Chapter 41: The Sensational Movement in Daxing

  As Yang You's carriage slowly disappeared into the distance, news of Crown Prince's arrival in Duling spread like wildfire through the small town.

  This is a rare event in Duling for hundreds of years. The royal family appeared in Duling, which can be traced back to a very, very long time ago.

  As news slowly spread, all the truth gradually came out.

  "Du Ruhui is really lucky, after resigning from office, he can still get the appreciation of King Wang and be personally invited, if only I were the one being invited!" thought a repeatedly failed scholar with a foolish heart.

  "It's really a delight, the Du family father and son have done all sorts of evil things. This time, they will be punished by Prince Dai, it's truly a delight." A farmer who had just retrieved his own land said with hatred, thinking that he should build a temple for Prince Dai in the future.

  "What a pity that golden ingot was used on those two worthless people! It's worth 100,000 yuan!" Someone with a love for wealth couldn't help but feel pain, as if the 100,000 yuan had come out of his own pocket.

  As time passed, the news spread to Daxing, and the whole city of Daxing was stirred.

  Everyone who heard the news was stunned, and the crown prince was really good at making things happen. Including the time when he repaired the brick road, this is already his third time causing a sensation in Daxing in just half a month.

  Everyone began to look forward to it, and three days later, the trial was held. Everyone wanted to know how fair and just the trial of 100,000 yuan would be.

  Yang Jier, the second protagonist of this matter, privately left the palace and even went drifting with someone, received a punishment of being confined for a month, and is now sulking.

  As the third protagonist of this matter, Du Ruhui's everything was spread far and wide by people. His origin, his youthful fame, his experience of resigning from office, all were talked about with relish.

  Some people have already guessed that this brick road leading to Du's tomb was specially built by King Dai for the purpose of inviting Du Ruhui out of retirement.

  "I knew it, I was right!" Dr. Wang exclaimed excitedly, clenching his fist and saying proudly to his fellow scholar companions.

  The other scholars hung their heads in defeat, unable to refute him. At the time, they also felt that something was off about this brick road, but on paper, there wasn't a single error. Everyone gave up and automatically went after those fat-headed, big-eared officials who looked like corrupt bureaucrats.

  "This time I'll let you off, but you didn't gain anything this time either. This brick road was specifically built by order of the Crown Prince, are you going to go look for trouble with the Crown Prince?" The others all burst out laughing.

  Dr. Wang suddenly hung his head in despair.

  Duling is under the jurisdiction of Daxing, and the case of Du Ruping's father and son was hosted by the Daxing County Government. As the chief judge, Su Sheng specially handed over the settlement work of the refugees to the main thin, and he himself concentrated on collecting evidence for Du Ruping, preparing for three days with all his heart.

  "Wasn't my previous trial unfair and unjust?" Su Sheng couldn't help but wonder.

  As for the fair and just trial of the Crown Prince, Su Sheng was quite curious about what it would be like. Now, the people from the East Palace have sealed off their own hall, saying that they will hold the trial three days later.

  Everything is becoming more and more mysterious, everyone has started to look forward to the trial three days later.

  As soon as Du Ruhui stepped into the Disaster Relief Agency, everyone's eyes focused on him. After resigning from his official position, he was still able to make the Crown Prince personally come to ask him to return to office; what kind of person wouldn't arouse curiosity?

  Du Ruhui couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh, this kind of attention from the crowd made him quite uncomfortable. Fortunately, he wasn't an ordinary person, after a brief pause in his heart, he immediately recovered and walked in as if nothing had happened.

  When he saw Du Ruhui arrive, Xu Dang stepped forward and said: "Du sir, please follow me, the Crown Prince is already waiting for you!"

  Under Xu Duan's lead, Du Ruhui arrived at Yang You's private room. Outside the room, Dong Yue stood upright, devoted to his duty. Seeing Du Ruhui arrive, he pushed open the door and invited him in.

  "Thank you, Commander Dong!" Du Ruhui hastily paid his respects.

  "Governor Du is being polite!"

  Dong Yue didn't dare to slack off, he knew that King's Highness valued Du Ruhui so much, and for this future big shot, how could he not be polite.

  Du Ruhui entered the room and quietly took a look around. The room was not luxurious, but rather simple, with files stored everywhere.

  In the middle of the room, three chairs were placed. Yang You sat in front of a red wood table in the middle, wearing casual clothes, holding that legendary Peacock Feather brush and writing hastily, while a eunuch was grinding ink beside him.

  This should be Wang Xi, the close attendant of the Crown Prince, Du Ruhui guessed, as a member of the aristocracy, he would naturally know clearly about some important figures around Yang You.

  At another table sat an old man in his fifties or sixties, wearing a fifth-grade official uniform, who should be Yang You serving as a reader for Yao Si-lian.

  Yao Suliang saw Du Ruhui come in, took a measure of this person who was going to take over his work, and although he was curious about this young man who had caused such a stir in the city, Yao Suliang nodded at him in a friendly manner.

  Du Ruhui bowed his head in response, polite and courteous, without losing the demeanor of a noble family.

  "On behalf of Your Highness, Du Ruhui has arrived!" Wang Xi reported in a low voice to Yang You.

  "Let him get familiar with the previous cases first, I have a lot of homework to catch up on!" Yang You didn't even lift his head, continuing to write quickly.

  Yang You took Yang Jier out privately, which almost caused a conflict. Wei Fei and Wei Wensheng were extremely angry with Yang You's behavior and jointly implemented severe punishment.

  Two heavy tasks are enough for an ordinary person to write for a month, but fortunately, Yang You had a super cheat - Peacock Feather.

