The last rays of the setting sun disappeared into the horizon, and dove-gray twilight spilled into the desolate valley.
The helmet brimming with the small flag removed, the eyebrows pressed down low, and the red border army's cotton armor covered the strong man with a gloomy face.
Gao Xian leaned on the side of the car, put down the cowhide water bag decorated with bells on the shaft of the car, broke into pieces the green onion cake and slowly put it in his mouth, as if he was savoring the taste.
A few steps away from him, Liu Chengzong, who was also wearing armor, walked back from the river, put the bucket in his hand on the carriage, and said angrily: "Unlucky, someone died on the other side of the river."
Gao Xian didn't say anything, but silently took a big bite of the pancake. He reached down with his left hand to hang the rope from the handle of the knife on his belt.
"It's okay, just go ahead and taste it slowly. It's about to explode when it's soaked in water. It's a man with its face turned up. It probably happened three to five days ago. There's no one around."
The corpses were in order in the water. The men had less fat on their buttocks and were face up when soaked in the water, while the women were face down.
After saying that, Liu Chengzong patted Gao Xian on the shoulder, and also took a piece of pancake wrapped in linen and oil paper from the car. He frowned and ate while walking. He squatted down a few steps away and lined it up with pebbles and dead branches. Yang Dingrui sighed as he set up a bonfire.
"Sir, is Ansai County so chaotic?"
It can't be called chaos. They have walked forty miles. The shallow river next to it is called Mudanchuan. It is only twenty or thirty miles away from Ansai.
After all, at the border of Fushi, Anding, and Ansai counties, even in peaceful times, bandits rob and kill passers-by and smuggle goods in the border area from time to time.
But there has been a phenomenon of people cannibalizing each other in Ansai.
Yang Dingrui said that he had returned to Ansai on a business trip and was accompanying Ma Maocai, a counselor sent by the emperor to Shaanxi in the same year, to investigate the famine situation in various counties.
They didn't even get into the city. Three miles outside the city, people rushed up to chase them for food. They had no food, and others wanted to kill his horses. Yang Dingrui was afraid, so he shot one of them with a bow and arrow.
But he never expected that after he shot and injured one person, those people saw that he was difficult to deal with and stopped pursuing him, so they started killing the injured person and dragging him away.
Yang Dingrui by the bonfire raised his head and looked towards the shore. He couldn't see the corpse Liu Chengzong mentioned in his sight. In the end, he just sighed silently: "Too many people have starved to death. The county magistrate has no other choice. To prevent the disaster, The epidemic could only dig several large pits outside the city to hold the corpses, each pit holding two to three hundred people.
When I returned, the big pit was already full of three people. Ansai is a small county with only 2,000 households and 20,000 inhabitants. It’s like this outside the city. You wouldn’t be surprised no matter how you think about it. "
Liu Chengzong, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, pushed up the brim of his helmet and rubbed his forehead with the nails of his thumb, thinking: I really should have brought two more people here.
He said: "We have to hide the car when we get closer to the city."
Yang Dingrui nodded immediately: "I asked you to accompany me for peace of mind. It's not for the purpose of killing. It's best not to kill if you can."
In fact, Liu Chengzong's changes were so great that Yang Dingrui, who had not seen him for several years, was shocked.
The children who were climbing mountains behind them are now fully clothed and armed with bows, killing bandits and fighting captors, as if they are used to life and death.
"The government, such a big thing..."
The dead branches were crackling in the bonfire. Liu Chengzong pulled the door panels from the abandoned cave dwellings on the road from the carriage and stood them aside to protect them from the wind. He asked, "Why don't the government provide disaster relief?"
"Disaster relief is not just about providing relief, especially for such a huge disaster. If one county or one government alone is unable to provide relief, the local government must first report it, and then the imperial court will send people to check the severity of the disaster, and the envoys will also verify the allocation, and then send out talented people. Scholars brought money to help.”
Yang Dingrui said: "I am here to accompany the envoy on official business, just to check the severity of the disaster."
