Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 881 Phoenix Gallbladder

Li Fengniang was still living in the Prince of Jin's residence at this time, after all, she was the Prince of Jin's adopted sister.

When she received the letter from home, she unfolded it and her pretty eyes widened in surprise.

"Get married? Marry whom?"

The second steward, who brought the news, said, "Master is just busy calling you home, Miss. As for who you will marry... it hasn't been decided yet."

Seeing Li Fengniang glaring at him, the second steward also felt that he was being a bit unreasonable.

He then awkwardly added, "The master said that even if we just kidnap a scholar to be our son-in-law, we can still do it."

In short, we absolutely cannot let you, girl, jump into a fire pit.

The second steward smiled as he spoke, "Miss, the master really dotes on you."

"She really cares about me; she's even planning to find me any random man to marry off."

Li Fengniang sneered, her pretty face still exuding charm even with her repeated cold laughter.

The second steward said with a wry smile, "Originally, being able to rule the world as an empress would be an unparalleled honor, something that even the master would be eager to attain."

But given the current situation, you, young lady, know what will become of the Qian family's daughter.

The master meant that the royal family was definitely not a good place to go at this time…

As he spoke, the second steward glanced around guiltily.

This is, after all, the Prince of Jin's residence, a part of the royal family. If the people of the Prince of Jin's residence were to overhear this, it would not be good.

"I know, you go down first."

Before the second steward could say anything more, Li Fengniang glared at him and said, "Are you just going to leave like this? You have to wait for Prince Jin to come back and say goodbye."

Upon hearing this, the second steward withdrew.

Li Fengniang thought for a moment, then put away the secret letter and hurriedly left.

"Get the car ready, let's go to Sanyuan Jewelry Store."

Inside the Sanyuan Jewelry Store, Emmanuelle was managing her business.

She now personally manages both Sanyuan Jewelry Store and Sanyuan Spice Store.

Originally, it was just a tool for making money, and could have been handed over to women like Helen and Afaf to manage.

Belle has begun to take over the maritime trade business, which is the main source of her enormous wealth.

The Yang family has grown so large that Lu Xi, as the matriarch, no longer has the energy to personally oversee the business.

However, since the women of the Yang family had made some plans behind Yang Yuan's back, the importance of their jewelry and spice shops, which were spread throughout the major cities of the Song Dynasty, suddenly surpassed that of maritime trade.

What kind of people frequent jewelry stores?

Who were the people who frequented the spice shops?

If these two places are managed well, they will become the Yang family's eyes and ears, able to see and hear from afar.

"Fengniang is here? Quickly, invite her in."

When Belle heard that Li Fengniang had arrived, she smiled and responded, then put away the accounts and waved for the female stewards who were being reprimanded to leave.

She then instructed her personal maid, "Bring me the pearl necklace I was going to give to Fengniang."

Belle was very fond of Fengniang, her little apprentice, who was the closest person to her in the Song Dynasty besides Yang Yuan.

She runs a jewelry store, and she often thinks of giving some of her unique jewelry to Fengniang.

Fengniang only had a bunch of brothers, no sisters.

Belle was in a foreign land, and her appearance and figure were very different from those of Han Chinese women, so she had no close female friends.

Therefore, the relationship between the two became even closer.

Li Fengniang rushed in, and upon seeing Bei'er, she cried out in sorrow and knelt down.

"Master, save me..."

……

The war in Liangshan Prefecture has not yet ended, and the rear of the four routes in Sichuan and the Three Gorges is on fire. Yang Yuanye has already received this news.

From the moment he claimed to be suffering from an abdominal ailment and no longer attending court or handling affairs, Yang Yuan continued to take sick leave under the pretext that his illness had not yet healed.

Each time, he attached a diagnosis from the Imperial Medical Academy, procedurally without any issues.

He had considered that the war might go badly, but he didn't expect the outcome to be even worse than he imagined.

The foundation he left behind wasn't weak; logically speaking, it shouldn't have deteriorated to this extent.

However, he underestimated the powerful effect of destruction, which is more efficient and faster than construction.

If he were more ruthless, he could easily sabotage the imperial court in secret.

In fact, he never used any underhanded tricks or schemes.

He simply let go and allowed those self-righteous guys to do things according to their own ideas, and the results were surprisingly good.

However, Yang Yuan was not happy at all.

In particular, it was a great opportunity that he had personally built up, and seeing it being ruined like this caused him unspeakable heartache.

However, he did not regret it.

No regrets on your move!

Having decided to take this step, he had given it full consideration before making the move.

His rise to power was too rapid. Although the "purging of the emperor's inner circle" went smoothly, the decision was made on a whim.

Therefore, without a sufficient reshuffling of power, the problems will persist, and the struggle must be rectified.

This is inevitable.

Frankly speaking, his current opponents are not like Qin Hui, Wan Qixie, and others from back then.

The opponents at that time were the mortal enemies of loyalty and treachery, a life-or-death struggle that was clearly laid bare.

But these opponents now are not enemies like that. In fact, from the perspective of the Song Dynasty imperial family, those people are more loyal than he is.

His strategies and the means he could employ were therefore limited.

Meanwhile, during his five years in local government, he did not have control over the central government.

After purging the court of the emperor, he ruthlessly eliminated officials from the Eastern Palace faction and installed a large number of his cronies.

