In the last few days of September, Maotian, a small town on the border of Pingzhou that was overcrowded due to the influx of refugees, ushered in a sudden cold wave.
The long and narrow snow line on the Crescent Island continent can reach Xinjing during the worst period, but most of the time there is no snow further south near Pingzhou. Even in the twelfth lunar month of winter, the temperature can still be maintained at 5-10 degrees in Rigal units.
Therefore, although this cold wave is not an unprecedented experience, it is also relatively rare.
Although it didn't snow in Maotian and surrounding towns, the sudden drop in temperature still reduced the experience from "cool and comfortable" to "extremely cold".
The cold wave that came late at night and early in the morning was so severe that frost appeared on the branches and leaves of shrubs. Although the white frost slowly melted after the sun rose, this sudden weather change still brought serious consequences to the residents of Maotian City and the surrounding refugees. Not a small trouble - or to put it in a less subtle Moon Country style -
disaster.
Humans can survive for 3 weeks without food and 3 days without water.
But without a suitable shelter and facing harsh weather conditions, it can only survive for 3 hours.
Death comes quietly at night. Death caused by cold is always quiet. It may be regarded as the kindest kind of death. The victims often lose consciousness before losing their lives. They always die in sleep.
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A few people who realize that sleeping means death struggled before death and tried to stretch out their limbs to activate their consciousness through activities, but most of them just curled up into a ball and became stiff as the cold night grew colder.
Most of the refugees were not carrying any supplies or proper clothing because just a day earlier it had been warm enough that even the slightest exercise would make you want to shed your outer layers. They came here as refugees, and most of them were farmers. The turmoil in Wanzhou resulted in no harvest during the busy farming season of late summer and early autumn. Without food rations, the people were hungry and their bodies naturally became colder.
To make matters worse, there are local officials who took them in and allowed them to exist but did nothing.
Maotian is a fairly small city, not even at the level of a county, but it can be considered a town with city walls, garrison, and a portrait and name on the map of Otsuki Kingdom. Within the jurisdiction of the Moon Country's directly-administered prefecture, the concept between counties and towns is called "li". There are large ones and small ones. One like Maotian is relatively large and is responsible for controlling several nearby villages and towns.
The official position in charge of Maotian is called Lizheng. Down below, the villagers will report what happens in each village, and above they have to report to the county magistrate. It can be regarded as an official position with some moderate power.
But it is precisely because of this kind of neither big nor small that the people in this position are all incompetent members of the big Chinese family.
Comfort is a poison. People at the bottom are exposed to crises at the front line, while most people at the top have a big-picture perspective and can see further - whether the decisions they make are correct or not is irrelevant, but at least they can identify crises and respond in a timely manner. Those in the middle who are only responsible for delivering information tend to become slack.
They are not responsible for observation, contact and execution, nor are they responsible for making judgments and instructions. Li Zheng's job is just like any middle-level person in a country or a team - he is responsible for sorting out information and then passing it on to higher-ups to wait for the other party's judgment and instructions.
——In more straightforward terms.
They do not have the ability to identify and respond to crises on their own.
All the mistakes made by Mao Tian's Li Zheng were very typical - although he allowed the arrival of refugees, he did not make detailed statistics and make more specific arrangements for them. Most of the refugees were huddled under the city wall and used what they could find to build temporary camps. He did not give them food or shelter.
But at the same time, he did not isolate or guard these people. The gates of Maotian were wide open and the guards did not stop them. Many refugees from Pingzhou sneaked in to avoid the cold at night and crowded in front of civilian homes and in various paths to try to get warm.
These people also happened to be the ones who survived, and after the sun rose to get a bit of warmth, they wandered around the city trying to find food and a place to stay. It caused quite a lot of security troubles in the process.
Maotian's Li Zheng was so cruel that he drove all these people out of the city, but did not provide any resettlement for them. Not even knowing whether there would be spies and saboteurs among them, the city gates were opened wide to allow them to enter.
There is an old saying in Xinyuezhou that "it is easy to invite the gods but difficult to send them away", and now Maotian is trapped in such a situation.
This chaotic situation provided a good cover for Henry and his party to enter the city, but even our white-haired girl, who was still a little immature, could see the hidden dangers.
"Why are you just letting things go?" She looked at the refugees from Pingzhou who were trying to wake up their relatives who had frozen to death. The townspeople in Maotian urged them to leave their homes quickly. The communication between the two often changed. Cursing each other while the soldiers passing by turned a blind eye to it all.
The sun has appeared, but the light cast by the thick clouds is not enough to completely warm the earth. The exposed palms felt a little cold. Mira felt like she hadn't been alone with her teacher like this for a long, long time.
She felt a little nostalgic for this experience and the act of asking him questions and seeking answers.
"Because we don't want to cause trouble, just like no one cares about us now." The sage answered in a tone that was as steady as ever. The cold weather caused most people to try to cover their faces and heads to hide their faces. Even so, the height of the two people still stood out among the crowd, but people passing by chose to spend their energy on their own things. Didn't pay attention.
Just by looking at the surrounding environment, Henry could deduce what the man in charge of this place was thinking.
