Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 166 Fighting

Song Chunlin poked Gu Fengyue on the back: "What are you worried about?"

Gu Fengyue's eyes were slightly cold. "Recently, officials at the lower levels of the Ministry of Revenue have been making a big fuss. It's all about the military pay. The tax revenue was just collected last year, but it was dispersed before it could even warm up. In order to fill the hole, the Ministry of Revenue can only delay the salaries of those officials. Naturally, they will make a fuss when they have no money, but the Ministry of Revenue really can't come up with the money. They know it themselves, and it seems that there is no other way except making a fuss."

Song Chunlin was stunned when he heard this: "Then the emperor has no more private money?"

Gu Fengyue shook his head: "It's long gone. The three years of drought exhausted Dajing's accumulation of decades. You came all the way from the northwest, so you should know it best."

"There was no harvest, and the people died of thirst more than starvation due to lack of water. Not only in the northwest where you are, but also in the vicinity of the capital, many people would fight for a mouthful of water. Even the wealthy families were no exception. In the second year of the drought, the water in the capital's moat dried up. The late emperor even offered sacrifices to heaven and prayed for blessings. It did rain a few times at that time, but the rain was too little, and even the emperor could do nothing. Slaves in the capital were the cheapest that year. For a steamed bun, you could take away a child of seven or eight years old. For a bag of flour, you could get a strong laborer in the prime of life. If you had a bucket of water, you could directly buy an entire family, old or young, you could choose as you like."

The most difficult time for Song Chunlin in his past and present life was the time when he fled from famine. When he first came here, his throat was so dry that it seemed to smoke. If it weren't for the endless water in his space, he would have died of thirst sooner or later.

The imperial court had no money, but there was a war on the border. What could they do? They could only sacrifice their own interests for the greater good.

Song Chunlin seemed to understand a little bit.

"So, the court is short of money now, right?"

Gu Fengyue thought for a moment and said, "More than that. After filling the hole with the tax revenue of the past two years, there is not much left. If it weren't for your family's potatoes and sweet potatoes, the court would have to fill this hole for at least a few more years."

"Yeah, I'm the best."

Gu Fengyue laughed and touched his head gently.

"Okay, let's go back and settle the papermaking workshop first. You also need to translate the book again. I don't understand some of the words in it."

Song Chunlin was speechless, thinking that was bullshit rhetoric, that was modern professional terminology, not to mention Gu Fengyue couldn't understand it, even he himself couldn't understand it.

However, since they had taken on the job, they had to do it well. When Song Chunlin returned home, he began to work late into the night. Although it was a translation, modern vernacular was actually quite easy to understand. The most difficult parts were the professional terms.

After working hard for several days, Song Chunlin wrote a thick stack of papers. However, before he could deliver it to Gu Fengyue, news came from the border that the Dajing army had been defeated.

"What defeat? It must be fake." Aunt Wang, who came to visit, lowered her voice, and several people around her couldn't help but lower their voices as well.

Mrs. Lu whispered to Zhao Weibao's new husband: "Is the news accurate?"

Mr. Zhao: "It's true. The news has spread all over the capital. My brother is the gatekeeper. Many people saw the 800-mile express that day. There's no doubt about it."

Aunt Liu looked distressed: "This incident has happened before the New Year has even passed. Didn't the commander of the pass say that he sent the Grand Marshal? The Grand Marshal couldn't hold the pass?"

Speaking of the Grand Marshal, Mr. Zhao was quite disdainful: "What kind of Grand Marshal is that? He was asked to go to war, but he went to negotiate peace. A Grand Marshal had the nerve to go to negotiate peace. It's ridiculous."

Aunt Liu didn't know about this, so she was very surprised: "This... this is too bad, isn't the Grand Marshal's surname Zhu? I thought the Zhu family was full of powerful generals..."

No one knows whether the Zhu family can produce any brave generals, but the joke of Zhu Chengyu will be talked about by the people for decades. In the court, a group of civil officials and military generals argued for a long time but failed to select a few suitable generals.

The emperor's head hurt and his ears were buzzing from the noise. Gu Fengyun stood quietly at one side of the hall. He did not join in the fight among the ministers. He just frowned and watched the chaos in front of him.

The old minister's voice was not as loud as the general's, and he almost broke his throat before he could barely shout louder than the group of barbarians. However, as they were arguing, the old man suddenly ran out of breath, his voice got stuck in the middle, and his eyes went black and he fainted.

