I, a useless prince, started with the Xiang Yu template.

Ten days later.

A near-magical upheaval has occurred in Beiliang City.

The most obvious change is in people.

An endless number of people.

Initially, the registered population of the main city of Beiliang was only around 40,000 to 50,000.

Among them were a large number of the elderly, women, and children; the actual number of able-bodied people was less than ten thousand.

The city was deserted, the streets and alleys were quiet, large areas of collapsed houses were uninhabited, and wasteland was everywhere.

Looking around, everything was desolate and lifeless.

But ever since the first batch of refugees summoned by Chu Yun arrived.

In the days that followed, waves of refugees poured into the territory of Northern Liang from all directions.

They come in an endless stream, day and night.

The migrants dispatched by the system arrived in batches according to the plan.

The numbers are getting more and more terrifying every day.

At first, there were thousands of people every day.

Then it surged, with the highest number of inbound passengers in a single day exceeding 10,000.

The group consisted entirely of young adults aged 20 to 40, along with artisans, farmers, and other professionals from various trades.

The population exploded like a snowball.

The once empty and deserted streets were instantly filled with crowds.

The previously abandoned and dilapidated houses were all quickly occupied, repaired, and occupied.

The originally planned residential areas within the city quickly became saturated.

Based on the original urban construction scale of Beiliang City.

This border town in northern Xinjiang has a maximum capacity of only 200,000 people.

This is the maximum capacity corresponding to the area of ​​the city wall, the street and alley planning, and the water supply facilities.

But now.

The city's population has exceeded 400,000!

Double it!

Four hundred thousand people were crammed into a city that could only hold two hundred thousand.

The whole city was packed with people.

The main street was packed with people, shoulder to shoulder.

Whether it's early morning or late at night, the streets and alleys are always bustling with people.

You have to step aside to walk, and the market stalls are packed together.

Temporary simple wooden houses and canvas sheds were erected everywhere, including in open spaces on the outskirts of the city, at the foot of the city walls, and along the riverbanks.

As far as the eye can see, it's packed with people.

The air in the city became noisy and stuffy.

........

A sudden population explosion.

The first to be shocked were the original inhabitants of Beiliang.

All the locals were completely dumbfounded.

From initial curiosity to shock, and finally to complete numbness and even panic.

In just ten days, the city saw an increase of more than 300,000 migrant workers.

This number shattered everyone's preconceived notions.

Streets and alleys, tea stalls and porridge stands, construction sites and workshops.

Everywhere you look, you can hear the locals talking about it; no one can understand it.

Beside the tea stall, several old men who had lived in the city for many years sat in a group, their expressions complicated, muttering complaints in low voices.

"I've lived most of my life and I've never seen anything like this before."

"Aren't all the refugees in the world fleeing south?"

"The south is rich, warm, and stable; who would bother going to the harsh, cold north?"

A woman who had a stall nearby chimed in.

"Yes, I saw a large group of refugees entering the city from the western official road yesterday, and it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see."

"Hundreds of thousands of people are rushing north; have they all lost their minds?"

A young, burly man scratched his head, his face a mixture of amusement and exasperation.

"To be honest, I was thinking a while ago that once I had some food in hand, I would move my whole family south."

"The Northern Liang region is bitterly cold, ravaged by barbarians, and plagued by famine year after year. Who would want to stay in this godforsaken place?"

"The result was good."

"We locals are eager to escape from Beiliang."

"Hundreds of thousands of refugees from outside flocked to our city."

"This is absolutely outrageous, I still haven't recovered."

The crowd grew larger and larger, and everyone was discussing this unbelievable event.

Some people are wondering about the root cause.

"What do you think is the reason?"

"Could it be that some rumors are circulating behind the scenes? Is Northern Liang about to make a big move?"

"Otherwise, it simply doesn't make sense."

Someone looked worried and thoughtful, and spoke with a furrowed brow.

"Never mind why they came, I'm only worried about one thing right now."

The moment these words were spoken, the surroundings fell silent.

"We had been distributing porridge at the four gates and hiring workers throughout the city, and things were just starting to get better."

"That could suddenly provide food for hundreds of thousands more people."

"Food, water, housing, and livelihoods will all be in short supply."

