I

  Chapter 356 354 [Warring becomes disaster relief]

   Mid-October.

  Fei Ruhe took a boat all the way and led his troops to Yizhou.

  Standing on the bow of the boat, Fei Ruhe looked blankly at the scenery on both sides of the river with a dull expression.

  Yizhou is governed by the state, under the jurisdiction of Feixian County and Tancheng County.

  When I was in the border of Tancheng, although it was also miserable there, the difference from northern Jiangsu was not particularly big.

  The boat sailed to the northwest of Tancheng, and the situation became more and more terrifying.

As far as the boundary of Yizhou, the content of the local chronicles is translated into vernacular: "Locusts are all over the mountains and fields, piled up one foot thick. The leaves are all eaten up, and the ground is thousands of miles away. The people dig grass roots and gnaw bark, father and son eat each other, bones are everywhere, and babies are abandoned. Dao, there are people who put up bids and sell their heads everywhere, and there are countless corpses piled up in the ravine."

   More and more soldiers stood on the boat and looked at the two sides, dumbfounded and speechless.

  Deputy General Wan Sitong muttered: "No wonder the religious bandits didn't come to capture this place, no wonder Zuo Liangyu didn't send troops here. What are we coming to Yizhou for?"

  At this moment, the locusts have disappeared, and there is no scene of locusts piled up a foot thick.

   But looking at the bare vegetation, the villages along the coast are deserted, and even the big landlords have fled.

  In the evening, I went ashore to cook, and after a short walk, I saw bones. Sometimes it can even be guessed that several members of the family died, because the bones of the adults were holding the bones of the children.

  The fleet arrived in a small town with a large army, which has also become a ghost town. All the residents of the town disappeared, not starving to death, but fleeing, and no one could withstand the robbing of the hungry people.

  Perhaps the wealthy households along the way were also scared away by the hungry people, and no matter how high the courtyard wall is, they cannot stop the hungry people.

  When the fleet was about to approach Yizhou City, the number of living people finally increased. There were at least 20,000 to 30,000 hungry people gathered outside Yizhou City.

  The hungry people looked at the fleet with numb eyes and expressionless faces.

  Fei Ruhe suddenly smelled the smell of meat, he was surprised at first, and then he came to his senses, and then he felt nauseous, his stomach was overwhelmed and he wanted to spit it out.

   Datong soldiers and civilian husbands got off the boat and landed. The city gate opened quickly, and an official led the crowd to kneel down to welcome them, crying loudly: "General, you are here!"

  Fei Ruhe asked: "What's your name? What's your position?"

  The official wiped his tears and replied: "The next official is Liang You, the Tong Zhi of Yizhou."

   Fei Ruhe became angry, and asked, "Where is Zhizhou?"

  Liang You replied: "I ran away with the money."

   "Where is the defense?" Fei Ruhe asked again.

   "Run away too." Liang You replied.

  Fei Ruhe was furious: "The **** is gone, why are you still keeping it!"

Liang You said: "Since the lower officials are the same prefects, the prefects ran away, and the lower officials are the local parents. How can there be any reason for parents to abandon their children? The lower officials sold their belongings and begged the rich families in the state to raise money and food, but it was still useless. Ah, there are too many hungry people outside the city. Nowadays, people in the city also starve to death every day, so we can only... can only..."

  Hearing what he said, most of Fei Ruhe's anger dissipated, and he asked, "What can I do?"

  Liang You burst into tears and said: "We can only clean up the unclaimed dead bodies in the city every day, and throw them outside the city for the hungry people to cook and eat."

   "Ouch!"

  A Datong soldier next to him couldn't hold back, and vomited from nausea on the spot.

  Fei Ruhe asked: "Do the rich households in the city still have food?"

  Liang You replied: "The rich family doesn't have any surplus grain, only the grain merchant's warehouse."

   "Go to town!"

  Fei Ruhe ordered: "Leave 20 guards on each boat, guard the food, and prevent robbery."

   Datong soldiers took over the city defense, and at the same time dispersed to maintain law and order in the city.

  When they came to the state office, the military medical officer Hao Dadian said: "General, too many people have died, and the corpses are not buried. Beware of a big epidemic next year!"

  Fei Ruhe immediately woke up: "How to prevent it?"

