Chastity Layman

  Chapter 204 Li Cunyi

  In the darkness before dawn, San'er woke up. He wiped his eyes as usual, then turned to look at his father, only to see his father curled up and lying there motionless.

  He looked up at the sky, and there was a hint of dawn in the darkness.

  Usually, my father must have woken up a long time ago, but today he was lying there motionless, he was afraid, and reached out to shake his father, but his father was still motionless, even his body was as stiff as a rock.

  San'er sobbed softly, and didn't even dare to cry loudly, because they were just victims of the famine and entered Jingzhou City. If they disturbed the officials in the city, they would be driven out of the city.

  The six-year-old boy was sobbing blankly, not knowing what to do next.

  He covered his father's head with the ragged jacket that his father had put on him last night, and knelt there waiting for the dawn.

   dawn.

  Pedestrians began to appear on Jingzhou Chengzhong Street.

  In the bleak autumn wind, everyone was in a hurry. Some people saw the two of them at the corner of the street, and they just glanced at them.

   Slowly, someone finally stopped beside him.

   An old man asked.

  Some people are still asking if they want to buy a coffin, and some people ask him if he wants to sell his body to bury his father!

   Someone directly set the price.

  Qin Lang took his soldiers for a walk in the city early in the morning, which can be regarded as patrolling the streets, and found the crowd gathered here.

  The soldiers drove away the crowd.

  Qin Lang came up to him on horseback. He saw the thin boy on the horse. He was as thin as a stick, but his frame was still thick. What impressed him most was the boy's eyes.

   There are still tears on his face, but there is a kind of determination in his eyes, or a bit of hatred.

  Who is he hating? Hate these indifferent people, or hate this ruthless society?

Qin Lang's eyes turned to the man on the ground. A tattered jacket was full of holes, so dirty that the original color could not be seen. The black half covered the man's head and upper body, but the lower half of his body was covered. It was exposed outside, the crotch folds of coarse cloth, and a pair of bare feet.

  The bare feet are dirty, and thick calluses can be seen.

   "Sanlang, lying down, probably died of starvation. Seeing that he died last night, he is hard."

  Dugu Yanyun went up to check and came back to report.

  Qin Lang sighed.

  A poor victim, perhaps originally a farmer near Jingzhou City, was forced to flee famine with his children during the famine.

  But the autumn night was long, he failed to wait for the warmth of the morning sun today, and died in that long cold night.

"May I have your name?"

   "San'er."

  The young man was a little indifferent when facing Qin Lang who got off his horse.

   "San'er, is this your father?"

  The young man looked up at Qin Lang, looked at the tall horse behind him, and at the tall soldier next to him, "I am willing to sell myself as a slave, in exchange for the Lord to buy me a coffin to bury my grandfather."

   Sell yourself to bury your father.

   These words came from the mouth of a six or seven-year-old emaciated child, with tears still on his face, and beside him was the dead body of his father, who had already stiffened.

  Many people are watching, but most of them are just watching.

  Qin Lang sighed.

   "What's your last name?"

   "My surname is Xu. Can Alang buy me? I'm not expensive. I just exchange some paper money for a coffin."

  The child didn't cry or make trouble, but it made Qin Lang feel more distressed.

   This seems to be another Li Turk.

  The chaotic times at the end of the Sui Dynasty have ended, and now it is the Tang Dynasty. The people should not still be suffering like this.

"Xiaocheng, go to the coffin shop to find a coffin, pick a good coffin, and then invite a team to promote the team, buy some paper money, etc., remember to find another funeral shop, and get this old man some clothes for the road. Decent."

  Xu San'er heard this, stood up, kneeled solemnly in front of Qin Lang, and kowtowed again and again.

   "Xie Alang buried his father for San'er, and San'er will be A Lang's servant from now on, and he will be a cow and a horse for A Lang in return!"

  The child was bleeding from his head.

  Qin Lang hurried forward to support him.

   "No need to be like this, get up quickly."

  Qin Lang had someone buy a coffin for Saner's father this morning, and also invited a drumming class.

   "Let all the officials in Jingzhou come to this Xu Dalang's funeral."

  Yi Guogong took Jingzhou officials to the funeral of a beggar, which aroused confusion in Jingzhou. I don't understand why this happened. Some people said that Duke Yi took the beggar's son as his adopted son and gave him a name to preserve his righteousness. That's why he did this.

  However, at the funeral of Xu Saner's father, Qin Lang said something else to the Jingzhou officials who were ordered to come.

"This year there was a drought followed by locusts, and the Turkic army invaded in the middle. Although the Turkic army did not invade Jingzhou, Jingzhou assembled troops twice, which also caused delays in the farming season. In addition, Li Yi's rebellion caused even more delays. Went to Jingzhou to catch locusts and release food to help the people."

"This Xu Dalang died last night. He died of freezing and starvation in Jingzhou City. He was originally a registered good citizen in Jingzhou, but this year, his mother died of illness, and then his wife and daughter died of starvation. In the end, the only remaining father and son People fled to Jingzhou to beg for food, but they still died of hunger and freezing last night."

"And just last night, Jingzhou officials held a banquet to welcome the wind and celebrate the elimination of the rebels. When the wine was hot, who would have thought how hungry and how hungry Xu Alang and his son were last night? Difficult?"

   "However, this kind of suffering has lasted for a long time, and it is far more than just the father and son."

"Xu Alang failed to receive timely relief before, it was the negligence of Luo Yi and you Jingzhou officials, and it was my negligence that he died of freezing and starving last night. I came to Jingzhou and failed to pay attention to them in time , Relief to them!"

