Soldiers come to the world

The fall of Lishi County had little impact on the defense deployment of the entire Cao Wei militaryly, but it had a profound impact on Cao Wei economically and politically. The atmosphere of war between the two countries suddenly escalated.

The most direct manifestation is the skyrocketing price of rice in the Yedu market. More than half a year ago, the turmoil caused by the Nanyang conflict caused the price of rice in Yedu to triple, but due to the reconciliation between the two parties, the price of rice soon fell again.

But this time the Han army crossed the Yellow River and occupied Xihe County in Bingzhou, which also dealt a heavy blow to Yedu's economy. The news spread to Yedu, and the price of rice in Yedu rose from 120 yuan per bucket of rice to [-] yuan per bucket of rice overnight. Due to the panic in the capital market, hundreds of thousands of people in Yedu flocked to various rice shops from all directions to buy food, which triggered a rare rice rush in Yedu and plunged the entire city of Yedu into turmoil.

The streets are full of people rushing to buy food and various daily necessities. Most of the shops are closed. The market prosperity originally caused by the free trade between the Han and Wei dynasties collapsed overnight like a bubble. Yedu Market Was beaten back to its original shape.

Teams of tiger and cardinal guard cavalry and Yedu city defense soldiers patrolled the streets, constantly arresting thieves who took risks and robbed houses.

Zhang Liao served as the governor of the nine gates of Yedu, in charge of the defense of Yedu. He has 1 troops under his command, all of which have been dispatched to maintain order in the city. Zhang Liao rode on a horse and led [-] cavalry to patrol around Yedu.

Song Xian, the general next to him, sighed with emotion in a low voice: "I don't understand why Yedu falls into turmoil whenever there is a disturbance, robbing food everywhere. On the contrary, I heard that Chang'an is very calm and is not affected at all. It's puzzling!"

Zhang Liao also sighed and said: "Frozen three feet is not a day's cold. For more than ten years, Cao's army has repeatedly defeated the Han army, which has already lost the confidence of the people of Wei. So when there is a war, everyone will think of it. , it must be that Cao Jun was defeated and asked for peace, so this kind of turmoil is not surprising."

As soon as he said this, there was a shout in the distance. Zhang Liao was startled, and looked towards the place where the shout was coming from. He saw countless people running towards the same place with pocket baskets. He also realized that something had happened, and urged his horse to say :"follow me!"

He led [-] cavalrymen and ran towards the shouting place. After running for hundreds of steps, he could see clearly that a grain shop near Beiyuan Bridge was out of control. The staff of the grain shop couldn't stop the angry crowd, and countless people rushed in Grain shops robbed grain, causing great confusion.

The grain store was close to the small river, many people were squeezed into the river, shouting for help, crying loudly, Zhang Liao saw the situation was critical, Song Xian said: "Go and send a thousand troops over here immediately, go quickly!"

Song Xian immediately turned his horse's head and ran towards the city gate, while Zhang Liao led [-] cavalry to rush towards the grain shop, rushed to the street closest to the grain shop, and intercepted a large number of people rushing towards the grain shop. Many people climbed over the wall and joined the wave of grabbing food.

Zhang Liao was furious. He saw a man standing on the wall shouting and holding a torch, as if he was going to set the house ablaze. Zhang Liao immediately drew an arrow, drew the bow like a moon, and shot the arrow at the man on the wall. The arrow hit the man's left chest, and the man screamed and fell into the creek.

At this time, Song Xian, the general of the Ministry, led [-] soldiers to rush there. The army rushed into the grain store and arrested the grain grabbers. As early as the arrival of Zhang Liao's cavalry, many grain grabbers had quietly fled , Most of the grain shops were people who hadn't grabbed the grain. He ignored the risk and shouted desperately to be crowded.

It wasn't until the soldiers from Cao Jun's brigade arrived that they finally stopped the grain grabbing trend at the grain store. Nearly a thousand men and women were arrested and squatted all over the ground. Those who fell into the river were also rescued. Although Cao Jun stopped the grain grabbing, More than [-] people still died, most of them were trampled to death, mainly old people and women, and their bodies were scattered all over the place.

Zhang Liao saw that one of them was bloody and out of the ordinary, so he pointed with a horsewhip and asked, "Who is this?"

A clerk replied: "This is our proprietor, who was beaten to death by the mob!"

Another man next to him said angrily, "It's because you temporarily increased the price and offended everyone that the food robbery happened."

The man bowed to Zhang Liao and explained: "General Zhang, the price of rice was 350 yuan per bucket of rice this morning, and it rose to [-] yuan per bucket of rice at noon. Public outrage, general please learn from me!"

Zhang Liao was taken aback, "You know me?"

The man replied: "The humble job is Liao Jing, Secretary of the Ministry of War, and I have met the general!"

Zhang Liao suddenly said angrily: "Since you are an official in Yedu, you didn't stop the grain robbing, but you also participated in the grain robbing, do you know your crime?"

The man shook his head and said: "Beizhi didn't participate in the grain robbing. Today happened to be a day off, so I came here to buy rice. I happened to encounter this storm of grain robbing. I also tried my best to stop it, but I couldn't stop it. I just want to say, these people They are all good people, but they are forced to do nothing, and I hope the general will forgive them."

Hundreds of people wept and begged: "General, we have old and young in our family to support, there is no way! General, please spare us!"

Seeing that these people were panic-stricken and pitiful, Zhang Liao sighed in his heart, and told his left and right: "Take back the food, and people can let it go."

