Chapter 1049: Major Accident

But the Ministry of Rites Official had a second thought: this isn't right! Who were these carriages prepared for? What are these people doing here!

The official turned his head in panic, stared at those Leaders, and asked, "You, what are you people doing here?"

The group of Leaders was still immersed in the shock and joy of first arriving in Huaxia. Along the way, they had been just like Chengqie, not speaking. Being asked this, they hurriedly replied, "We are the Leaders of the Suiren Clan!"

"We are the guards for Leader Chengqie!"

It's over! The Ministry of Rites Official had only this one thought in his head now. Zhigui was not here at the moment; he was likely still taking a nap. Matters like picking people up didn't require Zhigui to do it personally; he only needed to guide and accompany them after they were brought over. It was only if people like Xuanyuan or Baoxi came that he would need to make an appearance.

The official looked at the Soldier in a panic, mouth agape without making a sound, and asked with lip-reading: "What should we do?"

"Are there any more carriages?" the Soldier also asked softly using lip-reading, but the Ministry of Rites man shook his head with a face like he was mourning. How could a Ministry of Rites possibly have so many ox-carts? These were all cobbled together; the Ministry of Rites rarely had such large-scale receptions, so wouldn't it be a waste to arrange so many ox-carts for them?

The Soldier's scalp also went numb; he hadn't expected them to cause such a huge problem. After thinking for a moment, amidst the confused expressions of the Suiren Clan members, the Soldier approached Baoxi and whispered: "Leader Chengqie, it is like this: these carriages were originally prepared only for you and your brothers and sisters. But because of a mistake in our work, we did not clarify their identities, which is why this problem arose."

"So, Leader Chengqie, see if you could tell your people to get off the carriages and accompany you on foot. These carriages will then continue on to pick up your brothers. After all, there is no reason for guards to ride in carriages like Nobles, right?"

Chengqie had absolutely no objections; he nodded immediately, then turned around and said to the people in the carriages behind him: "You all get off! Just follow by my side!"

The group of Leaders didn't understand why, but once Chengqie gave the order, they had to listen, and one by one they hurriedly jumped off the carriages.

Huaxia's ox-carts were four-wheeled, but most were not luxurious enough to have a roof; instead, they had panoramic sunroofs, much like the prisoner wagons in history, though the railings were very low and short, serving only to prevent people from falling out.

The Ministry of Rites Official could be said to have bowed and apologized to Chengqie repeatedly, speaking of his own work error. Chengqie, on the other hand, quite enjoyed this situation. Even a Huaxia official had to admit his mistakes to him and bow his head; it seemed his status was indeed not low.

The Ministry of Rites had only sent one person, and there was no one else who could go over to accompany them, so everything had to rely on Heifu. Aside from Chengqie's ox-cart continuing slowly forward, the remaining few immediately found a spot to turn around and drove against traffic toward the city gate.

Fortunately, it was noon, everyone was resting, and there was no one on the road, nor any other ox-carts; otherwise, these people might have pushed the further development of Huaxia's traffic laws.

When Heifu returned to the city gate, there were already hundreds of people standing on the bank. They didn't know where to go, and Heifu realized he hadn't seemed to arrange anything for them. Why was he so disorganized in his work now?

After some shouting across the river, all of Baoxi's children were sent over on the next trip. Heifu knew Baoxi had many children, but he hadn't expected there to be so many! A casual glance and he felt there must be over thirty.

But he didn't have time to count carefully; counting heads was not a very polite behavior, and only Slaves needed to have their heads counted. He picked a child who looked a bit older and asked: "Are you the son of City Lord Baoxi? What is your name?"

"My name is Ju!" The kid didn't have any fear at all. Although he hadn't received much care from Baoxi, he was, after all, Baoxi's son, so his treatment certainly wouldn't be too bad; in every aspect, it was much better than ordinary people, and he lived better than the average Leader.

"Ju, are all your brothers and sisters here? Now I need to take you all into Huaxia City to see our King."

Before coming, these children had also been lectured by their father and understood some general circumstances. Although they knew they couldn't possibly take over the Suiren Clan and couldn't compare to Chengqie, they still held their own pride in their hearts and weren't that willing to come to Huaxia. However, this was limited to those of Ju's age group, who were about the same age as Chengqie or slightly younger, while most were like children who didn't understand anything; they didn't grasp how this would affect them.

"They are all here." Ju spoke very concisely, which also had to do with him not liking this Heifu.

Heifu was now like a mouse eating chili—suffering at both ends. Since Ju said they were all there, they should be all there, so he hurriedly led Ju and the others into the city on foot.

He also arranged for the Soldier to take these newcomers to the previous farmland to camp temporarily. They definitely had to be let into the city; if they didn't enter, how could they feel the prosperity and power of Huaxia?

But after all, such a huge crowd of people could not all enter the city at once, and they wouldn't be like those savages who would undergo a Winter of training. This season was the best; based on the news he had heard, Heifu guessed that in the next few days, all these people would be dispersed to various places to reclaim wasteland. If some people were sent to provide guidance, they could reclaim the land this year and farm it next year. Once the land had output, there would naturally be no need to support them for too long.

Huaxia currently had too many places needing grain and too many expenditures; there simply wasn't enough grain to support this labor force and let them sit idly on the land to grow fat.

Whether all these people could be sent across the river bank today might be a problem, because first, the safety of everyone had to be guaranteed. Otherwise, even if they built a Bamboo Raft, they could get across, but once they were on Huaxia territory, their status was already considered Huaxia people. Letting a Huaxia person fall into the water and die would already be considered a major safety accident. Such a thing must never happen, unless you wanted to change departments to work, or go home to farm.