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Chapter 155 The Aftereffect of The War

As the governor of the Jin City, Xu Linghe’s top priority was to improve people’s livelihood. He led Zhan Ming to visit the backward areas. The war had deprived the labor forces. All the fields were deserted. They visited several peasants’ household. Except the fence walls remained complete, those adobe houses did not have doors. An old man sat at the corner, basking in the sun. Xu Linghe entered the yard, and the man woke up. The sunlight was too dazzling, and the old man squinted and shielded his eyes with his callous hands. When his cloudy eyes saw him clearly, the old man stood up hurriedly from the bamboo chair. The old man was too feeble and had to pant heavily after just taking a few steps. His grey mustache heaved as he breathed.

...

Xu Linghe came up to help the old man and could feel the old man’s greatly emaciated hands in the huge sleeves. Zhan Ming found a chair for the master to take a rest. Xu Linghe was not in the mood, and followed the old man into the room. Xu Linghe had never expected that there was such a poor family in the Jin City. Except the heatable adobe sleeping platform in it, there was nothing more. The old man was courteous to the guests and invited the guests to take a seat. Zhan Ming frowned at the dusty sleeping platform. How could the master sit there? So Zhan Ming hurried to took off his coat. Xu Linghe did not mind it, since he had even eaten the corpse in the Chaos. In Zhan Ming’s eyes, Xu Linghe was really a good city governor who cared for the people.

“At your age, your children should take care of you...” Xu Linghe wanted to know the old man’s present situation.

“My son is dead...” The old man answered with his eyes full of sorrow. In the sunlight, his wrinkled and bony hand wiped his eyes. Xu Linghe was lost for words at that moment. How many old people lost their children in the war? Raising children could prevent one from loneliness in old age. However, who could these old men rely on? Zhan Ming looked around and found that thick cobwebs hung in the vat. It seemed that the family had not cooked food for a long time. Zhan Ming felt bad, took some taels of silver from the pocket and put on the adobe platform. Xu Linghe came up with a bold idea and discussed it with Zhan Ming. The old man cleaned the dust, with his back hunched, only hoping that the guests would live more comfortably.

The two walked out of the yard to the mountains. They wanted to find some firewood before the sun went down to help the old man get warm. Xu Linghe flew to the mountaintop and cut down several huge trees and asked Zhan Ming to carry back. Zhan Ming wondered whether the master wanted to live there for a long time. Would the master try to build a house? After transporting the woods back, Zhan Ming understood the master’s intention. Xu Linghe cleaved the tree with the Spirit Power and sawed the tree into a rectangular plank. When things were settled, Zhan Ming found that it turned out to be a door plank. And the smaller pieces were made into wooden windows. Zhan Ming was skilled and deft. He bought some paints from the market town, and painted the door with purplish red color, and the wall with white mud. The windows were pasted with paper. And some thick bed quilts were placed on the adobe platform. Xu Linghe pinned the bun with a hair stick for the old man and changed the clean quilts. It was dark when things were done. The old man felt so grateful that he insisted on his benefactors having a meal together. The old man held candlelight and got busy in the house. Afraid that any accident happened to the old man, Xu Linghe followed him out of the room. The old man’s steps faltered in the candlelight. When the old man stopped his steps, Xu Linghe realized the old man’s purpose. Children in rags came out of the shabby thatched house, and the old man patted the dust on them. The boys rushed toward the old man immediately and hugged him tightly. The old man took a paper package from the arms, and opened it carefully. The children swallowed wishfully, but no one came up to grab. They shared the food orderly from young to old till all that was left was the duck bone. The old man licked the grease on the hands and put the rest duck bone into the arms. Xu Linghe watched them quietly and did not enter the yard until the old man went back to the room. Xu Linghe asked Zhan Ming to go to the market town again in order to buy a roast duck for the old man specially. The three sat on the platform and enjoyed the hot noodle soup. The old man chattered with them, mainly about his dead son and those unknown heroes. Xu Linghe could feel arduousness hid in the old man’s words and kept them in mind. As long as Xu Linghe was the governor of the Jin City, he would help his people to live a happy life.

