There were three grain merchants in Licheng. The largest grain merchant named Mi Shuo was a distant relative of Mi Zhu, who was engaged in Mi Zhu in Xuzhou. When he saw Taishi Ci leading thousands of remnants into the city, he contacted two other grain merchants to raise the grain prices and sold some moldy grain to Taishi Ci at a price twice that of the market price.

Soon after seeing Lu Bu's troops camping outside the city, and Taishici remained still, Mi Shuo had evil thoughts. While sending people out of the city to contact Lu Bu, he was willing to act as an internal support for the other party; while notifying the other two grain merchants that they would not sell grain to Taishici's troops.

If the generals staying in the city were other soldiers, if they encountered the actions of Mi Shuo and others, they might have robbed the grain. However, Taishici was upright and thought that after his troops entered the city, they would have bought all the grain in the grain merchant warehouse and resulted in the out of food in the army. If it weren't for Guan Yu, Zhang Fei would come to help in time, even if Lu Bu did not attack the city, his troops would have fled on a large scale sooner or later.

When the two grain merchants in the city learned that Han Zhan's army had arrived in Licheng, they were afraid that the other party would settle the score with him after the autumn, so they hurried to ask Mi Shuo to discuss the plan. Although Mi Shuo was also worried that he would cause endless trouble for him after the failure, considering that he was Mi Zhu's distant relative, Han Zhan might have a look at him for Mi Zhu's sake.

It was precisely for this reason that when he saw two grain merchants running to their homes in panic, he pretended to be calm and told them: "Don't worry, if the Jizhou army wants to gain a foothold in Xuzhou, they may not offend the wealthy businessmen and powerful people in Xuzhou, otherwise where will they raise money and grain?"

Mi Shuo's words were equivalent to giving the two grain merchants a reassurance. They thought to themselves: No matter what, this place is the territory of Xuzhou, and Mi Shuo is a relative who is not engaged in Mi Zhu. The Jizhou army came from afar. If they want to gain a foothold here, they must be unable to do without themselves. Thinking of this, the two grain merchants' hearts hanging in their throats were put back in their stomachs.

However, they were very happy and sad. Just as the three of them were in Mi Shuo's living room, they suddenly heard the sound of slapping the door outside the door. When Mi Shuo heard this sound, he couldn't help but frown, called his butler, and ordered unhappily: "Butler, come and see, who is so unruly, knocking outside, affecting my drinking with my two brothers?"

The butler agreed and was about to go over to see what happened. Before he could walk out of the living room, the door was kicked open and a group of soldiers like wolves and tigers rushed in from outside. "What are you doing?" Seeing the soldiers who broke in, the butler was startled, but he still plucked up his courage and asked tremblingly: "What are you doing here?"

As soon as he finished shouting, he rushed to a severe pain all over his body. Five or six soldiers turned their spears and whipped the housekeeper with their spears, beating him to tears and howls.

These soldiers were brought to capture the grain merchants with Chen Dao. He was originally going to go to the homes of the other two grain merchants first, but someone reported that the two grain merchants had come to Mi Shuo's mansion. Chen Dao divided his soldiers into three teams and went to three places to arrest him. He led his troops to surround the Mi Mansion and then broke into the door to arrest people.

Mi Shuo first heard his butler screaming outside, and then a group of soldiers rushed into the living room under the leadership of a general. Mi Shuo didn't know who was coming, so he stood up and bowed to Chen Dao and said, "This general, I don't know who you are, what are you doing here?"

Chen Dao was too lazy to talk nonsense with Mi Shuo, so he turned his head and instructed the soldiers following him: "Take them all down, and don't let anyone in the mansion go." The soldiers agreed, stepped forward to take down Mi Shuo and others, broke into the backyard, drove out the family and servants in the Mi Mansion from their rooms, and gathered them together. After doing all this, the soldiers began to search the property of Mi Mansion.

The three grain merchants' homes in the city were investigated by the Jizhou army. This was not a trivial matter, and it soon alarmed the people in the city. However, these three grain merchants were not good people. They usually lacked the weight when selling grain, and did a lot of things as good things. However, because they had a backer behind them, the people dared not speak out. Today, when they saw someone searching for the homes of grain merchants, they couldn't help but secretly say it.

Not long after, the literate person saw the Anmin notice posted by Wang Hun and learned that the Jizhou army would distribute the money and grain seized from grain merchants to the people of the city tomorrow. He couldn't help but feel thunderous.

Han Zhan ordered the city's grain merchants to search the house. Although he said it was for the purpose of establishing his authority, he was still uneasy in his heart. Chen Dao came back and reported to him that the three grain merchants had all taken down and were all imprisoned in a prison. Before Han Zhan could say anything, noisy voices suddenly came from outside the county government.

Hearing this voice, Han Zhan's heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He thought he had ordered Chen Dao to arrest three grain merchants, which aroused public anger. The people in the city went outside to petition him. He was about to send someone out to see what was going on, but a team leader guarding outside the gate hurried in, came to Han Zhan and knelt down on one knee, reporting: "Report to the lord, there are people gathering outside the county government."

Hearing the team leader say this, Han Zhan hurriedly asked, "Do you know, the people gather outside the county government, what's going on?"

"The people heard that they would be distributed to them on Sunday, and they came here to thank the lord."

After understanding the purpose of the people, Han Zhan breathed a sigh of relief. He waved to the team leader and asked the other party to retreat. He turned his head to Chen Dao and said, "Uncle Zhi, when the prefect of the king distributes money and food to the people tomorrow, you will also lead the troops to help."

"Subordinates obey the order."

Guo Jia hesitated for a moment, then asked Han Zhan tentatively: "Lord, my subordinates want to ask, how do you plan to deal with these grain merchants and their families?"

Han Zhan understood the purpose of Guo Jia's question. According to Chen Dao's report, there were about 500 families of the three grain merchants' families, servants and maids. If he killed so many people in one go, Han Zhan would be charged with a crime of indiscriminate killing. After thinking for a long time, he said to Guo Jia: "The three grain merchants led by Mi Shuo must be killed without leaving any land. As for their families, they should be detained first. When we leave Licheng, it is not too late to let them go."
Chapter completed!