Chapter 669: Isolated Island

Zhao Bao heard the commotion and came over, just in time to catch the Great King in the act of 'questioning responsibility' before the ancestors.

As a Jin person who had not been poisoned by the Great King's ideas and had been steeped in pure feudal superstition, he felt quite panicked. "Your Majesty, did the former emperors have any objections to the ritual vessels? Did you dream of something, Your Majesty?"

"I didn't dream of anything. What could they possibly complain about? Counting from top to bottom, who is as filial as I am, always giving them new ones? My father used a set for half his life; if there were any complaints, they'd first be directed at him."

Zhao Bao: ……That makes sense.

Looking at it, using new ones should obviously be given more importance.

Seeing the Great King about to leave the inner chambers in his regular attire, Zhao Bao instantly forgot about that, lunged forward and tied a snow fox cape around the Great King. This kid seems never to have felt cold from childhood.

The good news is that the main gate of Suiyu Hall opens inward; the Great King drove away Tongchen and the palace guards who were trying to open the door, intending to do it himself.

The Mighty Strength Great King, showing experience in opening the door bolt, first shook it to let the door and snow separate, then pulled hard; surprise followed—the snow outside was taller than him, already piled up to half the height of the hall door. For an ordinary household, the door would be completely blocked.

Youzhou borders the sea, and the Ziwei Palace lies further north in Youzhou. The towering palace buildings had blocked a lot of snow for a while; coincidentally, the wind here is stronger than that of the southern counties. As soon as the door opened, the Great King finally heard the howling wind outside. Though it was not yet dawn, the heavy snow had already illuminated the sky early.

"This, this—how long will we have to dig?"

"Your Majesty, please rest first; we'll start digging..."

The Great King waved his hand to stop them, just as everyone thought the tools were wrong or the Great King had a better method; he flung the eagle that had silently come over to squat beside him, eating melon seeds, out into the snow.

This guy grabbed the Heaven-Covering Sir's leg, swung, and threw the eagle into the snow……

The Bai Ze peeking nearby immediately retreated to the inner hall.

Sure enough, the Heaven-Covering Sir flustered for two seconds, then vigorously flapped its wings; instantly the hall filled with flying snow, and looking at the snow pile by the door that was taller than a person, it had already been leveled by more than half.

The Great King wiped the snow from his face, clapped happily, and said, "Look! It's already gone more than half in just one go!"

Zhao Bao surveyed the snow-covered hall; fortunately there wasn't anything here that feared moisture… so, let's first rescue the carpet. He had grown accustomed to looking on the bright side of things, "Tongchen, meanwhile, use the snow to rub the carpet."

The Great King instantly gave him an approving look, "Clever!"

Zhao Bao: ……

Inspired, the Great King, besides sparing the Bai Ze, took Heaven-Covering, Xiao Jin, and even the bear out to push snow. Even if the soldiers had strength, they couldn't match the efficiency of these few.

The Great King found a plank, placed it on the ground, and pushed forward to clear the path; with a little guidance, the bear and the mythical beast vied to help him push. The Great King was immediately shoved out, the mythical beast and bear scrambling to push the snow away; the Great King only needed to ensure they didn't start fighting, then coax the Heaven-Covering Sir to flap twice, and soon the main road of Suiyu Hall was clean. The attending guards and palace maids stared wide‑mouthed, "Can it really be done like this?"

The Great King felt immensely relieved, "With snow this thick, how long would it take to dig with a shovel!"

After visiting the former dynasty, the Great King immediately issued an edict ordering households in the city with surplus grain to set up porridge stalls and donate unwanted old clothes. Though there were temporarily no refugees outside Youzhou City, other places still had many refugee resettlement points needing help; for them, this cold snap was still hard to endure.

This time the Great King didn't bother with formalities to summon the clan heads; he simply gave the order, with no time for pretense.

Next, he also dispatched the West Major Camp to clear the imperial highways and help the disaster‑stricken villages and towns; he himself went to the Imperial Workshop to urge on the snow carts he had ordered yesterday.