Now both sides were dumbfounded. A group of people rushed out from the civil officials' side and surrounded the fallen old minister. They saw that the old man had his eyes closed, his lips were cyanotic, and his breathing was weak. Gu Fengyun saw that the condition was not good, so he casually touched the old man's pulse and found it was very weak, so he quickly asked someone to call the imperial physician.

The emperor also hurriedly walked down from the dragon throne, looked at the old minister who had fallen to the ground, and suddenly felt his heart begin to ache.

Seeing that the emperor was covering his chest and seemed to be feeling uncomfortable, Gu Fengyun hurriedly asked the eunuch to support the emperor.

"Your Majesty, are you feeling unwell?"

The emperor waved his hand weakly and said, "It's OK. Wait for the imperial physician to come and ask him to check on Elder Wu first."

The imperial physician rushed over and saw the emperor's pale face at first sight. He walked up to the emperor and stretched out his hand to feel his pulse. The emperor pointed at Old Wu lying on the ground and signaled the imperial physician to see the old man first.

The imperial physician had no choice but to feel Mr. Wu's pulse first and discovered that he had fainted due to anger. Then he had the answer in his mind. After taking out the gold needles and giving Mr. Wu acupuncture, Mr. Wu's complexion finally looked better.

After treating Mr. Wu, the imperial physician turned around and gave the emperor a few injections.

"Your Majesty, you have been overworked and worried lately. I will prescribe you some medicine. Please take it on time."

They barely managed to deal with the chaos in the court, and even though someone almost died, they still had to argue as usual, only this time their argument was more moderate and they only argued verbally.

However, no matter how they argued, there were indeed few people in the court who could turn the tide.

When everyone was tired of arguing, someone suddenly said, "The descendants of the Zhu family are not good, but maybe the Gu family is good. I think the second son of the Gu family is quite good. Didn't he serve in the army for a while not long ago? As a young man, it's a good opportunity for him to gain more experience."

As soon as these words were spoken, Gu Fengyun's face suddenly became as dark as water. He did not say anything, but walked straight to the person who spoke. Wow, it was a man from the Li family. This person held an important position and worked diligently. The emperor failed to catch his fault and remove him, but now he was stabbed in the back.

Gu Fengyun was not polite either and kicked the man directly. He was in much better shape after drinking the spiritual spring water and he also did a lot of exercise secretly, so the kick was so powerful that the man was kicked up and fell to the ground more than ten feet away.

When the emperor saw Gu Fengyun take action, his eyes went dark. It was over. This court meeting could not continue at all!

The court meeting, which had just restored order, immediately fell into chaos again, all because three or four civil officials failed to hold Gu Fengyun back. No one knew where this kid got his arrogance from. Even a group of people pulling his hands and feet were unable to control him, and he forced them to step on others' bodies several times, one of which must have hit some unspeakable part of the body. The screams of slaughtering pigs resounded throughout the Golden Throne Hall. The emperor not only saw black in front of his eyes, but his ears were also almost deafened.

A court meeting that was even more chaotic than usual ended with Gu Fengyun's unilateral beating and kicking. Gu Fengyun seemed to still be unsatisfied, and roared at the back of the man being carried away: "Your family is full of young people, why don't you send your descendants to gain some experience? You bastard, you've ruined your ability by bullying other people's children, you bastard, don't stop me, I'm going to beat this bastard to death, damn it, don't run away if you have the guts, come here and let's fight one-on-one."

However, the other party ran faster, fearing that if he walked slower, Gu Fengyun would really run up and beat him to death.

When they escaped to the palace gate, several people patted their chests and celebrated their escape from death. One of the young men pointed at the official who was beaten angrily and said, "I told you not to mess with him, but you just poked his lungs. Everyone in the capital knows that Gu Fengyun treats his brother like his eyeballs. Why did you have to touch his sweetheart?"

The official surnamed Li covered his chest, but even when he covered the upper part, it hurt below as well. He thought that Gu Fengyun was really ruthless and actually stepped on his vitals. He almost thought he was going to become a eunuch after that kick.

"Who knows what the sickly guy is crazy about? He just wants his brother to go to the frontier. If he does a good job, he can make achievements. It's such a good job, but he doesn't want it for free. Humph, what a nonsense."

The people who were supporting him were all speechless. If this job was really so easy, why didn't he recommend his own children?

