My lord, spare his life!

The prefect of Hu County raised his voice.

"Did that thief Zhang really say that?"

The envoy, who had been rebuffed by Zhang Yang, respectfully said, "Every word is true, I dare not lie. Zhang is arrogant and domineering, demanding not only money and people but also the city. If I do not agree, she will drive them away."

The governor of Hu County was so angry that his face turned red, and he kept shouting "Outrageous!" Sun Ban, as the person in charge, remained calm and composed, and said with a slight lift of his eyelids: "Don't give her the city yet. Ask her if she wants anything else. If she insists on having a city, which one does she want?"

"Zhao Ruo, are you really going to talk to her about this?" Even though the prefect of Hu County knew it was a delaying tactic, such a compromise, tearing off his mask and letting the thieves trample on him, still made people furious.

Sun Ban remained calm and composed: "Asking for an exorbitant price, then settling for a lower one—that's how bargaining works. Since this thief Zhang is making such a huge demand, let's see just how wide his mouth can open and how much he can hold in his belly. Does he think he can swallow the sky?"

In short, just enjoy the show.

Don't think of yourself as the monkey in the play.

The prefect of Hu County could only suppress his anger and sit back down: "I don't have your composure and self-control, but you're right. We really need to stay calm right now and not let Zhang's words provoke us into losing our composure. Since she's brought it up, we'll just have to wear her down slowly."

The envoy stood with his head bowed, listening to the conversation between the two. His eyes darted around, and he vaguely guessed that his lord wasn't very sincere about this peace negotiation. If he wasn't aiming for a successful agreement, then he had other plans. The envoy's thoughts were just beginning to form when Sun Ban interrupted him.

Upon listening to the other party's whisper, the messenger nodded repeatedly.

Sun Ban: "When you go there again this time, no matter what Zhang thief says, you can neither agree nor refuse. If she asks for ten things, you hold onto three, and then gradually back down, testing where her bottom line is."

Upon hearing this, the messenger became uncertain again.

He bowed and accepted the order, saying, "Yes, sir."

Zhang Yang looked at the envoy who had returned after only two days, his impatience written all over his face. He asked irritably, "Why are you here again? Did Sun Zhaoruo agree to give me Dou County?"

Seeing that Zhang Yang did not threaten war, the envoy tentatively said, "My lord sincerely seeks peace, so please, Lord Boyuan, do not play games with me."

They deliberately used a more intimate tone.

"Why would I play tricks on you? You're the ones playing tricks on me. I've already told you what I want, but you pretend you don't understand and keep asking me the same question over and over again." I'm already annoyed by not finishing my homework, and this messenger is buzzing around like an annoying fly.

The envoy was largely relieved upon hearing this. The fact that the other party, despite her irritability, hadn't killed or thrown him out showed that while her temper was indeed terrible, she wasn't capable of indiscriminate killing. This left room for communication. The envoy said, "In terms of size, Dou County may not be the largest county in the mountains, but in terms of wealth, it truly deserves the title. Lord Boyuan mentioned wanting a city last time; which one do you mean?"

Zhang Yang became interested upon hearing this.

"You're asking me which one I want?"

The envoy made a somewhat comical, bitter face.

"As long as Lord Boyuan doesn't say he wants them all."

Zhang Yang's eyes darted around, his eyebrows raised, a hint of amusement in his eyes: "Since you say Dou County is the richest, then tell me which cities are richest, and what their respective industries are."

A loyal lord's envoy would certainly not answer such a question; to do so would be tantamount to betraying one's lord and colluding with the enemy.

But this messenger was different.

Sun Ban suffered a crushing defeat and fled back to Dou County in disgrace. Not only did he lose many soldiers, but he was also humiliated at his own doorstep. Such an unbearable disgrace would have been unacceptable to Sun Ban in the past. The fact that he hasn't launched a counterattack yet shows that Sun Ban lacks confidence.

The envoy naturally had to find another way out for himself and his family.

However, the envoy didn't switch sides with Zhang Yang; he simply remained neutral and tried to curry favor with him. If Zhang Yang won, he might remember the favor later. These thoughts raced through the envoy's mind, and he instantly knew how to strike the right balance.

The envoy briefly described the three richest cities in Dou County.

One of them is a horse farm.

Upon hearing the word "horse farm," Zhang Yang immediately perked up.

She remembered that Lu Yuan had always longed for the horse farm in Dou Jun.

With this horse ranch, Zhang Yang could bypass middlemen and acquire fine horses. She didn't care about the quality of the horses, but the military generals like Lü Yuan did. Their eyes lit up at the mention of famous steeds. This showed that rewarding military generals with good horses was more motivating than other incentives: "How big is that ranch? What are its top horses? How much does a top-tier warhorse cost?"

The envoy was not entirely clear on the matter.

This horse farm is a property wholly owned by Sun Ban.

The envoy could only tell her what he knew, but this general information was enough for Zhang Yang. After hearing the envoy's introduction, her face practically screamed, "This horse farm is great, I want it!"

