Under Xu Zongwen's hard and soft tactics, twenty-four noble families in the Qiantang Dynasty successively gave out 500,000 shi of grain. In addition to the additional 50 ships of grain from the Jiankang court in the later period, the entire Qiantang and Yong'an counties of Kuaiji County had 50,000 people. The rations for a year and a half have been provided.
While Xu Zongwen's disaster relief work was going extremely smoothly, in the private residence of Hua Fuzi in Xiaohuangmen, the heads of various noble families headed by Shen Xu were gathering together. They were all sweating profusely and the voices of discussion were like crows. The birds are chirping incessantly. However, in such a noisy and noisy environment, Xiao Huangmen Hua Fuzi was sitting alone on his knees at the main table, holding a cup of tea, tasting it with a delicious taste, looking calm and independent. The carefree appearance of the world.
"Eunuch Hua, you are a member of the palace. Even if Xu Xiao holds a high position, he is still a minister of the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty. In Qian and Tang Dynasties, he ignored the old law of preferential treatment of nobles by the court, regarded the nobles as enemies, and tried his best to blackmail them. For extortion, he forced us, the common people of Shengdou, to invest 500,000 shi of food. He asked us for bribes so obviously. It is a trivial matter for us to lose some money and food. He deceived the emperor, but it was a serious crime! My father-in-law must truthfully report the situation here to the emperor. , Let the emperor see through this villain's hypocritical and ugly face as soon as possible..."
"Yes, Eunuch Hua, Xu Xiao is arrogant and arrogant. Even if he doesn't take us seriously, he still hides Eunuch Hua! Who doesn't know that you are the adopted son of the noble Huahuang clan and are deeply favored by him? That's why I was sent to Qiantang to monitor Xu Xiao. Eunuch Hua must secretly report to Jiankang and tell all of Xu Xiao's illegal activities in Jiankang to heaven!"
"Please, Eunuch Hua, make the decision for us!"'
Under the leadership of Shen Xu, the heads of the twenty-four noble families all bowed their arrogant heads to the eunuch Hua Fuzi!
Hua Fuzi put down the tea cup and looked up at the hall: "Hey! What are you doing, all the heads of the family? Get up, get up! I, Hua, am just a rootless person, how can I take on this responsibility? ?”
Hua Fuzi's posture was very low, but he didn't respond to their request to impeach Xu Xiao. He was like a mirror in his heart, knowing very well that the group of people in front of him just saw that there was something wrong with him, so Desperately flattering! In fact, Xu Xiao had already expressed his anger with him in advance about forcing them to donate 500,000 shi of food, and he was not anxious at all. On the contrary, Hua Fuzi had no good impression of these sanctimonious and capricious nobles, because before he entered the palace, he was a tenant who was oppressed and persecuted by the nobles. He became a slave because he lost the land inherited from his ancestors, and later he had no choice but to enter the palace.
Shen Xu had a serious look on his face and shouted again: "Eunuch Hua, please give us a word of truth!"
"How can I, a low-ranking minister in the Central Silk Council, get to interfere in a major military and national plan such as disaster relief and poverty relief? After all, I am just a servant in the palace. It was your majesty and my adoptive father who promoted me and allowed me to follow Ambassador Xu. You came to Wujun and Qiantang. On the surface, I am a deputy envoy, and I have a pretty good reputation. In fact, I can’t do anything." Hua Fuzi walked in circles with his hands behind his back and continued: "Today, thanks to all of you, Congratulations, you think highly of me, Mr. Hua, for telling me such a big thing. To be honest, it makes me very difficult for you to do this!"
Shen Xu and others looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what kind of medicine Huafuzi was selling in his gourd.
"Hua wants to ask you something. I don't know if you know. Before Xu Shijun came to Qiantang, how many people died in the Nan'an disaster area every day?"
Hua Fuzi turned around, returned to his seat, sat down again, and started playing with his tea set again.
Hua Fuzi waited for a long time, but the people below remained silent. Seeing no one answered, he began to talk to himself again: "Hua told you honestly, it was reported that before Xu Shijun came, at least 100,000 people died every day in the disaster area near the embankment and on the south bank. Thousands of people died. After Xu Shijun came, the number of deaths dropped every day. So far, no deaths have occurred. In your eyes, those five hundred thousand stones of food are gold, silver, wealth, and silk. Family wealth, but for the tens of thousands of people affected by the disaster, it means their lives! Do you understand?"
