Outside the south city of Hailing County, the once bustling Shuimen now has no boats.
Magistrate Chen put his hands on his eyes and looked into the distance.
After watching it for a while, I was brought back to reality by disappointment.
Feng Yi, the new chief secretary of Hailing County, frowned and whispered to the officials around him: "This is the same for Mr. Xu. It has been so long. If something is done or not, at least send someone back to inform him. If the old man continues like this, he will soon be in danger." It’s become a husband’s stone!”
Chen Hua heard the feudal lord Bo's quiet complaint and knew that the third-in-command of the county government was actually telling him what he said.
He sighed and said: "Things can't be that simple. Lao Hu has been gone for about half a month, and there is still no news. Let's ask for help, so we don't demand full blame!"
"But..." The feudal lord Bo took a step forward and simply said what he was thinking, "I am not blaming Young Master Xu. Sir, you have also seen that we have thought of all the ways we can think of, and we can plunder all the food." They’ve all been plundered, but even so, by tomorrow morning, the porridge shop won’t be able to supply even the thinnest of rice soup with a human figure visible!”
"I am... I am worried," said the feudal lord Bo, his voice choked with emotion.
Yes, it's so miserable. Originally, the county still had its own granary to support it, but a few days ago, even if Chen Hua almost peeled off the skin of the granary ambassador, he couldn't squeeze out even a grain of grain.
More importantly, people in some places outside the city began to run out of food.
Over this matter, local people and refugees have clashed many times.
The conflict was not just talk, but real fighting.
Several thousand versus several thousand, Chen Hua saw with his own eyes these people holding shovels and greeting each other on the head.
If the incident hadn't happened very close to the city and there were guards suppressing it, once the fighting expanded, the situation would have immediately gotten out of control.
However, this situation gradually disappeared in the past two days.
It's not that either side has food, but that everyone is so hungry that they have no energy to fight anymore.
Looking at the stretches of thatched shacks in the south of the city, on such a hot day, the refugees live in the sweltering thatched shacks, and every day they point to the sparse land in the county where they eat in the morning.
The children, who had been noisily running and playing, lay dying in their mother's arms.
When adults see strangers, their eyes really shine like hungry wolves in the forest, which makes the officials who go to distribute porridge every day panic.
The local people are not much better.
Due to the lack of food, the county government can only ensure that the people in the city are protected as much as possible, because once chaos occurs in Hailing County, the nature will be too bad.
People outside the city were not so lucky.
The tenants didn't say it, but they were lucky at this time, because they had the support of the big head of the household, so they could survive hunger and hunger.
The worst offenders are the farmers and small and medium-sized landowners.
They have lost their food, so how about they use their family funds to buy food to survive?
Unexpectedly, since the floods, the grain stores in the city have been like this.
At first, these grain stores opened their doors as usual with the doors removed, but as soon as they opened, the grain store clerks hung wooden signs saying "Sold Out Today"!
After a few days of being sold out, some people who did not believe in evil began to abuse the grain store, and some even rushed into the grain store and robbed all the bran and black beans in the store.
Later, these grain stores simply closed their doors every day and never opened again!
When Chen Hua thought about this, his resentment against a group of wealthy people in Hailing County became even deeper.
During this period of time, he summoned village officials, large households, and grain merchants to discuss the matter countless times.
Their words are all worn out, but these people are either conceited or indifferent.
Especially the Huang family, who said outside that it was impossible for the canal transport yamen to transport grain to Hailing.
Good things don't go out, but bad things spread thousands of miles.
This sentence immediately made the fence-sitters who were originally frightened by the pressure of the county government tighten their grain bags.
Nowadays, almost all the large families in Hailing County, except the Xu family who insist on distributing food every day, have united to fight against the county government.
Chen Hua was so anxious that he found Xu Song and asked him for help.
Xu Song also helped him make appointments with several familiar local officials.
These people used Xu Song's reputation to bring out some food. Otherwise, the county would have run out of ammunition and food.
But if someone gives you face once, they will never give it a second time, and Xu Song would not be able to speak again.
No, we are seeing the last bit of food reaching the bottom again.
Chen Hua was so worried that if something happened in Hailing County, he would go to Beijing with his upper body uncovered to sue the Cao Yun Yamen!
Just when a group of people from the county government were about to go to the porridge shop, suddenly, a deputy catcher from the third shift pointed to the river in the distance and said: "There is a boat coming!"
Everyone was happy and turned to look at the river.
But when they saw the boat, it was just an ordinary small arrow boat, and everyone was immediately disappointed.
The feudal lord Bo glared at the deputy captain and said, "It's not a grain ship. What could I do if I'm surprised?"
But Chen Hua didn't leave.
Because the South Gate, East Gate, and North Gate are almost all occupied by refugees, people and ships traveling to and from Hailing are afraid of trouble, so they have now changed their route to the East Gate. At this juncture, how can anyone enter the city from the South Gate? Isn't he afraid of something happening?
After guessing how long it took to drink tea, the small arrow boat got closer and closer, arriving near the water gate in a blink of an eye.
When the sharp-eyed official saw the man on the bow of the boat, he was immediately surprised and said: "First Master, Third Master, it's the Second Master who's back!"
"What?"
"It's the second master!"
"Great! Master Hu is back!"
Old Hu on the boat had also seen everyone in the county government. He had already straightened his increasingly loose clothes and bowed respectfully to Chen Hua at the bow of the boat.
When he got ashore, Chen Hua saw that the originally chubby Lao Hu had lost so much weight that he looked several sizes smaller. He said with tears in his eyes: "Lao Hu, you have suffered a lot these days!"
When Lao Hu thought about the grievances he had suffered and the pressure he had been under, and then heard the elder's words, a sour feeling suddenly arose spontaneously, straight to the tip of his nose, and he... also shed tears.
"Master Chen, I, Lao Hu, I'm useless..."
Chen Hua patted him on the shoulder and said: "It's good to come back. If it takes a little longer, it will still be too late..."
But when he was mid-sentence, he suddenly looked at Hu County Cheng in surprise and said, "What did you say?"
Hu Xiancheng's Oscar-winning actor-level acting suddenly broke out. He burst into tears and almost fainted in the tunnel: "Master, my subordinates are incompetent and didn't give you back the food! The Water Transport Yamen is too bullying!"
Hu Xian Cheng cried and thought to himself: "It's true that the Caoyun Yamen bullied people, and it's also true that I didn't ask for the food back. It was Xu He who asked for the food back, and I didn't lie!"
But after hearing this, Chen Hua suddenly felt like the world was spinning, and his whole eyes turned black. After staggering, he almost fell into the moat.
Seeing this, Lao Hu quickly supported him and said loudly: "Why are you still standing there stupidly? Hurry up and help the old man back to the Yamen to rest!"
Just as everyone was busy carrying Chen Hua back to the Yamen, a young man dressed as a white servant quietly withdrew from the crowd and disappeared around the corner not far from the city gate in the blink of an eye!
