With an order from Weizhi County, the county government vacated all the available houses to accommodate the victims who had been kicked out by their landlords.
How many ordinary people have ever entered the county government? Even if they have, they have only gone to the lobby and the second hall. The rest of the place is so mysterious to them. They look at it with curious eyes and shrink back.
He was taken into rooms by the guards.
Although the county government had vacated nearly a hundred rooms, a steady stream of disaster victims arrived, and these rooms were quickly filled.
Seeing the solemn county government office filled with victims, the white-haired old man asked the officer in a low voice: "Where does the master live?"
"Here." The guard nodded with his chin: "That's the courtyard in the middle."
"Scare, the eldest master also gave us his residence?" the white-haired old man said in surprise. "What about his family?"
"You just eat carrots and don't worry about it," the guard scolded, "Why are you asking so many questions?"
But they saw that the white-haired old man had already walked into the magistrate's house and said to the victims inside: "Come out, this is the eldest master's inner house."
The victims were also shocked. Without saying a word, they all packed up and came out, not forgetting to restore the items inside to their original state.
.
In that room, there were so many people living in the county government office, and there were too many things to arrange. Weizhi County was already overwhelmed.
When he heard that there were still many people who had no place to live, he finally couldn't help but get angry: "Aren't there enough rooms? Where are they still vacant?"
"The great master's house."
"Didn't you ask the madam and young lady to move out?"
"My wife and young lady have moved out, but the victims heard that it was the grand master's house and refused to move in," the officer replied.
"Let the villagers live in the magistrate's house." Magistrate Wei asked him to sit down and said with a look of exhaustion on his face.
"We can't disturb the eldest man's family." Chief Qin said firmly: "Don't worry, eldest man, we'll just squeeze in."
"My family is very small, only Zhuo Jing and my daughter," Wei Zhixian shook his head and said, "They have already lived in my student's house." He raised his hand and said, "Don't be stubborn. At this time, obeying the arrangements is the best thing for me.
Good support.”
"This...is." Chief Qin could only agree in a low voice.
After finally settling down the victims and having them take proper care of their food, Magistrate Wei was about to take a drink of water and breathed a sigh of relief when Hu Buliu came in again with a look of helplessness.
"What's wrong?" Wei Zhixian said weakly, rubbing his temples that were throbbing.
"Your Majesty," Hu Buliu said hesitantly, "there are people... kneeling at the yamen gate again."
"Just let them come in together," Wei Zhixian said with his eyes closed: "If you can't live alone, just squeeze in. Two families will have one room."
"This time they are not victims of the disaster," Hu Buliu said after swallowing, "they are the people of Fuyang..."
Wei Zhixian opened his eyes suddenly, stared at Hu Buliu, and said word by word: "Why?"
"Your Majesty, just go out and take a look..." Hu Buliu was unwilling to irritate Weizhi County Road.
Wei Zhixian stood up without saying a word, his thin body swaying. Hu Buliu quickly went to help him, but he pushed him away.
Putting on his official hat again, Wei Zhixian stepped out of the custody room with heavy steps and walked towards the yamen.
He walks this road every day, and it has never felt as heavy as it does now. Even just now, when he heard that the victims were being driven out, it didn't feel so heavy for him.
But no matter how heavy he walked, there was still a moment to reach it. When he walked to the yamen gate, he saw more than a hundred people from the county kneeling outside the gate... As soon as they saw him coming out, those people burst into tears.
"Everyone," Wei Zhixian suppressed the anger in his heart, raised his arms and said, "If you have something to say, please say it. Don't cry now."
But his words had no effect, and the crying became louder...
"What are you crying for?" Wei Zhixian has never felt so helpless.
"They are crying about Magistrate Chen." Hu Buliu whispered: "They were shouting earlier, 'Where have you been, Magistrate Chen? Why did you leave us?' and so on..." After a pause, he spat: "I don't know.
What a bastard!"
Wei Zhixian seemed to be frozen, his face turned pale. His heart was broken...
What could make him feel more ashamed than this? This is a naked slap in the face!
Who am I doing this for? Is it for the victims? No, it has nothing to do with them at all!
I am doing it for Fuyang and the people of Fuyang!
But this is how they repay themselves!
Wei Zhixian's chest was full of energy and blood, and finally his vision went dark and he fainted at the yamen gate.
"Sir, sir..." The officers were in a panic and hurriedly carried him back to the custody room.
Just as he was about to go see Dr. Wu, County Magistrate Wei woke up and said slowly: "Let the people outside send a few representatives to come in and talk."
"Master, your body..." Hu Buliu whispered.
"Go quickly!" Wei Zhixian suddenly raised his voice and patted the edge of the bed heavily.
"Yes." Hu Buliu didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore and ran out quickly. After drinking tea, he brought in seven or eight old people.
