In the valley, Li Shan stood on the hillside and looked down. Nearly two thousand refugees gathered on the south side of the abandoned village. Although he saw more than a hundred guards on horseback and sabers surrounding them not far away, the refugees did not make a fuss and just looked at them warily.
around,
Li Shan suddenly smiled and felt that it was interesting. He had just counted them and found that more than half of the two thousand refugees were old, young, women and children, but the young and strong people protected these weak and defenseless people in the middle.
"Saburo."
"Lang Jun." Zhang Zhongjian stepped out of the queue and leaned down.
"Send men to Qianyuan County to ask for grain and rice." Li Shan casually ordered, "Go directly to the general manager's office. You can't let Chang Da take advantage of you without paying any price."
"yes."
Since he has taken over these two thousand refugees, he has solved a big problem for Chang Da. Although this guy has a cold attitude, he is obviously not a fool... Otherwise, Li Shan will directly lead the people to live in the county and see Chang Da.
How to deal with it.
Although this time Li Shan went to Longzhou as Sinong Qing, and was even a county king who was trusted by Li Yuan, it was actually not as good as going to Daizhou the year before last... At least there was no restriction that time, and Li Shan could do things in his own way.
But this time, the local government was not very cooperative. Several of the subordinate officers had little authority, and Pei Xuanji... Li Shan really didn't want to deal with this person, so he simply stabbed Chang Da directly in front of him.
"Tell that guy Chang Da that if we don't give him food or rice, thousands of refugees will have to go to the governor's house to eat." Li Shan said quietly, "Don't say you didn't predict what you said."
Zhang Zhongjian responded, turned around, ordered a few guards, got on his horse and drove away.
"Qu Silang." Li Shan explained: "You are familiar with Zhigui. Go to Huating County and ask them to send you some cloth and cooking utensils tomorrow or the day after."
Qu Silang responded. He was originally from Yunzhou. He was forced by Yugu to attack Yanmen Pass. After the victory at Yanmen, his family moved to Daizhou. Zhang Wenguan had a great time in Daizhou last year, mainly because Qu Silang accompanied him.
Although the weather is gradually getting warmer now, it's still late spring... well, not even in the sweltering summer. Looking down, many refugees are naked.
Cooking utensils and farm tools are okay, but the key is food. With a total of two to three thousand people, the food consumed every day is not a small number. It is not like Li Shan will use food from the secret warehouse of Dongshan Temple anymore.
The grain from the Miku of Dongshan Temple provided a large amount of food to Xia City the year before last. Hundreds of families moved here last year, and they had to rely on the food from the Miku during the lean years.
Of course, the most important thing is that after eight years of martial arts, Li Shan estimated that the drought in the pass should be coming soon, and the locust plague should also be coming soon. Although his time-traveling butterfly has rewritten many historical trajectories,
But it should not cause major climate changes.
Next, it depends on how much food Zhang Zhongjian can get from Chang Da.
Li Shan thought for a moment and called over Qi Laosan and Zhou Erlang, and told them that after the bricks were produced tomorrow, the first thing they would do was to build a grain depot... This valley would be the base for his group.
There were more than a dozen stoves built around the hillside, and dozens of guards were lighting fires to cook porridge. Li Shan could clearly see that almost all the refugees' heads were pointing in the direction of the stoves, obviously they were very hungry.
"How long has it been since you've eaten?"
The burly young man with curly hair replied in a dry voice: "Five meals in ten days, just to survive."
One meal in two days... Li Shan thought to himself, those people in Daquan Pass were still stuck pretty accurately. This kind of rhythm would not starve anyone to death, but it could only maintain the lowest living standards, leaving the refugees unable to cause trouble.
"What's your relationship with He Panren?" Li Shan asked casually.
This curly-haired young man's name is He Fang. He has sunken cheeks but long hands and feet. "He Gong is the villain's uncle."
Li Shan nodded slightly, "Have you ever heard of Lone King?"
"The King of Handan defeated the Turks three times and became famous all over the world. He naturally knows it." He Fang hesitated for a moment and then said: "I am willing to serve your Highness. I dare not ask for anything. I only hope that Your Highness will show mercy to the old and young."
Li Shan turned around and looked at it, smiled, "Did Pei Xuanji tell you all?"
