That year, the weather in Tianjin was extremely abnormal, there was not a drop of rain for most of the year, the air was unusually dry, and the people in the city would not drink water for a while, and their throats would be as uncomfortable as fire, and their skin seemed to burst. That morning, after Song Xiaofei washed his face, his left eyelid kept jumping, and he had an ominous premonition in his heart. At noon, he received a letter from his brother Yuan Shidun, his hometown of Henan, there was a problem with eating! A group of 1,000 hungry people besieged Yuan Village, and they didn't know how long the regimental training in the village could last, and the local officials sent troops to suppress the mob and urgently asked for support!

If the Yuan family is not saved, Song Xiaofei will become a rootless duckweed in this world, he took the family letter, got into a carriage, and went straight to Li Hongzhang's mansion in Tianjin. Because the incident happened suddenly, without waiting for the housekeeper to report, he hurried to Li Hongzhang's study. Song Xiaofei was a frequent visitor to the Li Mansion, and the housekeeper saw that Song Xiaofei's face was anxious and did not stop him.

The door of the study was not closed, Li Hongzhang was wearing a gray robe, sitting at the table, burying his head in the thick stack of disaster reports, looking at it, he shed tears.

Song Xiaofei was very surprised to see Li Hongzhang crying outside the door! At this time, Li Hongzhang has never seen anything in the world, why is he crying? Four years ago, Li Hongzhang's mother died, Song Xiaofei went to his hometown in Hefei to pay respects, and Li Hongzhang never cried in front of himself.

Song Xiaofei knocked on the open door, Li Hongzhang looked up and saw Song Xiaofei, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with the sleeve of his robe, and said in a choked tone: "You came just in time, the old man is about to send someone to find you." ”

Song Xiaofei knew that something big had happened, and hid Yuan Shidun's letter asking for help behind his back, and asked, "Why did the teacher just cry?" Is it anything to do with me? ”

Li Hongzhang said: "Last year, the south suffered heavy rains, the northern provinces were drought, and the whole province of Zhili was hit by locust plagues. Originally, I thought that God would reward the people with a mouthful of food this year, and did not want the drought and locust plague to intensify, west of Baoding, south of the river, the drought locusts multiplied each other, the disaster area was very wide, the victims still picked alfalfa, elm leaves, elm bark for food in the spring, and then ate the leaves of the locust willow, and the grain eaters were not seen for many years, ten rooms and five, and the exiles and migrants, ten rooms and three. Especially in your hometown of Henan, there is a shortage of food in the disaster areas of the province, there is no bark and grass roots to dig up, tens of thousands of hungry people are starving to death, and many villages even have the tragedy of changing children and eating, the old man is deeply heartbroken and can't help crying! ”

Song Xiaofei listened to Li Hongzhang's sad complaint, his face was heavy, he took out Yuan Shidun's family letter, and said, "Master, do you want me to go back to Henan for disaster relief?" My brother also came to the family letter, saying that there was a great famine in Henan, but Henan is not directly subordinate to the territory, and it has its own parents and officials, is it appropriate for us to intervene?"

Li Hongzhang said: "Li Henian, the governor of Henan and the governor of the Donghe River, has reported the disaster to the imperial court. This year, not only Henan, Shanxi, Zhili, Shandong, and Shaanxi have suffered a major disaster, with more than 10 million victims, and the emperor has issued an edict for himself, and also ordered the old man to be the minister of the Qincha, sitting in Tianjin, coordinating the country's money and grain, and relieving the victims. The disaster situation in Henan is serious and the population is large, so you put aside the matter at hand and go to the field to investigate the disaster situation on my behalf. Pray that God can let the victims survive this cold winter, otherwise, the people are the foundation of the state, the food is the people, the sky falls, the hungry people will rise up, the world will be chaotic, and the disaster of long hair will be repeated! ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Human life is at stake, everything should be in the urgency of disaster relief, and the students will go back to pack their things." ”

Before Song Xiaofei returned to Henan, he said goodbye to Rong Rong. Rong Rong asked to go to the disaster area with Song Xiaofei, so that "Qiangguo Daily" could also contribute to disaster relief, and Song Xiaofei also wanted to use "Qiangguo Daily" to encourage squires and overseas Chinese abroad to donate money for disaster relief, so he agreed.

