Chapter 58 Yanzhou Rainstorm
at the same time.
The royal palace of the Yan Kingdom, a thousand miles away.
Inside a luxurious side hall.
Cui Yue was sitting in front of the mirror applying makeup.
The woman in the mirror had a beautiful face, but there was a fierce look between her brows.
"What did you say?"
She paused, her hand still holding the eyebrow pencil, which had drawn a long line across her face.
The black-clad spies kneeling on the ground trembled.
"Your Majesty, news has come from the Great Yu: the Carefree Prince has been defeated."
"Not only did he lose, but he was also stripped of his title by the Empress Dowager and imprisoned for life."
The eyebrow pencil in Cui Yue's hand was snapped in two.
She turned around abruptly, her eyes flashing with resentment.
"They're all useless!"
"That Yu Jinghong was clearly capable of leading troops to reclaim lost territory later on, so why can't he even defeat a four-year-old toddler at this point?!"
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the rise and fall of her chest.
She thought of that four-year-old empress who always ruined her plans while sitting on the dragon throne.
And then there's that aloof old woman, Yuan Hua, who seems to see through everything.
Cui Yue's lips curled into a cold, sinister smile.
"It doesn't matter."
"As long as I live, as long as I can establish myself in the State of Yan..."
"Empress Dowager, Yu Zhaoning, just you wait!"
"I will definitely return in glory! When that time comes, I will personally skin you alive and make you kneel at my feet as prisoners!"
Just then.
Footsteps sounded outside the hall, accompanied by the eunuch's high-pitched voice.
"His Majesty has arrived!"
Cui Yue's expression changed instantly.
That fierceness vanished without a trace, replaced by shyness and charm.
She struck a pose, her eyes gazing dreamily toward the doorway.
As soon as the drunken Emperor Yan entered the room, he saw a beautiful woman, her eyes glazed over, seemingly drunk but not quite.
"Oh, my beloved concubine, are you waiting for me?"
The Emperor of Yan's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his slender hand.
"My beloved concubine's dance was truly exquisite! It was absolutely enchanting!"
Cui Yue was overjoyed.
Her body went limp, and she was about to fall into the Emperor Yan's arms.
She was thinking to herself that she had to speed up her efforts tonight, and even if she had to use some tricks, she had to make the Emperor of Yan fall for her!
However.
Just as her fingers touched the Yan Emperor.
An indescribable feeling of nausea suddenly surged up!
He instinctively opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of black, foul-smelling poisonous water!
Like a showerhead, it sprayed all over the Yan Emperor's head and face!
The Yan Emperor was completely stunned.
All the romantic thoughts that had been swirling in my mind were instantly wiped away by the stench.
He felt a sticky, warm sensation on his face, and a nauseating smell assaulted his nostrils.
"Ah! My face, my face that's so devastatingly handsome!!"
The Yan Emperor let out a bloodcurdling scream, like a pig being slaughtered.
"Assassin! Assassin! Someone has poisoned me!"
He was so frightened that he shoved Cui Yue, who was still retching, aside and ran out of the hall.
How can this be considered a beauty?
That's clearly a poison-spitting toad demon!
Emperor Yan stumbled out of the palace gate and bumped into someone.
Yu Jingchuan heard the commotion and was about to come and check what was going on.
"Father, what's wrong...?"
Emperor Yan, as if grasping at a straw, grabbed Yu Jingchuan's sleeve and pointed into the hall, shouting.
"Jingchuan! Quick! Your wife...your wife has been poisoned! She's turned into a toad demon!"
Before he could finish speaking...
Yu Jingchuan's face suddenly turned pale.
The toxins in his body had just reached their breaking point, and when the Yan Emperor struck him, his blood and qi surged.
"puff!"
A mouthful of blood, a mixture of bright red and green, was sprayed onto the already colorful face of the Yan Emperor without reservation.
Emperor Yan:...
He stared wide-eyed at the gaping, blood-red maw before him.
