Fenghou

Chapter 559 Warning
Chen Qing pointed his horsewhip at the long grain buying queue in the distance, and said in a very dissatisfied tone: "I just found out that a bucket of wheat costs eighty renminbi, and there are still people digging wild vegetables outside the city, catching voles, and picking leaves to eat. Zhao's people are living in such a difficult situation, how can the government turn a blind eye?"

Dong Yan knew that what should come is still coming, and he had to face it. He said helplessly to Chen Qing: "The Cangcheng we are going to visit is the only warehouse group in Jingzhaocheng. It is under military control, and the local government cannot interfere. Even the county magistrate You can’t go in either. The county government is just as poor. Hundreds of county magistrates, including the humble ones, have owed their salaries for three months. Vole."

"And then?" Chen Qing's face softened a little.

"The envoy of Jinglue also knows that Shaanxi Road has to bear the military salaries, supplies, and various supplies of [-] gold soldiers and [-] puppet Qi troops. Although the puppet Qi troops have a large number, their salaries are not high and their food is poor , the key is [-] gold soldiers, who have to eat meat every day, and each soldier needs [-] Guan a month for tea and wine. Qingyang Mansion raises sheep to provide them with food and drink, and the monthly military salary is [-] guan, which is more than [-] million guan a year, and there is no other way except high taxes to exploit the people."

Speaking of this, Dong Yan said with great melancholy: "But the common people don't care so much, they only hate the government for extorting money, making their lives more and more difficult, and we have become the last scapegoats."

"How long has Dongzhi County been in Jingzhao Mansion?"

"The humble job was originally the Sima of Qingzhou, and he was transferred to Jingzhao to serve as the magistrate of Chang'an the year before last."

Chen Qing nodded, and asked again: "How many people are there in Chang'an County now?"

"A population of [-], including rural households in the suburbs, a total of [-] households."

"What about the entire Jingzhao Mansion?"

"I heard that there are more than [-] people in the humble job."

There are still a lot of people, much more than the population of Chengji County, which makes Chen Qing very satisfied. Calculated in this way, the entire Guanzhong must have a population of more than one million.

"Didn't Wanyanchang and Wanyan Helisa stay in Jingzhao Mansion before? Why did Wanyan Helisa go to Fengxiang again?"

"Reporting to the Jinglue envoy, the home of the Jurchens has always been the Fengxiang Mansion. Before that, the Marshal's Mansion was temporarily moved to Jingzhao because the Jurchens wanted to enter Hanzhong from Ziwu Valley. Naturally, I will return to Fengxiang."

A group of people soon came to Cangcheng. Cangcheng has been taken over by the Song army. The square in Cangcheng was full of hungry people, tens of thousands of people, covering a large area.

"Give us some food!"

"General, please give us some rice! Our family has been out of food for more than a month."

The hungry people pleaded bitterly, but the hundreds of soldiers guarding the gate had no choice but to keep showing signs of power to keep the hungry people away.

The soldiers parted ways, and Chen Qing entered Cangcheng. The people in charge of counting Cangcheng were Hu Yanyun and Zhang Miao. Hu Yanyun heard that they were all coming, so he rushed out to welcome them.

With a gloomy face, Chen Qing asked, "Is there no food in the warehouse?"

"There is still a little more, about [-] shi."

Chen Qing was full of anger, pointed to the outside and said, "Then why don't you provide porridge? There are so many hungry people outside, and you haven't seen it?"

Hu Yanyun quickly explained, "The humble job is to ask the capital for instructions."

"Do you still need to ask for instructions on this kind of thing? Why do the people in the city welcome us into the city? They just hope that we can help them. Tens of thousands of people have already run out of food. Will I not agree to give away porridge?"

Hu Yanyun gritted his teeth and said: "But the governor did not give the humble official this authority. Of course, the humble official has to ask for instructions before releasing food and porridge."

Chen Qing had no choice but to hold his sullen breath in his heart, and ordered: "Immediately provide porridge in the whole city, set up ten relief points, and give six points of porridge!"

The six-point porridge was boiled thicker, Hu Yanyun hurriedly said: "Humble job arranges it immediately!"

After a pause, Chen Qing added: "In addition, we need to sell grain at a low price, at a price of [-] cents per bucket, completely knock down the price of grain for me!"

Hu Yanyun was a little worried and said: "Beizhi is worried that there will not be enough food to stabilize food prices."

Dong Yan explained: "In fact, enough food is in the hands of the four major households in Guanzhong, and their four families occupy almost half of the land in Guanzhong."

With the order of the general, Song Jun immediately took action, and soon began to build sheds outside Cangcheng, brought stoves, iron pots and bags of rice, and built four sheds around the square, and hung the porridge relief banner stand up.

The hungry people rejoiced and began to line up in front of the greenhouse.

Hu Yanyun was busy with porridge relief, and the Intelligence Agency ordered Zhang Miao to accompany Chen Qing to continue to visit the warehouse.