The envoy chuckled, "I have no say in this horse ranch."

Seeing Zhang Yang's eyebrows furrow and his anger rising again, the envoy quickly explained, "It's not that my lord lacks sincerity, but this horse ranch is privately owned, not belonging to the Dou County government, and its value is far beyond that of ordinary cities. Therefore, we dare not answer rashly."

Zhang Yang continued to chat with the envoy about this and that.

They won't give you this, and they say that's their private property.

Zhang Yang asked curiously, "Your Doujun County doesn't have many public offices, and the county government is dirt poor. How can you afford to pay the salaries of your subordinates?"

The envoy said, "We can still collect some taxes."

Zhang Yang shook his head: "Then your place can't be considered prosperous."

The envoy asked, "How can it not be considered?"

Zhang Yang: "The people in your area don't have much money, so how can you call it prosperous? The number of officials under the prefecture and county governments is roughly fixed. Their salaries are fixed, and the more people there are, the less pressure each person has. But look, the real money-making industries and land belong to only a few families. Where do the other ordinary people make money? They have no way to make money, yet they still have to guarantee the salaries of these county and prefectural officials. I don't even want to think about how much tax each person has to pay or how much money they can save."

The envoy was speechless after Zhang Yang's words.

"No matter how much money the rich spend, how much can it all go? Most of it is still earned by other rich people and doesn't end up in the pockets of ordinary people. The meager amount that ordinary people have in their pockets is also being scrambled to get away. Tell me, how rich can a place like this be? It's not the same if a rich person spends 10,000 coins and 10,000 ordinary people each spend 1 coin." Zhang Yang labeled Dou County as poor.

messenger:"……"

Zhang Yang asked again, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

The envoy said awkwardly, "I don't know where to begin."

He had assumed Zhang Yang was a tyrannical and arrogance man, but to his surprise, Zhang Yang was earnestly discussing these trivial matters with him. This left the envoy, who was full of scheming ideas, completely bewildered. Especially under the earnest gaze of Zhang Yang's alluring eyes, the envoy felt his cheeks inexplicably burning, as if a needle was hidden under the mat beneath him.

Feeling uneasy, he hastily took his leave.

Zhang Yang: "...Why did you leave?"

The messenger refused to cheer her up, so she could only continue doing her homework with a long face. After writing only a couple of strokes, she put down her brush and went to find Xiao Sui: "Xiuying, Xiuying, is there any military business?"

"No!"

"Fu Long, Fu Long, are you busy here?"

"No, my lord."

Zhang Yang then went to Zhe Meng to ask if he needed help with training the troops.

Zhe Meng had been warned and reprimanded in advance, and knew that his stepmother had been tormented by homework these past two days, so how could he dare to distract his stepmother?

She quickly replied, "No need, no need."

Zhang Yang went to find Wang Ba again.

Wang Ba spat out the grass he was holding in his mouth. This guy didn't care about homework or anything like that: "Yes, Lord Boyuan, please take a look."

He carefully selected a dozen or so soldiers from his ranks who were both handsome and well-built, each with a different style. Wang Ba wanted to test which type Zhang Yang preferred, so he could make preparations later.

Zhang Yang asked, "Do you want to select a guard of honor?"

Wang Ba: "It needs to be stricter than the honor guard."

After looking around and finding that Zhang Yang showed no particular favoritism, Wang Qi was about to call the next group up when a murderous intent suddenly gripped his neck. Turning his head, he saw a familiar face, just as he expected. Wang Qi grabbed Zhang Yang and pulled him back: "Didn't you say you were coming out to use the restroom?"

They said they would form a study group to supervise each other.

The results of it?

Zhang Yang first made an excuse to see the envoy Sun Ban, then said he needed to use the restroom, and then disappeared without a trace. Wang Qi wasn't a bookworm to begin with, and being tricked by Zhang Yang like this made him even angrier: "I was just about to grab a net and fish you out of some ditch!"

"...I'm busy with important matters."

"What serious business could that old geezer Wang Hongtu possibly have?"

Zhang Yang: "..."

Besides Zhang Yang and Wang Qi, the study group also included several senior star beasts. Reading and writing was still a bit too much for star beasts, but because the instructor was Guan Si, none of them dared to move. Upon seeing Zhang Yang return, they were moved to tears.

Ge Zhou breathed a sigh of relief as he held the head in his arms.

"My lord is finally back."

If Zhang Yang didn't return soon, she wouldn't be able to stand this strange atmosphere. Ge Zhou had learned some characters after joining the army, but not many, and he never touched military books or treatises, as they were too obscure and difficult to understand. Guan Si thought about it, and it was like listening to gibberish.

In order to be lazy, she took off her head and held it in her arms.

This was to cover up the fact that he was drowsy.

Zhang Yang: "..."

She finally finished her homework for the day.

Previously, she complained about having too much homework, so Guan Si suggested spreading it out over each day, making things easier and ensuring it would be finished before Fan You came to check it. Zhang Yang was full of ambition on the first day, but by the second day she realized how unrealistic her plan was.