Xu Linghe had gotten up when it got light outside. Zhan Ming helped the old man fill the water tanks up and prepare the firewood well for use in winter. Xu Linghe walked to the backyard. Those boys hid in the corner at the sight of a stranger. Afraid that he might scare the kids, Xu Linghe just stood outside the backyard. An elder boy picked himself up from the corner and hurried to hide behind the back of the old man. The old man comforted the child not to be afraid of the stranger. Xu Linghe spoke of his thought that he wanted to take the boys back to the Jin City. The old man deserved to live in ease and comfort, and it was not easy to raise a group of children.

On the day when they should return to the city, the children were reluctant to part from the old man and kept crying. Zhan Ming had to be firm with the children and took them to pass through a narrow winding trail to the Jin City.

The war left more and more refugees in the Jin City. Along the way, they could see the elders trudging with the whole family, and the youngest was just a few months old. Xu Linghe’s heart was tortured. For those in power, war was a game of authority, and the common people were always the victims. Di Qing did not care, but Xu Linghe could not sit by and feel at ease. The carriage lurched, and the children in it were curious and looked out through the windows. The beggars rushed up to the carriage immediately, because in their eyes, anyone who sat in the carriage must be a rich person.

“This cannot go on. We should think of a way...”

“Yes!” They spent a lot purchasing the quilts for the old man with little left. Zhan Ming rummaged his pocket and was just able to find some taels of silver. The old man outside the window longed for the tale, as he was holding a baby crying with hunger. Zhan Ming gave all the taels to the old man. Other beggars rushed up, grabbed the taels and ran away immediately. The old man burst into tears. The baby’s hoarse cry tore Xu Linghe’s heart. If things went on, the Jin City would be dragged down.

“The large flow of refugees will weaken our city. So we must settle down the refugees...”

“But how to settle them...” Zhan Ming was used to the situation. People were numbed in the war. In the past, the former city governor even banned the freedom to go begging and restricted them in certain areas, so as to maintain order in the Jin City. However, it brought a lot of malpractices. For example, that beggars committed homicides often happened. Zhan Ming went and saw the slum regularly throughout the year, so he fully knew the matters involved in it and hoped the city governor to solve the latent danger.

Xu Linghe was at a loss what to do. To solve the problem, several taels of silver was unable to change the current situation, and he must make substantial changes. In other words, these people should have enough food to eat. If they had fertile farmland, who would be willing to go begging? As long as the refugees were settled down, the Jin City could have a strong reserve in support. Afraid the carriage might collide into the refugees, it ambled and swung along the way. The boys had fallen into a sound sleep when they arrived at the Jin City. The soldiers at the city gate recognized Zhan Ming and hurried to open the city gate. In order to block masses of refugees, the city gate was opened at regular intervals. And then, those refugees stayed around the Jin City. But it was really a helpless move. When the carriage came in, the city gate was closed again. Xu Linghe jumped off the carriage. The soldiers gathered up at the sight of the city governor. Zhan Ming drove the carriage to his residence. These children were too young, so they should learn to read first. Zhan Ming was a learned general, different from those uninhibited martial generals. The children were woken up by the horses’ neigh, and all poked their heads out. Their eyes were widened with curiosity and timidness. Zhan Ming laughed and thought the children should see the world more often.

“Get off the carriage quickly...” A big hand uncovered the curtain, and the children jumped to the ground. The youngest got down sprawling on the ground, and rose from the ground with confusion. A steward led the horse into the side door.

“Master, you are back...” The chamberlain stood at the gate and his face darkened when he saw a group of children in rags around his lord.

“Drive these children away...” The boys were so frightened that they huddled themselves behind Zhan Ming, their eyes filled with consternation.

“Keep them in the residence from now on...”

“Master, the more mouths, the more expense. And the backyard cannot hold so many...”

“Don’t you get it?”

