The Prince Who Wasn't Supposed to Survive Chapter 9

The journey to Liangzhou took more than half a month, and the original team of 5,000 people grew larger and larger.

By the time they reached the outskirts of Liangzhou City, the group had expanded to 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Although Ethan Yun only has less than 5,000 personal soldiers, if these 20,000 people really want to steal food, it is not impossible.

But those who sneaked in with bad intentions and other purposes had long been caught by Ethan Yun, and the rest were just ordinary people who were honest and decent. Since His Royal Highness King Xia promised to give them food, they also kept their promise and followed King Xia to the outside of the pass.

The days on the road were dull and uninteresting, but on the faces of these people, the previous expressions of displacement and uncertainty were no longer seen. They were all filled with smiles and chatted with each other.

"Xiaofei's mother, you are so lucky. Xiaofei knows how to show off in front of His Majesty at such a young age. He will be amazing when he grows up."

This statement is somewhat sarcastic.

After the woman finished speaking, she couldn't help but look at the largest carriage in front, feeling both envious and regretful. If she had known that she would have moved forward that day, it would have been great if His Highness had held her child.

"Xiao Fei's mother," the woman said, unable to help rolling her eyes, "Goudan has been talking about Xiao Fei every day recently. When Xiao Fei goes to see His Highness tomorrow, take Goudan with him."

Xiao Fei's mother, Mrs. Zhao, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her hand and glanced at Goudan in the woman's arms. She saw Goudan rubbing his snot on his mother's clothes, and the woman didn't care at all.

Zhao: ...How dare you send it to His Highness like this?

Zhao shook the package on her back and continued on her way, saying in a neutral tone, "Xiao Fei is still a child, what does he know? It's just that Your Highness is kind and asked him to recite some texts to relieve his boredom. If your Goudan wants to go, he has to recite more books."

Goudan's mother was blocked by Zhao and took a few quick steps in a huff, muttering as she walked: "It's nothing great, huh." She distanced herself from Zhao and went to talk to someone else.

At this moment, the crisp voice of a four-year-old child was heard from Ethan Yun's carriage.

"First, filial piety and respect for elders, then knowledge and experience. Knowing certain numbers and recognizing certain characters..."

Ethan Yun felt drowsy after listening to it, it was like a lullaby.

Just when Xiao Li Fei was stuck, Lu Changshi lifted the curtain and came in to report.

"Your Highness, we will reach Liangzhou City in another quarter of an hour. We need to replenish a lot of supplies for this trip. In addition to the food consumed during this period, we also need to replenish some winter supplies and herbs."

Ethan Yun nodded, indicating that he could do whatever he wanted.

However, when they arrived at the city, the guards of Liangzhou City refused to open the city gate because they were too many in number.

Twenty to thirty thousand people stood outside the city, and those who didn't know would have thought it was an enemy attack.

It was not until Lu Changshi handed over the business card that the guard gave in and decided to report to his superior first.

Ethan Yun waited in the car for another cup of tea, and the gate of Liangzhou City finally opened slowly. Then the governor of Liangzhou came out with his men to greet them in person.

He knew that His Royal Highness Prince Xia would pass through Liangzhou to go to his fiefdom in Xizhou, but he could not understand why His Royal Highness Prince Xia's team suddenly became 30,000 people.

After paying respect to Ethan Yun, the governor of Liangzhou could not help but glance at the ragged people and asked uncertainly, "Are these refugees who escaped from Yuanzhou?"

Ethan Yun nodded, "They are going to go to Xizhou with me. Please, Governor, make it convenient for the people of Xizhou."

The Governor of Liangzhou could not help but secretly look at the handsome young man in front of him, and thought: At first I thought he was a kind-hearted person who was always doing good deeds, but I didn't expect him to be so far-sighted.

Liangzhou City is an important border town and also the largest military town in Dayong. There are more than 30,000 regular garrison troops, and the total number of residents of all kinds in the city is as high as 200,000.

As the governor of Liangzhou City, he understood the importance of population better than anyone else.

Liangzhou also accepted some refugees, but most of them went east, and few people came to Liangzhou.

His Royal Highness the King of Xia had already started trying to find ways to increase the population of Xizhou before he even arrived there.

