Chapter 3: Fengyang Prefecture

Early the next morning.

As the sky was just beginning to brighten, Lu Yuan woke from his light sleep, then rose and took up his pointed wooden staff to begin another day of travel.

At this moment, most of the refugees on both sides of the official road were lying scattered across the wild fields, snoring and still fast asleep;

but there were also some whose bodies were stiff and motionless, seemingly having died in their sleep.

After walking forward for a distance, Lu Yuan also discovered several places where refugees had gathered, with scattered, unextinguished campfires on the ground.

Iron pots were set over the campfires, in which something seemed to have been cooked, and pale, white bones were scattered on the ground.

Seeing this scene, his eyelids twitched; he took a deep breath and turned his gaze away, not daring to look any longer.

Now that there was a famine, wild beasts had basically vanished along this road, leaving no trace to be seen.

Thus, what had been cooked in the pots went without saying.

"In years of great famine, people eat each other."

These six sparse characters in the history books contained a cruelty difficult for modern people to imagine.

Having fled the famine for half a month, most refugees were at the end of their rope; by now, not only were they drinking poison to quench their thirst by eating Guanyin Earth, but the situation of exchanging children to eat also occurred repeatedly.

People who were about to starve to death could, in a sense, no longer be considered human; all concepts of propriety, righteousness, integrity, shame, morality, law, and even human nature could not compare to a single mouthful of food.

As a transmigrator with a cheat, Lu Yuan could not blame these refugees who were like evil ghosts in hell, and could only walk away with hurried steps.

Just like that, he continued forward in silence.

Another two days passed.

The journey was quiet, and hundreds or thousands more refugees, shaped like withered bones, collapsed from weakness and never got up again.

Thanks to the Ingestion Technique, aside from having to consider the problem of drinking water, Lu Yuan could guarantee his basic survival by eating grass and soil.

But he could not help anyone.

Moreover, the human heart is treacherous; to avoid being discovered by the surrounding refugees, he often changed his position within the group to avoid trouble.

This kind of travel continued until the morning of the third day.

On this day, the sky was high and the air was crisp, and the scorching sun hung high; Lu Yuan looked into the distance and could already vaguely see the shadow of a massive city sitting at the end of the official road.

It was the goal of all the refugees: Fengyang Prefecture.

He looked around; the long line of refugees fleeing the famine was much shorter than it had been half a month ago. A rough calculation suggested that of the two or three tens of thousands who had set out in such a mighty force, perhaps less than half had made it to this point.

"We're here, we're here, Fengyang Prefecture is here!"

"Fengyang Prefecture is a provincial capital; the food must be very plentiful. The Prefect will surely open the granaries to provide disaster relief."

"Fellow villagers, put in a little more effort! We are saved!"

As if they had finally seen the dawn, a light ignited in the eyes of the refugees who had struggled to hold on until now; they erupted with strength as if experiencing a final burst of vitality, quickening their steps toward the massive city silhouette ahead.

Lu Yuan, mixed in the crowd, also quickened his pace, and after walking for about an hour, he finally arrived outside the city of Fengyang Prefecture.

Fengyang Prefecture was not only a provincial capital but also one of the top major cities in Yuzhou. Just looking at the outer city wall, it was nearly ten zhang high; at a glance, it appeared tall, towering, and magnificent.

On the city gates and walls, there were armored soldiers standing guard, and some were even equipped with Firearms, appearing quite heavily armed, seemingly because they had received news of the refugees' arrival in advance.

At this moment, many refugees had already arrived on the large open space outside the city, but the city gates were already closed, and hundreds of soldiers were blocking the front of the gates, standing in strict formation.

"Kind soldiers, have mercy, let us in!"

"Ten thousand of us have already starved to death on this road; if you don't open the granaries to release grain, we won't be able to survive!"

"I beg you, kind soldiers, open the city gates and give us a way to live!"

