Chapter 69 Chapter 69 The County Lady is Good
Settlement of accounts?!
The officials, bundled together, shuddered in unison. Some felt cold sweat trickle down their temples, others' pupils constricted, and even the more timid ones felt their legs tremble like sieves. A suspicious dark stain had already appeared on the hem of their clothing.
Lin Si picked up the first one and read, "The son of the Lingzhou magistrate raped a woman, and the magistrate's wife beat a tenant to death with a stick." He then paused deliberately, dragging out the last syllable, and glanced at the magistrate's family, who looked ashen.
"As for the prefect, he embezzled military funds, smuggled government salt... so many things I can't even finish reading them."
Lin Si's voice rose and fell in rhythm, like a storyteller.
The fat body of the Lingzhou prefect was shaking violently. The palace soldiers he was waiting for had not arrived yet, and they had probably been controlled by the Anping County Lady.
It's over, she's trying to make an example of someone!
The Lingzhou prefect opened his mouth, but before he could utter a word of begging for mercy, Lin Si lazily raised his hand and waved it lightly.
"Drag him away."
Lin Si smiled, "My Lords, you are familiar with the law. According to the Grand Court Law, how should the prefect rule?"
The county magistrates all shrank back, but one replied in a trembling voice, "He should...be beheaded."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the screams of the Zhizhou family, and everyone became even more scared!
There was no ripple in Lin Si's heart. The people who were harmed by them, the tenants who were beaten to death, and the women who were raped were a thousand times more miserable than they were!
Lin Si blinked his deer eyes and casually drew a card. "Whose is next? The Magistrate of Min County? Or the Governor of Enzhou?"
.......
At the end of the cleanup, Lin Si spared the lives of several mediocre county magistrates who had neither merits nor faults.
Lin Si looked at them and asked, "If you want to survive, you should know what to do, right?"
These people were timid to begin with, and one of them had even peed twice out of fright. When he was screaming outside the hall, his hands were shaking like Parkinson's disease and he never stopped.
At this moment, although they were tied up, they still managed to kneel down, their voices trembling and out of tune, "We are willing... willing to follow the county lady and resign from our official positions from today."
Lin Si nodded with satisfaction, and after giving a slap, he had to give a sweet reward.
If someone in the family is sick, Lin Si will send someone to treat them and also give them some money to settle down in Li County.
Several people were immediately moved to tears of gratitude.
Lin Si stretched lazily. After six years of lying dormant in Li County, he finally made a splash.
After packing up these useless things, the next step is to make good plans and settle the people.
*
Nie Congyan could no longer remember when the price of rice started to rise from ten coins per dou to fifty coins per dou, then to one hundred coins per dou, and now it has reached five hundred coins per dou.
The cold wind howled in through the cracks in the window. Nie Congyan wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, but she couldn't stop shivering. The weather was so unnaturally cold that it seemed as if the chill seeped into the cracks in her bones.
Her stomach was growling with hunger, and the whole family huddled together, barely surviving on a small bowl of porridge every day that was so thin that you could see a person's reflection in it.
Even this porridge had to be cooked secretly in the dead of night. Nie Congyan was always worried that the smoke from the cooking stove would be seen by others.
She didn't dare to think further about what would happen if those hungry people saw it, and just hugged her sister tighter in her arms.
The entire Lingzhou City was shrouded in a dead and gloomy atmosphere. Except for the wealthy merchants and officials, the common people were starving to the point of being emaciated and pale.
Nie Congyan looked at the dwindling rice jar, feeling a heavy weight on his heart. He had a brother and sister at home. What would he do when this last bucket of rice was gone?
My parents have died from hunger and cold. Is it possible that my whole family will die?
Nie Congyan still remembers how his parents refused to eat porridge before they died. They said they were about to die and it would be a waste to eat this food, so they refused to eat it.
Before the cold wave hit, Nie Congyan's biggest worry was what pattern to embroider the next day. She had never thought that there would be a day when she would not have food to eat.
