In Linyu County, the two guards at the head of the city looked at a group of people walking in the distance, and exchanged heads there.

"I haven't seen anyone in a few days, so this should be the last batch."

"That's right, it was rumored in the city a few days ago that the rebellion was put down, and these people should be the last prisoners."

"Alas, I don't know what the people above think, they actually put so many captives here."

"In this cold weather, I don't give any decent food and clothing. I've heard that these people outside drink a bowl of porridge every day, and they can only huddle together to keep warm. Tsk tsk, how can this be lived. ”

"They are all anti-thieves, it's good to have a stutter, who is to blame for the death."

"You can't say that, that's a human being, not a beast."

"You two are not on guard, what are you talking about?" A voice suddenly interjected.

The two guards turned their heads to look, stood up in fright, and shouted in unison: "Team leader, you are back!" ”

"Come on, what were you talking about just now? If you don't say anything, I'll punish you to come and defend the city at night. ”

As soon as the team leader threatened, the two immediately explained: "Aren't you talking about these people outside the city?" ”

"This is the business of those officials, what does it have to do with you, beware of losing your head."

However, the team leader changed his words and whispered: "But these captives are so miserable, have you ever been to the west of the city and seen the big pit outside, it is full of dead captives." Alas, the hearts of those officials are hateful, and it is better to torture these people like this, than to kill them directly. ”

Outside the city, two officers are handing over.

"These are the last captives." An officer said.

The other smiled bitterly: "There are already so many people, and there is no difference between more and less batches." ”

"A little less, and it will soon cost less money and food."

"Brother, why did you say that the people above gathered all these people here in the first place? Especially since there are so many old and weak. ”

"It is said that they are going to use them to repair the pass."

"But I don't need so many people, and what can those old and weak do."

"Let's just do our own thing, we can't take care of the rest. These are all orders from above, just obey the orders. ”

……

Beginning in September of the first year of Zhongping, a large number of prisoners escorted from all over the city gathered outside Linyu. Until now, there are nearly a million of them.

Originally, the total population of Youzhou was less than three million when it was not divided into two, which was more than one-third of the original number.

Although the Yellow Turbans in various places claimed to be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, when attacking the city, if you really count it, there are less than two-fifths of the soldiers who can fight. Most of them were the families of the soldiers,

It was precisely because of this that in the following years, every time the Yellow Turban Army gathered a crowd to revolt, the momentum was huge, but it was always suppressed by local officers and soldiers who were far from being able to reach the army.

When such a large population is gathered, many contradictions will arise at once. One of the most important is the issue of food and housing.

How could the small county town of Linyu live with so many people, and all the captives who were sent over could only set up tents outside the city.

However, it is now winter, and the temperature has plummeted since September, and the first snow of the year has fallen at the end of the month.

Although a large number of grain trucks brought various supplies from other places every day during this time, many prisoners were still frozen and starved to death every day. As a result, there were many riots.

Zhang Hao heard about the situation here on the way here, and he was very remorseful. He didn't think so much about it at the time, thinking that as long as there was the permission of the Son of Heaven and the support of the imperial court, everything would be easy.

But he ignored one point. Throughout this year, the world has been at war. Nowadays, supplies are also very scarce everywhere, and there are very few materials that can be used to house the prisoners.

Not well accommodated, and the daily death of their companions, made the mood of the captives very tense now, and the slightest carelessness would erupt into even greater chaos.

They are people who have rebelled, and in order to survive, how can they be afraid of rebelling again.

If they really did this, then Zhang Hao, as the advocate and person in charge, would bear the brunt of the crime, and he would be killed.

Thinking of this, Zhang Hao blamed himself at the same time, but also resented the officials who did the work.

He obviously told Emperor Ling that he would send the captives to various parts of Pingzhou, so that the imperial court would only be responsible for the severance expenses on the road, and the subsequent resettlement would be solved by itself.

However, these people only obeyed Emperor Ling's edict that General Du Liao would take prisoners to repair the mountain customs, and they threw all these people in Linyu.

This not only put the imperial court under more pressure, but also pushed Zhang Hao to the crater.

But now there is no time to hold anyone responsible, and the most important thing is to quickly resettle these nearly one million people.

When Zhang Hao arrived, he happened to encounter a clash between a group of hungry and cold captives and the soldiers in charge of distributing food every day.

Fortunately, Emperor Ling transferred all the men and horses under Zhang Hao's command to him, and he was still in command and guarded Pingzhou. These soldiers who followed Zhang Hao to fight in the south and the north cleanly separated the two sides.

Thankfully, only a few people were injured and no one died. Otherwise, this conflict would escalate, and he would not be able to stop it with his current manpower.

