Chapter 790 Power (Part 2)
Yang Jian stood at the door of the country courtyard in a wide robe with long sleeves and wooden clogs, looking at the scenery outside.
Obviously an artificially dug river runs from north to south, and two rows of willow trees on the bank divide the farmland into two halves.
To the west is the land of the nobles and powerful people in Wei County, and to the east is the farmland of ordinary people - the land allocated to the sergeants who followed him during the Shi Le era.
Farther away, there are several orchards. Between the orchards are half-human-high wormwood, deserted.
This is Yecheng, the most prosperous place in Hebei, but it also looks like this.
Many ragged people entered this wasteland early in the morning, waving their sickles like moon wheels, cutting down, bundling and transporting the wormwood.
The house where Yang Jian lives has received a lot of grass. Some of it has been transported to the fodder warehouse, and some is still drying.
This house is the residence that Yang Dan built in Yecheng. It is not big and has four sides. Yang Jian only stayed here temporarily for two days and will go north today - many years after Jizhou withdrew its governor. This post was re-established and stationed in Boling to cope with the increasingly severe situation, and Yang Jian went to take up the post.
There were many people who went north with him, including more than 800 staff, servants, generals, troops, etc., all of which he paid for himself.
Working with money is the norm at this time.
Of course, you can also not pay any money, and in the extreme, it is not impossible to take up the job alone, but in that case, you will be greatly constrained in doing things and it will be difficult to start work.
Yang Jian’s family is well-off, so naturally he doesn’t need to do that.
In terms of seniority, Yang Dan is his uncle. He was originally the prefect of Qinghe. He was rotated a while ago and became the prefect of Anping. His replacement was the former Anci Linggai who had made a name for himself in Youzhou. Zhi, a child of a small clan.
Yang Dan is in Anping, Yang Jian is in Boling, and the Taiyang clan is gradually targeting Hebei.
The reason is not complicated. It continues to develop in Henan. First, there is no space, and second, it attracts attention.
The Yang family is neither high-profile nor in a hurry.
As a top wealthy family, there is a big difference between them and families like Pei and Wang, that is, although their families have a rich family background, many of them follow the path of martial arts.
Everyone in the world regards purity and nobility as the most important thing. Military generals are one of the military sects. Unless you hold a high-level military position such as a middle guard or a middle leader, you will be of no use.
It is enough to have one or two representatives among the civil servants.
For example, Yangman, the minister of the Liang Kingdom, was a close minister in terms of his position and could provide decision-making advice.
Although it is just a "suggestion", it can have a huge impact at critical moments and should never be underestimated.
Another example is Tiancao Zuocheng Yangming. The field transfer is in full swing and he is pressing hard. Your farmland will be taken away before it can be dealt with, or it will be sold at a low price, resulting in huge losses.
If he loosens his grip a little and gives you more time, you will be able to preserve more of your interests.
If you are more ruthless, you can also attack family or political opponents that you don't like - this has been done more than once.
There is also the Jin Dynasty Wei Wei Yang Juanzhi, who is in charge of the Luoyang arsenal, Zhuye, buses, and guards. This is also an official position with real power.
The Right Sima Yangchen of the shogunate was in charge of the military affairs of the General's Office. If it were not for the fear of King Liang, Chen Yougen, the Left Sima, would have had something happen to him inexplicably and would have been dismissed from his post.
With the presence of these people, interests can be exchanged to ensure that the Yang family is not bullied. As the saying goes, if you are not aggressive enough, you can be defensive.
Of course, the biggest advantage is that he will not be too worried by King Liang and suffer a blow.
The Yang family knew very well that King Liang was of low origin and had a small family, and was very wary of wealthy families. They were afraid that what happened to the Sima family would happen again, and whoever danced the most happily would be more wary.
The Yang family can develop in local areas first, such as Hebei, which is regarded as a daunting road.
Lu Zidao is old!
Yang Jian smiled secretly in his heart, flicked his sleeves, put his hands behind his back, and stepped on his clogs to the roadside.
The Yang family members were wearing iron armor or leather armor, equipped with swords and guns, and stood majestically aside.
"Captain." Seeing the sheep mirror coming out, everyone saluted.
"Thirteen, how are you doing with your inquiries ahead?" Yang Jian asked.
“There are more and more refugees,” said the family general Qiu Shisan.
When Yang Jian heard this, his expression changed, and the situation became worse.
"How about taking the water route?" he asked.
"It's difficult." Qiu Shisan replied: "Now one ship after another is transporting grain, and there is no time to unload it. We have hundreds of people, and the baggage is nearly 200 cars. It is difficult to find enough ships."
"Does Boling have soldiers?" Yang Jian asked again.
“There are no soldiers.”
“Where is King Liang?”
Qiu Shisan was a little embarrassed and said: “I have been moving around and was still in Zhongshan at the end of July. , It may be in Gaoyang or Hejian, or it may have gone south."
"Oh." Yang Jian sighed and said to himself that Cao Mengde is not as busy as you.
The masters of Kaiji are restless and like to run around.
It is better for you to be a conservative king, just stay in the deep palace courtyard most of the time and listen to the reports from the court.
"Does King Liang have soldiers around him?" Yang Jian suddenly thought of something and asked.
"There are thousands of people in the camp with silver spears, as well as more than a thousand pro-army troops and a thousand righteous cavalry troops." Qiu Shisan said.
