Chapter 97 - 94: Pressing for Grain
Chapter 97: Chapter 94: Pressing for Grain
"Fang Mu, our grain was all destroyed in that fire! If we don’t get food, my whole family will starve!"
"Our grain was burned too. We can’t go on like this."
Outside Fang Yue’s home,
Two villagers knelt on the ground, weeping and wailing, desperately pleading with Fang Mu to save them.
Behind them, their wives and children stood, emaciated and frail. Their clothes were ragged, their faces sallow, and their eyes vacant.
The smoke and flames seen in the village earlier had come from their two homes.
Their houses had caught fire, but with hardly any water to fight it, the small blaze quickly grew into an inferno. The flames consumed their homes, and with them, all their stored grain.
Could anything be more unfortunate?
In a year where everyone was just scraping by, to have this happen on top of everything else... If no one lent them a hand, they truly wouldn’t be able to survive.
In the entire village, only Scholar Liu’s family and Fang Yue’s family had any grain to spare.
They came to the Fang Family for help because they were fellow clansmen.
Fang Mu could only sigh at the sight.
He had Fang Cheng bring out two sacks of grain, weighing around a hundred pounds, and gave them to the two men to take home.
With the matter resolved for now, the crowd gathered outside the Fang Family’s home quickly dispersed.
Back inside their courtyard,
Ms. Chen suddenly spoke.
"Sigh... Husband, do you think we should really move into town?"
She had, of course, witnessed the entire scene at the gate. She saw the hardships the villagers were enduring.
Every one of the villagers in Da Liushu Village, including her family’s own tenants, was sallow-faced and gaunt.
Life was a struggle, and a full meal was a rarity.
The day before yesterday, in the ancestral hall, she’d noticed it when those loafers had said they should ’take back their grain.’ Many people’s eyes had flickered.
Today, when her family brought out those two sacks of grain, she saw the fervent hunger in the eyes of some onlookers—it was impossible to hide.
The only reason Ms. Chen had been unwilling to move to town before was that she couldn’t bear to leave behind the property the family had built up over the years.
But today, she had made up her mind.
’I can’t listen to Zhi’Er anymore. We have to move to town.’
’Otherwise, if we wait until these people are starving... who knows what they might do.’
~~~~~~
Meanwhile,
On the road to Da Liushu Village, a middle-aged man journeyed forth. He wore an azure, star-patterned robe, carried a large gourd on his back, and had a ruler hanging from his waist.
His strides weren’t large, but his pace was incredibly fast, nearly matching that of a galloping horse.
’Sigh. The water vein of an entire prefecture has been severed. This is a monumental affair. How is a lowly Seven-Star Inspector like me supposed to handle something of this magnitude?’
’And that useless Prefecture Army... they’ve spent years unable to crush those rebels who rely on Beast Blood! If they had just been willing to act decisively two years ago, they wouldn’t have let those bastards sever the Shanyang Water Vein!’
This middle-aged man was, in fact, Hui Hengli, a Seven-Star Inspector from the Great Wei Dynasty’s Observatory.
The Observatory of Great Wei was an extraordinary department within the dynasty.
Unlike ordinary civil and military officials, the Observatory did not meddle in politics; its members answered only to the Emperor of Great Wei.
Its members held a transcendent status. Although this man was only a Seven-Star Inspector, his position was far superior to that of the County Magistrate of Xiahe County.
From his words, it was clear: the severe water shortage in Shanyang Prefecture over the past few years was because its water vein had been deliberately severed!
’This village up ahead should be the last nodal point. Once this is dealt with, only the one on Mo Mountain will remain.’
’But that’s not my problem. It all depends on whether the Mansion Master of Shanyang Prefecture is willing to pay the price.’
A cold sneer crossed Hui Hengli’s face; he clearly had little respect for the Mansion Master he mentioned.
The Mansion Master of Shanyang Prefecture was one of the true governors overseeing the territories of the Great Wei Dynasty’s Two Capitals and Thirteen Prefectures.
Figures of such stature were all masters beyond the level of Qi Sensing, true powerhouses of the Martial Dao.
If he had been willing to act, the rebels on Mo Mountain would have been wiped out long ago.
He wouldn’t have let them run rampant for so long.
And in the end, those rebels used a Secret Technique to sever the Shanyang Water Vein, plunging the entire prefecture into chaos.
It was a chaotic free-for-all. If this continued, the flames of a full-blown rebellion would soon ignite.
Hui Hengli sighed and continued toward Da Liushu Village.
~~~~~~
"Zhi’Er! Zhi’Er! I need to talk to you."
Fang Yue heard his mother, Ms. Chen’s, voice call out from the courtyard before she even came into view.
"Yes, just a moment! I’m coming out."
Fang Yue had only just recovered when he saw the smoke rising from the village, so he knew something had happened.
He had gone to the main gate earlier and witnessed the whole affair.
"Zhi’Er, what do you think? Maybe we should listen to your father and move to Xiahe County Town."
"We already had thieves at our door just yesterday. In the future, there will only be more starving people. How many of them will have their eyes on our family then?"
Ms. Chen muttered through the doorway.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t understood the logic before; she simply couldn’t bear to part with their family’s assets.
"Mother, Xiahe County Town will be no different. If we have no one to protect us, it’s the same everywhere."
CREAK. The door opened, and Fang Yue walked out, having changed into a simple tunic.
"At least... at least there’s the Government Office there. Things have to be a bit more orderly with them around..."
Ms. Chen trailed off hesitantly. The next moment, her eyes fell on the short tunic Fang Yue was wearing, which left his arms exposed.
"Zhi’Er, quickly put on an overcoat! Your injuries haven’t healed yet, you’re still weak. How can you wear so little...? Wait. Zhi’Er... Zhi’Er, you’re healed? You’re standing?!!"