Zhang Hao stood on a small mound and shouted loudly with a brass horn: "I am Zhang Hao, the Assassin of Pingzhou, the General of Duliao, and the Marquis of Changli, that is, your parents and officials in the future, you will all be the people under my rule in the future, and you can tell me anything." ”

At this time, a man stepped forward among the captives, who was also the leader of the captives during the clash just now.

The man shouted, "I know you, you are the dog officer who caused us to suffer here!" ”

"What do you say! Dare to say it again, believe it or not I slaughtered you! Zheng Meng heard someone scolding Zhang Hao, and immediately threatened.

The man was so frightened that he took a few steps back, until someone helped him, and he seemed to have confidence in his heart again.

"I'm afraid that you won't succeed, if you kill me, anyway, we will die here sooner or later, there is no difference."

The crowd behind him also coaxed: "That's it, it's all dead anyway, the dog officer will kill us now!" ”

Zhang Hao stopped Zheng Meng and asked the man, "How did you know me?" ”

"The officer who sent us here said that it was a big official named Zhang Hao who advised the emperor to give us a way to live and move us captives to Liaodong. But what kind of way are you giving us a way to live, it's obvious that you're torturing us in a different way.

Let us starve and freeze here, and at night there will be the bitter wails of the villagers, and the next day hundreds of people will die. If you do this, you might as well kill us when we were on the battlefield! ”

The man looked at Zhang Hao with red eyes, coupled with his thin face, like a demon from Huangquan, who came to ask Zhang Hao for his life.

Zhang Hao suddenly realized in his heart: In this way, there is really a bastard who wants to harm himself, who will it be?

Fang Zhu walked up to Zhang Hao and said softly: "Lord, I heard that the imperial court seems to be in charge of the transfer of prisoners this time. ”

"Zhu Jun? I don't think I have a grudge against him. So far, I have only heard of his name and have not seen him, so why did he harm me? ”

"Hehehe, lord, there are too many reasons in this world to make people hate another person. I'll give you an example, Zhu Jun was very close to the ministers of the court, and I heard that the courtiers strongly recommended him to go on an expedition to quell the rebellion......"

Although Fang Zhu didn't finish speaking, Zhang Hao already understood.

This made him even more annoyed, just because he was close to the eunuchs, for such a reason, he could actually ignore the lives of these nearly a million people and use them as bargaining chips!

This is really ridiculous, so ridiculous that Zhang Hao can't wait to slaughter this group of sanctimonious guys immediately.

Zhang Hao forcibly suppressed the surging anger in his heart, and said to the man with a pleasant face: "You are right, that is, I will make a statement to the Son of Heaven to give you people a way to live, so that you can not die because of rebellion." ”

Then his eyes became a little hazy: "But because I didn't think it through, I caused the villagers to suffer here." Zhang Hao is ashamed of his father and fellow villagers, and he is here to make amends to everyone! ”

After speaking, Zhang Hao knelt down in full view of everyone. I have to say that this time is still very effective, and everyone was dumbfounded by his move.

"This, this, this..."

The captives had never heard of the official who would kneel down to confess his mistakes to the people, and they suddenly felt that the young official in front of them might not be so bad.

Since the beginning of Qin, the Chinese people have trusted the imperial court and government very much since ancient times, which is related to the centralization of the emperor's power and the government's control of everything.

How heavy is this trust, so how strong is the ensuing resistance after the people lose their trust in the government.

However, there is a saying that knowing mistakes can be corrected, and good is great.

For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was reckless and made the world full of holes, and many uprisings broke out among the people. But when people condemned themselves, the people still thought that he was still a good emperor.

Now it is the same, Zhang Hao's kneeling immediately dissipated a lot of the prisoner's hostility towards him.

The man came over to help Zhang Hao up, and said with some embarrassment: "I don't deserve to be like this." ”

Zhang Hao stood up again and said to the man and everyone with a smile: "Don't worry, since the villagers are here, they are no longer prisoners. Now that I'm here, you don't have to worry about the days ahead. I am here to assure you that you will be well accommodated. ”

The man shouted, "I didn't believe adults before, but now I still believe my words." Everyone is gone, adults will not ignore us. ”

Seeing that the man took the initiative to defend himself, Zhang Hao wanted to cry again. Anyway, these simple people are so cute.

Afterwards, Zhang Hao asked Fang Zhu to distribute the grain he had purchased all the way and the grain he had received on credit, along with the military rations, so that the people could have a full meal first.

Zhang Hao followed Huangfu Song to quell the rebellion in Jizhou, how to say that he also has some reputation, and it is not difficult to get some food on the road. 、

That's not enough.