Shipin Dalizheng

Because of this familiarity, the old man let go of his fear a little and told him about the recent situation. After the Mizhou Reservoir safely released the floodwaters, the Mizhou Dam was saved, and the people of the three counties were also saved. At the same time, the imperial court also learned of the foolish deeds of Jing'an Hou and his son and sent people to arrest them.

The old man had no idea what happened in the imperial capital afterwards. The fields in the three counties of Hejing and Jing were not flooded, and the people were waiting for the harvest. But on the eve of harvest, a swarm of locusts descended from nowhere and covered the land. Princess Hejing, following the advice of a certain Fengxiang Lord, petitioned the court to bring the crops forward, but her advice was rejected. With no other options, she mobilized the people of her own fiefdom to bring the crops forward. Although the harvest was reduced, it was not a total loss.

The people of Hejing and the three counties were deeply convinced by the princess and followed her advice to harvest their crops early. The day after the rice harvest, a swarm of locusts, ten times and a hundred times more numerous, descended like a dark cloud, leaving the surrounding counties and towns unable to harvest in time and suffering heavy losses.

Also, because most of the grain in Shangjing was taken away by the prince, the court was afraid that the nobles in Shangjing would have nothing to eat, so they sent officers and soldiers to collect grain everywhere. Half of the harvest from them and the three counties of Jing was also snatched away by the court troops, and the common people did not have much food left.

The old man wiped his tears as he spoke. Rong Tang frowned, "When the locusts came, didn't you do anything else? Just harvest the grain in advance?"

"Other measures?" The old man paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered. "There are some. Princess Hejing brought a man named Feng Xiangjun, who said that green locusts are edible, and encouraged the people to catch them. If you're afraid to eat them, you can take them to the relief office outside the west city of the imperial capital to exchange for food, five catties for one catty. Later, a divine doctor named Mo also said that those with older colors and slightly poisonous ones are not to be feared, as he has a way to detoxify them. Although eating insects is not good, it's better than starving to death. So, the people rushed to catch locusts, scalding them with boiling water and drying them, and storing the excess to exchange for food. Before the soldiers came to seize food, many families had no choice but to rush to the imperial capital with their families. What kind of evil is the court doing? They robbed the people of their food and then hypocritically gave them porridge."

The old man shook his head and cursed, Rong Tang listened silently and did not say anything to him. They would feel safe only if the food was in their hands. As for the porridge, as long as they added enough water, they could make it as watery as they wanted.

Another thing is that the grain provided by the Relief Agency may not necessarily be grain from the imperial court.

"Father-in-law, from what you said, there aren't many people left in the village?"

The old man smiled bitterly. "Where are the people left? The common people have all flocked to the imperial capital, hoping to get a bowl of porridge. There are still people in the county town, but the price of food is ridiculously high. Ordinary people can hardly afford to feed themselves, so who would be willing to donate porridge to help with the disaster? I also heard that the imperial capital is in chaos and the court is about to disband. I don't know if it's true or not. For us common people, we are lucky to be alive."

Rong Tang's heart moved, "Father-in-law, you said that food is very expensive in the county town? Whose grain shop is this?"

The old man said, "There are several grain shops, and the Cui family's is the largest. A few days ago, a manager from the Cui family went door to door asking if they wanted to sell their land. Some villagers couldn't bear it anymore and have agreed to exchange their land for grain."

"How did you change it?"

The old man smiled bitterly, "One mu of paddy field costs fifty catties of old rice. In previous years, one catty of old rice cost only a few cents, but now it's more than ten times that."

Rong Tang's hands clenched tightly with a crackling sound. The Cui family, the Cui family again.

The old man was invited to have a bowl of rice and given a small bag of rice. The old man thanked him profusely and left.

After walking a few miles, he vaguely remembered that this young soldier seemed to be someone he had seen in a dream, a young man in black who had been transformed from a thousand-year-old black dragon beneath the Mizhou Reservoir after a tribulation. The old man patted his head, thinking that he was really getting confused and naive, and he dared to imagine all kinds of weird and supernatural things.

