I can't imagine what kind of miserable situation the Qin State will be when I left Lanlu County last year, when I already had hungry people.

Moreover, it is reported that the people of several counties along the Qingshui coast of Yuanzhou in the Qin State had already rioted last autumn, so Xiao Jinxing had an idea and planned to make a big fuss about this matter.

A few days later, Xiao Jinxing took Xin'er to the courtyard of Xiao's shop in Lanlu County.

After greeting Ayi'er, Xin'er angrily pulled Ayi'er into the house to whisper, but Xiao Jinxing was left alone smirking under the sun in the courtyard.

Those brought by Xiao Jinxing were arranged in the horse farm on the north bank of the Yellow River, where Xiao Jinxing's independent kingdom generally existed in the northern frontier of Qin.

There were 5,000 horses from the northern steppes, piled up with fur as high as mountains, wooden boats moored on the banks of the yellow waters, and more than 500 tribesmen of various duties but from various tribes of the steppe.

They were anxiously awaiting orders from Lanlu County. Waiting for a special adventure they never thought possible.

On this day, Xiao Jinxing wore the wide coat and long shirt often worn by merchants of the Qin State and came to the county government with two entourages, and he saluted the official who was chewing grass roots at the door and said:

"I'm looking for the prefectural magistrate.

Youlao, the soldier, can make a report. ”

The servant squinted and saw that the person who came was a strange businessman, so he frowned impatiently and wanted to scold him.

But he suddenly found that the person who came was smiling and extraordinary, and he stretched out his hand and stuffed a heavy thing into his hand, so he hesitated for a moment and then changed his attitude slightly, and asked:

"Dare to ask Mr. Honorable Name, what is the reason why you came to the county order?"

Xiao Jinxing hurriedly replied with a smile:

The soldier laughed, and he didn't dare to take the name seriously.

It is said that it is the shopkeeper of the Xiao family shop on Zhuque Street, and Xiao Jinxing is visiting. ”

"Xiao Jinxing?

Xiao's shop? ”

The servant muttered to himself for a moment, and felt that the name of Xiao Jinxing seemed to be very familiar.

But suddenly, he understood who the person was, and he also figured out why Xiao Jinxing's three words were so familiar.

Xiao Jinxing is the savior and great benefactor of Lanlu County, and he is the person praised by the people of Lanlu.

But seeing that the officer's face changed suddenly, he hurriedly handed back the things that Xiao Jinxing had stuffed into him in his hand to Xiao Jinxing.

A swarthy face was like a wilted orange, and the smiling skin was wrinkled together.

"Shopkeeper Xiao, today is the first time I have seen you, I was really offended by my words, don't blame Shopkeeper Xiao."

As he spoke, the official bent down and stretched out his hand to the mansion to welcome Xiao Jinxing into the county mansion.

"Master Jun, you haven't gone in to report yet, I'm afraid I won't be able to enter this mansion."

Xiao Jinxing pretended to be a little frightened and said, but he still stuffed the silver block-like item he had taken from the officer's hand into the officer's hand.

The official smiled and immediately took the silver and ran towards the county mansion, but he had just run a few steps and suddenly stopped as if he had forgotten something, and said to Xiao Jinxing while saying, "You wait a minute, I'll go and tell you,"

After finishing speaking, he turned around and ran inward, for fear that Xiao Jinxing would wait for a long time.

Xiao Jinxing saw that the official was gone, so he slowly withdrew his smile, and he looked at the two people behind him who were carrying the box, and they seemed to be quite good

He shook his head and sighed for the clever man.

"It is quite a good ending for honest people to be slaves and coolies all their lives, at least they can marry wives and have children.

But they often toiled for a lifetime and never saw what a whole ingot of silver looked like.

And the kind of official who tends to be inflammatory, like Fang Cai, can easily earn a silver ingot of his own with his special power.

What kind of world is this? ”

Xiao Jinxing sighed inwardly while standing at the gate of the county government and looking at the gate of the rather magnificent government office.

After a while, the official ran out in a hurry, and behind him was followed by a chubby old man, surrounded by more than a dozen officials, walking with a red face and smiling at Xiao Jinxing at the door.

"Shopkeeper Xiao, I haven't seen you for almost a year, don't come unharmed."

Sun Xianling walked to the door of the county office, and before Xiao Jinxing could speak, he grabbed Xiao Jinxing's clothes and walked inside as he spoke.

This caught Xiao Jinxing, who was originally going to salute, a little caught off guard, so he had to keep up with Sun Xianling's brisk pace while replying.

"Lord of the county order, the grass people have a cloth cloth, and they haven't saluted the adults yet, so please let go of the adults and let the grass people give a salute."

"Oh, what kind of courtesy, you and I are brothers, don't distinguish between each other, hurry up and follow the old man into the hall to drink tea and talk less, it's too hot outside."

Xiao Jinxing pretended to be honestly afraid, and he was already laughing in his heart, he saw that Sun Xianling's fat neck was indeed dripping with wisps of sweat and looked bright, so he pretended to excuse himself, and then followed Sun Xianling into the inner hall.

The inner hall is the daily living place of Sun County Order, located behind the county government hall, after Sun County Order and Xiao Jinxing entered, they saw that the hall was really cool for a while, and then looked at Xiao Jinxing was surprised to find that there were several large ice cubes placed in the four corners of the house.

