Bastard's Counterattack [Rebirth]

"Please advise me, my lord." Rong Youtang replied in a well-mannered manner, calmly responding to all changes with calmness.

With his hands behind his back, Qi Shaozhu paced back and forth in the main hall, his two thumbs hidden behind his back circling briskly, and asked, "Have you been to Xizhou before?"

Rong Youtang thought for a while, and answered truthfully: "Your official has only been to Shun County with the bandit suppression army."

"What do you think of that place?" Qi Shaozhu asked lightly.

"To be honest, when the bandits were left in the first place, Shun County was devastated and people's livelihood was difficult, but after more than a year, it is not clear how to get off the government." Rong Youtang said frankly.

"I don't know yet."

Qi Shaozhu was quite distressed, patted his forehead hard, and sighed: "Since I took office, I have never slept soundly. There are so many things, it is very difficult. Your Majesty sent imperial envoys to thoroughly investigate the chaos in Guanzhou last year. Take away a small group of officials in Hejian in one breath! Black-hearted radishes, you can pull them out, but who will do the official work that is vacant? I just hope that the imperial court will send some good seedlings down as soon as possible to enrich the yamen."

Oh, that's right, when Brother Qi and I escorted away a boatload of corrupt officials, the decisions made by the new governor lacked manpower to implement them, so we were in a hurry...

"My lord is very thoughtful." Rong Youtang greatly agreed, sniffing quietly, feeling inexplicably embarrassed.

After Qi Shaozhu complained a few words, his voice changed, and he asked with great interest: "I heard you brought some brave guards?"

Rong Youtang was taken aback, and answered cautiously: "Because of the long journey in the twelfth lunar month, relatives and friends at home are very worried, so I arranged for a few experts to accompany you."

"Should be." Qi Shaozhu smiled kindly: "There is no need to worry too much, just ask, you bring your own guards, I don't need to be escorted by the police, it will save trouble."

"..." Rong Youtang's smile almost didn't hold back.

"His Royal Highness King Qing won a complete victory in suppressing the bandits and flattened Jiufeng Mountain in one fell swoop, but you should understand that the vitality of the local area is not so easy to recover. Xiaoxiao treacherous people always like to fish in muddy water." Speaking of this, Qi Shaozhu stopped, and said solemnly:

"I'll tell you the truth: Xizhou is not peaceful. But I have no resources to deal with it. Fortunately, His Majesty is wise and sent a magistrate in time. I hope you can use your courage and talent to calm the situation and try to suppress the unhealthy ones. Wind. But don't act too hastily, remember 'plan before you act'."

Unhealthy wind?

Rong Youtang was puzzled and thought to himself, but the other party didn't intend to talk in depth, so he obviously had to figure it out by himself.He cupped his hands and solemnly promised: "Your Majesty will definitely do my best to live up to His Majesty's grace and Your Excellency's high expectations!"

Neither humble nor overbearing, with firm eyes and elegant and steady conversation, so far, it looks like a good seedling.

Qi Shaozhu was picky about the school entrance examination for a long time, barely satisfied, and urged with a wave of his hand: "Go, don't waste time. The relief food in Guanzhong arrived ten days ago, and half of it has been sent to Xizhou now. There is no reply for the time being. I don't know if it will go well or not. Hurry up." Go and see."

"Yes!"

After watching the new magistrate leave, Qi Shaozhu immediately picked up the letter that was pressed on the table, tore it open with a "chi la", leaned on the grand teacher's chair, and read it twice silently, pouted, slowly stuffed the letter back into the envelope, and put it in his arms. He laughed and scolded: "What are you proud of? Isn't it just that there is a student who is the top student in high school? It is worth sending letters from thousands of miles away to show off? Hmph, no matter how outstanding the young man is, he has now become my subordinate!" After a pause, he asked lazily:

"You just said that the kid brought a small team of elite soldiers?"

The steward stopped clearing the cups and cups, bowed and replied, "It should be. The elite soldiers can't hide the aura of their gestures. All of them are tall and strong, and they all straddle their swords."

Elite guards?Who arranged for Xiaorong?

Could it be... Tsk, it must be the handwriting of that master.

Qi Shaozhu breathed a sigh of relief, didn't say anything, got up slowly, dragged the heels of his boots, hummed a little tune and went back to the backyard, walked two steps, and ordered without looking back: "Oh, Pu Cheng gave me a gift in the form of a humanoid , Ziyu must have brought some tea. Go, make a pot and taste it."

"Yes." The housekeeper laughed happily, as usual.

After bidding farewell to the top of the mountain, it happened that the wind stopped and the snow stopped and the weather was rare. Rong Youtang led the crowd to speed up and arrived at the destination at night.

"finally reached!"

"Brothers, hurry up!"

Traveling thousands of miles, crossing mountains and ridges, overlooking the red-burning bonfire on the observation deck on the city wall, Rong Youtang's spirit was shaken, and he even ignored the extreme exhaustion.

