XXXIV. The lives of the victims

On the second day of Li Chengqian's illness, he went out of the palace to inspect the disaster situation despite everyone's dissuasion, Liu Xun has endured this person for a long time, and this time let him preside over the disaster relief in Chang'an City, just to let him reveal his true form, and then take the opportunity to get rid of it.

Li Chengqian originally planned to make a move yesterday, but he had no choice when he suddenly fell ill.

Li Chengqian did not put on a guard of honor on this trip, and a carriage was driven by Xue Rengui himself, with 500 people from the East Palace in front of the car and 500 people from the East Palace behind the car.

Li Ke, Xu Jingzong, Hao Chujun, Pei Xingjian, Qiu Shenji, Zhang Shiheng and dozens of bachelors and scribes of the Chongxian Pavilion all rode horses to accompany them.

Li Chengqian brought out almost all the henchmen of the East Palace this time, which can be regarded as giving face to Liu Xun, the prime minister.

When the mighty motorcade passed through the palace and the imperial city, many officials working inside heard that the crown prince had recovered from his illness and went out of the palace again to inspect the disaster.

There are also a small number of people who believe that Li Chengqian is just buying people's hearts, and that Li Chengqian's departure from the palace will not be beneficial to disaster relief.

No matter what others thought, Li Chengqian's motorcade kept moving toward Li Chengqian's set goal.

It is said that after Li Chengqian left that day, the other people who shoveled snow on Zhuque Street kept shoveling until midnight, and they did not go home until they had shoveled the snow off the entire Zhuque Street.

The next day, the houses shoveled all the snow from the road next to the wall, and I heard that today they are shoveling the snow from the roads in the workshop.

The road was frozen and hard, the carriage was moving fast, and Li Chengqian was sitting in the car except for some bumps.

"What do you guys do?"

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, get out of the way!"

Li Chengqian heard the sound of the guards negotiating with people in front of him from a distance in the car, and when he opened the curtain, he saw only a large gate, in front of which were guarded by many soldiers armed with spears and crossbows.

As soon as he entered the door, the carriage stopped, and as soon as Li Chengqian got out of the car, he saw a scene that he would never forget, a large pile of frozen corpses, blocking the way of the carriage.

The corpses were piled up in a small hill, and there were hundreds of people at least. Most of them were old people, women and children, and some of the children had not a single piece of clothing on their bodies, and they looked very fierce.

Li Chengqian slowly bypassed the pile of corpses and saw a dilapidated Tang-style courtyard in front of it, and the courtyard was also heavily guarded in front of the courtyard.

To the west, there was a huge clearing, where countless ragged people sat crowded on the hay beside the fire, those who were closer to the fire might be a little better, while those on the periphery of the fire were frozen and huddled in desperately.

Li Chengqian came in with so many, except for a few people who looked up, most of them didn't react.

No one even looked at the pile of corpses.

At this moment, Li Chengqian heard the sound of heavy footsteps, and when he looked up, he saw two soldiers carrying corpses coming out of the courtyard.

One of the soldiers was carrying a naked = naked woman, and next to him was a skinny child with a torn skirt that had been dragged to the ground, and followed the soldier with a sluggish expression.

Li Chengqian waited for the two soldiers to walk in front of him, pointed to the pile of corpses, and asked sharply, "What's going on?"

The soldier was asked by Li Chengqian, a person of unknown origin, and did not know how to answer.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked you!" Qiu Shenji reminded loudly.

Hearing that it was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the soldier carrying the woman's body hurriedly and carefully placed the body on the ground, and then knelt down and saluted Li Chengqian.

"Weichen patrols the street, and Ren Yaxiang, the right envoy, sees His Royal Highness the Prince."

"Tell me what's going on?" Li Chengqian is angry now, how can he bother with him.

"Back to His Royal Highness the Prince, these are all people who froze to death yesterday."

"What! So many people freeze to death in one day and one night?" Li Chengqian thought that all those who froze to death were not sent out.

"No, Weichen, who froze to death yesterday, hasn't finished carrying it yet." Ren Yaxiang said in a low voice.

"When has this been? What's wrong with just the two of you? Anyway, you are also a right-hand envoy patrolling the streets, why do you still carry the corpse yourself?" Xu Jingzong is a veteran of officialdom and immediately found out a few unreasonable places.

