Chapter 246

Xu Ran had reached an agreement with King Yan on the matter of Liu Tong’s identity, which was to keep it private.

The reason that King Yan went out today was to visit the poor in Yanzhou. As winter had set in, it was getting colder. King Yan had seen no beggars on the streets this year and felt worried, so he wanted to make an inspection tour personally.

Xu Ran teased, “Others would get relieved when they find no beggars on the streets, but you, instead, get worried when you find no beggars on the streets. Maybe they have got food this year so that they don’t need to go out to beg? Couldn’t you wish them luck?”

King Yan remained silent. Yan Chuan, who had been following them behind, answered Xu Ran, “Second Brother-in-law, you are not from Yanzhou, so you don’t know about the weather here. It’s extraordinarily cold this year, and it has turned cold early, which means those beggars might have been frozen to death or couldn’t go out to beg, but not that they don’t need to.”

Xu Ran frowned. “Haven’t you thought of finding a way of living for these beggars? Although there isn’t much rich soil in Yanzhou, you have much uncultivated land! You might ask these people to reclaim the wasteland, right?”

Yan Chuan shook his head. “Second Brother-in-law, it’s not like His Highness hasn’t thought about it before, but it didn’t work. The wheat is some delicate crop, and nothing is able to grow on the wasteland of Yanzhou. Even if something grows, its yield would be too little to feed the growers themselves. It doesn’t work at all.”

After that, Yan Chuan sighed, looking helpless.

Xu Ran looked at King Yan and saw his grim face. It was then when he realized that Yanzhou might not be so good as it looked like, and could even be described as “impoverished”.

The wheat was scarce to begin with, and it was not some high-yield crop. If nothing came out after one year of hard work, people might as well just give it up, or it would be a waste of seeds.

There was little rain in Yanzhou, and the temperature here was low. Obviously, it was not a wise choice to grow rice either. Xu Ran thought it over. Now, it seemed that only corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes were the three sensible options in Yanzhou!

Now Xu Ran only had potato and corn seeds with him. He hadn’t found any sweet potato seeds for the time being, but it was enough to have these two. Corn could also be eaten as staple food.

There were many beggars in Yanzhou, as well as 50,000 soldiers who defended the frontier here. Besides, there was a lot of wasteland in Yanzhou.

There were people. There was land. At this thought, Xu Ran discovered that the reality was not that harsh.

However, he didn’t tell anyone about this. After all, it was not time yet.

Xu Ran followed King Yan all the way to the place where the beggars lived.

Out of Yanzhou town, there was a ruined temple. The walls were almost collapsed and couldn’t break the wind at all.

From the outside, there seemed to be no one here at all.

King Yan wasn’t bothered with this place and walked in first.

Yan Chuan followed closely behind King Yan while Xu Ran in the rear. He looked around the dilapidated temple as he was walking.

King Yan walked all the way inside. There were quite a few rooms in the broken temple. King Yan took a few turns before walking into a room with fire.

There was a lot of hay in the room, on which many people were sleeping. The only few ones who were awake didn’t move when they saw King Yan coming.

It was unknown whether it was because they were too weak or anything else, none of these people said anything. Silence filled the room for a moment.

King Yan didn’t mind it at all. He sat down next to the fire and let Yan Chuan pass the package in his hand to him.

It was at this time that Xu Ran noticed that there was a package in Yan Chuan’s hand.

King Yan opened the package. Xu Ran found that it was filled with food, such as steamed stuffed buns, steamed buns or pancakes. They were probably bought by Yan Chuan from the roadside market when Xu Ran had been talking with King Yan. After all, there were a lot of food stands along the way they coming over.

King Yan handed a steamed stuffed bun to the one who was awake next to him. “Eat it! You won’t starve today.”

That man’s eyes widened when he saw the steamed stuffed bun. He snatched it, but didn’t stuff it into his mouth. Instead, he woke up those who were sleeping. “Get up. Everyone, get up. His Highness is here. He brought us food.”

There was some inexplicable excitement in his tone, with which the people around him were infected. The other few people also started to wake up those who were asleep.

Some of them were woken up and took the food from King Yan’s hand, while the others weren’t woken up.

Xu Ran stared at King Yan in confusion. “Your Highness, what happened to them?”

King Yan frowned. “They might have fainted from hunger. Yan Chuan, go over and check on them.”

