Zhou Yuan stood up suddenly, with a look of shock on his face.
He was already prepared to die, but then someone suddenly told him that they were going to be saved. Zhou Yuan was so sad and happy that he felt a little dizzy.
"grown ups!"
"Ms. sir!"
Seeing Zhou Yuan staggering and almost falling, his subordinates and Mrs. Zhou both screamed in surprise.
"It's okay, it's okay, I'm just too excited..."
He wiped the tears from his face with shaking hands, and reached out to hold Mrs. Zhou's hand. The couple looked at each other, hope rekindled in their eyes.
"Qing'er, we will get better soon."
They still have a long way to go, and Mrs. Zhou cannot abandon him alone.
"Okay, sir, go to the front quickly. I'll wait for you to come back."
If Mrs. Zhou had been a little self-destructive before, now that she knew that food and firewood were available, she cheered up again. She felt more energetic and her face became rosy.
"Um."
Zhou Yuan leaned over and placed a soft kiss on Mrs. Zhou's forehead, then led his subordinates out the door.
At this time, outside Suzhou City.
Liu Meng and others speeded up their journey and finally arrived at Suzhou City before dark.
Due to heavy snow and road closures, the people of Suzhou had not been out for a long time, let alone anyone coming. Suddenly seeing so many tall and mighty men, the people's eyes were full of doubts.
"Who are these people? Why are you here at this time?"
Suzhou was about to become a dead city, and they couldn't figure out what outsiders were doing in Suzhou.
"Do we have to wait until we die to pick up the leaks? We shouldn't..."
There is nothing in Suzhou City. If they had money, they wouldn't freeze to death on the street right away.
The people guessed several times and thought it was impossible. The cold wind was blowing hard at this time, and they were so cold and stiff that they couldn't even think straight.
"We are all dying anyway. It doesn't matter what they do here. After we die, can they still help collect the bodies?"
The faces of the common people were filled with a look of death. After looking at Liu Meng and others, they looked away and hugged the people around them tighter to resist the cold wind.
Liu Meng and others looked at the piles of victims gathered on the street, with solemn expressions on their faces.
The men beside him saw such a scene for the first time. So many people were waiting for death. The tragic scene was the most impactful.
"Fortunately we arrived..."
A little later, it will snow heavily tonight, and tomorrow these people will freeze to death.
"Um."
Liu Meng took off his fur coat, dismounted and gave it to a three-year-old child next to him.
The child was wrapped in a single coat and his lips were black from the cold.
He was being held by an old woman, his expression was dull, and he had begun to roll his eyes.
After experiencing the cold for so long, he was suddenly surrounded by warmth. The child rolled his eyes blankly and looked up at him.
Liu Meng himself has children, and he hates seeing his children suffer the most.
"Get dressed first, you will warm up soon."
He hauled hundreds of carts of coal, enough to help them survive the cold winter.
"warm?"
Before the old woman could react to the fur coat on her grandson, she heard the man in front of her say this.
Warmth, it's been a long time since they heard this word.
Not to mention being warm, just having a place to escape the wind and snow is already a luxury for them.
"Grandma, Ning'er is not cold anymore!"
The child was completely wrapped in a fur coat, with only a small face that was blown red by the wind exposed. He looked up at the old woman, with an astonishing light shining in his big black eyes.
He had never felt so warm before, as if the vitality he had lost before had returned.
"well!"
The old woman was also extremely excited. If her grandson could survive, she would be able to explain to her son and daughter-in-law underground.
She knelt on the ground and shed tears of gratitude to Liu Meng.
"Thank you so much, my benefactor, for saving the old lady's grandson. For your great kindness, the old lady is willing to work as a cow or a horse for you in the next life..."
There was a lot of movement here, and everyone looked over, especially the people around the old woman, who had just heard Liu Meng's words.
The people originally thought that Liu Meng and others were here to pick up leaks. After all, they looked a bit fierce.
But when they saw Liu Meng giving his precious fur coat to a child, everyone immediately knew that they had misunderstood Liu Meng.
"Strong man, you just said that we will get warm soon. Is that true?"
Could it be that these people were here to save them? The people looked at the hundreds of carriages behind them, and their eyes suddenly burst out with hope.
"Can we still have a lie? Our Brother Meng is here to deliver grain and coal to you under the orders of Chief Shen!"
"Shen Shoufu?"
"Grain? Coal?"
The common people grasped the key point in his words. Who is Shen Shouxu?
He was a great benefactor who promoted high-yielding crops to the people and lifted them out of poverty.
They were still in despair and pain, but when they heard Shen Yanqing's name, everyone suddenly came to life.
The crowd burst into tears, but this time it was no longer despair, but tears of joy.
"We are saved! Chief Shen remembers us and he is here to save us!"
The joy spread quickly, and the entire Suzhou City came to life immediately.
When Zhou Yuan followed his men over, he heard the cheers of the people. He was a little skeptical at first, but when he saw the scene in front of him, his panic immediately calmed down.
Liu Meng expected that it would snow heavily soon, so he was anxious to get the people settled. When he saw Zhou Yuan coming, he hurried forward to greet him.
"Master Zhou."
"No need to be polite."
The two exchanged a few words, and then Liu Meng went straight to the topic.
"Master Zhou, I'm afraid it's going to snow tonight, so we'd better cook the food quickly and light the coals to keep the people warm."
"well!"
Zhou Yuan naturally agreed with Liu Meng's suggestion.
Because it's going to snow, it's not enough to just burn coal. Otherwise, when the snow falls, the fire may also be extinguished.
Zhou Yuan was worthy of being the prefect of Suzhou City. He asked his subordinates to assemble the government officials and sent a group of soldiers over to quickly build simple sheds to protect the people from wind and rain.
Liu Meng also quickly unloaded the grain and coal from the car. There were large pots on the street where he could cook on the spot.
After a while, the aroma of rice spread, and there were sounds of swallowing in the crowd, but no one came forward to fight for it.
A group of men consciously stood at the back of the line, letting the old, weak, women and children line up in front. The sky gradually darkened, and the snowstorm came as expected.
Because there was enough food, each of them received a bowl of thick porridge. The food filled their stomachs and even made their bodies warm.
Coal was also lit. Compared with firewood, coal was more resistant to burning and had no smoke. In this cold winter, the people felt the long-lost warmth.
It was snowing outside, but after eating their porridge, the people gathered around the newly built sheds, with smiles on their faces as they survived the disaster.
