Jingbei Road.

In the four wild places, everything that can be eaten is eaten, hares, fish, turtles, shrimps, crabs, snakes, frogs, voles, ...... In the vast expanse of the land, all that remained was the poisonous toad and the winged bird, and later, even the bird was not exempt from death under the bird's net and the slingshot. and the wild vegetables that spread all over the mountains have long been eaten, but even so, people are still starving to death one after another.

Caizhou, Xiping County, one of the hardest hit counties.

At the south gate of the county seat, a porridge shed was erected, and several iron kettles large enough to cook cattle were steaming on the firewood stove, and countless hungry people lined up to wait for the soup kitchen. The porridge was divided with a large wooden spoon with a long handle, and the population was one spoonful, no matter how large or small the bowl was. The sweet porridge was drunk so loudly that I don't know how many tears dripped into the bowl, and hundreds of tongues licked the bowl after a while, and after drinking a bowl and then lined up, a few sacks of broken grain and several large wooden buckets of water were poured into the cauldron.

This is a soup kitchen spontaneously organized by some large families with a bit of conscience in this county. Even if the porridge is very thin, this kind of relief will not last long, and in today's soaring food prices, large families do not have much surplus food, and the county treasury has long been clean enough to starve rats to death.

On the outskirts of the city, from time to time you can see the corpses lying on the side of the road, which are hungry people who have not been able to make it to the county, but no one has the strength to bury them, even if it is a close relative, because the little energy consumed by burying the corpse may also determine a person's life and death.

It's just the situation of Xiping County, and it's also a microcosm of the entire western part of Beijing.

The entire western part of Beijing is in an emergency, and relying on the relief of large families in various states and counties alone is a drop in the bucket.

To the north of Henan Prefecture, on the official road leading to Luoyang, a group of about thirty or forty victims in ragged clothes and vegetables were hobbling towards Luoyang City. There is soup soup in Luoyang City, or they can live, but how many of them can survive to Luoyang City, only God knows, maybe half of them will be able to enter the city alive, or maybe all of them will be destroyed......

On both sides of the official road, there is a barren land of thousands of miles.

Thundered~

There was a sharp sound of carriages and horses from the north side of the official road, and all the victims turned around, looking to the north with dizzy eyes open, only to see a team of carriages and horses rolling like a dragon, driving the smoke and dust along the way.

The carriage and horse team is getting closer and closer, a big flag in the middle, facing the slight hot wind, gently waving, faintly you can see a "Zhao" word, on both sides are freshly dressed and angry horses with saber men, in the middle is a gorgeous carriage, followed by a carriage, the team can not see the end at a glance, at least thousands of people of carriage and horses.

Seeing such a gorgeous and grand procession, the victims on the official road subconsciously retreated to both sides, looking a little cringe, not daring to look at it squarely.

However, there were also bold people in the procession, and when they saw that the procession of carriages and horses had reached a hundred paces away, a young victim in ragged clothes suddenly rushed out like crazy and stopped in the middle of the avenue, and by the time an old man beside him shouted "No", it was too late.

The young man fell to his knees in the dust with a puff and shouted, "Good deeds, great officials, give the stutter!" ”

Xi Yu Yu~

With the neighing of horses one after another, the convoy came to a halt.

All the victims were stunned, and looked up in confusion, and looked at the convoy, and the young man also raised his head, looking deadly ahead, his eyes full of hope and fear, and he did not know whether it was a blessing or a curse.

On the carriage, a young man in a purple official uniform slowly walked down, only seventeen or eighteen years old, extremely handsome, heroic between his eyebrows, and revealing a bit of majesty, it was Zhao Hao, the Qincha who hunted on behalf of the sky.

I saw Zhao Hao striding forward, going straight to the kneeling young victim, helping him up, and gently patting the dust for him.

The young man suddenly became nervous, and said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you, Grand Official!" ”

Zhao Hao smiled and nodded, turned around and drank, "Twenty big steamed buns per person, a pot of water." ”

"Whoa!" Someone behind him answered.

At this moment, the stunned victims finally woke up from a dream, and fell to their knees, and the young victim fainted in excitement.

The big and soft steamed buns, coupled with the cool water in the throat, quickly brought the forty or fifty victims back to life, and the voices of gratitude were endless.

After Zhao Hao waited for all the victims to eat and drink, he asked carefully, and left a large bag of dry food for each person, and then led the carriage and horses to continue to move forward.

