Chapter 277: Advancing West
When Xu Zhenying returned to Jinzhou Prefecture, Liu Dazhuang, Zhang Qiuchan and others who were stationed in the west of Jinzhou Prefecture received orders to advance westward.
When everyone saw this order, they couldn't help but feel happy!
Jiang Yongkang was fighting fiercely in the south, advancing triumphantly all the way, but they had to stay in Sanping County, helping to resettle the believers from Gongzhou Prefecture every day. The soldiers were itching to go into battle!
Xu Zhenying's military order came at the right time!
Liu Dazhuang ordered Lu Fei to stay in Sanping County, and then he and Zhang Qiuchan led an army of 10,000 to advance westward.
Starting from Sanping County, passing Gongzhou, Liuzhou, and Xizhou, there are beautiful mountains and rivers, lonely smoke in the desert, and sunset on the long river. Unfortunately, there is no one for hundreds of miles, only wild beasts and stray dogs.
The area along the way is almost deserted, with only a few scattered people in the occasional village.
When they passed by a village, they saw that most people had died inside their houses. It was the coldest time of the year and snow was falling outside. The bodies were frozen stiff. In some families, the elderly and children were all dead together.
Everything in the house was the same as before, the stove, the firewood, the fence, but there was no smell of human habitation.
Even the cows in the cowshed seemed to have broken free from their ropes due to hunger and ran away to who knows where.
Occasionally, Zhang Qiuchan would see frozen corpses or bodies half-eaten by wild dogs on the roadside, which made him feel sad and he would order people to bury them on the spot. But the further west they went, the more dead they found, and even after walking for days and nights, they rarely saw any living things.
It was snowing lightly in the gray sky. Ten thousand people were walking in the snowy mountains. There was no living creature in sight. A silent and oppressive feeling spread among the team.
Even when they arrived at the county town, the population was dwindling. However, a few county magistrates even took the initiative to open the city gates and surrender when they heard that they were rebels from Jinzhou Prefecture.
They encountered almost no resistance along the way and arrived at the heart of King Zhoushan's territory.
After much difficulty, they finally encountered a dozen or so living people when passing through a village. Before they could even get close, they were driven away by the villagers with hoes and sticks, "Go away, go away, outsiders! You are not allowed to enter our village—"
When the villagers saw the thousands of troops behind Liu Dazhuang, they were completely stunned. They fled in all directions, "Run! More soldiers are coming to steal food!"
Some people ran away, clutching their crying children. "Master Jun, we're out of food in the village! They came to rob us just a few days ago. We really have no food left!"
Zhang Qiuchan immediately dismounted and tried to reason with them: "Fellow villagers, we are soldiers from Jinzhou Prefecture. We don't steal food!"
When the villagers heard they weren't soldiers from the King of Zhoushan, they were stunned. "Where did these rebels from Jinzhou Prefecture come from? I've never heard of them! If they're all rebels, then they're all bad people! Leave now, and don't bring smallpox here! So many people have died here, come here if you're not afraid of death!"
"Fellow villagers, from now on this is no longer the territory of the King of Zhoushan! Your Da'an County has been conquered by us, and from now on you are the subjects of our city lord!"
"What's the deal with the city lord? Yesterday there was the King of Zhoushan, and today there's the city lord. What does this have to do with us?! All I know is that you came from outside, and outsiders are not allowed to enter or leave our village!"
The villagers held hoes, stood far away, and drove them away with fierce looks on their faces.
Zhang Qiuchan looked at the village and saw that there were clearly hundreds of households, but there were only a dozen or twenty people. He thought that the plague must have spread and almost everyone in the village had died.
They have encountered too many such situations along the way.
Almost all the villagers tried to drive them away, fearing that they had smallpox.
Along the way, the villagers either died of illness, starvation, or freezing to death. There were even more corpses than living people!
"Our city lord is different from your Zhoushan King!" Zhang Qiuchan was naturally delicate and tender, and her natural smile made it easy for her to gain the villagers' trust. It was for this reason that Liu Dazhuang chose to bring Qiuchan along. At this moment, she patiently and unhurriedly asked, "You know Jinzhou Prefecture, right?"
Someone timidly replied, "So what if I know?"
"Jinzhou Prefecture is almost five hundred miles away from your village, but we've come all the way here, and out of ten thousand people, not one has contracted smallpox. Do you know why?"
