Ma Chongming was sweating profusely, and said in a loud voice: "When these homeless people first came in March, the number was only a few thousand, so I hesitated, I wanted to drive them out of the country and let them go to other states and counties to seek food, but Qin Xuan comforted the poor homeless people and couldn't bear to see them wandering, so I set aside this earthen fort to take them in and provide food every day." Who would have thought that it had only been three months, and the displaced people had gathered more and more, and now they were already too big to go, how could this be good? ”

Wang Huan frowned and said: "As the saying goes, it is difficult for a strong dragon to suppress the head snake of the ground, and the horse-headed people are the landlords here, can't they still deal with tens of thousands of homeless people?" ”

Ma Chongming wiped the sweat on his fat face, and said in a dumb voice: "Counselor Wang doesn't know, if a few years ago, tens of thousands of homeless people were not even fart in the eyes of my stone pillar consolation envoy, at that time, my department alone could make up thousands of armor soldiers, and the gun array waved, Qin Xuanwei made the banner point, invincible, and the posture went out, those homeless people didn't even dare to let go of the fart, but unfortunately the imperial court recruited soldiers every year, exhausted my stone pillar and was strong, and now in my tribe, even a hundred armor soldiers can't get together, where can I help tens of thousands of homeless people, I don't want to say that it is the head snake now, Not even as good as earthworms! ”

Wang Huan understood this and understood why this person was so flustered, but after thinking about it, Wang Huan asked again: "Although there are tens of thousands of displaced people, they are all fleeing people, there is no organizer to take the lead, just a group of rabble, the head can ask for troops from the Propaganda Envoy, as long as there are one or two hundred officers and soldiers, order can be maintained and this dilemma can be solved." ”

Ma Chongming's face changed color and said: "Counselor, the homeless people are not as good as the good people on weekdays, they are all hungry and crazy dogs, as long as there is no food, they dare to pull the flag and rebel, if they are forced to rebel, the court blames it lightly, how can we end it." ”

Wang Huan glanced at him, sighed lightly, and said slowly: "Then let me ask the head man, how much grain is still in the granary?" ”

Ma Chongming's face immediately became whiter, and he said with a long-winded mouth: "There are still 16,000 buckets left, this is still transported from Tusi City, and if you eat it up, there will be no more." ”

Wang Huan pointed to the noisy wall and said loudly: "Touren, look at this outside, there are more than 20,000 people, even if they each eat half a liter of grain every day, they need 1,200 buckets of grain every day, and the 16,000 buckets of grain in the headman's warehouse can be eaten for a few days?" When you eat it all, what will your people eat? ”

Ma Chongming said with a bitter face: "If you run out, you can only report to the consolation envoy again, please send food to the consolation envoy." ”

Wang Huan shook his head and said, "There is no surplus food in Tusi City, and it is not a long-term solution to sit and eat the empty mountains." If we don't buy grain from outside, the displaced people outside will make trouble sooner or later, so it is better to take advantage of the fact that there is grain in the warehouse and can still be restricted, and quickly open mines to get silver and buy grain from other places. I heard that Matou people are grain merchants, and there must be many channels to buy grain, right? ”

He inquired very clearly, Ma Chongming, as a leader, is also a wealthy grain merchant, Qin Liangyu originally zoned the refugees to his territory, it was because of the fact that this fat man had enough food, who expected that there would be more and more refugees, and Ma Chongming couldn't bear it, and he said so much at the moment, just to get rid of his involvement in front of Wang Huan, the counselor sent by Qin Liangyu, and put all the responsibility on Qin Liangyu.

