mountains were even more abundant in warhorses.

But the problem was that Zhennan Pass, Xuehai Pass, and Jinyang were all in the hands of Marquis Zheng, which was equivalent to Marquis Zheng blocking the possibility for the Chu people to obtain warhorses through external channels.

Seeing Marquis Zheng's expression uncertain,

Jing Renli immediately added:

"Your Royal Highness, my King said that the price of warhorses will be the same as before, or it can be converted into grain, craftsmen, and anything else that Your Royal Highness needs and my Great Chu has."

In fact, when he received this mission, Jing Renli once thought that his King was crazy.

Prince Consort, Prince Consort, were they really treating the Marquis of Pingxi of Great Yan as their own Prince Consort?

Calling him Prince Consort was just to give themselves a layer of disguise of a family fighting among themselves, and it wouldn't be so humiliating when they knelt down.

Was the other party crazy, would he trade warhorses with you?

But the King was certain,

So certain that he let himself go and talk about it.

Zheng Fan leaned back slightly,

And said:

"This Marquis is a loyal subject of Great Yan."

Jing Renli slumped down, looking very disappointed.

Zheng Fan frowned,

And helplessly reached out and stroked his eyebrows a few times,

Jing Renli was not Ji Lao Liu,

Ji Lao Liu knew the subtext of these words.

Under duress,

Marquis Zheng sighed,

And added;

"The price has to be raised."