It doesn't matter what the lord is.

"Tianyue Mountain. Damn it, how could it fly here..."

I glanced at Bai Huang, and Bai Huang said:

"Tianyue Mountain? That means it's near the capital, right? I have the impression that this mountain is not far from the capital. We can take a carriage to get there. There's no need to ride a dragon. Let the royal family enjoy the mount. I really can't afford it. I felt dizzy just now and my head was broken."

I looked in the direction Bai Huang pointed and found that there was indeed some blood on her temples. I felt around and found that I didn't have any bandages, so I tore a piece of silk from the hem of my clothes to bandage her.

Although Bai Huang said that he was injured and needed to rest, he was more sober than anyone else when he was on the ground. At this moment, he stood on the ground as if nothing had happened, and even grabbed a soldier beside him and asked:

"Tianyue Mountain is not too far from the capital. What happened to those people we saw just now who were starving and freezing in the snow?"

The soldier was pulled by Bai Huang's collar. He dared not get angry or say anything. He just smiled and said:

"This kid really doesn't know."

Bai Huang said "Hmm?" with a questioning tone:

"You don't know? Then why did you want to fly away in such a hurry just now?"

The soldier argued:

"I hope the two city lords can get to the capital as soon as possible. It's freezing cold, we can't let the two city lords suffer the cold outside, right? The lords in the capital are already preparing to welcome you, and we can't afford it if we delay!"

The soldier next to me also hurriedly said:

"Yes, yes, yes. After you two city lords have rested, let's set off immediately. The capital has prepared delicious food and wine."

Bai Huang loosened the soldier's collar, brushed off the snow on his clothes, and walked away, saying slowly as he walked:

"No hurry. I'm really sick from the shaking you guys just now. You won't feel better if you don't walk around. Lid! Come with me for a walk. The king is not in a hurry to go. Anyway, someone will take the blame if you go too late."

16. The Kind Lady

The dragon landed on the mountainside. Bai Huang and I walked around the dead forest covered with snow and looked down. The scene of starving people everywhere seemed more real and cruel. As far as the eye could see, there was no difference between humans and animals. They were all homeless, living in the wilderness, and struggling hard in the cold north wind. But the animals still had fur to survive the winter, but the people in front of me were all wearing single clothes. From this point of view, humans might not live as comfortably as animals.

Bai Huang's face looked very ugly, filled with anger and shock.

As a child who grew up in a prosperous place like Yunhai, she was afraid that she had never seen such a scene.

"Let's go down and have a look."

Bai Huang's voice was cold, and the soldiers behind him were also timid. He Ji hesitated for a moment and said to Bai Huang:

"Miss, the victims have been suffering for a long time, starving and freezing, and their humanity has mostly become indifferent. Our people are dressed differently, and if we go down rashly, once they get entangled..."

The soldiers took advantage of the situation and said:

"Yes, Lord City Lord. These common people are ignorant and might offend you..."

Bai Huang turned around, his eyes were sharp, and he shouted in a cold tone:

"Then we have to go down and take a look!!"

For a moment, even the heavy snow falling from the sky seemed to have stopped for a moment. People often say that when an emperor gets angry, it's like the roar of a tiger or a dragon. Bai Huang's roar carried the style of her name, worthy of being the "Phoenix" in "Cloud Sea Phoenix". But then, her expression returned to normal, and she smiled like the heartless Xiao Huang as usual, and said:

"It's not like anything will happen if we go down and have a look. The two guards here are not there for show, and the soldiers are from the capital. Are you afraid of ordinary people who are starving and cold and can't even move? Heji, don't tell me about this kind of thing in the future. What you should consider is how to protect my safety in danger, not how to persuade me to run to a safe place."

Heji bowed his head deeply and said:

"Yes."

Bai Huang put his hands behind his back, looking like a class teacher secretly patrolling through the back window, and led his people down the mountain.

The further we walked, the more shocking what we saw and heard became.

The number of victims we saw alone was tens of thousands, and this was just the tip of the iceberg. Tianyue Mountain was very high and large, and if there were victims here, there would naturally be victims in other places as well. If you add it up, there would probably be hundreds of thousands of people. Although the number of people is just a number when it reaches a certain level, that is for those who have never seen this desolate scene. If you see it, you can clearly feel it——

Right there.

