Chapter 594 Catch them all in one swoop
Chapter 594 Catch them all in one fell swoop
At night, Li Luming finally found a place for more than fifty people to stay. It was in an inn two hundred steps away from Zhao Sima Lane. They booked the entire inn.
Li Luming immediately mobilized two thousand soldiers to encircle and suppress the assassin warriors in the two places.
At three o'clock in the morning, thousands of soldiers surrounded Zhao Sima Lane. At a command, hundreds of crossbow arrows shot into several large houses where more than fifty people lived. Screams were heard in the houses. A dozen surviving warriors escaped from the big houses, but they were greeted by another hail of arrows. More than a dozen warriors fell one after another.
The courtyard fell silent, and the commander, Guan Ning, shouted, "Go in and search!"
Hundreds of soldiers rushed in with spears in hand. After a moment, only a few screams were heard, and then there was no sound.
At this time, the soldiers carried out the corpses one after another. Each corpse was full of arrows. Finally, a middle-aged scholar was escorted out. It was Song Guang. He slept in the back room, which was the only brick-walled house. After the first round of arrows, he quickly hid under the bed and thus escaped.
Song Guang's hands were tied with ropes and his face turned pale with fear.
"Take him away first!"
Guan Ning waved his hand, and the soldiers took Song Guang to a special prison carriage. A dozen cavalrymen escorted the carriage back to the government office. When passing by the inn, Song Guang saw that the inn was also surrounded by soldiers, and corpses were being carried out one by one.
Song Guang sighed in his heart, he had completely failed on the first day.
Three days later, a thousand county soldiers stationed in Xuancheng County received an order to surround the Chief Secretary's Mansion and arrested Wei Yue who was hiding in the mansion. The governor Gao Biaoren read out the order of King Jin, dismissed the Chief Secretary Wei Liangcai for the crime of assassination, and escorted him to Jingkou County for questioning. Wei Yue was also escorted to Jingkou County.
Xiao Xia did not intend to execute Wei Yue and others, but to imprison them indefinitely, and basically had no intention of letting them out for the rest of their lives.
The news of the arrest of Wei Yue and Wei Liangcai reached Luoyang. Wei Liangcai's wife came to Wei Chong with her children crying, making Wei Chong upset.
At this moment, the housekeeper came running over and said, "Master, Prime Minister Yu is here!"
Wei Chong hurriedly went out to greet him, clasped his fists and bowed to Yu Shiji, "I just happened to go find the Prime Minister!"
Yu Shiji said coldly: "Envoy Wei, I will make it short! If you resign tomorrow, the emperor will give you a favor."
Wei Chong was stunned for a long while before he said, "Prime Minister Yu, we agreed on this."
"What did you say?"
Yu Shiji's face became even colder. "I don't understand what you are talking about? But your brothers and staff have confessed that you planned the assassination of the King of Jin. The emperor can no longer tolerate you. The emperor said that since we were once relatives, you are allowed to resign and become a commoner!"
"Resign for the people?"
Wei Chong felt a chill in his heart and asked hastily, "What about my honorary title and noble rank?"
"The title and honors will also be revoked."
Wei Chong's eyes went dark, his body swayed, and he almost fell. He forced himself to calm down and said, "Prime Minister Yu, I am following your arrangement. This is our deal. How can you put all the responsibility on me?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? When did I make any arrangements? When did I make any deals with you? If you keep slandering me, don't blame me for being rude."
Yu Shiji snorted heavily, got in the carriage and left.
Wei Chong could no longer bear the blow. He felt a sweet taste in his throat, and then a mouthful of blood spurted out. He fainted. His sons quickly helped him up and shouted, "Father! Father!"
Wei Chong fell ill and also angered Yu Shiji. The next day, he slandered Yang Guang in front of the emperor, saying that Yang Guang's rebellion was directly related to Wei Chong's long-term instigation. This statement hurt the emperor Yang Guang's heart.
He immediately issued an edict to remove Wei Chong from all official positions and titles, demoted him to a commoner, and confiscated his official residence and estate. His three sons were also all dismissed from their posts and exiled to Yunnan.
A month later, Wei Chong died in illness and regret.
The eldest branch of the Wei family fell into decline, while Wei Shikuan's branch rose and became the main branch of the Wei family. After the New Year, time passed quickly. In mid-March, Xiao Xia arrived in Donglai County with a thousand warships and 30,000 naval forces.
