Chapter 289: Chapter 175: Planning for the Future

Translator: 549690339

“Brother Lu, we’ll leave first. When I have time, I’ll come to see you again.”

At this moment, Shangguan Haimoon hesitantly let go of Lu Yuan’s hand, speaking unwillingly.

In fact, the reason for the siblings’ departure was ostensibly that their father had called, and they had no choice but to serve in the army.

However, in reality, both siblings were only of secondary strength. In a battle involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers, how much of an effect could they have?

The actual reason for their farewell was due to Yang Jing’s persuasion afterwards.

For Yang Jing and the court, the most pressing matter at hand was to gather the ten Grandmasters to suppress the rebellion and defend against foreign enemies.

In order to achieve this goal, it was crucial for Lu Yuan to break through Innate as soon as possible.

Therefore, after learning that Lu Yuan was about to break through Innate, Yang Jing, in the name of his uncle, ordered the Shangguan siblings not to disturb Lu Yuan during this time to avoid any influence, especially due to love affairs.

This was also why Lu Yuan hadn’t seen the Shangguan siblings during the entire conference.

Later, Yang Jing sent a letter to Shangguan Ming, stating the seriousness of the situation, leading to today’s summoning to the frontline and the farewell between the two parties.

“After suppressing the rebels, Guangbai and Haimoon, we can meet freely.” Lu Yuan nodded with a smile.

In fact, he could probably guess part of the reason for the siblings’ departure, but he didn’t try to keep them.

As Yang Jing considered, although Lu Yuan now wanted to marry into the aristocratic families, the most urgent task was to break through Innate first.

At this time, any factor that would affect his breakthrough must be compromised.

Now it was time to do so.

After bidding farewell to each other, the Shangguan siblings set off quickly, heading west.

The journey to Baling City was much shorter than Lu Yuan’s journey back to Luyang.

Heading west, they only needed to pass through Yuzhang Prefecture to reach Yueyang Prefecture, where the imperial army was stationed, a mere four or five hundred miles away.

Lu Yuan, on the other hand, had to travel south along the waterway, through Yuzhang Prefecture, Yichun Mansion, and Luling Prefecture, then turn southwest to reach Luyang County, with more than a thousand miles of journey on water and land, having to travel an extra thousand miles compared to the Shangguan siblings.

On the way back, there was no longer the leisure of coming here.

Lu Yuan was concerned about the situation in Dongting Prefecture, fearing that the foundation he had laid would be disrupted. Qi Yun was worried about his apprentice’s safety under the chaotic war situation.

As a result, the two of them rode fast horses, traveled day and night, and finally returned to Luvang Prefecture after more than ten davs.

When Qi Yun was in Luling Prefecture, he separated from Lu Yuan due to different paths, returning to Hengyang Prefecture alone without continuing the journey.

However, with their abilities, they were still able to ensure their safety even when traveling alone in this chaotic world.

There was no significant problem with that.

Two months later, upon returning to Luyang Prefecture, Lu Yuan was surprised to find that its appearance had changed greatly compared to when he had left.

There were many new construction sites outside the city. The government was organizing farmers, who had been unable to farm this year, to rebuild water conservancy projects and level roads in exchange for relief.

A large number of men were sweating on various construction sites, thoroughly appeasing the people who might have become unstable due to the disasters.

Fields by the roadside were also full of lush green seedlings, and the second round of autumn rice after the rush planting was growing vigorously.

Entering the city, the streets were no longer as desolate as before but were full of people, merchants, and travelers.

Listening to these people’s accents, not all of them were local to Luyang. There were many dialects from other places, some of which were quite familiar to Lu Yuan, coming from his former hometown of Luling Prefecture.

Seeing all these scenes, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel gratified.

The rapid recovery of Luyang Prefecture was undoubtedly a strength for him.

Entrusting Luyang Prefecture to Sun Siwen was indeed the right decision.

Upon returning to the government office and meeting with Sun Siwen, Lu Yuan became even more certain of this decision.

“In the past two months, as the local governments have been rebuilt and improved, local production has also resumed. The autumn rice has been sown, and it will be ready for harvest in a month or two.

At the same time, with the funds provided by Brother Lu, I have started building water conservancy projects and roads in the local area, gathering many of the local people who were unable to survive.

This series of projects cost a total of 150,000 silver taels.

Meanwhile, this year, Yuzhang Prefecture had a bumper crop of summer rice, making the price of grain much cheaper than in previous years.

Therefore, I sent letters to various prefectures in Yuzhang, sending people to specifically purchase new rice there. By now, a total of 500,000 stones of grain have been collected, which is enough for the food needs of 100,000 people in the whole prefecture for one year.

Even supplying the army, it would be enough for 20,000 people to eat for four years.

However, buying so much rice also required a huge amount of silver. Nowadays, there are wars everywhere. Even though Yuzhang Prefecture had a bumper harvest of summer rice, the price of rice is still six cents a pound.

Purchasing 500,000 stones of grain cost a total of 300,000 silver taels.

Before Brother Lu left, he instructed us to gather as many refugees as possible to increase the local population.

In the past few months, the Northern Yueyang Prefecture has been plagued by wars, even affecting Changsha Prefecture greatly.

The turmoil in these two prefectures has left many people displaced and fleeing in all directions.

Although most of the refugees have fled to Yuzhang Prefecture, there are also many who have fled south.

I sent people to gather some, a total of 10,000 households, with more than 40,000 people. They have now been settled in various places within Luyang Prefecture. This project cost 50,000 silver taels..