In mid-October, Bianliang City.

The north wind has been blowing, and the sudden drop in temperature has been a matter of the past few days. The people in the city have thickened their clothes, but in such a large city where millions of people gather, even if the weather drops slightly, there will be no shortage of pedestrians on the streets. Shopping, merchants still shouting and selling, taking advantage of the winter to completely fall, to get more business, children run outside the house, looking forward to the first winter snowfall.

On the left side of the Imperial City, there is an area where high-ranking officials gather, and on this side, there are slightly fewer pedestrians on the road. On the relatively remote Wenyuan Street, a vendor dragging a sugar cake cart called a few words outside the mansion of Lord Yushi Zhang, and he knew that the grandson of Lord Yushi Zhang was three years old, and the old lady of the family was extremely fond of him.

The pedestrians walking by the street were mostly the subordinates and maids of some high-ranking families, and the carriage drove quietly by. Not long after, on the other side of the road, there were also a few people walking towards this side, the woman headed by was tall and beautiful, although it was winter, her dress was quite subtle, but she couldn't hide the woman's beautiful figure, the woman who followed her was like her sister, chattering and talking to her about something, when it was interesting, the steps under her feet were also lightly jumped. Behind were four maids, two of whom were of poor appearance, but their eyes were sharp and their bodies were tall. A maid carries a basket in her arms.

A group of six people stopped at the back door of the Right Prime Minister's Mansion, and after knocking on the door, someone came to welcome them in.

Those who came over at this time were naturally Yunzhu and Jin'er who lived nearby. Since this time, Ning Yi has been in the Prime Minister's Mansion for disaster relief. It is often difficult to leave at noon, so they often come over, sometimes bringing lunch, sometimes bringing some sugar water. At this time, it was still afternoon, after entering the Prime Minister's Mansion, two female bodyguards dressed as maids were left on the periphery, Yunzhu and Jin'er walked in familiarly, and when they were about to reach the courtyard of the office over there, they took a look at Qin Siyuan who was walking towards this side. The old man was dressed in civilian clothes and looked like he was thinking about something. Meet the two. Still smiled: "It's coming." ”

"Grandpa Qin."

"Grandpa Qin."

They saluted, and Qin Siyuan smiled: "What did you bring?" Do you have my share as an old man? ”

Jin'er smiled: "White fungus lotus seed soup, it's still hot, there are a lot of it." ”

"Oh. I'll have a bowl of that later. Let's go. I'm also looking for Liheng. ”

A few people walked towards the courtyard where Ning Yi and the others were. Although speaking of which, the matter of this disaster relief also includes a large amount of intelligence data induction and analysis, except for Ning Yi in the courtyard. There were also several people who helped, but the atmosphere was not as lively as some financial markets in later generations, and everyone summed it up separately, only occasionally summed up with Ning Yi. After Qin Siyuan came over, Ning Yi also temporarily let go of the work at hand and sat with the old man in the courtyard for a while. Yunzhu and Jin'er sent the white fungus lotus seed soup one by one to the staff at work, and when they gave it to Qin Siyuan and Ning Yi, the two of them were sitting here chatting seemingly casually, but the topic was not random.

“…… On the Pingzhou side, a fight broke out. ”

"Sent troops?"

"The troops were mobilized a few days earlier, and the leader was Wanyan Yanmu."

"Ah Guta's younger brother, but this person has average skills...... What about the attitude of the court? ”

"Originally, I was happy, but now that the matter is in front of me, the saint is a little undecided. Tong Guan's ...... I'm scared. ”

"Ask General Guo to cooperate, you have to fight once......"

"That's what I mean, there are few Jurchens, and it's not good to go south, but north of Yanmen Pass, it must be fought. Pity...... I just want to talk about ......"

"So how about now......

"There are not as many people as Zhang Jue's subordinates, so I can only hope that Zhang Jue will win the battle."

"I think...... The imperial court can not send troops, but it can ask General Guo to help. Xiangye, why don't you let General Guo write to the court to ask for war? ”

"I think the same way, I have already repaired the book and gone north...... What about food prices? ”

"Both sides are floating around thirty taels."

"The weather is falling, not rising?"

"The operation is still effective, but for now, it can only be maintained, and the biggest hurdle is after the first snow falls, at that time, whether the imperial court can restore the confidence of the people can be seen clearly."

It is said that it is a food war and an economic war, but what is really fought is the people's confidence in the government's disaster relief. The big gentry said that the price of grain would definitely rise, and there was not much grain in the first place, so the people believed it and went to buy grain at a high price. The government said that we will provide disaster relief, we will crack down on illegal grain dealers, and we have a steady stream of food coming in. The worst outcome of disaster relief depends on the level of trust that people have in both sides and, of course, how hungry they are.

