In a lonely Yulin, a major town like Xiazhou is more lively. After all, it is still somewhat popular, but this liveliness is extremely limited. In addition to the heavy troops stationed there, there are also some refugees who are being assisted.
Outside the entire Xiazhou City, there is still a messy scene. A large number of refugees gather here. Even with the maintenance of the government, it is difficult to see a trace of stability and peace. There are crude tents and wooden fences built randomly everywhere. This is where the refugees A place to stay for several months.
People are like walking zombies. Now everyone is suffering, waiting for the day when the ban is lifted. For daily necessities, they can only rely on meager food relief from the government.
In this regard, the government implemented strict food rations, and this relief food was only to keep them alive and not starve to death. It was impossible to eat enough. The imperial court's food was mostly used as military rations to supply the army that suppressed the rebellion, as well as rewards for military achievements, and it was only incidental to provide relief to refugees.
Even so, the local refugees in Xiazhou still have to be grateful, and the requirements cannot be too high in the context of the war. Otherwise, when the production order is completely destroyed and unsustainable, everyone will starve to death.
Of course, it is impossible to say that there is no resentment at all, but with the development of Yulin's counterinsurgency and the beginning of the "big purge" after the beginning of spring, all resentment has been eliminated.
At least, since they were Han Chinese, they still had some "love" from the government, and they could still get some life-saving rations, and they didn't have to be beheaded like those scattered among the people to be rewarded in exchange for money.
Xiazhou, as Yulin Daozhi, is the safest place at the moment. Even when thieves are at their peak, they don't dare to attack rashly. And the current situation is exactly like this. In the huge Yulin, only these urban strongholds still look a bit cruel. As for other places, they are almost like an extinct territory, with lonely ghosts wandering around.
In fact, the price paid by the court to relieve these refugees was not small. The pure consumption of tens of thousands of people was still close to half a year. Even with the lowest level of food supply, it added up to a large amount of expenditure.
All food materials are imported from outside, and transportation costs have always been high. Especially during the cold winter and the chaos last year, every stone of food transported required several times the cost. It was not until most of the rebels were eliminated that the transportation pressure was relieved, but only to a limited extent.
In the past, according to the Han army's habit of conquering and fighting, some wartime production policies were adopted to resettle civilians, maintain public order, and reduce the pressure on the court. But this set cannot be carried out under the special environment of Yulin.
In view of the large amount of losses, after the beginning of spring, another refugee transfer process was carried out in the camp, and refugees from Xia, Yan, Ling, Sui and other places were transferred to Guannai and Hexi, so as to reduce Yulin's consumption and continue to allow neighboring roads to The government shares the pressure.
Xiazhou originally accepted tens of thousands of refugees, which was already a lot. Those who were able to reach the city alive and receive asylum were lucky and only a few.
But now, there are less than 4,000 people left. Most of them have been transferred away by the government and "armed escort", and the rest are old, weak, hard-working, and unwilling to take any more trouble.
Of course, the main reason is that Zhang Qixian, the chief envoy of Yulin who took over for less than half a year, is very resistant to the relocation policy. Although the focus of his work in the past six months has also been on countering the rebellion, now that the chaos has subsided, he can no longer only consider counterinsurgency. He needs to make plans for the recovery of Yulin.
However, rebellions and wars brought a large number of deaths, and the population dropped sharply. It was not that it was cut off in half, but that every ten houses were empty, and every ten of them were left empty. Now, seeing that some of the remaining refugees in the country are being sent away, Zhang Qixian can't sit still.
In February, he finally rushed from Yanzhou and settled in the Taoist government. At the same time, he asked to see Zhao Wang Liu Fang, hoping that he could order the ban on the relocation policy and preserve the remaining vitality of Yulin. The words were intense and even offensive, but Zhang Qixian, who was so passionate, couldn't care less, even if he offended King Zhao.
Zhang Qixian's reaction is understandable. After all, if all the people in Yulin are gone, what value will he have as a chief envoy? If there are no sheep in the pen, what is the point of herding?
For Zhang Qixian, his appointment in Yulin was a key threshold for his career advancement. It took him nearly twenty years to become a senior official and a chief official. across
Only after passing this threshold can we have a broader world and ascend to a higher palace. If all the houses are demolished, this threshold will not mean much.
In the past six months, Zhang Qixian, the chief envoy of Yulin, has performed very well. He has worked hard and worked hard, actively cooperated with the camp, and provided logistical comfort. He has also done a good job. Liu Fang was in Yulin and could see clearly. What's more, Zhang Qixian was still a person valued by his second brother, the prince. Therefore, he could be more considerate and agreed to his request after considering it.
In fact, the imperial court can deploy hundreds of thousands of troops in Yulin and entertain them with good food and drink. Even if they only give out some scraps, they can help the refugees. The logistical pressure will not be reduced by reducing the relief food for the refugees. Radical relief.
Therefore, after some sincere advice, the further loss of Yulin's population was finally stopped. However, what has happened is that what is left is a devastated mess.
But no matter how bad the situation is, it still belongs to your own fundamentals, so you have to muster up your confidence and bite the bullet to clean it up. Zhang Qixian could only console himself. The more difficult the situation, the more capable he is. If Yulin can deal with it well, it will be a political achievement.
Therefore, after March, as the "Great Purge" came to an end, Zhang Qixian had officially begun preparations for the aftermath. The first thing to do is to make statistics on the remaining population of Yulin. Of course, this is only for the refugees accepted by various towns.
The results were not optimistic, and even made people's scalp numb. There were less than 30,000 people left in the entire Yulin, and this had to include the two states of Feng and Sheng in the north that had not been greatly affected by the rebellion.
You must know that before the rebellion, the entire Yulin had a registered population of more than one million. If you include the hidden population and those miscellaneous party members, there would be even more. Now, it can be regarded as a devastating blow.
Faced with such a result, even if he had expected it, Zhang Qixian could not help but be frightened. This was worse than the worst expectation. Therefore, Zhang Qixian lamented to his subordinates that in the past, the border states were not as rich as a county in the Central Plains, but now the people under his rule are not as rich as a county in the Central Plains...
However, Zhang Qixian is indeed not an ordinary person, and his temperament is tough enough. Under such conditions, he still carries out various aftermath work step by step. The remaining people will be registered as households and arrangements will be made to resume production and cultivation.
Of course, this process is extremely slow and difficult, because resuming production also requires the most basic production materials to be severely scarce. These undoubtedly require the support of the court, which also takes time.
Having no other choice, Zhang Qixian turned to the army again, and shamelessly turned to Zhao Wang Liu Fang, hoping to coordinate some livestock and grain. The officers and soldiers in Yulin didn't have much else, they didn't have seeds or farm tools, but they had plenty of livestock of all kinds, and even more military rations.
Probably because he felt Zhang Qixian's sincerity and sympathized with his difficult situation, Liu Fang was very generous. Once the approval slip was issued, he received tens of thousands of cattle and horses and 50,000 stones of grain. Of course, these were also reported to the court, which basically served as the capital for the restoration and reconstruction of Yulin, which is enough for the current Yulin.
In fact, the imperial court had already started discussing the aftermath of Yulin, and some people proposed that Yulin Road should be abolished and merged into Guannai Road again.
At the beginning, the main reason why it was separated from the Guannai Road was that the road was far away, the transportation was inconvenient, and it was not conducive to the circulation of government orders. The main reason was the party members. Now that the entire party has been destroyed, it would be difficult to build a separate road. Not so necessary.
Zhang Shijun, who worked conscientiously in Yulin, did not even know that his title as chief envoy was in danger.
