Chapter 62: The Sleeping Dragon and Young Phoenix of the Great Ming Dynasty
Hearing these words, Qiao Yingjia's face instantly turned ashen.
Having lived for sixty years, his long-standing political experience made him acutely aware of what it signified when the Emperor executed so many people in Tongguan.
Making an example of a chicken to scare the monkeys!
And since the Emperor had chosen to make an example of a chicken, he certainly wouldn't stop after slaughtering just a tiny little chick.
The next chicken would probably be him very soon!
What could possibly serve as a better deterrent to officials than the head of the Governor of Shaanxi himself?
Not only that.
Qiao Yingjia kept a very clear ledger in his own mind regarding the countless misdeeds he had committed during his two years in Shaanxi.
To speak the truth, it was enough to warrant being beheaded ten times over.
It was solely because he relied on a faction of accomplices in the imperial court to protect him that he had been able to act with such unbridled and reckless abandon.
Yet Qiao Yingjia had never dreamed in his wildest dreams that such a heaven-defying and monstrous variable as the new Emperor would suddenly emerge halfway through.
Two months! The new Emperor had only ascended the throne for a mere two months!
How on earth could a mere emperor manage to move in and out of the Forbidden City at will?!
However, Qiao Yingjia was destined to never figure that out. At this moment, he was completely engulfed by terror.
The intense stimulation of fear made him all but pass out on the spot.
Fortunately, a domestic servant accompanying him supported him in the nick of time, preventing him from taking a direct tumble that could have killed him.
Seeing Governor Qiao in such a discomposed state, the intelligence operative who had come to report did not dare to delay and continued:
"Lord Governor... the Emperor has also sent people to parade the heads of the officials and gentry of Tongguan County through all the surrounding counties, and has ordered those surrounding counties to provide disaster relief immediately."
"Perhaps you should consider leading a group to set off for the worst-hit disaster areas today to provide relief to the victims."
"If you do that, perhaps there is still a chance to salvage this situation..."
Hearing this, Qiao Yingjia, who was supported in a grand master's chair by his servant while continuously massaging his chest to calm his breath, seemed to recover a glimmer of life.
With a trembling hand, he pointed at the operative kneeling before him: "Good... good... good... reward him!"
The servant immediately pulled out a Shanxi bank note worth five hundred taels of silver and handed it over.
The operative took the bank note, expressing gratitude with his mouth while cursing viciously in his heart.
*Fuck your mother, you old bastard!*
*What use is giving money now?*
*It was you, you spawn of a bitch, who couldn't bear to release even a single grain of food to those wretched commoners.*
*Otherwise, would matters have escalated to today's desperate state?*
*You fucking have people backing you up, and you're a provincial governor; the Emperor can't just execute you arbitrarily. At worst, you could just dust off your hands and go back home to retire.*
*But our families have lived in Shaanxi for generations—where are we supposed to run?!*
*Now, because of you old bastard, all of us could have our entire households exterminated at any moment.*
*I curse your mother to death!!*
Such is human nature.
When colluding to line their pockets, people were as close as thieves sharing a pair of trousers.
Once trouble struck, however, everyone immediately thought of how to strike first and plunge their former confederates into eternal damnation.
If they weren't all tightly bound together like grasshoppers on the same string, this operative wouldn't even have bothered to deliver the intelligence.
After muttering perfunctory words of thanks, the subordinate hurriedly spoke up:
"Lord Governor, I still need to handle the disaster relief matters ordered by His Majesty back in my county, so I shall take my leave now."
With that, he turned around and walked away without looking back.
After the operative left, Qiao Yingjia gradually calmed down under the continuous soothing ministrations of his servant.
The fear of death further amplified the wishful thinking in his heart.
Initially, Qiao Yingjia's rich political experience had led him to perceive from the Emperor's departure from the capital on an imperial tour that this new monarch was undoubtedly a ruler with thunderous methods.
Given that, he figured his death was a certainty.
Yet now, Qiao Yingjia harbored new considerations.
The rivers of blood the Emperor spilled in Tongguan were simply because Tongguan happened to be His Majesty's first stop.
