Chongqing.
"Did you come all the way from Henan to Chongqing just to tell me that the food collection work couldn't be completed?"
the chairman asked with a cold face.
Standing in front of him was Li Peiji, Chairman of the HEN Provincial Government.
Facing the Chairman, Li Peiji mustered up the courage that he had never mustered in half his life:
"Chairman, the drought in Henan is so severe that it has almost reached the point where there is no harvest."
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Chairman Jiang slammed the table and cursed:
"There is no shame at all, no personality at all, just spreading rumors. I know that the whole province of Henan has a good harvest, but you said there is a drought!"
I scolded him impersonally and impersonally for an hour.
Li Peiji stood there, his back was covered with sweat, and his legs were shaking a little from the scolding.
At this time, at the National Government Political Participation Meeting, another different scene was also taking place.
Guo Zhongkai, a political councilor from HEN Province, cursed: "Are you blind because of such a big disaster in Henan? Are you blind and can't see? Are your ears deaf and can't you hear?"
The Chairman scolded Li Peiji for more than an hour, and Guo Zhongkai scolded him for a full hour in the political participation meeting.
That's not all. Guo Zhongkai also brought more than a dozen kinds of food eaten by Henan people and gave them to the ministers of various academies.
This includes "Guanyin soil".
But whether it is Li Peiji or Guo Zhongkai, if they want the government to know the truth about the disaster in Henan, they must have the trust of the chairman.
And this is the most difficult.
…
"Commissioned, Meng Shaoyuan is back."
"Oh, really." The chairman raised his head: "Let him come to see me immediately."
…
"headmaster."
As soon as Meng Shaoyuan walked in, he straightened his back: "Two thousand taels of gold, the student has just returned it to the Ministry of Finance. All procedures have been completed."
"good very good."
The chairman nodded with satisfaction: "You will never let me down when you do things. Before, your intelligence has been confirmed, and Yan Guanyu is a repetitive villain.
This time, although seven of our comrades were sacrificed, Yan Guanyu's conspiracy did not succeed after all. It's just a pity for Tang Hewen and the others. Gao Yushan deserves to be killed. Wuhe officials should all die! "
With the words "Deserve to kill, deserve to die", this matter is understood here.
Meng Shaoyuan had made a very clear judgment before. What the chairman wanted was to recover the gold, and he would not ask how the case was solved or where the gold came from.
The chairman then said: "Let's talk about Henan."
What is supposed to come will eventually come.
Yesterday, Meng Shaoyuan knew as soon as he got off the plane that Li Peiji was scolded by the Chairman for more than an hour.
Now, anyone who mentions the disaster in Henan is looking for trouble.
what to do?
"Principal, students are brave." Meng Shaoyuan gritted his teeth: "Henan, there is a disaster, a big disaster!"
He had already thought about it before coming.
This time I risked my life.
Someone must report the truest side of Henan to the Chairman.
Even if he offends the chairman of the committee and loses his official position, he will not hesitate to do so!
Sure enough, the chairman of the committee frowned: "Do you even say that?"
"Principal, the students saw it with their own eyes." Meng Shaoyuan ignored it: "The drought continued, the land was barren, and the people began to flee in droves, selling their sons and daughters, eating the dung of wild geese, and eating something called Guanyin soil.
Originally, some fertile fields near rivers and wells could still produce a little harvest, but just before the students left Henan, the locusts arrived again. Once the locust plague came, there was no harvest! "
"Are you serious about this?" The Chairman asked almost word for word.
"Even if a student has ten heads, he would never dare to deceive the principal." Meng Shaoyuan tried his best to calm down his tone: "The disaster relief in Henan has reached the point where there is no need to delay."
As he spoke, he took out a stack of photos from his pocket: "Principal, these photos were taken by students in Henan for the principal's review."
As he said this, he emphasized one point: "The students have not shown these photos to anyone else."
The chairman showed an imperceptible smile of satisfaction.
But when he looked at these photos, the expression on his face gradually solidified.
shocking.
If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be "shocking".
What kind of miserable scenes are shown in the photos?
"Did you take all of these pictures?"
"It was taken by the students themselves. Although the shooting techniques are not very good, the students can guarantee that it is absolutely true!"
"It's so serious, so serious." The chairman of the committee murmured, "I thought Li Peiji was just falsely reporting the disaster in order to hand over less food. I didn't expect that the disaster in Henan had already reached this level."
He looked a little tired.
Meng Shaoyuan said everything he knew he should say.
Next, shutting up is your best choice.
"Shaoyuan, you are very good, you told me the truth."
After a long time, the chairman spoke.
This is also strange.
What Li Peiji reported was still the truth, but the chairman just didn't believe it.
It was Meng Shaoyuan's turn to report the same thing, but what he received in exchange was a commendation from the chairman of the committee.
This man's life is really very different from other people's.
The chairman's voice was very low: "You have worked hard, go back and rest first."
…
The truth about Henan brought back by Meng Shaoyuan finally let the Chairman know the seriousness of the disaster in Henan and the difficulty of collecting military rations.
In order to save the situation, he rushed to Wangqu Military Academy near Xi'an and hosted an emergency "forward military ration meeting."
HEN provincial officials bargained over military ration quotas.
That night, the Chairman ordered "to requisition all means of transportation, open the granaries, and quickly move the stored grains east and south of the canal" to solve the food problem of the Henan garrison.
At the same time, it was decided to reduce the amount of grain requisition from farmers in Henan from 5 million shi to 2.5 million shi.
But when Xu Kan, Minister of Food, came to the meeting, Henan's military ration quota was changed from 2.5 million shi to 2.5 million bales.
One stone weighs 140 to 150 jins of wheat, and one bag weighs 200 jins. The difference of one word increased Henan's military ration quota by one-third.
However, under such a catastrophic situation in Henan, Lu Yuwen, the director of Henan's grain administration, unexpectedly overfulfilled his task.
As for how this task was accomplished, how many families were destroyed, and how many wealthy families became extremely poor, only God knows.
Immediately, the Nationalist Government announced that it would allocate 500 million yuan in legal tender for disaster relief.
Among them, 200 million yuan will be used to set up porridge restaurants in various places in the disaster area for emergency response, and 300 million yuan will be used to purchase relief grains.
However, once the porridge shop was opened, it was far from being able to supply the large number of refugees, and it soon ceased due to lack of food.
However, the 300 million yuan in legal currency used to buy grain was misappropriated for other purposes, and some corrupt officials even misappropriated it to traffic in private goods.
Real refugees have never seen a grain of relief food.
1942 was the most difficult year of China’s war of resistance.
This year is also a sad year for the people of Henan.
The great disaster and the great escape begin from this year!
