Chapter 16: Killing and Cremation
"Mom, can I help you change your makeup?" Zhou Yunshu half-knelt in front of Li Jialan, "That way, even if I meet someone I know, they won't recognize you unless they look closely."
Li Jialan's eyes lit up when she heard this. She had seen her daughter's makeup skills before, so she nodded immediately and said, "Okay, fix it!"
The makeup change Zhou Yunshu mentioned is not complicated.
For example, you can change your skin color or hairstyle. If you want to make a more drastic change, you can change your eye shape through makeup.
This time, the changes were made to Li Jialan to make her feel more at ease. Once she leaves the city and conditions are limited, she will only have her skin color and hairstyle slightly changed.
Since Li Jialan had made some changes, Zhou Yunshu also made some slight changes to Fang Huiwen.
After the transformation, the two people looked like ordinary people, with only a little more scholarly temperament.
The children were not as eye-catching as the adults. Apart from making their skin look a little yellower, Zhou Yunshu only cut a neat fringe for her daughter to cover her smooth and full forehead.
While Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen were packing their luggage with the children, Zhou Yunshu took the money and prepared to buy some more rouge and powder.
The rouge and powder she used for disguise were bought in the capital, mixed with modern cosmetics in her space.
When Zhou Yunshu was learning makeup, she bought a lot of cosmetics, but these things are not durable after being used by many people.
When Zhou Yunshu went downstairs, she happened to meet Chunque who had just returned from shopping. She bought quite a few things. In addition to medicinal herbs, Zhou Yunshu also saw a full basket of eggs.
Zhou Yunshu did not let Chunque go out with her. She only asked her to help Li Jialan and the others pack their luggage, and they would leave directly from the inn when she came back.
After Zhou Yunshu bought the rouge and powder she wanted from the rouge and powder shop, she turned around and went to a nearby restaurant with a good reputation.
She hadn't had breakfast yet, so she planned to finish her breakfast at the restaurant and buy some cooked food to take away.
Besides, the restaurant is one of the places with the best news, and she wanted to find out some news about the capital.
Zhou Yunshu ordered a large bowl of braised pork noodles, a plate of spicy and sour potato shreds, and a dish of fried steamed buns. She sat in the lobby and ate while waiting for her takeout meal.
She happened to be sitting next to two tables of people who were obviously traveling merchants. The people at those two tables did not disappoint Zhou Yunshu and let her hear the news she wanted to hear.
One of the news was that Youzhou had completely fallen. Cai Chuan, who had once framed her grandfather Zhou Cungao for collaborating with foreign enemies, was driven to Cangzhou by the Eastern Turks and became a stray dog. He is now hiding in Cangzhou waiting for rescue from the court.
The northern border has lost its combat effectiveness since Zhou Cungao led the Zhou family army to be buried in Biyu Pass. Cai Chuan is a person who only talks big and takes credit for his achievements. Except for General Li from Shuozhou who is still guarding the front line, many other places abandoned the city and fled without waiting to fight.
This led to the Eastern Turks and Tiele tribes feeling that the Great Zhou had no one, and they became more courageous as the war went on; and the people who lost the protection of the soldiers either became victims of the enemy's swords or moved south with their families.
In other words, the entire northern border is about to fall into the hands of the Eastern Turks and Tiele tribes. If the people of the three states in the northern border do not want to die, they can only flee south.
Zhou Yunshu heard what the merchant said. At this time, the number of refugees fleeing from the northern border has reached more than 100,000. If the court does not find a way to deal with it, the refugees may turn into a mob in order to survive.
By that time, the imperial court would have to deal not only with the Eastern Turks and Tiele tribes, but also with the people in the north who were completely disappointed with the imperial court and began to fight back.
The second piece of news was still not good news. Just like what happened in Zhou Yunshu's previous life, the refugees from the northwest were intercepted by the army sent by the imperial court before they reached the capital.
