Five days later, more than 1,000 warships of the Sui army made several trips to transport all the supplies from the Goryeo treasury to Ayara Island, which had many huge caves and was a natural warehouse for the Sui navy to store logistics supplies, enough to accommodate the supplies brought from Pyongyang City.

Yang Yuanqing left Shen Guang to lead 5,000 soldiers to defend the island, and left 30 warships, while he personally led more than 1,000 sea ships loaded with the first batch of grain and 400,000 stone grains, and sailed towards the Bohai Sea......

The time has gradually arrived in late September, from south to north, all parts of the country have entered the autumn harvest, but this year's harvest is particularly bleak, the most serious drought in the past six years of the great cause swept the entire north, Henan, Hebei, Hedong, Guanzhong, Guannei, Qinling Huai River north of the counties have not been spared.

In the Tang Dynasty, the crown prince Li Jiancheng personally served as a pacification envoy to supervise the drought fighting in each county, and dispatched official grain from Bashu and Jingxiang to provide disaster relief, so as to minimize the impact of the drought.

The Sui Dynasty also attached great importance to the summer and autumn drought, and Yang Yuanqing appointed Du Ruhui as the drought supervision order as early as August, and sent 30 supervisors by the Imperial History Observatory to each county to supervise the drought fighting.

Under the strong measures of the central court, the Sui Dynasty also fought drought effectively, and although the disaster was severe and many rivers dried up to the bottom, nearly half of the harvest in various parts of the Sui Dynasty was able to be saved.

In addition, the Sui Dynasty already had sufficient grain reserves, and since late August, hundreds of thousands of stone of grain have been distributed to the government offices in Hebei and the Central Plains to help the victims.

Yang Yuanqing issued a strict order, if one person starved to death, from the Taishou to the county order, he was dismissed on the spot, and more than ten people starved to death, and the county order beheaded. More than 100 people are beheaded.

It was the timely allocation of grain by the imperial court and the strict orders of the king of Chu. As a result, local governments paid unprecedented attention to drought relief and disaster relief, so that the drought in the Sui Dynasty was the most serious, and almost the entire territory was drought. However, the situation was also calm, and there was no panic until late September. None of the local inspectors found a single case of death from starvation.

But Qingzhou is a different scene, the seven counties of Qingzhou: Qi County, Lu County, Langya County, Donglai County, Gaomi County, Beihai County, and Jibei County have suffered unprecedented natural and man-made disasters.

Drought and military disasters hit the land of Qingzhou together, first Dou Jiande's army and Song Jingang's army fought in a melee, Dou Jiande defeated Song Jingang's army, Song Jingang fled to the sea, and was killed by angry fishermen.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Heimin was unwilling to hand over military power, and the army of Dou Jiande and Liu Heimin also broke out in the Qingzhou War, which lasted until early September. Because the Sui army stationed troops on the north bank of the Yellow River, Dou Jiande was forced to make peace with Liu Heimin, and the two armies stopped fighting.

But at this time. The severity of the disaster is irreversible. The double disaster of war and drought has caused most counties and counties in Qingzhou to have no harvest, and the rice has risen to 10,000 yuan. Hundreds of thousands of hungry people fled to the Central Plains and to the north bank of the Yellow River, where the roots were dug up and the bark of trees was stripped away.

In the land of Qingzhou, the people of the county towns fled from the city, the county town became a ghost town, and the village became a ghost village.

On the water surface of the Yellow River, which stretches from Qinghe County and Pingyuan County to Bohai County, thousands of ferries work around the clock to transport the victims from the south bank of the Yellow River to the north bank.

The Sui Dynasty had already made preparations and established three relief centers in Chiping County in Qinghe County, Pingyuan County in Pingyuan County, and Zhuhe County in Bohai County, and set up 14,000 tents to accommodate the hungry people who fled from Qingzhou.

For this reason, the imperial court has allocated 150,000 stone of emergency relief food in advance, and sent 300 officials to preside over the relief, mobilizing thousands of scholars to assist in the resettlement of the victims, and Yang Yuanqing even ordered in advance to send 5,000 female guards to treat the victims and heal their injuries.

Located on the bank of the Yellow River three miles south of Pingyuan County, Pingyuan County is the largest of the three relief sites, consisting of 8,000 tents and covering an area of more than 1,000 acres.

The whole camp was crowded with people, and 200 officials and 5,000 soldiers were used to settle these victims, and the Sui army sent 10,000 soldiers to maintain order in the hungry camp.

On the morning of that day, Du Ruhui, accompanied by several officials, came to inspect the refugee camp, and General Qin Qiong also accompanied him.

In the camp, almost all the tents were filled with Qingzhou victims, and the stench was stinking, and there were cries and shouts everywhere, which made people feel anxious.

The official in charge of this camp is Pei Jin, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and his deputy is a young official, Chu Suiliang, the champion of last year's imperial examination, who served as the magistrate of Mayi County, and was temporarily transferred to assist Pei Jin because of his ability to resettle the disaster victims.

