The group traveled day and night, sleeping in the open air, and finally arrived at Taiyuan City in the early morning of the fourth day.

Because of the rampant swine fever, the area around Taiyuan Prefecture was extremely desolate. Yin Chengyu passed through several villages and towns along the way, but all the houses were closed and there were no pedestrians on the road.

Although Zhou Weishan has been detained since the Shanxi epidemic was exposed, the impact of his previous atrocities has not yet subsided.

In order to conceal the epidemic, Zhou Weishan not only ordered the officers and soldiers to throw all the dead bodies into the pit for cremation, but also ordered that anyone with symptoms such as fever, cough, and tuberculosis in the armpits and thighs should be burned at the stake as if they were infected with the epidemic.

Although this prevented the disease from spreading rapidly, it also frightened countless survivors.

Now that Zhou Weishan was in prison, the gates of Taiyuan City were no longer tightly closed, but still no one dared to go in or out, and there were no pedestrians in the city. The occasional pedestrians who appeared would cover their heads and faces and pass by in a hurry.

The soldiers guarding the city were also lazy, and when Yin Chengyu and his party entered, no one paid any attention to them.

Yin Chengyu frowned and walked around the deserted street.

A small number of doors of houses and shops in the city were wide open, and the furniture and objects inside were in a mess. It seemed that they had been looted. The owner must have met with misfortune, and no one was home.

There were also houses with their doors and windows tightly closed. When they walked past, they could hear rustling noises from inside the house. If they looked carefully, they could see eyes staring at them from behind the windows or in the cracks of the door.

The entire Taiyuan city, although there are living people, looks like a dead city.

If the situation in the capital city is like this, then the rest of the country will be even worse. It was only a month since the Shanxi lumps and lumps plague appeared.

Although natural disasters are terrible, man-made disasters are no less terrible.

Yin Chengyu stopped and ordered, "Send someone to find out where this epidemic started, which county, which village, which household, try to find out as much as possible."

"I have sent people to inquire everywhere." Xue Shu heard this and replied, "It is said that the outbreak first occurred in Wangjia Village, Qingyuan County, under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan Prefecture. The spies below only made a quick investigation and returned to report, so the specific situation at that time has not yet been clarified."

Unexpectedly, he was so thoughtful. Yin Chengyu looked at him with admiration and got on his horse: "That's great, let's go check it out again."

The group mounted their horses again, left the city, and galloped towards Qingyuan County.

It was already noon when we arrived at Wangjia Village.

Yin Chengyu stood at the entrance of the village and looked around. He felt that the whole village was dead and silent. Not to mention human presence, there was not even the sound of insects or birds. The noise they made when they rode over was not small, but no one came out to check.

"Wangjia Village was the first place where the scabies plague appeared. Is it possible that no one is left there now?"

After Yin Chengyu covered his mouth and nose with the cloth distributed by the imperial physician, he walked inside. When he saw the dilapidated houses on both sides, his expression became increasingly heavy.

"There should be survivors." Xue Shu walked with him for a while and stopped in front of a house. He stretched out his finger to touch the door handle. When he saw that there was not much dust on his hand, he raised his hand and knocked on the door: "Is there anyone? We want to find out something."

He knocked a few times and called a few more times, but no one answered.

Just when Yin Chengyu was about to say that there might be no one inside, he saw him increase his strength and said in a fierce tone: "The soldiers will count the people. If you don't open the door, they will break it down."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a slight movement in the house that had been silent all this time. Then the door was opened a crack, and a farmer in his forties or fifties poked his head out. He hid his body in the doorway, looking nervous and frightened. "Master Guan, I am the only one left in our family. I am not sick, and I don't have a fever or cough."

Judging from his words and actions, he obviously thought that the soldiers were coming to arrest people again.

Yin Chengyu secretly sighed, motioned Xue Shu to step back, and negotiated with him himself: "Uncle, we are not here to arrest anyone, we just heard that Wangjia Village was the first to have the pimple plague, so we want to find out more about the situation."

