Frost for a Thousand Years

The autumn harvest in Huai County has come, and this year's harvest is even more abundant than last year's. The original twenty-five large granaries are almost all filled.

To celebrate this bountiful year, Song Shi'an, in the name of His Majesty, held a grand harvest festival throughout the country, lasting for three days.

Furthermore, a general amnesty was specially granted.

All prisoners in the country were released.

However, these people's status remains unchanged; they are all registered as criminals and can only engage in the lowest-paying jobs in society.

At the same time, Song Shi'an issued a decree that anyone who had committed a crime could be transferred to civilian status after serving in the army for one year.

Starting from the second year, they will undoubtedly have the same right to be promoted based on military merit, just like regular soldiers.

Therefore, of the more than 30,000 pardoned criminals, 90% joined the army.

Although Song Shi'an said nothing, these unusual signals made the common people speculate wildly.

The discussion was particularly lively in the streets and alleys of Sheng'an.

"There was no new emperor ascending the throne, nor any mourning... it was just a bumper harvest from the military farms, and yet they granted this amnesty, and this time it was for all prisoners in the entire country. Then, right after that, they announced preferential treatment for those who join the army. Is this a prelude to attacking the State of Qi?"

"I heard that this year's land reclamation has been extremely successful. Unlike last year when several granaries were burned down, there are now twenty-five large granaries, enough to supply an army of over 100,000. Such a good thing, shouldn't we celebrate a bit?"

"But land reclamation is something that has to be done every year. Does that mean we should grant amnesty every year? This is obviously some kind of preparation."

“I have indeed heard that the road from Huai County to Beiliang will require 150,000 people to rebuild and widen, and the government has already begun conscripting this year’s laborers.”

"We definitely have to fight the Qi Kingdom, otherwise we wouldn't have brought those 30,000 barbarian soldiers to Sheng'an so early. The key question is, when do we attack?"

"If you ask me, our Great Yu is so strong now, we don't need to worry about anyone daring to invade. Isn't it better to just live a peaceful life like this?"

"That's just womanly sentimentality! You're willing to live a peaceful life, but is Ji Yuan willing to live a peaceful life? He left his capital and personally led the military settlements in Beiliang. If it weren't for the young Grand Secretary risking his life to protect half of Beiliang, Liangzhou would probably have already changed hands."

"If Liangzhou falls, Qinzhou will be in danger. If Qinzhou is in danger, then it's Sheng'an's turn. If they attack Sheng'an, where can we go? The people of Yangzhou, they're the worst!"

"It's better to fight sooner rather than later, and better to fight now! The young Grand Secretary has just pacified Nan Yue, and Bei Yan doesn't dare to oppose us. Now is the perfect time to destroy Ji Yuan!"

.........

“Father, the people of Sheng’an are very enthusiastic and confident in resisting Qi.”

Ouyang Qin went to Ouyang Ke's study and reported to him.

"Enthusiasm and confidence, which aspect?" Ouyang Ke asked.

"The court is releasing prisoners and rewarding military merits, and the people are realizing that they are going to attack Ji Yuan. As for the Northern Expedition, only a few people are resistant to it; most believe that war is possible and that it can be swift," he said with a smile.

"War? War my foot!" Ouyang Ke said, unusually low-class. "Are the people of Sheng'an ordinary people? Even if we conscript soldiers, we won't be able to collect from them. Would they be willing to donate half of their wealth for this Northern Expedition?"

My father was a refined and very respectable man, and he rarely used such foul language.

However, upon seeing the stack of memorials on his desk and the densely packed amounts of money on a piece of paper, Ouyang Qin knew where his violent temper came from.

"I actually wanted those powerful clans to collectively resist the Northern Expedition, so that this whole thing would be impossible," Ouyang Ke complained, quite distressed. "Otherwise, who would get him these 50,000 sets of armor?"

"Father, do you mean that all the powerful families are willing to cooperate?" Ouyang Qin asked.

“Most of them are willing,” Ouyang Ke said. “Song Shi’an got married and had a son, then got married again and had another son. There were four happy events in a row. Each time, His Majesty personally helped to arrange things. No one dared to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and they were also worried about being resented by the father and son, so they dared not give too much money as a gift. Everyone knows about the Northern Expedition. With them being treated like this, they can’t wait to unify the world as soon as possible.”

"Yes, otherwise, no one could tolerate such blatant bribery in the name of the young Grand Secretary," Ouyang Qin said with a sigh.

The atmosphere in Dayu was already bad.

Now, things have gotten even worse thanks to the Song family.

