Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

The black bird flies and the rabbit runs.

Before we knew it, it was time to eat again.

Lin Tian changed into civilian clothes and, accompanied by two guards, slowly walked along the old street in the south of the city.

The street is lined with time-honored shops selling fabrics, shoes, food, and more...

Sunlight slanted across the bluestone pavement.

Lin Tian walked half a street and his gaze fell on a huddled figure by the roadside—a little girl, about five or six years old.

He was wearing an ill-fitting, tattered cotton-padded coat, with the knees and cuffs worn white, revealing the old cotton wadding inside.

She squatted against the wall, holding a chipped, rough porcelain bowl in her hands, the bottom of which was empty.

She kept her head down, her thin shoulders hunched over in the thin sunlight, like a cat abandoned on a street corner.

Passersby occasionally stopped to glance at her before hurrying away.

As a plump merchant in a silk robe passed by, he spat out half a chewed chicken bone with a toothpick in his mouth, which landed right in front of her.

The little girl looked up at the bone, then looked down again, not picking it up. After the person left, she thief immediately shoveled the bone into the empty bowl.

Lin Tian frowned slightly upon seeing this and stopped in front of her: "What's your name, little sister?"

The little girl looked up; her face was a little dirty, but her eyes were bright, like two pools of water that hadn't dried up yet, watching Lin Tian warily.

She was afraid he would steal her bone.

After looking at Lin Tian for a few seconds, she calmly sized him up before saying, "My name is Xiao Fang."

Why are you here all alone? Where are your parents?

"They are dead."

Her tone was very flat.

Lin Tianxin paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you have any other relatives?"

Xiao Fang lowered her eyes: "They died too."

"My mother sent me to Beijing, saying that people would give me food if I begged here."

Lin Tian fell completely silent.

He bent down and picked her up.

His body was incredibly light, as if he were holding a bundle of dried firewood.

Xiao Fang instinctively shrank back, but after sensing Lin Tian's kindness, she slowly relaxed and put her small hand on his shoulder.

Lin Tian, ​​suppressing his anger, asked, "How did the rest of your family members die?"

"They starved to death."

Xiaofang's voice was still so soft, "Mom said that we can't afford food anymore. First it was Grandma, then Grandpa, and then my dad..."

Finally, it was my mother.

She told me to come to Beijing, saying that the gentlemen there were rich and that I could survive by begging.

She paused, looking down at her empty bowl. "But I didn't get much. Some gave me half a pancake, some gave me a spoonful of porridge, and some..."

Lin Tian's breath hitched.

The phrase "can't afford food" kept replaying in my mind.

He looked up at the street in the distance. The rice shops, grain shops, and general stores had bright and clean facades, and the shop assistants stood behind the counters, fiddling with abacus beads, their faces plastered with slick smiles.

He lowered his head again and gently placed the little girl back on the ground: "Xiaofang, how about I take you to eat roast duck?"

The little girl blinked, as if she hadn't heard clearly, or as if she was confirming that this wasn't a dream.

Her hand loosened and tightened again, and after a long while, she asked softly, "Is it really okay?"

Lin Tian didn't answer, but simply took her hand and walked towards the roast duck restaurant across the street with the black "Quanjude" sign.

Her hands were small, cold, and prickly.

Half an hour later, Lin Tian came out of the roast duck restaurant and saw Xiao Fang sitting on a bench, holding a duck leg in her hand, taking small bites and eating very slowly, as if she was reluctant to finish it.

I want to save it for the next meal.

There was a little oil on the tip of her nose, her cheeks were puffed out, but her eyes were still wet.

When Brigade Commander Chen arrived, he immediately spotted the little girl wiping her mouth with her sleeve, and seeing Lin Tian's composed expression, he strode over.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?"

Lin Tian shifted his gaze from Xiao Fang and said coldly, "Issue a decree that, effective immediately, the price of all grain within the territory of China shall not exceed three dragon coins per pound."

Anyone exceeding this price will be treated as hoarding and speculation, their property will be confiscated, and the ringleader will be executed.

Brigade Commander Chen was taken aback for a moment: "Sir, this price..."

"What? Is there a problem?"

"no."

Brigade Commander Chen immediately stood up straight, with the efficiency of a soldier, and said, "I'll take care of it right away."

"besides."

Lin Tian stopped him, "Seal off a few of the grain stores on the market that have more than three percent of their sales revenue, and pick the biggest ones to seal off."

Let those who hoard rice and flour, those waiting to profit from the national crisis, know where the opportunity lies.

Brigade Commander Chen nodded: "Understood. Make an example of him."

The news spread throughout the rice markets of Beijing that very afternoon.

Several of the largest grain shops were sealed off, with iron locks hanging on the door knockers, gleaming coldly in the afternoon sun.

The workers were dismissed, the account books were seized, and the manager knelt on the threshold, his head hitting the bluestone slab with each thud.

The hands that were moving the abacus beads half an hour ago are now shaking like they have Parkinson's disease.

At the street corner.

Several grain merchants were gathered under the porch of the pawnshop, their faces ashen as the old paint on the door panels.

A fat man in a silk mandarin jacket said in a low voice, "Three cents? Three cents a pound? This price can't even cover the cost. We've been stockpiling grain for half a year, and the cost is more than that."

A skinny man with a goatee chimed in, "Cost? Talking about costs at a time like this? Didn't you hear whose people are closing down the shop?"

The man with the goatee spat on the ground: "Didn't you see what happened to Lou Bancheng? No matter how tough you are, can your head be harder than a bullet?"

Early the next morning.

New price tags have been put up at the entrances of major grain stores throughout Beijing, all marked between 1.5 and 2.5 cents.

The line to buy grain was incredibly long, like a river thawing, with everyone heading in the same direction.

An old man, trembling, walked out of the shop carrying a sack of rice. He looked down at the dragon coins in his hand, then at the gleaming white rice inside the sack:

"That's so cheap...that's so cheap..."

He kept repeating it, as if afraid that if he let go, this good thing would slip away.

Inside the office.

Brigade Commander Chen was standing at the table reporting: "The first batch of seventeen grain shops have been sealed off. These are the ones with the most hoarded grain and the most drastic price increases. The shopkeepers have been taken to the military court for a public trial tomorrow."

"Hmm. Not bad."

Lin Tian's gaze fell out the window, recalling Xiao Fang's words, "We can't afford food," and the way she nibbled on the duck leg.

"Have the civil affairs department investigate how many children and ordinary people like Xiaofang are still in Beijing. Register them and arrange for their resettlement."

Commander Chen responded with a sound of agreement, then asked in a low voice, "The families of those grain merchants...?"

"As long as they are not the ringleaders, after confiscating their property, leave them a way to live. Send them to labor camps, but don't let them think about hoarding food again."

Lin Tian waved his hand, his tone calm but undeniable, "The price of rice in Beijing has been brought down, but what about other places?"

What about the whole country?

Those who are secretly hoarding grain, waiting to sell it for a good price, are probably still observing.

We need to make them all see clearly that this isn't just a passing fad; it's going to keep blowing.

……