Pick up a princess to be your wife

In the county government office.

Xiao Yunfei and Ge Desheng sat in chairs, while Yu Rong paced back and forth anxiously.

A thousand people died and several hundred were injured.

How could he explain this to the people? He had personally issued the conscription documents.

What should we do if this leads to a popular uprising?

Those two good-for-nothings are truly useless. They led a full three thousand men into battle, and in less than twelve hours, the entire army was routed.

They were routed by a mere few hundred bandits?

It's a disgrace that Xiao Yunfei is the legitimate son of General Xiao. He's really ruining the prestige of the Xiao family.

Yu Rong only dared to curse in his heart, but naturally dared not curse aloud.

"With so many dead and injured, we need a lot of compensation and medical expenses, at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. The county government is currently short of funds. Should we ask Manager Ge for help?" Yu Rong said with an embarrassed smile.

“I’m just the manager of Zero Money Shop, and I only get twenty taels of silver a month. You want me to come up with 100,000 taels of silver? That’s a bit too much for me,” Ge Desheng said with a smile.

Looking at Ge Desheng's smirking face, Yu Rong wanted to tear his mouth apart.

What kind of time is this to still be laughing?

Yu Rong looked at Xiao Yunfei.

Xiao Yunfei answered quite decisively: "Don't look at me, I don't have 100,000 taels of silver."

If he had 100,000 taels of silver, he would have expanded his forces many times over, and he wouldn't have been unable to defeat a group of mountain bandits.

"Then what should we do? We can't just pretend nothing happened, can we? Public sentiment is unstable. What if a popular uprising breaks out because of this?" Yu Rong asked Ge Desheng.

Xiao Yunfei definitely can't come up with the money, but Ge Desheng certainly can.

How could Ge Desheng possibly give money?

"I'm afraid Lord Yu will have to figure that out himself. I thought your previous scheme of selling and requisitioning grain was quite effective; why not try it again?" Ge Desheng said sarcastically.

"You fucking..."

Upon hearing this, Yu Rong finally couldn't help but swear.

"Who are you cursing?" Ge Desheng's face darkened.

"Oh, no one, no one, I just misspoke," Yu Rong laughed repeatedly.

“Watch your words. Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. As for the compensation, figure it out yourself. If you want Zero Money House to pay, write a letter to the owner. If he agrees, I’ll open the warehouse and release the money immediately,” Ge Desheng said coldly.

"No, no, I'll figure it out myself," Yu Rong said.

Yu Rong was quite wealthy; he could easily afford not only 100,000 taels but also 200,000 taels, though he was reluctant to give it away himself.

The whole thing was clearly caused by Xiao Yunfei and Ge Desheng. He had never gotten anything out of these two, and now he had to clean up their mess.

According to the compensation standards, the families of those who died in battle should receive at least one hundred taels of silver, which is 100,000 taels of silver.

However, Yu Rong still came up with a solution.

Immediately after Zhou Wanfu's death, he confiscated all of Zhou Wanfu's property, including his land.

Nowadays, there are refugees everywhere outside the city, and those fields are of no use to us. It would be better to use the fields as collateral for silver as compensation.

Yes, just do it.

Yu Rong didn't feel bad about losing those useless fields.

In the afternoon, Li Tian and his wife returned home early and brought Li Mu's nephew, whom he had never met before.

Li Mu was surprised to find that his brother and sister-in-law, who always wore old clothes, were wearing brand new clothes.

"Bin'er, call him Second Uncle." Wang Xiulian put the child down from her arms.

"Second Uncle," the child called out in a childish voice.

“Go and hug your second uncle, and tell him your name,” Wang Xiulian said with a smile.

"Hello, Second Uncle, my name is Li Bin."

Li Mu picked up Li Bin and smiled kindly.

How old is Bin'er?

"Two years old."

Li Mu then spoke with Li Bin for a while.

The two-year-old child has a round, chubby face and looks a lot like his mother.

"Erlang, there is something I need to tell you today," Li Tian said solemnly.

"Brother, please speak freely."

"After this year, you will be twenty-one. Today, your elder brother will preside over your coming-of-age ceremony," Li Tian said solemnly.

"what?"

Li Mu was slightly taken aback.

From nobles to the poor, almost everyone would hold a coming-of-age ceremony for their children or nephews. Poor families, especially those of peasant origin, generally did not hold such a ceremony.

What is a poor family? It means that the ancestors were wealthy, and the current generation can still rely on their ancestors' legacy to maintain a certain reputation.

Families like Li Mu's are typical peasant families, not even considered poor, so there's no need for them to undergo a coming-of-age ceremony.

"Brother, isn't this unnecessary?" Li Mu asked.

"I know you have high aspirations. Although you haven't made a name for yourself in these three years, you're sure to achieve something great in the future. When you go out and interact with people, you won't be afraid of being laughed at if you're addressed respectfully by your courtesy name," Li Tian said.

"This……"

It was originally Wang Xiulian who suggested that Li Muxing have a coming-of-age ceremony, but Li Tian felt it was unnecessary.

This principle was explained to Li Tian by Wang Xiulian.

She felt that her brother-in-law would definitely be successful in the future. If he had never even gone through a coming-of-age ceremony, wouldn't he be laughed at?

So Li Tian agreed, and even consulted many people on how to perform the coming-of-age ceremony for young people.

Of the people he knew, very few understood; most simply shared their guesses with Li Tian.

“We should have picked a date, but your elder brother has been preparing for two days. Fortunately, there’s no time like the present, so let’s do it today,” Wang Xiulian said.

"Alright." Not wanting to disappoint his elder brother and sister-in-law, Li Mu agreed.

"Erlang, go take a bath and change your clothes first," Li Tian said.

"Yes."

Li Mu took a shower and changed into new clothes—a white cloth long gown.

Although the fabric was not good, it was still much more exquisite than the clothes my brother and sister-in-law usually wore.

After changing his clothes, Li Mu went to the main room.

"sit."

Li Mu didn't know whether he should kneel or sit, so he simply sat on the chair.

"My elder brother doesn't know the specific etiquette either, so we'll keep everything simple."

As Li Tian spoke, she combed Li Mu's hair and put it up in a bun.

"On the auspicious day of the month, you will start to wear clothes of the Canadian Yuan Dynasty. If you abandon your ambitions, please obey..."

Li Tian was speaking when he suddenly stopped.

"What was it again?" Li Tian asked Wang Xiulian.

Wang Xiulian rolled her eyes at Li Tian and whispered, "If you didn't memorize it, how would I remember it? You memorized it for two days and only memorized one sentence. You have no shame."

“This…” Li Tian scratched his ear.

Since I don't remember, then forget it.

At this moment, Li Xin stepped forward.