After hearing what Sophia said, the two quickly responded, "Boss, don't worry! We won't blabber about this. Our families won't say a word either!"
Ronin reacted faster and immediately made a promise.
Ling quickly added, "Yes, Boss! This job means so much to me. I haven't told anyone even a single word about what I'm doing here!"
Sophia smiled, "You two, relax. I didn't call you here for that. But since you brought it up, yes, let's try to keep things to ourselves."
"I actually wanted to say thank you. You both worked really hard today, helping out wherever you could."
As she spoke, Sophia sent each of them a red envelope with 1,000 yuan.
Ronin and Ling had been helping with receiving goods earlier, and whenever they had free time, they would come over to lend a hand.
Sophia was always generous with her own people.
Ronin's mother even brought porridge over specially!
After talking to them, Sophia reminded them to go home early and rest.
Once they left, Sophia went to check the warehouse.
It had been a few days since she last contacted General Yves. She wasn't sure how things were going on his end.
After distributing supplies to the local disaster relief officials, General Yves went to the next disaster area. They had split up to cover more ground.
This time, General Yves drove an off-road vehicle. Another vehicle was left for the disaster relief official.
Compared to a horse carriage, the car was much faster.
It could even cross small hills. The road was rough, but it didn't stop them.
Instead of the expected five days, General Yves and his team arrived in under two.
The others followed behind in construction trucks carrying supplies.
They had now arrived at a place called Yan Yun County. When the governor of Yan Yun received the message, he hadn't had time to prepare before the team had already entered the city.
The guards at the checkpoint were so shocked by the scene that they thought an enemy army was attacking.
It wasn't until General Yves and his team showed their identification that they were allowed in.
Watching the convoy drive into the city, the guards were still in a daze, like they were dreaming.
Even when the last vehicle disappeared from sight, one of the guards mumbled, "What are these things? Is our Zhao Nation really this advanced?"
They were so shocked they couldn't react for a while.
They only remembered to go and notify the governor after the vehicles were already at the government building.
Governor Yunzhu rushed out to greet them, and just then, the messenger finally arrived.
"Governor Yunzhu! No need for formalities. Let's get straight to organizing disaster relief. The court has assigned this man, Official Zhao Ankang, as the lead official here. You must fully support him. No mistakes are allowed."
General Yves stated his message firmly and directly.
"I understand!" Yunzhu replied immediately.
Yunzhu had a military background and was known for being straightforward and efficient.
On the journey here, General Yves saw that although the local people looked thin and tired, there were no bodies lying on the roadsides. That showed the situation was tough but under control.
Yunzhu assigned someone to help Official Zhao Ankang distribute porridge and supplies. He himself went to report the situation to General Yves.
"Your Highness, please look at this. This is the current situation in Yan Yun County. The food in the granary is running low. For the past few days, we've been distributing porridge every other day, barely keeping people alive."
Even though he was only in his early thirties, Yunzhu's hair was already all white. He looked much older than his age.
"You've worked hard," General Yves said, patting his shoulder before sitting down.
He took the report Yunzhu handed him. It detailed the current population of Yan Yun County and the number of people who had died due to the drought.
Yunzhu's region also had people who died, but the number was still within a manageable range. Over the past month, 96 people had died because of the drought.
This was after Yunzhu had done everything he could to help.
Earlier, when Yunzhu saw how bad the situation was becoming, he sent repeated reports to the royal court, but there was no reply. Luckily, General Yves had now returned.
"General, since you've come back from the border, how are things over there?"
Yunzhu had once been a great general himself. But after being injured, his limbs had lost strength—one of his legs was even lame. Still, he deeply cared about the condition at the border.
News about General Yves' work at the border usually reached the royal court, but not the local officials, so Yunzhu was still under the impression that Yves was just guarding the border. He didn't yet know that General Yves had already defeated two nations.
"General, also, what are those metal things at the gate?" Yunzhu asked with curiosity.
General Yves didn't seem annoyed. With a nod from him, the guard standing nearby immediately perked up and began explaining everything to Yunzhu with excitement.
After hearing the explanation, Yunzhu clapped his hands with joy. "Excellent! Wonderful! Our country, Zhao, is truly blessed by the heavens. Unifying the land is within our grasp!"
Yunzhu's aged and blurry eyes suddenly seemed bright and full of life.
After their discussion, General Yves suggested they ride out to look around.
They didn't bring any guards.
Apart from visiting the government office, they soon began seeing areas set up for free porridge distribution. The rice and flour being used came from the supplies brought by General Yves.
Men, women, young and old—everyone was in line. Long queues had formed.
After seeing a few locations, General Yves suddenly sped up. "Let's go! Let's head further out to the remote villages!"
These aid spots were often hidden near checkpoints, with only a few locations set up in each county.
As they traveled farther, they found more places distributing porridge. But the porridge was so thin that you could count the number of grains in each bowl.
Even so, people still lined up to receive it.
In the last county they visited, most of the people in line were young. Older people were rarely seen—because many of the elderly had already died of hunger.
But compared to that, Yunzhu's area was doing much better. At least some older people were still alive.
Disaster relief was not a problem for General Yves, especially with Sophia backing him. The real concern was how the people could keep surviving afterward—they couldn't depend forever on food from Sophia.
After checking all the aid points, General Yves explained the next steps to Yunzhu.
"This was already tested in Fu County. Officer Zhao will help you from now on!"
There wasn't much else General Yves had to do at this point. The relief work could now be handled by the relief officials and local authorities.
He would mainly be providing the supplies.
"Also, Lord Yunzhu, there seem to be quite a few wealthy landlords and noble families in your region, right?" General Yves asked.
Yunzhu looked a little embarrassed and smiled, "General, to be honest, the reason we've managed to hold out this long is thanks to help from those local gentry."
Over the past weeks, Yunzhu had already organized donation drives with local officials and the gentry—using both persuasion and pressure. Without that, they wouldn't have lasted this long.
General Yves said, "I've heard about that too. But I'm talking about something else now."
Like other nations, Zhao also had deep-rooted problems that needed to be solved.
A huge portion of farmland and resources was still tightly controlled by noble families and wealthy landlords. That's why ordinary people lived such hard lives.
Now, the most important thing was to find ways to get more from those powerful people.