The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 889 Breaking the levee and destroying evidence

Baima County in Dongjun County is located on the bank of the Yellow River. The water of the Yellow River that flows eastward turns north here. It is no problem in normal times, but now, there is a heavy rain in the middle and upper reaches, and many swelled rivers are pouring into the Yellow River. After converging to Yanggu County, a frightening torrent was formed. When the huge amount of water was unable to rush downstream due to a turn, they had no choice but to move forward, slapping the river embankment in front of it with turbulent force, trying to flush it destroyed so that you can move forward smoothly.

Huge waves roared, roared, and galloped against the river embankment, but the river embankment was like a reef standing in the turbulent waves. , However, the rolling waves continued to bombard one after another, the thrilling roar continued, splashing water that covered the sky, under the power of nature, how insignificant is the power of human beings?

But no matter how raging the Yellow River was, the county soldiers and civilian husbands organized by the county magistrate risked their lives and rushed to the river embankment to fight against the danger.

They know very well that although the embankment is strong, it is not a solid reef or mountain after all, and it cannot withstand the continuous bombardment of huge waves. With the ruins of Zeguo, they who lived on the land had to leave their homes again and became homeless refugees.

Baima County Government.

County Magistrate Shi Yu was frowning, and kept paced back and forth in the study. As a county magistrate along the Yellow River, he knew very well that the flood was severe, and the embankments were being reinforced everywhere, and the water potential was increasing steadily. , the torrential river roared day and night like a demon who chooses and devours people, and the majesty of the heaven and earth made people change color.

He was concerned about his family, so he came back in some free time, and told his family to prepare enough food and rice to go up the mountain to avoid danger.Unfortunately, when he just got home and didn't say a few words, his old friend Shen Fan blocked him, and this person was the root cause of his panic and disorientation.

Shi Yu was originally one of the family slaves of the Zheng family in Xingyang. Since the Sui Dynasty implemented the policy of overthrowing the family, the Zheng family urgently evacuated a group of people, turning these people into darkness, and obtained them as refugees, poor people, etc. Having acquired the nationality of the Sui Dynasty, Shi Yu stood out in the scientific examination because of his outstanding talent and learning, and became the county magistrate of Baima County.I thought I could get rid of Zheng's control and live a normal life, but who would have thought that Zheng's supernatural powers found him again, and forced him to submit by controlling his family.

The so-called Shen Fan in front of him is actually Zheng Fan, and he is a clansman and confidant of Patriarch Zheng Shanguo.

"Brother came today by accident, and I have to rush to the embankment soon. Brother, hurry up and talk!" Shi Yu looked at the gloomy sky worriedly. Sandbags were used to build up the gate of the courtyard, but the water in the courtyard was very deep.

Zheng Fan twisted his wet hem, and smiled quietly: "Brother, I know it's not the right time, but it's urgent, so I have to come."

Shi Yu looked back at him, and asked coldly, "Did Patriarch Zheng come down with another order?"

Zheng Fan sighed after hearing this, and said, "Your brother knows best. We hope that everyone will unite and cooperate sincerely, instead of being hostile to each other."

"Controlling my family and forcing me to commit crimes, is this what you call sincere cooperation?" Shi Yu was a man of flesh and blood and self-consciousness. Ever since he lived a normal life with land and land, he hated the life of a slave, Seeing that the imperial court is vigorously suppressing the aristocratic family, how can you continue to be a slave?

It is also because of this that although the Zheng family can still exert influence on people like Shi Yu to a large extent, they can no longer do as they did before, nor can they rely on the influence and economic strength of the Zheng family in Xingyang. People continue to be rubbed or flattened, and they are completely at their mercy.

This is like the two major parties of American imperialism in later generations. As a large consortium supporting them, it is impossible to make them obey their will at any time.The parties also have their own thinking and interests. When they are strong enough, they can even deal with the consortium behind them.

