Kapitel 58: Chapter 15 To Shoulder heavy responsibilities and a long way to go
rèn zhòng dào yuǎn literally means to shoulder heavy responsibilities and a long way to go.
After being dismissed by Xue emperor, Murong XieChu reminisced about the past and was wondering if this time was the time, he had to eliminate LaoHai.
In his earlier years of protecting the kingdom borders, Eastern Righteous Alliance (ERA) had indeed approached Murong XieChu, trying to convince him to switch loyalty. At that time, Murong XieChu already was a happily married man, to a gentle aristocratic lady, the Dugu empress maternal cousin, Dugu FuMeng.
Murong XieChu was not interested to harbour any traitorous thoughts and embroil his wife into dangerous waters. Although he had admired how ERA had took in many displaced people, he still could and would not want to destroy the peace his country was having. When General Murong had caught the deputy leader of ERA, LaoHai, said to be the second in power after the mysterious leader.
General Murong invited the faction leader, LaoHai, to a casual dinner with wine and found LaoHai to be a charismatic and capable man. In their casual conversation, he was bewildered why a man such as LaoHai, who could be an influential official in court or even a general leading his own garrison, be willing to serve a rebel group.
LaoHai smiled and told that the story would be given either freely or when Murong XieChu was willing to participate with their group leader's grand plans, to which Murong XieChu guffawed and replied, "Men of different principles don't work well together".
They had continued to drink the night away and the next day, Murong XieChu let LaoHai and his people out with the warning to LaoHai not to overstep and create trouble for the Xue kingdom.
Back to the present, right after General Murong arrive back at his General's manor after his meeting with the emperor, he quickly gave instructions to take leave to Peace Swallow town.
YuQin was busy giving out instructions to the maids to pack and the General's manor was abuzz with activity. Murong LiWang was happy with the abrupt change of events, and was looking forward to see the mountains and rivers of the mortal realm. However, all were not rosy as LiWang had imagined her trip to be, but who would have known what had awaited them in Peace Swallow Town.
When General Murong arrived at the Peace Swallow town after 6 days of travel from the capital. What he saw was out of his expectation, what happened to the messenger who was tasked to send him urgent messages?
The situation was worse than he thought, already the civilians were suffering from the crippling food shortages due to the extreme weather and exacerbated by the attacks by Cai kingdom. Many people from nearby villagers had fled to the Peace Swallow city to seek refuge from the Cai soldiers. Cai had sent their army to push beyond the peaceful borders and had set camps. They had caused unrest to the villagers by demanding their reserved food and also even womenfolk.
Peace Swallow city was already a well-populated city, with the influx of villagers caused crowding factor as well as resource shortages. At first the officials did not allow more from the outside to enter but soon their own army was weakened and was overwhelmed by people.
For weeks, the army together with rest of the civilians had rationed their food, with the rich keeping their own granaries and not assisting the city's governor. Soon as food shortages intensified, the rich took to their carriages and went away with their ample food, leaving the incapable governor left to his own wits. It was only a matter of time, that the governor himself, took his family and left Peace Swallow city to his subordinates.
Those left in the city had to face chronic food shortages, which had forced thousands were forced to survive on so-called "wild foods" such as grass and tree bark, and sometimes poisonous mushrooms and plants. In addition, with close quarters and poor hygiene exhibited, many people became sick and the illness became widespread. The illness became epidemic and within days, the plague spread and the city was crumbling with no strong leader, weak security and general distress.
Once Murong XieChu apprehended the situation, he tasked HeiYing to bring Li-er back to rest in the abandoned governor's residence, look over what was left in the city's reserve granary, grain and medical herb stores. While he was delegating jobs to his men to restore order in the city, he also quickly asked one scribe to write to report back to the imperial court :
"The prolong cold and dry climate had resulted in collapsed agricultural production and reduced the civilians' health conditions due to famine. Peace Swallow City request urgent medical assistance from capital.
Initial symptoms of the plague included headaches, a rash which covered the body, and fever. The victims then suffered from extremely painful stomach cramping, followed by vomiting and attacks of "ineffectual retching." Some also had profuse bleeding from the nose, eyes, and mouth with death frequently occurring in 3 to 4 days.
Those infected individuals generally, who did not die by bleeding out, they would later died by the sixth or seventh day, unable to withstand the pain and hunger. And if they managed to survive through the eighth day, they would be stricken by uncontrollable diarrhoea, which then led to their death. The previous registered city population was less than 10,000, and about 18,000 including with the rural area. With the death count total was in thousands, the city was devastated."
Since General Murong arrived on the third week since the first reported food shortage, and the second week from the first few deaths caused by illness, which started from the elderly and the young, whom were easier to be susceptible to such contagious disease, the local physicians attempted numerous cures and remedies which failed. These physicians had tried their best to control the plague but most and those who were helping in the makeshift clinic also fell to illness and died with the victims.
In the missive to the Emperor, it was not included about the city's governor, but Murong XieChu knew the emperor would soon know about his brother-in-law's and the Right Minister's son's 'early departure' from his position. He rather faced epidemic than facing the cleaning up on the government cabinet. Both Right and Left Ministers had held too much power in the government, and the emperor had been looking to weaken them.
Many residents of Peace Swallow Town looked towards the robust figure of General Murong, earlier when they had saw him as their beacon of hope when he had marched into the city with his soldiers, now they hoped he would not shrink from his responsibilities and gave up as how their governor did.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein