Nine thousand years old [rebirth]

The group worked day and night, eating and sleeping, and finally arrived in Taiyuan Fucheng in the early morning of the fourth day.

Because of the rampant pimple plague, the area around Taiyuan Fucheng was already extremely depressed.Yin Chengyu traveled all the way, passing through several villages and towns, all of which are closed and there are no pedestrians on the road.

Since the Shanxi epidemic was exposed, although Zhou Weishan has been detained, the impact of the previous atrocities has not faded.

In order to conceal the epidemic, Zhou Weishan not only asked the officers and soldiers to throw all the dead bodies into pits for incineration, but also ordered that anyone with symptoms such as fever, cough, and nucleation in the armpit and buttocks should be burned as infected.

Although this has prevented the epidemic from spreading wildly for the time being, it has also caused countless survivors to be terrified.

Now that Zhou Weishan is in prison, the gates of Taiyuan Prefecture are no longer closed, but no one dares to enter or leave, and there are no traces of pedestrians in the city.Occasionally, pedestrians come and go, but they cover their heads and faces and pass by in a hurry.

The soldiers guarding the city were also tired and lazy. When Yin Chengyu and his party entered, no one paid any attention to them.

Yin Chengyu frowned and walked around the empty street.

Half of the houses and shops in the city had their doors wide open, and the furniture and objects in the houses were in a mess.It seems to have been looted.It should be that the master's family has suffered a disaster, and there is no one in the family.

There are also houses with closed doors and windows. When they pass by, there is movement in the house. If you observe carefully, you can find eyes behind the window or in the crack of the door staring at them.

The entire Taiyuan prefecture city, although there are living people, is like a dead city.

Seeing the big from the small, if the prefecture is like this, presumably the rest of the place will only be more unbearable.At this time, it was only a month before the Shanxi pimple plague appeared.

Although natural disasters are terrible, man-made disasters are not inferior to natural disasters.

Yin Chengyu stopped in his tracks and ordered: "Let someone go find out where this lump plague first started, which county, which village, and which family, try to be as clear as possible."

"I have already ordered people to inquire everywhere." Xue Shu replied after hearing the words: "It is said that the outbreak first broke out from Wangjia Village, Qingyuan County, under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan Prefecture. The spies below only hurriedly searched and returned to report. Haven't figured it out yet."

Unexpectedly, he was so thoughtful, Yin Chengyu gave him an appreciative glance, and got on his horse: "That's just right, let's go check it out again."

The group got on their horses again, left the city, and galloped towards Qingyuan County.

It was already noon when we arrived at Wangjia Village.

Yin Chengyu stood at the entrance of the village, looking up, he felt that the whole village was lifeless, not to mention people, not even the sound of insects and birds.The movement of them riding their horses was not small, but no one came out to check.

"Wangjia Village was the first place where pimple plague appeared. Could it be that there are no people left?"

After Yin Chengyu took the cloth towel distributed by the imperial physician to cover his mouth and nose, he walked in. When he saw the dilapidated houses on both sides, his expression became more and more serious.

"There should be survivors." Xue Shu walked with him for a while, stopped in front of one of the houses, stretched out his finger and touched the door handle, and when he saw that there was not much dust on his hand, he raised his hand and knocked on the door: "Someone Is it? We want to inquire about something."

He knocked a few times and called several times, but no one answered.

When Yin Chengyu was about to say that there might be no one inside, he increased his strength, and said in a fierce tone: "The officers and soldiers will count the number of people. If you don't open the door, you will smash the door."

After the words fell, there was a slight movement in the house that had been silent for a long time, and then the door was opened a crack, and a 50-[-]-year-old farmer poked his head out, hiding his body in the doorway, with a nervous and fearful expression: " Mr. Guan, I am the only one left in our family. I am not sick, nor do I have a fever or cough."

Judging from his words and deeds, he obviously thought that officers and soldiers were coming to arrest him again.

Yin Chengyu sighed secretly, signaled Xue Shu to back off, and negotiated with him: "Uncle, we are not here to arrest people, but we just found out that Wangjia Village was the first to have pimple plague, so we wanted to find out about the situation."