But in fact, he and Zhao Qi had the same problem when they installed a large number of their cronies:
That is because their team is too young and inexperienced, and it is impossible for them to achieve their goals in one step.

Moreover, it was impossible for him to eliminate all the court officials who were suppressed by the Crown Prince's faction indiscriminately when he was purging the court of corrupt officials.

If he had done that, local military and political officials like those in Lianghuai would never have accepted the changes in the court so calmly as they do now.

Which of these high-ranking officials in the imperial court didn't have some confidants, protégés, or old friends in the local areas?

Even Li Xianzong and Shao Hongyuan, the commanders of the two major armies of Huaidong and Huaixi, who were located nearby, could not possibly have only a close relationship with him.

In that case, it wouldn't just be a temporary chaos in the court, but the entire Song Dynasty would be thrown into complete chaos.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he chose to temporarily back down, otherwise the court would only fall into division.

If he is ruthless and calm enough, then while he temporarily feigns illness and backs down, he should also dig some traps for these political enemies.

Dig some pits that they'll fall into and never be able to climb out of.

At that time, when he returned to public life, he thoroughly purged these hostile forces, and no one could find fault with him.

Local officials could only accept his methods and had nothing to say.

However, his Machiavellian tactics were ultimately incomplete, and he couldn't bring himself to be so ruthless.

Because it came at the cost of suffering for ordinary soldiers and civilians.

Even if a short, sharp pain is worse than a long, drawn-out one, he couldn't convince himself otherwise.

However... the situation developed in a way that was even more serious than he had anticipated.

In fact, this is also because Yang Yuan has never been in such a high position before, and his rise to power was too fast, leaving him with insufficient experience.

Therefore, some factors were overlooked during his rehearsal.

In this game of chess, each piece actually has its own thoughts.

Since they are living, breathing people, how could they possibly act exactly according to their pre-planned actions when the environment changes?

For example, the mine guards' retreat without a fight didn't require his instruction; human nature dictated that they would not put in the effort to guard the mine.

For example, the lack of cooperation from the Wu family in Pengzhou was actually orchestrated by his group of virtuous wives.

But even without the instigation of these virtuous wives, do you think the Wu family wouldn't have taken advantage of the situation?
Especially those powerful figures who took advantage of the shutdown of gold and copper mines in Liangshan Prefecture to amass copper coins, even the internal secretariat could not interfere, yet they would naturally do these things.

For example, Ren Degong of Xixia made it clear to Tuoba Heiyi that whether or not the country was restored was not important; the key was to show the Song court their stance and prevent officials from seizing power.

Therefore, there must be such a "reverse" process.

Their scheme included Yang Yuan as well.

However, Yang Yuan has not yet received any news about the rebellion in Western Xia.

What he knows so far is that the Liangshan Prefecture's efforts to quell the rebellion have been ineffective, and the economic crisis in the Sichuan-Gansu region has led to widespread displacement of people.

This level of chaos is not enough to give him sufficient reason to carry out a major purge of the government.

Therefore, he could only continue to be sick.

While Yang Yuan was staying at home claiming to be ill, he indulged his wives and concubines, showering them with affection and making them all exceptionally beautiful.

His complexion was radiant; anyone could see it.

When Liu Yanran returned home to visit her family, her older sisters kept asking her about her beauty secrets, but she found it difficult to talk about them.

That day, Yang Yuan received a message from Bei'er's maid, saying that she had tried a new French dish and invited her husband to her room that evening to taste it.

Yang Yuan understood immediately.

With the daughters of the Yang family all having children, including Li Shishi and Liu Yanran who are now pregnant with their second child, how could Belle not be anxious?

This isn't inviting him to try French food; it's clearly asking him to treat himself to a meal.

This blonde, blue-eyed Western beauty has a unique charm, especially when it comes to things that are too difficult for others to handle, which she seems to enjoy immensely.

Yang Yuan also doted on her.

Especially after every intimate moment, Belle would struggle to get up and pray with a sacred expression, burning indulgences, which amused Yang Yuan.

This is clearly self-deception.

Yang Yuan smiled and agreed. After taking a bath that evening, he changed into a light robe and leisurely walked into Belle's courtyard.

"Please have a seat in the room, sir. Madam is taking a bath."

Two young maids served Yang Yuan tea and explained things to him politely.

Yang Yuan smiled upon hearing this.

As expected, this Grand Duchess had no idea what French cuisine was like!

It seems that Belle herself will be serving this French feast tonight.

Little did they know, she might have come up with some new tricks.

Yang Yuan waved his hand, dismissing the two maids, took a sip of tea, and waited expectantly for the beauty to emerge from her bath.

In the side room, a beautifully dressed young woman, with delicate features, paced back and forth several times.

Finally, she made up her mind, grabbed a small-mouthed, narrow-necked Ru porcelain wine bottle from the table, and gulped down several mouthfuls of courage-boosting wine.

Then she walked over, pulled open the door, and went into the main room.

When Yang Yuan heard the door open, he assumed it was Belle. But when he looked up, he was taken aback.

What a stunning beauty before me! But her snow-white skin was now as red as a monkey's bottom.

The stunningly beautiful girl stared with her doe-like eyes and said, "Hey, Mr. Yang, do you still want a wife?"

(End of this chapter)