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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

nLiu She and Feng Ren were friends because they were both men of virtue. They were close friends who talked about their ideals and made comments about the present political affairs. Their topics barely involved each other’s jobs. The friendship between the two of them and the pattern of how they dealt with each other was relaxing for Feng Ren. Naturally, they enjoyed spending quite a lot of time together.

n“I have often heard from you that this Liu County Chief is a jerk, but now I buy it.” Mrs. Feng smiled, folded the letter, and put it down.

nEven though the letter was enciphered, the contents of the letter were nothing secret at all.

nIt was more about sharing their lives, confiding in the experiences that he had encountered in recent years, expressing the missing feelings that he had, and matchmaking for Feng Ren’s son. He mentioned in the letter that he was leaving for the Capital soon and he would like Feng Ren to help him look for accommodations––he did not want to be homeless and starving when he arrived.

nHe wrote the letter in a hilarious and relaxing way and there was no trace that it was from the well-known Liu County Chief. It was more likely that it was from a naive teenage boy.

n“He could be more of an ass than that.” Feng Ren seemed to remember something and he quickly shut his mouth and continued vaguely, “Anyway, you cannot judge a person from his appearance. A person can look decent, but be rather nasty deep inside of him.”

nFeng Ren and his wife had been married for years and the love and affection had never faded away. They chatted for a bit more and went to dinner together.

nIn the meantime, the news that the Head of the Secretariat was condemned by the emperor and that he had been smashed by a cup of tea spread to every single family swiftly like it had wings. The ones who didn’t have a powerful family to back them up were terrified about their own safety and the powerful ones who had no fear of reproach were just watching.

nThey all believed that Feng Ren would ask for several sick days after he was wronged and he would get upset about it.

nWho could expect that he would just come back and act like nothing had happened? Nothing was different with him except the scab on his forehead. But the shrewd and experienced staff who had insight sighed and groaned about the truth.

nTheir emperor had really offended Feng Ren. What about the Head of the Secretariat?

nThere were uncountable members of the Feng family in critical political positions… Why would they care about a title of Head of the Secretariat?

nThe emperor never stopped dreading for a second about Feng Ren and the Feng’s behind his back, even though it appeared that he valued them extremely.

nIn that scenario, who could expect that the Feng’s would risk their lives for allegiance to his nation?

nFeng Ren didn’t storm out––not because he had a good temper, but simply because it was not worth being mad about.

nAs a result of the turmoil in Meng County, Cang Prefecture, the counties near Meng County took some impact of the turmoil as well. The citizens were destitute and suffering.

nThere were people shabbily dressed along the road and a large quantity of refugees fled to other counties, which caused potential security hazards to the local people. The roving bandits took advantage of the crisis and committed crimes; they did all manners of evil.

nHowever, Hejian County was relatively weird in that it was peaceful in such a circumstance.

nJiang Pengji took care of most of the bandits and recruited them into her troop selectively. Instead of turning them into a potential security hazard, their force was used to protect the peace in Hejiang County and the nearby area. It showed a calm and auspicious picture whilst the other places were still in disorder.

nThe limited purchase went well. The other gentry clan members found out that the one in charge of the action belonged to the Liu’s, but they chose not to react with in anger; they were scared of the Liu’s. What was more, not soon after, the grain store under the Weis’ name adjusted their price of grain willingly and they promptly enacted the limited purchase policy with a low grain price to the citizens as well.

n“They do know about returning a favor with a favor…”

nLiu She had a bland smile after he heard that.

nJiang Pengji had a thought and asked, “So you did help to match Jing’er and Feng Jin?”

nLiu She smacked his lips and responded, “Or what? The Wei’s wouldn’t cut to the point so easily if there wasn’t such a great deal being offered to them for a good man.”

nThe Wei’s neither tried to hurt her when she was trapped in the dilemma nor offered to help save her from getting out of it when Jiang Pengji started the limited purchase policy. Now they were doing it to show friendship. No single person would buy that there was nothing going on under the table between the two families.

