Cultivation Begins with Caring for Sister-in-law

Unlike other noble families who bet on both sides, the Wu Family is adept at understanding the art of self-preservation and never participates in the power struggles of the world. In this way, no matter who seizes the world in the end, they must bring stability, re-establish order, and restore peace.

The Wu Family has deep roots and a profound foundation in Jiangdong, exerting influence in many aspects. To stabilize Jiangdong, one must win over the Wu Family.

Even Chu Taizu, who was so powerful in the past, did not dare to wipe out the entire Wu Clan, merely eliminating the main branch, yet still had to win over the Wu Family.

If one participates in the power struggles of the world, the outcome would be different. No ruler of the world would allow a force to rise again, and will certainly find ways to eradicate it.

This Chen Mo, going to great lengths to drag the Wu Family into the water, doesn't even consider if his own background is worthy.

...

Wu Changlin left, Chen Mo sighed. He really wanted to form a marriage alliance with the Wu Family.

After all, if he could form a marriage alliance with the Wu Family, he could avoid many detours, gain some of their members and resources, and leverage the influence of the Wu Family to recruit talented individuals.

If executed properly, the shortage of domestic affairs talents under his command would be alleviated to some extent.

In the Great Song Dynasty, over ninety percent of the common people were illiterate. The remaining ten percent who could read were almost all from the noble families and gentry of various places.

This is why, for thousands of years, the court could only suppress the noble families but could not eradicate them.

Because if the court wanted to govern the world, it had to rely on the noble families. You could not employ an illiterate farmer to help govern the prefectures and counties.

Fine, even if you disregard public opinion and truly employ an illiterate commoner to manage a prefecture or county, how long can he serve after taking office? Will the people below listen to him?

Therefore, the Emperor knew that the noble families could not be eradicated, only suppressed. Thus, the civil service examination was born.

Although the civil examination system made the path to political advancement fairer and more equitable, expanding the sources of officials, most of the people who passed the examination were still from the noble families.

However, the Wu Family was unwilling, and he could not forcefully marry.

Launching a war requires an excuse.

This excuse must place you on the side of righteousness, and the Wu Family has not provoked him.

Moreover, he currently desires to heal and rest. With wars in Longyou and Fengzhou, he has no desire to start a pointless war with the Wu Family.

...

Today is August 3, Ninth Year of Xuanhe. The weather is nice, with the sun shining brightly and a gentle warm breeze.

Chen Mo received secret letters successively from Geng Songfu and the Nangong Family.

Geng Songfu's suggestion aligned with Chen Mo's thoughts.

And the secret letter from the Nangong Family greatly pleased Chen Mo.

The Nangong Family was anxious.

It finally knew to be anxious.

Chen Mo did not expect that the Nangong Family had a navy force of nearly five thousand people in the Celestial Master Army, trapped in Fengzhou, wanting him to rescue them.

By rights, since Chen Mo married Nangong Ru, and became "family" with the Nangong Family, rescuing them should be a matter of course.

But no one is a fool. Chen Mo knew the Nangong Family was betting on both sides, and the bet on the Celestial Master Army was greater, with less investment in him.

Furthermore, the Nangong Family didn't want too deep an involvement with him, or else they wouldn't have preferred to send a collateral-line daughter as a concubine, rather than have the legitimate daughter marry him as a wife.

Doing so, even if his ship sank here, the Nangong Family would at worst abandon Nangong Ru, let her fend for herself, treating the money invested as a loss.

But it's different with a legitimate daughter.

It's just unexpected that now it's the Celestial Master Army's ship that has sunk...

At this moment, Sun Meng came to Chen Mo's side and whispered in his ear: "The Seventh Madam has arrived."

Sun Meng was referring to Nangong Ru as the Seventh Madam.

Unlike Han Anniang and others who arranged their seniority by themselves.

Chen Mo's subordinates ranked the women based on their order of becoming concubines to Chen Mo.

Among them, the Second Madam is Yi Shiyin, the Third Madam is Han Anniang, the Fourth and Fifth Madams are Xia Zhiqing and Xia Zhining, the Sixth Madam is Liang Xue, and the Seventh Madam is Nangong Ru.

Since Chen Mo has not yet taken a wife, the position of Principal Wife is vacant.

Even though it is vacant, it cannot be temporarily occupied by anyone.

After being notified, Nangong Ru gracefully walked in.

Nangong Ru came in a hurry, with no makeup on. Her eyes were slightly red, seemingly having cried before. As soon as she entered, she was teary-eyed and said, "Husband."

"What's wrong with Ru'Er?" Chen Mo stepped forward and held Nangong Ru's small hand.

"I beg my husband to save my father's life." Nangong Ru raised her hand to wipe her tears and then said, "Just now, my sister-in-law came and said...said..."

Nangong Ru began to recount the situation slowly.

It turned out that Nangong Ru's father, Nangong Xian, was also in the Nangong Family's navy, serving as the Captain of the Third Camp. The original intention was to gain some position for the Nangong Family in the Celestial Master Army, but he didn't expect to be besieged in Fengzhou. Nangong Ru only knew about it after hearing from the Ma Clan.

Previously, Nangong Ru only knew that her father had been dispatched by the family and did not know what he was doing specifically.

"..."