Song Xian next to him was startled, and quickly reminded Zhang Liao in a low voice, "The general let them go, I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to Mr. Wei!"

Zhang Liao sighed, "It's not their fault, why bother to blame these poor little people, I will explain to Duke Wei."

Everyone kowtowed in gratitude, handed over the food, and left to go home one after another. Zhang Liao ordered the dead bodies to be collected and waited for their families to collect them. Zhang Liao turned his horse around and galloped towards Tongque Palace.

Zhang Liao rushed to the front of Tongque Palace on horseback, but saw a carriage slowly stop in front of the palace gate, the military commander Zhong Yao got out of the vehicle, Zhang Liao hurriedly shouted: "Mr. Zhong!"

Zhong Yao turned his head and saw that Zhang Liao was calling him, so he stopped, and when Zhang Liao came to him, he laughed and said, "Why is General Zhang so anxious?"

Zhang Liao bowed deeply and asked, "Are you going to see Duke Wei?"

"Exactly. Duke Wei called us to discuss the current situation. Can the general go with us?"

Cao Cao didn't call Zhang Liao to go, and Zhang Liao didn't dare to leave his post without permission, so he said to Zhong Yao: "Since the military commander is going to see Wei Gong, please tell Wei Gong that the situation in the city is tense and the people are panic-stricken. There have been three robberies of shops. Incident, the top priority now is to stabilize food prices, and Beizhi recommends that the warehouse be opened immediately, and there should be no further delay."

Zhong Yao nodded, "I will suggest to Wei Gong, but Wei Gong will definitely ask the general to ask about the situation, the general should not go far."

"Humble job understands, just wait here."

Zhong Yao cupped his hands, turned around and hurried towards the inner palace.

The grain grabbing incident at Beiyuan Bridge was just one of the many turmoil in Yedu. It was not a major event, but the series of many events was enough to shock the government and the public. It not only affected the daily life of ordinary people, but also affected The stability of Yedu will affect the stability of the army's morale, which is of great importance.

In the inner hall of Tongque Palace, dozens of high-ranking Wei officials gathered together to discuss the chaos caused by the fall of Lishi County. Originally, this kind of discussion on maintaining stability was in charge of Cao Pi, and it was usually held in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Mansion. Food prices soared half a year ago It is Cao Pi who is fully responsible.

But this time, because the situation was serious and related to the entire battle situation, Cao Cao personally presided over the response discussion. At this time, Cao Cao had not yet come out, and there was a lot of whispering in the inner hall, and everyone was discussing the crisis and the consequences of the defeat of Lishi. .

In a corner of the inner hall, Liu Ye said to Chen Qun worriedly: "When Liu Jing proposed trade freedom last time, I suspected that he had ulterior motives and must have deep plans. Now it seems that he really has intentions. All kinds of supplies are almost sold out. These days, I have been investigating various shops in Yedu. Every merchant has a lot of Han coins in their hands, but the warehouses are empty, so the root cause of the sharp rise in food prices this time may not be Lishi. The root cause of the fall of the county is that Yedu people have too much money in their hands, and the money is no longer valuable."

Chen Qun was also deeply moved, "Zi Yang is right. A simple example can prove that last year a bartender in a tavern only had to pay [-] Han per month, but the price had risen to [-] a month ago. Han money has tripled. It can be seen that Han money is flooding in Yedu. It is said that the Han country has stopped the trade between the two countries ten days ago, and the export of goods is strictly prohibited. We have money and cannot buy Han materials. This winter is hard .”

Although the conversation between Liu Ye and Chen Qun was not loud, many people around heard it. Gradually, the inner hall became quiet. Everyone was preoccupied. Everyone was a high-ranking official whose wisdom surpassed that of ordinary people, and they saw problems deeply. .

They all realized that the Han State used half a year of trade and the absolute advantage of Han money to purchase a large amount of supplies in the Wei State. The crisis had already accumulated in the Wei State, but no one thought of this. The key is to capture Lishi County, provoke a war, and cause the crisis accumulated in Wei State to suddenly erupt.

It wasn't until this time that everyone finally understood why Liu Jing provoked the Nanyang crisis half a year ago, and then forced Wei to loosen trade restrictions. This was clearly a means used by Liu Jing to destroy Wei's national strength.

On the surface, the trade between the two countries is mutual, and Wei Guo can even get pig iron and grain. A large amount of materials were purchased, and countless Han coins and gold were imported into Wei State, which gradually caused Wei State to face a serious shortage of materials.

However, Liu Jing cut off the trade between the two countries at a critical time, or strictly prohibited the materials from the Han state from entering the Wei state, which finally led to today's disaster. I am afraid that suppressing the price of grain alone will not be able to suppress the immediate crisis of material shortage.

At this time, a bell rang from inside. It was Cao Cao. The inner hall suddenly fell silent, but it was Cao Pi who walked out first. He hurriedly said to everyone: "Father is not in good health, everyone should be careful when speaking!"

Just when everyone was puzzled, Cao Cao walked out slowly with the support of two maids. His face was like wax paper and his spirit was listless. decadent state.

You must know that after more than a year of recuperation, Cao Cao's body gradually recovered, and he was able to take a carriage to Xudu. Why did he not see him for a few days, and he looked old?Everyone immediately realized that the fall of Lishi must have dealt a heavy blow to Cao Cao.

Everyone stood up and saluted, "See Duke Wei!"

Cao Cao sat down, waved his hands, and said in a weak voice, "Don't be formal, everyone, just be casual!"