Chapter 182 One-sided statement
"Okay!" King Qin nodded in agreement.
He also wanted to know what the current situation in Yuzhou was like, so he had a few people captured and brought to him.
He looked at the people and asked, "Have you not received disaster relief food from the court? Have the officials here arranged activities such as distributing porridge?"
A man with a thin face and prominent cheekbones said, "Bah... Sir, are you kidding us? We, the people of Yuzhou, have never seen disaster relief grain from the imperial court. Today, there are still people in Yuzhou because the weather was good in the past few years and the farmers grew their own grain, so we didn't starve to death. The drought this year has left us with nothing to harvest. Forget about disaster relief grain. If it weren't for the fact that people really can't afford anything at home, the governor might have asked us to pay heavy taxes!"
"That's right. You court officials are all protecting each other. The disaster relief officials who came before were only here to give money to the governor. They don't care about our lives at all!"
"Yuzhou is no longer a part of Daxia. This is the world of the governor's family. They are the local emperors of Yuzhou. They let the people die, and no one can save them!"
"Yes! It's you, the corrupt officials, who want to embezzle money from each other in the name of disaster relief. We won't let you do what you want! Hurry up and grab it!"
As the first man finished speaking, the people nearby also echoed him in indignation. Speaking of the Yuzhou governor, this was a person they hated to the core.
Seeing that the people were about to cause trouble again, the King of Qin quickly ordered people to calm them down and said loudly: "Don't worry! I am the King of Qin of Daxia. This time I am here to make the decision for you! Everyone, please line up at the city gate first. We will cook porridge here for everyone. Don't gather together to cause trouble! Otherwise, the food will be destroyed and none of you will be able to eat!"
"What? The King of Qin? Who is the King of Qin? He said he would give us porridge now? Is this true?"
"Are you serious about giving out free porridge? You're not lying!"
"Don't lie to us. Is this true?"
The people did not dare to believe what the King of Qin said, because no official had ever provided porridge here in the past year.
King Qin and Pei Jingchuan looked at each other, Pei Jingchuan nodded secretly, and King Qin continued: "How can I go back on my word as a prince? All of you get out of the way now and line up at the city gate, so that I can have people unload the grain and cook the porridge!"
In this situation, if they don't give some food to the people, then the people will definitely not give up. These are a group of people who are starving to death. Anyway, they are either dead or alive, so they are not afraid of the threat of force at all. Moreover, the King of Qin thought that the purpose of their coming here was originally to provide disaster relief, so it was reasonable to give porridge to the people in the border town of Yuzhou first.
But at this time Pei Jingyuan had an opinion. He could not help but loudly admonish the King of Qin: "King of Qin, these are a bunch of unruly people! How can you believe their one-sided words? According to regulations, we should first hand over the relief grain to the officials of Yuzhou and register it before we can distribute it. How can we move now?"
"By the time you send them to the officials in Yuzhou, where will the people get food? These people would have probably starved to death long ago! Pei Jingyuan, how can you be so naive?" At this time, Xu Qingyan couldn't help but stand up and yelled at Pei Jingyuan.
As the male protagonist of the book, he didn't even have this much brains, and was still thinking about sticking to the rules and sending these things to the officials in Yuzhou. Xu Qingyan was almost laughing at Pei Jingyuan's anger.
Pei Jingyuan felt embarrassed when he saw Xu Qingyan, a woman, yelling at him. His face flushed with anger, he said, "Impossible! The officials of Yuzhou are appointed by the court. How dare they do such a thing? It must be these unruly people! Don't believe these unruly people. They just dared to rob the court's food. How can they be good people?"
"Shut up! The King of Qin is the one in charge here, and you have no right to make trouble here!" Seeing this, Pei Jingchuan pulled Xu Qingyan behind him and scolded Pei Jingyuan.
Pei Jingyuan heard this, his face full of resentment, and said: "Brother, King Qin, you are going to disregard the rules of the court. Fine! I will watch you distribute porridge here, and when you find out that you have been cheated, you will regret it!"
"Pei Jingyuan, since you don't trust us so much, how about we make a bet?" Seeing Pei Jingyuan's angry look, Xu Qingyan couldn't help but come up with an idea.
After hearing this, Pei Jingyuan said unhappily, "What do you want to bet on?"
Hearing this, Xu Qingyan smiled and said, "Let's bet on whether we will send the grain to the governor of Yuzhou and whether he will give it to the people. I bet he will definitely keep it for himself and will not let the people get a single grain of grain."
"How is that possible? Sister-in-law, do you really want to bet on this? What if you lose?" Pei Jingyuan retorted subconsciously.
He felt that no matter how greedy the governor of Yuzhou was, he would not dare to embezzle the food so openly. As long as he watched him make arrangements at that time, the food would definitely be distributed to the people. Therefore, he felt that Xu Qingyan would definitely lose, so he became interested in her bet.
Xu Qingyan smiled faintly and said, "If I lose, I will compensate you with 100,000 taels of silver. If you lose, you must also compensate me with the same amount. If you don't have money, you can exchange it with the shop under your name."
It just so happened that she had taken a fancy to Pei Jingyuan's several shops in the capital, which were in excellent locations. She could take this opportunity to grab them.
"Okay!" Pei Jingyuan agreed without hesitation.
It just so happened that he was short of money recently, and this 100,000 taels was not a small amount for him. Therefore, Pei Jingyuan did not make trouble again, but waited to see Xu Qingyan and the others slap him in the face.
After distributing some food in the border town, the King of Qin and his entourage rested for a night, comforted the people in the town, and then set out for the center of Yuzhou city.
On the eighth day, we finally arrived at Yuzhou City. The situation in Yuzhou City was completely different from what we saw in the border town. Although there were not many people on the street, there were no beggars like in the border town, and no unruly people dared to come forward to rob things.
There were some skinny people walking around on the street. Although there were few people doing business, there were still some. There were many restaurants in the city, but there were not many customers. It felt that this place was indeed poorer than other cities, but it was not to the point of being destitute.
Upon hearing that the King of Qin was coming, the governor of Yuzhou, along with his family and other officials, went out to greet him.
"Greetings to His Royal Highness the King of Qin, Young Master!" The Governor of Yuzhou bowed and saluted the King of Qin in his scarlet official robe, with many men and women standing behind him.
Although the people in the mansion were not dressed very brightly, they all looked very good. Except for a few slender young women, the others were all plump, not a single one was thin. As soon as you saw them, you would find that they were no different from the people on the street.
Xu Qingyan couldn't help but sneer in her heart: [This governor is really good at pretending! His family is obviously very rich, but when they heard that the King of Qin was coming, they deliberately asked the whole family to dress so simply. ]
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