Author: Potato Sweet Potato Pie

When the sun set completely, the camp where thousands of victims gathered finally started to emit smoke.

There were bonfires everywhere, illuminating the camp. As soon as the porridge was cooked, or even the water was boiled, everyone couldn't wait to drink it. They were not afraid of burning their mouths and just poured it into their stomachs as hard as they could.

Xia Yuan didn't ask these people how many days they had been hungry. Maybe they had been hungry for a while, maybe they had been hungry for two or three days. It didn't matter.

He still didn't want to ask whether anything sinful had happened under the raging hunger.

"Go and tell those people that it doesn't matter if the porridge is cooked or not, but you must wait until the water is boiled, otherwise you will get the disease."

After giving instructions, Xia Yuan used the branches in his hands to fiddle with the bonfire in front of him, and then looked at the big stone mountain.

As the leader of this camp, or the bandit leader, Shi Dashan also had no food or water for more than a day. He originally planned to take his men to other camps to see if he could grab some, but he encountered these disaster relief teams from the 'imperial court'

.

Now that he had obtained the food, he was swallowing it in large gulps when he noticed Xia Yuan's gaze and hurriedly stopped. He was already big and consumed a lot. Even though he ate a few mouthfuls, it made his stomach feel even more uncomfortable.

But he didn't dare to drink anymore, and continued to narrate: "The collapse occurred in the evening, and it was almost the time of curfew. Most of the people in the city were at home. The collapse suddenly occurred, and they had no time to escape, so they were trapped under the house.

Then the Yellow River near the city burst its banks and overflowed, and the water rushed in. The water was probably two or three feet high. Many people were swept away by the water, and there was no time to save them."

"Many people could have been saved, but when the water came in, they drowned under the house."

As he spoke, Shi Dashan's eyes filled with tears, and he actually choked up, "That's how my wife and children are young. I, I wanted to save them, but I couldn't make it in time, so they were washed away by the water. There are people in the city who are prone to water."

They can still live, but those who can't swim drowned."

"These thousands of people are probably all the people alive in the city. It's tragic, it's really tragic. In a city of 80,000 to 90,000 people, only these thousands of people are left alive."

Hearing this, Xia Yuan's nose felt a little sour, but he still looked around and asked: "Are all the victims here the surviving people in the city?"

"Originally there were nearly ten thousand people, but many died later. Some were sick, some drowned, and some starved to death. If the imperial court had not sent adults to rescue them in time, we don't know how many people would have died."

"You, Bantou Shi, are the only people from the yamen who have survived in Pucheng?"

"There are more than a dozen government officials right there." As he spoke, Shi Dashan stretched out his hand to point, and finally pointed to a place slightly farther away, "Sir, they are over there."

Xia Yuan turned around and saw that more than a dozen men were sitting there eating porridge. He quickly turned his eyes back and asked, "Where are the officials in Pucheng?"

"Originally there was a Dianshi and a county magistrate, but they both died later. The collapse came so quickly, and there was a flood behind it, so there was no time to bring food.

Within two days, everyone was so hungry that there was nothing they could do. The county magistrate said that this was not a good idea and that they had to go to the treasury in the city to get food. He took hundreds of people to the city and then drowned in it.

.”

The county magistrate's responsibility is to be in charge of a county's treasury, granary, tax collection, and files. The keys to the granary and treasury are also kept by him, either at home or in a special place. If he is not there, the rest will be kept.

No one can find the key to the granary.

In order to facilitate the preservation of grain, the granaries are all underground, and the cellar doors are the strongest and thickest. Perhaps the cellar doors of this granary were still intact after the ground collapsed.

The theory that the county magistrate was drowned is quite reasonable.

After a change of thought, Xia Yuan took his thoughts back and asked: "What about Dian Shi?"

"Dian Shi drank dirty water and later fell ill and died."

After hearing that all the officials were dead, Xia Yuan did not ask whether Shi Bantou took advantage of the opportunity or used unfair means to become the leader of the victims. Instead, he asked: "Puzhou governs six counties, except

Pucheng County, where you govern, how is the situation in other counties?"

"They were all miserable, and they were all flooded by floods, but they were not as miserable as our Pucheng, which was the most severely affected."

"Have you visited other counties?"

"Some have seen it, some haven't, but more of them have survived than me."

"."

Xia Yuan said nothing. The Pucheng government seat was originally the easternmost county seat in Puzhou. It was transferred from Shandong to the jurisdiction of Puzhou during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Going west, there were five more county seats.

In other words, there are currently about six large groups of disaster victims in Puzhou, based on their respective counties. As for the remaining small groups, such as those from the same village or those who are united by fellow townsmen, let’s not mention them for the moment.

Pucheng Administrative Region, which belongs to the epicenter area, was the most severely affected and had the fewest survivors.

The remaining five county towns are probably not much better. They are probably as dead as Pucheng.

The Yellow River passes through the country, and almost all counties are near the Yellow River. Such a large-scale landslide would shake thousands of miles and affect five provinces. There must be more than one breach of the Yellow River.

Seeing Xia Yuan deep in thought, Shi Dashan took the opportunity to drink porridge again. He drank the full jar of porridge in big gulps, and then he said: "Sir, I have a question, can I ask it?"

