Chapter 52: Spring Return (I)

"Don't panic when the price of food is high, send your wife and children to the countryside first. One can avoid military disasters, and the other is to eat a lot in the countryside, and you can deal with a full stomach with just elm money! ”

"I really couldn't help it, so I hurried south. Zhu Fozi is a bodhisattva, he saved the people of Yangzhou back then, and later saved the victims of Suiyang and Xuzhou, as long as everyone arrived on the land of the Huai'an army, he would not watch everyone starve to death! ”

After the beginning of spring, two rumors spread on both sides of the canal.

The first is common sense for everyone. As long as it is not a natural disaster, it is definitely easier to find a bite to eat in the countryside after the beginning of spring than in the city. Artemisia, reed sprouts, shepherd's cabbage, and bamboo shoots are all good seasonal freshness, and they can be eaten with half of the rice. And when you are in a hurry, elm money, tree bark, pine needles, and willow leaves can all be used to feed your stomach. Anyway, as long as the summer grain in the field is ripe, there will be a chance to breathe, and it will not starve to death!

Second, there are facts of the past. Although Zhu Tuhu's reputation is not very good in the mouths of scholars and scholars, his feat of saving millions of Li Shu in Yangzhou and taking in nearly two million victims of Suixu is obvious to all in the world. The Mengyuan government and the scholars who were loyal to Dayuan couldn't cover it up even if they tried to cover it up in a different way.

As a result, north of the Yellow River, some cities near the canal, there is an extremely strange scene after the beginning of spring. A large number of small people in the market, with their wives and children, secretly moved south along the river that had not yet thawed. At the beginning, there were still a few sporadic waves, and they still had official instructions in their hands or forged them themselves to cope with the inspection of checkpoints along the way. In the blink of an eye, it was completely out of control, and many bold guys, not only refused to take out the road guide or copper money to make some official errands, but if they were slightly unsatisfactory, they rushed to the level, and beat the errand and helpers who tried to split the meat on the legs of the heron.

"Isn't this grain price just rising, more than tripled?" The local officials, who thought they could take a full New Year's holiday, were angry and scolded the scoundrels under their rule. Except for last year, when does the price of grain not double in the spring? If the price of grain in the spring is always the same as in the autumn harvest, whose money will the owners of the grain stores make?

However, common sense is this common sense, and the officials cannot explain it to the people under their rule. In the eyes of those "stubborn people", the reputation of the government of the Great Yuan Dynasty is opposite. If the government doesn't explain, they may be able to restore stability on their own after a while. As soon as the government comes forward to explain, it often gets darker and darker, and the people who originally had no intention of fleeing will immediately roll up and leave!

It is certainly not the way to let the people under his rule flee south. Those cities close to the Yellow River are easy to manage, anyway, the Huai'an army is about to fight, and the local officials will surrender when the time comes, holding the gold seal and household registration booklet. The emperor of the capital city definitely didn't have the energy to investigate whether they were slacking off at the last moment. And Lingzhou, Nanpi, Cangzhou, Qingzhou and other places will not be. These places are closer to the capital than to the Yellow River, and the soldiers and horses of the imperial court will definitely have to go forward along the canal. In case it reached the ground, it was necessary to recruit the people to serve on the spot, and the commander who led the troops saw that the people in the city had fled. The first knife that was swung was probably slashed at the head of the local official.

"Someone, give me a notice. From now on, the price of rice and noodles in various grain shops is not allowed to rise further. Those who have a headwind to raise prices, or hoard, will be punished as a crime! "When the officials found that their heads were threatened, they immediately had a lot less scruples about doing things. The first ruthless move was used on the wealthy businessmen who usually come and go quite frequently.

Those who can afford to open a grain store are certainly not ordinary people. As long as there is no harm to the officials, the local officials will turn a blind eye to their behavior when they read their filial piety and continuous affection for the four seasons. But at the critical moment, you are still patronizing yourself to make a fortune, but you don't care about the life or death of the official master, then don't blame the officials for being ruthless. It's a big deal, everyone pulls each other to die together. Don't expect yourself to stand next to someone else's corpse and count the gold!

"Come on, from tomorrow, the officials and messengers of each class will take their disciples to inspect the place, and if there is no one at home, and the head of the house cannot vouch for him, the house and family property will be seized. Unless the head of the household takes the initiative to go to the yamen to explain it clearly within ten days. Otherwise, after half a month at most, it will be confiscated! ”

The second ruthless move was slashed at the local ordinary people who were vacillating. Don't you want to run away, it's okay, the monk can't run away from the temple. The government is worried that it has no money to deal with the army of the imperial court, so it just sold your family property to pay the bill. If you are not so poor that there is no place to insert a needle under the tile, calm down and think about it yourself, and lose all your family property after listening to a few rumors, is it worth it!

"Come on, send invitations to Master Zhang, Master Wang, Master Li, Master Sun, as well as Master Bao and Master Semuma. It is said that the official recently saw that the plum blossoms in the garden were about to bloom, and wanted to invite them to the yamen to drink and enjoy the plum blossoms! "The third trick looks much more elegant and more targeted.

