Li Yao was surprised to find that after Liu Yun returned to the capital for a short visit, he was actually bestowed the title of prince.
Becoming a prince meant he would have his own fief, and the entire Yizhou Prefecture would become Liu Yun's personal territory. All the taxes collected each year would belong to him personally, and he would only need to pay a small portion to the imperial court.
Anyone with a bit of common sense knew this was weakening the power of the imperial court. It was evident the old emperor doted heavily on this son of his, to the point of excess.
But looking at it positively, with the imperial court's restraints gone, if Liu Yun could manage Yizhou well, the common people there would have a better life in the future.
According to convention, the county magistrates like Song County Magistrate could choose to return to the capital and await reassignment. They could also choose to stay and continue helping Liu Yun administer their counties.
But the prefect would have to be removed.
"Li Prefect left for the capital yesterday after being recalled," Liu Yun said. "But even without this, he still would have been removed from office and investigated for his poor locust control efforts this time. In the future, he will probably only be able to take on some insignificant idle position in the capital."
Hearing that Li Prefect, whom he had known for many years, had ended up in this situation, Song County Magistrate also felt very resigned. If Li Prefect had listened to him and made some effort to organize the people to fight the locusts, he definitely could have received a promotion after returning to the capital this time.
"County Magistrate Song," Liu Yun asked, "what are your intentions?"
In his heart, Song County Magistrate wanted to go back.
After all, that was where his family and friends were, back in the capital.
Also, in the past year plus, he had achieved quite a bit in Baichuan County. Returning now, he could probably balance out his merits and demerits and resume his former position.
But for some reason, when it came time to speak, he swallowed the words back down.
He had already developed a strong bond with the common people of Baichuan County, who now dearly loved him.
Plus there was He Wan village, and Li Yao who seemed to have countless good ideas in her mind.
If he left just like this, how could he immediately know what fresh thing Li Yao had come up with next?
He was a bit conflicted.
Seeing him silent, Liu Yun did not rush him to declare his intentions now. Instead, he said, "This prince will gather all the county magistrates in Yizhou Prefecture in three days. You can all declare your intentions then."
"Thank you, Prince Yizhou."
Liu Yun gave a faint smile. "Actually, I hope you can stay."
He left the second half of that sentence unsaid, but Song County Magistrate could guess what it was.
This Prince Yizhou would definitely heavily rely on him in the future.
"Alright," Liu Yun said, "today is my sister Chunyan's one month celebration, let's not talk about this. I haven't eaten auntie's cooking in a long time. Today I must eat more."
Liu Yun sat down at the table with Li Yao, just as casually as before, and chat with everyone just as casually while filling his plate.
Hearing Song County Magistrate describe the locust fighting efforts in He Wan village, Liu Yun regretted missing it even more.
"If I had known, I would have gone back later and not missed such a thing! Auntie Li, do you still have any locusts at home I could try frying and eating?"
"There aren't any left. If you want to eat them, go catch them yourself in the fields and I'll fry them for you," Li Yao said.
"Alright," Liu Yun turned to his guard Bai Song, "have Xiao Si Wang take you to catch some this afternoon."
Bai Song: ???
He felt like the Ninth Prince... no, like Prince Yizhou had become a different person after coming here.
After the drinking and feasting, Li Yao had the villagers pack up all the unfinished dishes to take home and eat slowly. Everyone understood her intentions and did not feel ashamed.
After packing up, they all helped clean up the tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks.
"Auntie Li," Liu Yun said while patting his bulging belly, "I heard from Chunying just now that you also know how to fish?"
"Mm."
"Could you take me to catch some fish?" Liu Yun asked.
"Let's go."
Having just filled her belly, Li Yao also wanted to take a stroll, so she took Liu Yun and Bai Song to the reservoir.
"Bai Song," Liu Yun said, "the boat is a bit small. You don't need to come. Auntie and I can go ourselves."
Bai Song's brows furrowed slightly. Liu Yun couldn't swim. And while Li Yao looked harmless, her martial arts skills were exceptional. If she wanted to harm Liu Yun on the water...
Thinking of this, Liu Yun shook his head and smiled self-deprecatingly.
If Li Yao wanted to harm Liu Yun, she must have had countless opportunities to do so stealthily.
The two stepped onto the small boat. It was Liu Yun's first time rowing a boat on such a large reservoir, and doing it himself. He found it very fun. But because he was unfamiliar with it, the small wooden boat kept spinning in circles on the water and didn't travel very far even after rowing for a long time.
Li Yao was too lazy to care and just let him mess around as he pleased.
She knew Liu Yun hadn't truly come here to row a boat and catch fish.
After playing around for a while, Liu Yun was drenched in sweat. He finally rowed the small boat to the middle of the reservoir.
"I'm tired, I'm tired," Liu Yun put down the oars. "Let's rest a bit."
"No one can hear us talk here now," Li Yao said. "So if you have divine matters, you can speak plainly now."
"Auntie really is too smart for anything to get past you."
Liu Yun leaned to the side and scooped up some water to wash his face before slowly saying, "Auntie, I want to invite you to Yizhou Palace to be my martial arts master."
Li Yao: ...This young man doesn't think before he speaks.
I'm a woman, what kind of martial arts master would I be?
If anything, it should be martial arts mistress!
But that doesn't seem right either.
In any case, she understood Liu Yun's meaning. He wanted her to be his chief strategist.
But she had already decided to retire. She had wanted to retire since her last life, and truly did not want to get involved in such matters now.
"I'm just a village woman farmer, what kind of martial arts master could I be?"
"Auntie, please don't say that," Liu Yun said. "Auntie, you have exceptional talent. If you can help me, Yizhou can definitely be governed even better."
"Let's forget about it. I'm a lazy person by nature." Li Yao said. "If you really encounter an unsolvable problem, you can come find me anytime and I will be happy to help."
Liu Yun's face clearly showed his regret.
Of course, most of it was an act, because he had already guessed Li Yao would answer this way.
But he still made the offer, to first express his sincerity, and provide good footing for the more important conversation to come.
Just that the words to come had a high chance of dissatisfying Auntie Li, and Liu Yun felt a little apprehensive, unsure of how to broach the subject.
Li Yao was clever beyond measure.
From the moment she heard Liu Yun was bestowed a prince title, she guessed what the old emperor was scheming.
The things in her hands were simply too many.
Not just the pickled vegetable business and bicycles, but also the high quality steel, cement, and steam engines with power exceeding a hundred men. Who wouldn't be envious or wary if they were emperor?
It was only the current emperor who was still relatively benevolent, who hadn't outright framed her for some crime to seize her assets, instead adopting a more gentle strategy - cooperation.
And Liu Yun was the emperor's spokesman.
The emperor had extended an olive branch. If Li Yao didn't want to abandon everything she had now and flee with her family, she would have to accept it.
She wouldn't refuse for now, of course.
She had developed these technologies with the goal of proliferation.
But she would also leave herself an out, just in case.