The basic principle is this, when it comes to the details, it is a thousand times more complicated. The process of suppressing grain prices in the north and south has been going on for a month, and the fluctuations in grain prices in the two places have remained at around 30 taels, which is enough to surprise Qin Siyuan. But as Ning Yi said, what really determines the outcome is after the first snow falls, at that time, either the disaster relief methods of the imperial court collapse, or the psychological limit of large households collapses, and before that, both sides are constantly using various means to improve their bargaining chips.

In the south, in just half a month, a grain ship was scuttled, and the murderer has not yet been found. Not long ago, a county commander of the Qin Siyuan faction in Huainan caused a backlash because of his upright personality and fierce disaster relief methods. A large grain farmer wanted to take advantage of this famine year to expand his strength, and blindly ate a lot of grain that was transported. He thought that he would make a steady profit and absorb it at a high price, but who knew that the next grain price fluctuations in Lu Dao were beyond his expectations, and there was a faint downward trend.

This is also due to the fierce means of Ning Yi's suppression in the first stage, although it seems that the total amount of food that can be mobilized is not as expected, but Ning Yi's investment in the first stage is still very courageous. He is too experienced, this kind of stud-like shopping mall betting, whether he is fat or not, he has to slap his face swollen first. On the other hand, the enemy this time also has a ladder-like level, which first supports the appetite of some big households. Increasing their psychological burden, making them collapse in advance, and turning the food out as soon as possible to intimidate higher-level people is also Ning Yi's plan.

At this level, where is that kind of small and medium-sized gentry in the countryside who is Ning Yi's opponent. Ning Yi controlled the entry of grain, and after receiving the instructions from the prime minister's government, the county commander also enthusiastically cooperated with public opinion with administrative means, and began to suppress prices, and at the same time threatened these big households that they must spit out the grain. He did too well. The psychology of the big family. collapsed like this, and one day shouted: "If you don't let me live, I will let you die." "Someone killed the county magistrate who was busy with disaster relief.

The county order was originally from a poor family, and he was an honest and upright official, and he was killed. They are distributing their rations to the hungry outside. family at home. Even porridge can only be drunk every day.

After the murder, the big family secretly asked someone to release the news, saying that the county order was killed by Wang Qing's subordinates who were in trouble nearby. But the arrester quickly found the murderer. At this time, it was the strength of the princess's mansion in Chengguo who was responsible for disaster relief in the south, and Zhou Pei happened to be nearby, and even told the county commander about the disaster relief strategy in person, and after learning the whole situation, he was so sad that he almost went crazy, and immediately sent someone to arrest the whole family of the big family, and screened out the people involved in the grain storage and the immediate family members of the big family, and threw them into prison. Then she and the angry princess Zhou Xuan wrote a letter to Zhou Zhe together.

After this incident, the Prime Minister's side immediately issued an order to accept the affairs of the county government with the people of the secret investigation department, and after the trial, they paraded through the streets to make it public, and then they checked several houses by strong means. The rest of the people were in a hurry, and they did not dare to hoard under this high pressure, but it caused a gap in the local food price.

In this case, it is said that after the big family was thrown into prison, Zhou Pei rushed into the prison on the first day, snatched all the food for the big family, and drank a bowl of gruel in the prison on the spot, saying "How can such a good porridge be given to animals", "They must be starved to death", "Whoever dares to give them porridge again, I will beat him to death". The people of the royal family intervened, and even if the family was really killed on the spot, no one would dare to speak. I just heard that Zhou Pei drank porridge that night, he vomited in the room and almost got sick the next day.

Later, when the trial was announced, the family had been starved for four days, and it was not until Kang Xian issued an order to keep Zhou Pei away from the matter, and at the same time gave them a meal of porridge to drink a day, barely hanging for their lives. But it is conceivable that they will rarely die well after that.

When Qin Siyuan said this, his tone was a little low, and Ning Yi's expression was also indifferent.

"Geng County's family has asked the Secret Investigation Department to help arrange it...... Zhou Pei still asked him to go back, there was a rebellion near Wang Qing, although now Xin Xingzong and they have set out to suppress it, but it is not peaceful after all. And...... Even if the price of grain in a county drops slightly, it will not benefit much from the overall situation, and we can't fill it with good people's lives, so we have to put an end to this kind of thing in other places......"

Although Ning Yi's tone was indifferent, thinking about these things, he was compassionate after all. Qin Siyuan shook his head: "This is a war, it is inevitable." Hard knives don't cut meat, soft knives hurt more, recently, the pressure below is not small, but if you really want to do things well, you have to show the attitude of fighting. Otherwise, once you think about self-preservation and compromise once, you will inevitably continue to compromise. Geng Qianzhi's matter, I will spread it to the world in the newspaper, telling them the evil of these grain hoarders, it must be ...... Shoot them down! ”

Ning Yi thought about it and nodded: "It's that I'm a little indecisive......"