The word "smallpox" naturally made the villagers nervous, and someone immediately asked, "Why?"
"Because our city lord has developed a special medicine for smallpox, all it takes is a simple cut on the arm to get the cowpox vaccine, and from then on, you'll never get smallpox again. The people of Jinzhou Prefecture have all been vaccinated two or three months ago. This plague can't even reach us!"
The villagers were silent, wondering if anyone believed their story.
This is the western hinterland, and the people have no access to information, so they have no idea of the major events happening in the world. Not to mention the rebels in Jinzhou Prefecture, they probably don't even know who the current emperor is.
Even if they knew that changing the emperor would not make their lives better.
"I see there's a plague in your village too?" Zhang Qiuchan tried to appear friendly to these frightened villagers. "You're lucky you haven't been infected yet, but this plague is airborne. If the wind blows, it could bring smallpox from nearby villages, so you could still get sick. If you trust us, get vaccinated with our cowpox vaccine. We have doctors with us who can administer the vaccination."
One of the elders said, "How could there be such kindhearted rebels in this world? They must have ulterior motives! Don't trust them! They must be in cahoots with the King of Zhoushan!"
"Yes, what cowpox vaccine?! So many people have died in our village, and we've never heard of such a thing! It's all a lie! You've brought so many people, you can rob whatever you want! But I'm telling you, there's nothing left in our village!"
Liu Dazhuang knew that the people would not believe them so easily, so he had to shake his head and said, "General Zhang, let's plant our flag first."
He then addressed the people, "Alright, if you don't want the smallpox vaccine, we won't force you. But you must know that you are no longer under the jurisdiction of the King of Zhoushan. The city lord is Xu Zhenying, and from now on you must obey our city lord! People from Jinzhou Prefecture will soon be coming to take over your village. Whether it's farming, distributing grain, or bringing people from other places to settle in your village, you must obey them!"
The villagers didn't seem to understand and looked at them with bewildered expressions.
The only thing they understood was that their village would be managed by a man named Xu Zhenying in the future.
But so what?
Only the old man trembled and said, "What do you mean? You still want to send people to settle in our village? The people in the west are all dead, who would come to our village? There is a plague here, who dares to come and die?! The dozen of us are just waiting to die here-"
"That's the city lord's concern. Don't worry, the city lord will attract people to settle here." Liu Dazhuang glanced at the desolate village. The wind and snow fell on his head. He reached out and gently brushed it away, wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes. "Your village... one day it will become prosperous again!"
Zhang Qiuchan ordered the grain officer to drop a few bags of things, and with a "bang", the snow water on the ground splashed.
Zhang Qiuchan looked around and saw that the people were still resisting her. She said helplessly, "Here are a few bags of sweet potatoes. They're very filling. You only need to eat two pieces a day and you won't feel hungry. Steam them over a fire and eat them when they're soft. Wait another ten days or half a month, and your new village chief and propaganda officer will be in place. Then we'll have other food delivered to you—"
The villagers all looked at the bags of sweet potatoes on the ground in shock.
What's the meaning?
Is this to deliver food to them?
Isn't it about stealing their food?
They couldn't understand and all looked at Zhang Qiuchan in shock.
"We still have to move forward to attack the city. If you have thought it through and are willing to get the cowpox vaccine, you can tell the new village chief. He will arrange it." Zhang Qiuchan said as he was about to get on his horse. Others also left one after another in an orderly manner.
They behaved in a measured manner and looked straight ahead, as if they were really not here to steal food!
Before leaving, Zhang Qiuchan turned back quickly.
When the dozen or so people saw the knife hanging on her waist, they trembled with fear, and some women even hugged their children immediately.
The child seemed to sense his mother's uneasiness, and immediately twisted his little feet nervously in his mother's arms and cried as softly as a mosquito.
This is a mother who has just given birth. She has insufficient milk, and even the baby's cry is soft, like a dying kitten.
The mother looked at Zhang Qiuchan with fear on her face.
Some people even closed their eyes in despair.
Zhang Qiuchan simply took off his cotton coat quickly and wrapped it around the woman and the baby.
In the icy and snowy weather, the woman didn't even have a pair of decent shoes, and her snow-white bare feet stood naked in the snow and water.