"What else can I inquire about?" Hearing that he didn't come to arrest people, the farmer immediately relaxed a little, and sighed: "There is no one left, and they are all dead. The village head family offended the Great Immortal Shu, and we all There is no escape."

Probably seeing Yin Chengyu and his party dressed in rich and noble clothes, he persuaded him: "You guys also hurry up, or if the Rat Immortal gets angry, you won't be able to survive."

As he spoke, he wanted to close the door.

Yin Chengyu reached out his hand to hold the door in time, and motioned Xue Shu to take out a bag of dry food: "We didn't have any malicious intentions, but the adults above were trying to find a way to cure the pimple plague, and sent us down to find out the source of the pimple plague, so we found the Wang family. If you come to the village, I would like to ask uncle to let us know what you know, maybe we can help you.” While speaking, he handed a bag of dry food to the farmer.

There was already a famine in Shanxi, and food was more valuable than gold and silver at the moment. The peasant held a small bag of dry food, hesitated for a moment, and then let go of the door, but he only talked to them through the half door.

"There's nothing to say about this pimple plague. It started at Wang Dazhuang's family at the head of the village. Several members of the family died, leaving only a widow and a half-child. The village said that it was because their family secretly caught mice and ate them, offending them. Rat Immortal, the Immortal became angry, and their family got this strange disease. Even the people in the village who went to help with the funeral were angered, and not long after they came back, they were all infected with the disease, one passed on to the other, and they died soon after. Yes. Some people went to the medical clinic in Fucheng, and the doctors said they had never seen this kind of disease, and there was no way to cure it. Not two days later, I heard that people in other villages and Fucheng also got this disease. Official The master catches the sick people everywhere, saying that as long as the sick people are burned to death, the Rat Immortal will appease his anger."

The farmer got dry food, but he was honest.Whenever Yin Chengyu asked, he told what he knew, whether it was true or not.

Finally, seeing that there was really nothing more to ask, Yin Chengyu asked the location of Wang Dazhuang's family, and then led others to look for it with Xue Shu.

According to the farmer, there are only four or five families left in the entire Wangjia Village, and there are only a dozen or so people in total.

More than half of the people died of starvation or disease, and the other half were taken away by officers and soldiers just after showing some symptoms, and never came back.

The rest of these people barely survived by plundering the surplus food hidden in the neighbors' houses.

When the group arrived at Wang Dazhuang's house, Xue Shu was about to knock on the door when he saw the door opened from the inside.A boy of fifteen or sixteen stood in front of the door and looked at them: "I heard everything you said at Uncle Wang's house. What do you want to ask? Take food in exchange."

The young man was dark-skinned, very tall, but very thin, with sunken cheeks on both sides.Although his fierce look can be quite bluffing, but if you observe carefully, you will find that he is trembling slightly.

It's not that I'm afraid, I should be hungry.

Yin Chengyu handed him a bag of dry food, but the young man didn't eat it, said "wait", and took the dry food into the house.

Through the half-closed door, Yin Chengyu saw that the other party took out a bowl, soaked dry food in water to soften, and then entered the back room with the bowl.Yin Chengyu couldn't see the situation further inside, but after a while, he heard a woman crying from inside, vaguely saying something like "rat fairy", "retribution", etc., and finally the noise of crying and screaming came from a bowl. The crisp sound of hitting the ground ended.

The back room was quiet for a while, and the young man came out with a bowl missing a big mouth. The water in the bowl had been spilled, and only a few soaked dry biscuits remained.Dirt was vaguely seen on the pancake, it should have been picked up after being knocked down.

The young man didn't think much of it, so he wolfed down the dry biscuits, wiped his mouth casually, walked out and sat at the door: "What do you want to know? Ask."

Yin Chengyu didn't care about the other party's rudeness, and said softly: "Can you tell me about your family's situation? How did you get sick? What's the matter with Rat Immortal?"

Hearing the Shu Daxian, the boy sneered: "Don't listen to the nonsense of the villagers, what the Shu Daxian is doing is just bluffing people."

With anger on his face, his chest heaved for a moment before he held back his anger and talked about his family.

There was a severe drought and no rain this spring, and there were locust gnats again.The crops in the fields are not harvested.

