Great Sui Storyteller

Chapter 553. 552. The Dying City
"actually……"

Perhaps seeing Li Zhen's brows almost twisted into twists, Du Ruhui shook his head:

"The situation is not that bad. Hejin is next to Fenshui River, not far from the Yellow River. There are a lot of fish in the river. After I came, I left behind the method of making nets for every household. These days, every house has It is full of smoked fish. And...Li Shilang also promised before that food will be shipped over in a while, and then we will figure out a way. Let's go to the city first. Before I left, I discussed with my brother to let the counties make smoked fish Fish, keep them for the winter. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Hearing his words, Li Zhen nodded, and drove the carriage into the city.

And when he saw the desolate scene of being a county mansion that didn't match its name at all, he finally realized... how much damage Wu Duan'er had caused Hedong.

Ten stores and six gates.

Sparsely populated.

Full of women and children.

No young man.

This is not like Hejin next to Fenshui, but rather like a dying city of bitter cold.

After entering the city, Du Ruhui took the reins and led a few people to the City Lord's Mansion.

Li Zhen carefully paid attention to the expressions on the faces of everyone passing by.

In fact, frankly speaking, it's okay.

It's not that he's so numb, just waiting for death with all his heart.

But if you want to talk about how happy you are, you are delusional.

The expressions on the faces of this group of people can be summed up in one sentence:

"It's not easy to live, but you have to live."

"Ugh……"

Silently, Li Zhen sighed.

……

Soon, they completely arrived at the City Lord's Mansion.

As soon as Li Zhen jumped out of the car, he saw a few bundles of weeds stubbornly squeezed out from under the stone cracks at the base of the gate wall of the City Lord's Mansion...

Added a bit of dilapidated meaning.

"My lord!"

As soon as the officer on duty at the door saw Du Ruhui getting off the car, he hurriedly saluted and greeted him.

Du Ruhui nodded:
"Is brother here?"

"Returning to my lord, it is not. The magistrate has gone outside the city. It is said that there is a caravan passing by today. The magistrate wants to see if he can stop it and buy some food."

Hearing what the official said, Li Zhen asked:
"Which caravan?"

"Uh……"

Glancing at the Taoist, the official saw that the master was also looking at him, and then said:
"I don't know exactly which caravan it is, but these days there are many caravans passing by one after another. It's just that these caravans have already set the amount of grain with others, and they won't sell it to us at all. The governor has no choice but to touch it. Take your chances..."

After listening to him, Li Zhen directly took out the piece of jade Cui Wanrong gave him from his arms, and handed it to the official:
"Go to your county sheriff and give him this jade pendant. If you meet a caravan later, if you recognize this jade pendant, let him leave some food. Then order some food with them and come back."

The official was a little surprised, and immediately looked at Du Ruhui.

Du Ruhui nodded:
"Go."

"Yes!"

After taking the jade pendant, the officer hurried away.

In fact, Li Zhen's thinking is quite simple. A large number of grains in Hedong should be shipped to Yujiao, and Cui Wanrong's jade pendant should be able to play a role, but the effect will not be too great. People are definitely not realistic.

But talk is better than nothing.

Then, Du Ruhui said:

"Let's go in. Let's unload the carriage and horses, and don't move the things inside for now."

He is the chief secretary and the younger brother of the sheriff, so the weight of his words is naturally no small matter.

Several officials immediately took over the chariots and horses.

After Du Ruhui brought Li Zhen and his party to the mansion, they immediately went to the study.

He didn't even take Li Zhen and the others to their residence.

After pushing open the door of the study, Li Zhen guessed how heavy the workload of the two brothers of the Du family was when they saw the county chronicles, account books and other Hedong materials piled up on two tables.

"Let's take a look at it casually first. I'll take a look at the official documents of the past few days."

Following Du Ruhui's words, Li Zhen picked up a booklet on his own.

