Extra 28: Plague
After the dyke in Wei Zhou broke, it took another half a month for the floodwaters to gradually recede. Just as hundreds of thousands of disaster-affected people were getting ready to rebuild their homes with the relief grain provided by the Court, a calamitous crisis quietly descended upon them.
The flood had drowned a large number of animals that failed to escape in time. These animal carcasses, under the effects of high temperatures, slowly rotted away, producing a putrid liquid that seeped into the grass, mud, and rivers... Gradually, some amongst the disaster-affected people began to develop symptoms like fever and coughing.
"You want to go to Weicheng? No, I won't allow it!" In the bedroom, as soon as Xiao Ruiyuan heard his wife's intentions of going to the perilous prefect city of Wei Zhou, Weicheng, he refused without a second thought.