Li Qi's mother-in-law brought back the porridge and water and immediately called her son to let him drink first.
"Brother Qi, I didn't expect that Marquis Wen would be such a good person. He gave us porridge when he saw us starving. What a good person!"
Li Qi nodded, "Yes, this is the first time in my life that I have seen such an official."
Li Qi's mother-in-law looked at her son sipping the porridge and said with a smile, "Brother Qi, you should drink some too."
Li Qi hurriedly resisted, "I'm not very hungry, so you should drink first."
Li Qi's mother-in-law handed over half a bowl of porridge, "Brother Qi, there is more here, let's all drink some."
Li Qi then took half the bowl of porridge and drank it slowly.
“It tastes great!”
Li Qi's mother-in-law said with emotion, "Brother Qi, it would be great if Marquis Wen was here forever. We wouldn't have to be afraid when we starve again in the future."
Hearing this, Li Qi sighed, "I hope, everyone hopes he can stay, but the place in Xiaopei is too small, so I'm afraid it won't work!"
At this moment, the child on the side suddenly screamed, "Mom, my stomach hurts."
Li Qi's mother-in-law was startled and turned to look at the child. "Oh, does it hurt?"
"It hurts, oops!"
Li Qi frowned, "Did you catch a cold?"
Li Qi's mother-in-law stood up in a hurry and said, "Son, wait a minute. I'll boil some hot water for you."
"Oh, it hurts me so much!"
As the child shouted, he fell to the ground with a plop and began to roll on the ground in pain.
Seeing this scene, Li Qi's expression changed, and his son hurriedly helped him up, "Where does it hurt? Does it matter?"
"Oh, it hurts me so much, ah!"
Before the child could finish speaking, he had already dug up a mouthful and spat it out.
Li Qi's mother-in-law turned pale and said hurriedly, "Brother Qi, let's take the child to see a doctor quickly. Make sure nothing happens to the child."
Li Qi nodded and was about to pick up his son, but suddenly he frowned, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he bent down.
"Oops, my stomach hurts a little!"
At the same time, Li Qi's mother-in-law also started to scream, "Brother Qi, it's not good, my stomach hurts too!"
Li Qi knew it was not good, and thanks to the fact that he ate less, he endured the severe pain in his body, picked up his son, grabbed his mother-in-law with the other hand, and ran towards the door.
"My dear, hold on, we'll go find the doctor right now."
The three members of Li Qi's family ran out of the courtyard. Before they could take a few steps, the door next to them opened and Lao Ba stumbled out.
Li Qi looked at Lao Ba, whose face turned pale, and asked in shock, "Lao Ba, what's wrong with you?"
Lao Ba said weakly, "I have a stomachache, and my family members also have stomachaches. I want to see a doctor."
When a few people rushed to the street, they saw that many people were holding their stomachs and clamoring to find a doctor.
Doctor Zhang was sitting in front of the hall, taking the pulse of a patient who came in, but his brows gradually wrinkled.
"You ate something wrong, you have to spit it out."
As soon as he finished speaking, an apprentice ran in from the door and said loudly, "Master, there are so many people treating patients!"
Doctor Zhang was stunned, "A lot?"
The apprentice pointed outside, "Master, there are dozens of people, no, I'm afraid there are hundreds of people."
Doctor Zhang was startled, stood up hurriedly, and walked quickly to the door. When he saw the patient outside, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Folks, what's wrong with everyone?"
"Doctor, I want to vomit."
"Doctor, I have a stomachache."
Dr. Zhang listened to the patient's condition and remembered the patient's pulse. He hurried out and found a few people in the middle to check the pulse. His brows furrowed even more tightly.
Li Qi hugged his son, bent over, with large beads of sweat streaming down his forehead, and asked in a trembling voice, "Doctor Zhang, what's wrong with us?"
Li Qi's mother-in-law cried and said, "Doctor, the adults can still hold on, but the child is dying. Please, give him a look quickly."
Doctor Zhang glanced at the patients behind him, among whom there were many children and elderly people. He frowned and thought for a moment, and suddenly said loudly, "Folks, you may have eaten something bad. Drink some fecal water quickly and spit it out first." "
At this moment, a voice suddenly came from the crowd, "I know, there must be something wrong with the porridge the government gave us."
"Yes, no wonder they are so kind, they actually want to harm us!"
