Qiu Dao remained busy until evening before finally stepping out of the tent. He stretched his back, realizing that it had been a long time since he had been this occupied.
In the distance, the hard-working soldiers of the Jinyang Army were bathed in the gentle glow of the setting sun, standing out especially vividly against the devastation of the disaster-stricken area.
A faint smile appeared on his face. These tangible efforts to save the people brought a trace of warmth to his heart.
But soon, his expression turned solemn. There seemed to be far more refugees now than before.
Besides the soldiers of the Jinyang Army, quite a few commoners were helping prepare the food.
Just then, Suo Qian emerged from a nearby tent. Seeing him, he greeted him with a smile. “Lord Qiu, you’ve worked hard.”
Qiu Dao shook his head. “I haven’t really done much.”
He genuinely felt that he had done very little. He had merely followed Suo Qian’s instructions to identify the patients and place them in the appropriate areas according to the severity of their illnesses. The prescriptions had all been issued by Suo Qian’s side.
Qiu Dao looked into the distance and asked in confusion, “Why are you letting the commoners help as well?”
Suo Qian stroked his beard. “If the commoners lend a hand, our soldiers can take care of other matters. After all, we have limited manpower.”
They had selected a group of able-bodied men to help cook, clear the surrounding area, and maintain sanitation. That allowed the soldiers of the Jinyang Army time to investigate the situation nearby.
Qiu Dao understood at once. “You’re breaking camp and heading to other areas tomorrow?”
Suo Qian nodded. “Exactly.”
Qiu Dao was about to say something when he saw a crowd of commoners in the distance, stumbling along behind the soldiers as they hurried toward the camp.
He let out a sigh. “There are more and more refugees. Do you really have enough grain?”
Suo Qian smiled. “The twenty thousand shi of grain was only the first shipment. More is on the way, so you don’t need to worry about the food.”
The night passed without incident. As soon as the first pale light appeared on the horizon, a somewhat distorted voice rang out from a loudspeaker in the refugee area.
“The Jinyang Army is now recruiting guards! Applicants must be between sixteen and twenty-five years old. Both men and women are welcome, provided they are in good health. In addition to two meals a day, each person will receive two jin of grain every day!”
“Those who are willing, come here to register. You must bring proof of household registration. Anyone who does not meet the requirements, do not come!”
The announcement caused an uproar among the refugees.
Two jin of grain every day?
A large number of refugees immediately surged toward the registration area.
When the soldier holding the loudspeaker saw that quite a few elderly people were running over as well, he issued another warning.
“Anyone who does not meet the requirements, do not come and interfere with our work. Otherwise, don’t blame us for being impolite and driving you away!”
There was no other choice. The number of refugees here was growing rapidly.
If everyone came forward, the soldiers would have to spend a great deal of time merely checking their qualifications. They were already short-handed to begin with.
After hearing the stern warning, those hoping to fish in troubled waters stopped in their tracks. All they could do was watch as the qualified applicants quickly formed an orderly line.
Watching the line of commoners become organized in barely a dozen breaths, Qi Pingwei exclaimed, “You’ve practically trained these people into soldiers.”
Then he changed the subject. “But will recruiting commoners as guards really work?”
Xie Nanxiao glanced at him. “Why wouldn’t it? We originally thought Sizhou would send people to assist us with disaster relief. Who could have imagined that you would bring only two thousand men? Now that we’re short-handed, we have no choice but to recruit some able-bodied youths to help maintain order.”
He was not recruiting them merely to maintain order. More importantly, they would help deal with any crises that might arise later.
This time, he intended to recruit two thousand people, with no more than one person taken from each household. Two thousand people meant two thousand families.
Assuming an average of five people per family, that represented more than ten thousand people.
If the Jinyang Army encountered a crisis in Tao Commandery, these families, who were receiving grain from them, would most likely stand on the Jinyang Army’s side and help defend it.
