"What's going on in front?" Cui Heng got out of the carriage, looked at the people in Lu County in front of him, and asked Liu Litao next to him.
"This, I'm afraid this is the work of Sun Panshi and others." Liu Litao was shaking with anger and gritted his teeth, "Sir, these people are already lawless, and most of these people are bewitched by them!"
"I'm afraid there are thousands of people here. What a great skill!" Cui Heng sneered and said to Hui Shi, "Go over and ask what's going on?"
"Yes! Sir!" Hui Shi saluted and accepted the order.
"Those people are probably watching our jokes." Cui Heng glanced at the Lujun city wall in the distance and said with a smile, "Liu Juncheng, ask the accompanying soldiers to prepare food and salt!"
After he accepted the position of prefect of Lu County, he kept Liu Litao by his side as the county magistrate, which helped him quickly understand various affairs of Lu County and make it easier to collect the seven emotions of all living beings.
"Yes! Sir!" Liu Litao nodded quickly and praised, "Your Excellency is really good at predicting things. He has long expected such an obstacle."
"Go, go, go." Cui Heng waved his hand and said with a smile.
Liu Litao did not change his officialdom habits and always flattered him. Fortunately, he was sincere in his work, and the soldiers behind him were quickly mobilized.
Cui Heng came to Lujun City with quite a few people accompanying him.
In addition to Hui Shi, Xu Fengan, Liu Litao, and Qian Cang, there were more than a dozen victims who originally fled from Dachang County to Juhe County to serve as soldiers.
When a new official takes office in a different place, especially in a place like Lujuncheng where a hole has been dug, he must be prepared in advance.
If you want to gather people's hearts, gain the love of the people, and collect positive emotions, you must have people of your own who can be used to do things from the beginning.
The number must be at least a dozen.
These former Dachang County disaster victims are undoubtedly the best choice.
They were absolutely loyal to Cui Heng and even believed that their own lives belonged to Cui Heng.
On the other hand, it was also because Cui Heng brought a lot of supplies to Lujun City and needed people to transport them.
It is true that he can also use magic to produce those materials after arriving at Lujun City, but in that case it would be a waste of money.
Emotions can only be harvested on a large scale at one time, and there is no follow-up.
After a bowl of water submerged an army of 50,000 in Juhe County, he no longer received many emotions from sentient beings.
This is inconsistent with the concept of sustainable development.
It would be better to arrange more manpower and proceed step by step.
…
As soon as Hui Shi came to the gate of Lujun City, more than a dozen people immediately gathered around him.
"My lord, you belong to the county governor, right? Please let the county governor give us a way to survive. We can't even afford food!"
"Please, Lord Sheriff, please stop raising the price of food. Common people like us can't afford it. Please, Lord, please give me a way to survive!"
"And the Yan family. My family hasn't dared to eat salt for three days. The child's body is getting weaker and weaker. It's a pity that he is still growing! Woohoo!!"
The more the people talked, the more excited they became, and some even began to push forward, almost completely surrounding Hui Shi.
Zheng!
Huishi lightly shook the steel knife at his waist, looked around with cold eyes, and shouted loudly: "Everyone, the Grand Administrator is a man of heaven, and loves the people like his own son. Don't get excited, he will definitely help you solve your problem!"
Ordinary people were afraid of swords, so when they saw this battle, they subconsciously took a few steps back.
"How to solve this problem? Can he still spit out the money he has eaten?!"
At this time, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, "I've heard it a long time ago. The new county governor conspired with the grain merchants and salt merchants to raise the price several times, and he took half of the commission!"
"Who are talking nonsense!" Hui Shi shouted angrily and wanted to go out to check, but was surrounded by people from three floors inside and three outside, and couldn't move at all.
"Master! Is it true that the prefect gets commission from merchants?"
"Master! Have mercy on us! If this continues, we won't be able to survive!"
"Master, Master..."
The voices of countless people buzzed in Hui Shi's ears, making him extremely irritable and almost unable to help but draw a knife to kill people.
But these people are not the Huang family in Juhe County, and they cannot kill them at will.
He could only hold back forcefully.
However, Hui Shi is a warrior in the Qi Condensation Realm after all. He can still push away these people slowly with his Qi and return to Cui Heng.
"Sir, the situation is not optimistic." Hui Shi went over to report and said in a deep voice: "Someone is mingling among these people to stir up dissension, saying that you, my lord, are partnering with merchants to compete for profits with the people."
"Have you found out who it is?" Cui Heng asked.
"My subordinate was surrounded by people and couldn't find out." Huishi nodded feeling a little ashamed.
"It's okay." Cui Heng smiled and said. "You go over again and tell these people that when they come to buy grain and salt from me, they can buy it at half the usual price. Each person is limited to twenty kilograms of grain and one kilogram of salt.
"However, every citizen who comes to receive food and salt must tell the merchants who are driving up the price of food and salt. At that time, you will organize manpower to record all these."
"Yes! Sir!" Huishi immediately took the order and returned.
"Sir, I have discovered that person just now." Xu Feng'an, disguised as an old scholar, asked doubtfully, "Why don't you let me catch him directly?"
"If you show up, you won't be able to eradicate the root cause." Cui Heng chuckled and glanced at the gatehouse on the city wall, "They all know you."
…
At this time, in the gate tower on the Lujun city wall.
Sun Panshi and Wang Jinsheng were sitting across from each other drinking, looking at the scene outside playfully.
"Brother Wang Xian, how do you think Sheriff Cui will deal with this fierce public opinion?"
Sun Panshi drank a glass of wine and laughed, "This is probably the first time in history that the new county governor has been blocked by the people at the city gate! Hahaha!"