Qin Siyuan laughed: "A gentleman is also a beast, and when he sees his life, he can't bear to see his death; Hearing its voice, I can't bear to eat its flesh. It is a gentleman who cooks far away. Liheng acts, is ruthless to himself and others, and only has compassion for the people around him, which is in line with the way of a gentleman. ”

Ning Yi thought for a moment and sighed: "A good person should have a good reward, we often say that someone does good deeds and accumulates virtues, but later dies for others and does not get good rewards." In the end, it often gives people a feeling that if they do good deeds, they must have evil retribution, and if they do not get evil retribution, this person often seems to be impure in his intentions when he does good deeds. This kind of propaganda is not good. ”

"How can there be anything Liheng said." Qin Siyuan was slightly surprised, "I see some stories and strange novels in the world today, saying that this person is either filial piety or chastity, and the most common thing often ends with good things. There are not many people who say that good people get evil retribution. ”

"Uh......" Ning Yi was stunned, and then couldn't help laughing, "Ha Luha, it's me who wants to go wrong, don't blame Qin Xiang." ”

Qin Siyuan also smiled, and then became solemn: "The soft knife I said, Liheng must not be guarded against." ”

Ning Yi nodded: "I know that on both sides of the north and south, most of the officials who sent Lu are under pressure, either with money or power, just to make them turn a blind eye to a few things. ”

"Someone has already extended the relationship to Kyori and left the relationship on my side." Qin Siyuan's face was gloomy, "Sooner or later, they will also find Liheng's side, and Liheng must make some preparations." ”

Hearing him talk about this, a smile appeared on the corner of Ning Yi's mouth: "This, I have been mentally prepared, Qin Xiang can rest assured." ”

Qin Siyuan sighed: "I'm not worried about you, as I just said, Liheng is cruel to himself and others. I only sigh this world......" After a pause, he laughed, "Oh, by the way, Dexin and Zhouhai are in the north, and they seem to be doing well." ”

Ning Yi nodded: "Brother Cheng is very powerful, with him joining forces with Dexin, those people can't make any waves." ”

"Well, Zhouhai is too ruthless, which is somewhat similar to my early years, but when it comes to doing things, it is indeed comprehensive, and I am ...... Not too worried......"

The old man said this, and he actually had a lot of hopes for Cheng Zhouhai, a disciple who was very scheming......

****************

The reason why Qin Siyuan and Ning Yi talked about Cheng Zhouhai was because Cheng Zhouhai was originally in charge of military rations in the north, and after the disaster relief began, he temporarily took over the affairs of the secret investigation department in the north, and then connected with Li Pin and cooperated with each other.

Then a few days ago, on the side of Hedong Road, the first fierce rebound of the big households came from the Guo family in Xiaoyi County.

Since Li Pin went to Guo's house to force him to release grain, Guo Mingyi went to Zuo Jilan to discuss, and Zuo Jilan found Qi Fanghou of the Qi family.

After that, the day after Guo Mingyi returned home, he went outside to say something to the hungry people with tears in his eyes, escorted by his family: because the government thought that the Guo family had been giving porridge and must have food at home, so it coerced the Guo family to release more food, so he had to make some unavoidable concessions. At the same time, it was announced that this day would be the last soup soup for the Guo family.

He's going to ...... Inciting civil unrest, pointing directly at the government!

No matter how big Li Pin's official is, no matter what kind of backstage he has behind him, if the first measure after he comes to power causes civil unrest, with the influence of the Zuo family and the Qi family in the capital, his official ...... You can't do it anyway.

On this day, perhaps because it was the last day of the soup kitchen, the Guo family cooked the porridge very thickly, and it also gave the people who were hungry for a long time the strength to digest the news. A group of hungry people listened to Guo Mingyi's words and were dumbfounded.

The riot is about to rise. Someone shouted from the side of the crowd: "He's lying! (To be continued......)

PS: Thinking back to some ancient books, being a good person and a filial son, you can become a champion, and you can be appreciated by the emperor, but now, what is propagated is often that doing good deeds will die, how desolate is this person who has done good deeds. And because the logical discernment ability of the people in society is generally not high, it finally becomes an atmosphere: if this person is not dead or has not lived a very bleak life, then the good deeds he has done are not counted, or the person has done good deeds for the benefit in the first place. The theory of motivation allows us all to be generally polite and unreasonable, leaving a society that generally needs goodwill but not goodwill. is similar to Chen Guangbiao's kind of person, if he does something good and wants to show off, what can't he do? What can't be praised for doing good deeds? Society needs kindness, and the person who does good does need some motivation to keep him doing good, and in this, praise is really the most humble reward. Well, it's a little emotion out of boredom.