n“I will reassure them that Jing’er is to be married to Feng Jin, considering his noble moral character––if it is so. Jing’er won’t be mistreated.”

nJiang Pengji didn’t think too much about it. What she was thinking was that it would be a hundred times better than Jing’er marrying a scumbag like Wuma Jun.

nAt least Feng Jin’s character was trustworthy.

nLiu She shook his head. He knew what a kind person his girl was. Under the current circumstance, it was the best option to make the marriage between Feng Jin and Wei Jingxian work. In the future, it was very likely his only little girl would be hurt, possibly twice…

nIt was too soon to say though. Who could predict their future?

nLiu She skipped the subject and said to Jiang Pengji, “There is only one more month before the fall harvest season. I will be off to the capital to see the emperor. You can ask your aunt to start preparing the stuff you will have a use for during the trip. It’s your first time leaving home for a trip and it won’t be harmful to be well-prepared.”

n“Yes.”

nLiu She continued, “You should pick some people from your troop to guard you during the trip. The rest of the troops can settle in Hejian County.”

nJiang Pengji’s troop had increased up to 1,500 people after her deliberate filtering.

nShe was not going to take all the 1,500 people with her. Only about 50 of them would be taken on the trip that time and the rest would stay where they were.

nJiang Pengji nodded. She had never planned to expose her force, anyway. The troop members’ capabilities were uneven and every single one of them would have to have special training to help polish them. She would do so even if Liu She didn’t mention it.

n“Don’t worry, father. I have given Xu Ke the order to choose the applicable entourage for me and the rest of them stay in Hejian County. I asked Qiguan Rang to take care of them for now.”

nQiguan Rang had not officially joined the gang, but Jiang Pengji wasn’t going to waste the human resources.

nXu Ke had to be with her for the trip, which left Meng Hun himself. He still had trouble keeping a troop with over 1,000 people in order, considering it was not his strength to handle internal affairs. What was more, his identity was still rather sensitive in the current situation. It was necessary for him to avoid the Meng’s, which meant, in most scenarios, he wouldn’t be able to show his face in public.

nFortunately, Qiguan Rang would be in Hejian County to take over some amount of Xu Ke’s work. She had no big worries left about her troop.

nEvery aspect of the preparation had started, even though the trip would be in more than a month.

nIt was a big deal to leave home for somewhere remote in the current era since it had undeveloped transportation and information sharing system.

nJiang Pengji was used to streaming everyday. Her days had been monotonous and tedious. No one or anything fun had appeared in her life, either. Most of the streaming time was viewers entertaining themselves by sending bullet screens. Jiang Pengji occasionally worked on the job at hand and she killed her time by watching the bullet screens from the viewers.

nTime flew and the harvest season was just at the door. The grain fields were full of yellow grain and farm hands were working at every corner of the fields.

nThe curtain of the limited purchase, which had lasted for two months, finally fell and the grain price went back to normal. The stress in everyone’s heart was finally released as well. All the citizens in the county, including the adults and children, wore a delighted and relieved smile. They could forget about the chaos still going on outside of Hejian County temporarily.

nThe size of the troop basically stabilized at more or less than 1,500. The main mission in their daily life was to train, plus some occasional additional work––like working in the fields.

nSince the civil turmoil wasn’t productively suppressed, the citizens were still dealing with threats from the outside. The citizens were in a rush to harvest their grain just in case the grain they put a whole year of effort into would be destroyed because of their delayed work. The shortage of the workers made it hard to catch up.

nJiang Pengji overheard some farm hands talking about it, so she discussed the matter with Xu Ke and they both agreed to rent out their troops for doing the farm work. They had the strength and stamina to do the labor work as long as they were well fed.

nXu Ke was speechless at the beginning.

nHe felt shame at knowing the Langjun, especially since he worked for the weirdo.

nWhat was more outrageous was that his Langjun was curious and wanted to try doing the farm work when he saw the farm hands busy in the field.

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