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Just as Bao Wenjie was about to say something, Zhao Junchen had already given him a wink, signaling him to calm down.
Normally, Bao Wenjie might not have paid attention to Zhao Junchen's hint, but because of the attitude of the people in Nanguan Village towards Zhao Junchen, Bao Wenjie was shocked, but he felt that he could not see through Zhao Junchen even more, and he only felt that he had always believed After receiving the shock, his sense of Zhao Junchen also quietly changed, so after he saw Zhao Junchen's hint, he immediately shut up.
Zhao Junchen continued to ask Chow Dafu: "As far as I know, after the imperial court discovered the disaster in several northwestern provinces, it allocated a large amount of money and food for disaster relief. Lu'an Prefecture also suffered from natural disasters, but did the government provide disaster relief? information?"
Zhou Dafu said blankly: "I haven't heard about the government's disaster relief. Maybe the people in Lu'an Mansion can still survive, so Lu'an Mansion has not received the disaster relief food from the court."
Zhao Junchen frowned again.
He remembered very clearly that when the imperial court allocated grain and grass for disaster relief in Shanxi, Lu'an Mansion also received a batch of grain for disaster relief. Although the amount was small, only 60,000 dan, there should not be no news! Obviously this batch of grain has been intercepted, otherwise Nanguan Village, as a large village close to Lu'an Fucheng, would definitely receive some news from the big families and elders in the village.
After Zhao Junchen pondered for a moment, he asked again: "You just said that people fleeing famine have appeared in Lu'an Prefecture. Where are they from? Have you taken some in Nanguan Village?"
Zhou Dafu felt something was wrong and thought that Zhao Junchen's purpose in coming to Lu'an Mansion this time was not simple. However, he did not dare to hide it in front of Zhao Junchen and replied again: "As far as the grassroots know, most of the people fleeing famine are from Shaanxi and Gansu." , and some people come from Datong Prefecture, Xinzhou and other places in the north. However, the officials in various places are worried that the victims fleeing to Zhili will disrupt the stability at the feet of the emperor, so they have been intercepting the victims everywhere, preventing them from leaving the local area, and even The victims were arrested and imprisoned, so there were not many victims fleeing the famine in our Lu'an Prefecture, but the village did take in four victims, three women and one man, all of whom were from Xinzhou."
Zhao Junchen's eyes flashed with thought, and he felt that things were getting more complicated and unpredictable.
It is understandable that local governments prevent refugees fleeing from famine from flooding into Zhili territory. If a large number of refugees flood into Zhili or even the capital, it will be impossible for them to secretly withhold money and food for disaster relief!
However, whenever there is a natural disaster, the local government actually encourages the victims to flee. On the one hand, if there are too many disaster victims, civil commotion will easily occur. On the other hand, after the victims flee, the local government can take over the property and houses of the victims. Take advantage of the opportunity to reap a host of benefits.
Therefore, it is not surprising that local governments in Shanxi Province prevent refugees from flooding into Zhili territory, but it is really strange that local governments intercept refugees, prevent them from leaving the local area, and even arrest a large number of refugees.
Refugees are not allowed to flow into Zhili in the east, but victims can be allowed to flow into Henan, Sichuan and other places in the south! Allowing the refugees to stay in the local area, but embezzling money and food for disaster relief, and even taxing the refugees. Once a civil uprising is triggered, will the local government officials not be afraid of punishment from the court? Also, after a large number of refugees are arrested and imprisoned, they must be provided with food. How can local officials be so generous?
Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen pondered and remained silent. He only felt that the behavior of the local government was strange, and it seemed that many things had exceeded initial expectations.
It seems that the disappearance of disaster relief money and food from the northwest provinces is not that simple. Maybe there are some hidden reasons that I don't know about!
So, after Zhao Junchen thought for a moment, he ordered Zhou Dafu: "Call the four people fleeing the famine in Xinzhou, I have something to ask them.
Zhou Dafu felt more and more that Zhao Junchen's purpose of coming to Lu'an Mansion this time was not simple, but he did not dare to disobey Zhao Junchen's instructions and immediately arranged for someone to do it.
Soon, four Xinzhou refugees came to Zhao Junchen.
They were escorted over, and three of the four victims were tied up. Everyone had injuries on their bodies, and they had obviously received a lot of punches and kicks.
At this time, the three female victims all had numb expressions, as if they had given up, but the male victim was tied up heavily and was staring at Zhao Junchen and others with eyes full of hatred.
