Yun Ci smiled. “You didn’t see it?”
“But I did. I saw vitality everywhere. I saw the Han people rise again. I saw the realm unified.”
His voice grew low. “When you truly face a land ravaged by war, with corpses strewn across the wilderness and cities slaughtered in the flames of battle, some things you once insisted on upholding no longer seem worth holding on to. They don’t seem so important anymore.”
Hua Yuanyi fell silent. How could he not have seen the ruin and brokenness of this world? More than anything, he felt helpless and powerless, as though there was nothing he could do.
But in Fengzhou, he had seen hope.
Princess Jinyang, Zhou Sui, Yun Ci, Yao Ji… Every single person here was doing their best, striving to change this shattered world.
He thought of the rows upon rows of gravestones in the Martyrs’ Cemetery, stretching as far as the eye could see.
In the end, the white of this world would have to be washed clean with blood.
At the Yuxian County Office, Tian Erniang looked at the people before her with an apologetic expression. “I’m truly sorry, but we can’t accept your relocation here.”
She had never imagined that she would one day become an official. After Ze’a Commandery was conquered, she had been transferred to Yuxian County.
Since her daughter Feng’en was attending school in Gefeng, she had not brought her along.
But Feng’en was only ten, and Tian Erniang was uneasy about leaving her to live alone. So she had her stay with Tian Cuihua instead. The two families had bought houses next door to each other, so it was convenient enough.
Speaking of houses, both she and Tian Cuihua had purchased theirs with loans, and they were still making mortgage payments every month.
Sister Cuihua now worked in the industrial district, and her wages were no lower than Tian Erniang’s. However, working for the county government came with better benefits. For instance, they were issued military coats in winter.
She often thought of Erya. If Erya were still alive, that would be wonderful. She would surely have loved these good days.
“How can you refuse us? You accept refugees, so why won’t you accept the people of Zhuangchang County?”
The speaker was a woman in her thirties. She did not look old, but her face was already deeply lined, and her body was thin and frail.
Behind her stood a stooped old woman and two children. All of them were emaciated, their eyes timid and fearful.
Tian Erniang felt a pang of sorrow. She remembered what she herself had looked like when she first fled Gefeng. But there was nothing she could do.
“These are the regulations from above. It’s not that we absolutely can’t accept you, but you need the approval of the Zhuangchang County government and an official permit to transfer your household registration.”
The Jinyang Army and Daqing Army were now cooperating. Jiang Jin naturally would not fall out with Lu You over a small number of civilians, which was why this rule had been put in place.
The woman dropped to her knees with a thud. “We went to the county office, but they refused to let us leave. That’s why… We only came because we had no way to survive. Please, I’m begging you!”
All the able-bodied men in her family were gone. The only person left who could work was herself.
Zhuangchang County was also repairing its city walls and hiring laborers, but it only wanted able-bodied men. No one would hire a woman like her.
She had heard that the territory controlled by the Jinyang Army was not only repairing cities but also building all kinds of workshops. They hired female workers, and women could even join the army or become officials.
More importantly, anyone who obtained household registration in Jinyang territory could receive ration tickets, which could be used to buy grain at prices several times lower than those in Zhuangchang County.
The two counties clearly bordered each other, yet one was heaven while the other was hell.
Tian Erniang hurriedly rose and helped the woman up. “Don’t do that. We don’t kneel at the slightest thing here. Come on, get up.”
After tugging and pulling, she finally managed to get the woman back on her feet.
“It’s not that I’m unwilling to make an exception. But if everyone did this, we’d have no way to explain it to our superiors.”
Just as the woman was sinking into despair, a man spoke up.
“What if… what if I married someone from Yuxian County? Could my household registration be transferred here then?”
He, too, wanted to move to Yuxian County.
As relations between Lu You’s forces and Jiang Jin’s forces gradually eased—especially after both Zhuangchang County and Yuxian County had been conquered—the people on both sides had more and more contact with one another.
