nanming man

Chapter 73 Relief for the victims
The 15th year of Chongzhen was the year of Baiyun Canggou. There were constant major events in the world, and the situation was changing.

In September, Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo jointly attacked Zhang Xianzhong in Baojialing, killing Zhang Xianzhong, throwing away his helmet and armor, and fled to Qianshan County, Anqing Prefecture. Huang Degong took advantage of the victory and chased him to Qianshan. More than a dozen generals including Yaozi and Wang Xingguo, Zhang Xianzhong fled into Huguang in a hurry.

The government army failed to suppress the bandits in Henan, but they curbed Zhang Xianzhong's development in the south. The Ming Dynasty was still strong in the southeast. Huang Degong's victory over Zhang Xianzhong undoubtedly gave a shot in the arm to the decaying Ming Empire.

At present, Ming Dynasty's rule in the north is already on the verge of collapse, but the society in the south is still stable, singing and dancing.

In the same great empire, there are two completely different scenes, which can be said to be rare in history.

At this time, the official army solved Zhang Xianzhong's threat to Nanzhili, but Li Zicheng decided to flood the Bianliang with the Yellow River and pulled out the last stronghold of the official army in eastern Henan.

At the same time, the flooding of the Yellow River also created a natural barrier for the invading army, so that Liu Zeqing, Bu Congshan and other officials in Shandong and Hebei could not threaten their retreat.

This made Sun Chuanting, who had left Tongguan, only face Li Zicheng alone, which cast another layer of haze on the Ming Empire.

At this time, the final duel between Li Chuang and Daming in Henan has already kicked off. Sun Chuanting will have the final duel with Li Zicheng, but Gao Erge is unable to participate in it.

After the river receded a little, Gao Yihuan took Zhao Zhuzi and others, stepped on knee-high mud and river water, crossed dozens of miles of yellow flooded areas, and hurried all the way back to Luyi County.

Along the way, he has seen countless people fleeing south with their children and old people. When he arrived in Luyi, many refugees had already gathered outside the county seat.

The golden autumn and September was originally a season of joy, but for the people in eastern Henan, it ushered in an unprecedented disaster.

Under a flood, the houses collapsed, the crops in the fields, and the food stored at home were all swallowed up by the flood. The people not only had no food rations, but also no place to sleep. Almost everyone was in a desperate situation.

Under such circumstances, more than a million souls who suffered catastrophe began to flee in all directions, and fleeing to the south was the main direction for the victims to flee.

Now the northern part of the Ming Dynasty is dilapidated, only the southern part has surplus food, and there are prosperous and prosperous Yangzhou and Nanjing cities. Countless people have fled to the south.

The victims went south mainly along the two channels of Suishui and Guoshui. Among them, Suishui is close to the Yellow River, and the vicinity of the disaster was the most serious, and the victims mainly took this route.

However, if you go to Suishui, you have to go through Ningling, Shangqiu, Xiayi and other places all the way. The victims have no hope for Zhao Yingyuan in Shangqiu city. The victims changed to Weishui, passing through Chenliu, Qixian, Taikang and Luyi to Fengyang.

Luyi is an important node for the victims to go south. When Gao Yihuan came back, nearly a thousand refugees had already gathered outside the city. In the next ten days or so, the number of people who came to Luyi had reached 5 to [-].

At this time, Gao Yihuan led several subordinates and stood by the road to observe the situation of the victims going south. They looked around and saw an endless stream of victims on the official road leading to Luyi, supporting the old and the young, leaning on crutches , moving forward slowly, filled with despair.

The victims hurried on the road silently, and when they entered the border of Luyi, porridge sheds began to appear one after another, and the victims suddenly had a glimmer of life.

These porridge sheds were set up by Gao Yihuan. There were soldiers and Luyi people busy in the sheds. The victims finally saw a glimmer of hope.

At this time, there was a long queue in front of each porridge shed, and there were several steamers beside the porridge shed, with fragrant heat rising inside, probably steamed buns.