All of his decisions were extremely passive. The combination of his lack of experience in making decisions alone and the refugee problem he had never encountered before led to the first thing that Li Zheng thought of was to send a letter to ask for help from his superiors who were a few days away.
He's not solving the problem, he's just letting these refugees stay until he figures out how to solve the problem.
On the way into Maotian, the war in Wanzhou that I heard about in hindsight was more or less similar to this - except that the state herdsman in Wanzhou decided on a conservative battle plan after learning about the situation; But Mao Tian's Li Zheng has been completely conservative from the moment of 'decision'.
Although the refugees whose families froze to death may not think so, Li Zheng himself is not a heinous person.
He just.
Just mediocre.
Don't seek merit but seek no faults, and put your own career as the top priority. His primary purpose is "not to make wrong decisions," so he leaves the solution to the problem to someone higher up. In this way, when the solution deviates and something goes wrong, at least he himself will not be the first to bear the brunt.
He is not the person who caused all this, he is just a messenger and a grassroots executor.
There is no punishment for crime, not to mention that he was just following orders faithfully.
In the Kingdom of the Moon for four thousand years, the only pressure they faced and the only fear they faced amid peace and stability was the punishment from those in high positions. This fear of doing something wrong has led to the birth of a large number of conservatives among the Chinese in power in the directly-administered state areas.
"Rather than the problem not being solved, what they are more afraid of is the inability to solve it." The sage's brief summary in Avenela made Mira understand the situation quickly as always.
Even though she understood, she still couldn't accept it.
Avenella people are pragmatic people. Perhaps it is because a small country with a short history does not have so many traditions, nor does it have the absolute pressure of rule brought by such a powerful central figure. Right or wrong, they will at least take action much faster.
After all, it was the place where she was born and raised for the first 11 years of her life. Even though she traveled to many places and witnessed many different cultures that were influenced by them and absorbed and changed, this was still an experience that formed the foundation of her personality.
Our Luoan girl was a precocious child from the beginning. Her personal personality was already formed before she met the sage. After the two met, most of what she gained from him, who had endless knowledge and wisdom, was actually how she viewed the world and Ways to problem and solutions to various things.
As a short-lived species, human beings will form their personal personalities in a short period of time. Children who are noisy and quiet children will often retain the behavior style of their childhood when they grow up. Even if the initial influencing factors disappear, the changed world view and behavior cannot be changed back.
So she couldn't accept why everyone was so conservative and didn't try to solve the problem. On the contrary, if you randomly find a farmer from Crescent Continent and tell them that there is a profession in Rigal that civilians can engage in to leave their hometowns to take risks and make money, they will also be horrified and think how treasonous this is, instead of feeling a sense of admiration.
You have the solution to the problem, but no one relies on you.
After such a long journey, she has long understood that even her teachers still cannot solve everything they see. She then thought about Ling, even the witches, and all the scholars in Crescent Continent who might have similar situations and experiences.
People who have knowledge but not power are actually still so powerless.
Henry can solve the problem Maotian is facing now.
she thinks.
The unrivaled Kremer in his hands must not be something that these Maoda samurai with lax defense can handle.
But what happens after that?
It is a naive misconception to believe that resistance only comes from one or two people in power and that everything will be fine if they are solved.
There will be other dissenters.
Then deal with them all, defeat them all, leaving only those who are loyal to you, and build an empire ruled by the immortal and wise Henry Meyer with one hand and his own power——
An empire like that would not be afraid of such things, such laziness, such conservative and passive behaviors that would not solve problems and make the people suffer.
Based on her understanding of the sage's ability, the high feasibility of such a choice, and the hidden validity of it that made her "want to do it", the Luoan girl who thought about this possibility couldn't help but think about it. Cold sweat.
The teacher did not choose that.
He did not become Hymyrnin I, and he did not use his immortality and powerful wisdom to bring a powerful empire that was absolutely subordinate to him and his will. Instead, he became Henry Meyer, a character who is even somewhat unknown by worldly standards.
But now she feels that she can understand the reason more or less.
That is something that only long-lived species who have lived a long life, but are not really like elves, have the thoughts of short-lived species, but have a long life to think.
Vision, and perhaps some pessimism.
If you try to understand and dig deeper, the teacher will probably obscure or deflect in the same way as before.
He didn't want her to bear too much burden, at least not yet.
Many things in the past are like a thick and poisonous fog.
Why are there almost only humans on the earth today? What is the purpose of the other major races’ retreat and escape from the world?
She could vaguely feel that Henry was preparing for something before and after meeting her.
Somehow even he became emperor of the Lamanites.
He became the emperor of mankind, something that would probably be difficult to rival.
Something that cannot be defeated by human beings alone.
So he couldn't choose that path.
Loneliness and not being understood, being unknown, and having nothing to do with glory and wealth.
If her existence can give this person some hope for the future, then it may be a small reward that his disciple, who has benefited a lot from him, can do.
A cold wave descended on the land of Crescent Continent.
Just like it has come countless times before and in the future.
The only choice for small people to survive is to support each other and warm each other.
