My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 125 Causes disaster
"Why are you dressed like this?" In the residence of Internal Affairs Minister Deye, the head wife Jingshu was kneeling on the couch with an elegant manner and a dignified appearance. She was looking at the girl opposite her who was dressed in military uniform and had a completely different look. She exuded heroic spirit everywhere. Her eyes were critical and full of disdain.

Zhisu Nei Shi was one of the nine ministers of Linjiang Kingdom, and De family was one of the few aristocratic families in Jiangling City. The head of the family, Deye, had always had a close personal relationship with Dazhuguo Bo Pi, and the two families had frequent contacts on a daily basis. Bo Yan, the eldest daughter, was also very familiar with Deye's beautiful wife.

"Today, I am not here as the eldest daughter of the Bo family, but as the concubine of the eldest son of the Great Chu." Bo Yan put down the warm soup in his hand, raised his head slightly, his eyes sharp as the morning stars in the autumn sky, an extremely aggressive aura emanating from him, staring quietly at his long-time friend opposite him, with a sharp edge hidden in his words.

Jingshu's face changed, and she looked at her carefully with doubt. When she found out that she was not joking, her face gradually turned cold, and she sneered: "Hey, you have climbed up the ladder. Why, are you demonstrating in front of my old sister?"

Bo Yan shook his head slightly: "How could that be? I came here as the concubine of the eldest son of the Great Chu State to seek support from you, the wife of Zhisu Neishi, one of the Nine Ministers of Linjiang Kingdom."

Although he said "seeking support", Bo Yan's attitude was full of condescending attitude. Where was the slightest hint of the humble attitude of begging for help?

From Bo Yan's perspective, her current identity was the concubine of the eldest son of the Great Chu State, and she represented the proud and noble face of the Great Chu royal family. How could she easily bow her head?

Jingshu's expression softened a bit, but her words were still cold, even a little sarcastic: "Oh, so you are here to seek support? If you don't know, you would think you want to kill me on the spot. As for support, our De family has already received enough support. The master sent a message back, and he has ordered me to send all the private soldiers of the family to help defend the city. What else do you want?"

Bo Yan could hear the deep dissatisfaction in Jing Shu's words. It was true that the head of the family was detained in the palace and could not escape. His life was in danger at all times. He was also strangled by the neck and forced to send the family's private soldiers to defend the city. For the De family, an old Chu aristocratic family, it was a great shame and humiliation. It would be strange for them to be happy.

Jingshu's reaction was exactly what Bo Yan had expected, and it was also the purpose of her visit today.

Although the De family nominally sent out their own private soldiers to help defend the city, Bo Yan estimated that at most only half of them were there, and at least half of them were left to guard the mansion. In addition, they must be dissatisfied with Da Chu and the Bo family, and they have complaints, which is a great destabilizing factor. Therefore, Bo Yan's purpose of coming here this time is to completely eliminate their dissatisfaction and cure their resentment.

"How can we just send out a few private soldiers of our family? At present, the rebels are lurking outside and the situation is so critical. As one of the Nine Ministers, the De family should shoulder more important responsibilities." Bo Yan shook his head and spoke bluntly, exerting strong pressure.

"What do you mean? What else does my De family have to do to satisfy you?" Jing Shu was angry, and her delicate fingers holding the bowl of warm soup turned pale for a moment.

"That's wrong. It's not to satisfy me, but to satisfy the king, the ministers of the kingdom, and the people of the city." Bo Yan said shamelessly, without blushing or beating his heart. After becoming Xiang Chang's woman, influenced by him, he found that his face had become much thicker. "As for how to do it, it's also simple. Hand over all the slaves and maids of the family, as well as all the food and cloth in the house, to me. The kingdom from top to bottom must feel the sincerity of the De family."

"What did you say? You, you are a toad, you are so arrogant!" Jingshu was furious, her body was shaking with anger, and even the two round breasts on her chest were shaking.

Bo Yan was not wrong. Aristocratic families like the De family did not think highly of Xiang Chang and Bo Pi. They always had other thoughts and did not sincerely submit to them.

Although their De family has sent some of their private soldiers to help defend the city, if General Huang Jizhong leads the Northern Army to achieve the final victory and drives away Xiang Chang and Bo Pi's faction, they can use the excuse that they were forced to do so by Xiang Chang, and Huang Jizhong will surely not make things difficult for them.