  The speed of a hard pen is not comparable to that of a brush pen. Even so, Yang You still needs three days to complete it.

  A month's homework finished in three days, if this speed gets out, those junior high school students will be excited to death.

  Wang Xi put down his ink-grinding work and brought Du Ruhui to the only empty table, where various documents were already laid out on the surface.

  Du Ruhui couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. It seemed that he wouldn't have a moment of peace for the next three days either.

  Three days of time slipped away quietly amidst the scratching sounds of a hard brush on rice paper.

  In these three days, Yao Suli was thoroughly convinced by Du Ruhui. Things that were usually difficult for him to do in front of himself were easily solved by Du Ruhui's hands, and even done better than he could have done.

  Yao Si Lian couldn't help but feel curious, how did the Crown Prince know that Du Ruhui was a talented individual and used him without any hesitation, his vision is really astonishing.

  On the contrary, in these three days, Du Ruhui was thoroughly convinced by Yang You's super speed. He originally thought that his brush calligraphy was already fast enough to be used, but in front of Yang You, his speed could only be considered as snail speed.

  It seems that from now on I will have to follow the Crown Prince, and my own calligraphy can be thrown away. No matter how beautiful it is, no matter how accustomed I am to it, it's useless.

  Because it's too slow, it can't keep up with the speed of Dai Wang Gong. It's not just Du Ruhui who has this idea, anyone who has seen Yang You write will involuntarily feel a sense of powerlessness.

  A wave of learning hard pen calligraphy quietly shifted from book lovers and junior high school students to officialdom, with the earliest origin starting from the disaster relief agency.

  Later generations have statistics, the king's ability to unify the world in a short period of time is largely due to the popularity of hard brushes, because the use of hard brushes greatly improved the administrative efficiency of officials, allowing them to complete more tasks in the shortest possible time.

  ……

  Fengyang County

  Daxie County, under the Huqiu Ridge, in an unnamed valley.

  The flames of war had just died down, and the entire battlefield was a scene of utter devastation.

  At last they won, all the officers and soldiers cheered, Pang Yu let out a breath of relief, finally winning the first battle, not disappointing King Dai's heavy trust.

  Tiger Hill Ridge is the lair of Sun Hua's thieves, with a treacherous terrain that is easy to defend but hard to attack.

  Before that, the attacks by Fengyi County's officers and soldiers had all failed due to the terrain. After Pang Yu arrived, he did not rush into battle but instead adopted a strategy of siege.

  The officials of Fengyi County had some complaints about this, because the grain and grass for the official army of Daxing were all borne by Fengyi County. The longer the officials of Daxing stayed, the more grain and grass they consumed, which was a considerable expense.

  Sun Hua's bandit forces were only slightly over 10,000, while the combined forces of Daxing and the original forces of Fengyi Commandery totaled more than 20,000, so it can be said that the government forces had an advantage in terms of numbers.

  But after Pang Yu arrived, there was not even a probing attack, and he directly set up camp at the foot of Huqiu Ridge, as if preparing for a protracted war.

  This made the officials of Fengyuan Prefecture, who had long fantasized about the arrival of elite troops to quickly crush and annihilate Sun Hua's bandits, extremely dissatisfied, and even believed that Pang Yu was intentionally delaying time.

  Pang Yu and the officials of Fengyi County had a sharp conflict, until Yang You collected a large amount of money through the disaster relief office and directly sent 200,000 guan of military salary, after which the officials of Fengyi County shut their mouths.

  Along with the military supplies came Yang Yu's orders, which had only one meaning: victory.

  No matter how long it takes, as long as we win, this makes Pang Yu's heart more solid and his strategy of siege more determined.

  These bandits relied on temporary bravery to maintain their strong fighting power, but in fact, they were also full of internal contradictions, with various factions standing out, and Sun Hua was just the largest leader among them.

  Locking these people in a cage, how can nothing go wrong!

  As expected, after more than ten days, Sun Hua and others finally couldn't bear it anymore and began to probe the attack on the government troops, but were defeated by Pang Yu who was well-prepared.

  "Reporting to General, our army has won a great victory, annihilating over 1,200 enemy soldiers." The soldier who was counting the spoils of war came to report.

  Pang Yu nodded, this victory was within reason, the officers and soldiers were well-equipped and well-trained, all of which were beyond what those bandits could match.

  "How were our casualties?" Pang Yu asked.

  "Wounded over 100 people, killed 30." The soldier replied with a heavy heart.

  Soldiers die on the battlefield, this is inevitable. Even if it has already been a great victory, it still cannot avoid the sacrifice of casualties.

  "Bury him heavily!" Pang Yu ordered with a heavy heart.

  Next. It's time to implement the second plan.

  The bandits on Tiger Hill Ridge have now witnessed the powerful combat strength of the government army, and those who have never seen the world should be panicked.

  The rabbit is desperate and will bite people, at this time as long as you give them a glimmer of hope, they will definitely split internally.

  "Pass down the order, by the command of His Highness King Wang, all bandits who surrender at Tiger Hill this month will be granted a special amnesty, and their past crimes will not be held against them." Pang Yu ordered his deputy general.

  "Yes." The deputy general quickly took note and departed with the order.

  This is Yang You's second help to Pang Yu, a special amnesty order. Familiar with history, Yang You knew that military strikes alone could not succeed, and the best way to defeat the enemy was to use both carrot and stick, a trick that would be repeatedly used by a certain superpower in later generations.

  With this order, Pang Yu had already seen a glimmer of hope for victory and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

  The soldiers who sent the express report have been dispatched, and it is believed that after the news of victory returns to Daxing, it will surely cause a sensation.