Song Yun'er said hatefully: "It's really unkind to be rich!" ”

"It's for the sake of the officials!" Yang Qiuchi said, "The official food for disaster relief in the imperial court has already arrived, why has it not been distributed for a long time, seeing that the disaster victims like Hui'er's parents and younger brothers in the city are starving to death, allowing the merchants to hoard and wantonly raise the price of grain, and the people of fish and meat, there must be something greasy in this." ”

Yang Qiuchi asked Xia Ping to take Mrs. Bai, Bai Sumei, the little maid Hui'er and the two officials of Ying Tianfu back to the post station first, and he took the rest of the people straight to the yamen of the Wuchang prefect to ask what was going on.

On the way, Master Jin reminded in a low voice: "My lord, there have been people who have made a fortune through disaster relief since ancient times, and these people dare to brave the world's condemnation, obviously they have something to rely on. We must be cautious. ”

Yang Qiuchi nodded: "What Mr. Jin said is extremely true, I remember it." ”

There is a large square in front of the yamen of the prefect of Wuchang Prefecture, which is specially used for celebrations. Next to the yamen, there is a high platform more than one person high, dozens of square sizes, which is specially used for criminals to display their flail to the public.

There is a flagpole on this high platform. Yang Qiuchi asked Master Jin and then he knew that this was used to show the head of the owl to the public. Sometimes, however, it was hung at the gates of the city.

The square in front of the yamen covers a wide area, and it is empty in ordinary times, and ordinary people walk around, but at this moment it is full of disaster victims. Many arresters, people, and officers and soldiers stood in front of the gate of the yamen and stood on guard.

Yang Qiuchi and others came to the prefect's yamen, handed over the stickers, and gave the porter a tael of silver, saying that there was something important. After waiting for a while, Yang Qiuchi and others were introduced into the yamen from the side gate, and the rest of the people waited in the gatehouse, Yang Qiuchi took Master Jin and Nangong Xiong to the living room, and waited for a while, the tea was cold, and Lord Tan, the prefect of Wuchang Mansion, appeared.

Governor Tan sat in the middle of the big thorn, didn't lift his eyelids, and asked, "What is the matter with your county looking for this mansion?" Say, this house is busy. ”

"Lord Tan, I went to Qingxi County, Yuanzhou, Huguang Town, to take up my post, passed through Wuchang, and saw the hungry people all over the city.

Hearing this, Governor Tan's eyelids rolled, and he said unhappily: "Lord Yang, you are the magistrate of Qingxi County, if you want to take care of the affairs of my Wuchang Mansion, this hand is not long enough!" ”

"No, no, my lord, you misunderstood, the lower official just asked casually out of curiosity."

Governor Tan snorted in his nostrils: "This is the responsibility of this government, and this government will naturally handle the disaster relief matter, so I won't worry about it." ”

Yang Qiuchi said: "I heard that the imperial court's disaster relief grain has already arrived, why ......?"

"The matter of distributing disaster relief grain is the matter of the government's own measure, and there is no need for your county to remind you!" Governor Tan was very unhappy with a straight face.

"But the city is full of hungry people, starving to death, freezing to death, abound......"

Governor Tan slapped the table: "Lord Yang, you said that there is something important, is this important thing to come to ask the mansion for the crime?" Hum! ”

"Don't dare, the lower official is just ......"

Governor Tan didn't even talk about the basic etiquette of serving tea to guests, stood up with a sigh, flicked his robe, and turned around and entered the back hall. The attendant next to him pulled his neck and shouted: "Send off guests~!" ”

Yang Qiuchi looked at the back of Governor Tan's mansion and sneered in his heart, it seems that for the sake of the victims in the city, it is necessary to use his privilege as the envoy of the Jinyi Guard.

At this moment, the sun was already setting in the west, and the hungry people in the square in front of the yamen had increased a lot, shivering and huddling together in the bitter north wind.

Song Yun'er said strangely: "What's the matter with these people, it's so empty here, there is no shelter from the wind and rain, they all come here to join in the fun!" ”

"It's not a fun, they're waiting to put food." Yang Qiuchi sighed, and then, raised his eyes and looked into the distance, and said a little strangely: "You have found that there are more and more people." There are still quite a few people slowly walking towards this side. ”

Song Yun'er listened to Yang Qiuchi's reminder and also noticed this problem: "Yes, I was still in twos and threes just now, why are there so many people who are so good at kung fu." ”

"Ask them what they're doing here? Could it be that the warehouse was opened today to release grain? ”

"Hmm." Song Yun'er agreed, ran over and asked a few victims, ran back, and said, "Brother, you are really a god, that is, the second watch will release food tonight." ”

"Second more grain?" Yang Qiuchi was stunned for a moment, how could he choose to put grain in the second watch? It was dark then. No, when I went to see the official-minded Tan Prefect just now, if I put food tonight, this can be regarded as a good thing that can show my face, then Tan Prefect just said it straightforwardly, how much face, why bother so much to prevaricate myself.

