Chapter 1398: Refugees of Southern Ji

Then, he relayed his earlier conversation with Yang Lian to Wei Guangwei, exactly as it had happened.

"Foolish! How could His Excellency be so foolish!" Before he had even finished listening, Wei Guangwei cried out in bitter anguish. "Yang Lian is famous for his rigid integrity. By giving the money to him, His Excellency can be certain he won't skim any to share with his partisans, so those men will never remember your kindness! If they receive no benefit from His Excellency, how could they ever be willing to speak on your behalf? And besides, would a muddle-headed man like Yang Lian ever be willing to fall out with his comrades and the Son of Heaven for His Excellency's sake? Your Excellency… money is life itself, and Your Excellency has just handed your life away to those Donglin brats!"

Bribing court officials and making partisan allies — that is considered clever; giving money to the loyal and upright so they can serve the country — that is considered foolish.

How had the Great Ming ever come to this?

A thought flickered through Wei Zhongxian's mind.

It seemed… it had been this way for a very, very long time.

Absurd. Utterly absurd. How could a state like this possibly not fall into ruin?!

In an instant, a sudden clarity dawned in Wei Zhongxian's heart, as if he had grasped a profound truth.

Whether the Eunuch Faction held power, or the Donglin worthies filled the court, this Great Ming was ultimately beyond saving.

An indescribable agony surged into Wei Zhongxian's heart in that moment.

"In that case, Your Excellency has no choice but to follow my worst-case strategy…" After lamenting bitterly for a long while, Wei Guangwei finally managed to steady himself somewhat.

"Say no more."

"Your Excellency?"

"Say no more. Your best and middle strategies are already fraught with extreme peril. Even if I used the worst-case one, how much better could things be than they are now?" Wei Zhongxian waved his hand dismissively. "Life and death are ordained by fate; wealth and rank depend on Heaven. Since things have come to this, what more is there to say? I'll simply resign myself to my fate! I… I no longer have the will to struggle…"

"No longer have the will to struggle…" The sharp light in Wei Guangwei's eyes slowly dimmed as well.

He looked at Wei Zhongxian anew.

And then he realized this was now a dejected old man who had lost all his spirit.

Merely an old man.

Aged, listless, none of that once-ambitious, exuberant vitality remained. Even without the Son of Heaven's edict, his life would likely be taken from him soon enough.

He was merely waiting to die.

In that case, further words were indeed pointless.

"Your Excellency… since Your Excellency puts it that way, this student truly has nothing left to say." Wei Guangwei's voice trembled. He then stood up and bowed deeply to Wei Zhongxian, the corners of his eyes glistening faintly with tears. "This student only begs Your Excellency to take good care of yourself!"

"At my age, taking care or not doesn't make much difference. I just wonder if I can hold on until the day I reach the imperial tomb." Wei Zhongxian gave a bitter smile. "If I can make it there, I must properly reflect and repent for my own faults."

"Your Excellency owes the Great Ming nothing more — why speak so!" Wei Guangwei said in a deep voice. "Those Donglin brats attack you ceaselessly now, desperate to heap all the sins of the world onto Your Excellency's head alone. Now that they hold power, there is nothing to be done, but Heaven sees all. Your Excellency will surely be vindicated and your name cleared one day!"

With that, he bowed deeply to Wei Zhongxian once more, then slowly turned and left.

Wei Zhongxian remained silent the entire time, simply watching his retreating figure. As his silhouette disappeared, Wei Zhongxian knew in his heart that the entire Eunuch Faction — which had once dominated the court with unrivalled arrogance — had now formally dissolved into nothingness within the Great Ming.

There was no one left who could save him, and no one left who would even try.

"Perhaps it's better this way."

After bidding farewell to Wei Guangwei, Wei Zhongxian's mental state visibly deteriorated further. He often sank into deep contemplation, sighing heavily from time to time, his brow perpetually furrowed, looking deeply troubled — though no one could tell exactly what weighed on his mind.

Liu Songping and Qi Wang, the two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, had no interest in whether he was happy or not. They simply escorted him all the way out of Baoding Prefecture.

Leaving Baoding Prefecture, they traveled south, passing through Shenzhou and Jizhou in Zhending Prefecture, and soon arrived at the borders of Guangping Prefecture. A little further south, and they would leave Northern Zhili and enter Henan.

Having learned from their earlier experience, they were even more cautious along the way, avoiding large market towns for lodging so as not to attract attention.

This caution was not only to guard against Wei Zhongxian's enemies in the Eastern Depot and the court, but even more so to guard against Zhao Jin.

Indeed, they were now drawing closer and closer to Zhao Jin's sphere of influence.

Because of the earlier peace treaty terms, Shandong had now become Zhao Jin's territory. They had to carefully choose their route to bypass the Shandong region and avoid any potential interference.

Yet, unlike the desolation they had seen on the road before, this stretch of the journey was filled with refugees in tattered rags, all heading south alongside them.

