After waking up from the dream, the general's wife lost her love brain

Chapter 45 Disaster
Gongzhou, thousands of miles away.

Because of the cold wave before winter, the crops froze while they were still in the fields. Gongzhou was not very wealthy, and a great famine broke out since the beginning of winter.

The people frantically rushed to buy grain first, but the grain merchants closed their doors to stock up on grain at this time, and the Gongzhou warehouse cleared the grain and closed the warehouse after only opening for less than seven days.

The governor of Gongzhou urgently reported to the imperial court, requesting for the allocation of grain for disaster relief.

The Holy Majesty ordered this memorial to discuss in the early court. He ordered Xin Shiyi, the Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, to open the yellow warehouse. Liang went to Gongzhou.

"Grandpa, I'm hungry."

Outside the endless rice-collaring line, a five- or six-year-old child grabbed the old man's clothes with longing in his eyes.

The old man reassured his grandson: "We will be here soon, and we will have something to eat when we receive the rice."

The people around them all had earth-colored faces, thin bodies, and staggering steps. Only when they looked at the shed in front of them, some hope ignited in their eyes.

The consul was putting a small bag of rice into the hands of the person in front when he was suddenly stopped by his subordinates.

"Master, there is something wrong with this grain. There is more gravel than rice grain."

In order to prevent merchants from instigating or buying servants to pretend to be refugees to receive relief food, or to collect grain at high prices and hoard grain, the imperial court mixed a certain amount of sand and gravel with rice grain before appropriating the grain.

But in this case, the handful of grain in the hands of his subordinates was vaguely visible, and it was very sparse.

His face was serious and his brows were deeply furrowed.

The consul's heart skipped a beat, and he followed him into the granary.

There was a bag of rice lying on the ground, and the mouth of the bag had been opened by his men.

I saw that the inside was not snow-white rice grains, but finely crushed sand and gravel.

It is common to find a small amount of sand and gravel in rice, but the bag in front of me is no longer adulterated and cannot be eaten at all.

The consul opened another bag nearby.

Black, white, and white, the white ones are almost completely submerged in the sand and gravel.

The two looked at each other with shock in their eyes.

On that day, he urgently revised the book, and ordered his subordinates to ride fast horses to run the official road, and reported the matter to the Ming sage.

Recently, two major events occurred in Gongzhou that shocked both the government and the public.

Grain merchants in Gongzhou and several neighboring states, wealthy businessmen, all bid up the price of grain, one or two meters to one tael of gold. The relief grain distributed went through layers of exploitation, and when it arrived in Gongzhou, the grain turned into gravel. This is one of the reasons.

The disaster relief ministers hid themselves from the public and continued to fool the people with sand and gravel, resulting in thousands of starvation deaths. Gongzhou officials and businessmen colluded, wine and meat stinked in the wealthy families, and bones were frozen to death on the roads. In the end, the people had no choice but to go to Beijing to complain to the emperor. This is the second one.

The Holy Emperor was furious and ordered the Marquis of Zhenbei to investigate the matter thoroughly and propose new disaster relief candidates to the court.

The second prince took the initiative to take the order and went to Gongzhou again with relief money and food, which once again attracted praise from the ruling and opposition parties.

………………

Compared with the precarious situation in Gongzhou, Shangjing is surrounded by white snow and jade.

The Lu Mansion next door held a full moon banquet today, and a few days ago, a post was sent to the Zhenbeihou Mansion.

It was said to be a full moon party, but in fact the daughter of the Lu family was almost four months old. It was only because I heard that she was weak when she was first born and was still sick at one month old that she postponed the full moon party until now.

Qiao Yuan remembered that when she heard that Mrs. Lu had given birth, she even gave her a gift.

Left and Right Lu's Mansion is next door, and Qiao Yuan has nothing to do recently, so he packed up and went.

There was a strong fire in the house, blocking out the cold weather outside.