However, they only rejoiced for a moment—in a large half-collapsed ruins about five miles away from the city wall, Wei Jie suddenly raised his hand and called for a stop. Everyone held their breaths and listened quietly, and the sound of the wind was mixed with the cries of babies and women:

"Mother, mother... so hungry... I'm hungry!"

"Hey...be patient...wait for tomorrow."

"Father, I still want porridge."

"Sleep, you won't be hungry when you sleep."

……

Faintly and intermittently, as Rong Youtang and others rode closer, the noise coming from the wind became more and more clear:

"Xizhou Xizhou, where is our 'xi'?" An old woman cried, and her wife lamented sadly:

"Natural disasters and man-made disasters followed one after another. I worked hard for a year. Once the locusts passed, the harvest was not enough to pay the land rent and grain tax."

"The avalanche destroyed the house, and the imperial court allocated relief food, but the distribution was messy and had to be robbed. I only had one meal of thin rice soup a day. What's the use? Look, I will either starve to death in my life, or Frozen to death," said the old man's widowed brother, curled up in the haystack, shivering and weak.

"It must be starving to death. People who have food can't die." The old woman said helplessly. She hugged her one-year-old grandson lovingly in her arms and asked anxiously: "Bao'er's father went out to find him. It’s been a long time since I’ve been dry, why haven’t you come back?”

"It's freezing cold. Every household needs dry firewood. The nearby ones have been robbed long ago. It's useless to be anxious. Just wait patiently."

……

Rong Youtang had already reined in his horse, softly ordered the torches to be extinguished, with a dignified expression, and listened attentively, then dismounted, approached quietly, and began to investigate the real situation of the disaster.

It was bitterly cold, and in the darkness, there were some bonfires near and far in the ruins.

A group of people approached lightly. Unexpectedly, a hard object suddenly appeared from the soft snow, which almost tripped the new magistrate who was engrossed in listening to the public opinion!

"Ah—" Caught off guard, Rong Youtang gave a short cry of surprise.

"Be careful." Wei Jie, who followed closely behind, gave him a steady support, and then the other two guards squatted down and pawed in the snowdrift for a while, and said, "My lord, there is a person lying here, and he is still alive."

Rong Youtang was surprised, and hurriedly ordered: "Human life is at stake, quickly carry it in to avoid the wind."

"Yes."

This movement quickly attracted the attention of the family on the edge of the ruins. The old man and the brothers who had been talking just came out in a hurry, fearful and vigilant, and looked at the stranger in panic:

The leader is a handsome young man, surrounded by six or seven strong men who look like guards; looking at the road in the distance, there are 20 people and a large group of horses!

Who is coming?

The old man and the brothers looked at each other and shrank back at the same time, but the next moment, one of them suddenly shouted:

"Huh? Bao'er's father? Old woman! The old woman hastened to come out, Bao'er's father was, was--" He groaned for a long time, but did not dare to say the word "arrested".

"Don't get me wrong!" Rong Youtang immediately explained: "When we found him, he was already lying in the snowdrift."

As soon as the words fell, the old woman rushed over with her grandson in her arms, panting, she only glanced at her, and opened her mouth to cry: "Oh, my poor son, what's the matter with you? By whom——hmm!" Her husband Hastily covered the old wife's mouth, nervously stopped: "Be quiet, don't howl, they have knives on them!"

Facing a few frightened old and weak women and children, Rong Youtang sighed, stepped into the ruins and comforted him: "Old people, don't be afraid, we have no malicious intentions, we just want to use this place to rest. Dongzi, do you still have any dry food?" ?”

Zhang Dong's eyeballs rolled a few times, then he untied the bundle and took out three yellow steamed buns, which were dry food for the journey, big and strong, and said, "Master, only the steamed buns are left."

Rong Youtang was very satisfied with the clever boy, turned his head and said gently: "We don't take up space for nothing, steamed buns are our reward. If you hit it off, I'll ask my brother to send you some food later."

"Here." Zhang Dong stuffed the steamed bun into the old man's hand.

"Ah? Ah! This, this..." The three old men opened their eyes wide, clutching the steamed buns tightly, and they were so surprised that they stammered their thanks:

"Thank you, the young master is truly a bodhisattva."

"There is no more food for our family to starve to death."

"What are you talking about? What do you want to ask?" The old woman's eyes lit up. She was so hungry that she could barely breathe. When life and death were at stake, she couldn't care less about anything. She said eagerly, "As long as we know, we will tell you carefully!"

Rong Youtang sat down on a bluestone slab and urged: "Don't worry, fill your stomachs first, don't starve to death."

"Hey."

"Thank you, young master, I kowtow to you." The old man choked up and wiped his eyes, knelt down and wanted to kowtow.

"Old man, please get up!" Rong Youtang raised his hand to stop him, the guard forcefully helped him up, and he ordered: "Try to wake that person up and give him something to eat."

