Chapter 92: Escaping from Water and Fire (Part 1)
The relief team braved all weather and finally arrived in Yanzhou at noon on the seventh day.
Along the way, we met many refugees who had escaped from Yanzhou. They brought their families with them. They were so skinny and hungry that they even gnawed on the bark of trees by the roadside.
The unfortunate refugees died of starvation on the road before they could even leave Yanzhou, and the following teams silently collected their bodies. The lucky refugees waited for the relief teams to arrive while they still had breath.
This is a family of four. The oldest is only seven or eight years old, and the youngest is still in swaddling clothes. The poor babies are so hungry that they don’t even have the strength to cry. If they hadn’t met Yan Zhuo and the others today, they would have become a pile of yellow earth on the roadside like those unfortunate refugees tomorrow.
Yan Zhuo ordered his men to give them food and water.
Seeing the refugees in front of them not even bothering to talk and just focusing on eating to fill their stomachs, everyone felt a little sad.
Cui Cen was afraid they would choke, so he handed them the water bag. "Eat slowly. If you're not satisfied, there's more here. Where are you going?"
"Let's go to a place where we can have enough food!" said the seven or eight-year-old child without restraint.
Cui Cen was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Aren't you able to eat enough in Yanzhou? Didn't the local government distribute food to you?"
The pillar of the family stopped eating and was hesitating whether to tell the truth. The child next to him who knew nothing did not think so much.
"Distribute food?"
Although he was only seven or eight years old, he had already understood the meaning of hatred. The skinny boy growled angrily:
“No one is giving us food!”
"Those damn officials! Not only did they not give us food, they also stole most of the food we worked so hard to save!"
"Grandpa was beaten to death while fighting for food with them. They are the ones who deserved to die..."
The first few sentences were filled with unbridled emotion, but the last was only the soft hum of the little beast. To ensure they had more food, Grandpa ate less than a bird could peck at each day, yet he still smiled and said he wasn't hungry. His family was already so destitute, yet those corrupt officials still refused to let them go! In the end, Grandpa was beaten to death by those beasts just to protect the family's remaining food!
The scene fell into silence for a moment.
Everyone seemed to not believe their ears, but how could seven or eight-year-old children know what lying was? They had to admit that this was the bloody truth.
His mother didn't even bother eating anymore. She hurriedly scooped him up in her arms and covered his mouth with her hands. Her eyes, sunken by hunger, stared at the soldiers in front of her with a pair of dim eyes in fear.
Although these people had kindly given them food, who knew if they were in league with the corrupt officials in the city? What if these words angered them?
The mother wailed helplessly in her heart.
"Please calm down, sirs. My child was too hungry and said the wrong thing accidentally. Please be magnanimous and forgive him this time!" The man swallowed the food stuck in his throat, rolled and crawled on the ground in panic, fearing that if he was a step slower, the lives of his entire family would be in danger.
"He's right."
"Those damn officials really deserve to die."
Yan Zhuo lifted up his frail body and spoke word by word in an icy tone, his raven-colored eyelashes hiding the storm in his eyes.
The people behind him also restrained their expressions and clenched their fists tightly.
Before this relief effort, the imperial court had also distributed grain in installments, but it now appeared that none of this grain had reached the people.
Where can we go then?
It can only end up in the stomachs of those corrupt officials with black hearts and rotten lungs!
On the way back, they also met many surviving refugees, and from their mouths, they gradually restored the tragedy of the entire Yanzhou.
As the saying goes, the emperor is far away and the sky is high. The officials here took advantage of the remote location and the fact that the regime changed and they had no time to take care of the control of this place. So they began to do evil and oppress the people like animals.
I don’t know when it started, but Yanzhou has become a place where these corrupt officials can cover the sky with one hand!
Natural disasters are one of the wedges, but man-made disasters are the source of all these tragedies.
