"As far as we know, the imperial court ran out of money. In order to raise money for disaster relief, they sent Duke Xuan Guo here to carry out a bloodbath, ransacked his house and confiscated a large sum of money to deal with the disaster. In addition, the imperial court sold iron and demolished the east wall to repair the west wall.
I tried my best to squeeze out 20 million taels of silver, but it was amazing that it disappeared not long after I drew it. Where is the money? It is said to have been used up!"
"There are many people who are not afraid of death! The imperial court did not dare to let Duke Xuan kill all the people who came under his control. You see, they were afraid that Duke Xuan would be cruel again, so they transferred Duke Xuan back."
Bang! The eunuch slapped the case and angrily shouted, "Are you allowed to discuss important matters of the imperial court?"
The solemn warning only received sarcastic looks from the four clan leaders. When things got to this point, it no longer mattered whether one wanted to lose face or not. One could only speak based on one's strength.
"We believe that the court has no money. We also believe that the government in the disaster-stricken areas has no money. But there are many people with money, but no one dares to expose them. Why don't you ask them for money? Why don't you just come and pay for it?
Our pockets only dare to pick out a few grains of grain in our warehouse, are you going to force us to go bankrupt and go to a dead end?"
The eunuch gritted his teeth and said, "In that case, I can only forcefully open your granaries!"
"We have been in Shangwan Mansion for many years, and we have an account of everything going up and down here. There are many people involved, and we can't help whoever wants to take advantage of it."
"Your Excellency, the Prefect, you want to forcefully open our warehouse? You can! But I have to remind you, Your Majesty, that there are some noble people in our firm who have taken shares in our business. They won't let go. We don't dare to open the warehouse to release grain. Your Excellencies, you can use torture on us."
You can force us to reveal those noble people, as long as you dare!"
The four major families' quarrelsome remarks made the officials present grim-faced and did not dare to say a word.
Zhan Muchun tensed his cheeks and breathed heavily.
Chief Cangbe Yang in front of him said: "Prefect, the outside of the city is soaked in mud. Except for some hills and highlands, the victims don't even have a place to stay. They are prone to diseases. Open the city gate first and give the people to them."
Let it in!"
Before the eunuch could reply, the clan leader surnamed Wei said sternly: "Absolutely not!"
Manager Yang was angry, "You don't open warehouses to stockpile grain, and you don't let the victims enter the city. What's the difference between you and killing them with your own hands?"
Patriarch Wei: "Master Yang, what you said is wrong. Have you thought about the consequences of letting the victims into the city? Outside Guangfu City, there are hundreds of thousands of victims gathered far and near. They are all hungry and crazy people. For
You can do whatever you want to eat, but once you enter the city, who will take care of your accommodation?"
Patriarch Xu: "As soon as the victims enter the city, they will immediately grab food. The city will be a catastrophe in an instant. The people in the city cannot suppress it. By then, no matter how many heads you have, Mr. Yang, I am afraid that the court will not be able to chop them off."
of!"
Manager Yang's face sank, his face filled with gloom and he remained silent.
Chief Jing: "There are still 30,000 people in the city. Although they are living a hard life, they can survive the disaster if they live in a tight diet and pay a little price. But if the hungry people outside the city are let in, the 30,000 people in the city will soon be gone.
We have to become victims of the disaster! If we fail to rescue the disaster, it will only add fuel to the fire and overthrow Shangwan City. I am afraid that even the head of the prefect cannot be saved!"
The prefect said angrily: "According to what you said, if you don't care about the lives of the victims outside the city and just watch them die, can I save my head?"
At such a critical moment, being asked to take over the position of the prefect was simply fatal.
The four patriarchs looked at each other, and Patriarch Chen said slowly: "In times of disaster and famine, there are actually conventions. As long as you follow the conventions, you can't blame the prefect if anything happens. Everyone does it this way. There is no reason for the prefect to be the only one.
wrong."
"Yes, there will be nothing wrong if you follow the old rules in everything."
Zhan Muchun was confused and didn't know what the old rules were.
The prefect understood it immediately and said in a deep voice: "Those who have money will live, and those who have no money will die, right?"
"Although it doesn't sound good, there is nothing you can do about it. When the rich go to the city and can live with money, they won't think about causing trouble. The morals of those without money are indeed worse!"
"In previous years, when there were similar famines, those with two taels of silver could enter the city, but this year's disaster is unusual. The roads outside the city are muddy, and there is a lot of water in some areas. It is difficult to transport food in large quantities. It is estimated that at least half of it will have to be carried.
The roads can only be passable in months. Prices in the city have skyrocketed after the disaster. If a person wants to carry out basic necessities, food, housing and transportation in the city for half a month, he may not be able to do it without five taels of silver."
The prefect sneered non-stop, clearly wanting to take advantage of the situation to enrich the country.
However, there was nothing he could do in the face of these people. He was not Duke Xuan and could not directly kill these people. If he dared to do so, the consequences would be beyond his ability to bear.
As these four clan leaders said, there are people behind them.
What's more, he can't kill these four people. If he forces himself on these four people, he may not be able to mobilize the people in the city. The four major families have deep roots in Shangwan Mansion.
