After picking up a lucky girl, all the beasts line up to come to your door

But for people like Mr. Sang, who come from a large family, not being able to wash for a day is a big problem.

This was something he learned from his classmates after studying at the Imperial College.

For large families, manners and appearance are very important.

"Baby, go check when dinner is."

If he doesn't send his sister away, she will get to the bottom of it.

As soon as Mu Baobao heard about food, he forgot what he wanted to ask and ran to the cooking area.

Some of the victims there saw the meat and rice, but they just glanced at them and didn't have any bad thoughts.

This group of people were obviously a wealthy family that had fallen on hard times. It was normal for them to have meat and rice, but they were not greedy for these things.

The guards on duty noticed this and reported it to Sang Ye.

Sang Ye, who had recovered a little, looked at the victims next to him, called a guard over, and whispered something in his ear.

The guards obeyed the order.

He came to the group of disaster victims with a piece of meat half the size of his palm.

"Everyone, may I ask you something?" he asked politely.

"I wonder what this young man would like to ask?" An elderly man in his fifties, with a slightly hunched back, walked out from the crowd.

Judging from his appearance, he seems to be someone like the village chief.

The guard handed over the meat.

But the old man repeatedly waved his hands and refused, "No! No!"

"Meat is so valuable, sir, please take it back quickly."

It’s not that they don’t have meat, it’s that they don’t have fresh meat. What they have is dried meat, and there is not much meat left.

This was the only meat left in the whole village. People could only eat a little bit occasionally so that everyone could taste the meat and have the strength to escape the famine.

The guard forced the meat into his hand and said with a smile, "Old man, I have a lot to ask. Just think of it as asking for travel expenses."

"If you don't want to accept it, I'd be embarrassed to ask."

The old man could not refuse again and again, so he accepted it with some worry, "Sir, please feel free to ask."

"Whatever we know, we will tell you."

As he said this, he asked the villagers to pour a bowl of water for the guards.

The guard refused, "Old man, we have water, so we won't drink your water."

"Water is precious these days. No one has much water at home. How can I have the nerve to drink it?"

He repeatedly refused to drink it, so he didn't drink the water.

The old man knew that he had met a good person, "Young Master, please ask."

As they fled the famine, they met mostly bad people and very few good people. The only good people who showed them the way were those who offered to help them. There were no other good people.

Even so, they were very grateful to the good person who showed them the way, which helped them avoid many detours and encounter less trouble and danger.

The guard asked, "May I ask where you are fleeing from?"

The old man sighed and said, "It's from Pingzi Village, which is far away from here."

"From here...if it weren't for the drought, it would take fifteen or sixteen days to walk normally. The drought makes it go faster."

The guard calculated the distance and was surprised. "Old man, this is a long way. Did you flee all the way here like this?"

The old man gave a bitter laugh and said, "If there hadn't been no water in the village and town, we wouldn't have fled all the way. Who would be willing to leave their hometown?"

Many women in the village began to sob.

The old man said, "We are the only ones left."

"Originally, there were over 300 people fleeing the famine, but now there are only a little over 100 days left. Some stayed outside nearby towns, some died of illness or sunburn along the way, and some even left the main group."

There were nearly four hundred people in the village, a very small number of whom were unwilling to flee the famine and went to live with relatives and friends, while the rest fled together.

If they had not encountered a stream in the mountains along the way where they could wash themselves and fetch some water, they would probably not have come here.

Sang Ye and his companions felt heavy-hearted after hearing this. It turned out that the drought was much more serious than they had imagined.

Mu Baobao was so focused on the meat porridge that he didn't hear any of this.

Mu Pingping sighed. For ordinary people, this is what it means to have no water.

The guard felt a little uncomfortable, "Old man, is the drought along the way very serious?"

The old man nodded and said, "Our village and its surrounding areas are particularly serious."

"In fact, our village stopped raining as early as early April, and the temperature was abnormally hot at that time."

The guard thought to himself that it was almost July, almost three months.

But the emperor seemed to have never received a similar memorial.

In other words, someone was hiding this matter.

Sang Ye and the others also thought of this.

A few people looked at each other. It seemed that some people in certain places concealed the water shortage for their own selfish interests.

The guard asked, "Does the county magistrate not care about these things?"

The old man first subconsciously looked around, then he remembered that he was very far away from his hometown.

He exhaled and said bitterly, "Care? Not only does the county magistrate not care, he even has people guarding the town's wells. Anyone who wants to draw water has to pay."

"We villagers wanted to ask for water, but we couldn't even get through the city gates. If we shouted, we would be beaten to death. Otherwise, we wouldn't have left our homes to escape the famine."

When talking about this matter, the villagers were quite resentful.

"Usually, the county magistrate protects the wealthy families and wrongly accuses many people. It has nothing to do with us, and we can't do anything about it. But this time, the county magistrate has gone too far and doesn't care about the lives of ordinary people like us."

"There are a lot of taxes in our area. You have to pay taxes on killing poultry, selling things, getting married, and having a funeral... You have to pay taxes on everything. If you don't pay taxes, you will be arrested. After being arrested, you have to pay several taels of silver before you can be released."

"Many families have no money to pay taxes, so they are taken to the quarry or sold. Our county magistrate is used to lawlessness, and no one can control him."

"Isn't the county magistrate replaced every three years? I heard he managed to stay because of some connections. This kind of scourge is bound to kill him."

"Are there not enough county magistrates like this? On our way here, fleeing famine, has any town been willing to give us food or take us in? They treat us like animals... no, worse than animals. They beat and kill us whenever they want."

"There's drought everywhere, and there's such a water shortage. Who would be so kind as to welcome so many disaster victims? There are tens of thousands of them."

The guards learned a lot from these disaster victims.

After expressing his gratitude, he returned to the team's place and did not look for mulberry leaves immediately.

After learning so much about the situation, Sang Ye frowned tightly. They didn't need to investigate the affairs of the town near Pingzi Village. The secret guards would report to another group of people to handle it.

What they have to do now is to find out the situation of the villages and towns along the way, and whether the county magistrate, prefect, etc. have done anything or concealed anything.

If nothing was done or something was concealed, he would write a letter to report to the emperor.