Giant Ship Across the Song Dynasty: My Supplies Come from My Motherland

Chapter 134 Heavenly Bodhisattva, Something Big is About to Happen in the Jin Kingdom!

After the group had eaten their fill, it was only around noon. There was still a lot of meat left, but no one could eat anymore. They were all drunk and staggering. Lin Zhou wasn't a big drinker, but neither were the others. They were all dizzy and passed out.

"I said."

Yang Ti pointed at a young woman in her early twenties not far away, and rolled up his sleeve: "Who dares to touch her big, oily ass!"

Lin Zhou rolled up his sleeve: "I'll do it!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Xiao'e, who had been lying on the ground sunbathing, suddenly sprang up from behind and strangled Lin Zhou from behind, pinning him to the ground.

"You're not allowed to go!"

"I'm dead!!!" Lin Zhou frantically pounded the ground.

This almost seamless intimacy made Zhao Ji feel as if his heart was bleeding, but being cultured, he did nothing more than sigh.

But who can be blamed for this? If I had been braver back then, dared to defy the emperor, or even just acted willfully, things might have been completely different.

After glancing at Hongliu, who was stomping on Wanyan Yangti, Zhao Ji felt that Xiao'e was gentle after all, and that the mere act of strangling was nothing to worry about.

After a while, when the commotion subsided, Lu You returned, arm in arm with Tang Wan. Seeing their boisterous state, he smiled and said, "Gentlemen, we were saying we'd go to the market, are you all rested enough?"

"Let's go. After what Brother Lin said, I'm also a bit curious about whether the Jin Kingdom sold the Ever-Normal Granary or the War Reserve Granary."

Zhao Ji was the first to stand up. He looked back at the group who were still laughing and joking, and said with a hint of melancholy, "It's time to get down to business."

The group staggered drunkenly toward the rice market. Lin Zhou was still pulling at the back of his clothes; the smell of cow dung mixed with the aroma of roasted meat was truly surreal. "Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have messed around with those two crazy women. Now walking down the street feels like walking through a cesspool, damn it—"

He complained as he grabbed a handful of roasted sunflower seeds from a roadside stall and cracked them open with a loud crunch.

Hongliu, who was standing next to him, heard the complaint and pouted, "I wonder who was secretly pinching my butt just now."

Grass blades still clung to her skirt, and stray hairs curled wildly at her temples, giving her a more charming and untamed air than usual, which made her extremely adorable.

Upon entering the rice market, the area was indeed bustling. The saying "food is the first necessity of the people" truly lived up to its name. The whole of East Asia was practically ravaged by war: the Jurchens fighting the Mongols, Japan fighting Korea, the Western Liao fighting the Western Xia, the Joseon Dynasty fighting Angkor—

However, in this place of food, the stalls are crowded together, and the sacks are piled up higher than people. People buying rice are dressed in all sorts of clothes. Outside, they would fight to the death, but here they are so full that they just turn a blind eye.

Lin Zhou spotted Old Xu's rice stall on the street corner at a glance. There were quite a few people gathered around the stall, making it much more lively than other stalls.

"Old Xu, business is good!" Lin Zhou squeezed through and patted the shopkeeper on the shoulder. Old Xu, the rice shopkeeper, turned around and saw it was him. His smile faltered for a moment. He quickly glanced left and right before pulling him to the back of the stall: "Young Master Lin, what brings you here? You shouldn't be out too much these days, things aren't safe."

"What's going on?" Lin Zhou grabbed a handful of rice from the stall; the grains were plump and better than the last time he saw it. "Your rice is pretty good, but why is the price lower than last month?"

Old Xu rubbed his hands together, his voice extremely low: "It's all because of those Jurchens. For the past two weeks, Jurchens have been bringing rice to dump every day. It's all good rice, even better than the official granary rice, and they're driving the price down to rock bottom. Even I, a regular customer, have lost a lot of my rice."

