Chapter 208: Rebellion in a Small County 1
The young lady whispered in his ear, her voice as low as it could be, which made Zhao Lan's ears itch. If her speculation had not been too unbelievable, he would have almost... Fortunately, he controlled himself.
Looking at the young lady with a heavy face, she suspected that the current Lord Yang was a fake?
Hua Ping also followed behind Zhao Lan. He had a very sensitive hearing. He could hear Su Ruojin's soft voice while quietly blocking it from spreading into the cave. He heard the Second Lady's speculation.
He also found it incredible. How could there be someone so similar in the world?
The mountain was dark and the rain was heavy, so Zhao Lan and the others left quietly.
Su Ruojin stood at the entrance of the cave and sighed sadly. As soon as the rain stopped, the Su family would set off for Wei County. She didn't know who would inherit the throne after the prince's death, and when the capital would return to peace.
Although the heavy rain stopped on the second day, the sky was still gray. It was estimated that it would rain heavily again within half a day. Su Ruojin was worried about fleeing so she didn't bring much food or daily necessities with her. She wanted to go back to Dongshan to get them, but she was afraid of encountering rioters and being unable to escape.
Su Yanli saw that his daughter was silent and couldn't make a decision. "How about we wait in the cave and let Guard Zhang go and get it?"
Zhang Shun shook his head directly, "There are only two guards in total, you can't leave our sight."
Su Yanli looked at his daughter, feeling helpless.
Shi Miao stepped forward cautiously and said, "Young Master, it's the rainy season now. If we take the mountain path, there will probably be a lot of wild vegetables. Otherwise..."
Su Ruojin shook her head, "It's not realistic for us to take the carriage and walk along the mountain path."
That's true.
For a moment, everyone was silent.
Shangguan Yu glanced at Su Yanli and his wife. Su Yanli seemed to know little about household affairs and waited for his daughter to make the decision. He then looked at Madam Su, who only took care of the son and daughter and did not ask about anything. Finally, his eyes fell on Second Madam Su. Shaobai was right. If the Su family did not have this little niece, who knows what life would be like?
In the end, it was Su Ruojin who decided not to return to Wenshan Villa but to go down the mountain and take the official road to Weizhou directly.
Shu Tong asked worriedly, "What if we encounter refugees and robbers on the official road?"
Su Ruojin said, "Let's go down the mountain first. When we get to the foot of the mountain, it will probably rain heavily. The refugees and robbers won't be able to rob people at this time. They will probably look for a place to hide from the rain. We can take a carriage and travel in the rain. I think we can avoid the refugees and robbers."
Even if you can't avoid it, just take up your knife and face it. You have to rush out and find a place to avoid this chaos.
Everybody worked together to pack up, and soon they were done. Each of them carried a large bag on their back, a small bag in their hands, and cut some bamboo to make walking sticks for walking.
Everyone left. Yang Si Niang stood at the entrance of the cave for a long time without moving, looking towards the direction of the capital and shedding tears silently. She missed her mother and wanted to go back to the capital.
"Arong, we don't even dare to go back to the Wenshan Street Villa, so we really can't help you return to the capital."
"Ajin, the young prince returned to the capital last night. Why didn't you wake me up and let me go back with him?" When she woke up in the morning, she heard Su Yanli asking the guard questions, and she heard it all.
Su Ruojin: ...
She didn't expect that the young lady would have such an idea. Not to mention the violent storm last night, how could a young lady like her walk? Secondly, Zhao Lan and the others were riding horses in the woods. Could she bear such suffering?
Third, Zhao Lan’s identity is special and hidden. It must have been an exception for him to leave the city for Su Yanli. Why would he bring a young lady with him?
It's impossible!
"Arong, it's a mess everywhere now. We can't go back to the capital."
Yang Si Niang was not a nagging little lady. She had to go out with them to play. The turmoil in the capital was something no one had expected. She didn't want to cause trouble for the Su family, but she really missed her mother and couldn't help but...
"Ajin..." She cried and threw herself into Su Ruojin's arms, "I just miss my mother."
Su Ruojin patted her on the back and said, "When the young prince left, I asked him to take care of your mother."
"Really?" The young lady was so coaxed that she stood up in surprise.
Su Ruojin nodded, "Of course it's true. Don't worry. It's not easy for several princes to fight against each other. I guess those ministers are trying to find a way to solve this rebellion."
Yang Si Niang was coaxed to stop crying, "Thank you, Ajin."
"Let's go."
After everyone had left, Su Dalang stopped to wait for his sister. Seeing that she had coaxed Yang Si Niang into submission, he followed behind them, protecting the two young ladies.
Two guards, Zhang Shun and Cui Can, went to Weizhou with the Su family, one in front and one behind.
When we were going down the mountain, we met several groups of refugees who had gone into the mountains. Everyone was puzzled. Everyone was going into the mountains, so why were these people going out? Wouldn't that cause chaos?
When fleeing, everyone would just wonder for a moment when passing by each other, and when they had passed each other, they would each flee in their own way.
