late at night.
Zhang Yuanqingpan was sitting on the observation deck outside the alchemy room, with a large compass made of black iron and silver paint depicting star maps on his lap. The stars were constantly rotating and changing, just like the code of the world's running program flashing through his mind over and over again.
Every change represents a direction in the future. In Star Officer's perception, the past is eternal, the present is happening, and the future is full of uncertainty.
There are countless possibilities in the future. A change in details or a mistake in an idea will change the direction of the future.
Among them, traffickers and lackeys are the most worthless. The behavioral decisions of ordinary people cannot affect the future trend. The thoughts and ideas of those in high positions are crucial.
Therefore, star officials need to use chess pieces to coordinate the good direction of the future according to their own expectations.
The core of the game between star officials is the placement of chess pieces. Whoever has more chess pieces will be the winner.
certainly,. In addition to chess pieces, the general trend is also very important. The general trend of the world is rolling forward. Star officials also need to play chess according to the general trend of the world. Stargazing is used to see the general trend of the world.
No matter how strong the star official is in trying to reverse the trend, his life or death will be over.
Now the Southern Dynasty is facing the general trend of destruction. Corrupt officials are rampant in the court and the treasury is empty. The army of the Northern Dynasty is pressing down on the country.
From the general situation, Zhang Yuanqing is at a disadvantage. Fortunately, Linxia City has not been destroyed, and the Southern Dynasty's energy is still there.
"The old thief is known to know all the secrets of heaven, and his level of stargazing should be good. I have a big compass, which is at most the same as him, but my advantage is the protection of dragon energy, and my own trend has its own secrets."
"Some secret operations must not be done by Zhen Congyou, but must be operated by Yin Zhi, and then there are high-ranking characters who are not closely related to the Imperial Master, such as Gang Leader Duan." Zhang Yuanqing thought in his heart.
At this time, there was a vague roar in his ears. It was the sound of the resentful spirits and the infernal corpses, and only the night wandering god could hear it.
Zhang Yuanqing's mind was in a state of shock. The stars in front of him were shattered and he was forced to exit the stargazing state. Goosebumps arose all over his body.
"National Master, what are you doing?" He looked sideways at the source of the sound and narrowed his eyes. As expected, this guy was holding back his ultimate move.
Outside the capital city, refugees in tattered clothes gathered in twos and threes, sitting tiredly on both sides of the official road.
Whispering in the thin frost in the early morning, the weather is getting colder and colder. If the cold in the north is strong and overbearing, then the cold and wet in the south is like a knife that penetrates the bones.
Before death, you can also experience the terrible pain of cutting the flesh with a blunt knife and eating it raw, bit by bit, until you die.
There were thousands of refugees outside the city, and the court did not allow them to enter the city, let alone care about them.
After fleeing southward and losing their homeland, their only livelihood was the capital.
They can survive day by day relying on the thin porridge given out by the imperial court. When the cold winter comes, the children and the elderly among these refugees will die first. The older ones may be able to survive the cruel winter, but these It doesn't mean you can get help.
After the onset of winter, there were also the iron cavalry and sword blades of the Northern Dynasties.
Despair, numbness and pain enveloped the refugees outside the city. As the morning light shined in from the first floor, the city gate slowly opened.
The refugees outside the city looked towards the city gate one after another, their dark and numb eyes lit up with the light of hope. The court's disaster relief porridge would be delivered in the early morning. This was their only meal of the day.
After eating this meal, they will have the strength to dig tree roots in the forest and dig up worms in the ground.
Under the attentive eyes of pairs of people, a flatbed truck drove out of the city gate. There were four large wooden barrels on the truck, and white steam filled the gaps between the lids of the barrels.
The sound of "goo" swallowing continued, and the refugees stood up one after another. Those who had not yet woken up were roughly pushed awake by their companions and family members.
These zombie-like refugees wandering the wilderness flocked to the city gate.
At this time, another flatbed carriage drove out from behind the flatbed carriage, followed by a second, third, and fourth one.
At the end, more than a hundred armored city defenders came out.