"The disaster north of Luoyang is quite light, only 30 miles away from Luoyang, only two groups of victims have been encountered, and the real hard-hit area is south of Luoyang. Du Gong knew that the north of Luoyang was close to Gyeonggi, so he was the most attentive to the disaster relief north of Luoyang. Sitting next to Zhao Hao was Xu Churen, a scholar of Wenguan University, one of the representatives of the Qing school.

Zhao Hao said hatefully: "Three million stone disaster relief grain, as soon as it comes out of Kaifeng Mansion, there is only one million and a half million stone left, and one million stone is lost on Jingbei Road, the people north of Luoyang are only 500,000 people, and the victims are only 100,000 people. ”

Xu Churen sighed: "Fortunately, the prince paid 500,000 yuan of grain, and asked the official family for 500,000 yuan, and got 500,000 stones, which may be a temporary relief from the disaster." The prince sacrifices himself for the public, and the officials sincerely admire him, if the officials in the world are like the sons, how can the national conditions be so ......"

Zhao Hao did not have the slightest joy for Xu Churen's compliment.

Although the territory of the Great Song Dynasty was much smaller than that of the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties, it occupied the richest place in the world, and the wealth of the country was unprecedented. The victims of the two roads in the southwest and north of Beijing, adding up to four or five million people, if the grain in the prefectures and counties of the two roads is not greedy, plus the three million stones of grain released by Kaifeng Prefecture, how can there be seven or eight million stones, one and a half stones per capita, that is, 90 catties, and some wild vegetables, how can they survive until the autumn harvest, how can they starve all over the wilderness?

In fact, according to the news inquired by Jinyiwei, in addition to the government's greed for grain, those grain merchants also took the opportunity to hoard grain and sit on the ground to raise prices, causing grain prices in many areas to soar to five yuan a stone or even higher. The soaring price of grain has made the people, who originally had a little surplus money in their hands, also looted by grain merchants and become victims.

The chain reaction of this market is that the price of grain in Gyeonggi has also risen from the usual to two yuan, and he paid 500,000 yuan out of his own pocket, and asked Zhao Ji for 500,000 yuan, but he only got 500,000 stone grain. The battle of Yanyun is imminent, Zhao Ji is bent on recovering the sixteen states of Youyun, and he attaches great importance to this battle, and he can't give too much money and food, so he can only let him figure out his own way.

On Jingbei Road, corrupt officials and profiteers joined forces, causing starvation everywhere. In Jingnan Road, fortunately, the matter of greedy ink is still light, although the food for disaster relief only fell 500,000 stone to Jingnan Road, and there were Songjiang bandits along the way robbed a lot of official food, the disaster situation was better than Jingbei Road.

Seeing Zhao Hao's gloomy face, Xu Churen frowned again, and said worriedly: "Four or five million victims of the two roads in Jingxi, and 500,000 stone grains are also a drop in the bucket......

Zhao Hao's expression calmed down, and he said indifferently: "I have sent someone to Jiangnan to ask my mother to raise 1 million yuan for me to help the victims of the disaster on the northwest road of Beijing." And Huaixi grain gang Huang Wenhu, who has a good relationship with me, also sent someone to borrow 500,000 stone of grain from him this time to relieve the disaster on the southwest road of Beijing. If it drags on for a month or two, and then thoroughly investigate the corrupt officials and collect their stolen money, the disaster can be resolved. ”

Xu Churen was stunned for a long time, and suddenly fell to his knees, with tears in his eyes, and sobbed: "Gongzi's benevolence and righteousness are so far, there is no other in the world, and the lower officials worship Gongzi on behalf of the victims of the two roads in Beijing and West!" ”

Zhao Hao hurriedly helped Xu Churen up, and said excitedly: "Sir, you don't need to be polite, Zhao Hao is an official of the imperial court and a member of the clan, this is a matter of responsibility." ”

One million yuan, although it was raised by the mother, uncle and father-in-law, but even if it was three rich Jiangnan, this was an extremely huge amount. It's just that for saving four or five million living beings, even if it is worth exhausting the family wealth, because sooner or later, these living beings will be his people.

What's more, to save four or five million disaster victims, the merit value will be tens of millions, and it is not a problem to upgrade the merit system to another level.

Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly rode a brocade guard and galloped over, turned over and fell off his horse, and said forward: "Lord Qiqi, Lord Qincha, Du Gongcai, the capital of Jingbei Road, led the officials of Jingbei Road to come out of the city ten miles to greet him. ”

Zhao Hao paused for a moment, and laughed coldly: "This guy is really not an idle person. ”

The carriage and horse continued to move forward, only to see a bustling crowd in front of them, as if a dark cloud had floated, at least two or three hundred people, seeing Zhao Hao's carriage and horse team, they hula and greeted them.

The flag is displayed, the salutes are complete, the drums are contending, the red is hung with colors, the scene is very warm, in the piece of Zhu or Qing official robes, a purple-robed official rushed out, and the horse rushed towards Zhao Hao's carriage and horse.

"Du Gongcai, the capital of Jingbei Road, led the officials of Jingbei Road to welcome Lord Qincha!"

Zhao Haoding looked over, only to see that this guy was born with a fat head and big ears, a big belly, and a round and chubby face full of flattering smiles, the kind that didn't smile, and he didn't feel that his brows were slightly wrinkled.

"Du Gongcai, 40 in force, 69 in intelligence, 49 in politics, 23 in command, 81 in health, and 30 favorability towards Zhao Hao."

The envoy of the capital transfer, the official of the third grade, is at the same level as Zhao Hao, but Zhao Hao, as a minister of the Qin Mission, patrols the heavens on behalf of the sky, and is a clan, so naturally his status is much higher than Du Gongcai, so that Du Gongcai also has to perform the official courtesy.

Immediately afterwards, the man behind Du Gongcai, dressed in vermilion and cyan official robes, also came forward and saluted Zhao Hao.

Zhao Hao glanced over, and saw that these parents and officials on Jingbei Road were still full of fat brains, fine skin and tender flesh in this disaster year, and they didn't feel more and more disgusted in their hearts.

However, hatred is hatred, reach out and don't hit the smiling person, the surface work still has to be done, after returning the salute, the two exchanged pleasantries, Zhao Hao abandoned the car and rode a horse, walked side by side with Du Gongcai, and slowly went to Luoyang City surrounded by everyone.

In the city of Luoyang, the capital of the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Tang dynasties, it is second only to Bianliang in the Central Plains. At this time, outside Luoyang City, rows of porridge shacks were densely crowded, tens of thousands of victims gathered, and people were bustling everywhere.

Zhao Hao was not in a hurry to enter the city, but asked Du Gongcai to accompany him and visited the porridge shed and the residential area of the victims.

Looking at the bowls of thick porridge, Zhao Hao suddenly smiled: "Master Du, what a big stroke, the porridge is thick and meaty, if you add a little green onion and coriander, it will be even more fragrant." ”

Du Gongcai's face turned slightly red, and he laughed: "Lord Qincha smiled. ”

Xu Churen, who was beside him, snorted coldly: "If they are so thick with porridge and meat every day, why do they still have vegetables and are weak?" ”

Du Gongcai's face stiffened, and he laughed urgently: "Some have only been here for a few days, so they haven't recovered yet, and they are displaced, so they are anxious, so they don't look good." ”

Zhao Hao laughed and said: "Mr. Xu doesn't have to be embarrassed for Master Du, Kaifeng Mansion has 1.5 million stones of grain, and only 1 million stones have been obtained on Jingbei Road, and thick porridge and meat are added every day, how can you afford it." ”

Du Gongcai's face softened slightly, showing a hint of a smile, and then his face changed drastically, sweat rolled down his forehead, and he said urgently: "Lord Qincha is mistaken, Kaifeng Mansion has released three million stones of grain, and Jingbei Road has obtained two million stones, not one million stones." ”

Zhao Hao smiled faintly: "Oh, this official is wrong. ”

Xu Churen said angrily: "Since it is two million stones, there are less than three million victims on Jingbei Road, and each person can reach six buckets of rice, if you drink porridge, it is enough to support three months, why do so many people starve to death?" ”

Du Gongcai's face became extremely ugly, and he said in a deep voice: "Lord Xu, the whereabouts of the two million stone grains, one liter and one bucket, all have accounts, if adults have doubts, although the accounts are checked, if Du is greedy for ink, just arrest and ask for guilt!" ”

Xu Churen was an anxious person, his face turned red, and he was about to sneer at him, but he heard Zhao Hao snort: "Today, I will wait for the first time here, don't talk about this matter, let's go into the city to rest first." ”