Ang Lee stayed in the village for a few days. After bidding farewell to Daxi 'er, he embarked on the road to catch up with the main group. Before he left, Daxi' er and the villagers sent him off at the village entrance. Daxi 'er and some of the children even sent Ang Lee and his group off for more than ten miles. They only stopped when they reached the main road.
In the beginning, Li An had a bad impression of these villagers. He felt that they were unruly people from the barren hills and turbulent waters who actually opened a black shop to rob. However, after a few days of getting along with them, Li An's opinion changed drastically. He slowly changed his opinion and understood that Daxi 'er and the others were forced to open a black shop. The economic situation in the village was too bad. If they did not open a black shop, many of the villagers would starve to death.
It was normal for people who were on the brink of death to have no bottom line. There was no reason to ask a person who was about to starve to death to maintain a kind heart. It was pardonable for people who were about to starve to death to rob merchants without any other means. As long as the problem of food was solved, they wouldn't do such a thing again. If they were full and wanted to make a fortune by robbing, then that was really unforgivable.
"Assistant Minister Li, they finally stopped sending us off. They've been sending us off for about twenty miles."
After turning around to take a look, Chen Long sighed and said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "That's right! They've been sending us off for nearly twenty miles. It must have been hard on them. "
"Isn't it because Assistant Minister Li treats them too well? He even left food and money for them. How can they not be touched? It's worth it to send them off for a hundred miles."
Chen Long said with a smile.
This guy's family wasn't poor and didn't lack money. Naturally, he wouldn't be envious. He was just sighing.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "That's right! Since ancient times, money warms people's hearts, especially when it comes to giving charcoal in snowy weather. It's the most heartwarming. "
When a person was about to starve to death, giving them a bowl of rice was already a great kindness. Of course, this was only true for people with a conscience. For some people without a conscience, they wouldn't be grateful for any kindness. They would even see it as humiliation. Such people had abnormal mentalities and were very dangerous.
The transport team in front had been traveling for a few days. However, because the vehicles were moving very slowly on the mountain road, Ang Lee and his group only took a day to catch up.
"What? Bandits actually robbed you on the road? Were there any losses?"
Ang Lee asked.
This made Li An very shocked. The main force under his command was close to a thousand people, and there were also many elite soldiers carrying weapons. Such a powerful force, yet there was actually a bandit who dared to rob it. This bandit must have eaten the guts of a leopard. What made Li An feel strange was, what kind of bandit would have the guts to rob such a large force? This risk was a little too great.
"Assistant Minister Li, don't worry. We didn't lose any money. Only a dozen people were injured. However, we captured more than twenty bandits alive. The rest all fled. We're not familiar with the terrain and we're worried that it was a diversion, so we didn't dare to chase them."
The guard said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Very good. You did the right thing. You should have been more cautious. What did the captured bandits say? Did you get any results from the interrogation?"
"These are all small fries. They only followed orders and came to rob us. They don't know much. However, they said something very important. That is, the bandits' lair is running out of food. That's why they came to rob us. If they didn't fight with their lives on the line, how could mere bandits hurt more than ten of our brothers?"
The guard said.
"The bandits are running out of food. It seems that the food shortage in Dazhou is very serious! If that's the case, the situation in Dongnu Province is even worse. It's no wonder that they can't hold on. "
Ang Lee said and fell into deep thought.
The Tang Dynasty didn't lack food. In fact, they had a lot of surplus food. However, the roads in the Western Detention Area were too difficult to travel. Even the cheapest food would cost at least ten times the price when it was transported to Dazhou. For the sake of profit, merchants would definitely transport food based on the local demand and the local economic strength. They wouldn't transport too much food to maintain the high price of food and protect their own profits.
If the Western Detention Area had better roads, then the situation would be much better. The cost of transporting grain from Sichuan to Dazhou wouldn't increase by so many times. The amount of grain transported could also be greatly increased, and the severe famine in Dazhou would also be solved from the root.
Therefore, when he saw the situation in Dazhou, Ang Lee was even more determined to build a road in the Western Detention Area. Moreover, he wanted to build a very sturdy and flat road, the kind that could allow large carts to pass. For the sake of efficiency, he had to ensure that it was a two-lane road. This would prevent the efficiency of transportation from being affected by the narrowness of the road.
"Assistant Minister Li, these bandits seem to have gone crazy from hunger. If even the bandits are starving to the point of running out of food, the situation of the commoners is even worse. It's probably because the commoners are running out of food that the bandits took the risk to rob our troops. After all, it's easy to rob the commoners, but they have to pay the price for robbing us."
Chen Long said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Dazhou is the largest of the Western Detention Areas. It's also the closest to Dongnu Province. The situation here is a good reflection of the situation in Dongnu Province. It seems that the situation in Dongnu Province isn't looking too good! Also, these bandits might be the same as Daxi 'er and the others. They were forced to become bandits because of their living conditions. Where are the captured bandits? I want to see them. "
Although these bandits had robbed Ang Lee's troops, the anger in Ang Lee's heart subsided when he thought of the reason why they had robbed his troops. If they were really forced to rob because of hunger, that could be forgiven. At the very least, Ang Lee could think of a way to solve the problem of hunger here. As long as the problem of hunger was solved, then those who had become bandits because of hunger could become ordinary commoners again. In this way, at least many people could be saved. Ang Lee no longer needed to perform meritorious deeds to be rewarded. Naturally, he wouldn't kill these people who had been forced to become bandits for the so-called meritorious deeds. That would be too cruel. Although these people had already become bandits, Ang Lee still couldn't bear it. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, Ang Lee wouldn't give up on killing these people who had been forced to make a mistake.
"Assistant Minister Li, these are the twenty or so bandits we captured. We even killed more than twenty of them. About fifty bandits escaped. They are too familiar with the terrain."
