As expected by the authorities in the northwest, a large number of displaced people appeared in Jiangnan, Jiangdong, Hanzhong, Jiangbei and other areas, numbering more than 100,000 people.

These displaced people are all ordinary civilians who have fled from the southwest and southern regions, and most of them are peasants from Yannan and Zhenyuan provinces.

As the imperial court ceded the two territories of Yannan and Zhenyuan, millions of local people were captured by the Hu people.

Now these hundreds of thousands of displaced people all escaped in advance before the Hu people invaded Yannan and Zhenyuan, so as to avoid the end of becoming slaves.

Due to the fact that there were so many displaced people, the towns along the route were very nervous, and they closed their gates one after another, not daring to let the displaced people enter the city.

The previous month was fine, and most of the displaced people still had food on them, so although the crowd was chaotic, it was generally stable.

But after the second month, as the food reserves of the displaced people gradually dried up, and even after the food was cut off, the tide of displaced people began to become restless.

In the beginning, some representatives of the displaced people would ask the town officials along the way to borrow food in order to tide over the difficulties.

However, most of the towns themselves have limited grain stocks, so where dare they lend them money.

What if there is not enough food in the city and there is a riot? As a result, none of the town officials were willing to borrow grain.

But people can do everything when they are hungry.

Unable to borrow food, the already hungry homeless people could no longer take care of so much and began to loot the surrounding towns and villages.

In order to protect themselves, the towns had to gather the townspeople and the soldiers of the local guard posts to launch a counterattack against the displaced people who attacked the towns and villages.

When people on both sides were killed or injured in the clashes, the situation suddenly became out of control.

Tens of thousands of displaced people instantly turned into hungry mobs and began to loot in a desperate manner.

Among the worst victims were the surrounding villages, which were looted almost every single one.

In contrast, large towns are relatively safe.

After all, the homeless people are not armies, and they do not have professional siege equipment.

Although there were many people, there was nothing they could do in the face of the towering and sturdy city walls, so they could only continue to march to the next capital city after robbing the surrounding villages.

Outside of the city, which was protected by the walled city, almost all the villages and towns were looted, as terrible as locusts crossing the border.

In order to avoid being looted, many local villagers have taken refuge in the city, resulting in an instant increase in rents in the city.

At this time, the local guards did not dare to send troops to suppress or block it casually, so they could only send troops to defend the city and prevent riots in the city.

Everyone is nervous about this wave of displaced people, including officials and civilians.

Under such circumstances, food prices in various places have risen uncontrollably.

Although local governments have explicitly forbidden grain merchants to hoard goods and strictly limit grain prices, this kind of thing cannot be suppressed by a single paper restriction order.

Grain prices in various places are still rising, and they are gradually approaching the grain prices of famine years, and the local people can be described as miserable.

At this time, above the court, how to deal with these displaced people has also become a focus of debate.

A more moderate and reasonable suggestion is to guide the displaced people to the more affluent areas such as the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and then set aside a special area to settle them.

Because these areas are important food production areas, when it comes to supporting these displaced people, at least a lot of transportation costs are saved.

However, it is not difficult to temporarily resettle these displaced people, but the question is what to do in the future?

This is different from the large-scale southward migration of northwestern refugees back then.

At that time, it was because of the great drought in the north and the invasion of the Hu people that a large number of northwestern refugees were forced to go south.

As long as the drought in the northwest is alleviated and the Hu people are driven away, the northwest displaced people will naturally return to their original places.

Now most of these displaced people are fleeing peasants from Yannan and Zhenyuan provinces, and these two places are now in the hands of the Hu people, and no one dares to pack a ticket when they can be recaptured.

It may be a year or two, or it may be several years, or even more than ten years.

In other words, it is completely unknown how long these hundreds of thousands of displaced people will stay.

That's not a few thousand or a hundred or twenty thousand, but a hundred thousand.

In order to prevent these displaced people from starving to death, the amount of food consumed every day alone is not a small amount, not to mention the need to help them build shelters, distribute farm property, and resettle them in various matters.

Regardless of the region, these displaced people are an extremely heavy burden.

Even places such as Jiangnan, which are rich, can hardly bear such a burden.

