87 The granary bottomed out

"Well, it's really a monkey coming down from the sky, so this person is the head snake of Jingzhou?" Yu Wenxian asked a little disdainfully.

"Uh...... Let's put it this way, this Hou Ye is a relative of the emperor, and Mrs. Mao is Mrs. Dugu's...... cousin, and now he is being favored, and the little boy is very smart, and he is deeply loved by Tsukazai. In addition, he used Mrs. Mao and Shizi to have a lot of connections in Chang'an, so both officials and businessmen had to give him some face. All the people who have a little prestige in the territory of Jingzhou are faintly headed by him. Therefore, if His Royal Highness wants to raise donations and purchase in Jingzhou, without the support of this marquis, I am afraid it will be very difficult. Cui Liang seemed to be hinting at something.

"I understand, Inspector Cui is showing the way to my father, if you want to solve the dilemma in Jingzhou, you must first get rid of those rich businessmen, and the key to getting rid of these rich businessmen is in this Hou Ye, is that so?" Yu Wenxian asked with a smile.

"The lower officials don't dare, they just report according to the truth and let His Highness know more." Cui Liang was a little panicked.

"What Inspector Cui said is true, if His Royal Highness wants to succeed, for these rich businessmen, he must fight a faction, suppress a faction, pull a faction, and suppress those monks, because the imperial court has a clear will to investigate thoroughly, and those who need to be wooed are people like Mao An. The key to this matter will fall on Mao An. As long as Mao An takes the lead, there is no reason for others to refuse. If Mao An doesn't take the lead, others won't dare to go against it. This person has a lot of wealth, and there are many rice shops, embroidery workshops, brothels, restaurants, etc. in Jingzhou alone, as if he is the head of the dragons. Your Highness wants to buy food at market prices. Or do they want to raise money and money, they are all bleeding and digging meat from these people, can they be willing? Zhang Hu said directly.

"Do they ignore the lives of the people and raise the price of grain to sky-high prices, and the people are willing? Is this father willing? Will the court be willing? The law of the Great Zhou Dynasty clearly decrees that large grain stockpiles and rice stores are to sell at the current price of rice, and they are not allowed to take the opportunity to raise or hoard, otherwise they will be punished! Salt, iron, grain and rice, which are related to the country's own people's livelihood, are always concerned by the imperial court, and even in the Qin and Han dynasties, salt and iron were put in the official camp, just to prevent people with ulterior motives from disturbing the people's livelihood. Don't you know that there are no eggs under the nest? Jingzhou is in chaos, my father has no good end, and they will never have it! Yu Wenxian said angrily.

The people below were silent, and Yu Wenxian is now becoming more and more aware that the current situation in Jingzhou is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster. He eagerly thought about countermeasures, but he still asked casually: "What about the white rice snowing and the flying fish embroidery?" ”

This is, Wu Ze said: "White rice snow has two meanings, one is that Jingzhou is rich in rice, the quantity is large and the quality is high, just like snow in the sky." The second thing is that the biggest boss of Jingzhou Rice Bank is surnamed Xue, and the secret manipulation behind the soaring rice price also has a lot to do with this person. As for this flying fish embroidery, it is said that it is the fishing and embroidery workshop on the Jingzhou River. These two lines are also controlled by people, the fishermen on the river and the boat gang running the dock have the people of the Lantern Club to intervene, although the embroidery workshop is loose, but there is also a leader, the name is called Flying Needle Xiuxiang. ”

Yu Wenxian nodded, but there was one name that caught his attention, and that was the Lantern Society. Because he had already heard a lot of things about Zhu Xuanzhi, the leader of the Lantern Society, in Chang'an, he didn't expect to come across it when he arrived in Jingzhou. With so many forces intertwined and intertwined, this errand in Jingzhou is not easy to do......

Early the next morning, Yu Wenxian ordered someone to write dozens of invitations, and after he personally signed the money on the case, he sent someone to send it everywhere immediately.

"His Royal Highness has invited Marquis Mao, Boss Xue and other wealthy businessmen in Jiangling City, oh, and Mingde Academy will come to the Assassin Mansion tomorrow as a guest, are you going to take action?" Wu Ze asked below.

"When I first arrived, my colleagues have seen it, these rich people with heads and faces in Jiangling, you still have to see them, it depends on whether they can appreciate it?" Yu Wenxian put the pen on the inkstone and said.

"Your Highness summoned you, it is the blessing of their cultivation, who dares not to come?" Inspector Shi Cui Liang echoed.

"Yes, yes, His Royal Highness and His Majesty are brothers, and they are cousins with Tsukasa Zai, and they are their parents in Jingzhou, do they dare not come to visit?" Wu Ze said with a smile.

"And this official document, you immediately send it to the Yizhou Thorn History Mansion, and ask them to borrow 30,000 stones of rice to honor the people of Jingzhou, and return it in full at the annual meeting after tomorrow!" Yu Wenxian said that he sealed the official document and handed it to Wu Ze, and Wu Ze quickly ordered it to go down.

"His Royal Highness asked Yizhou to borrow grain, will Yizhou borrow it?" Inspector Shi Cui Liang stepped forward and asked tentatively.

"At present, the only one who can take out the grain and quickly transport it here is Yizhou, I still have a copy here, you also hurry up to report to the imperial court, and let the imperial court put more pressure on Yizhou to solve the urgent need." Yu Wenxian knew that if he only sent official documents to Yizhou, even if he made an IOU, Yizhou would neither dare to lend grain to Jingzhou.

