It turned out that the five people kneeling on the ground were villagers from Xiawan Village under the jurisdiction of Xinping Town.
A few days ago, officials came to warn villagers in nearby villages not to travel or run around in the next few days.
Later, they accidentally heard the yamen runners say that a nobleman from the capital was passing through here on his way to Lingxiao Mountain.
That's why the government asked them to stay in the village, for fear that they would go out and offend the nobles.
After they discussed it, they concluded that the distinguished person who came this time must be of high status, and might be a high-ranking official, otherwise the government officials would not come here specifically to explain this matter.
If the high-ranking official wanted to go to Lingxiao Mountain, he would definitely pass through Xinping Town, so they took advantage of the fact that the officials were not paying attention and sneaked out to wait here.
They didn't want to assassinate anyone, they just wanted to find someone to help the people in their village.
Because they didn't know when the official would arrive, they came here early to wait. As of today, they have been waiting here for three days.
In order to attract the attention of passing officials, they also brought gongs, thinking that they would make a big noise and then the officials would definitely catch them and question them.
In this way, their goal was achieved.
The emperor frowned. He didn't know what had happened that forced these villagers to come up with such a way to complain.
"What exactly are you doing here?" the emperor asked in a cold voice.
When the kneeling people heard someone asking them questions, they were so scared that they didn't know how to start.
"The emperor is asking you questions, speak up!" The captain of the imperial guards next to him shouted anxiously when he saw several people shrinking their necks and looking like they wanted to say something but hesitated.
Several people trembled with fear. One of them was a man who looked to be about fifty years old and seemed to be the leader of these people.
Hearing what the captain of the Imperial Guard had just said, he suddenly looked up and trembled with trembling lips, "Emperor?"
The captain of the Royal Guards frowned and said dissatisfiedly, "What? You come here to rob people, but don't you know who you are robbing?"
It's no wonder that the captain of the Imperial Guard had a bad attitude. The main reason was that he was already nervous as he was responsible for the emperor's protection. Now they were about to reach Lingxiao Mountain, but a few people came out to rob them.
Although there was no harm, it was still a dereliction of duty for him to allow people to easily get close to the emperor's traveling team.
The fifty-year-old man who was leading the group was stunned for a moment!
Oh my god, what kind of fate is this for him?
The first time he went out to rob and file a complaint, he ended up robbing the emperor. If the emperor blamed him, all his nine clans would be killed.
Then he thought of the purpose of his coming to complain, his eyes lit up, and the emperor's words were even better. Maybe his village could really be saved, and his nine clans could also be saved!
It turned out that this man was the village chief of Xiawan Village. When he heard that the person he was robbing was the emperor, he immediately gave it a try. He knelt down excitedly, took two steps forward, and wanted to speak.
The surrounding Royal Guards thought he was going to do something bad and immediately shouted, "Don't move!"
The head of Xiawan Village reacted only after seeing the gleaming swords and knives around him. He quickly raised his hands and banged his head on the ground. After knocking his head several times, he trembled and shouted, "Your Majesty, please save our village!"
The emperor gave a look to the captain of the guard, who asked the surrounding imperial guards to stand a little further away and make way in front.
The torches around were bright, making the night as bright as day.
The emperor stepped forward, and Shen Nian followed, guarding him from the side.
The village chief saw a young man walking towards him with an imposing and dignified look, and guessed that this was the young emperor.
He quickly took two steps back and said, "Your Majesty, please don't come near me. I am not clean, so I don't want to pass it on to you."
When Shen Nian heard this, she felt something was wrong and quickly stopped the emperor and asked, "What do you mean?"
The head of Xiawan Village then said with a sad face, "Many people in our village have been infected with the plague, and we are afraid that it will be passed on to the emperor."
When the people around heard the word "plague", they all gasped and took a few steps back.
Even the imperial guards who were surrounding the few people took two steps back, pointing their swords at them.
When Shen Nian heard this, his heart skipped a beat. He quickly protected the emperor and took a few steps back before frowning and asking, "Why didn't you tell me about the plague just now?"
We have been procrastinating for a long time. If we really get infected with the plague, it will be like the sky falling.
The head of Xiawan Village saw that his words frightened everyone and made them retreat. He quickly kowtowed and explained, "Your Majesty, please forgive us. We are not infected with the plague. We were just worried that something might happen, so we asked Your Majesty not to come near us."
Shen Nian felt a little relieved when he heard this, but he didn’t dare to be easily reassured, so he suggested to the emperor, “Your Majesty, let the people around disperse first and let the Imperial Guards guard it.
Then have the imperial physician come over and examine them. Once everything is alright, we can ask them questions."
The emperor nodded, and the captain of the imperial guards asked everyone around to step back. One of the two imperial doctors who followed him covered his mouth and nose with a cloth before stepping forward to examine the villagers.
After the examination, everyone was relieved when they found that several people were indeed not infected with the plague.
However, Shen Nian still didn’t let the emperor get too close, and asked questions from a distance of ten meters.
"Is he the village chief of Xiawan Village?" the emperor asked as kindly as possible.
"Your Majesty, yes, I am the village chief of Xiawan Village. My surname is Liu, and my name is Liu Dafu." When Village Chief Liu heard the emperor's question, he kowtowed and replied.
"Village Chief Liu, why did your village get infected with the plague?"
The emperor was quite puzzled. Logically, it shouldn't be the time for a plague to break out in the middle of winter, so how could there be such a large-scale infection?
"Your Majesty, two months ago, many refugees were admitted to the village. For some reason, a plague broke out, and many refugees died.
Then other people in the village also started showing symptoms, and now there are not many uninfected people left in the village."
When Village Chief Liu thought of the villagers who were now infected with the plague and looked half-dead, he wiped away his tears with heartache.
When the others saw their village chief like this, they also looked desperate.
The emperor frowned, his voice tinged with anger, "Where are the officials? Don't they care about you?"
Village Chief Liu was even more grief-stricken and angry when he heard this. "Your Majesty, at first the county government and the mayor sent people to check it out, but then they saw there were too many people and they simply sealed off the village.
They didn't let us in or out, and they didn't let doctors in to treat us, so they just left us to fend for ourselves."
The reason they were able to get out today was that they sneaked out of the mountains four days ago when the yamen runners guarding the village were not paying attention during their shift change.
Then they walked for a day, starving and freezing, and hid in the mountains for three days before finally meeting the emperor and his entourage today.
The emperor frowned even deeper after hearing this and didn't speak for a long time.
Shen Nian asked on behalf of the emperor, “So how many people are infected in the village now?”
"Your Excellency, there are currently 546 people in our village, including the refugees, not counting the 35 who died. Over 80% of them are infected."
There were originally more than 300 villagers in Xiawan Village. Later, nearly 200 refugees arrived, making the originally small village even more crowded. When the plague broke out, the spread was even faster.
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