Chapter 22 Zhang Shisan
People who had been busy almost all night were still immersed in great joy.
Sun Jie's auxiliary troops and the carpenters in the city have rushed to build hundreds of wheelbarrows overnight. At this moment, all the people in the city were organized and transported Guan Shengyun's military rations to the city in an endless stream.
Although the government did not publicly announce it, all the people knew that there was not much food left in the city. The common people who helped defend the city, Ding Zhuang, had two meals a day instead of one meal and one meal, instead of two meals of gruel. Under the leadership of Li Zheng, the soldiers and government officials had gone door-to-door to collect food supplies three times, and their attitude became worse each time. I heard that people were injured recently. This is an extremely rare situation under Song Fuzun's rule. Especially recently, there are soldiers guarding the roofs of houses every few streets at night to keep a lookout, as long as they find the stove chimney of any house. Sparks would appear in the house, and soon the soldiers patrolling the streets would break in... Various signs reminded people that the whole city was facing a desperate situation of running out of food.
People in the city were once in panic, especially women and children, who were immersed in boundless fear: the people were not only afraid that thieves would capture Luzhou Prefecture and massacre the city, but they were even more afraid that Song Mingyi and Sun Jie would become Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan!
Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan were the defenders of Suiyang in the Tang Dynasty. During the Anshi Rebellion, rebels besieged the city. When the food was exhausted and the rats and birds were exhausted, Xu Yuan killed his concubines and slave boys and cooked them to make military rations for the soldiers guarding the city! Afterwards, the defenders ate up all the 40,000 old, weak, women and children in the city - and then... lost Suiyang! Finally, the two embroidered statues of murderers and cannibals Zhang and Xu entered the Lingyan Pavilion. The great emperors all liked such loyal ministers who would rather eat the people than surrender to the enemy. They were respected as models in all dynasties, and they were often eaten. Ten thousand people will all turn into dung - well, anyway, they are either iron walls or dung.
No matter what you say, no one is willing to be the meat in the mouth and belly of someone who talks about "righteousness". That's why the people acted like crazy when they mistakenly believed that reinforcements were coming.
But at this moment, seeing hundreds of thousands of stones of high-quality military rations falling from the sky, no matter what words you use to express everyone's joy, it is far from enough. This is not only a life-saving ration to escape hunger, but also a ticket to avoid death - no more time is needed. He is worried about his parents, wife, children, and even himself becoming the "food" of the "defender"!
The scale of grain depots in Fucheng is medium-sized: there are 20 warehouses with a capacity of 500,000 kilograms, all of which are packed to the brim, even in the open space. After freeing up more than half of the armory (after the hard battle, most of the arrows, saltpeter, etc. were consumed, and there was not much inventory left), and more than 20 million kilograms of grain were forced into it, and almost a third was left. !
After Song Mingyi and Sun Jie discussed it, they immediately decided: give it to the common people!
Of course, attention should also be paid to the specific implementation details.
This is the important difference between capable officials and mediocre officials.
First, the grain "donated" by the people is returned based on the previous "grain collection" records. The remaining grain is divided into three parts, with people in the city getting one part and people outside the city who have lost their homes getting two parts. This is easy to understand: after all, The victims' homes were destroyed and they need more help to survive the post-disaster difficulties in the future.
Everyone can receive food, but they need to submit a "yiminzhi" stamped with the seal of the Luzhou prefect. Government officials were sent to various residential areas in the countryside, each holding a large number of "yiminzhi" in their hands: as long as you build a house, whether you build it yourself or help someone you don't know, if you work for half a day, you can get a house. Zhang——Each "yiminzhi" can be exchanged for 50 kilograms of grain.
but!
No matter how many cards you have in your hand, you can only redeem one at a time - as long as you can run, you can give it to you as many times as you want.
You said you have the strength to carry 200 pounds using 4 sheets at a time?
no!
Only one piece at a time: that’s 50 pounds.
If you have the strength, run more often.
Based on this regulation alone, it can be seen that Song Mingyi, the prefect, came step by step with his true ability:
In the previous dynasty, rogue bandits captured a certain provincial capital. After plundering enough, they simply opened warehouses to stockpile grain. As a result, not long after, more than half of the people in the entire region starved to death!
Helping the elderly and the young, the frightened hungry people walked home as much as they could, fearing that they would miss a grain of rice. As I walked, I couldn't carry it anymore, so I had to reluctantly pour some out of my pocket and continue on my way. After walking for a while, I couldn't drag it anymore, so I poured out some more... So, all the official roads radiating from the provincial capital , on the small road, for more than a hundred miles, there are piles and piles of white grain that have been abandoned on the road! Within a few days, the wind and rain birds and beasts had devoured all these life-saving things!
Then... "It's a great year of hunger, people eat each other"!
Food is limited, first come, first served, while supplies last - and to receive food, you have to work first! Song and Mingyi's "Righteous People's Settlements" not only allowed the destroyed residential buildings on the outskirts of the city to be quickly restored and rebuilt at a speed visible to the naked eye, but it was no exaggeration to say that not a single grain of food was wasted.
The cavalry approached.
Guan Shengyun and others were overjoyed to recognize the familiar symbol: the black helmet tassel—it was one of their own!
