The reborn sycophant

In her two lifetimes, she had never seen such a miserable situation.

This is at the head of the village. There is a tattered plaque with the words "Jintian Village" written on it. On the ground under the plaque, the grass and trees are all withered, and the bark of a few big trees on the side has been stripped off, leaving only green, white and dry. The mottled tree trunk seems to have eyes, silently looking at the densely packed villagers around the entrance of the village under the scorching sun.

There were three bullock carts full of grain parked on the side of the road. The villagers looked at the grain with green eyes, but beside the bullock cart were dozens of guards with sharp knives, so they dared not grab it.They are all wearing clothes that are a few sizes too big. It seems that they used to fit, but now everyone has lost a few circles of hunger, and the clothes don't fit.A steward set up a table and sat aside, looking arrogantly at the villagers who came in line, some of these people were selling their sons and daughters, and some were selling themselves, their expressions were numb, and there was no light in their eyes. Or treat the family as a commodity and send it up for the steward to pick.

Someone got a small bag of grain in exchange, and ran home in a hurry, clutching the hatchet at his waist while running, looking around nervously.Some people's sons and daughters are too weak to be favored by the steward, and they kneel down and cry in despair.

Anyone who wants to be "sold" has taken off their clothes, regardless of men and women, waiting to be inspected. One girl was picked up by her mother. The mother cried and pushed the thin daughter in front of the steward: " Master, master, look, my daughter is fair, no matter where she sells her skin, she can get a lot of money! Please, buy her."

The places are limited, and there are many people who are waiting to save their lives with food. Therefore, as the food on the cart turned from hills to plains, many people became anxious and tried their best to "sell" their "commodities".

The steward looked at the girl with his eyes full, and thought of something, licked his thirsty lips, and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, I accept it, come on, make a handprint, and go over there to get it." Food."

From the beginning to the end, the girl just cried, but did not dare to resist, while the villagers who were waiting to "do business" watched all this numbly.

In fact, no one died, but what he saw was a hundred times more bleak than a dead person. Wei Chuyan once heard a colleague who was promoted from the countryside say that if a person is hungry, he can do anything.

She didn't understand the meaning of this sentence then, and now she understands.

I heard that some places encountered a severe drought and were so hungry that they would change their children to eat. How sad.

"They don't need money. Maybe now, there is no money to buy grain. Master, look, those few carts of grain are the currency."

Zhao Ji also jumped out of the carriage at this time, Wei Chuyan protected her behind, pointed to the pile of grain in the distance, and told Zhao Ji why the money was no longer useful at this time.

Zhao Ji understood, pursed his lips, and looked over there with a livid little face.

"Jingzhou is in such a drought, what are the local officials doing to eat? Can't even transport a little relief food? When we were in Jiaozhou, we didn't even get any news, and we didn't see Jiaozhou transporting food. Why is this place so closed? "

Wei Chuyan was reminded by her, thinking of one thing, his complexion suddenly became weird.She called Zhou Lu and asked, "Do you know the name of the sheriff here?"

Before Zhou Lu could answer, Gao Muen replied loudly, "It's Sun Sun."

Wei Chuyan immediately understood.

Sun Yan was very famous in his previous life, and he was a cruel official. In her previous life, she remembered this person because Sun Yan was already an official in Chang'an at that time, working in Dali Temple. She should be regarded as a young minister. The punishment was done by Sun Yan himself.

Come to think of it, he was about to be promoted at this time, no wonder the drought in Jingzhou was so severe, and he was still covered tightly.

"Master, Sun Yan may be transferred to Chang'an, and it's time for a promotion."

"You mean he deliberately kept the news and didn't report it?"

Zhao Ji stared at Wei Chuyan with wide eyes, and Wei Chuyan gave her an affirmative look.

Zhao Ji was furious immediately: "Who gave him the guts! Is Sun Yan right? When I return to Chang'an, I want him to be unable to even be an official! This man deserves to die!"

After scolding someone, Zhao Ji looked at the villagers over there again, and said hesitantly: "You said, if I bought those carts of grain from that dealer with money, and then distributed the grain to those villagers, wouldn't it be that they don't need their own flesh and blood?" Separated?"

"Slave traders trade people back and forth for profit. This method is feasible. But master, this is just a village we encountered. If we go on, there will be countless more of the same people. You can save them today, but you cannot save them. Down everyone."

"Since you have met them, let's go and save them. They are all the people of my Daqi. You said that I was supported by them, and now they have reached this point... If I haven't seen it, maybe I won't Knowing their suffering, now that I see it, how can I turn a blind eye?"

After finishing speaking, Zhao Ji called Gao Muen and gave him some instructions to go over there with the money.

