Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 498: Chapter 457: Profound Benevolence and Thick Virtue Nourish Tens of Millions of People in Liaodong!

Regardless of the doctors’ suspicions, as refugees entered Chongshan Town, the entire town shifted into full operational mode.

From the General Mansion at the top, to the government offices in various places, down to the soldiers in every garrison and garrison fortress, except for Five Camps and the West Road, almost everyone had tasks to attend to.

The Five Camps were the most important combat force in Chongshan Town. To prevent any further incidents, Yang Zhenshan did not deploy the Five Camps.

As for the West Road of Chongshan Town, to the south of the West Road was Liaoxi, and since no drought occurred in Liaoxi this time, naturally, there were no refugees entering the West Road of Chongshan Town.

Therefore, the currently most idle places were the West Road of Chongshan Town, but they were responsible for defending against the Wuliang Hu Clan from the west, thus, although idle, their situation was not relaxed.

Meanwhile, almost all the rescue camps on other routes participated in the refugee escort mission.

A large number of refugees, escorted by soldiers from the rescue camps, entered the Northern lands, with the first batch of about eight hundred households being settled north of Fuzhou City, in several newly built villages.

These newly built villages were actually quite crude; each household only having three main rooms and two side rooms, along with a kitchen. The yards were planned, but to save time, no walls were built around them.

The houses were also made of the most ordinary mud bricks, with nothing in the rooms except for a heated brick bed and stove stand, making the conditions very simple.

However, even so, the refugees who came here were very satisfied.

At the least, they had food in their hands and a place to shelter, and most importantly, there was no shortage of water.

After the refugees were settled, there were still ongoing management tasks.

Yang Zhenshan assigned the management of the refugees to the soldiers stationed in the garrisons and those from the rescue camps.

A Hundred Households was responsible for ten villages, with five soldiers assigned to each village to manage refugees, allocate barren lands and resources, and help the refugees adapt to their new homes.

The remaining soldiers were responsible for transporting supplies to these villages, and then each households reserved a small number of soldiers for emergencies.

In this way, batch after batch of refugees were sent to the Northern lands, and soon refugees who migrated from Dongyang Prefecture were settled.

However, the reception and settlement of refugees were not yet finished. By August, more and more refugees began pouring into Chongshan Town.

Of course, even more refugees moved towards Jizhou and Shanhe Province.

At the end of August,

The central and northern areas of Ping Yuan already showed a desolate sight of barren land stretching a thousand miles, with dry cracked earth everywhere, devoid of any slight hue of green.

Many shabbily dressed refugees were still migrating along the official roads, and dried corpses could be seen everywhere along the roadside.

The horror and cruelty of the natural disaster were unveiled before everyone’s eyes.

Countless human tragedies were unfolding.

At the same time, many evil spirits were openly plundering the last of the refugee’s wealth.

Outside Jizhou City, a large number of refugees gathered.

Rows of porridge-serving stalls were set up, with a large number of old women bustling among the refugees.

The old women, one of the types known as ”dentists” who profited by brokering the sale of humans.

Such times of great disaster were when these old women were most active.

They would aid the suffering people in selling their sons and daughters.

To say ’aid’ might seem somewhat inappropriate!

But that was indeed the case!

Although their actions seemed despicable, some refugees only had the chance to survive by selling their children.

This kind of consensual transaction was beyond the control of the government office.

If you don’t allow them to sell their son and daughters, should you just watch them starve to death?

Beneath the great disaster, the lines between good and evil become blurred.

On the city walls,

Ji Zhen and Ji Hai stood with hands behind their backs, watching the densely packed refugees outside the city, their expressions grave.

”How much grain do we still have?”

A gentle breeze fluttered Ji Zhen’s snow-white beard.

Ji Hai said gravely, ”Less than a thousand stones!”

The Hengdao Sect was wealthy, but it couldn’t support so many refugees outside the city.

Not just the Hengdao Sect, even the Prefectural Government was barely coping.

The influx of refugees into Jizhou was even greater than those heading to Chongshan Town. Even though Luo Ren had prepared early in Jizhou, the reality of food shortage could not be changed.

Yang Zhenshan had saved over three million stones of grain over half a year, while the court only allocated one million stones for disaster relief. Faced with millions of refugees, one million stones of grain was merely a drop in the bucket.

At this moment, on the canal docks to the south of the city, countless ships were transporting refugees across the river.

Jizhou was already unable to provide further relief to more refugees, and could only let refugees head to Shanhe Province to find a way to survive.

”Ah~~” Ji Zhen sighed, ”Go pick some disciples.”

”How many should I pick?” Ji Hai’s face showed helplessness.

There were many who had joined the Hengdao Sect, not eight thousand then at least five thousand in Jizhou, but only about three hundred actually belonged to the Hengdao Sect.

Due to the court’s limit on martial ordinances, there’s a limit on how many disciples a sect could recruit.

Like the Sky Blue Sword Sect which had only dozens of disciples, Hengdao Sect, being stronger, should not exceed three hundred.

So, most disciples without exceptional talents would leave the sect after few years of training.

”Pick three hundred, let them stay as servants within the sect!”

”Also, tell those in the human brokers to not sell below three dou of rice!”

Ji Zhen spoke softly.

Three dou of rice was the price for a person!

In fact, now outside the city, a child’s price was not even worth one dou of rice.

You could even exchange a child for a few steamed buns!

The Hengdao Sect’s word was not to be defied by the brokers, but the Hengdao Sect could not be too oppressive, for if these brokers refused to trade food for people, even more would starve.