CH 65

Chapter 65: Rising tide of refugees

Du Xia had just come out of the training camp. He understood very well that there were many talented people around Yun Ke. If he could not show something, he was afraid he could only be a secret guard for the rest of his life.

He could not live like that. He must stand out and be helpful to His Highness Prince An. Only in this way could he have a chance to escape from being a secret guard and become a man who could truly stand between heaven and earth. His chest became slightly hot. What he could not get rid of in his mind was that delicate figure that gave him hope in life when he was a child.

He would not forget. In his darkest, most desperate time, she was like a ray of sunshine piercing through layers of haze directly into his heart, igniting the fire of hope that had no longer been alive.

If it had not been for her, who knew what kind of unbearable place he would be in now. Most likely, he would have already turned into a pile of bones.

Life in the training camp was not easy. However, he trained every day and he trained longer than others at a greater intensity. It was like he wanted to train until he died and caused all the elders in the training camp to glance at him sideways.

He spent four years and achieved what others could only achieve in eight or even ten years. When he was formally sent to His Highness Prince An’s side, he felt that he was one step closer to that ray of sunshine.

The first thing he did when he came out was find her whereabouts secretly.

The advantage of being a secret guard was that he could know things that others did now. When he learned that His Highness Prince An had also sent secret guards to track down a woman named Gu Yu Qi, his whole heart was agitated. Gu Yu Qi, this name had haunted his mind for four full years. Whenever he was too tired to go on, he would remember that there was a beautiful girl who spoke quickly in his ear, “My name is Gu Yu Qi, remember my name. I will find you in the future.”

No need, he did not need her to come to him. He would go to her.

He deliberately inquired about many things related to Gu Yu Qi. He knew that she was once a famous talented girl in the capital. Later, her reputation had been damaged due to her entanglement with Yun Ke and afterwards she was expelled from the Marquis’ residence, even setting fire to the Marquis’ residence.

Du Xia stood by Gu Yu Qi’s side intuitively. She must have had her reasons for doing this.

However, His Highness Prince An cared about Gu Yu Qi so much which made him anxious and uneasy. If His Highness Prince An wanted to harm Gu Yu Qi in the future, what should he do?

Gu Yu Qi was in Jiangxia City. He wanted to enter the city, not only because of His Highness Prince An’s order, but more so for her.

His body soared like a wild goose. His toes touched heavily on the horse’s back, so powerful that the horse gave a long whinny. He stood up and flew in the air. If it was an ordinary wall, he could easily jump over with his Qinggong. However, Jiangxia City’s walls were not ordinary walls. He could only rise to less than half the height of the city wall. In the middle of the air, Du Xia threw out a flying claw.

The flying claw had a slender chain and it landed on the city wall. Using the power of the flying claw, Du Xia was dexterous like an ape in the jungle, climbing up to the highest point on the city wall with dizzying speed.

When he stood on the battlement of the wall, the soldiers guarding the city were shocked. They stared dazedly at this young man who looked like a descending god, stunned.

“This is a token from His Highness Prince An. You still won’t kneel down and accept His Highness Prince An’s orders?” Du Xia held up Yun Ke’s token and shouted loudly.

There was a cold light between his beautiful eyebrows and with his overwhelming aura, the soldiers guarding the city could not help bending their knees slightly. They were about to kneel down when the leading sergeant reacted first. He hurried forward and saluted.

“Great imperial guard, can you please show the token to this little one?” He smiled ingratiatingly. The outstanding skill Du Xia showed just now made him feel a lingering fear. He knew that it would be too easy for the young man in front of him who was dressed as an imperial guard to kill them.

He was afraid that the city gate would not hold and now they could only delay it. The governor had also said that if Prince Ding came, he could open the city gate and let the people in.

“Just take it and have a look.” Du Xia handed the token over. The sergeant took it respectfully and looked at it carefully. He had never seen a token from Prince An’s residence, but this token was beautifully crafted and even had the imperial brand. It was likely to be real. Besides, in this situation, who dared to pretend to be a relative of the imperial family?

Just when the sergeant hesitated on whether to open the gate or not, another voice came from below. Someone was shouting loudly, “His Highness Prince Ding has arrived, ordering to protect His Highness Prince An to enter the city. Those upstairs, open the gate quickly.”

