Chapter 58

Before the vermilion stone lion gate, amidst the worried gazes of the crowd, Yuan Qiong gracefully lifted her skirt and ascended the steps, stepping over the high threshold without looking to either side, past Prefect Ling.

Then, Prefect Ling followed her into the mansion, and the vermilion gate slowly closed.

Inside the gate, Yuan Qiong stopped just as she had taken a few steps and the gate closed completely.

"Young lady, shall we go to the living room to talk in detail?"

Yuan Qiong turned to look at the elderly prefect, her face expressionless: "You can say what you have to say here. I don't have that much time to waste with the prefect."

Okay.

Given Yuan Qiong's true identity, he couldn't afford to offend her, nor could he afford to offend the thousands of people outside the gate. Ling, the prefect, was secretly frustrated, wondering why this young lady had to come to his Jiangbei Province.

"Please just tell me what you want, young lady. I will help you with anything I can, even if it's just to secretly send you back to the capital. Please don't incite the people of my provincial capital!"

Prefect Ling wasn't stupid; he knew perfectly well how dangerous it was for the refugees outside the city gates, otherwise he wouldn't have sent people to deliver cornbread and other food regularly.

"I've already reported the matter of the refugees gathering to the imperial court, and I expect an imperial edict will be issued soon. Young lady, please don't cause any more trouble..."

Imperial edict?

Others might not know, but how could Yuan Qiong not understand her grandfather's temperament?

With the national treasury empty and Magistrate Ling unwilling to share his resources with the refugees, the imperial edict that will come is bound to be an order to exterminate the refugees!

In the eyes of these officials, distributing grain to those useless commoners was a complete waste! The deaths of a bunch of worthless refugees had no impact on the imperial court at all!

"Send me back to the capital? Doesn't Prefect Ling think it's a bit late to say that?"

Yuan Qiong looked down at Prefect Ling with an arrogant gaze, giving him an immense sense of oppression. It was as if he were not in his prefectural residence, but in the imposing imperial palace. And the current Empress stood on the high Nine-Dragon Platform, looking down at him, cold sweat soaking his back.

"Your subject...I..."

Realizing he had addressed the wrong person, Prefect Ling immediately corrected himself. He must have been out of his mind to provoke the eldest daughter of the Yuan family!

“Your Excellency, there’s no need to explain, and I have no interest in hearing it,” Yuan Qiong said calmly. “I have only three conditions: First, give me 100,000 shi of grain. Second, give me 100,000 taels of silver. Third, take me to see the people of Fengyunxu.”

"This... I really have no grain!" Prefect Ling said, his heart pounding. He could accept 100,000 taels of silver, but grain was absolutely out of the question! With the famine so severe, grain in Jiangbei was far more precious than silver! It could save lives! "If you don't believe me, young lady, look for yourself at every blade of grass, every brick and tile in my prefectural residence. If I had even a little more money, how could my residence be so shabby?"

Was the prefect's residence shabby? Compared to his rank, it was indeed quite shabby. Yuan Qiong had noticed this the last time he visited. But so what?

"Prefect Ling's trick might fool the common people outside the gate, but to fool me? Do you think I'm just a puppet in my grandfather's hands, a complete fool who doesn't know anything?" Yuan Qiong flicked his sleeves and walked towards the gate: "These three conditions are non-negotiable! I'll give you an incense stick's time to consider. Either you give me 100,000 shi of grain today, or I'll take the men at the gate to open the city gate. Think it over carefully!"

If anyone else had said this, Prefect Ling would have ignored them! If that person dared to open the city gates, he would have executed them on the spot for treason, making an example of them! But the person who said this was Yuan Qiong... He not only dared not kill him, but he didn't even dare to arrest him!

As the gate slowly opened, Prefect Ling's eyes changed several times, even showing a hint of murderous intent, which then vanished.

Forget it, the risks of killing the eldest daughter of the Yuan family are far greater than 100,000 shi of grain!

“Please wait, young lady. This grain will be provided by the prefect!” Prefect Ling squeezed out these words through gritted teeth. Yuan Qiong turned around and smiled, “Hehe.” It seemed she had expected him to compromise.

hehe? !

Hehe, my ass!

Prefect Ling was nearly driven mad by her expression. He'd ruined the grain supply and was being mocked! It was simply unbearable! But he had no choice but to endure it! So! He endured it!

"girl!"

"Girl, come out here!"

"Girl, are you alright?!"

"girl......"

The people outside immediately got up and surrounded her, asking if she had been injured or threatened.

"I'm fine, thank you all for your concern." Yuan Qiong smiled and bowed to them. "Thank you all for your help. The prefect has promised to open the granaries to distribute grain to relieve the disaster victims. Today, we will release 100,000 shi (a unit of dry measure). On behalf of the refugees, I thank you all for your righteous assistance!"

The leading scholars, who held official titles, quickly returned the greeting: "Your words are an insult to us. This is something we should be doing, yet you have taken the lead. We are truly ashamed of the teachings of the sages! We should be thanking you!"

Yuan Qiong was very pleased with their attitude, and she smiled and said, "Let's not be so modest and grateful to each other. I don't plan to let the government get involved in this 100,000 shi of grain, so I want to set up a temporary relief organization. Would you like to participate?"

If this grain passes through the hands of the government, who knows what kind of trouble might arise! She was worried about that.

The scholar in the round-necked Confucian robe who had initially echoed Yuan Qiong did not hesitate at all, looking at her with fervent eyes: "Han Qinghou, the scholar from Jiangbei, is willing to serve you like a dog or a horse!"

"We are the same!"

"We're willing to help too!"

"Miss, count me in!"

"Me too!"