Nie Congyan had also imagined whether the prefect would build a porridge stall to distribute porridge, but she waited and waited, and even when the price of rice rose to one guan of money per dou, the porridge stall still did not appear.
The government remained silent, but there was a rumor that the prefect was planning a grand celebration.
Nie Congyan's brother Nie Congran is a palace soldier, but there is nothing special about that. Palace soldiers do not need training in normal times, so naturally they will not be paid or given food. They will only be summoned when there is a war.
Nie Congyan also heard the neighbors cursing angrily, saying that the people had no food to eat, but the prefect was still holding a grand banquet!
Nie Congyan asked Nie Congran, "Brother, it's being rumored that the prefect is planning a banquet. Is this true?"
Nie Congran curled up in his quilt, his lips turning purple from the cold. He opened his mouth, but his throat seemed frozen shut. After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out, "Yes."
Nie Congyan was so angry that her throat tightened, but she had to hold back her tears. As the tears streamed down her face, she felt even colder, as if she was about to be frozen into ice.
The next day, Nie Congyan woke up feeling dazed. Today was the last mouthful of rice he had, and if he ate it, there would be no more tomorrow.
She looked at the rice jar in near despair, and at this moment, there was a sound of commotion outside.
As a palace soldier, Nie Congran had to go out to guard the city no matter what if there was unrest in the city. If he was not on the roll call, he would be considered a deserter.
More importantly, Nie Congran wanted to perform well and suppress the harassment, and asked the prefect to reward the soldiers with a grain of rice, even if it was just a mouthful.
He asked Nie Congyan to lock the door and no one could open it.
Nie Congyan put his ear to the door and faintly heard something, "Catch that bastard official, and the Anping County Lady will distribute food to everyone!"
Who is the Princess of Anping County?! Nie Congyan didn’t know her, but she heard clearly the following sentence: “Food will be distributed to everyone.”
The feeling of hunger made Nie Congyan's stomach feel like it was being twisted. She covered her stomach and began to think rapidly.
It's a mess outside now, so it's really not appropriate for her to run out rashly.
But what if the Princess of Anping really did distribute grain to everyone? If she arrived too late, would the grain have already run out? Would her hesitation have ruined her family's hope of survival?
She hid her sister and told her not to make a sound if anyone came in except her brother.
Nie Congyan pushed open the door, her mind full of nothing but one sentence: Princess Anping will distribute food to everyone!
She ran out almost instinctively.
It was indeed a mess outside, but it didn't seem to be the mess she had imagined.
Because there was a tall man, and there was a young lady beside him. The young lady was holding a piece of wood with what seemed to be paper on it, and a charcoal pencil.
When they saw her, the young lady and the tall young man were both very calm.
"Are you here to get food? If you're going to get food in this area, you'll see it when you get out of the alley. Remember to line up. How many people are there in your family now?"
Nie Congyan was stunned by the question for two seconds, and after a while he answered, "Five... five people, but my brother is a palace soldier, he is out..."
The young lady took out a small wooden stick from somewhere, wrote something on it with charcoal, and handed it to Nie Congyan.
"Palace soldier, don't worry about it, just take this and go to queue up."
Nie Congyan picked up the wooden stick and ran away. There was a tadpole-like symbol on the stick, which was crooked and she couldn't understand it.
After leaving the alley, I saw two long lines of people, and Nie Congyan was at the end of the line.
The people were surprisingly well-behaved. Not only did no one cut in line, but there was not even a sound of urging them to hurry.
Nie Congyan looked for a long time and finally saw an acquaintance, Wan Yunyun, with whom she had embroidered clothes.
Wan Yunyun told her that the food was brought by the Lord Anping and distributed to everyone, and told her not to cut in line or make noise, because someone had just done that and went directly to the end of the line. If it happened again, she would not be given food for several days. After that, she asked her if she had lied about the number of people in her family, saying that the people under the Lord Anping could find out how many people were in the family, and she must not make them unhappy.
