Whizzing……
When Li Ruolian shouted that something was wrong, Fang Zhenghua and several disciples surrounded Chongzhen and looked around cautiously.
The Fang family groped around the middle-aged man to see if he was carrying any sharp weapons. After a moment, they shook their heads at Li Ruolian.
"Wow……"
When the three children saw this situation, they burst into tears. The middle-aged man was a little at a loss and his eyes were full of panic.
Pedestrians at the entrance of the alley heard the crying, but after a few glances, they left quickly for fear of getting into trouble.
All this was seen by Chongzhen. The numbness of the people made him feel a little sad, and then he said: "Li Er, what's going on?"
Hearing Chongzhen's question, Li Ruolian whispered: "Master, our dynasty has had a road guide and letter ticket system since the time of Taizu.
The law of the Ming Dynasty stipulates that if soldiers and civilians go out for hundreds of miles, they must carry a road guide. If there is no road guide, the army will be considered as deserting, and the people will be considered as privately crossing the pass, and the staff will be ninety! "
At this point, Li Ruolian turned to the middle-aged man: "Weizhong is nearly two thousand miles away from Beijing. There are seven checkpoints. It is impossible for refugees to enter Beijing. This is one of them."
"Secondly, how did you come here two thousand miles away with three children? Do you really think we are easy to deceive?"
"I advise you to tell the truth, otherwise, we will send you to prison."
After listening to Li Ruolian's explanation, everyone suddenly realized.
The middle-aged man's face was full of hesitation, hesitation, and fear.
After hesitating for a moment, the middle-aged man whispered a few words to the child, then looked at the entrance of the alley in a panic, and whispered: "Sir, I really didn't lie to you, we really escaped from Shaanxi."
"In July this year, an uprising broke out in my hometown of Baishui County... A man named Wang Er gathered hundreds of victims to attack Chengcheng, killed the county magistrate Zhang Douyao, and opened warehouses to help the people.
The whole county was in chaos. We took advantage of the chaos to find the official seal in the county, built a private road to lead the way, and then took advantage of the chaos to escape. "
"After we escaped, we discovered that the road guides were basically useless. Except for the checkpoints outside Beijing, the checkpoints in other places were either empty or just a few people pretending to be able to pass with just a few copper coins.
Sometimes a large group of people come together and rush over without even paying any money. "
"The younger ones like us can still escape, but the older ones can only wait to die.
Of the thirty or so people we came out with, there are now less than ten left, and the rest died of starvation and illness on the way out.
These three children are descendants of their fellow villagers. If it weren't for these three children, I would want to die. "
As he spoke, the middle-aged man began to cry. Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, and the dust on his face was washed out into gullies.
Li Ruolian frowned, as if he was judging the truth or falsehood of the middle-aged man's words, and then his face became a little ugly. If what this man said was true, then the Jin Yiwei had failed in his duty.
Fang Zhenghua whispered a few words to the Fang family, and then still looked around with vigilance.
Chongzhen's face turned completely gloomy. He did not expect that this group of refugees would be so bold as to kill the county magistrate and open the official warehouse.
But can you say this is the fault of the people?
No, absolutely not!
The farmers are almost starving to death, so what are they waiting for? If you don't rebel, you'll starve to death; if you rebel, you'll die. It's better to rebel and still have enough to eat for a few days.
Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang decided to rebel because he was about to starve to death. Why is it that only your family, Lao Zhu, is allowed to rebel, while others cannot?
Just as he was talking, the Fang family came over carrying a large bag of steamed buns and a large teapot.
The three weak children behind the middle-aged man suddenly became energetic. They stared at the buns in Fang's hands and swallowed their saliva.
But looking at the shining knife in Li Ruolian's hand, she hugged the middle-aged man's arm tightly.
"Li Er, put the knife away, don't scare the child!"
Chongzhen took the kettle from the Fang family and poured a bowl for each of them: "Uncle, drink some hot water first to moisten your intestines. Eat slowly later and don't choke. These buns are enough for today."
Chongzhen said as he handed the steamed bun to the child.
All this was seen in the eyes of Li Ruolian and Fang Zhenghua. The two looked at each other and saw the surprise and relief in each other's eyes.
That means we are following the right emperor.
The majestic king of a country was not tired of this kind of environment at all, and he did not dislike the dirty refugees at all, and he even gave instructions to everyone in a gentle voice.
After everyone had eaten two steamed buns, Fang Zhenghua whispered: "Master, I have arranged for the Fang family to check around. If there are other victims, we will verify it with other victims."
Chongzhen nodded: "Uncle, this matter is more serious. We need to confirm the information. If what you said is true, we will let it go. But if it is a lie, then don't blame the ruthless national law."
After speaking, he said to Li Ruolian: "Li Er, arrange for them to stay here."
After Li Ruolian's men took several people away, Fang Zhenghua said: "Your Majesty has a kind heart, he is really like Yao and Shun."
"It's irrelevant. These are all my people. If I had managed the country well, where would such disaster victims come from? Everything is my fault."
Chongzhen waved his hand: "Let's go and see other places!"
An hour later, the group met four more waves of refugees, all from Shaanxi and belonging to different places. Basically, what the middle-aged man said earlier was similar.
Shaanxi is already in chaos.
Chongzhen's expression was calm along the way, but Fang Zhenghua beside him knew that the master of the Ming Dynasty was already on the verge of going berserk.
After secretly returning to the palace, Chongzhen had someone notify Wang Chengen and let the courtiers disperse.
Being let go by the emperor, these ministers could only hide their depression in their hearts.
"Your Majesty, you are finally back!"
Wang Chengen, who returned to Dongnuan Pavilion, finally felt relieved. He heard Chongzhen's instructions before he could take a breath.
"My dear friend, please bring over all the memorials that have been sent to the Bureau of Ceremonies for the past three months. Check them one by one to see if there are any memorials from Shaanxi reporting disaster victims and civil uprisings."
Half an hour later, thousands of memorials were placed in the Qianqing Palace. The reason why he transferred all of them instead of Shaanxi's was mainly because he did not want the courtiers to know his true intentions.
"Your Majesty, from July 1st of the seventh year of Tianqi to yesterday, a total of twenty-nine memorials have been issued in Shaanxi. Only Wu Huan, the censor of Shaanxi Province, submitted one memorial on August 11th."
Chongzhen took the memorial handed over by Wang Chengen, opened it and scanned it quickly. The memorial read:
"I inspected Shaanxi and found that there had been no rain since last year, and the grass and trees were withered. During July and August, people competed to collect grass from the mountains for food..."
This memorial clearly records the natural and man-made disasters and civil uprisings in Shaanxi. It ends by saying: Death from hunger is the same as death from banditry. Instead of dying of hunger and death sitting there, why not die for banditry and die as a satiated ghost?
The final reply of the memorial is even more ridiculous: These hungry people will be plundered and settled in the next spring!
But Chongzhen knew why when he looked at the date of approval.
