Chapter 110: Chapter 110
Chapter 110
Before long, the auction resumed. Initially, people tried to grit their teeth and participated, even shamelessly raising the price by 100 gold taels, making it 600,100 taels. But ultimately, the price settled at 620,000 gold taels, thanks to the bidding war between the two brothers and the Crown Prince.
The result was exactly how Yueqian had predicted, the victors were the Third Prince and the Fifth Prince. Their supporting nobles were quite wealthy, and since the Crown Prince wasn’t present himself, he couldn’t fully grasp the situation and was unable to borrow additional funds in time.
Originally, the Crown Prince thought that the 600,000 gold taels he had provided was a lot, as he had to borrow from many people, including his own mother. Who would have thought it wasn’t enough and that they had to bid up to 620,000 gold taels?!
Thus, this loss was somewhat acceptable. Moreover, spending 620,000 gold taels just to save face was a situation in which he had to concede. When it came to financial situation, the factions of Third Prince and Fifth Prince truly had the more powerful supporters.
After the auction concluded, the two princes, along with the Young General, met with the Art Institute staff to receive the important item. Naturally, Yueqian also had to be present as a witness to this grand event. After all, someone who benefited from it like her should indeed be there.
Additionally, there were other matters to handle...
Before everyone could disperse, the orchestrated chaos began. As Third Prince’s hand touched the glass case containing the Guanyin statue, the loud sound of gongs filled the air, accompanied by the cries of the people:
"Heavens, please have mercy on us poor villagers."
"Please help us get rid of this disaster."
"Any deity, please bless our children for them to survive."
"People of sacred blood from the capital, please help us."
The pleas for mercy came from numerous villagers, all dressed in coarse, inexpensive clothing, patched many times, well reflecting their poor living conditions.
Normally, impoverished villagers wouldn’t come into the city as it offered them no benefits. Even walking around the city, they couldn’t afford to buy anything. Moreover, it would be a waste of time they could otherwise spend foraging in the forest, which was a more viable means of survival. Therefore, their presence here was quite unusual.
The nobles who were about to leave the tavern were suddenly surrounded by the villagers. Their servants tried to help, but to no avail, as the villagers were much stronger and more numerous. The nobles were forced to retreat into the tavern.
Luckily, the villagers were intimidated by the tavern, knowing that entering would require a fee, which they could not afford, being lack of even money to buy food.
With that thought, no one dare to cause trouble inside, though their voices grew louder, as if fearing their problems would not reach the ears of those in power.
"What is happening?" Asked the Third Prince, who had just met Elder Ning and wanted to get acquainted. His voice was calm, yet there was an underlying tone of irritation.
The Young General looked at his men, who quickly approached and whispered a report in his ear. The young man’s eyes narrowed in displeasure, a murderous intent flashing once more.
"What is happening?" The Third Prince repeated his question, noticing the Young General’s expression. He felt certain something had occurred. If he weren’t holding a valuable item worth 620,000 of gold taels, he might have thrown it at the head of the Young General, who he had chosen as his friend, by now.
Why did since his arrival here, there were countless troubles that the other party couldn’t handle?!
"I’ll take care of it immediately, Your Highness." The Young General face was stern. He didn’t answer the Third Prince’s question. Instead, he quickly marched forward.
He feared that any further delay would escalate the situation even more! Given the circumstances, with so many people gathered at the auction site—be it the Crown Prince’s men, the Eighth Prince still seated inside, numerous nobles, and their representatives still present. Previously, when soldiers were injured or killed due to his own negligence, it could be somewhat covered up, blaming the highly skilled bandits. However, since they were eventually defeated, those mistakes of his only gained him reprimands from people.
But... if another incident occurred, he wouldn’t know how to face people, and he might no longer be able to maintain his position as the Young General. This also didn’t account for the long-term impact on his father, the Great General of the East.
The position of a general wasn’t easily obtained, but losing it could be easier than throwing a stone into a river!
"General, what should we do about this matter?" The guard beside him asked immediately upon leaving the princes’ presence. His expression was very tense.
The problem stemmed from them again. The villagers came to complain because they didn’t want to drink water with corpses floating in the river. Moreover, many people fell ill after consuming water that passed through their military camp.
