Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 874 - 725: The Mandate of Heaven is in Jin! (Seeking monthly votes!)

Chapter 874: Chapter 725: The Mandate of Heaven is in Jin! (Seeking monthly votes!)

While Li Xuan was inspecting workshops and warships in Tianjin, far away in Xi’an City, Yu Jianshen, accompanied by Dasiming, stood on the city wall, observing the porridge fields outside Xi’an.

Since November, Xi’an City had already started rationing its food supply.

All directions around Xi’an City faced the pressing troops of The Court. Millions of able-bodied individuals were conscripted, extensive lands were left fallow, and an unprecedented cold front had passed through.

Everyone in Prince Yi’s mansion realized that they could no longer depend on the crops in the fields this year.

Thus, Prince Yi’s mansion had taken early precautions. Starting from October, they forcibly commandeered nearly all the grain within the city, sparing not even the numerous prominent households inside and outside the city.

Before the onset of winter, they collected over six million bushels of rice and wheat, causing resentment among half the noble families and clansmen in Shaanxi, while the other half united in their hostility.

Yet, the situation for the common people under Prince Yi greatly improved.

Every day, Prince Yi’s mansion distributed porridge outside the city gates of their jurisdictions. Though the rice porridge was thin, it was at least enough to sustain life.

Dasiming, in her plain robe and exuding an ethereal aura, stood with her hands clasped behind her back, looking down at the city with a satisfied expression, "Your Highness, these officials are indeed incorruptible and capable. I’ve inspected all four city gates myself, there is no skimming, the distribution of rice porridge is quite fair, and no ruffians causing trouble or bullying the commonfolk—"

Yu Jianshen, however, could not be happy. His lips curled into a bitter smile, "Yet the porridge we make couldn’t even hold up a pair of chopsticks. Even so, we can only hold out until next October."

His eyebrows were tightly furrowed, eyes filled with deep worries.

Forcibly commandeering food had its price, and Yu Jianshen already felt the shift in public sentiment throughout Shaanxi. Many were resentful toward Prince Yi’s mansion.

The moral authority he once held was also declining in effectiveness.

The covert agents provided by his father and the Empress, in reports to Xi’an City, spoke of intellectuals and scholars in various regions pointing fingers at him.

Scholars widely viewed Prince Yi’s mansion’s rebellion as a calamity for the world, their seizing of civilian wealth as tyrannical and brutal, their treatment of intellectuals as despotic and ruthless.

There were once scholars who traveled thousands of miles to serve him in Xi’an, but now, no one did. Many of Prince Yi’s mansion’s officials had even deserted.

Yu Jianshen was aware that commandeering food would provoke backlash, but without it, they might not even last till next March.

"That is enough!" Dasiming spoke in a composed tone, "A widespread poor harvest in Jin Dynasty, north and south, has already been determined. At most by the end of spring, the Jin Dynasty will face a catastrophe, and their days will only become harder."

She knew that Li Xuan’s subordinates had plundered quite a bit of grain from East Island. But that few people, how much grain could they take in half an evening?

Dasiming estimated the number to be between six to nine million bushels.

Considering an ordinary soldier’s daily ration of three pounds of grain, that little amount of food would not suffice for The Court’s army of a million and over a million laborers in Shaanxi for five months.

And should there be natural disasters elsewhere, Jin Dynasty would certainly need to allocate grain for relief.

Although Jin Dynasty had Changping warehouses constructed in various regions for storing grain—

during the Zhengtong Era, the state politics worsened, leading to the emptying of Changping warehouses. It was not until the Jingtai Emperor’s reign that the storage situation in Changping warehouses improved.

However, due to the perpetual warfare in the north and south, Jin Dynasty’s grain reserves across different regions totaled only fifteen million bushels.

At this point, a hint of perplexity appeared on Dasiming’s face: "Based on my estimation, Jin’s army should already be short of grain."