The locust-like refugee gates stopped one after another. There were too many of them. There were ten carriages. This was not for them. In the past, there were only three carriages at most. They were filled with crystal clear porridge. Each person could only get half a bowl, let alone any. There are so many city defense troops to maintain order...
Looking at the continuous steam coming out of the barrel, I smelled the rich aroma of porridge and swallowed louder.
During this period, the children cried and urged their parents to get food, but the father with a disheveled face and the skinny mother cowered and did not dare to step forward.
At this time, the ten carriages did not continue to move forward after leaving the city, but turned to the porridge shed under the city wall. A general on horseback stepped forward and shouted to the refugees: "Your Majesty understands the sentiments of the people." , Knowing that you are suffering, we opened a warehouse to provide disaster relief, and formulated a new law. From now on, the porridge in the porridge factory will be so thick that people’s heads will float on the chopsticks and fall to the ground.”
With a crash, thousands of refugees rushed towards the porridge shed. Outside the observation deck of the Tianji Building, the sun was rising slowly in the east.
Zhang Yuanqing leaned on the railing and looked at the bustling capital, which was still sleeping. The outlines of the buildings were blurry and the towering city walls in the distance isolated thousands of refugees outside the city.
A wall is the difference between heaven and hell.
After standing there for a long time, a ray of golden light penetrated the wall and transformed into the imperial master with fluttering bone sleeves of the Immortal Wind Dao.
"Master, the thousands of refugees outside the city are all subjects of the Southern Dynasty, and they are my subjects."
Zhang Yuanqing held on to the railing and said with a smile: "It is my duty to save the people from fire and water."
The Imperial Preceptor looked at the city gate with a solemn look on his face. He pinched his fingers for a few seconds and said coldly: "Your Majesty, the king of the country intends to do things like cocks and dogs!"
"No." Zhang Yuanqing raised his face and said with a smile, "Is it the king's soil in the world? Is it the king's ministers who lead the soil on the shore? Why not take their own food to help the victims? Oh, by the way, the Imperial Master can also inform Zheng Wenhan The investigation into the theft of food from the rice merchants in the city was just a matter of submitting this document, but the imperial master did not take this step for a while?"
As expected by Zhang Yuanqing, because he put his companion Lingyue into the gang warehouse last night and then notified Sun Miaomiao to take it, Sun Miaomiao had a secret blessing after performing the night tour.
The Imperial Master did not reply. The middle-aged Taoist outside the alchemy room turned into starlight and disappeared.
Not long after, another group of city defense troops rushed to the city gate, drove away the refugees, and surrounded the porridge sheds, belonging to different families.
After the two groups of city defense troops in the military camp drew their swords and faced off, the general of the city defense army said loudly, "Food was stolen from many rice shops in the city last night. The Ministry of Punishment suspects that the food from the porridge factory came from improper sources. We will take away all the porridge for investigation. You dare to stop them." Miaoxing is complicit in conspiracy."
"Ah, what the hell are you talking about?" the leader of the city defense army guarding the porridge shed cursed.
"The Ministry of Punishment hasn't even finished eating yet. The Minister of Punishment told you in a dream that the rice store has been stolen?"
Laughter broke out everywhere, and the two groups of city defense troops did not fight each other. The eighteen generations of ancestors of both sides appeared frequently to criticize and curse each other, and they were full of motherliness.
After a stalemate for half an hour, suddenly a large number of refugees wearing ragged clothes poured out of the city, rubbing shoulders and blending into the refugee group.
"Brothers, let's go back to this matter." The general who came to stop the city defense army laughed loudly, took back his knife and left with dozens of subordinates.
Zhang Yuanqing, who watched this scene through his spiritual servant outside the city, was shocked and immediately understood the plan of the Imperial Master He Liao.
The obstruction by the city defense army was just to delay and deceive the people. The purpose was to prepare for gathering manpower. The Imperial Master asked his disciples to gather a group of people in the city, pretending to be refugees and disrupting the normal porridge delivery at the porridge factory.
As a result, the number of refugees who can actually get porridge has dropped sharply, and the effect of Zhang Yuanqing's plan to win the hearts of the people by opening warehouses to provide disaster relief will be greatly reduced.
