The Emperor Rui felt restless, and sitting on the dragon throne at this moment was like sitting on pins and needles. Looking at the fickle officials below the hall, he found them particularly glaring.
These people were simply too outrageous! Clearly, he was the Son of Heaven of the Great Yu Dynasty, yet every time he proposed anything, these old ministers would jump out, nitpick, and obstruct him.
But as soon as the King of Unified Command expressed his approval, these people would immediately change their previous stance and begin to praise how noble the matter was and how countless merits it would bring upon completion.
Therefore, in their hearts, they did not truly acknowledge him, their Emperor; they were more in acknowledgment of the King of Unified Command standing below!
If it weren't for Huo Qixiao's prophecy, Emperor Rui's inner feelings towards the King of Unified Command's previous numerous protections and support would have been primarily gratitude. After all, in many matters after his ascension, Huo Sijun had truly given him face.
However, ever since he learned that the master of the King of Unified Command's mansion harbored intentions of rebellion, Emperor Rui no longer felt any gratitude towards Huo Sijun. Instead, his suspicion of him grew even stronger!
"The common people are truly fortunate to receive such great favor from His Majesty, it is their blessing!" Seeing that Emperor Rui had remained silent for a long time and the court was terrifyingly quiet, some officials planted by the Emperor stepped forward at the opportune moment to praise the Emperor's decision.
"His Majesty's heart is with the people, it is the good fortune of our Great Yu Dynasty, and the good fortune of all under heaven."
After a period of flattering remarks, the Emperor Rui, who had been sulking inwardly, was brought back to his senses.
"Hahaha, since all your Excellencies agree to this matter, I will send people immediately. The King of Unified Command, as the commander of the great army and now advanced in years, how could I let you run back and forth for such a trivial matter? Let the Imperial Academy arrange this matter, and then have the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works send people to assist!"
Emperor Rui quickly adjusted his emotions and resumed the appearance of harmonious sovereign and ministers. Although his words were all for Huo Sijun's consideration, his thoughts were heading in the opposite direction.
At this very moment, Emperor Rui had already harbored murderous intent!
This Huo Sijun, it seemed he truly harbored ill intentions! He already possessed military strength and power, yet he was still not content. Now, he even wanted to win over the hearts of the people?
The reason Emperor Rui made these arrangements in advance was to allow the common people to be grateful for his benevolent rule as Emperor.
If Huo Sijun were sent to provide medical treatment and dispense medicine to the common people, then after the plague passed, all the subjects under heaven would surely be grateful for the benevolence of the King of Unified Command's mansion. Who would remember him, the Emperor, then?
"This old minister thanks His Majesty for his consideration. Serving the common people is our due duty as officials of the court. This old minister is willing to donate ten thousand taels of silver for Your Majesty to dispense medicine and treat the sick, as a token of this old minister's sincerity." Huo Sijun did not expect that the Emperor would actually refuse his proposal outright this time.
Although he didn't understand, in order to support the Emperor, Huo Sijun still proposed to donate ten thousand taels of silver. After all, the national treasury had not been very abundant in the past two years.
Coupled with the sudden death of the late Emperor, Emperor Rui had been on the throne for less than a year. Not only had the court declared a general amnesty, but it had also ordered a nationwide tax exemption for one year to show the new monarch's virtue. Therefore, the national treasury was inevitably more strained this year.
"Old King Huo is indeed worthy of being a three-dynasty elder, always concerned for the people!"
"Since Your Highness has taken the lead, it would not be right for us to show no response. Although this old minister does not have the wealth of Your Highness, I am also willing to donate a thousand taels of silver as a token of my sincerity."
"This minister is also willing to donate a thousand taels of silver to express my humble feelings."
"This minister is also willing to donate two thousand taels of silver to contribute to the common people."
...
In the time it took for a cup of tea to brew, the ministers in the court once again stepped forward to echo Huo Sijun, expressing their willingness to contribute to the common people.
