After Yin Chengyu gave the order, Xue Shu went to report to Emperor Longfeng the next day, saying that he had heard that there was a Taoist priest named Ziyuan in Shanxi, who was over a hundred years old, but had a youthful face and hair, was good at alchemy, and had the secret of immortality.
Emperor Longfeng was very interested after hearing this and immediately asked Xue Shu to take people to invite him.
As Yin Chengyu was in a hurry to find someone, Xue Shu did not delay and gathered the men that day. He rode to Shanxi before dawn the next day.
Fifty Xichang servants set out from the capital, took the official road, passed through Taiyuan Prefecture, and then changed to Datong Prefecture. It would take about seven or eight days to travel day and night.
After four days of continuous travel, Xue Shu ordered a rest when they were about to reach Taiyuan Prefecture.
The servants quickly found a place sheltered from the wind and set up their tents. Some of them took bows and arrows and went into the mountains to hunt and collect firewood.
"Would the warden like to drink some wine to relieve your fatigue?" Li Dangtou took the wine bag from his waist and held it in front of him respectfully.
Xue Shu looked around and frowned, "No need. Share it with the brothers. Don't be greedy and make mistakes."
Seeing that he didn't want to drink, Li Dangtou threw the wine bag to his subordinates and let them divide it among themselves. He followed Xue Shu and said flatteringly: "This Taiyuan Prefecture is too desolate. I didn't see many people along the way."
They had lived in the prosperous capital for a long time and had seen many people on a daily basis. But now that they had left Zhili and entered Shanxi, there was not even a single person breathing along the way, so it was inevitable that they felt a little uncomfortable.
Li Dangtou was just complaining casually, hoping to strike up a conversation with Xue Shu and leave a good impression. However, Xue Shu frowned more and more as he listened, and said in a deep voice, "Something is not right."
It is now mid-April and the winter wheat is about to be harvested. It should be the busy farming season, but as they travel along the way, they see only abandoned farmland but no farmers.
Xue Shu grew up in the countryside and had seen such desolate scenes before - none of them were good things.
He mounted his horse again, said "You wait here", and rode back the way he came.
There was a farmland on the way they came.
Xue Shu rode his horse for two minutes and arrived at the edge of the farmland. He dismounted and carefully examined the crop stubble in the farmland, and his expression darkened.
The wheat stalks were still green, indicating that they were newly grown wheat. But now there was only a bare field of wheat, most likely due to a locust plague.
There has been no rain since the end of winter this year. Occasionally, when I hear Your Highness mention it, he also says that there are reports of drought in various provinces in the north.
Droughts are often accompanied by locusts.
Xue Shu stood up and looked into the distance at the village.
It was now dusk, but there was no smoke coming from the villages; the silence was eerie.
Without hesitation, he rode his horse back onto the path through the country.
After a while, we arrived at the village.
When I looked from a distance, the village seemed quiet and desolate. When I got closer, I understood where the quietness came from.
——The whole village was dead silent. The doors were open, but there was not even the sound of a dog barking.
Xue Shu looked around one by one and saw that most of the houses had white banners and white lanterns hanging in front of them. There were also coffins placed in many of the main rooms, but the lids of the coffins had been opened and thrown aside, and there was nothing inside.
A fading sun was about to appear in the sky, twilight enveloped the entire village, and the sunset glow looked like blood.
Xue Shu came out of the village and rode his horse back to his temporary station.
Li Dangtou saw him coming back and came forward with a bitter face and said, "Supervisor, we can only eat dry food tonight. There are no rabbits or pheasants in this mountain, not even a bird. It's very desolate."
"It's not desolate." Xue Shu's face turned cold: "It's a disaster. Everyone died."
Li Dian was shocked: "But we didn't see any bodies along the way."
Xue Shu shook his head, pointed at a few people, and drew a simple map on the ground: "You guys go to these places to investigate quickly." He circled Taiyuan City and said: "You don't need to enter the city, and don't alarm the officials of the prefecture. Just explore the surrounding areas."
Several people took the order and dispersed. Xue Shu watched from afar, his face more solemn than ever before.
Half an hour later, the sound of horse hooves could be heard in the night.
The foreign soldiers who had gone to Taiyuan City to investigate came back at full speed. They were so frightened that they stumbled a bit before they could stand up straight. Their voices trembled as they reported to Xue Shu: "The gates of Taiyuan City are tightly closed. No one is allowed to enter or leave. Within five miles outside the city gates, there are piles of dead bodies. Only soldiers are coming and going to burn the bodies."
"Did you hear what happened?"
The guess was confirmed again, and Xue Shu's voice became heavy.
He had seen what it was like when locusts were rampant, and it was common for starving people to eat their own children. But it was definitely not like the current situation where the villages were empty, white flags were hung high, but no one was seen alive or dead.
The fact that Taiyuan Prefecture acted in this way showed that the situation was worse than he had expected.
The guard panted and said, "I didn't dare to get too close. I only vaguely heard the officers and soldiers who were burning the corpses mention the 'pimple plague'. It seems that some kind of epidemic has broken out and many people have been infected and died."
It really is an epidemic.
Xue Shu's eyes were lost in the night. "Do you know how long it has been?"
"Judging from the conversation, it should have been nearly half a month."
However, they did not hear any news in the capital.
Xue Shu pondered in silence and waited for another hour, then all the soldiers who had gone out to investigate came back.
The report said that the situation in the counties and towns around Taiyuan Prefecture was similar to this place.
The white flag is hung high, and nine out of ten houses are empty.