In addition to the more normal proposal of finding a place to resettle the displaced people, there is another more extreme voice above the court, that is, directly sending troops to suppress it.

The reason for this group of voices is that these homeless people have been looting and hurting people everywhere along the way, and they are no different from mobs.

Since it is a mob, the imperial court should send troops to suppress the encirclement and suppression, and must not be allowed to be appeased.

Most officials felt that this proposal was inappropriate.

It's not a matter of soft-heartedness, it's mainly because I'm afraid that the officials will force the people to rebel.

You must know that this is more than 100,000 displaced people, and once the suppression fails, it is likely to cause these displaced people to rebel together, and then the matter will be a big trouble.

Now that the entire northwest has rebelled out of the imperial court, and there are Hu people in the southwest, if you add these hundreds of thousands of displaced people to rebel together, it will really be a big chaos in the world.

At this time, all the officials were waiting for the new emperor to make a decision, or rather, they were waiting for An Guogong behind him to make a decision.

Everyone knows that this court is nominally ruled by Emperor Shuntian, but in fact, there are other people who really say it.

Finally, the long-awaited An Guogong put forward his own recital in front of hundreds of officials: guide these hundreds of thousands of displaced people to the border areas of Jiangbei to open up wasteland and farm, and rebuild their homes there. The imperial court provided seeds and tools for them, and sent officials to coordinate the management there.

As soon as this recital came out, it immediately aroused the surprise of many officials.

The Jiangbei area is barren and has a changeable climate, which is not a good place for farming.

Especially in the border areas, where the terrain is mostly sandy and gravel, it is difficult to plant trees, let alone open up wasteland for farming.

Driving so many displaced people there at once, aren't you afraid of causing a popular uprising?

If someone else had made such a suggestion, it would have been opposed by most officials.

But this is a recital personally proposed by An Guogong, who leans towards the government and the opposition, and there are still people in the court who dare to speak out against it.

Not to mention officials, it is estimated that Emperor Shuntian will not object.

Sure enough, Emperor Shuntian quickly agreed to this piece and arranged for officials to handle the matter.

After the next dynasty, many officials were wondering why An Guogong made such a decision.

Among them is Yao Jingtang, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, who came to the house of his eldest brother Yao Jingjun almost immediately to discuss the matter.

At this time, Yao Jingjun was no longer the secretary of the Criminal Department, he resigned from the government in a few months due to physical discomfort and recuperated, and now he is just a Zhishi official who is idle at home.

The reason why Yao Jingjun resigned from the post of secretary of the Criminal Department was to retreat and protect the safety of the Yao family.

Although it is said that the new emperor Shuntian Emperor set up the Arrest Office mainly to purge and crack down on those civil officials who had been implicated with the eldest prince, Yao Jingjun knew that he probably did not have a good impression in the eyes of the new emperor.

Because his sister Yao is the wife of Ning Zhiyuan, the general of the Northwest, and the mistress of the Zhenguo Mansion.

Although once a woman marries, she is a member of her husband's family in terms of etiquette, but the Yao family is from the Yao family after all, which has always been a taboo for the new emperor.

In view of this, in order to prevent the Yao family from being persecuted by the Governor's Office, Yao Jingjun took the initiative to resign and recuperate on the grounds of physical discomfort.

Perhaps because Yao Jingjun was so upright, Emperor Shuntian finally agreed to his request and allowed him to go home to recuperate.

After Yao Jingjun resigned, the criminal department was empty, and Emperor Shuntian quickly pushed his own people up, which was considered to be their own gains.

This is the benefit of being a royalist, when the new emperor ascends the throne, although it will not necessarily be reused and favored by the new emperor, at least it will not be regarded as a thorn in the flesh.

Those civil officials who have been involved with the eldest prince, their current fate is the best comparison example.

After Zhishi was at home, Yao Jingjun did not relax his attention to the affairs of the court, but was more concerned and caring.

Because he was always wary of the new emperor and An Guogong and others, if the situation changed, he needed to react immediately.

He has even figured out the way back for his family, just in case.

