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“Miss, I see Suihe!” At the window, Tingxue excitedly stood on tiptoe.
Wei Yunlan withdrew her attention from the space, got up, and quickly walked to the window.
Looking towards the city gate, she saw Suihe driving a mule cart into the city.
There weren’t many people entering the city, but after going a short distance along the main street facing the city gate, the mule cart was blocked by a crowded crowd.
“Let’s go down and meet them.”
Wei Yunlan led Tingxue and Ningshuang downstairs. By the time they reached the mule cart, it had only moved a few yards forward.
The main reason was that there were many tents set up on both sides of the street, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle, barely wide enough for a single cart. If they encountered a cart coming from the opposite direction, the road would be completely blocked.
At the intersection ahead, two carriages were blocking the way, traveling in the opposite direction. Suihe and the others were stuck, unable to move, completely affected by the two carriages in front.
Tingxue, who was walking ahead, reached the mule cart first.
Just as she was about to reach out and pat Suihe on the arm, Suihe grabbed her hand.
“Ouch!” Tingxue winced in pain.
Suihe was startled and quickly released her hand.
“Tingxue?”
“Miss!”
Inside the cart, Madam Gao and Cheng Yue’e heard the commotion and lifted the curtain to look out. When they saw Wei Yunlan standing beside the mule cart, they couldn’t help but smile in relief.
Seeing that both of them only had a slight look of fatigue and were not injured, Wei Yunlan also breathed a sigh of relief. “Mother, Sister-in-law, let’s go back to the inn and talk.”
“Suihe, turn the cart around and follow me.”
Taking advantage of the fact that the road behind them wasn’t completely blocked, Wei Yunlan led Suihe to turn around, and before long, they arrived at the Yuelai Inn on the next street.
Cheng Yue’e took the two children to rest, and Madam Gao entered Wei Yunlan’s room. “Lan’er, did you have a smooth journey?”
“With Yu leading the way, we managed to get through without any major incidents.” Wei Yunlan briefly recounted her journey.
Madam Gao also mentioned their encounter with refugees and how they were almost robbed.
She couldn’t help but sigh, “How did things become so chaotic in such a short time?”
It had only been less than three days since the disaster, yet there were already reports of refugees robbing travelers and villagers taking to the mountains. If the court didn’t quickly find a way to appease the people, who knew what kind of chaos would erupt after a while.
“I’m afraid that there will be rebellions in the affected areas…”
Madam Gao said, “It seems that our exile to Beiguan, far from the capital, might not be such a bad thing after all.”
Wei Yunlan felt that her mother was truly insightful. In her previous life, hadn’t several rebel forces emerged in various parts of Great Yong?
The first to be affected was Tanzhou, which had just suffered from a flood!
With the court delaying the delivery of relief funds, public sentiment was unstable. The Mei family, a local clan, gathered 30,000 troops and within two months, took control of Tanzhou and Xunzhou.
However, before this force could expand further, it was crushed by the imperial army.
It was precisely because of this battle between the court and the Mei family army that the Northern troops were transferred south, leaving Beiguan vulnerable. The Northern Barbarians seized the opportunity and conquered three cities in succession.
If it hadn’t been for Emperor Xiaoming sending his second daughter to marry into the Northern Barbarians, offering a large amount of treasure in exchange for a three-year truce, the Northern Barbarian army might have conquered half of Great Yong’s territory that time!
Ah.
It seemed that the tragedy ten years later was already showing signs, and it all started with the court’s inaction.
With the empire on the verge of collapse, individual power was limited. Wei Yunlan didn’t expect to change the fate of Great Yong alone, but she hoped to protect her family in the upcoming chaos.
In times of upheaval, the only things one could rely on were money, soldiers, and power.
She had no way to acquire the latter two for now, but both could be opened up through “money.”
Therefore, her top priority was to accumulate enough wealth. Fortunately, in times of chaos, having enough capital would allow them to survive, even if it was used as a “ransom” to buy their lives!
“Mother, Father and Mingxuan should arrive in the next two days. You stay here at the inn and rest. It’s still early, so I’ll go out and take a look around, buy some things.”
Wei Yunlan left the inn with Suihe, deliberately not letting the Tianshu Pavilion guards follow.
She was still dressed as a scholar, leading Suihe, who was of average appearance and dressed in coarse linen, through the streets. They looked like a young master from a slightly wealthy family, out with his maid.
Although Suijiang was affected by the disaster and was somewhat dilapidated and deserted, there were more people on the streets than usual. Many shops were still open for business, but they were deserted, with hardly anyone entering for a long time.
The only place where a long line of people could be seen was the rice shop. As they passed by, Wei Yunlan slowed down and listened.
A dou of fine rice now cost three qian of silver, while coarse rice, beans, and wheat were close to two qian, more than double the usual price in the capital.
Even so, many people were still lining up to buy, because prices were still rising every day. If the court didn’t distribute relief grain, the price would likely only rise, not fall, in the near future.
Wei Yunlan also planned to buy a small amount, but she would do so after buying other things.
Continuing along the main street from the East City Gate, Wei Yunlan soon learned that many merchants were selling their goods at low prices.
She heard that a silk merchant named Luo had a large amount of silk in stock, so she went to find him.
As she arrived, someone came out of the courtyard.
A stout middle-aged man hurried out, “Wang, please wait! We can still negotiate the price, I can give you another 10% off!”
The man who had come out first shook his head helplessly, “Mister Luo, it’s not that our Ruixiangzhai doesn’t want to help you, but you’ve seen the situation in Suijiang. How many people have money to buy these things? If we take this batch of silk, it will just sit in our hands. I think you should try to find someone to transport this silk to another place to sell it!”
“Sigh… Wang…”
“Mister Luo, please stay.”
Wang quickly got into his carriage and left, leaving behind the stout middle-aged man at the gate and a servant beside him, both equally dejected.
At this moment, Wei Yunlan stepped forward, “Are you Mister Mister Luo, a merchant from Tanzhou?”
The middle-aged man was startled and nodded, “I am.”
He then looked at the young Wei Yunlan in front of him, puzzled, “What can I do for you, young master?”
Wei Yunlan went straight to the point, “I heard that you have a thousand bolts of fine Tanzhou silk, and you’re worried that no one will buy it?”
“Young master, don’t make fun of me.” Mister Luo’s chubby face forced out a wry smile.
He was almost driven to despair by this matter. This batch of silk couldn’t be sold in Suijiang. However, half of the roof of the warehouse where the silk was stored had collapsed, causing some damage to the silk. If he hired a team to transport it to another province, he wouldn’t be able to sell it for a good price, and he would only lose more money.
Just as he was about to go crazy with worry, the jade-like young man in front of him spoke with a voice like heavenly music,
“I have a way to solve the problem of this batch of silk in Mister Luo’s hands.”