Liu Mingzhi’s brows furrowed into a line: “Chang Yunfeng also disappeared?”
Song Qingyin nodded with a sullen face: "We witnessed Chang Yunfeng disposing of the governor's house steward Tong Cai in the refugee camp. He seemed to have disappeared from the world overnight. Damn it!"
Liu Mingzhi took a breath of cold air: "I don't know if it's a ghost or not. Someone must be causing trouble. I've told you a long time ago that it's not that easy for the White Lotus Sect to escape without a fight. What's going on!"
"Let's put these things aside for now. The most important thing is disaster relief. As long as we appease the people and control the locust plague, it doesn't matter if we put other trivial matters aside. After all, our top priority is controlling the locust plague!"
Liu Mingzhi nodded helplessly: "Now we can only deal with the locust plague first. Have the people who went to Dingzhou to convey the message to the governor of Dingzhou come back?"
"I guess it's only a day's journey on a fast horse. Have you made arrangements to control the locust plague? When I came back, why did I see so many emaciated victims carrying sacks out of the city gate?"
Liu Mingzhi looked happy: "Really? Is it a lot?"
"It's not a lot. These people look hesitant. There are about a thousand people at most. What are they doing out of the city with sacks?"
“Catch locusts in exchange for food!”
"Catch locusts?" Song Qing suddenly shouted and immediately lowered his voice and looked at Liu Mingzhi with a serious expression: "You are crazy. You are not afraid of God's punishment when you order to catch locusts!"
Liu Mingzhi narrowed his eyes slightly: "If you didn't tell me, I would have forgotten that Long Wuwei ordered a thousand people to dress up as ordinary people and blend into the crowd. Those who dare to make lies and deceive the public to catch locusts in exchange for food will be directly detained!"
"you sure?"
"Definitely, those who dare to resist will be punished on the spot, obey the authority in urgent matters, and use strict laws in troubled times. We can't let these locusts that harm people's crops go to waste. Mosquito legs are also meat, not to mention the overwhelming locusts. Maybe even food will be saved.
Got it!"
Song Qing looked at Liu Mingzhi blankly: "What do you mean?"
"It's nothing. You will understand later. It's so strange that Qiao Changjing and Chang Yunfeng disappeared. Could it be that the person who transported food out of the city the night before was really Chang Yunfeng? If it was him, why would he transport the food outside the city?
!Brother, what do you think of Chang Yunfeng?"
"People's hearts are separated from each other. Who can say that you can judge whether a person is good or bad after meeting him once?"
"Alas, things in Qingzhou are getting more and more confusing. It seems that someone is deliberately leading us to other places! Let's go and meet Gu Zhiheng's family!"
"All right!"
"Jiang Lei, are Gu Zhiheng's family here?"
Jiang Lei shook his head slightly: "Except for some maids and servants, there are no relatives related to Gu Zhiheng in the Governor's Mansion now. This guy should have sent his family members away long ago!"
"This is to break all the clues for me. I don't believe it, so I have to investigate further! Go to Gu Zhiheng's study and have a look!"
"yes!"
Song Qing drew out the horizontal sword from his waist to guide the way, carefully guarding against the situation in the backyard of the Governor's Mansion.
Liu Mingzhi looked at the unlocked study and pushed it gently, walked in, took a look at the spotless study, walked to the desk and bookshelf, and started browsing.
After half a day, Liu Mingzhi sighed regretfully. Except for some books and insignificant letters, there was nothing useful in the entire study!
Liu Mingzhi dropped the book in his hand on the table and frowned.
kindness?
Liu Mingzhi looked at a piece of rice paper under the inkstone and felt puzzled. He gently raised the rice paper and looked at it: "Why is the word grain on this rice paper so weird? It's all written vertically!"
"Pfft"
Liu Mingzhi put down the rice paper and looked at Song Qing and Jiang Lei who were covering their mouths and laughing: "What's wrong? What are you laughing at?"
Song Qing pointed at a plaque in the atrium of the study room and laughed: "Look, Third Brother, this Gu Zhiheng looks like a futile and arty official. Look at this plaque. Not to mention that it's boxy.
There is only one word for grain. Whose study would put such a plaque in the study? The most important thing is that the last word of grain is engraved wrong, and the direction is wrong!"
Liu Mingzhi also stood up and curiously looked at the plaque in front of him and shook his head: "Maybe this Mr. Gu has a unique hobby!"
"But this is so different!"
"Don't worry about this, go to the refugee camp first and see how the people are doing on the streets!"
A group of people were walking on the street, and Liu Mingzhi couldn't help but feel secretly happy when he saw more and more people carrying various bags out of the city.
Disaster relief, disaster relief, if you don't save yourself, no matter how much money the court has, it will be squandered sooner or later!
"Hey, do you think five pounds of locusts can really be exchanged for one pound of rice? The government is not lying, right?"
"This is an order from the new imperial envoy, not an order from dog officials like Governor Tong!"
"Oh, I'm afraid that if the locusts are really caught and the government defaults on the payment, the rice can't be replaced and the locust god is offended, the imperial envoy will just slap his ass and leave. What will we poor people do?"
"I'd rather believe it or not. What if I can really exchange it for rice? Look at the streets here, which are full of people leaving the city. What if you arrive late and someone has finished the exchange?"
"It's true. Don't forget that we have just come out from drinking porridge. You think about it, when did the refugee camps survive so much porridge, and when did we get out of the refugee camps? I don't think the imperial envoy is right.
He will deceive us who are so miserable!"
"Third brother, you don't really plan to exchange one pound of rice for five pounds of locusts! Why do we need so many locusts? We can just let the people drive them away. Why do we need to catch them?"
"It has to be like this. The people must save themselves. Not only do they have to catch locusts, but they also have to plow the land and work for relief. Lying there and sleeping after eating is tantamount to sitting on a mountain of nothing. The people must be allowed to make their own efforts to change the current situation.
What a dilemma!”
"Plowing the land? What are you doing plowing the land at this time? You can't grow anything anymore!"
"Not necessarily. Let's try growing wheat. Maybe there will be unexpected harvests?"
"What's unexpected? Maybe everyone is frozen to death. The people don't know much better than you. Isn't it a joke to plant wheat in winter?"
"What should we do? Do we all rely on the food provided by the court for disaster relief? Do we just stay at home to eat and drink this season? Although this can show the court's benevolence and righteousness, it is digging its own grave. We need to change our way of dealing with disasters. We can't keep disasters in the same way.
We have to rely on the imperial court to support us. One Qingzhou Prefecture imperial court can support us, but if there are too many of them one day, will the imperial court be able to support us? If we want to survive, we must be self-sufficient!"
"Let's go and see how the situation is in front of the Governor's Mansion! As long as the common people see someone who can actually exchange for food, they will rush to catch the locusts. Food is the most important thing for the people. Compared with the locust god, food is the biggest
, Just take a look, you won’t be able to tell who will be the disaster at that time!”
Liu Mingzhi and his party, who were slowly walking towards the Dudu's Mansion, frowned when they saw the huge crowd of people shouting and shouting in front of the Dudu's Mansion!
"If you don't keep your word, we have to exchange rice!"