"We can't drink their porridge anymore, otherwise we will be killed by them sooner or later."
"If you don't drink porridge, you will starve to death."
"Folks, why don't we unite and go to the government and ask them to distribute food directly to us, so as not to be harmed by them."
…
"Oh no!"
Lu Bu was in the room thinking about the next batch of candidates to go to Adventure World. Suddenly, there were rapid footsteps outside the door, and Zhang Miao and Chen Gong ran in from the door with panicked expressions.
"Marquis Wen, something serious has happened."
Lu Bu was startled when he saw sweat on the foreheads of the two men as they ran, "Meng Zhuo, Gongtai, what happened, why are you so panicked?"
Zhang Miao took a deep breath and said loudly, "Marquis Wen, it's not good. Those people drank our porridge and many of them had stomachaches. They said they had signs of poisoning. Now they are asking for explanations outside the government." .”
"Poisoned?"
Lu Bu was stunned and asked doubtfully, "Can you get poisoned by eating porridge? Is there any misunderstanding in this?"
Zhang Miao shook his head, "Marquis Wen, if it's one or two people, it might be a misunderstanding. However, there are many people. They all drank the porridge we put in, so they have stomachaches."
Chen Gong frowned and said, "Marquis Wen, so far, five common people have died suddenly, perhaps due to their weak constitution."
Hearing this, Lu Bu frowned. After thinking for a long time, he slowly asked, "Gongtai, how many people have been poisoned?"
Chen Gong said with a wry smile, "I'm afraid there will be more than 200 people."
At this point, Chen Gong's tone paused, and then, without waiting for Lu Bu to speak, he continued, "Now the people are scared, so they don't dare to drink our porridge, and now they want us to give them food Let them go back and make porridge by themselves."
"More than 200 people?"
Lu Bu raised his head and looked at Chen Gong, frowned and asked, "Gongtai, what is going on? Why is there poison in the porridge?"
Chen Gong shook his head, "It's not clear yet, we haven't had time to find out the reason."
Snapped!
A cold light shot out of Lu Bu's eyes, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Gongtai, go investigate now. We must find out the truth."
Zhang Miao asked tentatively, "Marquis Wen, now the people ask us to give them food instead of porridge, what do you think we should do?"
Lu Bu frowned and asked, "Meng Zhuo, what do you mean?"
Zhang Miao said with a wry smile, "It's better to take this opportunity and suspend the porridge for a few days. It's not too late to make a decision after we find out the situation."
After hearing this, Lu Bu slowly shook his head, "No, we can wait, but the people who have no food to eat cannot wait."
A choice must be made between the aristocratic family and the common people!
Since Lu Bu had already broken up with the aristocratic family, he could only choose the common people.
Thinking of this, Lu Bu raised his head and looked at the two of them, and said slowly, "First distribute food to everyone for ten days. Don't let them go hungry. At the same time, we must find out the situation as soon as possible. I want to see what this is." what happened?"
Chen Gong and Zhang Miao knew that the matter was urgent, so they hurriedly handed over their hands and turned to leave.
After Lu Bu's order was conveyed, the large pots originally set up at the street entrance were removed one after another and replaced by food distribution.
The common people each held items containing food and lined up in long lines, waiting for food to be distributed.
Although the poisoning incident was quite disturbing, Lu Bu then distributed food to everyone, which immediately calmed the people's anger and order in the city was restored again.
…
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
Li Qi's mother-in-law was so distraught that she was out of breath crying.
Although Li Qi kept comforting him at the side, tears kept falling from the corners of his eyes.
The couple felt sorry for the child and made the child drink too much porridge, which ended up harming the child.
Lao Ba walked in from the door carrying a frame. When he saw the two of them crying, he sighed secretly.
"Brother Qi, you didn't go to get the food. I got it for you. The government knew about your family's situation, so they specially gave you five kilograms more food."
"throw it out!"
When Li Qi heard the word "food", the anger he had been holding back suddenly burst out, and he roared, "I don't want them to be hypocritical, throw all that food out!"
Lao Ba knew that Li Qi was sad and sighed, "Brother Qi, I know you are sad, but without food, how will you live in the future?"
Li Qi gritted his teeth, "If it weren't for those grains, the kid would be like, ugh!"
At the end of the story, Li Qi couldn't bear it anymore and started crying.
