Chapter 757 Obligations

Chapter 757 Obligations

Chapter 757 Obligations
A dock appeared on the horizon.

Perhaps for military reasons, this fort was built on a high place. Even though it caused many inconveniences in their lives, it unexpectedly saved their lives at the critical moment.

But——it can only save me temporarily.

What will we do next year if there is no more food in the fields? Should we drive away some people or simply eat some people?

No one cares how they do it.

Yang Qin sent a man to knock on the door, intending to borrow some food, but he was greeted with an arrow.

This did not come as a surprise to anyone.

Even if the residents of the fort saw that there were many regular warriors in the team, they would not take out life-saving food without authorization. At this time, who would care about others?
Yang Qin did not reveal his identity, and after knocking on the door to no avail, the team continued to head east.

The two children sat on the horse's back with their legs and feet tied up to prevent them from falling to the ground.

They were probably the two who ate the most in the entire team.

Shao Xun walked beside the horse and turned to Yang Qin and said, "Group the people you have gathered. You can select officers from your personal army. One group of able-bodied men and one group of able-bodied women."

"promise."

"How many people are there?"

"Two thousand strong men, more than a thousand healthy women, less than a hundred children, and more than ten old people."

Shao Xun glanced at the carriages and horses lagging behind.

The cart was abandoned, and was perfect for loading food and meat. The water on the flat ground had receded, but the mud was everywhere, making it difficult to travel.

There is actually enough food.

The hundreds of cattle and sheep sent by Chen Wu could be eaten for a while after being slaughtered.

Xubu Yan sent people to deliver more than a thousand bushels of grain.

The two had already taken their people back, saying they were sending the second batch of food. Shao Xun asked them to do what they could and not force themselves, after all, they had also suffered a disaster.

The team would sometimes find a higher place to stop and rest.

At this time, people would be sent to nearby forts and earthen walls to borrow food. It would be good if one or two out of ten were successful. Sometimes they would even be attacked. This was the main reason why Shao Xun did not reveal his identity to the fort owners.

He had more than a thousand personal soldiers and more than two thousand volunteers on horseback and on foot. It seemed like a lot, but there was really no need to take the risk.

This is Hebei, not Henan.

When passing through Xinshi County, they found that most of the city walls had collapsed and there were rotting corpses everywhere.

There were more than a hundred people from the town gathered outside the city wall, and no one knew how they had survived until now.

Shao Xun stopped far away, and then lured more than a hundred people from Xinshi with jerky meat, forcing them to dig a pit and bury the bodies.

After a great disaster there will be a great epidemic, and these corpses are definitely an important source of the epidemic.

To be honest, he was a little scared too.

Although he cherishes his own life, to be frank, if he gets sick and dies at this moment, millions of people in this world will be buried with him, or even more.

Therefore, he almost obsessively ordered the entire team to drink hot water, take river water and well water for bathing every day, and even wanted to replace the bathing water with hot water, and for this purpose he did not hesitate to demolish abandoned houses for firewood.

If someone in the team falls ill, we just give him some food and let him find a place to stay until order is restored.

Everything has been done to perfection.

Some yellow cloth was also found in Xinshi County and was not stolen by anyone during the chaos.

The able-bodied men and women in the team took a piece of it and wrapped it on their heads to distinguish themselves from the rioters and the people living in the fortresses, so as to avoid being unable to distinguish between friend and foe in a real fight.

Some weapons were collected along the way and all were distributed for self-defense.

On August 15, the team arrived in Lunu County, Zhongshan.

******
Along the way, it actually became gradually dangerous.

The ground was much drier, and some victims began to target their own kind.

They gathered in larger and larger numbers, from dozens to hundreds, and then to thousands.

They couldn't capture the remaining forts, and it was difficult to loot food in the wild, so they could only kill and eat.

Human flesh is also meat, which can provide them with a lot of energy, keep them alive, and eventually receive disaster relief food.

Before arriving at Lunu, Shao Xun and his companions encountered a group of rioters.

But compared with the regular army, they are too bad.

The personal soldiers shot a few rounds of arrows from a distance, which brought the charge to an abrupt halt.

During the fight, the two children were trembling with fear, and only calmed down when they saw Shao Xun.

Shao Xun carried them down and put them on a carriage.

The five-year-old boy Chounu clenched his fists and looked at the rioters rushing towards them with hatred.

The battlefield was covered in blood.

Shao Xun covered Chounu and Chunkui's eyes and said, "Don't blame them. They are just trying to survive. There are many things in this world that are really hard to tell right from wrong. You will understand when you grow up."

Xue Yong, the army leader who came with his troops from the Xue family of Fenyin, took out a horn and blew it loudly.

The strong men with yellow scarves on their heads formed a slightly chaotic formation, rushed forward to chase and kill, and instantly dispersed the enemy. The whole process went as smoothly as child's play.

Perhaps, this is a ridiculous tragic drama.

After driving away this wave of rioters, Shao Xun camped outside the city and sent people into Lunu to look for living people. In the end, he only found a hundred or so people from some unknown corner.

According to the old rules, they were asked to clean up and bury the bodies, then find a place far away to camp and give them some jerky.

On the 17th, the Xu and Sun families from Beixincheng, Gaoyang County, brought more than a hundred carts of grain and hundreds of cattle and sheep here.

When they were about a mile away from the city, they saw an astonishing scene - countless new graves stood in the wilderness.

Team after team of young men with yellow scarves on their heads were maintaining order.

Men, women, old and young were divided into seven or eight camps, each with about a thousand people.

With so many people, they would consume three hundred hu of food a day.

