Yan Liqiang lowered his head and walked on the quiet and cold road outside the Imperial Capital, holding a jar of wine in his hand. In the biting cold wind, the snowflakes falling from the sky landed on his hair, eyebrows, and slid down to his collar. It was freezing cold, but Yan Liqiang didn't feel it at all. He still lowered his head, drank big gulps of wine, and walked step by step. His steps were a little heavy...
Even colder than the weather in Imperial Capital at the moment was Yan Liqiang's heart. Even though he drank the strongest liquor in Imperial Capital, which felt like it was burning as soon as it entered his mouth, Yan Liqiang's entire body and mind were still gradually getting colder and colder...
Both sides of the official road were pitch black. At this time, any water poured out would freeze into ice on the road in a short time. Even the dogs hid in their kennels and stopped barking, so there were almost no people on the road. Even the inns and restaurants on the roadside were basically closed at this time. Only the lanterns under the signs outside were still fluttering in the wind. From a distance, they looked like ghost lights in the dark night.
—People are like leeks, they can grow back after being cut, while officials are like beams, they will collapse if damaged…
Sun Bingchen's words were still echoing in Yan Liqiang's ears. Just this short sentence of fourteen words, in an instant, was like an insurmountable bloody chasm that separated the worlds of Yan Liqiang and Sun Bingchen and their friends. At this moment, Yan Liqiang realized that he and Sun Bingchen and their friends had never been from the same world.
In order to give the people in the capital a little more chance of survival before the heavenly calamity came, Yan Liqiang tried every means and exhausted all his strength. Just when he thought he had succeeded, he found that the situation he had painstakingly built up over the years was like a castle built of sand by a child on the beach. Under the strong wind and huge waves, it was crushed to pieces in the blink of an eye, and was also stepped on several times, leaving no trace at all.
The Han Empire Times became a complete joke. This newspaper, conceived by Yan Liqiang to remind people to avoid natural disasters, ended up having the exact opposite effect. It became a tool and means for the court to deceive and mislead the people, completely deviating from Yan Liqiang's original intention.
Although Yan Liqiang was usually reluctant to admit defeat, at this moment, he had to admit that he had lost miserably in the battle against the impending calamity. He had expected everything. He had put a lot of effort into founding the Han Empire Times, building a newspaper team, defeating and forcing Lin Qingtian to leave, and carefully preparing for the grand drama of the stone turtle's birth. However, he had not expected that what would ultimately lead to his downfall were the corrupt officials surrounding the capital who had emptied the official granaries and grain warehouses in various states of the country.
Between preserving the imperial court and preserving the lives of tens of millions of people in the capital, both His Majesty the Emperor and Sun Bingchen chose the former without hesitation.
Anger, self-blame, and regret bit at Yan Liqiang's heart like poisonous snakes. He hated himself for being so naive. As a man who had lived two lifetimes, read countless history books, and been educated by modern civilization, he actually chose to believe in a corrupt and backward feudal court at the critical moment. He chose to believe in a system that relied on singing praises to wise rulers and honest officials to prove its greatness. In a catastrophe that concerned the life and death of countless people, it would take the lives of ordinary people to heart. In the eyes of these people, the people of the world are just leeks and straw dogs. What they care about is the court. What is the court? To put it bluntly, it is the power system that can ensure that they can still be rich and prosperous and look down on all living beings.
If the people in the capital area were to migrate and flee, the entire empire would surely fall into chaos. This chaos would be the biggest blow to the power in their hands. They are afraid of chaos, afraid of change, and afraid that the tens of millions of people in the capital area would become a flood beast that would break the dam of their power. Therefore, no matter what, no matter how many people would die in the future, the people in the capital area must not migrate away from their places of residence on a large scale. They must believe that the impending catastrophe is a rumor and that everything is normal in the Han Empire. Only in this way will they feel at ease and can they calmly transfer their property and families to a safe place and leave a way out for themselves.