Inspired by the branches dragged by Xiao Jin, the Great King had already been thinking yesterday that he too wanted to build a vehicle that could be pulled through the snow, so that when the snow was deep he could still bring some food and coal out to the countryside to have a look; unfortunately, Xie Yuan detained him and he couldn't use it.

After a night passed, the Imperial Workshop, using shipbuilding materials, made a batch of them for him; by the time the roads were clear and Xie Yuan and the others came to the palace, the Great King had already vanished.

Ping Kang

After dawn, the city gate remained closed.

It wasn't that the city guards were lazy; the gate was frozen shut. Ping Kang's city gate is a reward from the system; although it differs considerably from the capital's, it is also very sturdy, being made of metal.

Now it's solidly frozen together with ice and snow; as soon as the sky began to lighten, the county magistrate led people in to start tormenting it—roasting with fire, dousing with boiling water, taking turns.

In such a heavy snowstorm, even the county magistrate dared not be careless; Magistrate Zhao's whole family spent the night wrapped in all their blankets, enduring the coldest night of these years. At dawn, as soon as the sky lightened, he set out early for the county office; but having just struggled inside, he heard a report that a night‑soil worker had frozen to death on the street next to the office.

"Didn't we say everyone should finish early and go home to hide? Why did he still come out to strike the clapper? Your Majesty gave special instructions—what are we to do?"

"The people said that during the first half of the night, when it was snowing, they still heard the clapper sound. His house leaked wind; the coal he had received yesterday was still piled in the corner, and the neighboring old lady said… Old Yu said that burning it in a draft would be wasteful, and though Your Majesty treats these people so well, he can't just take the grain and do nothing… This morning he was found sitting on the street corner, already frozen stiff."

"Ignorant!"

Old Zhao's face turned deathly pale as he paced the icy room, "Go investigate—find out how many people have frozen to death in the whole county!"

But the current situation outside is hardly easy to check—transportation has collapsed, and the heavy snow has buried everything.

Villages, fields, highways, and ditches outside the city, as well as the lanes and streets inside, are all buried under a vast white expanse. The snow depth varies unevenly; even if someone lay beneath a patch of snow, they would be very hard to spot.

The county magistrate personally led people to dig up the city roads, assigning them to search each street and market district.

The sun soon came out, but the temperature remained frighteningly low. He felt chills run down his back; even inside the city it was like this, let alone how those remote villages outside could endure the snowstorm cold snap—they couldn't even leave town. Suddenly he felt a weight on his shoulders, pressing so hard he could barely breathe.

The roads are gone; getting coal from Ping Shui is now impossible.

"We must reach every village and town before dark to assess the situation, arrange for those with poor housing to stay temporarily at wealthy households for a few nights, and if there really is nowhere, find a way to bring them back into the city!"

"Sir, if the snow outside is also this thick, we probably won't be able to run horses."

"Dig! …Just dig until before dark."

The county magistrate himself only arrived at the East City Gate in the afternoon, stepping forward with deep and shallow steps; as soon as the gate was smashed open, his heart turned half‑cold. Not only was the interior choked with wind and snow, but the exterior looked no better.

At that moment, his heart was filled with infinite sorrow, as if he were stranded on an isolated island.

The surrounding counties and cities of Youzhou all belong to the lowest-lying terrain of Ping Kang; last night, five frozen corpses have already been found inside the city, three of them crushed by snow that collapsed their houses and buried them. Ping Kang's jurisdiction still has many villages and towns, many of them lower than the city itself. Just two days ago the court had sent commendations, praising Ping Kang for having no one starve to death this year. And only a few days have passed…

Old Zhao was in despair when he saw a dark spot rapidly approaching from the east; he was overjoyed. "A carriage! Great, we can ride horses outside!"

Those with sharp vision shook their heads, "Not a carriage…… people are standing outside, it's an ice cart! A horse‑drawn ice cart!" Like the little kids in winter who drag ice carts on frozen rivers.

The Great King's version is far more sophisticated than a child's toy—the tracks that contact the snow are sheathed in thin iron!

The Imperial Workshop, with three years of shipbuilding experience, finally delivered a product that wasn't scolded.