I'm not willing to be a cannon fodder for the female supporting role anymore

Mingming, this should be what he hoped for, he only has Mingyue in his heart.

"You're not right either. In this state, you're not regretting it, are you?"

"Don't talk nonsense, I only like Mingyue."

"Shut up now, you're going to die."

Zhong Tianyang hurriedly covered Sun Yinwu's mouth. This was so wrong.

Ever since Zhan Mingyue entered the palace, everyone knew the truth. Sun Yinwu himself was even more aware of the interests involved and never revealed the matter.

After Yueying and Sheng Shize went out, they did not go shopping, but went directly to East City.

This is the gathering place of the Beggars' Gang and the refugees are here. She just wants to ask about the specific situation.

Yueying found a mother with a child and pulled her aside.

"Do you have any identification documents?"

"Yes, miss, can you take my son in as a servant? Just give him food to eat."

"Shize..."

Yueying naturally couldn't bring anyone back to Zhan Mansion, so she looked eagerly at the man beside her.

Since she is his own wife, he should naturally pamper her. He smiled and nodded.

"You and your son should come back with me."

"Thank you very much, benefactor. Come on, dog, kowtow to the benefactor."

The little boy was about three or four years old. He listened to his mother's instructions and banged his head loudly.

"You can't knock it like that, it'll hurt your little head."

Yueying quickly picked the child up and carefully wiped the pebbles off his forehead with a handkerchief, and sure enough, his skin was broken.

I walked all the way back and asked these people where they came from and why they became refugees.

"Miss Yan, you don't know that Nanyue is adjacent to several of our counties and is governed across the river. Originally, we had troops stationed there, and our lives were relatively peaceful. But for some reason, the life-saving water source has become less and less in the past two years. The farmland on the other side of the river has a bumper harvest every year, but the land on our side has dried up and is almost at the point of no harvest."

"So the other party stole the water?"

"The water level in the river is low, and it's difficult to divert water. I really don't know where they get the water from."

Could it be that there are time travelers on the other side? Have they built some kind of dam to store water?

After returning to Zhan Mansion, Yueying closed the door and entered her own space.

Regardless of whether it is a crossing or not, the water will always flow to lower places. Yueying thinks that we still need to see on the spot how to divert the water intercepted upstream back.

She really didn't understand this, so she looked up a lot of information stored in her computer in the space and studied it for two days. She felt that she understood something, but she still felt that it was all superficial.

"All the people in these counties have fled from the famine, so won't the people of Nanyue just take over a few cities?"

"The South Vietnamese are quite powerful. Can this be considered a way of defeating the enemy without fighting?"

"It seems that Sheng Shize and Jing Yixiu went to South Vietnam later? And then..."

Yueying went to research the plot, but didn't write about it in detail, except to say that the emperor replaced several administrators of the counties over there, and they were useless except for inflicting violence and making life worse for the people.

Fortunately, the male and female protagonists returned from South Vietnam and led the army to capture all the South Vietnamese cities on the other side of the river. Then the emperor ordered the people in the counties and prefectures of Tianye Kingdom on this side of the river to live in the newly occupied cities.

"This is a story that takes place several years later. Alas, the emperor actually changed several administrators, but apart from wasting time, it really did not bring any benefit to the people."

Now that she knows the whole story, Yueying definitely cannot stand idly by, otherwise, many more people will die in a few years.

"Shize, I want to go to Nanjun to see for myself why the river water is difficult to drain."

"It's just that there is not enough water, maybe not enough rainfall."

"But didn't you hear that woman say that there is abundant water resources in the south of the Yangtze River?"

"Maybe it was diverted from somewhere else."

"I suspect they built diversions and dams upstream so that there is water to use during droughts and floods will not cause disasters."

Sheng Shize never expected that a girl would be so concerned about people's livelihood. Although he didn't quite understand, he readily agreed to Yueying's request.

"The Emperor is selecting officials to deal with the water shortage in those counties. If you want to go, you can wait for the officials to take office."

"Can't we do it ourselves?"

"The border between the two countries is not something that a civilian can casually test. If you are not careful, you will be mistaken for a spy."

"Oh."

Looking at the little girl who was full of fighting spirit just now, now like a wilted eggplant, Sheng Shize rubbed her hair.

"Okay, I'll go find my father's former subordinates and recommend myself to go to Nanjun. This way I can give you the maximum authority to do things."

"It's so kind of you."

Yueying said this and kissed Sheng Shize on the face. She was fine, but she made the other person blush.