After calming down, he still had to try his best to get some real benefits for the victims, "You can follow the instructions of the four clan chiefs, but I also ask the four major families to be kind and take out some food for charity and cook some gruel every day.
The hungry people outside the city are waiting for food, let them hold on a little longer, even if they have a chance to live a little longer!"
Patriarch Wei stood up and said, "Your Majesty, your words are serious. It is not our turn to bear the lives of the victims, and we cannot bear this responsibility. However, since your Majesty has said this, we have no objection, but we need to ask the people in the city for their answer."
If we don’t agree, how about we follow public opinion?”
We don't want the people in the city to pay for money and food. If the people have anything to agree to, the prefect will immediately agree to it.
Soon, people beating gongs and drums in the city summoned the people to solicit their opinions.
When the four major families informed the people that the food in the city was limited and they might not be able to survive the disaster, they immediately aroused public outrage.
"no!"
"no!"
"They are all victims of the disaster. Why should I pay for it while they can do it without paying?"
The chattering and boiling opposition made Zhan Muchun's face turn pale and shocked him. He did not expect that the people in the city would rather people outside starve to death than give away food that did not belong to them.
This was something he never dreamed of, and it gave him a huge impact. It was something he couldn't see even after reading thousands of books.
In the face of the boiling public sentiment, the prefect had a gloomy face and stared coldly at the four patriarchs who were having a good time. He finally understood that in this land, as long as the four major families did not agree with anything, he, the prefect, would not do anything.
become……
Yu Qing was stunned!
A bare mountain looks like an island in a sea of mud.
There was no green left on this mountain, it had been eaten away by people. Yu Qing squatted on the top of the mountain stupidly, his eyes were blank, and his body was very dirty.
Behind him, a group of people gathered on another hillside. A group of inhuman people were grabbing several corpses.
The body was probably still warm.
They were also killed by several of their traffickers when they arrived.
A group of hungry people on the mountain wanted to steal their dry food, but Tao Yongli and the other three men severely shocked them and told them to eat their own companions.
He could imagine what it would be like to be bloody and forcibly eaten alive. He turned his back and didn't want to look at it again because he had seen it more than once before.
At first, he was quite energetic when he broke into the disaster area. He worked bravely to protect the dry food for the three people. He was a good food protector.
It wasn't until I entered the hardest-hit area that I saw a group of people cooking around a rusty iron pot. The smell of meat was quite fragrant. When I looked over, I saw a small person stirring in the pot.
, when someone was still chewing unripe bloody intestines, he almost vomited on the spot.
Afterwards, he saw many horrific scenes beyond his imagination.
From then on, he was confused. A large bag of dry food was accidentally snatched away by a group of hungry people.
He did not expect that less than a month after the disaster, people would be so hungry.
He thought that after such a long time, even if they walked on two legs, most people would have walked out of the disaster area.
After arriving at the scene, he discovered that human beings are extremely vulnerable when faced with such disasters, and it was not what he thought at all.
It was only after this experience that he truly and deeply understood what it meant to be a hungry citizen.
"Haha, not bad!"
Tao Yongli, laughing loudly, walked out of a mountain pass with his belt in hand, and then went to Ge Dajun.
Nothing else, I found a little lady who could not conceal her good looks even though she was in a miserable state.
I asked the little lady to wash a piece of cake and obeyed them obediently.
The young man squatting next to Yu Qing stood up and moved eagerly to Tao Yongli's side.
Tao Yongli fastened his belt, took out a piece of cake from the bag guarded by Yi Lifei and threw it to the young man.
The young man was the young lady's husband, and it was agreed that the young lady would give him a piece of cake for every person he accompanied.
Yu Qing could tell from the dirty clothes of the couple that they were a couple from a relatively good family background, and they sounded like a scholarly couple.
The young man held the big cake and wolfed it down.
Tao Yongli leaned over and patted Yu Qing on the shoulder, "Brother, you are not used to it yet. It is understandable if you are doing this for the first time. It will be fine if you get used to it. From now on, we will focus on this mountain.
It’s time to start shopping. You don’t have time to pick things up slowly. You need to have an eye for discovery and be able to tell good looks from unkempt appearance at a glance.”
After that, he walked over to the young man and patted him on the back, "Eat slowly, eat slowly. Brother, I want to discuss something with you. I bought it for your wife. You can discuss it with her later?"
The young man was silent, nodded, and continued to eat the cake.
Later, Ge Dajun came back with a smile.
Followed by the young lady who looked extraordinary after being washed. Her face was sallow and her skin was thin due to hunger. It is easy to imagine that she will return to her normal appearance.
"Brother, do you want to try it?" Tao Yongli gave Yu Qing a piece of cake and motioned for him to take it to the young lady.
Yu Qing shook his head repeatedly and remained silent.
The young man finally walked up to the young lady. The two met and discussed for a while, and then came over and said that the young lady agreed to sell herself.
Tao Yongli's offer was to provide food for the couple and take them out of the disaster area, and the young lady would sell herself to him, and then give the young man one tael of silver.
The young man said that he wanted to go to the nearby Shangwanfu City and wanted five taels of silver.