Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 217 Coincidence
In the evening, Li Xiuyuan had already entered Guo Beicheng.

The city gates are wide open and no one is guarding them.

Walking along the street, there is no one on the street, but there is still smoke rising in the city and candles are lit, it can be seen that the city is not empty.

It's just that Li Xiuyuan felt a dead breath as soon as he entered the city.

This breath makes people very uncomfortable, it seems to be gloomy, there is a breath of death, and it seems that there is an invisible haze covering the whole city, making people feel a little breathless.

"This city seems to be dead." Li Xiuyuan murmured.

"Young master, it's not that exaggerated. If there is an epidemic, wouldn't we be in a trap by coming here? Epidemics are contagious." The guard's face changed after talking.

As a native of the people, what they fear most may not be the disaster of swords and soldiers, the chaos of demons, but the disease.

The plague spreads and spreads, and it is unknown how many people will die, and if the plague is not cured, it will not stop.

A great plague can even affect the rise and fall of a dynasty.

"Life and death are fate, wealth and honor are in the sky. If you want to die, you will die naturally. If you don't die, why worry about a small epidemic." Li Xiuyuan said: "Don't make a fuss, go back to the mansion and ask Lu Bo first, and see the nearest city. what happened there."

"Yes, young master."

A group of people came to Li's mansion along the street.

At this moment, there was still candlelight shining in Li's mansion, but the gate of the mansion was closed tightly.

The guards knocked on the door, but Lu Bo opened the door quickly, and when he saw Li Xiuyuan came back, he was pleasantly surprised: "Master, it's great that you are finally back."

"It seems that a lot of things have happened in the city these days." Li Xiuyuan said.

"Isn't it? Hey, it's a long story." Lu Bo sighed and said helplessly.

"If you have anything to say, let's go in and talk." Li Xiuyuan said.

A group of people entered the mansion.

Lu Bo said: "Recently there have been a lot of things going on in the city. A few friends of the Eldest Young Master have been staying at the mansion for the past few days, and we are waiting for the Eldest Young Master to come back to discuss matters."

"Who is there?" Li Xiuyuan asked in a daze.

"There are Ning Caichen, Wang Ping, Zhu Yu, and several other scholars who were in charge during the disaster relief." Lu Bo said.

Li Xiuyuan nodded.

When he came to the lobby, he saw six or seven scholars gathered together, as if they were discussing something, but the result of the discussion was not good, each of them sighed in a low voice, looking decadent.

"Friends, why are you sighing?" Li Xiuyuan smiled slightly, and strode in.

"Brother Li?" Someone asked in surprise.

"Young Master Li." Someone was surprised.

When everyone saw Li Xiuyuan's return at this moment, they all showed joy, and one by one hurriedly got up to salute.

"We're all friends, so let's avoid these hypocrisy."

Li Xiuyuan said: "When I entered the city before, I saw that the city was lifeless. The people who entered and exited the city had pale faces, coughing constantly, and looked sick. At that time, I guessed that there might be a plague in the city. I don't know if I guessed wrong. ?”

Ning Caichen sighed and said, "Mr. Li is really astute. He saw the clues as soon as he entered the city. The incompetence of Wan Sheng and others caused the plague after all."

"After a catastrophe, there will be a catastrophe. It has been like this since ancient times. You have done a good job. Since this incident has happened, the top priority now should be to find a way to deal with it, not to sigh." Li Xiuyuan said.

Ning Caichen shook his head and said, "Thank you, Mr. Li, for your comfort, but the outbreak of the plague is indeed our responsibility. We failed to manage things well, which is why the plague appeared."

Wang Ping, who was standing next to him, said, "Brother Li, I'm afraid I don't know something. The reason why this plague happened is because people secretly dug up the corpses outside the city every day. The people in the city couldn't bear to bury their relatives so hastily. They all want to find the corpses of their relatives, hold funerals, and then bury them in the ground, but Brother Li, you also know that the corpses of people who have been drowned in water rot quickly. Once they are dug out, it can be said that the city is full of corpses. And just two days after this happened, the plague suddenly broke out, and people all over the city became ill."

"All the people in the city got sick overnight?"

Li Xiuyuan frowned: "It's impossible for the plague to spread so fast, and the people in the city fell ill overnight?"

"Although this matter is a bit strange, it is the truth."

Zhu Yu shook his head and said, "For the past few days, the imperial government official who was lucky enough to provide disaster relief was an official who was in charge of the affairs. He immediately confiscated the corpses of the people in the city and went out to burn and bury them. This prevented the further spread of the plague."

Li Xiuyuan asked: "The imperial court ordering the disaster relief is here? Which adult has such courage?"

"It's the Minister of War of the imperial court, Fu Tianchou, Lord Fu." Ning Caichen said.

"The Minister of War?"

Li Xiuyuan said: "It seems that the imperial court is more worried about the disease here than the plague, and sent the Minister of the Ministry of War. By the way, is this lord in the city now?"

"It's gone, only a sick civil servant is left to manage affairs in the city." Wang Ping said.