The same is true for Shi Yu and others. They took advantage of the court's efforts to crack down on the aristocratic family, and urgently needed to get rid of Zheng's control. However, they underestimated the shameless methods of the aristocratic family, and even forced them to submit by kidnapping their relatives.

Of course Zheng Fan also knew Shi Yu's reluctance, but he said confidently: "No matter what, I don't want everyone to have any disputes. In fact, my brother has no way out now, does he?"

Hearing this, Shi Yu was very angry.

Baima County is the location of a large-scale grain storage in the Sui Dynasty. It is far away from the Liyang warehouse on the opposite bank. There are [-] grain kilns, and each cellar stores [-] shi of grain. Millet can be stored for ten years, and rice can be stored for five years.

There was once a major corruption case here. Yang Guang sent a censor to investigate the case. The censor was capable and quickly solved the case. However, this person caught the corrupt officials while chasing the stolen goods, and he himself took a large part of the stolen goods. .

At that time, the Sui Dynasty was in turmoil, and various factions were constantly attacking. The matter was quickly grasped by the political opponents. Once the lawsuit was brought to the imperial court, Yang Guang was furious, and then sent someone to investigate his imperial history.

As a result, when the later censor pursued the former censor's stolen money, he conveniently took a large sum of gold and silver from the former censor.So, some people who stared at him went to report. In the end, the heads of the censor who handled the case and his entourage hanging on the top of Baima City were no less than the local officials who were greedy for food... When the Sui Dynasty was in chaos, the grain of the Baima warehouse Zhang Xutuo, who was in charge of suppressing the bandits, fell into the hands of Zhai Rang before he could take any of them.After Yang Tong regained the Central Plains, he continued to use Baima Cang as the imperial court's strategic reserve base.

In order to make it easier for the southern expedition army to obtain grain, Yang Tong transferred new grain reserves from the Liyang warehouse and stocked up the thousand-mouth grain kiln. However, he later led the army to Li Mi's Hanyang warehouse and Jiangdu city by sea, and the army did not need it at all. Food was transported from the north, and the rest of the armies also hoped to win. Everyone supported the war by fighting, and seized food from the enemy's hands.As a result, the grain in the white horse warehouse did not play a role at all.

Even though Dongping County, a neighboring county, has tens of thousands of people working on artificial lakes, so many people need to eat every day, but the imperial court still does not use the grain from Dongjun County, but uses the old grain from Liyang warehouse to eat by water transport.

On the one hand, the food here is to prevent famines in the local and surrounding areas, and more is used as a reserve.When the grain reaches the storage period, it can either be sold at a low price, and then new grain can be bought at the market price for further storage, or it can be used for wine making.

And because this is new grain, the court will not be able to use it for a while, and no one will touch it, so the Zheng family in Xingyang saw a business opportunity from it. Last year, they kidnapped Shi Yu's family and forced him to submit. 'The way of caravans was sold to the Tang Dynasty when the price of food soared, and it made a lot of money from the huge price difference.

When officials from Sinong Temple came to check the accounts, they first looked at the accounts, and second, they checked whether the grain kilns were full and whether there were bran, shriveled grains, gravel and weeds in the grain.In order to deal with the inspection, Shi Yu asked people to stuff barrels into the grain kiln, so that there was grain around and on top of the grain kiln. Originally, when the officials of Sinong Temple inspected grain, they would also insert wooden pipes several feet long into the grain pile. , to check whether the grain and rice in the grain kiln are damaged, mildewed or shoddy.But the grain kiln is too deep, and the barrel only faces the middle and lower parts, so there is no problem at all with wooden sticks that are only a few feet long.

After the Zheng family in Xingyang had a handle, they released Shi Yu's family and returned him a huge bonus. Over time, Shi Yu cooperated with the Zheng family to steal grain from the grain kiln and went further and further on the road of crime.

