In the Three Kingdoms period, the opening scene features the killing of Huang Gai, shocking Zhou Yu!

As for Cheng Gu.

Since storming into the city last night, Xiahou Dun has barely slept, mainly because he's too excited to sleep.

After finding the map in Yang Song's secret room last night, he immediately dispatched an elite force to take over the granary at Wodaoshan outside the city without saying a word.

By this time, the main street was densely packed with mule carts and oxcarts that had been temporarily requisitioned, as well as many pushcarts.

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry soldiers were sweating profusely as they carried bags of grain onto carts.

"The Prime Minister must have received the gift by now..."

"All of you, hurry up and get to work!"

Xiahou Dun stood at the street corner, munching on a flatbread while shouting orders.

"These 300,000 shi of grain and fodder were dug out of the 'big rat hole' we had to dig out last night!"

Listen up, everyone! According to the Prime Minister's rules, the gold and silver treasures will be loaded onto the lead cart!

The 300,000 shi of grain were divided into two batches. One batch was transported back to the main camp in Nanzheng, while the majority of the remainder was sent directly to Yecheng.

They were all used as the foundation for the southern expedition!

Looking at the magnificent grain transport convoy, Xiahou Dun patted his belly in satisfaction.

I was just thinking about having an extra meal tonight.

"Wait a minute."

A lazy voice drifted over from the side.

Everyone turned around and saw Zhao Yu leaning against a hitching post, holding an apple he had somehow acquired and munching on with gusto.

Beside her was Sun Shangxiang, who was kicking pebbles around, looking rather bored.

Xiahou Dun took a sip of water, swallowed the biscuit in his mouth, and stepped forward to strike up a conversation:

"Hey, Brother Zhao, what's wrong?"

Did you stay up too late last night and not get enough rest?

Don't worry, when we break camp later, I'll reserve the most spacious and comfortable carriage for you and your wife..."

Whether the carriage is wide or not is another matter.

Zhao Yu put the fruit pit back into nature.

"General Xiahou, take all those dozens of boxes of gold ingots, land deeds, and Shu brocade back to Nanzheng to replenish the Prime Minister's treasury. I, Zhao Yu, will have no objection."

However, not a single cartload of this 300,000 shi of grain may be taken away.

Upon hearing this, the soldiers around them who were laboriously carrying grain all stopped what they were doing.

Xiahou Dun was also stumped by Zhao Yu's question, his eyes blinking rapidly.

"What the heck?"

"You're not taking a single carload with you, Brother Zhao? Are you still half asleep?"

If it were seventy or eighty thousand, I could just consider it a favor and not bother with it. But this is three hundred thousand shi of grain! Didn't we all agree last night when we checked the accounts that this was a windfall?

"Precisely because of this windfall, we must not touch it."

Zhao Yu walked to an oxcart loaded with grain, patted the sacks,

"General, think about it, why did the people of Chenggu beat Yang Song so badly last night, even tearing the gold leaf off the pillars of his house?"

"Because he's greedy!"

Xiahou Dun blurted out,

"They've embezzled all the winter food that the people usually donate to the charitable shelter!"

"That's right, because he betrayed the people's trust."

Zhao Yu flipped his hands upwards and spread them out.

"Then General, think about it again. What if we had just raised the banner of 'acting on behalf of Heaven' and hung that bastard Yang Song on the city gate tower to be exposed to the wind?"

They immediately loaded the 300,000 shi of grain onto carts and hauled it all back to Cao Cao's camp, leaving not a single grain behind... Guess what Cao Cao's army was in the eyes of the common people who were peeking through the cracks in the doors?

Xiahou Dun's face was tense, clearly indicating that he wanted to refuse.

"But isn't this our spoils of war? We've already taken it all in, so why would we give it back?"

"These are nothing but spoils of war! In their eyes, we're just a new kind of bandits in fancy armor with an even bigger appetite!"

Zhao Yu bluntly exposed Xiahou Dun's ulterior motives.

"The Prime Minister is rich beyond measure; these 300,000 shi of grain are merely icing on the cake."

But if we take this grain away today, the hearts of the people of Hanzhong will be completely broken.

We're basically taking the blame for that deadbeat Yang Song.

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiu, who was doing statistical work nearby, looked up.

He stared at Zhao Yu with a look as if he had seen a ghost.

As intelligent as Yang Dezhu was, he understood.

What did Zhang Lu rely on to maintain his dominance in Hanzhong for so many years?

It wasn't that they had a strong army, but rather that they were followers of the "Five Pecks of Rice Religion" and "charitable shrines"!

Zhang Lu used religion and free food from charitable organizations to win people's hearts, which made the people of Hanzhong completely devoted to him.

So what is Zhao Yu going to do now?

He wanted to use this opportunity to return the embezzled grain from Yang Song to the people of Hanzhong intact!

"To kill someone, you must first destroy their spirit!"

Yang Xiu spoke.

"Brother Zhao, this plan is brilliant! If Prime Minister Cao can distribute the benefits of this 'charitable shelter' even more generously and fairly than Zhang Lu, and directly open the granaries to return the grain, it would be a great success."

In the hearts of the people of Hanzhong, there was no longer any "Master," only "Prime Minister"!

"Those 300,000 shi of grain were well spent, well spent even to my grandmother's house."