IDWBE -Chapter 255 The Northern Expedition

Wei Yishan said loudly, “Your Highness is entering the capital to aid the throne. Our Sanhe army is a righteous force. We have come from afar, weary from travel—they should naturally have welcomed us barefoot in haste. But they dared to refuse to open the gates, shut our Sanhe troops outside the city, and even shot arrows at us! If this can be tolerated, what cannot? So we took it upon ourselves to attack the city. Your Highness, please forgive us!”

With that, he knelt as well.

“How outrageous. They clearly didn’t take me seriously,”

Lin Yi said, turning to the Yong’an Provincial Governor. “You are Du Rong?”

“Your subordinate Du Rong greets Your Highness!”

Du Rong bowed again and again.

The officials behind him shouted in unison, “May Your Highness live a thousand years, a thousand years, ten thousand thousand years!”

“A thousand years?”

Lin Yi snorted. “I’ll thank Heaven if I live to seventy. At this rate, you lot will anger me to death sooner or later. Not one of you is worry-free. Mr. He.”

“Yes.”

He Jixiang stepped forward promptly.

Lin Yi said, “You and Governor Du are old acquaintances. Teach him a lesson. Enlighten him properly. Make sure all of them understand the current situation. They must not do anything foolish. Otherwise, I will be very angry—and the consequences will be severe.”

Before He Jixiang could answer, Du Rong loudly declared, “To serve Your Highness is our honor! We will absolutely have no second thoughts!”

Lin Yi smiled. “Don’t speak so absolutely. Everything depends on action. What use are empty words?”

He slapped the donkey’s belly with his legs and continued into the city.

Wulin City was an ancient metropolis of a thousand years, long famed for wealth and refinement. Its population was dense, houses tightly packed, and bluestone roads crisscrossed in every direction.

Apart from the houses near the city gate damaged during the Sanhe assault, the rest of the city remained intact. Crowds stood densely along both sides of the street, unwilling yet forced to clear the roads under the watch of armed soldiers.

They looked at the soldiers in the middle of the street carrying the “mouse” banner in confusion.

Barbarians truly were barbarians—how could they treat a mouse as something glorious?

But seeing the soldiers on both sides kneel on one knee, they quickly followed suit.

If everyone else knelt and only you remained standing like a crane among chickens—wasn’t that courting death?

Some children cried in confusion after being forced to kneel. Their parents covered their mouths tightly, not daring to let them make a sound.

“Damn feudal society…”

Even as a member of the exploiting class, Lin Yi couldn’t help sighing.

He truly wanted to leap straight into capitalism at any cost and turn these people into wage laborers!

They might not become elites, but improving the relations of production would certainly raise living standards.

At an alley entrance, Butcher Rong whispered to Butcher Jiang beside him, “Told you the prince would come.”

Only after the prince’s guard had passed did Butcher Jiang lift his head and say indignantly, “Prince He is too kind! If it were me, I’d have slaughtered all these northerners. How dare they show such disrespect!”

This northern campaign was different from before.

Previously, the cities they captured were mostly abandoned, with few civilians left. They could do as they pleased.

But Yong’an was different.

It was prosperous, orderly, every house owned.

These Sanhe men couldn’t even find a place to stay at night.

And the inns were outrageously expensive—over a hundred copper coins for a good room!

So they slept in the streets, under city gates, or in corners outside wealthy courtyards.

Most humiliating of all, the locals openly called them “southern barbarians.”

Under Sanhe law, they couldn’t even beat people up at will!

It was utterly stifling.

Butcher Rong snapped, “I’m a northerner too. You going to kill me?”

Butcher Jiang laughed awkwardly. “Not you.”

Rong snorted. “When we reach Ankang City, you country bumpkin better open your eyes. Don’t act like you’ve never seen the world. You think Wulin is impressive? I’m telling you, compared to the capital, this place falls short by a hundred thousand miles!”

Jiang’s eyes widened. “Better than Wulin?”

He was genuinely shocked.

He had visited Xunyang and Tan City and thought they were grand. But after seeing Wulin, he realized they couldn’t compare.

In his mind, Wulin was already the most prosperous place in the world.

If the capital was even better—what would that look like?

Rong grinned. “Only a place like that is worthy of our prince.”

Jiang clenched his teeth. “Then I must see it. I’m not going back this time. Let’s restock pigs here in Wulin. I only need fifty thousand more jin.”

Rong laughed. “Have you thought it through? Pork in Wulin costs three more copper coins per jin than in Sanhe. And you’ll need slaughterers, drying grounds. The costs will skyrocket.”

Jiang frowned. “What choice do we have? Go all the way back? Waste time and raise transport costs? That’s worse. If you’re willing, we partner up. You only need thirty thousand jin more. Last time Lord Shan Qi said the meat shops don’t necessarily have to supply pork.”

Rong blinked. “You idiot. Sell beef?”

Jiang shook his head. “Yong’an has plenty of hunters. Often they can’t sell their game for good prices. We buy wild boar, venison—even wild chickens and ducks, even if the meat’s tough. As long as the weight’s enough, the soldiers won’t complain. Maybe they’ll even prefer game. Pork’s just for fat. Their dishes already have enough oil.”

After pondering, Rong said, “Damn… that might actually work.”

He’d noticed it too—even high officials like Shan Qi preferred wild game!

And game was the cheapest thing of all.

The two quickly reached an agreement.

With Sanhe troops controlling Wulin City—mostly acquaintances—they didn’t need to notify anyone. They simply set up purchase stalls at each city gate to buy game and pigs.

Lin Yi stayed three days at the Wulin Civil Administration Office. Each day he intended to visit the pleasure boats to “inspect the people’s livelihood.”

Unfortunately, the pleasure boats thought the Sanhe army’s arrival was a military disaster and dared not open for business.

He was quite melancholic.

“Your Highness, Shen Chu has entered Wuzhou,” He Jixiang reported loudly. “Soon he will advance toward Qizhou.”

Lin Yi asked, “Any news from Prince Yong? Have they reached Ankang?”

He Jixiang replied, “Prince Yong and Prince Jin have stationed two hundred thousand troops in Shuozhou. By my estimate, in ten days they will be at the gates of Ankang.”