Fenghou

The news of capturing Bianliang finally reached Chen Qing's big tent. Although he expected it, the great joy brought by the news still made him extremely excited.

Chen Qing immediately ordered the news to be spread throughout the camp. It was still the fourth watch, but there was joy inside and outside the Bianhe River. The soldiers rushed out of the big tent excitedly and threw their helmets high into the sky.

"Long live! Long live His Royal Highness King Yong!"

Cheers spread all over the country, Chen Qing immediately ordered that a grand entrance ceremony be held tomorrow morning, and mutton and wine were presented to reward the soldiers in the evening, and the three armies celebrated their victory.

At dawn the next day, the news spread like wildfire, and the entire Bianliang City was boiling. After fifteen years of occupation, the Song Army from Sichuan and Shaanxi finally defeated the Jin Bing and regained the former Song Jing.

This means that the people are no longer the slaves of the Kingdom of Jin, and have returned to the embrace of the Song Dynasty. The people rushed to the street, beating leather drums and wooden barrels, singing and dancing, celebrating the end of the war and welcoming Chen Qing's army into the city.

When the neat army appeared outside the south city, the whole city was boiling. Tens of thousands of residents rushed out of the city with drums and music to welcome the west army into the city. They used bread, fruits, eggs, chickens, ducks and Game, reward yourself with all their food for the arrival of the army.

Tears of excitement flashed in everyone's eyes. In the past hundred years, no army has ever been treated like the Western Army in Bianliang. They are regarded as the savior of Bianliang and the last hope of the people of Bianliang. .

In Bianliang City, [-] people lined the road to welcome the Western Army to enter the city. The people sang and danced to vent their inner joy. Three hundred elders knelt on the long street to welcome the arrival of Yong Wang Chen Qing. This is the highest etiquette, and it is only the emperor. However, at this time, no one cared whether it was inappropriate, as if the emperor of Song Dynasty was in the team.

But this is not important anymore, they need a ceremony to express their joy and excitement, and kneeling on the long street is undoubtedly the best ceremony and the greatest sincerity.

An old man raised his head and shouted loudly: "Since Jingkang, Bianliang has been slaughtered repeatedly, countless people's homes have been destroyed, the dead have lost their dignity, and the living have been devastated, but we have never lost hope, we have been waiting Looking forward to this day, today, we have finally arrived."

After finishing speaking, everyone burst into tears. Chen Qing hurriedly helped the old man up, and then asked the soldiers to help up all the old people.

With tears in his eyes, he said loudly: "You are my father and mother, you are my brothers and sisters, and your children are my children. I only hate that I came too late and caused my relatives to suffer so much humiliation, but Starting today, you all stand up straight! No one will go hungry or cold again, and starting today, the people of Bianliang will be exempted from taxes for ten years, this is my promise to everyone!"

"Long live! Long live His Royal Highness King Yong!"

No matter how sweet the words are, it is not as realistic as the promise of tax exemption for ten years. The cheers resounded throughout the city. This is the heartfelt cheers and support from the people.

The crowd supported the old and the young, the women hugged the children, the girls wore gorgeous long skirts, groups of children ran with the cavalry, and many cavalry carried the children on their horses, causing applause and laughter.

After the ceremony of entering the city, Chen Qing immediately ordered to set up [-] porridge sheds in Bianliang City to provide porridge to the hungry people. He could see clearly that most of the people were sallow and emaciated, and it is estimated that many people had no food in stock.

In particular, Du Rong has been in control of Bianliang for several days, and has stopped giving relief to the people, and many people have no food at home.

So the first thing to do was to set up porridge sheds to help the hungry people. Soon, there were long queues in front of all the porridge sheds. Chen Qing ordered the soldiers to cook the porridge as thick as possible so that the hungry people could be full.