As soon as it came to grain trading, Ma Chongming's eyes lit up, and he straightened his chest and said: "That's it, Counselor Wang, don't tell lies in front of real people, if you want to say that in this stone pillar territory, there is no one who can buy grain more than me, Jiangnan and Huguang, everywhere is my relationship, as long as I go out of the horse, there is no grain that I can't buy back." ”

After a pause, he smiled again: "But this silver to buy grain, Counselor Wang, can you really find a silver mine and dig up the silver?" I have heard that the consolation envoy does not have much money in the treasury, and the relief food I advanced to the displaced people in the first two months has not yet been settled. If I can't dig up the silver, even if I have the ability to go through the sky, I won't be able to buy food back. ”

Wang Huan glanced at him, thinking that the folk customs of this stone pillar are so simple, how could there be such a profiteer leader, it seems that this guy has made up his mind and is unwilling to take food relief anymore, but he is not right, Ma Chongming's reaction is normal.

Wang Huan said in a deep voice: "Don't worry about this, as long as the mine can be opened, I will definitely be able to dig out the silver!" ”

Ma Chongming pursed his lips and stopped making a sound, with a few words clearly written on his face: You just blow!

Shizhu in the Ming Dynasty, there are many mine supervisors who come and go, I have never seen a silver mine dug out, you are a young man who has not grown hair, you can dig out the mine? Who believes!

Seeing that he didn't move, Wang Huan frowned, and simply turned to the leader of the soldiers who followed him and said, "Leader Ma, please gather all your people, I have something to say!" ”

This leader of the pro-soldiers is a thousand generals of Qin Liangyu's standard battalion, although his official position is a thousand generals, there are only two hundred people under his command, all of whom bring to protect Wang Huan's safety. Shizhu Ma's surname is a big surname, most of the people are surnamed Ma, Qian's total name is Ma Xintian, about twenty-four or five years old, the age of the dragon spirit and tiger, tall and strong, bee waist and ape arms, national character face and thick eyebrows, very Tujia man's fierce spirit, wearing leather armor and standing on Wang Huan's side with a knife, at this moment listening to Wang Huan's instructions, he replied loudly, turned around and went to find someone.

Wang Huan said to Ma Chongming again: "Matou people, please also ask you to gather your subordinates and people, I have something to say." ”

Ma Chongming became worried: "Counselor Wang, do you want to use strength?" Could it be a problem? ”

Wang Huan said in a deep voice: "It's okay, if something goes wrong, I will take care of it, you just have to call someone over." ”

Ma Chongming's face was uncertain, obviously he didn't believe Wang Huan's words very much, and after planning for a long time, he went out to call people through the back door.

After the two left, Chen Ergou and Xu Goudan came up and asked puzzledly: "Wang Huan, oh no, Brother Huan, why do you have to use homeless people to mine?" Those homeless people don't want to forget it, they can use the stone pillar locals. ”

Wang Huan jumped off the wall, looked at the two of them and shook his head and said: "You have also heard, there are almost not many young and middle-aged men left in Shizhu, they are all seedlings of white pole soldiers, and they are the spark for building an army in the future. ”

Xu Goudan thought for a while and said, "But we only have two or three hundred people on hand, and there are twenty thousand people outside, can we suppress them?" ”

Wang Huan laughed, in his later life, he has seen street riots and crowd riots in countless countries, even if tens of thousands of people make trouble, as long as there are not behemoth-like forces quietly instigating support behind them, it only takes hundreds of police forces to suppress it to be quelled, the key is to see if the officials in charge dare to make up their minds at the risk of losing their black hats, and the displaced people outside have nothing to rely on, just rely on people who want to eat more, and wait for a stick and then throw a candy, it can be calmed down immediately, In the end, you have to obediently work according to your own will.

He patted the two of them on the shoulder and said vigorously: "There are so many people from Yangzhou, only the three of us survived in the end, the world is cold, life and death, we have all seen it, what else is there to be afraid of?" Wait a minute, you will follow me and go out together, do you two dare? ”

Chen Ergou and Xu Goudan had a white face, and the deafening scolding outside was almost around, and the restlessness of tens of thousands of people was not afraid of it, but the two of them barely hesitated at all, and nodded at the same time, Xu Goudan pursed his lips, and Chen Ergou shouted with a stalk on his neck: "What don't you dare, follow you, I'm not afraid of anything in my heart!" ”