Yang Jian, wearing a wide robe and long sleeves and wearing wooden clogs, stood at the door of the country courtyard, looking at the scenery outside.
The river, obviously artificially dug, runs from north to south, and two rows of willow trees on the bank divide the farmland into two halves.
To the west is the land belonging to the powerful nobles of Wei County, and to the east is the farmland of ordinary people - the land allocated to the sergeants who followed him during the Shi Le era.
Farther away, there are several orchards. Between the orchards are wormwood half as tall as a man. They are deserted.
This is Yecheng, the most prosperous place in Hebei, but it also looks like this.
Early in the morning, many ragged people entered this wasteland, waving their sickles like moon wheels, cutting down, bundling and transporting the wormwood.
The house where Yang Jian lives has received a lot of grass, some of which has been transported to the fodder bin, and some of which is still drying.
This house is the residence that Yang Dan built in Yecheng. It is not big and has four sides. Yang Jian only lived here temporarily for two days and will go north today. After Jizhou withdrew the governor for many years, he re-established this post.
Stationed in Boling to cope with the increasingly severe situation, Yang Jian went to take up the post.
There were many people who went north with him, including more than 800 staff, servants, generals, troops, etc., all of which he paid for himself.
Working for a fee is the norm at this time.
Of course, you can also not pay any money, and in the extreme, it is not impossible to take up the job alone, but in that case, you will be greatly constrained in doing things and it will be difficult to start work.
Yang Jian's family is well-off, so naturally he doesn't need to do that.
In terms of seniority, Yang Dan is his uncle. He was originally the prefect of Qinghe. He was rotated a while ago and became the prefect of Anping. His replacement was Gaizhi, the former Anciling who had made a name for himself in Youzhou, a member of a small clan.
.
Yangdan is in Anping, Yangjian is in Boling, and the Taiyang clan is gradually targeting Hebei.
The reason is not complicated. If we continue to develop in Henan, we will have no space and attract attention.
The Yang family is neither high-profile nor in a hurry.
As a top wealthy family, there is a big difference between them and families like Pei and Wang, that is, although their families have a strong family background, many of them follow the path of martial arts.
Everyone in the world values ​​integrity, and military generals are one of the military sects. Unless you hold a high-level military position such as a guard or a leader, you will be of no use.
It is enough to have one or two representatives among the civil servants.
For example, Liang Guoshizhong Yangman was a close minister in terms of his position and could provide decision-making advice.
Although it is just a "suggestion", it can have a huge impact at critical moments and should never be underestimated.
Another example is Tiancao Zuocheng Yang Ming. The field transfer is in full swing, and he is pressing hard. Your farmland will be taken away before it can be processed, or it will be sold at a low price, resulting in huge losses.
If he loosens his grip a little more and gives you more time, you will be able to preserve more of your interests.
If you are more ruthless, you can also attack family or political opponents you don't like - this has been done more than once.
There is also the Jin Dynasty Wei Wei Yang Juanzhi, who is in charge of Luoyang's arsenal, various metallurgies, official vehicles, and guards. This is also an official position with real power.
The Right Sima Yangchen of the shogunate was in charge of the military affairs of the General's Office. If it were not for the fear of King Liang, Chen Yougen, the Left Sima, would have had something happen to him for no apparent reason and would have been dismissed from his post.
With these people around, benefits can be exchanged to ensure that the Yang family is not bullied. As the saying goes, if you are not aggressive enough, you can be defensive.
Of course, the biggest advantage is that he will not be too worried by King Liang and suffer a blow.
The Yang family knew very well that King Liang was of low origin and had a small family, so he was very wary of wealthy families. He was afraid that the Sima family's incident would happen again. Whoever danced the most happily would be more wary.
The Yang family can develop in local areas first, such as Hebei, which is regarded as a dangerous place.
Lu Zidao is old!
Yang Jian smiled secretly in his heart, flicked his sleeves, put his hands behind his back, and stepped on his clogs to the side of the road.
The members of the Yang family wore iron armor or leather armor and were equipped with swords and guns, standing majestically aside.
"Captain." Seeing the Yang Jian come out, everyone saluted.
"Thirteen, how's your inquiry going?" Yang Jian asked.
"There are more and more refugees," the family general Qiu Shisan said.
Yang Jian's expression changed when he heard this, and the situation became even worse.
"How about taking the water route?" he asked.
"It's difficult." Qiu Shisan replied: "Nowadays, grain is transported one ship after another, and there is no time to unload it. We have hundreds of people and nearly 200 cars of baggage. It is difficult to find enough ships."
"Does Boling have soldiers?" Yang Jian asked again.
"No soldiers."
"Where is King Liang?"
Qiu Shisan was a little embarrassed and said: "I have been moving around. I was still in Zhongshan at the end of July. I may be in Gaoyang, Hejian, or have gone south."
"Alas." Yang Jian sighed, secretly thinking that Cao Mengde is not as busy as you.
Kaiji masters are restless and like to run around.
It's better for you to be the Lord of Shou Cheng, just stay in the palace compound most of the time and listen to the reports from all the people in the court.
"Does King Liang have soldiers around him?" Yang Jian suddenly thought of something and asked.
"There are thousands of people in the camp with silver spears, more than a thousand loyal troops, and a thousand rebel cavalry." Qiu Shisan said.
