Chapter Twenty-Six: Grain, Grain!
"You think I'll believe it?" Wang Dalun said angrily. Although everyone is hungry, cannibalism is beyond his psychological tolerance, and he really wants to order the regiment to kill all the people in front of him at this moment.
"Really! If you don't believe me, ask everyone! We didn't dare to deceive the adults, we were so hungry that we ate all the leaves. My lord, we have to live too! The cook burst into tears.
"Then you eat people, are you comfortable?" Wang Dalun asked.
"We are not brutes! Not a beast! If we had a choice, would we eat it? All of us are not crying and eating at the same time, there are our relatives here! The cook shouted.
"I just saw you arresting children, and you still said that you didn't want to eat living people?"
"My lord, we really can't help it! Now we don't have anything to eat! Everyone said that if you die anyway, you have to be a full ghost, so let's eat children first! The cook cried.
"Very good logic! But I can't forgive you! If you propose to snatch the children, stand up for me, and let me work in the mines, and spend five years of labor to wash away your sins! Wang Dalun said.
Sui Peng listened to it and began the interrogation work, and found out more than 100 people who participated in the snatching of children from these hungry people, Wang Dalun was not polite to them, and directly ordered them to be detained alone, and then thrown into the mine to work as coolies! Let them reflect on what they have done in the midst of heavy physical labor.
After the screening was completed, Wang Dalun still ordered to start giving relief to the hungry people, and when the hungry people drank the hot porridge, they were all so excited that they shed tears. Everyone is very grateful to Wang Dalun, this is a big savior!
Seeing the hungry people eating porridge with a happy face, Wang Dalun was in a heavy mood, he walked next to Fang Wenjin, and said worriedly: "Father-in-law, it seems that the situation is not optimistic!" It is estimated that there are more hungry people in the city! ”
"Yes! Will we be able to feed the hungry? Fang Wenjin also said very heavily.
"Whatever, let's go to the city! I asked Li Jiang to speed up faster, hoping that Yan'an Mansion would not be an adult in hell. Wang Dalun exhaled and said slowly.
The further the team went, the more hungry people they encountered, Wang Dalun learned the lesson of the last time, let the horse team rush to the front, as soon as he saw the hungry people's team, immediately sent someone to shout, let them put down their weapons, gather and wait for relief.
Wang Dalun's team is like a snowball, rolling bigger and bigger, in just two hours, his team has approached tens of thousands of people, at this time Wang Dalun's palms are sweating! With so many people, with their own two thousand people, they can't be suppressed at all, and in case of chaos, this is not enough to stuff people's teeth.
Fortunately, at this time, Tian Boguang stood up, he divided the hungry people into several teams, and the middle-aged men were all divided into several search teams, so that they could lead the way in front of the team, while the women, children, and old and young were taken hostages by him and stayed in the team.
It wasn't until the strong men honestly opened the way in front that Wang Dalun finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Old man, you still have a way!" I was afraid of these people just now! ”
"You still have a lot to learn in the future, now we have to hurry into the city, so many people, it is very unsafe in the wild, a wind and grass, there may be a camp roar!"
Tian Boguang said very seriously, in his opinion, these refugees are a huge powder keg that will explode at any time, and they are very nervous now.
When they arrived at the city gate, Wang Dalun's team had gathered nearly 50,000 people, and many hungry people saw or heard someone putting food, and all of them took the initiative to follow.
Even Tian Boguang was sweating now, and as far as the eye could see, there were all black and oppressive people, and their eyes were glowing green!
"Stop! Can't go any further! Put food on the spot, let these hungry people eat something first, give them some hope, or we won't be able to enter the city!" At this time, Fang Wenjin suddenly said loudly.
"Here? We're not going into town? Wang Dalun asked.
"You don't understand, we brought so many people, and if I were the prefect, I didn't dare to let so many people into the city, settle these people first, and then we will slowly enter the city!" Fang Wen said in and out.
"Set up camp on the spot and distribute food!" Wang Dalun shouted.
The hungry people were wondering why the procession had stopped, when they suddenly heard the word of rationing, and they all cried out excitedly, they were now walking hard, and their stomachs were already hungry and thirsty.
Tian Boguang sent half of the group members out of the gang and asked them to be responsible for maintaining order, and whichever group of people obeyed the rules, let them cook porridge first. Under the temptation of things, everyone quietly obeyed the orders of the group, and after a while, they saw the smoke of the cooking, and the ground was full of people waiting.
Bags of grain were divided, looking at the empty carts, Wang Dalun secretly complained in his heart, this food is consumed too quickly, and the existing grain can't last half a month.
After a while, the person sent by Wang Dalun to contact Yan'an Mansion came back and brought a depressing news, as Fang Wenjin said, Huang Zhengxiang did not allow the hungry people to enter the city.