Famine broke out in all parts of Shanxi, and Wangjia Village was no exception.

In Wang Dazhuang's family, there are two elders and five children. There are nine people in the family. They are all waiting to eat, so life is more difficult than other families.

The young man was Wang Zhou. Relying on his strong physique, he thought about going deep into the mountains, maybe he could find some edible wild vegetables or wild animals.

It took him two days and nights to go, but the wild animals in the mountains had been hunted down long ago, and he only found a few wild vegetables after two days of trekking.I went home exhausted, only to find that none of my younger siblings were yelling that they were hungry and wanted to eat.After asking, I found out that it was Wang Dazhuang and his wife who discovered many mouse holes outside the village.They just wanted to find the mouse hole and see if there was any winter food for the mice in the hole, but they found several nests of little mice in the hole that hadn't opened their eyes yet.

The couple was also very hungry, thinking that they had heard people say that the blind mice were a famous dish, so they sneaked back a few litters of mice, and cooked soup with wild vegetables and ate them.

But there are only so many rats, and they will disappear after eating.The couple thought that they could eat the young rats. The rats were so big that a single one was enough for a pot of soup.Then he went to catch the big mouse and came back.

Although there was a famine in the village, there were not many rats. Therefore, Wang Dazhuang's family temporarily solved their hunger problem by relying on rat meat.

When Wang Zhou returned, they had eaten for two days.

In the bag in the corner of the kitchen, there are still a lot of live mice. If you save some food, it can barely survive for the family.

Unexpectedly, on the second day after Wang Zhou came back, grandpa and grandma were bedridden first, and there were big fleshy bumps on their necks.Then the younger brothers and sisters also became comatose and had a high fever, and they also had pimples on their bodies.

The barefoot doctor in the village was invited to prescribe the medicine. Not only did it not improve after drinking it, but the two old people disappeared the next night.Before the funeral could be held, several younger brothers and sisters began to vomit blood one after another, and they died one after another within a day.

"My father was the last one to leave. People in the village said that it was because our family ate mice and offended the Great Mouse Immortal. That was the disaster and the village people were hurt. My mother brought back the mouse at that time, and she suffered a lot. If you don’t get hit, you’re going crazy.”

Wang Zhou clenched his fists, his eyes were slightly red: "But our family is not the only one who eats rats in the village! After the accident in my family, people in several families got sick one after another. I saw with my own eyes that someone threw a bag of rats into the Go back to the mountain."

"If it weren't for the lack of food, who would eat rats? If this rat immortal killed so many people because of this, what kind of immortal is he?"

Wang Zhou covered his face and let out a suppressed sob.

Yin Chengyu watched silently, but could not say words of comfort.

Wang Zhou seemed to hold back for a long time, and the suppressed crying soon turned into howling. After a long time, he raised his sleeve and wiped his eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "That's all, there's nothing else to say."

Yin Chengyu gave him two more bags of dry food, opened his mouth to comfort him, but found that it was too pale to say anything at this time, and finally he could only say awkwardly: "Hold on for a while, Gu... We will find a way as soon as possible, we won't Always like this."

Wangzhou took the dry rations, he didn't know whether to believe it or not, thanked him, and went into the house.

No one spoke anymore, and Wangjiacun suddenly returned to dead silence.

After a long silence, Yin Chengyu left first.

When he arrived at the entrance of the village, Yin Chengyu turned his head and asked the accompanying imperial physician: "The theory of ghosts and gods is not credible, and the theory of rats and immortals is nonsense. But these villagers who first contracted the disease have indeed eaten rats. Is it possible that this pimple plague is related to rats?" ?”

The imperial physician had been thinking about this question just now, and he replied after deliberation: "Rats themselves are not poisonous. There were people eating rats in the past, and I have never heard of the disease. But now there is a famine in Shanxi, these rats have no food, so they just gnaw on it." Eating corpses. The corpses were decomposed and gave off the disease. The rats eating the corpses are likely to be contaminated with the disease. If people eat the rats again, the disease will enter the mouth and cause the disease. But this is only my guess, and it needs to be confirmed .”

Yin Chengyu pondered for a while, looked at the gloomy sky, and said, "Go back to Fucheng first and discuss it later."