Yu Jianshen shook his head slightly, his expression not very optimistic: "My covert agents report that along the Yellow River, grain ships still pass continuously, and the roads are bustling with traffic. The military rations sent into Guanzhong have not been reduced at all."

This was precisely what baffled Dasiming, as the intelligence network of Jinque Palace was only more extensive and broad than Yu Jianshen’s.

From her knowledge, The Court was still sending a continuous stream of large amounts of grain into Shaanxi.

"There should be no deception in this," Yu Jianshen pointed towards the east: "Their military morale has always been high, their daily offensives like tides, and for several months, not a single disturbance has arisen in The Court’s army—this clearly indicates an abundance of provisions."

The Court’s army, though long departed from their homes, showed little decrease in morale.

Many people back home might not have enough to eat, but on the front lines in Shaanxi, The Court ensured that everyone was well-fed at every meal, with meat appearing every three to five days.

In addition, they also had bonuses to claim.

Yu Jianshen knew all these logistical tasks were personally supervised by the Minister of War, Yu Jie, so no one dared to skim off the top.

"Then let’s wait a bit longer," he said. "This grain cannot appear out of thin air, whatever they use now only diminishes what remains."

Dasiming, expressionless, said, "Don’t worry, I have already sent people to Shendu to buy grain. That place is also a production area for grain, and by summer, we should be able to purchase two to three million bushels."

The grain yield per acre in Shendu is also very high; however, the people there are quite lazy, preferring to spend their time in religious worship. Plus, with various nations standing within Shendu in continual conflict, their surplus grain is limited.

The main reason is still a lack of funds, ever since the great raid of East Island, Dasiming had been gathering all the money she could, even pawned various magical instruments, but maintaining the operation of Jinque Palace remains difficult to this day.

The only reason they could afford to buy grain from Shendu was that the ’Changsheng Emperor of the South’ from the Outer Void had recently funded her again.

Although the Outer Void was low on grain, it was rich in various mineral resources.

Like meteoric iron from beyond the heavens, the Outer Void had everything, all of which could be exchanged for money in this world.

Unfortunately, due to the ’Yuanfeng of the First Emperor,’ the ’Changsheng Emperor of the South’ could not provide much of their mineral wealth each month.

It was at this moment that Dasiming saw a streak of golden light flying from afar.

That was one of the twelve "Dari Golden Eagles" kept by the Jinque Palace, and by its direction, it seemed to have come from Nanyang.

Dasiming immediately raised his hand to beckon, taking it into his possession. Then his expression slightly changed, and anger flashed in his eyes.

"Palace Master," Yu Jianshen, seeing this, suddenly had a bad premonition, "May I ask what this is? Is there more bad news?"

After hesitating for a moment, Dasiming answered truthfully, "At dawn today, Fuguogong Huangfu Mao led the Guangdong Navy, along with 75,000 Nanyang pirates he recruited, and more than three hundred ships to launch a surprise attack on Hanoi in the Jiaozhi State.

The ruler of Jiaozhi State, Li Yuanlong, was unprepared, not only losing Hanoi but also severely injured by Huangfu Mao using the force of ten thousand armies; he had to flee under cover of night and his fate remains unknown to this day."

She knew about this and that Yu Jianshen would eventually learn the details; there was no sense in hiding it.

The expression on Dasiming’s face was extremely grim, and her eyes were as dark as still water.

From the reports she had received, Jiaozhi State was struck by a storm on its way to siege a city, involving Li Yuanlong’s army of 370,000. Nearly 130,000 died in the storm, and another 70,000 were missing.

Afterward, Li Yuanlong had to withdraw his troops and disperse them in all directions for suppression throughout the region.

Li Yuanlong’s father had risen in rebellion under the pretense of assisting the lineage of the previous king of Annan, ’Chen Gao’, and later poisoned Chen Gao, which made his accession illicit.

