The dark clouds covered the entire sky layer by layer, and the rain that had turned into a thick fog covered the scenery 30 steps away with a fuzzy and dim shell, and the light in the palace was dim, and it was full of damp and cold atmosphere, just like Lu Chengxiang's mood now.

This period of time has come, Lu Chengxiang has always wondered if his surname is in conflict with Luzhou, or if he committed those evil gods, since he left the prefect of Luzhou, everything has not gone well.

Lu Chengxiang is Guangxu 22 years of Jinshi born, served as two governors, and sat on a governor, at the beginning of last year to serve as the prefect of Luzhou, on the whole, Lu Chengxiang's career is quite smooth, but after taking office as the prefect of Luzhou in March last year, it suffered floods in May, and all 3 counties and 1 state under the rule of Luzhou were flooded. Finally survived the flood, that knew that in April this year, the whole Anhui rained heavily, the water level of large and small rivers and lakes rose, in late April, the Mazha River in the south of Shucheng County burst, most of the county was flooded, and after entering May, Lujiang County, Wuwei Prefecture was also flooded, and just 6 days ago, the embankment of Chaohu Lake burst, Chaoxian County turned into an ocean, and now only Hefei County, the seat of Luzhou Prefecture, is spared because of the higher terrain, and the river embankment is still good.

It can be said that today's situation is worse than last year, because last year, Lujiang County and Shucheng County were flooded until July, and now they are flooded again only in May.

Of course, just after Shucheng County was flooded, Lu Chengxiang also took emergency measures, on the one hand, he asked the governor of Anhui Yamen for help, on the other hand, he recruited rich families in Luzhou City to raise money, rice and grain, and ordered to set up porridge sheds outside Luzhou City to prepare for the relief of the victims. Because Lu Chengxiang knew very well that after the catastrophe, there would be a large number of victims, and if there were ambitious people at this time, it would form a large-scale riot, and if it was not done well, it would even lead to a change of governor of the dynasty, and such things happened repeatedly in history. Therefore, as long as there is still a little ability, the imperial court will provide relief for the disaster

Lu Chengxiang did just that last year, because Luzhou is an important town in Anhui, the governor of Anhui Yamen did not dare to ignore it, so he pulled out 30,000 taels of silver for Luzhou disaster relief, and the rich households in Luzhou made up more than 10,000 taels of silver, more than 1,000 stones of grain, and the Yamen of the Luzhou prefect still had more than 3,000 taels of silver in stock.

Of course, when the disaster relief money arrived in Luzhou, there were only 20,000 taels left, and the 10,000 taels were detained by the governor's yamen, and the Luzhou prefect yamen also extracted 5,000 taels of silver from the disaster relief funds, Lu Chengxiang personally obtained the benefits of 1,000 taels of silver, and the rest was divided by the officials of Luzhou, which is also the practice of officialdomIn September, the flood gradually receded, and the Luzhou government used the remaining 10,000 taels to strengthen the embankment around Hefei after the disaster, and finally fell more than 4,000 taels of savings.

However, the situation faced by the Luzhou Mansion this year is obviously much more serious than last year, because the governor Yamen has not been able to come up with so much money, and the entire Anhui Province was seriously affected last year, and as the highest administrative unit in Anhui Province, the Anhui Governor Yamen can not only help the Luzhou Mansion, regardless of other places, so last year, Anhui spent a total of nearly 200,000 taels of silver for disaster relief, including 100,000 taels of silver pulled down by the Qing court, of course, only 50,000 taels fell to Anhui in the end. As a result, all the treasury money of the governor's yamen was basically spent.

And because the whole of Anhui suffered from floods last year, resulting in a big drop in tax revenue for the whole year, so when the Luzhou government asked the governor of Anhui for help, the governor yamen could only pull out 15,000 taels of silver, which was less than half of last year, but the governor yamen was exploited layer by layer, and the rules handled by everyone did not change at all, and when the silver was sent to the Luzhou government, only 10,000 taels were left. And Lu Chengxiang recruited the rich households in Luzhou and asked them to contribute money and grain to tide over this difficulty, and the rich households in Luzhou also suffered heavy losses last year, and they almost did not receive much grain in the fields, and their business transactions were also very depressed, so it was indeed a little difficult for them to pay for grain.

So Lu Chengxiang could only repeatedly explain the interests to the wealthy households, if he could not appease the victims, in case of a civil uprising and broke through Hefei, then it would be a situation where the jade was burned. The rich families listened to it and knew this truth, so they could only grit their teeth and make up 5,000 taels of silver and 300 stone grain, plus more than 4,000 taels of silver in the inventory of Luzhou Prefecture, a total of about 17,000 taels of silver, but the prefect of Luzhou Yamen did not destroy the rules of officialdom, and extracted 3,000 silver from it, and everyone divided it together, and in the end, only 15,000 taels of silver were used for disaster relief.