"If we can raise the military funds and the Northern Expedition succeeds, won't the country be unified within a few years?" Ouyang Qin said with some delight.

“Whether we can raise the military funds or not, we will eventually have to raise them,” Ouyang Ke corrected. “But the Northern Expedition is not guaranteed to succeed.”

“Our Great Yu is so powerful, it’s already twice the strength of Ji Yuan. And the Grand Secretary personally led the expedition and mobilized the troops in such a way. Is Ji Yuan really a match for us?” Ouyang Qin felt that Ji Yuan was very strong, but there was no need to over-mythologize him.

“I’m not praising Ji Yuan, but you should know how terrifying people can be when it comes to life and death.” Ouyang Ke looked at him, raised a finger, and lectured, “The desire to survive will surpass all other desires in this world.”

After pondering these words, Ouyang Qin gradually came to understand them.

"Father, you mean..."

.........

"A letter from Beiliang reports that Ji Yuan has killed several powerful families who were colluding with foreign powers and is forcibly levying taxes on all powerful families across the country. In addition, like us, he has also raised the bar for military merit and rewards for joining the army."

Xin Yue, who was three months postpartum and whose lower abdomen still had a little soft flesh, reported to Song Shi'an, who was sitting on the steps of the courtyard of the Ministry of Works, holding a blueprint.

"How many powerful families did you kill? Were there really any colluding with us?" Song Shi'an asked curiously.

“There are too many nobles in Qi, especially those near the border, who are secretly colluding with us. There are very few clean ones. Ji Yuan killed many innocent people. However, he should only be making an example of them,” Xin Yue explained. “It’s all for money.”

"They're colluding with us..."

This derogatory word made Song Shi'an realize that he had really become the villain.

That makes sense, though; protagonists are all adept at turning the tide against all odds and winning against the odds.

Now, Song Shi'an has become the strong one, and Ji Yuan is the protagonist.

But I suffered a lot to become the strongest.

“What he’s doing is very dangerous,” Song Shi’an said in a serious tone.

“His court and the country were indeed filled with resentment, and everyone began to feel insecure, fearing that they would be branded as traitors who were colluding with the Great Yu,” Xin Yue said. “Even the nobles from the Northern Liang who used to have private dealings with us were pretending to be dead and dared not contact us.”

“Ji Yuan is using a strategy of eliminating all his descendants,” Song Shi’an said. “He has gone to such lengths that if he loses the next battle, he will be in great danger.”

The prerequisite for oppressive rule is the ability to win.

It's similar to the Hengshui model.

The ultimate goal is to improve college entrance examination pass rates.

But if you adopt the Hengshui model and the college entrance examination pass rate doesn't improve, then you'll be branded with shame.

“Even without the widespread discontent within the country, wouldn’t it still be very dangerous for him to lose this battle?” Xin Yue said.

"That's true."

Song Shi'an was not going to be a cautious maneuver like "don't pursue a cornered enemy." He was betting everything on achieving his goal in one decisive battle.

Just like the Battle of Red Cliffs.

This war had many problems. Before it even started, some people thought the war shouldn't have been launched, but the biggest problem was actually just one thing—that we lost.

If we win, then we're right.

Of course, Song Shi'an wouldn't be as anxious as he was during the Battle of Red Cliffs.

Unlike Liu Biao's Jingzhou army, he wouldn't readily deploy these 30,000 barbarian soldiers. He would train them for at least a year before integrating them into various armies.

"Prime Minister."

At this moment, an official from the Ministry of Works arrived, carrying something in his hand—asbestos.

"Would this be acceptable?"

The official handed the item to Song Shi'an.

“Fire-resistant cloth must be thrown into the fire before washing,” Song Shi’an murmured before asking, “How many bolts have you prepared?”

“Young Grand Secretary, three hundred.” he said. “Alright.” Song Shi’an said, handing him the blueprint in his hand, “This is something I secretly discussed with those magistrates in the Ministry of Works, it must be kept absolutely secret.”

He took it, glanced at it, and then nodded with great interest: "Prime Minister, this thing might actually work."

“It will definitely succeed, but it will require countless trials and errors,” Song Shi’an instructed him. “This matter must be kept absolutely secret. So from now on, you, and the skilled craftsmen I’ve given you, will be working day and night in a sealed-off valley on the outskirts of the city, and you must not contact anyone.”

Upon receiving the order, the official nodded solemnly: "Prime Minister, I will keep this matter a secret without a doubt. I will also make the ultimate weapon you requested flawless."

"Okay, let's go."

Song Shi'an patted him on the shoulder.

"Yes, Principal Chancellor."

Then, the official closed the blueprints and quickly left.

