Yingzhou belongs to Hebei Road, and the northeastern region where Hebei Road is located has never been here before. However, he used to be in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs and was very familiar with the location of Tang Dynasty Prefecture and the official road. Before dawn, the group walked along the official road. The road went all the way north, and at dawn it had left the boundary of Yingzhou and entered Shenzhou in the north.
After entering the boundary of Shenzhou, there were more pedestrians on the road. In order not to attract the attention of passers-by, Datou stayed away from the official road and chose to fly low through the mountains and canyons.
In addition to pedestrians, there were also many hungry people and beggars on the road. At first, he didn't pay much attention to it, but as he saw more and more hungry people on the road, he began to murmur in his heart. When he resigned as Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he left it to the court. There is a lot of money, and there is also a lot of rice in the treasury of various places. Logically speaking, there should not be a large-scale famine this year. So why is it that just after the New Year, people begin to flee the famine?
I had doubts in my mind, so I wanted to stop a few hungry people to ask about the situation. As soon as I had this idea, I found a group of hungry people on the road ahead beating a ragged little monk. The little monk was only fifteen or sixteen years old, not tall and very thin. , was surrounded by everyone and was kicked and kicked, unable to fight back.
Shi Xuanming and Yu Yi were both Buddhists. Seeing the crowd beating up the young monk, Shi Xuanming immediately got off his horse and stepped forward quickly, "Stop."
Seeing that he was tall and powerful, everyone guessed that he might be good at kung fu, so they stopped and backed away before he could get close.
The young monk was beaten by everyone and his nose was bleeding. After everyone stopped, the young monk climbed up with difficulty with the help of Shi Xuanming. He lowered his head to look for his alms bowl, but after he found it, he found that the alms bowl had been broken by everyone.
Seeing that the young monk was beaten so miserably, Shi Xuanming was furious, but after looking around, he found that the people who did it were all sallow and skinny, so he couldn't bear to punish him, so he had to suppress his anger and shouted loudly, "What mistake did he make?" , are you treating him like this?"
All the hungry people shrank back and did not answer.
No one said anything, and Shi Xuanming could only ask the young monk, "Amitabha, young master, what did you do wrong? Why did they beat you?"
Seeing fellow Buddhists, the young monk seemed to have seen his family, tears welled up in his eyes, "The poor monk just wants to share some food with them."
, that’s all if you don’t give it, you still want to beat me.”
After the young monk finished speaking, before Shi Xuanming could say anything, some hungry people spoke angrily, "You monks have eaten all our food. Now that we have all fled our homes, you still have the nerve to ask for alms from us. Are you really going to force us to do so?" Die?"
"What do you mean?" Shi Xuanming asked with a frown.
Although Shi Xuanming was a monk, he did not have kind features and kind eyes. All the hungry people were afraid of him, so no one answered him.
At this time, he also got off his horse and came to talk to the hungry people nearby, "From what you said, it seems that your departure from your hometown has something to do with the monks?"
He was young and had a kind face, so some hungry people answered him, "Oh, it's not that bad. The situation is not good, but the court has collected more winter grain to feed the monks and soldiers, and they don't care about our life or death at all."
"Feed the monk soldiers?" He frowned slightly.
"Yes," another hungry citizen answered, "the imperial court hired a group of monk soldiers to fight in the south. They never won a single battle, and they ate a lot of rice. When the imperial court ran out of food, it asked the government to provide it, but the government could not provide it. They force us to hand over winter food, and if we don't give it, they come to rob us, and they don't give us any way to survive."
Hearing this man's words, the others looked at each other. The monk soldiers in everyone's mouth undoubtedly referred to the new army led by Tong Chen. Tong Chen did not take advantage when he attacked Sun Ru. Everyone knew this, but they didn't expect it.
In the next two to three months, the national treasury was actually empty. In order to supply military supplies, the imperial court could only raise military rations from local officials.
After a moment of silence, Shi Xuanming took off his baggage from the horse, took out his dry food and distributed it to everyone. After everyone left, he gave the young monk a few noodles, and then secretly stuffed some silver coins into him.
.
The young monk thanked him profusely and kept wiping away his tears. Yu Yi and Shi Xuanming said a few words of comfort to him, and then the young monk limped south.
