There were more than 5,000 people on this trip. Except for Yunshu's personal soldiers, the rest were family members and servants of officials in the prince's mansion, as well as craftsmen and artists that Yunshu asked Lu Changshi to recruit from the people.
Because they brought a lot of food, they didn't travel very fast.
Inside the carriage, Lu Changshi spread out a simple map on the tea table and said to Ethan Yun:
"Your Highness, it took us nearly a month to travel from Kyoto, through Chang'an, and then to Lanzhou."
As he spoke, he drew a line on the map with his finger, "This is the route from Lanzhou to Xizhou. The road along the way is much more difficult than before. At our current speed, we can barely reach Xizhou by the end of December."
Before departure, Emperor Henry asked Yunshu to arrive before New Year's Eve so that he could distribute food and celebrate the festival with the people of Xizhou.
Ethan Yun propped his chin up with one hand, his eyelashes drooping, his eyes fixed on the map. The curtain on one side of the car was lifted, and the warm sunlight shone in, leaving a slight shadow on the other side of his face, making his expression unpredictable.
He shook his head. "Better be quicker."
"It is already mid-October, and the weather is getting colder as time goes on. Although there is little rain and snow in Hexi, if you happen to encounter heavy snow blocking the road, your speed will inevitably slow down, and you may have to spend the New Year on the road."
Chief Clerk Lü Heng looked up at Ethan Yun in surprise, then quickly lowered his head. He had not expected that the Fifteenth Prince was so familiar with the situation in the northwest, and he took over his words to speed up the process, so he said respectfully:
"Your Highness has a point."
Ethan Yun had just asked Lu Heng to give the order to speed up when there was a commotion in front of the team and all the carriages and horses stopped.
Chaotic voices came from the front. Ethan Yun stuck his head out of the window and saw the messenger riding a horse from the front. When he arrived beside Ethan Yun's carriage, he dismounted and said to the opened window:
"Your Highness, a small group of refugees has appeared ahead. Captain Cao is driving them away. Please don't panic."
Ethan Yun's carriage was originally in the middle of the team. Looking forward from here, one could only vaguely see crowds of people, but could not clearly see what was going on.
"Where did the refugees come from? How many are there?"
The messenger had obviously been informed of the situation by Captain Cao before he came, so he answered smoothly:
"Your Highness, these are refugees from Yuanzhou, more than 2,000 in total."
Ethan Yun was shocked.
More than 2,000 people, can they still be a small group of refugees?
Ethan Yun was about to ask again when he heard someone in front of him suddenly shouting "Your Highness King Xia". As he finished shouting, countless people followed suit and shouted, "Your Highness King Xia!"
Ethan Yun turned around and looked at the messenger in confusion, "What's going on?"
How did these refugees know themselves?
The herald officer lowered his head with embarrassment, "The refugees from Yuanzhou originally wanted to go to Lanzhou, but were stopped outside the city. Then, for some reason, they changed their direction and happened to run into the caravan. They heard that Your Highness brought food, so they blocked the road..."
"Your Highness, please forgive me!"
The messenger was afraid that Yunshu would blame them for not driving away the refugees in time and disturbing him.
Ethan Yun didn't care much about these. He waved his hand and said, "Okay, you can go back."
Seeing that Ethan Yun did not blame him, the messenger quickly stood up, mounted his horse and returned to the front of the team.
Ethan Yun glanced ahead again. The shouting had been stopped, but the other side seemed to have not cleared the way yet.
He thought for a moment, then lifted the car curtain and planned to take a look ahead.
Just as he was about to jump off the carriage, he heard Lü Changshi shouting behind him: "Your Highness, don't do that. If the refugees riot, be careful not to hurt you."
Ethan Yun glanced at the fifty-year-old Lu Changshi and said with a smile: "I am not that delicate."
As he spoke, Ethan Yun jumped off the carriage and took the reins from the soldier waiting beside the carriage.
This white horse was specially given to Yunshu by Emperor Henry when he heard that the land of Xizhou was too vast for vehicles to travel. Yunshu had become familiar with it in the past month, and his riding skills had improved a lot. Although he couldn't gallop, he could still trot a few steps without any problem.
Ethan Yun touched the white horse's head, and the white horse snorted in response.
