In places such as Dengfeng County, Song County, Yichuan County, Yiyang County and Ruzhou south of Luoyang, there are still a large number of hungry people on both sides of the road.
Although the Chuang army had opened granaries to provide food to the people of Heluo after conquering Luoyang, Li Zicheng recruited tens of thousands of people from the hungry people to join the Chuang camp. But in the end, it was a drop in the bucket. On the road from Luoyang to Ruzhou, there were still other people.
Hundreds of thousands or millions of refugees crowded the road.
These hungry people had haggard faces, thin bodies, and were almost half dead. Most of them had lifeless faces, and there was no hope in their eyes, which were all gray and confused.
About half of the hungry people had their families and families gathered together with their wives and the elderly. But the other half of the people were lying alone on the roadside. Not only did these people have no family members, but they also had only a rag to cover their bodies.
The clothes are gone.
They were completely naked and stared blankly at the Little Tiger Soldiers passing by on the road. Only their tongues licked their lips a few times, revealing a little desire for the Little Tiger Soldiers to escort the food.
Originally, lush trees were planted in many areas on both sides of the road in the suburbs of Luoyang. But at this time, where Li Laiheng passed by, not only the leaves, but also the bark of the trees had been eaten up by the hungry people. Even the trunks were cut into sawdust and eaten.
Lose.
The surrounding birds and animals, not to mention, had long been wiped out. In Yiyang County, Li Laiheng saw people fighting for the maggots in the feces for food, and near Yichuan County, he saw an even more terrifying scene.
Not to mention maggots, even in the excrement there are people competing for food.
After passing through Yichuan County and entering Ruzhou Prefecture, the leader of the Little Tiger Team suddenly stopped. Li Laiheng saw from a distance that some invading soldiers had a conflict with the hungry people.
The sight made me feel depressed. When I saw something happened in front of me, I became even more unhappy. I immediately whipped my horse and galloped over.
"What's going on! I have repeatedly emphasized that no killing, no looting, and no conflict with hungry people. What's going on with you!"
Li Laiheng was upset and became even more irritable when he saw that it was some intruder soldiers from the front team who forcibly dispersed a group of hungry people blocking the road. He whipped his riding whip in the air and angrily said: "Hao Yaoqi, what is the punishment for violating military orders?"
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Even Hao Yaoqi, who was riding behind Li Laiheng, felt the annoyance and anger in the commander's heart. He did not dare to say anything and explained: "According to military discipline, the left hand should be chopped off."
"You violated military orders and drove away hungry people. Even if you don't kill one of your hands, you should be whipped as a warning to others!"
Along the way, Li Laiheng saw too many miserable scenes of hungry people. The boredom that filled his heart made him emotionally unstable, so much so that he uttered harsh words and wanted to beat the soldiers in the front team.
The soldiers who were scolded so harshly by the commander were all panicked for a moment, not knowing how to defend themselves. A more clever soldier quickly knelt on the ground, clasped his fists and explained: "Commander... Commander, these refugees are here."
They are fighting for food and trying to bite others to death. We couldn't stand it any longer, so we took action to drive them away!"
"Fighting for food!?"
Li Laiheng was deeply shocked. When he was a civilian husband in Zhuxi County, he had already seen the horrific scene of cannibalism. But since he joined the army, he had not been exposed to such scenes for a long time.
What's more, even when we were in Zhuxi County, people often just fought over the corpses to eat, and most of them happened at night. To eat a child alive in broad daylight was a hell painting that had never been seen in Zhuxi County.
roll.
Li Laiheng got off his horse and asked his guards to separate the group of hungry people. When he got closer, he saw an old woman holding the body of a child. The child's body was mutilated, with only half a head left.
Dirty juice and blood flowed all over the floor. The old woman also had many injuries, and a large piece of her thigh had been bitten alive.
"Who did this!"
Li Laiheng was furious in his heart and roared at the hungry people who had gathered in a circle. He saw blood on the fingernails and teeth of several hungry people, and he could hardly resist the urge to pull out his sword from its sheath.
But a hungry man whose mouth was full of blood didn't care. He half-knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Li Laiheng first, and then said: "Master General, we didn't kill the child. It was the old woman who tore the child alive."
If she dies, she is only allowed to bite and devour the child, but we are not allowed to eat her!"
The old woman lying on the ground, crying, also cried: "Yes, I bit him to death. But this is my son! If I don't eat him, I can't feed him.
If I throw it on the road, I'll still let you eat it!"
Only then did Li Laiheng realize that the child that was bitten to death was the child of the old woman. It was the old woman who bit the child to death first, and other hungry people around him took the opportunity to get a share of the pie. When the old woman didn't want to, they gathered together.
They attacked each other and bit the old woman half to death.
The hungry man who spoke more logically pointed to the east and said to Li Laiheng: "General, go to Runing and take a look. How many people are selling and selling human flesh on the street? The market price of a pound is only six cents."
Even if we fight over food, we are just robbing something that costs less than six cents, so what kind of guilt is that?"
Li Laiheng was stunned. He looked between the hungry people and the old woman, but he really couldn't make any decision that was beneficial to reality. Li Laiheng looked at the abandoned land near the road again and couldn't help but ask: "Brother
, I heard you speak very logically, I guess you are not an ordinary fool. There are waste fields on both sides of this road, if you choose a place to farm, you will naturally have food to use, why bother harming others!"
The hungry people laughed miserably and said: "How can the general not know how we can farm without cattle and seeds? Why is the corvee so heavy now? The gentry's family can be exempted from the corvee, so it is all assigned to the common people like us. The people can't bear the hardship, so they can only sell the cattle.
