Straight man of steel

Chapter 128 Interest Drives People's Hearts
After giving Tang Meng a three-day time limit, Tang Meng led an army of 500 people and left Fuguan from the southern city gate.

During Tang Meng's absence, Zhang Yuan also discovered the secret that Tang Meng wanted to hide.

One-third of the military tents in the military camp were filled with all kinds of rare treasures from the southwestern barbarians, including bronzes of different shapes, boxes of gold sand, corals as long as one person, and even a few luminous pearls.

The time spent blocking Zhang Yuan from entering the city was probably just to hide these things.

The process of developing the southwestern barbarians was a process of seizing wealth, while the war against the Huns was just a process of consuming wealth.

The big man was able to enter a prosperous age after Liu Che's militarism for decades, because he transported all the wealth in the south to the Central Plains.

The iron ore Zhang Yuan imagined did not appear, and there were no Huang clan members in the army. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that those Huang clan members were disguised as soldiers.

"Master, there's nothing interesting about this talisman. Aren't we going to Yelang Kingdom as envoys? Why don't we go?"

Erdan was sent out by Zhang Yuan, wandering around the barracks all day, chatting with those soldiers in order to get some useful information, now almost all these things hidden in Fuguan have been turned over by Erdan Zongxing When the bottom is upside down, people lose their curiosity.

"The mission to Yelang Kingdom must be postponed. Unless the people's anger in Bajun subsides, Yelang Kingdom will not be able to go for the time being."

Erdan thought hard and didn't even figure out what the public anger in Yelang Kingdom had to do with Ba County. Wasn't the public anger caused by the death of a large number of people during road construction?

"Master, there is no obvious connection between the two."

Zhang Yuan raised his head and glanced at Zong Xing. Zong Xing was considered the smartest among the young men in the family. This time he was beaten out to see the world. It was not known whether he had grown up.

"Zong Xing, tell me why I did this."

Zong Xing bit his lip and thought about it, then analyzed it slowly.

"After being conquered, those civilians went to Yelang Kingdom to build roads. The only road from Bajun to Yelang Kingdom was Fuguan.

Logically speaking, the death of those civilians was a big deal, and it was naturally impossible for Tang Meng to let the news spread to the three counties of Bashu.

And those Huang clan members who were the initiators of this incident were even less likely to spread the news. It was impossible for the army sergeants to return to Bajun without the chance. The only possibility was that the local people of Yelang Kingdom saw it and spread the news. .

The Southwestern Yi are all mountains and rivers, and there must be paths leading to the three counties of Bashu that we don't know about. That's how the news should have spread.

If the Patriarch goes on a mission to the Southwestern Yi before the public anger subsides, he will definitely reveal it. In order to calm the public complaints, you promised the people of Berkshire that this trip is to bring those civilian husbands back. , It will definitely make the people of Berkshire feel dissatisfied, and feel that the envoy of the emperor has broken his promise.

You, the head of the family, can break your word, but the emperor's messenger cannot. "

Zhang Yuan looked at Zong Xing's thorough analysis, and nodded in satisfaction.

This has been the case in all dynasties. As long as people die because of these engineering accidents, the first thought of those direct leaders is to suppress them and not report them.

Even if it spreads to the higher level, the higher level will do the same, lax discipline is also a sin.

Zhang Yuan personally experienced such an incident in later generations. When a friend's relatives were building a wind power station, a group of more than ten workers rode in a van and rolled down the mountain road. Everyone died.

I thought I could see it on the news the next day, but there was no news. In the end, I found out that the company in charge of the project spent money to reach a deal with the families of the dead workers, and used the money to calm the matter down. A sad thing.

I don’t know how many people die every year because of the corvee, but whoever can dig out all these things, Zhang Yuan dare not, others are disdainful, those who have the ability to speak out, they think these disasters are normal the fate of the people.

"Zong Xing is right, that's the truth.

The only person in the world who cannot be sorry to the people is His Majesty, who makes these people his subjects.

When those folk husbands go back, the families that should have received compensation have also received compensation, and the people in the three counties of Bashu will not care about the affairs of Yelang Kingdom. no more concern. "

Erdan nodded half-understood, Zhang Yuan didn't care if he could learn something.

Human nature is like that.

It is the normal state of human nature to have nothing to do with yourself.

However, in any era, there will be some people who will become what people call heroes. They are praised by the world precisely because of their selflessness.

People always think that it would be better if there are more people who serve the country and the people selflessly, but they never think about whether they want to become such a person.

"Patriarch, what should we do next?"

Zong Xing asked Zhang Yuanfa.

"Let Li Jian and Huo Zhong take those soldiers to make wooden boxes. The more, the better. We can use them when Tang Meng comes back."

Er Dan and Zong Xing didn't ask Zhang Yuan's intentions this time, they could see that Zhang Yuan's mood suddenly became a little depressed for some reason, and he quit the military tent after clasping his fists in response.

Tang Meng still had 600 soldiers left in Fuguan. In addition to the people Zhang Yuan brought with him, more than [-] people started cutting down the trees in the surrounding mountains and forests to start making wooden boxes.

As the number increased, Zhang Yuan did not let them stop what they were doing, and everyone gradually knew what Zhang Yuan wanted to do.

Zhang Yuan also sighed in his heart, wiping the emperor's butt is really not an easy job.

The three-day period came soon, and Tang Meng returned to Fuguan with tens of thousands of civilians as promised.

When Zhang Yuan saw these people, he was instantly confused. He thought that 2 civilians survived, and thousands of people died, leaving more than 1 people. But now Fu Pass was packed with people, at least 3 With so many people, Zhang Yuan knew why the people were angry.

This is to bring in a quarter of the labor force in the three counties.

"General Lang, why did the memorial to His Majesty say that there were only more than ten thousand people, and what is going on now."

Zhang Yuan yelled angrily, this must have nothing to do with Liu Che, it was obvious that he was doing things without telling Liu Che.

Tang Meng immediately knelt down and said to Zhang Yuan.

"Honorable envoy, before the memorial was presented to His Majesty, there were indeed only ten thousand civilians left. The sinner was worried that His Majesty would issue an order to stop road construction, so he wanted to enlist more civilians to build the road in a short period of time. Deceiving the Son of Heaven."

Even if Tang Meng's rhetoric was told to Liu Che, it didn't matter at all. Before the new edict came down, Tang Meng did have the power to recruit civilian husbands.

(End of this chapter)