"What else can you ask?" When Zhuang Jiahan heard that he was not here to arrest anyone, he relaxed a little and sighed, "There is no one left, all dead. The people at the head of the village have offended the Rat Immortal, and none of us can escape."

Perhaps because he saw that Yin Chengyu and his group were dressed in luxurious clothes, he urged them, "You guys should hurry up and leave, or else the Rat Immortal will get angry and you won't survive."

As he said this, he wanted to close the door.

Yin Chengyu immediately put his hand against the door, motioning Xue Shu to take out a bag of dry grains: "We have no bad intentions, it's just that the superiors are trying to find a cure for the pimple plague, so they sent us down to find out the source of the plague. That's why we found Wangjia Village. Uncle, please do us a favor and tell us what you know. Maybe we can help." As he spoke, he stuffed a bag of dry grains into Zhuang Jiahan's hand.

Shanxi was already suffering from famine, and food was more useful than gold and silver at the moment. The farmer, holding a small bag of dry grain, hesitated for a moment, then opened the door, but only spoke to them through half of the door.

"There's nothing much to say about this plague. It started with Wang Dazhuang's family at the head of the village. Several members of the family died, leaving only a widow and a half-grown boy. The villagers said that it was because their family secretly caught mice to eat, which offended the Rat Fairy, who was angry and that's why their family got this strange disease. Even the villagers who went to help with the funeral were angered, and soon after they came back they all got the disease, and it spread from one to another, and soon everyone died. Some people went to the clinic in the city, but the doctors said they had never seen this disease and couldn't cure it. Two days later, I heard that people in other villages and the city also got the disease. The officials went around catching people who were infected, saying that as long as the sick people were burned to death, the Rat Fairy would calm down."

The farmer was honest after receiving the dry food. He told Yin Chengyu everything he knew, whether it was true or false.

Finally, seeing that he could not get any more information, Yin Chengyu asked about the location of Wang Dazhuang's home, and then he and Xue Shu led people to look for it.

According to Zhuang Jiahan, there are only four or five households left in the entire Wangjia Village, with a total of more than ten people.

More than half of them died of hunger or disease, and the other half were taken away by soldiers as soon as they showed some symptoms, never to return.

The rest of the people had to live on the leftover food hidden by their neighbors.

The group arrived at Wang Dazhuang's house. Xue Shu was about to knock on the door when he saw it open from the inside. A 15- or 16-year-old boy stood in front of the door and looked at them: "I heard what you said at Uncle Wang Wu's house. What do you want to ask? Bring me food in exchange."

The boy was dark-skinned, very tall, but very thin, with sunken cheeks. Although he looked ferocious and intimidating, if you looked closely, you would find that he was trembling slightly.

It's not that I'm scared, it's probably because I'm hungry.

Yin Chengyu handed him a bag of dry grains, but the young man didn't eat them. He said "wait", and took the dry grains into the house.

Through the half-open door, Yin Chengyu saw the other party take out a bowl, soak the dry grain in water until it was soft, and then carry the bowl into the inner room. Yin Chengyu could not see what was going on inside, but after a while, he heard a woman crying from inside, vaguely saying something like "rat fairy" and "retribution", and finally the crying and noisy movement ended with the crisp sound of the bowl hitting the ground.

The room was quiet for a while, and then a young man came out with a bowl with a big hole missing. The water in the bowl had already spilled out, leaving only a few pieces of soft dry biscuits. There was a faint trace of dirt on the biscuits, which must have been picked up after falling to the ground.

The young man didn't mind, and wolfed down the dry biscuit with water, wiped his mouth casually, walked out and sat at the door: "What do you want to know? Ask."

Yin Chengyu didn't care about the other party's rudeness and asked gently: "Can you tell me about your family's situation? How did you get sick? What's the matter with the Rat Immortal?"

Hearing about the Rat Immortal, the young man sneered and said, "Don't believe the nonsense of the villagers. The Rat Immortal is just a bluff."

There was anger on his face, and his chest heaved for a moment before he suppressed his anger and talked about his family's affairs.

This spring there was a severe drought and no rain, and locusts were swarming. The crops in the fields were completely destroyed.

