Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

In late winter, the snowstorm that had lasted for several days finally stopped two days ago. The whole Liaodong looked white, whether it was the fields in the suburbs or the mountains, forests and hills, all were covered in silver.

In Liaoyang Prefecture, people wearing winter clothes were sweeping the snow. Their not-so-rosy faces were covered with smiles. From time to time, they greeted people they knew and talked about how much wages they could get from the government that day. Their figures could be seen everywhere on the streets.

The front of the palace had been cleaned and sprinkled with a layer of fine yellow soil. The cold air froze everything in sight. A lot of snow condensed into stubborn ice in the corners of the yard, covered with seemingly fluffy snow. Lu Bu was sitting in the main hall wearing a black cloak, with the brazier at his feet flashing red light. In the middle, the burning fine charcoal was surrounded by bluestone, and from time to time it turned red because of the wind blowing in.

Placed next to the desk were the intelligence that had been handed over recently. He looked through them slowly, with a smile on his bearded face, and read them one by one, then put down the documents in his hand.

——General Jinghai Hu Yanqing fought with the Korean pirates at sea, captured two ships, rescued more than 20 Song hostages, and defeated the Song navy on the same day.

——There were no pirates in the area from Muzhou to Baozhou. General Li Bao of Henghai and General Ruan Xiaoer of Linghai organized a fleet to lead fishermen to hunt whales at sea.

——Hu Yanqing had an old acquaintance with Wang Mei, the new commander of the Pinghai Navy, and found nothing unusual.

——There was a snowstorm in the north, and riots broke out in Huanglongfu and Xinzhou, with some disaster victims moving south.

——Wanyan tribe...

The seated King Qi stroked his chin, feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Someone walked into the palace from outside. Li Zu, the left doctor of the Ministry of Personnel, Qiao Lie, the right doctor of the Ministry of Revenue, Liu Min, the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue, and Jiang Jing, the doctor of the Ministry of Finance, pushed open the door and came in. They all bowed and said, "Greetings, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi."

"Why are you all here together?" Lu Bu motioned for them to sit down, saying, "That's great. I need to talk to you about something."

Several people looked at each other, and Qiao Lie bowed and said, "What do you want, Your Majesty?"

Lu Bu turned his head and flipped through the documents on the table. He took out one and waved it, "Here, there are victims of the snow disaster in the north moving south? When did it happen? Do you have any detailed information?"

Qiao Lie laughed, and the white air from his mouth dissipated in the room: "That's why I came here."

"What a coincidence." Lu Bu threw the document back on the table and pulled his cloak: "Tell me, what happened?"

Qiao Lie looked at the other three people, thought for a moment and said, "Let me tell you." He stroked his short beard with his hand and said, "In fact, this matter was foreshadowed. There was internal strife in the Wanyan family, and all the capable people were pulled to the front line. Both sides kept adding troops and constantly drawing young and strong civilians. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold this year, and the wind and snow only stopped a few days ago."

A guard brought in hot soup and put it down. Liu Min held it in his palm and joked, "We are in the middle of Liaodong and we were almost buried by the snow. The Jurchen tribes will have a harder time than us this year."

"That's right." Qiao Lie nodded, looking at Lü Bu who was listening: "Because of the lack of a pillar of support at home, many houses were crushed by the snow, and the elderly and weak froze to death from time to time. Although the exact number of people cannot be counted, according to the reports of spies, there are indeed many. In order to avoid freezing and starvation, some people in the Jin Kingdom can only find other ways out, so many people spontaneously went south to find a way to survive." Lü Bu raised his eyebrows and finally figured out the doubts in his mind just now: "Going south in such a cold weather... Aren't they afraid of dying on the road?"

"Going south means death, and staying in the north also means death." Twisting his beard, Li Zhu said slowly: "Plus, the king's method of using work as relief spread to the north over time, and perhaps many people moved south because of this."

"Oh?" The burly King of Qi leaned back and thought, "But... the Jin army in Xinzhou did not stop the people from heading south?"

"No." Qiao Lie shook his head, his expression a little solemn. "Although this winter is cold, it can't stop the fierce fighting between Huanglongfu and Wanyan tribe. Food and clothing are given priority to the army. In addition, they lost a lot of food and livestock in the previous battle with us in the south. This winter is quite difficult for them. Therefore, it is very desirable for Huanglongfu to get rid of these burdens."

Li Zhu: "Maybe they are planning to use the disaster victims to weaken us."

Exhaling lightly, Lu Bu stood up and took two steps, then turned around in confusion: "How can you be sure that I must help the victims?"

Li Zhu and Qiao Lie looked at each other. The former said, "Whether the king rescues them or not is good for them. The former can waste our money and food and delay the time to go to war. The latter can take the opportunity to spread the word that the king does not care about the people and weaken the king's prestige. After all, we have been newly established for less than half a year and are at a vulnerable time." After a pause, he said, "Someone also reported that many people are saying that they can eat and wear warm clothes if they enter Qi State, so the people choose to go south instead of Huanglongfu."

"How many people are heading south in total?" Lu Bu stopped and looked solemn.

Qiao Lie said, "The reports from the spies ahead are mixed. Most of the people coming are old, young, women and children. There are about 20,000 to 30,000 of them. They will probably enter Hanzhou and Tongzhou in the next day."

"Then let Du Fu, Xi Sheng and others take over." Lu Bu waved his hand, snorted, turned around and walked back to sit down: "War is all about population. If they don't want it, I will. Wait a few years, and when those kids grow up, they will come to serve as soldiers and eat food! It's also because the two Wanyans have no money, otherwise it wouldn't be my turn to do this."

There was no sound in the hall for a while, and after a while, a voice came from below.

"...Actually, it's the same for us." Liu Min spread out his hands helplessly and took out the official document from his arms.

Lu Bu looked over. The man named Liu Zhibo stood up and walked forward to hand over the money. "Since the beginning of winter this year, we have implemented the policy of using work instead of relief. This policy is very good and has saved countless lives. I agree with it. However, this winter is long. Since the beginning of autumn, we have been repairing official residences and official roads. It costs countless money every day. It has been more than three months and less than four months to date."

"What exactly do you want to say?" Lu Bu flipped through the documents and interrupted him with a frown.

Liu Min bowed and said in a rather bachelor-like manner: "In a nutshell, the Ministry of Revenue has no money." He paused and said: "My army is stationed in three places. The two generals in the north are General Du Fu and General Xi Sheng, and in the west are General Xiao Haili and General Bian Xiang. It's okay that there is no war in these two places yet, but the generals of the navy in the south and generals on land such as Mi Xian and Han Shizhong are preventing pirates. The daily consumption of food and grass is an astronomical figure. In addition, the king asked Ling Zhen, Kou Wei and others to build artillery, Ye Chun to build eel boats, Wu Hu to make armor and weapons, the military advisor initiated work-for-relief, Hu Cheng, Su Liang and Du Xing purchased food, and if we take in the victims in the north..."

The doctor took a breath and said, "Your Majesty, either you see who can generate money to take your place, or you kill me. I can't generate money or grain anyway." (End of this chapter)