But if they did what Bo Yan said, it would be like ruining their family to help the country, which was equivalent to completely leaning towards Bo Pi and Xiang Chang's faction, with no room for maneuver. If things went wrong, Huang Jizhong would finally break through Jiangling and settle the score, their De family would be doomed.

It has to be said that Bo Yan was too cruel in doing this. It was several times more cruel than Xiang Chang's act of simply forcing the aristocratic families to send out some private soldiers.

Bo Yan was originally from a noble family. He knew the thoughts of these noble families very well and knew exactly how to drag them down and make them lose their way out.

It is true that a fortress is most easily breached from within. With people like Bo Yan who are traitors and determined to betray their own people around, how can the De family possibly hold on?
"What our De family did is no different from the Song family and other families that were destroyed by you on false charges. Won't we all be left with nothing?" Jing Shu couldn't bear it any longer. She slammed the table, stood up and shouted angrily.

"At least, you were not dragged to the square in front of the palace and kneeled there waiting to be rewarded to the soldiers who defended the city." Bo Yan remained calm in the face of Jing Shu's anger, but his cold words made Jing Shu's face change again.

"Are you threatening me?" Jingshu's beautiful peach blossom eyes narrowed dangerously. He stared at Jingshu and spoke word by word.

The chill in the words made one feel nervous.

Bo Yan's expression remained unchanged. This time, her words were filled with disdain: "Coerce you? Are you worthy?! A small Linjiang Kingdom's Zhisu Neishi, a small family that is not worth mentioning, is it worth me to coerce you?"

Faced with Bo Yan's extremely condescending words, Jing Shu was almost mad. In the past, Bo Yan's status was far inferior to hers. After all, she married one of the Nine Ministers, and Bo Yan might not be able to marry one of the Nine Ministers, so she had a great sense of psychological superiority. Unexpectedly, the situation is reversed now.

But when he really thought about it, he had to admit that what Bo Yan said was indeed true. The concubine of the eldest son of the Great Chu was able to come here, which was indeed a great respect for the De family. There was no coercion. After all, their De family was too far away from the supreme Xiang family today.

In other words, Bo Yan has now become a person that the De family needs to look up to.

"It is only because of our past friendship that I come here in person to give you a chance. Do you think that the chariots of the Great Chu will take in any dog ​​or cat? You are short-sighted and womanly, and you don't know what you are talking about." Bo Yan said coldly, pushing the hot soup on the desk in front of him forward, and stood up and left.

Jingshu stood there stiffly, staring at Bo Yan's departing figure, then looking at the bowl of hot soup, her expression complicated.

She knew very well that she only had time for this bowl of hot soup to make a decision.

Jingshu let out a long sigh, a look of deep bitterness appearing on her face. She knew that if she didn't do as Bo Yan said, the group of ferocious soldiers that rushed into the Song family would rush into their De family next. By then, she, the head of the De family, would have to go to the square in front of the palace and kneel beside the wife of the Song family to keep her company.

What made Jingshu most heartbroken was that Bo Yan had a rough idea of ​​the De family's financial situation. This time he came to ask for food, cloth, slaves and maids. If they could not give away all they had as she asked, and if they could keep anything, they would probably not be able to get through.

"Bo Yan, you are going too far!" Jing Shu's face was distorted, and she gritted her teeth, squeezing out a few words. Standing on the street in front of the De family, Bo Yan stood there pretty, quietly looking at the thick clumps of autumn chrysanthemums on the street. Not long after, she heard the sound of the De family behind her, gathering the servants and maids. Soon, hundreds of servants and maids came out in a line, followed by dozens of ox carts loaded with food and cloth, and walked behind her, bowing their heads and obeying her orders.

"Noble families are all paper tigers. They look powerful and arrogant on the surface, but they are actually weak inside. Especially when facing a force stronger than them, they have no courage to resist or disobey. No matter how humiliated they are, they will eventually swallow their anger and bow their heads."

Thinking back to the words that the strong and confident man who had captured her heart and soul day and night had said to her on the soft couch, Bo Yan showed an expression of "as expected", and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Next, she led this huge convoy through the streets and alleys, arrogantly, and then went to the next noble mansion...

"Wow, there are so many food, come and see!"

"Where did you dig up so much food?"

"There's food to eat. There's food to eat. You don't have to go hungry anymore."