Famine hit all parts of Shanxi, and Wangjia Village was no exception.

Wang Dazhuang's family has two elderly people and five children, a total of nine people in the family, all mouths waiting for food, so their life is more difficult than that of other families.

The young man, Wang Zhou, relied on his strong physique and thought of going deep into the mountains, hoping that he could find some edible wild vegetables or animals.

He was gone for two days and nights, but the wild animals in the mountains had long been hunted, and he only found a few wild vegetables after two days of trekking. He returned home exhausted, but found that his brothers and sisters were not crying out for food. After asking, he found out that Wang Dazhuang and his wife had found a lot of rat holes outside the village. They just wanted to find the rat holes and see if there were any winter food for the rats in the holes, but they found a few nests of baby rats that had not yet opened their eyes.

The couple was also very hungry. Recalling that they had heard people say that these blind mice were a famous dish, they secretly brought back a few nests of mice, cooked them with wild vegetables and ate them together.

But there were only so many baby mice, and they would be gone after they were eaten. The couple thought that baby mice could be eaten, and mice were so big that one was enough to make a pot of soup. So they went to catch a big mouse and brought it back.

Although there was a famine in the village, there were still many rats, so Wang Dazhuang and his family relied on rat meat to temporarily solve the problem of filling their stomachs.

When Wang Zhou returned, they had already eaten it for two days.

There were still a lot of live mice in the bag in the corner of the kitchen. If they were eaten sparingly, the family could barely survive.

Who would have thought that on the second day after Wang Zhou returned, first my grandma became bedridden and had a big fleshy bump on her neck. Then several of my brothers and sisters also became unconscious and had a high fever, and also had bumps on their bodies.

The barefoot doctor in the village prescribed medicine, but the condition did not improve after taking it. On the next night, the two old people died first. Before the funeral was arranged, several brothers and sisters began to vomit blood one after another, and died within a day.

"My father was the last one to leave. People in the village said that it was because we ate rats that we offended the Rat Fairy, and that's why we suffered misfortune and implicated the villagers. My mother brought the rat back home, and she couldn't stand the shock and went crazy."

Wang Zhou clenched his fists, his eyes slightly reddened: "But we are not the only family in the village that eats rats! After my family got into trouble, several families also got sick. I saw with my own eyes that someone carried a bag of rats and threw it into the back mountain."

"Who would eat rats if they really had nothing to eat? If this Rat Immortal killed so many people because of this, what kind of immortal is he?"

Wang Zhou covered his face and let out suppressed tears.

Yin Chengyu watched silently, but could not say any words of comfort.

Wang Zhou seemed to have been holding it in for too long. His suppressed crying soon turned into loud sobbing. After a long time, he finally raised his sleeves and wiped his eyes. He said in a hoarse voice: "That's all. There's nothing else to say."

Yin Chengyu gave him two more bags of dry food and opened his mouth to comfort him, but found that anything he said at this moment would be too pale. In the end, he just said bitterly: "Hold on for a while, Gu... We will find a way as soon as possible, it won't be like this forever."

Wang Zhou took the dry food, not knowing whether he believed it or not. He thanked him and went into the house.

No one spoke anymore, and Wangjia Village suddenly returned to its dead silence.

After a long silence, Yin Chengyu left first.

When they arrived at the entrance of the village, Yin Chengyu turned around and asked the imperial physician who was accompanying him, "The theory of ghosts and gods is not credible, and the theory of the rat fairy is nonsense. But these villagers who were first infected have indeed eaten rats. Is it possible that this rashes plague is related to rats?"

The imperial physician had just been thinking about this question. He carefully replied, "Rats themselves are not poisonous. In the past, some people ate rats and never got sick from them. But now there is a famine in Shanxi. These rats have nothing to eat. It is possible that they have eaten corpses. Corpses emit pestilence when they rot. Rats eating corpses are likely to have been infected with pestilence. If people eat rats again, the pestilence will enter their mouths and they will get sick from the plague. But this is just my guess and needs to be confirmed."

