Three Kingdoms

The sun hangs in the sky like a dazzling jewel, emitting a brilliance that seems intoxicating but has no practical effect. The autumn sunshine is becoming more and more impotent day by day, just like no matter how much you preach that a diamond is forever, it still cannot hide its essence of being a piece of carbon.

The autumn and winter of the Little Ice Age always got cold very quickly. So when Kuai Liang and others from Jingbei stationed in Jiangling, they were somewhat exempted from some germs that were rampant in the hot environment, and even gave Kuai Liang and others the illusion that Jiangling was no longer at risk, but... …

When Kuai Liang saw Jiangling City, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

Today's Jiangling City is like the linen robes worn by refugees. It is not only dirty, but also torn...

The burned and destroyed city gate tower stood crookedly on the city wall. The wooden piles that were originally burnt black were exposed a little gray-brown under the rain and wind, and the blood-stained city gate nameplate , the spots seemed to be crying, which made Kuai Liang sigh for a long time and was speechless for a long time.

Entering the city is even more miserable.

The original bluestone road is now broken and missing. On both sides of the truth, next to the ditch, there should have been living water gurgling by, and the sound of laughter filling the air. Now, not only the carved stone slabs have been broken to pieces, but even the ditch is filled with corpses, decaying The stench filled the surroundings.

The remaining storefront courtyards basically have their doors wide open, and some corpses can still be seen vaguely. The flies are not afraid of people at all, and they are making a buzzing sound. Even if you don't enter the courtyard door, you can still hear them. The special smell of corpses, urine, feces, etc. mixed together, it's like it's actually stained on the body, and it can't be washed away.

Kuai Liang led the people to Pinghe Square in the east direction of the city. When they arrived in front of the square, when they saw the first sight, they couldn't help but shed tears...

The Kuai family was originally in Pinghefang, but now, there is only ruins left here.

Kuai Liang jumped out of the car in a hurry, but accidentally stepped on a stone on the ground and twisted his ankle. He screamed and stumbled. If it weren't for the guards around him, he might have been chewed by a dog if he got out of the car. Food.

The original lintel of Kuai's door has long since disappeared, one of the vermilion doors is also missing, and the other one is lying in pieces on the ground...

Kuai Liang remembered that the door was originally a screen screen. The screen wall was not only carved with patterns, but also inlaid with some gems. But now, not only are there no traces of the gems, even the screen wall has collapsed in half, revealing the courtyard behind it. Come.

Broken tiles and stones, toppled roof eaves and pillars, it seems that at this moment, Kuai Liang only felt that there seemed to be some sound in his world, like smashed glass, flying everywhere, and the blood veins on his forehead popped. beat……

"Master of the house, master of the house..."

The calling voice seemed very far away. It took a while before Kuai Liang realized what he was saying and turned his head to look at the guard beside him.

"Master... I have my condolences..." The guard looked at Kuai Liang with some concern.

Big tears suddenly welled up in Kuai Liang's eyes, and then he could no longer stand, staggered to the side and fell. The guard hurriedly stepped forward to help him, and then helped Kuai Liang sit down on a relatively flat stone nearby.

Kuai Liang looked at the devastation in front of him in a hazy state. The beautiful scenes in his memory collided with the ruin in front of him, which made Kuai Liang even more sad.

This pavilion and corridor were originally hung with six-color silk and carved with seven-color patterns, but now there is nothing left, only ashes and debris.

"Koto thief!" ” Kuai Liang roared, “I and Jiangdong swear not to die!” 』

Kuai Liang was very heartbroken, heartbroken, blue, thin, and mushroomy. He witnessed the tragic situation of his home being destroyed with his own eyes. His mind was shaken and Kuai Liang was immersed in his own grief. Some negligence was naturally inevitable...

That's right, he forgot that he was not only a descendant of the Kuai family, but also the leader of the team heading south to Jiangling.

But Kuai Liang, who was too touched by the situation, forgot about this matter. He was either sad or angry and immersed in his own emotions. However, the other soldiers and civilians who followed had to fight without their leader. While commanding, they each went their own way and searched for a place to stay in the dilapidated Jiangling City.

Where there are human beings, there will naturally be fewer other things. But like Gangneung City, it is basically a city that has been abandoned for a long time. It is fine during the day, but at night, some things come out...

Not zombies, but rats.

Mice can be said to be mammals with extremely strong survivability. They can eat anything and live anywhere, even in high-radiation areas that are uninhabitable by humans. Mice can still survive. In addition, mice have extremely strong reproductive capabilities. It takes two to three months to enter the breeding period. As the saying goes, if there is one male and one female, two hundred and fifty per year...

Jiangling City, which lost its human order, suddenly became a paradise for rats.

Night is when rats have a carnival.

In addition to the toxins accumulated by eating rotten things, rats can also carry a variety of parasites and viruses, and these can be unknowingly transmitted to humans who do not pay attention to hygiene, such as those who temporarily live in Gangneung City. Kuai Liang et al.

When President Kuai Liang recovered from his grief and began to prepare to rebuild Jiangling, he was surprised to find that the problems he faced were not only the destroyed cities and collapsed ruins, but also the spread of the disease among the people. And open the disease!

