It was already noon, and the gates of Taiyang City, which was about to open at three quarters, were still closed. From a distance, Li Chengfeng and the others could see groups of soldiers lined up on the city tower with their bows drawn. He nocked an arrow and pointed it at the bottom of the city tower, as if there was a large army pressing down below, and the troops were approaching the city.
But what they saw was not a heavily armed army, but a group of ragged and down-and-out victims.
They surrounded the city gate in darkness, shouting loudly, and mourning filled the land. They cried and shouted loudly.
"Let us in!"
"Let us in quickly!!"
"I'm here to visit my relatives, please let me in!"
"I'm not a bad person, why don't you let me in?"
"We have road guides and customs clearance tokens, why aren't we even allowed in!!"
On the tower, a man wearing a brocade robe and an official hat, with big arms and a round waist, and a fat head, was lying on the tower with his head raised. He looked panicked and frightened, and kept muttering to himself: "What should I do? What should I do?" What should I do?”
Next to him stood a figure who looked like a master, with a medium build and about forty years old. He lowered his voice and whispered: "Sir, you can't release this arrow. If you release the arrow and cause death or injury, it will cause criticism. I’m afraid it won’t end well!”
Next to him, another commoner master was thin, with sinister eyebrows and rat eyes, and a long rat beard on his lips. He laughed sharply and retorted sarcastically: "There are tens of thousands of people here. If you don't drive them away, they will attack in a while." What to do about the city gate? If you attack the city gate and come in, you will become refugees, smashing and looting everywhere, what will you do? Can you afford this?"
The middle-aged man was about to retort angrily, but suddenly he heard someone shouting loudly from the tower: "Sir, please open the door. We are here to visit our relatives!"
There was a boil below, and everyone shouted in response. Many people in the city also heard the movement and rushed towards the city gate.
The prefect looked back and saw that the streets behind him were filled with black heads, and they kept coming, blocking them on the tower, unable to move forward or retreat.
The prefect was at a loss what to do and was extremely frightened: "What is going on? What should I do?"
The middle-aged master gritted his teeth and said, "Sir, why don't you take some of them and let them go to Wancheng with the rest!"
The sly-eyed master sneered, "What a joke! Take part of it? How much? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Which part do you take? The most important thing is, even if you only take in ten thousand, hey, are you going to provide their food rations?"
As he spoke, he approached the prefect, lowered his voice, and whispered: "Sir, don't forget, the granary... is empty!"
The prefect’s expression immediately changed drastically!
Although the national war in the southeast was thousands of miles away from them, its impact spread throughout Daqi!
In order to win this battle, Long Tenghai not only drained all the blood of the southeastern counties, but also began to frantically divert resources from other counties and states.
After all, tens of millions of troops and people are piled up on the battlefield. Every day, eating people and chewing horses is a terrible expense. The grain and grass that Daqi has saved for many years are being transported to the southeast like crazy.
But this is still not enough for Long Tenghai's troops!
In order to collect grain and grass, Long Tenghai, at the suggestion of military advisor Gao Shenghan, began to purchase grain and grass at high prices to stimulate the large households who were hiding grain. At the same time, Long Tenghai wrote to the Prince of the Supervisory State, reporting to him the situation of the war, and Pointed out that “the victory or defeat of this battle will be decided in one month”!
This sentence touched the prince, and he began to severely rebuke local officials everywhere for collecting grain and severely cracked down on hoarding merchants.
At the same time, Long Tenghai announced the expropriation of grain and grass at high prices in the southeast. In this way, while cracking down hard and harvesting at a high rate, the big hoarding households heard this and rushed to sell grain and grass to the southeast, making a lot of money.
Even some prefects could not hold back, secretly opened the official grain reserves, and began to sell grain and grass privately, enriching their own pockets.
In their opinion, it would be enough to add in the harvested grain every other year. Anyway, no one might be able to check the grain in ten or eight years, and as long as there is no natural disaster, no one will notice it.
