Yi Xin as a concubine

Chapter 210 Before Ascending the Throne

Because the North prepared early and the war ended early, Mo Xuan Yifan had already arranged the border as early as the end of October, and came back to report on his work. Now he is leading people to resettle refugees everywhere.

General Xu has also made it clear that he will surrender, but the condition is that he must guarantee that the Xu family army will not change hands within ten years, that is, before his grandson comes of age, even if he dies of old age or in battle. At the same time, the Xu family army also promised to guard the northern border forever and never betray.

Nowadays, all the territories within the northern region are garrisoned by reliable men sent by General Xu, and new recruits who are constantly recruited from the refugees can also enter the military camp for formal training, ensuring a steady output of troops so as not to hollow out the border defenders, and there is no need to worry that the new recruits will become cannon fodder.

In an era of rapid population decline, every person is precious.

The North was completely settled, and the policy of resettling refugees was promoted everywhere. The refugees and local people who had been hiding came out from their hiding places, and asked around tremblingly, fearing that all this was a scam. It would give them hope, but then make them despair again, and they might really not be able to survive anymore.

Fortunately, the ending was good. They were happily received into villages that had been arranged in advance. There was nothing in them except empty houses. Someone registered with them at the village entrance and allocated houses, bedding, cotton clothes, and food rations for the next two days according to the number of people.

It's not that there is no way to provide more food, but these refugees have experienced too much robbery and viciousness along the way. Even families may not be united, let alone neighborhood relationships. With limited military forces and money and food, it is better to be on the safe side.

In order to avoid being arranged to cause trouble in a village, the villagers who had previously stuck together were arranged together as much as possible. Each group has a person who has the final say, either the patriarch of a large family, or a once respected elder in a village, the village chief, etc. In short, the existence of such a group of people at this stage can at least ensure the temporary stability of the villagers, and that they will have someone to give orders and obey arrangements.

Give them two days to recover their strength and tidy up their own homes, and then they will start eating from the same pot. Houses that have been vacant for a long time will have more or less problems, so the laborers who have recovered their strength will be arranged to work in batches, and the women and children will also have their own assignments, so as to keep everyone busy so that they have no time to cause trouble. At the same time, working together can speed up the integration of this group of people and enable the village to resume production and life faster.

In order to help Chu Xingchen, Xin Baoer pushed out all the secret guards she could use and more than thirty young chicks that had not yet been released from the cage, under the pretext of going out for training. These girls would serve as her personal guards in the future, and they had to have abilities in all aspects. Settling the refugees was really the perfect experience for them.

They used to be the most simple people. Suffering and hardship were not an act. However, they also experienced sufferings like purgatory on earth. They have witnessed all the evil things in the world and even participated in these evil things personally for various reasons. They are suspicious and wary of everyone, like hedgehogs trapped in one place, ready to hurt anyone who approaches them at any time.

The girls are all relatively young, but they have all been through a lot of hardships. Wei Yu gave them redemption, and she hopes that in the process of settling the refugees, they can also give redemption to others, so that the hostility deep in their bones can be eliminated. Although they are her bodyguards, she still hopes to have more sunny and good girls around her, rather than female Rakshasas.

While things were busy in full swing outside, Chengping County was also not peaceful. This small county town was about to welcome a future king, so its reputation naturally rose. More and more people came and went, and the hotels and restaurants that had not been open for many years finally became popular.

Xin Baoer has been busy recently recording the knowledge from the books and videos she read in her previous life into a book, which she plans to give to Chu Xingchen before she leaves, hoping to help him revitalize the North as soon as possible.

Now the manor was to be converted into a royal palace. Except for the small courtyard where they lived, every place was newly decorated with lights and decorations everywhere. It looked like there was a happy event going on. This also caused a lot of noise everywhere, and even the small courtyard where Xin Baoer and the others lived was not spared.

