C143 officialdom

"Haha, Pavilion Master is still this careful. You discovered me the moment I arrived." Qiu Canghai's candid laughter sounded out, as he said half jokingly.

"Since you've come, why haven't you come out yet? Could it be that you want to eavesdrop on my embarrassing situation?" Gongsun Zaitian did not mind, and similarly replied jokingly.

"How would I dare? Isn't this the same as seeing young master being accompanied by beautiful women?" Qiu Canghai hurriedly found an excuse to say that, he did not want his master to be concerned about him, if he was pulled to attend some abnormal special training one day, feared that he would not even have a place to cry.

"In the future, she will be our comrade, my newly appointed Hall Master of Qiong Tian Hall, Qiong Yu. In the future, Qiong Yu will be in charge of my safety, at the same time, he will pass down my orders, and all the information that he has to give to me will be passed to her for analysis, and then he will report to me, is there a problem? " Gongsun Ztian gave a simple introduction and then assigned the mission to Qiong Yu.

"This is Qiu Canghai, he is currently the Vice Pavilion Master of Listening Rain Pavilion, the hall master of Hanhai Hall and my right-hand man. Also, the head of the Netherworld Kingdom's Hall, Huang Quan, is going to the Imperial Capital to introduce the both of you to each other. Currently, Listening Rain Pavilion is ? " Gongsun Ze Tian introduced Qiu Canghai, who was at the side, and briefly introduced the organization structure and related matters.

"In the future, all of you must sincerely cooperate. I believe that one day, our Listening Rain Pavilion will stand at the top of the continent, and stand above all other heroes!" Gongsun Ze Tian said in a magnanimous tone.

"This subordinate will do his best!" Qiong Yu quickly entered into a meditative state and answered along with Qiu Canghai.

"Haha, very good. Oh right, Canghai, how are the arrangements for us to move into the capital? " Gongsun Ztian asked.

"Pavilion Master, don't worry. Everything is proceeding step by step. Moreover, a portion of the people have already entered the imperial city. Once the Pavilion Master has entered, he will await his orders." Qiu Canghai answered as he began to make the necessary arrangements.

"Very good, I am at ease with Canghai's work." Gongsun Ztian praised.

"Haha, Pavilion Master, don't praise me anymore! I will be shy in front of beauties! " Canghai also joked.

"That's enough, don't be so talkative. Hurry back and start collecting food. We'll be arriving here as soon as possible to provide relief. The imperial government won't be able to count on us for that time. They can only rely on us to think of a solution." Gongsun Ztian ordered once again as he gave a brief explanation of the current situation.

"That's a lot of money!" Qiu Canghai thought for a while, then spoke up to remind Gongsun Zaitian, especially now that the Listening Rain Pavilion was preparing to go all out to the capital, and was spending a lot of money to buy food. At this critical juncture, if he used a lot of money to purchase food, it would probably cause the Listening Rain Pavilion to cramp a little, which would be very dangerous for a huge clan like the Listening Rain Pavilion.

"Money is good, let me think of a way. The key point is not to let those grain merchants raise prices. That way, no matter how much money you put in, it won't be enough. You have to grasp this well." Gongsun Ze Tian thought for a while, then said out loud, and told Qiu Canghai the most important thing he needed to pay attention to.

"Yes, Pavilion Master, please be at ease. With the help of our Listening Rain Pavilion's people, those rice shop owners will not dare to raise our prices, unless they don't want to do business anymore." Qiu Canghai said confidently, as though he was patting his chest as a guarantee.

The Listening Rain Pavilion did indeed have this kind of confidence and ability. Just because the imperial government could not do something, it did not mean that the martial arts powers could not do it. It was no wonder that Qiu Canghai looked so confident.

"That's right. Also, gather some medicinal herbs for me. Stars Blue, Frigid Arrows Grass, Green Dragon Ginseng, Thousand Golden Vines, Nine-tailed Dragon Sunflower, Sesame Grass, Cloud Rain Flower..." Gongsun Ze Tian said the names of dozens of medicinal herbs in one go, and also explained in detail the appearance and effects of some of the more unfamiliar medicinal herbs, in order for Qiu Canghai to not get it wrong.

"Understood, but Pavilion Master, what do you need so many medicinal herbs for?" Qiu Canghai asked with suspicion.

However, neither of the two men noticed that when Qiong Yu, who was at the side, heard Gongsun Zeze, who was mentioning the name of the medicinal herb, his body involuntarily shook for a moment before returning to normal. However, that was also normal for his body. At this moment, his heart was churning violently. Just as he had pledged his allegiance to him, he could already remember his own matters.

Suddenly, Qiong Yu felt touched, she wanted to cry, but held back. However, what she didn't notice was that while she was inexplicably touched, her heart that had been sealed for a long time had a crack that couldn't be detected due to this throbbing.

"Make a mask!" Gongsun Ztian casually replied.

"What?" Qiu Canghai was completely dumbfounded by Gongsun Zhaitian's words.

On the second day, Situ Family's convoy set off, continuing their journey towards the imperial capital. However, there were still some people left behind who were responsible for food and disaster relief.

In the slowly moving carriage, Gongsun Ztian was eating some fruits as he casually asked his mother: "Mother, is the next destination Fengyang County?"

"That's right. We'll definitely pass by this place on our way to the capital. It's also a large city, so we can provide some supplies." Murong Fenghuang patiently explained to her son.