These people are General Zhang's subordinates who Guan Shengyun said a while ago, who will march eastward when the autumn grain collection is completed. Gu Baihua was asked to escort the seriously ill Master Luo Yonghao to Tongcheng to recuperate a few days ago because he received military reports that General Zhang Shisan had already occupied the place.
The leader of the team was Mr. Qian, whom Guan Shengyun didn't recognize, but he knew Guan Shengyun.
He galloped forward, stopped his mount, dismounted, and knelt down on one knee: "Zhao Tiegou, the commander of thousands of cavalrymen in Wuding Camp under the command of Marshal Zhang. Kowtow to Marshal Guan!"
Guan Shengyun, who had narrowly escaped death many times, said "Huh" and suddenly felt his knees were a little weak. In order to cover up, he sat down on the wall with his saber in hand, calmed down his excitement, and asked slowly with a calm face. Said: "What are you doing here?"
"Reporting to Marshal Guan, Marshal Zhang sent out the base camp to contact Marshal Guan three days ago. Yesterday when the lights were on, Tangqi from the base camp detected the Marshal's subordinates nearby. The humble battalion officer Zhou Shenjiang sent out horse teams to respond separately overnight. The humble battalion officer We’ll meet you right along the way.”
Hearing this, Guan Shengyun couldn't help but look at Zhao Tiegou twice, and thought to himself: Mr. Qian? What a clever mouth!
——Contact me? Do you need to send an entire battalion of soldiers to contact me? It even comes with a cavalry team, bah! This guy clearly sent someone to share the credit! I found my subordinates to the east. Well, it was Tang Qi who came out and saw the defeated troops. But... Zhang Shisan's group of grass bandits, let alone Mr. Qian, even if they are guerrillas, they should be illiterate bullshit. In a few words, he explained the whole matter clearly and without leaking anything, and also saved his face. The person named Zhao in front of him was anything but simple...
However, in this current situation, no matter how selfish the friendly forces are, they are still friendly forces!
Guan Shengyun, who was completely relieved, continued to think for a moment: Lao Zhang's camp should be outside Anqing Mansion. This Wuding camp came to share the credit, and it was estimated that they only brought a thousand strong auxiliary soldiers and hurriedly traveled. The route was roughly due south and west. As long as the defeated soldiers from each sect don't run around in circles, they all know that they should run south, and they will always run into them sooner or later. But there is no need to worry: as long as there are officers with him, even if they are dispersed, a mere general and battalion officer will never be able to swallow him up. He started running due west, and the enemy's pursuers were also in this direction. It was estimated that not many people would be able to escape. Before dark, they turned south and ran for a while. Zhao Tiegou and the others traveled through the night from southwest to northeast. They were riding horses on both sides. There was a high probability that they had caught up with most of the defeated troops. In front of me, I accidentally bumped into myself. Therefore, if we wait and search nearby at this moment, we should be able to gather a lot of people...
Thinking of this, Guan Shengyun immediately stood up, called four soldiers, and asked them to search in two directions: east and north. Within two days, we would count as many defeated troops as we could find. We would take them back to this place in a circle and then assemble towards Shucheng due south.
The four personal guards took the order and left.
"Mr. Zhao Qian, you send two brothers back to the camp to report a message. The others will follow me to Shucheng to gather the subordinates first and then make further calculations."
"Humble your duties and obey orders."
…
On the same day, towards dusk, Sun Jie woke up from his deep sleep.
Surrounded by a completely unfamiliar environment: spotless desks, neat bookshelves, mahogany furniture with discernible light, landscape banners... I looked around blankly for a long time before I remembered that I didn't return to Chengjun's tent last night and was discussed by Song Ming. He was forced to go to his own bedroom in the back hall of the magistrate's office. I vaguely remember that my eldest brother and my elder brother Li were helping me take off my armor, and then fell asleep with my clothes on and didn't know anything else.
Sun Jie opened the quilt and sat up suddenly. He was stunned when he saw it: the close-fitting side of the brocade quilt was full of blood and stains! When he turned around, he saw the pillow that was also covered in blood and dirt, and felt a little uneasy.
"Commander, is he awake?"
When Song Mingyi's chief follower Lao Li heard the commotion, he bowed in from outside the door and poured a bowl of warm tea attentively: "Commander, take a drink first. Master will be here in a moment."
As he spoke, he waved his hand and the boy brought the brass basin: "Greetings to the commander. The commander will wipe his face first. The water has been boiled later. I will wait for the commander to bathe and change clothes later."
Sun Jie felt even more embarrassed and subconsciously glanced at the messy bed again. Although Lao Li kept bowing, his eyes were always paying attention to the master's adopted brother. When he saw this, he immediately put on a smile and said: "It doesn't matter! The handsome man is the savior of our whole city. Don't dare to say anything." , a set of bedding is nothing, just take it apart and wash it later..."
"No washing allowed!"
A loud shout interrupted Lao Li's chatter.
When the words arrived, Song Mingyi stepped in with a cheerful face and said, "Don't wash it! Keep it well for me! This quilt is the most valuable quilt in the world! From now on, I will point to this quilt and tell stories to my children and grandchildren." Listen! Hahahaha..."
Sun Jie scratched his head and smiled bitterly: "Brother..."
"Brother Xian is a great hero who stands upright, how can he be so reserved! Go and wash up quickly, there are already arrangements outside, brother Yu will celebrate the victory of brother Xian in a moment!"
