Chapter 21

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Half a month ago, an unknown army had occupied Lu County!

This was really unexpected, and Cheng Ling’s heart suddenly trembled.

It seemed that her previous speculations about Lu County being hit by the disaster were wrong.

Lu County might have also suffered a disaster, but it was likely that it was not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Third Aunt Mu asked in shock. Could it be that someone is rebelling?”

When the word “rebel” came out of her mouth, her face suddenly turned pale. The natural disaster was already bitter enough. If someone rebelled, how would the lives of the people at the bottom of the society continue?

“This, this can’t be, right?” Third Aunt Mu quickly added. This is big news. We were in ping county, but we didn’t hear anything…”

“Sister-in-law, the first thing they did when they entered the city was to lock the city gates and then… massacre the entire city!” Hong Guangyi said in a low voice.

What?

Sanniang Mu was stunned. Cheng Dani and Cheng Ernii, who were sitting a little further away, also stopped eating.

Cheng Ling sat by the fire and wiped the thin beads of sweat from her forehead. She put the bowl in her hand aside.

“How, how did you massacre the city?” Third Aunt Mu asked dryly.

How did they massacre the city?

Hong Guangyi paused as if he was reminiscing.

In fact, it was not quite right to say that they were going to massacre the entire city. Hong Guangyi snorted, as if he was mocking himself.

He said in a low voice, “There’s no order. The city gate was closed.” A general rode a horse and ran from one end of the street to the other. He shouted, telling everyone to be obedient and not to massacre the city. Then, everyone agreed. The general said, “Disband. The soldiers will be free to do whatever they want.”

It sounded nice not to massacre the city, but what was the result?

Hong Guangyi paused, and then said with a trembling voice, “I don’t know why there are so many soldiers filling the streets and alleys, filling the entire city. They’re chasing people from house to house. If anyone doesn’t listen and doesn’t come out, those evil ghosts will rush in and kill them.”

After killing a few, no one would dare to not come out.

Then, Hong Guangyi’s eyes turned red.

He pushed his messy hair behind him and gritted his teeth, “It’s called handing over grain, money, and silk. In short, hand over whatever you have. Not a single bit of property is allowed to be left behind. They’re going to extort us to death! If we don’t plunder enough, we’ll slaughter them all.”

“I can’t live anymore. Who can survive after being scraped so hard?”

As he spoke, Hong Guangyi’s voice sounded like he was about to cry. “The few of us did escape, but that was only after we sneaked out at night and used all our means and efforts.”

He started crying.

It wasn’t Hong Guangyi. Shi Hong had woken up!

He didn’t know when he had woken up, but he didn’t make a sound. He just listened to Hong Guangyi’s words silently. After a while, he started crying.

Hong Guangyi turned around and looked at him. He was both sad and happy. “Brother Shi, you’re awake!”

Shi Hong sat up shakily and said faintly, “I’m lucky. I didn’t die.”

Following that, he sat there and cupped his hands at Mu Sanniang, saying, “Greetings, Aunt.”

He then cupped his hands at Cheng Ling and said, “Thank you, benefactor, for saving my life!”

After saying this, Shi Hong continued, “We did escape from the city, but most of the people are still locked up in the city waiting for death. These rebel soldiers do not have any provisions and supplies, so they will sweep through wherever they are attacked.”

“I’m taking it and eating it!” Shi Hong wiped his tears and sneered. “Half a month ago, he was in Lu County. I don’t know where he is now.”

These words, this knowledge, it actually seemed somewhat extraordinary.

Cheng Ling’s heart also felt heavy, and she immediately said, “Brother Shi, do you have any ideas on where they’re going?”

“Did brother Shi study before?” he asked.

This time, without waiting for Shi Hong’s reply, Hong Guangyi straightened his back and said with pride, “My brother Shi is a scholar in grade!”

Shi Hong was indeed a scholar.

This was actually a combination of a butcher and a scholar. This was a little interesting.

It was not easy to study these days. Shi Hong looked young, but he was able to pass the elementary scholar examination. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was one in ten thousand.

Third Aunt Mu stood up immediately and said politely, “So it’s actually Lord Xiucai in front of you. This woman has been impolite.”

With that being said, he walked to the side.

Shi Hong was anxious. with an “Aiya,” he quickly said, “Aunty, don’t make this one angry!”

He wanted to get up and pull Mu Sanniang, but his legs were weak. Besides, it was impolite to keep tugging.

Shi Hong was so anxious that his face turned pale. Third Aunt Mu immediately returned to her seat. Hong Guangyi, who was next to her, quickly supported Shi Hong and handed him the bowl he was still holding.

He swallowed his saliva. When a starving person was faced with food, it didn’t matter if you were a scholar or a beggar. Wouldn’t they all be dominated by the word “eat”?

15 minutes later, Shi Hong had eaten and drunk his fill. Cheng Ling also finally gained a further understanding of this world through him.

Previously, Cheng Ling only knew that the country she was in was called Qi country. As for how big Qi country was and what the situation was around it, she had no idea.

The low-level people had limited information channels. They could only see the small piece of land in front of them and repeat a dull and boring life.

However, Shi Hong knew that ever since the Great Qin Empire was divided in the previous dynasty, the world has been divided and has been at war for years. Now, the Wei Kingdom in the north has finally been unified, but the Qi Kingdom, Shu Kingdom, and Chen Kingdom in the south can’t have a sovereign.

Cheng Ling raised her eyebrows slightly.

It turned out that this world was divided into north and south by shenchuan. In the north, Wei unified the five Hu, while Qi, Shu, and Chen in the south were at odds with each other for 80 years.

Although the current Emperor of Qi State had been on the throne for eleven years, he was still an emperor!

The King of Qi State ascended the throne at the age of two. When he ascended the throne, he was still a little boy who only knew how to eat, drink and sh*t. After eleven years, he was only thirteen years old.

As for the assistant ministers, they had already changed three times!

As for who was truly in charge of the court?

“There are three skies above us,” Shi Hong said very carefully. His Majesty is at the first layer of heaven, the Empress dowager is at the second layer of heaven, and nine thousand years old Eunuch Mi is at the third layer of heaven.”

However, Shi Hong had no way of knowing who was more powerful among the three heavens and who had suppressed who.

Although he had studied and learned many things from his teachers and classmates, he was still just a scholar from a country bumpkin’s family. Even many court officials could not understand the matters of the imperial court, let alone Shi Hong.

That’s right, Shi Hong was from a well-known family in Lu County. He was actually different from Hong Guangyi, Cheng Ling, and the others.

Of course, people like him couldn’t be said to be rich.

Perhaps among the local county level forces, his family could be considered as a despotic family. But in fact, when placed in the whole world, the level of the Shi Family was just a small landlord family in the humble class.

As for people like Cheng Ling, they weren’t even qualified to enter the humble class!

Speaking of humble families and aristocratic families, Cheng Ling felt that there was a very interesting phenomenon in Qi State.