The world is like a prison, my body is holy

"Boom."

Wang Wen slumped heavily into a chair in the main hall of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion, sweating profusely as he stared at the ceiling and muttered, "Damn it, so tired, so tired..."

After leaving the Western Army camp, he went to the Tokyo Imperial Palace and met with Chai Shen.

Compared to his elaborate explanations in the Qin King's camp and the Western Army's camp, where he had to reason with them, weigh the pros and cons, and occasionally show off his skills, he was able to barely persuade them.

The process went most smoothly with Chai Shen. After he finished explaining his proposal, Chai Shen only thought for a moment before agreeing without mentioning any difficulties or conditions.

Although Wang Wen knew that by forcibly suppressing the struggle between the court and the Prince of Qin, he indirectly bought Chai Shen a lot of time to stabilize the court, and that disaster relief, tax reduction, and overcoming difficulties together were promises that Chai Shen had made in exchange for his support.

But Chai Shen was able to fulfill his promise so decisively, without taking the opportunity to impose any conditions on him...

This greatly improved his image in Wang Wen's mind.

He believed that as an emperor, being greedy for pleasure and selfish was a minor issue. As long as he was intelligent and could understand the situation, he could become a qualified emperor.

How does that sentence go?

It is better for a bad person to rack his brains than for a stupid person to have a sudden inspiration.

Chai Shen has only been in power for a short time, so it is not yet possible to tell whether his political skills and imperial acumen are high or low, but he is undoubtedly a very astute and intelligent person.

Wang Wen felt very comfortable after these two encounters with Chai Shen...

Just then, Xu Wu, having settled Zhao Dadan's family of four, personally brought in a tray of food: "Brother, what's the background of this family? Why did you let them ride two oxen?"

Wang Wen glanced at him: "What are you pretending for? You personally arranged this, I don't believe you didn't dig into their background!"

Xu Wu chuckled and placed the tray beside him: "Of course I took it, but I didn't get it right, did I? What right does the commander of the Liaodong army have to ride two oxen?"

Wang Wen picked up the rice bowl from the tray and answered while eating, "I forced them to lead me to the Qin King's camp. If I had ignored them, this family would have had no way to survive. Since I had nowhere else to go, I brought them back!"

Xu Wu clicked his tongue, sat down to his left, rearranged the food on the tray, and placed the meat in front of him: "Why do I feel like you're becoming more and more like a lord?"

Wang Wen: "What do you mean?"

Xu Wu: "The older you get, the softer your heart becomes."

Before Wang Wen could speak, he said earnestly, "Brother, this is not a good thing."

Wang Wen silently ate a few mouthfuls of food before saying, "People should at least have some bottom line, right?"

Xu Wu: "Whether it should be there or not, I don't know. I only know that people with overly strong principles either don't amount to much or they don't live very comfortably..."

Wang Wen raised his eyelids to look at him: "Do you think I'm not good like this?"

Xu Wu's answer was irrelevant: "If I were just your subordinate, I would definitely be more than happy for you to do this... Brother, how long has it been since you went out for drinks and entertainment?"

Wang Wen tapped the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks, somewhat irritated: "That's not the same thing. I don't go to brothels because I have to practice abstinence for the sake of my martial arts training!"

Xu Wu smiled and said softly, "Brother, are these really not the same thing?"

Wang Wen frowned and glared at him unhappily: "Are you asking for a beating?"

Xu Wu chuckled and reached out to clear the empty plate in front of him and put it aside: "Brother, I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted to say that you are indeed in a very high position now, but don't take on all the responsibilities... it will be very tiring."

Wang Wen continued shoveling food into his mouth, and after a while he sighed softly: "Let's not worry about it for now, let's rest for a bit and then talk about it later."

Xu Wu's eyes lit up, and he reached out to snatch the bowl from his hand: "Then don't eat this, come on, Brother Gou will take you to eat some good meat..."

Wang Wen clutched his large bowl tightly, refusing to let go, and angrily said, "Damn it, it's this late, what good meat can we possibly have to eat?"

Xu Wu grabbed his large bowl with both hands and pulled him back with all his might like in a tug-of-war: "There are plenty of them. The girls at the Lichun Courtyard are practically turning into statues waiting for their husbands!"

Wang Wen clutched his large bowl tightly with both hands: "I'm not going! I can't practice martial arts while drinking and carousing! You're forcing a eunuch to a brothel!"

Xu Wu: "If you only drink alcohol and don't touch the objects, then it doesn't count as drinking at a brothel?"

Wang Wen roared in fury: "Xu Wu, you bastard!"