Of course, meat is much more effective in relieving hunger. If you eat cattle, sheep, draft animals, and war horses, you can indeed survive for a long time, but the cost is a bit high.

No wonder there were so few horses among the soldiers under King Liang’s command; they must have all been slaughtered and made into jerky.

When the leader saw Shao Xun, he bowed to the ground and cried, "We have been suffering from disaster for two months, but I didn't expect King Liang to arrive first."

"Your Majesty, Gao Yang is in such a pity."

"From Taihang to Bohai, it is a land of water and marshes. Homes are gone, and only one in ten people survives. Alas, how sad it is."

"The nobles of Yan State and Beiping have grain, but they are unwilling to lend it to us, and sit back and watch us suffer."

"I almost thought the court had forgotten us."

Everyone was crying, half-seriously, and it seemed that they were truly terrified by this flood of the century.

Shao Xun helped them up one by one and said, "Those who can come here are good men who are responsible. On weekdays, the rich have luxurious houses, are surrounded by beautiful girls, and all of these are the people's fat and blood. When the people are in trouble, how can we sit back and do nothing? We can't do anything about natural disasters, but if more people die of illness and hunger due to man-made disasters, it's not right. Get up, everyone. I'm very grateful that you can come."

The Xu and Sun families must have suffered losses in the flood, but the clan is not completely left with nothing and should be able to hold on.

At this time, all their actions were for themselves and their people.

If Shao Xun had not come to Zhongshan, Xu and Sun would definitely not have come to Lunu, just like the two generals of Feilong Mountain and Puyang Mountain.

In times of disaster, people are busy taking care of themselves, so how can they care about the lives of others? This is human nature and understandable.

"Have you heard any news from Boling?" Shao Xun asked, sitting on a fallen giant tree.

"I was having trouble walking a few days ago, so I didn't find out."

"I heard vaguely on the way that the grain ship had arrived at Lukou and the hungry people were looting it."

"Yes, I heard that many hungry people went to Lukou in groups."

Shao Xun nodded slightly and said, "It's not easy to transport it from Lukou. Well, if the food doesn't come to me, I'll go get it. By the way, what's the situation in Gaoyang?"

"It's difficult. None of Hejian, Boling, Zhangwu, and Gaoyang are good."

"This water rushes all the way to the Bohai Sea."

"The south should be better."

Simply put, in this disaster, Changshan and Zhongshan in Hebei were devastated areas, the five counties of Fanyang, Gaoyang, Hejian, Boling and Zhangwu were severely affected areas, and the four counties of Zhao, Julu, Anping and Bohai were also affected, but not as seriously.

The disaster in Ji, Wei, Dunqiu, Yangping, Guangping, Pingyuan, Leling and Qinghe further south was relatively minor.

The four counties of Taiyuan, Xinxing, Leping and Kelan in Bingzhou area were also severely affected by the disaster.

The two counties of Yanmen and Dai of the Tuoba Dynasty also suffered heavy damage, the former was relatively less affected, while the latter was severely affected.

This was a large-scale disaster that "specially attacked" the Youyan Jin Dynasty area, and Jizhou, southern Bingzhou and parts of Sizhou were only affected.

"Don't worry, I'm here, everything will be fine." Shao Xun looked at everyone and comforted them, "You guys hold on a little longer, don't be stingy with your stored food, give out as much as you have, and save lives. The court will not turn a blind eye."

If you enjoy the benefits, you must bear the responsibilities and obligations.

If you ignore the victims, they will ignore you.

You saved them, and they recognized you.

This is actually how the legitimacy of rule comes from.

"If the message can be sent to the surrounding counties and towns, please do so as soon as possible." Shao Xun added, "The relief food will be here in no time."

Everyone agreed after hearing this.

Originally, it was thought that Lu Zidao would only save Zhao, Julu, Anping, Bohai and other counties, and that the nobles of Wei, Yangping, Qinghe, Pingyuan and other counties with population and food would not be kind enough to donate food to save the counties further north. Now that King Liang has come, their priority has been raised, and perhaps dawn is just around the corner.

Thinking of this, everyone felt fortunate.

If the King of Liang had not come, a large amount of relief grain would have been consumed in the counties that were not as severely affected. After all, they were the ones who provided the grain. Was it too much to ask them to save their hometown or neighboring areas first? Not at all.

On August 21, Shao Xun arrived in Anxi County, Zhongshan.

Quite a few surviving victims had gathered here, many of them were children of wealthy families. They were wearing dirty brocade clothes, their faces were pale and their eyes were filled with panic.

When a large group of people appeared on the western horizon, the people who went to get information ran back quickly: "Huang Tou'er is coming, King Liang is coming."

"Huang Tou'er is here, King Liang is here!"

"King Liang is here, we are saved!"

The good news spread quickly to every corner.

Coincidentally, the Yan State and the Beiping nobles, who had been indifferent to the disaster in Jizhou, also allocated part of the relief grain sent to Fan Yang, and went south across the Yishui River, which had already subsided, all the way south to Anxi.

On the other side of Lukou, the relief grain from the Cui family of Qinghe, the Liu family of Pingyuan, and the Hua family of Pingyuan was rushed to Zhongshan as soon as it was unloaded.

The soldiers escorting the grain and fodder ignored the damage to the draft animals and the fatigue of the men, and they kept waving their whips, trying their best to deliver the grain first.

Everyone understands that relief grain cannot save all the victims.

The victims in Changshan, Zhongshan and Gaoyang were able to survive entirely because of that man.

Because of his existence, the relief grain fleets and convoys were diverted, and countless people in his county who did not receive the life-saving supplies died.

A fight to the death is the underlying tone of this abnormal world.

(End of this chapter)