Shen Xu and other twenty-four family heads were so shocked by Hua Fuzi's rebuttal that they did not dare to say even a single word and could only return in anger.
Twenty-four noble families worked together to place Hua Fuzi, and wanted to use Hua Fuzi to give Xu Zongwen eye drops at the Jin Emperor's place. Xu Zongwen soon found out. Xu Zongwen knew that those nobles were unwilling to give up. He originally thought that they would use family connections to impeach him at the Jiankang court meeting, but he did not expect that these people would target Hua Fuzi! Fortunately, he said hello to Hua Fuzi. Hua Fuzi himself is also a very reasonable person and will not easily fall into the trap of the noble family.
However, I don't intend to let these nobles go, and I will be shameless. If they don't drink the toast, they will be fined with wine, right?
Soon, Xu Zongwen issued a recruitment order in the name of the governor of Yangzhou, requiring the twenty-four noble families and all other noble families in Qiantang to contribute their efforts to strengthen the Qiantang embankment, and by the way help Liu Yu to be responsible for the reconstruction of the homes of the people in the disaster area. Task.
There was really no other way. For fear of being liquidated, the nobles who were targeted again by Xu Zongwen could only continue to admit defeat and obediently follow Xu Zongwen's recruitment order to gather enough people to send them to hard labor.
The fight between Xu Zongwen and the Qiantang gentry was in full swing. With the cooperation of Xi Jian and Liu Yu, the river water in thousands of hectares of flooded fields was gradually drained out, and all disaster relief and reconstruction were carried out in an orderly manner. middle. After building dams for disaster relief, Xu Zongwen also called on the doctors in Qiantang City to rush to the disaster area to prevent and control epidemics to prevent the corpses of a large number of victims from forming epidemics and spreading throughout the country.
A continuous stream of grain ships was moored on the bank of the canal, and bags full of grain were moved to the disaster area. The victims who were eagerly waiting for food received timely treatment and relief. Nearly two people were trapped in the flood. The people of Yue Qian Tang were finally freed!
When Xi Jian, who was temporarily appointed as Qian Tangling, accompanied Xu Ze by county magistrate Guo Shang and county lieutenant Liu Yu, appeared in the disaster area on the south bank, he was immediately surrounded by the victims.
"The envoy is the god sent by God to save us! With this food and the house that will be completed soon, we can survive this disaster year!" A skinny uncle leaned towards Xu Zongwen on a crutch. Waist to go.
Several handsome young men also knelt in front of Xu Zongwen, shouting good words such as making Jun Qingtian.
"Without the envoy, we, the people on the south coast, would have had no way to survive this year! Thank you, the envoy, for saving us from fire and water. Your kindness to the people of Qiantang is higher than the mountains and deeper than the sea!"
"Your Majesty is a great man and a living Bodhisattva. In the next few days, some of us from the countryside plan to go to the county to make a clay body in the image of Your Majesty and enshrine it in the ancestral hall in the village outside. We will make offerings at all times to pray for the extension of your descendants. , profound blessings, prosperous official career, no illness or disaster!"
"Ala and the others also decided to pool their money together and enshrine an immortal tablet in the temple for the envoy, so that everyone can pray for the envoy's blessings and eliminate misfortunes!"
…
An endless stream of victims fell to their knees on the road, leaving Xu Zongwen at a loss as to what to do!
Xu Zongwen, Xi Jian, Guo Shang, and Liu Yu quickly stepped forward and helped the victims up.
Xu Zongwen raised his head and said loudly: "All of you, my fellow countrymen, are my subjects in the Jin Dynasty. Now that we are in trouble, the emperor issued an edict to ask me, Xu Xiao, to come to provide relief. This is all my duty. I should not be like this to the folks." What a great gift! Please get up quickly!"
As a last resort, Xu Zongwen could only take one step and say something, carefully explaining to the victims some precautions after the disaster, and at the same time, he asked brothers Zhang, Zhang, and Zhang, together with fifty wolf guards, to help the victims up.
