In the face of this sudden plague, the whole court was extremely nervous.

In order to stop the spread of the plague, local governments had to resort to the traditional practice of isolating entire areas.

That is, once a plague breaks out in a certain county, then send troops to surround the entire county and prevent the people inside from coming out.

As for the four-level isolation method proposed by Chi Fei when he was fighting the plague in the northwest, no official was willing to implement it at all.

In the view of local officials, it is more convenient to directly seal off the entire county or village where the plague broke out, and it is easier to prevent the spread of the plague than to do troublesome things such as Class A, Class B, and Class C quarantine areas and safety zones in the epidemic area according to the four-level isolation law.

As for whether the people in the epidemic area are dead or alive, it depends on their own lives.

The most important thing now is to stop the spread of the plague as soon as possible, especially not to let the plague spread to Xinjing, otherwise the imperial court will definitely ask them for their guilt.

This was the common idea of officials in various places, so they all desperately sent a large number of officers and soldiers to seal off the county towns or villages where the plague broke out, and those who escaped were killed.

Under this almost cold-blooded regional quarantine measures, the spread of the plague was indeed effectively contained.

But unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and only about a month later, new epidemics appeared in various places.

In some counties or villages where the plague had never occurred, new sores had inexplicably appeared, and they spread very quickly.

At this time, an official in the court finally asked, could this plague be man-made?

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why a good county suddenly has so many infected and scattered sores.

Only then did everyone remember that when the plague broke out in the northwest, it seemed that it was also a ghost made by the Hu people.

It was some Hu people who disguised themselves as merchants and took the clothes worn by the sore-scattering patients to the northwest and sold them everywhere, which caused the great plague.

Now this sudden outbreak of the plague in the south of the Yangtze River is very similar to the northwest back then.

As soon as this official reminded him, the more the princes of the imperial court thought about it, the more they felt that this possibility was extremely high, and they suggested to Emperor He'an that they thoroughly investigate the merchants in various places.

Emperor He, who was scared to death, with the tacit consent of An Guogong, immediately ordered the local government to thoroughly investigate whether there was anything suspicious about the local merchants.

Until the matter is clarified, all merchants are prohibited from trading.

The order was soon issued to the local government offices, and if the local officials dared to slack off, they immediately conducted a thorough investigation of all the local merchants, especially those who had recently traded in clothing.

Under this investigation, many suspicious things were found.

In particular, some merchants who had traded a large number of items in the recent past suddenly disappeared mysteriously, and some people even found the bodies of several suspected missing merchants outside.

And in the area where the plague first broke out, almost all of these missing merchants did business there.

Most of the items traded were clothes, bedding, towels and other woven fabrics.

All these indications indicate that this plague is likely to be artificially created as it was in the northwest, and the murderers behind it are likely to be Hu people.

After all, the Northwest Plague was committed by the Hu people back then, and it is not surprising that it will come again now.

In order to prevent any more spies from wandering around the plague in the name of merchants, the imperial court issued the strictest ban on commerce in history.

All merchants other than the imperial merchants were forbidden to buy and sell, even in the vegetable market, and violators were punished with imprisonment and beheading.

This ban on commerce has killed all merchants, especially those who make a living by doing small business, and it feels like the sky is about to fall.

However, in the face of the government's high-pressure policy, the businessmen did not dare to openly disobey it, so as not to get into trouble, so they had no choice but to close their doors.

The small traders who make a living by doing small business have lost their livelihood, and the residents living in the city are no better.

Since most of the shops were not open, the people could not buy rice and vegetables even if they wanted to, so they could only buy high-priced rice and vegetables from the shops opened by the imperial merchants, which were almost twice as expensive, and they couldn't help but complain.

In addition to promulgating a ban on commerce, the imperial court also ordered a large-scale investigation of spies in various places.

Anyone who finds a suspicious person, etc., will be arrested first.

Through these two measures, the plague that had broken out in various parts of Jiangnan was finally brought under control.

However, how could Mr. Qiu, who had been secretly planning and preparing behind the scenes for nearly a year, stop there.

He was well aware of the way the Great Wei officials had been dealing with the plague, and he had already left a trick behind.

Just as the princes of the court and the officials of various places had just breathed a sigh of relief, they did not know that a great crisis was boiling like boiling hot water in the areas where the plague had broken out.

Early in the morning, the doors of all the people in Lubo County, Fengxi Prefecture were knocked one after another, and the person who knocked on the door also said loudly while knocking on the door: "Mr. Bai wants to gather everyone to discuss a major matter, you go to the vegetable market in the east of the city to gather, hurry up." ”

Hearing that it was Mr. Bai who was going to convene everyone to discuss a big matter, Lubo County immediately hurried out of his house to the vegetable market.

Soon, people from every household gathered at the vegetable market to hear what Mr. Bai had to announce.

In today's Lubo County, no one is more effective than Mr. Bai's words, and even the government can't compare to them.