"We should have reported the disaster in Qin last year, but the governor delayed it. After the Saarhu army defeated the army and entered the Qin Dynasty, the governors of Shaanxi and Yansui were cowardly. They were both capable, but one was greedy for money and had no calculation. He knew how to build three palaces for the imperial court. There were bandits and bandits every year, and hungry people fled all the time. From the imperial court to the localities, the Qing Dynasty suppressed the Wei party in full swing, and there were countless official vacancies."
"The chief officials are all from the South and have no connection with the local area. The local adjutants are from many noble families and travel in sedan chairs to serve as officials. They often see documents but not the people. The minor officials are aware of the disaster, but the situation recently is different from the past."
"In the past seven years, three emperors have ascended the throne. This year, the Duke of Wei is in charge of the country, and next year, the disciples of Donglin are in power. They have changed from county magistrate to frontier minister five times. The petty officials don't know which chief official dares to do something. Even if they know that they dare to do something, they don't dare to do it. It has nothing to do with him."
He shook his head and said: "What's more, the arrears of border wages in the three towns of Shaanxi and the tax arrears of the tax package in Qin are unavoidable. They are inextricable knots."
"If the frontier army is in arrears with pay, the morale of the army will be shaken, and if the army is shaken, it will be difficult to defend against the barbarians. This is external; if the tax is in arrears, the court will push the troops, and the court will push the troops and the people will be scattered. This is internal."
"When something happens, the local government cannot control itself. If Shaanxi does not regard northern Shaanxi as the whole of Shaanxi, and the court does not regard Shaanxi as the whole country, then the land of Qin will be destroyed and the world will be in danger."
It was completely dark, and the carriage not far from the bonfire was only an outline in the darkness.
The biting night wind blew, and Yang Dingrui tightened his clothes. He seemed to feel that the situation he mentioned was a bit serious, so he smiled comfortingly, bowed to the east and said, "Fortunately, your majesty is wise and sent an envoy down if he knew about this. I It is estimated that within three months at the latest, the imperial court will have regulations on disaster relief."
Three months?
Liu Chengzong was confused about this. If it were as simple as Yang Dingrui said, why was the Ming Dynasty in another memory destroyed by the peasant army?
He felt that Yang Dingrui was trying to prevaricate himself by saying this.
"If it's only for three months, why did you resign?"
"Don't say three months, I can't wait even half a month."
Yang Dingrui shook his head and said: "I am a court official and a husband. My wife and children are all in Ansai City. They didn't tell me that something big happened in Ansai. I didn't know. But I went to see it, and it was so close to Ansai." , can you still go back to Fucheng to sit in court?
If things in the world are bad, having more Yang Dingrui is useless; if things are going well in the world, having less Yang Dingrui is no big deal.
I have an official status, but I can't send officers and soldiers to rescue my wife and children. If I return to my hometown alone and get hurt, the local government will definitely plot against the victims and more people will die. It's better to resign and be relaxed and return to my hometown to rescue my wife. Son is the best. "
He nodded slightly: "If you can't save me, I will die together. It's just fate."
The night on the bank of Mudan River is quiet, and only at night here can you be lucky enough to hear the chirping of insects in spring.
Liu Chengzong's thoughts also drifted far away to the east in Yang Dingrui's thankful words. It was a distant Forbidden City that he had never been to, but it was particularly clear in the memory that did not belong to this era.
He was very sad, sad that the young emperor who was imprisoned in the palace and nominally ruled the world did not know what was happening in the land he ruled.
He was also very lucky for the emperor who was named Chongzhen that year. Fortunately, the emperor did not have the gift of knowing the funeral affairs like him, otherwise he might have gone to the back mountain to see his ancestors at Laowenneckshu on the first day after he ascended the throne.
At this time, the Jinshi next to me said: "If things go wrong, you don't have to worry about me. With horses and armor, it shouldn't be difficult to break out of the encirclement."
Looking back, Liu Chengzong nodded seriously: "Don't worry."
"Pick up the family and we'll have dinner at home the day after tomorrow."