He looked toward the soldiers conducting the screening in the distance. According to his instructions, they would give preference to people in better physical condition, families with more members, and ideally households with more than one able-bodied adult.
The two thousand recruits were selected quickly. Those who had not been chosen could only leave reluctantly.
Those who had been selected were taken to an open stretch of land, where they began intensive training.
A quarter of an hour later, each of the two thousand recruits was given a strip of red cloth and instructed to tie it around their heads. In an instant, they had become the Jinyang Guard Corps.
Before long, led by soldiers from the Jinyang Army, the guards headed to a nearby hillside to cut wood.
Xie Nanxiao could not possibly give the guards weapons. They had not brought enough weapons with them, so all they could do was go up the mountain and cut wooden poles to use instead.
Why did the guards need weapons in the first place? What sort of guard had nothing to defend with?
By the time the sun shone over Bilan City’s walls, the Guard Corps had finally returned from the mountain.
Each of them carried a wooden club of roughly the same size. The sunlight fell across their solemn faces, dispersing some of the gloom brought by the floods.
At a glance, they looked rather imposing.
Seeing that the disaster-relief camp was gradually taking shape, Xie Nanxiao mounted his horse. He was preparing to head to the next county to provide aid.
Seeing this, Wen Zixin hurried out of the city.
“Why are you leaving?” he asked, looking up at Xie Nanxiao on horseback.
Xie Nanxiao lowered his gaze. “Didn’t you see that we left soldiers here?”
Wen Zixin said, “What can one or two thousand soldiers accomplish?”
Xie Nanxiao was speechless. “I’m not here to attack Sizhou. Why would I leave so many men behind?”
He sighed. “The people in this area have been saved, but who knows how many others are still trapped and starving elsewhere? I can’t put my mind at ease.”
Wen Zixin’s lips trembled. Only after a moment did he say, “I’ll go with you.”
It was not that he wanted to go. His mission this time was to keep an eye on the Jinyang Army, especially its leader.
Xie Nanxiao had no objection. “Then follow us.”
On the city wall, the county lieutenant watched Xie Nanxiao and the others depart, then looked down at the ever-growing yet orderly crowd below. His expression was complicated.
“I never expected Princess Jinyang to actually spend real money to save people. Look at the porridge they’re serving—it’s so thick that even ordinary people in a year of plenty couldn’t afford to eat like this.”
The county magistrate ground his teeth. “That only proves that Fengzhou is wealthier than we imagined. And yet Princess Jinyang cries poverty to His Majesty every day.”
The county lieutenant sighed as he looked at the people outside the city. “There must be thirty or forty thousand refugees by now. There will probably be many more arriving today. Feeding them will require ten to twenty thousand jin of grain a day—and that’s only for Bilan.”
The amount of grain being consumed was enough to make even him tremble with alarm.
Outside the Zhang family’s fortified compound in Xiao County, more than a thousand commoners knelt on the ground.
“Please, Steward Zhang, give us some grain! Next year, we’ll continue farming for the lord and pay even more rent. We’re begging you!”
Steward Zhang was around thirty years old and had a plump, prosperous-looking face, but there was not the slightest trace of compassion in his expression.
“Our lord has suffered from the floods as well and sustained tremendous losses. We have no ability to help you.”
“And you still have to hand over this year’s rent. Our lord is benevolent—he only requires you to pay seventy percent of what you owed in previous years.”
The commoners were stunned.
A thin man kneeling at the front cried out, “The fields have been destroyed. We have nothing left. How are we supposed to pay the rent?”
His name was Qi Da. He was the village headman of one of the villages that worked for the Zhang family. He was only thirty-nine years old, yet his face was already etched with deep lines.
Steward Zhang looked down at him. “That is your problem. You rented my Zhang family’s land. What you planted and how much you harvested are none of our concern. My Zhang family only collects the rent that was agreed upon.”
Qi Da’s eyes widened. “The floods destroyed every field this year. Our home was swept away too, and my family even lost two people. How—how are we supposed to pay the rent?”
