Liu Xiu did not make it difficult for Hu Sheng. He waved his hand to him and said, "Magnificent Hu, please rise."
Hu Sheng kowtowed forward excitedly and said in a trembling voice: "Thank you, Sima, for not killing! I would like to thank you, Sima, for not killing..."
Liu Xiu asked: "I heard that all the food and grass for Wang Lang's army are stored in Weicheng. Is this true?"
Hu Sheng nodded repeatedly and responded: "That's right, that's right! Report back to Da Sima, Yan... Yan Feng has stored fifty thousand dan of grain in Weicheng!"
Liu Xiu said: "Magistrate Hu took me to check!"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Hu Sheng responded repeatedly and personally led the way, taking Liu Xiu and his party to the granary in the city. On the way, many people in Jincheng walked out of their homes and gathered on the streets to watch the excitement.
People only heard of Liu Xiu by name but never saw him in person. This time they had the opportunity to see Liu Xiu with their own eyes, and the people were not willing to miss it. Liu Xiu was much younger than people thought, and his image was much better.
In the minds of the people, Liu Xiu was either a middle-aged man in his forties, or a powerful man in his thirties.
But in fact, Liu Xiu was only in his twenties, elegant and bookish, and he did not have the arrogance of ordinary officials.
Such Liu Xiu made people naturally feel good about him. Many people shouted loudly on the roadside: "Da Sima!"
Seeing this, Hu Sheng's face darkened and he said angrily: "These unscrupulous people..." Just as he was about to scold the people on the roadside, Liu Xiu waved to him, reined in his horse, raised his hand to the crowd on the roadside and said, "I'm Liu Xiu.
Xiu, today we killed Wang Lang's army in Jiangcheng in order to regain the Han Dynasty. Folks, don't worry. Our Han army has strict military discipline and will never infringe on the people in the city. If there is any harmful behavior, feel free to report it to the county government.
Once verified, Xiu will be severely punished!"
Liu Xiu's words gave the people around him a reassurance, and they respected Liu Xiu even more. Soon, some people knelt down, kowtowed forward, and shouted loudly: "The little man kowtows to the great Sima."
!”
Immediately afterwards, it spread, and more and more people knelt down and shouted in unison: "The little man kowtows to the great Sima!"
Looking around, a large crowd of people on both sides of the street knelt down in a dark mass. Hu Sheng watched secretly and was dumbfounded. Many officials were out, and the people on both sides of the street also knelt down to welcome them, but that was not done voluntarily, but because they were forced to do so.
The soldiers forced them to kneel down. But the situation is different now. Liu Xiu did not use any soldiers or threaten him with any words. The people knelt down and saluted completely spontaneously. From this, we can also see that Liu Xiu was
The reputation among the people is very high.
Upon seeing this, Liu Xiu hurriedly jumped off his horse and pulled up several nearby people. However, there were so many people present that he could not pull them up one by one. He could only bow his hands and salute, saying: "Everyone, please get up quickly. Such a great gift.
Xiu really deserves it!"
After a pause, he said quietly: "Xiu was ordered to pacify Hebei, and his intention was to restore the Han Dynasty to the counties in Hebei. How could he know that the prince suddenly rebelled in Handan, causing wars in the counties in Hebei, and the people suffered greatly? All of this is
Show’s fault!”
In fact, Wang Lang's proclaiming emperor had nothing to do with Liu Xiu. If it did, it was because he did not agree with Liu Lin's opinion of breaking the banks of the Yellow River, which led Liu Lin to support Wang Lang.
Now Liu Xiu has taken all the responsibilities on himself, which not only did not make the people resent him, but made them admire Liu Xiu's character even more. Everyone has a steelyard in their heart, and people also have their own judgments about who is good and who is evil.
"Corporal Sima Lixian loves the people like his own children, how can he be compared to the likes of Wang Lang!"
"Da Sima does not need to blame himself. The chaos in Hebei is all because of Wang Lang. What does it have to do with Da Sima?!"
Listening to the common people's words, Liu Xiu was also very excited.
The journey from the county government to the granary was not far, but Liu Xiu and his party walked for more than an hour.
Finally arriving at the granary, Hu Sheng couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
Along the way, Liu Xiu got too close to the people, and he was also worried, for fear of an accident. If something happened to Liu Xiu in the city, it would be strange if Liu Xiu's soldiers didn't tear themselves alive!
Entering the granary, I looked up and saw that in the huge yard, there were straw huts piled one after another with grain.
Fifty thousand shi of food is not a small amount, it is enough to feed fifty thousand soldiers for a month. While Liu Xiu was inspecting it, he asked Hu Sheng, "Is there a famine in the city now?"
Hu Sheng quickly bowed and said: "It's okay, it's okay!"
Liu Xiu frowned and asked: "What does it mean to be okay? If you have it, you have it, if you don't have it, you don't have it!"
Hu Sheng shrank his neck, grinned, and said with an apologetic smile: "Da Sima, the food in Bin County is more than enough to feed the locals in Bin County. However, many refugees have also come to Bin City. These refugees have nothing to eat.
Before winter, the situation was a little better, but after winter, several people would starve to death every day..."
The weather is freezing. For the refugees, the living conditions are naturally becoming more and more difficult. Liu Xiu pondered for a moment and said: "From now on, the county government will provide porridge to the refugees in the city at least once a day."
Hu Sheng was stunned for a moment and said quickly: "Da Sima, the county government does not have much grain..."
"If the county government is short of food, it will draw from these military rations. Since the city of Bin is now owned by the Han Dynasty, people can no longer starve to death in the county!" Liu Xiu said categorically without any doubt.
Hu Sheng hurriedly bowed and responded: "I will bear in mind the teachings of Grand Sima. From now on, the county government will provide porridge to the homeless people in the city once a day!"
