Time flies like a white horse through a gap, and three days have swiftly gone by.

In these few days, the news of Xia Lin's fall and the impending siege by the Celestial Master Thieves spread within the city.

As for what constitutes a Noble Clan, in a county town where information is relatively closed and uncirculated, noble clans have control over public opinion.

After the news spread, rumors about the Celestial Master Thieves plundering for five days after the city's fall caused panic among the people in the city.

Although the overnight fee in the city has been canceled, due to the previous exploitation by the government office, there are still many poor people in the city. Coupled with the closure of the city gates, prohibiting entry and exit, with some people's guidance, many people have started to create chaos.

Many shops have been vandalized and looted, and thefts have become more frequent.

Nowadays, the daily work of governmental officials is more about collecting corpses and cleaning up, rather than suppressing illegal activities, to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic.

All kinds of chaos have caused various shops to close down.

Most of the closures are grain shops.

The common people see that even those with money can't buy food and have nothing to eat, causing more people to create chaos.

...

Fu Ze Village.

A dozen columns of black smoke rise straight into the sky.

Now the entire village is permeated with a faint coal smell.

Coal is not only used for burning sulfur now.

The newly built blacksmith shop also uses high-heat coal as fuel for iron forging, which increases the malleability and plasticity of the metal, improving the quality of weapons and armor made.

Due to Xia Lin's fall, the Celestial Master Army began to partition Qingzhou, surrounding county towns, causing a large number of people to flee south.

In recent days, there have been constant arrivals of common people and even fleeing soldiers seeking refuge.

Indeed, these are genuine elite soldiers who have received formal training.

The fall of Impatiens and Nanyang almost led to the annihilation of the Qingzhou Army, yet there are still thousands of Qingzhou soldiers, split into groups of ten to twenty, scattering in escape, disguising themselves as refugees to avoid being recognized and captured by the county offices along the way.

However, soldiers who have been on the battlefield reveal themselves during training in the reserve forces.

Despite only five fleeing soldiers seeking refuge, Chen Mo still offered them extremely high treatment.

These five are not Martial Artists, but individually they are not easily defeated even by those like Han Wu and Hu Qiang, who have begun cultivation.

Only Zhang River, with longer cultivation time, can somewhat best them.

He hired these five as instructors, imparting Divine Brave Guard training methods and experiences from the Qingzhou Army.

Chen Mo knows that although the Divine Brave Guard trains hard and he has taught all he knows, they are not regular military personnel and can only be considered partially trained. To achieve the level of a formal army, training must follow the formal military methods.

Despite the Qingzhou Army being a elite force, the treatment within the army isn't especially good, so under Chen Mo's inducement, the five had no reason to disagree.

...

The women in the stronghold are not idle either, making arrowheads under guidance from hunters like Hu Tie, Hu Shi, and Hu Mountain.

Under Lu Yuan and others' guidance, they make bamboo armor.

As for what drives these women to produce, it's certainly money.

For every arrowhead made, one cent is rewarded.

For an eligible bamboo armor, one hundred cents are rewarded.

Although not much, for women with nothing to do but wish to supplement household expenses, it has tremendous appeal and they vie for the work.

...

Sunset slackens westward.

Wang Ping routinely comes to report to Chen Mo about the refugees received today, and after finishing, he says, "Immortal Master Chen, the barren fields in the village have all been distributed and if any more refugees are accommodated, there will be no fields left to allocate."

Chen Mo nods, having planned for this, and calls over Han Wu: "Tonight, bring a few people and disguise yourselves as southbound refugees, saying that outside Pingting County, daily porridge is distributed. Remember, the louder the movement, the better, but don't expose your identity."

"Understood."

...

Carried by the chaos of war, most fleeing south are starved civilians, exhausted and thirsty after days of travel. Hearing of daily porridge distribution outside Pingting County, those famished care not if it's true or false, flocking toward Pingting County.

People tend to follow the crowd; seeing so many going in one direction, curiosity leads them to follow too.

The next day, the defending soldiers on the city wall, seeing a large number of refugees outside, are stunned. Remembering the rumors of the Celestial Master Thieves besieging the city, cold sweat breaks out on their backs and they hurriedly run to report to the government office.

Thus, what was originally a group of refugees waiting outside the city for porridge turns into rumors of the Celestial Master Thieves besieging the city.

Such alarming news spreads through the city like a tide, causing huge chaos.

The governmental officials, constables, and recruited rural warriors barely maintaining order become fearful for their own safety in the face of such news.

Chang Yuan is naturally frightened too, knowing that if the city falls, he will suffer.

Scared into such urgency that he didn't even don his official hat, he hurriedly takes General Sun to command defense on the city walls.

Upon learning it's merely a group of refugees seeking food, Chang Yuan finally breathes a sigh of relief, ordering the Defense Army to prevent these refugees from approaching the city walls, and violators are to be shot.

The refugees, unaware of the truth, having traveled so long to reach the city and find no porridge, immediately some began to create disorder.

Chang Yuan knows he can't be soft on this. If refugees pile up more and more and someone incites unrest, all could be embroiled in a riot, and then trouble would arise.

Chang Yuan orders to shoot.

"Swish, swish, swish!"

A volley of arrows rains down, nearly a hundred refugees fall with a crash, blood pooling and disbelief in their eyes.

Where is the promised porridge?

The sight of blood and loss of life.

Exclamations erupt all around, and the refugees gradually disperse.

Han Wu, mixed within the crowd, returns to the village immediately, reporting the news to Chen Mo.

"Immortal Master Chen, so... many people died, it's too tragic." Han Wu pants heavily, saying: "Immortal Master Chen, didn't you say daily porridge was distributed outside the city, why..."

Han Wu believed it too.

Chen Mo's eyes narrow slightly, his heart unperturbed, saying: "Tonight, spread the word again, mentioning tomorrow afternoon I will distribute porridge outside the village; everyone gets a share. Just like last time, ensure the noise is as loud as possible."

...

That night.

Hu Qiang hurries back, finding Chen Mo, saying: "Immortal Master Chen, you're truly foresighted, Taishan County indeed fell to the Celestial Master Army, and the next stop is Qingtian County."

Regarding this, Chen Mo remained calm. When Hu Qiang previously reported the Celestial Master Army's arrival at Xia Lin, Chen Mo had anticipated they would reach Taishan County within days, which is not far from Qingtian County.

With the spread of Taishan County's fall, fear is bound to engulf Qingtian and Pingting counties.

Chen Mo knows the time is ripe.

...

The next afternoon, the village exterior was packed with scores of people.

Some refugees who went to Pingting County previously thought that this time would be another false event, but upon seeing the large porridge barrels set up at the village entrance, their delight was indescribable.

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