Chapter 627 - Chapter 627: Man-Eating Refugees
Chapter 627: Man-Eating Refugees
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Yes, I heard from the Peace-keeping Bureau that he was locked up at their place previously, but now he has been transferred away. He may be locked up m the prison behind the palace.”
“What are you babbling on and on to the Area Chief about? Area Chief, your medicine is ready. Please drink it while it’s hot.”
Another subordinate came in with a bowl of medicine. Long Ba didn’t continue the conversation topic and told the first guy to go.
After dealing with those people from the Jin and the Nan States, the mining progress became quite smooth.
It was already the beginning of spring, and the snow in the northern wilderness had almost melted. Su Ying brought up the matter of wasteland development again.
Early in the morning, Cheng Ming was waiting outside the door. When Su Ying was ready, he followed her out of the city.
“City Lord, the wasteland plots around the city are more or less completely developed.” If they wanted to find more wasteland, they would have to go further.
There were many low mountains in the northern wilderness. This was one of the reasons it was difficult to develop the wasteland here.
“Can’t this mountain be turned into farmland?”
The group of people came to the foot of a mountain. Su Ying pointed at the mountain. This mountain was not high or steep, and the soil was relatively soft. It seemed that they should be able to plant crops here.
Cheng Ming replied, “We have already checked out this mountain The soil is suitable for farming, but because the plot is on the mountain, it’s actually a bit difficult to cultivate crops on a large scale.”
Su Ying patted the tiger she was sitting on and motioned for it to go up the mountain.
Not only did this mountain appear gently sloping, but it was not steep at all when one climbed it.
After climbing for a while, Su Ying ordered the big cat to stop. She walked to the back of the mountain and stomped on the soil a few times. Then, she picked up a tree branch and drew rings on the ground.
“What if we do this?”
Within a few moments, Su Ying had drawn cascading rings of terraces on the soil under her feet. “Fence up this place like this. Can we then do planting in there?”
Cheng Ming felt that this place was not usable primarily because he felt that the slope of the mountain was not sturdy enough. If there was a rainstorm, he was worried that the crops would be buried by the mountain soil that became loosened.
“Look, create two openings on both sides as a place to store water and provide irrigation. If it rains, we can open this drainage outlet and let the excess water dram out. Because there is an outer fence of protection, combined with the soil quality of this mountain, even if there is a heavy rainstorm, the possibility of the farmland getting washed away is very small.”
Su Ying had once read some information about a farming method called terraced fields. She felt that low mountains that meet the criteria could use that form of cultivation.
“Well build a ridge with stones at the periphery to form a step. Gradually, well raise the height of the ground until it is level. This way, the slope within the plot will be flattened. After further modification, the rows of steps should be able to meet the conditions for planting. What do you think?”
What Su Ying told him was whatever she had read from the information. The more Cheng Ming listened to Su Ying’s description, the brighter his eyes became. “City Lord is wise indeed. We didn’t think of this before.” Previously, they had felt that the northern wilderness was vast, and at most they would just go a little further and look for a plot of wasteland. They did not go into too convoluted ways of thinking.
However, now that he heard Su Ying say this, he felt that the possibility of success was very high. There were many such mountains outside the city. If they could make use of them, they would not have to travel so far.
Su Ying only gave a suggestion. The actual implementation still depended on Cheng Ming and his team.
“It’s already the beginning of spring. Let’s not waste time. We’ll go to other places to take a look.”
Since she wanted the entire city to have surplus food, then the more food they could grow, the better.
Cheng Ming left a few people here to conduct further investigation while he followed Su Ying elsewhere.
At this moment, outside the border of the Chu State near the entrance of the northern wilderness, a group of people slowly walked toward the northern wilderness.
Their clothes were ragged, their eyes were dull, and their faces resembled the lifeless demeanor of the dead.
After chasing away the people from the Nan State and the Jin State, Su Ying assigned people to guard the entrance.
When the guards at the entrance saw so many people walking toward them, all of them went forward to stop the newcomers.
“Stop. Where did you come from?”
Although Su Ying had never stopped any refugees and criminals from entering, her men would ask questions before allowing them to enter.
When those people saw that the path ahead was blocked, they all shrank back a little.
“We… we are… fleeing the disaster. We are from the Nan State.”
“There was a terrible snowstorm in the Nan State, and our homes collapsed under the weight of the snow. The Imperial Court didn’t care about our lives, so we could only flee to the outside. However, other kingdoms wouldn’t let us in, so we could only come here.”
The guards scrutinized them up and down. “Where did the snowstorm happen in the Nan State? Why haven’t we heard about it?”
“Gosh, you guys are so far away. How would you know? The heavy snow sealed the mountains and trapped many people to death. The Imperial Court doesn’t care about our lives either. If we had someplace to go back home, we would not have abandoned our homeland.”
The guards saw that those people were all starved to the point that their faces were sallow and their bodies were very thin. They did not look like they were lying.
However, the guard still took out a charcoal pencil and paper and summoned them into the guardhouse one by one to question them and register their details.
After a round of questioning, the guard allowed them in.
When those people walked into the northern wilderness, they found corpses and uninhabited forests everywhere. The look of death on their faces became more pronounced.
“There are people standing guard outside, so I thought there must be some treasure in here. Who would have thought that there was nothing? Why did they still ask so many questions?” Someone in the group grumbled.
No one answered. At this point, they were so tired that they didn’t even have the strength to speak.
“No matter what, let’s find a place to stay first.”
They continued forward, but before they could go far, someone in the group collapsed. F
“Wang Wu, Wang Wu…” The person beside him walked to the person who had fallen and reached out to check his pulse.
He raised his head and shook his head slowly at the leader. “He’s not breathing anymore.” &
These words seemed to have turned on some hidden switches in those people’s bodies. Pairs of icy eyes emitting a faint glint in the darkness fell on the corpse that had not completely turned cold.
They had not eaten for a long time. Even a corpse was their hope of survival in their view!
Since you’re dead, then help us survive!”
Someone couldn’t contain himself anymore and immediately pounced on the corpse.
“What are you guys doing? Don’t… don’t touch my son…” An older middle-aged woman tried to push away those ravenous people, but she was no match for them. She could only watch helplessly as her son was tom into a bloody mess. The people tailing this group in the dark frowned when they saw this sight. After the northern wilderness was cleaned up by Su Ying, it had been a long time since such an incident happened. It was still quite a shock to suddenly witness it.
“You guys continue to tail them. I’ll send a message back to the city.”
There were quite a number of people in this group. Not surprisingly, the guards did not allow them to simply enter and wander around freely. Therefore, they got people to tail them in the dark. However, those people tailing them did not expect to see this sight.
Soon, even the bones of that skinny corpse were licked clean…