Chapter 18: It’s not me who killed them, but greed

Li Jiancheng, Chen Ying, Wei Zheng, Fang Xuanling, Yuchi Gong and others walked slowly on war horses.

It was already lunch time, but there was no smoke from cooking in the distant village, nor did you hear dog barking.

Li Jiancheng's face was solemn.

Wei Zheng looked at Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, there is no thousand or eight hundred in a village like this!"

Li Jiancheng's face was even more gloomy.

Chen Ying waved his hand and rushed to the guard beside him and said, "Look around and see if there is no one yet!"

It was not long before the famous old man with a crutch came slowly with the help of the guards.

Li Jiancheng hurriedly asked, "Brother-in-law, where are the people from this village?"

The old man seemed to have some ears. Li Jiancheng asked five or six times in a row before he understood what it meant. The old man's face was full of gullies and his wrinkles became deeper. He said tremblingly: "Escape... all escape!"

Li Jiancheng possessed himself and asked, "Why?"

The old man Qiqiai Ai sighed: "There is no water... square... thirty miles in circle... I can't find a drop of water, digging a well... I can't even get out of water even if I hit six or four feet!"

Li Jiancheng asked again: "Brother-in-law, why haven't you left?"

"Let's go... where can someone like me come from?" The father-in-law ignored Li Jiancheng, and he left tremblingly with a crutch.

Li Jiancheng followed the old man and walked for half an hour.

Only then did I realize that the old man lived in the village, but was in a cemetery. There was freshly dug soil in the cemetery. The old man walked into this undigged tomb pit, took a hoe and continued to dig the soil.

Looking at this scene, Li Jiancheng clenched his lips with his teeth. He tried very hard. Li Jiancheng's lips were bleeding when he bite, but Li Jiancheng still didn't realize it.

Li Jiancheng walked to the edge of the tomb pit and found that the old man had no bedding, only a few pieces of cracked grain cakes, and a small bucket of yellowed water.

Li Jiancheng smashed his fist in pain.

Wei Zheng sighed: "Thousands of miles of naked land, deserted people!"

Chen Ying stepped forward and glared at Wei Zheng fiercely.

Wei Zheng looked at Chen Ying disapprovingly and said, "General Chen, I know you want to fight the Turks and subdue the Turks. However, now our Tang Dynasty cannot afford to fight, and our army will starve to death! The imperial court cannot even raise up a month's military ration. For the sake of the present, we cannot start a war, we can only seek peace!"

"Seeking peace?" Chen Ying looked at Wei Zheng and said with contempt: "Only one can fight can be said to be harmonious. Now it is the Turks who come to fight us, not us who go to fight the Turks."

Fang Xuanling, who was originally silent, suddenly said, "Now it depends on General Chen's ability. Didn't the general always claim to be good at military art? If he doesn't fight, he will defeat others' soldiers. Isn't it the essence of Sun Tzu's Art of War?"

Yuchi Gong ignored Fang Xuanling and looked at Li Jiancheng and said, "Your Majesty, no matter what, we must fight this battle."

"What General Yuchi said is very true. The Turks don't care whether you are short of food or whether you have a severe drought. If you don't fight a fierce battle, the wolf cubs will not go back to the grassland obediently!" Chen Ying looked at Wei Zheng and sneered: "Wei Linggong stood up and spoke without complaining about the pain in his back. Before the Turks came, the famine had already begun. Even if the Turks retreated now, would the famine be over?"

Li Jiancheng stared at the map silently.

Just then, Li Xiaogong suddenly rode his horse to come.

Li Jiancheng was awakened by the sound of horse hooves and came back to his senses. Li Jiancheng looked up at Li Xiaogong and said, "Xiaogong, what happened?"

Li Xiaogong smiled bitterly and said, "The Turkic envoy, Bu Lugen and Zhi Shisili, requested to come to Beijing to see each other. Now they have arrived in Fengzhou and are expected to arrive in Chang'an in half a month!"

