Chapter 67: The Way of Peace

  Lu Min's face stiffened and she was speechless.

  He understood Liu He's meaning, Youzhou had to rely on Qingzhou and Jizhou for financial supplements every year. Now that Qing and Ji were affected by disasters, refugees had arrived in Youzhou, but the wealthy households of Youzhou not only refused to contribute, they even took advantage of the situation to recruit the refugees as dependent households, competing with the imperial court for population. Dependent households were illegal, those who recruited them would be punished, but now who dared to punish them? If they were really pressed hard, they would push out all the refugees, and Youzhou would fall into chaos. Governor Liu Yu could not bear this responsibility, nor could the prefects of various counties, so they had to pretend not to see it.

  After all, it is better for these wealthy households to accept refugees as attached people than to let them starve to death on the road.

  This is an unavoidable measure, not that Liu Yu and Wen Xuan did not want to provide relief to the refugees, they were willing but unable, because they had no money or grain in their hands, Qingzhou and Jizhou could not be relied upon, while the Huns' rewards had to be given every year, where would this come from? Apart from borrowing from those wealthy households, what other way was there to think of.

  The current Youzhou looks very stable, but in fact, there are external troubles from the Hu people and internal refugees. It's like sitting on a pile of firewood, just one spark can ignite it into a raging inferno that will spread throughout Youzhou. At that time, the Xianbei people will be able to enter as if no one is there, not only can they harass Youzhou, but may even directly enter Hebei.

  Are you prepared? Liu Yu doesn't know that being prepared is harmless, but you should consider what consequences might arise from provoking the Wuhuan and Xianbei people's anger, and have the ability to bear those consequences.

  Lu Min suddenly understood why his father, Lu Zhi, had asked him not to force himself and not be too stubborn. He had personally experienced the imperial court and was rich in experience, so he might have already thought of this point, but Lu Min himself was completely in the dark and didn't know the situation outside at all.

  But Lu Min did not regret it, for if he had not walked out of his study, how could he have seen all these things?

  Lu Min became even more silent, as silent as a stone, cold and lonely.

  Mao Jie rode on the horse, lightly holding the reins, her melancholic eyes gazing far away at Lu Min's back, and she let out a soft sigh. Lu Min's silence made her feel extremely oppressed, and she really wanted to go over and comfort him, but didn't know how. Liu He's words also included the Mao family, all four of the Maos in Zhuo County had a share, for these families, refugees were like manna from heaven, as long as they gave them something to eat, they could get countless laborers, normally letting them farm the land and collecting more than half of the rent. If the Hu people came, they could even take up arms and defend their estates.

  The government lost a large number of people, and thus lost a large amount of financial resources and military manpower. However, for these wealthy families and powerful clans, it was an opportunity to accumulate wealth and expand their power without restraint. As the government grew weaker, they grew stronger, and when facing the governor or prefect, they had more confidence and could speak louder.

  In the end, Xi Mao advocated for war preparations, more in order to take this opportunity to establish his own prestige, rather than considering Zhuozhou.

  Perhaps the one who truly cares about Zhuoxian is that silent man who is heart-wrenching.

  "What's that?" Liu Xiu's voice broke into Mao Jie's meditation, and Mao Jie glanced at Liu Xiu, following his pointing hand to look towards a horse carriage not far away. The horse carriage was parked by the roadside, with a green canopy covering all four sides. A young woman in a green skirt jumped down from the carriage, took down a package from the carriage, and walked quickly towards a woman sitting by the roadside who held a dying child in her arms, with only despair in her sunken eye sockets, looking up at the green-skirted woman with a wooden expression.

  A woman in a green skirt squatted beside the woman, reached out to open the child's eyelids and took a look, then took out a piece of bread from her bundle, broke off a piece and put it in her mouth to chew, then used her fingers to dig out a bit and send it to the child's mouth. The child who had been motionless suddenly opened his eyes, opened his mouth and bit the woman's finger.

  "Heh heh, still quite energetic, looks like she won't die." The woman in green skirt smiled and fed the child another bite of cake, then handed the remaining cake to the other woman's hand, turned around and gave each person next to her a piece.

  When she fed the child, the scattered refugees had gathered around, but what made Liu Xiu strange was that they just surrounded them, staring at the green skirt woman's fingers and bread in her hand, the bulging Adam's apple rolling up and down, showing their unbearable hunger, but no one came forward to grab it, only carefully waiting aside.