He never expected that these refugees would willingly follow King Xia and travel thousands of miles to the more remote Western Province.

Since they were refugees who had been registered in Xizhou, the governor of Liangzhou was not worried. He ordered his men to open the city gates and let these people in.

The Hexi area is long and narrow, with the Qilian Mountains covered with snow all year round in the north and the majestic Kunlun Mountains in the south. The snow on the Qilian Mountains melted to form a flat and narrow plain, so the Hexi area is the throat connecting the Central Plains and the West.

Liangzhou and other four cities are important towns built on this throat. If you want to go to Xizhou from the Central Plains, there is only one way.

So many people entering the city together still attracted the attention of the people of Liangzhou, especially Ethan Yun who was sitting on a tall horse, which made people along the way stop and look.

Ethan Yun took in all these inquiring and surprised looks.

Because a large amount of supplies were needed, the group had to stay in Liangzhou for three days.

The governor of Liangzhou warmly invited Yunshu to stay in his mansion, but Yunshu declined.

It's not easy to come to Liangzhou, so of course I have to walk around more and see the frontier scenery of this otherworldly world.

While Ethan Yun was strolling in Liangzhou City with Xiao Li Fei and more than a dozen personal guards, Lu Changshi was assigning his men to purchase supplies, while Cao Cheng took the rest of the people out of the city through the west gate.

So many people simply couldn't stay overnight in the city, so Cao Cheng only allowed those who needed to go into the city to buy things, and their food and lodging remained the same as before. But except for those who followed Ethan Yun from Chang'an to the city to buy things, the rest of them all stayed quietly in the western suburbs of Liangzhou City.

The customs and habits of Liangzhou City are of course different from those in the Central Plains. The biggest difference is that there are many more Hu merchants on the streets, and there are even many restaurants opened by Hu merchants.

In the restaurant, Hu Ji danced to the music, attracting many drinkers to applaud.

Ethan Yun found a private room and declined the restaurant's special Hu Ji's company for drinking, and instead asked the child worker Xiao Li Fei to help pour the wine. While drinking, he admired the exotic Hu Ji's performance downstairs through the open window of the private room.

After the song ended, Hu Ji, who was dancing rapidly, stopped, and Ethan Yun finished tasting a small pot of fine grape wine.

The restaurant owner noticed this distinguished guest from Kyoto early in the morning. He was a member of the Dayong royal family, dignified and elegant.

Must be very rich!

The boss took advantage of the break in the show and brought his treasure into Yunshu's private room.

"Your Highness, Prince Xia," the accent was strange and foreign, but not so strange that it was hard to understand.

Seeing Yunshu's gaze, the boss smiled and said, "I have some good things from the Arab Empire. Are you interested?"

Yunshu had no interest at first, but he was bored and had nothing to do, so he nodded and said, "Take it out and have a look."

Seeing this, the boss happily opened a few boxes.

Originally, he was going to send these things to the capital Luoyang to find a high-ranking official to sell them to. Now that there was a ready-made distinguished guest delivering them to his door, he would not have to make another long trip.

The first box opened to reveal a white ivory tower in excellent condition.

The boss introduced enthusiastically, "This tusk was taken from a young and strong elephant king. It is absolutely top-notch. I also found the best craftsman to carve it. It is the only one in the world..."

Boss Ren talked a lot of nonsense, but Yunshu looked calm and composed.

Ethan Yun: ...

Only in today's world can everything be bought and sold, but in his time, this one ivory would have been enough to keep him operating a sewing machine for several years.

Seeing that he had been praising for a long time but His Royal Highness King Xia had a blank expression and showed no interest, the boss had no choice but to open the second box.

Inside was a whole piece of white fox skin.

"Your Highness King Xia, please take a look. Although this fox fur is not as stunning as the one in the ivory tower, it is a snow fox that disappears in the snowy mountains and is extremely difficult to capture."

The fox fur has been properly processed and fumigated, and now it exudes a faint fragrance, which is light and elegant.

It was obvious at the first smell that this was not the spice they usually used. It seemed to be specially prepared for the people of Dayong.

These Hu merchants are really good at making incense.

Seeing that Ethan Yun had no reaction to the fox fur, the boss gritted his teeth and opened the third box.