Seeing that the old man was so angry, the old people felt worried, knelt down and kowtowed, claiming they were guilty.
"Everyone, please get up and sit down." Wei Zhixian was leaning on the bed and said feebly: "What are you guilty of?"
"I made my old parents very angry..." the old people said worriedly.
"I'm not angry, I'm just too tired," Wei Zhixian refused to admit it and said calmly: "I invite you here not to ask for punishment, but to have a frank discussion about what the county has done poorly. Let you
Do you miss your former magistrate so much?"
"this……"
Seeing the old people groaning, Wei Zhixian said: "We are just chatting and talking. It doesn't matter how you scold me. I will never blame you."
"Then say it boldly..." The old people said cautiously: "Actually, they all said that the old parents have no children in their hearts and only want to get promoted and make a fortune..."
"..." Wei Zhixian's eyes flashed with raging anger. With great difficulty, he suppressed himself and said, "Why do you say that?"
"They said that other counties take care of the people in their own county first, and as for the victims in other counties, as long as they don't starve to death, only we in Fuyang County take care of the people from other counties first. We, the people of this county, have become stepmothers.
Raised!" The old people became more and more angry as they talked, and their initial fear disappeared: "They said that the eldest man is doing this to please his boss, and the purpose is naturally to get promoted!"
"..." Wei Zhixian said with a livid face: "Then where does 'getting rich' come from?"
"Of course it's the 10,000 acres of terraced fields," the old people replied: "They said that the reason why the county has been reluctant to sell the land is because it doesn't want to sell it at a low price! In order to make more money, the big boss would rather let us people go without food!"
"That is, wasn't it just to prevent the grain from being held by large households from falling into our hands by not allowing private transactions in land?"
"Haha..." Wei Zhixian felt deep sadness in his heart. He couldn't get angry at these ignorant old people. He asked in a low voice: "Who are they?"
"They," the old people smacked their lips and whispered, "are the knowledgeable people."
"You were used as a weapon by them." Wei Zhixian said calmly: "They want to force me to submit and sell the land to them at a low price."
"Even if we are used as gunmen, we are willing." The old people said stubbornly: "We only know that the Yongfeng warehouse is empty, and we people are going to starve!"
"Who told you that Yongfeng warehouse is empty?" Wei Zhixian said coldly.
"They..." the old people said, "You can't hide this kind of thing."
"Then do you know who owns all the food in Fuyang County now?" Wei Zhixian had already overcome the anger and sadness and gradually calmed down.
"They..." The expressions of the old people changed slightly.
"Do you know how much food they have?" Wei Zhixian asked again.
The old people shook their heads, how could they know this?
"At least fifty thousand stones." Wei Zhixian said calmly: "If you don't know this number, I can tell you that the capacity of Yongfengcang is seven thousand stones."
"Ah, so much?" The old people couldn't help but be secretly shocked. They never imagined that the famine was going to last for almost two months, and that the wealthy families actually had seven Changpingcang's worth of grain hidden in their homes.
"It is rainy and humid in Zhejiang, so there is not much grain stored in the warehouse, so these grains cannot be what they saved before." Wei Zhixian added: "In addition, everyone knows that the spring famine is only temporary. Moreover, the imperial court exempted Zhejiang.
Half of the taxed grain this year will be enough for the summer harvest."
"That is to say, there are at most two months left in the spring famine. So I want to ask you, what do you mean by keeping fifty thousand shi of food at home?" Wei Zhixian said quietly. He followed the teachings of Confucius to repay kindness with kindness and resentment with resentment.
He complained and decided to go to war with those big guys.
Of course it is not for eating...the old people know very well that this is hoarding!
"They are planning to wait for Fuyang County's food supply to be exhausted, so that they can purchase the people's fields at very low prices!" Wu Wei, who was standing by, said in a deep voice at this time: "It's not just about the fields, but also the county's real estate and workshops.
, Shop! As long as it’s something valuable, they won’t refuse it!”
"Think about it, everyone." Wu Wei continued: "Your family's tea garden can be sold for thirty guan per acre, but because it was not picked up, others took the opportunity to buy it for four shi of grain. Are you willing to accept it?"
The old people all shook their heads, but one of them whispered: "There is nothing we can do if we don't accept it. We can't just watch our family members starve to death."
As soon as these words came out, everyone looked sad. Once that time comes, if you are a swordsman and I am a fish, how can you have the right to refuse?
"Now you all know that this is the time when food prices are the most expensive and land prices are the cheapest." Wu Wei sneered, "Isn't my eldest man greedy for money? Would he choose to sell his land at this time?"
All the old men shook their heads together. The little fat man was right. The elder was definitely not selling his land at this time to make money.
"In order to protect your family business, the eldest brother banned private land transactions and sold official land for sale!" Wu Wei said angrily: "You understand, right?"