The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 265: Fengxian
The saint stayed in Meiyuan for two days.

On November 20th, he turned eastward and entered Fengxian County of Zuofengyi.

The rain has stopped for five days, but its power is still there.

The road is basically paralyzed, covered with dead wood and mud, and mudslides can be seen from time to time.

"Crack, crack..." The carriage moved forward with difficulty. The sound of broken stones and the splashing sound of meat being crushed by a rolling pin continued to come from the horse wheels under the seat. Looking outside, the road was covered with endless white bones and rotten flesh of varying shades of red and black, mixed with sticky mucus.

The clicking sound in the ears and the uncomfortable sound of flesh being crushed all over the body are the sounds of the wheels rolling over these bones and flesh.

There were also people and animals lying everywhere in the fields.

The crows that braved the cold wind to forage for food paced and fluttered on the corpses, occasionally looking up and staring at the uninvited guests.

As for the corpses, their faces and scalps had been frozen by the dead of winter and pecked by insects and birds.

Hair and clothes were blown all over the ground by the cold wind, forming gusts of black wind under the setting sun. In the short time it took to lift the curtain, a lot of black hair and debris were blown into the car, blowing all over Yu Wenrou and Gao Mingyue's faces, bodies, seats, water bowls, and incense burner covers.

Some hair can even identify the deceased's hairstyle and gender.

On some of the ridges farther away, there were sparse groups of soldiers and civilians who looked like zombies, holding wooden sticks and staggering. In broad daylight, a large number of fully armed troops passed through the border. Wild wolves, stray dogs, tigers, and flocks of birds did not avoid people. They followed the disaster victims and the carriages in groups from the sky and the ground, wandering and spying.

A single blow of the black wind could knock down several victims, and once they fell, a group of beasts would immediately pounce on them and tear them apart.

When human activities weaken, animals will enter areas where humans are active, so natural disasters and wars are often accompanied by wolf and tiger disasters.

Yu Wenrou rubbed the saint and herself for a few times, twisted out a few strands of black hair with her fingertips and threw them out of the window, then quickly closed the window to stop him: "Put it down!"

The saint remained silent.

"Don't think too much, this is normal." Yu Wenrou took his hand and comforted him.

The saint shrugged: "I can still hold on."

After seeing Fengxian City from afar, the saint jumped off the carriage and climbed up a hill to look out.

The people of Fengxian were mainly composed of the Tanguts, Uighurs and other Hu tribes as well as rogue immigrants from Guandong.

The Chinese people are highly sensitive to disasters. In mid-October, when the rain showed no signs of stopping, the experienced men and women in Fengxian also ran away as soon as they saw the signs. When the signs appeared, Fengxian immediately came forward to persuade everyone not to run away and promised that the court would definitely provide disaster relief. Seeing this, the people knelt down and said, "Thank you for your kindness, but even if every family can get bread and wheat, how long can they eat it?"

While you still have the strength and haven't been infected with the plague, run as fast as you can. If you go to a safe place, you may be able to save your life. If you stay, you will be in danger. Well, even if you run, the probability of survival is not high, but it is higher than staying where you are and waiting for the judgment of an unknown fate such as reconstruction or famine.

Go west, cross Guandong, go to Southeast Asia, escape to Henan, settle in Sichuan... The main thing is to try your luck, if successful, you can save your life and make a fortune, if not, you will die somewhere, this is the way for Chinese to survive in troubled times.

After that, everyone fell to the ground with their heads down and cried. Fengxian Ling also beat his chest and stamped his feet. But crying was useless. By this time, the people had died or fled, and Fengtian City was already empty.

The body of Fengxianling was brought to him by the soldiers. He had already committed suicide because he was unable to stop the people from escaping.

The Fengxian Captain and other officials are nowhere to be found.

The people in charge of the situation were dozens of former soldiers from Tongzhou, but when they heard that he was coming to inspect, they were so scared that their legs went weak and they fled with their families and hid in the mountains.

But not running doesn't make much difference.

There is no order left and people have been cannibalizing each other for half a month.

About a month ago, some bankrupt farmers started to smash the doors of the mansions. However, the disaster was so severe that the landlords had no surplus food, and even if they had food, they couldn't give it to charity. When smashing the doors didn't work, the victims chopped off the heads of the dead, and if they didn't give them food, they would just throw the bodies away.

However, as the disaster worsened, this behavior disappeared. Instead, people in the city dared not even cry, because they began to rob corpses to satisfy their hunger. As long as there was crying in your house, people would think someone had died and would come to rob the body. Regardless of day or night, there were also cases of people beating people with clubs. They would knock people unconscious, kill them, and then cook them. Therefore, no one dared to go out afterwards.

There are people selling "Sui Wa Pot" on the roadside.

