Jiang Huaitang was transmigrated into a story as the doomed first wife, and her marriage was changed from the start.
Her younger half-sister stole the top scholar and sent her off to marry Pei Yanzhi, the Northern Campaigns commander’s son, who had been sentenced to exile.
When the imperial decree arrived, the whole city was betting she wouldn’t survive the first snowfall on the road to exile.
But they didn’t know that Jiang Huaitang’s greatest skill wasn’t crying and carrying on. It was keeping accounts.
Missing military provisions? She used the account books to shut the escort officer up.
Food running out on the snowy plains? She traded hidden salt permits for three carts of grain and flour.
Bandits on the frontier? She spread a map of the trade routes in front of Pei Yanzhi. “General, I want a thirty-percent share of the profits from any land you conquer.”
Later, when the court tried to strip the army of its power, Jiang Huaitang simply shut down the trade routes in Hanbei.
The whole realm was shaken, but Pei Yanzhi just smiled and pinned her against the city wall. “Wife, the trade routes through Hanbei’s thirteen cities have been yours all along.”