However, the decoctions that Kuai Liang brought from the north of Jingzhou and Xiangyang to eliminate plague and prevent diseases were completely ineffective!

Traditional Chinese medicine is originally about one person's prescription. Even for the same disease, the manifestations are the same, and the prescriptions prescribed may be completely different. Those who have some real knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine, especially for emergencies, pay attention to the fact that the medicine will subside after the disease is resolved. If you don’t feel better after taking three or five treatments, and then the doctor will tell you to take it again, haha...

Therefore, how could the prescriptions that Cao Jun and others secretly learned for the disease in Xiangyang, Jingbei, be able to deal with the new changes in Jiangling?

At the beginning, Kuai Liang subconsciously concealed it, because this time he led his soldiers to Jiangling, which was an opportunity he had finally won. Now, not long after arriving in Jiangling, something like this happened. Doesn't it prove that Its incompetence? If it was reported, how could he continue to play the role of rebuilder in Gangneung? Just thinking about it makes it clear that if Jiangling City is successfully restored, how much benefit will the Kuai family get from it? !

However, should you hide it or report it, you must have the ability to solve problems, and this ability is not based on your own imagination. If you think you can do it, it will become possible.

The longer you delay, the more troublesome the result will be.

In the end, it was natural that it could no longer be covered up, but the problem was that when Kuai Liang sent people to Jiangling to inform them of the situation, these Cao Jun doctors in Xiangyang were also helpless. They did not have much ability to deal with the plague in the first place. This time Or are we just relying on the doctors from the Baiyi Medical Center to be able to follow the gourd's path, and are we capable of solving the new epidemic in Jiangling?

In desperation, Xiahou Dun sent Cao Zhen and shamelessly found Liao Hua, but Liao Hua spread his hands. He was only responsible for picking up the refugees. As for other things...

Please go find the Hussars General.

Then when Cao Zhen ran to Zhuyang like crazy, he realized that General Hussar was no longer in Zhuyang...

……^(OO)^……

Chang'an.

Sansuke.

Hoarding was once regarded by many as a magic weapon for getting rich.

Indeed, in thousands of years of economic history, many people have realized their dreams of getting rich through this method. For example, Tao Zhugong, the originator of Chinese businessmen, was proficient in this method. There is also a familiar miser Grandet. It was also during the war that he became a millionaire through hoarding.

Many examples of such sudden wealth are also common. This is because there are huge differences in the prices of many products over time and geographically, which creates a lot of profit margins and enriches many speculators with connections and brains.

In the current era of Han Dynasty, food is undoubtedly the hard currency. The common people's fear of hunger makes it easier for food to become an important material that is hoarded to some extent.

"If you take this bite, it will be gone tomorrow!" 』

"These are the only ones left today, and the price will be even higher tomorrow!" 』

Under such inciting remarks, the large-scale food price fluctuations that started from Zuo Fengyi finally began to spread everywhere. This panic caused ordinary people to start snapping up the spot food that could be seen on the market, and at the same time, it further promoted As panic spread, even the most unresponsive grain sellers put up "short selling" signs.

In other words, there is actually a lot of grain and grass on the market, but all grain sellers are waiting and watching, and this wait-and-see has also pushed grain prices to rise further, and every step of the surge will make these grain merchants once again They tightly cover their own food pockets, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find one stone on the market.

For wealthy families, they usually have cellars to store grains. They also choose to purchase grains when prices are extremely low, and then store them properly. In addition, most of these families also have their own fields, so the higher the price of food, it means that their wealth is increasing. Therefore, the bigger the family is, the less panic they will have when encountering such a situation, and some even join in. Dancing among them.

The people who are most persecuted are the general middle class and the proletariat, because these people have no way to store large amounts of food and can only choose to buy in small quantities. This makes it impossible for these people to seize the stage when food prices are lowest. At the same time, these people There was not enough money to pay for large-scale purchases, so under such a surge in food prices, these people were immediately cut to pieces.

Many people get up in a hurry every day before it gets dark and line up at the grain store in the city, for no other reason than to be able to buy some rations when the grain store is open. Otherwise, even if there are still people in the grain store, There is food to sell, and the price is the same every day...

And almost all the grain store owners are saying that their grain stores are out of stock, but if the customers "sincerely" want it, they can also go to other places to "transfer goods". It just depends on how "sincere" these people are. "It's better to be as sincere as gold and silver. The bigger the bigger the more sincere. Then they can take out the grain bag from under their buttocks in the blink of an eye to show that they finally got the goods.

In a sense, anything that is seasonal has become a hoarding commodity, and it is not just limited to food. This is true for many things, but anything that sets off a wave of hoarding, all of them Everyone wants to make a fortune. Just like this time, other merchants who had nothing to do with the grain merchants saw such high grain profits, and some greedy people also wanted to get a share of the pie.

This change of situation naturally attracted the attention of the officials in the Hussar Mansion in Chang'an, Guanzhong, and they quickly summarized the situation and put it on Xun You's desk.

After thinking for a long time, Xun You put this report in his sleeve and left his "office" to find Pang Tong.

Fatty Hei is very busy recently.

