In the middle of August of the first year of Guangxi, several counties on the border with Yuzhou that were not affected by the disaster received the emperor's decree one after another. The content of the decree is to decree the aid of the counties, but there is no amount of aid.

Originally, the content of Huang Wan's table was 100,000 yuan per county, how could the fourteen-year-old little emperor Liu Wei understand this? The political affairs were reported to the general He Jin, and He Jin handed over such trivial matters to Taifu Yuan Kui. After Yuan Kui finished reading the recital, he didn't pay attention to the hunger and dire situation of the people of Yuzhou, but laughed at Huang Wan and said: "Huang Ziyan wants to collect all the food in the world? ”

When drafting the decree, Yuan Kui pondered for a long time and added: "Because of the bad year and the fact that each county has its own difficulties, it must be done with all its heart. ”

As a result, the content of the decree has become what it is now, which means that you can look at it in the county, give it, give it!

In this way, it was originally the counties that were ordered to help, but now it has become the counties giving alms to Yuzhou. The difference is that last time it was Huang Wan who asked for alms, this time it was the emperor who asked for alms.

Moreover, in order to allow Huang Wan to practice calligraphy more and write more requested chapters, Yuan Kui specially postponed the time for the issuance of the holy decree until early August. In other words, it took three and a half months from Huang Wan's first request in late April!

All this is just because at a banquet two years ago, Huang Wan forgot to give him Yuan Kui's birthday, and Shangshou is a toast.

Looking at the seven or eight copies of Huang Wan's recital in front of him, thinking of Huang Wan's angry appearance when he was in a hurry, and then thinking of Huang Wan's embarrassing expression when he received the grain, he would be surprised that the number was so small, Yuan Kui couldn't help but laugh. Even when he returned to the courtyard, he couldn't help but laugh several times a day, so much so that the slaves thought that the master had taken the wrong medicine again today.

It is worth mentioning that not long after He Jin Bingzheng, he recruited more than 20 famous people at home, including Xun Yu from Yingchuan County, Yuzhou, who was worshiped as the Huangmen squire. Because the palace gate of the Han family is mostly dyed yellow, the waiter is served by the scholar and works in the yellow gate, so it is called the yellow gate waiter. What does the Yellow Gate Squire do? That's a close minister of the Son of Heaven, who can convey the edict. Therefore, before leaving, Huang Wan specially talked to Xun You and asked him to piggyback on the music, but Huang Wan suspected that his music was not delivered to the Son of Heaven.

In addition, Yuan Zhong was born in Runan and was Yuan Kui's nephew, and Huang Wan also asked him to write a book to his clan uncle to see if he could speed up the issuance of the holy decree. But when the letter was sent, it sank into the sea, and there was no news.

It wasn't until August 15 that Peng Cheng Xiang Zuoshang received the holy decree, almost as a Zuihou one. He was sitting in the palace at the time, and after carefully reading every word of the decree, he hurriedly summoned his servants down to discuss.

As the prime minister of a country, Zuo Shang is the military and political power figure of Peng Chengguo. The "kingdom" of this dynasty is equivalent to a "county", the minister of the state is actually the Taishou, he is both in charge of the army and the government, is undoubtedly the head of the kingdom, and the Taishou is called the same "county general", and even the honorific title is "Fujun", "Mingfu" and so on. Of course, nominally, King Pengcheng is the number one person in the country, but compared with the first Han Dynasty, the status of the princes and kings of this dynasty is no longer the same. The imperial court stipulated that the princes and kings were not allowed to come to the people, were not allowed to interfere in politics, and were also supervised by Fu, Xiang, Benzhou Assassin Shi and others, just to protect themselves. The Fu, Xiang, Lieutenant, Lang Zhongling, and Servant in the country are all appointed by the imperial court, among which Fu, Fu, and Lang Zhongling are in charge of royal affairs, and the Minister of State is in charge of military affairs, and the lieutenant is in charge of the army, but obeys the orders of the Minister of State.