It was an uncut sapphire, as deep and charming as the deep blue sea.

The boss thought, it’s impossible that you don’t like this one either?

However, Ethan Yun still had that indifferent expression, not at all moved by the good things he took out.

The boss even began to doubt whether these things of his were no longer acceptable to the Dayong royal family.

"Your Highness, King Xia, don't you like any of these things?"

It’s not that Ethan Yun doesn’t like it, but…

He has no money!

Emperor Henry didn't give him much money in the first place, and that money was used to buy food and grass. Let's not talk about how much the things this boss took out were worth, but he is now using the money to buy these luxury goods, which is really a bit too extravagant.

But even if he had no money, he couldn't show his weakness, so Ethan Yun paused and said:

"It's just so-so."

boss:...

What kind of thing can catch this person's eye?

"It's really ordinary. Such a big piece of blue stone is not as beautiful as the colored beads that Your Highness gave me as a reward!" Little Li Fei looked up with pride.

The boss was immediately a little unhappy. Although the child was dressed relatively cleanly, his clothes were no different from those of a beggar on the street.

What good things can the beads given as rewards to low-ranking servants be?

"What kind of colored beads can compare with my sapphire?"

"Well, I'll show you right here." Seeing that his boss didn't believe him, Xiao Lifei angrily took the money from his mother.

He took out a few balls from the small pocket he had sewn and placed them on the table.

As soon as these beads were placed on the table, they immediately attracted the boss's full attention.

He widened his eyes, carefully picked up the beads that Xiao Li Fei had casually placed on the table, and exclaimed:

"It is so crystal clear, with cracked lines inside, but the surface is smooth and flat, without a single crack. How is this done? There are seven different colors, each of which is clean and transparent without any impurities..."

The boss stared at Ethan Yun with sparkling eyes, "Your Highness King Xia, can you sell these beads to me?"

Ethan Yun: ...

Seeing that Ethan Yun didn't say anything, the boss gritted his teeth and held up five fingers, "Five thousand strings of cash! I'll pay you five thousand strings of cash for this! Do you have any more of this kind of beads?"

Ethan Yun lowered his eyes and looked at the beads on the table, "Seven beads for five thousand strings of cash?"

Thinking that Yunshu was dissatisfied with the price, the boss immediately said, "No! Your Highness, you misunderstood. It's five thousand strings of cash!"

Ethan Yun, who was just mumbling to himself and preparing to settle an account, had his pupils shrink unconsciously: "???"

What is worth five thousand strings of cash? I'm not dissatisfied with the price, but your current price is a bit scary to me!

It was just his micro-expression, and the boss, who was in an excited state, didn't notice it at all.

All the family members of this Hu merchant were engaged in business, and he was only sent to Dayong to live temporarily, so that he could sell the expensive items brought by others from places like Persia to the Dayong nobles, and also collect the preferences and special requirements of the Dayong nobles.

Therefore, the boss has enough strength to offer a price of five thousand guan per coin.

Ethan Yun suppressed the slight feeling of guilt that had just emerged in his heart, took out a cloth bag from his pocket and threw it on the table.

"They are all here. I don't even know how many there are."

He was really rich and powerful, and didn't care about the five thousand string coins at all.

The boss picked up the bag with heartache and carefully placed the beads inside one by one into a sandalwood box specially for pearls.

Ethan Yun concealed his embarrassment by drinking.

The beads that the boss treated as treasures were just a blind box he opened the day before yesterday. Because these things were not valuable, he even threw a few of them to Xiao Lifei as marbles to play with.

Because of the recent increase in favorability and trust, Ethan Yun had many more chances to draw prizes. However, the first time he got the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils, it seemed like a benefit for novices. After more than ten times, no good things came out.

The blind box is really blind, all kinds of smelly socks and smelly shoes came out, but these marbles were kept because Yunshu played with glass marbles when he was a child, and he had some sentimental feelings for them.

This thing, let alone five thousand coins per piece, is not even worth fifty cents!

As the boss counted, he couldn't help but ask, "Your Highness, are there any other styles?"

Looking at the glass beads that were about to turn into hundreds of thousands of coins, Ethan Yun gritted his teeth and said firmly: "Yes!"

This thing must be there!

If he couldn’t make it, he would create it!