The first person Xiao Xia met was the logistics Sima Zhang Zhenzhou, who went to Liaodong in late January and was responsible for transporting all the food and supplies left in Liaodong from Jian'an Fort back to Donglai County.
"Reporting to Your Highness, all the food and supplies have been transported back to Donglai County, and a special camp has been set up, but I do not recommend that Your Highness go to inspect it."
Xiao Xia smiled slightly and said, "Has anyone been infected with the disease when the goods were transported from Liaodong to Donglai County?"
Zhang Zhenzhou shook his head, "Not really!"
"You're right. Plague is transmitted from person to person. There must be infected corpses or human excrement. This is the source of the disease. If the source is not found, there will be no plague. Besides, when the supplies were delivered, more than half a year had passed since the outbreak of the plague, so it doesn't matter. Take me to have a look!"
Zhang Zhenzhou had no choice but to take Xiao Xia to the Second Logistics Camp, which was more than ten miles away. The camp was surrounded by a fence and covered a vast area with large tents arranged in an orderly manner.
At Zhang Zhenzhou's repeated request, Xiao Xia put on a mask and gloves and walked into the camp. The camp was covered in lime and was empty. There was no one in the camp, but there were soldiers standing guard outside the camp.
The closest to the camp gate was the grain tent. Xiao Xia walked into the tent. It was very dry inside. The ground had been burned and covered with a layer of lime. Grain was piled up like a mountain.
"Your Highness, here are all wheat, 10,000 dan, one dan of wheat in each bag."
"Have you checked the quality? Is the food rotten?" Xiao Xia asked.
Zhang Zhenzhou shook his head. "We have checked them carefully and there is no sign of spoilage or decay."
The grain storage technology of the Sui Dynasty was very advanced. The grain in Liyang Warehouse and Luokou Warehouse could be stored for decades without any problems.
As long as it is stored strictly in accordance with official technical standards, it will definitely not go bad within a year.
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment and asked again: "I remember I approved an epidemic experiment. Have you done it?"
Zhang Zhenzhou nodded and said, "Your Highness, we have already done it. We found 100 death row prisoners, took them off masks, let them eat the food inside, and let them walk around freely in the camp. They lived in the camp for a full half month. The 100 death row prisoners were safe and sound. They were all pardoned of the death penalty and were exiled for three years instead."
Xiao Xia said slowly: "It is necessary to be cautious, but there must be a limit. It is unnecessary to be overly cautious. Since the disease test has been done, some of the food can be transported to the refugee camp, and the rest of the food and supplies can be transported to Jiangnan!"
"I will arrange it immediately!"
Xiao Xia also inspected the armory camp, the material camp, and the money camp, which had more than a thousand large tents. Xiao Xia could not help but sigh at the strength of the Sui Dynasty. Such a huge amount of money and grain was only a small part of the Sui Dynasty's strength. It was a pity that the Sui Dynasty was destroyed under such a strong national strength.
After inspecting the supply camp, Xiao Xia went to inspect the refugee camp.
The refugee camp had a maximum population of 500,000. After the spring, they were dispersed to Beihai County and Qi County, with a camp established in each of them. Currently, there are only 200,000 people left in the Donglai County refugee camp.
Of course, the refugees will not be supported forever. Xiao Xia ordered the implementation of the military farming system last autumn, organizing the refugees to repair official roads and dredge rivers, but the most important thing is military farming. Cao Cao did the same thing in the past. Organizing refugees to farm not only solved the food problem of the refugees, but also used the extra food as military rations, which was killing two birds with one stone.
Wei Zheng was appointed as the military envoy for the settlement of refugees, with full responsibility for the settlement of refugees.
Xiao Xia came to the refugee camp in Wendeng County. Wei Zheng led his officials to welcome Xiao Xia into the camp. At present, only the elderly, the weak, women and children were left in the camp, and the young and strong men were organized to farm in the government fields in various places.
"What if a family is made up of only the elderly and weak and has no young and strong men?" Xiao Xia asked.
Wei Zheng said quickly, "Your Highness, this situation is actually quite common, almost half of the cases. Many young and strong men were forcibly conscripted to Liaodong and never came back. The family could not survive, so the wife took the children and fled to Donglai County. In this case, we will organize laundry clubs, shoe and sock clubs, and flour milling clubs. These are all things that women can do."
At this time, Xiao Xia saw a group of old men driving donkeys to grind flour, and said with a smile: "Old people can also do things?"
Wei Zheng nodded. "Except for young children and the elderly who have completely lost their ability to work, everyone else will do what they can."
(End of this chapter)