"Mr. Factory Supervisor, the people in Linzi are no longer self-sufficient. Let's bring more food to help the army. This is the maximum they can bear. If it continues, the people may starve to death." Zou Fengji was a little anxious.
This little eunuch is too ruthless. Could it be that he raised tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to starve the people of Linzi City to death? Why did he catch a sheep in Linzi and pluck it?
"The governor has never wanted to seize food from the people, or exchange lives with the people." Chang Yu said in a cold tone: "But at this time, the national crisis is approaching, oh no, it has reached a critical moment when families are destroyed, and I only hope that the people in the city will protect themselves.
Do your best for your home and life!”
"They have tried their best! At this time, there are many people in the city who are unable to open the door to their families!" Zou Fengji gritted his teeth and He Wentang quickly agreed.
Chang Yu sneered: "Zou County Magistrate, the people I mentioned are not ordinary people. Are they really trying their best? Ordinary people can't expose the blame in their homes, but I believe that the rich and powerful families in the city don't have hundreds or thousands of stones of food in their homes. I
I dare say you can raise three thousand stones by just picking the five richest households in the city!"
Seeing Zou Fengji frowning and saying nothing, Chang Yu added: "Of course I will make them really bankrupt. Food and money are so expensive that they can't part with them. It's conceivable that I half sold and half borrowed them for less than three thousand dan."
Very few of the thousand and five stones in the granary were donated! Are they really trying to kill them if they are so picky at this moment?"
Zou Fengji still didn't say anything, and Chang Yu sneered: "It's okay if we don't donate food. We only donate 40,000 taels of silver with the strength of a city!" Then he shouted: "I don't believe that any big family in the city has less than tens of thousands of dollars."
It’s so huge, just 40,000 taels of silver to give away to beggars?”
"Those soldiers of the Ming Dynasty fought bloody battles to protect their country and prevent your city from being destroyed, but you just treat them like beggars..."
Seeing Chang Yu furious, Zou Fengji, and He Wentang got up in fright to accuse him!
Why was Chang Yu suddenly angry? It was because he was dissatisfied with these squires! Yes, he was forcing donations, but he didn't think he was being morally kidnapped!
Because their donation is not to save individuals, but to save the entire country and save the lives of ordinary people!
The Ming Dynasty is here, the Qing army has its butcher knife on its neck, but it still cherishes money more than life, which is really annoying and hateful.
Seeing that the little eunuch was angry, Zou Fengji couldn't eat the food anymore, so he and He Wentang said goodbye and left. They wanted to go talk to those big families.
In the blink of an eye, only Zhu Cian and Li Shiyuan were left at the table. They were both frightened and uncomfortable. It was the first time they saw the little eunuch angry and frightened, and they didn't dare to say a word.
"It's so boring to be coy about eating with civil servants." Chang Yu smiled slightly, and Zhu Cian and Li Shiyuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. They smiled in agreement but still didn't dare to talk casually.
"His Royal Highness, we have an unkind invitation," Chang Yu looked at Zhu Cian and said softly. Zhu Cian quickly handed over his hand and said, "If you have any orders, Mr. Factory Supervisor, just tell me."
"The soldiers have traveled thousands of miles from the capital to fight for several battles and lacked pay for training. The morale of the soldiers is definitely exhausted. But now that the war is imminent, we must boost the morale of the soldiers as quickly as possible." Chang Yu picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea.
"How to boost the morale of the army? What should the factory supervisor ask Ci'an to do?" Zhu Ci'an asked quickly, knowing nothing about this.
"Pay!" Li Shiyuan blurted out, and Chang Yu nodded slightly: "Prince Heng promised to pay the army when it arrived in the city, but at this time..." He said nothing and looked at Zhu Cian.
"Ci'an knows. Linzi donates money to help pay for the army first, and the whole amount will be paid to Prince Heng's Mansion." It must be said that Zhu Cian reacted quickly.
In order to clean himself up, the young eunuch had previously said that he would not touch any silver. No matter whether it was in Qingzhou City or Linzi, all donated silver would be managed by Prince Heng's Mansion and then distributed directly to the soldiers. Zhu Cian's donation of silver in Linzi City was based on a small calculation.
It was used to offset the cost of buying grain. At this time, after listening to Chang Yu's words, he agreed to pay the soldiers' salaries first without hesitation.
Chang Yu gave him a thumbs up, picked up the tea cup, took a sip and said softly: "Soldiers have no future, and you will be safe even if you die with money in your hands!"
Zhu Ci'an was deeply touched: "Mr. Factory Supervisor, Prince Heng's Mansion is willing to spend all his money to help the army defend the city!"
Chang Yu hummed, looked at him and nodded: "Prince Heng is a sensible man. Prince Ruofu, Prince Lu and others are also so sensible and will not be exterminated and their incense will be cut off."
