Endure and Wait for an Opportunity

Yin Fengshuo naturally did not dare to openly withhold supplies; that would be no different from proactively leaving others something to use against him.

Instead, he used all manner of excuses to delay the supplies' arrival.

Today, he claimed the official road was under repair and the grain convoy had no choice but to take a detour; tomorrow, he said construction supplies were scarce and had to be distributed in order, with the East Mountain region happening to be placed last.

Every delay had a legitimate reason, and every reason complied with the Great Qian Code.

Under normal circumstances, given Fang Xun's established prestige, even if the supplies arrived ten days or half a month late, it would not have stirred up much trouble.

But now, in the eyes of the people of East Mountain, Fang Xun had become a colossal corrupt official who "would greedily take anything and dared to take anything."

The supplies that had yet to arrive were naturally assumed by the refugees to have been embezzled by Fang Xun.

And they were about to face a situation with no food to eat, perhaps even starving to death alive.

Panic was contagious.

Once everyone believed they were about to starve to death, truth and falsehood no longer mattered. Rumors instantly coalesced into an unshakable consensus. For a time, the millions of refugees throughout East Mountain were seething with outrage, on the verge of revolt.

Although Fang Xun had long sensed that something was wrong and personally went everywhere to placate them,

he had only managed to suppress the situation temporarily.

As long as the supplies did not appear, the doubts in the people's hearts would not vanish.

In fact, with the situation having developed to this point, even if the supplies eventually arrived, the blindly enraged populace