After Lu Yuan and the majority of the refugees behind him arrived, they converged into a dense, dark mass of people, and various sounds of clamor and pleading soared straight to the sky.

Just at this moment, the city gates swung wide open, and a tall, armored man with a long braid rode out on a tall horse, leading a team; he raised his hand and drew a Firearm the length of an arm:

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Under three consecutive shots, the massive clamor outside the city fell silent.

The armored man sat on his horse, indifferently scanning the dense mass of refugees outside the gate, and then his voice rolled out like thunder:

"The Prefect is already aware of the situation and is gathering grain and fodder to set up porridge sheds for disaster relief. All you refugees must stay in the designated areas outside the city; you are not allowed to enter the city without permission, and even less are you allowed to gather to storm the city gates, otherwise, you will be killed without exception!"

"I will say it again: the Prefect has already opened the granaries to distribute grain, and the wealthy families in the city will also contribute to the relief; in another hour or two, you will be able to eat."

"In the meantime, you must follow arrangements. Anyone who gathers to cause trouble: behead! Anyone who storms the city gates: behead!"

The two consecutive "behead" commands echoed rolling over the city gate, showing an extraordinary cruelty; every refugee present revealed a look of shrinking fear.

"This guy has a loud voice..."

In the crowd, Lu Yuan stared at the other party, deep in thought:

"Is this person the garrison commander of Fengyang Prefecture? His Martial Arts seem quite formidable..."

Unlike most dynasties in history that favored civil officials over military ones, the Great Jin Dynasty particularly valued martial arts; not only did they establish civil and military academies in every prefecture, but the imperial examination for selecting talent also included the Martial Examination.

By passing the County Examination, Provincial Examination, Prefectural Examination, Metropolitan Examination, and Palace Examination, one could obtain titles such as Martial Child Student, Martial Cultivated Talent, Martial Recommended Scholar, Martial Presented Scholar, and Martial Top Scholar, and be directly granted a ninth-to-seventh-rank military post.

Of course, titles and positions were not the same as Martial Arts realms.

According to the original owner's memory, Martial Arts in this world seemed to have seven major levels: Force Training, Tendon Changing, Bone Forging, Thunder Sound, Blood Refining, Core Holding, and True Martial.

Generally, to pass the most basic child examination, one needed at least the Force Training level, being able to lift a two-hundred-jin stone lock with both arms continuously;

and those who could take the top spot in the Palace Examination to become a Martial Top Scholar were at least Great Martial Masters of the Thunder Sound realm who could defeat a hundred men, and lifting a two-thousand-jin cauldron was no problem for them.

As for the highest True Martial Realm, in the words of storytellers, they were world-renowned Grandmasters, claiming one person could hold off a thousand troops, and the imperial court would take the initiative to bestow rewards to win them over.

Of course, such existences were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns; the Great Jin Dynasty now had a population of hundreds of millions, and the famous True Martial Grandmasters in the world could be counted on two hands.

The original owner himself had been preparing to participate in the County Martial Examination; if he had passed, he would have obtained the title of Martial Child Student, but unfortunately, a flood had destroyed his family, and after losing his household registration and fleeing the famine, he could no longer participate in the Martial Examination.

"Still, I must find a way to sneak into the city as soon as possible..."

Under the command of the garrison soldiers, the refugees obediently followed them to the designated area, but Lu Yuan looked at the city wall with flickering eyes.

Whether it was using the Ingestion Technique to strengthen his body or finding a way to accumulate Luck Power, only by entering the city would there be more room to maneuver.

However, it was clearly impossible for them, these refugees who had lost their household registration, to be allowed to enter Fengyang Prefecture; according to custom, the Fengyang government would either arrange for them to migrate for relief grain or arrange for work-for-relief.

Regardless of which point it is, neither is a good choice for Lu Yuan.

But for the moment, he could not think of how to enter the city, so he could only wait until nightfall to search again and see if there were any loopholes to exploit.

(End of this chapter)