Chapter 127 Grain Release
Zhao Yushu returned to the academy, took a nice bath and had a good sleep. At dawn, the dean sent someone to deliver an invitation. It was a letter from Miss Lu, the eldest daughter of Dafeng Grain Store.
Zhao Yushu had an impression of this Miss Lu. On the first night, Wang Buzhi dragged him to a gathering of the second generation. This Miss Lu quickly calculated the bill and threw out the price that the Lu family would pay, which directly made Zhao Yushu realize the attitude of this group of people towards the Nanyang refugees. From their respective standpoints, perhaps she was not wrong, but from a personal perspective, Zhao Yushu was rather disgusted with this eldest lady.
But the two banquets yesterday made Zhao Yushu realize that facing such a large-scale mass incident, his personal wealth or force would be of almost no use. Even if he, Zhao Yushu, robbed all the wealthy families in the city with his Shadow Steps and worked himself to death, the help he could provide to people outside the city would not be as great as a word from Governor Lan. This was the fact.
Why can't I be a lawless male protagonist who can kill anyone who looks at me and who can kill his entire family even if he shakes the egg yolk off?
Zhao Yushu shook his head, solemnly spread out the paper, wrote a reply in extremely ugly handwriting and handed it to the servant of the Lu Mansion who was still waiting in the front yard, stating that he would definitely attend the banquet on time.
Fortunately, the banquet was in the evening, so I still had time to move freely during the day.
Zhao Yushu packed up and walked out of the academy. He wanted to go to the south of the city.
"Where are you going, Brother Zhao?" Just as he walked out of the academy, he heard someone calling him. Zhao Yushu turned around and smiled unconsciously: "What a coincidence, Miss Lan."
"Unfortunately, I've been waiting here for a while, but I didn't expect Brother Zhao to be so sleepy."
The two walked side by side towards the south. Zhao Yushu put his hands behind his back and said, "I want to go out of the city and visit the refugee camp. Miss Lan, just in case, you'd better not go."
"Brother Zhao, I am in the third heaven."
"I'm not afraid of danger, I'm afraid that Lord Lan might misunderstand me."
Lan Ling snorted: "His misunderstanding is his business, it has nothing to do with me. If you don't agree, go ahead."
As expected, it has to be you, Xiaolan. Zhao Yushu smiled foolishly for a while: "Miss Lan, why did you come to see me today? Is there something?"
"Nothing, just bored, I want to find a friend to chat and go shopping, but South City is also good. I haven't been to Nanyang since I arrived. Let's go."
"The grain carts are leaving the city, get out of the way! Get out of the way!" The sound of horse hooves rang out, and a knight waved a command flag and galloped on the street, driving pedestrians to both sides. A long queue of steaming donkey carts slowly passed by the two men.
Zhao Yushu smiled sincerely: "Finally, the grain has been released. You knew this a long time ago, right?"
Lan Ling also smiled: "It's not that early. I woke up early in the morning when they were steaming cakes in the government office. So I thought of coming to tell you."
"Thank you."
"Thank you for what? It has nothing to do with me."
"Thank you for reminding me so early in the morning. Let's go and take a look."
Grain carts loaded with steamed cakes filed out of the city. Zhao Yushu and Lan Ling were stuck inside the city and temporarily unable to leave. But soon, a tsunami-like cheering resounded in the sky of Nanyang, and the people in the city couldn't help but cheer along.
"If you want, you can shout a few times. I won't tell anyone." Lan Ling joked as she looked at Zhao Yushu who was eager to try.
"No, no, I used to be too embarrassed to shout during team building and mountain climbing, but you see, everyone is very happy, which proves that this is a good thing, isn't it?"
After the last grain cart passed, the city gate was reopened, and the two men walked out of the city gate and headed towards the refugee camp.
"General Sun, I didn't expect you to come here in person to distribute the grain." When they were about to arrive at the refugee camp, Zhao Yushu saw General Sun, riding a horse and dressed in iron armor, with a dozen personal guards, supervising teams of armored soldiers escorting a large group of grain carts to the distribution site to prevent looting.
"I can't stay in the government office all day. I'll get bored. Oh, Miss Lan is here too. I'm sorry, I'm a rough man and I can't hold back my words."
Lan Ling simply bowed and stood beside Zhao Yushu without saying anything else, as if she had no good feelings towards General Sun.
General Sun didn't care much: "You guys can take your time to stroll around. You are all great monks anyway, and your safety is not my responsibility. I will go around the four cities by myself. Goodbye."
After General Sun left, Zhao Yushu looked at Lan Ling and said, "You don't seem to like General Sun."
"My father said that although General Sun appears rough on the outside, he is actually the most thoughtful person at heart. It is best to avoid contact with such a double-faced person, or he will betray you to death."
Zhao Yushu was speechless, thinking to himself, your father is right, I was tricked by him and had no choice but to follow his ideas.
Zhao Yushu looked at the bustling camp under the sun: Who can blame them for having tens of thousands of hostages?
The grain distribution process was not pleasant, and was even a bit chaotic.
There were no computers in that era, and statistics were all done with pen and paper. Coupled with the extremely low literacy rate, it was impossible to tell who had received the money and who had not, and chaos ensued.
If the refugees were still in their hometown, at least there would be a village chief or something like that who could directly hold a book as a basis. Whether it was accurate or not, it was always a basis. But now, just now, a refugee insisted that he had never received it, and the soldiers who distributed food insisted that this person had received it several times. They got so angry that they whipped him directly, which almost caused a large-scale riot.
"I'm late," Zhao Yushu looked at the chaos, but was powerless. "If I had come earlier, I might have helped plan these shacks, fixed the roads and sanitary areas, and then we could just have the soldiers distribute the food to each household along the road. Even if we want to change it now, these hungry people don't have the energy to rebuild. Let's go back."
Lan Ling looked at Zhao Yushu, who was showing no interest, and listened to his seemingly ordinary but effective plan. She thought that he originally wanted to help, but the current situation made it impossible for him to start.
The two turned around, and Lan Ling took a step forward, but found that Zhao Yushu did not move.
"Brother Zhao, what's wrong?"
"It seems that I saw an acquaintance."
Zhao Yushu watched a horse-drawn carriage zigzag and go deep into the refugee camp. It was not a government grain cart, but he was familiar with the driver.
"I want to go check it out. Where's Miss Lan?"
"I have nothing else to do. It would be nice to meet someone that Brother Zhao knows."
The two men walked quickly. On this kind of road, the carriage could not go fast, and they caught up in a moment. Zhao Yushu confirmed that it was indeed someone he knew.
Just as he was about to say hello, a few people came out of a shack and made a gesture to the coachman. The coachman followed them and Zhao Yushu stopped where he was. How could he be related to them?
"Brother Zhao, something is wrong." Lan Ling reminded in a low voice.
After the two followed here, the surrounding refugees surrounded them with a fierce look in their eyes. Zhao Yushu narrowed his eyes. These refugees were all strong and robust, and they didn't look like hungry people at all.
"Miss Lan, it looks like we have accidentally arrived at their base camp."