Every person and every life is not just a number.

They are there, struggling, suffering, their lives slipping away bit by bit.

I couldn't even tell if the people lying on the ground were alive or dead. Their bodies were covered with frost and snow, their hair and beards were frozen, and their eyes were empty and lifeless. Many people fell together on the road, and the only way to walk normally was to step over them. When I stepped on the space between people, it was like walking on a pile of corpses. The weather was cold to begin with, and the chilling deathly aura hovered in this deep mountain. No matter how warm the clothes were, they couldn't keep out the cold.

As we were walking, a low voice suddenly came from the mountains:

“Someone…someone is coming from above…!!”

This ghostly voice echoed in the mountains. Looking around, everyone seemed to be looking at us, thousands of eyes staring at us. There was no escape, no retreat, their mouths did not move, but the voice was clearly audible.

A little girl staggered in front of us. Her face was covered with frostbite, red and black, and some of the sores had thick ice outside. Her black hair was disheveled like burnt weeds. She leaned on a crooked cane in her left hand and held a broken bowl in her right hand. She whispered:

"My Lord, my Lord... please give us something to eat. My mother and I haven't eaten for three days..."

The soldier behind Bai Huang shouted:

"Nonsense! You are such a rude person! The relief grain has already arrived and there are soup kitchens everywhere. Why are you still lying here?"

The little girl was terrified. She took a few steps back, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed to Bai Huang and me:

"Sir, we are not lying. We really have nothing to eat..."

The soldier behind Bai Huang said coldly:

"Nothing to eat? How can you live that long without anything to eat? Don't think you can get paid by saying a few pitiful words in front of the adults. We are not that easy to fool!"

The little girl kowtowed, her forehead covered with white snow, and said in a hoarse voice:

"Snow... In this mountain, we only have snow to eat... My mother hasn't had hot porridge for three days... If this continues, if it continues..."

By the end of the conversation, I was already sobbing.

Bai Huang took a deep breath and started to search her pockets without saying anything. When she couldn't find anything to eat, she took out a handful of silver coins and tried to throw them into the little girl's bowl. When she was about to do so, I stopped her with my hand. Bai Huang glared at me, and I looked at her. We looked at each other for a while, and I said:

"You're throwing money around."

Bai Huang was puzzled and said with a confused look:

"Yes what's the matter."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly reacted, kicked me on the butt, and said angrily:

"You're the one throwing money!"

I grabbed Bai Huang's wrist, dragged her to a secluded place, and asked:

"Xiao Huang, do you know what will happen if you throw down this handful of gold and silver coins? Have you thought it through?"

Bai Huang said:

"Save people, what else can happen? Give them money, let them live, it's that simple."

I shook my head:

"There's only one outcome. We can't get out of here. Look around you."

Bai Huang turned her head, and I looked over with her. The noise just now alarmed the people around, and the news spread from one person to ten, and then to a hundred. A dark crowd was slowly walking towards us, with three layers inside and three layers outside, probably more than a thousand people. They moved slowly, like zombies, but their cloudy eyes showed clear desire, their frozen mouths could no longer speak, but their hands were still stretched out to us, begging.

Bai Huang narrowed his eyes, and I said lightly:

"What is worrying is not the scarcity of resources, but the inequality of resources. This has been the case since ancient times. You thought you saved her, but this person will soon be surrounded by refugees, and the money you gave will be robbed clean. In the process of robbery, countless people will kill each other and die. And we will also be surrounded by them. Unless you can save everyone, this little bit of kindness is meaningless and will only lead to more troublesome consequences."

Bai Huang frowned. She was a smart person and listened to what I said.

But the unwillingness on her face was also very obvious. She looked at me with red eyes and whispered:

"But it's Chinese New Year now... It only comes once a year. In our Yunhai, even the people who have worked hard for a year will cut half a pound of fat meat at this time to have a good New Year! Those children look forward to the New Year every day for 365 days, just to drink a mouthful of meat soup and taste the taste of meat. They are also suffering! But no matter how hard it is, they have to have a good New Year, which symbolizes hope for the coming year. How come so many people are in such a mess near the royal capital... Lid, are we just going to stand by and watch?"

