coobybook Chapter 454: Hungry People Influx
Chapter 454: Hungry People Influx
Two days later, on the official road.
King Dongshan was too tired to ride his horse and half-lying in the wide carriage.
He missed Weidong, and when he was reading, Weidong's face was all over the book.
I threw the book aside in annoyance and lay down to sleep.
Half asleep and half awake, he dreamed of the scene with Weidong on the grassland, and he was riding a horse to chase Weidong.
Weidong was riding on the dark cloud very fast, and he was chasing closely behind.
Then, a large group of horse bandits jumped out of the bushes. They tripped Wuyun with a lasso, and Weidong was also thrown out.
King Dongshan was so frightened that he shouted, "Weidong!"
Mu Feng's voice came from outside the carriage: "My Lord, is there something wrong? My Lord?"
King Dongshan was breathing rapidly, his chest rising and falling violently. He half sat up and calmed himself down:
"I'm fine, keep going."
Mu Feng waved his hand, and the team continued to move forward. More and more people appeared on the road.
However, most of the people walking slowly on the road were poor people in ragged clothes, and Mu Feng didn’t pay much attention to them at first.
There are people like this everywhere, there's nothing strange about them.
But gradually Mu Feng felt something was wrong. Not to mention that there were more and more people as he walked forward, they all looked like hungry people with pale faces, which was outrageous.
As far as he knows, the harvest this year is pretty good, and he hasn't heard of any disasters nearby.
Where did these large numbers of starving people come from?
He suppressed his doubts, thinking that this had nothing to do with him and it would be better for him to mind his own business.
Unexpectedly, the further they went, the more hungry people there were, and the carriage was almost unable to move forward.
The guards of the palace also moved closer to the carriage to separate themselves from the pedestrians on the road.
There were always some people among these people who wanted to approach the carriage to beg, but they were all driven away by the guards with their scabbards.
Seeing that the carriage looked luxurious and the guards looked ferocious and difficult to talk to, they did not dare to get close.
King Dongshan was also shaken several times by the sudden stop of the carriage and was about to ask angrily.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Mu Feng decisively boarded the carriage and entered the compartment to report the situation.
King Dongshan carefully lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and saw that the group of people separated by the guards was indeed unusual.
He ordered Mu Feng to find out where these people were fleeing from and where they were going.
Mu Feng took the order and got off the carriage, walking outside.
He picked a group of people who looked like a family of three and asked:
"Hey, brother, where are you from?"
The man looked at Mu Feng warily, then looked at the carriage behind him. Seeing that Mu Feng's attitude was quite kind, he whispered:
"We fled from Yingzhou in the south. There was a flood there and many people died. Our village was also destroyed by the flood. We could only run westwards, hoping to find food."
Mu Feng was shocked. Yingzhou in the south?
There was a flood in the south? He quickly asked, "Didn't your local government provide disaster relief?"
"Disaster relief? Humph! That very night the official took his entire family and ran away under the escort of soldiers! Who cares whether we live or die?"
Mu Feng: "Yingzhou is not close to here, don't other counties on the way take you in?"
The man sighed and said, "We were not allowed to enter the gates of the several counties we passed by. They would not let us get close, and anyone who forced his way in would be shot to death by arrows.
We have taken a roundabout way to finally get on the official road. I hope the county ahead will allow us to go in and ask for food."
The man looked at his child at home, who was too hungry to walk. He and his wife had to carry him on their backs. Who knew how long he could hold on?
Mu Feng's face looked solemn. It seemed that the situation was more serious than he had imagined.
He thanked the man and calmly stuffed the palm-sized cake he had broken into several pieces into the man's hand. He turned back to the carriage and reported the situation to King Dongshan.
King Dongshan pondered for a moment, then ordered to speed up and rush to the county government office in front to sound out the situation before making any plans.
Upon seeing this, the palace guards surrounded the carriage and quickened its pace.
Along the way, the people looked at this team with awe and envy in their hearts.
In their eyes, these guards were majestic, dressed in brocade clothes and holding sharp blades, as if they were divine soldiers sent from heaven.
And the person sitting in that gorgeous carriage must be either rich or noble.
They can't afford to offend.
The man held the cake in his hand, his heart trembled, he looked around and said to his wife:
"I'm so tired. Let's take a break."
The woman's eyes were empty. She seemed to have lost her brain due to tiredness and hunger. She just kept walking forward mechanically.
Maybe there will be food ahead, and if there is food there is a way to survive.
The man took the child in his arms and sat down in a place with few people.
He took out a small piece of cake from his hand and quickly stuffed it into his son's mouth.
The hungry and sleepy child immediately woke up when the bread touched his mouth. He quickly moved his mouth vigorously, and the man used his body to block it.
Afraid of being discovered eating his son.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he immediately picked out another piece and stuffed it into his wife's mouth.
The woman's eyes immediately widened, her mouth tightly pursed, and she glanced at other people on the road in horror.
After a long while, she covered her face with her arms and chewed the not-so-big cake in her mouth with all her strength.
She missed this smell so much, it was the smell of pancakes.
She used to brand her children from time to time, but now her home has been washed away by the flood!
The home is gone, the crops are gone, the hometown is desolate and everything is gone.
She hasn't had much food in more than a month.
She filled her stomach with wild vegetables picked from the mountains. There were too many hungry people, so she later ate wild grass and also stuffed tree bark as long as it was not poisonous.
If she doesn’t eat and starves to death, what will happen to her children?
Her husband is the same, eating all kinds of insects and grass roots.
Why doesn’t God give us a way to live?
After eating, the child looked at his father eagerly, without crying or making a fuss.
The man looked around like a thief, then took out another piece and stuffed it into his son's mouth.
In this way, the cake was divided into several portions and went into the mouths of his son and daughter-in-law, and he didn't eat any of it.
They were about to reach the county town ahead, and with this bite of food, his son and daughter-in-law might be able to hold on until the end.
Then, maybe they could all live.
Prince Dongshan entered the city very smoothly, and naturally no one dared to stop his carriage. Even if he did not show the prince's seal, Mu Feng's badge could allow them to enter the city smoothly.
Seeing several teams of soldiers patrolling back and forth at the city gate, King Dongshan narrowed his eyes.
Damn it, there’s no war, who are you guarding against?
King Dongshan held his breath in his chest, and they went directly to the county government office.
I saw that the entrance to the government office was heavily guarded. This is really...
The official’s life is indeed valuable!
The disaster victims haven't entered the city yet, but their precautions are very comprehensive!
King Dongshan asked angrily: "Mu Feng, who is the county magistrate here? Do you know?"
Mu Feng: "Your Majesty, I don't know. Do you want me to go and find out now?"
King Dongshan: "You ask someone to find out the reputation of this county magistrate in the local area. Let's go around the city first and then come over."