MTL - Feng Xing-Chapter 125
Guangfeng Warehouse is located on Fuya Street in the south of Taiyuan City, adjacent to Taiyuan Fuyamen.
On the same avenue, there are also the Division of Prosecutors and Commissioners of Procuratorate and Chengxuan, but one is on East Street and the other is on West Street. Guangfengcang is located at the west corner of West Street, facing Xihaizi.
Normally, this Guangfeng warehouse was only used as a permanent warehouse in Taiyuan City. Since the drought in Shanxi for two consecutive years, the imperial envoy ordered to trade insects for grain and sprinkle a lot of grain. It's just that the inside can't be known to outsiders after all, and people are strictly guarded on weekdays. Anyone who comes close will be regarded as a person with evil intentions, so there are few idlers here.
But in the past few days, there has been a surprise. There have been a lot of cars and horses here for many days, and it seems to be very lively. No matter how closely guarded by the officers and soldiers, the anomalies in this place cannot be prevented from being known to the common people.
Now there are rumors in the market that the imperial envoy has borrowed a large amount of grain from elsewhere.
Now I'm finally not afraid of being hungry anymore!
As the saying goes, the seventh-rank officials in front of the prime minister's gate are the same as compared to the people in the Fucheng. Because they are in the Fucheng, even if they are thousands of miles away, the people in their city are still much better than those outside. It doesn't matter if there is no food, these officials will never be hungry. watching them.
Because of this news, the people in the city were extremely excited, and they even went out in groups to catch locusts with more energy.
Rumors spread earlier that the government was out of food, and even if they caught the bug, they couldn’t exchange it for food. Besides, the government is not an idiot, the bug is useless at all, how could anyone be so stupid as to take the life-saving food away? Changing worms was just a stopgap measure at the beginning. In order to stabilize the people's hearts, it will definitely not be so good in the future.
Seeing that so much food is transported to the city now, and the food exchange point still exchanges a lot of food every day, the rumors are self-defeating.
In addition to some people in the market talking about the arrival of this batch of grain, the governor's yamen, the chief envoy, and the inspector are also discussing.
Zhou Hui had already gone to talk about it, but King Wei had nothing to reveal. Moreover, the King of Wei also seemed to understand that the food was eye-catching, and none of the people who delivered the food on this trip were locals in Taiyuan, and the people who put it in the warehouse were all confidantes of the King of Wei, so no one else could get in touch with it. That's why they were obviously local snakes, but they couldn't find any news this time, and could only watch the grain trucks being transported to Guangfeng warehouse one after another.
Once you enter that gate, you will be like a mud cow entering the sea. When you come out, you will only see people and carts, but you will never see food again. But how can a living person be suffocated to death by urine? If they can’t see the food, just count the cars. Just count them one by one. How much food can be transported in each car? Jaw-dropping numbers come.
What kind of fool actually lent him life-saving food!
Although everyone didn't say this clearly, just by looking at each other's expressions and eyes, you can tell that the disaster has spread across several provinces, everyone is in danger, and their own buttocks haven't been wiped clean, how can they help others?
But even if you don't believe it, so much food is there, it can't be said that Wei Wang conjured it out of thin air, it must be helped by someone.
"Have you found out where it came from?" Hu Demao asked in a deep voice.
Everyone below shook their heads.
Zhou Huidao: "It has been transported for three days in a row, no less than one hundred thousand shi per day. Who knows where this master got so much food. I said that I always see him in a calm manner on weekdays. It’s pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger.”
What he said was extremely sarcasm, but thinking about Wei Wang's cold face, and thinking about how anxious they were pretending to 'make suggestions' these days, it seemed like a joke. Maybe people have already understood the thoughts of these people, and they will wait until the food is almost here before revealing the truth.
People are guarding against them!
But after thinking about it again, it's not that they have to guard against it. If it were them, they would also have to guard against it. We all know that this is the first serious errand that the King of Wei has done since he entered the court, and it is such a big event. If it is done, the prestige of the King of Wei in the court needless to say, is valued by many ministers. It is hard for others to reach.
If it can't be done, it is natural that the wall will fall and everyone will push it, and it will be a complete defeat.
Everyone knows the stakes, and it's normal for people not to believe them.
Who knows who is standing behind each other, otherwise since the king of Wei came to Taiyuan, it seems that Hu Demao and his like are extremely courteous, but in fact they are useless at all, they always push and block when they encounter things.
In fact, there is nothing to push back, because they have arranged everything before the arrival of King Wei, making sure that everything does not show traces, and let King Wei's errands be messed up.
This is not difficult to do, as long as the king of Wei can't get food.
However, there is no food in Shanxi, so they only need to level the surface, so that King Wei can't pick any mistakes, and accompany him to deal with errands. As for the outside of Shanxi, there are outsiders to operate it, and he can't borrow food even if he hangs it out.
But people just borrowed food, and there was a lot of it.
"What should we do now?" Zhou Hui said irritably, throwing down the tea bowl in his hand.
No one answered his words.
Zhou Hui also realized that other people's attitudes were wrong, and he didn't dare to push Hu Demao Qi Bihe hard, so he went to Zhao Tianfang.
Seeing this, Zhao Tianfang faltered and said: "It's a good thing that the imperial envoy can borrow food, so that the people don't have to worry about starving to death."
This sounded like a slap in the face, and no one could fault it, which also showed Zhao Tianfang's attitude of not daring to stand in line.
Zhou Hui snorted, gave him a hard look, and then went to look at Hu Demao, Qi Bihe and the others. Except for Gao Youcheng who looked at him, the others ignored him.
Since then, Zhou Hui still had something he didn't understand, and he laughed out of anger. On the surface, it seemed that he didn't intend to pursue it, but in fact, he scolded these old fools in his heart.
