IDWBE -Chapter 83 After Autumn Comes the Slaughter of a Hundred Flowers

Lin Yi was helpless.

He considered himself eloquent, quick-tongued even!

When he talked too much, he could even annoy his own mother—
Always nagging, with not an ounce of manly bearing.

So how had he suddenly become speechless?

“When the crescent moon is a little boat,
The little boat has pointed ends,
I sit inside the little boat,
And see only twinkling stars and the blue, blue sky…”

Out of boredom, Lin Yi began singing a children’s song.

He couldn’t exactly sing something bawdy like “Eighteen Touches” or “Don’t Pick the Wildflowers by the Road”, could he? That would make him seem crude, uncultured, tasteless!

“You can sing?”

She looked at him with delight.

“Do you like it?”

“I only know: ‘Year after year in the snow, I often wear plum blossoms in drunken joy…’”

Yan Shiqi suddenly sighed. “I’ve never seen snow. They say snow in the north is beautiful—white, like grains of salt.”

“But it can freeze people to death,” Lin Yi added.

“You forgot again!” Yan Shiqi said proudly, “I’m a fourth-rank master! I’m not afraid of the cold!”

“Is that so?”

Lin Yi suddenly recalled that in winter, he bundled himself in fur coats while Mingyue and Zixia wore only thin silk dresses. He had worried whether they felt cold.

Now it seemed he had been worrying unnecessarily.

“Miss—!”

A hoarse, anxious female voice called from afar.

Yan Shiqi sighed. “I have to go.”

Before Lin Yi could respond, she drifted away like a wisp of smoke.

Lin Yi could only stare foolishly at her retreating figure.

From then on, he climbed the mountain once every day.

Unfortunately, he never saw her again.

Spring grew warm, flowers bloomed.

Farmers filled the fields; tools stood upright like forests.

Sanhe began planting its first season of rice.

The once-clean road now reeked of livestock urine from cattle and sheep.

Most noticeable was that the school’s attendance dropped by half—children of locals and refugees alike.

Whether Xie Zan or He Jixiang repeatedly forbade truancy, it was useless.

The parents believed that since their children had learned martial arts and gained strength, it would be a waste not to send them home to farm.

Lin Yi could only sigh.

Even in modern times there were autumn harvest holidays!

Let alone this world—where eleven- or twelve-year-olds were considered prime labor.

But these were minor matters.

The grain and silver in his warehouses were flowing out like water.

They called it “borrowing”—but who knew if they would ever repay it?

Bian Jing’s road construction project had to halt temporarily. Even after repeatedly raising wages, no craftsmen came to work.

No matter what, one’s own farmland was the foundation.

Only a handful of penal laborers remained at the worksite.

Bian Jing could only redirect this limited manpower to building bridges.

When the bridge was hastily completed, he hadn’t expected the sight—

Both riverbanks were packed with people.

Once the barriers were removed, crowds surged onto the bridge, heads packed densely together.

Some idle fellows even rode mules back and forth five or six times.

Wasn’t it spring plowing season?

Were they really this free?

Bian Jing worried the bridge would collapse.

After all, it was newly built—some parts weren’t fully reinforced yet.

If it collapsed, not only would he lose face, he’d have no way to answer to the Prince.

In the end, he had no choice but to post guards at both ends and let people cross in orderly lines.

In any case, the day the bridge opened was the happiest day in Baiyun City’s history.

This bridge truly solved the age-old difficulty of crossing between the two banks.

From now on, no more relying on skiffs and bamboo rafts!

Lin Yi followed the crowd and stepped onto the southeastern bank for the first time.

Clearly, it was far more desolate than the north bank.

There wasn’t a single proper house—most were makeshift huts barely shielding against wind and rain, roofed with straw and banana leaves.

Which also meant there was plenty of uncultivated wasteland.

Xie Zan organized manpower again to measure land plots, while the militia patrolled to prevent illegal land seizures.

Sanhe belonged to Prince He.

No one said it aloud, but in their hearts, everyone had gradually accepted it.

But spring plowing brought endless unexpected troubles.

After consulting the Prince, Wang Xing added a new regulation in Sanhe: withholding wages is a crime.