This is the most filthy betrayal and the most shameless deception.
Sun Bingchen is not a corrupt official. He is self-disciplined, decisive, and has high standards for himself and the people around him. He is a capable official, a capable official, and a famous official. His goal is to become famous and recreate the glory of this empire. However, it is precisely such a person who, at the critical moment, stood in the same camp with those corrupt officials who emptied the government warehouses and cut off the livelihood of the people in the capital, and chose to sacrifice the people, harbor filth, and preserve the court. Sun Bingchen naturally has his reasons, but Yan Liqiang will never accept it, and will never forgive their so-called reasons!
This is also the reason why Yan Liqiang blames himself. Because there is a good official like Sun Bingchen in the court, and because the Emperor is good to him, he relaxed his vigilance against the court and chose to believe and rely on it. Looking back now, how naive and ridiculous this is!
I have already revealed the cards of the heavenly calamity, and it is imminent. But at this moment, I have no means left. More than 10 million people are still stranded in the capital, unable to leave. As time goes by, from this moment on, with every passing second, the escape window of these people will be narrowed, and more and more people will be turned into ashes in the upcoming heavenly calamity. At this time, what can I do alone? What can I do in the Imperial Capital...
And in the early spring of next year, after February, His Majesty the Emperor will go out for hunting in the capital and inspect the south of the Yangtze River, and all the civil and military officials in the court will follow him. This time, His Majesty the Emperor's hunting trip will last for eleven months. If a heavenly calamity befalls during the hunting trip, His Majesty the Emperor and all the civil and military officials in the court will successfully avoid it. If the heavenly calamity does not befall, then His Majesty the Emperor and all the civil and military officials in the court will make a trip and come back. This plan is perfect.
As for the reason why His Majesty summoned him from Ganzhou this time, Sun Bingchen explained that it was because the emperor trusted him and hoped that he would accompany him to Jiangnan. In fact, he was just a mascot beside His Majesty. His Majesty hoped that in times of crisis, he could bring him good luck. Lin Qingtian was not dead, and His Majesty knew it very well...
There were many things that Sun Bingchen did not say, but Yan Liqiang knew them because of the Nian Snake. It was not until now that Yan Liqiang knew why Sun Bingchen chose him as his attendant when he came to Ganzhou as an imperial envoy to inspect, and why he brought him from Ganzhou to the Imperial Capital, and why the Emperor favored him and looked at him differently...
“A young man in the wilderness of the northwest dared to swallow the sky with two mouthfuls. So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…” Yan Liqiang muttered to himself, and as he spoke, he poured the wine in the jar into his mouth. A mechanical smile appeared on his face, which eventually turned into a crazy laugh towards the sky. Tears poured out as he laughed. With red and tearful eyes, he pointed at the dark sky and laughed and shouted in the wilderness, “Haha… Hahahaha… Hahahaha… God, I know now that I’m a fool, I’m a fucking big fool, I was fooled, I was played around by others, and I can still be a fucking mascot to ward off evil spirits, hahahaha… Are you satisfied… Gurgle Gurgle… Hahaha… Kill them all… One day, I’m going to kill all those bastards who harm people… Kill them all… Kill people and set fires for a golden belt, and repair bridges and roads without corpses… I don’t believe this evil… I don’t believe that there is no cause and effect in this world… I don’t believe that the people of this world will always be leeks and straw dogs… If there really isn’t… I, Yan Liqiang, swear to heaven here that I will be their retribution for the rest of my life, even if I am reduced to dust and ashes, or sink into a sea of blood for eternity... I will take those leeks and straw dogs with me, and kill all those bastards, kill them all... I will turn this world upside down... Let there be justice in this world... Let those who kill and set fires die, let those who repair bridges and roads live, let officials be like leeks, and people be like beams, gulu gulu, hahaha..."
…
That night, amidst the falling snow, a thunderclap struck the sky, turning the heaven and earth white and shaking the entire Imperial Capital...
(End of this chapter)