The Initial Actions Of Dealing With The Famine

Despite not receiving the details about how much materials he would be getting for his current mission, Xuan Yueji did not really care. He was confident that he would solve the issue of the famine before a year had even passed. In fact, he was thinking that once he was done with the famine, he would head back to the village and meet up with Zhu Jin since it seemed like Bai Shuixian was finally about to wake up.

Looking like a hero in his black clothes, Xuan Yueji landed in front of the gate entrance for a city in the south. His abrupt arrival shocked the soldiers who were in charge of letting the civilians enter or leave, making them think they might have been illusioning. Before they changed their thoughts though, he immediately spoke up with a request, or rather, an order.

Showing the green jade token with its red beryl to show his position as the grand advisor to one of the soldiers, Xuan Yueji quickly said, "I need to meet your governor. Where is he?"

Seeing the exquisite token full of grace and elegance, the soldier immediately bowed, "This lowly soldier pays respects to Grand Advisor. How may I help you?"

As soon as the people who were lined up waiting for their turn to enter the city heard the title, they all kneeled down and paid their respects to Xuan Yueji. All the soldiers also bent down with cuffed hands and shouted in unison with the civilians. This attention made him unhappy for it was too flashy, but he tried to not show visible emotions in front of people.

Frowning, but thankful that he had his mask on, Xuan Yueji repeated himself, "I need to meet your governor."

"I understand," the soldier said. "Please follow me, Grand Advisor."

Immediately after Xuan Yueji left with the soldier, everyone stood up again and started chatting about it with confusion. Some were smart enough to figure out the reason why he was here while others did not know. A few handful were also wondering when the empire got a new Grand Advisor, especially someone who seemed to be young looking.

Even though a few minutes had passed, a few civilians still asked each other questions, "Say, why do you think the grand advisor would be here?"

"It must be the famine," someone answered.

Sighing, that person said, "Ah, so it is the famine. It has been ongoing for so long that many have already thought that the empire has abandoned them. It seems they were just waiting for someone responsible to handle it."

Shaking their head, that person that answered the question said, "We do not know yet if this person is indeed responsible."

"However, they have the token of the grand advisor," the person said. "As citizens of this empire, we all know that the grand advisor will always carry this token on them. The emperor has said so himself that the token is forbidden from being passed to another person to borrow."

"What if it's a counterfeit token?" Someone asked with suspicion.

A soldier that was walking by to inspect the papers of the civilians heard the question and said, "You there, don't ask such a stupid question. Are you looking down on our abilities to tell the difference between the legitimate token of the grand advisor?"

Trying to defend himself, the person who brought up the question said, "The abilities of men have improved as the years pass. The emperor has made no statement about the grand advisor coming to deal with the famine. Why should I put my trust in someone I do not know, nor ever heard of?"

The soldier understood what the person was saying, but being educated by their commander to be able to distinguish the token from fake ones, he said, "Whether you trust them or not does not matter. The fact that the emperor has chosen to let this person be the grand advisor is enough to let us trust that he will do the right thing and do no wrongs to us. Or are you saying that the emperor is unwise and does not know how to choose who should be close to him?"

Sweating at the incriminating words, the person apologized, "It's not my fault. I'm just too stupid to think about such things. I apologize."

Leaving that group and heading onto the next group to look over their papers, the soldier thought, 'However, this new grand advisor is indeed very young looking though. He also seemed to be a very rash person. Will he be able to deal with the riots?'

At this point, Xuan Yueji had already reached the mansion for the governor and entered the lobby. Now, he was only sitting and drinking chrysanthemum tea that was personally dried by Bai Shuixian. Though the mansion offered him some tea, he disliked the bitter taste of their tea and told them to take it back, including the sweets that accompanied the tea.

After a little bit of waiting, the governor came over and asked with a flushed pink on his cheeks as though he had ran over, "Grand Advisor, may I ask if you are here to deal with the famine?"

Nodding at his question, Xuan Yueji said, "Yes, I am. I have decided to not wait for the contribution of the emperor's men and decided to come here myself to provide the materials."

"Ah, thank you," the governor said while thanking profusely with sweat dripping down his back.

"Tell your servant to get you some paper and ink. I will be giving you some orders that I hope you will put into action," Xuan Yueji told him. "Of course, if I find out that everything I gave today has been taken for personal use, I will certainly kill you though."

Hearing the deathly tone of Xuan Yueji, more sweat dripped down his back and the governor replied, "Please do not worry! I will certainly take care of all the orders given by the Grand Advisor! Servants, bring me paper and ink!"

"Yes, sir!" one of the pagers yelled out and went to retrieve a set for the governor.

"Seeds for year round use will be given. It is your job to divide it evenly for every city struggling with the famine. People in poverty will be given the choice to work and plant these seeds. Housing and food will be provided including clothing and family support," Xuan Yueji first started. "Each month, all participating people will be paid with ten silver taels. This includes children who work and disabled people. All people will be treated equally and there shall be no inequality in the treatment of each family no matter where they come from. Did you write these down?"

Nodding his head while having cold sweats, the governor answered, "Yes, I wrote them down. Will this be all?"

"Naturally not. Every worker shall work for only a minimum of eight hours and a maximum of twelve hours. If there are people who wish to get an early payment, they can receive it though their reason must be given," Xuan Yueji started to list again. "If they do receive an early payment, they will not be getting paid for the next month. I will be renting a piece of land with rooms available for the people that choose to labor. Remember this, if I see that any greedy person has stuck their hands on my things, I will kill you."

Once again hearing the scary tone of Xuan Yueji, the governor kneeled on the floor and promised, "Grand Advisor, please do not worry! I will make sure that no one does anything dirty! If we fail, I shall personally offer my head up to you!"

"Good," Xuan Yueji said. "At the beginning of every month, I will inspect the progress of what I have tasked you with. If there are missing resources, you can tell me during the inspection. Again, I will be making sure if you are lying or not though."

After he finished saying his final words, Xuan Yueji left the lobby of the governor's mansion and asked one of the servants to show him where the place to buy land was at. Leading him to the place, the servant stayed silent the entire due to the dark aura being emitted by him. Throughout the entire trip, he did not know at all that since Xuan Yueji had not been killing anyone lately his dark aura had been seeping through and he could not restrain it himself.

Pointing to a store with a big red sign, the servant said, "Grand Advisor, this is where you can buy land. This servant shall return now."

Ignoring the leaving servant, Xuan Yueji turned to enter the store with an idea of what kind of land he wanted. He wanted a place that was near the agriculture area, but not only that, he planned to buy lots of land. The southern part where the famine occurred did not just happen in one city, but multiple, so he could only buy one as an example first and make a sketch of what he wanted to be built on the land to give to the governor.

Once Xuan Yueji was finished with all this, he would finally go back to the village where Zhu Jin was and let Chu Dujuan deal with everything else. His aura was leaking and scaring the civilians, so he had no choice but to sleep a little to let the aura disperse. If it became any heavier, he would be perceived as a demon and might even be unable to control his actions.