His face was covered in a mixture of foul-smelling poisonous water and sweet-smelling poisonous blood.
Red, black, and green—the colors created a vibrant tapestry on his handsome face.
"You...you all..."
The Yan Emperor rolled his eyes and kicked his legs.
I was so angry that I fainted.
All that remained was a chaotic scene of chickens and dogs in the hall, and two young dragons and phoenixes still vomiting incessantly.
Cui Yue vomited while cursing fiercely.
It must have been done by that old hag, the Empress Dowager of Yu. Once she becomes the Empress of Yan, she will definitely take revenge!
Just wait, in a couple of days it will be raining heavily in Yanzhou, and then the entire city will be devastated.
That's when the Empress Dowager and His Majesty are being held accountable by the people!
Yu Jingchuan, who was standing next to him, was vomiting while questioning him.
"Ugh! Yueyue, why are you dressed like this in Father's palace?"
Cui Yue quickly explained, "Jingchuan, I was drunk. I don't know how I got here. I'm so scared."
Yu Jingchuan, who was standing next to her, was about to comfort her when Cui Yue vomited all over his face. He couldn't take it anymore and fainted.
Only Cui Yue and the palace maids and eunuchs who kept arriving remained at the scene.
"How dare you! You plot to harm His Majesty and the prince! Guards, seize her!"
Cui Yue's face turned even greener, and she waved her hands repeatedly, "It wasn't me, it wasn't me!"
However, those people didn't listen at all, and they acted quickly, taking her away.
…
Empress Dowager Yuanhua slightly raised the dragon-headed cane in her hand, about to order a return to the palace.
Just then.
The rapid sound of hooves grew louder as a horse galloped away as if possessed. The courier on the horse, his face weathered and worn, even tumbled and fell off the horse.
"Report!"
"Urgent dispatch from Yanzhou, 800 li away!"
The courier's voice was hoarse as he raised a bamboo tube sealed with sealing wax high in his hand.
The atmosphere at the scene froze instantly.
The civil and military officials, who had initially felt great regret for the Second Prince, suddenly changed their expressions.
Urgent dispatch.
It must not be used except for matters of national importance!
Yuan Hua frowned, and the old eunuch beside him hurriedly ran over, took the bamboo tube, and presented it to the Empress Dowager.
Without the slightest hesitation, Yuan Hua tore open the seal and took out the memorial inside.
One eye and ten lines.
After just two glances, his face turned deathly pale.
She gripped the memorial tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white.
"The prefect of Yanzhou has come to report."
Yuan Hua's voice was extremely heavy.
"In Wancheng, Yanzhou, seven consecutive days of torrential rain have caused the water level to rise sharply."
"The torrential rains haven't stopped, and the water level has already exceeded previous levels. If this continues, the riverbanks will definitely collapse!"
"When the floodwaters burst the dikes, it will be like a ferocious beast being unleashed, and hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Yanzhou will perish!"
These words sent chills down the spines of everyone present.
Hundreds of thousands of people!
That's so many lives lost!
The ministers who were just watching the commotion were now as anxious as ants on a hot pan.
The Vice Minister of Works was the first to react. Ignoring the dust on the ground, he knelt down and began to draw a sketch.
"Empress Dowager! An order must be given immediately to reinforce the river embankment! All laborers from the surrounding areas must be conscripted to block it with sandbags, stones, or even a human wall!"
Grand Tutor Wang An was so anxious that his beard was trembling.
"No! If reinforcing the walls isn't fast enough, the most urgent thing is to evacuate the people! Escape as many as you can!"
"Where can we run? Once the flood comes, it will be a vast expanse of water. How can two legs outrun a flood?"
The crowd erupted into a heated argument.
Only Prime Minister Lin Qingyan, standing at the very front, though his expression was solemn, turned his gentle eyes toward the bright yellow carriage.
He remembers it clearly.
As His Majesty mentioned in his inner thoughts just now, the system will give a reward after we finish reading this big piece of gossip about the Carefree Prince.