Only then did Nie Congyan remember the tall young man and the young lady.
Forget about the young man, but is this woman, who is younger than her, also a servant of the Anping County Lord? Can a child do things?
But the young lady just now was calm and indifferent, and even more mature than her.
Nie Congyan couldn't help but wonder who this Princess Anping was.
Wan Yunyun seemed to have come out much earlier than her and knew a lot. She even whispered to her, "From now on, Xihe Road will probably belong to Anping County Lord. I just don't know how the battle between Anping County Lord's troops and the palace soldiers is going. Your brother..."
Nie Congyan was so angry that he wanted to stamp his feet. The Princess of Anping distributed food to everyone. Her kindness was much better than that of the prefect.
How could my brother possibly win? The soldiers can't even get enough to eat!
A tall, thin man at the side answered, looking at Nie Congyan with some envy, "Your brother is a palace soldier? Don't worry, I originally lived in Tai'an Lane, and there were too many people lining up in that area. The people under Anping County Lord's command asked me to come here. The palace soldiers have surrendered to Anping County Lord, so maybe your family can get more food."
Nie Congyan's heart finally settled down.
Nie Congyan couldn't help but recall the tall young man and the rosy-faced young lady just now. Thinking carefully, their clothes were also a bit strange. They had something wrapped around their hands and ears, and also around their necks. It looked furry. What was it?
Nie Congyan received the food quickly. She had never seen this red and yellow food before. The person distributing the food said that she could just cook it and eat it when she got home. If there was some rice left at home, she could also cut it into pieces and cook it in porridge.
Nie Congyan took the money out of her clothes pocket and looked around, fearing that someone would snatch it away from her.
However, those people who were obviously the Princess of Anping seemed to be on patrol, which gave her a lot of sense of security.
She rushed home and found that Nie Congran had returned and he also got the food.
Nie Congyan's first reaction was not good! Does this count as receiving two copies?
Nie Congran knew Nie Congyan's worries, "It's okay, this is a separate portion for the palace soldiers. Everyone is back and in a hurry to eat. After eating, we still have to help Anping County Lord's troops with their work."
Only now did Nie Congyan dare to cry. She let her tears flow down her face, and she was no longer afraid of the cold.
"Brother, I ran into Yunyun, and she said there was a fight between the government soldiers and the county lord's troops. Do you know how worried I was about you?"
Nie Congran held the little sister in his arms and comforted her, "How could we defeat the county lord's army? The leader of the army told us that if we surrendered, they would give us food, and the people in the city would also receive food. Everyone surrendered, and anyone who didn't surrender was a fool."
Nie Congran came back earlier, cut the potatoes and sweet potatoes into large pieces, and boiled the last bit of rice in the rice jar. After the water boiled, he divided the rice into bowls.
Now we don’t have to hide anymore. After all, we have potatoes and sweet potatoes today, so no one will be jealous of anyone else, and we don’t have to worry about hungry people breaking in.
Nie Congyan held the porridge, and the hot steam floated to her face. She picked up the spoon and tasted the red and yellow porridge. Perhaps because she was extremely hungry, Nie Congyan felt that she had never eaten such delicious food, one was sweet and the other was pink.
She came back in such a hurry that she forgot the names of these two things.
Nie Congran told her, "The red ones are called sweet potatoes, and the yellow ones are called potatoes."
After the three of them finished the porridge, they felt warm all over and felt as if they were alive again.
Nie Congran stood up and said, "I have to go help the county lord's troops. They have set a certain time to return to work. If I am delayed, it will be bad."
Nie Congyan looked at his sister and suddenly felt that all this seemed like a dream. He was almost starving to death yesterday, but today he saw the hope of living.
All this is because the Princess of Anping must be someone who cares deeply about the people.
Nie Congyan silently made a definition in his heart: the Princess of Anping County is good, and the Governor of Lingzhou is bad!
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