After the man and the horse finished communicating, Ethan Yun climbed onto the horse with swift movements, squeezed the horse's belly lightly with his calves, and the white horse trotted forward.
At the front of the team, Cao Cheng held the scabbard with one hand and the handle with the other. The blade had been pulled out half a foot. Although he looked impatient, he still said patiently:
"I have said many times that we are heading to Xizhou, not here to provide disaster relief! These grains are given to the people of Xizhou by our Royal Highness King Xia, and cannot be distributed to you."
Cao Cheng was sitting on his horse. Although the man opposite him was standing under the horse and dressed like a poor farmer, he was not weak in momentum at all. Hearing what he said, he said:
"We are all citizens of Dayong. Why can the people of Xizhou eat this food, but we, the people of Yuanzhou, cannot? Are we all citizens of Dayong divided into different classes?"
This man is not only eloquent, but has even become the leader and spokesperson of this group of 2,000 refugees. As soon as he finished speaking, the more than 200 people behind him all followed suit.
Behind them were more than a thousand refugees, exhausted and scattered on the road, completely blocking it.
"That's right, we are all citizens of Dayong, why can they eat but we can't!"
Cao Cheng was a soldier to begin with, and his tongue was not very fluent. After being shouted at by these people, he reiterated his words again with his face flushed and his neck stiff.
"Western Province is the fief of our Highness. What's wrong with our Highness feeding the people under his rule? If you want food, go find your own king!"
Yuanzhou and Lanzhou are both fiefs of the fifth prince Caleb Yun.
In Cao Cheng's opinion, the Fifth Prince didn't care about the mess in his fiefdom, and neither did the officials of Yuanzhou and Lanzhou. So why should they, the Highness, take care of it?
Although he was not good at speaking, he was not stupid. These people came up to him and said that they had a lot of food and begged him to share some with them and save them.
How did a group of refugees know that this was King Xia's team, and also knew that the things they were carrying were all food, so they specifically blocked them.
He didn't believe that there was no one behind these people directing them!
As expected, as soon as Cao Cheng finished speaking, the people on the other side began to make a noise, "The people in Lanzhou said that if we were to allocate a little of the food His Royal Highness Prince Xia brought, it would be enough for us to survive. You have so much food, what's wrong with sharing some with us?"
Some people in the team behind started to cry bitterly, "We just want to survive, why is it so difficult! The world is unfair, the world is unfair!"
At the same time, some of the refugees started crying out, "Grandpa, Grandpa, we will have food soon, please hold on a little longer..."
As they were arguing, someone in the crowd of refugees suddenly shouted, "There are so many of us, why should we be afraid of them? Brothers, if you don't want to starve to death, follow me and rob!"
Someone responded, and the crowd, blinded by hunger, suddenly started to riot, rushing towards the palace convoy like crazy.
It only takes a moment for refugees to become a mob!
Cao Cheng quickly commanded his personal soldiers to meet the enemy, trying to stop the mob that rushed over. But these people were not the enemy after all. Cao Cheng and his men had only been on the battlefield before. Facing these people from Dayong, they did not dare to kill them directly, so they began to hold back.
The knives in their hands were more of a deterrent. However, at this moment, the refugees no longer cared about so much. They all rushed to the back of the team with the mentality that even if they died, they would at least have a full stomach before dying.
He happened to meet Ethan Yun who was riding a horse.
Different from the crazy style of the refugees, Ethan Yun on the other side, wearing plain clothes and riding a white horse, was not panicked at all, as if what was in front of her was not a mob, but the beautiful scenery of the border.
"Da Da, Da Da..."
The crisp sound of horse hooves came along with a laughing voice.
"We can talk it out, why do we have to fight, kill and rob?"
Ethan Yun was dressed in plain brocade clothes, covered with a moon-white cape, with red lips, white teeth, eyebrows and eyes like a painting. When he came from a distance on a white horse, he looked like a beauty walking out of a painting.
Hundreds of guards gathered in front and behind him, all with their swords drawn and ready to fight. When he saw someone trying to move forward, he shouted, "Take a step forward and I will kill you without mercy!"
When Cao Cheng saw his own prince coming out in person, he was so frightened that he immediately sent people to protect Ethan Yun and completely separate him from the refugees.
Seeing this scene, many refugees began to think of retreating.