There is a reason why this Mr. Bai is so appealing.

When the plague broke out in Lubo County, those officials did not treat the people immediately, but took the rich families and squires in the city out of the city without permission, and then ordered the officers and soldiers to surround the entire county town from the outside in the name of epidemic prevention, so as not to let any people come out of the city.

In the face of the government's cold-blooded approach of ignoring the lives of the people in the city, many people were full of resentment, but they did not know what to do, and almost all of them fell into despair.

At this critical moment when everyone was waiting for death, Mr. Bai, who came here from other places to do business, suddenly led a large group of young people to loot the rice shops and rich families in the city, and robbed a large amount of rice grain.

After grabbing these rice grains, Mr. Bai did not keep them for himself, but took them all out to help the people in the city, giving porridge to everyone twice a day.

Seeing Mr. Bai's righteous deed, everyone was greatly moved.

Especially compared with the cold-blooded practices of the government, this Mr. Bai is the real good man.

In addition to the regular soup kitchen every day, Mr. Bai also organized the doctors in the city to treat the people infected with the plague.

Not only that, but also formed a joint defense team of villagers to manage law and order in the city.

After Mr. Bai's repeated measures, stability in the city was finally restored, and the people finally stopped feeling hopeless.

It is precisely because of Mr. Bai's various righteous deeds that the people in the city regard him as a life-saving benefactor, and they obey his words.

Now that I heard that Mr. Bai had something to discuss with everyone, the people naturally didn't dare to slack off and rushed over one after another.

It didn't take long for almost all the people in the city, regardless of gender, old and young, to come to the vegetable market, and then all of them focused their attention on Mr. Bai standing on the steps.

This Mr. Bai is about forty years old, with a white face, a beard that is not long or short, and his facial features are upright, he looks very elegant, and he has a taste of reading poetry and books, which makes people feel good.

"Don't make a sound, Mr. Bai has something to say." Seeing that there were a lot of people talking about it, several young people who were full of admiration for Mr. Bai shouted loudly.

After these young people drank, the audience suddenly became quiet, no one dared to speak again, and everyone waited for Mr. Bai to speak.

Mr. Bai first looked around at the tens of thousands of people below, suddenly bowed deeply to everyone, and then said with a heavy expression: "Fathers and fellow villagers, Bai is incompetent and has failed to live up to your expectations, and Bai is really shameless. ”

Seeing Mr. Bai suddenly make this big gift, the people were amazed and did not understand why he apologized to everyone.

The person who stood in front of him hurriedly spoke: "Mr. Bai, what are you doing here, please don't do this." ”

"Yes, Mr. Bai, please don't do this, you have something to say."

"Mr. Bai, what happened?"

After stretching out his hand to ask everyone to stop asking, Mr. Bai said with a sad expression: "Don't hide it from the villagers, the food in the city is almost running out.

If there is no new food, the city will be out of food in two days. ”

Hearing this, the people below suddenly showed panicked expressions.

What can I do if I don't have anything to eat?

Mr. Bai continued: "Bai once went to the city gate to ask a few officials when the food would arrive, but those officials refused to pay attention to Bai at all. With that, he let out a long sigh.

A young man interjected with a sad and indignant face: "When Mr. Bai went to ask, those dog officials not only ignored us, but also ordered us not to go near the city gate again, so as not to spread the plague to them.

Mr. Bai even knelt down and begged them to bring in food to relieve the shortage of food in the city. But those dog officials not only didn't listen, but also thought Mr. Bai was troublesome and wanted to shoot him with arrows.

If we hadn't dodged quickly, Mr. Bai would have been shot by them. ”

When everyone heard this, they were immediately excited and scolded one after another.

"Those dog officials don't treat us as human beings at all, they obviously want to starve us to death."

"Mr. Bai, what should we do then? We don't want to die! ”

"Yes, Mr. Bai, what should we do?"

"Our children are still young, we can't watch them starve to death. Mr. Bai, please save us, save our family. ”

Mr. Bai looked around at the people who were begging and begging below, and suddenly raised his right hand and said loudly: "I, like all the villagers, don't want to starve to death here."

I have gathered all of you here today to discuss a major matter with you.

Bai heard that Xinjing was giving porridge to the victims in various places, and if we got there, there might be a glimmer of life.

Instead of waiting here to die, it is better to rush out of the city and fend for yourself.

I am willing to lead all the fathers and fellow villagers to take risks, who wants to be with Bai? ”

Several young men standing beside him immediately raised their hands and said loudly, "I am willing to die with my husband!" ”

At their instigation, the people below also responded.

"That's right, instead of waiting for death here, it's better to rush out of the city to find a way out."

"Mr. Bai, we are willing to follow your arrangement, please Mr. Bai save us."

"Rush out, rush out, rush out!"

"Rush out, rush out, rush out!"

In the end, everyone shouted the same sentence in unison, and the people's sentiment was completely boiling.