Chapter 41: The Last Straw
Lu Weng asked all the Yun family to move to his Taolin Courtyard to live, and Mr. Peng Li also asked Yun Zheng to hide in Jinjiang Academy quickly, but Yun Zheng refused one by one, on the pretext that there were many people he needed to take care of, and he couldn't just leave, and the reason was very noble.
As long as the heavy snow is one more day, the crisis becomes critical, Chengdu people who do not have much experience in heavy snow suddenly found that after the snow stops, it is a big trouble, the sun is shining violently, but the land is getting colder and colder, and so on after the cold fog rises, the incident of freezing to death in Chengdu will inevitably come.
In fact, there are not many people who freeze to death, most of them are homeless, but the situation of the officials dragging the cart from the streets and alleys to throw the corpse on the cart early in the morning makes the people feel chills in their hearts.
By the time the government found out that such a thing would stimulate more people and change it to picking up the dead bodies in the morning, it was too late, and the entire Chengdu Mansion was shrouded in a cloud of fear.
"It's starting to die!" Xiaolin's face was a little colder than the cold fog outside.
"This is actually not strict, I have read the local chronicles, Chengdu Mansion has a cold fog every year, and when the cold fog rises, people will always freeze to death, for example, there were 16 zombies the year before last."
Yun Zheng handed a bowl of hot porridge to Xiao Lin, and also instructed the bacon to give Xiao Lin a new pair of thick enough boots, this guy didn't know how many miles he had run, in seven or eight days, a pair of shoes ran to rot, and his dark feet were already frostbitten.
Xiaolin drank the hot porridge, groaned, brought a jar of wine from the corner of the wall, poured a bowl into the porridge bowl, drank it cleanly as soon as he raised his neck, put down the bowl and said to Yun Zheng suspiciously: "It's very strange, I don't know who is guiding the disaster this time, I have been tracking all the way, and I can't always find a clue, the fisherman who came up from the stone fisherman." No one had seen it, and no one remembered the scene where the stone man was fished up from the river, but every fisherman who had seen the stone man swore that there was indeed such a person. And ten people can say ten things in their mouths, the winter thunder in the mountains. I couldn't find any useful information, and the heavy snow that followed obscured all traces without a trace.
Poor Dao estimated that these people were all ill-intentioned people, and now they were already lurking, waiting for things to develop to an incorrigible Cheng DΓΉ, and then waving their arms, the servants would flock to them.
One hundred and ten people have frozen to death this year, and we know that this is a sin created by the cold fog, but the people don't know that they will think they are starving to death. In fact, the government has already distributed a little food to these people, and some of them have frozen to death, and there is still food in the grain bags around them. Panic, the biggest problem in Chengdu now is panic. β
Bacon brought cotton boots to Xiaolin. Xiao Lin held it in his hand and sighed, then went back to his room to rest, these days of endless work had exhausted him.
Bacon looked up at his young master and asked worriedly: "Will there be civil unrest in Chengdu Mansion, young master, our family has just stabilized." If there is a civil unrest and we take away our food, those women will starve to death. β
Yun Zheng looked at the bacon apologetically and said, "No, no, if the hearts of those merchants are really made of iron and stone, then let the civil unrest come as soon as possible." A lot of money only proves that you are rich, but it does not mean that you can disregard the life and death of others. β
The bacon couldn't understand Yun Zheng's words, and went to Lu Qingqing in confusion, ready to ask Mrs. if she understood what the young master said, Yun Zheng walked into the cold fog again, and as soon as his hand was stretched out, it was cold to the bone, such a cold fog had been encountered in Dousha Village before, and he still remembered the scene when he was holding Yun Er wrapped in a broken quilt and shivering.
Shaking his head with difficulty, the Chinese people are actually the kindest and the most industrious, as long as they have something to eat, they will be grateful to the ruler, this disaster is far from the rebellion, because without the peasants to join, their harvest last year was not much damaged, so the food at home is barely enough for him to eat the next grain season.
A rebellion without the participation of the peasants will not be a success, Yun Zheng only wants to create an illusion this time to force the government and rich businessmen to start selling grain, now it seems that the hearts of these people are much harder than Yun Zheng expected, if there is no further persecution, they will not loosen anything.
Chengdu Mansion has a sale of fire oil, the poor people are used to light the lamp, the smoke is huge, the Yun family also has it, it is used in the workshop, when the spices are squeezed into torches, it is very resistant to burning.
After Yun Zheng distilled these black liquids, he got seven or eight bottles of pale yellow liquid, which could not be said to be gasoline or kerosene, in short, Yun Zheng knew one thing, after this thing was lit, it could not be lit without sand.
The time-delay device can't help Yun Zheng, and when the incense head encounters saltpeter, there will be a bright flame generated, and six hours is the limit......
The grain sold by the Zhang family began to be mixed with sand, which was told by Hao Er, and there was already a lot of grain mixed with sand in his family's grain warehouse, and he planned to start trading after the cold fog receded.
After Yun Zheng, who was still guilty in his heart, heard these words, the only bit of guilt he had disappeared immediately......
