Baima County, Dongjun is located on the bank of the Yellow River. The rolling eastward water of the Yellow River flows northward. It would be fine if it was normal. But now, heavy rains are falling in the middle and upper reaches, and many surge rivers are injected into the Yellow River with astonishing water. After the water flows to Yanggu County, it forms a terrifying torrent. When the huge amount of water does not have time to rush to the downstream due to the turn, I have to turn my head and slap the river embankment blocking the front with a surging force, trying to destroy it so that I can move forward smoothly.

The huge waves roared, roared, and slugged the river embankment, but the river embankment was like a reef standing in the surging waves. No matter how the huge waves hit, they remained unmoved, and splashed the surging waves everywhere. However, the huge waves rolling in continued bombardment, and the thrilling roar continued to splash, splashing water that covered the sky and the earth. Under the power of nature, how small is the power of human beings?

But no matter how the Yellow River rages, the county soldiers organized by the county magistrate risked their lives to rush up to the river bank to fight the danger.

They knew very well that the river embankment was strong, but it was not a towering reef and mountain, and could not withstand the continuous bombardment of huge waves. Once the river embankment broke, the home that had finally settled down would become a ruin of the country. They who made their living by land had to leave their hometown again and become homeless refugees.

Baima County Government.

County Magistrate Shi Yu was frowning and kept walking back and forth in the study. As the county magistrate along the Yellow River, he knew very well that the flood was severe, the river embankments were reinforced everywhere, and the water level was also increasing. The surging river water was like a demon who chose people day and night, and the power of heaven and earth changed color.

He was concerned about his family, so he stole a free time and asked his family to prepare enough grain and rice to go up the mountain to avoid danger. Unfortunately, he had just arrived home and said a few words, and his old friend Shen Fan blocked him, and this person was the fundamental reason why he was frightened and did not belong to his mind.

Shi Yu was originally one of the slaves of the Zheng family in Xingyang. Since the Great Sui Dynasty implemented the policy of overthrowing aristocratic families, the Zheng family urgently evacuated a group of people, turning these people into secrets, and gaining the nationality of the Great Sui Dynasty as refugees, poor people, etc. Shi Yu stood out in the scientific examination because of his outstanding talent and knowledge and became the county magistrate of Baima County. He thought he had escaped from the control of the Zheng family and lived a normal life, but who would have thought that Zheng's great powers came to him again and forced him to submit by controlling his family.

The so-called Shen Fan in front of him is actually named Zheng Fan, who is a clan member of the head of the family, Zheng Shanguo and his confidant.

"I was a coincidence today. I have to rush to the river bank soon. I have something to say!" Shi Yu looked at the gloomy sky with concern. The rain was vast, and the water curtain cave had become under the eaves. The yamen runners were building the gate of the courtyard with sandbags, but the water in the courtyard was very deep.

Zheng Fan twisted the wet hem and smiled: "I know that it's not the time for you to come, but things are urgent, so I have to come."

Shi Yu looked back at him and asked coldly: "Did the head of the Zheng family have ordered again?"

Zheng Fan sighed after hearing this and said, "My dear, I know it's best. We hope that everyone will be united and cooperate sincerely, rather than hostile to each other."

"Control my family and force me to commit crimes. Is this what you call sincere cooperation?" Shi Yu is a flesh-and-blood, self-conscious person. Since he lived a normal life with fields and land, he has hated the life of a slave. He also saw that the court vigorously suppressed aristocratic families, how could he continue to be a slave?

It is precisely because of this that although the Zheng family was able to exert influence on people like Shi Yu to a large extent, they could no longer use their arm to use their fingers as they did before, nor could they rely on the influence and economic strength of the Zheng family in Xingyang to continue to roam and bian with these people, completely at their mercy.

This is like the two major parties of the American imperialists in later generations. As a large consortium that supports them, it is impossible for them to obey their will at any time. Parties also have their own thinking and interest demands. When their power is strong enough, they can even deal with the consortium behind them.

