Merit
Sending close eunuchs from the palace to supervise the army in the provinces was not an innovation of the late emperor, but it was most rampant during his reign.
Eunuchs, acting as imperial envoys, infiltrated the army, becoming the emperor's eyes and ears in monitoring local troops.
Eunuchs who only know how to manipulate power in the palace and are illiterate can become powerful figures in the army. If they are incompetent, they can simply eat and drink in the army and report to the capital that "everything is fine" on time. But if they are ambitious, they become a shackle that holds the general hostage. If any general does not serve them well, a secret letter will be sent to the desk in the imperial study.
The late emperor used this method to supervise local armies, especially in the northwest. Even when his younger sister, Li Muyun, was in charge of the northwestern border army, he still sent eunuchs as military supervisors to inspect the border.
After the late emperor passed away, the military supervisor of the northwestern border army was Yuan Cheng, a palace attendant. However, Yuan Cheng was only in the northwest for half the year, and spent the rest of the time either returning to the palace or going to various parts of the Great Wei to perform official duties.
No wonder Gongsun Jia Dao was so angry. The disaster relief funds in Wei and Bing prefectures had been emptied like rats by the thieving officials sent by Yang Fujin, leaving the disaster victims with no one to rely on and forcing them to flee to Ye City. Naturally, he hated the eunuch traitor to the core and rebuked him without any politeness: "There is no money left in Ye City for Lord Yuan to plunder. Please go somewhere else, Lord Yuan!"
Yuan Cheng still didn't look at him, still showing no anger whatsoever. This calm and collected demeanor was what Li Muyun admired most about him; the Princess had never seen the supervising officer beside her so emotionally volatile. He handed over the list of all the medical students and teaching assistants coming to Ye City to Lu Chang, allowing him to deploy them as he saw fit.
Ye City was indeed short of doctors. Lu Chang received the list, bowed and thanked him. He did not despise eunuchs as much as Gongsun Jiadao, but he did not get close to them either. He simply asked someone to take Yuan Cheng to rest first.
Yuan Cheng originally only planned to send people to Ye City and then leave, but when the servant came to take him away, Yuan Cheng hesitated for a moment. He glanced at Lu Chang again, then turned around and left with the servant.
There were tens of thousands of disaster victims in Ye City. The weather was cold, and even those who did not contract the plague often froze to death. Those who contracted the plague were reassigned to other wards and cared for by doctors.
Yuan Cheng did not rest at the post station, but went alone to the place where the disaster victims had gathered. Ye City had specially set up a gate for them to stay temporarily, and there was a place to distribute porridge inside the gate.
He saw that the disaster victims were wearing paper clothes and covered with cotton quilts stuffed with willow catkins. There was also firewood burning in the house for warmth. If they could endure this for another month, they would be able to save their lives when spring came.
After a tour, everything here was arranged in an orderly manner, not like it was set up by a novice. If there are enough food and other disaster relief supplies, Ye City will surely be able to withstand this disaster.
When he tried to go to the gate of a place where the epidemic had spread, soldiers guarded the gate and forbade him from going in.
The soldiers here all covered their faces with cotton cloth to prevent the qi from entering their bodies. He looked inside and saw Lu Chang and Gongsun Jia Dao patrolling inside. The two of them also covered their faces with cotton cloth, but Lu Chang had a noble and refined demeanor that was unforgettable and could be recognized at a glance.
Lu Chang waved his hand, signaling the soldiers to let him in. Yuan Cheng took the cotton cloth handed to him by the doctor and covered his face like they did. He stood behind Lu Chang, watching him visit patients one by one, carefully asking the doctors about their conditions and handling every detail.
Next, he went to the medical office to arrange for the preparation and delivery of medicines and the holding of a ritual to pray for blessings.
Winter days are short and nights come early, so he didn't go back. He walked all the way through the neighborhood, thinking he was going back to the government office, but he still had to go to the place where the disaster victims lived to arrange things for the next day.
Eating, drinking, and excretion are all taken care of.
Busy until late at night, Lu Chang seemed to remember that there was such a person by his side. He politely asked Yuan Cheng if he would like to have some dinner with him.
Yuan Cheng naturally agreed.
This was somewhat unexpected for Lu Chang, but since he had just invited them, he couldn't easily change his mind, so he could only take Lu Chang to the government office.
He lived there for a long time.
Even the imperial envoy from Pingdu didn't have much to eat in this place; he only had a bowl of porridge, two steamed buns, and a dish of salted radish to go with the rice.
The steamed buns weren't made of wheat flour either; they were hard and dry, so you had to break them off little by little and soak them in thin porridge to eat them.
Lu Chang sipped his porridge and glanced at Lord Yuan. Seeing that Lord Yuan did not seem to mind the dinner at all, but was eating it as if it were a delicacy, Lu Chang smiled slightly and finished the porridge in his bowl in one gulp.
Food was precious in the city, and no one dared to waste a single grain. Yuan Cheng put down his bowl and said, "There is more than one official in Ye City, the Ye City Magistrate. I think it is too much trouble for you to do everything yourself. Why not delegate some tasks to the Ye City officials so that you can relax a bit?"
Lu Chang tapped the table with two fingers and laughed, "The officials in Yecheng are all frail and weak. I heard that after Lords Chen Song and Zhang Ping were beheaded by the Princess, they both fell ill and couldn't even get out of bed."