The primary purpose of those killings was to intimidate the officials and force them to gather up the displaced refugees.
The move to parade the severed heads through the various counties served as evidence of this very point.
Having figured out this crucial knot, Qiao Yingjia no longer hesitated and immediately instructed his household servants:
"Quickly summon all our men in the prefectural city! We are riding out overnight to the Yan'an Prefecture for disaster relief!"
"And immediately send a confidential letter to someone in the capital explaining the reasons behind this!"
......
Yan'an Prefecture.
Mizhi County.
Li Zicheng sat on his dilapidated doorstep, staring blankly at the stars in the sky, looking like a man half-dead.
During the day today, he had once again experienced failure in his attempt to collect his pay.
He had knelt down and kowtowed heavily several times to the superior official at the Yinchuan Post Station, and in the end, he had only managed to beg for a tiny morsel of millet barely enough to fill the gaps in his stomach.
Was there truly no grain left in Mizhi County?
Perhaps there wasn't much, but surely some still existed.
Because while the officials in the county might not all be fat and greasy, they were entirely robust, healthy, and their families lacked nothing in food or clothing.
They looked as vastly different from the starving refugees in the county as heaven and earth.
It was almost as if they belonged to two completely different species.
Yet what could Li Zicheng do?
Although he felt immense resentment in his heart, he ultimately dared not make any radical moves.
There was no help for it.
Though life nowadays amounted to a dual torment of both spirit and flesh, he could at least still manage to stay alive.
Compared to the numerous starving refugees who had already died of hunger, his existence could still be considered passable.
For Li Zicheng, possessing a government job and managing to stay alive left him with little appetite for grand ambitions.
At the same time, he had been continuously pondering a question over the past few days.
Should he or should he not marry Han Jin'er, who hailed from a gentry family in Mizhi County?
Recently, the Han family had sent people over yet again to urge him to finalize the marriage with Han Jin'er.
It wasn't that they were particularly eager to marry their daughter off to him.
Rather, Han Jin'er's reputation had already been utterly ruined throughout Mizhi County and the surrounding counties.
The Han family simply wanted to dump this scorching hot potato off their hands as quickly as possible.
This was evident from the attitude of the Han family's messenger when acting as a matchmaker.
Did Li Zicheng want to marry Han Jin'er?
Of course he fucking didn't!
Who would willingly take a tainted woman like that back home?!
Yet the spark of pride in his heart, having just occupied a tiny fraction of his thoughts, was immediately crushed back down by rationality—or rather, servility.
Li Zicheng had no idea how much longer he could hold out under the present circumstances.
The ideology of carrying on the family line was deeply imprisoned in his mind, and he himself did not want to pass away without ever having touched a woman.
Most importantly, the Han family had promised him that if he married Han Jin'er, they would provide him with some grain.
With that grain, surviving the coming winter would undoubtedly be guaranteed.
Li Zicheng was extremely hungry.
He was so hungry that he couldn't even sleep at night.
Yet he didn't dare to eat the millet he had begged for today through kowtowing—millet that rightfully belonged to him.
Because the weather would turn cold in a few days, and he was terrified he wouldn't survive this winter.
Thinking of this, coupled with the intense wave of hunger surging through his body, Li Zicheng wished he could rush into town the moment day broke tomorrow and accept that marriage proposal from the Han family.
Yet, for no apparent reason, he suddenly recalled the soul-stirring epiphany he had experienced a while ago, and couldn't help letting out a sigh.
Better... wait a few more days...
After all, things hadn't reached the point where survival was completely impossible.
But if living truly became impossible, what would become of him...
Li Zicheng had not yet seriously contemplated that question.
......
Wherever there is a Crouching Dragon, there is bound to be a Young Phoenix.
While Li Zicheng was so hungry that his stomach was churning with acid, Zhang Xianzhong was quietly feasting on roasted meat in the uninhabited wilderness outside Mizhi County.
As for how the meat was obtained, and what kind of meat it specifically was...
Those who understand, understand.
……
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Deepest thanks once again or2.