Song Xiaofei took Li Hongzhang's handwritten letter and Rong Rong back to Henan in a blue and green silk carriage. Wang Shizhen personally led 50 horsemen to escort him, and the group galloped at night and rushed to Kaifeng, the capital of Henan Province, to meet Li Henian, the governor of Henan and the governor of the East River.

When he arrived in Henan, the disaster was much more serious than Song Xiaofei imagined, all the way for thousands of miles, swarms of locusts, like flies, dense, buzzing in the air, as far as the eye could see, they were all in the shape of a dove, and what they heard was nothing more than a man crying and a woman crying. The dead are jammed, passing around the car, gasping for help, looking at the ground and stiffening, hungry and hungry.

When the group arrived at the boundary of Kaifeng, it was noon, the sun hung in the sky sickly, and the earth was cracked, like an open crocodile mouth. The trees on both sides of the road have not a single leaf, and the bark has been stripped by the victims! Together with the autumn wind, the loess on the hills is flying, and the eyes are full of desolation. About fifty yellow-skinned victims of the disaster, who wrote the words "The king's law is difficult to violate, and hunger is difficult", stopped Song Xiaofei and their carriage and asked for something to eat.

Seeing that some of the victims were holding hoes, sickles and other murder weapons, Wang Shizhen rode on a horse, pulled out the Mauser gun on his waist, fired two shots into the sky, and shouted: "You bandits, you really eat the heart of a bear and a leopard, and even dare to stop the carriage of the Admiral?" ”

Seeing this, the cavalry behind Wang Shizhen also immediately picked up their muskets, their fingers pressed against the trigger, and the muzzle of the gun was pointed at the gang of victims who were blocking the road and robbing.

This group of people is from a village, led by a septuagenarian, ragged, thin as a bamboo pole, the wind can fall, he threw away the sickle in his hand, knelt in front of Wang Shizhen's horse with a plop, hugged the horse's legs, cried with a sad face, and said: "Lord Qingtian, we have no other way to live, you can have pity on us, and reward us with a mouthful of food." My son and daughter-in-law have starved to death, and there is only a three-year-old grandson left in the family, he has not eaten for five days, and he is dying of hunger. ”

More than 50 people behind him saw the old man kneeling, and they also knelt in front of Song Xiaofei's carriage.

Song Xiaofei's carriage just stopped suddenly, he opened the curtain of the carriage, and saw that it was not bandits who were blocking the road, but the old, weak, sick and disabled victims, so he let go of Rong Rong's hand, got out of the carriage, helped up the old man kneeling on the ground, and asked: "The 'Chang Ping' reported by Henan has more than 950,000 stone valleys, didn't the government open a warehouse to release grain for disaster relief?" ”

Chang Ping originated from Li Kui's Pingli in Wei during the Warring States Period, that is, the political axe bought grain storage in the harvest year, so as not to hurt the peasants, sold the stored grain in the bad year to stabilize the grain price, and opened a warehouse to help the people in the year of famine, for thousands of years, successive rulers have done this, and the Qing Dynasty is no exception.

The old man burst into tears, shook his head and cried: "If you go back to your lordship, if there is disaster relief food, my son and daughter-in-law will not starve to death, they are very filial, and left the only little food left in the family to me and my grandson!" The victims of the disaster in our county went to the county government a few days ago to petition for grain, but the county official fled with his family the night before. ”

When Song Xiaofei heard it, this bastard Zhixian must be a corrupt official, who falsely reported the grain reserves that were often closed, but when the disaster came, he slipped away, so I had to be caught on the spot! It seems that this catastrophe is not only a natural disaster, but also [***], I don't know if Li Henian, the governor of Henan and the governor of the Donghe River, knows about this situation, and the disaster relief situation he is facing this time must be more severe, and Yuan Zhai doesn't know what is going on now. Song Xiaofei was in a state of confusion, but he still said to Wang Shizhen: "Give them all our dry food, we hurry up and rush to the Kaifeng Mansion, one day late, thousands of people will starve to death." ”

Wang Shizhen said: "We are in a hurry today, and we haven't eaten yet, are we giving them all the food?" ”

Song Xiaofei looked at the group of yellow-skinned victims and said, "Leave a little for Miss Rong." The rest of the men, bear with me, and we will rush to see Li Henian and have dinner at his mansion. ”

Wang Shizhen left two white-flour steamed buns for Rong Rong, Rong Rong got out of the carriage, personally handed the two steamed buns to the old man who had just knelt on the ground, and said, "Uncle, take this steamed bun back and give it to your grandson to eat." ”;