Even before the drought, the local people were already burdened by heavy taxes. Plunder and exploitation made their already poor lives even worse. If this continued, it would only be a matter of time before the government oppressed the people.
But before the people of Yanzhou could resist, a severe drought struck. After a year of hard work, the harvest was completely gone. How could people who couldn't even get enough to eat resist? Survival became their top priority.
There are many people who leave Yanzhou with their families. They all decided to flee because they could not survive at home. If they could live a stable life, who would be willing to leave their hometown?
Rongcheng is the closest city after entering Yanzhou.
The scorching sun shone directly on the earth-colored city walls, and it was almost as if you could see the rising heat waves. If you looked closely at the city walls, you could see some traces of dark brown mixed with the yellow-brown walls. That was blood.
The city had food, but was unwilling to distribute it to the refugees. To prevent them from entering the city and causing chaos, they simply closed the city gates and isolated them. The dark brown bloodstains on the wall were left by those who tried to climb the wall to enter the city in the middle of the night but were shot down.
This is what I heard from the refugees who fled. They had no other choice but to leave here and find another way out.
There seemed to be someone guarding the city wall, and as soon as they saw the shadow of the large army, they immediately ran to report to their superiors. When Yan Zhuo and his companions reached the city gate, a soldier happened to slowly push the gate open.
As soon as the city gates opened, Wang Shunzhi, the prefect of Rongcheng, arrived with his men, having clearly been waiting for them. He had heard that Prince Heng was a major threat to the capital, so he was being extremely cautious. He knew they would arrive today, so he had been waiting for them since the beginning.
Seeing someone getting out of the leading carriage, he guessed that it must be King Heng, and hurriedly put on a flattering smile to greet him.
"Your Highness Prince Heng has worked hard on the journey. My name is Wang Shunzhi and I am the prefect of Rongcheng. I have prepared a banquet in the city..."
Before Magistrate Wang could finish, Yan Zhuo interrupted him. He stared at the city gate that had just been opened, his eyes dark:
"In broad daylight, why are the city gates closed?"
Magistrate Wang was stumped by the question.
He couldn't say that there were too many refugees and he couldn't manage them if he let them into the city. It would be troublesome enough! He simply closed the city gates and refused to let the refugees in. What a bunch of unruly people, they actually dared to come into the city and beg for food!
But Wang Shunzhi still had some brains. He knew that if he really said that, he might lose his official position. He wiped his sweaty forehead with the wide sleeves of his official uniform and spoke carefully.
"Closing the city gates is for the sake of the people in the city. This will make it easier to manage the people in the city."
Even he himself felt that this explanation was a bit far-fetched, and he didn't know whether Yan Zhuo would believe it.
The scene was quiet for a long time. Just when Wang Shunzhi's legs were trembling, the man in front of him finally spoke.
"Prefect Wang is truly a 'good official' who cares about the people."
Wang Shunzhi breathed a sigh of relief, glad that he had finally passed this hurdle. This evil star from the capital was nothing special. Then he thought, after all, a powerful dragon cannot defeat a local snake. No matter how powerful he was in the capital, he, Wang Shunzhi, still had the final say in Rongcheng!
As he thought about this, he felt proud.
"I don't deserve it, I..."
He raised his head and was about to say something humble, but he found that the person opposite him had a smile on his face that made his back cold, and he couldn't open his mouth to say what he wanted to say.
"Take it."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Shunzhi found that he and his subordinates were pinned to the ground, and he cried out in surprise.
What's going on?
Before Wang Shunzhi could react, the shiny blade was placed on his neck, and the knife didn't seem to be afraid of him getting hurt at all, because he could already feel a stinging pain in his neck, and it seemed that warm liquid was flowing down the blade.
"Prince Heng, Your Highness Prince Heng, let's talk this out. Is there any misunderstanding between us? What are you doing?" The blade pressing against his neck made his voice tremble.
"You devoured the grain sent by the imperial court, didn't you?"
