C84

It was afternoon, and the sun was baking the moisture in the ground, but when it shone on a person, it would naturally cause them a burning pain. Zhuang Li was also sunburned to the point that her head was spinning, and she relied on her inertia to follow the person in distress.

At last, they arrived at the entrance of the dilapidated temple, which was not considered small, although it was still quite dilapidated and spacious. The disaster victim said that he and the villagers had searched for this place many times before finding it. When they had just arrived at the entrance, several children around the age of ten jumped out to surround him.

He pointed to one of them. "This is my child. The other three escaped together. All that's left in this temple are children, women and the elderly. My mother is also here, she is already seventy years old and is sick, although she does not have the money to see a doctor, but we all understand that if she were to experience any more turbulence, she might not be able to live for more than a few days. "

He took out the steamed bun that he had taken a bite off and gave half of it to the other three children while the other half was given to his own children. Let him feed his grandmother first.

"Shunyang County didn't accept you?" Wang Su asked.

As soon as they walked in, they immediately asked about the stinky smell. Zhuang Li wanted to puke, so she turned to look at Wang Su's face.

"How could there be such a good thing? It's already been over ten days since we escaped here. Sunlight County's gate doesn't allow us to enter …" The county says that there are empty houses for emergency use, but also that those houses are only for our own people in Sunny County, so we have no business about it.

We begged at the city gate for a few days, but we were not even allowed to ask for food. After all, there wasn't even a place to block the sun and rain before we moved here. "I can only settle down. People like me who still have strength will go to the city gate to guard it every day, hoping that the merchants that pass by will be able to enjoy a meal."

The room Zhuang Li was brought into was the temporary home of the refugees. In a small house, there were actually seven to eight people, all women and elderly. The whole room was filled with a strange smell.

He said that there were still four or five people like him who had the strength to struggle outside and were still begging for food. There were not many people around, so they would have to walk a long way to get to the city gate or the village.

There were two old men next door. Their bodies couldn't support themselves anymore, so the two of them could live comfortably.

Yun Duan took out all of the remaining steamed buns in his bag and distributed it to them, feeling a wave of gratitude.

This place was halfway up the mountain, and there was no water source. The old man who could not walk took a broken earthenware jar and filled it up with water from a small puddle at the foot of the mountain.

Wang Su gave some instructions to Yun Duan, telling him to stay here for the time being and wait for the other refugees to return, then they could bring the old man down the mountain and ride a carriage back to the city. Wang Su and Zhuang Li would go down the mountain first and return to Mu Yang County.

Although Yun Duan was extremely unhappy, and making him and his master separate seemed to be even more unbearable than separating him and his wife, he couldn't disobey and could only agree. He glanced at Zhuang Li with displeasure and malice.

"Take good care of young master, or else …"

Zhuang Li rolled his eyes numerous times in her heart. This aesthetic idiot … She's also a fanatic for her master …

"Then will those officials let Yun Duan bring them into the city?" Zhuang Li was asking about Wang Su, but Yun Duan answered him first.

"I naturally have my own methods, there's no need for you to worry …"

Zhuang Li and Wang Su then walked out of the temple door and headed down the mountain. Wang Su's expression became heavy, as if he had fallen into deep thought. Zhuang Li did not dare to ask anymore, and the two of them descended from the thorny road, heading straight in the direction they came from.

Although it was far from being as bustling as the capital city, it was still a scene of great prosperity and prosperity. However, that was based on the fact that the people who had been affected by the disaster had not come to their aid, so it was impossible for them to be the only ones that they had encountered. From what the victims had said, there were over a thousand people who had escaped from the Yan Jin County where they were staying.

They were farmers who only knew how to farm their land, so they didn't have much money left over. All the money they saved up was to hire people to build their houses, so when they encountered such a disaster, they naturally weren't prepared for emergency situations. Although the houses in the city were still in good condition, there was not much money left to buy food. There was no way for them to live.

As a merchant, naturally everything was based on benefits. If something like this happened in the past, the imperial government would send out two taels of silver to buy their food for the relief, and similarly, they would intentionally raise the price to send out this sum of money. There were also many cases of collusion with the government.

