It's the Year of the Rat, 1876, the Year of the Rat in the Qing Dynasty, and a new twelve-year cycle has begun. The rat has been making trouble from the beginning.
In the vast areas of Shanxi, Zhili, Shandong and northern Henan... the wind and snow never stopped from the first day of the new year to the birth of the new year, heavy snow, light snow, scattered snow... even if it stopped for a day and a half in the middle, there would still be wind and snow!
It was obviously a sunny day, but the howling northwest wind blew over, blowing the loose snowflakes in the mountains and forests into the air, and then flew towards the southeast with the help of the wind!
This is what the elders often say about the sun and snow. Only the driest and coldest weather can have such a wonder!
In previous years, in the Zhili area of Shanxi, the coldest winter was more than minus 20 degrees, which was the limit. But this year is different. More than 20 degrees below zero is common, and there are records of more than 30 degrees below zero!
The extreme cold prevents the ice and snow from melting when they fall. They are all frozen together. Without melting ice and snow, the air becomes extremely dry!
It is dry and cold, which intensifies the momentum of the wind and snow. These small cold particles penetrate into the house along the gaps in the window lattice and the edge of the door frame!
Where can poor families have money to buy coal? Only landlords can afford small cast-iron coal stoves made by Chinese people, and they dare not burn clean coal every day!
The wisdom of the Chinese people is infinite. When the weather is not very cold, just burn some straw or straw in the stove to warm it up a little!
When it's cloudy and snowy and the temperature is too cold, burn some loose coal to save your life!
This is the wisdom of the poor people. They are reluctant to use clean coal, so they buy some broken and cheap coal slag, some are even coal-faced, then mix it with soil and mud, and use wooden frame models to dry it in the sun, just like burning bricks. Like adobe.
This kind of coal block is definitely not as good as clean coal in thermal power, but it is worse than a set of firewood. This is what families with moderate conditions use!
But the weather today is weirdly cold. Many times the temperature at night is as low as minus 30 degrees or even close to 40 degrees. At this time, you can only survive by burning clean coal!
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the government offices in various places started to go to work. As a result, as soon as they went to work, they received news from four villages asking for help. In almost every county, there were many tragedies in which heavy snow closed the doors and people froze to death!
Especially at the junction of Zhili and Shanxi, the wind and snow rolled down condescendingly along the Taihang Mountains. The snow on this line was extremely thick.
Shunde Prefecture, Zhaozhou Prefecture, Zhengding Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture, Yixian, Xuanhua... this line is in emergency!
It's a pity that the administrative system of the Qing Empire was completely built in the Middle Ages. The efficiency within the entire government was very low, and there was always a numb indifference to danger!
On the 16th of the first lunar month, Shunde Prefecture reported more than 20 cases of freezing to death. The county government only registered them and asked wealthy households in various towns and villages to provide relief.
On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, more than ten cases were reported, and on the eighteenth day of the first month, the number increased to more than thirty... At this time, the county government was still taking its time and it didn't matter!
In the eyes of these local officials, it is not a big deal if one or two hundred people freeze to death in winter. How many will not freeze to death that year?
But on the twentieth day of the first lunar month, news of funerals suddenly began to appear in various villages. One hundred and twenty people froze to death on that day!
"Over 100? Oops... This is not good, it will affect my performance! Come on, please invite all the wealthy households in the county!"
"I want them to donate food and charcoal, but I can't let the people starve to death and freeze to death!"
At this time, the master from Jiangnan saw the danger: "Sir... do you think we can ask Baoding Mansion for help? It has been freezing to death for several days, and the snow has not stopped..."
"Bullshit! Can you take the lead in this kind of thing? Asking Shangguan for help so early. What does Shangguan think of me? How can I climb up in the future?"
"You will only be a master in this life, and you will never be an official!"
"This kind of disaster report must wait until some counties can't stand it any longer. They will be the first to report it, and then we will report it to the second one... This way we won't shoot the first bird!"
"And there will be no shortage of relief aid from the imperial court in the future!"
"Don't worry so much. Let's kill the wealthy households in these counties first... Do you think we should retain 60%? Or 50%?"
The master secretly sighed in his heart and still had to put a smile on his face, "It's still 60%! In this snowy weather, let the brothers run errands and work. If there is no benefit, who will suffer from the cold?"
"Withhold 60%, these are all upright officials!"
Scenes like this happen in every county. This is an unspoken rule of the officialdom. When encountering a famine, the county government must first save itself. How can it save itself? Of course they are extorting local businessmen, wealthy households and big landowners!
Under the pretext of disaster relief, the county government forced wealthy households to donate, and they had to set a certain amount. If you don't do less, you won't be able to do it. Just wait until you have to wear small shoes!
If there are powerful and wealthy people in the court, then pay less. If you are rich and have no power, you will be taken advantage of!
A county can easily plunder hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and withholding 60% of it is still tens of thousands of taels. Let us all make a little fortune together!
All of this is the unspoken rule of officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty, and none of this can be hidden from Prince Gong of Xiling!
Zhongyi County is also the hardest-hit area with heavy snowfall. The mountains in the distance are covered in white, and the wind and snow continue all day long!
Even if the mausoleum is protected by guards, it can't be cleaned now! It only took less than half an hour to clean it once, but there was still a thick layer of snow. By the end, there was simply no room to transport the snowdrifts!
The entire mausoleum area was covered with snow more than one meter deep. People dug traffic trenches in the middle and walked back and forth, barely able to offer incense to Emperor Daoguang every day.
"Haha... Hahaha... The disaster has taken shape. Xiaohunjun, there is nothing you can do! Hahaha... The disaster has taken shape!"
"Little Hunjun! You don't even know how local officials fool the court! When they encounter a natural disaster, they first want to fatten themselves, then protect their official title, and finally save the people!"
"Fuqing's telegraph lines can only reach county towns and cannot reach the countryside, especially mountain villages!"
"Heavy snow has closed the mountains, and many villages have been cut off from the outside world!"
"The number of freeze deaths that each county can get now must be dozens or even a dozen...these are all news from places where traffic around the county can be maintained!"
"The data on the real disasters are all hidden in the countryside! Now we have to wait for the heavy snow to stop. As long as the snow stops for about three days, the data on the closed villages can be barely sent to the county!"
"Hahaha... just wait! I will catch you off guard then! You have all missed the most critical time period for disaster relief!"