There are soldiers guarding in front of the steamer, and there are no victims queuing up, only a few victims are wolfing down steamed buns.

At this moment, Zhao Daxian was standing by the side of the steamer, pressing the knife with one hand, putting the other on his waist, and shouted loudly: "Listen up, villagers, anyone who can forge iron, can read, has a strong body, and has a good plan can come here." Eat hot steamed buns and drink broth."

Facing the temptation of steamed buns and broth, some people in the crowd came out from time to time, wanting to go and get steamed buns.

Brother Gao's ability is limited, and it is impossible to relieve all refugees. He can only provide selective relief.A few men walked out of the crowd, wanting to get steamed buns to eat, but they were stopped by soldiers. They had to go to the side to register first, and Wu Shizhao asked a few questions to prevent anyone from fishing in troubled waters. After all, the second brother is not rich.

After a few men registered, they were let out to eat steamed buns. The old, weak, sick and disabled in the crowd could only envy their faces.

At this time, Zhang Mingbiao, his protégé Zhou Lianggong, and his second son Zhou Yunjiao, among the crowd, were standing in the team of victims, moving slowly with the team.

Zhang Minbiao was old, he ate less food for many days, and walked for dozens of miles. At this time, he was already a bit unfit, and suddenly passed out from hunger.

Zhang Yunjiao and Zhou Lianggong were in a hurry when they saw each other. They wanted to ask Zhang Mingbiao for a bowl of porridge, but the slow-moving team made people feel desperate.

In desperation, the two hurriedly supported Zhang Minbiao and went to the side to register. Zhang Yunjiao took the steamed buns and broth, hurriedly tore up the steamed buns, put them into the broth and poured them down for Zhang Mingbiao.

In the distance, Gao Yihuan led Yu Yinglong and Sun Yucheng to watch the victims and the situation around the porridge shed, and suddenly turned to them and said, "Mr. , and neglected disaster relief.”

The news that Liang Yizhang was imprisoned by the imperial court recently spread to Luyi. Gao Yihuan was afraid that the two sour scholars could not be recruited, so he began to slacken his affairs. Right now there are so many disaster victims in need of relief, you should try your best to save the people, instead of thinking about my identity at this time, and finally put the cart before the horse."

Hearing the words, Yu Yinglong bowed quickly and said: "The captain's lesson, the two of you will do our best to deal with the disaster relief."

Gao Yihuan nodded, "Okay, then go to work!"

Yu Yinglong and Sun Yucheng bowed to salute, then turned and left to prepare tents for the victims.

At this moment, Gao Yihuan turned his head and asked, "Xinghao, how is Qianliang doing now?"

"Second brother, we got 20300 taels of silver and 6000 shi of grain from Bozhou. Brother Zhuzi has already pledged 3000 shi of grain to Xinzheng. At least 60000 taels of silver can be exchanged. Yicheng will bring 18000 taels of silver and go to Bozhou to find a horseman. Buy 6000 taels of grain and come back." Gao Xinghao hurriedly replied: "The remaining money and grain should be enough to wait for brother Zhuzi and Yicheng to come back. As long as brother Zhuzi brings back 60000 taels of silver, we can go to Bozhou to buy another 20000 shi of grain. As for the 6000 shi grains brought back by Yicheng, we can take out another 3000 shi, bypass the Yellow River Flooding Area, transport them to Xinzheng and hand them over to Zhou Ronghua for 60000 taels of silver."

Gao Yihuan trained Gao Xinghao to a certain extent, and asked him to learn bookkeeping from Sun Yucheng, and now he has some enthusiasm.

Gao Yihuan originally wanted to change weapons and armor, but the current situation made him decide to wait for a while, exchange more silver, and go south to buy grain.

In this way, he resells on both sides, half of the proceeds are for disaster relief, and the other half continues to be traded with Zhou Ronghua, so that he can make up for the huge consumption of money and food.

(End of this chapter)