As soon as I entered the east of the river, it was muddy everywhere, and there were people fleeing everywhere.

The ferocious flood hit the already fragile river embankment, and the yamen in various places had no intention of building water conservancy and dredging the river, and finally reaped the consequences.

The people helped the old and the young, hoping to escape to a drier place, and many of them had their foot rings and calves soaked and rotted, and they had to carry children on their backs to continue walking.

Even worse was hunger, and the bark along the way was gnawed away, leaving only bare trunks. In thousands of villages, on mountain cliffs, in deep streams, in Motou and Qianbian, there are hungry people with bones and bones, carrying baskets, sickles or long rods with hooks attached, searching everywhere to catch things that can save lives.

If you look down from the sky, you will see that the ground is full of slowly wriggling people, like ants. When wild vegetables, tree bark, grass roots, etc. were also eaten, the originally calm and docile farmers of the countryside began to stir up.

Some of them walked, some pushed wooden carts, and some carried children. Robbery and bullying became the norm, and hunger drove people back to the age of beasts.

The shouts and wails of the people were heard in the distant fields, mingling into a continuous, muffled sound, like the groans of a wounded beast as it flows its blood into a long river.

Hedong Haoqiang, and even the big family in Yunnei, took the opportunity to make money.

They inflate the price of grain and exchange a small amount of grain for a large number of people to sign a deed of sale with them.

Young women became slaves and maidservants in their houses, and handsome girls were sold to the south at high prices, and groups of young and strong women were taken in by them as slaves or private soldiers, and all they got was a mouthful of gruel.

But even so, I still sharpened my head and wanted to be bought, because no one knew if I would survive today.

The worst is the elderly, no one needs physical strength, and many simply sit on the ground and wait for death.

Chen Shou's people have the emperor's edict in their hands, and they are righteous disaster relief people, but in the face of such a scene, they have no way to start.

Fortunately, the people of Yanqingguan solved this problem in time, and a group of Taoist priests came to relieve the disaster during the natural disaster...

For those who are desperate, it is tantamount to the descent of immortals.

In particular, these Taoist priests still have some power, a lot of food, and a certain amount of medical skills. Zhang Jiao at the end of the Han Dynasty is nothing more than that...

There are more and more Taoist priests wearing Taoist robes, some from Bianliang, and some are newly recruited.

---

In Yanqing Temple, there is a stone table under the pine tree in the backyard, and Zhang Hongjiu and Chen Shou sit opposite each other.

Chen Shou looked at the news from Hedong and frowned.

The local government was all bought by Haoqiang, or simply controlled by Haoqiang.

In addition, Wei Yunse made a hindrance and did not cooperate with his own people for disaster relief at all, while the people in front of him suffered from not having a backbone, holding an edict and doing nothing.

"Every day of delay, thousands of people die in Hedong..."

Chen Shou glanced at Zhang Hongjiu, who also looked helpless, "What we can do, we have already done it, we can't hide it, I Yanqingguan also took out half of my savings to buy grain near Gyeonggi, but to no avail." The grain merchants in Hedong Yunnei all closed their doors and would rather rot their grain in the warehouse than sell it. ”

Chen Shou knew it and said coldly: "If they sell grain, it will delay their big business of human trafficking." At this time, it is good to have a person who dares to take responsibility to go to Hedong to preside over the overall situation, but unfortunately I can't get out. ”

If Chen Shou wanted to go out of Beijing, Emperor Gengyuan would be the first to refuse, and he would not be able to leave Chen Shou for a day.

At this time, a young man who had been standing aside suddenly said: "Natural and man-made disasters, the people are not happy, how can we ignore them." Chang Shi, Daddy, I am willing to go to Hedong! ”

This young man has always been silent, standing behind Zhang Hongjiu, Chen Shou thought he was a dumb boy.

Taoist priests are good at this, they are almost dressed in the same way, and they can't distinguish between high and low.

I didn't expect it to be Zhang Hongjiu's son, if you look closely, there is a little bit of similarity, but it is not very obvious.

Before Chen Shou could speak, Zhang Hongjiu had already begun to scold: "Adults talk, what are you interjecting juniors." ”

This junior, looking at his age, is only afraid that he is about the same age as Chen Shou, Chen Shou waved his hand and said: "The Taoist is not good at what he says, he is not ambitious, I think Ling Lang is extraordinary, and he may be able to take on a big role." ”

The young man listened to Chen Shou's praise and did not show joy, Chen Shou couldn't help but nod secretly in his heart.

He hugged his fists and said: "Chang Shi, listen to what you are saying, Hedong is really a man-made disaster greater than a natural disaster, and if you don't solve the man-made disaster first, it is tantamount to raising the soup to stop the boiling, and the disaster will become a shortcut for them to make a fortune, and the hundreds of thousands of victims in Hedong will inevitably become the fish and meat of this gluttonous feast." ”

Chen Shou asked tentatively, "What's your name?" ”

is different from his father's fairy wind bones, the young man looks quite ordinary and ordinary, but his eyes are resolute and his tone is sonorous, "Junior Zhang Zhengyuan." ”

Chen Shou asked again: "If you go to Hedong, and the government colludes with profiteers to seize grain, what should you do?" ”

"There is an edict, kill people and establish authority, so as to set an example."

Zhang Hongjiu's face darkened, and he was about to scold, Chen Shou took the first step and asked: "You don't have any soldiers in your hands, people may not stretch their necks for you to kill." ”

"Where there are permanent attendants, there are soldiers! Why don't you ask Your Majesty to borrow some troops from Xiliang, as long as Your Majesty nods, and we don't borrow many troops, there is no risk. I recruited some people from the local area, and the sage said that if they die and come back to life, these people are almost gone, what else is there to fear? Who can stop them? ”

"Aren't you afraid that they will jump off the wall in a hurry?"

Zhang Zhengyuan sneered: "It's just a group of local snakes, the purpose is to keep the wealth of a family and make a fortune." They are not the general's mansion in the west, they don't have the courage or strength to jump over the wall, at most they retract back to their own compound, and they are all heroes in Hedong, and they are no different from the Bianliang City Society, so they are not afraid. The local government is even more of a busy person. If I kill one, they will shout loudly and rebuke excitedly; I kill ten, and they will be afraid of silence; If I kill a hundred, they will all fall to their knees and beg for mercy. ”

Zhang Hongjiu's face turned black and red, red and white, and he stood up and kicked his son, "Evil animal, where did you come from such a big murderous intent, don't let me get down!" ”

Zhang Zhengyuan didn't look at his father, and it was really not light to take a kick, but he looked at Chen Shou intently, "Chang Shi, what do you think?" ”

Zhang Hongjiu, who was ignored by his son, completely broke out, and his strength was really not small, so he picked up a stone bench on the spot and was going to smash people.

Chen Shou grabbed him and said with a smile: "Dao Chief, why be angry, I want to congratulate you on having a good son." ”