Dozens of men and women broke into a house to rob, but they stumbled as soon as they climbed over the wall. Looking down, they saw a layer of ants and slime under their feet, and several graves in the yard. This was because the landlord's family died of starvation or illness, but they dared not make it public, so the first ones to die were buried at home, and the bodies of the last ones to die were lying on the bed, with the corpse water flowing under the bed, and finally all the people and animals in the family rotted together at home.

Surprised? During the Jianzhong famine, many people from the five surnames in Chang'an died of starvation, and the imperial palace only had enough food for a few days. Warriors could only eat wheat rice and pickles. Landlords starved to death, which was common. In short, all kinds of torture of human nature.

Of course, the main responsibility for these things does not lie with the mob. The long-term war has left the people with no savings, and once something happens, it is very easy for the people to go bankrupt. Driven by the desire to survive, even the good guys can't help but show their bestiality.

After standing on the hill for a while, they began to see dozens or hundreds of victims moving towards the center of Emperor Li's flag, but they looked at each other with ill intentions. The warriors standing, sitting or walking around the hill were undoubtedly a great deterrent. Xiao Xiu and Zhang Chengfa sent dozens of guards down the hill to draw their swords and monitor them to prevent them from continuing to kill each other.

After the arrival of these disaster victims, the natives of Fengxian, the Tanguts, and the Uighurs who had moved inland because of Li Renmei spontaneously walked to the west of the hill, which was the direction behind the saint, and cried to him. The immigrants from Guandong could not get along with him. When they saw the army, they stopped in the distance and looked at the surrounding soldiers, officials, and Li with expectant, sad, pitiful, and puzzled expressions.

The saint was also looking at them. Yuwen Rou and Gao Mingyue brought a stool and sat down beside him, one on each side. The three of them looked down together without saying a word.

"When you are full, you join the bandits in rebellion. When you can't survive, you flee to Guanzhong. When you can't survive under Zhu Wen and Huang Chao, you run away. When you can't survive under the imperial court, you come to see the saint. Now you know who treats you as human beings?" Zheng Yanchang walked back and forth at the foot of the mountain with his hands behind his back, with an expressionless old face, scolding the victims: "How about today's incident?"

"How can you survive if the government doesn't show sympathy after the disaster?"

"Since the An-Shi Rebellion, how many generals have provided disaster relief? How many generals have cared about the leeks of your kind?"

After hearing this, the victims were speechless.

Some people feel grateful.

Some people can't forget Zhu Wen and feel secretly guilty.

Thick-faced and shameless people have a very casual attitude. Just scold them if you want, you won't lose a piece of meat anyway.

"Have some conscience in the future. If you dare to cause trouble in Guanzhong again, don't expect me to help you next time. If I don't kill you all, it means the court is incompetent."

After giving the lecture, Zheng Yanchang waved his hand, asked the officials to organize the distribution of grain, then turned around and headed towards the top of the hill.

Mr. Li looked at these people for a long time.

These people still have no heart. They beg for help but refuse to even call me Great Sage. But it doesn't matter. I am still young and have plenty of time and means to carry out Jin-style brainwashing education on you.

After confirming that the army outside was led by the saint and was here to help, those who had not fled or died in the city, carrying their elderly and children, left the city one after another, and nominated a dozen representatives of landlords and scholars to pay a visit.

The leader was an old bastard named Deng Zhong, who said, "Your Majesty."

"How many people are left in Fengxian City?"

"Less than ten thousand people."

“How many others escaped, and how many were killed or injured?”

"The number of casualties, including those in the city and the villages, is estimated to be at least 10,000. The number of people who fled famine is unknown. However, the heavy rain has stopped, and the court is vigorously providing disaster relief. Once they receive the news, most of them will return home one after another." Deng Zhong replied.

The saint hummed and asked, "How much of the house was destroyed?"

"The number of villages destroyed by flooding and mudslides is only a small number, so it's not a lot."

Hearing this, the sage said, "Regarding the issue of food, I brought only emergency dry food, which is not much and can only last for a few days. But don't worry, Weiqiao Warehouse and Chang'an have sufficient food storage, but the disaster is still raging, the roads are muddy, and there are not enough people, so it can't be transported for the time being. After we have sorted it out, we will send a large amount of food to the counties in Guanfu in three to five days. You will temporarily take over the post-disaster affairs and explain my intentions to the people so that they don't flee. That's it for now."

After saying this, the saint covered his face and was stunned for a while.

It is foreseeable that disaster relief expenditures will be huge, which may affect the next year's major war. Thinking about the losses of officials, households, and property, my heart is bleeding. However, when the accumulated water flows into the Yellow River, Zhu Dalang, Wei Bo, and Zibo will definitely not have an easy life.

Zhu Dalang must also be breaking through the defense.

After all, the incident did not happen in the Central Plains, but the Yellow River was affected.

Yes, the saint can only comfort himself in this way now. I am willing to spend a lot of money to win people's hearts, are you willing to do so, Zhu Da?

(End of this chapter)