"What about the grain? He doesn't provide a little food? Wang Dalun hurriedly asked.
"Nope! Governor Huang said that there is also tension in the city now, and there is not much food to be distributed, so let you overcome it temporarily! "Someone came with another piece of bad news.
"Overcome temporarily? How to overcome! Will I turn food out? Wang Dalun scolded angrily.
"Dalun, settle the refugees first! I went to the city to see Governor Huang, and asked him to provide some bedding, no matter how bad it was, I had to provide some forage, and I had to give these refugees a place to sleep at night, because it was very cold at night. ”
"Father-in-law, you can go with confidence, I will settle down!" Wang Dalun sighed and said slowly.
When Fang Wenjin entered the city, Wang Dalun called out to the group on the side and said, "Pass my order, whoever wants to eat food tomorrow will work for me." Let them rest and dig a nest for me, and don't blame me if anyone doesn't dig and freeze to death at night! ”
When the hungry people heard Wang Dalun's order, in order not to be frozen to death at night, they began to use various tools to dig a nest in the area designated by Wang Dalun, which is commonly known as a hole in the ground.
"Tell our brethren that we will set up camp and make it strong for me, so that the hungry people will not be allowed to come in!" Wang Dalun said to Tian Boguang, there is no way, Tian Boguang is still experienced in this kind of thing.
Tian Boguang recruited many young and strong hungry people at the cost of two taels of grain per person, and under his command, the hungry people finally set up camp after two hours, and they were almost exhausted, and their good camp can almost be said to be a small city wall.
"Hey, I said old man, is it necessary, you see that the regiments are idle, and you have wasted so much food, is it necessary to build such a solid camp? It's not a war! "Wang Dalun is now in charge, and he knows that wealth and rice are expensive, and he is very heartbroken about Tian Boguang's waste.
"You still haven't seen my intentions? I am draining the physical strength of these hungry people, who are the main force of the hungry people, and they are the same people who want to make trouble, so I will draw a salary from the bottom of the kettle, so that the brothers can sleep soundly at night. Tian Boguang explained slowly.
"Old man, you are really scheming!" Wang Dalun said with admiration, when the brothers are familiar with the defense, they will not be afraid that the hungry people will come to steal the camp.
I have to say that Fang Wenjin's face is still very big, when he went out, he asked for a hundred carts of forage from Huang Zhengxiang, and the hungry people lit bonfires at night and slept in the holes covered with grass, and basically they could survive the night.
"Father-in-law, what do you say about the grain?" Wang Dalun is still very concerned about the food issue.
He said no! In the early stage, the hungry people came, and the treasury was almost released, and now the treasury can run horses. Fang Wenjin spread his hands and said helplessly.
"Hey, it looks like we still have to figure it out! Let's see if you can buy food in the city! Wang Dalun said with a sigh.
"Tomorrow I will visit the big families in the city, you go to buy grain, and see if you can get some food," Fang Wenjin arranged.
"Okay, no problem!" Wang Dalun nodded.
The next day, Wang Dalun and Fang Wenjin entered the city early, because the displaced people were properly settled, and now the city gate can still enter and exit at will, but the displaced people are not allowed to enter, and those who want to enter the city must pay a city entrance fee of 50 Wen. Therefore, except for some homeless people who have well-to-do families or seek refuge with relatives and friends, most of them have been turned away.
When Wang Dalun entered the city, looking at the slightly deserted streets and sparse pedestrians, Wang Dalun said curiously: "There are still two different times in the city and outside the city, and the brothels, teahouses, and restaurants in the city are still open as usual, and they have not been affected much." ”
"No matter how poor the place is, there will be rich people, and no matter how rich the place is, there will be poor people, so this is a normal thing, and the big families still have a lot of food in their hands." Fang Wenjin didn't feel strange, and said as a matter of course.
"I hope these big families can cooperate, father-in-law, I'm going to buy food!" Wang Dalun sighed, and then parted ways with Fang Wenjin.
Wang Dalun slowly paced in front of a grain store, only to see that the price board was very eye-catching: "Today sells three stone rice, 500 yuan per bucket!" First come, first served, while stocks last! ”
In front of the grain store, it was already crowded with people, and the guys in the grain store shouted: "Line up, line up!" No queuing, no food! ”
The people in line shouted: "Hurry up and sell the grain, we are still waiting for the rice to be cooked!" ”
"Okay, I'm ready to sell grain!" The bookkeeper shouted: "Each person is limited to two buckets, and if there are more, they will not be sold!" ”
The people no longer cared about the words of the bookkeeper, and as soon as they heard that the grain was sold, they desperately handed the money in their hands to the man, and they shouted one after another: "Give me two buckets!" ”
The workers were also cooked, took the money, and began to weigh the grain. Someone said loudly: "Man, you have to give you enough, I bought less than a bucket the day before yesterday!" ”