Big traitor pregnant with my cub

In order to appease Xia Jing's emotions and prevent him from getting angry like yesterday, Zhou Yi "obediently" withdrew, but the atmosphere between the two fell into a "freezing point".

But soon they can't care about such a small awkwardness, and their personal joys and sorrows can easily be occupied by more grand emotions.

After the group entered Henan, they were gradually overwhelmed by the famine in the area, and the further south they went, the worse the phenomenon became.

Even though they had prepared for a long time, they purchased enough water, dry food, and medicinal materials needed by Xia Jing in two carriages when they left Shanxi, but distributed all the way south, and when they reached Nanyang, there was almost no water and dry food left. .

At this time, it was about half a month before they left the capital, and the contrast between coming from the bustling and bustling city to such a place full of mourning was shocking.

This situation was laid out bloody in front of everyone, different from those stiff and cold descriptions in the report, this is an iron-like fact!

No one is in the mood to care about those petty loves anymore, but anyone with flesh and blood wants to do something for these same people, and they are not ordinary people, the specifications of the two first-rank members in the team are enough for them to take Some effective measures.

Xia Jing came here mainly to "verify" whether his subordinate Shu Qi's home was hoarding rice and grain to drive up food prices. disaster relief measures.

The two of them tacitly agreed, and after settling down in the inn, they immediately went to various rice and grain stores to check the situation.For this reason, Xia Jing also changed the purple brocade robe on his body, and changed into a plain robe that didn't look so rich and dazzling.

In special seasons, there are many guards inside and outside the store, especially this kind of rice grain store, and it is even more necessary to prevent hungry people from turning into mobs, causing looting and chaos.

The two asked several shops one after another, including the Shujia Liang Company. The rice prices of these shops have indeed risen a lot, and in the past, the more they bought, the cheaper the price. The more the more, the more expensive they are. They saw a rich man who brought a group of guards to buy two bags of rice and came out of the shop cursing. He was obviously slaughtered by the merchant.

This is only the case when the family has spare money to buy rice. If there is no spare money to trade with merchants, they can only go hungry. It is very common to sell children and daughters on the streets.

The guards at the city gate were extremely strict, and they had to be interrogated in detail when they entered and exited. Zhou Yi and his party saw that their clothes were in good condition and they had a horse-drawn carriage, so they could pass all the way. let in.

The local officials did not do enough, but they can't be completely blamed on them. Under the current situation, a large number of hungry people are sent to the city, which will inevitably cause turmoil in the city, and it will be even more difficult to control.Of course, if there is a case of corruption of ink and rice for disaster relief, that is another matter.

In contrast, the situation in the city is pretty good. Even if you sell your sons and daughters, you can at least survive. The small and big villages outside the city have not had a harvest for three years, and they are almost at the end of the mountain.

Along the way, they helped bury many corpses that were randomly discarded on the side of the road. Some corpses were even missing arms and legs, which was unbearable to look at.

But under the disaster, these scenes are the norm.

The imperial court has now changed from every year to every six months to allocate rice and grain for disaster relief. Judging from the situation, it is still a drop in the bucket, and it is difficult to cure the symptoms.

After inquiring for a day and returning to the inn, the two didn't even have dinner, so they shunned everyone and locked themselves in the room to discuss the current situation.

Xia Jing looked solemn: "What do you think of the current situation?"

Zhou Yi already had a plan in mind: "The rice and grain allocated by the imperial court are all calculated according to the nationality of the people. If all of them are used for disaster relief, the people will never be like this. It seems that the information I got earlier is not complete. These The rice and grain store looks fine on the surface, but the water inside is deep. In my opinion, it may not be as simple as a malicious alliance to drive up the price of rice, and the government may also be involved."

Xia Jing raised his eyes to look at him: "You mean, the government withholds some of the official rations and sells them at a high price in the name of a business name to make money?"

"Most likely."

"Now there is no need to continue to investigate the crime of Shu Qi, and I, the minister of the bodyguards, have been jointly and severally responsible. Self-proving innocence has become a joke. Before you left Beijing, you said that there was a way for me to pay off the crime. Now you can say right?"

Zhou Yi frowned and pondered for a moment: "How about this, tomorrow is the government's porridge donation day, porridge sheds will be set up at the gates of each city, let's go and have a look before making a decision, how about it?"

"Okay." Xia Jing agreed without hesitation.

Both of them are tired these few days, now that the matter has been agreed upon, Zhou Yi got up and said, "I'll let the inn set the meal, you should go to bed early after dinner."

"No need, I don't have an appetite." Xia Jing thought of the disaster scene in front of him, and waved his hands in disgust, "You can eat by yourself."

Zhou Yi glanced at him, didn't persuade, and went out of the room directly, but he came back soon with a tray, which contained two bowls of porridge and two dishes of porridge side dishes.In order to save rice, the inns in Nanyang no longer provide rice.

Zhou Yi put one of the bowls of porridge in front of him: "You still have to eat, otherwise your body will not be able to hold on."

The porridge bowls were all brought to him, and it became more and more shameful to waste food in this place, so Xia Jing didn't say anything, and silently picked up the porridge and two side dishes to eat.

