DLWAV CH101

But they didn’t recognize Ao Ruize.

After all, they previously didn’t have the qualifications to meet the Emperor, so naturally, they had no way of knowing what Zhou Ruize looked like.

Thus, they only assumed Ao Ruize was Third Master Liu’s newly acquired male pet.

Therefore, the reason those gentry and wealthy households suddenly lost their voices was: “Third Master, didn’t you dislike this sort of thing in the past?”

After all, when they went to the Fengbo Pavilion in the past, Third Master Liu never picked anyone.

Most importantly, although Ao Ruize was indeed quite good-looking, his face shape, his build… no matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem like someone who would submit to being beneath another man!

Those gentry and wealthy households: “…”

Their tone also changed along with their thoughts: “Third Master, you actually have a taste for this?”

Then they finally reacted.

They turned to look at the hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang and said angrily, “Is this what you meant when you said your Third Master was sick?”

The hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang: “…”

They abruptly turned their heads and looked at Third Master Liu: “Third Master, didn’t you say you were sick?”

“This…”

Third Master Liu covered his mouth and coughed lightly. After placing the bamboo flute in his hand onto the nearby low table, he sat up.

He decisively changed the subject: “What did you say you came to find me for just now?”

Those gentry and wealthy merchants immediately repeated: “Third Master, have you long been the Prince of Yang’s man?”

Third Master Liu: “…”

Phrasing it that way didn’t seem wrong either.

Third Master Liu subconsciously turned his head to look at Ao Ruize behind him.

Those gentry and wealthy merchants were already looking at Third Master Liu, so when he turned his head, they also immediately followed his gaze.

As stated before, they had never seen Zhou Ruize in the past, so naturally, they wouldn’t associate Ao Ruize with the Prince of Yang.

Therefore, they merely assumed that Third Master Liu was scrupulous about Ao Ruize’s presence and wanted to shoo him away, but since Ao Ruize was currently quite in his favor, it wasn’t good to openly give him a bad look. So, he had simply given him a hint.

However, Ao Ruize acted like an idiot and didn’t move an inch.

The brows of those gentry and wealthy merchants instantly furrowed.

They had never seen a male pet with so little tact!

Master Lin, who was in the lead, immediately barked: “What are you still standing there in a daze for? Why don’t you go down and prepare tea for us.”

Since it was inconvenient for Third Master Liu to play the bad cop, he would do it.

This would also prevent Ao Ruize from getting too arrogant and pushing his luck in the future.

Ao Ruize: “…”

Third Master Liu: “…”

The butler, who just happened to be bringing up a group of servants to serve tea: “…”

He stumbled and almost tripped over the threshold.

What could Third Master Liu say?

Third Master Liu could only say, “Actually, as early as four months ago, the Water Transport Gang rejected the Prince of Yang’s recruitment.”

Those gentry and wealthy merchants: “…”

Although it was a bit unkind, they suddenly felt a bit more balanced in their hearts.

Because the Water Transport Gang seemed to be in an even more miserable state than them.

They had only failed to catch a ride on the Prince of Yang’s boat at the very first moment, whereas the Water Transport Gang had helplessly missed out on a meat pie falling from the sky.

So those hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang instantly couldn’t sit still, but they still didn’t forget to make a final confirmation: “Third Master, is the Prince of Yang’s illness truly completely cured?”

After all, it had always been Third Master Liu who was in contact with the Prince of Yang’s people.

Third Master Liu: “…It should be completely cured.”

After all, there was definitely no problem when it came to using it.

The eyes of the hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang instantly lit up: “Third Master, we thought about it, and pledging allegiance to the Prince of Yang seems to indeed be a very good choice.”

“So Third Master, do you think we can find a time to go visit Chief Steward Lu again?”

Hearing this, those gentry and wealthy merchants instantly threw Ao Ruize to the back of their minds and chimed in one after another: “Take us along, we’ll go visit His Highness the Prince of Yang together.”

The butler: “…”

Third Master Liu: “…”

His face suddenly felt a bit painful.

After all, they were the ones who repeatedly rejected Lu Dang’s recruitment back then, and now that they saw there was profit to be made, they were also the ones rushing forward, eager to sell their lives to him.

Third Master Liu couldn’t help but cover his mouth and cough again.

“This… there’s no need for so much trouble.”

Saying this, he turned to look at Ao Ruize.

After all, the principal person involved was right here.

The hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang and those gentry and wealthy merchants couldn’t understand the meaning behind his words. They could only follow his gaze once more.

Then they froze.

Because they didn’t expect that Ao Ruize still hadn’t retreated.

However, before Master Lin could speak again, they heard Ao Ruize say: “You may.”

Master Lin and the others: “…”

You may?

What may?

But in the next second, they realized.

Ao Ruize was answering their previous words—

Master Lin and the others: “…”

What qualifications did he have to make decisions on behalf of the Prince of Yang?

Unless… he was the Prince of Yang’s man?

Thinking of this, they subconsciously stood up.

“You…”

But wasn’t he Third Master Liu’s male pet?

However, before they could finish their words, the butler walked forward holding the tea at this very moment.

He directly placed the first cup of tea in front of Ao Ruize.

If this were in the past, the first cup of tea would definitely have been placed directly in front of Third Master Liu, the master of the Liu residence, even when the butler and the others already knew that Ao Ruize was Emperor Jianxing.

But who could have imagined.

Ao Ruize actually really succeeded.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be long before he was the Emperor again.

So how could the butler still dare to treat him with his previous attitude?

“Wangye, please.”

When these words came out, it was no less than an earth-shattering shock, directly blowing Master Lin and the others into a daze.

But fortunately, in the next second, they snapped back to reality.

“W-Wangye?”