Xu Wu remained unfazed: "Who is Xu Wu? In this city of Yangzhou, who doesn't know that I am Xu Ergou?"

Wang Wen: "I'm really not going. You guys go have fun by yourselves. I'll pay the bill, okay?"

Xu Wu: "Who do you think you are? If you're willing to go today, you can order eight girls, and I'll put it on the tab... Brother, you're not impotent, are you?"

Wang Wen was so angry that his face turned red. He slammed his rice bowl onto the tray and stood up abruptly: "Come on, you son of a bitch, if you don't order me eight girls today, I'll skin you alive!"

Xu Wu was even more arrogant than him: "If I don't order you eight girls today, you can skin me alive!"

……

The heat intensifies day by day, with the sun, as big as a washbasin, scorching the earth as if trying to melt people on the ground.

The people of the entire south longed for rain day and night, but only a handful of nights of rain came. Often, the ground that had been wet by the rain would dry up before dawn.

A severe drought swept across the land, and vast fields of crops withered and died just before the harvest, as farmers knelt on the ridges of their fields, wailing in despair. There was no harvest at all!
Even after the new emperor took office and issued several decrees to reduce taxes and provide disaster relief, he still could not suppress the enormous panic, which swept across the entire south like a plague...

If the people don't understand the new emperor, don't they understand the character of their local officials?

From the moment the trend of fleeing famine first emerged, it was unstoppable.

Masses of refugees, seemingly endless, roamed the southern lands like a locust plague, quickly crippling the already precarious food supply systems of the prefectures in Jiangnan.

One after another, large grain stores with shops throughout several prefectures closed down, which in turn caused grain prices to skyrocket day by day, quickly reaching an exorbitant price that ordinary people could not even comprehend!
This further fueled the growing panic and expansion of the refugee groups each day!
A series of vicious cycles, like stacked UFFs, superimpose upon each other, creating a chemical reaction that causes the situation to collapse and deteriorate rapidly...

When the devastation of the drought reached Wang Wen, he felt that all the emergency plans and preparations he had painstakingly made beforehand were utterly ineffective.

How can I describe that kind of utterly unreasonable rate of collapse?

It's like he just played a 3, and the other side immediately played a royal flush!
He had just received news that corrupt officials in a certain area of ​​Jiangnan were secretly levying summer taxes and driving people to their deaths, so he hurriedly sent men to kill them and settle the matter. However, before the men even reached their destination, he received another message that a popular uprising had broken out in the area, with a large number of disaster victims besieging the county town.

He immediately dispatched personnel to maintain stability and take charge of the overall situation.

Just as they had organized the manpower, news arrived of a horrific tragedy: the area was littered with corpses of the starved, and people were resorting to cannibalism...

It’s too fast, it’s really too fast!

He boasted that he was fully prepared, and even if he ultimately couldn't withstand the famine, he was confident he could minimize its severity.

But the truth is, when it comes to getting things done, each link in the chain is passive, like a lazy toad, too lazy to even take a single step when poked.

When things go wrong, each link in the chain becomes proactive in all sorts of bizarre ways, always managing to work together in ways he never expected to push the situation in the worst possible direction...

For the first time, he realized that bad things didn't necessarily have to be done by high-ranking officials like ministers, vice ministers, prefects, or magistrates. A lowly, stupid, and wicked clerk could make all his arrangements in a certain place go to waste in a very short time.

He endured it again and again, constantly telling himself, "Consider this a test of my character," striving to stabilize the situation in a reasonable and agreeable manner, so that it would not continue to slide in the worst direction.

He traveled to various prefectures and counties in Huainan and Jiangnan, patiently inviting groups of officials, gentry, and merchants who were so bloated with greed that they were all alike, to dinner and drinks, speaking in the same monotonous language with a forced smile, and smoothing out the problems at every stage.

He repeatedly promised huge profits in exchange for the meat-eaters at the top of the food chain to spare the poor people from taking even the last penny.

Having lived two lives, this was the first time he discovered he actually had the potential to be a high-society socialite…

However, the deteriorating situation, like a surging torrent, resolutely continued its downward spiral towards the worst possible outcome.

His many efforts, in the face of the overwhelming tide, were like a fisherman navigating a small boat to fight against a flood, trying to calm it down—utterly futile.

As far as he could see, the smoke from cooking fires in villages and towns grew thinner day by day, the number of refugees fleeing famine grew larger day by day, and the number of emaciated corpses lying uncollected by the roadside grew denser day by day.

Wherever he went, he was greeted with delicacies from land and sea, large fish and meat, fine wine and beautiful maids.

