"F-fleeing a famine?"
Zhang Youren wiped his face. Although he had grown grain and medicinal herbs whenever he had a spare moment along the way, moved mountains when he encountered mountains, and leveled rivers when he encountered rivers, becoming much stronger in the process, he had still spent days traveling through wind and dust. He certainly looked bedraggled.
He could not worry about that now. First, he had to clear up the important question. "Where are Chaoge's city walls?"
"The walls? Torn down!"
"Torn down?!"
Zhang Youren trembled with alarm. Had the Zhou Army already swept through every pass and captured Chaoge?
Otherwise, he simply could not think of any reason to demolish the city walls.
The old vegetable seller was a chatterbox too. "His Majesty personally led the campaign and left the Second Prince as regent. People had always said the Second Prince was an incorrigible troublemaker, and I worried something would go wrong. Who knew the Second Prince was also a heaven-born genius!"
"Once the walls came down, there was nothing blocking the way anymore, and people from all sorts of places came to Chaoge."
"Settling all those people would originally have cost a fortune in money and grain, but the Second Prince ordered the stone from the demolished walls sold to nobles and wealthy merchants."
"With building materials in hand, those rich people naturally started putting up houses and buildings. Construction takes workers, so they hired those newcomers."
"And once those refugees from elsewhere earned their wages, they bought the finished buildings. Back and forth it went, and now they have somewhere to live and food to eat. Their days might be busier, and they have to work hard, but life here is far better than in those remote regions!"
"People like you wouldn't mind earning a