Chapter 136: The Strange Jiang Dynasty

Su Zhenzhen's temple throbbed. What did she mean by "specifically buried there"?

Without Su Zhenzhen having to ask, Hu Wen directly answered her question this time.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that although our Hu family is not a large family, it is still quite prosperous. The Hu family of the Left and Right Imperial Guards is a distant relative of my family."

It turned out that when the refugees from the south revolted, they headed straight for the capital. When Hu Wen saw that the situation was not good, he ordered the east and west gates of Yangcheng to be closed tightly. Anyone who approached Yangcheng was driven away by arrows.

Later, when powerful families stepped forward and installed a puppet emperor, Hu Wen finally opened the gates of Yangcheng, and while he was at it, he didn't forget to make a fortune off the dead in the surrounding area.

Although those who died while fleeing had limited food and money, they could still accumulate wealth little by little.

Furthermore, this world places great importance on matters of life and death, and those young corpses can be used for ghost marriages, which can be considered a source of income.

Hu Wen wanted to hold onto Yangcheng and not get involved in outside affairs, but the economic development of a city is limited. It can't rely on its past achievements for long. There isn't much arable land in the city, so he had to find a way to make money.

Hu Wen had his soldiers collect all the corpses near Yangcheng, even selecting those that hadn't yet decomposed to use for business dealings with wealthy people in other prefectures.

No matter how turbulent the times are, there will always be a group of wealthy people whose thoughts are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

For example, one could arrange for the ancestors buried underground to marry several young concubines, so that they could bless their living descendants and ensure their prosperity.

Hu Wen made a fortune by profiting from the dead, and used all the money to buy grain. He planned to live as a local tyrant in Yangcheng for the rest of his life.

Hu Wen didn't even spare the already rotting corpses. He made the most of them by stripping them of their clothes, washing and drying them, and then selling them to poor people.

Wealthy families might avoid such taboos, but poor people suffering from cold and hunger don't care. They can't even afford to eat, so what's there to be superstitious about?

Then Hu Wen discovered his relative while taking off his clothes.

"Then tell me, no matter how bad I am, if I run into a relative, I should at least give them a proper burial," Hu Wen said with a righteous expression.

Su Zhenzhen was speechless at his shamelessness; he really was a scoundrel, able to exploit the dead for their own gain in every possible way.

But at the same time, there is a question: "Since you and the Hu brothers are relatives, why did you only find out that they died outside Yangcheng? Didn't they say hello to you, their distant relative, when they passed through here?"

"You jest, young lady. In such a chaotic situation, we were not blood brothers, and everyone was only concerned with self-preservation. Even if they sent a message, I would not have paid any attention to it. I guess I was too lazy to waste my time."

Fearing that Su Zhenzhen might misunderstand him, Hu Wen quickly explained again.

“Although we are relatives, we only visit each other during festivals. After the elders in the family pass away, there will be no adults to preside over the festivals. Besides, one of us is a prefect of a prefecture, and the other is a close minister of the emperor. If we visit each other too much, we may arouse suspicion.”

Su Zhenzhen understood this point. After all, in the 906th century, many people didn't recognize their relatives. If they bumped into each other on the street, they would need their parents to remind them who was who.

Hu Wen recognized them as his relatives based on their clothes; the Hu brothers might not even know they were related.

However, since they are relatives, Hu Wen's actions were somewhat unkind.

"Since you're helping to collect someone's body, why don't you prepare a coffin? And you just bury it so casually in a commoner's homestead."

Hu Wen immediately cried out that he was wronged, "Miss, you don't know, there are few trees around Yangcheng, and carpenters are in short supply in the city, so coffins... are a bit expensive."

Su Zhenzhen: "..."

No, you've made so much money off the dead, and you think nailing a coffin to a dead person is too expensive?

Su Zhenzhen made no attempt to hide her disdain.

Hu Wen explained again, “The burial grounds of the entire Jiang family dynasty are very expensive. Those refugees who are left to rot in the wilderness have no chance to be buried in peace. Moreover, the land where they were buried was originally an empty lot. By burying them there, no one in the family was left behind. I think that it is enough for distant relatives to do this.”

Su Zhenzhen learned once again that in this era, not every place is a suitable place to bury people.

There will be designated areas for cemeteries.

Such places are usually chosen by Taoist priests who have examined them and determined that the feng shui is excellent and beneficial to the future generations.

The price of a burial plot is even more expensive than a house plot. You can build a house anywhere by the roadside, but you can't just find any place to bury your ancestors.

Jiang Chao was a devout believer in ghosts and gods. He believed that if the body was not properly disposed of after death, the soul would be restless, which could affect the fortune of his descendants or even bring disaster to the entire clan.

“Originally, I thought that the place was open and spacious, so that the burial there would not only be a peaceful rest but also no disturbance. Later, the population of Yangcheng increased and there were not enough houses, so I forgot about it and designated that place as a residential area. By the time I remembered it, the houses of the people had already been built.”

Hu Wen was somewhat disgruntled, after all, building a house on someone's burial ground was indeed disrespectful to the deceased.

But the people's houses have already been built, so we can't just ask them to move them now, can we? Besides, there's nowhere else for them to live.

Su Zhenzhen narrowed her eyes as she listened. "Given the current chaos, the population should be decreasing every year. How come the number of people in your Yangcheng is increasing?"

Hu Wen touched his nose sheepishly, "Well, back then, when we sent those corpses to powerful families for ghost marriages, some families were unwilling to pay, so we thought of exchanging people for people."

Su Zhenzhen immediately understood; it was simply a matter of exchanging the living for the dead.

Powerful families inevitably kept a group of servants, and in recent years there have been constant natural disasters.

With food production far below previous levels and a surplus of labor, killing the excess people would be unwise and would inevitably cause panic.

But if they were to be exchanged, not only would they be able to reduce their own food consumption, but they could also bring back the dead who would be married off in the afterlife, which would be killing two birds with one stone.

Su Zhenzhen didn't know what to say. This dynasty was just too crazy. Not only were graveyards more valuable than homesteads, but the dead were even more valuable than the living.

As for Hu Wen agreeing to bring in a new batch of living people who consume grain, it's because the dead are of little use to him, while the living can become the labor force for production.

Putting aside everything else, just using them to fill military positions would at least deter outsiders from easily invading Yangcheng.

As for food, coarse grains can sustain life, or tree bark can fill the stomach; at least one won't starve to death.

Moreover, Yangcheng at least provides some protection; it's hard to say what the situation would be like in other cities.

Even though the people had some complaints about Hu Wen's actions, they had no intention of abandoning Yangcheng.