Chapter 1481.

Qing’an County, which had just survived a year of many disasters, did not see any light in the New Year.

Despite driving away the roving bandit army, not a single drop of rain fell throughout the winter.

After the beginning of spring, the Qingshui River was completely cut off, and the riverbed was full of dried fish that had been exposed to the sun.

Soon these dried fish were picked up by people to feed their hunger.

Since the irrigation water source was cut off, the spring plowing work could no longer be carried out, and panic spread everywhere.

This made the county magistrate Ye Xiangming anxious, on the one hand, organizing a large number of manpower to drill wells to collect water, on the other hand, guiding farmers to plant drought-resistant crops such as sweet potatoes.

Although the sweet potatoes are unpalatable and need to be processed before they can be eaten, it is better than planting rice and wheat without any harvest.

Nonetheless, at the beginning of summer, the victims still appeared in large numbers in Qing’an County.

“Master, ma’am, do us a favor and give us some food!”

In the streets and alleys of the county town, there were suddenly a lot of people fleeing the famine with their families, they were dressed in rags and had thin faces, a bag and a few broken bowls were all they had, sitting on the ground and begging from the pedestrians who came and went.

However, they could not beg for anything to eat – food is very expensive nowadays, and a meal a day is considered very good.

Because the number of victims flooding into the city was too large, seriously affecting the security of the county town, so the government sent out the police, together with the garrison, to drive these people outside the city to resettle and provide relief.

At one time, the cries and pleas were endless, and even reached the county office.

In the middle of the hall, the county magistrate Ye Xiangming was worried and said to Wang Chen, who was sitting by the side, “The grain stored in the county treasury can only support for another month at the most, and now we can’t buy any more grain from Yunzefu.”

“Xian son-in-law, what do you say?”

Ye Xiangming was good at practicing soldiering, but not very good at dealing with civil affairs, so he was relying more and more on Wang Duan, who served as the county minister, to advise him.

“Borrow some more grain from the big households.”

Wang Dust said without thinking, “They must still have grain in stock, borrow as much as you can.”

“This isn’t too good.”

Ye Xiangming was quite hesitant about Wang Dust’s suggestion.

Of course he knew that some of the big households in the county had hoarded a large amount of grain, but to make a move against these big households without a justifiable reason, it would easily lead to pandemonium.

The big families were not fish, how could they tolerate themselves to be easily slaughtered?

In addition, Ye Xiangming has been operating in Qing’an County for so many years, and has a lot of relationships with many large households.

It’s also not good to start ah!

“Nothing bad.”

Wang Dust said lightly, “In times of crisis, when we are in the same boat, for the sake of the 100,000 people of Qing’an, they have to borrow even if they don’t borrow, at most we will buy it at a flat price.”

In Wang Dust’s opinion, his old husband’s ability is very strong, but it is a pity that when the official when a long time, especially after serving as a county magistrate, acting began to appear to be tied hands, there is no decisive determination in the past.

Ye Xiangming smiled bitterly, “Where are they willing to sell!”

Nowadays, food is more precious than silver, money can’t even buy enough food on the market, the victims outside the city would have all starved to death long ago if they didn’t have the relief from the county stockpile of food.

“That can’t be left to them.”

Wang Dust said without thinking, “How about this, I’ll have someone throw a few pairs of armor to those big families’ homes, then the county office will have a reason to take action.”

Throughout the dynasties, hiding armor is a big crime, light is the whole family exile, heavy is the whole family beheading!

A pair of armor to exterminate a big family is a very good reason.

Ye Xiangming was dumbfounded by what he heard, and even had a chill in his heart, feeling that his knowledge of Wang Dust had been refreshed once again.

He muttered and asked, “Then what if the drought hasn’t ended after eating these big households?”

The county’s large households are not leeks in the field, after cutting a crop and can grow new ones, eating the large households is actually not much different from killing chickens to get eggs.

“Then we will go to rob!”

Wang Dust looked cold and stern: “At that time, I will lead the troops to enter Yunze again, and clear out the roving bandits and mountain thieves, and surely we can scavenge some food back.”

Yunze Province is the land of fish and rice, the drought is even more serious, the situation over there is also much stronger than this side.

Ye Xiangming was shocked again, “Taking troops out of the country is a felony!”

This crime is much bigger than hiding armor, at least it is the consequence of executing three clans.

Wang Duan said: “We pretend to be a roving bandit is not enough? The roving bandit fire and black eating black, then the local government office will only be happy, who can plant this crime on our head?”

His eyes were full of morose color: “If it really comes to that day, let’s just go against our son-in-law directly.”

Ye Xiangming couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cool air.

He then realized that his son-in-law’s boldness was far beyond imagination.

In Wang Chen’s mouth, revolting had become a trivial matter like a family affair!

The magistrate subconsciously looked around.

Luckily, there were only two people in the hall of the magistrate’s office, so these treacherous words did not fall into the ears of a third person.

Seeing his old father-in-law froze and didn’t say anything, Wang Dust laughed, “Of course, this is the last option, father-in-law, do you now feel that it’s better to eat a big family?”

Ye Xiangming couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

That’s right, compared to rebelling, then eating big households is nothing at all ah!

This county magistrate could only sigh, “It can only be so.”

Ye Xiangming and Wang Duan were currently the number one and number two people in Qing An County, and when the two of them joined hands, there were no rivals in this county.

As a result, many of the county’s large households were out of luck.

Under the heavy pressure of the charge of “hiding armor”, one big family after another soon donated a large amount of grain either voluntarily or forcibly, which greatly alleviated the food crisis in Qing’an County.

Countless victims were able to survive as a result.

But the consequence of this is also very obvious, many large households on the surface obedience, in fact, behind the scenes to send people to the capital city, denounced Ye Xiangming and Wang dust son-in-law and two people to cruelty to the people in order to raid the good, in the Qing’an County one hand to cover up the sky with a lot of crimes.

The influence of these large households is still very large, the capital city quickly responded by sending an envoy to Qing’an to conduct an investigation.

As a result, before the envoy’s team set foot in Qing’an County, they were suddenly attacked by bandits.

All of them, including the envoy, were killed, and their bodies could not even be found.

At the same time, several large families on the Qing’an County side were suddenly raided by the county court and copied out a large amount of evidence of banditry!

In addition to confiscating all of their wealth, these unlucky people were all arrested and sent to hard labor.

Such a toss down, Qing’an County up and down quiet as a chicken, Ye Xiangming and Wang Duan’s prestige climbed to the apex, a should be large households in front of the two are coy part.

Such a situation, continued to the end of summer and early fall.