Longzang

Chapter 182 Starvation
Several wooden houses were built on the open space outside Quliu Town, surrounding a small courtyard. This was Yuan Qingyan's prefectural residence.

He sat in the main hall, a map spread out on the table, which he was examining closely. At this moment, an attendant entered the main hall and said, "Lord Yuan, Xu Jingfeng, the head of the Xu family of Ningxi, requests an audience and has brought a gift list."

Without looking up, Yuan Qingyan asked, "Is the gift valuable?"

"Quite valuable."

Yuan Qingyan's expression softened slightly, and she said, "I've accepted the gift. Tell him to go back and that I'm busy."

The clerk, knowing his master's habits, wasn't surprised and left the courtyard. Not far away, in an open space, Xu Jingfeng was standing and waiting with a dozen or so attendants, accompanied by some porters carrying about ten loads of various gifts.

The attendant then summoned a squad of soldiers to carry the gifts away, and then said to Xu Jingfeng, "Master Xu, please return. My master said he is not here!"

Xu Jingfeng's smile froze on his face.

The attendant repeated himself before Xu Jingfeng finally understood, and he was so angry he laughed. It was one thing for Yuan Qingyan to refuse to see him, but to accept all the gifts was truly disgraceful, more humiliating than being slapped in the face.

Xu Jingfeng snorted heavily and said coldly, "Lord Yuan is indeed incorruptible! Since Lord Yuan looks down on me, then let's leave!"

"Master Xu, please wait." The attendant called out to Xu Jingfeng.

"What else is there?" Xu Jingfeng's face was as ugly as it could possibly be; it was already a miracle that he hadn't turned hostile on the spot.

The attendant tilted his head slightly, glancing at Xu Jingfeng out of the corner of his eye, and said, "I dare to say something. After Master Xu returns, you still need to send gifts from time to time. Although my master won't see you even if you send them, if you don't send them, he might take notice of you."

Xu Jingfeng was furious. He chuckled and said, "Are you threatening me?"

The attendant gave a thumbs-up: "That's exactly what I meant! Patriarch Xu is indeed clever!"

Xu Jingfeng's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. Looking at the menacing soldiers around him, he swallowed his anger, returned to the Xu family mansion, and slammed the door shut with a bang.

At this moment, the sound of rapid hoofbeats rang out from outside the town, and a scout rode swiftly towards Yuan Qingyan's courtyard.

The rider tumbled off his horse and staggered into the courtyard, saying, "Lord Yuan, we've found out where the people of Quliu Town went! They were kidnapped by bandits and sold into the border region. We followed them all the way to the border, but we were intercepted by bandits. Of the dozen or so brothers, only I escaped back!"

Yuan Qingyan stood up abruptly and said, "Tens of thousands of people have been sold to the border region?"

The scout said, "That's right. Judging from the marks left on the ground, there must have been at least 30,000 to 50,000 people."

Yuan Qingyan's eyes flashed with murderous intent as he muttered to himself, "Trying to pull this on me? Very well! Guards!"

The clerk entered and waited to be instructed.

Yuan Qingyan said, "Send a fast horse to send a document to Anbian, Qiao and Weining counties, ordering them to collect all grain and fodder within two hundred li around the county seat, relocate all the people in the wild areas to the county seat, and set up checkpoints on major transportation routes, not allowing a single grain of grain to enter the west!"

"Send another letter to Lord Chen and Lord Yue. I need reinforcements, at least 20,000 elite troops. With 30,000 troops at my disposal, I can completely seal off the southern and eastern parts of the territory!"

The clerk wrote with lightning speed, and in a short while, all the official documents were completed and presented to Yuan Qingyan. Yuan Qingyan glanced at them and said, "Okay, send them out like this."

Then Yuan Qingyan summoned the several deputy generals in charge of the troops and ordered them to go out separately to build military fortifications at the main north-south transportation routes to cut off north-south traffic. At the same time, he ordered them to send out scouts to search the mountains and fields, find all the people living in seclusion in remote villages, confiscate all their food, and then drive them to the border.

One of the lieutenants asked, "Lord Yuan, what is the meaning of this?"

Yuan Qingyan said, "Doesn't the realm like its people? Then I'll send them more! I've already blocked all the grain routes, let's see how they feed these hundreds of thousands of people!"

The generals exchanged glances, all feeling that this move was somewhat inappropriate. However, considering Lord Yuan's past reputation, they dared not say anything.

Within the realm, Wei Yuan was holding a page of jade paper, studying it carefully.

The jade paper contained all of Yuan Qingyan's information, which was quite detailed. Yuan Qingyan came from an ordinary family. At the age of eight, he passed the unified examination of the Immortal Sect and entered a third-rank blessed land to cultivate. At the age of twenty, he achieved the foundation of Daoism. At the age of thirty-seven, he passed the imperial examination and transferred to the Great Tang Imperial Academy to continue his cultivation. Ten years later, he served as an official in the Western Jin Dynasty for three years and gained some fame, and was able to enter the Hanlin Academy as an editor.