The Daqing civilians, who had previously known nothing about life in Jiang Jin’s territory, were collectively stunned.
So there was another way to live in this world.
So ordinary people could go to school, become officials in the county government, work in workshops, afford to eat rice, raise children, and even buy houses…
The woman’s eyes lit up. Of course! If she married someone from Yuxian County, her household registration could naturally be transferred along with her husband’s.
But where was she supposed to find a man from Yuxian County willing to marry her?
Tian Erniang glanced at the man. He looked to be around twenty, still in the prime of his strength.
Noticing her gaze, the man grew nervous, but he still summoned his courage and said, “I—I can marry into a woman’s family. As long as someone is willing to have me.”
“However, you’ll have to let me bring my niece with me.” He pulled over a little girl standing nearby. “She’s my only family.”
Tian Erniang said, “If you marry, then naturally you can transfer your household registration. But you’ll have to find a suitable partner first.”
The next day, several groups of refugees arrived in Yuxian County. They claimed to have fled famine from various villages, saying that they had all lost their household-registration documents.
At first, Tian Erniang did not think much of it. Gradually, however, she noticed something strange—especially when she spotted the man and woman from the previous day among the crowd.
She frowned and quickly reported the matter to her superiors.
Before long, a reply came back: Accept them.
A relieved smile appeared on her face, and she began processing their documents.
This was probably what people meant by finding a way around the rules from above while carrying them out below.
Many of these civilians had originally fled from other places or been captured and brought to Zhuangchang County, Tao County, and other areas. After Jiang Jin and Lu You cooperated to conquer those places, the civilians had been registered under territories controlled by Lu You.
Now, all they had to do was destroy their current household-registration documents and claim to be refugees. If anyone asked, they could say where they had originally been registered and insist that they had merely lost their documents.
Given the current state of war, no one knew whether anyone would actually return to their hometowns to verify their stories. And even if someone did, they had nothing to fear—their claims were true.
Since the civilians had already thought of such a solution, Luo Qingci naturally chose to turn a blind eye. After all, their liege was desperately short of people.
Rather than leaving them under Lu You’s rule to shiver in the cold, starve, or even die, it was better to bring them here to work for their liege.
Rules were dead, but people were alive. As long as they maintained appearances and did not put their liege in a difficult position, that was enough.
Lu You took one sip of wine after another.
Jiang Jin had recently proposed opening trade between the two sides, and he was troubled by it.
“I think the princess’s idea is excellent,” Jin Feng said while eating a sweet potato. “Let her people come here to do business.”
“Although they won’t be selling grain, their clothing, fabrics, tables, chairs, coal, and other goods are genuinely useful. They’d make life much more convenient for our people.”
There were wealthy people in Daqing. They might not care much about coal or clothing, but glass furniture and similar goods would certainly be popular.
Li Zan rubbed his forehead. Did the general really not understand that?
Of course he understood.
If the princess’s glass tables, chairs, coal, and other goods entered Daqing, money would flow endlessly into the princess’s pockets. You fool!
That was not even the most important issue. Now that the two sides had begun exchanging goods, the civilians were already restless—not only in the recently conquered Tao and Zhuangchang Counties, but even in Daqing Commandery itself.
The only reason the princess had not accepted Daqing civilians seeking refuge was that she still cared about maintaining their cooperation. Otherwise, within a few days, all the people of Daqing would have left.
And at a critical moment like this, you’re suggesting that the princess’s people come here to do business? Are you afraid our people aren’t fleeing quickly enough?
That alone would have been bad enough, but the soldiers of Daqing were growing restless as well.
Ever since Jin Feng had joined the Jinyang army in attacking Lin County, he had done nothing but sing their praises, boasting about how formidable they were and all the generous benefits they offered.
Before, the soldiers had been only half-convinced. But this time, after working alongside the Jinyang army to attack the three coastal counties, they had experienced firsthand the army’s astonishing equipment—and the lavish meals they never would have dared dream of.
Faced with such a stark contrast, it was only natural for morale to become unsettled.
