When Pei Wende and his party left Weishan and set foot on the official road, the first thing they saw was the groups of hungry and homeless people walking along the official road.
They walked aimlessly along the official road, just to find a place where they could live again.
"Those are refugees from other areas. It seems that the famine has spread to Tanzhou after all."
Seemingly seeing through the shock in Pei Wende's eyes, the well-informed Zou Qiwu immediately explained in a low voice.
"As early as two years ago, locust plagues began in the northern region."
"It's just that these locust plagues are small-scale, and the court's relief efforts from all aspects are timely enough, so the areas that have not been affected by the locusts still maintain a relatively 'calm' daily life."
When he said this, Zou Qiwu paused briefly before continuing.
"But judging from the current situation, this 'peace' has finally been broken. Even in Tanzhou, a remote and remote place, refugees have begun to appear."
In today's era of relying on the sky for food, once the number of hungry people and refugees increases to a certain level, even if the court wants to provide disaster relief, it may be unable to do so.
"Refugees? Is the situation serious enough?"
Although Pei Wende has lived in this era for nearly twenty years, he has witnessed various famine scenes with his own eyes, but he has never seen such a large scale of refugees from other areas.
In Pei Wende's impression, no matter how severe the disaster years in the past were, the people living there were not serious enough to have to leave their homes.
Not to mention, Pei Wende had never known before today that there was a severe locust plague in the northern region two years ago.
This kind of information lag is simply unimaginable in the Internet era of the 21st century.
At the very least, if it had not been for this trip down the mountain, Pei Wende, who had stayed at Tongqing Temple all year round, would not even have known about the famine.
"This is not only a problem of locust plague, but also a problem of the imperial government's decree."
Different from the perspective of a businessman like Zou Qiwu, Pei Hong, who had also known about the famine for a long time, sighed helplessly.
"Do you still remember last year's 'Buddhist Extermination Order'?"
"If it is just a locust plague, the imperial court is fully capable of containing it with its existing food and grass reserves."
"But the problem now is that not long before the locust plague occurred, the imperial court issued an order to exterminate Buddhists, forcing temples to return their land and fields, and ordering monks to return to secular life and return home."
Since the new emperor ascended the throne, his favor for Taoism and his rejection of Buddhism have been obvious to all.
Repeatedly weakening the temple's land and reducing the issuance of ultimatums are just normal operations.
Even if he repeatedly ordered not to allow ordinary people to become monks and specifically arrested temple monks, Emperor Wuzong also did it.
However, no matter how outrageous Wu Zong's previous behavior was, it was still within the understanding of normal people.
Just like except for Buddhist temples, most people don't care about the so-called "theory of Dharma difficulty".
But this time it was different. With the issuance of the "Buddhist Extermination Order", officials not only began to confiscate temple property and land, but also ordered and consciously destroyed Buddhist classics and destroyed Buddhist temple statues.
The most important thing is that during this process, Emperor Wuzong also forced those monks who had become monks to return to secular life and no longer allowed them to stay in the temple.
Not to mention the past disaster years, the performance of Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in relieving victims is obvious to all.
Just looking at it from a general perspective, there are so many temples and so many monks across the country!
After Wu Zong's order was issued, it was tantamount to dropping a depth bomb on the calm lake.
A large number of monks were forced to return to secular life. Not to mention those monks who originally had relatives and families. Although they were also affected, they were able to survive at least.
But what about those refugees who choose to be tonsured just to “survive”?
You must know that in ancient Chinese society, except for those who were true believers in Buddhism, most monks who chose to become monks were homeless refugees suffering from hunger and cold.
Or the land was annexed by nobles, or suffered from natural disasters, or the family's descendants were cut off...
Ordinary people will only choose to go to temples to earn a living when they are alone and really can't survive.
So……
In this wave of "extermination of Buddhism" set off by the current emperor, one can only imagine what those refugees who have no land, no property, and even no heirs will do.
"There is a flood of refugees and gangs are raging?"
Pei Wende murmured in disbelief. Although Pei Wende had thought about the possible consequences of the "Buddha Extermination Order", he never thought that the consequences would be so serious.
"The situation is probably more serious than you think."
Closing his eyes in fear, the loyal butler, who had experienced a similar famine when he was a child, spoke.
"Now is the transition between autumn and winter, and the harvests everywhere are actually not very good."
"If the situation continues to worsen, I'm afraid a worse situation is not far away."
Although the loyal steward did not explain what the bidding situation was, Pei Wende was not the kind of novice who didn't understand anything.
Even if you have never seen it with your own eyes, you have more or less heard of the situation of changing children to eat and dissecting the bones to make food.
If a person is really hungry to the point where he can't survive, Pei Wende won't be surprised what he will do.
"Don't you officials have any good ideas?"
He couldn't help but keep his eyes on Pei Hong who was standing aside. Unfortunately, Pei Wende only saw a hint of helplessness on the other person's face.
"If I only help one disaster victim, I can barely transfer food and grass from other places."
"If it really doesn't work, even if I give up all my belongings, I will definitely ensure that the people under my rule have a bite to eat."
"However, the victims this time are not local people in Tanzhou, but refugees from the disaster-stricken areas in the north."
Pei Hong sighed again with a tangled and complicated tone. Pei Hong was really overwhelmed now.
"Let's not talk about how many vicious gangs are hidden among the refugees. How to make them obey my orders and not disturb the public order nearby is a big problem."
As soon as he said this, Pei Wende also realized that his thinking was indeed a bit too simple.
Even in the 21st century, how to provide disaster relief will be a huge project, let alone this era.
Even if Pei Hong is able to raise enough food and grass, how to distribute the food and grass in an orderly manner and ensure that the victims do not cause trouble is a headache.
"Is this...the real famine?"
Pei Wende, who had never encountered a similar situation in his two lives, fell silent. Also silent with him was the green snake hiding under his clothes.
—Recommendation ticket—/—Monthly ticket—
7017k