  Hao Dadian said: "First, burn all the corpses immediately; second, order the people to boil their clothes in boiling water; third, throw lime in places where there are many dead."

   "Good!" Fei Ruhe said.

The mission officer Li Shikui said: "I suggest that the military mission officers take over the government affairs. Each mission officer will lead ten soldiers to do things, and the officials in the city will be ordered to coordinate management. The hungry people are divided into areas outside the city, and how many people can be accommodated in each area to prevent hungry people from appearing. trouble."

  Fei Ruhe nodded and said, "Let's do it this way." After speaking, he asked Liang You, "How much is the price of food in the city?"

   "Doumai two thousand." Liang You replied.

  Fei Ruhe sneered: "That is 20,000 yuan a stone of wheat, all rich and unkind people. Where is the grain merchant's warehouse? Send troops to take over all of them, but if there are obstacles, kill them immediately!"

  In this critical moment, there are no rules to speak of.

  Fei Ruhe asked again: "Are there any disasters in Fei County and Yishui?"

  Liang You said: "Generally, there is no difference. First there is a drought, and then there is a locust plague. Outside Feixian County and Yishui City, the same hungry people gather, and many hungry people flee to the direction of Qingzhou Fucheng."

  Fei County and Yishui are also the targets of the raid, but in the face of such a catastrophe, there is no need to occupy them anymore.

  One Yizhou is enough, and there is absolutely no ability to help other states and counties.

  The hungry people over there can only fend for themselves!

  Liang You selected some confidantes, led Datong soldiers, and went to several granaries in the city.

   "General, the Bai family's grain depot is in front of it, and many gangsters have been recruited as guards." Liang You pointed forward in a back alley.

  The leader of the army is just a captain named Wang Song, who is in charge of thirty people.

  He came to the gate of the warehouse and immediately ordered: "The grain depot has been taken over by the Datong army, and the idlers leave as soon as possible!"

  The steward of the warehouse ran out in a hurry, and said with an apologetic smile: "Military masters, you have something to say. If you need to raise food and grass, my master will definitely respect it according to the rules. Military master, please take a moment to speak."

  The steward stretched his hand into his bosom, apparently wanting to bribe him with money.

   "Clang!"

  Wang Song drew out his waist knife, hacked the steward to death, and shouted: "Rush in, anyone who dares to stop him will be killed!"

  Strictly speaking, Wang Song was suspected of violating military orders, but he couldn't help it now.

  In and outside the city, people are starving everywhere, and these grain merchants are still sitting on the ground and raising prices!

   The grain depot was in dire straits, and the guards fled one after another.

  Liang You saw that several grain depots had been seized, so he trotted to see Fei Ruhe. Along the way, I found Datong soldiers taking off their clothes, and asked, "Why did you take off your clothes, brother?"

The soldier replied: "The medical officer said that to prevent the plague, let the hungry people outside the city take off their clothes and cook them. The people can't be naked. The clothes brought on the boat are not enough, so let the people wear them first. yes."

  Liang You looked up and saw that the soldiers on the street took off their clothes one after another, and then collected them and transported them outside the city.

  He couldn't help but follow outside the city, but saw bags of grain being carried to the shore by peasants, and thousands of soldiers guarded there to prevent being robbed of grain.

   Then hundreds of military cauldrons were set up, and an officer shouted to the hungry people who surrounded them: "Everyone can collect some firewood, and they can drink hot porridge!"

  Hearing this, the hungry people who could still walk scattered to collect firewood, and even got into fights over collecting firewood.

   Datong soldiers stopped some hungry people, took the opportunity to let them carry the corpses, and piled all the corpses together for burning.

  As for the hungry people who were too hungry to walk, they were also moved to one place, and they were given priority when cooking porridge.

   Firewood was picked up one after another, and pots and water began to be boiled. The hungry people who had returned were also ordered to line up.

  Half of a large pot for cooking porridge.

   Half of a large pot for boiling water.

   Those piled up corpses were also doused with kerosene and burned blazingly.

  All hungry people, regardless of gender, were ordered to take off their clothes and throw them into a cauldron to boil.

  The hungry people are naked, fill their stomachs first, and then slowly boil water to take a bath when they have strength. The bath water had to be boiled, and then the residents of the city were organized to carry the well water out of the city one by one, and mix the boiling water to a temperature suitable for bathing.

