PS: I wrote this chapter from 8 o'clock to twelve o'clock, it's a bit hard!

Above the sky, the sky was clear. As time went by, the heat wave and dryness did not stop because the month gradually entered autumn. When the first group of victims who were thin due to hunger and numb, the big stone that was placed in people's hearts finally hit.

The rows of houses are lined up with the Imperial Street as the central axis and extend in all directions. Pedestrians and merchants come and go, walking through the interspersed streets and alleys. The shouts of merchants are often mixed with mules and horses and whips. Wheels roll by, and rumbling wheels are rolling past, and bags of grain are carried into the grain shop behind the mule cart.

A bucket was raised from the wellhead, but there was no sound of water.

"Damn it, God?" The man holding the bucket looked at less than half of the bucket, and the water was even turbid, with a faint smell of mud.

“It would be nice to have water…”

"Yes, I heard from my brother-in-law guarding the gate that the city is now full of disaster victims, and all four gates are in jail. The third yamen has issued an order that only entry and no exit."

......

......

Such arguments have spread all over the streets and alleys of Bianliang City, and various news spread everywhere like snowflakes. Among them are elderly people, women, and young people in their early twenties who secretly wrote down the news, passed it through some channels, and finally gathered together, and were copied and archived by a group of people, and then copied and sent it out.

Finally, after more than ten turns, a note fell into the hands of a fat eunuch. He stretched out his eyes and stayed for a moment, then put it away and hurriedly left.

In the imperial garden, a tall and beautiful female official frowned slightly, looked at the message on the note, dragged the long yarn quietly to the depths of the garden, in an inconspicuous small building.

"Father-in-law...recent news."

The female official handed the note over and withdrew respectfully, not daring to stay.

"Little Guizi...Tong Guan...Tsk tsk...Wang Fu, see what you did..."

A long black and gold-stroked gown swung, stood up, took a step, and arrived at the window. The paper turned black, dried and turned into ashes, and sprinkled on the ground. A wisp of breeze blew in, turned white like snow, and rose gently, dancing with the wind.

"Haha...and Cai Jing...what should our family do with you..."

.............

.............

Above the Golden Palace, the ministers were in agitation and inspire disputes.

The court was divided into two factions, with Wang Fu as the leader of a group of ministers strongly advocated the court to accumulate grain and prepare for the recovery of Yanyun. As for the disaster situation and the recovery of lost land, it was just a trivial matter. Once the disaster situation passed, the refugees outside the city would naturally retreat, and there was no need to use national grain to raise ants.

On the other hand, he believed that Wang Fu's move was a disaster to the country and the people, and quoted Li Tang and Li Shimin's words, "The people can carry boats, or overturn the boats." to counterattack the other side. If disaster relief is not good, the victims outside the city may take risks and attack the city, which will have an impact on Your Majesty's prestige.

Wang Fu snorted coldly, "Attack the city? Just a bunch of unarmed and troubled people. There are more than tens of millions of people in the world, and only tens of thousands of people will die. Compared with the great cause of the Northern Expedition, what can it count?"

Both factions had their own reasons. Zhao Ji closed his eyes, opened his eyes a little longer, and tightly pinched a note in his palm. He stood up and looked at the quarreling ministers below, feeling a headache.

"I may be wrong."

Zhao Ji rubbed his forehead and said, "The severe drought has come from the sky. It may be because I have worked hard for the past two years and bought too much flower stones. Now the people in the southeast are full of grievances and the victims are hungry again, which makes me feel uneasy."

Cai Jing, who was ranked first in Wenshou, went out to work and said, "The old minister thought what Your Majesty said was inappropriate. Your Majesty is the common ruler of the world. The king of the people should enjoy the support of all people, let alone the strange stones, so Your Majesty... don't blame yourself too much. Just leave these small matters to the ministers below to do."

"Um..." Zhao Ji sneered and pointed at him quietly, "What he said makes sense. Then you should do this better and don't make things difficult for me."

After saying that, Li Yan, who was standing next to him with a robe, said loudly, "Retreat!" and then blinked at Cai Jing, and followed the official family out of the side hall gate.

As soon as Zhao Ji left, the ministers below rushed out of the Chugong Hall in groups of three or five. At this time, Wang Fu leaned over and walked to Cai Jing. His eyes were measured and he bowed and said, "Cai Xiang has heard of him, and he will never forget the well digger when drinking water?"

"Haha, Wang Shaozai doesn't have to play a puzzle with me." Cai Jing said in a daze: "I can forget my kindness back then, but you and Tong Shumi are obsessed with taking Yan Yun and becoming the king. This man understands, but Your Majesty may not understand it."

Seeing Wang Fu's confusing gaze, Cai Jing stroked his beard and said as he walked: "Now in the face of the great disaster, there is not enough food, so how can the Northern Expedition come? Besides..."

He heard the steps, his eyes wandered towards the palace, and said softly: "Besides, there is a force around His Majesty that you and I can't see. I have asked Li Yan the traitor. This person was in front of a lot of money, but he kept silent. It's better to be careful."

After saying that, he left Wang Fu and walked alone.

.........

.........

Nowadays, as wealthy as Bianliang is becoming more and more chaotic, there are more and more disaster victims coming from outside the city. In addition to the four gates of Bianliang, checking has begun to be carried out everywhere on the roads to isolate foreign refugees. But by this, tens of thousands of hungry people are also a very large number. The pairs of pitiful but hungry eyes seem to be able to eat people.

Perhaps, it did eat a lot.

Outside the capital, there are many disaster victims coming, layer by layer, as if they are surrounding Bianliang. The land without cultivation is full of people, everyone has numbness and yellow vegetables on their faces, their cheeks are thin and sinking in, their clothes are torn, and they don’t even have a piece of cloth, their eyes are silent, and they look into the distance without any spirit.

From time to time, some people in the team fell down as they walked and could no longer get up. After a while, they were dragged and disappeared from the spot. A bloody feeling was licking their lips and crowded over. They squeezed them down. An old man with white hair buried his head and slowly dragged a wandering woman walking through, his terrified look staying on her face.

"What are they... doing..."

The old man grabbed her wrist tightly, "Don't go see, don't go see, they are playing."

"But...heard...heard...I'm so hungry..."

The woman said, and took two more steps. Suddenly, someone in front shouted, "Put the porridge". The crowd was excited and moved like a torrent in an instant, squeezing towards the front. While pushing, the woman screamed "ah", and a red cloth shoe was knocked out and landed on the ground, and countless feet stepped on it.

"My shoes..." the woman turned around and wanted to pick them up.

The old man's short body struggled to block the abortion and shouted hoarsely: "Go away! Stop picking it up."

"but...."

The woman turned around reluctantly, and suddenly broke away from the old man's hand, rushed towards the abortion, and shouted heartily: "But... that was bought by my husband's money... I can't throw it away... The duckling has been lost... I can't wait for my husband..."

Regardless of trampling and crowding, I finally found it in one place.

The old man squeezed over and saw her squatting on the ground, trembling all over, but he held the shoe that could no longer be seen in color, and kept repeating a sentence.

"My husband left it to those who are beautiful... and cannot be thrown away... and nothing to those who are left to me."

The old man walked over and hugged her head, his eyes were red, "Silly girl...you are really a silly girl."

After a long time, the old man pulled the woman up and said firmly: "Let's go find him and come back."
Chapter completed!