Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 546 - 480: Space Upgraded Again

Yu Xiaolian knew that Yangcheng was Su Jingchen’s hometown, and those people trusted Su Jingchen so much, believing he would lead them back to the good old days. If Su Jingchen abandoned the city and let the Hu army wreak havoc, he might never get over it mentally.

"A success for one general means the death of thousands of soldiers. Even if you don’t get involved, Jun Mobai and Jun Yian won’t give up on their plans!" Yu Xiaolian sighed.

"I know, I can’t manage the people elsewhere, but I must take care of the people of Yangcheng.

Their aim isn’t to have all the people of Linzhou die. As long as I guard my city, it won’t interfere with their strategy!" Su Jingchen said gloomily.

"Jun Mobai would certainly leave someone to defend the city to the death, but have you considered what you would do if reinforcements don’t arrive in time?" Yu Xiaolian tried to persuade Su Jingchen.

Su Jingchen smiled and whispered to Yu Xiaolian, "Worried about me?"

"Wars aren’t child’s play. What if the moment you reach the city gate tower, you’re hit by an arrow? How would I survive then?"

Su Jingchen was indeed clever, she’d believe he could face ten enemies on his own, but the Hu army was no mere ten or eight men. Their county government had just over thirty people, and the two night watchmen were old men with no fighting prowess whatsoever.

Even if the King of Linzhou left a group to defend the city with Su Jingchen, what chance did they have against such overwhelming odds?

Even with all his wits, Su Jingchen could only delay the fall of the city at best.

"You’re underestimating me! Am I really so lacking in alertness?"

"It’s not a matter of alertness. When the Hu army attacks, they won’t just shoot a few arrows. There’ll be so many arrows, like the hair on a cow’s back—how could anyone dodge them all?"

Though Yu Xiaolian had never witnessed a siege, she had watched plenty of dramas on the subject!

"I have a way to hold them off until reinforcements arrive, trust me!" Su Jingchen said with a serious expression.

"Tell me, what way? It has to be convincing, or I won’t agree to you staying to defend the city!"

"I’ll tell you tonight, right now I have other matters to arrange, you head back first.

Oh, and get me some nails from the storage in the space, as many as you can, the longest ones!"

Yu Xiaolian didn’t understand Su Jingchen’s plan but retrieving nails was something she could do.

After returning alone to the backyard of the county government, Yu Xiaolian immediately called for Cao Gen, "Hurry up and send word to the Red Sausage Factory, tell Steward Liu to give the female workers a holiday because the Hu army is about to attack. As for the meat and sausages in progress, let Steward Liu give them some, and the rest should be carted back to the county government.

Don’t forget to tell those female workers to flee with their families in the direction of Jinzhou. Tell them they don’t need to go too far. The Hu Kingdom is a nomadic nation; their forces are limited. Once they loot enough, they’ll retreat."

Cao Gen responded promptly and was about to leave when Yu Xiaolian called him back.

"As for the two thousand strong men from the cement factory, tell them if they’re willing to come defend the city and hold until the Great General of the North arrives, each will be rewarded with five taels of silver."

Under such great incentives, Yu Xiaolian believed there would certainly be a few hundred brave men among the two thousand.

"Bang the gong along the way, alert those unaware among the people to quickly take their grain and hide deep in the mountains."

Cao Gen had never seen such a situation. He was extremely tense but still memorized Yu Xiaolian’s instructions word for word.

"Tell Sun Manhong and my fifth aunt to come back to me!"

After Cao Gen left, Yu Xiaolian suddenly realized that the entire backyard was deserted, not a single servant in sight.

Fang Cao hurried past Yu Xiaolian, who called out to her, "Where are you going?"

Fang Cao stopped, "He Jian just came by, told all the servants to gather in the front yard, said the master has something to say."

"Go ahead, listen carefully to what the master says and tell me later."

Fang Cao nodded blankly. Although she didn’t understand why the lady didn’t go herself, she still had to obey the lady’s orders. In this house, the master often listened to the lady on many matters.

Yes, Fang Cao knew her place.

Yu Xiaolian returned to her room and started preparing long nails for Su Jingchen.

Her family’s supermarket wasn’t a hardware store and didn’t sell nails, these nails were leftover from renovating the supermarket, mixed with short and long nails in a toolbox-sized pile. Some, due to improper storage, had already rusted.

Yu Xiaolian put on a pair of gloves and began sorting through the long nails. Rusty iron nails were the easiest to cause tetanus if they pricked the hand, and there was no place to get a tetanus shot in these times.

Yu Xiaolian had just filled half a bag with nails when she suddenly heard a series of knocks, startling her. She quickly ran to the cash register to check.

Good heavens, all the silver notes on the counter were gone, along with the large boxes of silver she had saved up.

One good news, the space had upgraded.

One bad news, her savings were back to square one overnight.

After taking the dividend from Zheng Yuanfeng last time, her savings amounted to over fifty thousand taels. She had specifically observed for a few more days, noticing the money wasn’t being swallowed. She thought the space upgrade had reached its limit, but it turned out that it had moved from swallowing fifty thousand taels to swallowing a hundred thousand taels.

Really such damn luck!

God, she had just told Cao Gen to promise those willing to defend the city five taels each, how would she pay them later?

The knocking continued, Yu Xiaolian couldn’t afford to count how much broken silver she had left. Without further ado, she dashed out of the space.

Opening the door, it was Sun Manyue and Su Jinghua.

"Sister-in-law, what are you doing? Why do you have such a rusty smell on you?" Su Jinghua wrinkled her nose and sniffed hard.

"Oh, I was just helping your brother sort out nails in the front yard. I just came back to wash my hands and hadn’t had a chance to do so before you arrived!"

Yu Xiaolian showed her rust-covered hands to Su Jinghua.

"Sister-in-law, what’s my brother doing with nails?" Su Jinghua asked innocently.

"Haven’t you heard there’s going to be a war? Of course, they’re for the war!" Sun Manyue, being a bit older than Su Jinghua, immediately guessed the nails’ purpose.

"Yes, there’s going to be a war. The Hu people might attack soon. You two should stay in the mansion during this time and don’t go anywhere, understand?" Yu Xiaolian instructed while washing her hands.

"Got it, sister-in-law!" Su Jinghua nodded obediently.

Sun Manyue’s face flashed a hint of conflict, but only for a moment, she brushed aside past grievances. "Sister Xiaolian, war is coming, and my mother and my brother are still outside the city..."

"I’ve asked Cao Gen to bring them back, they should be back soon."

Blood is thicker than water, Sun Manyue couldn’t truly speak as heartlessly as she claimed.

In the face of life and death, past grievances seemed insignificant.