Concubine

Chapter 184 The Burnt Granary

Song Yun'er said bitterly: "It's really rich and unkind!"

"It's because of the inhumanity of the officials!" Yang Qiuchi said, "The official rations for disaster relief from the imperial court have arrived long ago, why haven't they been distributed for a long time? Seeing the victims of the disaster like Mancheng Huier's parents and younger brothers starve to death, profiteers are allowed to hoard them and wantonly raise their prices. Food prices, fish and meat people, there must be something tricky about it."

Yang Qiuchi asked Xia Ping to take Mrs. Bai, Bai Sumei, the little maid Hui'er, and two officials from Ying Tianfu back to the post station first, and then he took the rest to the prefect's yamen in Wuchang to ask what happened.

On the way, Master Jin reminded in a low voice: "My lord, there have been people who made a lot of money from disaster relief since ancient times. These people dare to risk the disgrace of the world, and they obviously have something to rely on. We must be careful."

Yang Qiuchi nodded: "What Mr. Jin said is very true, I will remember it."

There is a large square in front of the Yamen of the prefect of Wuchang Prefecture, which is specially used for holding celebrations.Next to the Yamen, there is a high platform with a height of one person, dozens of square meters in size, which is specially used for criminals to show their shackles to the public.

There is a flagpole on this platform.Only after Yang Qiuchi asked Master Jin did he find out that this was for the owl's head to hang his head in public.But sometimes it is also hung at the gate of the city.

The square in front of the yamen occupies a large area, usually empty, ordinary people walk around, but now it is full of disaster victims in twos and threes.Many policemen, minzhuang and officers and soldiers were standing in front of the gate of the yamen, guarding carefully.

Yang Qiuchi and others came to the magistrate's yamen, handed over the worship stickers, and also gave the concierge a tael of silver, saying that there was something important.After waiting for a long time, he led Yang Qiuchi and others into the yamen through the side door, and asked the rest to wait in the gatehouse. Yang Qiuchi brought Master Jin and Nan Gongxiong to the living room, and waited for a long time. When it was cold, Mr. Tan, the magistrate of Wuchang Prefecture, showed up.

Prefect Tan sat down in the midst of the thorns, without raising his eyelids, he asked, "What is your county looking for from this prefecture? Tell me, this prefecture is busy."

"Master Tan, I went to Qingxi County, Yuanzhou, Huguang Town to take up my post. I passed by Wuchang and saw hungry people all over the city. I found out that we have a plague of locusts after asking, but I don't know if the imperial court will allocate funds for disaster relief?"

After hearing this, Tan Zhifu rolled his eyelids and said displeasedly: "Master Yang, you are the magistrate of Qingxi County. If you want to manage the affairs of my Wuchang Mansion, your hands are not long enough!"

"No, my lord, you misunderstood. The officer is just asking casually out of curiosity."

Tan Zhifu snorted in his nostrils: "This is the responsibility of this government. Naturally, this government will handle the disaster relief, so I don't need to worry about your county."

Yang Qiuchi said: "I heard that the government's disaster relief funds have already arrived, why..."

"The matter of distributing disaster relief food, the government has its own discretion, and you don't need to be reminded by your county!" Tan Zhifu was very unhappy with a straight face.

"But the city is full of hungry people, starving to death, freezing to death, everywhere..."

Tan Zhifu patted the table: "Master Yang, you said you have something important, and this important thing is to ask the government for your crimes? Hmph!"

"Don't dare, I'm just..."

Tan Zhifu didn't even talk about the basic etiquette of serving tea to see off guests. He stood up abruptly, flung his sleeves, and turned to enter the back hall.The attendant next to him pulled his neck and shouted: "Seeing off the guest~!"

Yang Qiuchi looked at Tan Zhifu's back and sneered in his heart. It seemed that for the sake of flooding the city, it was necessary to use his privilege as a special envoy of Jinyiwei Commander.

At this moment, the sun had already set to the west, and with such a good effort, the number of hungry people in the square in front of the Yamen increased a lot, shivering and huddling together in the bitter north wind.

Song Yun'er said strangely: "What's the matter with these people, this place is so empty, there is no place to shelter from the wind and rain, why do they all come here to join in the fun!"

"It's not to join in the fun, they are waiting for the food." Yang Qiuchi lamented, then looked up into the distance, and said a little strangely: "Have you noticed that there are more and more people? There are still many people Come here slowly."

After listening to Yang Qiuchi's reminder, Song Yun'er also noticed this problem: "Yeah, just now, there are so many people who are so skillful."

"Go and ask them, what are they all doing here? Could it be that they are opening granaries today?"

"Yeah." Song Yun'er agreed, and ran over to ask a few victims, then ran back and said, "Brother, you are really amazing, you will release food at the second watch tonight."

"The second watch releases food?" Yang Qiuchi was taken aback, why did he choose to release the food at the second watch?It was dark by then.No, just now when I went to see the official Tan Zhifu, if the food was released tonight, it would be a good thing to show my face, then Tan Zhifu just said it directly, so why bother to go to so much trouble? It's bureaucratic to prevaricate yourself.

