Refugees

Zhao Shi's Tea Mountain lay southeast of Qingyu Sect. Liu Xiaolou planned to head there directly to handle the relocation. At the same time, he wrote a letter and asked Hou Ying to deliver it to Wulong Mountain, requesting Madam Liu and Seventh Mistress Zhou to organize manpower, prepare funds and provisions, and rush over with all possible haste to help.

In truth, Zhao Shi could not say exactly how many people there were, but there were at least seven or eight hundred, if not a thousand. Moving so many people over a distance of sixteen hundred li was no simple task. At fifty li a day, the journey would take a month. Food and clothing alone were a major problem. It was summer now, and the scorching heat was about to set in. They also had to guard against all sorts of illnesses. If people died along the way and more than half ran off, it would be heartbreaking.

Relocating the people from Tea Mountain required proof. If Liu Xiaolou went alone, with nothing but his word, no one would listen to him. If he tried to force the relocation, with Xiaowei Mountain and Yuan Chen Sect constantly clashing over there, disaster might well fall from the sky.

Thus, Zhao Shi gave Liu Xiaolou a letter of commission, asking Three Xuan Sect to step forward and help clear out Tea Mountain, including the refugees on the mountain. The fee was one hundred Spirit Stones and three thousand taels of silver.

There was certainly no silver, but with this pretext, Liu Xiaolou could openly tell every party that wanted to meddle: Three Xuan Sect had taken the money, so this matter had to be handled properly. If it was not handled properly, there would be no way to answer to