Zhu Cian couldn't help but shudder, but he couldn't hold back his curiosity: "Mr. Factory Supervisor, is it true that it is said that King Fu was stewed by the intruder?"
Most of the history of the Ming Dynasty was filled with dirty water thrown by the Qing Dynasty, not only the Ming army but also the bandit army. This made them look like white lotus. Therefore, Li Zicheng stewed fortune and Wang Changyu felt that it was most likely to be nothing, but he nodded without hesitation and said: "Thousands of truths."
Absolutely true."
"Ah! Then, is Prince Fu's Mansion really dead? Have you heard that Crown Prince Fu..." Zhu Cian asked again.
"Died in the rebellion!" Chang Yu said expressionlessly.
Zhu Yousong was secretly murdered in Taiyuan. There were rumors that he died at the hands of the bandit army, but it had not yet reached here. When Zhu Cian heard this, he felt his soles of his feet were cold and he was dripping with cold sweat, but it was exactly the effect Chang Yu wanted.
"Mr. Factory, General Li is here." At this moment, soldiers came in a hurry to report. Chang Yu was so happy that he left the Yamen and ran to the city.
To be precise, Li Yan did not come, but his men did. Dozens of fire points were rushing over from more than ten miles due north. Such blatant behavior was definitely not a probing attack by the Qing army.
Sure enough, half a moment later, about twenty riders came to the city gate and called the door. Chang Yu ordered the door to be opened without any hesitation, without even verifying his identity, because the leader was Kuang Ren.
"The army has arrived more than twenty miles away, and will reach Linzi in half an hour." Kuang Ren looked tired but looked particularly excited: "General Li's battle at the Yellow River crossing was simply unbelievable and extremely beautiful."
"Oh, tell me." Chang Yu was also curious about how Li Yan broke through the defense line. After all, he would have to pay a heavy price even if he personally took command in such a natural chasm.
"Artillery!" Kuang Ren said just two words!
Chang Yu was startled, then patted his head and laughed loudly: "It's really beautiful." At this time, he didn't even need to listen to Kuang Ren's detailed description to know how wonderful it was.
But Kuang Ren still told him what he saw along the way. While listening, Chang Yu raised his eyes and looked to the north. He couldn't see any fire in the distance in the dark night. He was very confused. Under normal circumstances, if there was a fire twenty miles away, it should be faintly visible!
Could it be that it's cloudy? I looked up at the sky, only to realize that there were no stars or lights in the sky, and there was no bright moon in the sky. Why would there be wind and rain every time there was a battle?
"Mr. Factory, look," Kuang Ren suddenly pointed in the northeast direction. There were several flashes of fire more than ten miles away, which according to visual inspection should be along the Zihe River.
"Are the Tatars still ours?" Chang Yu asked.
Kuang Ren shook his head slightly: "It's hard to say!"
When Chang Yu heard the sound, he supported the wall and looked out, and sure enough he saw a faint light in the night sky due north. Then it became clearer and clearer, getting closer and more numerous.
Just after Hai Shi arrived, Li Yan led more than 30,000 cavalry and finally arrived outside Linzi City. Chang Yu personally greeted him a few miles outside the city. Everyone was naturally overjoyed to see each other, so he introduced Zhu Cian, Li Shiyuan, Zou Fengji and others to the generals and exchanged greetings with them.
Afterwards, they also looked at each other secretly.
Compared with Huang Degong and the commander-in-chief of a large military region like Zhou Yuji, Li Shiyuan's small Qingzhou defense is not worth mentioning, but he became famous in the battle of Qingzhou two years ago, and everyone admires him. Of course, they are more curious about Zhu Cian, the eldest son of Prince Heng.
.
Seeing this fat little white guy following Chang Yu respectfully and licking his adoring smile all the time, you know that the little eunuch has gained another fan. Of course, the more fans of this kind, the better. The little eunuch is known as the lord's harvester, plucking hair from the geese.
Look at the King of Datong and the King of Jin in Taiyuan...Qingzhou Prefecture will also suffer heavy blood this time.
It seemed that there was no need to worry about food and military rations. Li Yan and the others looked at each other and couldn't hide their joy.
The small city of Linzi could not accommodate tens of thousands of troops, so Chang Yu ordered to set up camp on the bank of Taigong Lake in the east of the city and sent out patrol posts for ten miles to monitor the surrounding area. Then he, Li Yan and others entered the city and entered the county government office.
In the county government, Zou Fengji set up a new banquet to welcome the generals. After a few words of courtesy, he and Zhu Ci'an and Li Shiyuan, together with the officials and gentry from the city, organized a group to go outside the city to express condolences to the soldiers. Of course, they did not go empty-handed.