Climb high and look far away, and look in all directions.

Standing on the octagonal pavilion on the mountain, looking around, Renshou County is vivid. The walls are intact and show no signs of serious damage. The northern, eastern, and southern walls are barely square, and the western walls are curved because of the undulating hills. In the northeast of the city, there are traces of a large number of houses burning out, and several wealthy houses are distributed in the northwest and southwest, and the garden pavilion in the courtyard is clearly visible.

"Leave a few people waiting, let's go to the county office to have a look." Li Chongwen beckoned, took the lead out of the octagonal pavilion, walked along the tree-lined path on the ridge, and walked towards the county government at the foot of Feiquan Mountain.

In order to comply with the custom of respecting the north, the general county government was built in the north side of the city's east-west artery. However, in order to avoid the most noble position due north, the local yamen would deliberately choose the northeast position. But somehow, the Renshou County Ya was not built in the northeast direction, but directly under the Feiquan Mountain in the southwest corner. It's just that the eight-character wall at the entrance of the yamen has turned around and opened to the south.

"Miss...... Master! ”

As soon as she walked to the Shenming Pavilion in front of the yamen, the maid Xiaolan pointed to the top of a flagpole and said tremblingly. Li Chongwen looked in the direction of Xiaolan's finger, and saw a human head tied to his hair under the flagpole, and his eyes had been pecked by birds. A pair of empty eye sockets, looking blankly at the sky, telling his unyielding and unwillingness.

"Daddy!"

"Sir!"

The master and servant girls were lying on the ground, whimpering and crying bitterly.

Also having lost his parents, Li Chongwen empathized with the grief of the two girls. He silently waited for them to vent their emotions to their heart's content, and secretly wiped the moist corners of his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Put the old man down, and let him be buried in the ground." Li Chongwen gently walked behind the two girls and comforted him gently.

Miss Liu stopped crying and got up from the ground, her eyes suddenly flashing with crazy hatred. She grabbed Li Chongwen and said, "Mr. Li, Nong told me truthfully: Is the king of Shu willing to fight the thief?" ”

Li Chongwen shook his head and said he didn't know. Miss Liu let go of him in disappointment, and her arm hung limply.

Li Chongwen continued: "The prince has not seen it, I don't know, but the prince is well known to the students. Although the prince is young, he is virtuous and benevolent, intelligent, knowledgeable, and a corporal of courtesy and virtuous, and often takes the protection of the country and the people as his own responsibility, and hates the thief very much. If it weren't forbade by the imperial court, the prince would inevitably ...... Miss Student Guan is open-minded by nature, thoughtful, and very assertive in case of trouble, and the strange woman is also! If the son of the world sees you, he will use you! ”

Li Chongwen was heartfelt, and asked Miss Liu to quickly wipe her face with her sleeve, and immediately burst into tears: "You scholars just like the sour writing of Wen Crepe when you speak!" Is Nong recruiting Miss Ben for Nong's master? My nickname is a woman, and Nong's prince is not afraid of gossip? ”

Li Chongwen said seriously: "If the heart is right, the body is right, and the body is right!" The son of the world is dedicated to the country and the people, and the students should be exemplary! If you can seek talents for the country, what about women? ”

That Miss Liu was really refreshing, she pulled the maid Xiaolan who was still crying and said, "Then let's say it first, if you want to take two!" ”

Li Chongwen nodded affirmatively: "That's nature!" Since Miss is willing to enter my prince's mansion, there is now a problem to ask Miss. ”

Miss Liu interrupted Li Chongwen and said, "Nong wants to move Wangzhuang into the county seat?" This county seat is already deserted, and I don't know when the imperial court will be able to send a new county order, maybe it will take a year and a half. Mr. Li might as well replace himself and slowly wait for the imperial court to send an official. Speaking of the imperial court, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but pull a slight contemptuous sneer.

Li Chongwen saw all this in his eyes. He thought about it and said, "It's fine." Everything is done in the name of Wang Zhuang, and the county affairs are managed first! Before the prince left, Zeng Dao students wanted to be the half of this Renshou county. Who would have thought that I would be the magistrate of the county when I came! You see, this wall is intact, and if there are three or five thieves harassing it, it can withstand it for a few days......"

Miss Liu flew Li Chongwen with a roll of the eyes: "Don't stare at the city wall!" And land houses! Nong quickly go to the county office, find out all the big seal documents and files, and change the land deed and house deed to the palace! ”

Li Chongwen was still stunned, and Miss Liu pushed him and said, "It's not that we want to invade people's fields!" All the people in this city are dead, and whoever sees it first will be whoever! I don't understand this reason, Nong still has the right to be the magistrate of the county?! ”

I'm still pedantic! Li Chongwen patted his head and beckoned people into the yamen. Miss Liu fed and screamed to catch up, and Li Chongwen turned around to see what the woman had to say.

Then Miss Liu hurriedly said: "Mr. Li! Nong has to put my nicknamed father down and bury him first! ”

Seeing Li Chongwen and others entering the county office to rummage through the cabinets, the maid Xiaolan couldn't help but hit the young lady and said, "Miss, is Nong stupid?" The good young master of the official family is not married, but he has fallen in love with this nerd! ”

Miss Liu poked Xiaolan's forehead with her slender index finger: "I'm not a fool, Nong is a fool!" Who said I was going to marry this nerd? Does he have a wife at home, does Nong know? Just talk nonsense about marrying! The young master of the official family, what a bullshit young master of the official family! My dad is looking for, can there be good goods? He has always been an old man, and he hung his son on the flagpole! The young master of the official family, sooner or later, will be the same as my father, and it will also be the fate of a person who falls to the ground!

