After Li Hao listened to Lu Yun's report, he locked himself in the room for a long time, Lu Yun could vaguely hear bursts of sobbing in the room, but it didn't take long for Li Hao to come out again, it didn't look unusual, but his eyes were a little red, he and Lu Yun came to the yatang again, were silent for a long time, and whispered in despair: "Seventeen people yesterday, fifty-three people today, what about tomorrow?" ”

Lu Yun was silent, it was foreseeable that more people would starve to death tomorrow.

Li Hao was silent for a long time, then suddenly raised his head and asked, "Lu Yun, do we still have any food in the Assassin's Mansion?" ”

Lu Yun shook his head: "There are only a hundred catties left, and at most they can last until the corn is ripe." ”

"Food...... Hehe......" Li Hao smiled miserably, in the future world, how could he have been hungry, but when he came to the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, he had to watch the people in the city starve to death, and he could do nothing but hide in his room and secretly wipe his tears.

"Your Excellency!" There was a shout outside the door, Peng Hai and Li Yuanzhong walked in side by side, both of them clasped their fists, and said, "My lord, I humbly ask my lord to take out military rations and save the lives of the people." ”

"Military rations!" Li Hao was shocked when he heard this, and then shook his head, "No, the soldiers' food can't be moved." ”

"Your Excellency!" Peng Hai said impassionedly, "There are still fifty stones of grain in the arsenal, ask the lord to take out twenty stones, save the people first, Beizhi and Li Yuanzhong have already inquired about the wishes of the soldiers, and they promised to save forty percent of the food every day, and save the people first!" ”

"Forty percent of the food saved?" Li Hao trembled when he heard this, the soldier's food system has been reduced from no one eight taels a day to five taels a day, after all, soldiers have to practice, to fight, of course, they have to eat a little more, now if they save forty percent of the grain, then it is three taels of grain per person a day, in a state of half-starvation and half-fullness.

Li Yuanzhong said at this time: "My lord, now Gaochang is obviously going to besiege the city, and he will not attack, the soldiers don't need to be full, they just need to get by, let the people survive first." ”

Li Hao was silent for a long time, and sighed loudly: "There are so many people in the city, what can twenty stone of grain do?" ”

Lu Yun suddenly said at this time: "My lord, although twenty stone of grain is small, some rich people still have some food at home, if these people save a little food, they can last until the corn is ripe, maybe longer, we only need to save those people who are dying of hunger, even if it is not enough, we can save as much as we can." ”

Li Hao frowned and groaned for a long time, and finally nodded vigorously: "Okay, Peng Hai, this matter will be left to you." ”

"Yes!" Peng Hai and Li Yuanzhong were overjoyed when they heard this, and hurriedly retreated.

In the afternoon of the same day, a notice was posted on the bulletin wall, telling the hungry people to go to Weifu to get food and get through the difficulties, and even if a large group of people went to Weifu to get food, these people were already so hungry that their faces were yellow, and their whole body was weak, and they could tell at a glance that they had been hungry for a long time.

That night, Peng Hai came to report that there were 350 people who came to receive grain today, and a total of 130 catties of grain were distributed, that is, one stone and three, Li Hao was quite satisfied with this data, and the grain sent out every day should slowly increase, and the corn could be ripe in six days, although twenty stone grain was not much, it should be enough.

On the morning of the fifth day, Lu Yun came again to report that sixty-three people in the city were starving to death, and Li Hao exclaimed when he heard this: "How can this be, didn't they already distribute food yesterday, didn't they go to receive it?" ”

Lu Yun frowned and shook his head: "I don't know about this, but these starving people have one thing in common, they are all older people." ”

"Old man?" Li Hao was stunned when he heard this, guessing that maybe these old people had no strength to receive food after starving because of their old age, and as soon as he thought of this, Li Hao immediately summoned Li Yuanzhong and asked Li Yuanzhong to send food to those hungry old people.

On the morning of the sixth day, Lu Yun came to report again, there were people starving to death in the city again, just like yesterday, all of them were old people, and this time there were a lot of them, a total of one hundred and twenty-three people, Li Hao was shocked when he heard this, and immediately called Li Yuanzhong and asked: "Li Yuanzhong, yesterday I asked you to go door to door to deliver food to those hungry old people, why are there more than 120 old people starving to death?" ”

Li Yuanzhong knelt down and clenched his fists and said: "My lord, according to your instructions yesterday, I sent people to deliver food to the hungry old men from house to house, and sent more than 260 catties of grain, and there was nothing missing?" ”

"Then why ......" Li Hao just wanted to speak, but suddenly stopped, his eyes were shocked, and then he was full of sadness, he seemed to think of something.