There would also be orders for relief for the nearby prefectures that had not met with disaster. They would force their money out under the orders of the imperial government, so they were unwilling to lend a helping hand to the victims before the imperial government's order arrived.

This led to a situation where disaster relief was mainly for completing missions. The imperial government, however, did not know how much money and grain was needed. Without a specific measure, it appeared to be passive.

After entering the city, he did not rush to find an inn to stay, but rather found a relay station. Inside, there were always prepared messengers and horses to deliver letters to the rich, and the horses that they raised were actually comparable to those of the government.

Wang Su wrote a letter and paid for it to be sent to the Imperial Tutor's house in the capital city quickly. The people there would naturally deliver the letter to the Eunuch Li through various channels.

After doing all that, they found an inn. When Zhuang Li went to find a room, it was already dusk, and not long later, Yun Duan came looking for him.

After eating a light meal, Wang Su seemed to have no appetite, he wiggled his chopsticks a few times, without saying goodbye, he returned to his room to rest.

Along the way, perhaps it was because he was tired from the journey, or perhaps it was because he saw his own country's citizens suffering and the prefectures were not good, Wang Su spoke less, and at most he gave a few simple instructions.

Yun Duan was also an existence that was like a sullen calabash. Sometimes, Zhuang Li felt that the two of them were practically the best booths for a master and his servant …

You talk, I listen, you order, I carry out... There were no more superfluous words …

Zhuang Li could also understand that Wang Su's bad mood must have had something to do with the disaster this time. Yan Shu was a city that had not even been reported to the authorities, and those county officials, in order to gain fame and the title bestowed by the imperial government, or in order to improve themselves, to hide the disaster and ignore the lives of the people;

He had been sitting at the top of the hall all day, and the most taboo thing was that he had worried a lot but still hadn't gotten the right news …

The banquet wasn't just one, it was just the tip of the iceberg in the disaster …

And the county town of Shuyang County, where the victims of the disaster were denied access to the city, was certainly not a small one. The territory of the Great Phoenix was vast, and so many powerful ministers had quarreled loudly over this matter with their imperial court, some even arguing until their faces were red. Every single one of them said that they were in the interests of their country and the lives of the victims, but how much money would be given to the victims in the end?

The various factions in the imperial court were quarreling endlessly for their own benefit. The Emperor's throne was also surrounded by mines, and the various powers in the imperial court seemed to be temporarily on the surface, but the Emperor's own men had not truly become strong yet. Although they were already unstoppable, it would be difficult to achieve absolute power without three to five years of peace.

Their identities were just passengers passing by the county city to rest and head off to visit their families. They had no power or influence in their hands. As the saying goes, a county magistrate might as well be managed on the spot. Yun Duan arranged for the victims to be settled, and then gave them some silver, that was all. After that, the only thing left to do was to send the news back to the imperial court and pass on the orders of the emperor through the Eunuch Li.

And they had more important places to go.

Qingqiao...

Shunyang County was still a few days away from reaching Qing Qiao County, so they did not dare to stop. On the morning of the second day, Yun Duan bought a pile of steamed buns as usual and drove the carriage on the road.

They were already waiting at the gate before the city gate even opened. The first batch that left the city gate did not dare to stop for a moment, as they had already arrived at the disaster area earlier than expected.

After passing Shuyang County, they proceeded along the river bank. This way, they would be able to arrive at the waterlogged county city as soon as possible. However, the downside of this road is that there are almost all traces of water intrusion. Naturally, there were also places that had been damaged, but the bumpy progress of the road was much slower.

It was said that the road had been built during the time the constitutional emperor was alive. At first, it had been built along the river course to allow the city to reach those places faster and closer, strengthening the connection between the county buildings on both sides of the river and the capital city.

It had finally been repaired with great difficulty, and every year a river had washed over some areas. Originally, these problems were not too big, and each county had their own section of the road, so after the flood season passed, they could continue to use some simple repairs. However, this year's flood season had arrived especially early and fierce, and they had yet to completely fix the damaged areas, so they did not know what was happening to the entire road.