The land was used to cope with corvee labor. After selling the land and becoming a tenant farmer, the grain distribution was extremely heavy, and the wealthy family also lent money to their children. The more the small people worked hard at farming, the more debt they owed. Even if there is no natural disaster, the family has been destroyed, not to mention the constant drought and floods.
Woolen cloth!"
"This..." The hungry people left Li Laiheng speechless. He didn't know what else to say, so he asked Gao Yigong and Zhang Yuheng on the side, how much grain will we transport from Luoyang this time?"
Gao Yigong thought for a while but didn't answer. Zhang Yuheng said hesitantly: "It's quite a lot. There are nearly a thousand shi of rice and wheat here in the front team."
Before Li Laiheng could say anything, Fang Yiren took over and said: "The commander asked how much grain and wheat the escort had. Could it be that he wanted to distribute the grain here to help the hungry people?"
Li Laiheng looked at Fang Yiren and nodded silently.
Fang Yiren let out a long sigh, hesitated to speak, and finally persuaded: "The main force of the Chuang Army has nearly 10,000 soldiers alone, and the number of cooperators and followers is almost 50,000. In addition, Bai Wangguan
The team recruited militiamen and village soldiers in the mountains, as well as two thousand soldiers from the Little Tiger Team here. Even if we captured a lot in the attack on Luoyang, the food output in the two mountains is very small. We can't sustain it for too long if we are sitting on nothing.
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As soon as Fang Yiren finished speaking, Gao Yigong frowned in a Sichuan shape and scolded in a very unkind tone: "What do you mean? You mean that in order for us not to sit back and eat nothing, we should simply let these hungry people go by themselves.
Eat yourself? Then why did we break into the army and start an uprising? We might as well all go back to our hometowns in northern Shaanxi and eat our wives and children to satisfy our hunger. Why the hell are we rebelling!"
Gao Yigong always had a gentle temperament, unlike Hao Yaoqi who frequently scolded his mother. When he cursed like this, it showed that he was extremely angry.
But Fang Yiren didn't take it seriously. He didn't refute Gao Yigong's words, but concluded that he had already understood Li Laiheng's inner thoughts, so he said to Li Laiheng: "The sentry should understand the priorities of things. There are hundreds of millions of hungry people in the world."
? Saving hundreds or thousands of people by releasing food in front of you is not conducive to the overall situation. Only by allowing the insurgent army to develop, dominate the Central Plains, and free up your hands to organize the civil affairs can more people be saved. Why should the sentry officer be so compassionate because of the current situation?
Will it affect the long-term development of Chuangjun?"
Fang Yiren really had a good grasp of Li Laiheng's psychology. He knew that Li Laiheng was extremely arrogant, and in his heart, even Li Zicheng probably didn't think he was that great.
Such a person must feel that all the weight of the world rests on him alone.
Therefore, Fang Yirencai concluded that his speaking skills had already entered the arms of Li Laiheng. The generals in the camp were all pedantic, upright and heartless rough people. He could gain a special place in Li Laiheng's heart by virtue of his positioning that was different from the other generals.
According to the character that Li Laiheng has always shown, he is very manipulative. For the so-called "long-term development", he will definitely use a self-righteous attitude to convince himself that cruel endurance and indifference to the suffering of the hungry people in front of him are the true "superior mentality".
But when Li Laiheng looked at the scene in front of him, he gradually had new ideas.
He is not a hard-hearted person, he is just a mortal who is affected by the environment.
Li Laiheng thought of how when he was in Pingfeng Village, in order to smoothly integrate Yu Dazhong's remnants, he deliberately allowed Li Hao and other copycat soldiers to kill wantonly in Pingfeng Village.
The sincere Li Zicheng, under the influence of Niu Jinxing, has gradually become a man who can use power and tactics. But Li Laiheng, it is impossible for him to be as sincere and selfless as Li Zicheng. Does he need to be a good person?
Is the late Ming Dynasty an era where good people can survive?
Gao Yigong looked at Li Laiheng's hesitant expression and couldn't help but persuaded: "Laiheng! We are all hungry people. Even if we wear armor and have long swords, we are not hungry people anymore! Why is the world like this?
Wait? Why do we want to rebel?"
"Yigong, Leshan, is the current world an era where good people can survive?"
Fang Yiren and Gao Yigong looked at each other. Fang Yiren already felt that Li Laiheng's intention was very obvious, so he didn't say anything. He just smiled and stretched out his hand to ask Gao Yigong to speak first.
Gao Yigong lowered his head helplessly and replied: "The world today is definitely not an era where good people can live."
"Hahaha! Yes, the current era is definitely not an era where good people can live."
Li Laiheng burst out laughing suddenly, causing everyone around him to look at each other inexplicably. After he suppressed his smile, he waved to Zhang Yuheng and said: "I have made up my mind, let's release the grain! We can only do as much as we can. Everything depends on human effort, success or failure is determined."
I can't help it. The success does not belong to me, but I have to do the best I can, otherwise I, Li Laiheng, will be different from the ordinary people in this world. Isn't my trip in vain?"
Fang Yiren was shocked and said: "Since the commander is in a high position, his morals are different from those of ordinary people. Saving all the people in the world is more important than saving the hungry people in front of us."
Li Laiheng smiled slightly and replied: "The hungry people in front of us must be saved, and all the people in the world must be saved. If I can't even do this little thing, wouldn't my trip to this world be in vain? I completely understand your intentions, Leshan, and what you have in mind."
I understand all the little thoughts, but you should also take a longer view. What should the world we want to build look like? You should think about this issue."
Zhang Yuheng, who was responsible for counting grain supplies, seemed a little excited when he heard Li Laiheng's answer. He was a bankrupt small businessman and had some sympathy for the hungry people. He immediately responded: "Yes! I will do it right away!"