  The wooden barrels of the residents’ homes were temporarily requisitioned and provided to those hungry people for bathing.

  The hungry people after taking a bath put on the clean clothes provided by the soldiers, and wring out the clothes boiled in the cauldron to dry.

  Eating enough food, taking a bath, and putting on clean clothes, the thirty thousand starving people finally looked like human beings.

   And this series of operations was methodical and took less than a day.

  Liang You was dumbfounded. What kind of frightening execution ability is this?

  In less than a day, 30,000 hungry people were turned from hungry ghosts into living people again!

  He found that the specific executors were all special officers with red bands around their arms. Each special officer, commanding ten soldiers to do things, can easily arrange hundreds or thousands of hungry people.

   There are also hungry people who are disobedient, and the punishment is to halve the hot porridge they receive.

  After punishing a few hungry people, all the hungry people nearby became honest, and the soldiers of Datong did what they said.

   At the place where porridge is served and grain is piled up, there are always 1,500 soldiers standing guard.

  Liang You walked to the side and asked one of the soldiers: "Brother, who are those generals with red bands around their arms?"

   "Preacher." The soldier replied.

   "Are they all scholars?" Liang You asked.

The soldier said: "It used to be enough to know 30 characters, but now you need to know 500 characters. Regiment-level missionaries must know at least 1,000 characters, and they must also learn addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. If a missionary teacher wants to be promoted, he must be able to read. Not only learn by himself, but also Take us to learn, now I know more than 60 characters."

  Liang You asked again: "What do missionaries do?"

  The soldier explained: "Teach us the truth."

   "What reason?" Liang You asked.

"Soldiers are fighting for the common people, and the common people are their parents. The great unity of the world means that everyone has fields to farm, everyone has food to eat, and everyone has clothes to wear," said the soldier. "If you have any troubles, you can talk to the missionaries. Write letters to your family and ask missionaries for help. The soldiers are all brothers, and the missionaries are our elder brothers!"

  Liang You didn't continue to ask, but pondered these words carefully.

  He is not a serious Jinshi, but a juren, and he was bought as a county magistrate. Although the county magistrate was bought, there was no money in the distribution, and he was thrown to the **** magistrate of Shaanxi.

  At that time, when the bandits came, Liang You urged the people to defend the city, but they managed to defend it in a daze.

  The gentry in the city refused to let him go, and he worked as a county magistrate in Shaanxi for six consecutive years, and he was able to defend the city every time.

  Liang You didn't understand what was going on, it seemed that the rogues were easy to deal with.

  Two years ago, he returned to Beijing after passing the exam, and was finally promoted to be a prefect. Then came the hellish drought and locust plague, two consecutive years of catastrophe, he couldn't bear to exploit the people, instead he sold off the property he brought.

  Liang You squatted by the moat, watching Datong soldiers appease the victims, and suddenly laughed happily.

   There was a sudden shout and curse from behind: "Damn it, I'm looking for you everywhere, go back to the city to help with things!"

  Liang You looked back, but it was Fei Ruhe who was scolding him.

Liang You quickly stood up, but heard Fei Ruhe say: "I asked the officials and people in the city, you are a good official, and the escaped Zhizhou and the guard are corrupt officials. Follow me to do things well, and do a good job in disaster relief. You can at least be a magistrate!"

   "Thank you, General, for your appreciation." Liang You was very happy. After taking refuge in Zhao Tianwang, his official position was only downgraded by one level.

   Fei Ruhe was very depressed. He came to fight the war, but now he has become a disaster relief worker.

   Zhang Tieniu's side is similar.

   There was no battle to fight at all, and wherever they went, officials surrendered immediately, and then begged him for disaster relief.

  If the Datong army goes to Henan, this situation will happen everywhere.

   What else?

  Leave tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of disaster victims unrescued, and let them fend for themselves? That violates Datong theory!

   But once rescued, the food is not enough.

  In this case, Zhao Han had to make a choice. How much food should be kept for war, how much food should be kept to accommodate the victims, and the territory should be continuously expanded while providing relief to the people.

   (Ask for a monthly pass.)

   (There are only two updates today.)

  (end of this chapter)