Although it is just a small thing, it makes everyone confused
A layer of shadow fell on me, and after I set off again, I began to calculate the war munitions in my mind. As we all know, money and food are needed in wars. Three hundred thousand troops suppressed the rebellion, and each person was rationed one kilogram of rice per day. In one month, it would cost nearly one thousand
However, when he left, he left a large amount of money and rice grains to the Ministry of Revenue, which was enough to support the expenses of an army of 300,000 for a year. In just two or three months, the national treasury was emptied, which must be in addition to military supplies.
There are other expenses.
No matter where the imperial court moves the money and food from the treasury, it will seriously harm the country. Relying on the people's life-sustaining food to supplement military rations is equivalent to cutting out flesh to mend sores and drinking poison to quench thirst. Regardless of whether the rebellion can be successfully suppressed, it will lose the support of the people.
Seeing that his brows were furrowed, Yu shook his head and followed him, "Your Majesty, has something changed in the court?"
He heard Yu Yi's words, but did not answer them because he was already far away from the court. How could he know what happened in the court.
Yu Yi didn't answer, and didn't ask any more questions. The horse's reins were slightly loose, lagging slightly behind.
As a former Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, I know the importance of money and food. The ancients said that poor and lowly couples will suffer from everything, and the big will be compared with the small. The same is true for the country. If there is no money and food, let alone suppressing rebellion, even maintaining the status quo cannot be done.
He couldn't figure out where the imperial court had lost all the little money he had saved so hard in such a short period of time. If it was really gone, it would be all over.
At noon, a group of people came to the outside of Shenzhou City. Some cities located in flat areas could be bypassed, while some cities located at dangerous passes could only be passed through the city. Shenzhou belonged to the latter group. Datou drove Miss Bai from the woods to the east of the city.
After flying over, the others rode to the south gate of Shenzhou.
When we got closer, we found a lot of people gathered outside the city gate, rubbing shoulders with each other. There were at least a thousand people.
In a crowded place like this, it is easy to expose one's whereabouts. Worrying that one's horse would attract everyone's attention, he deliberately took a detour, but the left and right sides of the city were surrounded by dense forests and mountains, making it impossible to go around it.
Just as he was hesitating, a drum beat came from outside the city gate.
Officer, I am familiar with the process of executing prisoners. It is the first quarter of noon, and the sound of drums is the precursor of the execution of prisoners. At the second quarter of noon, there will be two drums, and at the third quarter of noon, there will be three drums. At that time, the prisoner will
People's heads will fall to the ground.
Prisoners were being executed at the city gate, and passage was temporarily blocked. Everyone on our side could only stay and wait.
I don't like to join in the fun, and I didn't want to go anywhere near, but at this time, the onlookers were crowded at the city gate, and the other areas outside the city gate were very empty. If the people on my side were too far away, it would attract attention.
After pondering, he finally decided to get closer to the crowd and enter the city as soon as possible after the execution.
But what he didn't expect was that before he could approach the crowd, someone on the makeshift execution platform outside the city gate shouted loudly, "General, save me."
Hearing someone calling for help, Yang Kai and others looked at him at the same time. He was a former hussar general. This person was probably calling for help.
After finally leading the eight major families of Japanese pirates back to Japan, I wanted to hide their whereabouts and buy as much time as possible, but unexpectedly, I was called out by a prisoner who was about to be executed, and I couldn't help but feel irritated.
Just when they were about to follow the voice to see who was speaking, the seven prisoners kneeling on the execution platform shouted for help at the same time, "General, General, we are all subordinates of General Yao, and you are the one who is here today."
Bring us back."
Hearing people calling for help, he suddenly realized that that day he traveled to the Western Regions and met a group of loyal border guard veterans from the desert. He was grateful for the loyalty of these soldiers, so he brought them back from the desert. After these veterans returned to China, they were treated badly.
The emperor personally received them, and after receiving the reward, they returned to their respective places of origin.
Although he knew that coming forward at this time would inevitably expose his whereabouts, he could not stand idly by and watch. He originally wanted to dismount, but he did not do so this time. He rode directly through the crowd and came to the execution platform.
At this time, there were a large number of soldiers on guard around the execution platform. When he saw the others coming on horseback, the captain in charge immediately shouted and asked, "Who is here, dare to rush into the execution ground?"