When they heard the guards address the man on the white horse as "Your Highness", they realized that it must be the rumored His Highness King Xia.
These refugees were all farmers before and had never seen any high-ranking official in their lives. When they suddenly saw the prince, their deep-rooted sense of hierarchy came to the fore and they subconsciously began to retreat.
It is said that "the first push is the best, the second is weaker, and the third is exhausted". Seeing this, the troublemakers in the refugee crowd shouted: "We have offended King Xia, he will definitely not let it go. At this point, we have no way out, we will die anyway, what are we afraid of? Brothers, charge! You must believe in Mr. Kong!"
Among the refugees, the man called Mr. Kong wanted to refute, but was covered by another person's hand. The scene suddenly became chaotic.
Seeing that the refugees who were briefly controlled by Cao Cheng were about to start to charge again, Ethan Yun said loudly:
"You just want food, I have plenty. Let's talk it over. There is nothing that cannot be discussed.
But if you continue like this, don't blame me for treating you as a mob and wiping you out!"
These people were previously honest farmers, but when they suddenly heard the prince compare them to a mob, they immediately became afraid.
Hearing Yunshu say that food could be negotiated, someone in the crowd asked uncertainly: "Can you really give us food?"
After Ethan Yun finished threatening them, he put on a friendly face, smiled gently and nodded, saying, "As long as you listen to me, I will not watch the people of Dayong starve and suffer."
Cao Cheng immediately shouted: "Why don't you step back? His Highness is willing to help you. Do you still want to be a mob?"
If you can survive, who would want to be a mobster?
Suddenly, some people in the crowd started crying with their hands covering their mouths. They started by sobbing, and finally burst into tears.
Ethan Yun ignored those people and rode his horse to a ragged woman.
The woman was wiping her tears, but when she saw Yunshu suddenly approaching, she was so scared that she quickly hugged her pale and skinny child. Her eyes, which had previously been numb and had no hope for life, suddenly became panicked, for fear that Yunshu would do something bad to her child.
She could die, but her child could not.
Ethan Yun ignored the woman and looked at the child in her arms.
The skinny child in the woman's arms didn't know who was in front of him. He poked his head out from the woman's arms.
On the palm-sized face, a pair of bright black eyes were very eye-catching. At this moment, these big eyes were staring at the beautiful person in front of them with curiosity.
"Big brother, are you a god from heaven?"
"Mother said that only the gods in heaven are so beautiful and pretty."
The woman quickly reached out to cover the child's mouth, looked at Yunshu with a frightened face, and couldn't help backing away, fearing that Yunshu would be unhappy. After all, such a beautiful person could beat her child to death with just one word.
Last time, outside Pingzhou City, the handsome young man gouged out the eyes of a child who praised him for his good looks, and beat him to death with sticks.
The richer and more powerful a person is, the more vicious his heart is!
She knows!
Ethan Yun seemed to be completely oblivious to the woman's fear. He got off the horse swiftly and tried to approach the little boy, but was stopped by Cao Cheng.
It was the first time Cao Cheng saw refugees turning into a mob. He was still a little panicked, fearing that something might happen. He said nervously, "Your Highness, be careful."
Ethan Yun smiled faintly and shook his head, "It's okay."
After saying that, he bent down and looked at the little boy again with a smile on his face, "Brother is not a god."
"What is that brother?" the little boy tilted his big head.
This was an extremely rude question, and Ethan Yun naturally wouldn't argue with the child.
He blinked and said to the child mysteriously: "Brother is the parent official of Xizhou. He will ensure that the people of Xizhou can have enough food. Do you want to go to Xizhou with brother to eat?"
The child didn't know where Xizhou was, but when he heard the words "eat enough", his stomach started to growl.
With food to eat and such a handsome big brother, Xizhou must be great, right?
Just like his original home!
Although the child was persuaded by Ethan Yun and yearned for Xizhou, he still did not forget his mother. He looked at Ethan Yun, then turned his head to look at his mother who was hugging him tightly, and finally turned back to ask Ethan Yun seriously:
"Can my mother come with us?"
Ethan Yun smiled and said, "Of course. Anyone can go, and anyone who goes can have a full meal."
"Then I'll go!" The child immediately stretched out his arms and raised them high.
