Chapter 7: River Control (Nine)

"This Zheng Xiaofei is so bad!" Chai Rong spat quietly on the ground and muttered with a smile.

He was stared at by Wang Jun all day long, and he always carried one hundred and twenty cautions when walking. It was in Zheng Ziming's military camp that he finally felt that he had come back to life again, living like a real person, not a mud doll and wooden stalk in the temple.

Just as she was feeling, Pan Mei suddenly rode a horse and hurriedly passed by not far below her feet. She couldn't help but be curious, waved her arm, and greeted her loudly, "General Pan, where are you going early in the morning!"

However, there were too many people in the military camp, and the other party was in a hurry. He didn't hear his call at all, so he just continued to instigate the mount and went further and further.

"Come here, call Pan Xiaomeier here!" Chai Rong felt a little embarrassed, his eyes turned, and a little cramped immediately surged in his heart.

Guo Zhi and other personal guards followed Chai Rong in the Battle of Jizhou last year. They had long been very familiar with Pan Mei. Hearing his Crown Prince called out Pan Mei's nickname, he immediately shouted unscrupulously, "Pan Xiaomeier, stop! Your Highness the Crown Prince is looking for you!"

"Pan Xiaomeier, stop, Your Highness the Crown Prince has something to ask you for trouble!"

"Pan Xiaomeier..."

"Who is looking for death? I have told you a long time ago that no one dares to call me Pan Xiaomeier again, I..." Pan Mei suddenly pulled the reins, turned around and glared. After seeing clearly that the guy who called her nickname was the prince Chai Rong, she quickly put away her anger and grinned, "I have seen Your Highness, I wish you good health!"

"Okay, I'll pretend you didn't hear what you cursed just now!" Chai Rong succeeded in the "conspiracy" and did not care much about himself. He smiled and waved his hand hard.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Pan Mei's face suddenly turned red, she turned over and dismounted and walked towards her with the reins, "I didn't want to scold people just now. Is it inevitable that the man in the army is rude. Some stupid words..."

"Okay, I said I didn't hear it!" Chai Rong smiled again and waved his hand, "Early early in the morning, where are you in a hurry to go? Where is your marquis, where has he been?"

"If you go back to your highness, I will be ordered by my marquis to summon the wealthy families in Jia County to discuss land sales and fundraising matters in the county government. My marquis, my marquis should be organizing people to distribute porridge to the refugees now. He is afraid that the brothers will have bad tempers and will scare the people. So he must come to the scene and watch it himself!"

"Oh, that's what it should be!" Chai Rong smiled and nodded admirably, "But, is your marquis thinking too simple to summon the wealthy families in the county to raise funds? Those people, as far as I know, are all roosters who are invincible!"

The latter sentence was his personal observation and concluded. Jiahe County, Qinghe and Linhe County have fertile soil and convenient water sources. Therefore, although they are three small places, there are many rich families living in the city with full grain warehouses and full of cattle and sheep. But these people are very stingy. They watched the refugees in the city be so hungry that they were hungry. Not only did they refuse to donate some food to help the government provide disaster relief, they hoarded and rushed to launch national disaster wealth.

"Your Highness, don't you know that my marquis never fights a war that is unsure!" After hearing Chai Rong's reminder, Pan Mei was not in a hurry at all, but instead showed a mysterious smile on her face, "You just wait and hear the good news. Don't worry, these local rich men will definitely rush to deliver food to the military camp before dark!"

"Oh? But you are not allowed to use force! There are countless pairs of eyes staring at your general in the court!" Hearing Pan Mei's words so confident, Chai Rong couldn't help but be stunned and hesitated to advise.

"When did your highness see my marquis dealing with his own people with a knife?" Pan Mei shook her head, and the smile on her face became more and more mysterious. "If you don't believe it, you will see it yourself later. Your Highness, please forgive me for taking a step first!"

As he spoke, he no longer gave Chai Rong a chance to ask questions. He turned over and jumped onto his mount and galloped away.

