Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

"Ah~"

Upon learning of the incident at the Dongzhou camp in the main hall of the Prince's mansion, Li Ye sighed in anger.

Pointing at Lin Xuan'an, who was slumped on the ground and still drunk, he couldn't utter a single word.

"Good wine, Li... hiccup... Lord Li, have a cup... drink... ugh..."

Lin Xuan'an was talking nonsense when he suddenly started vomiting.

"Drink! I'll let you drink! I'll let you drink!"

Li Ye was so angry that his face turned red. He ordered his men to shove the man's head into the wine jar that hadn't been finished yesterday.

After a long while, he grabbed Lin Xuan'an's hair and roared with a ferocious expression.

"Lin Xuan'an, do you realize you've ruined our lord's grand plan?"

"Two million six hundred thousand bushels of military rations, all gone because of this one jar of wine!"

"How can you face the Prince? How can you face the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Dongzhou camp?"

He slapped Lin Xuan'an hard across his drunken face.

As a result, Lin Xuan'an smacked his lips and exhaled a large breath of alcohol: "No grain? Hehe, good thing, if we run out, we can use it to brew good wine, it's really good wine, hahaha..."

"Guards, drag him away and lock him in the dungeon until the prince returns to decide his fate."

At Li Ye's command, someone immediately came in and dragged Lin Xuan'an out.

Once he left, Li Ye turned his attention to Leng Bao and Guan Jing, who were kneeling to one side: "Didn't General Cao tell you to keep an eye on that drunkard before he left? It's only been a few days and such a big thing has happened. How are you going to take responsibility?"

Leng Bao: "My lord, I am but a lowly official and dare not offer any suggestions to Lin Xuan'an."

Li Ye: "Then at least you should have stopped them from drinking. You all know that Lin Xuan'an is addicted to alcohol. Once he takes a sip, he's ruined!"

Guan Jing: "My lord, how could we servants dare to stop the Duke of Zhenguo from sending wine? There's nothing we can do about it."

Li Ye's pupils contracted: "What did you say? Wine sent by the Duke of Zhenguo?"

"Exactly."

The two generals spoke in unison.

"The Duke of Zhenguo sent wine to Lin Xuan'an to help him relax, and even specifically told him to drink it back at the barracks. Do you think we dared to refuse?"

"It's over."

Li Ye slumped weakly into a chair, rubbing his head and sighing.

"Shen Lang is trying to drive the prince to his death."

“They bought up grain from the people of Sichuan at high prices, and then continuously guided the people to plant mulberry seedlings. Finally, they burned down the military granary.”

"It turns out that we underestimated Shen Lang's scheming from the very beginning. Sigh."

A strong sense of exhaustion and despair instantly swept over Li Ye's entire body.

Only now did he realize how ruthless Shen Lang's methods were.

It's easy to guess that Shen Lang will take the opportunity to raise grain prices in Sichuan, plunging the military and civilians into misery.

"No, there is still a way to remedy this."

Li Ye's eyes lit up.

“Those landlords and gentry, as well as the prominent families in Sichuan, still have a large amount of grain stored in their hands. Let them donate it to the rice market to lower the price of grain.”

Just as he was about to write to wealthy families in Sichuan, such as Yi Wancheng, Leng Bao, who had been kneeling, asked a question.

"My lord, now that the granaries of Dongzhou have been destroyed, what will happen to the food supply for the hundreds of thousands of people in the Dongzhou camp?"

Li Ye's face darkened, and he immediately said to the two men, "You two return to camp immediately and stabilize the morale of the troops. Tell them..."

Although the granary caught fire, most of the stored grain had already been transferred to Yizhou.

The prefecture is currently urgently mobilizing grain supplies, so there is no danger of food shortages.

"But where in Yizhou can we get any grain?" Wu Zhi asked, puzzled. "The grain supplies we've been storing recently have all been placed in the Langzhong area."

How much grain does Langzhong have left?

"Not much, less than 200,000 shi."

"How long can our current food supplies last?"

"At most three days. After three days, there will be no food available."

