Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

The fire was finally extinguished at dawn. The four granaries were burned to the ground, leaving nothing but charcoal. Standing amidst the ruins, Zhou Ji slammed his sword into the ground.

Seeing the Prince of Ding'an trembling with anger, everyone held their breath, afraid that if they breathed too loudly, the prince would notice and they would become his punching bag.

"How much grain is left now?" After a long silence, Zhou Jicai asked in a deep voice.

"Your Highness, the remaining grain and fodder are only enough for the army for seven days."

"..." Zhou Ji did not speak after hearing this, but turned his head to look in the direction of the city wall. The killing intent in his eyes made the people next to him tremble.

Back in the main tent, Prince Ding'an sat in the main seat with a somber face. At this moment, a man with an injured left arm entered, knelt on the ground, and waited for the prince to speak.

"Are you sure the person who stabbed you was a woman?" Mr. Hua asked first.

"Sir, I saw it clearly; it was indeed a woman. Although she was covered with a black veil, her figure was unmistakable," the kneeling man replied with certainty.

“Tell me the situation again in detail,” Mr. Hua said after thinking for a while.

"Yes, I was sleeping when I suddenly felt a strong gust of wind..." The man recounted the events of that night and his feelings in detail.

After he finished speaking, a long silence filled the tent. It was unclear how much time had passed before those kneeling on the ground finally heard the person above speak.

"You should step back and take good care of your injuries."

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty."

When only Mr. Hua and Zhou Ji remained in the tent, Zhou Ji slowly spoke.

"Sir, thanks to your wisdom and resourcefulness, otherwise my head would probably be hanging on that city wall by now." When Zhou Ji said this, his gratitude to Mr. Hua was genuine.

At first, he only thought of strengthening the defenses, but Mr. Hua insisted that while strengthening the main tent's defenses, he should also allow himself to rest in other tents at irregular intervals each day. Fortunately, he listened to Mr. Hua's advice; otherwise, he might be beheaded today.

He truly hadn't expected that the young emperor in the capital would actually dare to send someone to assassinate him. He knew that no matter what he did over the years, the late emperor had always treated him with a policy of appeasement. Now, that brat had only just ascended the throne and dared to try and kill him. Truly, a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger!

Zhou Luo, far away in the capital, was sitting in his study listening to Grand Tutor Li's lecture when he suddenly felt a chill down his spine and sneezed. He rubbed his nose, looked around, and saw that the window was half-open and the sun was blazing outside. Why did he feel so cold?

Actually, Zhou Luo was completely taking the blame for Xia Yu. Zhou Luo only sent her to Jialing Pass to transport grain; she never intended for her to infiltrate enemy territory to do any assassination.

At this moment, the Prince of Ding'an was extremely angry. So much grain and fodder had been burned. How could they fight the war? Even if they could gather more, it wouldn't be possible to deliver it in a day or two.

"Sir, in your opinion, what should we do now?"

Zhou Ji had already made up his mind, but recent events had been unexpected, so he wanted to ask Mr. Hua for his opinion again.

"Your Highness," Mr. Hua said, "things are not going well for us now! Originally, as long as we surrounded Jialing Pass and cut off the city's reinforcements, we could take it without losing a single soldier once the city's supplies ran out. But now, first, food has mysteriously appeared in the city, ruining our plan. However, now that our supplies have been burned, we can take advantage of this opportunity and, fueled by the anger of our soldiers, launch a strong attack on Jialing Pass. Perhaps we can achieve unexpected results."

Upon hearing Mr. Hua's words, Zhou Ji was overjoyed, thinking, "Your thoughts coincide with mine."

After initially agreeing on a plan, Prince Ding'an summoned all his generals to the main tent for a meeting. While ostensibly a meeting, it was essentially just a notification.

Zhou Ji was inherently suspicious, and he wouldn't easily trust even those who had followed him for a long time. Many important decisions were only communicated to others after he and Mr. Hua had reached an agreement. Therefore, even his senior generals didn't know what his next plan was.

While Prince Ding'an was making preparations, Xia Yu wasn't idle either. The trouble had already been stirred up; she refused to believe Prince Ding'an would just sit there obediently.

She had all the tung oil in Jialing Pass collected, and not only tung oil, but also rapeseed oil, sesame oil, lard, wine, and everything else flammable.

Zhao Bei and his generals were dumbfounded as they watched buckets of various oils and wine jars being transported to the foot of the city wall.

“Princess, isn’t it too dangerous to have all these things gathered here?” Zhao Bei said.

"Huh?" Xia Yu looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

"If someone accidentally drops a spark in here, it could cause a major disaster," Zhao Bei explained. Moreover, all the oil from every household in the city has been collected; what will everyone eat from now on? And what about the wine? Looking at the vats of wine, several people couldn't help but swallow hard. They hadn't had a drink in a long time since Jialing Pass was besieged.

“If we burn all of Ding’an Prince’s grain, do you think they’ll let it go? We should prepare in advance so that we don’t run out of time to prepare these things when the war starts. Tell the soldiers guarding the city that there are no open flames for the next two days.” Xia Yu didn’t tell them her plans. The spies in the city hadn’t all been caught yet, and she didn’t want her plans to be revealed prematurely.

While doing this, she also collected all the large pots from every household in the city, carried them all to the city wall, and set up a large pot every ten steps. On the other side, neatly stacked firewood was piled up.

Zhao Bei and the others couldn't figure out what Xia Yu was trying to do, but in their eyes, Xia Yu was now like a fairy. Since they couldn't understand and Xia Yu didn't want to explain, they wouldn't ask and would just do whatever they were told.

For a time, the city and its surroundings were bustling with activity. Meanwhile, Zhangjia Village, thousands of miles away, was equally lively.