She picked up the young prime minister while fleeing famine

Farmers who were unable to plow in the spring initially waited for government assistance, but how could a mere military officer like An manage such matters?

After several unsuccessful disaster relief efforts, the people of Hedong Prefecture began to flee south to escape famine. Meanwhile, the eastern half of the northern frontier was lost due to the delayed arrival of imperial reinforcements, and the grassland army directly besieged the border city of Hedong Prefecture.

Unable to do anything else, Prince An had to conscript men everywhere to defend against foreign enemies, causing widespread suffering and hardship among the people of Hedong Prefecture.

The so-called Prince An has become a joke.

If King Cheng were to take Hedong Prefecture at this time, it would be an easy task. However, at the same time, King Cheng would have to face the grassland army head-on.

Anyone with a brain wouldn't do that. Instead of taking Hedong Prefecture, which has already suffered a disaster, it would be better to take advantage of Hedong Prefecture's predicament, head straight northwest, and capture the capital of Great Xia.

Although the Great Xia Dynasty has fallen apart, its capital city is still inhabited by nobles and lords, and it is quite prosperous.

Once the capital of the Great Xia Dynasty is captured, King Cheng will no longer have to worry about military supplies and provisions.

However, those cowardly fools from the Liancheng family would definitely be afraid of being betrayed by Prince An of Hedong Prefecture and Prince Qi of Yongzhou Prefecture, so they wouldn't dare to take this step.

Based on Lian Chengmo's experiences fleeing famine and his previous life, it is clear that Prince An is currently preoccupied with his own problems, while Prince Qi in the far south seems to have only Prince Cheng as his opponent. However, little do people know that the Japanese pirates at sea are the biggest threat to Prince Qi.

Otherwise, Yongzhou is mountainous. Even if King Cheng wanted to go south, it would be a terrain where one man could hold off ten thousand. It would not be so easy to fight there.

On the contrary, the Japanese pirates at sea were despicable. They would burn, kill, and plunder every time they landed, and then run away after looting. They were a major threat to the people of Yongzhou, just like the barbarians on the grasslands, and were hated by the people of the Great Xia.

Now that King Cheng is eyeing the throne with hostility, King An is so alarmed that he is on edge. It is unknown how King An plans to deal with King Cheng.

Lian Chengmo thought about it for a while and came up with a rough guess. He went back to rest quietly. The next morning, he went to the city gate with Yao Dahe and Yao Daniu.

Along the way, the roadside was filled with disaster victims who were looking them over. Lian Chengmo noticed that some of the early risers were already digging for wild vegetables and peeling tree bark.

Qingyang County is located in a mountainous area, with several mountains at the city gate. Qingyang County is situated in the middle of these mountains, on a vast flat area.

The disaster victims were afraid that the city gates would suddenly open and allow ordinary people to enter, so they were reluctant to leave.

Moreover, most of the disaster victims here are local people from nearby areas. Their original villages belonged to Hedong Prefecture. The reason they were reluctant to cross Qingyang County and continue south was that they wanted to wait for the natural disaster to pass so they could return to their hometowns.

Anyway, although Qingyang County doesn't allow people to enter the city, there are plenty of mountains and rivers nearby. If you work hard to find food, even if you dig up grass roots or eat tree bark, you won't really starve to death.

As the disaster victims watched the three men walk towards the county town empty-handed, their hopes were dashed, and they stopped staring at them. Lian Chengmo and the others arrived at the city gate without incident.

At this time, the city gate was tightly closed, with a troop of soldiers stationed at the entrance and wooden rafts blocking the way to prevent the disaster victims from rushing in.

Many corpses hung on the city wall, which was three or four meters high. Some of them had weathered into mummies. These were the rioters who were killed and their bodies hung here to intimidate the common people.

As expected of the hot-tempered King Cheng, his methods are indeed ruthless. But can this method really be effective indefinitely?

The three of them stood on one side of the raft, where there were already people queuing up to enter the city.

After waiting for a quarter of an hour, Lian Chengmo saw a small door open at the city gate, and someone came out and said something to the squad leader stationed outside.

Soon someone came to register them and let them pass.

Lian Chengmo took out the household registration book he had prepared earlier and handed it to the other party. The squad leader looked at him with surprise when he saw Lian Chengmo's surname.

After carefully confirming that the person was indeed from Liancheng, Yunzhou, the squad leader, as was customary, collected one tael of silver from each person and quickly let them into the city, unlike the previous groups who were subjected to various interrogations.

Yao Daniu was still young and excited about being able to go to the city, but Yao Dahe noticed the subtle tension between the constables.

Without thinking, Yao Dahe looked at Lian Chengmo seriously. His father was right. The young master had a noble status and was their hope for settling down.

What Lian Chengmo didn't expect was that after entering the small gate, a yamen runner came to guide them, leading them from under the city wall and around into the city.

Lian Chengmo raised an eyebrow, followed silently without asking any questions, until he heard arguing from the side, and then he understood why.

It turned out that after him, others entered the city, only to be surrounded and robbed by a crowd waiting at the city gate. After all that commotion, those people had nothing left, not only food but also money.

Lian Chengmo's eyes darkened slightly. So those people weren't beggars after all?

It's normal to have beggars in front of every city gate. With natural disasters and man-made calamities like today, it seems normal for Qingyang County to have more. But I never expected that these people would openly rob people.

So, with Prince An's instigation, was this the source of the disaster?

Lian Chengmo's mind raced. Yao Daniu beside him was already furious, his face turning ashen. He clenched his fists and looked over there.

"How could these people do this? Officers, aren't you going to do anything about it?" Yao Daniu asked angrily.

"Why not? They're not citizens of my Vietnamese government." To everyone's surprise, the constable replied without any concern.

Lian Chengmo noticed that although the man seemed to be criticizing Yao Daniu, he was actually glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.

"You..." Yao Daniu was furious and wanted to argue with the policeman, but he was stopped by Yao Dahe after only uttering one word.

He winked at Yao Daniu, signaling him to watch the young master's actions.

"Thank you for your trouble, Brother Cha. Let's go!" Lian Chengmo merely glanced at the constable without offering any opinion.

Seeing this, the constable chuckled and continued to lead the way, guiding the three of them around the crowd of people looting at the city gate and directly to the center of the county town.

Outside Qingyang County, corpses littered the fields, but inside the county, apart from the horrific scene at the city gate, everything was peaceful.

Shops on the street were open for business, and there were even some street vendors and peddlers. If you didn't see it with your own eyes, who would know that there was such a world of difference between the two sides of the wall?

The constable also had his own duties to attend to; after escorting the three to the main street, he had to return to his post, so he took his leave.

"Brother Cha, if I buy grain, how will I leave the city?" Lian Chengmo asked, bowing slightly to him.

“Young master, I advise you not to leave the city. Leaving the city will cost money, and once the grain is outside the city, how can it be protected?” The yamen runner was willing to say a few more words to Lian Chengmo and told the truth.

“Brother Cha is right, but we have relatives outside the city. We need to continue south to Yunzhou. I wonder if you could make an exception?” Lian Chengmo said, and with a serious expression, he took out a string of copper coins and stuffed them into the yamen runner’s hand.

Judging from his expression alone, who would have thought that someone as clear-headed as Lian Chengmo would do something like this to win people's hearts?