The recent visit to Beijing was shrouded in rumors of corruption during the winter disaster relief. The Lu family could not afford to do anything big at this time, so they only invited a few familiar ladies to come and sit down.

Before Qiao Yuan entered, she heard voices in the room.

The maid raised the curtain for her, and Qiao Yuan walked in.

A meal in the house.

It's covered in snow outside and the wind is cold.

The lady who walked in from the snow, just entered the door, the silhouette of the profile, which was as delicate as a distant mountain, was slightly exposed from under the hood, and everyone felt that the room was a little brighter.

Before Qiao Yuan got married, some good people in Beijing wrote poems, praising her appearance as shining like a pearl and boundless.

No one can be indifferent to the first jewel in Beijing, regardless of gender.

The servant girl stepped forward and took off Qiao Yuan's cloak, exposing her entire face in front of everyone.

The snow is the soul, the flower is the soul, the water eyes are shining, the delicate snow skin is swept by the cold wind, the nose is slightly red, and the mouth is like vermilion.

Wearing a snow-green coat with flowers scattered all over her body, she looks like a beautiful jade statue coming to life. Gold and silver threads are intertwined and embroidered into cloud patterns, which flow like flowing water as she moves.

With delicate eyebrows, one could tell at a glance that she was a wife who was spoiled by her husband at home. No, maybe a girl would be more appropriate.

Because she is so young, everyone here is older than her, the youngest is six or seven years older.

There was no other way, because her husband was very successful and had outstanding achievements, and even she was given a royal title.

Wherever a banquet is held, it cannot be surpassed by this young lady.

Everyone has different eyes.

Mrs. Lu hurriedly put a heating pad on the chair and asked Qiao Yuan to sit down.

They were sitting and talking in a circle, with a little baby lying in a cradle between them.

Qiao Yuan leaned over and took a look. The baby happened to be awake, smiling at her with its big, ignorant eyes.

Mrs. Lu picked up her daughter and put her into small clothes gently, with a smile on her face.

So everyone started to say auspicious words, praising the cute ones and the good-natured ones, and it became more lively for a while.

But at this moment someone interrupted abruptly. "It's a pity that she is a sister. Wouldn't it be better if she was a brother?"

The ladies fell silent and exchanged glances with each other.

Who doesn't know that Mrs. Lu already has two daughters under her knees. Before sister Wan was born, the whole Lu family was looking forward to having a brother.

Mr. Lu was in the delivery room on the day of the launch. As soon as he heard that it was a girl again, he immediately walked away.

Sister Wan is the baby's nickname.

It was Mrs. Zhao who interrupted, she covered her mouth and smiled. "Sister Wan's full moon banquet, why didn't Master Lu come forward?"

No one accepted her words.

Mrs. Zhao didn't seem to feel the strange atmosphere, "If he were a brother, Sister Lu could be as nourishing as Mrs. Ning Guo."

After walking around for a long time, I finally found my footing here.

If someone who is not generous hears this, he might also be angry with her.

Qiao Yuan can't remember when he offended Mrs. Zhao, and he would say some acid words on such occasions.

Mrs. Lu's face was already very dark, but she was worried that the visitor was a visitor, so she would not get angry, so she said calmly: "My husband is busy with official business and can't make it at the moment."

That was the case, but the hand in her sleeve tightened the veil.

No one knows better than her where her husband is now. A few days ago, the Lu family brought in a new concubine. Mr. Lu has been staying at that place for the past few days.

Mrs. Zhao seemed to have seen through her disguise, and sighed pretendingly.

"Madam Ningguo is lucky. With such a beautiful face, it's no wonder that she can fascinate Zhenbeihou. I heard that the Hou's mansion doesn't even have a single room."

She was talking to herself, but she heard the sound of the tea lid clinking.

It was gentle, but it made people feel pressure inexplicably, and they closed their mouths unconsciously.

(End of this chapter)