Yin Chengyu pondered for a while, looked at the dark sky, and said, "Let's go back to the city first and discuss it later."

The group then hurried back to the city.

Yin Chengyu did not reveal his identity and did not go to the government office. Instead, he found an empty inn to stay temporarily.

The tables and chairs in the inn lobby were tilted and covered with dust.

Xue Shu ordered his men to go upstairs and clean up the guest rooms. He then went to check the well in the backyard and saw that the water was still dry. He then drew two buckets of water and took them to the woodshed to burn.

In order to save time, Yin Chengyu did not bring any servants with him. Now Xue Shu took care of all his daily life.

He was just frowning and making the bed when Xue Shu came up with a basin of hot water, and the servant following him was holding a pot of hot tea.

"The inn is simple, so I have to inconvenience you, Your Highness." Xue Shu stepped forward and took the bedding from his hand. He shook it out and spread it out.

"I'm not that delicate." Yin Chengyu loosened his outer robe and wiped his face with a handkerchief.

Xue Shu hung up his outer robe for him and took out some clean clothes and placed them aside.

Yin Chengyu went behind the screen to wash and change clothes. When he came out, Xue Shu had already asked someone to bring up a bowl of steamed buns. Although the taste was not very good, it was hot and soothing to the stomach.

Yin Chengyu put down the bowl and let out a sigh.

Although the fatigue had dissipated a little, my heart was still heavy when I thought of the tragic situation in Wangjia Village.

He opened the window and looked at the deserted and quiet street. He turned his head to look at Xue Shu who was standing beside him, pointed at the table and chairs by the window, and said, "Come sit with me."

The two sat opposite each other by the window, neither of them speaking.

Yin Chengyu drank two cups of hot tea and said, "In fact, Zhou Weishan's method is effective. Although his actions were too cruel and it was not his original intention, it did control the spread of the pimple plague."

He recalled the pimple plague that ravaged half of Dayan in his last life, and his eyes darkened. "If I could exchange the people of one province for half of Dayan, what do you think I would do?"

The tragic situation he witnessed today in Taiyuan City and Wangjia Village has shaken his firm resolve.

Can such a severe epidemic really be controlled by human power?

If the epidemic in Shanxi really couldn't be controlled, would he watch the plague spread across half of Dayan like it did in his previous life, or would he follow Zhou Weishan's example and sacrifice the province of Shanxi to save the entire Dayan when the epidemic couldn't be controlled?

For the first time, Yin Chengyu felt confused.

Xue Shu saw the confusion in his eyes, and after a long while, he said, "How to choose depends on your position at the time. Your Highness is the king, so you should consider the overall situation. To consider the overall situation, you need to give up the details."

"But this is too cruel to the people of Shanxi. It's not that they have no chance of survival." Yin Chengyu almost talked to himself.

He looked at Xue Shu and asked, "What would happen if you were in this situation?"

Xue Shu was silent again, and after a long while he answered: "If I were in your position, I would probably feel resentful. No one wants to live. But not everyone is willing to sacrifice their life for others."

Having said this, he paused, looked straight at Yin Chengyu, and said, "But Your Highness is compassionate, unlike Zhou Weishan."

Yin Chengyu smiled bitterly: "What's the difference? If it really comes to that, I will follow Zhou Weishan's example. In the eyes of the people of Shanxi, I might be another Zhou Weishan."

Xue Shu shook his head and said firmly: "Your Highness is not a person who treats the people as worthless. He will never abandon the people of Shanxi until the last moment. If it really comes to that, it is only to try to save more people. It is a last resort."

Yin Chengyu stared at him for a long time, then smiled, leaned over and pinched his chin, closing the distance between them: "I don't even dare to believe in myself, how dare you believe in me?"

He squinted his eyes and looked at him, assessing him.

Xue Shu met his gaze without avoiding it.

Of course he believed him because he had experienced it himself.

He is not a god or Buddha, but he has saved people from danger with his own strength.

Even gods and Buddhas are not merciful, so how can we expect them to be perfect?

The author has something to say:

Gou Gou: Your Highness is the most Dior!