Painter

Chapter 161 Ten: Fairness
At the beginning of the Hai Dynasty, the Qizhou patrol team detained the county magistrate of Qingling, walked through Lunti Street, walked eastward along the official road, and entered Wulong Gorge after walking for twelve miles.

A group of people passed through the post road between the hundreds of feet of cliffs, surrounded by ancient trees and strange rocks.A public house fell beside the road, with cornices and corners, gray terracotta tiles, and lanterns hanging in front of the door, illuminating the plaque of "Mingsha Official Station".

Ning Guangxing led people to tie the horse to the horse post, and temporarily detained Zheng Junshan in the official post.Wait until dawn and then set off. Within two days, Zheng Junshan can be brought to the state capital.At that time, even if Zheng Junshan had supernatural powers, he would be unable to fly under heavy detention.

At this time, half an hour had passed since Zheng Junshan left Qingling County.The news of Zheng Junshan's arrest first reached the Zheng residence.The Zheng family in the house went to Mengzhang Shenjun Temple in the morning to inquire about the coming spring. At noon, he saw the housekeeper and saw the sword of his only son.As soon as he heard that Zheng Junshan was taken away by the Qizhou patrol, he immediately passed out and became unconscious.

Near the county mansion, there were many people who witnessed Zheng Ming's mansion being taken away, and the news soon spread to all parts of Qingling County.Not long after, oil lamps were lit in the study in the south of the county, and eight people gathered together.Among them, the young Confucian scholar in Tsing Yi is the teaching officer of Qingling County. Although the other seven people are dressed in different clothes, they all have white hair and chicken skin, and they are walking on crutches.

These old people are old people from Qingling County.The elders are highly respected people elected by the county people. Although they have no official positions, they represent the public opinion of Qingling County.

In front of the lamp, Jiaoyu looked solemn.

"Zheng Ming's mansion is in trouble, now I can only ask you for help."

All the elders looked at each other, and one of them, an old man in loose clothes, thought about it for a while and said, "We have heard about Zheng Ming's mansion being taken away by Ning inspectors, but we don't know the specifics. I would like to ask Chen Jiaoyu to explain it in detail." , what happened?"

The person who spoke was the patriarch of the Qingling Jiang family, who had done some good deeds of building bridges and paving roads, and was quite famous.But as soon as he uttered these words, the instruction was understood, this person pretended to be confused while pretending to understand.

Seeing that Zheng Junshan has been taken away, I'm afraid he will be escorted to the state capital tomorrow morning, there is only one night left, and there is no time to delay.The instruction said straightforwardly: "The people in the county don't understand the ghost soldiers crossing the border, but you all know it well. Zheng Ming's mansion has a bright future, and Qingling County is just a quagmire to him. A person who has been promoted to become a prime minister has exchanged the lives of many people in Qingling County with his future, and now that the Zheng Ming Mansion is in trouble, how can we wait and watch the fire from the other side and just sit back and watch it?"

Someone said: "If Chen Jiaoyu has a solution, just say it straight, Zheng Mingfu loves the people like a son, and if I can help, I will do my best."

Jiaoyu glanced at the seven elders, "Although there is a famine in Qingling County, several families have stored food. I implore you to come forward and borrow some food. Anyone who can make up for the shortfall in the warehouse will be rewarded. The Ming government will have a better chance of getting away."

The head of the Jiang clan said: "Dare to ask Chen Jiaoyu, how much food is missing in the warehouse?"

"Three thousand shi." Jiaoyu knew that if all the food hoarded by the few big families in the county were taken out, [-] shi would be far more than [-] shi.But expecting these people to take out the food is the same as asking them to surrender their lives.He paused, and added: "These three thousand shi grains are naturally borrowed. After the disaster is over, Zheng Mingfu will definitely return the principal with interest."

The patriarch of the Jiang clan hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said: "It turned out that they wanted to donate food. Zheng Ming's mansion is in trouble, so we will naturally help. It's only three thousand shi, which is not a small amount."

Another person said: "Tomorrow, the old man will go to Liu's house in person, no matter what, let Liu's house bring out some food."

Another person said: "It's a pity that the old man doesn't have much food in his house... Anyway, the old man will go back and have the audacity to ask someone for food!"

After finishing speaking, the four elders bid farewell and left.These old men are not walking steadily, but their Tai Chi Kung Fu is more proficient than innate masters. Although they fully agree, they are obviously delaying.As long as it lasts tonight and Zheng Junshan is taken away, everything will be over.