At the age of fifty-nine, Yuan Qingyan unexpectedly became a Buddhist monk, which caused quite a stir at the time. He was later promoted to Academician of the Hanlin Academy and Censor. At the age of sixty-three, he was transferred to Ningxi County as Prefect.

Wei Yuan was starting to have a headache. This guy was actually a Dharma Aspect! Although he might be at the bottom of the Dharma Aspect level, like the Dean of Baifeng Academy, he was still a Dharma Aspect.

Yuan Qingyan was a stubborn man who believed that the teachings of the sages were timeless truths that could not be changed or questioned. He was known for his outspokenness and unbridled speech, and because he was incorruptible and had exemplary personal morality, no one in the court could find any fault with him. As a result, everyone found him extremely troublesome and feared that they might offend this mad dog.

This document does not use phrases like "hating evil as if it were its enemy" or "upright and incorruptible." Intelligence reports from powerful families are typically extremely precise in their wording, comparable to historical records. The absence of such terms suggests that the author of this document did not consider Yuan Qingyan to be that kind of person.

After reviewing the information, Wei Yuan placed the jade paper aside. The Prince of Jin had placed the mad dog before Wei Yuan, his intentions crystal clear. However, Wei Yuan had already made his move; now it was up to him to respond.

Ningxi Commandery currently has a population of over 200,000, though Wei Yuan estimates it to fluctuate between 220,000 and 250,000. Wei Yuan now controls 140,000 people, meaning Yuan Qingyan will temporarily be a commandery governor without any subjects.

Wei Yuan instructed his attendants to find Xiao Yu, and a moment later Xiao Yu appeared before Wei Yuan.

At this moment, Xiao Yu's eyes were dark and bloodshot, making this dignified Immortal Foundation cultivator look like he hadn't slept well for days. However, his handsome appearance only added to his pitiful appearance.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan, Xiao Yu said irritably, "Spit it out if you have something to say! I'm busy!"

Wei Yuan put on his most sincere and warm smile, massaged Xiao Yu's shoulders, and said, "Junior brother has really worked too hard!"

Xiao Yu slapped Wei Yuan's hand away and said irritably, "Take your hands off me and stop touching me! You know how hard I work, don't you?"

"How could I not know?" Wei Yuan said, looking aggrieved.

Xiao Yu said, "I just got Yong'an looking somewhat decent, and you dumped two more cities on me! Do you think I owe you something?"

Wei Yuan said with a forced smile, "No one else can do this! I'm not saying those guys are bad at theory, they're all just armchair strategists. You see, I simply can't entrust these things to them; if I'm not careful, they'll cause a huge mess."

Xiao Yu stared at Wei Yuan warily and said, "You're not thinking of giving me those three cities in the west and north too, are you? Don't even think about it!"

"Absolutely not!" Wei Yuan swore, and Xiao Yu's expression softened a bit. Then Wei Yuan said, "I'll have Wang Yu and Xu Yi each manage one of the three cities first, and then the last city will be jointly managed by the five aristocratic families."

Xiao Yu frowned immediately: "Those guys are ignorant and incompetent. How would they know how to manage a city of ten thousand ordinary people? They couldn't even manage a village properly."

Wei Yuan slapped his thigh: "That's right! But I really don't have anyone to use, after all, we suddenly have 80,000 more people. How about this, when you have some free time, go and visit those three cities, see where they're doing poorly, and give them some pointers?"

Xiaoyu thought for a moment and reluctantly nodded.

Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Has the grain arrived? Is there enough?"

"You mean the batch from the east?" Xiaoyu shook her head and frowned. "The people we sent have bought out all the caravans' stocks in that direction, but they only managed to buy 1.1 million catties of grain, enough for only seven or eight days. I was just about to talk to you about this. The grain in the warehouse is also running low; it can only last for ten days at most. We need to think of a solution quickly."

"It's alright. I had Xu Jingfeng arrange for two large caravans to buy grain inside the pass. They should be at Hanyang Pass by now and will be back in three days. With these two caravans back, we can hold out for at least another month."

Xiaoyu's expression softened, and she said, "Let me know when the grain team returns. I need to see what varieties and quality they have before I can arrange how to distribute the grain."

"no problem."

Xiao Yu was busy with many things at the moment, so he didn't linger and left. However, after flying a short distance, he realized that Wei Yuan hadn't actually managed a single city!
After Xiao Yu left, Wei Yuan continued to ponder the map. At this moment, a servant knocked on the door and entered, handing over a letter, saying, "Lord of the Realm, a secret letter from the Xu family of Ningxi."

Wei Yuan took the letter, opened it, and his expression gradually became serious.

(End of this chapter)