The incident happened in a hurry and was caught off guard. There might be new ways to solve the problem tomorrow. The spiritual servant watched Zheng Wenhan have enough time to investigate the food theft case.
"Ginger is still spicier when it's old." Zhang Yuanqing said repeatedly.
The Imperial Master said calmly: "Your Majesty, you can continue to make moves."
Zhang Yuanqing's face straightened and he sighed, "Master, do you know the difference between refugees and civilians?"
The Imperial Master replied expressionlessly: "There is no difference!"
"Then take a look." Zhang Yuanqing said.
The fourth-level spiritual servant outside the city stirred up the evil wind and crashed into the body of the city defense army general. The general's pupils dilated instantly, and then returned to normal. He sheathed his sword and grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and threw it into the porridge. In the middle, he shouted, "Look at me, do whatever you want."
The subordinates followed suit one after another. Although they were distressed that a good pot of porridge was wasted, they did not dare to disobey their superiors' orders and mix sand into the porridge.
Zhang Yuanqing manipulated the general and said loudly, "He's here to get the porridge."
The refugees rushed up with a roar, some of them stopped where they were, showing signs of confusion, and many even turned around and left.
On the observation deck, Zhang Yuanqing looked sideways, "They just want to live, Imperial Master."
The Imperial Master remained silent, and his body turned into golden light and left the alchemy room.
"This is the advantage of modern people's information reserves." Zhang Yuanqing exhaled.
Fortunately, the civilians who came out of the city just wanted to take advantage and get a free mouthful of thick porridge, so they left the city under the guidance of the Tianji Tower Taoist priests.
If Zhang Yuanqing's plan was to make trouble and then throw away the porridge, it would still be difficult for him to succeed.
Well, this won't happen. The National Master is a great white moonlight in the hearts of the people. If you give such instructions to the people, it will damage your reputation and the gain will not be worth the loss!
Zhang Yuanqing turned around and entered the alchemy room to start making tea. He was not complacent because of his temporary victory. Winning the hearts of the people was very important, but giving porridge once was just one step in "gaining the hearts of the people" and could not influence the overall situation.
What's more, no matter how much popular support you gain, it will be in vain if you cannot weaken the enemy.
Zhang Yuanqing's real plan boils down to just five words: capture the thief first and capture the king first.
He stabilized Zheng Han just because he wanted to launch an operation to eliminate Zheng at the right time and eradicate all the core members of the Zheng family. In this way, both the Imperial City Department and the city defense army would naturally switch sides.
But to destroy the Zheng family, the current strength is not enough.
Yang Mansion, the Empress's boudoir. Zhang Yuanqing opened his eyes again and saw Guan Ya sitting at the desk in the outer room, holding a brush and writing unskilledly.
"How was the investigation of the Shen Rui Army case?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
Guan Ya put down her brush and looked over, saying, "I'm analyzing it. Since you're here, let's discuss it together."
Zhang Yuanqing walked over as instructed and asked, "Where are the others?"
Guan Ya said: "Going to do the task."
Yesterday, Zhang Yuanqing asked Yang Zheng to prepare a notice and post it in the inner city. The content was about the canonization of Mrs. Ya and Chu Meiren, and Wan Meiren was classified as a concubine.
Proclaiming that they risked their own lives to save the emperor and were loyal and courageous, the three's camps were subsequently switched and a new branch line and main line mission were opened. In order to lift the seal, she restored her level.
I have been working on the task since yesterday.
"Where is the palace master?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
"He ran away to Linxia." Guan Ya said.
"Fu Qingyang has received military information. The Northern Dynasty has stormed Linxia in the past two days. Her defenders have suffered heavy casualties, including Fu Qingyang. The team members, including Fu Qingyang, have been seriously injured. Resources have been exhausted and they are in urgent need of life source fluid. We don't have much life source fluid left. We need to deal with the capital. The danger here can only be passed by the Palace Master.
Zhang Yuanqing took a breath.
"There are Lingdiao and Xiahou Aotian in Linxia, but they are still short of life source liquid. The tragedy on the front line is beyond our imagination. Fu Qingyang may not be able to hold on for half a month, so we have to hurry up."
"Tell me about Shen Rui Military Insurance!" The task on his shoulders became even heavier.