Moreover, Li Yuanlong’s governance was extremely harsh, and the country was never quite stable, with numerous resentment toward Li and his son.

With the elite forces of Jiaozhi State heavily damaged and signs of famine appearing, the situation in Jiaozhi State was already unstable. Li Yuanlong had to divide his forces to guard the borders, leaving fewer than 15,000 soldiers in Hanoi.

This presented an opportunity for the Jin Army to launch a surprise attack on Hanoi right after the storm had passed and quickly seize the city gates with the help of insiders.

The father of Huangfu Mao, Huangfu Shenji, had previously subdued Jiaozhi and governed there for a decade, his formidable reputation greatly aiding Huangfu Mao.

This surprise attack dealt a heavy blow to Dasiming. She had hoped that Jiaozhi State would survive the winter and endure the famine.

By next summer, Jiaozhi State would still be a fertile land, capable of providing them with substantial food supplies.

But Jin’s capture of Hanoi was yet another severe blow to Jiaozhi State. The prestige of Li Yuanlong and the Jiaozhi Court was also bound to suffer greatly.

The best-case scenario at this point was for Li Yuanlong to stabilize the situation and somehow retake Hanoi. The worst case would be widespread rebellion, leading to years of continuous warfare in Jiaozhi.

Both scenarios, however, spelled disaster for Dasiming; they would definitely be unable to buy grain from Jiaozhi next summer.

※※※※

Meanwhile, outside Jinling City, within a farming estate.

The current Duke Xuguo, Xu Lai, was sitting grandly at a pergola, watching his farmhands work in the fields.

They were digging up yellowish-brown tubers from the soil and piling them on the ridges beside the fields.

That was the "potato," also known as the "Fenyang potato," a strange plant said to be from Nanyang and introduced to Central Plains by the County Prince of Fenyang.

As time passed, these potatoes accumulated, forming heaps almost like small mountains.

Shortly thereafter, a few overseers came before Duke Xuguo with different expressions.

"Your Grace, it has been tallied that these potatoes yield an average of 4,300 catties per acre."

"So that’s forty-three piculs?"

The body of Duke Xuguo Xu Lai trembled slightly; he then glanced at the mound-like pile of potatoes, convinced of the accuracy of this number.

He had heard a few months prior, that the imperial manor and the Earl’s mansion were cultivating this crop, rumored to produce a shockingly high yield.

Faced with a reduction in his own rice fields, he had tried buying some potatoes from Earl Chengyi’s estate to plant them.

Before this, Duke Xuguo Xu Lai had never imagined that the yield of this crop could indeed be so astonishing!

Moreover, as Xu Lai knew, the farmhands at his estate had barely taken any care of these crops, unsure how to manage them.

He then asked a chef who came with him, "Are the potatoes roasted yet?"

Immediately, someone brought the roasted potatoes in front of him.

Duke Xuguo Xu Lai did not mind the heat and gulped down three at once.

Then he grew solemn; the taste of the potatoes was not great. For someone accustomed to delicacies, it was akin to animal fodder, but it was certainly enough to stave off hunger.

Xu Lai thought about the grand trends of the world, the poor harvests throughout Jiangnan, and ultimately shook his head, exhaling a long breath, "The Heavenly Mandate lies with Jin!"

He waved his hand, dismissing everyone in front of him and kept a trusted confidant by his side—a captain of his prince’s mansion guards.

Duke Xuguo Xu Lai spoke somberly, "Where is the envoy from Prince Yi? You haven’t let him contact anyone, have you?"

The captain of the guards immediately bowed, "He’s been kept at Jiangjun Mountain, with ample food and drink every day. Our men have ensured that he had no chance to contact outsiders."

"Execute him!"

Duke Xuguo Xu Lai shook his head, his gaze cold, "The Heavenly Mandate is with Jin, with the present Emperor. From now on, my estate must sever all contacts with Prince Yi and Shaanxi."