Chapter Fifty-One Refugee Camp

  Zhong Jinwei came from a peaceful era and had never seen so many corpses before. The visual effect was completely different from what he saw on TV, and his heart felt very uncomfortable. Listening to that person's sighs, for the first time, he felt the disastrous consequences brought by Yuan Chonghuan, this big talker. Ah, how many families were ruined because of this.

  He dismounted and silently led the horse forward, which was a kind of respect for the dead. May they be reborn in a peaceful and serene era soon.

  No, I came here just to change this era, change everything, let everyone have a place to live, food to eat, and old people have something to rely on, definitely! Must be done!

  Zhong Jinwei walked slowly, thinking to himself, and soon arrived at the border of Wang Gongchang. The outermost layer was guarded by soldiers from the Five Cities Military Command, who did not allow the refugees inside to spread throughout the entire capital.

  At this time, Zhong Jinwei could roughly see the situation in the refugee camp and estimated that there were about 400,000 to 500,000 people in the entire refugee camp.

  Most of the refugees huddled together in the open, surrounding some fires to keep warm. The fires were not burning wood, but coal. Another part was crowded into dilapidated and abandoned houses. From the crowds extending outside, it can be seen that the people inside would only be more crowded, and the foot of the wall was also full of people. After all, this is the legendary Little Ice Age period, with a terrifyingly low temperature. At this time, even if it's just one wall, it can block the wind a bit, making things slightly better.

  Although there are many people, it is not noisy. There are only some patrolling soldiers who weakly shout and the intermittent crying of children and babies. If it weren't for these sounds, the first impression would be that this is a huge lifeless human sculpture garden.

  Zhong Jinwei walked over with a heavy heart, and the guarding soldier stopped him: "What are you doing here? Don't go inside if you don't have to. There's nothing good to see. If you want to buy someone, turn left from here, those people in that row of houses can be chosen at will, and the price is also cheap."

  Zhong Jinwei had no intention of losing his temper at all, and handed the horse to Gu Baiquan. He himself walked towards the row of houses that the soldier had spoken of.

  Gu Baihe was worried, so he showed the token of the Eastern Depot to the soldier and signaled Wang Peng to hand over the three horses to them for safekeeping. Then, he brought Wang Peng to catch up with Zhong Jinwei, following behind him to protect him.

  Zhong Jinwei soon walked to the front of the row of houses, where people were packed tightly inside. Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, they all looked up and saw him. When they found out it wasn't a patrol soldier, they all spoke out in unison, pleading:

  "Master, buy me, I can work, I have great strength."

  "Master, I'm better off, I eat less and work harder."

  "Master, I used to be a carpenter, skilled with my hands, buy me."

  "Master, I don't want money, just a meal to eat."

  The voices were noisy together, and Zhong Jinwei soon couldn't hear what they were saying. He only saw the pleading expression on each of their faces, with their mouths opening and closing constantly.

  Zhong Jinwei's heart suddenly ached, he had seen such a desolate scene before. If it were him, even if he was selling goods on the street by his own ability to make money, he wouldn't dare to do it, afraid of losing face and feeling embarrassed. But now these people, just to survive, could sell themselves cheaply. Who doesn't want to live a good life! This is all forced by life!

  At the same time, he also understood why the city management in his hometown could never finish chasing away street vendors, although they didn't have to live like this now, it was still a matter of being forced by life!

  There were too many people inside, so Zhong Jinwei didn't dare to go in and slowly turned around to head towards the next house. The people inside saw that Zhong Jinwei had left and were very disappointed, no longer speaking up to ask for anything, but there were still a few who were unwilling to give up and continued to promote themselves, constantly lowering their demands in the hope that Zhong Jinwei would turn back.

  Secondly, the people in the other three houses are similar to those in the first house, they are either physically strong or have a skill.

  The fourth house was some young and pretty women, at this time the price was even cheaper than what Liang Gongzi said.

  Zhong Jinwei stopped going down and instead went around these houses, heading towards the crowded open-air shelters of refugees.

  Gu Baihe and Wang Peng also followed quietly behind them, without a word.

  The refugees in the open and those in the house were different. Seeing Zhong Jinwei and others walking by, they didn't react at all, standing still, afraid that wasting a bit of energy would make their stomachs even hungrier. The only reaction was to follow Zhong Jinwei's movement with their eyeballs.

  It can be seen that many of these people are sitting in family units. There are old and young, male and female. However, there are not many elderly and children.

