At the beginning, I became a county magistrate with greed of 500 million. The empress asked me to be

Xia Yun and his group did not take any vehicle.

There are many water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and the roads are mostly muddy, so Xia Yun chose to ride a horse to Jianghuai Province.

A team of hundreds of people.

Xia Yunju was at the front, followed by Xu Wan'er and Jiang Wenzhong.

Jiang Wenzhong was also trained by Xia Yun.

He originally served in the Dai County army, and his position was second only to Qin Tianye.

The rest of the female family members and supplies and silver were in the middle of the queue, escorted by large teams on both sides.

Xia Yun has already made preparations for this trip to Jiangnan.

In addition to the necessary silver, Xia Yun also prepared 500,000 dan of grain!

These grains were transported by a large number of horse-drawn carriages, which looked very spectacular among the troops.

"When will there be news from Jianghuai Province?"

As they walked towards the evening, Xia Yun suddenly asked.

"The vanguard troops have already set out and are expected to reach Jianghuai Province within three days."

Xu Wan'er responded immediately.

She had sent out spies before the main force set out.

The so-called knowing oneself and the enemy will never end in a hundred battles.

Due to the hasty transfer order, they are not clear about the situation in the officialdom of Jianghuai Province, so they need to make plans early.

"According to the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict yesterday, the Governor of Jiangzhi, Lei Zhenning, holds the title of Minister of War and is a minister of the first rank in the imperial court."

"Yang Jichang, the governor of Jianghuai Province, is a second-rank minister of the imperial court."

"Zuo Anning, the governor of Jianghuai Province, is a second-rank minister of the imperial court."

"These three are all Jiangnan Party officials."

Xu Wan'er then told him the news she knew.

Upon hearing this, Xia Yun immediately fell into deep thought.

He already knew that not long ago, a group of censors from the Inspectorate openly impeached the party officials of the Jianghuai Province in the court.

Among them, almost all senior officials of Jianghuai Province are on the list.

The former fourth-rank prefect of Jiangning whom he replaced was also an official of the Jiangnan Party.

This means that no matter what, when he arrives in Jianghuai Province, he will inevitably be regarded as an outlier by other officials.

Even being targeted by others.

"The soldiers will stop it, and the water will only cover it with soil."

After thinking for a moment, Xia Yun shook his head helplessly.

......

Time flies.

Three full days had passed since Xia Yun and his group set out.

The distance we walked was far away from Dai County.

At this time, it was about three or four hundred kilometers away from Jianghuai Province.

At noon that day, a cavalryman wearing a black helmet and black armor hurriedly returned to Xia Yun's team.

At the same time, he handed a letter to Xia Yun.

Xia Yun opened it and saw that inside the envelope was a silver note worth one hundred thousand taels.

Plus a finger wrapped in brown paper.

Judging from the freshness of the blood on the finger, it was obvious that it had been chopped off not long ago.

Seeing this, Xia Yun's mouth curled up slightly.

A mere eunuch dares to take his money?

It’s simply a matter of life and death!

Of course, Xia Yun did not kill all the eunuchs.

After all, the other party was sent by the empress to convey her orders.

If he died, it would inevitably arouse the empress's suspicion and she would send people to Dai County to investigate.

That would only cause more trouble.

So Xia Yun only asked for one of the eunuch's fingers.

In this way, they not only recovered the silver bills, but also made the eunuch terrified. He dared not stay any longer, let alone return to Dai County!

In the blink of an eye, another two days passed.

On this day, Xia Yun and his group finally approached the ground of Jianghuai Province.

However, before Xia Yun officially stepped into Jianghuai Province, he saw mountains of dried corpses everywhere he passed.

It would not be an exaggeration to even describe the situation as one with starving people everywhere.

Even Xu Wan'er, who was always calm and composed, couldn't help but feel overwhelmed when she saw the large number of corpses on both sides of the road.

Xia Yun's face was gloomy, and his inner anger gradually intensified.

He had already prepared himself mentally for the famine in the south of the Yangtze River.

But the cruelty of reality far exceeded his expectations.

We haven't even entered Jianghuai Province yet, but there are already corpses all over the ground. What will the situation be like inside Jianghuai Province!

Due to the large number of corpses piled on the road, the convoy could not move very fast.

Xia Yun suppressed his anger along the way and ordered his men to carefully check the corpses along the way.

Once a living person is found, rescue should be started immediately.

In this way, when Xia Yun entered Jianghuai Province for only one day, he had saved the lives of thousands of people!

During this process, Xia Yun's anger became increasingly difficult to suppress!

"What on earth are these incompetent officials in Jianghuai Province doing? They are a bunch of beasts worse than pigs and dogs!"

Xia Yun couldn't help but curse.

In Jianghuai Province, wherever Xia Yun passed, it became a scene of hell on earth.

There were rotting, maggot-infested corpses everywhere, and the stench was overwhelming!

Less than a hundred steps away, you can see a small tower made of piled bones.

During this period, there were many elderly people who had run out of food and lay in the grass waiting to die.

What Xia Yun and others could not bear to look at were those middle-aged men who ate their own children!

Therefore, after a long journey, Xia Yun asked the team to stop when they were still fifty miles away from Jiangning.

"Pass on my order. Set up a porridge stall on the spot and cook thick porridge three times a day, morning, noon and evening, to provide relief to all the victims. The rice porridge must stand upright without falling down, and the bags must not fall apart. Those who violate this will be punished by military law!"

Xia Yun immediately issued the first order.

After receiving the order, everyone immediately moved supplies from the carriage and built a porridge tent on the spot.

As a result, a large number of surviving disaster victims from the surrounding areas swarmed towards the porridge shed like a tide.

In just half a day, tens of thousands of people had gathered!

"Order all troops to be divided into two teams, with 100 men in each team."

"A team is stationed in a hidden place outside the city, waiting for my order at any time."

"Another team will enter the city quietly after dark in concealed attire."

When the porridge stall started to operate normally, Xia Yun gave the second order.

The number of men he brought with him on this trip was nearly five hundred.

Among them, two hundred were armed troops, and the other three hundred were farmers who were escorting food and various supplies.

At present, he has not yet met the Jiangnan officialdom, so it is best for him to hide his own strength first.

Once the order is given.

The armed forces were quickly divided into two groups and began to strictly implement Xia Yun's orders.

In the evening of that day, Xia Yun and his group finally arrived in Jiangning City!

However, the Jiangning City today is in a completely dilapidated and ruined state.

This is completely different from the rumored praise that "there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below"!

When the team approached the city gate.

Xia Yun saw that all the officials of Jiangning City, both big and small, had gathered outside the city gate, as if they were waiting for Xia Yun's arrival.

Xia Yun was not surprised by this.

Because before this, he had already sent people to Jiangning City to pass on the message and announce his arrival.

Soon, a large group of people arrived at the bottom of the city gate.

"Xiao Haiyang, the co-magistrate of Jiangning, leads all officials below the fourth rank in Jiangning to await the arrival of Lord Xia!"

Before Xia Yun could dismount from his horse, one of the officials from Jiangning stepped out.

But the man bowed with both hands and spoke in a very loud voice, which showed that he had no good intentions.