"I never knew you had such craftsmanship," Xin Yue remarked with particular interest.

"I've received some small inspiration, but whether it will work out remains to be seen," Song Shi'an said.

Whether it can succeed depends solely on whether the ancient substitute materials are up to standard.

Apart from that, the technological content is not particularly high.

Xin Yue knew that Song Shi'an's plan was basically a done deal, since he had never failed before, so she wasn't too worried. Her thoughts returned to the previous topic. Then, she suddenly said, "By the way, since we can kill Ji Yuan, why don't we kill a few more?"

"..." Song Shi'an was stunned, looking at the terrifying woman, "They killed him because they couldn't come up with the money, and our aristocratic families were very cooperative, weren't they?"

You're killing for the sake of killing, you bastard.

“I also think that killing people will bring in more money,” Xin Yue said.

You think you can just fight and get gold coins, making our clan the boss?

Song Shi'an smiled and said, "Compared to killing someone, I have a better way to raise money."

.........

Northern Liang, Wuwei.

The autumn harvest filled ten large granaries.

Although it wasn't at full capacity, it did make Ji Yuan's army temporarily prosperous.

Because of the effectiveness of the land reclamation program, he decided to increase its scale.

More elderly and weak militia members were mobilized to further expand the area of ​​the military farms.

Standing inside the granary, Ji Yuan couldn't help but sigh, "Song Shi'an has lashed out at the world."

In the past, land reclamation was a very common practice.

However, these military settlements were mostly run by soldiers, and it was difficult to succeed if civilians were involved.

Especially in the middle of such a separatist dynasty.

After all, the resources of ordinary people have been divided up by the big shots.

However, the military settlements established by the Northern Qi dynasty were also successful.

This was purely because Song Shi'an dared to be a pioneer and accomplished such a feat under those circumstances.

This is similar to the reforms and efforts to strengthen the country during the Warring States period.

The growing pains of reform are hard to bear, but after the Qin state's reforms were successful, the other five of the six states, except for Chu, all completed their reforms through the same means.

This is the catfish effect.

I heard that even the Northern Yan state has started to cultivate land and has achieved good results.

Even someone like Conson can succeed.

This is the instinct for survival.

"His Majesty."

Just then, Chen Xing came to Ji Yuan's side and reported, "Your Majesty, Song Shi'an has come up with a new trick."

"This Song Shi'an, he really knows how to come up with some new tricks for me." Ji Yuan smiled, then looked at Chen Xing, "How is it?"

However, he noticed that Chen Xing's expression was extremely bad: "Both things are infuriating."

“Then let’s start with one that’s not so infuriating,” Ji Yuan said.

“Song Shi’an donated his entire fortune of eight thousand taels of gold to raise funds for the army,” he said. “Moreover, the reason given for the donation was to buy land.”

"Donate? Or buy again?" Ji Yuan paused, then asked seriously, "Where are you buying land?"

"Buy my land in Qi," Chen Xing said.

After saying this, Ji Yuan's expression did indeed turn sour.

Chen Xing continued, "Song Shi'an issued something called 'national debt,' which allows anyone to borrow money from the court. The borrowed funds can be used to purchase land in my Qi state at half the market price."

War debts.

However, the settlement method was based on the territory of the enemy country after unification.

"Then the money they lent out is no different from throwing it into the water."

Ji Yuan chuckled dismissively, showing no strong reaction to Song Shi'an's arrogant and outrageous words.

You're just bragging.

They even started buying up land from my Qi state.

Do you think you can lay a finger on the land of my Qi state?
I am now enslaving your people on your homeland of Dayu!

“The second piece of news is infuriating,” Ji Yuan said.

After a moment of silence, Chen Xing said, "Song Shi'an announced the date of the Northern Expedition as next summer, before the rice ears ripen."

Soldiers who, deception also.

The key is to be unexpected.

No one would reveal their departure time, let alone announce it nationwide like this.

Song Shi'an was playing his cards openly.

Didn't you, Ji Yuan, plan to establish military settlements in Northern Liang? And didn't you even relocate quite a few people there?

Then I will launch a war before your grain is ripe.

If you ignore it, then when the Song army breaks through the defenses, you will have to make sacrifices if you want to implement a scorched-earth policy.

If you take this seriously, you will not be able to station troops on a large scale in Northern Liang. You will have to abandon these agricultural bases and move back to the safer domestic territory.

Chen Xing felt disgusted just hearing about such a vicious and arrogant scheme.

However, when he looked up to observe Ji Yuan's expression, he found that the other party seemed relieved and quite relaxed...

"Come, I'm waiting for you here." (End of Chapter)