"Brother Sun, didn't you notice the more than 20 large carts that the new county governor brought?" Wang Jinsheng asked without answering, looking outside and chuckled, "I'm afraid there is a lot of food in them."
"How is it possible? Can he still move food from Juhe County here to help the people?" Sun Panshi shook his head and said, "And Juhe County has been poor for a long time. How can there be so much food to transport?"
"When Cui Taishou was in Juhe County, he saved thousands of victims by opening a warehouse and distributing grain." Wang Jinsheng still looked outside, "I think this level will not be difficult for him. We should prepare for the next one."
Countermeasures."
"Brother Xian, you are worrying too much..." Sun Panshi still didn't believe it, but when he saw the changes outside, he stood up suddenly and shouted in shock, "How is it possible that he really brought so much food?!
"
"Not just food, but also salt!" Wang Jinsheng's eyes became slightly fascinated, and he suddenly laughed, "Hahaha, this is interesting. If it is too easy to be suppressed, it will make me feel boring."
"Haha, it's just a move to win people's hearts!" Sun Panshi was still unconvinced and sneered, "After these days of publicity, the image of the new county magistrate and merchants working together to compete for profits with the people cannot be changed!
"Even if he dares to attack those merchants after entering the city, his image will not be good in the hearts of the people. They just think that he is crossing the river and burning the bridge!"
…
Cui Heng brought a total of twenty carts of grain and five carts of salt.
Naturally, there is not enough food to sell to the tens of thousands of refugees, so it is first come, first served.
Then, with the promise that there will be more in the future, you can go to the county magistrate’s office to buy them.
And we will do our best to lower the prices of food, salt and other livelihood industries.
In this way, the people will naturally disperse.
Even if there is support in it, it will not have any effect in the face of real food and salt.
"Have you written down all the merchant information?" Cui Heng asked Hui Shi.
"Replying to your lord, I have written it all down." Hui Shi nodded and said angrily, "There are a total of thirteen grain merchants and six salt merchants, and all of them increased the price sevenfold in unison!"
"Okay!" Cui Heng nodded gently.
"Sir, although you sold them grain at half price, some people still think that this is an act to win people's hearts." Hui Shi said with some worry, "I still think that you and those merchants are in the same group."
"No problem." Cui Heng waved his hand and returned to the carriage without saying anything else, "Enter the city!"
…
After handling the city gate incident, Cui Heng successfully took office as the prefect of Lu County.
Sun Panshi and others were waiting for the new governor to take action.
But three days have passed.
No news came out from the Sheriff's Mansion.
All I know is that Cui Heng is arranging people around him to hold various positions.
There seems to be no sign of taking action.
Moreover, grain and salt have been continuously transported from Juhe County through the Honghe River in the past three days.
Still selling it to the people at half price!
It's as if the food and salt there are inexhaustible.
This made Sun Panshi and the others almost scold their mothers because they couldn't even find people to go to the county magistrate's house to cause trouble.
I could only curse Cui Heng in his heart for running out of food and salt.
More than ten days later, there was still an endless supply of food and salt.
There is no sign of giving up at all.
Songs praising the new governor have even begun to circulate in Lujun City.
Sun Panshi and others could still endure it, but the major grain merchants and salt merchants under their banner could not hold it any longer.
Not having any income for more than half a month, even a businessman would explode.
Therefore, some merchants first began to buy grain from the people at twice the price, and then sold it at three times the original price.
Food and salt are important, but money also understands people's hearts.
It is inevitable that some people will be tempted to sell some of their grain and salt.
This has led to the fact that despite the continuous half-price grain and salt prices, the overall grain and salt prices have remained high.
The common people soon began to spontaneously picket the homes of merchants selling grain and salt.
So the grain merchants and salt merchants quickly raised the purchase price to three times.
More and more people are selling grain and salt secretly.
But the selling price has also increased to five times, almost seven times the original price.
At this time, the food and salt shipped from Juhe County suddenly stopped!
The county magistrate's office also issued a notice saying that there was really no food and salt that could be transported.
The price of food and salt instantly soared to fifteen times its original value!
Sun Panshi and others congratulated each other.
All the merchants held a banquet to celebrate.
The people were furious, but there was nothing they could do.
The entire city of Lujun has almost become a powder keg.
It's about to explode at one point.
Finally, a large number of people couldn't bear it anymore and ran to the county magistrate's office to complain, hoping that the county magistrate would severely punish these illegal merchants.
This time no one was instigating it, everyone was spontaneous and just wanted to ask the prefect for help.
Instead of questioning.
In the past month, the image of the new county governor single-handedly confronting grain merchants and salt merchants in the city has been established in the hearts of the people.
No one will believe that Cui Heng is in the same group with those businessmen.
Within the county magistrate's office.
Cui Heng took a list and said to Hui Shi who was on standby: "Thirteen grain merchants, six salt merchants, nine medicine halls, twelve carbon merchants, seven... these have all been found out.
Bar."
"Yes, sir, everything has been found out." Hui Shi said respectfully.
"What's the attitude of the people?" Cui Heng asked again.
"Your Excellency's wonderful plan, the people all over the city now sincerely admire you." Hui Shi admired Cui Heng's approach so much, this is what truly united people's hearts.
If we had ransacked the houses of these merchants when we first entered the city, we would never have had the kind of unity of people we have now, and we might even have been stigmatized.
"Okay!" Cui Heng nodded and smiled. Now, the first goal has been achieved.
So, he immediately slapped the list of names on the table and said in a deep voice, "Hui Shi, listen to the order! All the merchants above will have their homes ransacked, and a public trial will be set on a day! Anyone who obstructs them will be killed on the spot!"