Chen Song and Zhang Ping were newly appointed governors of Wei and Bing prefectures, both men of Yang Fujin. When Li Muyun returned to the Northwest from the capital, he personally beheaded the two men. Not only that, he also threw their corpses to the disaster victims, who then dismembered and ate them.
Upon learning of this, Yu Neng, the governor of Danzhou, also contracted the plague and said he would stay at home to recuperate, entrusting all matters in Yecheng to Gongsun Jiadao, the magistrate of Yecheng.
With the governor taking the lead, the other officials followed suit, feigning illness and returning home, keeping their doors tightly shut.
Although Lu Chang was carrying out an imperial decree, the officials of Danzhou were clearly not afraid of the emperor's wrath; they were more afraid of the one beside the emperor.
Anyone with eyes can see that Li Muyun and Yang Fujin are mortal enemies, and Lu Chang happened to be brought by Li Muyun. If we support Lu Chang in providing disaster relief in Danzhou, wouldn't that be a slap in the face to Yang Changshi?
Yuan Cheng could roughly guess why Lu Chang was personally involved; in Ye City, perhaps only Gongsun Jiadao was willing to do things.
Thinking back to his impulsive outburst that day, he was indeed a straightforward and genuine person.
There was no wine available, so Yuan Cheng poured them both a cup of hot tea. He offered Lu Chang a cup of tea instead of wine, and after drinking it, he recalled what he had seen during the day and asked, "During the day, I saw that even the healthy disaster victims had work to do. The women cooked and distributed porridge, and the men chopped firewood. If there is enough food and firewood, the disaster victims can barely survive the winter by doing it themselves. But how many days can the money and grain allocated by the court last? And what about the epidemic areas? How long can the medicine last? Even though I brought medical students and teaching assistants, the number of people under your command is still too small. If this drags on any longer, those patients will eventually die. What will be the point of everything you have done then?"
This topic was too heavy. After speaking, Yuan Cheng shook his head and sighed, "If we want to end this disaster, the government's power alone is probably not enough."
Lu Chang touched the teacup but didn't drink it. He had already thought of what Yuan Cheng had just said. Now the gates of the officials and wealthy households in Ye City were tightly closed. If they were willing to contribute and mobilize the people in the city, this disaster could be over by spring. The difficulty was in getting these people to contribute.
Sometimes Lu Chang would wonder if he should follow the example of that princess and directly kill anyone who dared to disobey him. However, intimidating people with force was not a long-term solution, and things had not yet reached a dead end, so he could not take that step.
Moreover, he is not Li Muyun, but if he does this, he will be impeached and will have no way out.
The two remained silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Lu Chang asked, "Does Your Excellency know what kind of doctors wealthy households employ?"
Yuan Cheng sat upright and looked at him: "I would like to hear the details."
"They were shamans, monks, and Taoist doctors." They were all folk healers, and at this critical juncture, they all became honored guests in the homes of wealthy families in Ye City.
Some were there for survival, others for accumulating achievements; in short, they were all people trusted by the wealthy.
Yuan Cheng thought for a moment and understood Lu Chang's meaning: "If everyone believes in ghosts and gods, then things will be much easier."
He smiled and said, "I can lend you a hand, sir."
The next day, a wealthy family carried a sick person out of their home; they had contracted the plague. With the gates tightly shut and no one allowed to leave or enter, how could they have contracted the plague?
Then came the second and the third family. People who were perfectly healthy at home suddenly contracted the disease and had to be carried out of their homes. Among them were the heads of the household who contracted the plague, including men, women, young and old, rich and poor.
More and more people are getting sick, and they are all from wealthy families. They thought that they could avoid the plague by keeping themselves away from others, but they did not expect that they could not escape it.
What puzzled everyone even more was that all the sick people in the city had been driven to the west of the city, and they had been living peacefully at home for some time. So what was the reason that the people in the mansion had fallen ill?
People were terrified. A witch doctor said that their refusal to help others in order to save their own family had angered the gods, so the gods had sent down a plague to punish them.
A few days later, some wealthy households took the initiative to set up a porridge distribution point at their doorsteps, distributing porridge twice a day; those who did not wish to contribute porridge would give some of their grain to the government for distribution; and those who still did not wish to contribute grain would donate money.
All of this was because the family doctor advised the protagonist that those families who contracted the plague were suffering such a fate because they lacked merit. Now they could no longer stand idly by and had to distribute porridge and grain to accumulate merit for their families.
Sure enough, no one in any family who was willing to do something for the disaster victims contracted the disease. Even those who did contract the disease accumulated merit by helping the disaster victims, and the patients gradually recovered and became no different from ordinary people.
The wealthy are increasingly motivated, and a large amount of private resources have been invested in disaster relief. Yecheng is finally showing signs of improvement...
Fewer and fewer patients were being sent out of the city to be buried. Yuan Cheng watched as the once handsome young nobleman, now so busy with work that he couldn't even care about his appearance, sporting a stubble beard as he listened to the doctor talk about his recent condition. He silently stepped back, turned around and left.
At noon, a servant came to report that Lord Yuan had left Ye City.
At that time, Lu Chang was reviewing the prescriptions to be published when he heard his servants report that he had recently asked the medical students he had brought to prepare prescriptions and deliver them to wealthy households.
Those wealthy people did not contract the plague; they simply developed symptoms similar to those of the plague after "accidentally" taking the prescribed medicine.
Gongsun Jiadao was even more regretful than Lu Chang for not seeing him off, and sighed, "He is indeed different from other eunuchs. Such a magnanimous heart is truly a pity."
What a pity? It's a pity he was a eunuch!
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