The same was true for Shi Yu and others. They used the court's efforts to attack the aristocratic families and urgently needed to get rid of the Zheng family's control. However, they underestimated the shameless means of the aristocratic families and forced them to submit by kidnapping their relatives.

Of course, Zheng Fan also knew Shi Yu's unwillingness, but he said with fearlessness: "No matter what, I don't want everyone to have any disputes. In fact, my brother has no way out now, right?"

Hearing this, Shi Yu was very angry.

Baima County is a large grain storage place in the Great Sui Dynasty. It is far away from the Liyang warehouse on the other side. There are 1,000 grain kilns, and each cellar contains 8,000 stones of grain. The millet can be stored for ten years and rice can be stored for five years.

There was a major corruption case here. Yang Guang sent the censor to investigate the case. The censor was capable and quickly solved the case. However, this person chased the thief and arrested corrupt officials, and he also harbored a large part of the stolen goods.

At that time, the Sui Dynasty was in turmoil and various factions attacked continuously. The matter was soon taken over by the political enemy. As soon as the lawsuit was filed, Yang Guang was furious and sent someone to investigate the censor.

As a result, when the later censor recovered the stolen money of the former censor, he greedied a large amount of gold and silver from the former censor. That was not counting. He also took a favored concubine of the former censor for himself. So, someone stared at him went to report it. In the end, the censor and his entourage hung on the top of the Baima City were no less than the local officials who greedied for food... When the Sui Dynasty was in chaos, Zhang Xutuo, who was responsible for suppressing bandits, had no time to take any of the grains in the Baima Cang and fell into Zhai Rang's hands. Later, Yang Tong recovered the Central Plains and continued to use the Baima Cang as a strategic reserve base for the court.

In order to facilitate the southern expedition army to obtain grain, Yang Tong transferred new grain reserves from Liyang Cang and stocked up all the thousand grain kilns. However, he later led a large army to take Li Mi's Hanyang Cang and Jiangdu City from the sea. The army did not need to transport grain from the north at all. The rest of the army also made victory. Everyone used war to support the war and seized food from the enemy's hands. As a result, the grain in the Baima Cang did not play any role.

Even though there are hundreds of thousands of civilians who build artificial lakes in the neighboring county, Dongping County, and so many people need to eat every day, the imperial court still did not use the grain from Dongxian County, but instead used the old grain from Liyang Cang to eat through water transportation.

On the one hand, the grain here is to prevent famines in the local and surrounding areas, and is more used as a reserve. When the grain reaches its reserve period, it will either be sold at a low price, then purchased at a market price to continue to store new grain, or it will be used to make wine.

Because this is new grain, the imperial court could not use it for the time being, and no one could touch it. So the Zheng family in Xingyang saw business opportunities. Last year, they kidnapped Shi Yu's family and forced him to submit. They sold the grain from the Baima Cang to the Tang Dynasty, where the grain prices were soaring through the "civilian" caravan, and made a fortune by relying on the huge price difference.

When officials from the Sinong Temple came to check the accounts, they first looked at the accounts, and the other was to check whether the grain kiln was full, and whether the grain had bran, shrunk, and gravel and weeds. In order to deal with the inspection, Shi Yu asked people to stuff the round barrels into the grain kiln to make there were grains around the grain kiln and there were grains on them. Originally, when officials from the Sinong Temple checked the grain, they would insert wooden tubes several feet long into the grain pile to check whether the grain in the grain kiln was damaged, moldy or inferior. However, the grain kiln was too deep, and the round barrels only faced the middle and lower parts, so there was no problem with the wooden sticks that were several feet long.

After the Zheng family in Xingyang had a handle, they released Shi Yu's family and paid him great dividends. Over time, Shi Yu cooperated with Zheng's rations of grain kiln to steal food, and went further and further on the road of crime.

