95They're so easy to swindle money from!
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Chapter 95 This money is too easy to swindle!
At this moment, Song Hu had just returned to the army camp.
Since Song Hu had just left, no one stopped him when he came in, thinking he had forgotten something or needed to find the leader for some matter.
Not long after Song Hu entered the courtyard, he saw Fan Rui being dragged out and beheaded with a single stroke.
After witnessing this scene, Song Hu turned and went back.
Entering the inn, Song Hu said with some excitement.
"It's divine, truly divine! That Fan Rui really was killed!"
Shen Yulou was overjoyed!
"Did you see clearly?"
"I saw clearly!"
"Good, we'll return home tomorrow!"
...Early the next morning, Shen Yulou arrived at the prefecture yamen.
He swaggered into the Prefect's room.
Hu Jingsheng was currently eating breakfast. Hearing that Shen Yulou had arrived, he didn't even have time to put on his coat and quickly went out to greet him.
"Lord Shen, why have you come so early?"
Shen Yulou looked at the lavish spread of dishes on his table and sneered.
"Now that there are rebel forces attacking here, I didn't expect Lord Hu to still be able to enjoy six dishes for breakfast. How extravagant."
Hu Jingsheng's expression changed slightly. His breakfast was indeed a bit too rich, especially during wartime. Normally, a single breakfast would consist of over a dozen dishes.
As the saying goes, 'the sky is high and the Emperor is far away,' he was practically a local emperor here, living a very carefree life.
But now that Shen Yulou had arrived, he naturally had to be a bit more restrained.
"Lord Shen, what are you saying? Please come in, let's eat together."
Shen Yulou naturally didn't stand on ceremony. Qingqing and Song Hu were also foodies; they had enjoyed themselves immensely when they ate at Minister Hu's house before.
They had originally thought that only those of Lord Minister's level could live such a wealthy life.
But they hadn't expected that a Prefect's home would also be so luxurious.
While the three were eating, Hu Jingsheng quickly gave his wife a look.
Before long, his wife brought out a box of silver notes and placed it beside Shen Yulou.
"Lord Shen, these are some local specialties from Tianyuan Prefecture. Please accept them."
Shen Yulou opened the box and glanced inside, a cold smile appearing on his face.
"These specialties are quite good, but our family has a lot of people. I wonder if there's enough to go around."
Hu Jingsheng gritted his teeth and quickly gestured to his wife.
His wife immediately returned to the room, and after a while, brought out another box.
"Lord Shen, this humble official doesn't have many specialties left. Please bear with me, Lord Shen."
Shen Yulou opened the second box and glanced inside; it was another ten thousand taels of silver notes.
The two boxes contained a total of thirty thousand taels of silver notes. Shen Yulou nodded, signaling Qingqing to put them away.
Qingqing forcibly suppressed the joy in her heart and put the money away.
She and the Princess had been impoverished for over ten years and had never seen so much money.
Lord Shen had just come out and casually swindled a bit, and with what Bai Fan had given earlier, he had instantly gotten thirty-five thousand taels. Was this money too easy to get?
Once Shen Yulou and the Princess were married, all this money would be theirs!
After collecting the money and eating their fill, Shen Yulou finally began to speak of serious matters.
"I went to the moats yesterday and saw that they are putting anesthetics into the moats.
You must now collect all the tea leaves in Tianyuan Prefecture, continuously boil water to brew strong tea, and pour the strong tea into the moats. The enemy's sinister plot will then collapse on its own!"
Hu Jingsheng was instantly stunned, "Lord Shen, is it really that simple?"
"It is that simple."
When Shen Yulou went to the army tents yesterday, he had already smelled the scent of datura flowers in their tents.
Datura flowers are the main ingredient for anesthetics, and also the main ingredient for anesthetics.
They were storing large quantities of datura flowers in the army, clearly for making anesthetics.
When this anesthetic is put into the water supply of the common people and soldiers, after dilution, they won't faint after drinking it, but they will be weak all over.
Long-term consumption would cause great harm to their bodies, even posing a health problem, let alone fighting outside the city.
As long as they consume strong tea, the toxicity can be neutralized.
By pouring strong tea into the moats, and having the common people and soldiers of Qinghe County drink it orally at the same time, the poisoning effects can be immediately alleviated.
As long as they hold out for another day or two, reinforcements will arrive, and then the Black Mountain Army will only be able to flee.
Although strong tea cannot completely detoxify, it only needs to alleviate the symptoms to solve the immediate crisis.
As for their ultimate fate, Shen Yulou didn't care at all.
He only cared about two things.
The first was to kill that cheap uncle.
The second was to complete the mission given to him by the Emperor.
His trip to the front lines this time was only to solve the problem of the soldiers being poisoned.
Now that the source of the poisoning had been found and the solution had been told to the Prefect, the rest of the matters had nothing to do with him.
In Shen Yulou's judgment, as long as the imperial court sent troops to suppress them, the Black Mountain Army clearly wouldn't be able to hold out for long.
Attacking a county town was so difficult; for the imperial court, it was not worth mentioning at all, so Shen Yulou had no need to worry.
As long as this matter kept the Princess out of it, all would be well.
After formulating a detoxification plan for the Prefect, Shen Yulou and the other two rode their horses straight back to the Imperial City.
As Qinghe County grew farther and farther away, Qingqing was a little disbelieving.
"Are we going back so soon?"
She had originally thought it would take a long time, perhaps even staying in Qinghe County for a period.
But she hadn't expected that they didn't even go to Qinghe County, only visited two places on the outskirts, and the mission was completed?
Shen Yulou smiled, "If you're reluctant to leave your hometown, you can stay a few more days."
Qingqing pouted. She hadn't seen the Princess for several days and missed her greatly. She didn't want to stay in this backward place at all.
After traveling for a day, they arrived back at the inn they had stayed in before.
After tying up the horses, Qingqing walked into the inn and said.
"Waiter, two rooms."
Song Hu:??
...After dinner, Qingqing counted the silver notes in her room over and over again.
"Lord, with so much money, how do you think we should spend it when we go back?"
Shen Yulou said, "Naturally, we should first train a group of household guards. The Princess should have the right to train household guards, right?"
Qingqing was stunned for a moment, then said.
"Yes, she does. The Emperor had previously promised that the Princess could have household guards, but the number must not exceed twenty."
Shen Yulou nodded. Twenty was not many, but it was enough.
Most of the princes and nobles in the capital basically had household guards, but these household guards were all good-for-nothings, purely for show.
Their role was merely to enhance their prestige when traveling, completely different from the Imperial Guards led by Li Hui.
Although the household guards could not exceed twenty, if these twenty people were all top experts, like Song Hu, then their strength should definitely not be underestimated.
However, this matter had to be kept low-key. Previously, Emperor Ren had been relatively lax in managing the household guards of these princes and nobles.
But after Emperor Ren was assassinated in the palace last time, he was probably a bit like a startled bird, so recruiting household guards would definitely have to be done secretly.
Shen Yulou said, "Alright, we'll talk about spending money when we get home."
"Let's follow the routine: wash face, wash feet, sleep."
Qingqing: "What about the trial marriage?"
Shen Yulou:?