Chapter Thirty-Two: Turmoil in the Human Heart

The most obvious sign was... the looming crisis of food shortages.

When the rebel forces led by Li Chuang, Luo Ruchai, and Yuan Shizhong once again besieged Kaifeng, they did not attack immediately. Upon receiving this news, Gao Mingheng first breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart tightened just as quickly.

Things that defy the norm must conceal a trick.

Gao Mingheng's ominous premonition proved to be accurate. Sure enough, not long after, the rebel army began harvesting the wheat fields outside Kaifeng. Upon hearing this, panic spread among the people within the city. And just moments ago, it was Huang Shu, the Prefectural Judge of Kaifeng, who led the civilian volunteers mustered from the Five General Guilds to sally forth and seize grain.

Everyone began to confront a particularly grim crisis: the lack of food.

Kaifeng was the capital of Henan Province; although prosperous, it was ultimately a consumer city that relied entirely on supplies from the outside. Once those supplies were cut off, everyone could find chilling phrases in history books describing the horrors Kaifeng would face.

Trading children to eat... Guanyin clay...

Gao Mingheng could only admire Huang Shu for managing to rally people to sally out for grain, and for having the daring to lead the troops himself.

However, this also meant that the problem was now out in the open, reaching a point where it had to be resolved.

Dwelling on this, Gao Mingheng gazed at the Governor's official seal upon the desk and smiled bitterly. "Compulsorily purchasing grain and rice... is unavoidable. Guards, summon Mr. Wei. This official... must purchase grain and rice within the city. The military provisions must not be thrown into chaos... Otherwise, the morale of the local government troops in Henan will be shaken to the core..."

In the canal gate district, Tie Yi, the head of the General Guild, knitted his brows into the shape of the character for "river." "You mean Lord Gao has issued an order for forced purchase?"

Standing before Tie Yi was a fair-faced, rather handsome sixteen-year-old youth—Tie Yi's cousin, Feng Tantan.

Feng Tantan replied, "The Governor's order didn't phrase it quite like that. It's just that those bailiffs found out our family still had a few hundred shi of rice, so they dropped twenty taels of silver, claiming it was payment for five shi of wheat."

Hearing Feng Tantan out, Tie Yi rubbed his temples. "Given our scholarly family background, this is the very little reserve we managed to scrape together, yet they managed to ferret it out so quickly. Still... it's thanks to my position as the head of the canal district's General Guild, with a thousand or so men under my command. Otherwise, those bailiffs would have skimmed even that twenty taels. Very well, Tantan, go have someone hand over five shi of wheat. You needn't worry about this matter any further. Also... our canal district must also purchase grain to secure the supply of military provisions. If we don't... before long, having silver will be utterly useless!"

"Then... shall we also pay the official price?" Feng Tantan asked dubiously.

Seeing this, Tie Yi shook his head slightly. "Although before the siege, our silver could buy a shi of wheat for a mere two taels and six qian, now... the market price inside the city has probably broken five taels. We will buy at the market price, five taels per shi. And don't bother having anyone deliver it; I'll dispatch two hundred men over. Have Yongge manage the funds properly for this matter, go right to their doors to buy it, and go right to their doors to fetch it!"

Just as Tie Yi finished speaking, an angry roar suddenly echoed from outside.

"You blind things! When the Governor's orders come down, who dares not obey? At a time like this, if you make a fuss, I'll butcher you without a second thought! We are acting on the Governor's orders to purchase your provisions and money, and giving you three taels of silver is already showing you immense face. If you dare to resist again, we'll tear your house down!" Tie Yi pushed the door open and immediately saw a Kaifeng prefectural bailiff squad leader leading several strongmen crashing into a household.

Before long, those bailiffs and catchers emerged with beaming smiles, each dragging various large and small bundles.

At the doorstep, a pale, charming woman with a lingering allure clutched a bailiff's leg and shrieked, "Official... have mercy on this humble maid... I have never done a single malicious thing in my life, and these thirty shi of rice are the life-saving grain for my mother and me..."

"Bad luck... Such bad luck..." The bailiff shook his leg violently, kicking hard against the woman, but utterly failed to shake her off. "You widow, stop clinging to me! If you keep clinging, even the money for buying the grain will be snatched away."

With that, the bailiff tossed out a pouch of silver, gave her another vicious kick to break free from the widow, and patted his trouser legs while shouting, "What rotten luck... But this Widow Xu... she really does have money, tsk tsk..."

"Bullying people too severely..." Feng Tantan's anger flared, his face brimming with righteous indignation. "Isn't this outright robbery?"

Seeing this, Tie Yi merely let out a soft sigh and said, "There are far more people who have realized Kaifeng is out of food... than you and I imagine. Do you really think Widow Xu is making a scene to stop them? It's just... that she doesn't want to lose even the silver used to buy the wheat..."

"But... but the Governor clearly issued an order setting the price at four taels of silver per shi of wheat!" Feng Tantan's indignation remained unabated.

"It's still better than losing the rice altogether... and losing the money from selling the rice!" Tie Yi spoke with a completely numb expression. "If you truly pity her, find her a man who can wield a blade. This world... is growing more and more chaotic..."

Suddenly...

Just as Tie Yi finished speaking, a militia soldier from the canal district came running frantically from the direction of the city gate, wearing a face as dismal as if he were attending a funeral. He cried out, "Chief... Chief... Those damned rebel soldiers... they... they..."

"They set fire to all the wheat fields outside the city, burned them completely... Lord Huang Shu returned to the city, and today he only managed to seize seventeen shi of wheat..."

Hearing this, Tie Yi and Feng Tantan exchanged glances, their hearts sinking heavily.

Meanwhile...

Amidst the streets and alleys, the sounds of screams and furious roars seemed to grow even more frequent.

Inside the Prince of Zhou's Mansion.

Zhu Gongxuan stared at the imperial edict in his hands for a long time, then at a letter bearing a clear and unmistakable Crown Prince's grand seal, before irritably tossing both items onto the desk.

"What kind of mess is this!" Having finished his complaint, Zhu Gongxuan sighed softly, picked them up anyway, read through the imperial edict with meticulous care, and only then put it away with extreme caution.

As for imperial edicts, the Great Ming had strict regulations against defacing them. As for the other letter, it was the very source of Zhu Gongxuan's vexation. Yet at this moment, Zhu Gongxuan had completely lost the heart to read it; simply looking at the grand seal upon it made him feel profoundly powerless.

"Absurd, absurd... Absurd! The dignified Crown Prince wants to come to Kaifeng? Wants to come to a Kaifeng besieged by a million rebel soldiers? Does he think this Kaifeng isn't chaotic enough?" Zhu Gongxuan gritted his teeth, picked up a court gazette from the desk, sneered, and tossed it away heavily.

On it, the words detailing the Shandong Garrison's resounding victory in Dongming County over tens of thousands of troops belonging to Li Yan and the Red-Cloaked Woman under Li Zicheng stood out in stark clarity.

Yet Zhu Gongxuan did not believe these accounts at all.

Military reports nowadays, aside from the names of the higher-ups usually being correct, were nine-tenths falsehoods in their content. As for any talk of a great victory, Zhu Gongxuan held zero hope. In his mind, it was at most the Shandong Garrison fighting desperately to beat back the rebel troops simply because they had to protect the Crown Prince.

At best, it was a repulse resulting in a draw; how could there possibly be a crushing victory of this scale? (To be continued.)