17. Someone has to be the bad guy

I was silent for a while, then said:

"Don't even mention the meat. There are at least tens of thousands of disaster victims all over the mountain. Tianyue Mountain is so big that there are probably hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. Two meals a day would cost hundreds of gold coins a day. The monthly cost is as high as three thousand gold coins. Have you ever thought about it? This is just the basics. How much will it cost to buy them winter clothes, build homes for them to avoid the wind and snow, and give them land to farm? It would take tens of thousands of gold coins to take over this mess. Not to mention you and me, no one below the lord can afford this expense."

Bai Huang turned his head away, gritted his teeth and said no more.

After a moment, she sighed and said:

"I know, but these people are right in front of me. I should save as many as I can."

I asked:

"How much cash do you have with you?"

Bai Huang replied:

"Sixty gold coins. There are also some valuable jewels, but this is all the cash I have."

I said:

"One hundred and twenty people. Pick one hundred and twenty people to follow you. I will take responsibility for any problems that arise."

Bai Huang immediately laughed, shook my arm and said:

"I knew you were the best~ Thank you, Lord Mayor."

"Why does it sound so scary to me... Go ahead."

Bai Huang went to pick people happily.

The soldiers behind frowned and looked at each other, wanting to say something, but Bai Huang could no longer stop them.

She quickly ran to the little girl whose face was frostbitten and said:

"Bring your mother back and I'll take you out."

The little girl was delighted when she heard this, and she kowtowed to Bai Huang several times before running away. But when she came back, she was followed by more than a dozen men and women dressed in various styles. Bai Huang did not speak, and the little girl asked timidly:

"Sir, these are other relatives of mine. They also want to go with you..."

Bai Huang nodded and said:

"Come with me."

As soon as the voice fell, the dozen people knelt down. But it was not just the dozen people who knelt down, there were also hundreds and thousands of people behind them, a black mass, all kneeling on the ground. Some even knelt forward and cried loudly in front of Bai Huang:

"Sir, please save my child!"

"My son is only three years old! His fever won't go away and he's obviously not going to survive!!"

"Sir, you are a good man, a god-like figure. Please be merciful and take me in. I will repay you even if I work like a slave!"

"Sir... I don't ask you to take me in, but I really don't want my granddaughter to die in the snow, sir..."

"My lord, my lord, please take a look at us. We are a family. We don't even have a piece of good skin left on our bodies!"

Bai Huang looked at the dark mass in front of him in fear and said in panic:

"Please get up quickly. Get up quickly and speak. Oh, get up quickly."

A man in front shouted:

"We won't get up unless the adults help us!"

"Yes! We won't get up!"

"I can't get up!"

"Please, sir, save us!"

Bai Huang had never seen such a scene before, and she immediately became flustered. She kept trying to help the people in front of her up, but everyone was kneeling so heavily that she couldn't move them. Instead, as Bai Huang passed by, people kept kowtowed. Some people had broken foreheads, and hot blood dripped into the snow. Some people reached out to pull Bai Huang's ankles to stop her from leaving. The people in front of her rushed forward, almost drowning Bai Huang. Bai Huang's breathing gradually became rapid, and she was at a loss, looking at me for help.

I looked at the scene in front of me coldly, raised my voice, and said in a calm tone:

"Alayya! From now on, anyone that Bai Huang can't pull up will be killed with a sword."

Alayya drew out the sword in her hand expressionlessly and replied:

"Yes, Master."

After saying that, he walked towards the person Bai Huang was pulling, without a trace of pity in his eyes.

"My lord, my lord...I..."

The man wanted to argue, but Alayya had already walked over, sword raised.

The man jumped up and looked at Alayya angrily but dared not say a word.

I continued to raise my voice and said calmly:

"You should kneel only when you are executed at the Meridian Gate. Who are you kneeling for? It's okay for women, but a bunch of grown men are begging a little girl like scoundrels. Do you have no shame? Alayya, from now on, if anyone kneels again, chop off their heads! There are so many victims. If one less mouth is to be fed, we can save a mouthful of food for others."

Alayya held the sword in one hand and walked towards the crowd.