He 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 he sat there. While he was in a daze, a little beggar came to the table tremblingly.

, and then he fell to his knees, held up the pottery bowl in his hand, and begged for alms.

Without waiting for a response, 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 and very thin. He was held by the waiter and had no power to resist. 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 the excessive force, he directly tore off the little beggar's collar.

The waiter thought that the little beggar had held the door, but when he turned around, he found that he had grabbed the little beggar's left hand. Seeing a gloomy look, the waiter hurriedly nodded and apologized, "Please don't misunderstand me, sir. It's not that the villain is cruel, but that he is cruel."

There are too many homeless and beggars. If we help them, they will come in droves." .??.

He didn't embarrass the waiter, he just waved his hand at him, and when he nodded and walked away, he helped the little beggar up, pulled him to the table, and poured out all the bowl of noodles and a plate of pickled sunflower vegetables that he wanted.

Into his bowl.

The little beggar burst into tears of gratitude after begging for food, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.

He waved his hand to signal him to leave early.

After the little beggar left, he 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 didn't want to eat. He wanted to take those scones with him on the road. There were many people in this inn. He had already noticed someone peeking at the two bags he was carrying, which were given to him by Taiping Taoists.

Gold, in order to avoid unnecessary complications, he also gave up the idea of ​​staying in the hotel.

After the scones were ready, he got up and left. Going north from here was the road 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 if he wanted to leave, the two-foot-high city wall could not stop him, so he jumped on horseback and left the city and headed east overnight.

At the second watch, it 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.

He could have just passed by, 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 they were mentally prepared to eliminate harm to the people, they unexpectedly discovered that these people rushing out of the woods were not bandits, but

A dozen victims in ragged clothes, with sallow faces and skinny muscles, were not holding swords and weapons, but sticks and various agricultural tools.

"We don't want to kill anyone. Leave the horse behind and we'll let you go." The leader shouted loudly.

"What do you want a horse for?" he 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, his mind instantly recalled the scene when the Wang family members tried to kill him to eat 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 were

In order to make ends meet and save one's life, it is not the same as a bandit who kills people and sells goods.

"You can't eat my horse. It will kill you if you eat it," Hesheng said. "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."

He glanced at the speaker and said, "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 kill you."

.”

I don’t know if this is the first time this group of victims has robbed someone, or if it’s their first time.

When I met such a person once, I was stunned when I heard his words.

He didn't show any pretense, pretending to be mysterious, and casually took out a piece of horseshoe gold 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. Blocking and robberies can range from banishment to the army, to severe 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."

The victims were in a daze before because they did not understand what they were saying, but this time they were dazed 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, 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 live on." Shaking the reins and setting off the horse, galloping eastward, "Don't despise the king's law and dare to do it again."

Blocking roads and robbing, benefiting oneself at the expense of others, severely punishing without giving credit, implicating nine ethnic groups."

I 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 of the fault was not with them, but with the court. Because the court is the one who manages people, and the people are the ones being managed, they will always be in charge.

We cannot accuse the people of being ill-informed and short-sighted. If they were well-informed and morally noble, they would not be governed.

As the saying goes, it is the fault of a son not to educate his father, and it is the fault of a wife not to be a virtuous husband. In the same way, disobedience to the people is also the fault of the 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, we 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. Back then, after delivering the Golden Pill of Return to Heaven to Gezao Mountain, I went north alone. At that time, there was also a plague on both sides of the river. I was once asked by Captain Qin to leave a note to treat the plague.

prescription.

This detour was mainly to determine the impact of the plague on people's livelihood. In addition, it was also to determine whether the plague was a natural disaster or the work of evil spirits.

An expert from Qihuang determined that this plague was exactly the same as the plagues in previous years by observing the hungry people on the roadside and diagnosing several passers-by who were coughing.

, the same is "Xijin hurts the lungs."

I was walking in a hurry this time and didn't bring anything with me to draw talismans, so I used charcoal as a pen and wrote down a prescription in a conspicuous place in the villages and towns I passed along the way. It was still the same prescription as before. However, Qin Xiaowei's family was still well off, so he used it.

Without ginseng, the people are poor and can only use astragalus instead. The prescription is: "Astragalus six qian, gypsum six qian, Tiancai 6 qian, almonds 2 qian, Talizi one qian and two cents, Longsha 1 qian and two cents, and reed root five cents."

, lotus root five cents."

Although I wrote down the prescription for the disease, I still feel heavy because this plague is obviously more serious than the last time. Almost every house in the place is empty, and most of the mountains and paddy fields are deserted. Jiangnan is known as a water town.

In the 15th period of the Tang Dynasty, only the east and west Jiangnan provinces 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 have the dignity to refuse the Ni family's assistance before, otherwise I don't know how many people would have starved to death.

The further east you go, the worse the situation becomes, with more displaced victims and more abandoned fields.

Starvation deaths that can be seen everywhere make people feel very depressed. In addition to depression, they also feel helpless. It may also be caused by not eating for a day, and they just feel weak and listless.

He still had a few pancakes with him, but he had no appetite at all. He had eaten so many pancakes that he felt guilty after starving so many people to death.

He 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 to him?

I don't want to think about it, or rather I don't dare to think about it.

Just as he was changing his route to the north at an intersection, he suddenly spotted two men in ragged clothes walking behind each other with a child in their arms. Seeing this, he suddenly became alarmed and hurriedly shouted to stop the two men for strict questioning.

Sure enough, the two of them were holding each other's children.

He ordered the two of them to take their children back, and each gave them a piece of gold. When the two of them knelt down and thanked each other, they left and slumped on the ground. He knew that there was a famine in the Tang Dynasty, but he didn't expect it to be so serious. How could this be?
Chapter completed!