"哐哐哐哐..."
The gong sounded and the people gathered.
In the Northern Qi Province, in Yelu City, on the street, the officials of the imperial court loudly announced the new order that had just been made.
"From now on, all the cloth in Yelu City will be confiscated and temporarily stored in the treasury and various cloth shops. The clothing stores will be closed for rectification. A single piece of silk and satin will not be sold again..."
"Why is this?"
"It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. This country has been in power for nearly three hundred years. How come there is such a ridiculous governor!"
"I don't believe this is an order from the government. Everyone, follow me to the Yamen to see what the basis is for it!"
The crowd immediately exploded.
In fact, it's no wonder that these wealthy businessmen didn't understand. Even the officials responsible for the lectures themselves looked at a loss and looked completely confused.
Without understanding the truth of the strange incident, all the cloth was inexplicably confiscated. How is it any different from directly robbing money?
"There have been evil spirits causing trouble recently. They will cast spells on cloth and curse people...especially if they are bright and conspicuous. Lord Fuyin, this is for everyone's sake."
"The things confiscated are not returned to the public, but are temporarily stored for a period of time and must be returned..."
The officials tried their best to persuade me, but it seemed to be of no use.
Ordinary people may obey orders, but those who can open cloth villages and shops are not ordinary people. Most of them are squires and powerful people.
But not everyone in the crowd didn't understand. Some well-informed people vaguely knew the inside story and couldn't help but look worried.
"The government has already begun to confiscate cloth and close cloth shops. It seems that this time it is really going to be a disaster."
"What should we do? Do we want to escape from here? If we just confiscate the cloth and ready-made clothes, it will not help at all."
"Yes, every household in the streets and neighborhoods has no clothes or quilts. I heard that the evil spirits coming out of the Yinshan Mountains can attach themselves to those things. If you are not careful, you may be captured even while sleeping. You'll be suffocated to death, and you might even be strangled while walking on the road..."
"We can't burn all the cloth and clothes in the whole city, so that all men, women, and children can be clean and tidy, right?"
Logically speaking, that is indeed the best way to deal with cloth monsters.
The current imperial court also relies on the method of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields to deal with the evil spirits.
But nowadays, most of the people in Yelu City have moved from other places, and their understanding of that incident is that there was war and chaos, and the demon sect was responsible for the disaster. The court did not dare to tell the truth easily, for fear of causing greater panic.
Being in such a dilemma is not an option.
The government could only summon the wealthy businessmen and powerful country gentry privately to tell part of the truth in a vague way.
Those strangers among the people also began to be gathered together and forcibly recruited.
As a result, the more they understood the ins and outs of the past, the more desperate everyone became.
Because they have almost no chance of victory.
If it weren't for the strong pressure from the government, and someone had previously investigated and confirmed that the individual cloth demons were not that strong, I'm afraid those who were informed of the truth would have fled in panic.
"Fortunately, those cloth monsters are afraid of fire. Once they are ignited, they have almost no power to fight back. They are also afraid of things like scissors or swords. Even if you have enough strength, you may tear them apart..."
"If we work together, we should be able to defend this place."
"It should...can..."
As time passed, all the power the government could mobilize was mobilized to finally implement the decree.
It seemed that the wealthy businessmen were finally convinced. Not only did they no longer resist, they even took the initiative to cooperate with the government in continuing to collect cloth and clothing and process them together.
But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this speed is too slow.
They still refused to agree to destroy them on the spot, because they were all money and would be sold for money after the disaster.
The government simply did not have enough power to snatch out all the clothes and cloth from people's homes.
If cloth demons have been mixed in and start to breed in the dark, the situation will be difficult to control.
In the evening, in Yelu City, a rapid drumbeat suddenly sounded.
In an official office near the government office, Zhong Chenghu, the local guard of hundreds of households, summoned his troops, and a total of sixteen strangers from his large and small banner brigade gathered together.
The establishment of this one-hundred-household office is limited, and a dozen strangers is the limit of what they can offer.
But at the same time, some people from the day shift wearing casual clothes also gathered.
These are ordinary folk from the Caomang Jianghu. They are on government errands and receive salary from the local government.
When Zhong Cheng saw that people were almost here, he said to everyone: "There is a damn guy in Jinzihao in the west of the city who secretly hid thousands of pieces of silk. Now they have all turned into evil spirits and are wreaking havoc everywhere!
We must eliminate them all before the situation becomes irreversible! "
What? Is there a problem with the official?
When the general banners and subordinate banners heard this, their expressions suddenly changed.
Not everyone is aware of the weird things. When executing at the grassroots level, it is inevitable that some people will not realize the seriousness of the matter, secretly embezzle the ink, and secretly hide the seized items.
But he didn't expect that greed, which usually only brings about small things, would turn into a catastrophic disaster at this time.
But now that the matter was over, they had no choice but to ride on their fast horses and rush to the scene of the incident.
In this way, they still have no way to dispatch all of them, because more than half of them have to keep an eye on this side in case there is another situation and they cannot respond.
Not long after, Zhong Cheng and his party arrived at the scene of the incident, and sure enough they saw many cloth monsters already spreading their teeth and claws in all directions, trying to break out of the blockade and go out.
In Yelu City, many leaders of non-governmental organizations such as Wang Jian and Han Zhi were also mobilized to guard street gates throughout the city and strictly investigate the activities of cloth monsters.
Several people and police officers blocked them, using their swords and torches to force each other, barely holding on.
What makes people feel a little funny is that all those people took off their shirts, and their lower bodies were only covered by a belt, barely covering them.
That's because once you get close to the cloth demon, you may be aroused by the strange power, awakening all the clothes and pants all over your body.
The mysterious power will transform them into evil spirits and wrap people directly.
Suddenly, a Minzhuang accidentally fell into a tight siege.
The power of one or two cloth monsters alone is not too strong, and there is no way to kill him, but in the blink of an eye, more cloth monsters rushed up, and before Zhong Cheng and others witnessed it, they wrapped themselves around the man's neck and used force to Pulling, the cervical vertebrae were broken in a short while, and the limbs were twisted and twisted.
After killing this person, more than a dozen cloth demons dispersed in a rush, each showing a strange appearance like an invisible man wearing clothes and sheets, and pounced on the next person.