Yizhou Thorn Shi is the disciple of Shizi Yu Wenxun, and he folded it up to let Tsukasa Zai Yu Wenhu see it, and also to let Shizi Yu Wenxun see it, to see if this prince can help him, after all, his current weight is here, as for whether Yu Wenxun can comprehend this layer, it depends on his vision and mind. Yu Wenxian didn't speak, silently thinking in his heart, was he thinking about the manuscript of the recital?

By the time Yu Wenxian finished writing the recital, it was already noon, so he called Cui Liang, Wu Ze, and Song Ting. Zhang Hu and others came over for dinner together. After a few people sat down, Yu Wenxian said: "My father-in-law has nothing to entertain you here, just white rice, green vegetables and tofu, who let my father-in-law catch up with the famine as soon as he comes?" ”

"It's a faux pas of the lower officials, who failed to give His Highness the wind and dust, and His Highness forgives his sins." Wu Ze bowed and said.

"No, this is much better than when I was on the border, the border is bitterly cold, and it can't compare to this land of fish and rice." Yu Wenxian said, and then asked, "How many days is the rice in the grain depot enough?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, grain and rice...... That's almost enough for seven days. Wu Ze thought for a moment and said.

"I don't think it will last for seven days." Zhang Hu said suddenly.

"How?" Yu Wenxian knew that Zhang Hu generally didn't talk much, and once he spoke, there must be a cause.

"Your Highness, the grain and rice in the official warehouse of Jiangling City are distributed to the four major porridge sheds in the city, and the porridge in these porridge sheds is barely enough for the people in Jiangling City to satisfy their hunger. But now the victims from several other counties are pouring towards Gangneung, especially the public security, and they all know that there is a lot of grain and rice in the granary in Gangneung. But none of the grain or rice belonged to the government. When the time comes, the government will not be able to provide rice for disaster relief, and those who do not care about it will have to rob it. Zhang Hu quickly told the cause of the immediate chaos in the city.

"Then shut the gates and don't let them in!" Cui Liang said.

"There are people inside and outside the city, and the palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, how can you close them?" Song Ting asked rhetorically.

"Set up a porridge shed outside the city, place the outside of the disaster outside the city, and never let them enter the city, just now Zhang Mi said that the disaster victims are very hungry but they don't care about anything, when the hungry people are everywhere, steal and rob, and the good Jiangling City is a mess, really at that time, will General Song still carry a knife to deal with those poor disaster victims?" Cui Liang said a little excitedly.

Song Ting was speechless when asked......

"Okay, let's eat first, go to the granary in the afternoon, and then go to the porridge shed." At this time, seeing the two servants who were waiting for the meal came up with the food, Yu Wenxian didn't say much, and when the servants set the dishes and chopsticks, and Yu Wenxian was about to eat, he suddenly remembered the word "Yizi cannibalism", so he put the chopsticks on the rice bowl irritably, and said to Song Ting: "General Song, in the past few days, you have sent people to patrol outside the city, and you have seen someone taking the opportunity to forcibly buy and sell women and children, cut off a few heads, and clean up these people who take advantage of the opportunity to do evil!" ”

"Yes!" Although Song Ting felt very sudden about this order, he still had a little admiration for the Duke of Qi above.

After everyone ate, Cui Liang and Song Ting each led a team of men and horses to continue patrolling, and Yu Wenxian took Wu Ze and Zhang Hu to the city's several official warehouses to check first. After a circle, Yu Wenxian shook his head, all the official warehouses were almost scraped to the bottom, and the officials in charge of carrying them were digging rat holes around the official warehouses while searching in the cracks in the ground. Because the rats on the edge of the granary are fatter than the others. There are even more "stocks" in the hole, and almost half a bucket of rice can be dug out of a rat hole. In addition to the rice in the rat hole, there is also aged rice. The blackened rotten rice is mixed with the rice pile in the corner of the wall and transported to the porridge shed outside......

When it was time to give up porridge in the afternoon, Yu Wenxian came to the porridge shed in the west of the city again. I saw groups of victims lined up in four long lines, all ragged, unkempt, black and yellow-faced, and blind-eyed like walking corpses, holding broken bowls one by one, in front of those cauldrons, looking at the people scooping porridge, holding a long spoon, stirring a few times in the pot, stirring up the rice at the bottom of the pot, and then putting a spoonful on the layer close to the top, and then shaking the long spoon up and down a few times, and finally putting the porridge with "two decimeters, eight points of water" in a bowl held by a pair of skinny hands.

Yu Wenxian watched from the side for a long time, didn't say a word, turned around and left, Wu Ze and the others hurriedly followed. Not a few steps out of the porridge shed, Yu Wenxian suddenly turned around and shouted at Wu Ze with a dark face and a low voice: "Could it be that the grain you said can still be eaten for seven days, is this how to eat?" ”

Wu Ze lowered his head and said embarrassedly: "Hey-Your Highness, some of the food is already good, and tomorrow will be one meal a day......"

"One meal a day? Not enough rice for each victim to grab a handful? Hehe, hahahahaha, what a Jiangling city, a good piece of Jingzhou, the land of fish and rice, the granary of the silver warehouse of the Great Zhou, has actually fallen to this? Yu Wenxian smiled sadly, and after a while, Yu Wenxian regained his composure, stared at the front and said fiercely: "Okay! Good! Wait! ”