Chapter 1716: The Suffering of the Common People

After giving a few more brief instructions, Liu Fang rose to leave, preparing to return to the military camp, maintaining his usual habits. However, Wu Ping hesitated for a moment before taking the initiative to call out: "Great King!"

"Is there anything else?" Liu Fang looked at him with confusion.

Wu Ping clasped his hands: "I humbly request that the Great King move to the North Pass!"

Winter inevitably gives one a gloomy and somber feeling, especially when sheets of dark clouds drift across the sky, casting heaven and earth even deeper into gray and dim tones.

Atop the pass fortress, right at the wind gap, the north wind howled with a mournful wail. The walls built of blue stone and yellow earth gave a sense of solidity—this was a strong pass, a lock and key.

Several braziers of charcoal fire were burning fiercely; though the north wind was fierce, it could not extinguish the flickering flames. Facing the harsh weather, the garrison soldiers at the pass showed considerable hardship—the heat released by the charcoal fires could hardly do much to ward off the cold. Yet at this moment, everyone stood with chests thrust out, putting on a display of devoted duty, because His Highness the Prince of Zhao had personally come up onto the wall.

Of course, Liu Fang had not come to inspect the defenses or military bearing. The bitter winter wind raged freely, his sideburns fluttering, his campaign robe snapping in the wind. Liu Fang gazed with a stern expression at the scene outside Guide Fort.

Under the freezing cold, the traces of war seemed to have been frozen solid, still faintly visible. Of course, due to battlefield discipline, no corpses were left scattered about—they had all been cleaned up.

The Guide Road had been cut fairly wide, at least wide enough for large carts to pass. Before the fort, along the mountain ridge, there was an open stretch of ground, but now it was occupied by a densely packed crowd of people.

There were men and women, old and young, some sitting, some lying down—impossible to tell exactly how many there were, but it looked quite "spectacular." The able-bodied clutched weapons and sat, the weak huddled against others to sleep, yet without exception, all shivered in the cold wind. Some had even pressed themselves against the base of the fort wall, hoping the firelight from above might dispel a bit of the chill, however insignificant it was.

No need for elaboration—the people outside Guide Fort were all refugees fleeing south to escape the chaos of war. Though the rebellion in Yanzhou had erupted only a month ago, civil order in Yanzhou had already completely collapsed. In times of great upheaval, everyone's bottom line sank to the lowest, and everyone's primary goal was reduced to just two words: "survival."

For the ordinary scholars and commoners of Yanzhou, this winter of the twenty-first year of Kaibao was extremely cruel. Facing the rebellion, they had no more choices.

Either be swept up into the rebel army, or be plundered and killed. Those truly unwilling to stand with the rebels could only seek self-preservation and refuge—hiding in the mountains and wilds, or flooding toward the cities in hopes of official protection.

But Yanzhou had only two cities—Dingbian and Yanchi—with limited capacity. Ordinary commoners had no qualification to enter the safe cities, and after taking in one wave of refugees, the gates were refused to open.

Even so, large numbers of Yanzhou's people still pressed toward the two cities. Even if they could not enter, being outside the city walls was relatively safer—at least better than scattering through the countryside to be toyed with by the rebels. Yanchi and Dingbian, the two cities, were like a faint firefly's glow in a winter night, bringing people a sliver of hope, however insignificant.

Of course, not everyone chose to seek shelter at the two cities of Dingbian and Yanchi. Yanzhou had become extremely unsafe, and many people had no choice but to drag their families along and flee this land of strife and war. The Guide Road was a road of hope, but it was equally a difficult journey.

They carried the old and led the young, dragging their entire households along. Even though the distance was not too great, they faced danger at every moment. It was only because the Yanzhou government troops, through the efforts of men like Wang Xuanzhen, managed to somewhat divert the rebels' attention that they bought these people a chance to survive.

But even so, of those who fled south all the way to the foot of Guide Fort, fewer than three in ten survived. Yet upon reaching Guide Fort, the path to survival was shut by the authorities—their hopes, once full, nearly turned to despair.

Under strict orders from above, Wu Ping, this town garrison commander, did not dare open the pass and let them through. Instead, he kept the gates tightly shut, standing on full alert, even guarding strictly against these refugees.

Regarding the strategy of sealing off Yulin, the local authorities and government troops around Yulin executed it resolutely. Never mind rebels—even refugees were not permitted to pass, not a single person or head of livestock.