The matter of sending Gu Fengyue to the battlefield was shelved because of Gu Fengyun's interference. The emperor did not punish him severely, but simply gave Gu Fengyun a light punishment of house arrest. Gu Fengyun felt that this punishment was almost the same as a vacation, so he calmly accepted the order and thanked the emperor before returning to the marquis' mansion.

Gu Fengyue, who had just returned from the military camp, had no idea what had happened. Gu Fengyun also ordered the servants not to tell Gu Fengyue about this matter. Although Gu Fengyue noticed that the atmosphere in the mansion was not right, he did not think much about it until he saw Gu Fengyun at home for three consecutive days, then he became suspicious.

"Brother, you are not on duty today?"

Gu Fengyun glanced at his brother indifferently, then said "hmm", and there was no other sound.

Gu Fengyue became even more confused. Seeing that her brother couldn't get the answer, she simply went out and looked for it herself.

So when Gu Fengyue returned home in the evening, his face looked a little unhappy.

After the two brothers finished their dinner, Gu Fengyue looked at his brother and seemed to be hesitant to speak. When Gu Fengyun saw his brother's expression, he guessed that he already knew everything.

Gu Fengyue seemed to have mustered up the courage to ask his brother, "Brother, did you really beat that guy up?"

Gu Fengyun nodded indifferently.

"Are you surprised that I would hit someone?"

Gu Fengyue nodded frantically. In his impression, his brother was the most reasonable person and would never beat anyone up for a trivial matter. So when he heard from other people that his brother had beaten up another court official for him, he found it very unreal.

"Brother, do you disagree with me going to the frontier?"

"Pah." Gu Fengyun put down the teacup, stared at his brother and said, "If you dare to run to the border by yourself, I will break your legs."

The sinister tone left Gu Fengyue with no doubt that what his brother said was true. If he really dared to run to the border, his brother might really break his legs.

But when Gu Fengyue thought about the successive defeats at the border, he gritted his teeth and expressed his own views even if his brother disagreed with them.

"Now the border war is urgent, and all the people the court can send have been sent out. As a citizen of Dajing, I can definitely contribute to Dajing, but I am hiding in the capital because I am afraid of death. How is this different from those generals who lost the battle?"

Gu Fengyun's face became even gloomier: "So, you still want to go?"

Gu Fengyun resisted the pressure and answered stubbornly: "Yes, I want to go."

"But you are only seventeen. You can't stand on your own yet."

"Dad was only seventeen when he first went to the battlefield."

"But he didn't come back in the end." As if remembering the sudden news of the past, Gu Fengyun's expression became extremely sad: "Mom and Dad, in the end, they didn't come back, and I couldn't even collect their bodies. Gu Fengyue, I don't want to go through the same thing again, do you understand?"

Gu Fengyue looked at his brother's face. Perhaps even he himself did not notice that at this moment, Gu Fengyun's face was full of tears.

This conversation ended unpleasantly, and the emperor was under house arrest for a month. Only a few days had passed, and the court was still arguing fiercely. Some people even agreed with the official surnamed Li, thinking that a good father will have a good son, and if Gu Fengyue was allowed to go to the battlefield, he might really be able to turn the tide.

In fact, the emperor also prefers Gu Fengyue in his heart, but Gu Fengyun refuses to give in. Moreover, ever since the old marquis passed away, Gu Fengyun has been dependent on his younger brother, and the brothers have a very deep relationship. Others are afraid that Gu Fengyun will not give in easily.

It is understandable that Gu Fengyun does not want to experience the death of a relative on the battlefield again. Moreover, Gu Fengyue is still so young and has not even been engaged yet. If such a child is sent to the battlefield and never comes back, Gu Fengyun would probably be so angry that he would kill the king.

Thinking of how Gu Fengyun madly stepped on people at the court meeting that day, the emperor couldn't help but shudder. Forget it, he can't afford to offend him, but can't he hide from him?

But after excluding Gu Fengyue, there is indeed no one among the children of the aristocratic families who has a higher martial arts value than Gu Fengyue. Among his peers, Gu Fengyue's martial arts is already the highest, and the others can only barely tie at best.

However, fighting a war does not rely solely on military strength. One also needs a good brain. If the brain is not good, then one has to be obedient. Under such harsh conditions, the emperor despairingly discovered that he really had no one to use.