"Mr. Ge is taking an exam for the juniors in the school!"
Teng Zao chuckled lightly and said: "Mr. Ge, Mengyuan County is less than thirty miles away from Tongguan in the east and a hundred miles away from Weinan in the west. Refugees also go to these two cities when they want to go. There is plenty of food there. How come they gather in Mengyuan County?" The county is such an inferior county?”
"Secondly, our Tongguan Guard is less than 30 miles away from Mengyuan County. We don't even know that there are so many refugees gathered. This is very strange."
"Is there anything strange? Didn't that person just say that because of Wei Zhongxian, this place is remote and the court will not pay attention to it."
"You can barely explain it this way, but this junior always feels that there is something wrong here."
Teng Zao frowned: "Mr. Ge, in addition to the management of county government offices, people from nearby military towns also come to check the granaries of the imperial court in various places. The closest one to Meng Yuan is Tongguan. Do you think Tongguan is involved? Come in?"
"It's hard to talk about this. I need to investigate before I talk!"
Yuan Keli waved his hand, if it was just because of Wei Zhongxian, it would be a trivial matter.
However, according to his guess, this kind of thing may not only happen in Meng Yuan, but also in some counties. If the guess comes true, it will be great fun.
While he was thinking, Pan Minglong walked in: "Mr. Ge, all the wealthy businessmen and gentry in Mengyuan City are waiting outside the door!"
Yuan Keli waved, and a moment later a group of pale and trembling people came in, about thirty people.
"I've met Mr. Yuan Ge!"
After everyone saw the ceremony, they looked at Yuan Keli quietly in the hall, with a hint of surprise in their eyes.
"A severe drought in Shaanxi affected several prefectures and counties, and there was a sea of refugees. The court received the news and prepared disaster relief as soon as possible. However, the road was long and the food distribution was slow, so that the people were starving and freezing...
I invite you all to come here because I want to borrow the food stored in your home for emergencies. I will return it to you when the food allocated by the court arrives. Not only if you are willing, I would like to thank you on behalf of the surrounding people! "
After Yuan Keli finished speaking, he bowed his hands to everyone.
After everyone looked at each other, an old man came out and said, "Mr. Ge, how much food do you want?"
It's not okay if you don't express your position. When Pan Minglong invited them just now, he specially took them around the entrance of the market.
They saw the heads of the county magistrate Lin Jianhua, the county magistrate Feng Yuliang, and the richest and evil man Xu Yizhen in Mengyuan County, as well as dozens of prominent people in Mengyuan City.
Dozens of heads were hung in a row. The scene almost scared them to the point of peeing.
If they don't borrow food, if the imperial envoy finds a reason to kill them too, it will be a big loss.
In fact, Yuan Keli thought the same way. If they didn't cooperate, he would ask Cui Ming to check these people's homes. He didn't believe that these people had done no bad things, and if they did, he would just ransack their homes.
"I would like to emphasize again that this is a loan, not a request. This is very important."
Yuan Keli was a little helpless. From this point, it can be seen how much the people distrusted the imperial court.
"How much food do you have in your hands? The more, the better."
Everyone was silent for a moment, and then the old man spoke up: "Mr. Ge, my Xu family has 600 shi in food storage. There are fifty-three people in the family, so I can lend 500 shi."
"Mr. Ge, my Zhang family has 320 shi of grain..."
…
After a full quarter of an hour, everyone reported on the situation at home one by one, and unexpectedly collected 4,000 shi of grain, equivalent to 600,000 catties.
"Xu Yizhen and others are dead, and their homes have been confiscated by this pavilion. Whether the food you lend requires cash or their real estate, you can make your own choice, excluding land."
Everyone unanimously chose to buy real estate and the like. Food was one tael of silver and one stone, and each family only had a few hundred taels. No one was short of this money.
But real estate, shops and the like are good things. After Xu Yizhen and others are finished, there will be a lot of noise in restaurants, rice noodles, grains and oil and other shops.
A one-time transaction is not as good as a long-term transaction.
"When you're done, you can go to Pan Minglong and let him handle it for you. If Pan Minglong can't handle it, you can go to Weinan to find me."
"Don't worry, Mr. Ge, I will definitely take care of it!"
After Yuan Keli finished speaking, Pan Minglong on the side immediately gave his assurance.
Yuan Keli nodded and said: "Let's stop talking about the food borrowing. Starting from tomorrow morning, porridge sheds will be opened around the county. If you have strong people in your family, please send some people to participate."
Everyone nodded in agreement. They had already borrowed the food, so how many people did they still care about?
After Yuan Keli comforted everyone, they left. Also leaving with them were people from Tongguan Guards responsible for carrying food.
As soon as everyone went out, the Tongguan guard who was sent to search the house also came back: "Mr. Ge, the proceeds from the house raid were 93,000 taels of silver, 67 shops of various types, 92 antiques, calligraphy and paintings, 300 hectares of fertile land, and 1,000 taels of grain. Five hundred stones...of which the Xu family accounted for 40%..."
After listening to the report, Yuan Keli frowned slightly.
One thousand five hundred shi were confiscated from the house, and four thousand shi from the wealthy merchants and gentry. The total was 5,500 shi, which was equivalent to 825,000 kilograms. It looked like a lot, but on average, for 50,000 people, one person only had sixteen kilograms.
Once the porridge shacks are built, the number of refugees will at least increase and the number of refugees per capita will decrease.
Fortunately, the 20,000 shi of grain Xu Yizhen and others bought from Henan will arrive in a few days. It will not be a big problem to last for twenty days. When the food from the court arrives, it will be relieved.
After thinking for a while, Yuan Keli looked at Pan Minglong: "Pan Minglong, do you know the process of giving porridge?"
"Lao Hui Ge, we had a small disaster here a few years ago, and I participated in the work. It was roughly divided into four steps: checking households, marking, sorting, and distributing porridge. In addition, we had to issue "porridge tickets" to the victims. "
Yuan Keli breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this: "Pan Minglong, from now on, you will act as the magistrate of Mengyuan County."
Pan Minglong was overjoyed, and before he could thank him, Yuan Keli said again: "There are three patrol inspectors in Mengyuan County and 300 people on duty. I will second another 500 people from Tongguan Guards. You have only one task, and that is to complete the porridge shed." .”
"This pavilion does not require you to meet the standard of not falling over when inserting chopsticks in the "Rules for Distributing Food in Disaster Disasters", but at least you can give the people a hot bite."
"There are a few things you should pay attention to. First, you don't need to follow the process in the early stage. You just need to pay attention to some ruffians and idle people in the city.
Second, I give you the right to make trouble. Anyone who causes trouble will be thrown into jail and will be reviewed by the court.
Third, if there are refugees who die around the county, they should be buried immediately.
Fourth, refugees must not be allowed to defecate anywhere..."
…
"Remember this humble duty!"
Pan Minglong kept in mind all the dozen points of caution mentioned by Yuan Keli.
This is an excellent opportunity for him. If he does well, he, the acting county magistrate, will probably become a full-time official after the disaster relief work is over. At the worst, he can be promoted to the general manager based on his contribution to the disaster relief work.
After Pan Minglong left, Cui Ming walked in with a bowl of noodles: "Mr. Ge, please eat some noodles first to fill your stomach."
Hearing what Cui Ming said, Yuan Keli also felt hungry and ate it all as soon as he took the cup of tea.
After pondering for a while, he picked up his pen and wrote quickly.
One sheet and two sheets... In a quarter of an hour, I wrote more than ten pieces of letter paper.