Chen Mo raised an eyebrow, waiting for this, aren't I?

A large family indeed, they always have a long-term perspective.

Chen Mo guessed that it was precisely because Nangong Ru's father was in this navy that the Nangong Family specifically chose Nangong Ru to become his concubine.

The preparations were made long ago.

Now your father-in-law is in Fengzhou; the question is, will you save him or not?

Seeing Nangong Ru crying like a pear blossom bathed in rain, a sight that evoked great empathy, Chen Mo drew her into his arms, gently smoothing her shoulder, and resolutely said:

"Ru'Er, we are family. Your father is my father, your mother is my mother. Now that Father-in-law is besieged in Fengzhou, how can I not save him?"

"Husband..." Nangong Ru cried with gratitude, leaning against Chen Mo, knowing that this was a hard task, yet her husband promised without hesitation for her sake.

"If Husband needs money, I can transfer a batch of currency and livestock from River Sea to help you smooth relations."

"Where did you get such money and resources..." Chen Mo spoke halfway, and upon seeing the pleading look in Nangong Ru's eyes, he immediately understood.

It seemed she hadn't been completely honest before, not fully involved.

"These are the dowry my father saved for me. The last dowry was given by the family, so..." worried about being misunderstood by Chen Mo, Nangong Ru explained.

"No need, I have enough myself, save it for your parents' retirement." Chen Mo said.

Chen Mo figured Nangong Ru belonged to a branch of the Nangong Family, probably didn't have much money.

But her next words left Chen Mo stunned.

"Father and Mother don't need that much money." Nangong Ru said.

"Is there anyone who thinks money is not enough to spend? A few large mansions would quickly gobble it up."

"Father and Mother don't lack mansions, and with over a million coins, it can't all be spent on houses."

"How much? Over a million... coins?" Chen Mo was stupefied.

"Previously, Father helped the family run boats overseas for more than a decade, hence he has some savings." Nangong Ru said.

"But that is your money, how can I take your dowry?" Chen Mo stated righteously.

In the Great Song Dynasty, noble daughters have dowries when they marry, and dowries belong to them. If the wife doesn't decide to use it for the home, the husband is not entitled to it.

"Didn't Husband just say we are family? Mine is yours," Nangong Ru pressed her cheek against Chen Mo's burning chest, her delicate face flushed.

After comforting Nangong Ru, Chen Mo immediately wrote a letter to Prince Huai.

Wasn't he asking me not to meddle in Fengzhou's affairs?

Then he should offer some advantage.

Let's see if we can move this Navy over without issue...

...

Prince Huai received Chen Mo's secret letter sent from Yu State on August 20th.

It had been nearly three months since he sent Chen Mo the secret letter and finally received a reply.

He assumed Chen Mo would get involved but didn't expect this little rascal to wait for the best offer.

Jing County is now the main camp of Prince Huai's army, amassing hundreds of thousands of troops, with reinforcements arriving from various regions, clearly aiming to eliminate the Celestial Master Army in Fengzhou.

Inside the tent.

Prince Huai sat at the head, below him were staff officers and generals from Prince Huai's Mansion.

"This is Chen Mo's reply, take a look," Prince Huai placed Chen Mo's secret letter on the table.

Diwu Fusheng was about to take it, but Liu Ji snatched it first, giving Diwu Fusheng a provocative glance after acquiring the secret letter.

Due to Chen Mo's delay in replying, the Huai Army suspected Chen Mo might be colluding with the Celestial Master Army, greatly reducing Diwu Fusheng's prestige among Prince Huai's "team" while Liu Ji, who criticized Diwu Fusheng before, gained Prince Huai's favor.

Diwu Fusheng furrowed his brow slightly.

However, Liu Ji was not pleased with the content of the secret letter; his expression wasn't as joyful, although it still offered some leverage.

He immediately started to denounce: "Prince, I mentioned before that Chen Mo is a treacherous person we cannot associate with, yet someone insisted on holding his ground.

Now this rogue dares to outright demand fourteen cities in the northern part of Fengzhou from us, clearly exploiting our predicament, leveraging it for land, and he even wants us to release a Navy of the Celestial Master Army, this is utterly shameless."

"Liu Ji, if you have something to say, speak it directly to me and stop with the sneering here." Diwu Fusheng snapped lightly.

"Humph." Liu Ji snorted coldly, handing the secret letter to Diwu Fusheng, saying: "See for yourself, this is the person you favored. Don't say this secret letter is forged; you should recognize his handwriting."

Diwu Fusheng roughly grabbed it, read it, and his expression slightly darkened.

The demands in the letter were indeed ambitious.

The fourteen cities in the northern part of Fengzhou meant half of Fengzhou's territory.

He even wanted to release a unit of the Celestial Master Army's Navy.

Hardly any effort, yet demanding so much, wasn't this treating others as fools?

Little did he know, Chen Mo wrote it deliberately like this.

Because whatever he proposed, Prince Huai would lower the price.

Rather than this, might as well raise the initial price significantly, leaving ample space for negotiations in between.

If he had stated his bottom line directly, who knows how it would have been squeezed out.

Isn't this how negotiations are conducted?

Seeing Diwu Fusheng's expression, Liu Ji felt smug once more: "Did I say anything wrong?"