It seems to be called... a steam engine?
Although Lin Qingyan did not understand the specific structure of this thing, he had heard His Majesty mutter to himself that it was a divine object that could move steel behemoths.
Since it is a divine object, can it be used for disaster relief?
He looked at the little empress pressed against the car window, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Yuan Hua also thought of this at this moment.
She suddenly looked at Yu Zhaoning, her eyes burning with fervor.
Steam engine!
If we had that kind of large machinery, we might be able to drive piles quickly, and steamships could also rescue people quickly!
But the light in Yuan Hua's eyes dimmed a little more the next second.
Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.
Although the steam engine blueprints were available, steamships involved a much more complex process. Each part had to be hammered out and designed one by one. How long would that take?
Unless there are ready-made blueprints, Yanzhou needs to hold on for a little longer!
By then, Yanzhou will probably have long since become a vast ocean.
What they lack most right now is time!
By the car window.
Yu Zhaoning blinked her big eyes, looking at the adults outside who were in complete chaos.
She hadn't even swallowed the mung bean cake in her mouth yet.
[Oh no? There's a huge flood?]
[This prefect of Yanzhou is truly unlucky; he encountered such a nightmare start right after taking office.]
The little empress muttered to herself, when suddenly a familiar voice rang in her mind.
[Ding! Congratulations, host, for completing the urgent gossip mission regarding the carefree king's matricide!]
[Flavor Rating: S! Fragrant and crispy!]
[Reward Points: 200!]
[Reward Item: Complete set of industrial-grade steam engine blueprints (including detailed parameters for boiler, cylinder, transmission, etc.)]
As the system's voice faded away.
A whole host of complex lines and data flooded into Yu Zhaoning's mind in an instant.
Although Yu Zhaoning is only a four-year-old and cannot understand these scribbled symbols, the system can still directly instill knowledge into her.
Yu Zhaoning shook her head, feeling a bit of a headache.
[System: Do you wish to claim the physical book?]
[Of course I need to know the method! It won't do if only I know! Is this a steam engine? It looks like a big teapot. What can this thing do? Boil water?]
[Grandmother just mentioned disaster relief; will this iron lump be of any help?]
Lin Qingyan and Yuan Hua were both on tenterhooks when they heard this.
able!
Definitely!
Although I don't know what a big teapot is, the name sounds impressive!
Your Majesty, please ask the system gods!
The system paused for a moment, then the voice sounded again.
[The host is facing an urgent national crisis: the floods in Yanzhou.]
[Although this system is designed for casual observers, it still maintains a sense of humanity.]
[Emergency limited-time shop exchange now activated!]
[Would you like to spend 600 points to redeem the bonus book "An Introduction to the Steam Engine and Its Application in Flood Relief and Disaster Relief: A Quick Guide"?]
[Note: This book contains practical tutorials such as "Simplified Steam Pump," "Rapid Piling Method Using Gas as Power," and "How to Assemble a Simple Powered Boat Using Existing Materials in Three Days."]
Six thousand points?!
Yu Zhaoning was so frightened that she almost fell out of the car window.
Her big eyes were wide open, her face full of heartache.
[Six thousand?!]
[Then my wallet is completely empty!]
[Too expensive! System, at least let me negotiate the price!]
The little empress covered her small chest, looking like a miser.
The ministers outside the carriage:!!!
Oh my goodness! My little darling!
Is this the time to feel sorry for the points?
Although they didn't know what kind of currency points were, it sounded like they could be exchanged for some kind of disaster relief method.
Assembly within three days?
Rapid pile driving?
This sounds like a life-saving method!
The old Grand Tutor was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead; he wished he could rush forward and agree on behalf of His Majesty.
Your Majesty, that's hundreds of thousands of lives!
If you want to exchange it, I'll sell all the antiques in my house to buy you candy, okay?
Yuan Hua gripped her cane even tighter, but she trusted her granddaughter completely and simply looked over with a smile.