But although he had gained huge wealth from it, he did not dare to spend a single money because he knew that the method of trialing the case by the Second Department of the Criminal and Imperial Department was too powerful. Just from the family situation, one could tell whether the person had an improper income. Think about it, if a county magistrate lives more luxuriously than the prefect, how can there be no problem? Because of this, Shi Yu's heart could not be at peace for a moment.

"What do you want me to do again?" Shi Yu remembered the consequences of the imperial court's last anti-corruption campaign and killing tens of thousands of people, and he couldn't help but fight a cold war. He had been on the road to no return to crime for nearly two years, and he was reselling more and more grain. At the beginning of the year, Zheng Fan once again came to threaten him with evidence.

He knew that once it was leaked, it would be a crime of beheading, so he had to pay his respects, so he had to allocate 150,000 stones from a large number of deficit granaries. He originally wanted to go public and buy grain from the private sector to supplement the deficit. Who would have thought that spring drought would be severely reduced in spring except for Liaodong. The court was afraid that the people would be bewitched by temporary benefits and sold the grain at home. Not only did he publish an article in "Banyuetan" to try not to sell grain before the autumn harvest, but also made officials from all over the country show their strong relationship to the people. The people who adhere to the concept of "there is food at home and the heart is not panicked" will no longer sell grain under the imperial decree.

It also caused Shi Yu's idea of ​​buying grain to make up for the shortfall completely interrupted.

Whenever he remembered that his family was kidnapped, he did not report the case to the county magistrate, county magistrate, and county imperial, and gradually embarked on the road of no return. Shi Yu was so regretful that his heart was as if he was exposed, his reputation was destroyed by the official career, and he was even more afraid of being dismissed from office and losing his post, and his family was destroyed, which made his son, who had always been proud of him, sad and disappointed.

"This time, I didn't have the order of the head of the family, but I came here by myself." Zheng Fan said fearlessly.

Shi Yu was so angry that he was so angry that he bit his teeth and clattered, "What do you want?"

Zheng Fan seemed to have not cared about his hatred, and said leisurely: "I am here to help my brother."

"Help, how to help? Help me die?" Shi Yu couldn't bear to sarcasm.

Zheng Fan said lightly: "Isn't this heavy rain a god-given opportunity for my brother? If the Yellow River breaks its dam, all the evidence will be washed away by the flood... You are the lord of a county, and it is actually very simple if you destroy a river embankment."

Hearing this, Shi Yu was stunned and his whole body was cold.

As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, countries often built embankments on major rivers such as the Yellow River, Huai River, Ji River and other rivers flowing through their own countries for their own safety or to harm their neighbors, because if the upper reaches of the country builds embankments, the lower reaches of the country will be cut off and drought will break out; on the contrary, if the lower reaches of the country builds embankments, the upper reaches of the country will be flooded with water. When Duke Huan of Qi met with Kuiqiu, the princes and states must not destroy the embankments of the Yellow River. For more than a thousand years, there have been countless emperors and princes ruled the Yellow River Basin, and there are many, but no one violated this agreement.

Even the emperor who was about to destroy the country did not break through this moral bottom line - but the Zheng family's son actually wanted to break the Yellow River embankment by himself. It is obvious that he overestimated the moral standards of the Zheng family in Xingyang.

"Every time the Yellow River is diverted or broken, it will cause floods and disasters, flooding large areas of land, swallowing countless towns and pastorals, and killing millions of lives, creating countless tragedies in the history of the Yellow River Basin. Don't I know this?" Shi Yu said.

"Breaking the dam and destroying the evidence of the crime is the best way for my brother to solve the problem. Whether he listens or not depends on me. There is nothing to say about it..." Zheng Fan stood up and left, and when he walked to the door, he turned back, "On one side is the life of my brother's family, and on the other side is the irrelevant grass-roots people. I believe my brother will definitely make a correct choice."

As he said that, Zheng Fan left.

"Break the dam to destroy the evidence?"
Chapter completed!