Accompanying Chen Qing to inspect the city was Li Ji, the general judge of Kaifeng Prefecture, who was also the magistrate of Bianliang County. He was about fifty years old. In the Northern Song Dynasty, he was a doctor of the household department and knew about Chenzhou affairs. Later, his classmate and good friend Zhao Yuan became the Sima of Liang Wangfu, and invited him out of the mountain to serve as the general judge of Kaifeng Mansion and the magistrate of Bianliang County.

Although he was an official of the Kingdom of Jin, Chen Qing did not make things difficult for him, and let him continue to serve. Now the most important thing for Bianliang is to stabilize it.

"Your Highness, Wanyan Wushu is not a bad person. When he withdrew, he left Du Rong [-] shi of food, of which [-] shi was military rations and [-] shi was civilian food, but Du Rong withheld the [-] shi of civilian food. , refused to hand it over to the government, we didn’t have a grain of grain in hand, so we had to borrow grain from big families and saved some people.”

"Does that mean there are still many people starving to death?"

"Yes! Basically, they are widows, old people, children and beggars. We collect more than [-] corpses every day, and they all died of illness and starvation!"

"Where is this Du Rong's family?" Even though Du Rong was dead, Chen Qing was still furious.

"He has two sons, a nephew, and a grandson, but there seems to be no one in his house."

Next to him, Yang Zaixing said: "Your Highness, last night I was ambushed outside the east city. There were two carriages in Du Rong's team. There were women, children and two young men in them. They all died under random arrows. They brought a lot of gold and silver. It should be Du Rong's family."

Chen Qing nodded, and the anger in his heart subsided a little.

"How many people are there in the city now?"

"Three hundred and thirty-eight thousand people, counted only last month."

"What do the common people do for a living, farming?" Chen Qing asked again.

Li Ji smiled bitterly and said, "There is nothing to live on!"

Chen Qing reined in the horse's reins and asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Li Ji pointed to the closed shops on both sides and said, "Your Highness, do you think these shops were closed due to the war these two days?"

Chen Qing wanted to ask a long time ago. He found that the shops in the city were basically closed, even grocery stores were closed, which really puzzled him.

"Is not it?"

Li Ji shook his head, "Since Wanyan Wushu took over Bianliang, a supper order has been issued, all the shops and small stalls that rely on the night for their livelihood have all suffered disasters, and there is no brothel in Bianliang City, and it has been a long time since The music hall, the dance hall, and the play shed were all down.

Then, a month ago, the Jurchen Army’s meat supply was insufficient, and they began to search for meat and wine in the city. The livestock were gone, the chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs were gone, and now the cattle were gone, so there were no carts or carts in the city, and restaurants. They were all closed, which triggered a shopping frenzy. Every family spent all their copper coins. All the shops were empty and had no goods to sell. No, they were all closed. Bianliang, which was originally dominated by commerce and handicrafts, basically died, so the humble job said that it could not make a living. "

Chen Qingcai found that the problems he was facing were quite serious, and the joy of capturing Bianliang was fading rapidly.

He sighed softly, and asked again, "What about the farmers outside the city?"

"Your Highness, all the grain harvested this year was confiscated by the army, and then tens of thousands of people brought their own dry food to help harvest the wheat. They agreed on three liters of wheat a day, but until now, they have not been paid.

When the Jin soldiers retreated, the people vented their anger on the government, because it was the government that organized everyone to harvest wheat. Why was there no one in the government? It was not because they were afraid of the Song army, but because they were afraid of revenge from the people! "

Chen Qing nodded, turned around and said to the general: "Pass on my order, starting tonight, cancel the curfew."

Immediately Chen Qing said to Li Ji: "Publish the notice, and the wages owed for harvesting wheat will be cashed from tomorrow. You find all the officials today, and I will give you food, and then you start cashing the wages!"

Li Ji let out a long sigh of relief, and thanked him very much: "Thank you, Your Highness, for your tolerance!"

At this time, Li Ji remembered something, and said: "Although there is no business in Bianliang, there is a black market in Bianliang, and the scale of bartering on the black market is already very large."