The group then hurried back to Fucheng.

Yin Chengyu didn't reveal his identity, so he didn't go to the official office.Instead, he found an inn that was already deserted for a temporary stay.

The tables and chairs in the hotel lobby were crooked and dusty.

Xue Shu ordered people to go upstairs to clean up the guest room, and then went to the well in the backyard to look. Seeing that the water in the well was still clean, he took two buckets and took them to the firewood room to burn.

Yin Chengyu did this to save time, so he didn't bring any waiters with him.Now Xue Shu takes care of daily life.

He was frowning and making the bed, when Xue Shu came up with a pot of hot water, and the servant behind him also had a pot of hot tea in his hand.

"The inn is so poor, I can only wrong His Highness." Xue Shu stepped forward and took the quilt from his hand.After a few shakes, spread it out.

"I'm not so delicate." Yin Chengyu loosened his outer robe, and twisted the veil to wipe his face.

Xue Shu hung up the outer robe for him, and took out the clean clothes and put them aside.

Yin Chengyu went behind the screen and simply scrubbed and changed his clothes. When he came out, Xue Shu had already asked someone to bring up a bowl of soaked pancakes. Although the taste was not very good, it was hot enough to drink in his stomach, and it was indeed a lot of ironing.

Yin Chengyu put down the bowl and let out a soft breath.

Although I was exhausted a little bit, my heart was still heavy when I thought of the tragic situation in Wangjia Village.

He pushed open the window, looked at the desolate and quiet street, looked sideways at Xue Shu who was standing aside, pointed to the table and chairs by the window, and said, "Let's sit with Gu."

The two sat opposite each other by the window and neither spoke.

Yin Chengyu drank two cups of hot tea before saying: "Actually, Zhou Weishan's method is useful. Although his actions were too cruel and not his original intention, they did control the spread of pimple plague."

He thought of the pimple plague that ravaged half of the big swallow in the last life, and his eyes were dark: "If you can exchange a person from a province for half a big swallow, what do you think is lonely?"

What he saw with his own eyes today was the tragic situation in Taiyuan Fucheng and Wangjiacun, which shook his firm determination.

Can such a severe disease really be controlled by manpower?

If the epidemic in Shanxi is really out of control, will he watch the pimple plague rampant across half of the swallow like in the previous life, or follow Zhou Weishan and sacrifice Shanxi province to save the entire swallow when the epidemic is out of control?

For the first time, Yin Chengyu felt a sense of panic.

Xue Shu saw the panic in his eyes, and after a long time, he said: "How to choose depends on the position you are at at that time. Your Highness is a monarch, so naturally proceed from the overall situation, and you need to ignore the small details when considering the overall situation."

"But this is too cruel to the people of Shanxi. It's not like they have no chance of life." Yin Chengyu almost said to himself.

He looked at Xue Shu: "What would happen if you were in the game?"

Xue Shu was silent again, and it took a long time before he replied: "If you stand in your own position, you will probably be resentful. No one would want to live. Not everyone is willing to sacrifice their lives for others."

Speaking of this, he paused, looked straight at Yin Chengyu, and said again: "But His Highness has compassion in his heart, which is different from Zhou Weishan."

Yin Chengyu smiled wryly: "What's the difference? If you really come to that point and follow Zhou Weishan's method, in the eyes of the people in Shanxi, Gu may be another Zhou Weishan."

Xue Shu shook his head, and said firmly: "Your Highness is not a person who treats the people like nothing. He will never give up on the people of Shanxi until the last moment. If it really comes to that point, it is just to try to protect as many people as possible. It is a last resort." For that."

Yin Chengyu stared at him for a long time, then raised his eyebrows and smiled for a long time. He leaned over and pinched his chin, closing the distance between the two of them: "I don't even dare to believe in myself, but you dare to believe in Gu?"

He narrowed his eyes slightly to look at him, his eyes scrutinized.

Xue Shu looked at him, without avoiding his eyes.

Of course he believed him because he had experienced it himself.

He is not a god or Buddha, but he once saved all living beings from water and fire by his own power.

Gods and Buddhas are not merciful, so how can we expect them to be perfect?

The author has something to say:

Gougou: Your Highness is the most Dior!