The imperial court gained the refugees' trust by offering them resettlement, and then waited until they relaxed their vigilance before killing and cremating them.
This news instantly made the atmosphere in the restaurant depressing.
"Are you sure this news is true?" Some people didn't believe it. Anyone who dared to do this would be cursed for eternity.
"I'm sure the kerosene was bought from my great-uncle. I heard that the pit could hold thousands of people. There were more than twenty pits that burned for two days and two nights."
"How dare they? That's a living person!"
Some people feel pity for the victims, while others think they deserve to die.
"They deserve to be burned to death!" a man in his twenties said indignantly, "They are refugees from the epidemic area. If we don't burn them to death, if the plague spreads to us, then we and our relatives and friends will be the ones to die!"
"But I heard there are also civilians who are not infected with the plague. They are so innocent."
The man said indifferently, "That's just their bad luck. We can't drag more innocent people like us into this just for the sake of those few."
After he finished speaking, silence fell around him.
After eating the braised pork noodles, Zhou Yunshu held the fried steamed bread slices and thought, this person actually gave her a wake-up call.
Just in case, yes, just in case.
She needs to prepare some things to prevent the epidemic.
However, ancient times were not as developed as modern times, so the things we could use were really limited.
All Zhou Yunshu could think of now were liquor, wood ash, and mugwort. Oh, and she could prepare some things that could be used to make soap, and some cloth that could be used to make masks.
Zhou Yunshu silently kept it in mind and planned to buy all these things after getting the packed food.
The people at the two tables next to them started exchanging information again.
"Brother Wu, since you can't go to the North to purchase goods now, would you like to come with us to the southwest?"
The man called Brother Wu shook his head and said, "I heard that the Emperor is planning to send the Crown Prince to the northern border to provide support, and the King of Wei will be accompanying him."
"With the Crown Prince's intervention, perhaps the Northland will be stabilized soon. I want to wait here and go there once the situation in the Northland is more stable. My supplies cannot be cut off."
"You're willing to sacrifice your life just to get rich..."
Zhou Yunshu didn't care about the following words as they were useless. She just thought that if what the merchant said was true, then Ji Sheng would go to the northern border earlier in this life than in his previous life.
And the prince...
If she remembered correctly, the prince had indeed won a few battles in the northern border, but not long after, he was captured by the prince of the Eastern Turks and held hostage. From then on, the northern border army became commanded by Ji Sheng...
Zhou Yunshu took the prepared food packed by the restaurant and turned around to buy what she had wanted.
She actually saw the finished soap, and just one piece cost five or six taels of silver.
Zhou Yunshu bought four pieces as backup, and muttered to herself that if she wasn't in a hurry to go to Haizhou, she would have wanted to make a fortune by making soap.
When Zhou Yunshu asked someone to help carry the bags of things she bought back to the inn, Li Jialan and Fang Huiwen had already packed up the two mule carts.
The mule cart was packed full, even the one with passengers was loaded with a lot of things, because Zhou Yunshu bought so many things.
However, in order to conceal his whereabouts, the mule cart loaded with food and daily necessities driven by Chunque was covered with a large piece of oilcloth and tied tightly with ropes.
The car carrying passengers was driven by Zhou Yunshu, at least before leaving the city.
In order to make the driver more comfortable, Fang Huiwen tied a thick old mattress on the shaft of the cart to reduce the bumps on Zhou Yunshu's body.
Fang Huiwen sorted out Zhou Yunshu's new purchases, and the children got into the carriage, holding their toys and books.
Li Jialan looked at Zhou Yunshu, who was not yet pregnant, and thought that she would drive the mule cart after leaving the city. Fang Huiwen also thought that he must learn to drive the mule cart as soon as possible so that others could feel more relaxed.
As everyone was thinking about their own things, Zhou Yunshu drove the mule cart towards the city gate.
But sometimes the more people fear something, the more likely it is to happen. Zhou Yunshu and her friends were stopped as soon as they arrived at the city gate.
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