"explain."

"How did the imperial court learn the news so quickly?"

Hearing this, Xia Yuan asked back: "What does Bantou Shi think?"

"I thought so little."

"To be honest, sir, on the second day after the earthquake, the county magistrate sent his men to go to the capital to tell the court and the emperor that our Puzhou had suffered a disaster. But there was water everywhere, and there were shakings from time to time.

It was impossible to ride horses, the pigeon coops had collapsed, and the pigeons had no idea where they had flown.

I had to ask a few people who were good at water to carry dry food and walk all the way, but the distance alone would not be so fast."

"So you have doubts about my identity?"

"No, I don't have any, I don't have any suspicion at all."

Having said this, Shi Dashan hurriedly put the earthen pot in his hand on the ground, immediately knelt down toward the northeast, and then kowtowed: "The emperor is virtuous, and the court is virtuous."

Zhu Houzhao had just washed his hair by the river not far away, and was walking over with his long, dripping hair.

When he got closer, he saw this scene. Hearing these words, he said: "You should say that the master is virtuous and the prince is virtuous. What does it have to do with the emperor and the court?"

"Prince?"

"That's right!" Zhu Houzhao raised his head and straightened his waist as much as possible, "I am the prince!"

Shi Dashan paused, raised his head and looked at him, "You, you are His Highness the Crown Prince. How is it possible? How can His Highness the Crown Prince be like you."

Zhu Houzhao was angry and stared at him, "What is a prince? How can he be like me? How can I not be like a prince?"

Immediately, he wiped his chest vigorously with his hands. He had just laid down by the river, and there were some large water stains on his chest. Now that he wiped it with his hands, his clothes were a little dirtier, but once the mud was dissolved by the water, then

The dragon pattern on the chest is gradually revealed.

"Did you see the dragon pattern on my chest? If you are not a prince, how can you dare to wear such clothes?"

Xia Yuan could only say: "This is indeed His Highness the Crown Prince, and the doctors sitting in the shed over there are all imperial doctors in the palace."

"."

After a long silence, Shi Dashan kowtowed to the northeast again, much harder than before, "The emperor is virtuous, and the court is virtuous!"

The voice was crying and hoarse, echoing slowly under the starry sky in the wilderness.

Zhu Houzhao bared his teeth angrily, saying that he was a virtuous master and an emperor who even rode horses!

Xia Yuan looked up at the starry sky. There were no bright neon lights flashing and no air pollution.

Above the dome, the starry sky shines brilliantly, and countless stars complement each other, creating an auspicious scene.

It should be an auspicious sign.

The journey from Puzhou to the capital was more than a thousand miles, which was already a long distance in this era, and a landslide made the distance of more than a thousand miles seem like a natural chasm.

When the sky was dimming, Xiao Yan from Dongchang and the Tongzhi who stayed behind in Jinyiwei each hurriedly entered the palace with their reports and submitted them.

In the past few days, they did not know how many times they had entered the palace to report something like this. First, the Chief Envoy of Hebei Province rushed to attack, saying that there was land collapse in the territory. It was not serious, but a few counties in the west had collapsed and some people had collapsed.

There were casualties in each house, and the total number of casualties was probably hundreds.

Then the Chief Envoy of Shanxi Province reported that there was a landslide in the southeast corner, causing thousands of casualties.

What followed was the Chief Envoy of Shandong, who reported that the southwest region was severely affected by landslides. Water transportation was cut off, embankments were destroyed, and fields were flooded. Thousands of people were feared to have died in this catastrophe.

Tens of thousands of people suffered.

The situation became more serious and frightening every time. When the report from Shandong came up, His Majesty even fainted because of it. But this time, it was still the report from the Chief Envoy of Shandong, but what he handed over was

Things in Puzhou.

At this time, the sky was slightly bright, and it was already Mao hour. All civil and military officials were already standing in front of the Meridian Gate, waiting to go to court.

The entire Qianqing Palace was still brightly lit, with one hundred and eight lanterns making the entire hall bright and brilliant.

Emperor Hongzhi, who had been awake all night again, put on his court clothes, his face was sallow, his eyes were bloodshot, and even the white hair on his head suddenly grew a lot, and was soon covered by the Winged Crown.

Seeing Xiao Jing go out for a long time, then bow and return, Zhu Youtang pursed his lips and said quietly: "Let's talk, but what happened to the disaster?"

"As far as I'm concerned, your Majesty, no, there's no such thing as a disaster."

Xiao Jing lowered his head, then walked towards the squeaking charcoal stove, padded his hands with a towel, picked up the earthen pot sitting on the charcoal stove, and poured out a pot of the soup inside.

bowl.

Xiao Jing held a bowl full of soup with both hands. In order to prevent the soup from spilling, he walked slowly and carefully.

He slowly held it up to Emperor Hongzhi, and then slowly handed it to the emperor's mouth, "Your Majesty, please drink the medicine first, and I will wait for you to go to court."

Emperor Hongzhi stared at him for a long time, then lowered his head and took a sip. Then he stretched out his hand to take the medicine bowl, took a deep breath, and drank the bitter bowl of medicine in one gulp.
To be continued...