Could it be that the prefect Tan didn't even know that the food would be released tonight? That would be strange. The person in charge of the food didn't know that the food would be released tonight, so where did the news of the food release come from?What is the intention of those who spread the news?

Yang Qiuchi personally went up to ask a few victims of the disaster, and they all heard what others said. I can't say who said it, anyway, it's just like this.

If I can't find out what's going on, I'd better go back to the post station first.

The inn is right next to the chief secretary's yamen, and when he came here, Yang Qiuchi suddenly remembered that the newly recruited maid, Hui'er, said earlier that the food for the imperial court's disaster relief had caught fire before it was distributed. The weirder I thought about it, the more I decided to check it out.

The granary is in the Chief Secretary's Yamen. Yang Qiuchi came here in the morning. The porter knew him and knew that he had given the Chief Minister a generous gift. Hearing that Yang Qiuchi wanted to visit the Chief Secretary's Yamen, he politely let him go After entering, Yang Qiuchi asked Master Long to reward him with two taels of silver, and the concierge was even more happy.

Yang Qiuchi said that he wanted to go and see the granary that caught fire some time ago, and he wanted to ask the concierge to accompany him to see it.Seeing Yang Qiuchi's generosity, the concierge happily agreed, found someone to take over temporarily, and led Yang Qiuchi to the ruins of the granary.

The concierge introduced as he walked: "The granary of the chief secretary's yamen is on the right side of the yamen. Before it was burned down, it was considered heavily guarded. Now it has been burned to ashes, so there is no need for guards here."

Yang Qiuchi asked: "Do you know about the fire in the granary that night?"

"Of course the little one knows. I was on duty in the concierge at that time, and I was almost scared to death." The concierge said with some lingering fear, "I slept in a daze that night, and I heard outside saying that the water was leaking~! Let's go!" It’s water~! It’s as if the sound is right next to your ears.”

"I was so scared that I got up, put on my clothes and ran out of the gatehouse to see, my good fellow, the smoke was billowing, and the ashes blowing in the wind were choking my nose. I pulled my shoes and ran to the granary to see if I could help Do something. But as soon as I ran to the granary, I saw that the roof of a granary had been burned through, and the red and red flames were hissing and rushing upwards, which scared people to death!"

Yang Qiuchi stopped and asked with great interest, "Did you see the roof burnt through?"

"Yes, there was thick smoke from the roof at first, and then the flames drilled out of the roof, and the fire grew bigger and bigger, and then spread to all the granaries, burning half the sky was red, from late night to dawn, and finally It was saved. I have never seen such a big fire since I was a child."

"Are the granaries next to each other?"

"That's right, one building is next to the other, only about ten steps apart. There are more than ten buildings in total, all of which are filled with grain brought by the imperial court. What a pity!" The porter shook his head and sighed, and then Said: "Fortunately, the halls and courtyards of the yamen are far away, and the water dragon team rushed to put out the fire in time, so the yamen was able to be preserved, but so much food was burned to ashes."

"It's a pity, if it were released to the common people, how many hungry people could be saved." Yang Qiuchi sighed.

"Exactly!" The concierge also sighed, "The two chief ministers were so angry that they almost went crazy. They arrested all the guards who caught fire and said they would punish them and execute them. But what's the use of that?"

"Remember where you saw the fire burn through the roof?"

The concierge lowered his head and thought for a while, and said, "It seems that the second granary in the north was the first to catch fire." After thinking for a while, he shook his head, "No, it seems to be the third one..., no, it seems to be the second one first. One, and then the third granary burned through the roof, and then it started burning everywhere, I don’t remember exactly, anyway, there were fires everywhere.”

After hearing what the concierge said, Yang Qiuchi nodded thoughtfully, and asked again: "Do you remember that it was windy that night? What kind of wind was it?"

"Blow! What a strong wind! How can there be no wind in the twelfth lunar month? As for what kind of wind it is, I have to think about it." The porter frowned and tapped his forehead with his fingers. The water dragon team has been shouting to tear down the houses in the south to block the fire path, yes, the north wind was blowing at that time, yes, the flames are also heading south."

Speaking of this, the concierge was a little strange and asked, "My lord, what are you asking about..."

"Oh, hehe, it's nothing. I'm curious too. I also heard that the fire was so big that it almost burned down the yamen, so I came in to have a look. When people ask about it, I can tell them about ancient times. Hehe." Yang said. Qiu Chi casually made up a reason.

The concierge immediately believed it, and nodded again and again: "Yes, such a big fire is really rare."

While speaking, he came to the burnt granary.This granary is surrounded by a wall more than ten feet high.Going inside, looking up, sure enough, there is a large piece of ruined walls, and wooden shelves that have not been completely burned are lying there in black and white.

Yang Qiuchi asked the concierge: "Where did you see the first fire?"

The concierge pointed to a broken wall to the north: "That's it. First, the roof of the second granary from the north was burnt through, and then the roof of the third granary was also burnt through."

(To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please visit www.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)
(End of this chapter)