The sergeant almost fell over. It was not enough for just His Highness Prince An to come, but now His Highness Prince Ding was here too. When did Jiangxia City become so lively, for two princes to come all of a sudden? However, since Prince Ding came, the city gates could be opened. The sergeant also breathed a sigh of relief. If he kept delaying the opening of the city gate and offended His Highness Prince An, it would be unbearable.

He hurriedly peeked out from between the battlements. He was not familiar with Prince An, but he knew the banner of His Highness Prince Ding. That great banner was now standing outside the city gate. Under the great banner was a carriage and a troop of cavalry. In the torrential rain, that troop of cavalry did not wear any raincoats but each of them stood with their backs straight, as though they were not afraid of the wind or rain at all. It really was His Highness Prince Ding and the iron-clad army from the Jiangbei Camp.

Now the sergeant dared not delay any longer. Two princes had come to Jiangxia City one after another. The city gate had to open to matter what.

He hurriedly ordered the soldiers to push the winch hidden in the city wall and let the heavy city gate open slowly.

The first ones to rush in were those who had been waiting outside of the city for several days, the angry refugees. When they saw the city gates open, they rushed in like a tide, fast and powerful. Even the few soldiers guarding the city gates could not dodge in time. They were pushed to the ground alive and trampled to death by the crowd.

Next to them on the wall, their companions saw the tragedy happening right before their eyes. Yet, they could not resist the surging crowd and could only watch helplessly as they were trampled alive and covered in blood by the refugees frantically pouring into Jiangxia City, until they were finally unrecognisable.

When the refugees flooded into Jiangxia City, Yun Qing had a gloomy expression. He brought the iron-clad army of Jiangbei Camp and Yun Ke’s carriage through the city gate.

He had also seen everything that happened just now and he felt extremely anxious from the bottom of his heart. After tens of thousands of refugees had entered the city, Jiangxia City would soon be occupied by refugees. Then the food and weapons he had hoarded must be guarded. If he was discovered and reported to the capital, he would be in trouble.

He had originally wanted to transfer these things out in advance, but who knew that it would rain so much?!

It was his order to close the city gates. If the refugees entered, who knew what would happen. He could not take that risk. 

Even if the gates of the city were opened to let the refugees in, that would only work if his confidants could enter Jiangxia City. However, there was no order to dispatch troops and he could not just mobilise his confidant cavalry to enter Jiangxia City. Yun Ke’s letter just solved this problem for him.

It was different if they were ordered to protect Yun Ke as he entered the city.

Ni Gang, the governor of Jiangxia City, ran towards the city gate in a hurry when he received the news, but was blocked by the refugees.

When he saw such a large number of refugees, his heart half froze. This was going to kill him.

So many refugees coming in, he would need to take care of their eating, drinking, and lodging, right? What were they going to eat? It was raining so hard and the city gates were closed for several days. The price of grain in the dry goods store in Jiangxia City was getting higher day by day. Prices were different in the morning and afternoon of the same day. Where would they live? Where would he find such a large open space to accommodate so many refugees? Not to mention everything else!

Ni Gang’s head swelled. If these refugees starved, they would start looting which would turn into chaos. Then he could forget about his official position!

When the imperial court provided disaster relief, during which time had they distributed provisions and money in full, during which time had they not been throttled and exploited layer by layer? He would already be thankful if there was 30% left by the time it got to him. With 30% of the provisions and money meant to do all the work, if he did not manage it well, he would be sued. It would not be a matter of him losing his position, but of losing his life.

So as the magistrate, he hoped the imperial court would provide disaster relief because as long as there was disaster relief, he would have the chance to make a lot of money. Yet, he also did not want the imperial court to provide disaster relief because after each disaster relief, if the envoy was not satisfied and he was handed in by a first ranked minister, he would get more than he bargained for. The disaster relief envoy who came this time was none other than His Highness Prince An.

It was really killing him. It was said that His Highness Prince An had no preferences. He did not love money and did not like beauties either. In his palace, apart from the dead Princess An, he did not even have a concubine.

Just how was he going to deal with His Highness Prince An? Ni Gang was confused and could only think about progressing one step at a time. However, now he was blocked in the street by refugees and could neither advance or retreat. Ni Gang was so anxious he almost knelt down to those refugees to beg them for a way out. He had sent men to clear the way, but how could those yamen lackeys overwhelm the crowd? The yamen lackeys were soon scattered by the refugees.

The refugees entered the city. Those who had money went to live in inns, those who had no money went knocking door to door, and those who were hungry robbed steamed stuffed buns from the shop still open by the side of the road. The streets were in chaos.