Upon hearing this, Li Ye immediately began to make arrangements: "Don't panic. First, transfer 100,000 shi of grain from Langzhong to deal with the emergency. As for the rest, I will make up for it as soon as possible."

Leng Bao: "How long will that take? My lord, the granaries have been burned down, and the soldiers in the army are all in a state of panic. Once the food supply is cut off, I dare not even think about what will happen."

Guan Jing also said, "Yes, sir, if hundreds of thousands of soldiers were to cause trouble, no one could bear the responsibility."

Li Ye sighed: "You just need to go and appease the troops. I will make up for the food shortage as soon as possible."

Hearing him say that, Leng Bao and Wu Zhi didn't say anything more and turned back to the military camp as he instructed.

As soon as the two left, someone from the Prince's residence came to report.

"My lord, the Duke of Zhenguo has come to visit."

Li Ye was taken aback, and immediately put down his pen: "Quickly, invite him in."

Even though he knew that the matter of the granary was definitely related to Shen Lang, Li Ye had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue negotiating with him.

The current situation has deprived him of the capital to be arrogant, and he can only choose to compromise to deal with it.

Before long, Shen Lang entered the hall with a worried expression.

Just as Li Ye was about to step forward to pay his respects, he heard Shen Lang's urgent and concerned voice: "Lord Li, I heard that something happened at the Dongzhou camp. How is it? Is it serious?"

Li Ye's lips twitched. Looking at Shen Lang's realistic expression, he wished he could slap him.

"Lord Zhenguo, let's not beat around the bush. Others may not know the situation at the Dongzhou camp, but surely you do?"

"What do you mean by that, Lord Li? I heard that the Dongzhou camp has been attacked and burned down."

I came here specifically to ask how things went, but it sounds like you're implying the incident happened because of me. I'm not taking the blame for that.

"Duke Zhenguo, there are no outsiders here, so let's speak frankly."

Li Ye didn't want to act with Shen Lang anymore, so he directly asked him to sit down.

"Last night, the granary at the Dongzhou camp caught fire, and 2.6 million shi of grain were burned. Now the army only has enough grain to last for three days."

Three days later, the army will run out of food, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers will inevitably riot. They might even wreak havoc on the entire prefecture. Do you know how tragic that scene would be?

Li Ye said the last sentence to Shen Lang almost through gritted teeth.

You've gone too far; you're not leaving any way out at all?

Upon hearing this, Shen Lang looked shocked: "That serious? Lord Li must be extremely worried about the grain supply right now."

"It seems I've come at an inopportune time. In that case, I won't bother you any longer. I'll visit again another day. Farewell."

After saying that, he got up and left.

"The Duke of Zhenguo!"

Li Ye called out to Shen Lang loudly, his tone revealing a hint of embarrassment and helplessness.

"Is there anything else, Lord Li?"

Shen Lang asked in return.

Li Ye took a deep breath: "Duke Zhenguo, I have already ordered people to go to Langzhong to transfer grain to stabilize the morale of the army. I hope that you will not interfere."

Shen Lang turned around: "What are you saying, Lord Li? Why would I interfere?"

Li Ye: "Duke Zhenguo, I know you have a deep prejudice against the Prince, but Shu is nominally part of the territory of Great Chu."

The people living on this land are all soldiers and civilians of the Great Chu. You and His Majesty surely wouldn't want to see Shu reduced to a desolate scene of starvation and banditry, would you?

Shen Lang looked at Li Ye quietly and saw a trace of resentment and helplessness in his eyes.

"The people and soldiers of Shu are of course citizens of the Great Chu, and Shu is also part of the Great Chu territory. Who would see people living on their own land living in misery? Lord Li, you are overthinking it."

After saying that, Shen Lang turned around, waved his hand, and left.

Upon arriving at the gate of the mansion, Shen Lang added, "Also, I'm here to collect the silk on behalf of His Majesty. I'm not involved in anything else. Just deliver the silk as soon as possible."

"I also want to return to the capital as soon as possible to report back. Once you've dealt with your current matters, we can discuss the silk issue again."

Li Ye looked up, but only saw Shen Lang's departing figure.