The Great Seminary

Chapter 197 'My Own Son'

Zhang Guiping's few words, though seemingly casual, made Ding Chengqi feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

On a sweltering day, I felt a chill that ran through me from head to toe.

"General, the world... the world can't be this corrupt, can it?"

"It's better not only to be natural."

Zhang Gui waved his hand dismissively, not bothering to prove himself right.

"In short, let's do what we can do, and leave the rest to fate."

Ding Chengqi snapped out of his daze and nodded blankly.

"The General is right."

Before returning to the main hall, I had already sent someone to the cook to get a large pot to cook thick porridge.

"Then I'll go and see for myself."

He turned and walked out of the lobby.

In fact, with his intelligence, he had already seen that the Ming and Song dynasties were falling into an abyss at a visible speed.

It's just a matter of refusing to believe.

In chaotic times, those separated from their loved ones are worse off than dogs!

Even Ding Chengqi, a powerful but ugly man with the backing of Zhihai Town and holding the rank of a fifth-grade official, dared not, did not want to, and was unwilling to believe that the cruel end of the dynasty had quietly arrived.

And what about ordinary people?

Watching Ding Chengqi's figure disappear outside the lobby door, Zhang Gui thought to himself.

In fact, he was able to secretly relocate those displaced disaster victims in Zhihai Town to the True Dragon Kingdom and make them new citizens.

However, the current plan to capture people by those charlatans on the Nine Islands of Tiangong in the East Inner Sea has become the largest source of immigrants for the True Dragon Kingdom.

We must persevere and continue, and judging from the trend, the scale will only get larger and larger.

Under these circumstances, relocating disaster victims in Zhihai Town could easily expose any wrongdoing.

Combining the two, a certain clever person discovered that the places where large numbers of people had supposedly disappeared were all connected to Zhang Gui in various ways.

This breaks the illusion that a single piece of evidence is insufficient.

A small flaw might turn into a big problem.

Therefore, he chose stillness over movement.

However, Zhang Gui did not neglect doing good deeds in Zhihai Town, gaining a good reputation, and satisfying his conscience.

But distributing porridge is not as easy as cooking porridge for each household. If it weren't for the fact that the Ryūkō Shogunate itself had thousands of people to eat and drink.

Setting up a porridge kitchen in just half a day is simply a pipe dream.

Even so, it took an hour of rushing around before the rich aroma of rice porridge filled the town of Zhihai.

With that scent, there was no need for any prompting; the disaster victims on the dock struggled to their feet and, with the old and the young, came to the drill ground.

"Line up in five lines, one by one come forward to eat the porridge."

Although they lacked experience in distributing porridge, the veterans of the Ryūkō Shogunate now had some experience in training new recruits.

Five large cauldrons were surrounded by hundreds of armored soldiers carrying long spears.

The leaders at the front, holding long whips, cracked them and roared:

"Did you hear that? Line up properly, no rioting or pushing, or you'll get this whipping at the very least."

"I'll punish you severely and string you together like a blood gourd..."

A few hundred steps away, at the intersection of Zhihai Town Wharf and the drill ground.

A bow-legged young man dressed in a light blue long gown, looking like a scholar, observed the scene and commented quite fairly:
"The soldiers are all mediocre, not even third or fourth-rate."

The three teams of ten people broke up after a brief struggle.

But they're all smart; once we take over this area, each of them should be able to manage a village well.

None of the bodyguards surrounding the bowlegged man made a sound; they simply stood silently.

Only a handsome young man standing close to him retorted defiantly:
“Young master is an old warrior, and I naturally believe him when he says these soldiers distributing porridge are just for show. But in this sweltering heat, they are wearing leather armor and carrying weapons, first showing off their power to the starving people, shouting and threatening to kill them, before finally distributing the porridge.”

Isn't this madness? Not only has he gone insane, but he has also frightened away the kindness and goodwill he had forged with his master.

How can that be considered having a good brain?

"Sanjay, my handsome little white lamb, you've never gone hungry since you were a child."

They had never been on the battlefield or been besieged, so they didn't know how terrible hunger was.

A person is no longer human after being starved for three days; they will do anything for food.

Don't be fooled by the fact that these starving people are as timid as rats now. If these soldiers hadn't been armored and armed when they first distributed the porridge, many of them would probably have died long ago.

The servants are a reflection of their masters.

It seems that the Stone Corpse Prince is indeed a difficult character to fathom.

Uritu, you can go and see him.

Ask him if he wants our food.

"Yes, Your Highness."

A middle-aged man with a short beard among the entourage bowed respectfully in response.

When he looked up again, the bow-legged youth had already boarded the ship's deck and was chatting and laughing with the handsome young man as they entered the cabin.

"A magnificent wolf cub ended up growing into a rabbit. I should have gouged out my own eyes back then."

Uritu lost his respect, spat on the ground, and muttered a curse.

He strode towards the office of the Dragon and Tiger Bureau.

Before long, they arrived at the main hall's gate.

He spoke gently to the guards at the gate: "Heroic warrior."

I am Urtu, an envoy from Yuanshan.

"I hope to have the opportunity to meet the naturally noble and powerful Prince Shishi."

Upon hearing the name 'Yuanshan,' the guards' blood boiled instantly, and they held their guns to their chests.

"Old man, don't talk nonsense. It's no joke if someone from Yuanshan suddenly appears!"

“I am a genuine Yuanshan native, absolutely not false in the slightest.”

"Then what are you doing here?"

“I have brought life-saving food, which I hope to sell to your master, Prince Shishi.”

"Who is the Stone Corpse Prince?"

The guard was momentarily stunned and didn't react immediately, but he quickly remembered that his general had been promoted.

"Ah, you want to see my general, to sell, to sell grain!"

You Yuanshan people are so kind, ha, I understand now, you grassland savages must want to sell coarse grains for silver.

"Pah! That's just wishful thinking..."

"The grain I sell is fine rice, which costs 25 catties for one tael of silver."

In times of turmoil, the value of gold and silver, which are small, easy to carry, and almost always retain their value, will inevitably rise.

That's why the proverb "In times of chaos, hoard gold and silver; in times of prosperity, buy antiques" exists.

Such as now.

A small silver coin weighing one tael, which used to be worth one hundred brass coins, can now be exchanged for about one hundred and thirty copper coins.

If you calculate it this way, a few months ago, a pound of fine rice cost three coins, but now it costs twenty-five pounds for one tael of silver, which is several times more expensive.

The problem is that in times of chaos, even if gold and silver appreciate in value, they can never surpass the appreciation of food.

Nowadays in Pingyang County, one tael of silver can't even buy ten catties of rice, let alone thirty catties of fine rice.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, even if a son and his father were doing business together, they would not sell rice at a price like that of Uritu.

(End of this chapter)