After hesitating for a moment, the soldier gritted his teeth, stamped his foot, and said, "Yes, sir!"
As he spoke, he ran to the city gate again, brought three horses, handed one to Lü Tu, then rode one himself, and held the other by the hand: "Sir, let's set off. Anyway, these bastards from the border army don't treat us like human beings, otherwise Captain Jia wouldn't have gotten smallpox."
Lu Tu found it amusing; this kid really suited his personality. Without further ado, he mounted his horse and led them to chase after Wang Miaoling.
Before long, about three miles outside the city, they caught up with Wang Miaoling. Lü Tu stopped them and put Jia Dazhuang and his two children into the carriage.
He then had two servants dismount and ride horses, speeding up their journey towards Kuishan Village.
On the way, Lü Tu asked the soldier, "What's your name?"
"Reporting to Your Excellency, my name is Yan Guang!"
"Good Yan Guang, would you like to join my ranks? The pay will definitely be better than guarding the city gates!"
Yan Guang was overjoyed and quickly cupped his hands in thanks: "Thank you for your high regard, sir. In fact, I have long admired you. If I could follow a hero like you into battle, why would I need to guard the city gate?"
"good!"
With three carriages, it took them more than half an hour to reach Kuishan Village. By then, many people from Wuchuan City who had fled had gathered outside the village. Nie Yun and his men guarded the entrance to the village and kept them outside the wall.
At this time, Lü Tu's foresight in building the wall played an important role. Although the wooden fence was not high, it was enough to keep out those patients infected with smallpox.
When they saw Lü Tu, they cried out in unison, "Lord Lü, please have mercy and take us in!"
"Yes, Lord Lü, we can no longer stay in the city, so we have no choice but to come to you for help."
“We can’t go to the other villages either; they’ve been ravaged by smallpox and are too dangerous to stay in.”
Lu Tu gave Nie Yun a wink, signaling them to take Uncle Fu and the others inside for quarantine. Nie Yun naturally understood Lu Tu's meaning.
He then looked at the refugees and said sternly, "Just because other villages have been ravaged, do you come here to wreak havoc on mine? If I rashly let you in, are my villagers just destined to be infected with smallpox by you? I saved you with a kind heart, so am I supposed to be cruel to them?"
Everyone present understood the reasoning behind these words, but with their lives at stake, no one wanted to die here, and the wailing continued unabated.
With a wave of his hand, Lu Tu summoned all the soldiers present to draw their swords and spears, aiming them at the wailing refugees, instantly stabilizing the situation.
This scene completely stunned Yan Guang, who had just arrived. He looked at Lü Tu with admiration, thinking that this was a true hero who commanded the world, and he wanted to be like him.
Lu Tu said loudly, "Smallpox can hide for seven days, so even if I take you in, you must wait outside the village for seven days before you can enter."
Everyone was overjoyed at the chance to enter the village!
Unexpectedly, Lu Tu then changed his tone: "However, I'm not just giving you food and lodging for free. Each of you must give me an IOU, owing me 10 taels of silver each!"
"ah?"
Upon hearing this, everyone present was stunned. They had long heard of Lu Tu's unparalleled heroism, but they never expected that such a great hero would ask them, a group of refugees, for money.
And it's not enough if you don't get the money; you have to sign an IOU!
Let alone trying to renege on an IOU, looking at those gleaming knives and guns in front of them, even if these refugees had a hundred times the courage, they wouldn't dare to cheat Lu Tu.
The most important thing right now is to have a safe place to stay. Ten taels of silver is fine. If all else fails, I can sell myself to Lu Tu as a servant.
Naturally, some bold individuals stepped forward and declared, "My lord, I am willing!"
People have a tendency to conform; when a few people are willing, those who were previously hesitant will also agree.
Lu Tu nodded and said, "Alright, since you're here, you must abide by my rules. Please sit down!"
Thousands of refugees dressed in various styles sat on the ground with blank expressions. Lu Tu then turned to the 1,500 refugees he had previously taken in: "Pack your things and go into the village. Give these places to the new refugees."
The refugees who had been staying there for 10 days were dumbfounded. They had finally settled down, and these sheds were built by the very people who cut down trees to build them. Now they were just going to give them away to the newcomers for nothing? Just thinking about it, it was easy to imagine that they would have complaints.
"Sir, isn't this a bit unfair? We built these sheds ourselves, are we just going to give them away to live in like this?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Yang retorted, "What utter nonsense! If you don't come to the village, you'll always be an outsider!"
The women from the village who were watching the commotion nearby also pouted: "What a bunch of ungrateful bastards! Our Lord Lü has always been very fair. Once they enter the village, they will not only have a separate house to live in, but he will also arrange a wife for them. Don't let them in!"
“You’re right, you’re a bunch of ingrates. You can live in that shack for the rest of your lives. Who cares if you come to the village?”
Upon hearing the explanation, the previously noisy refugees immediately regretted their actions, their chests aching with remorse. They quickly bowed and begged for forgiveness: "Sir, please, brothers and sisters, have mercy! We didn't know anything about it."
"That's right, everyone, please don't be offended. We're just country folk and we didn't know about these local customs."
The village women who had explained earlier snorted coldly: "You can come into the village, but you must be completely obedient to Lord Lü, just like us, or we'll break three of your legs!"
The village woman's rude words frightened the men among the refugees, who all clenched their thighs together and nodded repeatedly.
After the farce, the former refugees gave up their sheds to them, and Lu Tu then ordered these refugees to gather those who had fevers, were weak, or had smallpox in their bodies and place them a hundred meters away.
Then he instructed Liu Yang to bring them some porridge, and called over Lin Zehong, who was teaching children with Tong Sheng: "Go and get a blank sheet of paper, and have them sign and seal it one by one. Each of them owes me 10 taels of silver!"
"Understood, sir."
After taking the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn to bring the situation under control, Lü Tu hurriedly ran to the village.
In the room where Qin Qianqian used to live, they found Wang Miaoling and Jia Dazhuang, who had been settled in.
"Tiger! Call Mo Zhou over here! Liu Yang, get me some garlic extract!"
Soon, Mo Zhou and Garlic Su were brought to Lü Tu. Lü Tu told everyone to leave the house, leaving him alone.
When Lü Tu looked back, he saw that the area outside the door was still crowded with people, and even Song Yuxi and Nangong Huiyu were looking at him with worried eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
Lu Tu first took some allicin, and at this point he didn't care about anything else, since he believed that the more antibiotics he had, the better.
He then gave the medicine to Wang Miaoling and Jia Dazhuang, before calling over Mo Zhou and pulling out a sharp dagger to walk towards him.
Mo Zhou was so frightened that his liver and gall bladder were chilled and he trembled: "Sir, you promised not to kill me, sob sob sob, you didn't keep your word."
Lu Tu didn't bother with any more words, simply lifted his sleeve and began cutting into the smallpox scabs on his body...
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