Chongzhen's voice echoed in Huangji Hall.
The ministers were shocked by Chongzhen's words.
The cabinet, six ministries and nine ministers are unable to do anything. What can this young emperor do?
"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions!"
Shi Fenglai, who came back to his senses, immediately bowed.
"First, the matter of troop deployment is as Shi Aiqing said, but each town only mobilizes three thousand elites. These major border towns each have tens of thousands of troops stationed, so it is not a big problem to mobilize only three thousand.
In addition, 3,000 elites were mobilized from the Shenji Camp in the Beijing Camp. Under the suppression of firearms, the 15,000 elites could no longer defeat several thousand refugees, so these border towns were simply evacuated. "
"Cui Chengxiu, let you resolve this matter!"
After Cui Chengxiu, the Minister of the Ministry of War, received the order, Chongzhen continued: "The second question is where to adjust the grain. First open the official warehouse. How much is counted?
Secondly, the imperial court provided money to buy grain from local gentry;
The third step is to adjust grain from Jiangnan and other places. To buy grain and adjust grain, the calculation is first based on one million dan. "
"Master Guo, allocate 500,000 taels from the national treasury, and another 500,000 taels from internal funds, for a total of one million taels."
Guo Yunhou, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, frowned, but finally agreed. Although it was about to be the day to allocate annual funds to the nine frontier armies, he owed so much before, so he didn't care about it now.
The ministers were also a little surprised. The internal funds were the emperor's private money. Such national affairs should be allocated from the treasury.
In other words, when Chongzhen first traveled through time, he only had more than 100,000 taels of internal funds, and he couldn't adjust it even if he wanted to.
But in the past half month, after the houses of Chen Derun and Hakka were ransacked, they got more than 1.3 million taels of silver, and then Zhou Kui took out more than 500,000 taels.
The gentry who bribed Zhou Kui actually made nearly a million taels under the pressure of Chongzhen to confiscate their families and exterminate their clans.
What is even more surprising is that after hearing about Zhou Kui's incident, relatives of Concubine Tian, Concubine Yuan and others in the harem also took the initiative to hand over more than 500,000 taels.
This adds up to nearly 3.5 million taels, which is why he is so generous.
"Your Majesty, the disaster in Shaanxi is so serious. It is estimated that local food prices will remain high. Food prices may be double or even triple than usual. This..."
"Guo Aiqing, I have arrangements for this."
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he looked at Wang Chengen and said, "Wang Chengen, it is said that the Jinyi Guards are on duty today to command our colleagues."
After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a Feiyu suit entered the Huangji Palace: "Comrade Wu Mengming, commander of the Jinyi Guards, is here to see Your Majesty!"
"Wu Mengming, you take a thousand-household Jinyiwei to immediately go to various places in Shaanxi to find out the disaster situation with local officials and find out the grain stored in the homes of local gentry.
The two were immediately sent back to the imperial court on a 600-mile rush, and simultaneously sent to Xi'an Mansion, where they were handed over to the imperial envoy sent by the imperial court;
Second, tell the local grain merchants that the price of grain must not be higher than 10% of the purchase price. If they do not listen to the advice and insist on going their own way, their homes will be ransacked. I will not tolerate anyone who dares to make a fortune at this time when the country is struggling;
The Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Husbandry also each sent a minister, several foreign ministers, and principals to go together. Any deal with a merchant must be approved by all three ministries before it can be executed. "
"I accept the decree!"
In troubled times, it is important to use heavy regulations. If we do not control it at this time, the little money in the hands of the people will be squeezed out by unscrupulous businessmen, and they will not be able to buy much food. This is the most hateful thing.
The most important thing is that when food prices rise to a certain level, it will easily cause chaos in the entire market, and hatred of the rich will more easily trigger civil unrest. "
"Master Guo, with this arrangement, can we purchase one million stones of grain?"
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
After Guo Yunhou, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, finished speaking, other ministers also shouted.
With such a strong deterrent, grain merchants will never dare to raise prices.