It's not the old man, before the king of Wei borrowed food, they all had an ambiguous attitude, and if there was anything in Beijing that needed help, they would turn a blind eye and close one eye to do favors. Now that the King of Wei has borrowed grain, the matter has not yet been settled, so this attitude has changed.
Sitting on the top of the wall and watching both sides, you are not afraid of a strong wind blowing over, and the thunder will kill these people!
Zhou Hui stood up, intending to send a letter to Beijing after returning home, asking about the next regulations.
At this time, a person walked in quickly from the outside, and before he could stand still, he hurriedly said: "Report to Mr. Zhongcheng, Guangfeng warehouse has sent relief food today, but this time it is not food, but Wowo .”
This person stumbled and stumbled, but in the end, everyone could understand what he meant.
The king of Wei had already greeted the governor's yamen and the chief envoy before. In order to take charge of the disaster relief, the imperial envoy will be in charge of the relief food from now on.
In fact, everyone knew that this was an excuse that the imperial envoys did not want them to get their hands on the food, but the food was borrowed from others, and they knew that they were fighting for food in private, so no one had the cheek to stick it on it. The reason why Zhouhui was so angry today was because he was taken away from the job of the chief grain officer of the grain department, which was a bit unworthy of the name, and now it happened again.
Wow?
Is the imperial envoy crazy? What is he thinking if he doesn't give out food?
Hu Demao frowned and stood up, and the others, needless to say, followed him to Guangfeng warehouse. Now that things have come to this, it is natural to figure out what the imperial envoy wants to do.
Here in Guangfengcang, since King Wei came in, the guards inside have been completely changed.
This Guangfeng warehouse is used as a granary. It has high walls and strong houses, and there are people who are always guarding it. At this time, in a courtyard on the northwest side, the inside was filled with white smoke and the aroma of food was exuding.
However, there are no residential buildings near this place, so it doesn't attract people's attention. Bag after bag of steamed buns are shipped out from here. Of course, they are not freshly made, but delivered today and tomorrow, so that the steamed buns are not afraid of being squeezed and scattered.
In the front hall, King Wei received the news that the governor and others asked to see him, but he did not refuse to see them, but let them be led in. Although he is an imperial envoy, in charge of disaster relief matters, after all, his strength is limited, so he has to rely on these local officials.
He had been waiting for these people to come.
After Hu Demao and others came, it was after a routine conversation as usual before they cut into the matter of food relief.
In this regard, the King of Wei had a charter long ago, saying that there was a severe drought in many places, and it was not easy to find water and firewood. The people were already hungry enough, and they had to go back to make food after changing the food. , so that both material and effort are saved.
Everyone knows that many people can't move if they can't eat enough to fight hunger. Furthermore, it takes a lot of firewood to cook a meal, and ten households need to spend ten times the amount. It is better to save labor together.
There was no relief food distribution before, and the bark in many places was eaten up. Now I have to cut down trees to make a meal. Did you say that this year and next year will not be enough? In addition, winter is coming soon, and it is the season of spending a lot of charcoal, so save as much as you can.
This reason is too sufficient, the only drawback is that the servants below have added errands.
It is natural to eat the emperor's salary and serve the court. Otherwise, there are so many people outside who are hungry, and there are few people who are hungry when there are emperor's servants.
After all this, Hu Demao and others naturally couldn't say a word, but some people wanted to find out the secret behind it, but unfortunately they found nothing.
Returned bitterly, broke up unhappy.
After leaving Guangfeng Warehouse, Zhao Tianfang dispersed with the others because he had official duties.
After returning to the government office, Zhao Da talked to him about what happened just now.
Zhao Da is Zhao Tianfang's confidant, and he is also very clear about the lawsuits between his master and other adults, so he naturally feels sorry for the difficult situation where the master is caught in the middle.
"Master, my little one, look at Zhou's lord who was about to jump over the wall in a hurry."
Zhao Tianfang took off his official hat, took the handkerchief from Zhao Da's hand and wiped off his sweat, then said: "Shut up! Just know these things well, don't talk about them casually."
Zhao Da felt aggrieved and said: "The young one also feels sorry for the master. Seeing that he was at Mr. Zhongcheng's place just now, the one surnamed Zhou saw that the others didn't answer, so he took the master as a raft."
"Since you understand, then you can't talk nonsense. We are not able to participate in this matter of reserve. The water in it is too deep. You seem to be tricked by someone that week, who knows what he will do?" What kind of idea did you come up with, and Mr. Zhong Cheng, etc., why didn't you take his words? It's because the matter is so important, and no one dares to surrender easily. So it's better to say less and make less mistakes, and focus on saving Get through this calamity year."
"Then what does your lord mean, Mr. Zhongcheng and the others don't want to join forces to deal with Mr. Imperial Envoy?" Seeing the master looking at him, Zhao Da scratched his head embarrassingly, and murmured: "The young one saw that they were talking to those rich men in private. The householders walk around, why don't you support them and want them to reject the imperial court's donation, or else they would dare to refuse the imperial envoy after eating the bear's heart and leopard, the little one thought it was..."
"Why do you still think?" Zhao Tianfang shook his head and smiled wryly: "It's just that some people are watching the fire from the other side, some are adding fuel to the flames, some are taking pleasure in other people's misfortune, and some are trying to reap the benefits of being a fisherman."
These words were too profound, Zhao Da seemed to understand something, but he didn't quite understand it.
Sitting quietly for a while, Zhao Tianfang suddenly said again: "But none of this has anything to do with us, as long as we don't get involved. By the way, you go to find a relief nest, I always feel that this matter is strange."