Within the territory of Yangzhou, at this point in time, who else could be addressed as Wangye?

“P-Prince of Yang?”

How could he be the Prince of Yang?

But thinking about it, they knew the butler couldn’t be lying to them.

Master Lin and the others, who originally only planned to cup their hands in greeting, felt their legs go soft and were about to kneel down immediately.

Especially Master Lin, who had just reprimanded Ao Ruize moments ago—his eyes practically rolled to the back of his head.

Almost at the same time, Ao Ruize’s voice rang out again: “No need for formalities.”

Master Lin and the others had no choice but to stop their movements.

But they didn’t dare to sit back down either.

“Th-Thank you, Your Highness.”

Ao Ruize added: “I am currently short on manpower. If you sincerely wish to pledge your loyalty to Me, I naturally welcome it to the utmost.”

Only then did Master Lin and the others fully process the situation.

So they had actually been discussing pledging allegiance to the Prince of Yang right in front of the Prince of Yang himself!

But right now, they didn’t have time to feel embarrassed.

They still knelt down: “Thank you, Your Highness Prince of Yang, thank you, Your Highness.”

Then they remembered another matter.

Wait a minute—

The Prince of Yang was actually Third Master Liu’s male pet… No, wait, the Prince of Yang and Third Master Liu actually had that kind of relationship?

Even with this, Third Master Liu still dared to say that as early as four months ago, the Water Transport Gang had rejected the Prince of Yang’s recruitment?

If this wasn’t hogging all the profits, what was?

But right now, they truly didn’t dare to question Third Master Liu.

However, if they didn’t dare question Third Master Liu, did it mean they didn’t dare give the hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang dirty looks?

The hall masters and elders of the Water Transport Gang: “…”

They still wanted to say: Back then, it was clearly the Third Master who made the decision to reject Chief Steward Lu Dang’s recruitment, so how did he turn around and get entangled with the Prince of Yang behind our backs?

In response to this, Third Master Liu just pretended not to see anything.

After all, if his skin wasn’t thick enough, how could he have managed to sleep with his sweetheart so quickly?

In short, the matter was settled just like that.

Upon learning of this matter, the middle-aged man who had rushed back from the capital said repeatedly, “Good. We are in desperate need of manpower right now.”

So even if those gentry and wealthy merchants hadn’t come looking for Ao Ruize, they had originally planned to go looking for them.

However, compared to this, Lu Dang and the others were clearly more concerned about the battle situation on the frontlines.

The middle-aged man immediately said, “We raised our army on the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month. On the twenty-fourth, we encountered the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo. That guy thought we couldn’t even afford armor and weapons, so he directly led his troops to charge at us.”

Little did he know that they didn’t wear armor purely to make marching more convenient, so they could catch the Imperial Court off guard.

“And then he was finished off by me with a single shot from a sniper rifle.”

That’s right, a sniper rifle!

They couldn’t bring many weapons over, but bringing a few sniper rifles wasn’t a problem.

—They also didn’t want to cause massive casualties.

So they chose to implement a decapitation strike strategy against the Great Qian army.

After all, in ancient times with underdeveloped communications, as long as one could kill the enemy’s main general, one could easily achieve victory in war.

“Not only that, but when engaging in combat, we all aimed for the legs of the Great Qian soldiers.”

Coupled with the fact that they had prepared enough medicine beforehand, as of now, the Yang army’s casualties were no more than two hundred, and the Qian army’s death toll was no more than four thousand.

Exactly because of this, they acquired nearly one hundred thousand prisoners of war in one go.

“If nothing unexpected happens, the conversion rate for this batch of POWs will reach at least ninety percent.”

Because those prisoners had personally experienced the power of the muskets in their hands.

Therefore, these prisoners deeply believed the rumors that the muskets in their hands were divine weapons bestowed by Heaven, and that the Yang army had Heaven’s protection.

Thus, they naturally wouldn’t refuse their recruitment.

“This way, we will have an army of a hundred thousand in our hands.”

These hundred thousand troops were enough for them to stabilize the capital and the Jiangnan Circuit, and conquer the Lianghu region while they were at it.

However, conquering the world is easy, but governing the world is difficult.

After all, they only had so much manpower.

Therefore, they actually let Emperor Zhangwu and his people escape on purpose.

If they had directly eliminated Emperor Zhangwu but couldn’t find enough manpower to govern the local regions, the world would inevitably fall into great chaos.

So leaving Emperor Zhangwu alive would instead allow Emperor Zhangwu and his people to help them stabilize the situation for a bit.

Ao Ruize was naturally extremely satisfied: “Very good.”

Although the few thousand Qian soldiers who died in battle were actually not a small number.

But one must know that in the original plot, not long after the Third Prince Zhou Hongyi ascended the throne and proclaimed himself Emperor through a mutiny, he completely fell out with Song Qingying because he wanted to massively expand his imperial harem.

It was just because everyone knew that a large part of the reason he was able to take the throne was due to Song Qingying’s tireless assistance, so it wasn’t good for him to strike against Song Qingying as soon as he ascended.

And this exactly gave Song Qingying time to accumulate her own power.

Five years later, Song Qingying fled the capital and proclaimed herself King in the north.

But in the end, both of them failed.

Because while these two noobs were busy pecking at each other, the Xirong took advantage of the situation, marched their army south, and wiped both of them out.

And after the foreign tribes occupied the Central Plains, the first thing they often did to consolidate their regime was directly raise their butcher knives and slaughter all resisting elements to the last man.

The result was that in just a short span of ten years, two to three million Han people were massacred.

So compared to this, Ao Ruize and his group raising an army to destroy Great Qian—although it plunged the Central Plains into the flames of war—was actually a good thing.

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