"But how many days will you be there?" Gongsun Zaitian continued to question.

"He should be staying for a few days!" "After all, we are on a long journey and may not meet many large cities of this scale on the way here. Although this place is a disaster, there should still be enough supplies in the big cities, so it does not affect our purchasing." Murong Fenghuang smiled as she looked at his son and continued to answer his question.

"Then why don't these refugees go to the city and beg for their lives? Instead, you risked your life to rob us? " Gongsun Zaitian was somewhat puzzled. He protected the city and did not beg for food. Instead, he used his death to exchange for a certain amount of food.

"Hey, they have to pay a fee to enter the city. Do you think they don't want to enter the city? "Given their current state, they'll probably be chased out of the city before they can even get close to it." Murong Fenghuang sighed and explained the reason to her son.

"Drive them away? Why? Aren't they the citizens of Honglong Empire? " Gongsun Zaitian did not understand the attitude and behavior of the government, and even had a feeling of indignation mixed in with it.

"A disaster usually follows a catastrophe. There was once a case where an earthquake occurred in the vicinity of a county in the south. Following that, a county governor placed a large number of refugees in the city!" Murong Fenghuang laughed, she could understand her son's thoughts right now, but she did not want to change them. At the very least, she did not want her young, five-year-old son to be inhumanly influenced by such.

"That's good!" This county governor has done well! " Although Gongsun Ztian could not understand why his mother would suddenly change the topic, he knew that she had her reasons for doing so. Furthermore, everything she did was to his liking.

"Haha, I will listen to what mother says. His actions were not bad, but because of this, the last round was unstoppable. After the great disaster, the plague spread and spread to the city, causing the destruction of hundreds of thousands of residents. Fortunately, Mr. Duanmu heard of this and went to rescue them, or else the surrounding cities would have been affected as well." Murong Fenghuang laughed, and continued to narrate.

"So it's actually an order from the Emperor not to let the victims into the city?" When Gongsun Zaitian heard the prologue, he immediately understood where the root cause of the exorcism came from.

"That's right. From then on, the imperial government issued a strict decree prohibiting refugees from entering the city. If there are those who were stubborn and incompetent, they could use the correct method on the spot." Murong Fenghuang said.

Although this decree was a bit heartless, it was not completely inhumane when compared to the tragic events that took place. After all, there were times when one needed to choose something similar in order to manage an empire.

If sacrifices had to be made, then of course they had to choose the one with the least amount of losses. This was the same as fighting, choosing to sacrifice a portion in exchange for a overall victory, it was still better than choosing to sacrifice a small number of people, while losing the lives of soldiers in the army.

Such a choice was often difficult to make. Furthermore, one would suffer greatly in their heart, but they would sometimes have to make this choice. Perhaps this was a kind of fate, even if it was struggling, in the end it would still follow the wheels of fate.

Although Gongsun Zaitian did not like this kind of behavior, he could only helplessly. In his mind, he thought that if he was in a situation where he was not, he would be among the very small group of people that he was about to sacrifice. He thought that if he was in another position, he would definitely want someone to save his life, and he did not want the person in power or the player to choose to sacrifice him.

Thinking about it, Gongsun Ze Tian sighed bitterly in his heart. Back then, he had also chosen to sacrifice those 300 people at the critical moment in exchange for the survival of those thousands of people. However, he was completely different from those cold-blooded people in power.

"This decree is really a bit harsh. It's very inhumane!" Gongsun Ztian rubbed his nose to hide his sadness and said.

"However, this is for the benefit of more people. Therefore, once this decree was passed, there were no obstructions and it was successfully carried out." Murong Fenghuang said as she helplessly spread her hands.

"Then what about disaster relief?" Gongsun Zaitian asked another question. Since the victims were not allowed to enter the city, how was the resettlement and relief work to be carried out?

"Actually, every county governor has emergency relief supplies. In the event of a disaster, the county governor can directly distribute food, clothing, and other items to the victims. He can also dispatch city guards to bring the supplies to the disaster area to carry out the distribution of supplies to the victims." Hearing his son's question, Murong Fenghuang knew what he wanted to know.

"Then this time?" As expected, Gongsun Ztian once again spoke of the disaster.

"The Fengyang County has been protecting the ink, and the government is still collecting the relief supplies to the disaster area. Without the buffer of emergency supplies, this kind of situation will happen!" As Murong Fenghuang said this, she could not help but let out a bitter sigh.

"Then why not temporarily conscript the grain merchants in the surrounding cities?" Isn't that even faster? " Gongsun Ztian asked in puzzlement.

"After encountering such a disaster, the price of food in the vicinity had already soared. How could it possibly be sold for a low price to provide relief? "Not to mention the forced conscription, which would be counterproductive. Furthermore, those grain merchants are connected to the city guards. If we use force, I'm afraid ?"

Gongsun Ze knew that his mother did not finish what she said. One of the common matters in any dynasty was' the officials protected each other '. The results of' forming a clique to engage in private interests' and 'malpractice for personal gain' were even more common. Therefore, although those grain merchants seemed to be related to the city guards, if he thought more deeply about it, there would probably be someone or people with quite a bit of power behind these people. If he offended them, it would be slapping the face of the people behind them, not just a single person, but a lot of people as well. In the government, the knowledge of 'opening eyes' and 'closing eyes' was quite profound.