[No System] [No Over-the-Top Villains] [Farming] [Marriage Before Love] [Independent Faction] [Conquest]
Late autumn of the 210th year of the Dayan Dynasty. Yellow dust swirled along the official road at the northern foothills of the Canglong Mountains as a squad of constables in black rode toward them. The leader held up an imperial wanted notice and read aloud:
"Imperial wanted notice! Shen Lingqiao of Baishui Town, Linjing County, Jingzhou, has secretly stockpiled weapons, gathered a crowd to build a fortified stronghold, and plotted treason. Wanted criminal. Seize her on the spot!"
Before he could finish reading, a crowd suddenly surged out from the other end of the bridge, blocking the road completely. At the front stood a young woman in an indigo skirt, holding an old steelyard. She remained perfectly calm.
"Officer, you've read it wrong. In my stronghold, we have no weapons, and no designs on the throne. We just know how to make syrup, raise silkworms, and fish, and we've brought the trade routes from north and south right to our doorstep. How is that treason?"
Behind her stood a dense mass of people. Lei Wu, the one-armed instructor, leaned on his spear. Xing'er, carrying a medicine chest, had a hand on the knife at her waist. Farmers gripped shovels, women clutched rolling pins, and old sugar makers raised copper ladles. They came out in waves until they filled half the road. The quiet man who usually kept to himself stood at the very front, holding a bow. He said nothing and refused to move aside.
The constables' faces slowly turned pale.
They knew only that this woman had "gathered a crowd to build a stronghold." They didn't know that three years earlier, she had been a village girl cornered by a marriage notice, thinking, "If I marry into a family without parents-in-law, I'll be the one in charge." Nobody believed she could use a single sugar pot to build a livelihood spanning half a province. And no one had expected the fires of war in the north and the court's suspicion to push this little stronghold into the eye of the storm.
The ink on the wanted notice was still fresh. But chaos had already reached their doorstep.