On the seventh day, there were still three days before the corn matured, Li Hao went to the corn field early in the morning to check, this is what he must do every morning recently, the corn in the field is almost ripe, he decided to harvest in advance, it doesn't matter if it is two or three days in advance, but if it is more than four days in advance, the flour output will be greatly reduced.

When he returned from checking the corn, before he entered the door, Lu Yun hurried over and reported with his fists: "Young master, more than a hundred old men starved to death last night. ”

Li Hao suddenly felt a pain in his heart, his fists were slowly clenched, and his knuckles rattled.

Lu Yun added at this time: "My lord, there are only more than 400 catties of grain left in the twenty stones, and it is expected that it will be distributed today, and there will be no food to distribute tomorrow." ”

"I see." Li Hao said slowly, "Lu Yun, you go and inform Li Yuanzhong, take people to the cornfield to harvest corn, quickly mill it into flour, start distributing cornmeal tomorrow, and tell the people of the city that we have food." ”

Lu Yun was overjoyed when he heard this, the corn was finally ready to be harvested, and he excitedly arched his hand: "Yes!" Then he flew in the direction of the Guard.

Finally able to harvest corn, but Li Hao's heart was difficult to settle, why were all the old men starving to death, he had already guessed the reason, but he was not sure, he decided to meet a person - Zhu Ziqian Zhu Su Lao.

Li Hao didn't know where Zhu Sulao's home was, it didn't matter, he asked someone to inquire, and soon found Zhu Sulao's home, a low earthen walled courtyard, the courtyard door was half-hidden, although there were many things in the courtyard, but they were arranged in an orderly manner, without any sense of confusion.

"Is anyone there?" Li Hao knocked on the courtyard door.

The voice fell for a moment, and a half-grown child, thirteen or fourteen years old, came out of the room, looked at Li Hao with a pair of big eyes, and asked, "Who are you?" ”

Li Hao said: "My name is Li Hao, and I came to visit Mr. Zhu Ziqian, but I don't know if it's here?" ”

The boy nodded and said, "This is it, my name is Zhu Ruihuan, and Zhu Ziqian is my grandfather." ”

Li Hao saw that he had found the right place, and hurriedly asked, "Is your grandfather at home?" ”

"Yes." Zhu Ruihuan nodded, and then sighed leisurely, "But you're late, my grandfather is no longer good." ”

Li Hao was taken aback when he heard this, hurriedly rushed into the courtyard, came to Zhu Ruihuan, and asked, "Where is your grandfather, take me to see him!" ”

"Come in." Zhu Ruihuan turned around and walked into the house, and then took Li Hao to the inner room, only to see that there was a couch in the small room, and there was an old man lying on the couch, but it was not Zhu Su.

Seeing this, Li Hao hurriedly stepped forward and called urgently: "Old man, Zhu Su, Zhu Su." At the same time, he stretched out his hand to probe Zhu Sulao's snort, and found that although his breath was weak, he was not dead.

At this time, Zhu Su Lao also slowly opened his eyes, but he looked very weak, Li Hao checked his pulse, and did not find anything abnormal, he immediately guessed something, and hurriedly asked: "Zhu Su Lao, how long have you not eaten?" ”

Zhu Su Lao smiled indifferently and did not speak, it seemed that he was dying, and it was very difficult to speak.

Li Hao hurriedly turned his head and asked, "Xiao Zhu, your grandfather hasn't eaten for a few days?" ”

"Three days." Zhu Ruihuan replied, looking at his appearance, he seemed quite calm, Li Hao really doubted whether this was Zhu Sulao's own grandson, and it felt like he had picked it up.

"I'll go get you food." Li Hao said and prepared to get up and go back.

"Thorn History...... My lord. Zhu Su Lao suddenly spoke, and it was very difficult to speak.

