Chapter 272: Putting the cart before the horse

"Let's go back." As if he had gained something in his heart, Chu Zhen was full of spring breeze, turned around and waved his hand and said.

"Your Excellency." Liu Renzhi and a group of scribes and servants suddenly felt "confused" and "confused", thinking that they had heard a bad listen, why did they come and leave, you must know that when Chu Zhen came to inspect in the past, it was not only as simple as taking two steps at will, but also inquiring about the situation of the displaced people in detail, so as to find and solve the problems in time, and now don't say inquiring, they are about to leave without even looking at it, how can they not be suspicious.

"As the saying goes, if you can't see Mount Tai, I didn't expect that I would make the same mistake." Chu Zhen said with a chuckle, ignoring everyone, turning around and walking away lightly, but his steps were a little eager.

The homeless people were still worshipping the dragon king devoutly, praying for nectar to descend from the top, but they did not notice the movement here, and the scribes and officials saw the county officials leaving, and they followed the way to send them off, so they were in the mood to remind them.

After walking a few steps, he found that Chu Zhi's expression was joyful, and he didn't have the sorrowful "color" just now, Liu Renzhi couldn't help the curiosity in his heart, and asked softly, "My lord." Before he could ask and understand, a servant rushed to meet him, panting, seeing Chu Zhen and the others, he didn't care about wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead, he came quickly, took a deep breath, and said heavily: "My lord, please keep it too much." ”

"What?" Chu Zhen asked subconsciously.

"I don't know." Quietly soothing a few breaths, the official who came quickly said with a breath.

"Could it be that something happened in the city?" Liu Renzhi muttered to himself, his face was not very natural, and he seemed to have some palpitations.

"Since you don't know what's going on, there's no need to speculate." Chu Zhen waved his hand and said softly: "It just so happens that I also have something to report to Fan Gong, needless to say, go back." ”

Liu Renzhi nodded clearly, knowing that the people's hearts were floating now, unless it was good news, otherwise the officials' ambiguous words might also cause the people to be uneasy.

Walking to the front of the sedan chair, Chu Zhi glanced at the people who were still begging for rain, couldn't help but shake his head slightly, bowed into the sedan chair and sat down, put down the sedan curtain, and walked away leisurely under the gifts of the officials and scribes.

Soon after, the sedan chair arrived at the state office, Chu Zhen walked out of the sedan chair, instructed Liu Renzhi to return to the county government to deal with other official affairs, and walked in alone, under the invitation of the officials, Chu Zhen came to the council hall, and found that there were already a few officials waiting silently, and they bowed slightly, and several officials returned the salute and did not speak.

Chu Zhen naturally didn't care, sat down quietly next to Zhang Yuanshan, and waited silently like everyone else, after a while, officials came one after another, but the main lord did not arrive, there were many people, and I don't know the reason why Fan Zhongyan summoned him, everyone felt that the atmosphere in the hall was a little depressing, and they couldn't help but ask each other in a whisper.

After talking a few words, they found that the other party did not know, and everyone couldn't help but speculate wildly, nothing more than the disaster and the shortage of food was more serious than before, and for a while, the hall was full of buzzing sounds, but fortunately, the officials still knew to exercise restraint, and the sound was not too loud, but it echoed in the hall, and did not attract the attention of the idle people outside the hall.

And Chu Zhen didn't participate in it, just quietly listened to their speculation and analysis, and was also speculating in his heart, and suddenly heard Zhang Yuanshan's voice next to him: "Lord Chu, how have you achieved in recent days?" ”

Chu Zhen didn't react for a while, and asked blankly, "What results?" ”

"Naturally, it is the result of raising food." Zhang Yuanshan said, on the surface of the silent "color", there is no trace of envy in the heart, although Renhe and Qiantang are the first counties of Hangzhou, but at the beginning, the head of Hangzhou is only Qiantang, decades of expansion, Qiantang County has not been able to accommodate so many people, whether from the economy or people's livelihood, expansion is inevitable, and later merged with Renhe County, but the rich and powerful families are still relatively concentrated in the jurisdiction of Qiantang County, so it is naturally relatively easy to raise rice grain.

Of course, this is also wishful thinking, in the eyes of everyone is like this, but the actual situation is different from their imagination, there are many big families in Qiantang County, but they are calculating, not many people are willing to be wronged for no reason, give up the interests that are about to be in hand, and help the officials appease the people.

"What can it be." Thinking of his harvest, Chu Zhen sighed softly and said, "After wandering around for a long time, I asked and begged, and I only got more than 3,000 stones." ”

"It's just 3,000 stones." Zhang Yuanshan's tone was a little strange, his eyes flashed with a ray of light, and he was silent for a moment before he exhaled lightly and said, "Lord Chu, three thousand stones is not a mere number, do you know how much food I raised funds?" Without waiting for Chu to ask, Zhang Yuanshan replied to himself: "A thousand stones, and I have to fill in the gap to meet the number." "It's the same level of official, although I know that the other party has some advantages, but the difference is too big.