After walking for most of the day, they finally reached the foot of the mountain. A heavy rainstorm came over them, as if it had calculated the time for the Su family to go down the mountain. It was so heavy that no one could be seen on the other side.
Mangzhong and Shutong each drove a carriage and headed straight for Wei County in the rain.
In the city of Bianjing, the death of Emperor Chengxi had not yet taken place and the crown prince had died. The empress's legitimate son, Prince of Xiang Zhao Shu, no longer had an obstacle on the road to succession. Originally, he was in charge of the Ministry of War, and with the banner of legitimacy, he gathered his clansmen and summoned ministers to launch a large-scale attack on the imperial city.
As soon as Zhao Lan entered the city, he was waited for by people sent by the King of Jin, who asked him to cooperate with the Ministry of War and mobilize all the soldiers of the Imperial City Department to besiege the Imperial City.
As Su Ruojin and others were on their way to Weizhou in the rain, a battle broke out at the gate of the palace.
Su Ruojin and his entourage only stopped for a short while along the way, soaked the steamed buns and ate them, and then continued on their way. They did not dare to stop for a moment, and they traveled from noon until midnight before they arrived in Weizhou.
The battle of the imperial city in the capital also ended. The King of Qi was executed on the spot. The King of Wei, who controlled the city gate, wanted to take advantage of the situation, but was guarded against by the King of Xiang, who held a large army, and failed. So he fled south overnight and refused to stop even after crossing the river. He went all the way to the land of Nanyue and seized the prosperous city of Lin'an as his base.
Of course, when the King of Wei fled south, half of the ministers advocated an immediate pursuit to eliminate the hidden dangers, while the other half believed that the late emperor had not yet died, the prince had died unclearly, and the chaos of floods in the south and droughts in the north had to be resolved. The most urgent thing at the moment was that the King of Xiang should ascend the throne as soon as possible, and then accomplish these three major tasks to consolidate the great unification.
Of course, the Prince of Xiang wanted to ascend the throne as soon as possible, so he supported half of the ministers who advocated ascending the throne to do three major things.
Whether it is a national mourning or to suppress a chaotic world, military force is needed.
Before dawn, the Prince of Xiang, who was enthroned, had already dispatched more than a dozen troops, stretching from the city of Bianjing all the way to various states in the Dayin Dynasty.
When Su Ruojin and his party woke up, the name of the Dayin Dynasty had changed from the 20th year of Chengxi to the first year of Jingyuan, and the empress's legitimate son, Prince Xiang, ascended the throne.
Weizhou County was plundered by refugees and mountain bandits. They were like locusts passing through the county, and all the food was looted. The tenants who managed the fields for the Su family were so scared that they kept kowtowing, "Sir, it's not that we don't want to protect the fields, we are just powerless."
Su Yanli certainly knew what the situation was along the way and did not blame the tenants.
Su Ruojin looked at the dozens of acres of empty land and felt like crying.
Shi Er asked carefully, "Young Master, I heard that the first thing the new emperor did after ascending the throne was to send a large army to suppress the civil unrest. How about we go back to the capital?"
Su Ruojin shook her head and said, "I won't go back for now."
"Then..." They have no food now, and it is a problem to feed more than 20 people.
Su Ruojin turned around and said, "Uncle Shutong, go find a large landowner nearby and buy some food. Then go to the county and buy some daily necessities."
"good."
Logically speaking, when the new emperor ascended the throne, Su Yanli should have rushed back to the capital, but when he left the city, Zhao Lan asked for a half-month summer vacation for him. Only five days had passed, and there were still ten days left, so there was no rush.
Su Yanli only had three acres of official land, but over the years, Su Ruojin bought some more, now having more than ten or twenty acres. It is not as good as those nobles in the capital, but compared with rural people, having these ten or twenty acres is already very good.
The fields she bought did not grow wheat, but almost all of them grew various cash crops such as beans, sesame, and vegetables. Moreover, they could all be transported long distances to the capital and used in breakfast or morning tea shops, saving Su Ji a lot of costs.
Money makes things easier. On the surface, the area around Weizhou was robbed and it seemed that there was nothing left. Shu Tong had often come here with Su Ruojin in the past two years and got to know some local landlords. He went to their homes to build relationships and these landlords were willing to sell grain to the Su family.
After buying food, Shu Tong drove back to the village. When passing by the Weizhou County Government Office, he found that hundreds of people gathered at the gate of the government office. Could it be that the new emperor's troops had also arrived in Weizhou County?
He stopped the carriage out of curiosity and asked Shi Xiaoer to watch it. He squeezed in and found that there were no other soldiers except a dozen patrolmen from the yamen, and it was very noisy.
After listening for a while, Shu Tong roughly understood some of it. It turned out that the magistrate of Weizhou County was killed by refugees and bandits, and the county lieutenant was nowhere to be found. There was only an old clerk in charge of the county government affairs, but he was blocked by the people at the door and was at a loss what to do.
"I really don't know. Don't ask me. I'm not even the chief clerk. I can't make the decision at all."
Some people shouted, "If you don't take charge, we will take over the county government and see if you can intervene..."
