Shengjing Noble

Chapter 479 Urgent Urgency

Fu Wuyang frowned: "What do you mean?"

Su Lanyin told him everything she had just seen and heard.

"You mean, there are a lot of old people here, and disfigured women?"

"Yes, that's right. At first I thought they were the civilians they had captured, but later I heard from some people that they were all rescued."

"This is too weird, would a bandit save someone?" Fu Wuyang looked doubtful.

"That Fang Hengzhi doesn't look like a vicious villain. Maybe he really has his own reasons."

"Even if you have your reasons, you can't be a bandit. Have you forgotten that he was planning to kill us just now?"

"So I think we need to observe it for a while. By the way, I just got some detoxifying and healing medicine. Although the effect is not very great, it is better than nothing."

After saying that, she walked over and helped him lie down again, then lifted his clothes to reveal the shocking wound.

Su Lanyin couldn't help but tremble in her heart. She stuffed the herbs into her mouth, chewed them into pieces, then spit them out and applied them to his wound.

"These medicinal juices clear away heat and detoxify. Stay in this position and don't move. Wait until they are absorbed before getting up."

"Well, leave me alone and go eat something first."

"it is good."

Su Lanyin walked to the table and looked at the food on it, and couldn't help asking, "Have you eaten?"

"Uh...yeah, I've eaten."

Fu Wuyang nodded, a trace of guilt flashing in his eyes.

But just as he finished speaking, there was another knock on the door.

Su Lanyin got up to open the door and found it was Fang Hengzhi.

"The boss?"

"I'm here to bring you food. You've worked so hard just now."

He was standing outside the door holding a tray with porridge and side dishes on it, but the rice in that bowl of porridge looked thicker than the one in the house.

She wondered, "Didn't someone deliver food?"

Fang Hengzhi looked inside and explained, "Which one are you talking about? That's for him."

Only then did Su Lanyin realize that Fu Wuyang was afraid that she would not have enough food to eat, so he kept her here.

She took the tray with a smile: "Thank you, Boss, for taking the trouble to bring the meal here personally."

"I'm here for another thing."

"You said."

"Uh……"

Fang Hengzhi glanced inside the room and the meaning was obvious. Su Lanyin quickly stepped back and opened the door.

"Please come in."

"Thank you."

Fang Hengzhi was no longer as rude as he had been when they first met. Instead, he was quite polite.

He sat down on the bench and said awkwardly, "Girl, I know it's inappropriate to say this at this time, but you also know that I am a bandit and I have a group of old, weak and sick people in my backyard, so I still have to trouble you to write a letter home."

Su Lanyin thought for a moment, then said, "You want me to ask my family for a ransom, right?"

"Correct."

"Then I have a question, can you help me solve it?"

"Of course. Are you wondering when I will let you go? Don't worry, as long as the money is in place, I will let you go immediately and will never make things difficult for you."

"That's not what I meant to ask."

Fang Heng was stunned and asked in confusion: "Then what do you want to ask?"

"I just want to know why so many old, weak, sick and disabled people are taken in here?"

Hearing her ask this, Fang Hengzhi sighed, bent down, and his back seemed to collapse.

“They are from the same hometown as me.”

"A fellow countryman?"

"Well, we were originally from Wutong Town. There was a severe drought a few years ago, and the people had no harvest and life was already difficult. Now we have finally survived, but there is still no way to make a living."

Fu Wuyang couldn't help but sit up and ask, "The court has issued disaster relief grain and reduced taxes many times, how could there be no way to survive? If it was a remote area, it would be fine. As far as I know, Wutong Town is in Kang County, not far from Shengjing. It can be regarded as the foot of the emperor. No one dares to embezzle here."

Fang Hengzhi smiled coldly, his eyes full of sarcasm: "So what? Even under the emperor's feet, is there really no one who is corrupt? What's more, if they can't embezzle the money from the court, they will naturally find a way to get it out of the mouths of us ordinary people."

"But what's going on?" Su Lanyin asked.

"There was a largest landowner in Wutong Town. He colluded with the magistrate of Kang County and took advantage of the famine to buy all the land in the town from the people at the lowest price."

Fu Wuyang said: "Even so, you can still rent the land, and when the harvest comes, you only need to pay a portion of the grain to pay the rent."

"Yes, we thought so too, but you know what? We worked hard for a year, but in the end we couldn't even get 20% of the 100% of the food!"

"How is this possible? Logically, at least 30% should be given to you!"

"But they refused to share. What could we do? The people in the town looked at the little food that was barely enough to make a living and could only go to the landowner to argue. But in the end, they were either beaten or their families were destroyed."

Su Lanyin suddenly realized: "So, you brought these people here?"

"Ah."

"You are so close to Shengjing City, why don't you go to Beijing to file a complaint?" Fu Wuyang asked.

"I originally wanted to organize everyone to file a complaint to the emperor in Shengjing, but they framed me as a criminal. If it weren't for the help of my fellow villagers, I wouldn't have been able to escape successfully. Now, let alone filing a complaint to the emperor in Shengjing City, I'm afraid I'll be arrested before I even enter the city gate."

"Then you can let someone else go."

"Who dares to go?" Fang Hengzhi looked at the two of them in a state of despair. "So many people have been harmed like this, who would dare to go?"

"What's the name of the landowner you mentioned?"

"The owner's name is Zhao Zide."

"I seem to have heard of this person." Su Lanyin touched her chin, feeling that he sounded familiar.

She remembered!

During the border war in his previous life, this person donated a lot of grain to the court as military pay, solving the emperor’s urgent needs, and was therefore rewarded.

Since then, they have been raising food prices even more unscrupulously, engaging in monopoly and profiting from the people's misfortune, making it impossible for ordinary people to even afford rice. They have taken advantage of the national crisis to make huge profits, harming countless people!

Unfortunately, the emperor's health was deteriorating at that time and he had no time to take care of it, so he had to hand over all government affairs to the prince.

After Fu Mingheng gained power, he not only protected Zhao Zide, but even went along with him.

I’m afraid that most of the money has gone into the treasury of the Prince’s Mansion.

Thinking of this, Su Lanyin blurted out: "No, we have to stop Zhao Zide, but..."

She thought of something again and suddenly became a little flustered.

Although Zhao Zide was hateful, the military rations he donated did help Fu Wuyang.

If Zhao Zide is killed, does it mean a shortage of military rations, and Fu Wuyang's battles outside will also be affected?

"What's wrong?" Seeing that she was worried, Fu Wuyang asked with concern.

"It's okay. By the way, Boss, is there anything else besides this?"

"Of course!"