Zhao Jin was astonished, and the other friends in the room were also astonished. His official identity was just a guarantor, and perhaps he had a police identity that had not been sold in the Zhizhou Yamen. Why should he save the people of Fengyang, and he was in Xuzhou?

What does it have to do with Fengyang?

Hearing the silence of Zhao Jin and others, Zhong Gonghui looked up, tears streaming down his face, and hissed with sadness on his face: "Master Jin, one hundred thousand people in Fengyang Mansion are homeless, and a disaster is about to happen. Master Jin, please save them."

Bar

"One hundred thousand." When he heard this number, Zhao Jin's eyes narrowed and he said: "Do you know how many refugees I have killed? The mountains of corpses and seas of blood under Xuzhou City were all done by our brothers. As a refugee, you

But you came to beg me, is your brain okay?"

The words seemed to be sarcastic, but Zhao Jin made a gesture while speaking. Liu Yong immediately walked to the door, pointed to the people outside, and then made a gesture as well. No one on guard outside said anything.

Once you leave the courtyard, no one will come near the courtyard until you are summoned.

"Master Jin, you have killed countless people, but you have also left countless people alive. If Master Jin had not taken action, all the nearly 20,000 Shandong people might have drowned in the Yellow River. They might not even be able to survive this winter, but now they can have food.

Food and shelter are your great kindness and mercy, Mr. Jin. It is precisely after seeing your kindness and mercy that I have the courage to come and ask for your help." This rhetoric should have been prepared a long time ago, Zhong Gonghui said.

Have to talk endlessly.

While they were talking, the four girls kneeling there kept looking up at Zhao Jin, as if they were scrutinizing what kind of person Zhao Jin was. Whenever they met Zhao Jin's eyes, they would always shrink back shyly.

It felt good to be watched by a girl and a beautiful girl, but Zhao Jin reacted immediately. He smiled and said, "Do you want to prepare these four girls as a meeting gift?"

When he asked the question, Zhong Gonghui was stunned. The four girls trembled and their faces turned red. Before Zhong Gonghui could speak, Zhao Jin said again: "Since we are refugees, I can't think of anything good to offer. Zhao and his brothers are both."

Young man, so you just like him?"

Looking at Zhong Gonghui's stunned look below, Zhao Jin smiled and said: "Xiaoyong, take these four girls out and ask some knowledgeable women to ask, Zhong Gonghui, if what you said is different from what the four of them said,

None of you will survive.”

Ji Xiang had been staring at the four girls. When Zhao Jin said this, she immediately showed a regretful expression and wanted to speak but did not make a sound.

Those girls didn't expect to be dealt with like this. When they heard the words "can't live", their faces turned pale with fright, and their bodies were shaking non-stop. Two of them even burst into tears and looked at Zhong Gonghui crying.

Said: "Uncle Zhong"

But after hearing Zhao Jin's words, Zhong Gonghui calmed down. He knelt there and turned around and said, "Don't be afraid. Just say whatever you want. Nothing will happen."

Zhao Jin and his friends had been watching Zhong Gonghui's expression and reaction. Seeing that he didn't have any panic or worry, everyone exchanged glances with each other and nodded.

The girl was taken out, and Liu Yong finally turned around after a while. During this period, Zhao Jin remained silent and did not make a sound. Zhong Gonghui, who was kneeling on the ground, did not show any panic at all. He just bowed his head and knelt calmly without any unusual behavior.

After Liu Yong turned around, Zhao Jin said, "Please tell me in detail."

I heard about the plight of the Qi brothers in the morning, and now I heard about the plight of the Fengyang refugees. I didn't expect it during the wedding last night.

"Master Jin, the people of Fengyang are miserable," Zhong Gonghui began with a trembling voice. If he could listen to himself explain in detail, this was a good start.

Before coming here, Zhong Gonghui always had some tricks up his sleeve, and tried his best to find beauty. He also felt that Zhao Jin and others were young and energetic, and he could always use their tricks. However, he did not expect that these young people were so quiet. Apart from Shen Jing,

, his murderous aura was so strong that several people sat around him and stared at him. He felt his body getting cold and his mind was spinning very slowly.

However, being older also has its advantages. When you find that you can't be clever, you can speak honestly.

There was a disaster in Fengyang Prefecture this year. Zhao Jin and his friends knew this very well. This year, disasters occurred everywhere in Shandong, Henan, and South Zhili. It was not uncommon.

There were refugees everywhere in Shandong. There were more than 300,000 refugees gathered in Huaishang, Fengyang Prefecture. They were led to the Pizhou area by interested people. As a result, Xuzhou General Zhou was exposed and led his army to quell the chaos, leaving the Xuzhou area completely empty. Some of these hundreds of thousands of refugees died.

In Pizhou, some returned to Fengyang, while others did not leave at all.

After the worst of the drought has passed, many of the refugees who were lucky enough to survive are already thinking about returning to their hometowns. It has already rained a little, so they can still harvest something if they sow something.

However, no one expected that the soldiers and horses of Fengyang Mansion never returned to camp. Instead, they kept clearing out the bandits. The powerful local warriors from all over the country also pursued them like crazy. The captured refugees were not sold as slaves.

Just die tragically under the knife.

