Chapter 21: Zhu Jie

The people who had been busy for almost the whole night were still immersed in great joy.

Sun Jie's auxiliaries and the carpenters in the city had already made hundreds of wheelbarrows overnight. At this moment, Ding Zhuang in the whole city was organized and transported Guan Shengyun's military rations to the city in an endless stream.

Although the government did not make a public announcement, all the people knew that there was not much food in the city. Ding Zhuang, the people who assisted in defending the city, two meals a day have changed from one dry and one thin to two meals of gruel, and the soldiers and servants have come three times under the leadership of Li Zheng to collect grain from door to door, and the attitude is worse than one time, I heard that people have been injured recently, which is an extremely rare situation under the rule of Song Fuzun, especially recently, at night, every few streets there are soldiers guarding the roof of the house all night, as long as they find sparks coming out of the stove chimney of which house, they will be broken into the door by the soldiers patrolling the street...... There are signs that the city is already facing a desperate situation of running out of food.

The people in the city were once panicked, especially the women and children, and they fell into boundless fear: the people were not only afraid that the thieves would capture the Luzhou Mansion and slaughter the city, but also that Song Mingyi and Sun Jie would want to Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan!

Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan were the guards of Suiyang in the Tang Dynasty, and the rebels besieged the city during the Anshi Rebellion. The food is exhausted, the rats and sparrows are exhausted, Zhang Xun, Xu Yuan killed his concubines and slaves and cooked them for the soldiers defending the city to make military food! Then the defenders ate up the city's 40,000 old and weak women and children—and then ...... Throw Suiyang away! In the end, the two embroidered statues of Zhang Xu, who killed people and ate people, entered the Lingyan Pavilion~ The emperors all like this kind of loyal ministers who would rather eat up the people than surrender to the enemy, and all dynasties have been respected as models, and the tens of thousands of people who have been eaten have all been turned into dung - well, anyway, they are either iron walls, or, they are dung.

In any case, no one is willing to become the meat in the mouth and the food in the belly of those who are full of "righteousness". That's why the people behaved wildly when they mistakenly believed that reinforcements were coming.

And at this moment, seeing hundreds of thousands of stone of high-quality military food falling from the sky, no matter what words are used to express everyone's joy, this is not only a life-saving food for yourself to get rid of hunger, but also a ticket to avoid death - there is no longer any need to worry about your parents, wife and children, and even the "food" for yourself to become a "defender"!

The scale of the grain depot in Fucheng is at a medium level: there are 20 warehouses with a capacity of 500,000 catties, all of which are so full that even the open space is piled up. and then vacated most of the armory (after the hard battle, most of the arrows and saltpeter were consumed, and there was not much inventory left), and more than 20 million catties of grain were forced into it, and there was almost a third left!

After discussing with Sun Jie, Song Mingyi immediately decided: Divide it among the people!

Of course, the details of the specific implementation should also be noted.

This is an important difference between a competent official and a mediocre official.

First of all, according to the records of the previous "grain requisition", the grain "donated" by the people was returned, and the rest of the grain was divided into three parts, with the people in the city taking one share and those who lost their homes outside the city taking two copies - this is easy to understand: after all, the victims of the disaster have even destroyed their homes and need more help to survive the future catastrophe.

Everyone can receive food, but it needs to be based on the "righteous people's evidence" stamped with the seal of the Luzhou prefect. The officials were sent to various settlements in the countryside, and each of them had a large amount of "righteous people's evidence" in their hands: as long as you build a house, whether it is building it yourself or helping people you don't know, you can get one after working for half a day - each "righteous people's note" can be exchanged for 50 catties of grain.

But!

It doesn't matter how many cards you have, you can only redeem one at a time - as long as you can run, give it when you come, and come as many times as you want.

You said you have the strength to carry 200 pounds and use 4 sheets at a time?

No way!

You can only have one piece at a time: that's 50 pounds.

If you have the strength, run a few more times.

Based on this regulation alone, it can be seen that the prefect of Song Mingyi came step by step with his real skills:

In the previous dynasty, there were rogues who captured a certain provincial capital, and they grabbed enough, so they couldn't take it anymore and simply opened a warehouse to release grain - as a result, it didn't take long to cause the tragedy of more than half of the people starving to death in the entire region!

The hungry people who helped the old and the young were all able to fill as much as they could, lest they take one less grain of rice and go all the way home. I couldn't move my back and drag it when I walked, so I had to reluctantly pour out some of my pockets and continue to hurry, and I couldn't drag it for a while, and then poured out some more...... As a result, all the official roads and small roads radiating from the provincial capital, more than 100 miles along the way, are full of piles of white flowers and grains that have been abandoned to the road! Within a few days, the wind and rain birds and beasts devoured these life-saving things!

Then ...... "It's a year of great hunger, cannibalism"!

Food is limited, first come, first served, while supplies last – and food must be received first! Song Mingyi's move of "righteousness and people's evidence" not only allowed the destroyed houses on the outskirts of the city to be quickly restored and rebuilt at a speed visible to the naked eye, but also it is no exaggeration to say that not a single grain of grain has been wasted.

The horse team was approaching.

Guan Shengyun and others were overjoyed to recognize the familiar logo: the black helmet - it was their own person!