So the Zhang family's grain depot began to catch fire, the flame was very large, from the beginning of the smoke to the time when the fire became bigger, there was not even a cup of tea, and the time of the fire was at the time when the Zhang family planned to open for business.
The food can't be burned by the fire, the people crowded outside Zhangjiadian pΓΉ began to put out the fire with various containers, the strength of the people was great, the fire was extinguished, the Zhang family was grateful, the shopkeeper was about to say two words of thanks, a strong man came out, and filled his own wooden barrel with a bucket full of grain mixed with burnt brown rice to the inexplicable shopkeeper: "You don't have to thank you, since it was Lao Tzu who saved your family's granary, Lao Tzu took away a bucket of rice and didn't take advantage of you." β
After finishing speaking, he turned around and left, and the shopkeeper was just about to stop him, but he found that the people who were still helping him save just now were happily loading rice, and everyone said that this was their own reward for fighting the fire.
Then the scene was chaotic, whether it was a firefighter or not, they would say a word of thanks to the shopkeeper, and then they began to rush to get their share of food.
When the officials arrived, they had no choice but to watch a robbery without any order take place under their noses.
The shopkeeper's voice was like a she-wolf who had lost her cubs, and she stepped forward in a rage to stop these crazy robbers, but I don't know who pushed him, and the shopkeeper fell to the ground with a chirp, and immediately a big foot stepped on his body and rushed towards the granary behind him.
At the beginning of the shopkeeper, there was a sound coming out, and gradually as more and more big feet stepped on his body, blood spurted out of his mouth like a stream, and he was trampled to death......
When the prefect of Zhao arrived with the Yongxing army, the Zhang family's granary had become empty, and the ground was full of scattered brown rice. and the charred wood, and of course the dead corpse of the shopkeeper, the prefect of Zhao looked up to the sky mournfully, and then ordered the scribe in a categorical manner.
"Pass the order and tell those grain merchants that if they don't sell a large amount of grain at the price of the beginning of autumn, the government will be powerless to protect them, and from tomorrow, Chang Ping will no longer restrict the people from buying grain, but they need to be led by Li Zheng, and the neighbors will protect each other to ensure that every household can buy grain ......"
After three days of sunshine, the cold fog finally subsided, and it was rare to have a good day, Yun Zheng and Lu Qingqing were playing chess in front of the window while enjoying the warm afternoon sun.
Although Lu Qingqing is charming, but he is bold in playing chess, he likes to rob and kill the most, Yun Zheng's chess style is still plain, when Lu Qingqing worked hard to intercept and kill a big dragon of Yun Zheng, he found that Yun Zheng had quietly connected the previously scattered territory into a large area, Lu Qingqing continued to occupy an area, but unfortunately, there are very few places that can be used, and the territory of the big dragon that was intercepted and killed before also lost a lot when competing for the eye.
Yun Zheng landed the last chess piece on the chessboard, then wiped his hands with a white handkerchief and said, "There is no doubt that I won, what else does Madam have to say this time?" β
Lu Qingqing threw down the chess pieces indignantly and said, "You are cheating!" When the two armies are fighting, you are not fighting in a dignified manner, but constantly encroaching on territory, and playing chess with you is the most boring! β
"Playing chess is to see who occupies more territory in the end, not to see who kills more chess pieces, your husband has never been a good person, and he will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, as long as the final goal is achieved, who will pay attention to what means you use, not to mention, Madame's lips are always so sweet."
Yun Zheng domineeringly moved Lu Lu's light head and kissed it heavily, since it was a bet, the tenderness and sweetness were exempted......
After tasting the fragrant lips, Yun Zheng took a small bag of tea and went to Chengdu City, the city was very lively in the past two days, full of people buying grain, the street was bustling, although the grain merchants on the street were crying and selling grain, but the price was firmly controlled at the level of early autumn.
There are a lot of people in the teahouse, a lot of rich people are to the street to watch the sale, as long as the pedestrians on the road are more smiling than crying and mourning, their hearts will have more comfort, no one wants to live as Lao Zhang's end, not only people died in vain, but also fell into a name for the rich and unkind, when he died, there were footprints everywhere on his body, and all his internal organs were stepped out.
As soon as Yun Zheng entered the teahouse, the shopkeeper immediately greeted him, Yun Zheng took out the tea leaves in his arms, put them in the hands of the shopkeeper, and sat in the position he had already booked.
As soon as he sat down, someone surrounded him and whispered, "Did you hear that?" The fire of the old Zhang family was actually set by the prefect, and only when a grain merchant died, his old man could order the grain merchants to open the door, and only in this way would there be no official complaints. β
Yun Zheng said in surprise: "No, Governor Zhao has a clear name in Shuzhong, this time he gave a strict order, it is to save the people from fire and water, you look at how happy these poor ghosts are on the street." β
This very skillful person filled his cup with tea from Yun Zheng's teapot and said: "You are young, you don't know how dark your heart is, when you rode all over the street a few days ago, you ......."