Yun Qing’s cavalry marched extremely slowly amidst this wave of refugees. However, people were still afraid of officers and soldiers so when they saw the cavalry coming, they knew how to avoid it, so they went smoothly.

Before Ni Gang could go over and meet them, they managed to rescue Ni Gang, the governor of Jiangxia, who was trapped in the refugee tide.

When they arrived at Jiangxia’s governor’s residence, Ni Gang, who was covered in rain and mud, knelt down first to thank the two princes for their kindness.

“Get up quickly.” Yun Qing kicked Ni Gang’s shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He felt anger in his heart. This would be more difficult than suppressing bandits. “His Highness Prince An is unwell, quickly arrange a place for him to stay,” he said quickly.

“Yes yes yes, if His Highness Prince An does not dislike it…” Ni Gang wiped the rainwater off his face and got up in embarrassment. He was nodding and bowing, having not yet finished speaking, when he was interrupted by Yun Ke raising his hand slightly.

“Is there a place in Jiangxia City called Weili Courtyard?” Yun Ke said slowly. His temperature was getting higher and higher. He was also a little dazed, but he still spoke with a strong spirit.

The governor of Jiangxia was startled, then nodded immediately, “There is a private residence of a rich merchant in Jiangxia called Weili Courtyard. It is one of the four famous courtyards of Jiangxia City. It’s just that the house is said to have changed owners.”

“The owner changed, so this prince can’t live there now?” Yun Ke said coldly. He already felt that his head was heavy, but the governor of Jiangxia was still rambling.

“Can live, can live. It’s just that this minister does not know who the new owner is. If Your Highness is interested, this minister can ask the owner to give up the Weili Courtyard for Your Highness to live in.” Ni Gang spoke hurriedly. His Highness Prince An was so scary with his red eyes.

“那倒也不必了，你将本王送过去就是了。本王听闻那园子十分漂亮，本王想住在那边。想来那边的主人不会拒绝本王的。”云恪强压着性子说道。

“That won’t be necessary. Just escort this prince there. This prince heard that the courtyard is very beautiful and this prince wants to live there. The owner would likely not reject this prince,” Yun Ke said as he suppressed his temper.

“Of course. It’s just that, living outside, this minister is afraid of being unable to manage Your Highness’ safety,” Ni Gang said with a smile on his face.

“Does this prince still need your care? If you had taken good care, then this prince would not have been picked up by Fourth Brother from the streets just now!” Yun Ke said angrily.

His words made Yun Qing elated. There was nothing much about him except that he liked to think he was better than others. This made him annoying. Born handsome and tall, and able to lead troops, how many men in the world could surpass him? His Highness the Crown Prince? Yun Qing could only give him two words, “ha ha”. If it were not because of his dead mother, could he have become the crown prince?!

In his joy, Yun Qing slapped the Jiangxia governor on the shoulder, “The safety of this prince’s younger brother would naturally be this prince’s responsibility. You just need to lead the way. This prince also wants to see what’s so special about the courtyard that even Seventh Brother who was far away in the capital has heard about it. It must be extremely beautiful.”

Although Yun Qing liked others flattering him, he was also a very meticulous person. Yun Ke had come all the way here and instead of staying at the governor’s residence, he was proposing to live in that place called Weili Courtyard. He also had to follow to see if there was anything fishy.

After all, Yun Ke was close to Yun Yi and the courtyard had changed owners recently, so there must be some ulterior motive.

Yun Ke smiled faintly, “Naturally, it would be good to have Fourth Brother’s protection.” Although he said this, in his heart, he did not want Yun Qing to follow him.

It was not someone else who had bought Weili Courtyard. It was just Gu Yu Qi who he had not seen since she left the capital.

According to the reports from the secret guard, there was a woman among the people following her who looked like the madam of the Ding Yuan Marquis’ residence. That was to say, Gu Yu Qi had not set her mother on fire, but had taken her mother away with her. This made Yun Ke a little confused.

By this time in the previous life, the Ding Yuan Marquis’ Madam should have passed away and Gu Yu Qi had disregarded filial piety. During filial piety, she married him. In this life, it seemed that the relationship between the mother and daughter was very good.

Perhaps after the fire, could the news Gu Huai Zhong released be false?

Doubts arose in his heart and he wanted to ask for confirmation. Besides, he also wanted to go to Gu Yu Qi’s side to watch her, because there would be a plague soon and he did not want that damn woman to cause any more trouble in Jiangxia Ctiy!