These people are the subordinates of General Zhang, who said that Guan Shengyun said a while ago, and when the autumn grain is collected, he will march eastward at the same time. A few days ago, Gu Baihua escorted the seriously ill Master Luo Yonghao to Tongcheng to recuperate, because he got the military report, General Zhang Shisan had already occupied it.

The leader of the team is Mr. Qian, Guan Shengyun doesn't recognize it, but he knows Guan Shengyun.

galloped to the front, grabbed the mount, dismounted, and knelt down on one knee: "Zhao Tiegou, the horseman of the Wuding battalion under the command of Zhang Dashuai, the lowly position." Knock on Guan Shuai! ”

Guan Shengyun, who had escaped death three times, said "hmm", and suddenly felt that his knees were a little weak, and in order to cover up, he sat on the blocked wall with a saber, calmed down his excitement, and asked slowly with a calm face: "What are you doing here?"

"Guan Shuai, Zhang Dashuai sent the camp to contact Guan Shuai three days ago. Yesterday, when the lights were in hand, the camp Tang rode to the subordinates of the handsome man nearby. General Zhou, the lowly battalion officer, sent a horse team out of four places to respond separately overnight. This humble journey is just right for you."

Hearing this, Guan Shengyun couldn't help but look at Zhao Tiegou twice, and secretly said in his heart: Mr. Qian? What a clever mouth!

- Contact me? Contact me with a whole battalion of soldiers? And with a horse team, I phew! It's clearly sending someone to share the credit! I found my subordinates to the east, well, it was the Tang cavalry that came out to see the rout. But...... Zhang Shisan's class of grass cowards, not to mention Mr. Qian, even if it is a guerrilla, it should be an illiterate brute bull. A few words explained the whole thing clearly and without leakage, and saved face for himself, the person surnamed Zhao in front of him is by no means simple......

However, in the current situation, no matter how selfish the allies are, they are also allies!

Guan Shengyun, who was completely relieved, continued to think for a moment: Lao Zhang's camp should be on the periphery of Anqing Mansion. This Wuding battalion came to share the credit, and it is estimated that it brought a thousand elite auxiliary soldiers to hurry away, and the route was roughly due south and west. As long as the routed soldiers of each gate don't run in a circle, they all know that they should run south, and sooner or later they will always bump into each other. But there is not much need to worry: as long as there are officers with them, even if they are scattered, it is impossible for a staff officer and battalion officer to swallow it in one bite, and he started to run due west, and the enemy's pursuers are also in this direction, it is estimated that not many people will be able to escape, and he turned to the south and ran for a while before dark, Zhao Tiegou and they rushed from the southwest to the northeast overnight, and they were riding horses on both sides, with a high probability, they were in front of most of the rout, and they bumped into themselves by mistake. Therefore, if you wait for a search in the vicinity at the moment, you should still be able to gather a lot of people......

Thinking of this, Guan Shengyun immediately stood up and called four pro-soldiers to search in the east and north directions. Within two days, as many defeated troops as they could find, take them around and return to this place and assemble in Shucheng due south.

The four guards took the order.

"Mr. Zhao Qian, you send two brothers back to the camp to report a message, and the others will follow me to Shucheng, collect the sons and daughters first, and then make plans."

"Humble obedience".

……

On the same day, near evening, Sun Jie woke up from his slumber.

The surroundings are completely unfamiliar: spotless desks, neat bookshelves, glossy mahogany furniture, landscape banners...... After looking around for a long time, he remembered that he didn't return to the military tent last night, and was forced by Song Mingyi to his own bedroom in the back hall of the prefect's yamen. I vaguely remember that the eldest brother and the elder Li were helping him remove his armor, and then he fell asleep with his clothes upside down and didn't know anything.

Sun Jie lifted the quilt and sat up suddenly, and was dumbfounded when he saw it: the close-fitting side of the brocade quilt was full of blood stains and stains! When I turned my head again, I saw the pillow that had also been covered with blood and mud by myself, and I was a little nervous.

"Dashuai is awake?"

Song Mingyi's elder followed Lao Li to hear the movement, bowed in from outside the door, and poured a bowl of warm tea diligently: "The handsome man will drink saliva first, and the master will come over in a while." ”

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and the little servant brought a brass basin: "Say hello to the handsome." Da Shuai wiped his face first, and the water had already been boiled later, and he would wait for the little one to bathe and change his clothes. ”

Sun Jie felt even more embarrassed, and subconsciously glanced at the messy bed again. Although Lao Li has been bowing, his eyes have been paying attention to the master's brother-in-law, and when he saw this, he immediately put on a smile and said, "It's okay!" Dashuai is our city's life-saving benefactor. The villain has the courage to say a lot of words, a set of bedding is nothing, just go back and dismantle and wash it......"

"No washing!"

A loud shout interrupted Lao Li's chatter.

When the words arrived, Song Mingyi, who was full of spring breeze, stepped in, "Don't wash!" Keep it for me! This futon is the most valuable bedding in the world! In the future, I will point to this quilt and tell stories to my children and grandchildren! Hahahaha......"

Sun Jie scratched his head and smiled bitterly: "Big brother......"

"Brother Xian is a great hero who stands up to the sky, how can he be so twisted and restrained! Hurry up and wash up, the outside has been arranged, and the foolish brother will celebrate the success of the virtuous brother in a while! ”