至于那些因为种种原因没能第一时间离开四州之地的人，他们当中的一部分人或主动、或被动，选择了留在家里硬熬下去，但剩下的绝大多数人，最终却还是迫于形势，选择了携家带口背井离乡。
留下的那些人，虞子祯派去的人大方的跟他们分享了自己打水的所有地点。
Where there is water, there is life. Although this little life cannot feed all the people in the four states, it is still possible to feed the very few people who remain.
They even left those people large, densely woven nets. With these nets, when the locusts became numerous, they could catch and eat them for a while.
As for how to eat that thing, those native farmers knew better than the people sent by Yu Zizhen.
Those who were preparing to leave with their families were actually a heavier burden to the people sent by Yu Zizhen than those who stayed behind.
They left late, and as the drought worsened, they could no longer get food and water anytime and anywhere along the way.
Most importantly, those local officials who reacted belatedly have begun to restrict the continued outflow of population from their jurisdictions.
Fortunately, most of them only had yamen runners available, and the yamen runners were basically locals, just like the village heads and town officials who chose to flee with their family members and neighbors. These yamen runners were basically more inclined to give their family members and relatives and friends a way out.
Occasionally there are people who insist on being accomplices to the evil, but with their abilities they cannot cause much trouble to Yu Zizhen's subordinates.
The only troublesome situation is when there are troops stationed nearby and the garrison commanders are in collusion with local officials.
Yu Zizhen had no intention of raising her flag and becoming an enemy of the imperial court for the time being, so all of her subordinates consciously avoided the officers and soldiers.
When they encountered checkpoints set up by officers and soldiers, they could only either open up a new route for the refugees to take a detour, or bribe the officers and soldiers guarding the checkpoints with gold, silver and jewelry to let them pass.
Fortunately, more than 90% of the checkpoints have low mountains, wilderness or country roads nearby for them to bypass, otherwise the bribery alone would be enough to make Yu Zizhen suffer.
***
Because Yu Zizhen and his subordinates helped them solve most of the problems, the victims' journey to escape the famine was much smoother than they had imagined.
At first, they did not have any special feelings towards this mysterious and powerful caravan, and just numbly regarded them as a group of profiteers who made money from disasters.
But gradually, people's hearts were almost all inclined to this caravan that charged lower prices for goods, paid more for buying people, had accompanying doctors who treated them for free, and occasionally gave them a roll of straw mat for free and helped them bury their dead relatives.
In order to ensure that they can find the burial place of their loved ones in the future, those strong men will carve the burial place on thin bamboo strips after the bodies are buried.
Although many people may not have the financial means to retrace this path in their lifetime, let alone come back to take away the remains of their loved ones, but when they get the small bamboo slip with the details of "xx Prefecture (Capital), xx County, xx Town, xx Mountain between xx Village and xx Village" written on it, their grief over the loss of their loved ones is still greatly comforted.
Moreover, as the drought continued to worsen and prices continued to soar, the victims discovered that this caravan, which acted very differently, actually ensured their personal safety to a certain extent.
Whether it was those who wanted to steal, rob, bully women, or kidnap children, or those who hoarded goods and prepared to make a fortune from disasters, the existence of this caravan became a huge obstacle to them.
Relying on their powerful military force, intelligent minds, quick reactions and the large amount of supplies that were continuously delivered, they were able to curb the evil of human nature to a large extent.
Those who wanted to hoard goods were depressed. They couldn't understand who was behind the continuous supply of supplies to this caravan that seemed to have an inexhaustible supply.
At the beginning, their speculation about the backers of this caravan was limited to certain local big families, but as time went on, they gradually observed the backers of their colleagues one by one.
After listing them all, everyone quickly discovered that according to their observations, all the local big clans had already been wiped out.
Who is the backer behind that hateful caravan that blocked their financial path?
Everyone started a new round of investigation and testing, but what made them depressed was that no matter how much they investigated, they still couldn't find out the other party's boss behind the scenes.
As for the results of their attempts, after several exchanges, they didn't gain any advantage at all. No matter what moves they made, the other side could ruthlessly cut off their tentative hands.
In the end, those who wanted to hoard goods could only infer that the other party must be of great importance based on the other party's comprehensive strength and tough attitude.
But this was far from enough for them. With just this little information, they couldn't judge whether they could take ruthless action against this caravan.
Just when they were struggling and hesitating, Yu Zizhen began to transport supplies to these four states and surrounding counties.
Just as Yu Zizhen had expected, even though the disaster was exposed ahead of time because of her, the local officials of the four states had no way to cover up the incident. Instead, they could only settle for the second best and wrote to the court, requesting the court to allocate funds for disaster relief and showing their active attitude to solve the problem. However, the Da Qi court, which received the news earlier, still failed to take action immediately.
It takes time for the memorial to reach the capital, it takes time for the officials in the capital to argue about it, and it takes time for the court to arrange personnel and allocate materials for disaster relief.
It took almost two months to complete these three steps. Those who really wanted to help with disaster relief, such as the Qingliu faction headed by Yang Zhengde, were so anxious that the blisters in their mouths kept disappearing. In the end, even the bitter medicine could not suppress their anger.
If Yu Zizhen had not intervened, the death toll of the refugees would have been greatly reduced, and those who intended to cause trouble were picked out by people arranged by Yu Zizhen among the disaster victims and sent to other places for secret custody and interrogation, thus preventing a civil unrest that should have affected half of Da Qi. Da Qi would have been in complete chaos by now.
But despite her all-out efforts, most officials of Da Qi didn't care at all.
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