flstandardbreds Chapter 111 Encountering an Interception
Chapter 111 Encountering an Interception
"Are you telling me all this so I can talk to the village chief and the others?"
"Everyone has their own expertise. I'm not a doctor, and they might not take my advice to heart. It would be more appropriate for you to do it."
Zheng Yi, preoccupied with the matter of germs, couldn't help but chuckle upon hearing this. "How strange. With so many of us, who would dare to disobey you now?"
But he also knew that unless something major happened, Meng Fuqing was not the type to take the lead in everything. "I'll just say what I want to say. You can talk to me about 'germs' when you have time."
"Thank you for your help, Doctor Zheng."
Remembering something, Meng Fuqing called out to the man again, "Doctor Zheng, if we're letting people into the next city, how about we bring back some strong liquor? I've heard that strong liquor is the best for cleaning wounds."
"That's very expensive..."
"It can also kill germs."
"...Buy it. Tell your village chief to take out the public funds."
Meng Ranran sat to the side, barely eating a few bites of food. She was only vaguely aware of what Meng Fuqing was saying, but that didn't stop her from feeling incredibly proud.
Her elder sister actually knew something that even their master didn't know!
After quickly eating a few bites of food, Meng Fuqing told Doctor Zheng and then got up to find Xie Jin.
"What brings you here?" Xie Jin had already finished eating and was sitting back in his car. He possessed internal strength and good hearing, so even if he didn't want to listen, he overheard most of the conversation between Meng Fuqing and Doctor Zheng.
Meng Fuqing tossed the written note into the carriage through the gap in the curtain, where Xie Jin caught it.
"Just a heads-up, it hasn't happened yet and we don't know for sure."
After saying this nonsensical remark, Meng Fuqing turned and left.
Carriages and horses set off one after another.
Inside the swaying carriage, Xie Jin pieced together from the incomplete and fragmented words that Meng Fuqing was trying to remind him of something.
With a gentle twist of the fingertips, the paper turned to dust.
He lowered his eyes and repeated softly, "Something close to the body."
As if remembering something, he took out the jade pendant.
The jade pendant was made of the finest mutton-fat jade, warm and smooth to the touch. One side was engraved with the character "Xie," and the other side with his mother's surname, "Pei."
The jade pendant is intact and looks no different from ordinary jade.
He looked down at it for a long time before carefully putting the jade pendant away again.
Their next destination on their southward journey was Yezhou City. Even though the official road was flat, it would still take them five or six days to travel without stopping.
Following Meng Fuqing's advice and based on his own experience, Zheng Yi, after discussing with Meng Fuqing, increased the number of epidemic prevention measures to twenty.
After everything was finalized, he informed Meng Bochang, the second-in-command of Black Tiger Stronghold, and Mu Sheng one by one, and then they informed their brothers.
Fearing that some might not be doing things properly, Meng Fuqing had those with good memories remind those with poor memories, thus ensuring they kept each other accountable. She would then conduct spot checks during her free time, determined to make sure they memorized all twenty rules.
The group walked cautiously for the rest of the journey. The reminders and supervision were fine, but the spot checks left them with a psychological trauma.
No matter how old you are, if you can't say it, you have to recite the "Twenty Articles" aloud ten times.
Being watched by hundreds of eyes was truly embarrassing.
But it must be said, this method was quite effective. Within two days, they had memorized it all.
The bandits were hot-tempered and used to being free, so they were not used to being bound by rules and regulations.
But they also knew how terrible the plague was, and they didn't want to be looked down upon by Miss Meng, so they vented their anger elsewhere, cursing and swearing for a quarter of an hour over seeing a dead rat lying in the middle of the road.
The further south they went, the more corpses they saw on the road, and the more eager the refugees looked at them. It's likely that if there hadn't been so many of them and if they hadn't been dressed so intimidatingly, these people would have swarmed them.
When they were only about twenty miles away from Yezhou City, a man carrying a child suddenly rushed to Du Zhong's horse.
Du Zhong managed to rein in his horse in time, but nearly fell off as the horse's hooves rose high into the air.
Upon seeing this, the bandits immediately drew their swords, dismounted, and pressed the woman down, asking her why she was blocking their way.
The woman was terrified by the gleaming broadsword and collapsed to the ground, utterly powerless to resist.
She cried, "Gentlemen! I...I really have no other choice! My child is dying. He's only a few months old, and I'm so hungry I have no milk to feed him. Please, I beg you, give me some food..."
As if remembering something, she suddenly raised her head and looked at Du Zhong, who was obviously the leader. "You guys are going to Yezhou City, right? I was sent here from there. If you want to know anything, just ask me. I'll tell you whatever I know!"
Du Zhong keenly caught the word "rush," but didn't immediately agree. The twenty rules he had memorized came into play, and he immediately said, "You, take the child and step back! Stay three zhang away from us!"
The woman kneeling in the middle of the road was bewildered. Shouldn't she be the one afraid of these people? Why did it seem like these people were avoiding her at all costs?
She hesitated, then quickly backed away when she met the menacing eyes of the masked bandits.
Du Chong asked loudly, "Speak! Who chased you away? And why?"
The woman was already too weak from hunger, so she could only shout at the top of her lungs: "The government! The government is driving them away! They won't let the refugees near Yezhou! There are soldiers stationed outside the city!"
Knowing that Meng Fuqing wanted to go into the city, Du Zhong asked, "Is it not allowed to go into the city to make purchases?"
"Silver is acceptable, one tael per person, carriages and horses are separate!"
Upon hearing this, the bandits cursed the officials of Yezhou City for eighteen generations.
The woman continued, "We also need to check if they have any diseases; those who have diseases aren't allowed in!"
After saying that, she paused to catch her breath, shook the crying child, thought for a moment, and then added a reminder: "You'd better not get too close to Yezhou City, lest you attract the attention of the soldiers!"
The bandits rubbed their ears, thinking they had misheard.
They've always been the bandits who target others; I never imagined there would be others targeting them. Are the soldiers of Yezhou City bandits?
Having made up his mind, Du Chong gave his men a wink, "Throw away half a bag of grain."
The half-bag of grain was indeed thrown in front of the woman. She stared blankly at the half-bag of grain on the ground, too surprised to speak. When she looked up again, all she saw was the back of the person who was hurriedly running away.
Woman: ...
She forced back her tears, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed three times to the group. Before she could finish, she heard them yelling at her to make way.
The woman quickly dragged the half-bag of grain to the roadside, making sure to walk a little further away. Several people who had been waiting nearby immediately surrounded her.
One of the bandits, seeing this, thought the men were robbing grain and turned to ask the leader, "That woman kindly reminded us, should we help her?"
Du Zhong didn't know why his subordinates were all so dim-witted; perhaps his second brother's subordinates took after his second brother.
"What help? If she blocked the road in the street, she should have known that someone would be watching her. She wouldn't dare to do that alone. Exchanging grain for information has already helped her."
Upon hearing this, Meng Fuqing, who had ridden over on horseback to inquire about the situation, said, "Don't worry, those people are her family. What did she just say?"
When the convoy stopped, Meng Fuqing noticed those people and vaguely heard their conversation.
After briefly understanding what had happened, Meng Fuqing realized that the governor of Yezhou probably only wanted to protect himself and that he could profit from the fact that they had a large number of people and vehicles and were using the pretext of suppressing bandits.
She looked up at the sky. The Great Yan Kingdom had lasted for two or three hundred years. Could it be that it couldn't produce a single good official?
Or were they just really unlucky?