Changsheng entered the city late, and there were already many people sitting in the lobby when he checked in. Only a few tables near the door were empty, so Changsheng sat there. Just when he was in a daze, a little beggar walked up to him tremblingly. At the table, he immediately fell to his knees, held up the pottery bowl in his hand, and begged for alms.
Before Changsheng could respond, the store clerk hurried over, grabbed the little beggar by the collar and dragged him outward.
The little beggar was only eleven or twelve years old. He was very thin and had no power to resist when the waiter grabbed him. He just kept begging for mercy, but the waiter turned a deaf ear and dragged the little beggar to the door and tried to throw him out with his backhand.
The waiter used all his strength this time. Unexpectedly, he did not throw the little beggar out. Due to excessive force, he directly tore off the little beggar's collar.
The waiter thought that the little beggar had held the door, but he turned around and found that it was Chang Sheng who had grabbed the little beggar's left hand. Seeing Chang Sheng's face gloomy, the waiter hurriedly nodded and apologized, "Sir, please don't misunderstand me. I am not a cruel person. But there are too many homeless beggars, and if we help them, they will come in droves."
Changsheng did not embarrass the beggar, but just waved his hand at him. When he nodded and bowed and walked away, Changsheng helped the little beggar up, pulled him to the table, and gave him a bowl of noodles and a plate of pickled sunflower vegetables. All poured into his bowl.
The little beggar burst into tears of gratitude after begging for food, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.
Changsheng waved his hand, signaling him to leave early.
After the little beggar left, Changsheng took out the money to pay for the previous meal and ordered a few more scones. When he learned that all the Taoist priests from Longhu Mountain had left the mountain, he was worried and had no appetite anymore, but he was too weak. He wanted to take those scones with him on the road. There were many people in this inn, and he had already noticed that someone was peeking at the two bags he was carrying. Inside were the Taiping Taoist gifts given to him. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he also gave up the idea of staying in the hotel.
After the scones were ready, Changsheng got up and left. Going north from here was the way back to Chang'an, but he chose to go east. He wanted to see how much impact the plague had on the various roads south of the Yangtze River.
At this time, the city gate was closed, but Chang Sheng wanted to leave, and the two-foot-high city wall naturally couldn't stop him. After leaping out of the city, he headed east overnight.
At the second watch, Changsheng was more than two hundred miles away from Huazhou. The official road passed through the mountains, and there were high mountains and dense forests on both sides.
Not long after entering the mountain, a fallen tree lay across the road, blocking the way.
Changsheng could have passed by on horseback, but he knew that this situation was most likely caused by bandits, so he reined in his horse, slowed down, and looked around.
At this moment, a group of people rushed out of the woods on both sides of the road. Just when Changsheng was mentally prepared to eliminate harm for the people, he unexpectedly discovered that these people rushing out of the woods were not bandits, but They were more than a dozen victims in ragged clothes, with sallow complexions and skinny muscles, and what they held in their hands were not swords and weapons, but sticks and various agricultural tools.
"We don't want to kill anyone. Leave the horse here and we'll let you go." The leader shouted loudly.
"What do you want the horse for?" Changsheng asked casually.
"Nonsense, of course you have to be killed and eaten," another middle-aged victim shouted and threatened, holding a dung fork, "We are not good people. In this barren mountain, no one will know if we kill you."
Hearing this man's words, Changsheng's mind instantly flashed back to the scene when the Wang family members tried to beat him to death for eating Lao Huang, and murderous intent arose in his heart, but he soon gave up the idea. Although these victims blocked the road and robbed him, they It's to make ends meet and save one's life, which is different from bandits who kill people and steal goods.
"You can't eat my horse, it will kill you if you eat it," Changsheng said harmoniously, "I won't hide the truth from you. I am a martial arts master, and you are no match for me."
"Fart," the leader cursed loudly, "Looking at your half-dead appearance, you are not a martial arts master. Besides, real masters hide their secrets. How can you say that you are a master? Hurry up. Get off your horse and don’t force us to take action.”
Changsheng glanced at the person who spoke, "If I hide it and pretend to be hypocritical, I will only mislead you and make you think that I am weak and can be bullied, and then you will take advantage of it, provoke and offend, and eventually make me angry and hurt you." Killer."
I don’t know if this group of victims was robbing for the first time or meeting someone like Changsheng for the first time. They were all stunned when they heard Changsheng’s words.