Could it be that this Tan Governor didn't know that he was going to release grain tonight, it would be strange, the people in charge of the grain didn't know about the grain tonight, so where did the news of the grain release come from? What is the intention of those who spread the news?

Yang Qiuchi personally stepped forward to ask a few victims, but they all listened to what others said, and they couldn't say who said it, anyway, they were all spread like this.

I can't ask what happened, so let's go back to the post station first.

The post station is next to the Yamen of the Political Secretary, and when he came here, Yang Qiuchi suddenly remembered that the newly harvested little maid Hui'er had said that the food for disaster relief in the imperial court had not been distributed before it was set on fire, why was it so strange, thinking of what happened just now, the more he thought about it, the more strange it became, and he decided to go to the scene to have a look.

The granary is in the Yamen of the Political Division, Yang Qiuchi came in the morning, the porter recognized him, and also knew that he gave a generous gift to the political envoy, and heard Yang Qiuchi say that he wanted to visit the Yamen of the Political Secretary, so he politely let him in, Yang Qiuchi asked Master Long to reward him with two taels of silver, and the porter was even more happy.

Yang Qiuchi said that he wanted to see the granary that caught fire some time ago, and wanted to ask this concierge to accompany him to take a look. Seeing that Yang Qiuchi was generous, the porter happily agreed, found someone to temporarily take over, and took the lead to take Yang Qiuchi to the ruins of the granary.

The porter introduced as he walked: "The granary of the Yamen of the Chief Minister's Yamen is on the right side of the Yamen, and before it was burned down, it could be regarded as heavily guarded, but now it has been burned to ashes, and there is no need to guard here." ”

Yang Qiuchi asked: "Do you know about the granary fire that night?" ”

"Of course the little one knows, I was on duty in the porter at that time, and I was almost scared to death." The porter said with some palpitations, "I slept in a daze that night, and I heard the water outside~!" Gone out of the water~! It was as if the sound was close to my ears. ”

"I was so frightened that I got up, put on my clothes and ran out of the door to see, good fellow, the smoke was billowing and the ashes drifting down the wind choked my nose. I grabbed my shoes and ran to the granary to see if I could help. But as soon as I ran to the granary, I saw that the roof of a granary had burned through, and the red flames were screaming and rushing upward, which scared people to death! ”

Yang Qiuchi stopped and asked with great interest, "Did you see the roof burned through?" ”

"Yes, there was smoke coming out of the roof, and then the flames came out of the roof, and it burned bigger and bigger, and then it spread to all the granaries, and half of the sky was red, and it burned from late night until dawn, and finally it was extinguished. I've never seen such a big fire since I was a kid. ”

"Are the granaries all next to each other?"

"Yes, one building after another, only ten steps apart, there are more than ten buildings in total, all of which are filled with grain transported by the imperial court, what a pity!" The porter shook his head and sighed, and said: "Fortunately, the yamen lobby and mansion are far away, and the water dragon team arrived in time to put out the fire, and the yamen was saved, but so much food was all burned to ashes." ”

"It's a pity, if it is released to the common people, how many hungry people can be saved." Yang Qiuchi sighed.

"That's it!" The porter also sighed, "The two political envoys were so angry that they almost went crazy, and they arrested the guards who caught fire, saying that they would punish the crime and behead them, but what is the use of this." ”

"Where, remember, you saw the fire burning through the roof?"

The porter looked down and thought for a while, and said, "It seems that the second granary in the north was the first to catch fire," and after thinking about it again, he shook his head, "No, no, it seems to be the third ......, no, it seems that the second was first, and then the third granary also burned through the roof, and then it burned everywhere, and then it burned everywhere, I can't remember clearly, anyway, there were fires everywhere later." ”

After listening to the porter's words, Yang Qiuchi nodded thoughtfully, and asked again, "Do you remember the wind that night?" What kind of wind is blowing? ”

"Scrape! It's windy! How can it not be windy in the cold winter, as for what kind of wind it is, I have to think about it," the porter frowned, knocking his finger on the door of his head, "I remember, I remember that the fire fighting team has been shouting, tear down the house in the south, so as to block the fire road, by the way, it was a north wind blowing at that time, yes, the fire is also to the south." ”

Speaking of this, the porter was a little strange and asked, "My lord, what are you asking these ......?"

"Oh, hehe, it's nothing, I'm also curious, I also heard that this fire was so big that it almost burned down the yamen, so come in and take a look, and others will ask in the future, so that they can tell them about the ancients." Hey. Yang Qiuchi casually made up a reason.

The porter immediately believed it, and nodded again and again: "Yes, such a big fire is really rare." ”

As he spoke, he came to the burned granary. The granary was surrounded by a wall more than a foot high. When I entered the inside, I looked up, and sure enough, there was a large piece of ruins and broken walls, and the wooden shelves that had not been completely burned were lying there in the dark.

Yang Qiuchi asked the porter: "Where did you see the first fire at that time?" ”

The porter pointed to the wreckage of a broken wall to the north: "That's it, the roof of the second granary counted from the north was burned through, and then the roof of the third building was also burned through. ”

(To be continued)