"This guy, oops, forget it! What kind of soldiers will be brought!" Chai Rong was a little uncomfortable with it for a long time. However, in a flash, he found sufficient excuses for the other party's behavior. "That is, under Ziming, these people were all jumping around. If someone else came to take them, they all turned into elm bumps."

Even though he said that, he felt a little relieved. Therefore, after breakfast, he had a little deal with some daily official duties, and changed into a robe worn by ordinary subordinate officers, and took more than 20 personal guards including Guo Zhi, and rushed towards Jiahe County without hesitation.

Along the way, a team of refugees could be seen everywhere, led by three or two soldiers from the Cangzhou Army. In a relatively high position outside the city, they used temporarily cut trunks and branches to build shacks. Although each refugee was so hungry that he was pale and thin, because he had just had a full meal and had some hope in his heart, most people's eyes re-emitted the color of life.

The old, young, women and children who could not do their jobs were much more energetic than before. They were placed in groups in the sun, helping the officers and soldiers fill in firewood under the large iron pot set up, while scooping boiling water from the iron pot with herbs and washing the only few clothes on hand.

Among the crowd, there were seven or eight young men dressed in scholars. They looked at their appearance and were only about thirteen or fourteen years old. But like a group of little adults, holding wooden boards full of words, and loudly declared: "According to the edict of His Highness the Crown Prince, the order of the champion Hou Zheng, from today on, all men over fifteen and under forty-five will go to the military camp to help workers, and use work as a relief in exchange for life-saving rations for the whole family. Women over fifteen and under forty-five can go to the female barracks on the right side of the military camp to help workers, and the remuneration is equivalent to that of men. Those over forty-five and who have no children will be placed in another camp, and one meal will be provided every morning and evening, and a new piece of clothing will be distributed in autumn. Those under fifteen and who have no parents..."

Although the voice is tender, it follows one sentence and reads clearly and smoothly and clearly organized.

"Although our Marquis Zheng is not very particular, the effect is really good!" Chai Rong's confidant guard Guo Zhi was an orphan in his early years. Hearing Zheng Ziming's arrangements so carefully, he couldn't help but raise his hand and rub his eyes, praising him in a muffled voice.

"Isn't that true? Yesterday these refugees were crying and shouting, and they refused to leave the city no matter what. As a result, they only had two handfuls of lime and a pot of meat porridge, and all the troubles were solved!"

"I don't even look at who our Marquis Zheng is. I remember that the gentry and the fortress lords in Cangzhou joined forces to deal with him, but he easily settled them. Now they are just 200,000 refugees!"

"You can't say that. You can use strong people in Cangzhou at the time, but this time you can't beat or scold them."

"That's not the case. Ask me to say, the job of resettling refugees is more difficult than fighting!"

...

The guards talked all the words of admiration and poured them out like they didn't have money. When Prince Chai Rong heard it, he not only didn't feel jealous, but instead felt his body light, as if two breezes were coming out of his armpits. With just a little force, he could make himself go straight to the sky.

Zheng Ziming is his good brother he picked up halfway, and Zheng Ziming is his confidant beloved general whom he supported. Over the years, from Lijiazhai, to Cangzhou and then to the front line of Jizhou, every success of Zheng Ziming has been behind him. All of Zheng Ziming's achievements are almost inseparable from the strong support of his elder brother.

Therefore, to a certain extent, Zheng Ziming is a shadow of Chai Rong, or another self. Over the years, almost everything Zheng Ziming did was something that Chai Rong wanted to do but didn't have the chance to do it himself. Every new attempt by Zheng Ziming was something that Chai Rong wanted to try, but he didn't dare to try because he had too many concerns. With Zheng Ziming here, he could temporarily suppress the anxiety in his heart, continue to stay in Bianliang, and be the old and polite crown prince. With him, Zheng Ziming could do whatever he wanted outside and let go, without considering the open and secret arrows from behind.

No one will be jealous of his own shadow and incarnation, and Chai Rong certainly does not. Over the years, the two brothers have been mature and persistent, and the other have been flexible and smart, tacitly cooperated, responding to each other, trampling one after another. It must be the same in the future!
Chapter completed!