The chilblains on all ten of her toes were about to fester.
Zhang Qiuchan just felt uncomfortable.
She handed her cotton shoes to her again.
There were snowflakes on the woman's eyelashes. She looked at Zhang Qiuchan with a pair of watery eyes, her eyes full of confusion.
Zhang Qiuchan put a cotton coat on her and patted her shoulder. "You just gave birth, you can't catch a cold. When the new village chief arrives, tell him I, Zhang Qiuchan, said so, and ask him to prioritize arranging work for you."
The woman nodded in confusion.
Then Zhang Qiuchan jumped on his horse and turned to leave.
Looking at the frail figure, the old man suddenly shouted at them, "Don't go north! King Zhoushan's men are all over there!"
After they left, someone started to blame the old man: "Uncle Ma, why are you still giving them directions?"
The old man remained silent.
Everyone looked at the mess of horse hoof prints and footprints on the village road and fell into deep thought.
"What do you think... is that cowpox vaccine real or fake? Is there really something in the world that can prevent and treat smallpox?"
"I think it's true. Otherwise, how could they dare to walk directly towards us with so many people? And I see that they are all very energetic, not like patients—"
Some people were curious about other issues. "They just said there would be a new village chief and a propagandist coming to our village? What does that mean? Has that traitor from Beijinzhou Prefecture taken over?"
"I guess that's what you mean?"
"By the way, the leading general also said that someone would come and settle in our village later? Is this true or not?"
Someone was already digging through the sweet potato bags on the ground, "Who cares if it's real or not! At least this food is real!"
—————————————————————
Inside the palace in Bianjing City.
Inside the palace, which symbolized the pinnacle of power, there were several sounds of bowls and plates breaking, and the serving maids and eunuchs immediately fell to their knees.
"Xu Zhenying, you've taken eight of my prefectures in one go! Is the King of Zhoushan a pushover? He actually let Xu Zhenying take two cities just because of a plague!" Emperor Zhou Mian threw the battle report heavily to the ground. The ministers below immediately knelt on the ground, not daring to say anything. "Look for yourselves, the rebels in the west are becoming more and more powerful, and now they have become a major threat to our Great Zhou Dynasty! I think what Sun Qingchen said is right. The danger of the Great Zhou Dynasty does not lie with Zhou Heng, but in the southwest! It's only been a year or two, and they have grown to this extent! It's really shocking! Where is Sun Qingchen?! Quickly release him from the prison!"
The officials in the Dali Temple were trembling with fear, not daring to speak. Only the emperor came to his rescue: "Father, that... Sun Qingchen has already escaped from prison. The Dali Temple reported this to the emperor a month ago."
The Emperor then remembered that this had happened before, but he hadn't taken it to heart. The memory of it now intensified his rage, "Yes! That's right! It's said that he even joined the thieves, right?!"
Everyone was silent, not daring to speak.
Zhou Zhong was also a little frightened when facing his furious father and could only keep silent.
But the resentment in my heart is even greater.
He couldn't help but recall the discussion among the servants he had overheard in the imperial garden a few days ago. The people were saying that a plague was rampant in the west, killing hundreds of thousands of people. This was because two suns appeared in the sky, which was against ethical principles, so God had sent down a special punishment as a warning.
Zhou Zhong naturally had no choice but to beat the gossiping eunuch to death with sticks.
But I still feel a little unhappy.
As a bastard, the throne had never been his to begin with, and he had never even considered becoming emperor. With neither a noble family nor a wife of high rank, how could he possibly survive such a brutal struggle for power?
But his father still ignored his objections, tied him up and brought him to the capital, and placed him on the throne.
Since he became the emperor, he has been walking on thin ice and trembling with fear every day.
As for the reason, he actually knew it clearly.
He won't be on the throne of emperor for long.
He was only pushed into this position temporarily to shield his father from the hail of bullets. When the court officials stopped opposing him, it would be time for him, Zhou Mian, to abdicate.
As for whether he could abdicate alive, it all depended on the little bit of affection between father and son.
Now he is just a puppet in his father's hands.
How much of the government power does Zhou Zhong have the say in?
"How many troops are there in the southwest? Who knows?! Speaking of which, the Ministry of War, tell me! If we send another army to retake Jinzhou Prefecture now, what are our chances of success?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