The people behind her were all eager to help. Yuan Qiong chuckled and said, "Good! The refugees outside the city will surely remember your great kindness!" After saying that, she turned her gaze to the scholar and took out a hundred-tael silver note from her purse. "Young Master Han, is that right? I would like to trouble you to help me find a temporary warehouse to store the grain and rent it for a month or so. Then you can distribute the remaining silver to the people who are willing to help as wages."

Han Qinghou frowned and pushed the silver back: "What kind of person do you take me for?! What kind of person do you take the people of our provincial capital for?!"

The other scholars and officials also said, "Since you've entrusted this matter to us, young lady, rest assured, we will certainly not let you down!"

"May I ask your name, young lady?"

"My surname is Wang, and my given name is Yao."

"Yao means beautiful jade. Just like the girl's pure and clear character, what a wonderful name! What a wonderful name!"

Scholars are really good at praising people! Yuan Qiong didn't care to listen to their empty flattery and said directly, "To save time, shall we split up? Young Master Han, you and your companions will take a group of people to help find granaries, allocate storage locations, and prepare carts and sacks for transporting grain. I'll take a group of people to find the prefect to weigh the grain. We'll also send some quick-footed people to relay messages for us. Is that alright?"

"Okay! Let's do it this way!"

Han Qinghou turned around and called out to the crowd, "If you have family matters to attend to, you can go back now. If you have no family matters or nothing urgent, and are willing to do your part for the refugees, you can stay."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sparse crowd began to disperse, leaving only about five or six hundred people behind.

"Saving the people is like saving the world. Thank you all for your generosity. Such noble character is truly admirable!" Han Qinghou was also a master of flattery, readily offering praise: "What you have done for the refugees today will be remembered by everyone. In the future, your deeds will surely be recorded in history books, and your descendants for generations will be proud of you!"

Yuan Qiong remained completely calm, recalling the scene of the bearded man tricking his underlings into planting crops on the mountain, and even felt a little amused.

Why do these big charlatans always use historical records as their basis?

“Using the stone bricks at the entrance of the Prefect’s Mansion as the boundary, those inside the stone bricks will stay with Miss Wang Yao, and those outside the stone bricks will follow me. Those who are willing to run errands, stand outside.”

"Miss Wang Yao, we'll be leaving now."

"Yes, thank you all."

Han Qinghou and the others bowed to Yuan Qiong and then turned to leave the prefectural governor's residence. Yuan Qiong turned back to the prefect, whose face was not looking well, and said, "Prefect, please."

Instead of finding a large enough granary as Yuan Qiong had suggested, Han Qinghou and his group set up a long string of tents on the main street in the city center.

"This grain is for the refugees, and it was obtained through petitions by the people of the provincial capital. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the entire city to supervise it! Anyone who steals it will be condemned by the entire city once discovered!"

Two men carried over a plaque, and one of the scholars dipped his sleeve in ink and wrote the two characters "Yaochi!" in one stroke.

“This was obtained by Miss Yao, so the granary should naturally be named after her!” The scholar’s ​​words were unanimously agreed upon by everyone.

Hundreds of energetic residents of the provincial capital demonstrated remarkable efficiency, setting up a long, rudimentary tent structure in just one morning. The materials used to build the tents were either donated by the residents themselves or purchased with money voluntarily donated by wealthy individuals, demonstrating that the nature of humanity, both good and evil, cannot be summarized in a single sentence.

Some people have even taken this to a new level and started forming teams to set up soup kitchens not far from the refugee camp outside the city.

One grain truck after another weaved through the streets and alleys of the provincial capital, converging at the long line of tents in the city center. Yuan Qiong remained at the weighing station of the provincial capital's main grain depot the entire time. She wouldn't feel at ease unless she personally witnessed these weighings. She would never allow shortchanging or passing off inferior goods as superior!

Outside the city gate, the refugees, long since devoid of life from hunger, their eyes glazed and their expressions numb, were gradually drawn to the soup kitchen that had been set up: "What, what is that?"

Han Qinghou and the others had witnessed the frenzied state of refugees when they were fighting for food, so they dared not casually call it a soup kitchen. If they were surrounded, the refugees could easily trample them to death with one foot each!

“Use the thickest and strongest hemp ropes to weave a net to reinforce the protective fence outside the refugee camp, leaving only one opening that can only allow one person to pass through, and then blocking it with an iron gate.”

By studying history, we can learn from our mistakes and successes. The benefit of reading is that by understanding history, we can anticipate the origins of tragedies. Han Qinghou and others did not want their well-intentioned relief efforts to become the source of a refugee uprising.

The refugees were curious about the strange behavior of the people outside the camp, but they no longer had the energy to think about it or investigate. After all, curiosity takes effort!

For a day and a night, hundreds of people worked in shifts without stopping, and with the addition of civilians who joined later, all 100,000 shi of grain were finally transported. The white, dragon-like tents stretched out in a winding line, forming three long streets.

Yuan Qiong hadn't slept a wink for a whole day and night while the grain was being weighed. The next day, she forced herself to check on the tents and arrange patrols before she could finally relax and doze off for a while. However, before she had even had two hours of sleep, she was hurriedly woken up by someone knocking on the door.

"Miss Yuan, something terrible has happened! Someone is causing trouble!!!"

Trouble?! Who?!

Yuan Qiong snapped out of her daze, quickly got out of bed, packed her clothes, and stepped out of the simple tent. There she saw Hong Xin, who was leading a large group of patrolling soldiers, looking at her with a complicated expression.

"Young lady, it really is you..."

Yuan Qiong's heart skipped a beat; trouble was brewing!

Hong Xin's arrival at this time is probably an attempt to intercept the deal and reap the benefits!