Soon the imperial edict of appointment came down, and Yueying left the Zhan Mansion on the pretext of returning home to prepare for her wedding. Before leaving, she decided to promote the relationship between Zhan Yanran and the wife of the Marquis's Mansion.

Luzhu Fuyi held a tea-tasting party and invited the ladies and young ladies who had bought plants in the store to participate. Because it was said that there were rare varieties of flowers, even if some people did not think much of this shop with no background, they came to participate because of their love for flowers and plants.

Tea tasting mainly involves drinking tea, while flowers and plants are appreciated slowly.

For fun, some small projects are mixed in.

"It's mainly for viewing. The first item is naturally related to plants. All unmarried ladies can participate in flower arranging."

Many noble ladies came and started to play with the vases on the spot, and many of them had learned flower arrangement, but the problem was that if Zhan Yanran was on par with others, most people would probably choose her work because of Concubine Yue.

In the worst case scenario, Zhan Yanran will not fall too far behind the others, and Yueying can ask the staff of Lvzhu Fuyi to secretly replace some tickets.

This was a free point question she gave to Zhan Yanran.

As expected, when the results came out, Zhan Yanran's votes were almost the same as those of the other two noble ladies, and she narrowly won with a slight increase of two votes.

Although Zhan Yanran was usually arrogant, but today when she attended the event, Yueying and her personal maid emphasized to her the importance of making a big splash, and she needed to remain humble at all times.

"Yanran, I didn't know you were such a great flower artist."

"Miss Zhan's demeanor is quite impressive. She is indeed the sister of Concubine Yue."

"I heard before that Miss Yanran didn't have any outstanding skills. It seems that she is just not good at music, chess, calligraphy and painting."

"Yeah yeah."

Zhan Yanran was so excited listening to the compliments from the people around her that she almost lost herself in thought. When she looked up, she saw Yueying glaring at her and warning her.

"No, no, just watch and learn more."

Seeing Sun Yinwu's mother, Mrs. Sun, standing next to her, Zhan Yanran quickly restrained her smile, nodded slightly, and responded to everyone modestly.

"The second tea ceremony."

"Since this is a tea-tasting banquet, we should drink tea and enjoy the scenery at the same time."

An Yi directed everyone to sit down in the tidied pavilion, and several participating ladies began to make tea.

Here, Luzhu Fuyi took out a few pots of rare plants for everyone to appreciate. After a while, the tea was ready without any further operation.

Although Zhan Yanran was not the best, the tea she made won the favor of the wife of the Marquis.

"Of course, tea tasting requires snacks. Ladies, please try the following two snacks."

There were not many snacks, so they were cut into small pieces and the ladies each tasted a few bites.

"Well, this snack is good. Whose shop is it from?"

"Madam Yu, this dessert cannot be bought outside. It was made by Miss Yanran of the Zhan family herself."

All the ladies present, whether they already knew Zhan Yanran or had only heard of her name, now had a good impression of her.

Yueying didn't ask An Yi and the others to select the first, second and third place in today's small competition. The top three ladies who participated in the two rounds were given rare plants, the other four people each got a pot of flowers, and only Zhan Yanran got two pots.

Doesn’t that say it all?

"Madam, do you like any of these two pots?"

How could Madam Sun not know that Zhan Yanran was trying to show her good will? She just originally looked down on her for being useless and having mediocre talents, so she tried her best to pretend that she didn't understand what she meant.

Looking at it today, the little girl still has her strengths. After all, she was raised by the old lady of the Zhan family, so how bad can she be?

Thinking of this, his attitude towards Zhan Yanran became much better than before.

"These are all your prizes, how can I accept them?"

"Yanran likes to take care of flowers and plants. She was influenced by Madam. When she gets something good, she will naturally present it to Madam."

This was all planned by Yueying, who asked her to tell Madam Sun. Although Zhan Yanran was a little reluctant to admit that she learned all this just to please the Marquis' wife, she really had no better reason.

"Have a heart."

Madam Sun looked at Yanran's honest look and always felt that she had misunderstood her before. Once she likes someone, she feels comfortable no matter how she looks at them.

Upon seeing this, Zhan Yanran took Madam Sun's arm, and they left together, talking and laughing.

"You have a good relationship with the little daughter of the Zhan family?"

After leaving the capital, Yueying and Sheng Shize sat in the same carriage. Thinking of that rude and clingy Zhan Yanran, she actually pulled Yueying and said she was reluctant to let her go.

