Chapter 65: People's minds change in a moment
"What's going on ahead?" Cui Heng got off the carriage, looked at the people of Lu County ahead, and asked Liu Litao beside him.
"This, this is probably the work of Sun Panshi and others." Liu Litao was so angry that he was shaking all over, and gritted his teeth and said, "Sir, these people are already lawless, and most of these people have been deceived by them!"
"There are probably thousands of people here. What a great skill!" Cui Heng sneered and said to Hui Shi, "Go over and ask what's going on?"
"Yes! Sir!" Hui Shi saluted and accepted the order.
"Those people are probably laughing at us." Cui Heng glanced at the Lu County wall in the distance and said with a smile, "Liu County Secretary, let the accompanying soldiers prepare to release grain and salt!"
After he accepted the position of Lu County Governor, he kept Liu Litao by his side as County Secretary, which helped him quickly understand the various affairs of Lu County and collect people's emotions more conveniently.
"Yes! Sir!" Liu Litao nodded quickly and praised, "Sir, you are really as good as a god. You have expected such obstacles a long time ago."
"Go away." Cui Heng waved his hand and smiled.
Liu Litao's official habits have not changed. He flatters every three sentences. Fortunately, he is honest in doing things, and the soldiers behind him were quickly mobilized.
Cui Heng came to Lu County City with quite a few people.
In addition to Hui Shi, Xu Fengan, Liu Litao, and Qian Cang, there are more than a dozen disaster victims who originally fled from Dachang County to Juhe County to serve as soldiers.
A new official must be prepared in advance when he takes office in a strange place, especially in a place like Lujun City where a trap has already been dug.
If you want to gather people's hearts, win the love of the people, and collect positive emotions, you must have your own people who can be used to do things from the beginning.
There must be at least a dozen of them.
These former disaster victims in Dachang County are undoubtedly the best choice.
They are absolutely loyal to Cui Heng, and even think that their lives belong to Cui Heng.
On the other hand, it is also because Cui Heng brought a lot of supplies to Lujun City, which requires people to transport.
Of course, he could have used magic to make the materials after arriving at Lu County City, but that would be like exhausting the resources. He
could only harvest emotions on a large scale at one time, and there would be no follow-up.
After a bowl of water in Juhe County City drowned 50,000 troops, he did not receive many emotions from the people.
This was not in line with the concept of sustainable development.
It would be better to arrange more manpower and proceed step by step.
...
As soon as Hui Shi arrived at the gate of Lu County City, a dozen people immediately surrounded him.
"Sir, you are the county magistrate's man, right? Please ask the county magistrate to give us a way out. We can't even afford to buy food!"
"Please, county magistrate, don't raise the price of food. We ordinary people can't afford it. Please, sir, give us a way out!"
"And the Yan family, my family hasn't dared to eat salt for three days. The child is getting weaker and weaker, but he is still growing! Wuwuwu!!"
The more these people talked, the more excited they became. Some even began to squeeze forward, almost surrounding Hui Shi completely.
Zheng!
Hui Shi lightly shook the steel knife on his waist, looked around with cold eyes, and shouted loudly: "Everyone, the governor is a fair ruler who loves the people like his own children. Don't get excited. He will definitely help you solve the problem!"
Ordinary people are afraid of swords and knives. When they saw this battle, they subconsciously stepped back a few steps.
"How to solve it? Can he spit out the silver he ate?!"
At this time, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, "I heard a long time ago that the new governor and the grain and salt merchants conspired to raise the price several times and take half of the commission for themselves!"
"Who is talking nonsense!" Hui Shi shouted angrily and wanted to go out to check, but he was surrounded by three layers of people inside and outside, and he couldn't move at all.
"Sir! Is it true that the governor gets commissions from the merchants?"
"Sir! Please have mercy on us! If this continues, we won't be able to survive!"
"Sir, Sir..."
The voices of countless people buzzed in Huishi's ears, making him extremely irritated. He almost couldn't help but draw his sword and chop people.
But these people were not from the Huang family of Juhe County, so they couldn't be killed at will.
He could only force himself to hold back.
However, Huishi was a martial artist in the Condensation Realm after all, so he could still use his true energy to slowly push away these people and return to Cui Heng.
"Sir, the situation is not optimistic." Hui Shi went to report and said in a deep voice: "Someone mixed in these people to stir up discord, saying that you, sir, have partnered with merchants to compete with the people for profits."
"Have you found out who it is?" Cui Heng asked.
"I was surrounded by the people and couldn't find out." Hui Shi nodded a little ashamed.
"It doesn't matter." Cui Heng smiled. "You go there again and tell these people that if they come to me to buy grain and salt, they can buy it at half the usual price. Each person is limited to buying 20 kilograms of grain and 1 kilogram of salt.
"However, every citizen who comes to collect grain and salt must say that it is the merchant who raised the price of grain and salt. Then you organize people to record all these."
"Yes! "Sir!" Hui Shi immediately took the order and returned.
"Sir, I have just found that person." Xu Feng'an, who was pretending to be an old scholar, asked in confusion, "Why don't you let me catch him directly?"
"If we arrest people now, we won't be able to eradicate the problem completely." Cui Heng chuckled and glanced at the gatehouse on the city wall.
...
At this time, in the gatehouse on the city wall of Lu County.
Sun Panshi and Wang Jinsheng were sitting opposite each other drinking, looking at the scene outside with joking eyes.
"Brother Wang Xian, how do you think County Magistrate Cui will deal with this public opinion?"
Sun Panshi drank a glass of fine wine and laughed, "This is probably the first new county magistrate in history who was blocked by the people at the city gate! Hahaha! "
Brother Sun, didn't you notice the more than 20 carts that the new county magistrate brought?" Wang Jinsheng asked instead of answering. He looked outside and chuckled, "There must be a lot of food in there."
