Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 63 - 063 Initial Stability

Chapter 63: Chapter 063 Initial Stability

As soon as they heard that there was a rebellion outside, several families became very afraid. They were honest peasants, and even though they have suffered greatly from fleeing famine, they had never thought of rebelling.

"What’s caused this chaos? What are we going to do?" Third Grandma’s hands were shaking. Having lived her whole life, she didn’t want to encounter such events in her old age. She was afraid, and worried that her daughter’s family might run into the rebels on their journey to escape the famine.

"It should have been a mess long ago," Qin Er Lang sneered coldly: "The Emperor doesn’t provide disaster relief, the officials of state government offices along the way are only thinking about their own preservation, blocking the famine victims outside of the Prefecture. Such a court should have..."

"Er Lang, shut up! Can one speak such words?!" Elder Qin scolded Qin Er Lang, not letting him continue. Speaking such words could lead to a capital offense.

Qin Er Lang’s face was filled with anger, obviously unconvinced, but he didn’t continue to curse after all.

Gu Jinli also thought that the Emperor of the Great Chu Dynasty was peculiar. This year marks the sixth year of Emperor Jingyuan’s reign. Just six years into his reign, he has already led Great Chu to the point where people can hardly survive.

Emperor Jingyuan was only the third Emperor of the Chu Dynasty. He should have grown up under the strict education of the founding Emperor, still not having cleaned the mud stains from his legs, and should have loved the people like his children, not so foolish.

Yet Emperor Jingyuan was so foolish, leaving the Great Chu Dynasty in chaos.

Gu Jinli did not know that the reason Emperor Jingyuan was not fully committed to disaster relief was his intention to take the opportunity to replace all commanders of the Northwest Border Army with his own people. But in his eagerness, he failed to realize that the Northwest Border Army was mostly loyal to Duke Wei’s Family. Now, he has only managed to behead Duke Wei’s Family but has not brought the Northwest Border Army into his fold. The Northwest Border Army is in disarray, and widespread grievances among the populace gave rise to rebel armies everywhere.

"Brother Qin, have you heard how the government plans to settle us? Is there talk of opening the granaries for disaster relief, or allowing us to settle down?" Third Grandpa didn’t care about the outside turmoil; he was only concerned about their resettlement issue: "It’s getting close to the New Year, it’s so cold it could freeze a person to death. If the government won’t let us go to Jiangnan and keeps us trapped here, they have to give us an explanation."

Qin San Lang shook his head: "There is still no news from the Prefecture about the government settling the famine victims."

Elder Qin reassured Third Grandpa: "Brother Gu, be at ease for now. The government officials are most afraid of the famine victims rebelling, they dare not neglect the resettlement. Let us wait a few more days. Before the government office seals for the New Year, they will surely give us an explanation."

Now they had to give an explanation, for there were too many famine victims, amounting to tens of thousands. If so many famine victims were not settled and also not allowed to continue moving southward, trouble would definitely ensue.

Elder Qin was not wrong. Two days later, a group of guard soldiers wearing armor, holding long spears, and carrying big sabers at their waists escorted a clerk from the government office out to the suburbs.

The clerk was quite young, looking only about twenty years old, and upon arriving at the grass sheds in the suburbs, he commanded the Government Official to sound the copper gong, drawing out all the famine victims.

Once all the famine victims had come out, the clerk took out a scroll of official documents and read it aloud, but he spoke in the court’s formal language, which many famine victims could not understand. They started asking the clerk, "Sir, what are you saying?"

The clerk paused for a moment, then repeated the content of the document in vernacular: "The court has shown mercy. Lord Magistrate has been ordered to open the granaries for disaster relief. Starting from tomorrow, all affected famine victims can claim food and clothing against the cold at the city gates with their household registration."

Hearing this, the famine victims were stunned for a moment, then burst into cheers. They had finally waited for the government to open the granaries for disaster relief.

However, some famine victims had lost their household registration papers on the road while fleeing the famine. Now they were extremely anxious and asked the clerk, "Sir, if... if one doesn’t have a household registration, is it still possible to claim food and clothing?"

The clerk shook his head: "It’s not possible. Those without a household registration are considered vagrants and are not included in the government relief efforts."

Upon hearing this, the famine victims who had lost their census registry immediately burst into tears: "Oh no, the government is driving us to our deaths. We’ve been waiting so desperately for the relief, why won’t they save us? On what basis do they refuse to save us?!"

There were many famine victims who had lost their registry, and seeing that the government relief didn’t include them, they all protested and tearfully demanded an explanation from the clerk.

The clerk, who’d never faced such a scene before, was scared witless. The guard soldiers quickly surrounded him, pointing their long spears at the victims and sternly commanded: "Everyone step back! Those who cause trouble will be killed without exception!"

The victims were all ordinary people, inherently frightened of soldiers. As soon as they saw the glinting long spears, they were all too scared to go forward and could only wipe away their tears as they cried bitterly.

The clerk was a decent man; seeing how pitifully the victims were crying, he revealed a piece of news: "The Lord Magistrate is aware of your predicament and is discussing with the Lord Vice Magistrate. For those without a household registration, as long as you can find someone familiar to vouch for you, confirming you are neither escaped slaves nor criminals, you can pay Silver Coin to get a new registry."

The victims’ eyes lit up at this news, but when they heard that Silver Coin was required for a new registry, their faces fell into sorrow again: "Sir, how much Silver Coin is needed for a new registry? We’ve been fleeing the famine all the way here and don’t have a single cent left."

Even if they had Silver Coin before, it would have been used up on buying food, salt, and warm clothing. Nowadays, families with any money left were few and far between.

The clerk said: "The officials are still in the process of discussion. I have no idea how much Silver Coin it will take to get a new registry."

In the final years of the former dynasty, there were numerous battles across the land, and many household registries were thrown into chaos. After the establishment of the Great Chu Dynasty, the management of household registrations became extremely strict. By law, those without a registration were deemed vagrants, to be bought and sold at will.

Now with so many victims, it was already a great mercy that the Lord Magistrate was allowing them to buy new registries with Silver Coin. These victims should be satisfied.

Fearing that the agitation among the victims could lead to harm, the clerk, after delivering this message, quickly left with the Government Officials and guard soldiers.

This command brought mixed reactions. Those with a census registry were overjoyed, anticipating to receive relief goods at the city gates the next morning.

Those without a registry, however, were holding their heads and weeping. After they finished crying, they hurried to find familiar families to vouch for them, and then scrambled to gather Silver Coin.

But the victims were all poor—where could they readily collect Silver Coin?

Brokers in the Prefecture had already dispatched traffickers to monitor these victims in the suburbs. As soon as they saw the victims worrying over Silver Coin, they immediately approached them, offering to buy their children.

Left with no choice, the victims had to sell their sons and daughters. By evening, the traffickers had bought quite a few girls and younger children, all at rock-bottom prices.

Gu Dashan and Mrs. Cui, seeing those families selling their children, felt immensely grateful that Gu Jinli had saved the young boy from Qi Mansion, earning the reward money from the Young Master of Qi Mansion. Otherwise, they didn’t know how their own family could have survived.

Third Grandma, seeing so many families selling their children, couldn’t stop saying it was a sin. But her own family didn’t have much Silver Coin left either, and wanting to help others was beyond her means; she could only take care of her own.

The An Family, along with Qin, Luo, and Tian families, all had their registrations intact. Early the next morning, the men of these families each took a young boy from their respective homes and went to the city gate to collect their share of food and clothes for the cold.

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