It is said that there is a chance that life is unsatisfactory, and this time Yang Zhen can be regarded as understanding the reality of this statement. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info spent a lot of manpower in the county government and used a lot of food to investigate the people in the county, but still could not find any trace of the White Lotus Sect. It seems that they have long since left Zhuji County, or there is another hidden hiding place that is easy to be overlooked.

Seeing that there was not much food left in the warehouse, and there was still no gain, Yang Chen had to temporarily stop this action. Although those officials did not mean to blame Yang Zhen in their mouths, from the words and deeds of these people, Yang Zhen still clearly felt the disappointment of the yamen in him. This made Yang Zhen's mood a little depressed.

At this time, only Ruan Tong and Wang Hai, two good brothers from the past, were still firmly on Yang Zhen's side, constantly comforting and encouraging him: "Erlang, you don't have to be discouraged, your previous judgment was not wrong, anyone else would do this." It's just that the opponents you meet are too cunning and hide deeply. ”

In this regard, Yang Zhen was not greatly affected. He was not a person who would be easily discouraged, so he was a little unhappy, just because he felt that he had burdened his brother and made the situation of the county more dangerous. After all, he had already learned the original words of Shen Qianyuan, the prefect of Shaoxing, from Yang Chen, and knew that if he couldn't let the people of Zhuji County get back on track, he was afraid that Yang Chen's county order would not be able to continue.

"I know your intentions, and I won't be discouraged by this." Yang Zhen regained his spirits, and then looked at the two of them gratefully and said, "Things have not reached an irreparable situation, I will not retreat because of such a small setback." ”

Seeing him talk like this, Ruan Tong and the others finally put their minds at ease.

As a result, everything returned to its previous state, and the county government still distributed gruel to the people every day, looking like they were boiling through the days. But no one knows how long the county government can hold out, and maybe when the grain in the warehouse runs out, what awaits them will be a catastrophe.

But soon, a shocking news made the county government know whether to be happy or worried.

In the early morning of the 23rd, the four grain and rice shops of the Li family, which had long been closed and said that there was no grain to sell, suddenly reopened. However, the price board hanging in the middle of the store is very clearly written, this time the price of rice per catty is 45 Wen, no counteroffer, no credit!

For a while, the people of the entire Zhuji county gathered in front of these grain stores, pointing and discussing, and some people even directly argued with the boss of the store: "The price of your grain is also too high, in the past, a pound of rice was only six or seven wen, even when the green and yellow were not available, it was not fifteen wen." This time, the price has tripled, and it is clear that it is robbing everyone's money, which is really inappropriate. ”

Those fellows had already been instructed, and as soon as they heard others talk like this, they replied with a smile: "We also open the door to do business, but we don't mean to force you to buy our high-priced grain." These rices were bought by our proprietor from elsewhere with great difficulty, and the price was naturally higher than in the past. If you don't want to buy it, don't buy it. Anyway, our prices and rice are here, and they will definitely not change. ”

Seeing that these people were so tough, the people really had nothing to do with them except to whisper or curse. Indeed, they just give a price, and it is the people's own business whether to buy it or not.

However, the people live on food. In the case that the gruel supplied by the county government is getting thinner and thinner, and eating it makes people feel hungry more than not eating, as long as these people still have some money, even if they know that the Li family is taking advantage of the fire to rob, they can only endure their anger to buy food.

And once the first one spends a lot of money on high-priced grain, there will be a second and a third to do so...... Soon, some people whose homes were in the county seat and who still had some money no longer went to the county government to receive porridge, but lined up in front of the grain stores of the four Li families.

Seeing this situation, the people who had taken refuge in the county town were red-eyed. The sages all said that the people do not suffer from widowhood but suffer from inequality, and now the people in the county can buy food, but what should they do if they have no money?

Those grain stores seemed to have been prepared for a long time, and soon news came out that if you want to buy grain but have no money, it is not impossible, then you need to use houses and land as mortgages.

As long as those rural people are willing to agree to sell their houses and land, convert them into money, and take them to the county government to get the relevant certificates, the grain store can provide them with equivalent grain.

When homes and food are placed in front of people, even if these people have more reluctance in their hearts, in order to survive, they can only endure this breath.

When Yang Chen and the others learned that the Li family had started to sell high-priced grain, everyone felt a burst of anger. And when the news came that the Li family accepted that the people sold their fields and houses into silver to buy grain, everyone couldn't help but scold, which was clearly taking advantage of the fire to rob and annex the land.

Among them, Jiang Chong's face was the most gloomy: "I knew before that they had bought a lot of grain, but I didn't expect it to be used for clever grabbing, which is really despicable!" Because he was originally a member of the Li family, he must be the first to express his attitude at this time.