"If the Prince's Palace doesn't have enough reserves, the soup kitchens will run out of supplies, and food prices will skyrocket."

"When everyone scrambles for food, the first to starve to death will still be ordinary people like us."

This statement hit everyone's biggest pain point.

Hunger was a fear etched into the bones of the people of Beiliang.

A middle-aged man in plain clothes, with a solemn expression, echoed in a low voice:

"That's right."

"There are too many people; we're already overloaded."

"Hundreds of thousands of people consume astronomical amounts of food every day."

"Even if the King of Qin is powerful, did he think his grain would magically appear in the wind?"

"If food supplies run out and chaos ensues in the city, we will be the ones who suffer the most."

For a time, many locals were filled with anxiety.

Some people remained optimistic and spoke up to reassure the crowd.

"Don't worry unnecessarily."

"His Highness the King of Qin always acts with discretion."

"From the initial crackdown on corruption upon entering the city, to the distribution of porridge at the four gates, and then to the city-wide recruitment of workers."

"Your Highness has never done anything without certainty."

"Since His Highness has tacitly allowed so many refugees to enter the country, he must have already thought about how to settle them and how to solve the food problem."

Voices from all sides intertwined and mingled together.

........

The Prefectural Governor's Office, a side hall.

The four leaders of Northern Liang—Su Zhe, Gao Bing, Wen Yan, and Zhou Meng—sat around a table.

The entire side hall was deathly silent; not a single person uttered a word.

The four men all wore identical expressions: furrowed brows, grave faces, and eyes filled with frustration and anxiety.

The atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

After a while, Su Zhe, who was in charge of the people's livelihood and government affairs of the entire territory, was the first to exhale a breath of stale air, raised his hand to rub his throbbing temples, and looked exhausted.

In just ten days, he worked almost every night.

"I never dreamed things would turn out this way."

Su Zhe picked up a population statistics table from the table and slammed it down heavily.

On the paper, the glaring number 400,000 is both straightforward and shocking.

Ten days ago, the main city had a population of over 40,000.

"Currently, the city's population has exceeded 400,000."

"It's increased tenfold!"

Upon hearing this, the other three all nodded silently with somber expressions.

This matter has been weighing on everyone's mind for several days now.

When the first group of refugees arrived, everyone was overjoyed.

The Northern Liang was desperately short of manpower.

But the joy lasted only six days.

When a massive influx of refugees poured into the city gates day and night, the four of them panicked completely.

Gao Bing, who was in charge of criminal justice and administration and responsible for maintaining order and investigating corruption in the city, looked extremely grim at that moment.

He leaned back in his chair and said in a deep voice, "I don't need to say more about what the city is like now."

"The streets and alleys were extremely crowded, and makeshift shacks were densely packed all over the outskirts of the city."

"There is a huge housing shortage, and a large number of homeless people can only huddle together and spend the night near the city wall."

"Population density has increased tenfold, and friction and conflict are happening every day."

"Quarrels, fights, and territorial disputes occur dozens of times a day between migrants and locals."

"My entire team of constables is working around the clock, patrolling in shifts, but we still can't keep up with the situation at all."

Gao Bing, who is in charge of law enforcement and public security, is most aware of the hidden dangers brought about by overpopulation.

With more people, there are more conflicts.

With too many conflicts, unrest could erupt at any time.

Wen Yan, standing to the side, looked more miserable than anyone else.

"You're worried about resettlement and public security, but I'm even more worried than you are."

"For hundreds of thousands of people, the daily food consumption alone is an astronomical figure."

"Even if His Highness has a vast amount of grain reserves, it cannot withstand such endless consumption."

"There's also the distribution of supplies, bedding, firewood, clean water, and basic necessities."

"Prices in the city are already starting to fluctuate slightly. If this continues, trouble is bound to break out sooner or later."

Zhou Meng was the last to speak.

"The pressure on city defense is also enormous."

"The origins of migrant workers are unclear, and the population is mixed."

"With hundreds of thousands of people mixed together, no one can say for sure what kind of people are among them."

"I have increased the number of city defense soldiers and strictly checked people entering the city, but it is still impossible to prevent them from entering."

"The most crucial point is that if a riot breaks out in the city and hundreds of thousands of people start to run amok, my small garrison will simply be unable to control the situation."