He once secretly saw outside the private school that when the teacher asked a question, the children who wanted to answer raised their hands in this way.
After he finished speaking, he immediately turned around and hugged the woman's neck, and said coquettishly: "Mom, can we go to Xizhou with big brother? Didn't you say that dad is fighting in the west? We can still go to find dad."
The woman had no hope of finding the child's father, but if Xizhou could really give them enough food, she would definitely go. They were starving to death here, so following King Xia to Xizhou might be a way out.
So she wiped her tears and nodded heavily, "Okay, Mom will go with you!"
When the child heard his mother's agreement, he jumped out of the woman's arms happily and stared at Ethan Yun with burning eyes.
"Big brother, my mother agreed. Let's eat quickly. The sooner we eat, the sooner we can set off. This way, we can reach that Western Province before dark."
Ethan Yun did not correct the child's words, but reached out and picked up the child, "Okay, let's start cooking now. After we have a full meal, we can continue our journey."
The little boy nodded heavily and gave Ethan Yun a dark smile.
The woman was anxiously trying to get the child down.
How could the noble prince hold his own child who was crawling in the wild?
Didn’t you see that the prince’s clothes were all dirty?
But her attempt to stop him was stopped by a middle-aged man.
"It's okay, Your Highness doesn't mind."
Ethan Yun held the child in one hand and walked to the refugees who were stopped by Cao Cheng.
The refugees were now much calmer, all looking at Ethan Yun nervously.
"Just now I was talking to..." Ethan Yun was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly asked what the child's name was. The child grinned with a missing tooth and said loudly: "Li Fei, the Fei of flying."
Ethan Yun nodded, "You heard what I said to Xiao Lifei just now. Are you willing to follow me to Xizhou like him?"
After Ethan Yun asked, the crowd began to stir.
"Xizhou is nearly 4,000 miles away from our Yuanzhou. If we go there, will we be able to come back in this lifetime?"
"That's right. I heard there are often wars there. It's also a desert. Where is there anything to eat?"
...
Ethan Yun was not in a hurry to dissuade them. It was only a matter of time before they figured it out.
"The officials of Yuanzhou don't care about our lives, and the officials of Lanzhou don't care either. They even asked us to rob the food of His Royal Highness King Xia. They are not good people. If we stay here, we will starve to death sooner or later. We might as well give it a try."
"Yes, and why would His Royal Highness King Xia lie to us? We are penniless and have nothing to plot against."
Ethan Yun smiled. He was after their people, otherwise why would he go through so much trouble to drag them from here to Xizhou?
"Go ahead. If Xizhou is really useless, why would His Royal Highness King Xia go there? And with the most powerful General Xiao from Dayong here, I think we have hope!"
The title of "General Xiao" is much more useful than that of His Royal Highness King Xia.
When "General Xiao" was mentioned, many people immediately became interested.
"Okay, let's go!"
"I believe in His Majesty King Xia!"
"Father, let's go to Xizhou too."
Soon, all two thousand refugees decided to follow King Xia to Xizhou. After all, they would have food along the way and would not starve.
Seeing that everyone agreed, Ethan Yun asked Cao Cheng to remove the protection and release everyone.
At the same time, Lu Changshi also came forward and said, "Your Highness, the meal is ready."
The aroma of the food had already made these refugees salivate.
Everyone had been hungry for many days, and when they heard that the meal was ready, their eyes turned green. When Ethan Yun gave the order "It's time to eat", they rushed to the makeshift stove like a pack of wolves. Fortunately, there were many personal soldiers, so they lined up in time.
Seeing the refugees leaving, Ethan Yun handed Little Li Fei to Lu Changshi and left. He turned his head and asked Cao Cheng who was following him, "Do you recognize the people who led the riot just now?"
Cao Cheng's face froze, and he said ashamedly, "I only know that the person who led the confrontation with me at the beginning was Mr. Kong. Later, a few people in the crowd started to make trouble. They lowered their heads, and there were too many people, so I couldn't tell who they were."
Ethan Yun walked slowly with his hands behind his back, his eyes swept through the crowd waiting in line for porridge, and finally locked onto a few middle-aged men who were talking and laughing while holding broken bowls.
He smiled faintly and looked away, "It's okay, I can find it."
Cao Cheng was a little confused. Even he couldn't see clearly, so how could he find it?
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