Chapter Nineteen Reality

  The black smoke has dissipated, leaving behind a trail of destruction. The stench of death still lingers in the air. County Magistrate Xu Yunfeng is considered an able official. After Chong County was breached, he did not abandon his people and flee. Instead, he led a large group of refugees into the deep mountains. When the barbarian army retreated, he returned with them, buried the dead, and comforted the panicked crowd, beginning a long wait. In Xu Yunfeng's mind, he thought that after the barbarian army left, relief supplies would soon arrive from the provincial capital. However, what he did not expect was that the officials in the provincial capital were thinking of how to shirk responsibility, protect their positions, and distribute power. The people of Chong County, who had been burned, killed, and looted, waited for a month, but their patience was wearing thin. The county was left with no grain or rice, not even a single mouse. The air was filled with an ominous atmosphere, ready to explode at any moment. If Xu Yunfeng did not have the prestige he had accumulated during this invasion, he would not have been able to keep the situation under control. Just when Xu Yunfeng was about to lose hope, Li Qing arrived. He spoke few words, but his promise that Chong County would never starve again brought tears of gratitude to Xu Yunfeng's eyes. He was so moved that he wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Li Qing. A month had passed, and although it did not turn Xu Yunfeng's hair completely white, his once-black locks now had streaks of gray.

  Around the Victorious Army Camp, simple huts began to be set up one by one. Chong County started to have some business. The surviving children, after drinking a few bowls of clear porridge, had the energy to start playing and laughing among the sheds. Compared to the adults who still looked worried and sad, the children's happiness was always simpler.

  "Sir, the statistics are out." Xū Yúnfēng respectfully handed a name register to Lǐ Qīng, "Originally, Chóng County had 20,000 households with a population of 113,158 people. After the barbarian army invaded, excluding those who were killed, captured, or escaped into the deep mountains, there are now over 50,000 people left. About 30,000 people have gathered in the county seat, and it's estimated that nearly 20,000 people from the surrounding areas will gather here after receiving news. It's expected that more people will come down from the mountains after some time."

  "What? Over 50,000 people?" Everyone in the tent gasped, to be honest, the loss of Chong County was enormous, with a population loss of over half and property almost completely looted. Every household had someone who died or went missing. Although it has been over a month, the heart-wrenching grief has passed, but the heavy atmosphere that presses on the entire camp still cannot be dissipated. Now these remaining 50,000 people have become a huge burden for the Changsheng Camp, which itself is short of food, how can they support so many people?

  "Sir, we can't let these villagers gather towards the county town. The more people there are, even if it's just porridge, we won't be able to hold out for many days?" Shang Haibo said heavily.

  "Yes, sir, we can't gather in the county town anymore. Otherwise, the grain will crush us." The generals all nodded in agreement.

  Hearing the crowd's words, Xu Yunfeng became anxious, "Everyone, you can't do this! If these people don't come here, they'll only starve to death. Here, at least there's still a bowl of porridge to keep them alive!"

  "Lord Xu, you have a heart that loves the people, and I, Haibo, admire you for it. But with over 50,000 mouths to feed, even if they only drink porridge, do you know how much grain is needed per day? To prevent starvation, we currently need to consume 100 dan of grain per day. With our current reserves, we can barely last a month. By December, we will run out of food. What shall we do then?"

  Xu Yunfeng widened his eyes and said: "General, we can send an urgent message to the provincial city and ask them to allocate more food!"

  Li Qing and the others exchanged a glance, all of them smiling wryly. Xu Yunfeng didn't know the inside story, so he could say that, but they knew it in their hearts - the provincial capital probably wouldn't give it to them.

  "County Magistrate Xu, I think we should temporarily give up hope of entering the provincial city."

  "Why?" Xu Yunfeng's eyes widened in anger, "Isn't Chong County part of Dingzhou and aren't we citizens of Great Chu? How can the governor sit back and watch our people starve to death without lifting a finger? I dare to ask Li Canjiang about this matter."

  Li Qing looked at the furious man in front of him and said, "Please speak, Lord Xu!"

  "Please, sir, allow me to go to the provincial city to discuss grain supplies."

  "I'm afraid of laboring in vain, and besides, now Chong County can't do without you, Lord Xu!" Li Qing's words were not flattering, but Xu Yunfeng was now the hope of the people of Chong County, their savior. His every word carried more weight than Li Qing's, especially since Li Qing and his men were not familiar with civil administration. With Xu Yunfeng gone, even a capable person like Shang Haibo would be overwhelmed with work."