"Yes." Wei Jie took the order, and ordered his subordinates to pinch the man's cheeks, pour a few mouthfuls of burning knives into the man's mouth, and pinch the tiger's mouth hard. After eating food, he trembled all over, and immediately became fully awake, chewing instinctively.

Immediately, with tears in their eyes, the other family ate three steamed buns and devoured them hungrily.The old woman chewed the steamed buns and fed them to her grandson with her index finger, while her son melted the snow and fed warm water to the weakly crying toddler.

It looked very poignant.

Rong Youtang sighed deeply, and waited for the other party to stop his hunger before starting to investigate, asking: "Where are you from? Why are you staying here overnight?"

"We are from Xiejia Village, Yi County. There was a snowstorm before the twelfth lunar month, and the house collapsed. We have been here for more than a month." Alive, there are a few families at the foot of the mountain in the village who were crushed to death in their sleep, poor thing!"

"Is Xiejia Village the only one affected?" Rong Youtang asked.

"More than that." The old woman was busy feeding her grandson and explained without raising her head: "Although they are all from Yi County, they belong to several villages. There are people surnamed Wang, Liu and Zhang." Her son Young, who made more inquiries, told in a muffled voice: "I heard from the master in charge of the porridge shed that there are more than 2000 people here, all of whom are homeless."

"Porridge shed?" Rong Youtang frowned, and asked intently: "Didn't the imperial court allocate relief food? Why are the victims in such a mess?"

"There is food." The old woman was annoyed when she heard it, and said angrily: "We saw with our own eyes a few days ago that one car after another, the long line, the officers and soldiers guarded them with knives and sent them into the city. But what's the use, we still only eat thin rice soup once a day!" Her wife lamented tremblingly:

"I don't know what the officials are doing with the relief food. Several people have starved to death in the past two days—" Before the words fell, his son interrupted angrily: "Cough! What else can you do? Greedy!" Suddenly, the young man scolded angrily:

"There is nothing good about being an official!"

"..." Rong Youtang's complexion did not change, and he asked doubtfully, "Is there only one meal of porridge a day?"

"That's right! We can have something to eat at noon, and the officials deliberately starve us to death."

"Can the government keep the situation stable when serving porridge? It's cold and snowy, and 2000 people are crowded outside the city, so the government didn't think of a way?" Rong Youtang asked continuously.

"Don't mention how messy it is to get the porridge, it's just robbing! Some people are arrogant and can get it three or five times. My daughter-in-law died of dystocia, so I just have to go grab it and get some rice soup." He gritted his teeth and reprimanded again:

"The government deliberately wanted to starve and freeze us to death! Huh, early this morning, officers and soldiers escorted many sedan chairs out of the city, and the so-called parents and officials sat in them, and they didn't know where they were going. "

Rong Youtang listened carefully, asked for half an hour, and finally told: "You guys just stay here, go get the porridge early tomorrow, we have a rest, and we are going to the city." After speaking, he turned to the servant, Zhang Dong understood, took out the only remaining steamed buns from his companion's bag, stuffed them all into the old man, and whispered:

"Accept it, my young master has always pitied the old and the weak the most!"

"Stop talking nonsense. Elderly, please don't say anything. We only brought a little dry food." Rong Youtang did not forget to remind that when he stepped out of the ruins, as expected, there was already a black cloud outside. disaster victims.

With a heavy heart, Rong Youtang glanced at the men, women and children suffering from hunger and cold, but at this moment he couldn't promise anything, so he could only quickly go to the city to find out.

in two quarters of an hour

"Strange." Wei Jie crossed his arms.

"Very, very lively."

"There is a world of difference between the city and the city."

A group of people stood still in the bustling city, gasping in amazement, Rong Youtang looked intently:

The straight and wide streets are lined with shops, of which pawnshops, wine shops, gambling houses and romantic places account for most of them.

Especially brothels and gambling houses!

Fragrant brothels, delicious food and wine, strings of red lanterns hanging high, enchanting prostitutes with heavy makeup, twisting their waists and smiling to attract customers, coquettishly laughing and cursing the sound of pipa and zither, mixed with men wantonly making noise; The yelling and roaring were loud, the gamblers' eyes were red and blue veins were protruding, and the noise was frenzied.

Rong Youtang was puzzled, carefully observed the surroundings, and moved forward slowly. He led a large group of guards, which was very eye-catching.When he looked at a brothel, the two prostitutes who had been watching for a long time in front of the door immediately misunderstood. They were full of smiles, full of enthusiasm, caressing and gentle, stretching out their hands to hold Rong Youtang's arm, and intimately invited:

"This young man is very kind, let's go in and have a seat?"

"Young master, come, I will make you some good tea."

At the same time, Beijing

"How is it possible? He has always been sensible, but he is very timid in that regard." King Qing denied it without hesitation.

Guo Da said with a smile: "Brother Rong has a decent character, but he is afraid that others will have intentions. When he is away from home, what if he is taught badly?"