If the kingdom is located on the border or coincides with war, the position of lieutenant is established, with a rank of 2,000 koku, which is equivalent to the lieutenant of the county. Last year, when the remnants of Taiping Dao besieged Pengcheng, Tao Qian used the excuse that the troops were not enough and did not save Pengcheng. Fortunately, Huang Wan arrived in time and the group of thieves gave him the head, so Zuo Shang was especially grateful to Huang Wan. Afterwards, Peng Chengguo's request for a lieutenant was not approved, and the military power was still held by Zuo Shang alone.

Somehow, Zuo Shang's first thought after reading the holy decree was whether Tao Qian would come to obstruct disaster relief again? For although the Holy Decree asks for aid, it does not stipulate the amount of aid. In other words, even if he sent a hundred hundred hundred, it would not be considered a violation of the holy decree. In fact, Zuo Shang later learned that there was indeed a county that only sent a hundred hundred, and the county guard was the nephew of Zhao Zhong of Da Changqiu.

As usual, Gong Cao Xue Lilai was the fastest and earliest. He also just received a letter from Lai Min today, saying that Yuzhou has almost reached the point of running out of oil and running out of lights, and Huang Wan is trying to find a way everywhere, and now it is a day to last.

When Xue Li read the holy decree, he didn't hide his joy, and said in his heart: "At least, bypassing Tao Qian and prompting the prince to dare to come to Yu's aid, this goal has finally been achieved!" ”

Then, Changshi Ni Xun, the chief bookkeeper Liu Fu, Wuguan Peng Feng Ju, the northern post supervisor Jiang Feng, the southern post supervisor Zhang Qi, Bing Cao Liu Zhi, Hu Cao Xinche, Cangcao Jiang Yi and the thief Cao Duanmu and others all arrived one after another.

Changshi Ni Xun first came out and said: "I think that my country has helped 30,000 Hu last month, although it is ordered today, but the Son of Heaven has not specified the amount of aid, and my country will symbolically aid a few thousand Hu." ”

Liu Fu, the chief bookkeeper, admired Huang Wan the most, and Su and Ni Xun did not admire, and immediately raised objections: "Last year, the Yellow Turban remnants surrounded my Pengcheng, and Changshi once persuaded the prince to abandon the city, if the prince listened to the words of the long history, I am afraid that now he is in a different place and abandons the corpse wilderness!" ”

"You...... You ......" Ni Xun pointed at Liu Fu, so angry that he couldn't speak.

"What are you?" Liu Fu choked unceremoniously. Although Ni Xun was appointed by the imperial court with a long history of 600 stones, Zuo Shang's henchman, Liu Fu, who had a rank of only 100 stones, did not buy his account.

Changshi is the same as the county in the county, as the deputy of the prime minister, he has no real power unless he is reused. A few years ago, there was a man named Zhao Wen in Shu County, who was appointed as Jing Zhaocheng by the imperial court, and he was idle and panicked in office, so he sighed: "The eldest husband should be a male flyer, and An can be a female?" Then he abandoned his official position and left. It can be seen from this that the status of the county and the long history in the county is very embarrassing.

"Alright, alright, stop arguing!" Zuo Shang said: "Just talk about your own suggestions!" ”

Only then did Liu Fu smile and said: "The words of the long history specifically mistook me Pengcheng." Why? If you don't repay your kindness, you want to trap the Ming Mansion in injustice. Think about last year, Huang Yuzhou did not avoid the sword, personally led the army, swept away the enemy besieging the city, and made a contribution to rebuilding us, but afterwards he did a public affair without receiving any remuneration, how righteous it is! In the former, Huang Yuzhou was in a hurry to ask for help, and Tao Thorn Shi obstructed it in every way, and we only did it with 30,000 hundreds. Not only is it a drop in the bucket, it's like an insult, people saved your life, but you didn't even have a full meal, what a depravity! If I were Huangyuzhou, I would abandon that little bit of food to the wilderness. "Poetry" cloud: 'Cast it with a peach, repay it with Qiong Yao.' "Today, I only saw Huang Yuzhou vote for Qiong Yao, but we can't even report Mu Tao!" Fu privately is not worth Huang Yuzhou, but is ashamed of the Ming government. The existing Son of Heaven has issued an order, no one dares to stop it, and it is foolish to think that the whole country should be poured into aid of Yuzhou, and the king of Wangfu will learn from it! ”

As soon as Liu Fu finished speaking, everyone was discussing, some were against and some were in favor.