"It's okay." Yang Jian breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The waterway is impassable, so let's take the land route."
Qiu Shisan suddenly became nervous and said: "No."
Having said that, go immediately to arrange for the accompanying escort.
****
It's already the fifth day of August, and the rain still shows no sign of letting up.
Occasionally it stops for a day or two, and then comes back with a "revenge" of heavier rainfall.
The south is slightly better, but the further north you go, the more the land develops towards the water town Zeguo.
Along the way we encountered many forts and manors, and sometimes we would stop there to stay for a day or two.
In fact, as early as the Sima Teng era, the Yang family began to penetrate into Hebei, but it ended in failure. Because neither Sima Teng nor his subsequent successors were able to effectively control the situation in Hebei.
If you fail militarily, you will lose politically.
But after all, they have been in business, and the Yang family still has some acquaintances in Hebei. It's just that after so many years, there have been many changes, and they have gradually become less and less.
There are large amounts of wood stacked outside many forts.
When I inquired about it, I found that they all came down from the Taihang Mountains last year.
Gaoyang, Hejian, Boling, Zhongshan, Changshan and other counties organized people to transport the wood to Wei, Bohai, Qinghe, Pingyuan, Yangping and other counties through waterways, where they were sold to private individuals in exchange for grain, livestock, and agricultural tools.
These areas were not particularly severely affected last year, and their lives were still manageable. In addition, with the normal harvest of summer wheat in May, they were more confident, so many people bought them, intending to use them to repair and expand their houses after drying in the sun.
But now it seems that most of these pieces of wood have been smashed into hands.
This year is similar to last year. The northern part of Jizhou was severely affected by the disaster, and the southern part was also affected. The output of grains planted in June will inevitably decrease.
Food suddenly became extremely valuable.
In the past, the Wubao commanders who liked to take advantage of chaos to recruit people, the manor owners also closed the door tightly, and the walls were filled with men carrying swords and bows, wary of every approaching crowd.
Even when Yang Jian's convoy approached, they were warned by arrows shot from the wall, which meant that they had no food and were unwilling to accept people, so they should get out of here.
When walking in the wilderness, you will either be completely deserted or you will suddenly encounter surprisingly dense crowds.
The refugees came one after another, ranging from hundreds to thousands.
As for the larger scale, we haven't seen it yet. But if the government doesn't care, the refugees will definitely attack and annex each other, and the scale will grow to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
At this scale, ordinary Wubao cannot hold it. Because the refugees are completely irrational, or in a desperate or crazy mood, they are likely to tear down the Wubao regardless of casualties.
At this time, Lord Wubao had to either be forced to join the gang, or his whole family would die. There was no other choice.
When he traveled to Xiangguo, Yang Jian saw a large porridge farm.
He got out of the car and took a look. The porridge was very thin, but it could save his life.
The biggest problem is that the quantity is seriously insufficient and cannot meet the needs of all disaster victims.
Perhaps the prefect of Guangping and even Lu Zidao of Yecheng had this idea: to give hope to the victims and let them rush here instead of gathering in groups on the road.
After coming to Xiangguo, they were under control because there was an army here.
Even if gruel can't save everyone, and some people will cause trouble, it won't be a big deal and they will be suppressed soon.
Once suppressed and people died, food would no longer be in short supply.
It's a clear strategy and a desperate solution. Because of the lack of food, only some people are destined to survive.
After leaving Xiangguo, Yangjian passed through the southeast of Zhaojun and turned towards Julu and Boling.
Along the way, the situation seemed to become more difficult.
There were marauding horse bandits on the road, but fortunately they were not big, with only a dozen or dozens of horsemen, so they did not dare to deal with their team of nearly a thousand people.
Someone was dragging the body while walking, slowly disappearing into the abandoned village.
A mother abandoned her child in the grass and left crying.
There were two groups of people attacking each other because one of the groups actually fled with food.
Yang Jian's face turned pale when he saw it, and he had a new understanding of the important responsibility of the governor of Jizhou.
He used to be the prefect of Ruyin. The place was said to be desolate, but there were few disasters. After the order was stabilized, it would not be a problem to have enough food. There was so much land that you couldn't even plant it. For three consecutive years, you even
You can plant different pieces of land and leave the other two pieces of land fallow, so the yield is really not low.
The biggest disaster in Ruyin was actually the military disaster.
But the people in Jiangdong have also been in trouble in recent years. Locust plagues, floods, and droughts have never stopped. Although the intensity is much lighter than in the north, the land occupied by the wealthy families and the population are larger than in the north. They are reluctant to take it.
He spent his own money and food to support the army going north.
The difficulties in Ruyin and Hebei are not on the same level at all.
Just walking and stopping all the way, it took Yangjian a month to move step by step in the mud to Boling.
People from the Bolingcui family, the largest family in the area and a "poor family", welcomed him warmly.
Yang Jian glanced at it and sighed secretly.
Once upon a time, Boling Cui was considered a first-class wealthy family in Jizhou, and its reputation was smaller than that of Qinghe Cui. Unexpectedly, it has become a poor family now.
Looking at the appearance of the Cui family's children, their flattery is almost beyond words.
Haha, Lu Zidao is old.
At this time, Yang Jian received accurate news: King Liang was in Gaoyang.
Chapter completed!