It sounds wonderful, but it's impossible to do.

"Are these difficult?"

Guan Si couldn't understand how anyone could dislike studying. Aren't these things easy to remember at a glance, easy to know the answers to at a glance?

Zhang Yang: "..."

Guan Si's words really hurt the NPCs.

The next day, the homework time was moved to the morning.

During the preparation for war, her role as lord was useless. After finishing writing in half an hour, Zhang Yang was free to do whatever he wanted, and no one could restrain him from leaving the military camp. On the surface, Ge Zhou was with him, but secretly, Guan Si and the other two were like persistent ghosts.

Zhang Yang felt safer outside than inside the military camp.

There were no villages nearby, so Zhang Yang had nowhere to repair houses. He swung his hoe, dug up one square of herbs, and filled two more with ore. Bored, Zhang Yang plopped down on the ground: "This is boring, so incredibly boring… No dungeons to run, no player-versus-player PvP, no weekly, daily, or exploration quests… I'm going to die of boredom."

She threw the hoe on the ground.

Ge Zhou helped pick it up, his expression still somewhat dazed.

She truly couldn't understand how Zhang Yang could dig out thousands upon thousands of copper, iron, and silver ores from the same pit... But considering that some people's "Star Descending" ability does indeed make them prone to "encountering" certain beings, she convinced herself that perhaps it was "Star Descending," or perhaps some hidden stellar talent: "My lord isn't mining anymore?"

Zhang Yang said expressionlessly, "I'm not digging anymore, it's boring."

Ge Zhou looked regretful. His lord could swing the hoe two or three thousand times in half an hour. Now that he's not doing it anymore, how much ore will be wasted?

"Xidan, I feel so bad."

She no longer complains that the game world has too many quests and feels like being in prison.

Having no tasks to do now is worse than being in prison. At least in the game world's prison, there are tasks to pass the time.

Ge Zhou was an honest man; she didn't understand, and she couldn't help him.

"Zhang Boyuan." Guan Si, who had been secretly following, suddenly appeared on a tree not far away. He looked at Zhang Yang calmly and pointed to the lake at the end of his line of sight. "Mission: Before sunset, catch thirty river fish weighing at least five catties each. The cook needs to make fish soup."

Ge Zhou: "..."

The next moment, they saw their lord, who had been listless and complaining of feeling unwell, suddenly get up, pull out a fishing rod and a wooden bucket out of thin air, and run towards the river. Ge Zhou stared in disbelief, looking at Guan Si with a complicated expression. The truth was, Zhang Yang had patiently fished all afternoon. Even though it was the dry season and the fish weren't fat, their lord could catch fish in less than fifteen minutes after casting his line.

The half-person-high wooden bucket was quickly filled with the catch.

Zhang Yang carefully selected thirty fish weighing over five pounds each, and returned home laden with her catch as the sun set. She had been fishing for three days, changing locations several times. Ge Zhou noticed something was amiss: "The water level seems to have risen?"

The fishing spot from the first day was already submerged by the river.

Some ice floes were still floating on the river.

Zhang Yang: "If it's gone up, it's gone up."

It doesn't affect her fishing and selling her catch.

Ge Zhou: "But it's winter now, and it's common for the river to be completely dry. I remember that in the past, when the local government conscripted laborers to clear the riverbed, they always chose the coldest time of year, when the riverbed was exposed and easier to dredge the silt. The labor service had to be done from winter until early spring. How could the river still be rising?"

Zhang Yang said, "Something unusual must be going on."

It's obvious that Sun Ban's side is up to something.

"Nothing will happen before the new moon, so enjoy your fishing."

After saying that, she took a fish from the wooden bucket and threw it to the wild cats sitting in a row by the river. The cat sitting in the front caught the fish and ran away.

Having caught all the fish needed for the mission and fed a group of wild cats, Zhang Yang returned to camp satisfied. Unlike Zhang Yang's leisurely pace, the atmosphere on Sun Ban's side grew increasingly heavy and serious. As the new moon approached, Sun Ban even tested the newly made armor several times.

The Prefect of Hu County: "Is Zhao Ruo going to take action personally?"

Sun Ban: "Hmm."

Leading troops personally can also boost morale.

Sun Ban, still not reassured, personally inspected the ice layer on the river. It was nearly six inches thick, a thickness sufficient for the army to pass through.

On the night of the new moon, the ice layer became even more solid.

"Success or failure hinges on this one move."

Little did they know, Zhang Yang had been waiting anxiously, and finally, Sun Ban made a move: "If Sun Zhao takes the elite troops away, the city's defenses will be weak. Changsun Wang can trap us here, and we'll have a big feast. Guan Zong, go and cut off her retreat."

? ?|??w?`)

Ugh, I really wish there was a system that could give me daily writing assignments and force me to do them, so I wouldn't lose control and get writer's block.

PS: The next chapter will be 8,000 words (because Mushroom finished writing 3,500 words in the middle of the night).