There have been rumors these days that she has changed her personality, that she has become a different person as she grows up, and that she is now considered a noble lady in Kyoto that is admired by the ladies.

"No, I just studied with Mammy for a while."

"Friendship between classmates?"

"Well, it is."

Yueying seemed to have thought of something and smiled.

Zhan Yanran is also quite interesting. I used to think she was stupid and bad, but after getting to know her, I found that she is quite stubborn.

Ever since she felt that Yueying was sincerely helping her to win Madam Sun's favor, in the last two days in Zhan's mansion, she took out all her good things and forced one on Yueying if there were two of them.

Yueying declined again and again, she said.

"You and cousin Mingyue are the best people to me. Cousin Mingyue secretly took my lessons and took the blame for me since we were young. I treated you so badly, but you still planned things for me and the prince."

After listening and watching, Yueying felt a little reluctant to use her.

If Zhan Mingyue hadn't taken her lessons, how could she have been called the talented lady of the capital? Her so-called letting bygones be bygones was just an attempt to use her to anger Zhan Mingyue.

After traveling for two days, Yueying looked at the map and found that the carriage was moving a little slowly. After discussing with Li Yuanli, they switched to riding horses. In less than ten days, they arrived at Yicheng, one of the eight cities in Nanjun.

"Young Master, the County Magistrate's Mansion is over here. I will report to the post first, and I will arrange for you to go to the upper reaches of the river tomorrow."

Li Yuanli was originally a small commander under Sheng Shize's father. He had read some books before joining the army. Later, his right hand was injured in the war. He could hold a pen but not a sword. The old general valued his talent and recommended him to be a minor official.

This man had good luck and was very good at investigating cases. He soon became famous and became the magistrate of the capital.

Although he was sent to a remote post this time after recommending himself, it was still a promotion of two levels. If he could solve the drought problem in these eight cities, he would probably be promoted two levels again when he returned to Beijing.

"Thank you, Master Li."

Li Yuanli remembered the old general's kindness and was very polite to Sheng Shize, and he naturally responded with due respect.

After Li Yuanli finished the formalities, the group moved into the prefect's mansion.

"Is Miss Yan going to go on tomorrow's schedule too?"

"nature."

"The locals said that the wind and waves have been strong these days. The river is shallow now, so people have to sail in small boats. It's a bit difficult, so I would like to ask Miss Yan if she needs to stay in the mansion to rest?"

"No need, I came here just to see it for myself."

"Then everyone should go to bed early today."

They did not want to delay this matter of people's livelihood for even a day, especially since Nanjun could grow two crops of rice. If the water problem could be solved in a few months, it would be just in time for rice planting next spring.

On the second day, we went upstream along the river, and indeed, the scenery on both sides looked very different from afar.

By evening we finally arrived at a canyon upstream, where the river split into two branches, one going south and the other being the original river channel.

"This……"

The terrain in the south is already lower, and I don't know how much manpower and material resources they used to artificially create such a diversion. "It harms others and does not benefit yourself."

Yueying looked at the artificial river with a sneer.

They did divert half of the water, but large river vessels could no longer reach this side, let alone downstream.

The ratio of black gunpowder in this era was very poor. Although Yueying didn't remember the ratio, the space computer had all the necessary information for time travel.

"Any ideas?"

Sheng Shize saw Yueying's calculating look and knew that the little girl was going to do something.

"Since they like digging so much, we naturally have to help them."

"What does Miss Yan mean?"

Li Yuanli didn't understand, but looking at the situation, it seemed that they had no better solution than to dig a river to divert water.

The emperor may not approve this major water conservancy project.

"Master Li, let's prepare more saltpeter, sulfur, and carbon powder."

"Miss Yan, this is against the rules."

Everyone in the army knew that these three things were used to make gunpowder. Li Yuanli did not expect that such a little girl would be so bold.

"Although we are not fighting face to face, this fight for the water source is actually no different from a war between two countries. I am just returning everything to its original state."

"Restore it to its original state?"

"Yes, I will blow up that mountain and fill up their low-lying areas."

"Hahaha."

As soon as Yueying finished speaking, the minor officials who were serving beside her couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Master Li, you actually let a little girl talk nonsense."

"Yes, he brought a little girl with him on a business trip. I thought it was a strange thing. Lord Li actually wanted to listen to a little girl."

"Miss Yan, it's good to have ideas, but how can you blow up a mountain?"