……

Amid the mooing of cattle and the shouts of delight from the soldiers, hundreds of ox carts loaded with piles of sacks of millet, beans, rice, and other grains slowly moved toward the granary. On both sides of the ox carts, thousands of young and middle-aged slaves and maids of varying heights and stature followed.

When the grain and fodder arrived, the servants rushed forward, carrying the grain bags on their shoulders and hands in an orderly manner, and transported them into huge warehouses, where they were neatly stacked.

All the slaves had thick arms and legs, sturdy shoulders and backs, and were full of strength. It was obvious that they were used to doing rough labor, but now they were unloading the grain quickly and steadily.

The maids were not idle either. Half of them went to the open space on the west side of the granary and lined up the huge cauldrons that had been brought in. They carried clean water to wash them, then poured millet and beans into the cauldrons, burned firewood under the stoves, and started cooking the military rations.

The remaining half of the maids, led by seven or eight older maids, went to the open space on the east side, cleaned the ground, and then used wooden sticks to support cloth to form a simple camp to protect from the sun and rain. They laid out soft mats neatly on the ground, and then cut the white linen into strips one foot wide and two arms long, washed them with boiling water, and hung them up to dry.

Seeing all this going on in an orderly manner, Xiang Chang instinctively felt a familiar feeling coming over him, as if he had returned to the Chu army camp in Gaixia City.

All of these could be perfectly replicated to this extent, and right now there should be only one person in Jiangling City who could do it - because he had only explained it in detail to one person.

Xiang Chang was full of surprise and hope. He looked up and around, searching for the familiar and beautiful figure.

"Sir, are you looking for me?" A slightly reserved voice, with a gentle and clear tone and full of deep emotion suddenly sounded from behind him.

Xiang Chang suddenly turned around and looked back. Sure enough, the beautiful figure who had been haunting his dreams during this period of time and making him unable to extricate himself from it was standing in front of him.

What surprised him was that, completely different from the last time they met, when he was dressed in gorgeous attire and full of superiority and luxury, now he had a green cloth wrapped around his head, a short shirt with narrow sleeves, and even a layer of leather armor on the outside. He looked simple, capable, heroic, and exuded a touching demeanor.

Seeing Xiang Chang's surprised face, looking her up and down in amazement, Bo Yan couldn't help but get nervous, and couldn't help regretting that she didn't dress up and expose her "ugly" side in front of her lover.

"I, I'll go home now, wash up, and change into my original clothes." Bo Yan was a little anxious, and said hurriedly, turning around and leaving.

Xiang Chang grabbed her, looked at her intently without blinking, and shook his head slowly.

It must be said that Bo Yan really gave him a surprise. During those nights of enjoying the pleasure of love with her, after sweating profusely in the physical fight, while hugging her soft, smooth and beautiful body, and looking at her beautiful eyes full of tender admiration, Xiang Chang couldn't help but feel like showing off, and he told her about his many innovations in the Gaixia military camp as a casual chat. But she was so smart that she secretly remembered them in her heart, and now she copied them in a methodical manner, which gave him great help.

Bo Yan was secretly delighted. From the passion and surprise revealed in Xiang Chang's eyes, she knew that she had made the right move. At this moment, all the insults and grievances that she had endured while forcing the wives of many aristocratic families to do things she had never done before, disappeared into thin air.

"how did you do it?"

Facing Xiang Chang's question, Bo Yan briefly recounted what happened and said softly, "I almost gave up after being scolded by them several times. However, when I thought about what you have been through during this period, and how you have been on the line between life and death every day, the insults and criticisms I have endured are nothing to me. So I gritted my teeth and persevered."

Xiang Chang was stunned, holding her shoulders and staring at her for a long time, then hugged her tightly. At this moment, Bo Yan got rid of the identity of an ordinary concubine in his mind and truly entered his heart.

"This is only part of the food, and more will be shipped in later. Humph, where is the most food in Jiangling City? It's not in Taiping Warehouse, but in the warehouses of these noble families."

Hearing Bo Yan's words, Xiang Chang chuckled and said, "You have finally trapped them completely this time."

It must be said that Bo Yan's decisive move not only solved the two major problems that had troubled Xiang Chang, but also tied the aristocratic families in Jiangling City firmly to the chariot of Da Chu.

(End of this chapter)