How could Li Jiancheng not know that the Eastern Turks sent envoys to Chang'an at this time, in fact, to find out the truth and reality of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the hunger and hunger were everywhere in Guanzhong, and they could not hide the eyes of the Turks.

What's more, this time the mission is probably not just the people on the surface, and I don't know how many detailed works will sneak into the Central Plains in secret.

Li Jiancheng sighed and said, "Let's go, go back to the palace to plan a marching strategy!"

Chen Ying bowed and said, "Your Majesty is aware of military affairs. When it comes to the method of starting a military, Your Majesty is not weaker than... me."

Li Jiancheng stood up and suddenly interrupted Chen Ying's words and said, "The general is outside, and the king will not accept the order! The general cannot control it, and the army cannot control it. This is the greatest military strategy! I know, but our king and his ministers must think of a proper way..."

Wei Zheng said: "I have also passed through the battle formation. If I don't seek merits, but I just want nothing wrong, I will not be able to cause a big mess!"

"That's just that you are unwilling to take responsibility, unwilling to make decisions at the moment, and asking for instructions in everything... Is it just that your Majesty takes the blame?" Chen Ying of course did not politely say to Wei Zheng: "That's how you are the prime minister?"

Wei Zheng was speechless.

Li Jiancheng asked, "What do you think you should do?"

Chen Ying sighed and said, "The plan can only be advanced!"

Now is Chen Ying and Guanzhong Grain Merchants Group. In fact, it can be said that the most critical time of the struggle between the Guanzhong nobles. Since the food battle, the price of grain has increased to 100 yuan.

Chen Ying transported grain from outside the pass to Guanzhong one after another, and Guanzhong grain merchants chose to buy it by any means. The first loan of 1.5 million guan of grain merchants was about to be reported. In fact, Chen Ying had not used up all the grain in Henan Prefecture, not to mention that more than 8 million shi of grain was on the way to come one after another.

Under this circumstance, Guanzhong Food and Trade Group has invested a lot of funds on grain, and is preparing to buy grain at a price of ten or even twenty times the usual price of grain.

Since the food war has been fought, both sides have actually seen each other's plan. This is like a national war. Putting aside the three axes in front, the latter is fighting for national strength.

If Chen Ying did not continue to enter Guanzhong, Chen Ying had the final say in the price of the grain market. However, once the Guanzhong Grain Merchants Group broke down, they would either deal with the grain at a low price and pay as much as they could. Otherwise, there would be no way to repay the loan. They could only sell the stores, real estate and land they had accumulated to Chen Ying at a discount.

However, Turkic envoys entered the pass to inquire about the virtual and real Tang Dynasty. Now the grain market in Guanzhong is about to erupt like a volcano, and the public is full of grievances. The most important thing is that the market is bleak, and the Turks will discover the virtual and real Tang Dynasty's virtual and real background.

Chen Ying sighed and said, "Two harms and two are more important than the lighter ones, and now we can only stop when we see the better!"

Originally, Chen Ying had a very good chance to harvest most of the wealth accumulated by the Guanzhong aristocratic group over the past few hundred years. However, in order to deal with the Turkic envoys, he had to end it early.

Li Jiancheng nodded and sighed, "They shouldn't die!"

Li Jiancheng also understood that if Chen Ying's plan was completely successful, at least two-thirds of the heads of the Guanzhong nobles would be forced to step down because of the wrong decisions they made, and a major earthquake would occur in Guanzhong.

...

When Prince Qi's Mansion woke up one morning, Li Yuanji felt his forehead thrust and his eyelids twitched.

This made Li Yuanji feel a little suspicious. After Li Yuanji's repeated questioning, Xie Shufang made a comprehensive guarantee, and Li Yuanji gave up.

