The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 93 Forced collection of money and food to scare hungry people

After waiting for more than half an hour, there was no chaos in the city, so Li Gongzhang felt relieved.

In his opinion, as long as the hungry people did not enter the city and order was not lost, the situation was not too bad.

Just as he was about to go back and take a nap, there was a knock on the door of the house.

Then the servant who was responsible for watching reported, "Sir, Li Dianli and Secretary Zhao from the household have brought a group of thieves...rebels."

Li Gongzhang thought for a while and said: "Most of them are here to ask for money and food - no matter how much it is, it is better than coming to rob someone."

A few years ago, Li Gongzhang was traveling abroad and encountered eight rogue kings seizing the city.

After the rogue bandits took over the city, not only the wealthy households in the city were almost completely killed, but many ordinary people also had their families destroyed, and most of their money and food were taken away. It was very tragic.

Therefore, when he saw the rebels coming to ask for money and food, he felt relieved.

"Open the door and welcome people in."

"Yes."

Soon, Li Dianli, Zhao Shuban and 10 volunteers arrived at the main courtyard of the Li family.

As for the other 40 volunteers, they stayed outside the hospital.

Li Gongzhang stood under the eaves of the corridor and looked at the rebels.

I saw that these ten people were all wearing gray-green shorts, but outside they were covered with cloth armor and leather armor that were suspected to be captured from the army, and the felt hats on their heads were also from the army.

After the ten people came in, they divided into two groups, holding weapons, not nervous but very alert.

'Is it an elite bandit?They looked no worse than officers and soldiers. ' Li Gongzhang secretly praised it.

"Master Li," Li Dianli said with an apologetic smile, "Chief Liu wants to help the hungry people outside the city. Let us collect some money and food from the rich households in the city. Please also ask Master Li to facilitate us."

Li Gongzhang nodded, "Tell me, how much food do you want my family to pay?"

"This..." Li Dianli looked embarrassed, "Leader Liu didn't give a fixed figure, he said that each family would have to decide what to do. The main thing is food. If money is given, it must be twice the market price of food. Calculated as rice grain.

The money and food collected before dark must satisfy Chief Liu. If not, we and the county magistrate will be beheaded.

In that case, I'm afraid the thieves...the rebels won't be polite enough to requisition food tomorrow. "

Li Gongzhang frowned after hearing this.

I thought to myself: This bandit leader is really cunning. He doesn’t know how much food each big household has, so he asks us to give it to him - who doesn’t know that watching it is the most difficult thing to do?
The Li family is not in the grain business.

However, due to natural and man-made disasters in the past few years, big households know how to stockpile grain. The Li family has tens of thousands of acres of farmland, so they naturally stockpile a lot of grain.

But Li Gongzhang felt that no matter how much he gave him the first time, it might not be enough to satisfy the appetite of the thief, and he would definitely be asked for it a second time.

After thinking about his family's money and food, Li Gongzhang pondered for a moment and said, "My family doesn't have much food, so I'll donate one thousand shi of food and 1 taels of silver."

Li Dianli became bitter when he heard this.

He said: "Master Li, although the price of food in Runing has dropped a lot from more than a month ago, it still costs ten taels of silver per stone.

According to what Leader Liu said, the silver can only be converted into twice the market price of grain. Your 1 taels of silver can only be converted into [-] shi of grain.

After all, your family is one of the top big families in the city. You only have [-] shi of food. How can we do business? "

Li Gongzhang pretended to be unhappy, "How much does Li Dianli want my family to contribute?"

Li Dianli thought that his life and that of his family were in Liu Sheng's hands, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Master Li, I know that your family has tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. How can you get three thousand shi of grain this time?"

Li Gongzhang said: "With the drought like this, how can my family still have thousands of acres of fertile land? Three thousand shi is too much. My family can only produce another [-] shi of food."

Li Dianli also said fiercely, "Please ask Mr. Li to contribute another thousand dan! Please note that all the big families in the city are looking at Zhou, Wu, Li and Zheng. The Li family must set an example!"

Li Dianli felt that this time he would definitely offend all the big families, but he couldn't care less. He had to save his life first and then think about the future.

Li Gongzhang took a deep look at Li Dianli and said, "Okay, my family will provide two thousand stones of grain and 1 taels of silver."

"Secretary Zhao, please make a quick note." Li Dianli said to the accompanying clerk first, and then handed over to Li Gongzhang, "Thank you very much, Mr. Li, and please Mr. Li send someone to send the money and grain to the county government as soon as possible.

If the money and food received from the county government warehouse before dark does not match the amount we reported, we will also be in trouble. "

Li Gongzhang said: "Don't worry, I understand the importance."

"Come on, let's go to the next house."

Seeing Li Dianli leaving with the rebels, Li Gongzhang called the second housekeeper and said, "Quickly arrange for capable people to send the money and food to the county government."

The second steward asked: "Master, do we really have to pay so much for food?"

Li Gongzhang said displeased: "Are you asking me to renege on my promise? Or do you want thieves to come and steal food tomorrow?"

The second housekeeper lowered his head and said, "I was wrong."

"Don't be too petty and get things done quickly."

"Yes!"

···
Not long after Liu Sheng sent out the four grain collection teams, Liu Changhe, who led 200 fishermen and hunting regiment soldiers to patrol the city wall, sent someone to report.

"Chief, there are hungry people gathering outside the east gate and south gate, saying they are begging us for food!"

Liu Sheng was not surprised by this and asked: "Are there many people?"