After seeing the old man off, Rong Tang clapped his hands and gathered everyone's hands, pointing in the direction of Jing County, and so on.

When they were discussing, Li De didn't care. He was just a eunuch. His only job was to monitor them and prevent them from rebelling. He didn't care about anything else.

Not long after the discussion, twenty or thirty people left. After a while, another twenty or thirty people left. Before dusk, the remaining people set off together. Li Dequan didn't quite understand why, because in his opinion, this was a change of direction.

"Hey, hey, young uncle, what are you doing here?"

Rong Tang casually fooled him, "Go get supplies."

Li Dequan was a little skeptical. In his opinion, the team still had enough food and water, and it was far from time for them to need resupply. However, the command was in Rong Tang's hands, so he could only follow.

A large number of horses entered the city. To avoid disturbing the people, ten people were left to watch the horses, and the rest all entered the city. Li Dequan found that since entering Hejing County, these people could not speak and only used gestures. He could understand some of them, but he didn't know what most of them meant. But he realized that these people were not holding their farts well.

Sure enough, just after midnight, the streets were deserted. This group of people emerged from every corner, covering their heads and faces, and flew in in various postures. They jumped into the courtyard of Cui's rice shop. Some people took up knives to break open the door latch and rushed in like vicious wolves. After a while, the howling of pigs being slaughtered came from inside, "Help! There's a thief!"

Unfortunately, the thieves were too powerful and after two breaths, there was no sound at all.

Li Dequan was horrified when he heard this. He pointed a shaking finger at Rong Tang and said, "You, robbed the grain store..."

Rong Tang said: "This is not called robbery, this is called fundraising."

Rong Tang fished out two black face towels from his bosom, covering Li Dequan with one and himself with the other. He dragged him into the rice shop, pointed his long knife at the old shopkeeper, who was tied up like a rice dumpling, and said in a gruff voice, "If you know what's good for you, keep quiet. I'm the second-in-command of Lazi Mountain, and this is our boss. Our boss said we'll only rob food and not kill people. Be honest, and I'll spare your life."

The boss Li Dequan almost fainted.

The looting lasted until five o'clock in the morning. All the food was taken away. Seventy to eighty percent was distributed to the slums in the county town, and the remaining two to three percent was carried in a large bag by each person on his back.

Rong Tang also lit the magic incense before dawn and placed it at the door of the grain store, so that the store owner and clerks would not wake up, and people who entered the store first would also be knocked unconscious.

At dawn, the city gates were opened, and the new soldiers each carried a large bag of food and left the city one after another. The guards at the city gates were surprised, because those who could afford to buy a large bag of rice at this time were all rich people.

As soon as Li Dequan reached the Zangma woods, he couldn't hold it back anymore and started cursing. He didn't dare to curse Rong Tang, so he cursed those old soldiers, "You are a bunch of bastards. You are going to ruin my family."

He also scolded Rong Shenrong Qianqi who was passing by, "If you are a robber, could you please not take me with you? I can't stand this kind of stimulation."

No one paid any attention to him. The new recruits tied up the looted food on the horses' backs, drank a few sips of water, and mounted their horses to set off.

Old Wen came over and said, "Do you want to get on your horse and leave? If not, I'll tie you up and send you to the city gate."

Li Dequan was so scared that he opened his mouth and looked like he was about to cry.

Rong Tang drew out his Tang sword again, full of vigor and determination, and said, "Let's go."

Just as it came, it disappeared into the distance like the wind.

On this day, Hejing County was as quiet as usual. The residents of the slums spent a sleepless night of hunger. When they opened their doors in the morning, they saw a small bag of grain thrown in the middle of the yard. It was about a dou (a bushel) of grain weighing about ten pounds. On the bag were a few large charcoal characters written on it: "..."

Why is it “…”?

Because I don’t know him!

However, there were still people who could read and recited it, "The leader of Lazi Mountain, robs the rich to help the poor, saves people from water and fire, no thanks, no censure."

That same afternoon, they also learned that all the grain had been looted from Cui's, the largest rice shop in the city.

"It's a pity that we didn't kill those heartless profiteers."

So said the resentful people.