It is said that this “pimple plague” is extremely virulent and that no medicine can cure it, with eight out of ten deaths. If a family of several people is infected with this plague, in severe cases, even the entire family will die. [1]
But within just half a month, the disease had spread to all parts of Shanxi, to the point that the living were afraid to offer condolences, no one came to collect the dead, and no one walked on the streets.
Although severe droughts and floods have often occurred in various parts of Dayan in recent years, and epidemics have often occurred, none of them has spread as quickly as the "lump plague" in Shanxi, causing so many deaths.
Xue Shu realized the seriousness of the situation. He was silent for a moment, looking at the rolling hills and forests in the night, and said in a deep voice: "Ten of you will follow me back to the capital to report the news, and the remaining forty will continue to Datong to look for the whereabouts of Master Ziyuan. If there is still an epidemic along the way, send a letter back to the capital immediately."
After saying this, Xue Shu ordered ten people, ate some dry food in a hurry, and then rested on the spot with his clothes on.
I slept until dawn, then got up and hurried back to Wangjing.
It took four days to get here, but less than three days to return.
It was late at night when they arrived in Wangjing, but Xue Shu still entered the palace at night and woke Emperor Longfeng up from his sleep.
Emperor Longfeng did not seem angry, and looked behind him cheerfully: "You are so anxious, but have you found the old immortal?"
Seeing that he was only thinking about the old immortal, Xue Shu felt depressed. However, he still shook his head and said, "We are still searching for the whereabouts of Master Ziyuan. I came here late at night because I have something urgent to report."
It turned out that he had not found the old immortal. Emperor Longfeng suddenly lost interest. He leaned on the couch with his legs bent and yawned: "It's so urgent. Can't you report it tomorrow?"
Xue Shu lowered his eyes and said, "When I was on my way to Datong, I passed through Taiyuan Prefecture and discovered that there was a major epidemic in the Shanxi area. Many people died. Now, nine out of ten houses in the counties and towns around Taiyuan Prefecture are empty."
"Shanxi?" Emperor Longfeng recalled and said, "It seems that the Shanxi governor sent a memorial to report the spring drought. However, droughts are over. They occur every year in various places, and the Ministry of Revenue has approved the memorial to open the warehouses to release grain."
He looked unconcerned.
In recent years, Dayan has been hit by constant natural disasters, including drought, locust plagues, and epidemics, which have annoyed Emperor Longfeng.
Especially every time a disaster occurred, there were always people saying that it was a punishment from God, as if God was dissatisfied with him as the emperor, so Emperor Longfeng particularly disliked hearing such news.
Anyway, the cabinet will handle it.
Dayan has a vast territory and a large population. It is normal for some people to die from natural disasters and man-made calamities, isn't that?
Xue Shu saw that he didn't care, but still insisted: "This epidemic is very different from previous years, and it is more severe--"
But before he could finish, he was interrupted by Emperor Longfeng in a somewhat unhappy tone: "What difference can it make? I am tired, and we will discuss this matter tomorrow."
Having said that, he waved his hand and went to the bedroom.
Gao Xian, the attendant, said with a fake smile: "I didn't expect that Supervisor Xue still worries about the country and the people?"
Xue Shu looked at him solemnly, then turned and left.
After leaving the Qianqing Palace, he glanced at the gloomy sky, avoided people, and went to the Ciqiong Palace.
When Yin Chengyu was woken up by Zheng Duobao, he was still a little confused: "Why are you back?"
Zheng Duobao helped him put on his clothes and said, "It seems like there is something urgent to report."
Yin Chengyu came out after getting dressed, and saw Xue Shu standing in the hall.
He stood in the hall, exhausted. His dark black clothes were covered with dirt and dust. Hearing the sound of Yin Chengyu coming out, he turned around, his face also full of fatigue, only his eyes were dark and heavy, like sparks in the embers, and they just burst and lit up for a moment when he saw him.
"What happened?" Yin Chengyu had never seen him look like this before.
Xue Shu told him about the situation in Shanxi. He seemed to be afraid that Yin Chengyu would not believe him, so he said in a solemn tone: "I have experienced a major epidemic before, but even the most severe epidemics are not as severe as this 'pimple plague'. Only one out of ten people will survive."
However, Yin Chengyu's complexion became uglier and uglier since he heard the word "pimple plague".
Of course he knew about the "pimple plague".
When the disease first breaks out, the patient will first develop nodules in the armpits and thighs, vomit blood like watermelon juice, and will not take any medicine. The patient may die in a short time. [2]
In the previous life, the pimple plague first broke out in Daming Prefecture and then spread to Wangjing.
During the worst of the incidents, tens of thousands of coffins were seen outside the nine gates of the capital city each day, eight to nine people had died, and the streets were empty.
And this is just the beginning.
Later, the plague spread to Tianjin and other places. Countless people died in the northern provinces, fields were left vacant, and good people were forced to migrate south or become bandits. Uprisings broke out everywhere.
At that time, he was imprisoned in the imperial mausoleum, and only vaguely knew that the plague had only broken out in July and August of the 19th year of Longfeng, but he did not expect that there were already signs of it at that time. And the real source was from Shanxi.
When it first broke out in the previous life, everyone thought that this plague would be like previous epidemics and would soon be quelled. However, they did not know that this was the beginning of the catastrophe for Dayan.
The author has something to say:
Gougou: Only Your Highness never lets Gougou down.
PS: Notes [1] and [2] are quoted from Baidu Encyclopedia.