Huo Sijun, standing at the head of the civil and military officials, felt greatly comforted when he saw various ministers agreeing with him and expressing their willingness to donate generously.
Whether they were old or new ministers, at least they were willing to spend money and effort, willing to do practical things for the common people. If this continued, what cause would there be for the nation not to become strong in the future?
While Huo Sijun was relieved, Emperor Rui became even more enraged. These opportunists were starting to switch sides again. They were all flattering the King of Unified Command, as if the words they had spoken earlier about this move being a waste of national resources and that the court should not lower its status to curry favor with ordinary people had not been said by them.
Emperor Rui sat at the head of the hall, his face twitching incessantly from anger at the group below who were spewing righteousness, morality, and hypocrisy. He tried his best to control his expression, using all his strength to force a smile that stretched across his lips, until his entire face felt stiff.
These people were truly something! If this continued, the court's direction might deviate even further. It seemed that after the epidemic passed, he would have to have a good talk with Huo Qixiao about this matter concerning Huo Sijun.
Regardless of Emperor Rui's inner turmoil, regardless of Huo Sijun's deep emotions, and regardless of the ministers' motives for following the King of Unified Command's lead, the matter of setting up free medicine distribution points at the gates of each city was ultimately decided.
Days passed, and soon it was the period of plague outbreak predicted by Huo Qixiao.
In mid-November, the capital's temperature reached its lowest point in history. Amidst the queue for cold medicine at the West City Gate, a commotion suddenly broke out.
A man, emaciated, thinly clothed, and with a dark, ashen face, hunched over, covering his mouth, and coughing violently in the queue.
At first, those around him did not notice anything amiss. But gradually, as the man's cough intensified, his previously dark and ashen complexion turned liver-colored due to the violent coughing.
Suddenly!
The man's shaking shoulders from coughing began to tremble gently. The hand covering his mouth could no longer hold steady, and then everyone saw large gouts of bright red blood seeping out from between his fingers.
The people who had been standing in the queue, when the man coughed earlier, had all looked indifferent. Most of those queuing for medicine had contracted colds, and coughing was a normal symptom.
But upon seeing the man coughing up blood, everyone could no longer maintain their impassive expressions. Especially those closest to him, who had gotten some blood on themselves, instantly recoiled.
The crowd scattered, leaving a clear space in the middle. The man was left standing alone in the center.
With a "plop!" the man's throat rolled violently, and then, as if he could no longer stop anything, he lowered his hand and stopped covering his mouth and nose.
It was then that the surrounding people clearly saw that, as if some switch had been flipped inside the man's body, his nose and mouth began to gush with fresh blood.
And the flow of blood was no longer a mere drip. It was as if someone had cut open all the man's blood vessels and was shaking him upside down to pour it out.
The other commoners waiting for medicine looked at the scene before them, utterly speechless to describe their inner terror. If they had not lived in ancient times and had never seen a fountain, they would not have been so at a loss for words.
The yamen runners responsible for maintaining order around the queue were also stunned by the sight, frozen on the spot. If this person continued to bleed like this, he would surely bleed all his blood dry in no time, wouldn't he?
As expected, after a while, the man standing in the center, like a human fountain, was stained red with blood. Logically, with such a way of bleeding, the man's face should have turned pale.
But strangely, the exposed skin of the man, which was not stained with blood, all turned a dark red, even redder than his complexion had been from coughing.
It was as if all the blood in his body had congealed beneath his skin. Although it was not flowing out, it had dyed the skin of his entire body red.
Within a few breaths, perhaps because most of his blood had flowed out, the man's mouth and nose stopped gushing blood as before. Just as everyone was at a loss, the man fell to the ground with a "bang."
The person in charge of distributing medicine here rushed over. While he was busy dispensing medicine earlier, he had heard that someone in the queue was coughing abnormally. When he personally came to see, he almost vomited his leftovers.
The person had only said someone was spitting blood, but he hadn't told him it would be such a terrifying scene! This scene could not be described as spitting blood at all; it was clearly someone splashing blood!