  The coal in the circle is not much, so the heat provided is also very limited. Now it's okay during the day, but if it's at night, I'm afraid many people will really freeze to death.

  Zhong Jinwei squatted down beside an elderly man who looked relatively refined, the old man leaning against his son's chest, while his son was back to back with his daughter-in-law, who held a four or five-year-old boy in her arms, fast asleep.

  "Old man, how many days have you been here?"

  The old man hadn't spoken yet, but his son spoke up: "Is there anything to eat?"

  All the food was in Zhong Jinwei's belly, and he didn't have any on him. Zhong Jinwei felt a bit embarrassed, thought for a moment, reached into his chest, pulled out a silver ingot, and handed it over.

  "I didn't bring anything to eat, take this silver and you guys go buy something to eat."

  Zhong Jinhui would later see those beggars on the streets and give them some money within his ability, until he found out that most of them were professional beggars and stopped giving.

  Now these are truly suffering people, Zhong Jinwei himself has no worries about food and drink, so he will naturally not be stingy with a little silver.

  That young man reached out and snatched it as soon as he saw it.

  The people around also wanted to come over and ask for silver when they saw them.

  Gu Bai Chuan saw the situation was not right, immediately moved to the front of Zhong Jin Wei, pulled out half of the knife from his waist and said viciously: "Who dares to move, be careful that the knife is not blind."

  Those people looked at the gleaming blade and reluctantly sat back down. But their mouths still begged: "Young master, have mercy on us, we haven't eaten for a long time either, we're starving and freezing, can you spare some?"

  "Shut up! Whether or not I give it is the young master's business. Anyone who dares to make another peep, I'll recognize you, but my knife won't."

  Zhong Jinwei had good intentions, but with so many people, he was also powerless.

  After calming down, Gu Bai Chuan flashed and retreated behind Zhong Jin Wei's back.

  That young man was still in a daze, tightly grasping that silver ingot, afraid that if he suddenly woke up the silver would be gone.

  His wife also heard the movement, holding the child and turning around. He suddenly stretched out one hand to hold his wife, and all four of them were tightly held together in a ball. Tears welled up in the young man's eyes: "We're saved, we can live!"

  The people around silently watched this family, their hearts unknowingly filled with either envy or blessings.

  The child woke up too, and his first words were: "Mother, I'm hungry."

  His mother didn't say a word, tightly hugging the child, with tears falling onto the child's face like pearls.

  It was at this moment that Zhong Jinwei realized that these people actually had feelings and were not just wooden sculptures.

  The old man struggled up from his son's arms and wanted to kowtow to Zhong Jinwei. His son and daughter-in-law saw this and also wanted to bring their children together to kowtow.

  Zhong Jinwei couldn't bear the old man kneeling to him, so he quickly helped him up, feeling a sour taste in his heart. The old man was supported, but his son and daughter-in-law both knelt down and respectfully kowtowed to Zhong Jinwei.

  The old man spoke first: "Young master's kindness in sparing our lives, this old man and his whole family dare not forget. We are willing to be oxen and horses for the young master, to repay your great kindness."

  The old man saw that silver ingot, and at a glance, it was about ten taels of official silver. Such a large sum of money was given out casually. He knew that this young master would not be short of money at home, had a good heart, and now that he had nothing to his name, following him would not go wrong.

  Zhong Jinwei repeatedly said no need. If you really want to buy a servant, with the silver just now, you can buy many strong men and beautiful women in that house.

  The old man insisted on relying on Zhong Jinwei, his son was secretly a little surprised. With this silver, re-establishing the family business should not be a big problem. Why did his father still insist on being a slave? However, he didn't dare to speak out against him face-to-face.

  Under the repeated insistence of the old man, Zhong Jinwei also thought that his own house would definitely hire other types of people besides maids, so he agreed.

  The old man was delighted to see Zhong Jinwei and automatically answered his previous question, introducing the situation: "Young master, we have been here for a month or two. After hearing that the Tartars were approaching, we escaped to the capital. After the capital was put under martial law, people from behind could no longer enter."

  The old man also sighed, looked around and said: "After the Tartars left, many people have already left the city. We who stayed behind are all from the suburbs of the capital, where we were ravaged by the Tartars the most. Our homes have been reduced to nothing, going back means freezing to death or starving to death, so we can only stay here and hope that the imperial court will resettle us and get through this winter."

  "How was the imperial court arranged?"