  This was far from the scene Liu Xiu had witnessed where refugees fought over a piece of bread, he didn't believe that these refugees were more morally upright than others, he believed that this woman in green skirt was somehow unusual, not to mention the reverence those refugees showed her, just the fact that she dared to walk alone with a bundle of buns in this wilderness infested with refugees was an anomaly, she wasn't like Liu Xiu and his group, numerous enough to intimidate the refugees and prevent them from causing trouble, she wasn't afraid of being devoured by the refugees whose eyes had turned green from hunger.

  "It seems like a Taiping Dao person." Mao Jie said hesitantly, "Look at that horse carriage, there's a Zhen hexagram symbol on the left side."

  Liu Xiu was taken aback, and only then did he take a closer look at the horse-drawn carriage with the green canopy. He had thought the carriage looked impressive earlier, but hadn't noticed the emblem on it. Upon closer inspection, he found that there was indeed an eight trigram symbol on the carriage door, consisting of four short horizontal lines arranged in two rows above and one long horizontal line below, which was the Zhèn trigram.

  He was shocked and suddenly thought of something: Yellow Turbans? Oh no, they weren't called that yet, it seemed like they were called the Taiping Dao.

  "This... this is a cult, it's these people who made him not dare to stay in Zhuo County, thinking of leaving this place of right and wrong, originally... originally these people are really in Zhuo County."

  "What's wrong?" Mao Jie asked in surprise as she saw Liu Xiu's eyes were not right.

  "Why doesn't the government control these...these people?" Liu Xiu secretly wiped a cold sweat, and when he looked at the green skirted woman again, her eyes had clearly changed.

  "Officialdom?" Ma Dajiang chuckled and shook his head repeatedly: "They're not breaking the law, why would the authorities care about them?"

  "Isn't this against the law?" Liu Xiu's eyes widened in surprise. If these people aren't breaking the law, then what is considered breaking the law? It's not like the heavenly dynasty didn't deal with that wheel thing severely back then, why was it so strict? Wasn't it because of the huge hidden danger?

  "They teach people to do good deeds, cure the poor and feed them, and save the government a lot of trouble. The government can't even thank them enough." Ma Liang didn't want to talk to Liu Xiu anymore, so he lightly kicked his horse and walked towards the green-robed woman. He stopped five steps away from the carriage and bowed to the green-robed woman sitting in the back: "I am Mao Mao Liang of Xi County, may I ask which official's subordinate you are?"

  The woman in the green skirt raised her eyelids, took a glance at Mao Jie, smiled and nodded: "So it's Miss Mao from the Western Mao family. Indeed, a talented woman who doesn't yield to men." She paused for a moment, then glanced again at the sign next to the carriage and said: "Since you've already figured it out, why ask again? Miss Mao, we still have a long way to go and no time to chat, let's leave it for another day."

  Mao Jie felt a bit awkward, but didn't say much more. He bowed again and turned his horse's head to leave. The woman in the green skirt got into the carriage, the coachman shouted loudly, raised his whip and cracked it, and the carriage drove off quickly.

  Although Liu Xiu was relatively far away, his eyesight and hearing were extremely good. He clearly heard the conversation between Mao Niang and the green skirt woman, and saw their every move clearly. He couldn't help but feel curious about the green skirt woman's reserve. Just as he was about to ask Mao Niang, he saw her tightly closing her mouth, with an expression that said "I don't want to talk to you". He felt a bit embarrassed and shook his head slightly. After thinking for a moment, he urged his horse forward, drew closer to Mao Niang, and stood shoulder to shoulder with her, gazing straight ahead at the gradually disappearing green canopy carriage in the distance. In a soft voice, he said: "Mao Niang, let's make up?"

  Mao Jie hummed and ignored him. Liu Xiu scratched his hair in frustration and said, "I'll give you a book, the same 'Dong Hu Zhi' that my master has, can we put past misunderstandings behind us?"

  Mao Ji's eyes flashed, and she turned her head to the side, gazing at him slantingly. After a while, she spoke in a cold voice: "I can let bygones be bygones between us, but don't think about asking me anything about Ah Chu." Liu Xiu was just about to speak when she raised her hand to interrupt him: "It's not that I'm holding a grudge, it's really for your own good... because you simply won't have the chance."