Changsheng didn't show any pretense, pretending to be mysterious, and casually took out a gold horse's hoof from the cloth bag, and activated the pure Yang spiritual energy to produce a hot flame from his left hand. At the same time, he said, "I know you became bandits because you had no food to eat." , but the laws of the Tang Dynasty are clearly written. Robbery on the road can range from banishment to the army, to serious executions. No matter how difficult life is, you can't do anything that violates the king's law, because once you do it, you can never go back."
This group of victims had been in a daze before because they did not understand Chang Sheng's words, but this time they were in a daze because he suddenly lit a fire in his hand, and a piece of horseshoe gold melted and dripped after being burned by the fire, turning into golden beans all over the ground in the blink of an eye.
"I am Li Changsheng, the heroic prince of the Tang Dynasty. The imperial court knows that the people's lives are difficult and is trying to find ways to raise food for disaster relief. This ingot of gold is given to you to survive." Changsheng shook the reins and galloped eastward. "Don't despise the king's law. Those who dare to block roads and rob others, benefit themselves at the expense of others, will be severely punished without credit, and will implicate the nine tribes."
Chang Sheng was already in a bad mood, and it became even worse after experiencing this incident. Although it was wrong for the people to block the road and rob, the root cause of the fault was not with them, but with the court. Because the court is in charge of people, and the people are the ones being managed, we can never accuse the people of being ill-informed and short-sighted. If they were well-informed and morally noble, they would not be the ones being managed.
As the saying goes, it is the fault of a son who fails to teach his father, and it is the fault of a wife who is not a good husband. In the same way, disobedience to the people is also the fault of officials. It is because the officials failed to manage things well, and it is because the court and the yamen at all levels failed to do a good job.
At the third watch, Changsheng went deep into Jiangnan West Road, which was also where the plague spread.
This is not the first time a plague has hit this area. When Changsheng delivered the Golden Pill of Return to Heaven to Gezao Mountain, he went north alone. At that time, there was also a plague on both sides of the river. Changsheng was asked by Captain Qin to leave a treatment note. A cure for the plague.
Changsheng took a detour this time mainly to determine the impact of the plague on people's livelihood. In addition, he also wanted to determine whether the plague was a natural disaster or the work of evil spirits.
Changsheng is a master of Qihuang. Through the observation of hungry people on the roadside and the diagnosis of several passers-by who couldn't stop coughing, he determined that this plague was exactly the same as the plagues in previous years, and both were caused by "Xijin hurting the lungs."
Chang Sheng was walking in a hurry this time and didn't bring anything with him to draw talismans, so he used charcoal as a pen and wrote down a prescription in a conspicuous place in the villages and towns he passed along the way. It was the same prescription as before. However, Captain Qin's family was not bad, so he Ginseng was used, but the people were poor and had to use astragalus instead. The prescription was: "Astragalus six qian, gypsum six qian, Tianshu 6 qian, almonds 2 qian, Tinglizi one qian and two cents, Longsha one qian and two cents, reed root five cents." Money, lotus root five cents."
Although he wrote down the prescription for the disease, Changsheng still felt heavy, because this plague was obviously more serious than the last time. Almost every house he visited was empty, and most of the mountains and paddy fields were deserted. Jiangnan is known as a water town. During the best years of the Tang Dynasty, only the east and west provinces of Jiangnan contributed 50% of the taxes, money and food of the Tang Dynasty.
Now a plague broke out in the south of the Yangtze River, affecting more than just this year. There would be no harvest in the autumn, and the next year would be extremely difficult. Fortunately, I didn't refuse the Ni family's help to save face, otherwise I don't know how many people would starve to death.
The further east you go, the worse the situation becomes, with more displaced victims and more abandoned fields.
The hunger deaths that could be seen everywhere made Changsheng feel very depressed. In addition to depression, he also felt helpless. It may also be caused by not eating for a day, and he just felt weak and listless.
Changsheng still had a few pancakes with him, but he had no appetite at all. He had starved so many people to death, and he felt guilty even eating the pancakes.
Changsheng originally thought that his mood was extremely bad, but what happened next made him feel even worse. Some of the corpses he saw along the way were mostly mutilated, and all of them were missing limbs. Why did this happen? He didn't want to think about it, or to be precise, he didn't dare to think about it.
Just when Changsheng was changing his route from a crossroads to the north, he suddenly found two ragged men walking behind each other with a child in their arms. Seeing this, Changsheng suddenly became alert and hurriedly shouted to stop the two men, and then sternly After further questioning, it turned out that the two of them were holding each other's children.
Changsheng and the two took their children back and gave each a piece of gold. When they knelt down and left, Changsheng slumped on the ground. He knew that there was a famine in the Tang Dynasty, but he didn't expect that it had become so serious. This is still a human world, it has become a hell...
