On the fifth day of April, the city of Lingqing was closed for five days.
During these ten days, the city was not at peace, as twenty-six zombie mutations occurred.
Fortunately, the officials and gentry were well prepared. They followed the imperial edict's response methods and quickly eliminated the mutated zombies, so that the "epidemic" did not spread in the city.
At this moment, Magistrate Li was standing on the city wall, looking at the zombies outside the city in a daze.
Because there were living people in Lingqing Mansion, its popularity attracted a large number of zombies and surrounded the city.
Contact with the outside of the city has been cut off. They have been waiting for ten days in a row, but they have not yet seen the official rescue, which makes the city feel even more desperate.
As time goes by, in addition to the possible zombie crisis, new problems also arise one after another.
Some people wanted to go out to find their families and clashed with the city guards; martial law in the city made many people lose their livelihoods, leading to frequent cases in the city; the government was weak and had to rely on the help of major families, but there were many conflicts between these families...
The past ten days have made Magistrate Li extremely tired, and this is just the beginning, and he only knows this.
"Futai, it's not good..."
As soon as he heard this, Magistrate Li's heart tightened. He was really afraid of hearing bad news again.
"Futai..."
Turning around and looking at the head catcher who was stumbling over, Magistrate Li frowned and said, "What's going on?"
"Master Zhang... was beaten to death by the mob!"
This news was particularly shocking to Magistrate Li, and it could be called the worst incident after the city was closed.
Mr. Zhang, who was the governor of the Yamen and a proper official of the imperial court, was beaten to death by a group of rioters. This was a great impact on the dignity of the government.
This matter must be dealt with strictly, otherwise chaos will inevitably spread and the situation will really get out of control.
Magistrate Li walked down the steps, suppressed his anger and asked, "What's going on?"
"Master Zhang was inspecting the official warehouse and was stopped by the mob and asked for food. Master Zhang refused, so..."
There is not much food in the official warehouse, but there are tens of thousands of mouths in the city. Once the people succeed in asking for food, more people will come to ask for food, and then there will be big trouble.
Thinking of this, Magistrate Li, who originally planned to go to Guancang, changed his mind.
"To deal with these mobs, we still have to rely on the big families in the city!"
The mob had killed the officials, yet Master Futai was still stunned after such a big incident happened... At this moment, the catcher was also very anxious.
"Go...send a message to all the government officials to be on strict alert, and then send someone to invite the family members of King Chen Zhou to come out!"
"Yes, little one, let's do it right now!"
Magistrate Li acted calmly, which made Xu Captou feel at ease. He was also panicking before.
In fact, all the major families in the city have also learned about the mob's killing of officials, and they are also panicking at this moment.
After all, if the mob causes chaos, it will be difficult for them to protect their property and their lives.
So when the news came from the prefect, they acted very actively. In addition to King Chen's family on Wednesday, a group of people also came, and the lobby of the government office was overcrowded for a while.
These officials and gentry, although they usually spend money and money, kept a clear mind at this moment, quickly unified their opinions, and made the decision to suppress the "mob".
They did not dare to waste time and must suppress the "mob" with thunder before they united.
After everyone dismissed the meeting, manpower was quickly arranged and many people were mobilized.
Of course, the common people who beat the officials to death all came out again after hiding for a long time without seeing the officials taking anyone.
"If we continue to be hungry like this, we will starve to death before the government comes to take people away..."
Looking to the left and right, the bearded man said: "You have a share in killing officials. This time we are robbing a big business...are you going?"
Beating an official to death was a capital crime. Soon someone weighed the pros and cons and stood beside the bearded man.
Soon, dozens of people gathered together and walked to a nearby wealthy house.
Shouting the slogan "ask for food and survive", their team was growing, and soon they had more than 200 people, most of whom were bold and young.
The feeling of starvation is unpleasant. Since someone takes the lead, there will naturally be countless people who follow.
Ten minutes later, the family they were targeting was completely destroyed by the disaster, and only the family was left crying and howling.
There was food to rob, and more people were attracted. There were almost seven or eight hundred people in the robbed mansion.
Seeing so many people coming and going, the bearded man looked thoughtful and his eyes flashed.
"Oh no, the army is here..."
"Escape..."
"Escape..."
Rioters are rioters. As soon as they hear that the army is coming, their first thought is to escape.
"Officers and soldiers? The city is under siege, where are the officers and soldiers coming from?" the bearded man shouted loudly.
"Everyone, if you robbed food and killed people, you are a mob traitor. Do you think you can escape?"
Hearing this, everyone present was stunned.
People are in panic at the moment. Being frightened by a bearded man like this makes everyone feel very frightened.
"If you were caught by officers and soldiers and wanted to beheaded, even if you escaped, how many days would you be able to survive with the little food you grabbed?"
After listening to the bearded man talking a lot, someone couldn't help but ask: "Then what do you think we should do?"
Looking at everyone, the bearded man said coldly: "If you want to survive, there is only one way, drive away the officers and soldiers and continue to grab food!"
Then someone said: "How can we defeat the army?"
Some people ran away while they were talking, but those who stayed behind were the brave ones. They had already had the idea of voting for the bearded man's proposal.
"The officers and soldiers? They are just government officials. How many people can they have? How many people do we have?"
"Brothers, it's still the same sentence... If we don't resist, we will only die. It's just that we will die sooner or later!"
Lifting the butcher's knife in his hand, the bearded man said louder and louder: "It belongs to me, so just follow me and fight out. If you win the battle against the government and big families, all the food will belong to our brothers!"
The reason is actually very simple. Most people present can figure it out. If you don't want to die, you have to go.
"Damn it, fight with them..."
"Anyway, I'm going to die anyway, so I'll go with you!"
For a time, the crowd was excited and everyone was looking for someone.
"I'll go call more people..."
Ten minutes later, when people from the Yamen and the gentry arrived, they fell directly into an ambush by the bearded man.
The bearded man gathered more than 500 people, waiting for work and supported by the same enemy, and soon defeated the temporarily formed "official army" and fled.
Of course, the first batch of "official troops" who arrived were not the full strength of the officials and gentry, but the first confrontation really hurt them.
"The mob has started an uprising. There are only five or six hundred people. If it is not suppressed as soon as possible... I'm afraid it will spread quickly and it will be difficult to exterminate it!"
At this moment, all the gentry were in shock.
"My family can have two hundred people..."
"My family can afford one hundred and fifty..."
"My family can afford..."
At this time, the gentry no longer dared to hold back, so they all mobilized.
"There are only a few people, but one must have the courage to fight!"
"You have to tell your men that the mob committed murder, arson, rape, robbery, and all kinds of evil. If they don't want their families to be destroyed, they must fight tooth and nail..."
Magistrate Li looked serious. He didn't want to gather a bunch of people and give others their lives in vain.
Just because he also knows that if he loses again this time, the government's prestige will be really ruined, and the situation in the city will be completely out of control.
