Drinking half a bowl of porridge a day had already made them lose their minds. When the soldiers came out, they took sticks or iron plates and made attacking gestures. Seeing this, the soldiers hurriedly scolded them, "You common people, stop making noise and causing trouble again."
Those led by Bian Yang began to shout: "We want to enter the city, we want to enter the city!"
Lord Zhao said directly, "Come here, arrest him! Send him as a conscript!" When the people heard what the Lord said, they all retreated, fear in their eyes. Bian Yang said, "You cowards! You cowards! Why don't you dare to resist with me?"
Lord Zhao knew that if he was not restrained, he might cause trouble in the future.
After the two guards took Bian Yang away, Lord Zhao finally spoke: "What if one of you carries the plague and infects the people in the city? As a parent official, I feel bad seeing you outside the city, but this is a last resort. Please understand! Every day, I will send someone to bring out the boiled Chinese medicine. You must drink it, otherwise it will be difficult to cure the plague!"
Zhu Luo was whispering to the people around him below. After a while, a voice came from the crowd: "How can we survive with only a bowl of clear soup and porridge every day? I'd rather be a full ghost than a starving soul! We want to go into the city."
Lord Zhao looked at the person shouting the loudest in the crowd. This time, he didn't pull him out. The officers and soldiers saw that Lord Zhao looked unhappy and directly scolded him, "You have been rejected at so many city gates before. Our Lord was kind enough to let you stay in the suburbs and even asked the kind people in the city to give you porridge. Don't be so ungrateful!"
"Anyone who dares to cause trouble again will be forced to work as a laborer!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd immediately became dissatisfied and began to argue, "We haven't done anything wrong, why are you taking us away to do forced labor?"
"We need to eat, we're starving!"
After chaos broke out at the scene, Lord Zhao was escorted away quickly, and the officers and soldiers used weapons to suppress the situation again. The chaos lasted for a full quarter of an hour before it subsided!
The officers and soldiers also suffered casualties. Lord Zhao sat at his post, listening to his subordinates' reports. He could not help but say angrily, "If that's the case, there's no need to open the gate tomorrow. Let them starve for a day or two!"
"yes!"
After the riot, the porridge was snatched up. Those who were quick had already eaten their fill, but there were still some broken rice grains left on the ground, and many children and elderly people reached out to pick them up and eat them.
At noon the next day, the refugees outside waited and waited, but no soldiers came out. They were so angry that they started to bang on the city gate. The soldiers on the wall shouted at them, "You guys made a fuss yesterday! Don't even think about us opening the gate to give out porridge today. If you still have the energy, go pick some wild vegetables!"
The man outside the city heard this and retorted, "I heard that Lord Zhao was a philanthropist and a well-known official. But now he's just like this!"
The officers and soldiers turned a deaf ear to the angry curses from below. Zhu Luo waited for a while below, and after making sure that no officers and soldiers came out to distribute porridge, he went to the woods to find food. When he was grabbing porridge yesterday, he used a small bag to pack some porridge, so he was hiding in the woods to eat it now!
Wu Zhuang followed him quietly and happened to see him eating. He couldn't help but want to stay with him. Yesterday, he saw that many of the people on the left were already dead, and the officers and soldiers hired a dozen refugees to move the bodies and gave them some food. Unfortunately, he didn't get elected in the morning. In addition, the bodies were smelly and black, and he was worried about contracting the epidemic, so he didn't go.
The burning corpse was not far away. They had someone dig a big hole and sprinkled white powder in it before starting to burn it. It was the first time that Wu Zhuang smelled the smell of a burning corpse, which made it difficult for him to fall asleep at night. After thinking about it, he decided to go back to Yuguan County. At least he could beg on the street and get some food. Here, he only had a bowl of porridge every day.
Seeing Zhu Luo beside him, he leaned closer and asked, "Brother, I'm not a refugee. I'm from a nearby county. I originally wanted to come to Cangzhou to find some work, but unexpectedly, Cangzhou was closed and I couldn't get in. Do you want to go home with me?"
After hearing this, Zhu Luo's eyes flashed with interest. He had relied on his cleverness and wit to survive all this time. He could see through the calculations in others' eyes at a glance, but he pretended not to see it and asked, "Oh, brother, you are really good to me! Why don't we take a few more brothers with us? To be honest, they have been with me for a while. Now that I have a place to stay, they are naturally indispensable."
Wu Zhuang thought for a moment. They had more people and more power. They could teach the Tong family a lesson and perhaps even get revenge. Thinking of this, Wu Zhuang said, "That's great! We were just worried that no one would go with us! Brother Zhu Luo, why don't you call them along?"
Zhu Luo waved for the other brothers to come over and said, "Take our dozens of brothers with you and leave tonight."
The one who came was a thin young man named Ma He, who asked, "Boss Luo, where are we going?" Zhu Luo frowned and said, "Don't ask nonsense questions. Just follow Wu Zhuang when the time comes."
That night, Wu Zhuang and his men sneaked out from the woods behind. Because there were so many people here, even if twenty or thirty people were missing, nothing could be seen.
But just because the officers and soldiers didn't know doesn't mean the refugees didn't know. After seeing so many people leaving, many people quietly followed behind, including some sick people on the left.
These people went to Cangzhou in a mighty way, and passed by the inn. If the people in the inn were not tall and strong, they might have really rushed forward to rob.
When they passed by the village, the villagers would drive them away as soon as they saw them. However, when they passed some villages ahead, they were still able to enter the village and steal some food. The closer they were to the Yuguan County village, the heavier the defenses became, and they would even send special people and vicious dogs to drive them away.
If they hadn't said they were going to Yuguan County, they would have gone up to loot something before leaving, but it would be bad to risk their lives for this. They had just looted a lot of food, so they ignored them.
When they arrived at Yuguan County, they found that the city gate had already been closed, and outside there were sheds built one after another. The officers and soldiers still said with mouths and noses: "You have wandered here from the south, and you use pots to boil water to bathe. Later, you will sprinkle this lime on your residence!"
Lord Ji also ordered people to build tents after Tong Wen Yao came. He also knew that Cangzhou could not hold out for long and those refugees would come here, so he separated the epidemic area and the uninfected people in the past few days, so as to prevent infection.
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