Zhan Ming threw a cold glance at him, and thought that the chamberlain was too old to hear clearly. The chamberlain sighed and withdrew. The group of kids followed the chamberlain to the backyard. The children did not dare to say a word with scare and looked at Zhan Ming with reluctance to leave.

“Their fathers are heroes of the Jin City. We should treat them well...”

The chamberlain’s face brightened, and he took pity on the children. He was totally unlike what he had been just now, and took on a benignant look. The innocent children became active quickly. The old chamberlain got things ready and prepared clean toilet articles for them. The children had never seen the things before, so they looked at them over and over again. A short boy saw the new bed quilt for the first time, so he got on the bed excitedly and left a black print on the new quilt. The chamberlain foamed with anger over it and asked the children to take a bath hurriedly. Besides, a barber was invited to trim the kids’ hair. They played merrily. When they cleaned themselves up and got dressed, they all looked handsome with good features and stood in front of a bronze mirror to see themselves for the first time. The chamberlain even asked a teacher to make schedules for them. Since they lost their fathers at a very young age, they needed to learn some courtesy. Zhan Family was a prominent family in the Jin City, and they could not disgrace the family’s reputation. It had been dark when the chamberlain settled the kids down. And he remembered the most important thing that he should report back to the master, so he walked out of the backyard to the study room. But the master was not in the foreyard. Someone told the chamberlain that the master had gone out.

In the Imperial Study of the Jin Palace.

Reports submitted to Xu Linghe were all about the refugees, but none of them referred to a workable method except insisting on banishing the refugees. Even Yan Shen agreed with it. It was out of Xu Linghe’s expectation. All knew where the crux was, but no one showed a willingness to solve it. Zhan Ming expressed his attitude that he strongly supported the city governor’s work. However, Yan Shen extremely deprecated Xu Linghe’s reform. The atmosphere in the Imperial Study became strained. Yan Bo stated the crucial point: there was nothing left in the national treasury, let alone allotting taels of silver to the refugees. As the master of the Jin City, Xu Linghe was still restricted by others, which made him depressed. If the Jin City did not go through reform, the city would end up perishing by itself. Xu Linghe strode out of the palace to the center of the city.

“Honorable Yan, the city governor is putting on airs with us,” an officer said. However, Zhan Ming did not like their remarks. These people got paid but just muddled along, totally unaware of the Jin City’s crisis.

Zhan Ming knew that the city owner was distressed. In the past, Zhan Ming would choose to muddle along. But after traveling to the distant place, Zhan Ming realized that the Jin City was in deadly danger.

A chilly draught shivered them. Zhan Ming followed up.

“Disappointed, right...”

“Yes! The Jin City will fall in shambles before Di Qing wages the war...”

The two stood on the tower. A soldier brought a warming bottle, but Xu Linghe refused. Below the city were lying refugees everywhere. Snow flew and stung Xu Linghe’s face. Xu Linghe flew down the city wall.

“Commander Zhan, what happened to the governor...” The soldier could not understand why the city governor did not rest in such a cold day. Zhan Ming cast a stern glance at him, and the soldier withdrew hurriedly with a scare. The city governor could not fall in danger. Zhan Ming ran out of the city gate to the refugee camps. It was not in the city. The refugees often murdered and burnt merely for food. Zhan Ming looked for the city governor from east to west, but still failed to find him. Zhan Ming got more worried.

“If we ignore the refugees, they will die...” Xu Linghe stopped at the sight of Zhan Ming. Night wind puffed away Xu Linghe’s depression. As a city governor, why did he have to take orders from others? Even Yan Shen could not dictate him. Zhan Ming stepped up and thought that the city governor did devote a lot to the Jin City.

“Your Excellency, here is not safe. We should return to the city quickly.”

The two walked back along the moat. The refugees along the road rushed up at the sight of the people dressed elegantly. Zhan Ming took out some grains of taels, and they grabbed immediately.

“It seems that if there is not adequate food, and it will be a great problem...”