After all, according to Fei Qian's wishes, it is not an easy task to clean up corrupt elements among officials. There are too many things that need to be done...

After all, the Han Dynasty has not yet reached the level of complete corruption found in later feudal dynasties. At least most people still hate the "smell of copper". Even the old man who bought Sangong will inevitably be disliked by his own son when he returns home. Therefore, there are only a few people who dare to accept bribes openly. Most officials will use some relatively covert methods, and it takes considerable effort to find out these bribery methods.

Therefore, Pang Tong really didn't pay attention to the market for a while. After Xun You brought the news of a high food supply, he frowned without even looking at it and said angrily: "How brave!" 』

But immediately Pang Tong put down the report, rolled his eyes, looked at Xun You, and said, "This matter...Does Gongda have any good ideas?" 』

"This happened when the hussars came out of the pass..." Xun You gave Pang Yi a meaningful look, and then said in a deep voice, "Someone must be trying to do something evil... Although this matter only involves food and grass, many people are involved... …If it cannot be handled properly, chaos will occur..."

"D? Pang Tong sneered.

Xun You sighed slightly and nodded, "Besides, the Hussar's law does not prohibit the sale of grain, grass, salt and iron, and regarding market transactions, the Hussar has already stated that he must not order merchants as a last resort..."

"What's more..." Xun You said, "Nowadays, there are more and more refugees in Jingzhou, and it is expected that food prices will rise. It's just that it is so high. Someone is taking advantage of the opportunity... If you use this to blame people, I'm afraid it will hurt you." The economy is also..."

Pang Tong nodded, "Gongda is very worried." 』

In the final analysis, panic over food and panic buying and hoarding of other daily necessities actually represent people's fear of life, reflecting a kind of insecurity, that is, uncertainty about future life.

Especially in the past few years, the wars between various parts of the Han Dynasty have greatly deepened the people's insecurity. The slightest disturbance is like a frightened bird...

This is what Xun You means. Those who push up food prices are not all hoarders and panicked people. In fact, they are also the fuel for the rising food prices. Without the support of these people, these hoardings will Grain and grass merchants did not dare to follow suit easily.

So in such a situation, it is not just about arresting a few businessmen, or arresting a dozen businessmen, or it can be solved by large households, because even if these businessmen are killed, doesn't it mean that no one will take risks next time? What? If this is really the case, then why are hoarders so common in all dynasties?

In fact, Xun You still has something to say, because ordinary people are always lagging behind and slow to receive news. They will not feel the pain until they are actually hit by a sharp blade, so they should be one step ahead of the ordinary people. Are the people who have obtained the information and grabbed more resources just ordinary merchants?

After catching these ordinary merchants who are performing at the lower level, what should we do with these profit-makers above the merchants?

More often than not, these ordinary merchants are like knives and guns. When the knives and guns are stained with human blood, without tracing who is holding the knives and guns, they just smash the blood-stained knives and guns and destroy them. Is that the end of the matter?

"Nowadays, there are more and more types of goods in Chang'an..." Xun You said slowly, "Even the market in Luoyang back then may not be comparable to it. However, there are many markets, but the people may not be..."

To put it simply, it’s like there are a lot of goods in supermarkets, but they may not be available in residents’ homes.

For the current Han people in Sanfu, Chang'an, they are living in a relatively happy era in advance. In the market of Chang'an, you can see goods from various places, with a wide variety and large quantities. However, for each individual family, firstly, there is not enough financial support, and secondly, there may not be enough space to provide storage, so many families are still accustomed to waiting for purchases when needed.

Under this model, the manor economy takes advantage.

Manor owners, that is, large landowners, naturally have more spare money and free space to compete with the market.

In the feudal era, due to productivity, there were some limitations in both production technology and commodity circulation. Therefore, generally speaking, materials had strong regional characteristics. For example, the fruits and vegetables of Chang'an Sanfu were generally It is also sold in Sanfu, Chang'an, and has strong seasonality.

Products from other places, such as Qingxu's salted fish, vinegar cloth, etc., are transported, and the prices are basically within a relatively constant range.

"Therefore, if it is not difficult to clear out merchants, the difficulty is that it can only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. ” 』

"Hmm..." Pang Tong pinched his fat chin, looked at Xun You with interest, and said, "Gongda seems to have made a decision?" 』

Xun You cupped his hands and said, "I order you not to hide anything from me... I'm afraid the hussar has already made up his mind..."

Pang Tongyi was stunned, then smiled and said: "...I wonder where the flaw was exposed?" 』

"I haven't made a final decision before I meet you... But when your commander saw this, he was angry but not confused..." Xun You glanced at Pang Tong, "Not to mention grain, grass, salt and iron, which are essential for the military and the country, so how can we Is it true that it can be manipulated by human hands? 』

"Hey... it's really..." Pang Tong shook his head and sighed, and then smiled, "Gongda is indeed... this matter... we might as well put it aside for the time being... well, it's not appropriate to ignore it, so why not just issue a notice..."

Xun You swallowed a mouthful of saliva and felt the cold hairs on his arms stand up a little, "...don't let him say anything... punish him without teaching?" ! 』