Pei Jin accompanied Du Ruhui to inspect, and explained worriedly: "There are too many victims, 300,000 people are concentrated in the camp, almost every big tent is squeezed into 40 people, it is really crowded, and there are many problems, as of last night, 55 people have been beheaded for the crime of adultery, as for the fierce tyrant, bullying and good things have happened repeatedly, it is difficult to stop, and there is the spread of disease, these are all problems." ”

Du Ruhui frowned, "Then why don't you propose additional tents to the imperial court?" ”

Next to him, Chu Suiliang said: "Qi Xiangguo, it's not the reason for the tents, no matter how many tents there are, similar problems will occur, Pei Shaoqing and I both think that the victims should be evacuated to various counties." ”

Du Ruhui didn't say anything, he walked into a big tent, and there was a turbid breath in the big tent, which was covered with sheepskins and tattered and dirty bedding, as well as various boxes and bottles, sheepskins were uniformly distributed, and bedding and other sundries were all family property brought by the victims.

There were more than 20 people lying in the big tent, most of them were women, children and the elderly, but none of the young men were gone, Du Ruyan was stunned for a moment, and Pei Jin next to him hurriedly explained in a low voice: "The man in this big tent had a conflict with another big tent man over food a few days ago, so he was isolated to the barracks during the day and could only come back at night." ”

When the women and children in the tent saw a large group of officials suddenly come in, they were so frightened that they sat up one after another, holding the child tightly in their arms, Du Ruhui squatted down in front of an old man, the old man seemed to be injured in the calf, and a female guard was changing the dressing for the wound on his leg.

"What's going on, how did you get hurt?" Du Ruhui asked strangely.

The old man was scared in his heart, and said, "It's just... Fell. ”

"It's not wrestling, it's being broken by a stick." The female escort next to him corrected his explanation dissatisfiedly.

The old man's face suddenly turned red, and Chu Suiliang said: "He is the patriarch of this family, and when the two families fought a few days ago, he was the commander, but his leg was broken and he couldn't move." ”

The old man was even more uneasy, sighed for a while, and was speechless.

Du Ruhui asked again: "Where are you from?" Why is there a family conflict, is it because there is not enough food for relief? ”

The old man shook his head and said: "We are from Hongguan Township, Licheng County, surnamed Liu, our family has about 70 people, living in two tents, not because there is a shortage of food, because there are several people with foreign surnames living in the other tent, who are from the Wu family, they said that we deducted their people when distributing food, and asked for compensation, in fact, we did not deduct it, everyone distributed it equally, but they didn't believe it, and in the end, the more noisy and fierce, they started fighting." ”

Du Ruhui thought for a while, and then asked him, "Then what do you think is the biggest difficulty now?" ”

The old man sighed and said: "In fact, the imperial court can provide disaster relief in time, give us a bite to eat, so that we will not starve to death, and also send a sheepskin to keep warm, unlike the six years of the great cause, we don't care whether we live or die, we are already grateful, this is honest, we dare not have other extravagant hopes." ”

Du Ruhui smiled, "There are always difficulties, just talk about it!" ”

The old man was a little embarrassed: "If you have to say that it is difficult, there is only one, that is, it is too crowded, dozens of men and women live in a big tent, it is too inconvenient, we are a family, and it is slightly better, but if it is a small family living together, there will definitely be all kinds of contradictions." ”

Du Ruhui nodded silently and walked out of the tent, he didn't want to accuse Pei Jin of not doing it perfectly, after all, it was more than 300,000 people, and it was not easy to do this.

He pondered for a while and said to everyone: "Regarding the evacuation of the victims to the counties, Ziwei Pavilion has also discussed, and there are many in favor, but it can only be implemented with the final approval of His Royal Highness the King of Chu, so everyone still has to try to overcome the difficulties and adopt some temporary measures, such as separating men and women, or increasing tents, etc., and when His Highness returns, I will report this matter to him immediately." ”

Qin Qiong said: "Regarding the tents, our military can still come up with another 5,000, and I will send a sergeant to send it in the afternoon to let the soldiers help set up camp, and in addition, I will order the soldiers to strengthen night patrols to prevent wicked people from committing crimes at night." ”

Pei Jin and Chu Suiliang discussed, Pei Jin said: "Xiangguo's temporary plan for separating men and women can be implemented, and we are ready to divide the camp into a men's camp and a women's and children's camp, but this matter is cumbersome and huge, and we need the assistance of the army." ”

Qin Qiong nodded, "Yes, I will order 10,000 soldiers to assist the official in dispersing the victims." ”

After a pause, Qin Qiong asked again, "I wonder when His Highness will come back?" ”

Du Ruhui smiled bitterly, "This question should be asked to General Qin, he broke up with you in the end, didn't he explain when he left?" ”

"He just said that it would be about a month, but it's been almost a month now, and I guess I should be back."

As soon as he finished speaking, a cavalryman in the distance rushed forward and shouted, "The chief is back, our fleet is back!" ”

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed, Qin Qiong asked anxiously, "Where is the fleet?" ”

The cavalry turned back and pointed to the east, "On the Yellow River, it will come soon!" ”

Everyone ran quickly to the Yellow River, they ran up a mound, looked to the east, only to see a group of black spots on the Yellow River in the distance, the black spots are getting closer and closer, it is the returning fleet, only to see a thousand sails like clouds, the mighty fleet of thousands of ships is coming, the momentum is magnificent.

The crowd couldn't help but cheer together