The two were drinking porridge, and there was no communication during the period. After finishing the porridge, Zhou Yi still cleaned up. Before going out, he left a meaningful question: "If you donate some money to the victims of the disaster, would you like it? "

******

In an inconspicuous corner at the foot of the city wall, three ragged and unkempt "hungry people" rushed over from different directions one after another. The same thing was that they all protected a bowl of porridge that had just been brought from the porridge shed at the gate of the city.

Zhou Yi and Xia Jing each took the three bowls of porridge and inspected them. Sure enough, each bowl contained only a full bowl of rice soup and a few grains of boiled rice that could be counted clearly.

If this kind of rice soup is served every time the government opens a shed to give porridge, it is no wonder that the people outside the city will starve to death.

According to Xia Chuan and the two coachmen, who were pretending to be hungry people, they asked the people here that when several grain merchants gave out porridge, it was this kind of porridge.

This confirmed the two people's previous conjectures. The government colluded with the grain merchants and used the disaster relief rice allocated by the court to amass money.

It's just a lie, a nest of snakes and rats!

No wonder they left Shanxi and went south through various prefectures and counties in Henan. Looking all the way, only Nanyang and its vicinity are the most serious!

After finishing all this and returning to the inn, Xia Jing proposed to donate half a year's rice grain from the national treasury to Henan to cover the gap. He has a lot of property in his hand, so although he consumes a lot of rice grain, he still has to pay for it. rise.

This is what Zhou Yi originally thought of for him, that's why he asked him yesterday if he would donate money to the victims of the disaster.

But he was so generous all of a sudden, which surprised Ah Yao a lot. Besides, he was very peaceful along the way. Except for the awkward and cold war with Zhou Yi for a few days, nothing happened at other times, so she kept her promise. The agreement with Zhou Yi before departure has improved her attitude towards Xia Jing a lot. Although she is not close, she no longer calls him a "big villain".

The matter in Nanyang has already taken shape, but there is only one evidence that can be produced at present.

Fortunately, this evidence came soon. According to the previous arrangement, it will be more than a month before the next time the imperial court allocates rice grains. They only need to wait here for the rice grains to arrive before they can figure out Find evidence of collusion between officials and businessmen to corrupt ink officials!

Even if Zhou Yidang went back to his room to draft memorials and letters, he would report the situation of the investigation in Nanyang and Xia Jing's thoughts to Mingde, and at the same time, he would also inform Mingde of his and others' plans, hoping that Mingde would not act rashly. In the letter, he detailed the famine situation in Henan that he had seen with his own eyes, and also put forward some opinions of his own.

This time the letter was very important, so Ah Yao personally sent it to the hidden pile buried in Shanxi, sent it to the University Scholars' Office in Beijing through a secret channel, and then Zhou Song handed it to Mingde and Mr. He.

After sending out the letter, Zhou Yi has nothing else to do for the time being. He just needs to hide his identity and wait. He is not idle. When Ah Yao comes back, he will take her to other prefectures and counties near Nanyang Mansion to investigate. Learn about the situation and come back every few days to fix it.

Xia Jing also started to take action. He has been busy sending Xia Chuan to contact the scattered industries in the past few days. A warrant was issued from Nanyang to secretly mobilize silver from various places to purchase rice grains. He made preparations in advance and only waited for Nanyang's affairs. Luoding and Mingde also agreed, and the rice grain for disaster relief can be transported.

It took a long time to exchange letters, and this busy work lasted for a whole month. By the time Ming De agreed to send the request in the letter, Xia Jing's stomach was almost three and a half months old.

The two of them were busy with the affairs at hand during this period, they didn't communicate much, and they rarely got together, and they talked about business matters. As for the embarrassment caused by Wen Lan's letter last time, they didn't mention a word recently.

On this day at Xushi, Zhou Yi received wind that the rice grain allocated by the imperial court was already on the way, and the share of Nanyang Mansion would be delivered in a few days. He was fine now, so he knocked on Xia Jing's door, planning to Discuss future actions with him.

When the door was knocked, Xia Jing had just finished wiping, and put a purple satin close-fitting robe on her body, outlining her increasingly prominent waist.

The drought in this place is severe, and the corresponding water source is very precious. He is a person who loves cleanliness very much, but when he comes here, bathing has become a luxury, and he can only get some water to wipe his body every few days.

During the daytime, he was dressed neatly, and with a looser belt, he could barely cover it up, but now he was only wearing a close-fitting robe, and his belly, which was different from before, could not be covered up at all.Looking down at his obviously out-of-shape body, he was a little annoyed, so he responded with a little irritability: "Who is it?"

"It's me, is it convenient?"

Hearing Zhou Yi's familiar voice sounded outside the door, he lost his thoughts on taking another robe to put on his body, and even loosened the collar on his chest. So go and open the door.

As soon as the door opened, he didn't even give Zhou Yi a look, turned around and walked in, and said lightly: "Close the door, come to me so late, why is it so urgent?" It was completely business-like. .

Zhou Yi entered and closed the door in one go, but when she turned to look at Xia Jing, her eyes touched his waist and her pupils shrank suddenly, and only then did she have a more real feeling about Xia Jing's pregnancy.

Aware of his focused gaze, Xia Jing was both embarrassed and happy, but he still refused to forgive him, and at the same time threw a knife at him: "What are you looking at, are you happy to see me like this?"