"Wechen brought a hundred people, but Wechen saw that they were really pitiful, so he asked people to find some branches for them to make a fire to keep warm, so Weichen could only carry these corpses himself." Ren Yaxiang's voice was full of grief and indignation.

Li Chengqian looked at the people sitting on the edge of the fire and asked, "In that case, why don't you let your people bring those victims to find firewood together?"

"Liu Xianggong ordered that the victims were not allowed to go out." Ren Yaxiang gritted his teeth.

"Why is that?" Li Chengqian was puzzled, he was originally going to let these victims save themselves, such as rescuing the things in the collapsed houses, and finding out the frozen poultry and livestock.

"Liu Xianggong said that there is no food in the fields in Layue Mountain in the cold winter, and these people can only steal and rob if they want to find food when they go out, so they are not allowed to go out, and only two bowls of gruel are given every day, so that they will not be full of food and make trouble." Ren Yaxiang said that tears flowed out.

"Ren Yaxiang, get up." Li Chengqian regretted in his heart that he had harmed the victims in order to calculate Liu Xun, and he was faintly excited, because this time Liu Xun was finished.

At this moment, he heard three gongs ringing in the courtyard, and before Li Chengqian knew what was going on, he saw that the victims who were sitting on the ground all got up in a hurry and stumbled to the gate of the courtyard.

Several soldiers in front of the door saw that they had been squeezing forward, and they picked up a big stick and pumped it on the head, and the people in front were pushed by the people behind, and they could not retreat, so they could only be beaten, and the people in the back were worried that they would not be able to eat, so they kept squeezing forward.

"What are they doing here?" Li Ke didn't know why.

"It's time for soup kitchen!" Ren Ya said hatefully.

Li Chengqian continued to walk forward with a calm face, and the guards he brought hurriedly stepped forward to forcibly separate a road and let Li Chengqian and his party pass.

When Li Chengqian walked to the front, he had already brought out two cauldrons from the courtyard.

Li Chengqian looked into the pot, it was like clear water, and there were some 'red' things at the bottom of the pot, and he didn't know what it was, the most important thing was that there was not even a little heat in the pot.

"Wannian County Lord Bo see His Royal Highness the Prince." Wannian County Lord Bo, a short and fat little old man, hurriedly came out.

"This is what you feed the victims?" Li Chengqian asked in a cold voice.

"Back to His Royal Highness the Prince, this is sorghum porridge, and it is very good for the victims to eat it......

The short and fat lord Bo regarded Li Chengqian as a fool, but before he finished speaking, he heard Li Chengqian reprimand loudly: "Sorghum is used to make wine and feed livestock, when can people eat it, do you take the lonely king as a fool?" Li Chengqian was extremely angry, and as he spoke, he raised his cane and whipped it wildly on the thin head of the master.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, you are angry, beware of flashing your hand, if you want to fight, let them beat ......" The old ghost and Li Ke hurriedly stopped Li Chengqian left and right.

The short and fat lord Bo Lian lay on the ground a few mornings, Li Chengqian still didn't understand his hatred, gritted his teeth and said: "You fight me, fight to the death, Qiu Shenji went to lead the soldiers to raid his home for me." Li Chengqian exhaled angrily.

The guards didn't react for a while, and the old ghost next to him hurriedly said loudly: "Are you deaf, don't drag His Royal Highness the Crown Prince out of the fight like this." ”

After being reminded by him, everyone hurriedly agreed and took out the short and fat master Bo lying on the ground to teach a lesson.

Li Chengqian took a deep breath, slowly calmed down, glanced at the old ghost with low eyebrows, turned his head to Pei Xingjian and Hao Chujun and said, "Hao Chujun, you go and bring Liu Yi to the Lone King, and Pei Xingjian will go and bring Tang Jian, the head of the household department, to the Lone King." ”

"We're honored." Hao Chujun and Pei Xingjian took the order and hurried away.

Li Chengqian said to Xu Jingzong: "You go and see what people eat here, and then make some thick food for them, these are all clear water, what's the use of eating?"

"We're honored."

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is full of women and children in the courtyard." Ren Yaxiang whispered to Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian didn't understand what it meant, so he said "um" and walked straight inside.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is benevolent!" Outside, someone in the pile shouted loudly.