Those who can argue with local officials are either first-class big families, or there are people in the family who are or used to be officials. These people are not offended too badly, so it is a necessary process to invite them to the yamen to communicate carefully. Whether it is to stabilize food prices or force those cowards who hide in the countryside back to the city, they are inseparable from their nods and support. In case the Huai'an army comes to the city, whether to defend or surrender locally needs to be discussed with them in advance

After a lot of tossing and turning, at the end of the first month, this sudden tide of "escaping from famine" was finally contained. But the price of food, as local officials had hoped, was firmly frozen at a point where people would not starve to death. In just over 20 days after the opening of the episode, it has been hitting new heights every day. In the blink of an eye, it jumped from two to three times as usual to more than ten times. And also somersault, continue to climb higher clouds.

The local wealthy merchants and gentry promised well in person, but after that, instead of using the strength to deal with the common people together with the government, they tried every means to buy or sell it, artificially creating panic. Even if some officials were ruthless, under their own rule, they caught a few guys who didn't open their eyes and didn't have hard enough roots to cut off their heads. After that, the price of food still rose without negotiation.

The roots are so hard that even the government does not dare to start easily, there are not many people in every road and state, only two or three households. But the openings created by these two or three families were enough to make the last efforts of local officials go to waste. Under their frenzied profit-seeking behavior, not only the price of food is soaring, but cloth, silk, porcelain, livestock, and wood have also begun to follow suit. Even the shepherd's cabbage that can be dug up casually in the countryside will skyrocket in value as long as it enters the city. In this regard, the vegetable vendors also have their own explanations. After a busy day, I had to change back two dry steamed buns to satisfy myself. Otherwise, tomorrow morning I will be dizzy with hunger, and how will I have the strength to carry the burden out of the city again?

"It would be nice if the Huai'an Army had come over earlier. As long as the Huai'an army arrives, no one will be able to run away from those big dogs who hoard food and don't let everyone have enough to eat! Because they were reluctant to give up their family property, the people who were forcibly tied up in the city by the government soon found the culprit. Privately, quietly complaining.

"The official master wants to starve everyone to death in the city. The crowd was not as he wished. Dig wild vegetables and eat bran to deal with today, and when the Huai'an army arrives, everyone will immediately find a way to dedicate the city! "Some of the brave ones came up with the simplest solution. There is no food to eat during the war, so let the war end as soon as possible. As long as one side can win, no matter which side it is, everyone will naturally be relieved

When the majority of the population in a city does not have enough to eat, the whole city becomes a volcano that can erupt at any moment. No matter how many officers and soldiers are stationed there, no matter how many bloody heads are hung on the city walls.

"Open the door to welcome King Wu, and when King Wu comes, he will release grain!"

"The north wind ends, and the south wind returns. Look at Zhu Chengbi's non-upset, the five virtues are born and overcome each other! ”

"Fire gives birth to earth, earth gives birth to gold, the golden light is gone, the fire returns, the chill recedes, and spring returns!"

If the complaints of the common people are only at the level of venting, they do not pose a real threat to the local government of the Great Yuan Dynasty. The folk songs that were spread secretly began to punish the scholars and doctors.

Although Zhu Chongjiu himself scoffed at the numerology of ghosts and gods. Although from the moment it was first established, the Huaiyang Grand Governor's Office openly denied the theory of the reincarnation of the five virtues. But north of the Yellow River, it is not under his jurisdiction. The vast majority of scholars north of the Yellow River still believe in the Five Virtues.

According to the official revision of Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, the five virtues are born together. It is to take Yu as the soil virtue, and give birth to Jindexia. Jindexia, and the water and German businessmen. And so on, after Huo De Song, it should naturally be Tude Jin, and then it was Jinde's turn to be Dayuan.

However, the official is official, but the people have always circulated that the five virtues will not only be born together, but also will be mutually restrained. Zhu Butcher took killing as his practice, and killed 10,000 pigs before regaining his spiritual wisdom. Later, he changed the gunpowder formula to make artillery guns, so he must be a fire virtue. According to the judgment of the five elements, the Great Yuan of Jinde is destined to be melted by the Great Wu of Huode. The Mongol cavalry, which came with the cold air of the north, was also doomed to defeat at the hands of the Huai'an army, which wore the warm spring of the south.

Instead of complaining about the common people, both the officials and the local gentry began to panic after listening to the folk songs that came from nowhere.

This thing is so wicked. From the alternation of Shang and Zhou, to the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the Zhou and Song dynasties, almost every change of dynasty in Chinese history has a corresponding folk song that gives a hint first. In the past, the sentence "peach and plum, the queen goes to Yangzhou" caused Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty to use crazy means to kill all suspicious generals surnamed Li. In the end, it was still inevitable that the Yang family would be replaced by the Taiyuan Li family. Now, the Huo De of Zhu Tuhu, which is indicated in the folk songs, is going to replace Jinde's Dayuan. As an ordinary man, do you dare to go against the sky?