In fact, this issue shouldn’t have been connected so quickly and accurately. Usually, during battles, discarding bodies into the river wasn’t an issue that could lead to a conflict. However, this time, the situation was somewhat abnormal. Firstly, there weren’t that many corpses disposed of in the river.
However, the issue of the sick soldiers’ excreta remained a problem. The soldiers, too weak to dig holes to bury the large amounts of waste, resorted to dumping it into the river to avoid attracting animals that would cause annoyance and spreading diseases.
In their understanding, the river was a long river. The waste would dissolve and disappear as it flowed away. Who would have thought it would cause such a problem?
This issue must be blamed on them who didn’t properly examine the watercourse. If the river were straight, their assumption might not have been so strange and might not have caused such a problem. However, this river was winding, with riverbanks where the waste was collected. Even the bodies discarded into the river got stuck on the banks and didn’t float away. This caused a significant burden for the residents.
The current situation wasn’t too severe yet, but Yueqian didn’t want to wait for something serious to happen before reaching to help.
She took advantage of the period during the spreading of rumors about the appearance of Guanyin, creating a false representative of the deity to travel to nearby villages and give prophecies. The rumors implied that Guanyin appeared because the goddess knew someone was about to face grave danger.
This Blessing Pose Guanyin appeared to bless those who worshipped her. Additionally, all the prophecies warned about the water, so when people fetched water from the river, they were cautious of any dangers. Otherwise, how could the people who went to fetch water since early in the morning, when the sky was not yet bright, have noticed something wrong with the water they drank?
Eventually, some people noticed the harm beforehand and did not drink the water, thus they were safe. However, this wasn’t the best solution. They had to go far to fetch water or even use less of it, despite living near the river. How they lived their lives depended on the river. This hardship led them to decide to report the issue to the authorities.
The authorities, however, didn’t see it as an unusual thing. Unsure of what to do, they remembered the stories about Guanyin. Since she appeared to bless them, there must be someone who could help them as well.
In the end, Yueqian, who brought out the jade carving of Guanyin, did so not just to make some money for a new start. She also allowed the people to connect the dots and find a solution, and it was she who inspired them to come here today!
Of course, this was the moment when Guanyin had already changed hands to the auction winner!
"Send the villagers back first, and then we can deal with it later." The Young General knew that the most crucial solution for current problem was to send the troublesome villagers away to avoid damaging his reputation.
However, he hadn’t anticipated that the situation would unfold so quickly, as if it had been prearranged. Before his men could act on his orders, the voice of the man he despised rang out.
"What has happened? Why is everyone pleading at the entrance of my wife’s tavern so crowded like this?" Mu Heng had been assigned to oversee the operations of Yueqian’s business.
He didn’t know that his beautiful wife was also present. She had simply mentioned that she was going out for some personal business without specifying what it was, and she didn’t tell him earlier that such an incident would occur.
But his little wife had told him that his job was to maintain order in all businesses and teach his younger siblings how to handle any emergencies that might arise any moment.
Earlier, he had been at the auction house as well but didn’t stay until the auction concluded. Since there were princes and people from the Art Institute that Yueqian trusted, he took the younger ones outside to ensure everything was in order, including inspecting the merchants’ renting stalls along the way.
Who would have thought that a group of impoverished villagers would suddenly come and cause an uproar? Even though they didn’t show any malicious intent, their gathering and demands upset the nobles in the tavern under his care. This was also his responsibility.
As for the villagers, when Mu Heng asked them, they were already prepared to respond. After all, today they had to discuss this matter with the nobles, including the individuals with great merits who could own the carved jade statue of Guanyin. When someone opened the way, it was hard not to speak.
"Tavern Master, we did not come to cause trouble. We heard that Guanyin descended from heaven to this place, and we wish to seek her divine power to ward off all bad luck," said an old woman who seemed to believe in Guanyin the most.
"That’s right, Master. In the past few days, a seer blessed by the Buddha came to our village. He predicted a water disaster and advised us to live cautiously. And indeed, it happened."
"We drink from the river every day without checking. When we did, we saw many soldiers’ corpses floating down the river, and the water’s smell changed. Those who didn’t believe the seer have fallen ill from drinking the water without boiling it first."
"The seer also said that this problem would be resolved by the blessing of Guanyin. Whoever possesses Guanyin will be the one with great merit and will be able to help us," several villagers spoke, their faces filled with hope.However, this was somewhat different from the expressions of the nobles and the princes...