On the one hand, Lu Chengxiang ordered people to build shacks and boil porridge in pots outside the city to help the victims, and sent people to buy food; on the other hand, he ordered the city gate to be strictly guarded, absolutely prohibiting the flood of disaster victims from pouring into the city, and immediately closing the city gate as soon as he found any signs of the disaster victims wanting to enter the city.

However, there are more and more victims outside the city, only a few hundred people at first, and soon more than 1,000 people, at this time the number of disaster victims gathered outside the city has exceeded 3,000 people, and the more than 300 stone grain donated by the rich households have also been used up almost, although Lu Chengxiang has sent people to buy grain, but last year the entire Yangtze River basin was affected, grain production has been greatly reduced, not only the price of grain has risen sharply, but also there is no market, so it is not easy to buy grain. Of course, there are also reasons for this, in order to prepare for the war in the Far East, East China has been purchasing a large amount of grain in recent years, resulting in a significant reduction in the surplus grain of the people.

Of course, Lu Chengxiang was anxious, seeing that the victims outside the city were gathering more and more, and the food on hand was almost used, this is still the result of boiling the porridge as much as possible and letting the food be used for more time, but that's it, now the food in Hefei City is only enough for 2 days at most, after 2 days, if the purchased food has not arrived, then the soup kitchen outside the city will be interrupted, and the 3, 4000 victims outside the city will make trouble, but it is difficult to say. So Lu Chengxiang also recruited officials from the prefect's yamen and his own staff to discuss countermeasures.

Song Changhui said: "Do you want to notify the following to cook the porridge thinner, so that it can last for two more days." ”

Lu Chengxiang's staff Chang Qingde hurriedly said: "Don't, compared with last year, the current porridge has been cooked thin enough, and if it is thin, I am afraid that there will only be water left, and the victims will not have enough to eat at all, how can they not make trouble." ”

Tongzhi Chen and Zhengdao: "Then close the city gates, lock the victims outside the city, as long as the disaster victims are not allowed to enter the city, you can protect the safety of the people in this city." ”

Lu Chengxiang shook his head and said, "It's not proper, once the city gate is closed, the porridge will not be given, it will definitely provoke a civil uprising, and we will not be able to get rid of it at that time." ”

Chang Qingde said: "Dong Weng, according to the student's opinion, or find the big households in the city, let them give some more food, as far as the students know, now the big families in the city still have some surplus grain, if you get together again, you can also make up 3, 50 stone of grain, so that you can also spend more time, just wait for the purchased food to arrive, you can worry-free." ”

Song Changhui said: "It's just that when will the grain bought here arrive?"

Chang Qingde said: "I think it should be soon, I have been going for more than 10 days, and there will be 3 or 5 days, and it should be there." ”

Chen Youzheng shook his head again and again, and said: "Now that all parts of Anhui are flooded and the roads are flooded, who knows what will happen on this road." ”

Lu Chengxiang sighed and said, "It's good to delay it for a few more days, but in this situation, it can be delayed for a day." ”

At this moment, I saw a family member running into the lobby and said, "Master, master, Chengping is back, Chengping is back." ”

When Lu Chengxiang heard this, he couldn't help but stand up from the chair, even his hands trembled a little with excitement, and he said in a loud voice: "Quick, quick, call him in, call him in." ”

The "Chengping" called by this family is called Lu Chengping, is a brother of Lu Chengxiang's own clan, since Lu Chengxiang became an official, he is a personal family member with Lu Chengxiang, he is also quite shrewd and capable, won Lu Chengxiang's trust, Lu Chengxiang has a lot of important things to do with him, this time to buy food, the stakes are very important, so Lu Chengxiang sent Lu Chengping to be responsible, and now that he is back, he must have bought back the grain.

I saw a middle-aged man in his 40s walk into the lobby, his clothes were almost completely wet, and half of his body was covered in mud and water, and he was wearing a few mud marks on his face.

Lu Chengping was just about to give Lu Chengxiang a salute, but Lu Chengxiang waved his hand and said urgently: "No need to be polite, how about it? Have you bought grain? How much grain have you bought?"

Lu Chengping hurriedly said: "I bought it, there are more than 600 stones, and now they have been transported outside the city." I was afraid that the lord would be in a hurry, so I rushed into the city to tell the lord. ”

Lu Chengxiang raised his forehead with his hand and said, "Thank God." Everyone else was relieved. Because of these more than 600 stones of grain, Luzhou can support it for at least a while, and everyone can rest assured for a few days.

Lu Chengxiang said again: "Okay, good, Chengping, you have made a great contribution this time! I will definitely reward you heavily." By the way, where did you buy the grain?"

Lu Chengping smiled bitterly: "Master, now the whole of Anhui can't buy food, let alone Anhui, even in Jinling, the villain is to inquire along the way, until Suzhou Mansion to buy food." ”

Chang Qingde on the side was also taken aback, and said: "Suzhou Mansion is more than 800 miles away from Luzhou, why did you come back so quickly with so much food." ”

Lu Chengping said: "The villain is also about to report this matter to the master." ”