This male disaster victim is only about 20 years old, but he is extremely tall. Although he is thin and messy, he still gives people a powerful look like a tiger and a wolf when he stares at everyone. Under the gaze, everyone except Zhao Junchen subconsciously averted their eyes, not daring to look at this person.
Seeing this scene, Zhao Junchen was shocked and asked: "What's going on? Why are they tied up?"
Chow Tai Fook sighed: "There are more than twenty victims in total. They all seem to be from the same village. There are old and young, men and women. When they passed by our village, they saw that the village was relatively prosperous, so they asked for help." The village took them in, but Mr. Zhao, you also know that our village’s harvest this year is also not good, so how can we afford to support idle people? Finally, everyone made a calculation, and thinking that there were still a few young men in the village who were single, they took the young women among the victims. He stayed and drove away all the remaining victims, thus saving the lives of these young women!
Who would have known that these young women were too hot-tempered and had no good intentions, and they resisted fiercely. This man was the only young man in the group of victims. He also showed no gratitude for his kindness and instead clashed with the villagers. He was extremely powerful and injured six or seven villagers in a row, allowing the village to subsidize a lot of medicine money. If he hadn't been hungry for many days, no one would be his opponent. So after the village drove away the other victims, So he kept this man and asked him to work hard for the village from now on to forgive his sin! "
Chow Tai Fook's words sounded nice, but the things he described made people feel chilly.
Encountering a team of victims passing by out of town, the villagers not only did not try to provide relief, but instead took away all the young girls and the only young man in the team, drove away all the remaining old, weak, women and children, and left them to wait. After his death and resistance, Chow Tai Fook still felt that they had avenged their kindness!
However, Chow Tai Fook didn't feel anything was wrong at all, and even Mr. Wang next to him had a normal expression.
At the same time, the male victim shouted loudly: "You unscrupulous beasts! To put it nicely, you are not robbing women! My eldest sister's husband just died not long ago, and there is an eighty-nine-year-old girl next to her. 20-year-old child, why did you want to take away my eldest sister, but then kicked my eldest sister’s child away and separated us from each other? Miss Zhao Qing still has her father to take care of, so why did you take away Miss Zhao Qing? , but they drove away Miss Zhao Qing’s father? And Miss Sophora japonica, she still has relatives in distant places who seek refuge, but it’s not like she can’t survive, so why do you want to rob her! You are just a bunch of beasts! Beasts who don’t deserve a good death... …”
The male victim's voice was so loud that it made everyone's ears ring. After seeing the man's ferocious face, Hong Gaogong was so frightened that his body trembled.
At the same time, before the male victim could finish speaking, the villagers who were escorting him had already stepped forward and slapped him several times, and cursed: "You bastard! We are kind enough to let you live. It's okay for you to be ungrateful. You are cursing so viciously! Now there are distinguished guests here. If you scare Mr. Zhao, you will have to be killed! In these times, if our village had not taken you in, who of you would have survived? Our village has taken in the four of you. It’s better to at least keep the four of you alive than all of you to starve to death!
To seek refuge with relatives? She doesn't even know where her relatives live, and she might starve to death before she can find them! The child’s father? The fact that they can survive is a blessing to our village. Why do we need our village to feed idle people! Also, Zhao Qing's father begged us to take Zhao Qing in. Although Zhao Qing was unwilling, it was already his parents' order, so how could it be that we were robbing a civilian girl! And your eldest sister, she exchanged herself for a small bag of food rations for her son, and she followed us willingly, so how can we count it as us robbing civilian girls! "
Hearing the two sides yelling at each other, Zhao Junchen fell silent, and for a moment he didn't know how he should respond.
Obviously, the people of Nanguan Village warmly entertained Zhao Junchen, and they always behaved honestly and gratefully in front of Zhao Junchen. There was nothing false. They really respected Zhao Junchen and wanted to repay Zhao Junchen. Junchen’s kindness!
But at the same time, they are so cruel to the foreigners who are fleeing the famine, and they also take their cruelty as a matter of course. This is also not false, it is indeed derived from their true thoughts!
All in all, everyone has a different face, both officials and common people! With different positions, they will also put on different faces to show others!
In front of Zhao Junchen, they are honest people who repay their kindness. This is because Zhao Junchen once saved them, and they also regard Zhao Junchen as their benefactor! But in front of foreigners, they are persecutors who only consider their own interests. This is because they do not regard the victims of foreign disasters as the same kind!