Li Hao hurriedly held his hand and asked, "Old Su, what do you say, wait until I get food back and let you eat enough." ”

"Nope." Zhu Su shook his head with difficulty, "Don't waste food." ”

Li Hao exclaimed when he heard this: "How can this be called a waste of food? ”

Zhu Su Lao exerted his strength and said slowly: "I'm old, I can no longer do my best for Datang, now there is a shortage of food in the city, I save a mouthful of food, and others can eat more, this is the last thing that Lao Yu can do for Datang." ”

"......Sure enough," Li Hao's eyes were red, and he muttered softly, "No wonder the people in the city are starving to death these days, and I guessed it." ”

Zhu Su Lao smiled: "My lord is really smart, I can't hide anything from you, that's right, it's the idea of the old man, anyway, we are all a bunch of old people who are about to enter the ground, it doesn't matter if we live a few days less, as long as the people of Tingzhou can survive." ”

Li Hao suddenly found that he was in tears, and he couldn't stop flowing down, and he couldn't help it.

Zhu Su said gently: "Don't be sad, my lord, there is an old saying, mercy is not in charge of the army, now you are in control of the lives of the people in the city, you should know how to make trade-offs." ”

Li Hao wiped away his tears and nodded repeatedly.

Elder Zhu Su said again: "My lord, the old decay is no longer good, and now it is the time of dying, but there is still a wish that has not been fulfilled." ”

Li Hao wiped away his tears and said solemnly: "The elder, please speak, the younger generation will not refuse." ”

Zhu Su said: "My grandson, Zhu Ruihuan, has no father or mother since he was a child, his life is lonely, he is usually busy, and he lacks discipline for him, so that he is now stubborn, but fortunately, now that the old man is dying, he has also repented and is willing to starve and die with the old man." ”

Li Hao looked back at Zhu Ruihuan in surprise when he heard this, it turned out that the reason why he was so indifferent was because he also had the heart to die, and he couldn't help but glance at this kid.

I only heard Zhu Su Lao continue: "Now that Lord Assassin Shi is here, the old man wants to beg the lord to take him away, and leave him by his side in the future, no matter what he does, he has to live like a human being, he is still young, and there are still a lot of years waiting for him, so he should not accompany the old man to Huangquan together." ”

"Hmm." Li Hao nodded vigorously, "Don't worry, I will take good care of him and let him live like a person!" ”

"So...... Old decay ...... Relieved. Zhu Sulao's voice suddenly trembled, almost out of breath, and Li Hao's heart trembled when he heard it.

Sure enough, after Zhu Su Lao finished the last word, he didn't breathe and lost his breath, but his demeanor was very peaceful.

Li Hao slowly closed his eyes and said silently with grief: "Old man, you go all the way, you can rest assured, the people of Tingzhou will be fine, and your grandchildren will be fine, the people of Datang have always been proud of Datang, and Datang is also proud of people like Mr. Lao." ”

Li Hao mourned in silence for more than ten minutes, then slowly got up, when he turned around, he found that Zhu Ruihuan was wiping his tears, he looked at Zhu Ruihuan carefully now, and found that this young boy's expression was very stubborn, but it was a little similar to himself, he stepped forward and said: "You are now under my control." ”

Zhu Ruihuan rolled his eyes: "Who wants you to care." ”

Rolling his eyes looked more like himself, Li Hao was not annoyed, and said, "Let's go." Then he turned around and went out.

Although Zhu Ruihuan's mouth was hard, he still followed out, Li Hao saw a government soldier on the street, stepped forward to stop him, and asked, "Do you know me?" ”

The Nafu soldier stared at him for a moment, and immediately exclaimed in surprise: "Thorn ...... Thorn History! ”

Li Hao nodded, pointed to Zhu Su's hometown, and said slowly: "Zhu Su has passed away, this is his grandson Zhu Ruihuan, you take Xiao Zhu to buy a coffin, and after arranging the cemetery, go to the Assassin's Mansion to inform me that I will go to the funeral." ”

"Yes." Hearing this, the Nafu soldiers surrendered their orders, beckoned to Zhu Ruihuan, and took him to buy a coffin.

Li Hao watched the soldiers of Nafu leave, slowly climbed to the top of the city, looked at the Gaochang army outside the city, and suddenly said leisurely: "The spring silkworm is dead to the end, and the wax torch turns to ash and tears begin to dry." Zhu Su Lao is still shining for Datang until the last moment of his life, this kind of spirit is really admirable, Su Lao rest assured, you and the sacrifice of the old people will not be in vain. ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly became full of gloom, his fists were clenched, as if there was infinite evil qi rushing to the sky, he suddenly raised his right hand, pointed to the sky, and shouted in a deep voice: "I, Li Hao, am here today to point to the sky as proof, in my lifetime, I will destroy Gaochang, even if I am crushed and my liver and brain are smeared, I will not hesitate!" ”