However, Zhu Yu was a little dissatisfied and said: "The minister of the Ministry of War is probably also a person who is afraid of death. He ran away when he knew there was an epidemic in the city."

Li Xiuyuan shook his head and said: "It's good that he can come to Guobei City, and hasn't he cleaned up the corpses in the city? Now the plague is still happening, and he can't do anything. Staying here is like waiting for death. If I didn't guess If it's wrong, Lord Fu Tianchou should go to Jinling City."

Zhu Yu said; "Brother Li is right. This Lord Fu really went to Jinling City. Brother Li is really good at predicting things."

Li Xiuyuan shook his head and said with a smile: "Where is the predictability of things like a god, just calculate it. You must know that there is a military camp near Jinling City, and there are at least [-] soldiers stationed there. This plague is already terrible enough. If there is another mutiny, the whole south will be in chaos, and the south is a rich land, where the country's taxes are, once there is chaos, the consequences are unimaginable."

The faces of all the scholars changed drastically when they heard the words, and they all exclaimed in surprise.

Hearing Li Xiuyuan break it down a bit, I just realized the seriousness of this matter.

Compared with the survival of a Guobei City, Jinling City is obviously much more important, so it is no wonder that the imperial court's Minister of War will go to Jinling City.

"From this point of view, the disaster relief is false, and the stabilization of the situation is real. That's why the imperial court sent the Minister of the Ministry of War, not the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, or a certain prince to come to rescue the disaster." Ning Caichen said with wide-eyed eyes.

"No matter how stupid the imperial court is, there are still smart people who can see through the situation at a glance." Li Xiuyuan nodded: "So we have to find a way to deal with the plague."

"The plague has spread, how can it be cured?" Wang Ping asked.

Li Xiuyuan asked: "What about the short-term workers I recruited before? Where did they go?"

"Brother Li, don't mention it. The next day after you left, someone yelled for wages, but they couldn't find you. They all felt cheated and almost rushed into your house to empty the house. Fortunately, the court officials Master Fu arrived in time to stop the riot, and distributed some food and a little money to everyone to quell the riot." Zhu Yu smiled wryly, "We are really useless scholars, we are powerless in the face of the riot."

Li Xiuyuan frowned and pondered, he felt that this matter was a bit strange.

As soon as I left, all kinds of things happened, such as digging up corpses, wage troubles, riots, and plagues. When I came, the overall situation was settled, and there was only a lifeless Guobei City in front of me.

Coincidence, too coincidental.

It seemed that these kinds of things were waiting for him, and they would explode together when he left Guo Beicheng.

At first glance, everything is very normal, but if they are smoked together, it is not normal.

Although I left for a few days, it was not long.

After thinking for a while, Li Xiuyuan suddenly raised his head and said: "It's getting late, everyone go back to the guest room to rest first, let me think about the countermeasures, and discuss the matter tomorrow. You can stick to the city when the epidemic occurs, which is enough to see you all." With the heart of sacrificing one's life for righteousness, here, Li Xiuyuan thanks."

After finishing speaking, he stood up and bowed solemnly to his friends.

The plague spread all over the city, not everyone has the courage to live here, it requires great determination.

Everyone knows that once infected with the plague, it is very likely to die.

"Brother Li's words are serious."

Everyone's complexion changed, and they hurriedly stood up and returned a salute: "Brother Li is the one who is benevolent and loves the people. He used his own efforts to relieve the disaster of a city. I just waited for some extra effort. Besides, this epidemic was caused by our poor management. "Brother Li's worship is not embarrassing to us."

After the disaster relief, everyone was convinced and admired Li Xiuyuan.

It wasn't Li Xiuyuan, the casualties in the city were more than that, now that there is a plague, they feel ashamed, they just blame themselves for being careless, otherwise how could the good situation in the city become like this.

"Let's not talk too much about being polite. It's already late at night, everyone go back to rest first, and we'll talk tomorrow if we have anything to say." Seeing that everyone was in a bad mood, Li Xiuyuan said again.

After arranging for his friends to go to the guest room to rest, he went to the backyard with a somewhat tired body.

Instead of going to rest, I went to meditate with my eyes closed in the gazebo to recover my energy.

"The thing about the plague is weird. You have to ask the ghosts and gods to be sure. Is this a real plague or is there a demon at work." Li Xiuyuan thought to himself.

Tomorrow he plans to go to the Temple of the City God.

Tieshan, the ghosts and gods such as the green-faced Yin soldiers and the black-faced Yin soldiers are still entrenched in the Temple of the City God, so they should have a little understanding of the things in the city.

And my uncle Mu Taoist, I don't know if the catastrophe has passed.

There were too many distracting thoughts, and it became difficult for him to even enter meditation. It took a while to get rid of distracting thoughts and start practicing against the bright moonlight.

The moon accepts the clear light, the sun accepts the rainbow, and the dragon and the tiger form their own knots.

It was originally the method of cultivating immortals and the way of longevity, but in the hands of Li Xiuyuan, it has always been a substitute for sleep.

(End of this chapter)