Chapter 70: A Secret Visit in Disguise – This is the Life of the People in the Fiefdom?

Liu Fu's sneezes were incredibly intense.

"It must be some damn bastard talking bad about me behind my back!"

Upon hearing Liu Fu's rebuke, Liu Laowu, far away in the Han capital, immediately sneezed loudly.

The journey from the Han capital to Liaodong was extremely long, about 1,400 li. If you really calculate it, Liaodong was actually on the same parallel line as the Liao Kingdom, both of which were considered bitterly cold places. In this season, if you didn't urinate in the open quickly enough, it wasn't impossible for your underwear to freeze.

In a place where even a breath could freeze, Liu Fu looked at his swaying, luxurious carriage and the more than eight hundred personal guards and supplies behind him, and felt that it was all too ostentatious and dazzling.

Liu Fu selected a guard of similar stature to himself and asked him to sit in the carriage in his place.

"You will remain in the carriage and travel with the emperor to the Eastern King City. Along the way, you will impersonate the king. Do not stop in any prefectures or counties you pass through, and do not meet with any local officials. Just continue on your journey."

After Liu Fu made the arrangements, he called Xiao Ying'er out, and the two prepared to conduct a clandestine visit.

Sitting in a sedan chair all day is too boring. Besides, the officials along the way will surely line the road to welcome me when they know I am going to my fiefdom in Liaodong.

Those officials had already arranged a scene of "peace and prosperity," but it was all just a smokescreen to blind them to the bigger picture.

To truly understand the people's plight and learn about their real suffering, Liu Fu had to personally take action.

Besides, with the speed of the dragon horse, two days would be enough to reach the fiefdom. Traveling with the carriages and supplies would take ten or twenty days, which would be much more interesting than enjoying the scenery along the way.

Upon seeing the magnificent dragon horse, especially with its pair of dragon horns on its head, Xiao Ying'er was immediately stunned.

She had never seen such a creature before, and her girlish heart was instantly stirred. She kept teasing Ryoma.

Liu Fu tapped her on the head:

"You can tease me all you want when you have time, but we need to get down to business now. First, change out of your fancy clothes."

Xiao Ying'er nodded obediently, and the two changed into long robes, making them look like ordinary rich kids, and less conspicuous.

With an imperial sword and a prince's jade seal, the two men and a dragon horse set off on their journey.

The dragon horse took off running, and after half a day, it began to enter the Liaodong area. The land here was clearly changing, and it was all fertile black soil.

Black soil is supposedly the most fertile land, and crops grown from it should yield the most grain.

For example, ordinary millet grown in the soil yields about 120 jin per mu, while millet grown in black soil can yield up to 300 jin. This was under the condition of underdeveloped technology in ancient times.

Liu Fu looked over the entire vast expanse of black soil, but all the land was left idle. It was already the planting season, but no one was cultivating it.

Even Xiao Ying'er found it strange:

“I heard my grandfather say at home that the black soil of the Central Plains is the most fertile land in the world, and everyone is fighting tooth and nail to get it.”

"Didn't they say it was impossible to get any? How come so much land is uncultivated?"

Liu Fu pointed to the rows of farmhouses in the distance. Under the gray, snowy sky, wisps of smoke rose from the farmhouses, indicating it was lunchtime.

With the dragon horse's speed, it didn't take much effort to get to the farmyard.

As soon as Liu Fu dismounted and looked toward a farmyard, he felt even more puzzled.

The villagers were cooking, and an old woman was in the yard spreading out wild vegetables she had picked from the field to dry.

We've already reached the point where we have to eat wild vegetables, so why aren't we farming?

"Grandma, we're just passing by. It's freezing cold, could we please have a bowl of hot water?"

Xiao Ying'er clearly knew what Liu Fu was thinking. This little girl was very good at handling things; the words she uttered made the old ladies in the courtyard smile from ear to ear.

"No problem, no problem."

"Even though you're dressed so well, we have hot water in our yard, so don't complain that our water is dirty."

“What are you saying? You have the heart of a Bodhisattva. Giving us a bowl of water is a life-saving grace. You will ascend to heaven to become a Bodhisattva in the future, so we would never dare to complain that your water doesn’t taste good.”

Xiao Ying'er's sweet words were so irresistible that the old lady hurriedly put down the wild vegetables, ran to fetch well water, and then used firewood to cook them.

"Grandma, are these wild vegetables delicious?"

Xiao Ying'er was helping the old man arrange the wild vegetables when she casually asked him a question.

“Sigh, we have to eat it even if it doesn’t taste good. We’re not eating these wild vegetables now. Who would dare to eat them now? We’ll boil them in water, sprinkle some coarse salt on them, and let them dry to make pickled vegetables. They can last for several months. When we run out of food and have to go through a famine, we’ll be willing to take them out and eat a couple of bites. That way, we can get through the year and not starve to death.”

Upon hearing the old woman's words, Liu Fu immediately went to her kitchen to take a look.

On his way here, Liu Fu saw smoke rising from the chimneys, indicating that someone was cooking inside. But why was no one speaking?

Upon entering the house, it turned out there was an elderly person and a child inside.

An old man sat in the corner lighting a fire, and a small child, probably seven or eight years old, was cooking with his feet on a stool. The food in the child's hands was a little sorghum flour with chopped tree roots, which he was about to put into a pot to steam and eat as a kind of steamed bun.

"Little one, is this your family's lunch today?"

The child nodded, then pointed to his mouth; it turned out he couldn't speak.

He's a good kid, but he's mute.

The elderly man tending the fire inside was hard of hearing and couldn't hear what the guests outside were saying.

Liu Fu felt a pang of melancholy and asked:

"Grandma, is it just the three of us in the house? Is there anyone else?"

“Alas, there is no one else. Five years ago, my husband was conscripted to fight for the King of Liaodong. He died in Baishitan and his body was never recovered.”

“My wife…my wife was so virtuous. She jumped into the well and died. When the child saw his mother jump into the well, he cried until his voice became hoarse. He has never been able to speak since then. My husband is also old and hard of hearing. Now it’s just the three of us.”

Liu Fu recalled that five years ago was a time of chaos and strife. The King of Liaodong was later destroyed by the State of Jin. It was probably around that time that the two old people's son was conscripted and died on the battlefield.

The child's mother must have been humiliated and didn't want to live anymore, which is why she jumped into the well and died.

Many things in this era cannot be thought about too deeply. Just a little thought reveals them to be human tragedies that are heartbreaking!

Liu Fu then changed the subject:

"Grandma, I see you eating tree roots and sorghum flour. Isn't there a vast expanse of black soil in front of this house? If the two of you planted just a small plot of sorghum, you wouldn't need to eat tree roots anymore after harvesting the grain, would you?"

Xiao Ying'er immediately replied:

"Yes, it's such a waste to leave such good black soil lying fallow."

Hearing this, the old man sighed helplessly:

"The land is good, of course! It's not that we don't want to farm, the problem is we don't have the life to farm it, and nobody dares to farm it!"