Chapter 322: Title
Editor: Atlas Studios
Magistrate Fang looked at Qi Haoran with an aggrieved expression. Although he had been careful enough, there were still many children and orphans on the list. He couldn’t very well ignore them. On the other hand, he didn’t have the means to provide for them since there was no money or grains in the government office now.
In the past few days, those 6,000 people had already depleted all of his grains. He was just short of selling everything.
Magistrate Fang glared at Qi Haoran again. If not for the fact that the Qi brothers had emptied the government office when they rushed in, he would not have ended up like this.
The most important thing was that he had not heard back from the aid report he had sent to the Imperial Court. Without any external help, just this year’s small amount of taxes was really not enough.
Therefore, Magistrate Fang could only target Mu Yangling.
Hearing Magistrate Fang’s suggestion to provide winter clothes for children under the age of 12 and let orphans under the age of 12 enter the nursery, Mu Yangling couldn’t help but frown and say unhappily, “Magistrate Fang, you’re an official. Don’t you have a way to settle them down? It’s not that I’m rejecting you, but even if you don’t know my background clearly, you should be able to guess my circumstances. Do you think I can take care of these 6,000 people?”
Magistrate Fang coughed lightly, and the tips of his ears turned red. “That’s why I said I wanted to discuss it with Miss Mu. If you have any requests, you can raise them. I’ll definitely satisfy them.”
Mu Yangling narrowed her eyes, but Bowen beat her to it. “In that case, Magistrate Fang, why don’t you give us those plots of land? Should you do so, we can feed them not just this winter, but also next winter.”
Not only Magistrate Fang, but even Mu Yangling almost fell off her chair. She glared at her brother, but she maintained the principle of not letting her brother embarrass himself outside and did not object.
Seeing that Mu Yangling was silent, Magistrate Fang said helplessly, “Young Master Mu, you must be joking. How can I give away dozens of hectares just like that? I’ve already spent a lot of effort to get you ten years of use.”
“It’s obvious that Magistrate Fang is insincere for rejecting me so quickly.” Mu Bowen said, “I naturally know that this matter is difficult, but it’s no small feat to feed 6,000 people either. Moreover, there are many orphans under the age of 12. It’s not a small expense to feed, clothe, and educate these kids at the nursery…”
Seeing that Magistrate Fang’s frown was deepening, Mu Bowen said, “How about this? Let’s extend the ten years to 20 years. What do you think? This will be the same time limit as the previous 500 acres.”
After a long silence, Magistrate Fang said, “Let me think about it. I’ll give you an answer in three days. How about that?”
Mu Bowen looked at his sister and Mu Yangling nodded slightly. Having reached a consensus, they were finally in the mood to eat.
The few of them swept the table clean. Magistrate Fang marveled at their appetites before getting up to leave.
Xiuhong went to get a pot of tea, and everyone gathered around the table for a meeting.
Mu Yangling asked Qi Haoran, “Is Magistrate Fang so unreliable? He took those people with him without having a means of settling them down?”
“He got them to repair the roads, but most of them are old and weak. In particular, young teens aren’t strong, but they eat a lot. The government office doesn’t have much grain to begin with. He tried to borrow grains, but it didn’t seem to go smoothly,” Qi Haoran explained.
Frowning, Mu Yangling said, “Don’t tell me you took everything when you entered the city back then? You didn’t leave anything for him at all?”
Qi Haoran glared and said righteously, “Our men risked their lives. Naturally, they have to receive some remuneration. Otherwise, who would want to charge in front?”
They could not rob the commoners, and there were only so many nobles left in the Jin Kingdom’s Hanzhong Prefecture. Other than robbing the government office, who else could they rob? Anyway, at that time, the government office was actually the Jin Kingdom’s government office.
At the thought of this, Qi Haoran got angry. He snorted coldly and said, “After we took back Hanzhong Prefecture, according to the rules, the Imperial Court was supposed to provide support. However, it’s been almost two years and nothing has been sent over. It can be seen that the Imperial Court doesn’t have much confidence in us guarding Hanzhong Prefecture. They don’t even bother to pretend to care anymore.”