Hearing King Yan’s order, Yan Chuan went to check those who were still asleep. Xu Ran watched his actions carefully. First, Yan Chuan put out his finger under that man’s nose to check for breathing. If yes, Yan Chuan would try to wake him up. If no, Yan Chuan would pinch his acupoint until that man woke up. Yan Chuan ran through all those who weren’t awake and there were still three people lying there.

Yan Chuan walked back to King Yan’s side. He shook his head when he saw King Yan looking at him.

Once Yan Chuan shook his head, everyone understood what was going on. They had all been starved to death.

Xu Ran took another look at the clothes on them and thought that they might have been frozen to death.

The room was still filled with silence. Only the crackling fire and the sounds of people chewing and swallowing were heard.

After a long time, King Yan sighed and shook his head. “Yan Chuan, go back and ask people to come over and bury them! In addition, ask someone to send more food and winter clothes over. It’s getting freezing recently.”

Yan Chuan accepted the order and left. Now, only Xu Ran, King Yan and a bunch of beggars were left.

These beggars were probably really starved. They had finished off such a big package of food.

After that, they also got the strength to speak.

King Yan asked first, “How long has it been since you last went out looking for food?”

The person closest to King Yan replied, “It’s been over ten days! For the first few days, we ate what we had saved previously. After we finished it off, we have been starving. It’s too cold. Even if we go out, we might not get food. We are more likely to be frozen to death if we go out with what we are wearing, so we have been staying here. Your Highness, if you hadn’t come today, we might have been starved to death already. Those three who are lying there, I talked to them last night.”

The man recounted in an extremely flat tone, as if he had long been inured to it. Even King Yan seemed to have been used to it.

Xu Ran felt a little uncomfortable. He knew that these beggars were pitiful, but it didn’t occur to him that people could really die from starvation.

Seemingly, that man had no desire to share more. He shifted his eyes to Xu Ran. “Your Highness, who is he?”

Perhaps it was because King Yan had come too many times, these beggars were not afraid of him at all. They hadn’t prostrated themselves when King Yan had arrived, nor had they said thank you when they had finished off the food. Even their questions were so blunt.

King Yan looked at Xu Ran and said, “His name is Xu Ran, a guest of my house. Since he is free today, I have brought him over here. Don’t worry. I will figure out a way to help you survive this winter.”

When King Yan gave a brief introduction to Xu Ran, he got back to the former topic.

That man shook his head after hearing King Yan. “Your Highness, you’ve been taking care of us all these years. You’re a lord, yet you have condescended to come over to this ruined temple to send over food to us. We are already very grateful to you. Your Highness, although we are just beggars, we still have some common sense. Besides maintaining an army, you also have to pay tribute to the royal court. How would it be possible for you to have spare food to support us? We just take these years as a gift. We have long been satisfied.”

This person seemed to be the head of this group of beggars. When the other beggars heard his words, they started to echo and praise King Yan.

But somehow, their praise made one sad.

King Yan also seemed touched and said, “Don’t say that. As long as you are alive, you can always think of a way. If you really can’t, I will take the soldiers to plunder those barbarians. I can’t just watch you starve to death.”

From what these people said, Xu Ran realized that King Yan was in a very difficult time now.

How was it possible for him to support 50,000 soldiers and pay tribute to the royal court on Yanzhou’s land?

But the most important thing now was to find something to eat, so that these people would not starve to death.

Perhaps there were more of them. There might be more people starving on the vast land of Yanzhou.

Suddenly, Xu Ran couldn’t think it anymore. He looked up at the blue sky and the light clouds outside, which seemed to have nothing to do with this poor place.

Xu Ran blinked his eyes and asked King Yan, “Your Highness, is there a river in Yanzhou?”

King Yan looked at Xu Ran, confused, but still nodded. “Yes! So?”

Xu Ran forced a smile. “That’s enough. So you don’t have to worry about being starved to death.”

Hearing this, King Yan suddenly had this expectant look on his face, but then he became a little upset immediately. “There is a river. You are talking about the fish in the river, right? But a few days ago, there were a few heavy snows and the river is frozen. It has not melted yet.”

Xu Ran said, “That’s even better, so that more fish can be caught. There are also mountains in Yanzhou and wild vegetables grow on them. They can dig for wild vegetables and boil them with the fish. Therefore, not only can they get warm, but also full. In addition to your relief, there would be no problem for them to survive this winter.”

Both King Yan and these beggars were listening carefully to Xu Ran. When the beggars heard that they were able to survive this winter, the light of expectation gleamed in their eyes. Xu Ran could tell that the light in their eyes was also called “hope”.