Especially those gentry landlords who exploited and deducted laborers’ pay—even Wang Xing, a second-generation aristocrat himself, found it intolerable.

Many of these landlords were already over fifty—labor reform was unrealistic.

So Lin Yi ordered them tied up and paraded through the streets.

They had to learn what shame meant.

“Unfilial son!”

Wang Cheng looked at Wang Xing as if he didn’t recognize him.

Offending so many people at once—old family friends!

He had nowhere left to put his old face!

How was he supposed to live among them?

Wang Xing smiled placatingly. “If we don’t offend them, we offend the Prince. Which is lighter, which heavier—Father should weigh it.”

Wang Cheng sighed. He knew his son was right. “But others aside—how could you humiliate your Uncle Wen like that?”

“Father, the Prince not arresting you is already giving face to your son.”

Wang Xing sighed.

Other families weren’t clean.

How could the Wang family be clean?

“And what about the Yan family?”

Wang Cheng fumed. “Yan Zhen bullies men and women alike, commits every evil!”

Wang Xing said resentfully, “That’s Father’s fault. Why didn’t you give me a good younger sister?”

Wang Cheng was speechless.

In the end, he said nothing more.

Except for the Yan family—still in the dark—it was no longer a secret that Prince He had taken a liking to a concubine-born daughter of the Yan family.

Other families could only stare enviously.

Trading a concubine daughter for closeness to the Prince? Even a fool knew how to calculate that.

Lin Yi’s campaign against wage arrears was a success.

Any landlord with even a shred of dignity settled their laborers’ pay in full.

However, his “harshness” became the talk of Sanhe.

Public opinion was still controlled by those same gentry landlords.

Bao Kui was furious and wanted to arrest people.

Lin Yi thought for a moment. “There’s a line—how does it go? Something about scraping mud from a swallow’s beak, shaving iron…”

Wang Qingbang recited immediately:

“Scraping mud from a swallow’s beak, shaving iron from a needle’s tip,
Searching for gold from a Buddha’s face, seeking something from nothing.
Picking peas from a quail’s throat, slicing meat from a heron’s leg,
Scooping fat from a mosquito’s belly.
What skillful hands the old gentleman has!”

He Jixiang exclaimed, “Your Highness is truly learned!”

“Praising me?”

Lin Yi grinned. “That line perfectly describes these landlords—none of them are decent. If they curse me, that proves I’m right. If they flatter me instead—that would be dangerous.”

Wang Qingbang said, “Your Highness is broad-minded. I am ashamed.”

Lin Yi snorted. “No—just remember it for now. Later, we’ll slowly teach them that the righteous path of the world is full of vicissitudes. Don’t live too arrogantly.”

“Your Highness is wise,”

Wang Qingbang said bitterly.

He could always guess the beginning, but never the ending.

Still, it felt natural.

This Prince was not generous—inside or out.

What was admirable was that he was consistent.

Under the blazing sun, seven large ships docked in the West River, once again causing a sensation.

It wasn’t because Tian Shiyou had brought back a fortune.

The seas were never peaceful—often a dozen ships sailed out and only one or two returned.

But Tian Shiyou’s fleet returned intact and unharmed—unheard of, unseen before!

The Commander’s Office began auctioning maritime transport licenses to the highest bidder.

Prince He’s residence guaranteed smooth passage in Sanhe’s southeastern waters.

Few believed it, so at the first “auction,” the license sold for only thirty thousand taels of silver.

The winner was Liang Gen, whose family owned mines.

Lin Yi didn’t mind—at least it was a decent start.

Lin Ning sent a letter as usual.

Lin Yi no longer felt much anticipation. It was always the same dull court affairs.

So he didn’t even read it, handing it directly to Wang Qingbang.

“Your Highness—”

Wang Qingbang’s face changed drastically.

“What is it?”

Lin Yi yawned.

“His Majesty has appointed General Yuan Ang as commander-in-chief, with Prince Yong as deputy commander, to enter Chuzhou and suppress the rebellion!”

Wang Qingbang handed him the translated note.

Lin Yi didn’t take it, waving dismissively. “So what?”

“As Your Highness says.”

Wang Qingbang left hurriedly to find Xie Zan and the other elders.

For them, Prince Yong gaining power was not good news.