But even as the emperor, Yang Guang had no way to stop those grain merchants from raising prices. He had already ordered more than two dozen big grain merchants to beheaded. Unfortunately, these big grain merchants were just from various powerful families, or from various industries.
It's just the people pushed by the big nobles. Food is still getting more and more expensive, but there are fewer and fewer food stores.
Obviously killing people cannot solve the problem... Yang Guang feels that he is very powerless and incompetent in this matter. After returning from Liaodong's disastrous defeat, his original perverted and extreme self-confidence has disappeared, and he has begun to doubt himself
Ability.
The attack on Goguryeo drained the national treasury. Pensions were not paid to the hundreds of thousands of Sui soldiers who died or disappeared. The morale of the army dropped to the bottom. Rebels continued in various places. Although the summer tax had been collected, it was nearly less than in previous years.
More than half, the only county in the world where the tax revenue has not decreased but increased is Fanyang County.
But even so, Yang Guang still took out two million taels of silver from the summer tax and placed it in his personal treasury, and decreed that the money could not be touched. This was when he began to save money for his second expedition to Goguryeo.
use.
So after learning that not only the salt tax in Fanyang County had increased much more than before, but also the agricultural tax and commercial tax had increased by more than 400,000 taels, Yang Guang sighed for a long time and called the prefects of each county countless words of trash. At the same time, he sighed
Wang Junlin has vast supernatural powers, and he believes that Wang Junlin may want to be a hero, but he has no intention of rebelling and becoming an emperor.
Things are different now. Yang Guang's standards for some things have unknowingly lowered. As long as a capable minister like Wang Junlin does not rebel and can do many things for himself, he can tolerate it. But in other words
, what else can he do if he doesn't tolerate it? According to the hints and persuasion of the Queen and Yu Wenshu, take advantage of Wang Junlin's visit to the capital to kill him?
Yang Guang was sitting on the throne, thinking about his own affairs, and turned a deaf ear to the commotion in the court. Since the news of Wang Junlin's victory came, the cliques in the court have become more and more intense. Yang Guang finally became aware of this.
Then I remembered that there was something more important than Goguryeo, which was to suppress the powerful families that could threaten his empire.
"Your Majesty, if the relief food does not arrive, the fields in Hedong will surely be starved to death.
, the tragedy of exchanging children for food will happen again." Wen Xi that the Pei family was in Hedong, so Pei Shiju was very concerned about disaster relief food, and said solemnly again at this time.
The grain available to the government in places such as Hebei, Hedong, Guanzhong, and the Central Plains of Gyeonggi Province has been allocated. All the food available to the government has been urgently transferred from Huainan and Jiangnan. Even part of the military rations for the government army has been allocated. It is a pity that water from far away cannot quench the thirst for near.
, no one could have imagined this disaster. When the crops were in bloom and water was needed the most, Hedong God had not dropped a drop of rain in two months. The seedlings in the fields were about to harvest, and the original harvest was...
Not long after, another locust plague hit the Guanzhong area, and even the last grain of food was not received.
The failure to catch up with the green and yellow in late autumn and early winter is a fatal disaster. In addition, Hedong experienced rebellions by Yang Liang and Gao Ying a few years ago. Farmers' families have a poor foundation and no household has any food storage. Therefore, the disaster strikes violently and quickly.
, and the imperial court did not have extra money and food, so it caught the Sui Dynasty and the public by surprise.
In fact, it is easy to solve this problem. As long as the court can get money to sell grain, the big grain gentry who are not wealthy merchants in the disaster-stricken area will take the initiative to transport the grain to the disaster-stricken area and deliver it to the government. But the problem is that the court is now
There is no money left. Even the court and the emperor cannot use force to force these big households and wealthy merchants to donate their food for free. Because the biggest big households are various wealthy families, Yang Guangruo uses force to force these people to take money and food.
I'm afraid that the Sui Dynasty will fall apart soon.
…………
…………
With more than 10,000 Sui army prisoners, they walked from Fanyang County to Luoyang City for nearly a month. By the time they arrived in Luoyang, it was already the end of October.
It is already winter at the end of October on the lunar calendar, and the bleak sun shines through from the distant Cangshan Mountain at dusk. Because the first snow of this winter has fallen in the Central Plains, the weather is already very cold, and the houses in the surrounding areas are all white.
Snow.
The clouds gradually thickened, swallowing the bleak sun directly into the darkness. The wind gradually became stronger, rolling up the snow on the ground and flying in the air. Snow fell from the sky again, coming from different places and of different colors.
Snowflakes on the ground
They were entangled together by the power of the wind, twisting their heads crookedly in the oppressive air, showing different levels of whiteness and coldness.
The wind and snow are coming again, and people on the road are miserable, looking for the nearest cottage or inn to rest. Since summer and autumn, there has been a drought in Hedong, and then there is a locust plague in Guanzhong. Since the beginning of winter, it has snowed several times north of the Yellow River.
, although the auspicious snow heralds a good harvest, it will only happen next year. For the Hedong victims, they don’t know how many people will freeze to death this winter.
Today's snow is not in the north of the Yellow River, but in the Central Plains south of the Yellow River. The snow falling on the ground is not small. If this is the prosperous world, the people will at least have a place to live. Except for a few beggars on the street, they will freeze to death.
The possibility is very small. However, the Great Sui Dynasty is already in chaos. I don’t know how many refugees are in the Central Plains. How many people don’t even have a place to stay. So after this heavy snow, I don’t know how many people froze to death.
roadside.
…………
…………
This is Changping County. After passing Changping County, you will reach Luoyang, the capital of the Sui Dynasty. Because it is close to the capital and is considered to be at the foot of the emperor, there are relatively few mountain bandits and water bandits in the area.
It is precisely because of this that travelers dare to walk on the road in this snowy sky. Although there are not many bandits, God is too disrespectful. It took five or six years to die.
I don't know how many people there are. Although the Grand Canal and the Yellow River that were finally built have not been completely frozen and blocked to navigation, not many people are willing to brave such severe cold to walk to Kyoto.
In addition to the nearly 20,000 people who came from Fanyang County, because the court had already set the time for the prisoner dedication ceremony, and because Wang Junlin sent an urgent message from the capital before setting off from Fanyang County - patron Wang Yang Lin and Changsun
Sheng Shuangshuang died of illness.
Because Nie Xiaoyu is no longer around, Wang Junlin doesn't know when in the original history, these two elders who took great care of him died, but they suddenly died of illness before he left for Luoyang, which cast a shadow on his heart.
layer shadow.
Because if he found an excuse not to go to Luoyang, and Changsun Sheng and Yang Lin suddenly died of illness, Wang Junlin would go to Beijing to express his condolences.