Of course, if the positions are reversed, if the disaster in Lu'an Prefecture is serious this year and the people of Nanguan Village flee to Xinzhou one after another, I am afraid that the roles between each other will also change, and the villagers of Xinzhou will become selfish persecutors. Otherwise, the people in Nanguan Village will also be forced to separate their flesh and blood and wait to starve to death.
This is the tragedy of the times and also the characteristic of the times.
This era is the most cruel. The people at the bottom are already doing their best to survive, so how can they care about others? Therefore, during the famine years, the locals' attitude towards foreigners has always been extremely cruel, and there will never be any mercy and pity. The locals unite together and are always extremely exclusive. Everything is just for their own interests. They are definitely not the same kind of people, no matter how much they are persecuted, it is a matter of course!
In years of calamity, "exchanging children and eating them" will always happen, let alone something like today.
As the saying goes, "If you have enough food and clothing, you will know the etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know the honor and disgrace." There is absolutely no falsehood in this sentence.
In the eyes of the people of Nanguan Village, there is nothing wrong with their approach. The village's food cannot feed too many idle people, so they can only choose to take in a few useful refugees. If they can keep these refugees alive, that's it. Thank you!
But for these victims, the behavior of the villagers in Nanguan Village was extremely cruel. It was so cruel to separate mother and son, say goodbye to father and daughter, and only watch their loved ones die. How cruel!
Thinking of this, Zhao Junchen felt even more complicated.
At the same time, Zhao Junchen also didn't know how he should face the people of Nanguan Village.
At this moment, the people of Nanguan Village, who were originally warm, simple and sincere, felt indescribably awkward in the eyes of Zhao Junchen!
Since coming to this era, Zhao Junchen has been very sensible. He did not try to change the world, but took the initiative to change himself and integrate himself into the world.
But at this time, Zhao Junchen found that he could not fully integrate into this era after all. Deep down in his heart, he still retained some things from the previous world. Zhao Junchen could not completely accept many of the situations that people were accustomed to in this era!
While Zhao Junchen's mood was ups and downs, both Chow Tai Fook and Mr. Wang looked at Zhao Junchen nervously.
They still felt that they had done nothing wrong, and even thought that they had done something good. They were just worried that the loud roar of this man's victims would scare Zhao Junchen, and that Zhao Junchen would be frightened.
If this male victim frightened their benefactor, they would punish him severely.
However, Zhao Junchen had no expression on his face and just asked slowly: "How many days have you driven these victims away? In which direction were they driven away?"
Chow Tai Fook didn't know what Zhao Junchen meant, but he still replied: "I have been away for nearly two days, and I left to the south."
Zhao Junchen nodded and said: "The victims are weak and walk only on their feet. The speed is very slow. They should not have gone far yet. If they ride horses, they can catch up quickly..."
At this point, Zhao Junchen asked the male victim: "Can you ride a horse?"
The male victims were stunned for a moment. Seeing that Zhao Junchen seemed to be planning to help them, they couldn't help but extinguish their anger a little, and then replied: "I know how to ride!"
Zhao Junchen nodded again, and then ordered to Hong Gaogong: "Give this man a horse, and give him some rations and a kettle!"
After finishing speaking, Zhao Junchen said to the male victims: "Give you a chance. You ride west and bring all your companions back here. I will help them survive!"
After hearing what Zhao Junchen said, several victims showed expressions of ecstasy and knelt down to thank Zhao Junchen.
Especially this tall male disaster victim, regardless of his tied body or the hunger and fatigue of his body, he kowtowed heavily to Zhao Junchen, his head hitting the ground "bang bang".
Seeing this scene, both Zhou Dafu and Wang Laozhang were shocked. Wang Laozhang quickly asked: "Mr. Zhao, what do you mean?"
Zhao Junchen did not mean to blame them, but said slowly: "You are the big households and elders in Nanguan Village, so you only need to consider Nanguan Village, but I am a court official and need to be responsible for the people under the government's rule. Every citizen of the country! Now faced with such a situation, naturally they cannot sit idly by and watch."
As he spoke, Zhao Junchen looked calm.
Like the people in Nanguan Village, Zhao Junchen is also a two-faced person. He is the one who sacrifices the welfare of the people for his own benefit. It is also him who cannot bear to help the people after seeing the suffering of the people on the road.
Cheap sympathy.
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Well, four thousand words, second update!
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