"There are not many at the moment, less than 1000 people."

Liu Sheng knew that after occupying Queshan County, the biggest problem was the hungry people.

As long as the problem of the hungry people is solved, everything else will be easy to handle.

He then asked Shen Zhaoxian to lead a hundred soldiers from the fishing and hunting regiment to stay at the county government office, and Liu Erhe to lead a standing army to stay at the warehouse.

He, along with dozens of his own troops and dozens of government servants who were captured during the capture of the county government, took a hundred stones of millet from the warehouse, loaded them into trucks, and transported them to the east city gate.

There are probably more than 200 residents in Queshan County. Some wealthy families have a total of 1000 nursing homes and male servants, but no one dares to attack the city gate.Because after defeating more than [-] officers and soldiers led by Wang Yingtai, most of the standing army and fishing and hunting regiment soldiers brought by Liu Sheng this time were equipped with cloth armor and leather armor, and a small number of crossbowmen were also equipped with cloth armor.

In addition, they had just defeated more than 1000 officers and soldiers, and their momentum was at its peak. Overall, they looked more elite than the soldiers recruited from the camp led by Wang Yingtai.

Even if the big families in the city gather hundreds of people, they may not be able to defeat the standing army guarding the city gate.

Not to mention that there are soldiers from the Fishing and Hunting Group patrolling the city walls, ready to provide support at any time.

After Liu Sheng came over, he first asked Wen You about the situation at the East City Gate.

After learning that there was nothing abnormal, he said: "Since there is nothing abnormal, you can arrange for a group of soldiers to sleep inside the city gate - you have to guard the city gate at night. If you don't rest during the day, you won't be able to withstand it."

Wen You nodded, "I understand."

So he arranged for his soldiers to take turns to rest in groups, leaving only 70 people to guard the city gate.

Liu Sheng then asked the government officials to collect firewood from the surrounding people's homes, and planned to cook porridge at the east city gate first.

After giving the instructions, he led some of his troops up to the city gate tower.

It was discovered that more than a thousand hungry people had gathered outside.

Obviously, only a few brave hungry people came to ask for food at first. If not dealt with in time, more hungry people would definitely gather.

When there are thousands of hungry people and the people are brave, they may dare to attack the city.

Although Liu Sheng was not afraid of hungry people attacking the city, he did not want this to happen.

After all, these hungry people can migrate to North America and become manpower to open up wasteland.

As for how to deal with the gathering of hungry people, he already has an idea——

"People below the city, listen!" Liu Sheng shouted at the top of his voice, "I am Liu Sheng, the leader of the Tianmu Mountain rebels!"

Just hearing this beginning, the hungry people in the city started to commotion.

The rebels attacked the county town at noon, and they entered immediately and immediately closed the city gate.

Therefore, most of the hungry people heard about it later rather than seeing it with their own eyes, so they always had some doubts.

Now after listening to Liu Sheng's words, I realized that the county seat was really occupied by the rebels.

These hungry people were almost at a dead end. Although they were scared after confirming this, they wanted to eat with the rebels.

As for being a thief?
If you are going to starve to death, do you still care about never becoming a thief?

Those who can starve to death and refuse to become thieves are very few among the Confucian scholars who have read the articles of sages and sages.

It is simply impossible to expect ordinary people who don't know a few Chinese characters to do the same.

After a pause, Liu Sheng continued: "Since the rebels have captured the county, they will definitely release food and relief.

However, the rebels currently have limited food and are requisitioning food from large households. It takes time to cook porridge.Therefore, relief must be prioritized.

If we open the city gate wide and let everyone rush in, everything will be chaos, and many people will be trampled to death! "

The truth behind Liu Sheng's words was easy to understand. Most of the hungry people who gathered outside the city gate still had the ability to think, so they nodded subconsciously after hearing this.

But then many people asked loudly——

"Is Chief Liu really willing to release food?"

"When will it be released?"

"My wife is about to starve to death. Please ask the leader to provide food quickly!"

"Hurry up and put out food to save lives!"

"···"

Soon, all kinds of shouts and cries became noisy.

Liu Sheng took the flintlock rifle of the accompanying soldiers and fired a shot into the sky, which immediately silenced the hungry people in the city.

A flintlock gun is louder than a revolver, and it emits smoke and fire, which is quite intimidating.

"You don't have to worry!" Liu Shengsheng said in a loud voice, "The porridge is ready to be cooked behind the city gate. The porridge will be ready in half an hour at most.

But again, relief must come first - who comes first?Those who are willing to bring their families to join our rebel army should accept the relief first!
Those who have a certain organization that can help our rebels maintain order should receive relief first!
According to these two articles, anyone who has a family can now go to his neighbors or people he knows, and form a group of ten households and line up starting from the downstairs of the city gate..."

Before Liu Sheng finished speaking, many hungry people became anxious.

Some are eager to find their neighbors and people to form a team.

There are also single men who are so anxious that they roar——

"Don't we provide relief to the homeless?"

"Everyone in my family is starving to death, what should I do?"

"If you take your time, when can we have porridge?"

"···"

Liu Sheng was not surprised by these people's reactions.

One is driven by hunger; the other is that many people bully the weak and fear the hard, bully the good and fear the evil!

So Liu Sheng took another flintlock gun and fired directly into the open space in front of the hungry people!
The shouters were immediately silenced.

He said with a frosty face: "If anyone interrupts me again, I will wait until tomorrow to put the porridge in!"

As soon as these words came out, the hungry people were immediately silenced.

(End of this chapter)