  Qin Lang's words made the Jingzhou officials who thought that Qin Lang came here indiscriminately feel uneasy.

   Is this to settle accounts and pursue accountability?

   Several officials were already sweating on their foreheads.

   "However, now is not the time to talk about these responsibilities. There are countless Xu family fathers and sons outside. From now on, if Jingzhou freezes and starves to death, it will be a serious dereliction of duty by you and me."

  Open warehouses and provide food.

No matter what kind of military rations are being transferred from warehouses, or even public warehouses, as long as they are grains, they will be given out to help the people first. Whether they are civilians or beggars, as long as they are people, they can receive them at the government office for three days on a head-by-head basis. food.

  Qin Lang asked Jingzhou to start copying Chang'an's disaster relief operations in an all-round way, to open warehouses, collect grain, and food stamps... At the same time, he called on the people to catch locusts with all their strength and promote eating locusts.

  On the same day, the people, disaster victims, and even beggars in Jingzhou City all received the three-day rations issued by the yamen, received the food with their fingerprints, and then organized to catch and dry the locusts.

  The people who had enough to eat were temporarily organized in accordance with the law of the army, three groups, three groups with one fire, five fires with one team, two teams with one brigade, two brigades with one regiment, and cooperated in driving and catching locusts in the fields.

  Some people dig ditches, some drive them away, some are in charge of netting, some are in charge of drowning, some are in charge of drying, and some are in charge of loading and warehousing.

  Women and children dug earthen stoves in the fields, set up pots, and began to boil water to cook porridge. Children pulled wild vegetables, millet, wild vegetables, and locusts in the fields, and boiled a pot.

  Eat when you are tired, and work when you are full.

  Work until sunset during the day, light a bonfire and continue working overnight.

   When the food was exhausted, they temporarily borrowed dry locust powder from Qizhou and others in the surrounding area for emergency response. Jingzhou's originally serious disaster situation, under Qin Lang's multi-pronged emergency response, quickly settled down.

  At least everyone has enough food for the time being. No matter how bad or delicious the food is, at least they can have enough food for the time being.

  Because of participating in the disaster relief, everyone’s food and drink are covered by the Yamen of Jingzhou. According to Yi Guogong’s instructions, this is called work for relief.

   There are even extra work points, according to the different contributions of men, women and children, each gets work points, and then according to the work points, you can also get locust powder, grain and wheat food. Although it is not much, the precious food still keeps everyone motivated.

  Jingzhou quickly settled down, and the imperial court sent envoys soon after.

  Cheng Chumo, Lieutenant of Baiqi School, led a team of cavalry to **** the new governor of Jingzhou.

   "Why is Sanlang still tanned?" Cheng Chumo couldn't help joking when he saw Qin Lang.

   "I've been running outside every day recently, and it's normal to get tanned by the wind and the sun."

  The two brothers met, and the simple communication allowed Qin Lang to learn about the dynamics of the court in a timely manner, especially because Cheng Chumo was a captain of Baiqi and Qianniu Beishen, so he knew a lot of inside information.

   When the news of Luo Yi's rebellion came out, the court was startled at first, and Chang'an was even shaken.

   Unexpectedly, Qin Lang killed Luo Yi directly in Binzhou, and his rebel army collapsed in one day. Many ministers in the court did not believe this news at the time.

  No one feels sorry for Luo Yi.

He was punished to the death of his family, according to the fate of Changan, the head of the family. The family was also implicated and exiled.

  Luo Yi's brother Luo Shou is now the governor of Lizhou, and has also been captured and executed by the imperial court.

  The new governor of Jingzhou is Gao Renbiao, Duke of Bohai County. This person has a lot of background. His father Gao Ying was the prime minister of the Sui Dynasty for nearly twenty years.

   "I heard that Gao Biaoren has no skills." Qin Lang said.

  Cheng Chumo also nodded, "He's an old dude, but this kind of incompetent person won't mess around. Now Jingzhou is safe and sound."

  Zhao Cihao of Binzhou was directly promoted to governor of Binzhou this time because of his contribution in helping to put down the chaos, and Yang Ji, the commander of the army, was also promoted and rewarded for this.

"You kid went to Beijing, where did you make meritorious deeds? You made great contributions in catching locusts and disaster relief in Qizhou, and you were invited into the temple by the people to become the king of Xuanwu wholesale demons? Now you are going to Jingzhou, but Luo Yi was beheaded in Binzhou on the way , put down the rebellion, came to Jingzhou and contributed to helping the people here..." The more Cheng Chumo said, the more he envied him, even a little jealous.

  Emperor was very satisfied with Qin Lang, so this time, with the merits of Ping Luoyi's rebellion, he bestowed 1,200 households before the 200 seals, and 100 hectares of land in each of Bin and Jing prefectures.

   "After His Majesty asked you to accept the order, hurry up and return to Beijing, saying that you have worked hard outside."

   "Is there something wrong with the capital?"

"What can be the matter? Now the locust situation is well controlled in various places, and the food shortage is still barely under control. Your Majesty thinks that you have worked hard outside, so you are allowed to go back. After all, you are an envoy and a scholar of the Chongxian Hall. It is also mainly in charge of locust control and disaster relief in Gyeonggi, this Jingzhou is not within Gyeonggi."

  Qin Lang felt that Cheng Chumo was hiding something, but he refused to say it, so he had no choice but to give up.

   "Okay, I'll pack up and go back to Beijing."

  (end of this chapter)