Dressed as a young lady, she became rich by relying on Pinxixi

Chapter 136 Lezhou

"Do you know that when Father ascends the throne, he will also appoint a crown princess?"

"Crown Princess?" How could Xu Siyu know such an important matter?

"Yes, the Crown Princess Zhu Yuyang, the only heir of my father's bloodline."

"It's not a kiss, is it?"

"But it's the most legitimate."

They clearly seized power by force, yet they still adhered to the patriarchal system. Xu Siyu felt that they were both avant-garde and conservative.

Seeing that she didn't understand, Pingxiang simply told her the reason why Xu Siyu was conferred the title.

"If it weren't for Yuyang, you wouldn't be an earl, but only a lady of the earl's family."

The Ming Dynasty was going to establish a crown princess, so naturally it needed female officials and barons to build up momentum for the crown princess.

Well, she has a vested interest.

Xu Siyu quietly chose two small official residences next to Cuihua Garden. She only needed to knock down the walls and make some minor modifications to comply with the regulations.

After she made her choice, she asked Pingxiang, "What about you?"

It's about the mansion and the title.

"If nothing unexpected happens, he should be made a prince. Didn't you see I built a fence around the Ming Palace, with civil and military elements on the left and a back garden? It should look like that, right?"

This palace, which was renovated and expanded again and again from a prefectural yamen, is like an abbreviation of the Ming Dynasty. It started out in a sloppy manner, but is becoming more and more well-organized.

When Pingxiang was named King of Southwest, Xu Siyu learned that his real name was Liu Ao.

The real name of Regent Prince Pingxia was Zhu He, and the real name of Prince Jinyang Pingchi was Li Shang.

None of the brothers of the Heike clan had the surname Heike; Heike was just their courtesy name.

And Sima Yang is the Crown Princess Zhu Yuyang.

Therefore, when you are in the world, you must have an alias!

When the New Year came, Xu Siyu was granted the title of Anle Earl and was given a small mountain town called Lezhou, 600 miles away from Changjia Prefecture.

The fiefdom is in such a place, which looks very remote.

But in fact, there is a place where the Jin River bypasses and the Xujia West Road caravan can reach.

From the moment she received the imperial edict, she was full of longing for Lezhou City.

Unexpectedly, Huang Jiu, who was in charge of this section of the trade route, poured cold water on her.

"Master, you don't know that Jiazhou is nestled between three mountains. On one side, the Jin River connects to Jincheng Prefecture and Changjia Prefecture, but on the other two sides, winding mountains surround it, and the towns next to them are either foreign chieftains' towns or bandit strongholds... Aside from officials and their families, the rest of the population is mostly exiled prisoners and their descendants."

The place of exile is surrounded by barbarians, so the people must be tough and difficult to govern.

Xu Siyu suddenly felt that she was being played by the court.

However, this was the small kingdom given to her by the Ming Dynasty. All the officials and hundreds of soldiers there were under her name, and the bows, arrows, clothes and food they needed also belonged to her, as well as the people...

No matter what, this city already belongs to Xu Siyu. It is both a fiefdom and a responsibility.

It's her responsibility, so she has to take care of it.

In fact, standing in the other party's position, Xu Siyu could understand Emperor Ming's approach.

As the ruler of a place, she is allowed to maintain an army for self-defense. If she is not placed in such a place, should she be placed in a rich and prosperous place?

The emperor used to be the King of Linjiang, but now he is not a dragon slayer who has finally turned into a dragon.

Presumably, this new court would set up military camps outside Lezhou City to help and monitor Lezhou.

Not to mention Lezhou, even in Changjia Prefecture, there are garrisons guarding the gates.

She first sent Long San and Rui'er to Lezhou City with Huang Jiu's caravan to investigate.

It was originally estimated that they would be gone for half a month at most, but after twenty days, they still hadn't returned and no news had been sent.

This made Xu Siyu so anxious that she went directly to the Southwest Palace to ask Pingxiang for the person.

"No, your people went to your fiefdom and disappeared. Do you blame me?"

"What kind of place is Lezhou? Are you playing dumb? I donated so much, and you gave me a fiefdom like this? You are so cruel!"

Pingxiang was angry after being scolded, but he also felt that his father's move was a bit unfair. He suppressed his anger and agreed to the newly promoted Earl of Anle.

"I will immediately send the garrison of Yicheng Camp to Jiazhou to investigate."

"Send the army to escort me. I need to see with my own eyes how cruel you are!"

It was only in front of Pingxiang that Xu Siyu did not pay attention to the hierarchy between the emperor and his subjects and dared to challenge him directly.

……

At this time, the only people left alive who had lost contact were the dying Long San and Rui'er, whom he had been protecting.

This is a river beach, mixed with yellow sand and mud, with clumps of reeds spreading into the river. The river surface is wide, flat and broad.

A tree trunk was stuck at the corner of the riverbank.

A pale woman was lying on one side of the tree trunk, while a man, half of his body immersed in the river water, was hugging the trunk and trying hard to walk to the river bank.

……

Before being granted to Xu Siyu, Lezhou was just a county town with tens of thousands of households.

Xu Siyu and Lin Yiqing each rode a horse and followed the guards given to him by Pingxiang. It only took them two days to reach the city of Lezhou.

According to the imperial edict, the mountains, forests and wastelands within a hundred miles of the county town also belonged to her.

That is to say, she can expand the city wall outward in the future, or build a separate city wall for her garrison.

However, just as Huang Jiu had described to her, Lezhou was not rich.

Apart from the tall city walls, after entering the city, Xu Siyu saw mostly shacks, with only a few tall buildings near the county government office that were out of tune with the environment.

To be honest, despite being mentally prepared, she was still surprised.

Xu Siyu and his party stopped at the county government office.

Two yamen runners in black uniforms were guarding outside the gate. They were bored and careless, but when they suddenly saw so many tall horses and armored guards, their expressions became more interesting.

This government office is also very deserted, the building is old and there is no one.

Looking closer, I saw that the red paint on the gate had many cracks and was even peeling off. Looking into the courtyard, I saw a lot of weeds growing in the cracks of the bluestone floor. The tiles were dull and the walls were yellowed. It was obvious that they had not been repaired for a long time.

Xu Siyu was secretly shocked. This government office didn't seem to be used much on a daily basis, but I heard that the magistrate here had been in office for ten years. Could it be that he didn't handle official business here?

Why is this county government office in such a state? What kind of life is it here?

About three quarters of an hour later, County Magistrate Qu Chengzheng came from outside the yamen with a group of officials to meet Xu Siyu.

It was obvious that he was in a hurry, and he was adjusting his official uniform as he walked.

Qu Chengzheng lowered his eyes and bowed: "I didn't know Anle Bo had arrived. I didn't come to greet him. I hope you won't be offended."

The people behind also bowed.

If Xu Siyu hadn't been anxious to find out the news, she would have really wanted to make County Magistrate Qu bend over for three quarters of an hour.

She hadn't been treated so coldly in a long time.

This Lezhou City was her fiefdom, yet they could leave her stranded in the government office for three quarters of an hour without even a sip of tea.

Xu Siyu was not sure, but she still asked the person to get up first.

"Why did the magistrate leave the yamen before the hour of dawn?"

Qu Chengzheng was about fifty years old, thin and gaunt. His small, dark eyes flickered with brilliance as he said, "My Lord Anle, there are many construction projects in Lezhou, and I have set up a separate court over at the quarry. I happened to be there today to handle some miscellaneous matters."

"Master Qu, are you setting up a private court?"