The Yun family was wealthy, but money couldn't buy food. Those cursed grain merchants planned to hoard their supplies until the worst times when they could sell for a better price.
Yun Zheng agreed with this commercial strategy. Merchants were just profit-driven animals; squeezing out maximum profits was their duty. A merchant who didn’t do that wasn't worth his title. Talking about morality to them would be like playing music to a cow. Moral merchants had already been eliminated by their peers or starved.
Executing those grain hoarders might have worked, but Chengdu's magistrate, Zhao Zixing's father, was too soft to wield such a blade. While under his supervision in Yongxing Commandery, he seldom used his troops for anything other than performances to please the people. A hundred men couldn't breach Yun Family, yet they were chosen as the top performers.
Yun Zheng suddenly stopped walking and threw away the ice cube in his hand. Of course, there was grain in the army. The soldiers had plenty of food; every autumn, Chengdu Prefecture would prioritize supplying them before the state granaries. Now, most of the regular storage was empty, and winter wasn't even halfway through.
Everyone knew that spring would bring another disaster this year, affecting all of Shu, not just Chengdu. It might take months to transport grain from Mount Jin Pass; thinking about the rugged Golden Bull Path made his scalp itch.
From ancient times, Shu rarely faced famine, but when it did, people starved in droves. Even with the court's aid, dangerous mountain paths could prevent both harm and relief. Life was never fair; he remembered Zhang Xianzhong blocking Mount Jin Pass, leaving no escape for Sichuan’s people.
Sichuan had become a vast basin under these circumstances, with snow blanketing it. According to Zhao Zixing, some areas near the north were already two feet deep in snow. This must be heaven's punishment; before there was lightning destroying Chenshen Pavilion, now this snow.
The academy was closed for classes. Zhao Zixing and his fellow students visited Yun Zheng, presumably because they had run out of food too. They devoured a whole pot of brisket and drank two barrels of wine, then talked nonsense until satisfied.
"My father is just unlucky; these matters would have been handled by Zhang Fangping if he wasn't trapped in Kuimen. So, my father had to take over this mess. He admitted that he cut back on family meals. Afternoon, I could hear my stomach rumbling. My mother gave me some bean cakes, but they were seized from me before I could eat them. It's so unfair; there’s nowhere to complain."
"Zhao Gong is a clear and honest official, sharing the people's hardships. You should keep quiet; I'm also worried about food. The family has hundreds of mouths to feed."
Cui Da shook his head and said, "Forget it. I stole some rice from home for our classmates. Do you know how I did it? By stuffing it into my trousers! After many times, my father discovered me, but my old man, who never laid a finger on me before, whipped me with a bamboo stick. My beloved mother only cried; she didn't help at all."