He gestured towards the opposite side with his chin: "See those guys in fur coats? They're from the Jin Dynasty. They're always here, and they try to lower the price whenever someone asks, like they're in a hurry to sell."

Lin Zhou looked in the direction he pointed and saw three golden men standing there, short knives at their waists, their faces gloomy. They didn't look like businessmen, but rather like spies. Hong Liu and Yang Ti also saw them, and their expressions changed. Yang Ti was about to step forward when Hong Liu grabbed him.

"What kind of rice are they throwing?" Zhao Fen walked over, his eyes fixed on the golden figures. He didn't look like a "princeling"; he was dressed simply and didn't stand out in the crowd, but his noble air was immediately apparent when he spoke.

"It looks like military rations." Old Xu sighed. "Ordinary people don't have rice this good. The grains are uniform and finely ground. In previous years, we only saw this kind of rice in military camps. I secretly asked a Jurchen man, but he didn't say anything. But it doesn't look like something from a single household. It looks like new rice from last autumn's granary. We rice sellers all know that old rice is stored in the granary and new rice goes to the field granary, rotating them."

Zhao Ji's heart skipped a beat; Brother Lin was right after all. He frowned slightly and glanced at the Jurchen figures: "How many were thrown?"

"It's at least several hundred thousand shi (a unit of dry measure)." Old Xu held up three fingers. "It started in small batches, but then it kept increasing. Yesterday, someone even brought ten cartloads, saying they wanted to clear it all out at once. The price of rice in Lin'an has been suppressed. In previous years, it would have gone up at least in the spring, but this year it has fallen sharply. If this continues, our small stalls will starve. I've already lost several hundred guan (another unit of dry measure), damn it."

Xiao'e suddenly tugged at Lin Zhou's sleeve and pointed with her chin towards the end of the street. Lin Zhou looked over and saw two people dressed in Song Dynasty official robes talking to several Jurchens, their expressions suggesting they were urging them on. The Jurchens didn't look too pleased, but they didn't argue. They simply nodded and turned to greet the buyers, seemingly trying to speed up the distribution of grain.

"Something's not right." Lu You frowned. "If the Jurchens were in a hurry to cash out, they wouldn't need Song officials to urge them."

There's something fishy going on here.

Hongliu's face darkened further, her small fan nearly crushed in her hand: "They're throwing military rations out the door, and the front lines can't even get food. What's the point of fighting?"

She didn't continue, but the worry in her eyes was unmistakable. Yangti's previous playful smile vanished, and her head drooped: "My grandfather values ​​provisions most in war. If even military rations are abandoned, then the front lines—"

Don't make wild guesses.

Lin Zhou interrupted him, but he already understood in his heart that Wanyan Zongbi's northern expedition was probably doomed to failure. The external and internal troubles were not limited to the Song Dynasty. It was not unjust for the Jin Dynasty to be destroyed by the Mongols. This was only the beginning, and they had already started to fight among themselves.

Lu You approached Zhao Fen and whispered, "Young Master Zhao, do you think this matter is related to Marshal Han?"

Zhao Ji didn't directly answer whether there was or not, but looked at the Jin soldiers who were dumping grain: "General Han has always advocated war. If we could cut off the Jin's food supply, it would suit his wishes. But such a large-scale dumping of military rations is something that General Han Yuan alone probably can't do."

He paused, then lowered his voice, "The Jin Kingdom—there's nothing new under the sun."

At this moment, Lin Zhou patted Lao Xu on the shoulder: "Thanks, Lao Xu. If anything happens in the future, remember to let me know."

Old Xu nodded and added, "Young man, try not to go out too much these days. Quite a few people have been asking about you."

Lin Zhou slightly raised his hand: "It's alright, they just want to investigate my source of goods."

Just as the group was about to leave, the Jurchen men suddenly started arguing. One of them abruptly drew a short sword and pointed it at the Song Dynasty official opposite them, as if they were arguing about something. The official looked extremely pale, took two steps back, and waved his hand. Immediately, several constables surrounded them.

