After a short wait, Fan Yongyuan brought him a bowl of wild-greens gruel.

Ning Chen ate it with the little pickles, then had paper and a brush brought, wrote a letter on the spot and sent someone off to Yangzhou with it.

Chongzhou's grain wouldn't last much longer. Yangzhou was the closest, so the first shipment would come from there.

Then he had Xiao Yanxi send word as fast as possible to Lingzhou and the other places, telling them to gather grain and ship it to Chongzhou.

"Lord Fan, this prince will be staying at the Governor's residence for the next few days. That's no trouble, is it?"

Fan Yongyuan said quickly, "No trouble at all. This official will arrange a place for my lord prince to stay right away."

Ning Chen's real reason for staying at the Governor's residence was to keep an eye on Fan Yongyuan a while longer.

Actually, from all the little details he'd seen on his walk around the residence earlier, he was already fairly sure Fan Yongyuan was a good official.

The truth was, no dynasty had ever lacked good officials. It was just that being a good official was hard. Refuse to wallow in the same mud as the rest, and you'd be pushed out—all that ambition and nowhere to put it to use.

In the afternoon, Ning Chen took some men and left the Governor's residence. He meant to walk around the city and see how things in Chongzhou actually stood.

On the way, he turned to Xiao Yanxi. "Where exactly is Mirror Moon Fort?"

Xiao Yanxi said, "In Shiba County!"

Chongzhou wasn't rich. It had only three counties under it, and Shiba County was one of them.

It was a three- or four-day trip from Chongzhou to Shiba County.

Ning Chen planned to stay in Chongzhou for two days and then go to Shiba County to propose for Xie Siyu.

"Stop pushing, everybody, there's enough for all... Anyone who pushes again, this young lady will flip the pot over and nobody eats!"

Up ahead was a crush of people, and a…