stubborn thief

Chapter 30 Bylaws
The last rays of the setting sun disappeared into the sky, and the dove-grey twilight spilled into the desolate valley.

Pulling off the small flag, the eaves of the helmet and the brows were low and low, and the red military cotton and iron armor covered the gloomy-looking strong man tightly.

Gao Xian leaned on the side of the car, put down the cowhide water bag decorated with bells on the hull, broke the chopped green onion cake and slowly put it in his mouth, as if he was tasting the taste.

A few steps away from him, Liu Chengzong, who was also wearing armor, came back from the river and put the bucket in his hand on the carriage.

Gao Xian didn't say anything, just silently took a big bite of the pancake, and reached down with his left hand to hang the hand rope of the waist knife handle on the girdle.

"It's alright, then take it slowly. It's about to explode in the water. It's a man with his face up. It's estimated that it happened three or five days ago, and there's no one around."

The corpses are regular in the water. Men have less fat in the buttocks and face up in the water, while women turn their faces down.

After speaking, Liu Chengzong patted Gao Xian on the shoulder, and also took a cake wrapped in sackcloth and oil paper from the car, frowned and walked while eating, squatting a few steps away, facing him with pebbles and dead branches Yang Dingrui, who set up a bonfire, sighed.

"Sir, is Ansai County so messed up?"

Not to mention chaos, they have already walked forty miles, and the shallow river next to it is called Mudanchuan, which is only twenty or thirty miles away from Ansai.

After all, on the borders of Fushi, Anding, and Ansai counties, even in times of peace, bandits robbed passers-by and smuggled commercial goods in the border area from time to time.

But Ansai has appeared the phenomenon of people actually eating each other.

Yang Dingrui said that he had previously returned to Ansai on business, and that Ma Maocai, a counselor sent by the emperor to Shaanxi in the same year, accompanied him to investigate the famine situation in the counties.

They didn't even get into the city. There were people rushing up three miles outside the city, chasing after them for food. If they had no food, others would kill his horse. Yang Dingrui was afraid and shot one person with a bow and arrow.

But it never occurred to me that after shooting one person, those people saw that he was too difficult to deal with and did not chase after him, so they started to kill and drag the wounded person away.

Yang Dingrui, who was beside the bonfire, raised his head and looked towards the shore. He couldn't see the corpse that Liu Chengzong had mentioned within his sight. In the end, he just sighed silently: "Too many people are starved to death, the county magistrate has no other choice. The epidemic could only dig several large pits outside the city to contain the corpses, and each pit could accommodate two or three hundred people.

When I went back, the big pit was full of three people. In the small Ansai county, the number of households in the county was less than [-], and the population was less than [-]. This is the case outside the city. "

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Liu Chengzong pushed up on the brows of his helmet, and rubbed his forehead with the fingernails of his thumb, thinking: I should bring two more people here.

"We'll have to hide the car when we're close to the city," he said.

Yang Dingrui nodded immediately: "I asked you to accompany me for peace of mind. It's not for killing people. If you can't kill people, it's better not to kill."

In fact, Liu Chengzong's change was so great that Yang Dingrui, who had not seen him for several years, was shocked.

The child who climbed the mountain behind his butt back then is now wearing a full body and carrying a war bow to exterminate the bandits against the captives, as if he is used to life and death.

"Government, such a big thing..."

The dead branches were burning crackling in the bonfire. Liu Chengzong pulled the door panels from the abandoned cave dwellings on the road from the carriage and stood aside to cover the wind, and asked, "Why doesn't the government provide disaster relief?"

"Disaster relief is not about relief, especially in such a big disaster, just because one county and one prefecture cannot provide relief, it must first be reported to the local government, and then the imperial court will send someone to check the severity of the disaster, and the envoy will also check the allocation of funds, and then send talents to do it. The soldiers brought money for relief.”

Yang Dingrui said: "I have accompanied the messenger on a business trip, just to check the severity of the disaster."

"The disaster situation in our Qin area should have been reported last year, but it was delayed by the governor. Since Sar Hu defeated the army and entered Qin, the ministers of Shaanxi and Yansui were two melon counselors. One knows that three halls will be built for the imperial court, there will be bandits and thieves every year, the hungry and displaced people will go all the time, up to the imperial court and down to the local area, the Qing Dynasty is in full swing, and there are countless shortages of officials."

"The chief officials are all from the south, and they are not connected to the local area; the local adjutants are many family officials, and they travel by sedan chairs to become officials. It is often seen that the documents are not seen by the people.

"In the past seven years, three emperors have ascended the throne. This year, the Duke of Wei is in charge of the country, and next year, the princes of Donglin are in power. They have changed from county officials to frontier ministers five times and three times. Nothing to do with him."

He shook his head and said, "What's more, the arrears of border rates in the three towns of Shaanxi and the tax arrears of the Qin land are inevitable. They are all dead knots that cannot be solved."

"If the frontier army owes salaries, the army's heart will be shaken, and if the army's heart is shaken, it will be difficult to guard against the captives. This is the outside world. If the tax is owed, the court will urge the family, and the court will urge the family and the people to disperse. This is the inside."

"If a single incident occurs, the locality cannot control itself. If Shaanxi does not regard northern Shaanxi as the whole of Shaanxi, and the imperial court does not regard Shaanxi as the whole country, then Qin will be destroyed and the world will be in danger."

It was dark, and the carriage not far from the bonfire was only silhouetted in the darkness.

With the biting night wind blowing, Yang Dingrui tightened his clothes, as if he felt that the situation was a bit serious, he smiled comfortingly, and bowed to the east: "Fortunately, Your Majesty, Shengming, sent an envoy down when he knew about this, I It is estimated that within three months at the latest, the imperial court will have regulations on disaster relief."

three months?

Liu Chengzong was puzzled by this. To be as simple as Yang Dingrui said, why was Daming in another memory destroyed by the peasant army?
He felt that Yang Dingrui was trying to prevaricate himself by saying this.

"If it's only three months, why did Mr. resign?"

"Don't say three months, I can't wait for half a month."

Yang Dingrui shook his head and said, "I am an official of the imperial court, and even my husband and father. My wife and children are all in the city of Ansai. They didn't tell me that something happened in Ansai, I don't know; but I went to see it, it's so close to Ansai. , can you go back to the palace to sit in the hall?

If the world is bad, more Yang Dingrui is useless; if the world is good, less Yang Dingrui is fine.

I have an official body, but I can rescue my wife and children. I can’t send officers and soldiers. If I go back to my hometown and get hurt by others, the local government will definitely try to rebel against the victims, and more people will die because of this. best. "

He nodded lightly: "If I can't save me, I will die together, and it's just like that, that's all."

The nights on the banks of Peony River are quiet, and only the nights here are lucky enough to hear the chirping of spring insects.

Liu Chengzong's thoughts drifted far to the east in Yang Dingrui's happy words. It was a distant Forbidden City that he had never been to, but it was particularly clear in the memory that did not belong to this era.

He was sad, sad that the young emperor who was imprisoned by the palace and who nominally ruled the world did not know what was going on in the land he ruled.

He was also very fortunate for the emperor who was named Chongzhen in that year. He was fortunate that the emperor did not have the talent to know the future. Otherwise, he might have gone to Houshan Laoyaokoushu to see his ancestors on the first day of his enthronement.

At this time, the jinshi beside him said, "If Ansai's incident goes wrong, you don't have to worry about me. With both horses and armors, it shouldn't be difficult to break through the encirclement."

Turning back, Liu Chengzong nodded seriously: "Don't worry."

"Pick up the family, we will have dinner at home at this time the day after tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)