Lancao, Zhaoxian and Lianrong were the three little girls who were very curious. They went out to see it several times, but when they came back they all cried out that it was an eyesore and complained that Xiang Qing, a daughter of a scholarly family, had turned the palace into something resembling that of a nouveau riche, which was really shameful.

Xin Baoer originally wanted to go out and take a look, but after listening to the descriptions of several people, she completely gave up the idea. She had almost arranged everything for her departure, so it would be better to avoid trouble at this time. It would be bad to create unnecessary trouble.

Seeing that she stayed in the house all day and was in a depressed mood, the maids were afraid that she would get sick. Thinking that the streets were now a little lively, they forced her to go out for a walk.

Xin Baoer never goes out. When she came out for the first time, she felt a rare bit of freshness. It was already late when she went out, so Xin Baoer finally waved her hand and decided to just do it outside.

The five masters and servants entered a restaurant which seemed to have several tables of guests, and found a quiet corner to sit down. Xin Baoer drank her tea quietly, listening to the chattering of a few little girls talking about the journey, and occasionally listening to a few words from the guests around her.

"Hey, have you heard? Our Prince Dingbei is very young. He has only one wife and one concubine in his mansion, and now he has only one child. Once he ascends the throne in a few days, he will probably have to hold a beauty contest like the emperor." A man said with a smile while leisurely picking up peanuts.

"No, they are all men. When a man has power and status, he can't do without beautiful women to accompany him. What he said about doing it for the people and the country is all bullshit." Another man put down his wine glass, his tone full of disdain.

"Alas, I heard that several wealthy landlords have brought their daughters here, saying that they are here to attend the prince's coronation ceremony. But in reality, huh, it's Sima Zhao's intention!" The last man at the table also spoke up.

After the three people at this table finished talking, several men at another table also joined in the fun and said, "Speaking of this King Dingbei, I heard that he is an orphan of the Chu family of the previous dynasty, and is said to be a royal grandson with pure blood."

"What's the point of being the grandson of the emperor? I don't know what will happen to the Northland if he gets it. The royal family has always been the best at enjoying themselves, or fighting for power and profit. They don't care about the lives of ordinary people like us. In my opinion, it would be better for some righteous man to rise up and at least fight for a few full meals for the people."

The man shook his head as he spoke, sounding very serious. Xin Baoer felt a little angry. Chu Xingchen had obviously been trying so hard to make life better for the people in the north, yet there were still people who made malicious assumptions about him.

But before Xin Baoer could open her mouth to refute, a man at a table in the distance stood up and walked over, saying with a gossipy look on his face, "What this brother said is not entirely true. I heard that this prince has done a lot for the North. The seeds planted in the spring of the past two years, including those new grains, were all brought to the North by him. Even General Xu willingly surrendered to him."

"General Xu is a man of noble character and loves his people like his own children. In the past few years, he has taken good care of and protected the nearby villagers. It's just that human power is limited. If the newcomer can make him surrender, it should be a good thing." A man said pertinently.

"Who says it's not true? As long as he can make us eat vegetables every day like before, eat meat every now and then, and eat in restaurants, we will obey him. Whoever becomes the emperor has nothing to do with us. We will follow whoever can make us live a good life."

"That's true. Come on, brother, let's go."

Xin Baoer finished listening to the conversations of the people around her. The food had already been served. There were four dishes and one soup, with cabbage, radish and dried vegetables. There was really nothing to eat. The only meat dish was greasy and disgusting. The soup was not much different from water.

Xin Baoer and a few maids had lived a good life in the past few years and had never eaten such food, so naturally they couldn't eat it. Even Xiao Lianrong, who had just lived a few months of good life, frowned tightly, looking embarrassed as if she didn't know how to pick up her chopsticks.

However, in a public setting, they couldn't show their disgust too obviously. After all, there were still many people who had no food. The master and servants could only eat a few bites each symbolically so that it didn't look too wasteful, and then they got up and left in a hurry.