Speaking of it, ever since bean sprouts hit the market and brought huge profits to Henry Thompson and his group, quite a few people have privately studied how to grow bean sprouts. Some even managed to get beans to sprout, but they could only spread the beans flat in a container to germinate. If they wanted to produce more bean sprouts, they would need a lot of space, which was simply impractical. And when they tried to pile the beans together to sprout, they found that the beans would quickly rot. The key was that they hadn’t mastered the trick of watering and cooling. For those who know it, this trick is worthless, but for those who don’t, it takes a long time to figure out.

It’s precisely because of this that the bean sprout technique was still monopolized by the people of Lijiazhuangzi in the short term, which was also the reason why William Foster Sr. was stopped by that group. William Foster Sr. and his people had just begun to taste the sweetness brought by the bean sprout business, and each of them treated the bean sprout technique as their most precious secret. Faced with the group’s interrogation, they naturally refused to talk. As a result, when the group saw that questioning didn’t work, they immediately resorted to violence without any scruples. William Foster Sr. and his people were all honest farmers, so they suffered a big loss. Moreover, these people were ruthless, even beating boys as young as twelve or thirteen.

When Henry Thompson heard this, he couldn’t help but be furious, wishing he could grab a knife and fight those attackers. But in the end, reason prevailed, and he forced down his anger and said, “Uncle Foster, how did you get back? And did those people tell you who they were?”

“Those people didn’t say who they were, but judging by their appearance, they should be servants of some powerful family in the city. I can tell that much,” William Foster Sr. said with certainty. After a pause, he continued, “At first, those people said they were going to break my leg, but then I had a sudden idea and shouted that we were tenant farmers of the Princess’s estate. That made them hesitate and not dare to go too far, so we took the chance to escape. Unfortunately, we couldn’t bring back today’s bean sprouts.”

“Princess? What princess?” Henry Thompson was a bit surprised when he heard what William Foster Sr. said. He couldn’t figure out why William Foster Sr. suddenly brought up a princess.

“The princess, of course! Master, how could you forget? Almost all the land around us belongs to the Princess. If someone wasn’t local, they’d probably think our village was also the Princess’s tenants!” William Foster Sr. explained again. Although his face was covered in injuries, he couldn’t help but feel a bit proud when talking about pretending to be the Princess’s tenant. It was his quick thinking that allowed them to escape easily; otherwise, he would have lost a leg.

“Which Princess exactly?” Henry Thompson pressed further, feeling a bit helpless that William Foster Sr. was so caught up in his pride that he hadn’t answered the original question.

Hearing Henry Thompson’s question, William Foster Sr. and the others were stunned for a moment, then exchanged glances before saying, “Master, how could you forget? The Princess is, of course, the famous Third Lady. Only her name could scare those people off.”

“Third Lady?” Henry Thompson was also taken aback by the name. It sounded very familiar, and then he suddenly realized and shouted, “The Women’s Army! You mean Princess Pingyang!”

“That’s right! The Third Lady’s title is Princess Pingyang!” William Foster Sr. immediately nodded. Usually, they were used to calling Princess Pingyang the Third Lady and rarely mentioned her official title.

“Damn, I didn’t expect to have such an awesome neighbor!” Henry Thompson was so shocked that he even swore. If there was anyone he admired in the early Tang Dynasty, Princess Pingyang was definitely one of them. This seemingly delicate woman, when her father and brothers rebelled and she herself was trapped in enemy territory, managed to raise tens of thousands of troops in just a few months by her own efforts, and seized a vast territory in the heart of enemy lands. When Li Yuan and his sons crossed the Yellow River and entered Guanzhong, they found that his daughter had prepared such a great gift for him. Li Yuan must have felt like a pie had fallen from the sky.

However, compared to Princess Pingyang’s legendary military achievements, what interested Henry Thompson most was her later experiences. According to official history, apart from her participation in the attack on Chang’an, there were very few records about Princess Pingyang afterward. It was only mentioned that she once led troops to guard Niangzi Pass, which was named after her, and then she suddenly died in the sixth year of Wude.

Although the official history didn’t record the Princess’s age at death, based on the ages of Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin, Princess Pingyang could have been at most in her twenties at the time. So many people believe she may have died in battle, while others think she died of illness. There are also other legends, with various theories and no conclusive evidence, which shrouds Princess Pingyang in a great mystery.

“The sixth year of Wude—that’s next year!” Henry Thompson suddenly realized the time of Princess Pingyang’s death, and couldn’t help but mutter to himself, then showed a look of regret and said, “What a pity!”