SFS Chapter 208 This is His Highness's Own Choice
Chapter 208 This is His Highness's Own Choice
Han Yaojun thought about it and felt that what Chu Xi said made sense, so he immediately sent someone to do it.
Of course, he knew that those merchants might not necessarily do as he was told, so he sent more people over.
They were indeed "forcing others" in this matter, but the situation was urgent and they did not have a single grain of rice left, so they had to find food.
We must wait until the imperial relief team arrives, otherwise, a mutiny could happen at any time.
He had only fought on the battlefield and killed enemies, and had never stained his blood with the people of the Great Zhou. Therefore, he did not want the people to be forced into a desperate situation, rise up in resistance, and then be attacked by a rebel...
And he will personally kill these people whom they have worked so hard to protect today!
Chu Xi took a look at the person sent by Han Yaojun to carry out the mission. That person was a retainer brought by Han Yaojun. He had the same surname as Han. Although he was not a member of the Han family, he was Han Yaojun's most trusted right-hand man.
He is an upright person but also has good skills and foresight, making him a good candidate.
After Han Yaojun discussed the food issue with Chu Xi, he was finally able to spare a little energy to pay attention to the situation of other people. His eyes looked straight at Zhou Yichen who was also helping.
"Your Highness..." Han Yaojun was not good at dealing with the powerful and wealthy, and the prince was even worse.
It’s not that he was afraid, but the other party was of noble status and could not be treated lightly. He didn’t know how to treat him.
"General Han, this is His Highness's own choice." Chu Xi knew that Han Yaojun's hesitation was due to his hesitation as to whether to persuade Zhou Yichen to rest or find a nice place for Zhou Yichen to live.
Han Yaojun heard the hidden meaning in her words and knew that Chu Jiang was reminding him that he didn't need to care about what His Highness did. Whether His Highness planned to rest or help, it was all His Highness's own will.
"I see."
Although he said so, Han Yao was still worried about letting a prince help here, so he joined the helping team, not far from Zhou Yichen.
Chu Xi noticed this, but did not point it out, nor did he remind Zhou Yichen specifically, so as to avoid making both of them uncomfortable.
As Chu Xi said, businessmen will not put all their money on one place, especially since they all know that there will be long periods of rainfall during the plum rain season every year and the price of grain will rise at this time, so they will naturally start preparing early.
All the grain shop owners in the city were called together for questioning, and they all said in unison that they had run out of grain.
Han Ziyu didn't waste time talking to them. Since he couldn't get any information from them, he would just turn around. The place was just in this city.
But once they find it, the food they promised to buy will become something they "willingly" give away. After all, it was they who kept saying that there was no more food!
The owners of the grain shops also realized that Han Ziyu was not someone who was easy to fool. If they continued like this, once he was found out, they would offend General Han, so they were naturally very worried.
They wanted to bribe him, but the dozens of soldiers nearby were staring at them. Also, Han Ziyu's eyes were cold and sharp, like a killing god, making them feel that their bodies and heads might be separated in the next moment.
This sense of fear and oppression makes them nervous and scared.
Han Ziyu did not expect that the soldiers could find all the hidden food. After all, there would not be too much food placed in a place that could be easily found, otherwise, anyone could find it.
Therefore, he just planned to use such a strong attitude to tell the grain shop owners in front of him that there was no need to come up with any roundabout ideas or try to hide the truth.
If they are unwilling to speak, then he has plenty of patience to “slowly” search and examine.
Han Ziyu has been fighting on the battlefield with Han Yaojun for many years. Even though he is not from a noble family, his temperament is definitely not something that ordinary people can have.
Although the grain shop owners wanted to take advantage of the flood period to make a fortune, they were constrained by Han Ziyu's cold and sharp eyes staring at them.
They were left exposed to the scorching sun, and fell down one after another, unable to hold on, and had no choice but to tell the whereabouts of the hidden food.
In less than an hour, all the grain shop owners had confessed.
There were eight grain shop owners present, and after searching all of them, they found 800 dan of rice, which was already a lot, but who could blame them for the fact that there were too many people...
More than 800 dan of rice and more than 200,000 people could only barely eat for two days even if they drank porridge.
Han Ziyu returned with the food to report. Han Yaojun ordered his soldiers to clean out a house and temporarily use it to store the food.
This house was bought by the county magistrate. He had previously secretly raised the price of rice with the grain shop owner, and the lawyer's action of transferring grain overnight had been caught by Han Yaojun.
The county magistrate has now been detained by Han Yaojun and has not received any special treatment in the past few days in the mountain.
After coming down the mountain, he kept saying that without the emperor's order, even if Han Yaojun was a second-rank general, he could not easily kill a court official.
Now, the county magistrate has been temporarily arrested, and all those who followed his orders have been brought to justice. As for his wife and children, of course they can no longer live in the county magistrate's mansion.
His mansion was temporarily vacant, and the houses and shops under his name should have been closed, but due to the disaster, this had to be postponed.
The house is not small and is located in the best location. It has been carefully renovated. One can tell at a glance that it would cost at least a few hundred taels to buy it.
This is just one of the cases. It is obvious that the county magistrate often accepted bribes and enriched himself!
As a subject, Han Yaojun must fulfill his duties in front of Prince Zhou Yichen.
He arranged the food and calculated that there was not enough food. Chu Xi's idea served as a reminder to him, and he soon set his sights on "other people".
In addition to these grain shop owners who would hoard rice, the next most common people would be officials such as county magistrates and prefects.
There are 170,000 civilians and 50,000 soldiers in the city, more than 200,000 people have to hold out for at least four or five days, which requires a lot of food.
The first group to be squeezed dry are the grain shop owners, and the next ones to be squeezed dry are the officials and wealthy families in the city. These people are at the top of the pyramid in the city.
They will definitely make preparations early based on past years' experience and will never find themselves in a dilemma of not having enough rice in stock.
Han Yaojun asked Han Ziyu to visit these families and make up for whatever money they were willing to give afterwards.
Han Ziyu remembered clearly all the families who were "willing" to donate rice and how much kilograms of rice they donated.
"Don't worry, our general will not take your rice for nothing. Once the disaster is over and the imperial relief team arrives, all those who donated food will be paid a reasonable price."
Before he left, he specifically said these words to those people.
Of course, they didn't give out everything, but if they were willing to give out a portion, the pressure on Han Yaojun and the others would be much less.