"It's useless for you to bully the government. Maybe the court will send a new county magistrate tomorrow..."
Upon hearing this, a group of women in mourning, young and old, burst into tears. "Oh my God, my husband was killed by refugees, and there is no one to preside over the funeral for my son (husband). It's really heartbreaking..."
…
After a while, I heard that either a decision needed to be made in this place or that no one was upholding justice in that place, and hooligans were rampant, causing great harm to the people.
Shu Tong shook his head and got on the carriage back to the village.
The village where Su Yanli's farmland was located was not far from Weizhou County, so Shu Tong returned to the village in less than half an hour. While unloading the grain, he told Su Yanli and Su Erniang what he had seen and heard.
"The county magistrate was killed? Has it been reported to the court?"
Shu Tong replied, "From what I heard, the county lieutenant has run away, the chief clerk and the county magistrate have taken refuge in the mountains, and there is no one to take charge. Now there are already thousands of people gathered in front of the county government office, and it is estimated that there will be more."
"They are..."
"Some want the county government to open a granary... Some heard that the new emperor had issued a general amnesty upon his ascension to the throne, and some want to settle down in the local area... It looks like if no one comes out to take charge, there will be chaos."
Su Ruojin glanced at his father and asked thoughtfully, "Are there any officials at the gate of the county government?"
Shu Tong replied, "There is an old clerk who I heard helps sort out the documents."
To put it bluntly, I'm just a handyman, doing odd jobs wherever I'm needed.
Su Yanli sighed and shook his head, "The succession of imperial power was not handled properly, and the common people are suffering."
Su Ruojin felt that what his father said was right and he agreed with it deeply.
After escaping all the way, the Su family hadn't had a proper meal yet, and these things were not something they could worry about. Lu Dani took Mao Ya and others to cook hot pot. They cooked a mixture of brown rice and japonica rice, and also made a pot similar to the Northeastern hotpot, with cabbage, vermicelli, a small piece of salty pork belly, etc. Anyway, whatever vegetables were in the pot were put into the pot. It made a big pot with oil, meat and vegetables, which was enough to fill them up.
After breakfast and dinner, Su Ruojin walked around the trampled land, thinking about what else she could plant in this season. She walked and digested her food. Slowly, the sunset glow filled the sky, gorgeous and beautiful. She was thinking that tomorrow would be a good day, so she would buy more seeds to plant.
Someone ran back from the county town, shouting as he ran, "It's terrible, it's terrible, someone is being murdered... someone is being murdered..."
Su Ruojin looked at Guan Dao in surprise, "What's going on?"
The man running on the official road replied, "The yamen runners refused to open the granary, and they fought with the common people, and some people died."
Shu Tong followed behind Su Erniang. When he heard this, he immediately said, "I knew something would happen."
Weizhou County belongs to the capital area and is under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Yin. However, two major events are being carried out in the imperial city, so probably no one cares what is happening in the small county below.
What should I do?
The man who had spoken to him muttered before he ran away, "It would be great if an official could take care of this. Otherwise, a lot of people might die from being trampled."
What, stampede?
Su Ruojin and I read the book together.
Shu Tong nodded, "When I came back, there were quite a lot of people there."
this……
There is an official? Su Ruojin looked at his father?
Su Yanli looked serious.
Shangguan Yu and others also looked at Su Yanli.
Su Ruojin pursed her lips and said nothing. She knew her father better than anyone else. He was a pure scholar. He could teach, but he was not capable of handling these emergencies.
Just as Su Ruojin ignored the matter and prepared to go back, Su Yanli held her daughter's hand and said, "Ajin... I have official status, you can..."
"Dad?" Su Ruojin asked, "You mean, you want me to help you deal with this chaos by using your official status?"
"Ajin, is Dad really useless?"
Su Ruojin shook her head: "No, Dad, it's already remarkable that you have such an idea."
"But I..." It was still unsatisfactory, and he needed his daughter to be by his side before he dared.
Since it concerns human life, Su Ruojin pulled his father's hand and said, "Let's go quickly."
Shu Tong hurried to harness the carriage.
Shangguan Yu also said, "I am with you, sir. If you need any help, I can help you."
"Okay, everyone go." Su Ruojin said behind him, "Uncle Zhang, Uncle Cui, take your knives and let's go."
Cheng Yingzhen caught up with him and asked, "Sir, where are you going?"
Oops, I forgot. Su Yanli stopped and said to his wife, "Take Sanlang, Silang, and Ayi back to sleep. Dalang, follow daddy." The eldest son has grown up, and it's time for him to see the dangers of the world.
Su Dalang picked up his legs and followed.
Cheng Yingzhen was so worried that she wanted to follow, but Chunxiao and Qiu stopped her, "Madam, don't worry, we have guards Zhang and Cui here, everything will be fine."
Su Yanli nodded to his wife, "Ah Zhen, wait for me to come back."
That was a look of great trust that made her unable to let go. She pursed her lips and nodded, "Sir, go early and come back early."
"Okay." Su Yanli turned around, quickly followed his daughter into the carriage, and headed towards the county government office.
(End of this chapter)
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