The booklet seems to be for population statistics. As soon as he opened the first page, he saw a record:
Hejin's actual plan:

In the city: male Baiwusan, female Qianqisiliu, children don't count

Kaohezhuang: [-] males, [-] females
Hekou Village: [-] males, [-] females and [-] females
Hefen Village: None for men, seven for women

Dawangkou: nine males, four one females
Donghechi: [-]st male, [-]rd female
……

With the sound of pages turning, Li Zhen flipped through half of the population statistics booklet, and was in no mood to continue reading.

I picked up another one, and the contents after opening it were also very strange:
"Hekou Village: Wang Qiduo, Wang Wu, Wang Dayou, Wang Dayou, Wang Gan, Wang Tong, Wang Qu, Wang He..."

He was a little puzzled, and turned to another article:
"Dawangkou: Chen Zhi, Chen Dazhi, Chen Duojin, Chen Youfu, Xu Huai, Liu Zhongkui, Chen Sanxing, Si Tongmao..."

"Old Du."

He looked at Du Ruhui with the brochure and asked:

"What is the name of the person here?"

Du Ruhui, who was checking the recent political affairs, glanced at it and said:

"The names of the men recruited by Wu Duan'er in each village."

"..."

Hearing this, Li Zhen looked back like a horse on a horse, and they were all densely packed names.

"all these are?"

"more than."

Du Ruhui turned his head and pointed to the full books on the bookshelf:
"It's all in this row, but I haven't finished counting it yet. My brother and I thought that if something unexpected happens in the future, we can't understand it with reason, so we will act emotionally and count these names so that they can remember them. There are people in my family who are waiting for them..."

"..."

Li Zhen didn't speak, just put the booklet on the small table next to him, and sighed faintly.

He really didn't care to watch it.

After thinking about it, he suddenly got up:

"Is there any food in the house?"

"Yes... why?"

"You go and call Si Nong over to me, and then bring me a bag of grain with shells that can be used as grain."

Hearing this, Xuanzang immediately raised his head:

"Daoist..."

Who would have thought that Li Zhen waved his hand:

"Try, don't make it so big this time."

"……All right."

Although Du Ruhui didn't know what the priest wanted to do, he went out of the house and called an official to give him orders.

Not long after, the officer in charge of seasonal farming walked over quickly, and the officer next to him was still carrying a bag of grain in his hand.

"Your official Wu Mao, I have met the Lord Registrar."

"Well, Old Wu, it's not me looking for you, it's Daoist Shouchu looking for you."

Du Ruhui pointed at Li Zhen, and before Wu Mao had time to say hello, Li Zhen suddenly asked:

"What kind of food is this?"

"Uh...it's wheat."

"If the wheat is sown in spring, how far should it grow this season?"

"Reply Master, if planting according to the season, when the trees are planted in an inch of water, the moisture content is even, and there are no overhead dark ridges, the wheat at this time should have reached the stage where the wheat seedlings are like swords, the second leaves are out of the sheath, and the young ears are gestating. .”

"Uh……"

In fact, Li Zhen didn't understand what Wu Mao said.

But I think they are quite professional.

So he nodded:
"Okay, I'll look for it, and you can see if it's this stage later."

"...?"

Wu Mao was taken aback.

He... what did he say he was going to do?
looking around?
what to look for?
wheat?
What does this mean?
And just when he was puzzled, Li Zhen grabbed a handful of wheat seeds in the bag and threw it towards the flowerbed in front of him.

Then, everyone felt... the Taoist in front of them seemed to be out of this time, with a sense of alienation that seemed plausible.

At the same time, the monk beside him chanted in a low voice:

"Amitabha, the flowers bloom to see the Buddha!"

The surging Buddha's will instantly turned into a raging vitality and began to surge in the courtyard.

After jumping into the long river of time, Li Zhen looked at the countercurrent time and drank in a low voice:

"Like the light and the dust, get up!"

(End of this chapter)