The Jiaoyu sighed secretly, when Zheng Junshan was there, he couldn't get food from the gentry.With the few words of his instruction, it is even more impossible to do what even Zheng Junshan failed to do.Inviting the elderly from the county tonight is just an unwilling attempt.

Jiaoyu was disappointed, as there were still two elders in the study who did not leave.One of them stepped forward and said softly, "Chen Jiaoyu."

The teacher took a look, only to find that the old man was carrying a sack, and the old man put the sack on the table, "As soon as I heard that Zheng Ming's mansion was taken away, I knew it was because of the ghost soldier. Before I came, I collected The food in the house is only two liters of rice."

The old man's clothes are rough and his life is poor. He calls himself Shaxi old man.Jiaoyu looked at the rice bag, bent down and made a big salute.

Another old man known as the old man Ye Zhou said: "The Cangwuli where I live, the people knew that Zheng Ming's mansion was arrested, so they spontaneously started collecting food. When the old man left, Lizheng had already collected some food. Chen Jiaoyu And come with me."

……

In the southwestern part of Qingling County, in a residential house in Cangwuli, a man in sackcloth showed a troubled expression, and said to Lizheng, "Zheng Ming's mansion gave us food, of course we can't let him be arrested for this matter. But the family The rice vat is indeed bottoming out..."

The woman beside her in Jingchai cloth skirt said loudly: "The head of the family, even if we starve to death, we must be sensible! Our family's food is given by Zheng Mingfu. Now that Zheng Mingfu is in trouble, how can we be ungrateful?"

The man was stunned, and sighed: "Forget it." He turned and went to the back room, and after a while, he took out a bag of rice, which weighed about half a bucket.

Li was taking the rice bag, bowed his hands to the man, and left in a hurry.

The five-year-old boy looked at the back of the woman who was leaving, hugged the woman's leg, raised his head and said, "Mother, I'm hungry..."

The woman knelt down, stroked the boy's thin shoulders, and secretly wiped the corners of his eyes.

……

When Young Jiaoyu came to Cangwuli, he saw rice sacks piled up on the bullock cart under the archway, of different sizes, some were full, most were very shriveled, but the cart was full.The people in the surrounding area followed behind Lizheng, and when they saw the instruction, they asked questions in one go.

"Chen Jiaoyu, Zheng Mingfu was really taken away?"

"Zheng Ming's mansion is both an official and a god, so there should be nothing wrong with it?"

Jiaoyu never thought that in this famine year, these skinny people could still save such a cartload of grain.With a sore nose, he bowed to everyone, "It's okay, with everyone's help, Zheng Mingfu will be fine!"

After calming down and saying goodbye to the people in Cangwuli, Jiaoyu went to Qingpingli next to him with old man Shaxi and old man Yezhou.

……

After a whole night of tossing, when Xiaoxing first appeared, the young Jiaoyu who had traveled half of Qingling County led a group of people, seven ox carts, into Lunti Street.

On the other side, another row of lanterns came out. The person at the head was the Qingling county magistrate, and several ox carts followed behind him.

Jiaoyu met with the county lieutenant and asked anxiously, "What's going on?"

"About ninety stones of grain have been harvested." The county lieutenant frowned, "Half a month has passed since Zheng Ming's mansion released the grain, and the grain is almost gone."

"I only have sixty shi here." Jiaoyu sighed. Many people in the county donated food to save Zheng Junshan, but not everyone can do this.Add up the two sides, about 150 shi of grain.It is only a drop in the bucket for the number of shortfalls in granaries.

Running around in the middle of the night was of no avail in the end.Jiaoyu turned his head and saw a group of emaciated people, his chest was blocked.Some people donated all the food they needed to survive, while others ate nothing but their brains and intestines were full.He clenched his fists, thinking bitterly, so at this moment, he raised his arms and led the people in the county to rob the granaries of those big households, so what!

But thinking of those burly servants who are almost private soldiers, and thinking of the spiritual spells guarding the house, the teaching knows that there is nothing that can be done with these unarmed and weak people.

The county lieutenant said: "This food... I'm afraid it won't be of much use. Zheng Ming's mansion is of extraordinary background, so it should be able to pass this hurdle..."

"A benevolent man is poor, but a villain is successful!" Jiaoyu gritted his teeth, "What is the justice in this world?"

At this moment, the crowd exclaimed.

"what is that?"

Jiaoyu turned his head to look.

At the end of Lunhoe Street, a cold mist came.

In the fog, ghosts and ghosts floated up and down, and many waggons full of bags could be vaguely seen.

A large flag pierced the night sky, the west wind blew, and the black flag rolled up, revealing a pale "Feng".

(End of this chapter)