Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 1168 - 1165._1

Chapter 1168: 1165._1

Upon receiving Jinghao’s message through Pigeon Post, Mrs. Liu promptly sent word to Mrs. Gu and Xiao’er.

Considering the chaotic situation in the south, Xiao’er was a bit uneasy. "Brother Shangguan, how about I pick a couple of people from my personal guards to secretly protect Xi’er? It’s time to test their capabilities anyway."

"Alright." Shangguan Xuanyi didn’t go out that day, he stayed in the mansion dealing with official documents and letters. He was currently reviewing intelligence gathered by Lei Wu, so he casually agreed to Xiao’er’s suggestion upon hearing it.

Therefore, from the personal female guards that Shangguan Xuanyi had specially trained for her, Xiao’er picked the two most skilled in martial arts and dispatched them to secretly protect Xi’er and Gu Qiqi.

In her position as princess, she was not supposed to have personal guards. Even the Empress herself did not have the privilege of keeping personal guards!

Somehow, however, Shangguan Xuanyi managed to fulfill this request for her, and assembled a personal guard team. Although their numbers were small—only a hundred—it was enough to astonish and satisfy Xiao’er!

The personal guard team had been assembled soon after they got married, and had been trained under Shangguan Xuanyi’s supervision. All members were female, and they had just completed their training and were gifted to Xiao’er as a birthday present.

The selection process to form this group of 100 guards was extremely rigorous! After all, there weren’t many women who had both the talent for martial arts and the willingness to endure the hardships that came along with it.

This personal guard team had been training for over two years. While their achievements were modest, some of them were particularly talented. After more than two years of intense special training, they were incredibly skilled in martial arts, although they still fell somewhat short of Yang Liu and Yang Mei’s skills.

But Xiao’er was already satisfied.

Not only did Shangguan Xuanyi arrange personal guards for Xiao’er, shortly after their children’s first month celebration, he also arranged personal guards for all four children. The Emperor happily agreed without hesitation.

Later, the grandson realized that he should not be too biased, so he voluntarily provided personal guards for the other royal grandchildren as well.

Of course, they had to bear the cost of maintaining the personal guards themselves!

The Emperor, already struggling to maintain his own private treasury, stated that he simply could not afford to raise his grandson’s guards!

After examining Lei Wu’s intelligence, Shangguan Xuanyi called Yang Liu in to have her deliver the information to Shangguan Ruixi.

"Is there a problem?" inquired Xiao’er.

"No real problems, but with the number of people who have been recruited into the Prince An’s Mansion by Lei Wu over the years, it would be somewhat troublesome to deal with them all at once." However, figuring out how to handle this would be Shangguan Ruixi’s concern, not something Shangguan Xuanyi needed to worry about.

"Indeed, it’s troublesome! These people have their own subordinates! One flies, and the whole flock follows!" Thus it is quite troublesome to have a trusted insider turn traitor!

It’s like having an important official in the Imperial Court who’s a spy, it would affect many others.

However, if such a situation isn’t completely uprooted, even a small ant could collapse a great tree!

Shangguan Xuanyi was about to unroll another letter from Shangguan Xuanjun when an eagle landed on the window sill, carrying another message from Di Shaowei.

As Shangguan Xuanyi was about to remove the letter from the eagle’s foot, Xiao’er said, "Let me do it."

Xiao’er walked over, untied the letter from the eagle’s foot, and handed it to Shangguan Xuanyi. Then she told Yang Liu, who was waiting outside, "Yang Liu, take it downstairs to feed it something."

Yang Liu quickly entered and took the eagle away.

"What did Brother Di say?"

"He urges the Imperial Court to expedite the dispatching of officials to Zezhou to look after its populace." Shangguan Xuanjun’s earlier message also mentioned this issue, urging to send officials quickly in order to establish proper local government.

"What’s wrong with the people there?"

"The shops in the city are not open, especially essential ones like grain shops, cloth stores, clinics, pharmacies, and grocery stores. They all remain closed, making life difficult for the common people and leading to numerous complaints."

"It’s not possible that every shop owner has fled, is it? I think someone is causing trouble. Shop owners are refusing to open their shops, thinking that we will be helpless. If they push us too far, our own merchants will fill the void by opening shops over there, and then they will have their day of regrets!"

Shangguan Xuanyi didn’t react to Xiao’er’s anger. He knew that it was just a momentary venting of anger.

He lowered his head and began to write replies to both of them.

The common people would certainly need to be appeased, but the control should remain in the hands of officials appointed by the Imperial Court. This is whatever the Imperial Court intends it to be.

"The shop owners showing such solidarity implies there is a person inciting them from behind. As long as this person is found, more than half of the problem will be solved." After venting her initial frustration, Xiao’er quickly cooled down and pinpointed the key issue.

Unity is never spontaneous; it’s always organized by someone! That person unites those who have intents but are afraid to act alone.

If that person is an official within the Nangong Imperial Court, it would be more troublesome.

If it’s just some local merchants with their own needs and ideas, it would be much simpler to address: just fulfill their demands.

"Right." Shangguan Xuanyi also considered this issue immediately. He quickly wrote the letters while casually responding to Xiao’er.

Xiao’er, seeing him busy, did not disturb him further. She left the study, leaving him in peace to handle official matters.

After responding, Shangguan Xuanyi promptly entered the palace for a report to the Emperor. This matter was potentially significant, requiring immediate reporting.

He told Xiao’er that he would return for dinner, then proceeded to the palace.

Xiao’er recalled her plan to open a spice and cosmetics workshop and thought it was about time to start preparations—there were no shops opening in Zezhou, so she would start one!

She called Yang Liu over and asked Zhao Yong to visit the broker. She needed to buy a few people to teach them how to extract fragrance and produce skincare products.

The people from the broker’s shop knew that Prince Rui’s mansion was short of staff, so they quickly brought over the best girls and children they had.

The brokers did not dare to select unsuitable people when they knew the mansion of Prince Rui was purchasing. What if they offended the people of Prince Rui’s Mansion?!

This time Xiao’er purchased servants, she bought any suitable ones she saw, even children aged three or four years old. As their own children were eventually going to grow up and need people to play and serve them, she decided to buy them all at once.

For the three or four-year-old children, it was easy to determine their dispositions. Those with good character were to stay by the children’s side as confidants. Although she had the Loyalty Powder and wasn’t worried about any betrayals or disloyalty, having a kindly character was still very important.

This time, Xiao’er bought a total of fifteen maids, five young boys, and ten children of both genders.

When the broker left with the people, Yang Liu and Aunt Rong quickly gave instructions to the newly purchased servants.

Zhu Yan happened to be bringing her son over to play with Xiao’er’s children. Seeing that Xiao’er had brought in so many servants all of a sudden, she was surprised and asked, "Why did you suddenly add so many servants? Are the servants of the mansion not enough?"