"This is a very good warehouse city. It is said that it was the Dongshi City in the Tang Dynasty. It is composed of more than one hundred large warehouses, which is more than three times the size of our Chengji County warehouse city!"

Chen Qing turned his head and asked Dong Yan, the magistrate who was following behind, and said, "Excuse me, magistrate Dong, how many miles is the circumference of Jingzhao City Wall?"

Dong Yan hurriedly said: "Report to the Jinglue envoy, a total of forty-three miles."

It is really a big city, no wonder there is such a big warehouse city.

"Cangcheng is good, but what about the supplies?"

"Materials may disappoint the manager. First of all, Bingjia's inventory is already empty. The warehouse manager said that Bingjia took all of them when they were preparing for war at the beginning of the year."

It was completely within Chen Qing's expectation that there were no Bingjias in stock. If there were Bingjias in stock, Jin Bing would recruit a large number of soldiers, and it would not be only [-] puppet Qi troops.

"Bingjia doesn't care, what else? How many copper coins are there?"

"As I said just now, there are [-] shi of grain, [-] guan of copper coins, and about a million bolts of cloth."

"There are so many pieces of cloth?" Chen Qing asked in surprise.

"The cloth was left over from the Song Dynasty. It has not been moved and is well preserved. There are also bulk materials such as copper ingots, pig iron, wood, tea, oil, etc. The pig iron is about three million catties, the copper ingots are over one million catties, and the wood There are many, thousands of them! They are all excellent logs that can be used to build a big house."

Chen Qing's temporary Jinglue Mansion is naturally Wanyanchang's Marshal's Mansion. This mansion is the largest and only royal mansion in Jingzhao City, covering an area of ​​[-] mu. It was originally the Wei Wang Mansion of Zhao Tingmei, the fourth brother of the founding emperor Zhao Kuangyin.

Later, it was changed to the Palace of the Son of Heaven, rebuilt twice, and continued to be repaired. Whether it was the Song Dynasty, Jin State, or Qi State that occupied Jingzhao City, this mansion has always been the residence of the highest officials.

The Jinglue Mansion is divided into two. The front part is the government office, about [-] mu, including a barracks covering an area of ​​[-] mu and an inner warehouse, while the back part is the residence.

At this time, the residential part was temporarily closed, and Chen Qing only opened a small part of the government office.

Chen Qing only visited half of the warehouse before rushing back to the temporary Jinglue Mansion, where several generals were waiting for him.

When Chen Qing walked into the lobby, all the generals bowed and saluted together, "See Du Tong!"

Chen Qing waved his hand, "Let's talk about the situation first!"

Yang Zaixing picked up the wooden pole, pointed at the sand table and said, "I just got the latest news from the scouts. The main force of the Jin army, about [-] cavalry, was found in the west of Wuting County. It is estimated that they will arrive in the direction of Jingzhao Mansion in two days Zhaocheng."

This news was really beyond Chen Qing's expectations. The [-] Jurchen main forces shouldn't have given up Fengxiang Mansion and came to Jingzhao Mansion to fight the Song Army. If they only thought of a decisive battle with the Song Army now, then why did they give up Jingzhao City and retreat? To Fengxiang mansion?It doesn't make sense in terms of emotion and reason.

At this time, Tang Qian, the leader of the scouts, said: "There are still some details in the report, that is, the Jin soldiers did not carry any luggage, did not carry any siege weapons, and did not even carry tents. If the Song army defended the city without fighting, how long could they last? So humble He and several of his subordinates believe that the Jin soldiers are not here to attack Jingzhao City, and their target is not us, but to retreat back to Hedong Road."

Yang Zaixing also said: "General Tang is right. From the analysis of time, when the [-] Jin soldiers left Fengxiang County, our main force had just entered Tongzhou. They couldn't possibly know that the Song army had taken Jinsuoguan. Didn't even know we had taken Jingzhaocheng."

Chen Qing was pacing back and forth in the lobby with his hands behind his back. Of course, he already understood that the Jin soldiers were not coming for them. They should have retreated to Hedong Road, walked through Pujin Pass to Hedong, and abandoned Shaanxi Road.

Today, Chen Qing has seen through all of Wanyanchang's strategies, which are to preserve the Jurchen army, or this is the foundation of Wanyanchang's struggle for power within the Kingdom of Jin, and there is no chance of any mistakes.

That's why the scene in front of me appeared, Jin Bing abandoned Shaanxi Road and retreated back to Hedong Road.

Now what Chen Qing is thinking about is whether to block this army, and if so, how to block it?After all, the opponent has [-] of the most elite Jurchen cavalry, and even if he has an army of [-], he may not be the opponent of the opponent when fighting on the plains.

At this time, Liu Qiong, who had been silent all this time, said, "I'm going to report to Dutong, the humble officer has a strategy to stop the enemy!"

(End of this chapter)