"Big brother, what do you think about this matter?" After Yao Jingtang explained An Guogong's decision in detail, he immediately asked his brother's opinion.

"Tell me what you think first." Yao Jingjun asked with a frown.

"An Guogong is shrewd, far-sighted, and will never be untargeted.

Since he had decided to give up the two provinces of Yannan and Zhenyuan, he must have expected that a large number of displaced people would go north.

Therefore, he should have thought about the disposal of these displaced people a long time ago.

As long as you know a little about the Jiangbei area, you know that most of the areas there are loose soil, sand and gravel land, which is not suitable for farming at all.

If so many displaced people were to be driven there, it would be equivalent to sending them to a dead end, and it would only force them to rebel.

But An Guogong just proposed such a concerto, and its intention is very deep.

If I'm not mistaken, this may have something to do with the northeast region, which is only separated by a river. ”

After listening to his younger brother's analysis, Yao Jingjun sighed and said, "You guessed right, this is a plan to lead the water to the east.

What he wanted to do was to throw these hundreds of thousands of homeless people to the Northwest Army like a hot potato. ”

Although he had already guessed, when he heard his brother's words, Yao Jingtang couldn't help but shout: "This is too ruthless, right?" That's hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. ”

"Silence." Yao Jingjun glared at him.

Yao Jingtang came to his senses and quickly shut up.

Nowadays, there are people from the Governor's Office everywhere in and around the capital, and no one is sure that they don't have the Governor's Office at home, so many officials are cautious even when discussing matters at home, fearing that they will cause disaster if they say the wrong thing.

Yao Jingjun said in a deep voice: "It's good that you know this matter in your heart, don't tell anyone."

But even if you don't say it, it is estimated that many people have already thought of this joint.

I don't understand this court anymore. ”

When he said the last sentence, Yao Jingjun showed a gloomy and sad expression on his face.

Yao Jingtang clenched his fists with a complicated expression.

……………………

In order to drive these hundreds of thousands of displaced people to Jiangbei, An Guogong transferred 20,000 soldiers from the five military camps in the capital of Pingnan, divided them into hundreds of teams to intercept the scattered displaced people along the way, forced them to return to the ranks and set off for Jiangbei, and provided them with a small amount of dry food that could only wrap their stomachs.

In addition to the soldiers who were responsible for driving away the displaced people and providing dry food, there were also a number of talkative lobbyists.

These lobbyists will disguise themselves as ordinary homeless people, and then deceive everyone in the crowd, claiming that the land in Jiangbei is fertile, and the four seasons are like spring, and as long as they go there, they can find a piece of land to open up the wasteland, and there will be a harvest almost that year.

After the land is cultivated, it is very possible to have a good harvest every year.

Moreover, the government has already said that all land rent and land taxes will be exempted within five years of land reclamation. That is, these five years have been almost for nothing.

Where to find such a good thing, those who don't go are fools.

Because these lobbyists were eloquent and good at inciting public sentiment, more and more homeless people soon believed their words and began to look forward to the Jiangbei area they were going to.

It's no wonder that these homeless people are so easily deceived, but it is really because in ancient society, except for merchants and soldiers, ordinary people rarely left their hometowns and wells, let alone these ordinary villagers who could only farm with their heads covered.

Many of these people have never left the village or town where they live almost all their lives, and how do they know what is going on in Jiangbei, which is thousands of miles away.

Even some people who know the inside story don't dare to talk nonsense at this time. Because once they talk nonsense, they may be disposed of as annihilation by the accompanying soldiers at any time.

In this way, these hundreds of thousands of displaced people marched long distances to Jiangbei under the drive and guidance of soldiers.

After more than two months of travel, except for some people who died of illness on the road, most of the displaced people still arrived in Jiangbei smoothly.

After arriving in Jiangbei, the soldiers did not let them stop, but drove them to the pier.

At this time, the wharves were full of large and small ships, and these temporary conscripted merchant ships and fishing boats were used to carry them.

Those who know the inside story are starting to feel that something is wrong, isn't this Jiangbei? Why take a boat? Where is this going to send them?

But the vast majority of the displaced people did not know that the place where they were standing was already their destination, and still obeyed the soldiers' arrangements with a blank face, and boarded merchant ships or fishing boats in batches.