Mu Yangling swallowed her saliva and said, “Don’t tell me that the Imperial Court has half a mind of abandoning Hanzhong Prefecture.”
Anger appeared on Qi Haoran’s face, but he did not retort.
Mu Yangling slammed the table and shouted, “Why? Haven’t we been guarding it for two years? Now that the Jin soldiers are stopped outside the city by us and can’t enter Hanzhong Prefecture, why is the Imperial Court still doing this?”
“Hanzhong Prefecture isn’t like Xingzhou Prefecture. Xingzhou Prefecture has Xingcheng Pass. As long as we guard the pass, we can block a large number of Jin soldiers heading south. However, the terrain outside Hanzhong Prefecture is open, and shares too long a border with Jingzhao Prefecture. The terrain is almost flat. With a few scattered mountain ranges there, it’s very easy to be surrounded.” Qi Haoran said, “It’s only because they failed three times in a row that Hanzhong Prefecture isn’t being attacked now. Ah Ling, if it’s just the garrison of Jingzhao Prefecture, Big Brother and I aren’t afraid. But if one day the Jin soldiers want to launch a large-scale attack, we won’t be able to defend Hanzhong Prefecture. We can only give up on it and retreat to defend Xingzhou Prefecture. Otherwise, why do you think my big brother didn’t shift the West Camp here even though Hanzhong Prefecture is twice as big as Xingzhou Prefecture? Instead, he merely transferred part of the troops from various divisions here.”
With a sigh, Qi Haoran said, “We set up such defenses to guard against that ‘what if’. However, I can’t take it lying down that the Imperial Court has already tacitly agreed to lose Hanzhong Prefecture.”
“Since it’s not easy to guard Hanzhong Prefecture, we’ll just seize Jingzhao Prefecture over. Isn’t there a pass at Jingzhao Prefecture, too?” Bowen interrupted.
Qi Haoran was overjoyed. “Good lad, you’re ambitious. That’s what I told Big Brother too. However, he said that there are too many guards at the Jingzhao Prefecture. Having just experienced a huge battle, he reckoned we shouldn’t not start a war anytime soon. When the opportunity arises…” Qi Haoran looked at them with bright eyes, his meaning clear.
Mu Bowen was enthusiastic. “Fourth Brother Qi, bring me along when the time comes.”
Mu Yangling smacked him down. “Why are you getting involved when you’re so weak a gust of wind can knock you down?”
Mu Bowen said indignantly, “I’m in much better health already. Physician Pang said that I’m about the same height as my peers.”
“Then let’s wait until you’re taller than your peers and have learned the basic defense techniques.” As she spoke, Mu Yangling chuckled and said, “Or should I send you to Father’s side and tell him that you want to go to the battlefield with Qi Haoran?”
Qi Haoran rolled his eyes. “Mu Yangling, can you not be so fickle? You call me Brother Haoran in front of the elders and when you need my help. You call me Fourth Brother Qi in front of outsiders. And now all of a sudden, you’re calling me by my full name. Those who don’t know might think that you have a grudge against me.”
“There are only the few of us in this private room. Who would misunderstand?” Mu Yangling said indignantly, “Don’t you call me by my full name too? Don’t think that I haven’t noticed that you and Fan Zijin call me ‘Mu Yangling’ all the time.”
Qi Haoran blushed slightly, then straightened his neck and refused to admit it. “When did you hear that? I’ve always called you Ah Ling. I only called you by your full name when we first met.”
Xiuhong quickly adjusted. “Alright, alright. Fourth Brother Qi, my cousin is just used to doing this since she was young. She sometimes calls our cousins by their full name too, even though they grew up together.”
Xiulan and Bowen quickly nodded to testify.
“I didn’t call you by your full name because I’m distant from you. It’s just a habit. After all, we’re not used to calling you Brother Haoran.”
Xiulan and Bowen nodded again.