Geng Chun stepped forward and whispered to Liu Xiu: "My lord's approach can certainly help the refugees, but in the end it only treats the symptoms but not the root cause!"
There are so many refugees in Hebei that they can support thousands or ten thousand people, but can they support hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands or millions?
Liu Xiu smiled bitterly. He didn't know that giving porridge and other methods were only treating the symptoms but not the root cause. As long as there was war and chaos, the people who would be unlucky in the end would be the common people.
He squinted his eyes and said meaningfully: "The root of the chaos in Hebei does not lie with Lang, but with the rebels!"
Hundreds of rebel armies, including Red Eyebrow, Tongma, Datong, Gaohu, Qingdu, etc., were running around in various places in Hebei, making the people miserable.
At the beginning, the purpose of all the rebel armies was to fight against Mang. But now that Wang Mang is dead and the Xin Mang court has been destroyed, these rebel armies have not been disbanded and are still working on their own and looting everywhere.
Under such circumstances, how can Hebei have peace? How can the people of Hebei live in peace?
Hearing Liu Xiu's words, Geng Chun admired him deeply. His lord's words went straight to the root.
Hebei's predicament is not caused by Wang Lang. To put it bluntly, Wang Lang is a speculator who fishes in troubled waters in troubled times. The real root of the problem is the rebel armies scattered throughout Hebei.
In the early days of the uprising, the common people took desperate risks and rebelled against the imperial court in order to survive. Now, although their demands have been met, it is no longer possible for them to disband themselves.
Everyone has selfish motives and desires. How could the team finally grow stronger and disband on its own? How could people give up their rights in vain?
In order to continue to survive and to continue to expand their rights, rebel armies from all over the country continued to recruit troops. The situation in Hebei did not improve due to the collapse of the Xinmang court. On the contrary, it became more chaotic and lawless.
At present, the major forces in Hebei, including Jizhou and Youzhou, can be divided into three groups.
One is the Gengshi court represented by Liu Xiu, one is the Handan Zhao-Han court headed by Wang Lang, and the other is the rebel army.
It's just that the situation of the rebel army is quite special. It is not a whole. There are hundreds of rebel armies, large and small, each working independently, some cooperate with each other, and some have disputes. For the sake of their respective spheres of influence, they even go to great lengths.
Fight and fight to the death.
Geng Chun bowed his hands to Liu Xiu and said, "My Lord, he hit the nail on the head!"
Liu Xiu smiled bitterly and said, "Even if we know the source of the trouble, we are still unable to do so."
Now Liu Xiu is asked to pacify the rebels in various places, regardless of the importance. First of all, Liu Xiu is not that strong yet. Secondly, the most direct threat to him at present is Wang Lang. It is impossible for him to give up attacking Wang Lang and instead
To pacify the rebel armies in various places.
Seeing that Liu Xiu clearly knew where the root of the problem was and could sort out its severity, Geng Chun stopped talking, bowed to Liu Xiu, and stepped aside.
While Liu Xiu was in Jincheng, he fully restored the Han system.
County officials are required to wear Han-made official robes, all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes among the people are abolished, and all those imprisoned for violating the rules are released. For the displaced refugees, the county government provides regular porridge every day, etc.
wait.
These measures allowed Liu Xiu to win the hearts and minds of the people more and more. The news soon spread to the surrounding areas of Bin County, and even the people in other counties hoped that the Han army could attack as soon as possible, drive away Wang Lang's army, and take over the county where they were located.
On the morning of this day, Liu Xiu received a report from Yao Qi. An army of 30,000 soldiers led by Yan Feng had moved south from Linping and headed straight for Jin County. Judging from their posture, they were preparing to attack their own territory.
Jincheng.
In addition, Deng Yu also sent a message to remind Liu Xiu to prepare for defense in Yincheng. As long as he could withstand Yan Feng's offensive for a day, his own reinforcements could come from behind Yan Feng's army.
When the time comes, we will attack Yan Feng's tribe from two sides, so we don't have to worry about Yan Feng's tribe being destroyed.
After receiving the news, Liu Xiu did not dare to delay any longer and immediately set about setting up the city defense of Jiangcheng.
There were a lot of refugees in the city, so they came in handy at this time. Liu Xiu sent people to recruit refugees to participate in the city defense, which not only supplemented his own manpower, but also allowed the refugees to have three meals a day, and have at least enough food and clothing.
The guarantee can be said to be killing two birds with one stone.
During the period of consolidating the city's defense, many people in the city also voluntarily participated in the city's defense work, helping to transport rolling logs, stones, making arrows, etc. With the full cooperation of the army and the people, the city's defense was becoming increasingly strong.
In fact, to the north of Bin City is the Mishui River, and the city itself is protected by natural dangers. However, it is already the depth of winter, and the Mishui River has been frozen into a glacier, which cannot stop Yan Feng's army at all.
Three days later, Yi Yan's troops crossed the Jianshui River and arrived at Jincheng.
Because Deng Yu, Wu Han, and Geng Yan were chasing the Han army behind them, Yan Feng did not dare to stop for a moment. The whole army only took a short rest, and then he ordered the army to attack the city. He must tear open the walls of Guangcheng before dark.
Defend the city and attack the city.
Under Yan Feng's order, Wang Lang's army, numbering 30,000, launched a fierce attack on the north city of Yincheng. Yan Feng's army ran in a hurry. The army did not carry large siege weapons. It relied entirely on the strength of numbers and force.
Charge with your scalp on top of the city.
On the city side, Liu Xiu personally went into battle and commanded his soldiers to fight on the city wall.
As the main force of Wang Lang's army advanced, an offensive and defensive battle between the two sides began to break out.
