Chapter 134: Grand Gift to the Emperor (1)
Gong Yi Mo frowned deeply.
Gong Che spoke once again, “We took so much time and effort to plan, and yet we still have some things we couldn’t account for.” He massaged his eyebrows in annoyance. Unlike the other princes who fought amongst themselves, he truly wanted to do something good for his people. Whenever a task is accomplished, he showed his sincere gratitude to his people, and his sense of accomplishment wasn’t something brought about by greed for power.
However, despite sparing no effort to do good things for his country, there are still people from the capital who would spare no effort to harm him. Gong Che isn’t afraid that he will be taken away from a position of power; rather, he feared that whoever replaces him will do evil deeds under the guise of a meritorious service.
He still recalled how many people died during his childhood just to repair the lavish Summer Palace. In order to please the emperor, the officials disregarded the people’s lives and only paid attention to the result of the construction.
He couldn’t bare it….that this Grand Canal which he poured all of his beliefs and enthusiasm into would end up falling in the wrong hands.
Gong Yi Mo wanted to appease him. “Don’t worry Elder Brother. Our father the emperor is a righteous man. He won’t care about those rumors.”
No emperor would want to hear that someone other than himself would have more praise and prestige amongst the common people. But Gong Sheng is the emperor of the Ming Dynaster after all; even if he feels discomfort, he won’t retaliate against Gong Che because of this.
In order to divert his attention, Gong Yi Mo suddenly said with a smile, “By the way, one of my boatmen came to me bearing news of the production volume from this past year. Elder Brother, can you guess how many ships are in your sister’s hands?”
Gong Che couldn’t help but laugh. He didn’t know how she was capable of getting her hands on a shipyard; she was truly superb. But due to the complexity of its structure, building a ship takes about three to five months, and yet she’s only had a little over a year. How many ships could there possibly be?
Seeing that her brother didn’t answer, Gong Yi Mo slyly held up two fingers.
“Two?” Gong Che shook his head. It’s too little.
Who would expect that Gong Yi Mo would burst out in laughter and say, like a slap to his face, “It’s twenty! But it’s not a large ship, it’s twenty medium-sized cargo ships!”
Gong Che was originally shocked by the larger number that his sister had mentioned, but when he later heard that it was twenty cargo ships, he breathed in relief. Although the number is very surprising, it’s also a reasonable number.
But Gong Yi Mo laughed more mysteriously.
The ship captain didn’t just come over to deliver a message; he also brought a huge gift overnight! If Elder Brother doesn’t mind, why don’t you follow me?”
Gong Che, who was in a low mood earlier, suddenly felt like going out for a walk after hearing his sister’s invitation. The pair quietly went out in the night.
The moon was very bright. Gong Yi Mo brought a horse from another place. They both rode on the horse and galloped towards their destination.
At this time, they reached the outskirts of the city. From this direction, they could see the canal that was built half a month ago. If they remembered it right, this was from when the water source was newly opened while they stood at the other side of the valley.
Although they traveled a considerable distance, riding on horseback made the journey easy. Half an hour later, Gong Yi Mo and Gong Che finally arrived at the location.
At this time, they were in a valley where the sound of flowing water could be heard. This section of the river had been excavated, so there was finally a current, but its flow wasn’t so fast within these mountains.
“What on earth are you going to show me?”
Gong Che thought she was acting a little strange. What did she want him to see in this valley after running so far?
Gong Yi Mo smiled at him mysteriously and led him to a certain direction. Since this was a dense forest, she had to use qinggong (swift footwork martial arts) and dragged Gong Che with her.
It was autumn at this time and the night was still a bit cool. When one looks up, you can see the bright moonlight and feel gusts of wind that rustles the leaves.
Gong Che couldn’t help but look at their tightly clasped hands with a touch of tenderness in his eyes.