He listened intently, and countless times he heard boisterous laughter emanating from within the high walls and courtyards, as people vied with each other, comparing who had seized the opportunity to amass the most land and servants…

This jarring scene tormented him, and the pent-up anger in his heart burned like oil in a pan against his conscience.

Countless times he wanted to overturn the table, draw his gun, and stab each of those bloated, hypocritical smiling faces in front of him to death.

But a sense of emptiness, with nowhere to exert any force, made the evil fire in his heart like a dud in a steel shell without a fuse. It was burning hot, but it just wouldn't explode!
He was constantly being chased around by the deteriorating disaster situation, getting involved in more and more things, and his mind was no longer clear about what he was doing all this for...

He certainly remembered his original intention in taking charge of this matter; he simply wanted to minimize the impact of the drought on the people of Huainan Circuit under his jurisdiction.

This was within his job responsibilities, so it wasn't meddling and was acceptable.

Then, in order to prevent the drought in Jiangnan from affecting Huainan Circuit, he also took over part of the situation regarding the drought in Jiangnan.

Later, in order to prevent the situation in the Great Zhou from further burdening Jiangnan, he also took charge of the property dispute between the two Chai brothers.

Since he was already involved in everything, whether he was herding one sheep or two, he simply took on all the responsibilities of the Jiangnan region as well.

Later, it gradually evolved into him mechanically rushing to wherever there was a disaster, even though he himself had no idea what the drought hundreds or thousands of miles away had to do with him, Wang Wen...

While he may claim to be concerned about the country and its people and to help the world, he simply couldn't bring himself to accept such noble sentiments against his conscience.

When he didn't want to think about the troubles outside the walls, he could comfortably drink tea and practice his martial arts in the official residence behind the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion, secretly glancing at his pretty little maid and fantasizing: 'If only I could get some black stockings or a maid outfit, that would be perfect...'

After his aimless and fruitless efforts, he returned to the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion and was able to eat and sleep soundly without any guilt. He rarely tossed and turned and had trouble sleeping because he hadn't accomplished anything or saved many disaster victims.

In his mind, this whole affair was beyond his responsibilities, and the fact that he was willing to take on this matter without considering personal gain or loss made him a truly good person.

It wasn't his responsibility, and he didn't profit from it at all. Why should he be held responsible when things didn't go as planned? Isn't that bullying an honest person?

This might seem like the pot calling the kettle black, but he asked himself, was he, Wang Wenzong, countless times better than those self-proclaimed kings who worried about the country and its people all day long but never stepped out of their doors or spent a single penny?

He at least saved many disaster victims who were supposed to starve to death...

He felt at ease and had no regrets.

But no matter how you look at it, once things have come to this point, even he himself feels that he has meddled too much, brought trouble upon himself, and is suspected of being a pushover.

He felt that if his life were truly a third-rate online novel from countless different times and spaces, then on the other side of the wall, countless readers would probably be calling him a hypocrite and a sanctimonious bitch.

If he continues to recklessly shoulder all the responsibility, he won't even be able to forgive himself.

It was this complex mix of emotions that kept his feelings in a precarious, unspeakable state, much like chronic pharyngitis...

Until the end of July, after once again acting as a firefighter, he was returning to Yangzhou from Hongzhou and passing through Jiujiang when he inadvertently glimpsed a pile of dismembered corpses on a secluded horse trail.

He thought it was demons or monsters causing trouble, so he followed the trail of blood, only to find a refugee camp with smoke rising from the chimneys and the aroma of meat...

He vomited profusely on the spot.

Along with the fine wine and delicacies he had enjoyed in Hongzhou, he also vomited out the pent-up anger that had been building up in his heart for so long.

He drew his silver spear, opened his divine eye, and upon landing, slaughtered all the men, women, and children who were emanating a murderous aura.

Then, leading the remaining refugees, he went to the nearest prefecture, Jiangzhou. In front of the entire city, he kicked down the gate of the Jiangzhou granary. After seeing the full granary, he compared it with the roster of the Jiangzhou government office and personally used his great power to summon all the officials and clerks of Jiangzhou. Pointing at the refugees who seemed like walking corpses, he asked each of them one by one whether they were citizens of the Great Zhou...

Ask a question, kill one!
The slaughter was so fierce that heads rolled everywhere, and the entire city fell silent!

Once the man-eating tiger in one's heart is released, it can never be put back into captivity.

'Damn it, isn't she just a damn hypocrite, a complete sanctimonious bitch?'

'I give up!'

His eyes reddened, and he roared inwardly. (End of Chapter)