"It was you who ordered the refugees to take away their last bit of food, wasn't it?"
"It was you who locked those refugees outside the city."
"You were the one who ordered the shooting of the refugees who tried to climb over the wall into the city."
The curve of Yan Zhuo's mouth disappeared at some point, and he revealed Wang Shunzhi's crimes one by one in a cold tone. With every word he spoke, his eyes darkened a little.
Wang Shunzhi originally still had some hope, but after hearing the latter part, he knew that he was finished. It turned out that Prince Heng knew everything. He now only hated why he was the prefect closest to Yanzhou. Now he couldn't escape even if he wanted to.
"Prince Heng, please spare me! I was just confused for a moment! Please be magnanimous and give me another chance. I will definitely be a good official, no, a good person!"
While begging for mercy, he winked at the stunned gatekeeper standing by.
But the soldiers seemed not to notice. Finally, he could no longer bear it and shouted:
"What are you still standing there for? Save me now! If you do, I'll reward you handsomely!"
But the only response he got was the clang of weapons being dropped.
His only hope, the soldiers guarding the gate, now voluntarily laid down their weapons.
A group of these seven-foot-tall men burst into tears. They hated what they had done. Those refugees they had rejected were also their compatriots! How could they remain indifferent?
But if they lose their jobs, they and their wives, children and elderly relatives at home will suffer the same fate as these refugees.
Now, they can finally drop the weapons that were pointed at their compatriots with a sense of relief.
"You cowards! Just wait..."
Wang Shunzhi was furious and was about to say something else, but he felt a sharp pain in his throat.
The bloody head flew high into the air, then rolled to the ground, covered in smelly mud.
Thanks to Wang Shunzhi's decision to seal off the city, none of his followers in the city could escape, and all those who assisted him were imprisoned.
The corrupt officials were dealt with swiftly with lightning speed. When Yan Zhuo walked on the street, he found that the doors and windows of the shops were all closed, and there was no one on the street.
It was the occasional pair of inquiring eyes that appeared from behind the windows that were not closed tightly that made people realize that this was not a deserted city.
After knocking on a door, they discovered that while the people in the city weren't starving to death, they were still living from one meal to the next. Only if they stayed inside would the government give them a small amount of food every three days to barely fill their stomachs. If they disobeyed, even that little food would be wasted.
So even though there was such a big commotion outside today, no one wanted to go out and take a look.
What is the difference between this kind of management and livestock management?!
Yan Zhuo frowned and ordered people to open the granary and release the grain.
After opening the granaries one by one, they found that the food inside was already running out. After careful questioning, they found that all the food inside had been resold by Wang Shunzhi and exchanged for worthless silver notes.
This idiot guy!
Cui Cen gritted his teeth at this. He suddenly felt that letting Wang Shunyi be beheaded was too easy for him.
Fortunately, they brought enough food for disaster relief this time.
Thinking that the same situation might also occur in other areas of Yanzhou, Yan Zhuo immediately gave orders to leave some food and men in the city to distribute porridge, while the rest would follow him on horseback to other towns.
Before they left, the porridge distribution tent had just been set up, and the aroma of the rice porridge spread in all directions. It was this aroma that attracted the people who were huddled cautiously in their houses. After drinking the sweet rice porridge, they all smiled happily.
The medicinal herbs Huang Furen and his men brought came in handy. Just as he had expected, the medicinal herbs in the city had long been out of stock. Hunger and illness had tortured the people in the city beyond recognition. The medicinal herbs they brought were like spring rain and nectar, with magical power that turned decay into something new, and gradually dispelled the haze in the hearts of the people.
"Let's go."
Yan Zhuo took a last deep look at the people who had longed for rain, and then spurred his horse. They had to rescue more people in Yanzhou from the dire situation before the news spread.
The people of Yanzhou were still struggling with hunger, while the nobles in the capital were still holding lavish banquets.
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