After many rounds of transportation, these displaced people were soon transported to the other side of the Wujiang River by large and small boats one after another.

Once ashore, the ships began to quietly leave the shore with many soldiers escorted along the way, and finally only the last big ship remained.

Looking at the soldiers sitting on the boat and moving away, more and more homeless people began to feel that something was wrong, and asked the Qianhu standing on the big boat.

"My lord, where do you want to take us? Is this Jiangbei? ”

"Yes, my lord, why are so many of you officials gone, didn't you say that you would take us to open up the wasteland?"

"My lord, what the hell is this place? You're not going to just leave us here, are you? ”

"I said earlier that none of these officials are good people, I'm not wrong, they really have ghosts."

"Official, you say something, Official......"

Standing on the bow of the boat, the Qianhu coldly glanced at the homeless people below, then stretched out his hand and pointed ahead and said loudly, "You Diao people, listen well, if you want to live, go on."

Not far in front are Jiujiang Mansion and Zhangnan Mansion, where there is not only food and drink, but also countless gold and silver treasures and women.

Once there, you can do whatever you want, and no one will stop you.

There is no way back for you but to move on. Let's hit the road! ”

After saying that, the thousand households made a gesture to their subordinates, and the subordinates immediately ordered the boatmen to pull the anchor and start the ship.

Amid the shouts or scolding of countless displaced people, the big boat slowly left until it disappeared on the surface of the Wujiang River.

Only then did the displaced people know that all of them had been deceived by the officers and soldiers, and many of them couldn't help but cry bitterly.

Many people want to go back, but in the face of the vast river, they know that there is no way back.

In the end, there was no way, and the hundreds of thousands of displaced people could only continue to move forward, hoping that there was still a glimmer of life ahead.

When Ning Zhiyuan, who was in Jiujiang, heard a report from his subordinates that more than 100,000 homeless people were walking towards Jiujiang and Zhangnan, the whole person was stunned all of a sudden.

Then he suddenly stood up and slammed his fist on the table, smashing the smooth and hard table top into a deep pit.

"Thank you thief daring!" Ning Zhiyuan was so angry that his eyes were red, his hair and beard fluttered, and he was full of murderous energy, looking very terrifying.

It's the first time I've seen my father-in-law like this.

However, he can somewhat understand his father-in-law's mood at this time, this An Guogong is really too vicious.

These hundreds of thousands of people are not those powerful families who have done a lot of evil, but ordinary ordinary people.

An Guogong not only did not regard these people as the people of Great Wei and cherished them, but treated them as garbage that could be discarded at will, and completely ignored them.

If Chi Fei is not mistaken, in order to prevent the Northwest Army from sending the displaced people back, An Guogong will definitely deploy heavy troops on the opposite side of the Wujiang River, not allowing any boat to cross the river, so that these hundreds of thousands of displaced people have no way to retreat.

These hundreds of thousands of sudden displaced people will bring the Northwest Army two very difficult choices.

First, if these displaced people are taken in, the current self-sufficient food output in the northwest and northeast will not be enough to feed so many outsiders.

Second, if they are not taken in, it is very likely that these displaced people will become mobs because of hunger, burning, killing and looting everywhere in the northeast region, where they have finally settled down, and become a cancer in the entire region.

To put it cold-bloodedly, the best way to deal with it now is to kill all these homeless people, so that they have no chance to make a rebellion.

However, this is exactly what An Guogong wants.

He just wanted to borrow the hand of the Northwest Army to get rid of these hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Once the Northwest Army used the butcher's knife against these displaced people, the righteousness and image they had previously upheld and preached would collapse in an instant.

After An Guogong's deliberate propaganda and exaggeration, people all over the world will regard them as unrighteous teachers who kill the people.

And he not only used the hands of the Northwest Army to solve the hundreds of thousands of homeless people who had to eat every day, but also completely stinked the reputation of the Northwest Army by the way.

This is indeed a poisonous ploy that kills two birds with one stone.

An Guogong, who was able to come up with such a plan to exterminate humanity, even Chi Fei couldn't help but wonder if this person's heart was really black.