Chapter 20: Father, let’s get ready to escape

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

As a student of the county academy, Yuan Yin Di was a treasure in the eyes of the academy’s teacher. It was naturally not a problem for him to request leaves. After all, Yuan Yin Di hardly took any leave since he came to the academy to study.

After leaving the county, Yuan Zhao Di led his little brother to an empty road and carefully explained the whole situation.

“Fourth brother, this is too big a matter!” Yuan Yin Di exclaimed after hearing his brother’s account of the incident. His slightly tender face was filled with solemness.

“Little five, do you think our family has a way to stay out of this?”

“It’s going to be difficult!” Yuan Yin Di answered without thinking.

There was no way his family won’t be involved in this. Yuan Zhao Di was a survivor of the incident. Unless something happened to the prince, he would look for his fourth brother for questioning.

“You can’t think of a solution either?” Yuan Zhao Di’s heart sank when he heard what his little brother had to say.

“Fourth brother, I only said that it would be difficult. I didn’t say that it would be impossible!” Yuan Yin Di laughed when he saw his fourth brother’s expression.

“There’s a way?” Yuan Zhao Di asked after seeing his brother smiling.

Yuan Yin Di shrugged and said, “Fourth brother, I have to think about it!”

This matter was not an easy problem, and thinking of a solution would take some time.

There was definitely something fishing going on with the imperial court’s navy pretending to be pirates. As for what is fishy, it was useless for them to guess without knowing the inside story.

“Fourth brother, let’s head home first. We’ll talk when we get home!”

Yuan Yin Di felt that it was necessary to understand this matter in detail. He had to know at least which towns and docks along the Qingyuan river had been attacked by pirates.

One had to know that the imperial court had set up 18 water fortresses along the Qingyuan River, each of which was guarded by the imperial court’s navy. If the docks and towns of the 18 water fortresses were attacked, it would mean that all the soldiers along the Qingyuan river were rotten. It would also mean that there was a big problem in Jiangnan.

The two rushed back to Lin He village as fast as they could. After arriving home, Yin Di and his father started marking out all the towns and docks along the Qingyuan river the pirates had attacked.

Old Yuan had sailed before when he was young, so he was very familiar with the docks and towns along the Qingyuan River.

“Rotten to the core!” Yuan Yin Di exclaimed earnestly after all the attack points were marked out.

Along the entire Qingyuan River, there were 18 water fortresses controlled by the navy soldiers, and different numbers of pirates attacked them.

“Father, let’s get ready to escape!”

Yuan Yin Di pondered for a moment and looked up at his father.

“What?”

Old Yuan’s expression changed when he heard his youngest son’s words.

“Father, look. The 18 water fortresses along the Qingyuan river are all in trouble. This means someone wants to completely cut off the water route from Jiangnan to the capital. Jiangnan’s taxes take up sixty percent of our Great Yin!”

“When I was in the academy, I heard from the teachers that Bei Li imperial court has already conquered three counties and 18 cities in the north of our Great Yin. The imperial court’s border army has been defeated, and they are temporarily relying on ChangXia to defend.”

“If I’m not wrong, Jiangnan will be in chaos! Our Great Yin is not far from falling apart.”

“…?!”

Both Yuan Yin Di’s father and brother were dumbfounded.

Initially, they had asked Yuan Yin Di to come back to think of a way to deal with the imperial court’s investigation. But now, the investigation had become a small problem. The actual situation was that the world was going to be in chaos!