Every one of these refugees was gaunt and sallow; some were so emaciated they were little more than skin and bones, clearly having starved for a long time, their steps unsteady and crooked. Their expressions were all strangely blank, tinged with a hopeless numbness, like philosophers who had seen through life and death. The cold wind howled around them, but they seemed utterly oblivious, simply trudging forward in a daze, as if something ahead was waiting for them.

These refugees gathered in scattered groups of two or three, rarely speaking to one another, as if hunger had stripped them of all desire, and shuffling forward like walking corpses had become the sole meaning of their existence.

Most people's shoes had turned a dusty gray, worn through with holes. Some had no shoes at all, walking barefoot on the cracked, dry earth. In the late autumn's biting wind, people kept collapsing along the road. Some never rose again. Emaciated children wept beside parents who were already at death's door, but the majority simply kept walking forward without a glance, their faces all bearing the same deathly pallor.

This sight sent a chill through the hearts of the three men who had only just left the capital.

This was still Northern Zhili — how had it turned into such a scene?

"How… how can this be?" Wei Zhongxian's lips trembled slightly.

Although he had grown up among the common people, when he left his hometown it had still been the good years of the Wanli reign. After spending so many years in the capital thereafter, how many opportunities had he ever had to know the world outside its walls?

When he held absolute power over the court, he could only learn of local conditions through reports from regional officials. Though he knew in his heart those reports were surely not entirely truthful, and that the Great Ming was struggling and the common people's lives were certainly hard, he had never imagined that just a few hundred li from the capital, things would already look like this.

Qi Wang felt just as pained as he did.

Government affairs in chaos, high and low alike benighted, corruption running rampant, mediocre officials everywhere, refugees and famine victims suffering everywhere in cold and hunger… Who was responsible for all this? Was it not you power-usurping traitors who brought calamity to the state and the people!

At this thought, his fury became hard to suppress, and he shot Wei Zhongxian a fierce glare.

"You and your kind deceived His Majesty and ruined the realm to this state — this is all your fault!"

"It is our fault…" Wei Zhongxian hung his head dejectedly, feeling himself that his sins were indeed profound.

He let out a long sigh, then gazed at the endless stream of refugees along the road, feeling that his entire life had accomplished nothing of worth.

"I can only hope that Grand Secretary Sun and Grand Secretary Yang, the two assistant ministers, can turn the tide with all their might!"

"Kind sirs, could you help an old man, grant an old man a mouthful of food…" Just then, a white-haired old man suddenly squeezed over to them, begging. "This old man has not eaten for two days…"

His face was sallow and withered, his voice feeble. It looked as though, even if his plight was not quite as dire as he claimed, it was probably close.

Qi Wang and Liu Songping exchanged a glance, then Qi Wang took some dry rations from his traveling pack and handed them to the old man.

They knew they could not help everyone, but helping even one more was better than nothing.

"Thank you, kind sir! Thank you, kind sir!" The old man swiftly took the rations and thanked him profusely. It took Qi Wang considerable effort to stop him from kneeling.

Then, at a speed even Qi Wang could barely follow, the old man directly stuffed the dry rations into his mouth and began chewing furiously.

"Eat slower — careful you don't choke!" The wretched sight filled Qi Wang with pity, and he hurriedly handed over his waterskin as well. The old man took it and drank hastily.

Gulp, gulp — in a few swallows, the old man had devoured the dry rations. His complexion flushed slightly, and he seemed reinvigorated, as if life had been poured back into him.

"Many thanks, my lord!" He once again bowed his thanks to Qi Wang and the others.

"No need for thanks." Qi Wang waved a hand, then studied the old man with some curiosity. "May I ask, old sir, why are the roads so choked with refugees right now?"

"Why are the roads choked?" On the old man's deeply lined face, a bitter, wretched smile appeared. "If we could still scrape a living in our native place, why would this old man and the others flee our home!"

"What do you mean by that, old sir?" Qi Wang was slightly startled.

Then he looked the old man over again and noticed that although his clothes were just as tattered, his complexion was a bit better than the others', and his speech and bearing also showed some difference from the rest — clearly, his family circumstances had once been considerably better than most.

"I won't hide it from you, my lord. This old man is a native of Guangping Prefecture. My family was not wealthy, but we had a few mu of poor land, and I have read some books..." The old man's face was full of bitterness, his white beard trembling faintly in the cold wind. "It's just that the times are truly terrible now, each year harder to endure than the last, and recently we suffered a military calamity... Now my home has been looted clean by marauding soldiers, so I have no choice but to wander destitute, seeking some peaceful place to beg a living..."

"A military calamity?" Now even Wei Zhongxian was somewhat shocked. "Could it be that Zhao rebel uprising from a while back?"

"Indeed so..." The old man nodded dejectedly, tears glistening at the corners of his eyes.

The moment he heard the old man say this, Qi Wang's heart instantly blazed with fury. His hand gripped his saber tightly, righteous indignation filling his chest. "That villain Zhao, damn him — utterly devoid of conscience! He will surely come to a wretched end!"