Chapter 9 Qingzhou
There is great hunger in old age, and people eat each other.

The common people struggled to survive during the famine, and only a few short words were recorded in history books.

But as they walked along, this picture gradually became clearer in Gu Qingyuan's mind.

The bark was gone from the trees beside the road. Some of the sparse victims were lying on the ground waiting to die, while others were moving step by step to see if they could go to the city to beg for food. Bones were exposed in the wild, and no roosters crowed for thousands of miles. These people and these things weighed heavily on Gu Qingyuan's heart.

There is a difference between reading history books and facing a tragedy head-on. With all the tragic scenes before him, Gu Qingyuan couldn't help but feel compassion, which is also human nature.

"Is this how they live?" Gu Qingyuan said.

"They have no choice. Those who always talk about the people never care about the people. Those who talk about the country and the people only care about whether their own positions are stable. No one cares about the life and death of the common people. They only say that for the sake of the country and the people, they will make the people suffer." Huang Xu said with a gloomy face.

Gu Qingyuan turned to face Huang Xu and said, "It's easy to solve the problem of one person, but how can I solve the problem of millions of people suffering? I know you have great talent, so please help me."

After saying this, he bowed.

Looking at Gu Qingyuan's sincere face, Huang Xu's cold eyes slowly became gentle. He accepted Gu Qingyuan's greeting, patted Gu Qingyuan's hand and said, "Your benefactor is righteous, and I will definitely live up to your trust."

Suddenly, a group of officials came rushing over.

"The county magistrate has ordered that the victims are not allowed to approach Donglai City. Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed."

The officer in front raised his hand and shouted, and the dozen or so officers behind him scattered and drove away the victims.

"What is this, food? Give it to you!" The official in soap uniform was sharp-eyed and pulled out a cloth bag from the arms of a disaster victim beside him.

"Officer, officer, you can't do this. This is my life-saving food." The victim cried and grabbed the officer's trouser leg tightly.

"Go to hell! You're attacking a public official, your crime is even more serious, you must be brought to justice immediately!" The officer kicked the victim away and drew his sword with a clang, blood was splattered on the spot.

Gu Qingyuan narrowed his eyes, opened his hands, and the true energy formed a large bow in his hands, with a long green arrow on it.

whoosh-

Suddenly a wind blew up, and the green arrow shot the long sword in half.

The officer seemed to know the goods and realized that the trick was difficult to deal with, so he ran away crawling.

Gu Qingyuan did not chase after them. Under the current situation, killing a few pawns was useless. Besides, they would probably not survive the night. He turned and looked at Huang Xu.

Huang Xu nodded, turned around and looked at the Donglai City wall that was right in front of him, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if a knife flashed.

"Dingshan." Huang Xu had a cold look on his face.

"Here!" Zhao Dingshan, who had long since been unable to suppress his anger, responded.

"Go into the city and find out what the officials are doing. If there are any who are just sitting there doing nothing but enriching themselves, kill them." Huang Xu uttered that word like a chilly wind. "Then you can integrate the people and see how many are available. If they refuse to obey, kill them too."

"Dingshan obeys the order." Zhao Dingshan in white robe obeyed the order and left. Who knows, this white robe might be stained with blood today.

"My benefactor," Huang Xu bowed to Gu Qingyuan, "I need you to write down the salt-making method and other techniques without missing a single detail. I will contact a few old friends to work on it together. They are quite wealthy, and I will ask them to transport some money and grain for emergency use. When the complete technique is revealed, we can make money from money and solve the problem in Qingzhou."

"Okay, I'll write it right away." Gu Qingyuan agreed quickly.

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Huang Xu sat at the head of the table, holding a sword, his scholar robe stained with blood. Behind him stood Zhao Dingshan, and in front of him were the wealthy merchants of Qingzhou City kneeling densely. "I summoned you all here today to solve the troubles in Qingzhou." Huang Xu stroked the head on the table. It was the head of the head of the Chen family, the leader of the Qingzhou scholars.

"I won't say much nonsense. I still ask you to contribute money and effort to overcome the difficulties together. Thank you very much." After saying this, Huang Xu bowed deeply.

The wealthy merchants kneeling in the audience looked at each other, and an old man took the lead in speaking: "I am Chen Zhong, the president of Qingzhou Chamber of Commerce. It is our blessing to contribute to Qingzhou." He glanced at the head on the table with eyes wide open, and shuddered: "I am willing to serve you, sir."

Huang Xu lightly took out a piece of paper from his bosom, and when he came to Chen Zhong, he said, "Don't accuse me of robbing you. This is a deposit. You have to pay it back. I won't miss a single penny."

Chen Zhong glanced at the words on the paper, his pupils trembled, and he bowed his head and said, "I will do my best for you, sir. If there are any mistakes, I am willing to be beheaded."

After everyone left, Huang Xu stood up, ignoring the blood on his hands, and pressed his temple: "We are short of people!"

Huang Xu knew that the situation in Qingzhou was difficult, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult. Since the disaster, more than 120 counties in the six prefectures of Qingzhou have been affected, and the victims have been displaced. The governor of Donglai County ordered the city to be closed, and now the victims can only stay outside the city and wait for death. The price of grain in the city has risen again and again, and the rich grain merchants are hoarding goods. The people in the city have money but can't buy grain. Even three or four out of ten officials have run away. Presumably, the other six counties are not much better. Qingzhou is like a powder keg, and all it needs is a fuse to blow everyone up.

Huang Xu thought about the officials who were now being held in the county magistrate's office by him, rubbed his temples, turned around and ground ink and added pens.

"Brother Fang, I respectfully pay my respects to you..."

"Brother Jian, I have something to ask of you..."

Huang Xu sealed each letter and asked someone to send it to various places.

"What a troubled time!" Huang Xu couldn't help but sigh as he watched the messenger walking away.

Gu Qingyuan was very busy at this moment, sorting out his own odds and ends.

Compared to the talent of extreme comprehension, the talent of picking up rules is even more amazing.

It is completely unreasonable to pick up things. A few days ago, Gu Qingyuan even picked up half of a Qi training technique. I don’t know which immortal cultivation world it is from.

"Spoon, useless. Honeycomb briquettes, too little, useless. What is this? Fur of an unknown animal. When did I pick it up?" Gu Qingyuan was confused as he flipped through the pile of junk. "This is useless too. Wait, this!"

Gu Qingyuan held the round object as if he was on a pilgrimage.

"You mean, this thing produces dozens of stones per mu?" Huang Xu asked dizzily, holding the potatoes in his hand.

He had just killed someone when Gu Qingyuan called him over and said he wanted to show him a big treasure.

It was indeed a great treasure, Huang Xu couldn’t help but tremble.

"I don't know the details. You don't have any fertilizers here. Just give it a try. It's easy to grow. Wait for it to sprout, then cut it into small pieces, with two or three buds on each piece. It will be mature in three or four months." Gu Qingyuan said while reminiscing. Who would read novels seriously and remember these messy things?

Fertilizer? Fertilizer? Let's try it later. Huang Xu thought to himself and took Zhao Dingshan away at the same time. This was a good omen. If someone took it away, Huang Xu would be killed on the spot.

Gu Qingyuan finally calmed down. He thought clearly that he intervened in this matter because he couldn't bear it and wanted to help, but everything has its limits. It is absolutely impossible to sacrifice his own interests for the sake of the disaster victims.

Do the work according to your ability. If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Who does Gu Qingyuan think he is? He doesn't care about the rest and just wants peace of mind.

Next, I should focus on breaking through my strength.

Gu Qingyuan thought to himself.

(End of this chapter)