After a while, Gao Muen negotiated with the traffickers, took away the carts of grain, and took back the bonds of those who had just been sold into slavery, and handed them back to Zhao Ji.

The businessman got several times the money, overjoyed, he hurriedly left with his people, for fear that the group of foolish nobles who had never seen the suffering in the world would regret it.

Zhao Ji walked over, tore up the slave bond in front of those people, and ordered people to untie the ropes on the hands of those slaves: "You all go home, and tell your family after you go back, save some food to survive this time. In some time, someone from the imperial court will come to help the disaster."

Unexpectedly, such a turnaround would happen. The numbness on the faces of the slaves was finally gone. They happily knelt down towards Zhao Ji, and kept shouting words like thank you miss and thank you living Bodhisattva. Zhao Ji asked them to get up, and they looked at each other. , finally confirmed that this is true, cheered and ran towards the house.

These were those who had already received food, but those who had not received food and were still waiting to sell themselves became desperate, feeling that they had lost their way of life, and their emotions gradually became agitated. Wei Chuyan watched them vigilantly, preventing them from rioting.

Zhao Ji then ordered people to distribute the food to each family: "You don't sell your sons and daughters anymore, go back with the food."

These people were overjoyed, and bowed to Zhao Ji like the slaves before, thanked them a thousand times, and went back with food.

The three carts full of grains glowed instantly, and Zhao Ji asked the guards to keep an eye on those people, so that no one suspected of being a family could take more. In this way, each family could barely get life-saving grains.

After doing all this, they didn't stay in this village, but hurried towards Chang'an.Witnessing the tragic situation in Jintian Village, Zhao Ji no longer delays the journey, but rushes as much as possible. She wants to rush back to Chang'an as soon as possible to plead for the people of Jingzhou.

But before leaving Jingzhou, Zhao Ji was assassinated.

It was still a sunny day with no rain at all. They traveled all day and rested in a small town called Lancheng along the way. The impact of the drought on this place is also obvious. The interrogation along the way has become much stricter, but such a team as Zhao Ji, who can be seen as very prestigious at first glance, still doesn't check much.

The only thing they want to stop is the hungry people in rags.

The price of rice in the city is high, and even the water supply is limited. The few wells that are still producing water are guarded by the government. Each family can only carry half a bucket a day, and there are special personnel to keep accounts.

Even this half bucket of water is enough to save many lives.

Compared with the villages along the way, this place is like a paradise.

As usual, Gao Muen was asked to take people to buy food for distribution along the way. Zhao Ji rested at the posthouse. Not long after, Gao Muen brought back a piece of bad news: "Master, the price of food here has already reached [-]%. To such a heinous level, we have very little money left, and we can no longer buy like this.”

Along the way, Zhao Ji gave away a lot of money for the sake of the people along the way, and now, finally, he is ashamed of his money.

She couldn't help feeling ashamed when she thought of herself fetching water with copper coins.

That bag of copper coins, if exchanged for coarse grains, can save one or two people, right?

"How high is it? They raise the price of rice so much, is there no official to control it?"

"The price has increased by four or five times compared to the normal price. Even so, there is still less goods and more money. The people in the city are also panicking. Many wealthy households are hoarding grain, and many grain merchants are pressing grain and not releasing it at all, waiting for huge profits. .”

Zhao Ji was so angry that she was shaking all over. She had seen many people starve to death. How could she bear to hear these businessmen behave like this?

"Since ancient times, when there was a famine, the grain merchants made a fortune. At this time, even if they were killed, they would not be able to get much grain. If you want to stabilize the grain price, you can only transport grain from other counties. Jiaozhou was originally a good place for disaster relief. But the news was blocked there, and no one came to bring food. Chu Yan thought, it may be too late to go to Chang'an now, and the person who tied the bell needs to be untied. It is better to restrain Sun Yan first, and the county guard will contact the counties and counties , open the blockade, and use this to relieve disasters. Otherwise, when Chang'an gets the news, tens of thousands of people in Jingzhou may starve to death."

Wei Chuyan offers advice to Zhao Ji.

She didn't want Zhao Ji to reveal her identity, but what she saw along the way was shocking. The left and right sides had already passed through Jiaozhou. People from her grandfather's side will be recruited.

In Sun Sun's previous life, he seemed to be of the Taiwei family.

From the fact that he dared to torture her under the pressure of the emperor, he knew that he would not be Zhao Ji's confidant. If this person died earlier, there would be no harm to Zhao Ji.

Now that there is a handle, Wei Chuyan does not intend to let Sun Yan survive, whether it is for the people or for Zhao Ji.

But Sun Yan is still useful, let's use him for disaster relief.

The author has something to say: the second update.