Traveling through ancient times to escape famine, the prince led me to rebel

The rumbling sound of the carriage gradually faded away.

"Farewell, Her Royal Highness the Princess."

The crowds on both sides of the official road knelt down one after another. Luo Xiaoran was stunned for a moment, and Qiu Niang next to her grabbed her sleeve and pulled her down. Her knees slammed into the ground with two "bang" sounds.

This little pain was nothing to Luo Xiaoran, she was just a little confused.

This place is located in the suburbs of Kyoto, half a day's drive from the city. It is the location of the "porridge factory" ordered by the emperor to be supervised, which was specifically used to accommodate the large number of disaster victims who flocked to Kyoto.

The person in the carriage today is Princess Qingyi, who has come here on the emperor's orders to inspect the situation of the disaster victims.

Luo Xiaoran knew about this Princess Qingyi.

The current emperor, Emperor Tianqi, is the fourth emperor of Daliang, and Princess Qingyi is his biological sister from the same mother.

Princess Qingyi was of very noble status and was deeply trusted by the emperor, so much so that the emperor would entrust many important state affairs to Princess Qingyi.

Not until the gold and jade-inlaid carriage was no longer visible did the two groups of people stand up one after another.

Qiu Niang grabbed Luo Xiaoran's sleeve again and pulled her up:

"Cai Cai, why didn't you kneel just now? Do you know that you will be beheaded if you are caught like that?" Qiu Niang was frightened by Luo Xiaoran's behavior just now, and her little face turned pale.

I secretly comforted myself: Fortunately, I reacted quickly and pulled Cai Cai down, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.

Luo Xiaoran was helpless: If I say I didn’t react, do you believe me?

At that time, the four of them were following the carriage in front of them on their way normally.

Suddenly, two teams of armored soldiers rushed to the official road and blocked both sides of the road. The leader on horseback shouted, "Princess Qingyi is here, people please get out of the way."

For a moment, the official road seemed to be split in half by a big knife, and the large and small carriages and the bustling crowds on it immediately divided into two sides of the road.

Soon after, a luxurious carriage with four horses appeared in front of everyone. Then everyone knelt down, bowed their heads and shouted, "Farewell, Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Forgive her, a modern person, for having only seen scenes of this magnitude in TV dramas, so when she was in the situation, she felt it was unreal and was a little insensitive.

But I still have to make up an excuse, "I have lived in the mountains since I was a child. I have never even seen a county magistrate, let alone a royal relative. I don't know many rules. I am so grateful to you, Qiu Niang."

"You'd better remember this next time." Luo Xiaoran rarely spoke in such a humble tone, which made Qiu Niang feel embarrassed to scold her again.

Luo Xiaoran secretly breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and saw Uncle Li looking at her with a look that said "I don't believe you at all".

Luo Xiaoran lowered her head to hide her guilty conscience, and happened to see Xiao Xingchen looking straight at her, with a rare look of hesitation on her soft face.

This excuse is kind of lame huh! ?

It can only deceive the simple-minded Qiu Niang.

Last time, after secretly giving Wang Cuihua two handfuls of fried rice, he ate less than two meals and was suspected. The excuse he used of "losing weight" was also very lame.

But life in Kyoto is really troublesome. You have to kneel when you see royal relatives and dignitaries.

If you accidentally offend someone, he might be an official of the third, fourth or fifth rank. It's really scary, Luo Xiaoran curled her lips in her heart.

In a deeper sense, "kneeling" was a means of ruling the lower classes in ancient feudal society.

Subjectively, Luo Xiaoran, who came from the future, must have refused to kneel in her heart, but objectively, in order to avoid putting herself in danger, she had to kneel.

As a member of the army of time travelers, she did not become a princess, nor a queen, and she did not have any golden fingers such as space, system, and mind reading. In order to survive, she had to bow her head when she should. Don't despise her for being a coward.

Thinking about my situation in this way, it seems a bit tragic, but the objective form also needs to be under certain circumstances.

After sending Qiu Niang to the capital, Uncle Li and his grandson would also have a place to stay. She must go farther away and settle down in a place far away from the emperor.

She can rent dozens of acres of land and become a leisurely small landlord. Then no one will need to kneel, and no one will need to kneel to her. How great!

The victims on both sides of the official road gradually returned to the road. It was still early, so it was better to hurry on.

A few people nearby who seemed to be managers of the "Porridge Factory" interrupted Luo Xiaoran's thoughts.

"You disaster victims should stop heading towards Kyoto. You can rest here and receive disaster relief porridge."

As soon as he finished speaking, almost all the victims who had no carriages headed towards the "porridge factory".

Those who had carriages were relatively hesitant: if they delayed here, would they encounter curfew in the evening and be unable to enter the city?

After much hesitation, most of the carriage drivers decided not to waste time and had to continue on their journey to Kyoto.

Luo Xiaoran and the other three had the same plan, but were stopped in their tracks by a word from the manager of the "Porridge Factory".

"Let's go, let's go, you can't enter Kyoto City anyway!"

This made Qiu Niang very angry. She had come here with so much difficulty, so why was she not allowed to enter the city?

Luo Xiaoran patted Qiu Niang's shoulder soothingly, then walked up to the manager and asked.

"I wonder why you say that, sir?"

Manager Liu was actually a minor manager in the "porridge factory" who was responsible for counting the number of disaster victims. He was not very prominent and was able to find this job thanks to his brother-in-law who was a member of the city defense army.

When Manager Liu saw a beautiful girl calling him "Sir", he was so happy that he lost his mind and started talking nonsense like pouring beans.

“When the disaster first struck in the south, many people fled to Kyoto, especially those from Changzhou, who numbered innumerable.

The emperor found it strange and ordered a thorough investigation. It turned out that the former prefect of Changzhou was so bold as to embezzle the money for disaster relief. The victims were starving, so didn't they head to Kyoto for a way to survive?

Later, the situation improved after a new prefect was appointed in Changzhou."

The previous Changzhou prefect did nothing, so Changzhou got a new prefect. This was consistent with the information Luo Xiaoran heard in Changzhou City.

"But at this time, many disaster victims had already gathered around Kyoto. The emperor was wise and allowed some disaster victims who met the requirements to enter the city. Those who did not meet the requirements were placed here."

"Then how did your Excellency know that we don't meet the requirements and therefore cannot enter the city?" Luo Xiaoran was very curious.

"Now, no matter whether you meet the requirements or not, you can't enter the city. Those who walked to the gate of Kyoto were stopped and finally returned to us."

Manager Liu looked around, moved closer to Luo Xiaoran, and lowered his voice.

“I also heard from others that a lady in the palace advised the emperor that there was already a plague in some places in the south, and they were afraid that some of the victims entering the city would be infected with the plague and spread it to Kyoto.

If this gets into the palace, it will be a disaster of utter disastrous proportions.”

"plague?"

Yes, Luo Xiaoran remembered that they had encountered bandits and hid in a cave. Later, it rained for several times in a row and many people caught a cold and died.

The four of them wore masks every day for fear of being infected. Perhaps because they were lucky or because they had dry food to eat and thus had strong immunity, none of them caught a cold.

So many people died in this famine. If not dealt with in time, the bodies would have rotted and viruses and bacteria would have multiplied. If not controlled, an epidemic more serious than the cold might have broken out.

In addition, the sanitary conditions and medical standards in ancient times were relatively low, and I don’t know how many people died.

Thinking of this, even Luo Xiaoran, who had witnessed all kinds of tragic situations at the end of the world, felt a little sad.