Of course, there were many factors involved, not just the impact of the imperial court's bandit-suppression strategy, but also local protectionism. For the military and civil officials of Guannei Circuit, if Yulin fell into chaos, so be it—but it must not threaten themselves. They had to do their utmost to avoid becoming the "neighbor" in "using the neighbor's fields as a drain." If faced with a threat, it had to be resolutely eliminated. In protecting their own turf, the bureaucrats of the Great Han could often unleash formidable fighting power.

For Wu Ping, the town garrison commander of Guide Fort, though he pitied those refugees, he did not dare act rashly or show soft-heartedness toward them. If anything went wrong, no one would come to pity him.

As a town garrison commander, his most fundamental task was to hold the pass fortress. Even without orders from above, he would have chosen to guard the pass city strictly. But in the past, it was because Guide Fort lacked sufficient strength, and there was no one who could truly make the decision—or was even willing to make the decision.

Now, the Prince of Zhao, Liu Fang, had personally led troops here and was about to enter Yulin to suppress the rebellion. Wu Ping felt that he could make a report on the refugee matter—this was his final effort. If even His Highness the Prince of Zhao could not solve it, then what could he, a mere town garrison commander, do? Even though he had now been promoted to commandant, he was still of no account.

On the fort wall, Liu Fang stood tall as a pine on a mountain peak, looking down at those refugees before the fort with an expressionless face. But the more expressionless he was, the more he could feel that weight of gravity.

After a moment, Liu Fang asked Wu Ping: "How many refugees are outside the fort? How long have they been at Guide Fort?"

Wu Ping did not dare be negligent and immediately replied: "Reporting to the Great King, at first there were only a little over three hundred. But after this humble officer and his men defeated the rebels, they came flooding in, gathering more and more. By now, I fear there are several thousand."

"So we just let them suffer bitterly outside the fort?" Liu Fang said softly.

Hearing this, a flicker of fear crossed Wu Ping's face. Somewhat nervously, he replied: "Great King, it is not that this humble officer refused to rescue them—it is simply that there are too many refugees. To avoid any incident at the pass city, I had no choice but to turn a blind eye. This humble officer did previously send men out of the city to distribute some grain and charcoal, but it was a drop in the bucket, and it sparked a scramble and chaos with no small number of casualties. I no longer dared to act rashly."

Seeing Wu Ping somewhat tense, Liu Fang shook his head and reassured him: "I am not blaming you. You did well—you knew what mattered and fulfilled your duty."

"The Great King is wise!" Hearing this, Wu Ping breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said.

At this moment, Liu Fang finally showed a hint of ordinary human expression, smiling bitterly: "If I were wise, I would know how to resolve this refugee matter!"

Clearly, Liu Fang was somewhat conflicted about this matter. The court's intention was very clear: completely seal off Yulin, sparing no means, keeping the chaos contained within Yulin's borders. As for specific execution, they would not concern themselves with anything else. The situation was urgent, and a blanket approach was the most useful and efficient method.

Take the several thousand refugees below Guide Fort—what if rebels were mixed among them? That was not easy to distinguish. And Liu Fang, as the commander-in-chief for suppressing the rebellion, had the task of annihilating the Yulin rebels and purging the bandits. He had no more time or energy to spend on this matter.

On the other hand, if any problem arose and rebels infiltrated the pass, who would bear the responsibility? Guannei Circuit was the home base for the Yulin suppression—it absolutely could not have problems. And in the past month, disturbances had already broken out in more than one place; the convict camps within the pass were especially hard-hit. Without instigation from the Yulin rebels, that would clearly be impossible.

Under these circumstances, the policy of sealing the passes and blocking the roads had to be executed even more resolutely. According to the policy, no person or livestock from Yulin could leave, and no supplies from outside the pass could enter—Yulin was to be locked down tight, the rebel army starved to death.

In the past, Yulin had many survival supplies that needed to be imported from other prefectures. Once this plan was issued, while the rebels would suffer scarcity, the common people of Yulin would inevitably suffer as well.

Liu Fang had a clear understanding of this point as well. But in the eyes of the court, which had long since unified its understanding, this price was hardly worth mentioning. Resolute and thorough, ruthless and merciless—that was the basic attitude toward the Yulin rebellion.

But to be fair, Liu Fang was after all not a political animal. There was still a thread of hot blood in his heart—care for his officers and men, hatred for the rebels, and compassion for the common people, especially when he saw those starving refugees crying out for help outside Guide Fort.

The cold snap had arrived, and people struggled in the ice and snow; already, not a few had died of cold and hunger. Liu Fang naturally knew that among these several thousand, the vast majority were absolutely not so-called rebels or spies. Those who had managed to brave the difficult and dangerous journey to reach Guide Fort at least proved they were unwilling to stand with the rebels.

But the court's harsh policy seemed to have disappointed them—even driven them to despair.