Feng Ju got up and said: "Huang Yuzhou does have the grace of survival and continuity for us, if we don't help Yuzhou, next time we are in danger, I'm afraid no one will come to save us, and the world knows that we are wrong." Liushu's words are indeed reasonable, but they are too much. According to what Liu Shu said, I am afraid that someone will have to discuss, whether Pengcheng is from Xuzhou or Yuzhou? ”

"Peng" means department. Wuguan Peng is generally an idle position, he doesn't care about anything, which department is short of people, and Wuguan Peng can act as the firefighting captain.

"What does Yiqing mean?"

Feng Ju glanced at Cao Jiang Yi and said: "In the treasury of the country, there are still as many as 500,000 grains in stock, plus the summer harvest is imminent, and the surplus grain of more than 300,000 yuan can be used. In this way, there are about 150,000 pieces of grain that can be helped. In order to prevent accidents, the giant suggestion can be delivered in two batches, each time seventy or eighty thousand Hu, please decide! ”

"Feng Peng's words are very reasonable!" Gong Cao Xue Li, Jiang Feng, the northern post supervisor, and Zhang Qi, the southern post supervisor, all stood up to echo, and the soldiers Cao Liu Zhi, Hu Cao Xinche, Cangcao Jiang Yi and the thief Cao Duanmu also got up to express their approval when they saw the three of them like this.

Zuo Shang was overjoyed and said: "I didn't expect you to be so righteous, I don't have to worry about it!" How did he know that Xue Li had been waiting for this day for months.

Zuo Shang continued: "There is still one more thing to consider, do you want to ask Tao Envoy Jun again?" ”

"The Ming Mansion is acting on the edict of the Son of Heaven, do you still need to ask Tao Envoy again? If so, where is the majesty of the Son of Heaven? Zhang Qi, the southern superintendent, replied first, and everyone agreed.

So, Zuo Shang finally made up his mind and ordered Xue Li to prepare for this matter.

Xue Li first sent someone to Yuzhou to send a letter to Huang Wan, explaining the amount of grain to be transported, agreeing on the route of the grain to be transported, where to send it, if the situation changes, and then notify him separately.

Then, Xue Li began to make arrangements for the requisition of the people, the mobilization of chariots and horses, and other matters. Although I have the experience of delivering food last time, some things are still quite troublesome, and it is not possible to do it in a while. Anyway, he had to wait for the messenger to come back, so Xue Li was not in a hurry. With Zuo Shang's consent, he first consulted with Liu Zhi, who was the acting military power, and said that he would ask 3,000 county soldiers to escort the escort in case of accidents on the way.

I'm really afraid of something!

Nine days later, Zuo Shang's worst fears still happened.

Assassin Shi Taoqian didn't know where to get the news, and sent a messenger to reprimand him sternly, ordering that the aid should not exceed 10,000 Hu. The remaining large amount of grain in Pengchengguo must be left to the Xuzhou army in preparation for the conquest of Haikou Xuezhou, which was entrenched in the south, and it was stated that after a while, Zhenrong would be sent to supervise the escort.

Zuo Shang began to hesitate again, but the letter sent to Yuzhou should have reached Huang Wan, and it is impossible to withdraw it now, let's see what Huang Wan says! If Yuzhou is not in a hurry to use grain, you can slow down to deal with Tao Qian first.

For three days, Xue Li was anxious. How to calculate the schedule, the two messengers sent at the beginning should also return, could it be that there was an accident on the way? He secretly regretted that he had been so self-righteous and careless that he did not send two more messengers with him. At this time, in general, three fast horses must be sent to send a letter or convey an important urgent event. He regretted that he could send another one the next day; I regret that I didn't give much explanation to send the letter, and it is a big matter, and it is related to countless lives, and it has to be done at the same time no matter what.