Chapter 308: Not a Long-term Solution
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
There was only two hours to rest. Everyone took advantage of the available river water to quickly cook
It was too wasteful of firewood and time-consuming if they made other types of food.
Auntie Yang set up a large pot to cook instant noodles.
The others did the same. They felt that it was convenient to cook instant noodles, so they set up a big pot to cook instant noodles.
Not long after, the rich fragrance of the instant noodles spread around.
The prisoners, who could only eat dry rations, could only swallow their saliva repeatedly.
Feng Yue and Feng Xun had never smelled such a unique delicacy. They craned their necks forward and asked the soldiers guarding them, “What kind of
Central Plain food is this?”
The dark guard disguised as a soldier ignored them. His cold expression did not reveal anything.
Feng Yue and Feng Xun were furious at their failed attempt to get a response.
They looked at the people around them holding bowls of noodles and slurping on them. They swallowed their saliva and looked at the dry rations in their hands that could choke someone to death. Instant noodles were simply a delicacy.
Zhao Pengfei finished sucking the noodles and drank the soup happily. Feng
Yue could not help but say to the soldiers again, “We want to eat that too!”
The soldier still ignored them. Feng Yue angrily smashed the other party’s head with the lump of dry rations in her hand, but the soldier easily caught it. He casually threw it away and accurately stuffed the entire lump of dry rations into her mouth.
If eyes could kill, the soldier would have died thousands of times from Feng Yue’s glare.
She took out the dry rations in her mouth and cursed indignantly, “You Central Plains people are indeed hypocrites. What do you mean by treating prisoners well? It’s all bullsh*t!”
The soldier suddenly turned around. His cold gaze made Feng Xun’s heart skip a beat. He subconsciously used his body to block in front of his sister.
Feng Yue was still mumbling and cursing, “What are you looking at? If you have the ability, kill me, coward!”
She was confident that these Central Plains people were afraid of the Heavenly Wolf Army and did not dare to act rashly.
Suddenly, the soldier stood up and said the only thing to the siblings that day,
“Treat the captives well. I know how to do that too.”
Feng Yue’s eyes lit up. “Then hurry up and serve my food!”
As soon as she finished speaking, the only dry rations in her hand and Feng Xun’s hand were taken away by the soldiers.
She looked confused. ‘What do you want to do?”
The officer only replied with a cold gaze. Only then did Feng Yue realize that the officer’s so-called treating them well was just the opposite of what he was doing. He had taken away the dry rations because he planned to starve them for a few meals.
Feng Yue cursed, “Stupid man, I’ll kill you sooner or later! When my father comes, I’ll definitely skin all of you alive.”
The soldier suddenly took out two lumps of linen from his pocket, intending to gag them.
Feng Yue’s eyes widened and she immediately shut her chattering mouth.
After Feng Yue became obedient, the world fell silent again.
At this moment, someone sent a bowl of noodles to the soldiers and they started eating in front of the siblings.
The siblings swallowed and suddenly felt hungry, but their only dry rations were gone.
Feng Yue wanted to curse again, but she did not dare to say anything when her gaze landed on the piece of linen that was sticking out from the soldier’s arms.
Feng Xun stared at the cobblestones in silence, as if they could be eaten. Feng Yue felt a little guilty. If she hadn’t provoked the soldiers, she wouldn’t have made her brother starve together with her.
Suddenly, Feng Xun spoke. He requested the soldier, “1 want to see your lord! ” The soldier looked up at him, put down the bowl, and ignored him.
Feng Xun emphasized again, “1 really have something important to say to your lord, don’t you like rocks? We can bring you to find the best rocks.”
The soldier seemed to have taken his words to heart and asked another person to look for You Huaijie.
Feng Xun went straight to the point when talking to You Huaijie. “As long as you let us go, we’ll give you an entire mine. You’ll have endless wealth.”
“Our mines don’t only have these small rocks. Don’t you Central Plains people like to carve big rocks into all kinds of jade artifacts? The ores in the mine can let you live in a house made of jade artifacts for several lifetimes.”
“How about it? Let the two of us go and have a huge mine alone. It’s worth it, right?”
You Huaijie did not show any excitement. He only asked coldly, “Where is the mine?”
However, Feng Xun thought that he was pretending to be serious. Which high-ranking official in the Central Plains was not greedy and l.u.s.tful? Feng Xun said, “As long as you let us go first, we’ll tell you immediately.”
“The southern frontier belongs to the Ling Kingdom. The mine rightfully belongs to our Ling Kingdom. Even if you don’t tell us, we will find out in the future.”
You Huaijie suddenly had no intention of continuing the conversation. He turned around and left.
Feng Xun gritted his teeth and refused to call You Huaijie back. He didn’t believe that You Huaijie could hold it in.
That was a huge fortune. When You Huaijie couldn’t wait to know where the mine was, he would definitely let them go.
You Huaijie told Bai Wutong and Chu Tianbao what Feng Xun had said. Bai Wutong chuckled and looked at the mountain range in front of the hidden river. “Isn’t the mine just there?”
She had not learned her elementary level geography for nothing. A portion of minerals would be formed after a volcanic eruption, and a portion would flow out along the river. After being washed by the river, it would form round pebbles. The Hetian jade were formed by the constant flow of the river water. They were different from the ores in the mine, but it did not mean that the Hetian jade was inferior to the ores.
On the contrary, some Hetian jade with very good texture and color were even much more expensive than a huge mine.
Since there were Hetian jade in the hidden river, the direction where the river water flowed down was naturally the origin of the jade mine.
Everyone looked in the direction of Bai Wutong. You Huaijie asked, “Should we send someone to guard the mountain range?”
Bai Wutong shook her head. “We only have this amount of manpower in total. We still have to escort the commoners to the southern frontier. We can’t spare anyone to guard a huge mountain range anymore.”
Even if they could get the army to transfer a portion of their men and keep watching, it was not a long-term solution.
However, it was impossible to leave such a huge mine alone. If the royal family’s private a.s.sets fell into the hands of others, You Huaijie would be punished by the emperor as he did not watch over them well.
Bai Wutong looked for Sheng Huaixuan and asked him what he could do.
“We don’t have enough manpower now. How can we gain control over the jade mine?”
He knew a lot about jade mines and might have a good idea.
Sheng Huaixuan said, “Although the jade mine is the private property of the royal family, the processing, transportation, carving, and so on require extra manpower. Lord You can control the jade mine and hand over the process of digging and processing the jade mine to the merchants. Even if it’s processing the jade mine, it’s still operating the jade business for the royal family. There will be huge profits from selling the leftovers. Driven by interests, the merchants will take the initiative to send people to the southern frontier to develop the jade mine. This way, apart from grazing, the people of the southern frontier also have another work industry created. ”
Bai Wutong’s eyes lit up. “Is Master Yu alright?’
Yu Suisheng was Sheng Huaixuan’s subordinate. Handing over the control to Yu Suisheng was equivalent to giving the control to Sheng Huaixuan..