Yang Chen only felt a tightness in his heart, but he thought about it more deeply than Jiang Chong, what took the opportunity to make a fortune, this was just an appearance. The real intention of the Li family to do this is to deal with him, the county commander.

When the government is unable to provide living security for the people, but the Li family can provide high-priced food, some people will certainly scold Li Chenggang in their hearts that they are profiteers, but more people will point the finger at him, the county magistrate of Zhuji. It was precisely because of his inaction as a county magistrate that he could not provide enough food to the people, so the people had to pawn their family property to buy the high-priced grain.

Perhaps at the beginning, the people would only hate the Li family because they bought the grain from the Li family, and it was also their property that the Li family bought. But after a few days, when they are really homeless, have no land to plant, and can only be vassalized under the Li family as a tenant farmer, the anger of the people will be vented on the head of Yang Chen, the county commander. In this way, no matter how many good deeds he has done before, he is still an incompetent magistrate in the eyes of the people.

And this kind of public opinion is easily perceived by the officials above, and the Li family doesn't even need to come forward themselves, they can use this public opinion to drive Yang Chen from the position of the county commander. As for how much benefit the Li family can gain in this matter, it doesn't seem to be the most important thing.

"What a trick to kill people with a knife!" Yang Zhen also obviously figured this out, and his face became extremely gloomy: "Big brother, we must not let this matter continue, we must come up with a solution." Otherwise, once things deteriorate further, not to mention that you have been hated by the prefect now, there is no such thing, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to keep the official position of the county order. ”

Yang Chen smiled bitterly when he heard this: "I naturally know that the matter is urgent. But now that the Li family is in charge, even if I am a county magistrate, I can't force people not to sell food. If this is really done, I am afraid that it will cause more dissatisfaction among the people and the people, and it will only be even more unbearable at that time. ”

Although the status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty was not high, they still had a certain degree of security. At least the government can't force them to sell or not to sell something. Not to mention Yang Chen's small seven-grade county order, even if he is the governor of Zhejiang, in the face of such a situation, the most he can do is to persuade him, hoping that the other party can come to his senses.

Of course, under normal circumstances, since these businessmen still need to deal with the government, they will not really do things absolutely and will always obey the government's arrangements. But this time, the Li family was determined to deal with Yang Chen, so it was impossible to be persuaded by his county order at all.

Seeing that his brother was so depressed at this moment, Yang Zhen felt even more uncomfortable. If it weren't for his previous proposal to give all the grain transported by Zhao Bangfu to the people, things might not have been so bad, at least the county government could still support it for some time. But now, the county government doesn't even have a chance to fight a food war with the Li family.

"It's been twenty-three days, why haven't they come back yet?" There has never been a moment when Yang Zhen misses someone so much.

But since the previously arranged rear hand has not been able to arrive, and the general attack of the Li family has begun again, if it drags on for a few more days, things will become out of control, so Yang Zhen decided to take a risk.

I saw that his eyes suddenly flashed with a strange fierce light, and he stepped forward and said to Yang Chen, who was still full of decadence: "Now, big brother, we may only have one way." ”

"Huh? Do you have any other ideas? Yang Chen looked at his brother's eyes full of murderous intent, and his heart also slammed out, and he vaguely seemed to think of something.

Yang Zhen nodded lightly: "Everything was forced by them." Since Li Chenggang and they dare to be the first year of junior high school, then don't blame us for doing fifteen! Big Brother ......"

As Yang Zhen said something, he only heard Yang Chen's face change greatly, and he wanted to shake his head several times to veto this method, but in the end, the crisis in front of him still made him have to make a compromise!

At the same time, on the river with a waterway of about 100 miles away from Zhuji County, Cai Yingyang's father and brother Cai Kewen and Cai Feiyang, who were remembered by Yang Zhen, and Wei Yong, the head of the county government team who had not appeared for a long time, were standing on the deck of a big ship. This big ship was followed by more than a dozen similar ships, each loaded with sacks full of grain that Zhuji County needed most.

Their faces were full of eagerness, and two days ago, shortly after turning from the canal into the Qiantang River, they already knew that there had been a major flood in Zhejiang during this period, especially in Shaoxing Province.

Thinking that their homeland was being attacked by the flood at this moment, and thinking of the food problem that existed before, several people on this ship couldn't wait to appear outside Zhuji City immediately.

"Lord Yang, please wait another day or two, we will be able to bring the food you need soon!" Cai Kewen muttered silently in his heart, raising his eyes to look south, in the direction of Zhuji County.