Hot flashes

When Zhou Min, the prefect of Jiangning, arrived with his soldiers, the grain shop had already been emptied, and even some of the wooden planks of the granary had been dismantled and carried away.

Crushed grains of rice were scattered on the ground, mixed with mud and footprints, their color appearing a dull white in the torchlight.

Zhou Min stood amidst the chaos, her face ashen, her lips trembling as she couldn't utter a word.

But this is just the beginning.

The next day, the grain shop in the east of the city was smashed. Just like in the west of the city, the grain was emptied, the shop was smashed, and even the old plaque that had been hanging at the entrance for thirty years was chopped into firewood.

The pawnshops in the south of the city also suffered. The refugees rushed in not to steal food, but to loot all the silver and jewelry in the counter. The pawnshop owner, an old man in his sixties, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, but was kicked to the ground and couldn't get up for a long time.

The pharmacies in the north of the city were not spared either. Herbs were looted, drawers containing medicine were pulled out and thrown on the ground, and various herbs were trampled into mud. A bitter medicinal smell filled the air and lingered for a long time.

By the fifth day, not a single grain shop in Jiangning Prefecture dared to open for business.

The shopkeepers fled the city overnight with their families and valuables, heading towards Suzhou, Huzhou, and other places where unrest had not yet broken out.

On the official road outside the city gate, carriages lined up one after another, loaded with boxes and bundles. The drivers cracked their whips, wishing they could whip the horses into the air.

Those shops that couldn't escape were either smashed or burned.

There was a cloth shop in the west of the city. Because the owner was a notorious miser, he not only refused to lower prices during years of famine, but also doubled the price of cloth.

When the mob stormed in, the shop owner slipped out the back door, and the cloth in the shop was moved out, piled up in the middle of the street, and burned.

The firelight illuminated half the street, and thick smoke billowed, turning the hazy sky a dark red.

They began to direct their anger at the government.

The Jiangning Prefectural Government Office was surrounded.

Hundreds of disaster victims, holding torches, blocked the entrance to the government office, shouting for the prefect to come out and speak.

Zhou Min hid in the second hall, his face pale and his hands trembling. He ordered all the doors to be bolted, and had the constables stand guard at the entrances with knives and spears, while he huddled in a chair.

The shouts outside grew louder and more urgent. They started banging on the door, which pounded loudly, and dust fell from the door frame.

Zhou Min suddenly stood up, paced back and forth in the room a few times, then sat down, stood up again, and sat down again. His aide whispered, "Sir, why don't you go out and say a few words to them?" Zhou Min turned his head sharply, glaring at the aide, his eyes bloodshot.

"Get out?" he asked, his voice shrill and distorted. "You want me to get out? Those people outside will tear me apart!"

The staff member lowered his head, not daring to speak again.

Fortunately, the disaster victims did not rush in. Someone shouted "To the grain store!" and the crowd dispersed like the receding tide, disappearing completely from the government office in an instant.

When they left, they tore down the lanterns at the entrance of the government office, knocked down the stone tablet in front of the door that read "Parents of the People," and even defecated on the threshold.

The next morning, when Zhou Min saw the fallen stone tablet on the ground, her face turned pale and then red, as if she had been slapped in public.

After the incident in Jiangning Prefecture, the news spread like wildfire.

The news spread from Suzhou, Huzhou, Changzhou, Songjiang, and so on. As if receiving some kind of secret signal, the disaster victims in those places sprang into action without prior arrangement.

Five grain shops in Suzhou Prefecture were vandalized, three pawnshops in Huzhou Prefecture were robbed, and a local bully in Changzhou Prefecture was dragged from his house, hung from an old locust tree at the village entrance, and beaten until he was covered in blood; his cries of agony echoed throughout the village. This bully, surnamed Liu, was the Cui family's manager in Changzhou Prefecture. He routinely abused the Cui family's power to oppress his tenants, driving people to their deaths without anyone daring to intervene.

That night, no one knows who started it, but by the time the villagers realized what was happening, Manager Liu had already been tied to a tree. Some people spat in his face, some hit his head with stones, and some splashed excrement on him.

When the soldiers arrived, Steward Liu was unable to speak. His mouth was full of blood and foam, his eyes were swollen shut, and there wasn't a single patch of good skin on his body.

He was carried back and died after lying there for three days.

The situation is completely out of control. Not a single place in the seven prefectures of Jiangnan is at peace.

Like a group of trapped beasts driven to the brink of despair, the disaster victims, driven by hunger, did one thing after another that they themselves could not believe.

Those wealthy gentlemen and stewards who were usually high and mighty suddenly became rats in the street. Some ran away, some were beaten half to death, and some were simply killed.