“It’s okay.” Yang Jian breathed a sigh of relief and said, “The waterway is not accessible, so let’s take the land route.”
Qiu Shisan suddenly became nervous and said: "No." After saying that, he immediately went to arrange the accompanying escort.
******
It is already the fifth day of August, and the rain still shows no sign of letting up.
Occasionally it stops for a day or two, and then comes back with a "revenge" of heavier rainfall.
The south is slightly better, but the further north you go, the more the land develops towards the water town Zeguo.
We encountered many forts and manors along the way, and sometimes we would stop there to stay for a day or two.
In fact, as early as the Sima Teng era, the Yang family began to penetrate into Hebei, but it ended in failure. Neither Sima Teng nor his subsequent successors could effectively control the situation in Hebei.
If you fail militarily, you will lose politically.
But after all, they have been in business, and the Yang family still has some acquaintances in Hebei. It's just that after so many years, there have been a lot of changes, and they have gradually become less and less.
There are large amounts of wood stacked outside many forts.
When I inquired about it, I found that they all rushed down from the Taihang Mountains last year.
Gaoyang, Hejian, Boling, Zhongshan, Changshan and other counties organized people to transport the wood to Wei, Bohai, Qinghe, Pingyuan, Yangping and other counties through waterways, and sold them to private individuals in exchange for food, livestock, farm tools.
These places were not particularly severely affected last year, and their lives were manageable. In addition, with the normal harvest of summer wheat in May, they were more confident, so many people bought them and planned to dry them in the shade. Repair and expand the house.
But now it seems that most of these pieces of wood are in your hands.
This year is similar to last year. The northern part of Jizhou has been severely affected, and the southern part has also been affected. The output of grains planted in June will inevitably decrease.
Grain suddenly became extremely valuable.
In the past, the Wubao commanders and manor owners who liked to take advantage of the chaos to recruit people also closed their doors tightly. The walls were filled with men carrying knives and bows, wary of every approaching crowd.
Even when Yang Jian's convoy approached, they were warned by arrows shot from the wall, which meant that they had no food and were unwilling to accept people, so they should get out quickly.
When walking in the wilderness, you will either be completely deserted or you will suddenly encounter a surprisingly dense crowd.
The refugees came one after another, ranging from hundreds to thousands.
As for the larger scale, it has not been seen yet. But if the government doesn't care, the refugees will inevitably attack and annex each other, growing to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.
At this scale, ordinary Wubao cannot hold it. Because the refugees are completely irrational, or in a desperate or crazy mood, they are likely to chew down the Wubao regardless of casualties.
At this time, Lord Wubao was either forced to join the gang, or his whole family died. There was no other choice.
While traveling to Xiangguo, Yang Jian saw a large-scale porridge farm.
He got out of the car and took a look. The porridge was very thin, but it could survive.
The biggest problem is that the quantity is seriously insufficient and cannot meet the needs of all disaster victims.
Perhaps the prefect of Guangping and even Lu Zidao of Yecheng had this idea: to give the victims hope and let them rush here instead of gathering in groups on the road.
After coming to Xiangguo, he was under control because there was an army here.
Even if the gruel cannot save everyone, and some people will cause trouble, it will not cause any serious problems and will be suppressed soon.
Once suppressed and people died, food would no longer be in short supply.
A clear strategy, a desperation method, because only some people are destined to survive because of the lack of food.
After leaving Xiangguo, Yangjian passed through the southeast of Zhaojun and turned towards Julu and Boling.
Along the way, the situation seemed to become more difficult.
There were marauding horse bandits on the road. Fortunately, they were not large, with only a dozen or dozens of horsemen. They did not dare to deal with their team of nearly a thousand people.
Someone was dragging the body and slowly disappeared into the abandoned village.
A mother abandoned her child in the grass and left crying.
There were two groups of people attacking each other because one of the groups actually fled with food.
Yang Jian’s face turned pale when he saw it, and he had a new understanding of the important responsibility of the governor of Jizhou.
Before, he worked as a prefect in Ruyin. The place was said to be desolate, but there were few disasters. After the order was stabilized, it would not be a problem to have enough food. Because there was too much land, you couldn't even plant it. For three consecutive years, During the year, you can even plant different pieces of land and leave the other two pieces fallow, so the yield is really high.
The biggest disaster in Ruyin was actually the military disaster.
But the people in Jiangdong have also had difficulties in recent years. Locust plagues, floods, and droughts have never stopped. Although the intensity is much lighter than that in the north, the wealthy families also occupy more land and population than in the north. They were reluctant to spend their own money and food to support the army going north.
The difficulties in Ruyin and Hebei are not at the same level at all.
Just walking and stopping all the way, it took Yangjian a month to move step by step in the mud to Boling.
People from the Bolingcui family, the largest local family and a "humble family", welcomed him warmly.
Yang Jian glanced at it and sighed secretly.
Once upon a time, Boling Cui was considered a first-class wealthy family in Jizhou, and its reputation was smaller than that of Qinghe Cui. Unexpectedly, now it has become a poor family.
Looking at the appearance of the Cui family's children, the flattery is almost beyond words.
Haha, Lu Zidao is old.
At this time, Yang Jian got accurate news: King Liang was in Gaoyang.
(End of this chapter)