I am the villain in the book

Five days later, September 6th.

Six days had passed since Ning Yuke declared himself king, and the ripples of this event began to emerge within Da Ning.

The three censors of the Censorate were beheaded by the Hualing Guard for the crime of "deceiving the emperor", which also "cut off" many memorials that court officials had prepared to submit, and for a time no one in the court dared to mention the "Wei Changtian's involvement in the rebellion".

Han Zhao had arrived in Yuanzhou with the Tiger Tally of the Ministry of War, and the 300,000 troops would begin preparing their military equipment immediately, and were expected to turn south in ten days, heading straight for Shuzhou to讨伐 the rebels.

The 400,000 Da Ning troops stationed in Da Feng continued to advance towards Fengyuan City after three days of rest, making it clear that they would not suspend their offensive due to the chaos in Shuzhou, and vowed to take the enemy's capital in one fell swoop to "avenge" their compatriots who died in Yuanzhou City.

The news that Ning Yuke would build a new city a thousand miles south of Shuzhou City had spread throughout the world. No one knew what the King of Shu was going to do, but under the lure of "high salaries", many craftsmen were already preparing to go to Shuzhou to build the city.

In just five days, events that would have been shocking to the court in the past happened one after another, making the people of Da Ning even a little numb to these "news".

People no longer gathered excitedly in street teahouses to talk as they used to, nor did they care too much about the far-reaching impact of these events.

For the tens of millions of ordinary people who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, their intuitive feelings about this world basically came entirely from the ever-changing prices.

Obviously, this did not look optimistic.

The prices of salt, iron, cloth, and grain, almost all necessities of life, had increased to varying degrees compared to the same period last year.

Among them, the price of grain had increased the most, now doubling.

From the previous "fifteen coins per dou", to the current "thirty coins per dou".

The price of "three coins per stone" was naturally nothing to the wealthy, but it was already a heavy burden for most people.

After all, grain had to be eaten every day, and it was not an expense that could be saved.

In this case, rumors such as "grain prices in Shuzhou are cheap" and "you can get land and money if you move to Shuzhou" naturally had room to survive.

But even if the rumors were vivid and detailed, few people would actually move their families to Shuzhou.

The reason for this is not difficult to understand.

First, unless they could no longer survive, most people were unwilling to leave their homes.

Second, even if Shuzhou was good now, it would eventually fall into war, and no one knew what the world would be like.

Third, the autumn harvest was only a little over a month away.

With these three thoughts in mind, the people of Da Ning chose to grit their teeth and persevere, generally believing that the hard days would be over in at most two months.

After all, by then the imperial army should have already entered Fengyuan, forcing Li Qi to surrender and sue for peace.

And the chaos in Shuzhou should have subsided, ending the farce of a woman declaring herself king.

And the autumn harvest.

Although there had been frequent wars this year, the weather was still good, and the harvests in various places should be good.

At that time, the high grain prices would definitely come down.

With beautiful visions for the future, the people tightened their belts, carefully planning how to survive these two months with the little money they had left.

But they probably never imagined that.

Everything that would happen two months later would be so different from what they imagined now.

No.

It should be said that it was completely opposite.

"Da da da!"

"Da da da!"

Outside Shuzhou City, Wei Changtian watched the dozen or so fast horses gradually disappear into the distance, and it took him a long time to withdraw his gaze.

It was Chu Xianping who left this time, and he was going to visit the neighboring states to talk to the governors about "borrowing people".

Now that the new city was about to break ground, there were naturally not enough craftsmen in Shuzhou, and the labor force hired from all over the country with "high salaries" could not be in place for the time being.

So, not to mention that Shuzhou had already rebelled, even if it hadn't, these states would definitely not easily agree to this matter.

And Wei Changtian still had the same old way of doing things—

Carrot and stick.

I have plenty of money, and I also have plenty of knives.

I just want some people, and if you give me face, I'll give you a lot of money.

If you don't give me face, I don't mind moving your head before the imperial army comes.

Of course, this was just a general idea of the negotiation, and the specifics definitely couldn't be said so directly.

But since Chu Xianping was going to handle this matter personally, the problem probably wouldn't be too big.

"."

"Let's go."

The sound of horses' hooves in the distance had gradually disappeared. Wei Changtian turned to look at Xu Qingwan:

"I'll take you back to Yingfengsheng first."

"Then I have to go to the palace."

"Yingfengsheng" was the name of the new grain store opened by Comrade Xiao Xu.

However, this name was not taken by her, nor by Wei Changtian, but was suggested by Wei Yanyu, the "second shareholder" of the grain store.

At that time, Wei Changtian wanted to find a few people to help Xu Qingwan, and then he thought of Wei Yanyu.

And the latter agreed very readily.

Although the opening of the grain store actually used Xu's family's money, Wei Yanyu only wanted 30% of the dry shares, and the remaining 70% were in Xu Qingwan's hands.

In this way, Comrade Xiao Xu's worth soared from several thousand taels to nearly ten million taels at once, and she was very likely to become the major shareholder of Da Ning's largest grain store in the future.

This transformation was like a little hamster suddenly owning an entire granary, making Xu Qingwan so excited that she couldn't sleep for several days.

"Okay."

Xu Qingwan gently agreed and took the lead in getting into the carriage, revealing the hilt of the Quetiao knife at her waist as she bent over.

Wei Changtian, who was behind her, couldn't help but find it funny when he saw this scene.

Good fellow, Xu Qingwan was the woman with the highest combat power in the original work, but unexpectedly her fate has changed so much now.

She directly "abandoned martial arts and engaged in business" and became a rich woman!

"Have you been practicing recently?"

Wei Changtian asked casually as he also got into the car and sat down, "And the Guichen knife, haven't you stopped practicing it long ago?"

"No, I practice every day."

Xu Qingwan covered her mouth and smiled, "You are not at home all day, so naturally you can't see it."

"Cough, aren't I busy"...

Wei Changtian coughed awkwardly and changed the subject: "By the way, if Yingfengsheng needs more people, you can let Lu Jingyao also go to help, so she doesn't have to be idle at home all day."

"Sister Lu?"

Xu Qingwan blinked her eyes and suddenly smiled: "Changtian, do you want to thank me?"

"Thank you?"

Wei Changtian was stunned: "Thank you for what?"

"Thank you for chasing you to Sister Lu's room that day."

Xu Qingwan shook her head smugly and said, "Otherwise, you wouldn't know how long you would be angry."

"Didn't you see that Sister Lu ate a lot more food the next day, and she wasn't so bored anymore?"

"I have to say, you should be nicer to Sister Lu."

"."

The nagging of Comrade Xiao Xu was still going on in his ears.

And Wei Changtian couldn't help but think of what happened that night.

"."

"Why are you crying?"

"H-happy..."

"Why cry when you're happy?"

"Am I... am I crying?"

"Your tears are almost soaking the pillow."

"I'm sorry..."

"Okay, go to sleep, I don't have time to talk nonsense with you."

"."

"H-husband, can you promise me one thing?"

"What's the matter?"

"Y-you can hit me, scold me, be fierce to me, but can you... please don't dislike me..."

"Dislike you? Why would I dislike you? By the way, what are you thinking about all day long???"

"."

I originally intended to show my heart to the bright moon, but the bright moon shines in the gutter.

The gutter has its own clear stream mirror, reflecting your heart like mine.