But even though he was a direct criminal and gained huge wealth from it, he didn't dare to spend any money, because he knew that the second criminal and imperial department's trial methods were too powerful. Can judge whether this person has improper income, think about it too, if a county magistrate lives more luxuriously than the prefect, will there be no problem?Because of this, Shi Yu's heart could not be at peace for a moment.

"What do you want me to do again?" Shi Yu thought of the consequences of the court's last anti-corruption campaign and killed tens of thousands of people, and couldn't help but shiver. There was more and more food, and at the beginning of the year, Zheng Fan came to threaten him again with evidence.

He knew that if it was leaked out, it would be a crime of beheading, so he had no choice but to allocate another 15 shi from the granary that was short of money to sell. , Who would have thought that there would be a severe drought in spring, except for Liaodong, the spring grain would be greatly reduced in all places.Fearing that the people would be deceived by the temporary benefits, the imperial court sold all the food in the family. It not only published an article in "Half Moon Talk", telling the people not to sell food as much as possible before the autumn harvest, but also ordered officials from all over the country to state their strong relationship to the people, adhering to the "family There is food, and the people with the idea of ​​not panic" under the government's decree, all do not sell food.

It also caused Shi Yu's idea of ​​buying grain to make up for the deficit to be completely interrupted.

Every time I think of when my family was kidnapped, I didn't report the case to the county magistrate, county magistrate, and county magistrate, and walked step by step on the road of no return. Shi Yu regretted his heart like a knife, but he was afraid of being exposed, and his official career was clear. If he is destroyed, he is even more afraid of being dismissed from office, losing his job, and his family will be destroyed, which will make his son who has always been proud of him sad and disappointed.

"Brother Wei didn't have the order of the Patriarch this time, but came by himself." Zheng Fan said confidently.

Shi Yu was so angry with hatred in his heart that he gritted his teeth, "What exactly do you want?"

Zheng Fan didn't seem to care about his hatred, and said leisurely: "I'm here to help my brother."

"Help, how? Help me to die?" Shi Yu could not bear the sarcasm.

Zheng Fan said indifferently: "Isn't this heavy rain just a god-given opportunity for my virtuous brother? If the Yellow River breaks its embankment, all the evidence will be washed away by the flood... You are the head of a county. If a river embankment breaks, it will be very serious." simple."

Hearing this, Shi Yu was dumbfounded and his whole body was cold.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, for their own safety or to harm their neighbors, countries often built embankments on the Yellow River, Huai River, Jishui and other major rivers flowing through their own countries to block the rivers, because if the upstream countries build dikes, the downstream countries will If the water is cut off, drought will break out; on the contrary, if the downstream countries build dikes, the upstream countries will be flooded with fertile fields.When Duke Huan of Qi met in Kuiqiu, he agreed that the vassal states should not destroy the embankment of the Yellow River. For more than 1000 years, there have been countless emperors and princes who have ruled the Yellow River Basin, but no one violated this agreement.

Even the emperor who was about to destroy the country did not break through this moral bottom line—however, this Zheng family member actually wanted to break the Yellow River embankment by himself. Obviously, he overestimated the moral level of the Zheng family in Xingyang.

"Every time the Yellow River diverts or breaches, floods will occur, flooding large tracts of land, swallowing countless towns and farmland, killing millions of people, and creating countless tragedies in the history of the Yellow River Basin. Don't I know this?" Shi Yu Na Na Road.

"Breaking the levee and destroying the evidence is the best way for my virtuous brother to solve the troubles. Whether you listen or do it is up to your virtuous brother. There is nothing more to say..." Zheng Fan got up and left, and when he walked to the door, he turned his head Dao said, "On the one hand, the lives of the elder brother and his family are on the other hand, and on the other hand, the grassroots people who have nothing to do with it. I believe that the younger brother will definitely make the right choice."

After saying that, Zheng Fan walked away.

"Break the levee and destroy the evidence?"

Shi Yu was in a daze, even though it was raining heavily and the cool wind was blowing, layers of sweat still appeared on his back, and he was confused for a while.

(End of this chapter)