In these years, the family background is useless, the house and the land are useless, who would not dare to kill the thief? Only those who lead soldiers can be entrusted for life! Why did my mom die, Nong forgot? Slaves and servants are unreliable. As soon as the slave changed, there was no half of the loyal, all of them were eating goods inside and out! I had to stretch my neck and cut it for others! It's different if you have soldiers, let the soldiers cut whoever you want! If anyone is disobedient, he directly let the little soldier push it out and cut it, what nonsense to tell him! ”

Xiaolan already pursed her lips when she heard this: "Miss Nong forgot, I am also a slave!" ”

The young lady took her hand and comforted: "Oh, what a slave, I have already regarded Nong as a sister!" ”

Xiaolan still didn't understand Miss's refusal to marry back then: "But that young master's family is not the master's seven-grade sesame official." The son of Xu Shangshu's family ......"

The young lady pouted and said, "What about the Shang Shujia?" No matter how big the official is, it's useless! Chengdu Prefecture is so close to Renshou County, and reinforcements will come up in three days at most. Has Lenon heard of reinforcements from the province? One by one, they only know that hiding in the big city and eating and waiting for death will sooner or later be a life with their heads cut off. Brother Gongzi like that, I won't marry my nickname! ”

Miss Liu finally concluded: "If I want to marry, I want to marry a hero of the world!" Hey, what do you want to marry, tell Miss Ben about it......"

Li Chongwen and others found out the situation in the county on the spot, recovered the big seal of the county, buried Liu Sance's head, and hurriedly returned to the team of Wangzhuang grass labels. But it wasn't until sunset that Lü San and the other scouts came back one after another, bringing back more accurate information about other Wangzhuang and the city.

After the city was broken, the thieves were angry at the casualties of their men and ordered the slaughter of the county. The peasant army scattered inside and outside the city to clear and suppress, searched from village to village, and killed on the spot, regardless of whether they resisted or not. The people in the county were able to escape their lives, which was a blessing from the accumulation of virtue in the previous life.

The five Wangzhuang in Renshou County were also destroyed. Houses were burned, food was looted, and wells were thrown into the dead. Two Zhuangzi were suddenly surrounded, so they had to rely on the manor to resist, and they were all killed. Seeing that the situation was not good, the other three Zhuangzi ran into the depths of the Longquan Mountain Range in advance. Although some were hunted down, the losses were relatively small. A few days ago, they found out that the thieves had gone away, and the officers and soldiers who were chasing them had also left, and they were returning to their hometowns one after another.

Lu Sandao finally said: "They don't have any food left, Mr. Li, what should I do?" They didn't bring much food with them when they fled, and they ate all the wild vegetables and roots for a month, and their bodies were swollen! The little one found the two owners, Li and You, and asked them to come back to report. But they all said that they were so hungry that they couldn't walk, and if you didn't come again, they would have to starve to death! Now they're waiting for you to send you food. ”

Li Chongwen asked, "How many of them are left?" ”

"Four thousand, to say the least."

"How can there be so many three Zhuangzi!" Li Chongwen was taken aback.

"And that's not all! Originally, there were only more than 2,000 people in these three villages, but some of them ran away when they entered the mountain, and some of them died of cold, hunger, sickness, and death in the mountains, and it is estimated that there are at most 1,005 left. But when the thieves attacked the city, the people of other surrounding villages and towns also fled into the mountains. At first, they ran their own ways, but then somehow they got mixed with the people of our Wangzhuang, and now there are more people when they go out of the mountain than when they enter the mountain. On the way to find them, I happened to meet a dozen people from a family who had just come out of the mountain. They also said that it is better to go down to the mountains to try their luck than to starve to death......"

The information brought by Lu San made Li Chongwen stand up suddenly. When he first arrived, he had anticipated all kinds of difficulties, and he tried to think about them as thoroughly as possible. Who knows, when the difficulties really come, it can be so violent and terrifying!

What to do? Food, food is the key to solving all problems! But there are only 110 stone here. Let these refugees eat with their stomachs open, and in less than two days, there will be no rice left. Now send the cart back to pull grain from Tang Fatzi again, and whether he wants to or not, the time on the light road will go back and forth for at least four days. If there is another mistake on the road, these four or five thousand people will be in danger of running out of food!

There is also an even more important point, even if a person has one pound of grain a day, it needs forty or fifty stone a day, and it is 1,200 to 1,500 stone a month, and at least more than 100 carts are needed to transport it. The princess only approved 2,000 stones for half a year, and then stretched out her hand to the palace, what should the princess do if she doesn't give it? The prince is not in Chengdu Mansion now, but in Yazhou, asking for food from the palace through the prince, the certainty is great, but time really can't wait!

Li Chongwen's family was often hungry after the change. He knows very well what it feels like to be hungry, and he knows even more about what kind of crazy things people will do when they are hungry for a long time. Thinking of this, although the cold wind of the winter night was blowing, hot sweat oozed from his forehead.

"What are Nong still grinding, could it be that he starved to death, so Nong remembered to write a letter to the palace to ask for food, right? Otherwise, Nong will use magic to conjure up white flowers? Miss Liu's scathing words interrupted Li Chongwen's train of thought.

Li Chongwen was very dissatisfied with Miss Liu's interruption, and he was annoyed now. However, he is a scholar, and he should look like a scholar when he speaks and acts, so he patiently explained to Miss Liu the origin of the food in the palace, and the implication is what to do if the palace does not give it.

I didn't want Miss Liu to listen to Li Chongwen's words, but smiled.

"Mr. Li, rest assured, the princess will definitely give it!"