Someone went to the Yamen to file a complaint, but ended up missing. This matter was too big, and it was impossible not to get a trace of it. Finally, the refugees vaguely knew the news. This time, up and down, the government

Join forces with the gentry to completely swallow up the land created by the refugees' exodus.

This matter has great benefits, because the drought has destroyed not only farmers, but also many small and medium-sized landowners. The sum of these lands is of high quality in terms of quantity and quality. If you swallow it, it will be a huge profit.

The Fengyang garrison eunuch and the Fengyang governor reached a tacit agreement. As long as they remained silent, there would be no refugees returning home in Fengyang Mansion. The wandering refugees would be homeless thieves, and the officers, soldiers and regiments would exterminate and kill them without guilt.

In the past, the government did not have a harmonious relationship with the local gentry and powerful officials because of tax collection and corvee distribution. It was not uncommon for the regiments to fight against the officers and soldiers. But this time, Fengyang, especially north of the Huaihe River, was not harmonious.

They are all united.

It is said that it is a disaster year, but the income is greater than that of a good year. As long as you are lucky, it is easy to double your family wealth. If it gets bigger, it can even be doubled dozens of times.

It's not that you are a gentry without conscience, but in this environment, if you don't join in, you will be wiped out by others, and your family property will be swallowed up by others.

Some refugees wanted to go back and try their luck. As a result, they were treated as bandits on the way because they couldn't produce the newly issued road sign. Those who resisted were killed. The others were sold into slavery. It's not funny.

Yes, these slaves who work as cows and horses may be cultivating their own fields, but they have become helpers to do it for others.

In fact, these people who were captured as slaves were lucky. Fengyang Prefecture originally wanted to capture these refugees as slaves. Otherwise, it would be in vain if they occupied the land but had no way to cultivate it. But now the refugees in Henan are along the

The tributaries of the Huaihe River, such as the Wu River and the Huishui River, came to Fengyang Prefecture from Henan. They heard all kinds of rumors about Xuzhou and were afraid of being killed there, so Fengyang Prefecture became their choice.

There is little news these days. Although there were rumors about the disaster in Fengyang Mansion, it was not publicized because of the early blockade of Fengyang Mansion. On the contrary, Xuzhou Zhao Jin’s deeds of killing the bandits were widely circulated as legends and even exaggerated.

Countless times.

It was also a trade-off in a sense. The refugees did not dare to go to Xuzhou, but they thought there was a way out in Fengyang Prefecture, so they poured in in large numbers.

I was originally worried that the vacant land would be cultivated by people, and they would be a group of refugees from other places who only need food to eat. These people have no roots and are easier to control.

With such a better choice, the original local refugees in Fengyang have become a scourge of refugees and thieves that must be eliminated.

Zhao Jin was in Xuzhou, and although he also used traveling merchants as his informants, once he came to Fengyang Prefecture, soldiers and thieves were everywhere, and the journey was difficult. Moreover, as an outsider, most of his travels were on official roads, and most of his accommodations were in city inns. How could he see the countryside?

The scene in the wild, so I didn’t understand it at all.

But when Zhong Gonghui talked about the refugees in Henan, Zhao Jin and his friends looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Sure enough, if you understand the truth, others would also think of it. Zhao Ziying left the refugees in Shandong to cultivate the fields. The wealthy people in Fengyang Prefecture also thought of this truth. I'm afraid

He did it more thoroughly than Zhao Ziying.

As for Zhong Gonghui's story, it's not difficult to guess. He was originally a scholar in the countryside of Suzhou, and his family also owned two thousand acres of land. He failed several rural examinations, so he lived on this family property, and he was quite prosperous.

In the Ming Dynasty, after the Zhengde period, landowners who were proficient in farming began to appear. They improved their tools and techniques, cultivated seedlings, deep plowed and added fertilizers, etc., and improved their farming techniques to increase output and income. Zhong Gonghui was also such a landlord, and two of his family members

The one thousand acres of land can produce more grain than others' three thousand acres, and they can also grow vegetables and the like, which can be driven into the city by horse-drawn carriages and sold, which brings in more income.

When a major disaster strikes, what most local tycoons do is to take advantage of the situation and take away the last bits of wealth from local farmers, asking them to sell their land, sons and daughters.

Zhong Gonghui, on the other hand, tried his best to help his tenants and even helped his neighbors tide over difficulties. This act in itself was a good deed, but it made all the rich and gentry around him jealous. Even the government felt that this person was taking advantage of the calamity to win people's hearts, and there must be something wrong.

Bad intentions.

Then, when the upper and lower authorities were not allowing the refugees to return home, Zhong Gonghui stood up and spoke out. Not only did he go to the Yamen to file a complaint, but he also wrote to friends who were officials in other places, asking them to find ways to stop this matter.

As a result, the Yamen said that he was lying and even wanted to remove him from his job. However, the letter he wrote to a friend from out of town was handed over by a servant as soon as he left home.

That is to say, the next night, a fire broke out in Zhong's house in the middle of the night. A group of masked "thieves" rushed in and killed everyone on sight. Zhong Gonghui was not a weak scholar who had no power to restrain a chicken. Working on the ground gave him the strength to increase his strength.

Several long-term workers desperately tried to save him, but he ran out on his own, and the whole family died in the hands of "thieves".
Chapter completed!