"Let's go take a look." Lin Zhou pulled Xiao'e along and headed over there.

Hongliu and Yangti followed, with the others close behind.

Only when they got closer could they hear what the Jurchens were shouting. It turned out that two groups of Jurchens were shouting at each other. One group was grabbing a few Jurchens who were selling grain and angrily demanding why they were selling military rations. The Jurchens who were selling grain did not answer, but just shouted angrily.

Upon hearing this, Yangti turned pale, and Hongliu clenched her fists.

The Song Dynasty officials seemed not to have expected a commotion. They hurriedly waved for their constables to pull the people away, and then left in a hurry with the grain sellers, leaving only a few constables to guard the grain in the shop.

"Let's go." Lin Zhou pulled everyone back. "Staying here any longer will only cause trouble."

The group quietly slipped out of the crowd and headed out of the rice market. The street was still bustling, but no one knew that behind this seemingly ordinary rice market lay the seeds of impending chaos in the Jin Kingdom.

As they reached the street corner, Yangti suddenly stopped: "I have to go back and ask my father."

His tone was urgent, and his eyes were full of anxiety. Hongliu nodded and said, "This matter can't be delayed. I'll go back with you. You can't explain it clearly on your own."

Zhao looked at them and said slowly, "If you need any help, you can ask me."

Hongliu clasped her hands in a fist salute to him, then glanced at Lin Zhou and whispered in his ear, "You deliberately reminded me, didn't you, you naughty thing!"

"I'm not that smart—"

Hongliu gave him a look and pinched his waist: "I'll go back and inform my father first. You can continue your stroll. I'll come find you later."

"Go ahead, go ahead." Lin Zhou smiled and pinched her cheek. "It'll be good for my father-in-law to be prepared."

"Who's your father-in-law? You're just talking nonsense—" Hongliu punched him.

She and Yangti left in a hurry, and at this moment Lin Zhou turned around and glanced at Zhao Fen. After the two looked at each other, Zhao Fen had already made up his mind.

"The Jin Kingdom." Zhao Ji put one hand behind his back, his eyes deep and thoughtful. "They're about to start dealing with their Yue Fei too. As the saying goes, 'When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked; when the birds are all gone, the good bow is put away.' Although they are enemies, there's a certain helplessness in that regard."

"When they heard the news of General Yue's death, besides celebrating, some probably also felt a sense of shared sorrow," Lu You sighed. "Young Master Zhao, as you said, there's nothing new under the sun. Are we just waiting for Wuzhu's defeat, and then for the Jin Dynasty to undergo a major upheaval?"

Zhao Ji then cupped his hands in greeting to them, saying, "Gentlemen, I shall take my leave now. I wonder if His Majesty is aware of this matter; I must inform him of it."

Take care.

He quickly left with Fu Rui. Lin Zhou and Lu You exchanged a glance, then suddenly high-fived. Tang Wan, standing to the side, looked on in confusion and asked, "Sister Wanyan's family is about to undergo a huge change, what's with all this excitement?"

Lu You smiled mysteriously, then said seriously, "The Great Song Dynasty needs a wise ruler to rise. Guess who can be that wise ruler? Brother Lin is right. I am but a humble person, but what if there is a capable person with a burning passion within them? The mighty China..."

"Throughout history, this shouldn't have happened."

"Brother Kelin is the son-in-law of the Jin people—" Although Tang Wan was talented, in this respect, she really was just like an ordinary woman.

Lin Zhou shrugged: "I don't care about the Jin or Song kingdoms. I just want my good sisters to live peacefully. That's true for Xiao'e, and it's also true for Hongliu. If I don't interfere, my sister Hongliu will be taken to be part of my uncle's harem."

"Uncle," Xiao'e added, "those Jurchens are very filthy, especially those Jurchens who don't observe Han etiquette, they are particularly filthy."

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