The person in charge paused for a moment, then covered his mouth and nose with nausea, and stepped forward a few paces to check the man's condition. The man, slumped on the ground, had clearly no signs of life.
Besides the dazzling dark red blood all over the ground, the man's bulging eyes filled with bloodshot veins, his mouth that did not have time to close, and the fearful and helpless expression on his face, all made the person in charge who went to investigate scared and unforgettable.
After just two glances, the person in charge turned away his face, his body shivering with revulsion. He then hurriedly beckoned to some of his helpers.
"Come here, you few! You two go find a stretcher and carry him to a secluded place over there. You two go and pick up some dry soil and wood ash, and cover these bloodstains, so as not to affect others from getting medicine."
This person in charge was not a doctor; he was originally a squad leader of the guards. Due to the severe shortage of personnel in the Imperial Academy, he was temporarily transferred to help.
Although he found the man's death very peculiar, he had no experience in diagnosing patients, so he did not think of it as a plague or any contagious disease.
In the end, he was still careful. He had them carry the man aside first and wait for the old imperial physician to arrive for a free clinic later to examine the man's body and the reason for his strange condition.
At this moment, two strong men in dark gray tunics and with thick beards arrived running, carrying a simple stretcher made of a few wooden planks.
These two were originally executioners responsible for carrying out sentences at the execution ground, so even when facing such a bloody scene, their faces remained expressionless.
The two stood one behind the other, one lifting the man's shoulders, the other holding his legs, working together to lift the man onto the stretcher.
As the deceased man's entire body was stained with the blood he had vomited, the two executioners carrying the corpse had more or less gotten some blood on their hands. At this moment, the two who had gone to fetch soil and wood ash also returned.
The two carrying the corpse did not leave immediately. Instead, they went to the two loads of dry soil and wood ash. One grabbed a handful of soil, and the other grabbed a handful of wood ash, and smeared their blood-stained hands with the dry soil and wood ash.
Then the two clapped their hands, brushing off the excess soil and wood ash, and then crouched down to carry away the corpse. The other two slowly poured the dry soil and wood ash from the carrying poles onto the bloodstains the man had just vomited.
Soon, a large area of bloodstains was covered, and the commoners who had scattered rushed to queue up again, and everything returned to its previous calm.
Those people stood indifferently on the patch of covered bloodstains, their faces returning to an apathetic expression, as if a vibrant life had not just passed away.
And in the void invisible to the naked eye, the blood that the man had just vomited was continuously sending billions of virus particles into the air.
And the commoners who were directly affected by the blood, the people who were still unaware, standing under the dry soil that covered the large bloodstains, and the executioner who had wiped his hands with dry soil after getting blood on them.
At this moment, in places they could not see, these viruses surrounded them and were rapidly drilling into their bodies.
A true catastrophe was about to arrive!
On November 20th, four days had passed since the man's bizarre death. The cold in the western part of the city seemed to be worsening, and even some of the people dispensing medicine there had begun to experience symptoms of discomfort.
Today was the day the old imperial physician was scheduled to provide free medical consultations in the western district. While taking the pulse of the people there, he found that their condition was much more severe than the symptoms of cold that had appeared at other city gates.
Not only that, but the pulses of these people were truly strange. Logically, people infected with a cold, which is a symptom of cold toxicity invading the body, should have a weak pulse and a floating or tight pulse, mostly representing a real cold syndrome or pain.
However, the pulses of these people in the western district were all floating pulses. Without even extending a hand to feel, one could clearly see the blood vessels beneath their skin, pulsing high and low.
As a medical practitioner of several decades, the old imperial physician immediately sensed that something was amiss. Although he had never encountered such strange pulse conditions before.
The old imperial physician stopped taking pulses and instead asked about the symptoms of the common people one by one. In the end, almost everyone reported that from their throat down to their stomach, they felt like there was fire burning in this section of their body.