"How is that possible? Can he move the food from Juhe County to help the people here?" Sun Panshi shook his head and said, "Besides, Juhe County has been poor for a long time. How can there be so much food to transport?"
"When Governor Cui was in Juhe County, he opened the warehouses to release food and saved thousands of disaster victims." Wang Jinsheng was still looking outside. "I think this level won't be a problem for him. We should prepare for the next countermeasures."
"Brother Xian, you worry too much..." Sun Panshi still didn't quite believe it, but when he saw the changes outside, he stood up suddenly and shouted in shock, "How is it possible that he really brought so much food?!"
"Not only food, but also salt!" Wang Jinsheng's eyes were slightly dazed, and suddenly he laughed, "Hahaha, this is interesting. If you are too easily suppressed, it will make me feel bored."
"Oh, it's nothing more than an act of buying people's hearts!" Sun Panshi was still unconvinced and sneered, "After these days of publicity, the image of the new county magistrate collaborating with merchants to compete with the people for profits can no longer be changed!
"Even if he is bold enough to take action against those merchants after entering the city, his image will not be good in the hearts of the people. They will just think that he is destroying the bridge after crossing it! "
…
Cui Heng brought a total of twenty carts of grain and five carts of salt.
These grains were naturally not enough to sell to these thousands of refugees, so it was first come first served.
Then, he promised that there would be more in the future, and everyone could go to the county magistrate's office to buy it.
And he would do his best to lower the prices of grain, salt and other people's livelihood.
In this way, the people would naturally disperse.
Even if there were people behind it, it would be useless in the face of real grain and salt.
"Have you written down the information of the merchants?" Cui Heng asked Hui Shi.
"Reporting to the adults, I have written it down." Hui Shi nodded and said angrily, "A total of thirteen grain merchants and six salt merchants have all increased the price sevenfold!"
"Okay! Cui Heng nodded gently. "
Sir, although you sold them food at half price, there are still people who think this is a way to win people's hearts." Hui Shi said with some concern, "They still think you are in cahoots with those merchants."
"It doesn't matter." Cui Heng waved his hand, said nothing else, and returned to the carriage directly, "Enter the city!"
...
After handling the city gate incident, Cui Heng successfully took office as the prefect of Lu County.
Sun Panshi and others were waiting for the new prefect to make a move.
But three days passed.
No news came out of the prefect's office.
It was only known that Cui Heng was arranging people around him to take up various positions.
There seemed to be no sign of taking action.
Moreover, during these three days, grain and salt were continuously transported from Juhe County through the Hong River. They were
still sold to the people at half price!
It was as if the grain and salt there were inexhaustible.
This made Sun Panshi and others so angry that they almost cursed. They couldn't even find the people to go to the prefect's office to make trouble. They
could only curse Cui Heng in their hearts for using up the grain and salt quickly.
After more than ten days, the grain and salt were It was still coming in continuously.
There was no sign of it stopping.
Songs praising the new governor had even begun to spread in Lu County.
Sun Panshi and his men could still endure it, but their grain and salt merchants could not stand it anymore.
They hadn't made any money for more than half a month, and any merchant would be furious.
So, the merchants began to use twice the The grain and salt were purchased from the people at a low price, and then sold at three times the original price.
Grain and salt are important, but money also knows people's hearts.
Inevitably, some people could not resist the temptation to sell some of the grain and salt in their hands.
As a result, the overall grain and salt prices remained high despite the continuous half-price grain and salt.
The people soon began to spontaneously investigate those who sold grain and salt to merchants.
This caused the grain and salt merchants to quickly increase the purchase price to three times.
As a result, more people secretly sold grain and salt.
The selling price also quickly increased to five times.
It was almost seven times the original price.
At this time, the grain and salt shipped from Juhe County The grain and salt suddenly stopped
coming! The county magistrate's office also issued a notice that there was no grain and salt to be transported.
The grain and salt prices suddenly soared to fifteen times the original price!
Sun Panshi and others celebrated.
Merchants held banquets to celebrate.
The people were furious, but there was nothing they could do.
The entire Lu County city almost became a powder keg.
It was about to explode. .
Finally, a large number of people could not bear it anymore, and they ran to the county governor's office to file a complaint, hoping that the county governor would severely punish these illegal merchants.
This time no one instigated it, everyone was spontaneous, and they just went to the governor for help.
Instead of questioning.
In the past month, the image of the new county governor who single-handedly confronted the grain and salt merchants in the city has been established in the hearts of the people.
No one would believe that Cui Heng was in cahoots with those merchants.
Inside the county governor's office.
Cui Heng took a list and said to Hui Shi who was on standby: "Thirteen grain merchants, six salt merchants, nine pharmacies, twelve carbon merchants, seven... these have all been checked out, right?"
"Yes, sir, they have all been checked out." Hui Shi said respectfully.
"What is the attitude of the people? " Cui Heng asked again.
"Your Excellency, this is a great plan. Now the people in the city sincerely admire you." Hui Shi admired Cui Heng's approach. This is what it means to truly win the hearts of the people.
If he had confiscated the property of these merchants when he first entered the city, there would definitely not be such a united people's hearts. He might even be labeled as a traitor.
"Okay!" Cui Heng nodded and smiled. Now, the first goal has been achieved.
So, he immediately put the list on the table and said in a deep voice, "Hui Shi, listen to my order! All the above merchants will have their property confiscated and a public trial will be held on a certain day! Anyone who obstructs will be killed on the spot!"
The pigs are fat.
It's time to kill them!
(End of this chapter)