In the next two days, many people began to appear in the city to collect grain, and the prices became higher and higher. Many people could not resist the temptation and sold the few grains they had.
There are many people who can only use the food to pay off their debts.
Not long after, the city began to run out of food again.
Lu Mansion.
Lu Bu sat at the table, frowning more and more as he listened to what Chen Gong said.
"You said that the people have already eaten the food distributed by this prince?"
Zhang Miao shook his head, "It stands to reason that if you save some food, it should be enough for ten days, but now many people have gathered in front of the government, waiting for the food to be released again."
Lu Bu raised his head and looked at Chen Gong, frowned and asked, "Gongtai, how is the investigation on the poisoning going?"
Chen Gong cupped his hands and said, "I have checked all the soldiers and asked them individually, but I haven't found any clues."
Zhang Miao frowned and said, "The question is, when was the poison administered?"
Chen Gong thought for a moment and suddenly said, "After we distributed the food, I heard from the people that many people paid high prices to collect food. Do you think it has something to do with the poisoning?"
Zhang Miao's expression changed, "Gongtai, do you mean that?"
Chen Gong nodded and said with a wry smile, "I always feel that these two things are related."
Zhang Miao nodded, "Purchasing so much grain is definitely not something ordinary people can do. Could it be that the gentry did it?"
Chen Gong nodded, "We took away their land last time. They may be dissatisfied, so they want to use food to force us to submit."
Hearing this, Zhang Miao's eyes lit up, "So, from the beginning, they didn't sell grain, and then, when they saw us putting porridge, they had nothing to do, so they resorted to poisoning to make us put grain?"
Chen Gong nodded, "After the food is released, they will buy it back. In this way, with their strong financial resources, no matter how much food we have, as long as they buy it ruthlessly, sooner or later, Xiaopei will have no food available." .”
Hearing this, Lu Bu suddenly sneered, "Then, they are waiting for me to reconcile with them and return the land to them?"
Chen Gong sighed, "If Marquis Wen takes the initiative to reconcile with them, they will have more say, and maybe they will get more land. By then, we will be unstable in Xiaopei!"
Snapped!
Lu Bu slapped his palm on the table and snorted coldly, "A group of people who don't know whether to live or die. I originally wanted to let them live, but I didn't know how to cherish them."
At this point, Lu Bu's eyes were full of murderous intent, "In that case, don't blame me for being rude."
Hearing this, Zhang Miao was surprised, "Marquis Wen, what do you want to do?"
Lu Bu smiled lightly and said, "Meng Zhuo, since they want to force me to submit, I will let them taste the power of the sword first."
Chen Gong waved his hands hurriedly, "Marquis Wen, absolutely not!"
Seeing Chen Gong trying to persuade him, Lu Bu's eyes turned cold and said, "Gongtai, do you want me to reconcile with them?"
Chen Gong smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Marquis Wen, the matter has come to this point, even if we reconcile with them, it will only make them push forward."
Lu Bu frowned and said, "Gongtai, since you know, why do you still stop me?"
Chen Gong waved his hand and said slowly, "Marquis Wen, if we use force to deal with them, we will lose the opportunity to talk about it. Once Xuzhou knows about it, it will give them an excuse to attack us."
Lu Bu's eyes narrowed, "Gongtai, do you have a better idea?"
Chen Gong was originally a top strategist. At first, he was just thinking about the influence of the aristocratic family, so he didn't come up with any ideas.
Now that he had made up his mind, he immediately returned to his true colors as a top counselor.
Chen Gong snorted coldly, "Marquis Wen, if you want to deal with these gentry, we don't need to take action."
Lu Bu was stunned and asked doubtfully, "Gongtai, who will get rid of it for us without us doing anything?"
A cold and stern look flashed in Chen Gong's eyes, and he said slowly, "In order to deal with us, those gentry did not hesitate to poison the porridge, and even killed several people.
If we let the people know about this, what do you think they will do? "
Hearing this, Lu Bu was overjoyed and said, "Gongtai, you are right. Once the people know about this, they will never spare those gentry who dare to poison them. There will be no need for us to take action then."
After hearing what the two said, Zhang Miao smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Gongtai, how can it be so easy? Those people are so cowardly. Even if they know, they can only endure it, so how can they dare to take action?"
Chen Gong nodded, "Meng Zhuo, do you know there is a word called adding fuel to the flames!"