Seeing that Xiao Jinxing was in a daze, Sun Xianling smiled and explained to him the source of the ice cubes.

It turns out that in some wealthy people's homes, it is not uncommon to dig ice cellars to store ice, and in this mid-spring season, ice cubes have just come to use.

It is really strange that the ice cubes stored in the ice cellars dug by some large families can be stored until autumn.

Sun Xianling saw that Xiao Jinxing had never seen the world, although his face was as usual, but there was some pride and contempt for Xiao Jinxing in his heart.

"No matter how rich you are, it's not just a bun."

Sun Xianling immediately had an indescribable sense of pride and superiority in front of Xiao Jinxing.

In fact, how did he know that Xiao Jinxing deliberately showed a look of surprise to Sun Xianling, originally he had an ice cellar for storing ice cubes in Shangdang's home, but Xiao Jinxing took on the role of a businessman and deliberately acted in front of Sun Xianling.

But unlike the arrogance in the county office, the ragged and scrawny homeless people outside the county government can only huddle naked in the shade of trees to enjoy the coolness. In such a comparison, Xiao Jinxing was a little uneasy.

After the two talked about the ice cellar for a while, they sat down as the guest of honor at the insistence of Sun County's order.

In the eyes of Sun County's order, Xiao Jinxing is no longer an ordinary ordinary person who wants to kneel when he sees an official and has a difference in respect and humility, but a cash cow and a god of wealth who can make him prosperous.

"Don't hide it from Shopkeeper Xiao, in the nearly one year that you have been trading in the south, if it weren't for Mrs. Zun opening a warehouse to release grain, providing relief to the victims, and setting up a porridge shack, I'm afraid that my Lanlu County Order would not have been able to do it for long.

So Shopkeeper Xiao doesn't have to be detained, and neither does my grandson

It is an ungrateful person whose eyes are higher than the top, Shopkeeper Xiao is kind to me and the people of Lanlu, so in the future, Shopkeeper Xiao will not need to be polite if he needs my grandson. ”

When Xiao Jinxing heard this, he immediately pretended to be grateful, stood up and bowed deeply to Sun Xianling.

In fact, after Xiao Jinxing arrived in Lanlu County, he learned a lot about the disasters in various parts of the Qin State.

The two-year drought has been far more devastating than I expected.

Most of the people in the northern part of the Qin State had become tenants attached to the land of the great clans under the land annexation, so they had no savings or food to help them survive this disaster.

At first, after eating the last bite of food, people from all over the country gathered in the nearest county town, because they knew that those big families who had money and food lived in the county town.

The government in the county town and a small number of large families have also set up official sheds and good sheds to help those who are hungry and cold.

However, with the passage of time and the increase in the number of hungry people, the granaries of the county government and large families willing to provide disaster relief gradually became empty.

Moreover, these official sheds and charity sheds cannot solve the food and clothing of all the hungry people at all, and can only attract more hungry people to gather.

Seeing more and more hungry people, who were becoming more and more difficult to control, some government officials, under the command of the big clans who were afraid of death but had power, began to drive away the hungry people.

Subsequently, the situation of starvation began to spread in the north of the Qin State.

During this period, although a lot of disaster relief food was allocated to the Xijing Imperial Court, it was a drop in the bucket to solve the overall dilemma.

Moreover, when these relief grains arrived in the prefectures, counties, and counties, there was not much left.

Finally, the hungry people who were waiting for death in several counties of Yuanzhou, which were on the front line of the anti-war, began to gather to loot large households, and in Longde Qingchuan and other places where the most violent trouble, the county government sent troops to recruit and suppress the unexpectedly failed, and the fire of the riot instantly gave birth to a prairie fire.

For a time, mobs attacked large households and snatched grain, but under the encirclement and suppression of various county officials, this fire was extinguished before it was completely burned.

But looking at the hungry people rolling everywhere, every county town has a sense of rumors, and Xijing has finally come up with a means, and Zhang Zi, the new director of the Criminal Department, came to the north to inspect with a butcher's knife and disaster relief food.

Along the way, in Lingzhou, Qinlan, and Yuanzhou, the heads of countless county government officials landed one after another, and the reason for their killing was nothing more than to withhold disaster relief food or to suppress civil unrest.

In short, in addition to Lanlu County, there are officials killed in dozens of counties in one county and two prefectures.

Sun County Ling and the officials of Lanlu County all knew that if there was no opening warehouse of the Xiao family's shop, I am afraid that their heads would have been taken by Zhang Zi long ago.

So most of their gratitude to Xiao Jinxing is really from the bottom of their hearts.

After listening to Sun County's words, Xiao Jinxing hurriedly showed a grateful look, and he replied to Sun County's order with a little "excitement":

"Lord Sun didn't know that when Jinxing was in exile, he heard that the Hu clan died tragically under the butcher's knife of the Qi people, so he understood the meaning of his family and country more than ordinary people.

Bow to Lao Qin and go to the national disaster together.

At a time when my country is in a disaster and my compatriots are suffering, how can I stand idly by?

Besides, we bought a lot of grain from Chu last year, and although we would lose some money by taking out some disaster relief to build a porridge shed, I was very satisfied with the thought of being able to help the villagers in Lanlu County tide over the difficulties. ”