Marry my elder sister? Fine! I'll give you the letter of annulment and marry someone else.

Song Zhi ignored these people, but these people began to observe Song Zhi actively.

Song Zhi didn't like going out very much. When she had free time, she liked to practice martial arts and read medical books. Song Zhi often listened in when Doctor Jiang taught his little apprentice, and Doctor Jiang would give her guidance as well.

The situation stabilized on the surface again, and winter soon arrived.

Tianqi's grain production dropped sharply, and the reported harvest figures made Mu Yuanzhi think he was dazzled for a moment, but it clearly said that it was just a small amount.

He did not reflect on his own reasons, but thought that the people were rebellious and wanted to embezzle food, so he sent soldiers to search house by house.

Of course, nothing was found.

He then recalled the previous time when Song Zhi intercepted the grain sent to the capital, making the wise king think that there was a famine, and in the end he lost both his wife and his army.

He thought this was another conspiracy of Song Zhi.

"She must have dug a trap for me to jump into, but I won't jump. There's still plenty of grain in the treasury, so it should be no problem to get through to next year's harvest."

Mu Yuanzhi was not at all panicked. He thought that it would be better for him to die than for his fellow Taoist to die, as long as he didn't starve to death.

It is better to sacrifice some useless people than for him to suffer at the hands of Song Zhi again.

Thinking of this, Mu Yuanzhi did not take any measures and allowed the current situation to continue without any improvement.

In fact, if he could stop the loss in time and start taking remedial measures, perhaps everything would not be irreversible.

It’s a pity that Mu Yuanzhi is arrogant, selfish and hypocritical, and doesn’t consider the lives of so many innocent people at all.

Liucheng.

City Lord's Mansion.

Xie Ting walked in and said, "The people of Liucheng have begun to try to go out during the day. What should we do next?"

Song Zhi picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea slowly. "Open the city gates."

In order to prevent the people from spreading rumors, she deliberately controlled the scope of their activities during this period.

Now, no more.

Xie Ting said, "Open the city gates? What if all these people run away?"

Taking an empty city, not to mention the actual losses, the reputation of this would definitely make people laugh.

Song Zhi's smile deepened. "If they run away, then they run away. I also need to purify the quality and temperament of the people. If they run away quickly now, it won't be so easy for them to come back in the future."

She has been tolerant enough towards these people, and there is nothing she can do if they continue to be blind.

Xie Ting nodded. "That's right. I heard that the grain harvest in Tianqi is pitifully small right now. The people are frantically scrambling for food. Others don't have enough to eat, so if they go there, they'll probably have even less to eat."

Song Zhi didn't comment, put down his teacup and said, "We must increase patrols on the border. We can't let the situation over there affect us."

"Don't worry about that. We will definitely defend it like an iron wall."

Xie Ting patted his chest and said, "Then I'll go down and have someone open the city gate."

Xie Ting walked very quickly, and soon the city gate was opened during the day.

The people hid in the dark and watched the situation without taking any rash action. They were increasingly confused about the actions of the empress.

After winning a battle and taking a new city, other monarchs would immediately appease the people and restore order, but this empress was an exception and did not care about them at all.

Yes, I just don’t care!

No matter how they struggle, no one bothers to pay attention to them.

Especially after those people who were listening to the story were caught that day, they thought she would finally take action. But hey, after they released them, she never asked about the matter again.

On the contrary, the people who listened to the story were worried for several days.

With the city gates wide open, the people subconsciously wondered, could this be a trap? If they dared to take a step forward, they would be killed on the spot?

However, after the city gate was opened, no one paid any attention to them. After opening the gate, everyone went about their own business.

A young man asked, "What on earth is this empress thinking? We are now considered her subjects. Does she really not care about us?"

Someone retorted: "Why didn't they intervene? It's not us who were ignorant and unwilling to cooperate. They didn't punish us, but just ignored us, which is already very kind of us."

The young man was displeased. "But rumors are not groundless, right? Since there are those rumors, there must be something wrong with her. We believed those rumors, so she should at least come out and clarify."

Some people couldn't stand it any longer, "Who are we? Let the Empress clarify for us."

"That's right, and rumors don't start without a trace, right? Well, spread the word that you have pica and like to eat poop from the toilet."

"Pfft hahahahaha."

There was a burst of laughter all around.

The young man's face turned green, "What do you mean!"

"You said the rumors were not groundless. Look at the rumor just now."

"Okay, stop arguing."

Finally, a respected old man stood up.

"I thought the Empress wasn't as violent as the rumors said. We're a bunch of defenseless people, so it wouldn't be that easy for the Empress to deal with us, but she's never made a move on us in all this time."

A younger man beside him also hesitated and said, "Actually, I have a distant relative in Lecheng. He sent a message to my family earlier saying that the Empress governs the country well and the entire Phoenix Country is living and working in peace and contentment. If we go there to seek refuge, as long as our background is verified, we can register as a resident. He told us to go there quickly.

But I was frightened by those rumors, thinking they were just something the Empress deliberately spread to deceive the outside world, hoping to trick our relatives into doing hard labor, so I didn't go. Now that I think about it, I'm afraid it was true."

"Indeed, we've also heard that the people of Phoenix Country are living a prosperous life. Even though the group of people who were driven out last time kept cursing and making a fuss, they still desperately wanted to go back. If Phoenix Country wasn't doing well, how could they possibly want to go back?"

Everyone finally made it clear and started analyzing the situation.

It would not matter if I did not analyze it, but once I did, I was shocked to find that they seemed to have believed some very far-fetched rumors.

The old man was silent for a moment and then said, "No matter what, we'll know after a try. I don't have much time left anyway, so why not give it a try for everyone?"

After saying that, he mustered up the courage to stand up.

The common people behind him watched the old man leave and solemnly promised, "Sir, you are a righteous man. If anything happens to you, we will give you a proper burial."

The old man took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the city gate with a heroic expression.

The people behind him clenched their fists tightly, and some of them were even more emotionally moved with tears in their eyes, as if the old man was really going to die.

They just couldn't hear the voices of the soldiers at the city gate. If they could hear them, they would know that the soldiers were speechless.

"I wonder if there's something wrong with their brains!"

"Exactly. What's that old man's expression? He's already old. I wonder if he wants to fall down next to us and blackmail us?"