He Fang hangs his head and is speechless. It is not impossible to replace cattle with human plowing, but it is very labor-intensive... If the situation is worse, it is common to die from exhaustion.
But being able to survive is the most important thing. If it were before, He Fang might still want to cause some trouble, but this King of Handan...not to mention other things, just the hundreds of guards who witnessed it with his own eyes, he knew very well.
Although there are seven to eight hundred young men on his side, there is almost no resistance.
Li Shan said nothing more, waving his hands and scolding with a smile: "You are such a skinny monkey, I asked you to stay in Zhuangzi and insist on following me. Aren't you afraid of your wife complaining?"
Fan Shiyi, who had a big scar on his face, approached with a smile, patted his chest and said: "Lang Jun, among the personal guards, in terms of scouting and investigation, is there anyone who can compare to the villain?"
"It's not like we're going on an expedition..."
"When Lang Jun goes on patrol, there will be trouble. How can we get less scouts?" Fan Shiyi chuckled and said, "Brother Dingfang and Ling Gong took care of this."
"When I come to Longzhou this time, I must..." Li Shan was halfway through his sentence when he heard a cough behind him. He thought about it and stopped talking, but turned back and glared at Wang Junhao.
Forget it, it's better not to speak... After so many experiences, to be honest, Li Shan was a little scared.
"In a few days, mother will send someone over, just in time for your wife to follow." Li Shan nodded to Fan Shiyi, "Now that Brother Dingfang is not here, you will be in charge of all investigations and vigilance. If anything goes wrong...
…”
"Then let Brother Dingfang peel off the villain's skin." Fan Shiyi, who was wearing leather armor, glanced at He Fang and said with a smile: "With all the light and dark sentinels inside and outside, he must be fine."
After chatting and laughing for a while, Li Shanju walked down to a stove, took a chopstick and inserted it. The chopstick did not fall over, which was the standard for disaster relief in ancient times.
Taking a wooden bowl and scooping out a bowl of thick porridge, Li Shan walked south through the line of guards, walked to the center of the refugees, and handed the bowl to an old man.
The old man's face was full of surprise, and He Fang's expression changed drastically after Li Shan. He didn't expect that in just half a day, the other party would see through the truth. This old man was the real leader of this refugee group.
"The villain dare not..."
"The old eat first, then the children, then the women, and the young last." Li Shan said gently and looked back, "Do you have any objections?"
He Fang hesitated and said nothing, but the old man had already bowed to the ground, raised his hands and took the wooden bowl, "Thank you, Your Highness."
Li Shan smiled, took the second bowl of thick porridge from the guard behind him, stuffed it into the hands of a drooling girl, and touched the withered and yellow hair on the girl's head...it was slightly yellow, but I don't know.
Is it due to malnutrition or race?
It was already dusk, and He Fang was squatting among the crowd, swallowing big mouthfuls of thick porridge, occasionally raising his head to glance at the figure of the young prince among the guards in the distance.
"Such a person can be called Huairen." The old man on the side said quietly.
He Fang was startled and said in a low voice: "I heard that this King of Handan is named Huairen."
The old man said nothing more, even if he did it deliberately, he still made a gesture... Hundreds of personal guards have not eaten yet, and even the Prince of Handan County has not eaten.
At this moment, Li Shan had no idea of eating at all, and looked at Zhang Zhongjian with a sneer, "Only three hundred buckets of rice?"
Zhang Zhongjian prostrated himself on the ground but said nothing.
The personal guard who followed him whispered something into Li Shan's ear, and Li Shan snorted, "Get up."
The reason why Zhang Zhongjian was asked to come forward was because this man once served as a subordinate official in Shuozhou. After all, he once had an official position. However, he did not expect that Chang Da, the general manager of Longzhou, would not give him any face... He did not even meet him.
Zhang Zhongjian was even scolded by the concierge for his ugly appearance...if he hadn't stopped him, several of his guards would have taken action.
Three hundred buckets of rice was just enough to feed the three hundred guards brought by Li Shan for about a month. In other words, Chang Da made it clear that he would not care about the lives of the refugees.
"Since you don't give me face."
Li Shan said coldly: "There is no need to save face for him."