  "It doesn't matter, now Chong County has basically stabilized. As long as there is food to survive, the people won't make trouble. Even if there are one or two petty thieves, adults can easily handle them. Moreover, I have divided the villagers into groups and assigned village elders to help manage them, so it's unlikely that anything will go wrong." Xu Yunfeng said: "Now the most important thing is food. I dare to ask you, sir, to lend me a horse, and I'll set off immediately for the prefectural city. If Prefect Fang doesn't give me grain, I'll hang myself with a rope in his main hall!" Xu Yunfeng's eyes were wide open, his whiskers twitching with anger as he spoke.

  Everyone is a coward, but this Xu Yunfeng is indeed an official who dares to plead for the people's lives. Li Qing thought for a moment and let Xu Yunfeng go, as there was no great harm in doing so. If he could get grain, no matter how little, it would be good; even if he couldn't, annoying Fang Wenshan wouldn't be bad either. Looking at his expression, if Fang Wenshan really didn't give him grain, this guy would probably hang himself with a rope in the county hall. Of course, Fang Wenshan wouldn't let that happen, or else the crime of driving subordinates to death would be confirmed.

  "Since County Magistrate Xu is so confident, I will naturally support him. Tang Hu, prepare a horse for Lord Xu and dispatch two guards." Li Qing instructed.

  "Thank you, sir!" Xǔ Yúnfēng bowed and walked out with his head held high.

  "Everyone, the current situation is also seen by everyone, and it's really getting worse. These people who are gathering towards the county town can't be stopped, let them come. Otherwise, it's very likely to trigger a riot, if there's a conflict, it will be extremely unfavorable for us. We should know that Chong County is not big, most of the people here have relatives and acquaintances, if we don't let those people in, I'm afraid our place will also become unstable."

  "But, sir, it's already extremely difficult to support these people. If another 10,000 or 20,000 come, how can we sustain them?" Wang Qinyan urged, "Now my soldiers under me can only eat one meal of dry rations a day, they're so hungry they're weak and listless!"

  Li Qingdao said: "I know this is also an unavoidable thing, tell the soldiers to get through this period of time, everything will be fine. Our top priority now is to find something to eat."

  "Mr. Shang!"

  Shang Haibo stood up.

  "You're familiar with civil administration, after you go down, organize the village elders and divide the people into groups, young and strong men, women, children and the elderly separately. Since we are relying on the mountain, we must think of ways to eat from the mountain. Wang Qinyan, your left wing takes turns as a unit, each unit receives a group of young and strong men from Mr. Shang, goes into the mountain to hunt."

  "Feng Guo, you also take a whistle as the unit, in Mr. Shang's place, lead robust women and children who can still work, I don't care if you go to dig rat holes or snake nests, bird nests, or raccoon dog dens, or find edible wild vegetables, in short, as long as it's edible, bring it back."

  "Yes!" The two men responded loudly.

  "Remember one thing!" Li Qing said calmly, "Tell your soldiers that every single person here is our own people, are our elders. If anyone dares to break the rules, I, Li Qing, will recognize him, but the knife at my waist won't."

  "Don't worry, sir!" The two men accepted the order with a stern expression. Li Qing had repeatedly warned them about the importance of military discipline and the relationship between the military and civilians during their training. At this critical moment, if military discipline was not strict, an army could easily become a group of bandits. If they clashed with the ordinary people, it would be like cutting off the source of water.

  "All harvests are not allowed to be privately stored by anyone. They must all be handed over to the camp, and Mr. Shang will distribute them uniformly." Li Qing swept his eyes across the crowd.

  "Jiang Kui, your troops can't just sit idle either. You have 300 men under you, and they only get two dry meals a day."

  "Ah!" Everyone was shocked, now even Li Qing was surprised, how could Jiang Kui's subordinates have two shifts a day. "They have things to do, no energy is not allowed."

  Li Qing glanced at the bewildered crowd, "From tomorrow on, start going up the mountain to cut down trees. After transporting the trees back, prepare to build houses. If there are not enough people, also go to Mr. Shang's place to ask for help. There is less than two months' time before the first snow falls. If warm houses are not built before the snow comes, this winter will be deadly."

  Everyone was shocked, and only then did they remember this deadly problem. Previously, they had been thinking about how not to starve people to death, but now they realized that it might also be possible to freeze them to death.

  "Mr. Shang, after you go down, listen to the opinions of those village elders and see if they have any way to find food." Li Qing sat down, saying somewhat tiredly.

  "It's settled then, let's go and get it done!" Everyone filed out one by one.

  Looking at the empty tent, Li Qing smiled self-deprecatingly: "It's really a desolate and barren scene, with everything in disarray! Mr. Lu, I'm counting on you to bring back some grain as soon as possible, or else this winter is going to be unbearable!"

  Today is Chapter 3. If there are ten more collections, I will add one more chapter.