The guard pointed to the twenty or so bandits in front of him and said.
Ang Lee sighed and said, "More than a hundred bandits actually dared to rob my troop of a thousand people. Only people who have gone crazy from hunger would have the guts to do that."
These captured bandits were all very thin and weak, and they looked very listless. It was obvious that they hadn't eaten enough these days and were in a half-starved state. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in such a state. In Ang Lee's impression, bandits were generally burly, very strong, and very fierce. However, these guys in front of him were not strong at all. They were all very thin and weak, and very listless. Their eyes were hollow. None of these people looked fierce. As the saying goes, one's appearance is born from one's heart. To a certain extent, this also reflected their character.
"Give me all your hands."
Ang Lee said.
When these captured bandits heard this, they all felt very nervous. They didn't understand what Ang Lee was going to do, but they still stretched out their hands.
Ang Lee looked at the hands of these captured bandits and immediately understood. These guys were all farmers because the calluses on their hands could very well reveal their occupation. Although bandits would also have calluses when they were injured, there was a difference between bandits' calluses and those of ordinary people's. As long as one saw it often, there would naturally be a way to distinguish between them. Manual workers of different occupations had subtle differences in their calluses. As long as one observed carefully, one could always find the difference. Therefore, Ang Lee could easily tell that they were once farmers from their injured calluses. Moreover, it hadn't been long since they became bandits. Otherwise, their calluses would have become bandits' calluses long ago.
"You were originally honest farmers. Why did you become bandits in the mountain?"
Ang Lee asked knowingly.
A bandit said, "We really didn't have anything to eat, so we became bandits to make a living."
The rest of the bandits also nodded, admitting this point.
Ang Lee said, "Can't you think of other ways if you don't have anything to eat? You can go to Central Sichuan to make a living! "
"Central Sichuan is too far away. It'll take a long time to get there. If we can't prepare half a month's worth of food in advance, we'll starve to death halfway."
"We're not very clear about the situation in Central Sichuan. We don't know if there's any surplus food. We're all farmers. Other than farming, we can't do anything else. How can we make a living in Central Sichuan?"
"We also don't want to be bandits, but there are always floods. In a year, there are more than ten floods. Just as we've planted the crops, all of them are gone. Now the fields are full of weeds. We can't continue planting."
A few of the bandits said helplessly.
When Ang Lee heard this, he felt that not only did he have to build a wide road to Dongnu Province, but he also had to improve the water conservancy facilities in Dongnu Province and Dazhou. The reason why the people here suffered from food shortages was because of the frequent floods, which washed away all the crops they had painstakingly planted. Of course, this was also caused by the recent abnormal weather. In other years, even if there were floods, they would only happen once or twice. The destructive power was relatively small, and it would only cause a decrease in food production. However, this year and last, the floods were not only frequent, but also very violent. A large flood could destroy all the crops in the fields. This kind of destructive power was too great. This made the farmers here feel helpless. The abnormal weather was not something they could control, but they had lost the resources to continue living. It seemed that they could not find a better way out other than becoming bandits.
"Natural disasters are too ruthless. They actually forced honest farmers to become bandits. However, there are still ways. Being bandits is not the only way. Bandits will not have a good ending. Haven't you thought of building water conservancy and flood control facilities? You can't just rely on the weather to make a living. You have to fully consider the occurrence of natural disasters and learn to take precautions before they happen."
Ang Lee lectured these bandits.
However, these bandits looked at each other. They did not seem to understand what Ang Lee was saying. After all, they were already used to relying on the weather to make a living. They would not think about natural disasters at all. For so many years, although there were frequent floods here, the scale was relatively small. They would only lose about 10% of their grain harvest. They never thought that the recent weather would be so abnormal that it actually caused their land to have no harvest. This was far beyond the expectations of these farmers. They wanted to cry but had no tears. In the end, because they could not find a suitable response, they embarked on the path of robbery.
After interrogation, Ang Lee learned that when these bandits robbed, what they were most interested in was not gold and silver, but food that could fill their stomachs. Now, in their eyes, food was more precious than money. They would rather rob food than money.
It was obvious that Li An's main force had a lot of food. This naturally made the already starving bandits envious. They had gone crazy from hunger. In order to fill their stomachs, they had disregarded their lack of strength and launched a robbery with a fluke mentality. In the end, a quarter of them died, a quarter of them were captured alive. Half of the bandits who escaped were also injured. Without medicine, they were likely to die of infection from their wounds.
Seeing that these guys did not understand the importance of irrigation, Ang Lee felt like he was playing the lute to a cow. The environment these people lived in was too closed. They could not come into contact with the outside world at all, so their thinking was naturally strictly limited. Therefore, they did not think about irrigation at all, nor did they know how to do it. They did not have the ability to do so.
In Ang Lee's opinion, the irrigation conditions in mountainous areas like Dazhou were terrible. Almost all of the cultivated land was in low-lying areas. When there were no mountain floods, the rainwater in the mountains could irrigate the low-lying farmlands through the small rivers. However, once there was a mountain flood, the swollen river would swallow up the cultivated land, causing the farmers to have no harvest. In the dry season, there was no river in the mountains, and a large number of crops in the low-lying areas would also dry up. In short, due to the restrictions of the terrain, it was very difficult for Dazhou to resist floods and droughts. In order to have a better survival, they could only pray that the heavens would provide them with good weather. Once there was heavy rain or drought, their harvest would be greatly reduced. If there was a particularly severe flood or drought, it would even lead to the tragic result of no harvest.
The environment in Dazhou was quite similar to Dongnu Province. Since Dazhou had such an environment, Dongnu Province was naturally not any better. The situation was also very bad.
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