Xie Shufang was about to leave when he suddenly remembered that the news of the Turkic envoys entering the pass had already arrived, so he reported to Li Yuanji: "Your Highness of the King of Qi, the Turkic Khan Jie Li sent an envoy to the pass..."

When Li Yuanji heard this, he was overjoyed and said, "It seems that Jie Li is also a coward. He has reached the butt door, and he is still looking forward to it!"

Xie Shufang smiled and said, "It's not because he was afraid of being beaten by General Chen. The Turks have never taken advantage of the past three years. In the fourth year of Wude, the Turks could gather 400,000 string control men. Now they want to collect 400,000 string control men, and they may have to count women and children!"

Li Yuanji laughed.

After a long time, Li Yuanji stopped laughing and said with a serious expression: "Have you found out the whereabouts of the second child?"

Xie Shufang shook his head and said, "No, he seemed to disappear out of thin air. No trace of him was found in Bashu, Hedong, Hebei, even Liangzhou, Jiannan Road, and Lingnan!"

"This is strange!" Li Yuanji pondered: "Where did the second child die?"

Uncle Xie lowered his head and said nothing.

At this moment, a roar like a wild beast came.

Li Yuanji was stunned and quickly ran towards the backyard.

Uncle Xie followed closely behind.

When Li Yuanji came to Yu Wenji's courtyard, an inkstone suddenly flew out of the courtyard. Uncle Xie hurriedly wanted to stand in front of Li Yuanji.

Li Yuanji frowned and punched him away.

"Bang……"

Li Yuanji punched the best inkstone to pieces. Li Yuanji entered the courtyard, but saw Yu Weng and his entourage lifting a Wai Yuan Sui and pinched his neck tightly with both hands.

Yu Wenhua and his face roared: "There is still one million stones of grain. Why didn't you say it earlier? Don't you say it earlier..."

But the entourage had stopped struggling, twitching, and no longer heard anything.

Li Yuanji walked to Yu Wenji and pierced Yu Wenji's hand hard, and said while exerting force: "Sir, he is dead!"

As he said that, Li Yuanji ordered to the left and right: "Find him a coffin, bury him well, and send a hundred coins to his house!"

Li Yuanji helped Yu Wenhua and sat down and said, "Sir, what happened?"

"These wastes are all wastes." Yu Wenhua and roared: "Chen Ying'er has secretly reserved two million stones of grain in Henan Prefecture and placed them in Taolin County. It was not until now that he discovered..."

Li Yuanji was shocked. At this time, two Changlin Army guards were carrying the body of the Yuan Sui entourage who was strangled to death by Yu Wen and the strangled Yuan Sui and slowly walked out.

Li Yuanji shouted at the two of them: "Stop!"

Two Changlin Army guards looked at Li Yuanji inexplicably.

Li Yuanji roared, "There is no need to be buried, chop him up and feed him to the dog!"

The guards did not dare to neglect, so they had to execute Li Yuanji's orders.

Li Yuanji was in chaos at this time, and he knew clearly what it would mean to add this million stone of extra grain.

If one million stones are all included in the people, if the people only eat one meal or use porridge to keep their lives, one million stones of food can be enough for one million people to support for half a year. Although six or two meters a day cannot be full, they will definitely not starve to death.

The key is that half a year is enough to discover too many things. Even if a snail crawls, the grain from other grain-producing areas can be transported into Guanzhong.

This means that the hoarding of food has completely failed.

Li Yuanji said in a distracted manner: "Sir, what should we do now?"

Yu Wenhe angrily suppressed the anger in her heart and said, "I can only continue to buy now!"

"But, we have very little money left!" Li Yuanji said: "The other companies are probably the same, right?"

Yu Wenhe turned around and suddenly said with his hands behind his back: "Your Highness, did the imperial court say that the people who migrated outside the pass can be compensated for ten cents of money when each household?"

Li Yuanji nodded and said, "Yes, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has such a regulation. Sir, what do you mean..."
To be continued...