In fact, Chongzhen also had another idea, which was to secretly manipulate grain prices and work with grain merchants to raise grain prices. In this way, businessmen from neighboring provinces and even Jiangnan and other places would take the initiative to transport grain to Shaanxi when they saw the huge profits in grain.
When the grain supply in Shaanxi reaches a certain level, the imperial court will immediately open warehouses to provide grain relief and issue a ban at the same time.
When spring begins and spring planting begins, merchants will have no choice but to reduce the price of the food they have hoarded, because if they don’t sell it, they will lose it to themselves.
Let’s not talk about how much grain is in the warehouse, as long as we continue to transport grain to Shaanxi from the south.
The team transporting grain does not necessarily have to be full of grain, as long as the cart of grain is overturned at the appropriate time for the merchants to see.
But this strategy needs to last two to three months to be effective.
He couldn't predict how many people would starve to death in two or three months, and how many people would be forced to join the popular uprising, and he couldn't bear it.
"Let's talk about the question of whether there is enough. According to Cheng Guogong's calculation, 180,000 shi of grain are needed a month.
And it’s hard to say what will happen next year. One million stones of food can only sustain us for six months. Therefore, I think we can move out some people. "
"migrate?"
All the ministers were stunned. Guo Yunhou came out and said: "Your Majesty, I think this move is inappropriate. Population migration is a major matter.
From Shaanxi to the south, it spans thousands of miles and requires a lot of money. It is better to invest this money in disaster relief. "
"Your Majesty, what Mr. Guo said is absolutely true. Even if the people are willing to move, the food and drink along the way, the resettlement of houses, fields, etc. are all big projects."
"Your Majesty, it has already entered winter, and the weather is freezing. Moving will lead to the death of a large number of people. Please think twice."
"alright!"
Chongzhen stopped the ministers who wanted to go out to dissuade him: "Who said I am going to move to the south?"
"Move some people from the disaster-stricken areas to four places including Dingbian in Shaanxi, Dingxi in Gansu, Guyuan in Ningxia, and Luliang in Shanxi."
The minister was confused again. Most of the migrations in the past dynasties were towards the south.
But the four places His Majesty mentioned are only a thousand miles away from Baishui, which was severely affected by the disaster. According to the people's foot power, they can reach them in about half a month.
The problem is, with such a short distance, there will definitely be more or less disasters there, so why move there?
Chongzhen stepped off the platform and continued: "The people who moved there used the work-for-relief method to cultivate a large number of fields."
"The people who stayed in their original places should also organize themselves and build a... lake near the fields every five or six miles."
"Third, if there are still many victims, then build roads and renovate the official roads from Shaanxi to Beijing or to the south."
When Chongzhen finished speaking, he happened to be standing in front of the gate of Huangji Palace. Then he stepped out and stood in front of the hall, looking in the direction of Shaanxi with a heavy face.
He remembered that since the first year of Chongzhen, the sky in Shaanxi was as red as blood. There were great famines in five years, floods in six years, locusts and great famines in autumn in seven years, drought in Xixiang in September of eight years, floods in Lueyang, and all houses were destroyed.
There was a drought of locusts in nine years, there was no autumn crop in ten years, locusts covered the sky in summer in eleven years... A severe drought in thirteen years... A drought in fourteen years.
Natural disasters have never stopped, and the people of Shaanxi have lived a very miserable life.
If possible, he really wants all the people in Shaanxi to move out. Unfortunately, it is impossible and cannot be done now. Doing so would be equivalent to giving up Shaanxi.
Therefore, he should take this opportunity to plan ahead, maybe there will be a turn for the better.
The ministers could not see Chongzhen's face, but Wang Chengen, who was following Chongzhen, saw the heaviness on Chongzhen's face, and sighed secretly in his heart, the emperor was burdened with too much.
After a moment of silence, Chongzhen returned to the Huangji Palace. Looking at the doubts on the faces of the ministers, he immediately asked.
"Why, didn't you understand what I just said?"