Therefore, such granaries often have vacancies and are misappropriated in various places. This is the unspoken rule of the entire Daqi officialdom, without exception.
But like the prefect in front of me, who sold the granary completely... it is unique!
But what the old prefect didn't expect was...
There really was a natural or man-made disaster!
And it’s so big right away!
Indeed, what if we let these disaster victims in and there are so many mouths to feed? The official rations are all empty! Who will provide the food
Those big players? Their food has long been rushing to sell to the southeast!
In other words, if the entire Taiyang does not receive food within a month, even the Taiyang people themselves may starve to death! Not to mention feeding these people!
Thinking of this, the prefect turned pale, sweated profusely, and trembled all over!
The voice of the evil-looking master was not loud, just enough for the middle-aged master next to him to hear. The middle-aged master snorted angrily and said: "I said at the beginning that the official rations cannot be used, and even if they are used, they must not be sold. Light! It's all right now, how can we fix the leak after such a big mistake! Moreover, if the flood spreads to Taiyang by then, what will we do?"
The master with a sinister eyebrow said angrily: "You stand and talk without pain in your back. If you don't sell food, where will you get the money to feed those adults?"
The middle-aged master was furious when he heard this, but his face was stern. He lowered his head, not daring to speak out in anger.
Who in Taiyang doesn't know that the prefect Li Tian and Li Daren in front of him can't read a word. This official was bought with money
He donated money to officials for five years, and after waiting for three years, he finally made up for the gap. He came up to scratch the ground and prepared to get the money back, but he didn't expect that this shabby place in Taiyang was so poor. Shit, just feeding the adults who helped him cover up was enough for him to cope with.
Mr. Li is feeling miserable inside, full of grievances and has nowhere to say anything!
It has become a common practice in Daqi to sell officials and win titles. It is also common to buy and sell officials. Whoever buys an official does not first bleed three liters of blood and then dig three feet of ground, and in the last three years, he clears the prefecture of a hundred thousand snowflakes of silver
Why is it that while everyone else is making a lot of money, it's their turn to be so miserable
This is unreasonable!
Could it be that the way he handed over his filial piety money was wrong
Mr. Li is in great pain!
But what made him even more miserable was the mess in front of him!
Just as he was scratching his head and scratching his head, desperately wiping away the cold sweat in the winter, there suddenly started to be noisy below, and someone shouted excitedly: "Let us in! There is our home here, why don't you let us in!!"
Yuanjin and Taiyang are quite close to each other. There are indeed many people on both sides who have made their homes on both sides, and many relatives move around between them. At this time, there is a lot of noise, inside and outside, it is really loud, like boiling water!
The eunuch was so anxious that his forehead was sweating and his nose was oily. He stamped his feet and said, "What should we do? What should we do?"
The master with a sinister eyebrow said quickly: "Your Majesty, please give the order quickly. Once the city gate is opened! Your official title... you will not be able to keep it!"
This last sentence is the final word!
Master Li was shocked!
What, can’t keep my official title
That’s okay!
I haven’t gotten my money back yet! !
I have spent money, and if you don’t let me earn a little, it’s fine. If you don’t give me back the money, is there any justice? Is there any royal method? !
Thinking of this, Mr. Li was so angry that he grew evil in his heart. He clenched his fists and shouted with all his strength: "Fire the arrow! Fire the arrow quickly! Drive away these unruly people!!"
The officer on the tower was shocked, but he did not dare to disobey the order, so he had to bite the bullet and said: "Fire the arrow!"
The soldiers at the city gate were all horrified, but the military orders were so heavy that they had no choice but to fire arrows!
Suddenly, arrows rained down from the city gate, and the victims below fell down in pieces like wheat!
When Li Chengfeng, Zhao Feiyue and Prince Zhao Hanqing saw this, they all became furious and shouted in unison: "Stop!!"