Su Nansheng then told He Xun about the situation in the Sifang Food Court in the past few days.
Since there was solid evidence this time and there was no need to make up an excuse, Su Nansheng said straightforwardly:
"More and more refugees are coming. It's inevitable that they will cause trouble. We still need to find a way to solve this problem."
Hearing this, He Xun looked at Su Nansheng with a somewhat surprised look in his eyes.
He thought that Su Nansheng had just taken pity on the refugees on a whim, but he didn't expect that she had been paying attention to this matter all along.
Although there was evidence, seeing He Xun looking at her like this, Su Nansheng still felt a bit guilty. "What's wrong?"
He Xun shook his head and said,
"I've already submitted a memorial to the emperor, asking him to solve this problem. But the emperor hasn't made a decision yet. Let's wait for a few more days."
Since he had decided to take care of this matter, he had naturally found out the reason for the large number of refugees entering the city.
However, if he wanted to solve the problem of the refugees, he couldn't just focus on the refugees in the capital. The root cause was the source of the refugees, Changming County.
Changming County had reported a natural disaster before, and the imperial court had already started to prepare the relief silver. But now it seemed that it was still too slow. The common people couldn't wait.
As for why the distribution of the relief silver was so slow, it was nothing more than that some officials wanted to take some benefits from it.
By then, they would all be well - off, but the common people would suffer. They could only endure hunger and cold and beg for a living.
He Xun's eyes grew colder. He wasn't unaware of the unspoken rules in the officialdom, but things should not go too far.
He had fought hard in the northern border before, not to protect these fat and self - satisfied people.
...
Near the end of his shift, He Jin went to the city gate to check. Seeing that the city guards were carefully checking the common people entering the city, he returned to his mansion contentedly.
Not long after he returned to his guest room, he heard Su Hele's voice outside the door:
"Dear husband, now that the weather is getting colder, I personally stewed ginseng soup for you."
Hearing this, He Jin snorted. How dare she come.
Seeing that there was no response inside, Su Hele tightened the silk handkerchief in her hand, bit her lip, and continued:
"Even if you don't want to see me, you should take care of your own health. I watched the fire myself with my injured body and stewed this ginseng soup for two hours. You mustn't waste it."
With that, she told Sumo to hand the tray to Anfu, who was guarding outside. She glanced at the gatekeeper and walked away with her head held high.
Anfu looked at the still - steaming stew pot in his hand. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should take it in or throw it away. After thinking for a while, he entered the room.
Not seeing anyone else behind Anfu, He Jin said coldly:
"Is she gone?"
"Yes. I think she knows she's in the wrong and doesn't dare to see you, sir. But it's a pity to throw away this ginseng soup. You might as well drink it to warm yourself up."
With that, Anfu placed the stew pot on the table.
"Humph, it's all those refugees' fault. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have to work so hard." He Jin complained.
He had caught several groups of refugees in the past few days, but the number of refugees in the city didn't seem to decrease. Instead, they were becoming more and more elusive, which made him run around to catch them.
These lowly people should be executed on the spot. That would save a lot of trouble.
However, thinking of Du Wenbai's promise, He Jin showed a proud smile on his face.
He was about to get a promotion soon.
Thinking of this, He Jin opened the stew pot. A puff of steam rose, and the mist covered his face.
...
It had been raining heavily for two days in a row, and the weather suddenly turned cold. It faintly seemed that winter was coming.
Su Nansheng wrapped herself in a light cloak and sat by the window, looking down at the city gate not far away.
"Madam, why don't I close the window? Be careful not to catch a cold."
Seeing that Su Nansheng was just drinking tea and not saying a word, Bitao reached out to close the window. The wind was really strong.
"No. It will be too stuffy if I close the window."
"All right."
Bitao retracted her hand dejectedly and also looked in Su Nansheng's direction.
It was just the city gate. There was nothing interesting about it.
But her mistress had been looking at it for several days. She didn't know what she was looking at.
Just as she was thinking, she saw a familiar figure appear at the city gate in the distance.
"Hey, isn't that the second young master?" Bitao whispered.
"He wants to stop the refugees from entering the city." Su Nansheng said coldly.
She had already heard about He Jin's actions from Feiyu. Catching the refugees and throwing them into jail. He could even come up with such an idea.
"Madam, madam, it seems that there's a commotion!"
Although Bitao's voice was low, she couldn't hide her excitement.
Su Nansheng immediately looked up. Sure enough, she saw a bearded man waving his arms and excitedly saying something.
...
"My travel permit is in order. Why don't you let me enter the city?"
He Jin covered his nose and looked at the man who was a head taller than him.
The man's trouser legs were covered in mud, and there was a faint smell of blood on his clothes. He stank horribly, and there wasn't a clean part on his body. He didn't look like an ordinary commoner at all.
It was the time to crack down on the refugees. How could He Jin let him in?
"Get out of here. Who knows if you stole or robbed this travel permit. Hurry up and leave. Next one."
He Jin waved his hand, signaling the city guards to drag the man away. But unexpectedly, the man didn't move. He roared angrily:
"You're the one who steals! I must enter the city. Otherwise, who will I sell my furs to?"
With that, he pointed at the blood - stained furs behind him.
He was a hunter. He had risked his life to hunt just for these few furs.
Now that the weather was getting colder, it was a good time to sell furs. Only now could he sell them at a good price.
But the man in front of him was not letting him enter the city. It was simply cutting off his means of livelihood.
He Jin didn't care about this at all. He just kept ordering the city guards to drive the man away.
After all, in his opinion, it was better to miss than to let someone in by mistake.
The man got anxious. He shook off the spear in front of him and tried to force his way in.
"Good! You dare to force your way into the city gate. You have a lot of nerve."
He Jin was also angry. He knew that these refugees were up to no good.
Now they even dared to force their way into the city gate. What else wouldn't they dare to do?
"If you dare to take another step forward, be careful that your head will fall to the ground!"
He Jin motioned for the sword - wielding city guards to step forward, looking fierce.
Seeing the swords, the man flinched a bit and silently took a few steps back. But his wide - open eyes still stared at He Jin angrily.
He Jin snorted and looked proud. For a commoner to fight against an official was like an ant trying to shake a big tree.
"Next one. Hurry up."
"You can't enter. You're not allowed in."
The inspection continued, but more and more people were blocked outside the city gate. There were complaints everywhere outside the city gate.
At this time, a loud thunderclap exploded in the sky, and then sparse raindrops began to fall. People rushed to find places to take shelter from the rain.
Those who were still waiting to enter the city had nowhere to hide from the rain. They kept urging the people in front to hurry up.
But all they got was a more strict inspection and harsher scolding from the city guards.
The man looked at the furs in his arms getting wet little by little. He then looked at the other people who were blocked. The anger in his eyes burned more and more fiercely.