Pei Xiuyan was extremely low-key during this trip.
The inns had been arranged in advance, and the officials on the way were even more cautious, fearing that something might happen to Pei Xiuyan on his own territory, so the arrangements were extremely thorough, so the road to Jiangnan was exceptionally smooth.
Every time Pei Xiuyan went to a station, he would read the latest DVDs sent by Jiangnan. There were more and more DVDs, and their progress on the road was getting faster and faster.
Because the matter was urgent, they spent most of the time sitting in the carriage and had no time to travel around.
On the sixth day, after traveling a thousand miles from Kyoto and arriving at the ferry of Kaijiang River, they switched from land to water.
Along this way, the ships did not dock and traveled day and night.
Ye Chuyan felt bored on the boat, so he began to pester Pei Xiuyan to accompany him to write poems and paintings.
Pei Xiuyan's calligraphy is wild and uninhibited, unique and has been imitated by everyone in the Hanlin Academy. He was happy to accompany Ye Chuyan to relieve his boredom. He would write or draw whatever Ye Chuyan wanted.
Ye Chuyan wrote the most poems praising the scenery of Jiangnan and the great mountains and rivers, and Ye Chuyan painted the most.
There are various postures, she is drinking tea with her head down; she is raising her eyes and smiling; she is standing on the edge of the boat looking into the distance; she is lying on the desk and taking a nap...
Pei Xiuyan almost wanted to describe every gesture and moment of Ye Chuyan.
Because Ye Chuyan was afraid of water, Pei Xiuyan hugged Ye Chuyan tightly every time he went to the deck to relax.
This shocked Yan Qi.
He has followed Pei Xiuyan for so many years, and he has never seen Pei Xiuyan be so attentive to a woman. Even at the beginning, his treatment of Zhao Yujiao was just superficial and he never made any serious moves.
In front of others, Pei Xiuyan was still the lonely and arrogant Prince Qing. When facing Ye Chuyan, he became an affectionate husband who could not tolerate anything but his wife.
Bai Zhi felt happy for Ye Chuyan from the bottom of her heart, feeling that her master had finally come to an end.
Her relationship with Yan Pei also progressed rapidly. Yan Pei was not good at words and would occasionally give Bai Zhi something, which were all weird gadgets made by herself. Bai Zhi would accept them with a blush every time.
Ye Chuyan looked very pleased. Yan Xi was a man who was not good at using his emotions. Once he fell in love, he was loyal and unswerving. For Bai Zhi, he was a good match.
She kept thinking about how to arrange Bai Zhi properly before the revenge was over.
In this way, they finally arrived at Junxian Ferry at the beginning of the Western month.
As soon as the boat entered the boundary of Jun County, we saw a dozen officials standing on the shore from a distance, all with sad faces.
When they saw Pei Xiuyan's boat, their eyes suddenly lit up.
The ship docked, Pei Xiuyan led Ye Chuyan off the ship, and a skinny man in his late teens took the lead and walked up.
He is Zhang Daoyun, the governor of Fujun.
The drought hit this time is all within the boundaries of Fujun. The last prefect who concealed the news was dismissed, and he is the latest to take office.
Jun County was the most severely affected place, and Pei Xiuyan notified him in advance to wait here.
Zhang Daoyun had heard about Pei Xiuyan and the princess coming to provide disaster relief a few days ago.
Seeing that Ye Chuyan had a good temperament and a graceful appearance, he was sure that she was the famous Princess of the Qing Dynasty. He did not dare to neglect her, knelt down and saluted and said, "I have met the prince and the princess."
Pei Xiuyan grimaced, "It's an urgent matter. No need to be polite now. Go to the county government office and we'll talk as we walk."
After Zhang Daoyun got up, he invited Pei Xiuyan to get on the carriage, and specially arranged a separate carriage for Ye Chuyan.
Pei Xiuyan did not want to and insisted on taking Ye Chuyan with him, Zhang Daoyun did not dare to say a word.
In the carriage, Zhang Daoyun began to tell the latest disaster situation one by one.
A total of thirteen cities were affected by the disaster. As of three days ago, the number of victims was estimated to be more than 300,000.
From before the Spring Festival until now, there has been no water here, and everything in the fields has died of drought. The weather has been getting hotter recently, and refugees in some places have contracted diseases. They don’t want to wait to die at home, so they have begun to flee.
In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, Zhang Daoyun sent people to close the city gates at the county government level and did not allow refugees to leave the city.
These diseases are not troublesome, but they are expensive to treat and require a lot of manpower. The money allocated by the court was only enough to buy food for porridge, not enough to buy medicine.
Zhang Daoyun said this with tears in his eyes.
"I also hope that the prince can send a letter to the Holy One, asking the Holy One to allocate extra money to save these more than 10,000 people who are sick."
Ye Chuyan was so uncomfortable that he couldn't breathe.
Along the way, Pei Xiuyan did not tell her about the refugee situation.
At this moment, she was sitting in the carriage, and through the curtain she saw the people lying on the roadside, in ragged clothes and in a state of embarrassment, with helpless and numb expressions on their faces.
These were just ordinary refugees. She could not imagine how desperate those people were who were sick and waiting to die.
Pei Xiuyan listened to Zhang Daoyun's report in silence and said calmly, "Have you separated the infected people? If they all wander around the city, they will eventually infect everyone."
Zhang Daoyun said quickly: "Yes, yes. I will ask each county government to find a remote place to gather all these infected refugees together so that they will not be infected with other people for the time being."
Pei Xiuyan nodded, "Very good, take me to see these sick people later."
The carriage arrived at the county government office. Pei Xiuyan settled Ye Chuyan, leaving Yan Qi and Bai Zhi to accompany her, and a dozen guards to protect her, and then hurriedly went out with Zhang Daoyun.
Before leaving, Pei Xiuyan told the guards that the refugees outside could riot at any time, so they must not let the princess go out.
When Ye Chuyan thought about the refugees outside, he couldn't sleep or eat well, and felt like sitting on pins and needles in the house.
Pei Xiuyan didn't come back until late at night.
Ye Chuyan hurriedly greeted him, "A Ce, how is the situation today? How to deal with the people who are infected?"
Pei Xiuyan's voice was a little hoarse, "Ayan, don't worry, I've already taken care of it."
He visited the sick refugees and found that, as Zhang Daoyun said, it was easy, but the treatment was too wasteful of money.
He felt that these people were not worth the money spent by the court, so he used the simplest method to deal with them on the spot.
However, he did not intend to tell Ye Chuyan this.
Ye Chuyan really wanted to ask how to deal with it. After asking for a long time, she saw that Pei Xiuyan was talking about other things and was unwilling to reveal anything, so she had no choice but to give up.
The next day, Pei Xiuyan said that he and Zhang Daoyun would go to other disaster-stricken places and asked Ye Chuyan to wait for his return at the county government office.
Before going out, he told the guards as usual not to let the princess go out.
This brief sentence put Ye Chuyan under house arrest.
Ye Chuyan couldn't get any information from the outside world, so he lived in the house counting the hours every day.
On the third day, the grain she asked Madam Mo to buy before departure arrived.
Pei Xiuyan wouldn't let her go out, so she arranged for the government servants to distribute the food delivered to the old, weak, sick and pregnant women in the city.
She also told the government officials that if the people asked, just say that the Qing prince took pity on them and provided the food out of his own pocket.
Because the porridge for disaster relief does not distinguish between people, two meals a day are provided at the designated time, and there is nothing extra. There are some old, weak, sick and pregnant women who cannot survive on that little porridge.
These grains were quickly distributed to the hands of the sick and weak victims. Everyone learned that the grains were bought by the Qing King with his own money, and they all expressed their gratitude.
The government officials also looked at Ye Chuyan in a new light because of this, feeling that this Qing princess had a broad mind and was comparable to ordinary women.
Ye Chuyan gained the love of the government officials and finally found an opportunity to avoid Yan Xi and other guards and asked a new young government official how to deal with the sick refugees.
The little yamen servant hesitated for a long time, and finally told Ye Chuyan in a low voice that Pei Xiuyan had ordered all the sick refugees to be killed, and the last one was set on fire.
This was done in secret and no one was allowed to reveal it. It was announced to the outside world that the refugees who were infected did not survive and all died of the disease. In order to prevent infection, they were cremated on the spot.
When Ye Chuyan heard the news, she stayed up all night. She couldn't imagine how painful those who were infected were before they died.
After suffering, they finally waited until the court sent someone over, but what they received was not hope, but death.
The blood of the royal family flows in Pei Xiuyan's bones. The lives of these ten thousand sick people are as worthless to the royal family. As long as they don't cause riots, they will deal with these people at the minimum cost.
No matter how kind Pei Xiuyan was to her, he was still the ruthless Pei family at heart.
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Pei Xiuyan acted resolutely, and after traveling with Zhang Daoyun to the affected cities, he quickly made a specific disaster relief plan.
The climate here is warm and there are many kinds of food. Now the latest food is grown, canals are dug from the nearest river, and river water is introduced for irrigation.
During this period, the porridge factory gave out porridge to ensure that the people would not starve to death.
If everything goes well, by the time the canal is dug, new food will be almost planted.
If people in the disaster area go to dig canals, they will be provided with food, food and shelter, plus half a day's wages.
When the refugees heard the news, almost all those who could afford it signed up to dig ditches.
This method extinguished the possible outbreak of riots among the victims and made the canal digging faster.
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Putting these actions together, in just half a month, Pei Xiuyan's reputation in the disaster area has reached its peak.
Some people even offered longevity tablets to Pei Xiuyan in the temple and prayed for him every day.
By the end of the west, most of the canals were dug and new grain was almost planted.
That night, it suddenly rained heavily, and the people knelt down and cried in excitement.
They finally waited for the long-awaited rain, and the drought was over!
It was at this time that Pei Xiuyan returned to the Juncheng County Government Office in the rain.
There was a thunderstorm outside, and Ye Chuyan was sitting by the window in a daze.
"Ayan, I'm back." Pei Xiuyan's voice was extremely relaxed.
Ye Chuyan hadn't seen Pei Xiuyan for almost a month, and seeing him again felt like a lifetime ago.
He had lost weight, his stubble was a bit sad, and his shoulders were wet from the rain, but he was still so handsome.
Ye Chuyan sat where he was and didn't move.
Pei Xiuyan opened his arms, "Ayan, don't you recognize me?"
Ye Chuyan stood up and threw herself into Pei Xiuyan's arms. She took a deep breath and shouted, "A Ce."
Pei Xiuyan pressed his chin hard against Ye Chuyan's head, "Ayan, the disaster relief is over, let's go home."
Ye Chuyan murmured: "Yes, it's over, go home."