"Three thousand stones shouldn't be a lot." Sensing the strangeness of Zhang Yuanshan's expression, and the undisguised envious and admiring gaze of the officials next to him, Chu Zhen felt very surprised, in fact, he didn't blame him, although Chu Zhen had gradually integrated into the society of the Song Dynasty, but some concepts still haven't changed, and the units of measurement in ancient and modern times are still very vague, and they have crossed into a family with fine clothes and jade food, and they are not very clear about the people's livelihood, so they naturally feel that the amount of rice grain should be very small.

The unit of measurement in the Song Dynasty is very accurate, divided into stone, dendrobium, bucket, liter, he, one stone is equal to two Hu, one Hu is equal to five buckets, one bucket is equal to ten liters, one liter is equal to ten he, these are capacity units, not weight units, so there is no way to know exactly how heavy, and the weight of a stone of millet and a stone of wheat is not the same, but after conversion, a stone of grain is about equivalent to about 120 catties now, but it is not very fixed.

Three thousand stones, that is, three hundred and sixty thousand catties in modern times, you must know that when Chu Zhen asked for food, people agreed to come down, and the matter of transporting grain naturally had the help of officials or miscellaneous parties, and it was directly transported to the granary, and he had not seen the real thing with his own eyes, otherwise a mountain-like grain accumulation site, Chu Zhi would definitely not feel less,

After all, compared to the real thing, three thousand stones is just a number, and Chu Qian, who is used to hearing millions, tens of millions, or even tens of millions of dollars, naturally will not take a few thousand numbers in his eyes.

"It's not much, an ordinary people's family of ten should be exhausted after a hundred years." Zhang Yuanshan said lightly.

Chu Zhen reacted, thinking of the difference between ancient and modern units of measurement, secretly pinched his fingers and counted for a while, Junyi's face flashed a trace of embarrassment, and he actually confused the ancient stone with the modern jin, thinking that he had just got three thousand catties of rice grain, and actually made such a low-level mistake, it seems that he is really busy and confused, thinking of the petty act of slandering some big families just now and only promising dozens of stones of rice grain, Chu Zhi felt a little embarrassed.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with Chu Zhi's idea, after all, compared to hundreds of thousands of people in Hangzhou City, three thousand stone grain really can't last long, and now not only are there displaced people gathered outside Hangzhou, but other counties in Hangzhou are also facing disasters, and there are also food shortages.

You must know that food is not better than others, consumption is a little, there is no rain for a long time, the autumn harvest is definitely hopeless, and the agricultural technology of the Song Dynasty is no better than the modern industrial society, all cultivate out-of-season crops, it is impossible to plant grain in the winter and snow season, at the latest it will be in the spring of the next year to resume the normal "planting" seedling sowing, and after sowing, it will take a few months for the crops to mature, carefully calculated, the people will at least support another five or six months, hundreds of thousands of people, half a year, the consumption of rice and grain is not a few, It is true that there is not much grain of tens of thousands of stones.

After discovering his mistake, Chu Zhen smiled, and was about to say something, when there was some movement outside the hall door, and the bamboo and wood curtains made a few crisp sounds, but it was Fan Zhongyan who walked in, and everyone in the hall heard the movement, and the buzzing sound suddenly stopped, and they immediately stood up to greet them.

"You don't have to be polite, just sit down." Fan Zhongyan said with a smile, waved his hand lightly, and naturally sat down in the first place, the officials in the hall knew Fan Zhongyan's "temperament", and sat down one after another when they heard the words, and they also knew that he was a doer, and there must be something wrong with gathering everyone, and he would not go around in circles, and they listened attentively after sitting down.

Indeed, the officials in the hall had not yet sat down, but they heard Fan Zhongyan say: "There are still a few days to go is July 15, and the old man invited you to come today to discuss with you the preparation of the Midyear Festival sacrifice and blessing." ”

Zhongyuan Festival is a Taoist saying, in ancient China, it was called Shangyuan, Zhongyuan, and Xia Yuan on the fifteenth day of January, July and October, Shangyuan is the day of blessing of heavenly officials, Zhongyuan is the day of forgiveness of sins of local officials, and Xia Yuan is the day of water officials' relief, so on the day of the Zhongyuan Festival, the people bring sacrifices to the grave to pay tribute to their ancestors, similar to the tomb on the Qingming Festival, and the local government will also set up a lonely soul dojo in the local temple Taoist temple to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers, and at the same time you can also pray to the heavens, hoping that the wind and rain will be smooth, and the country and the people will be safe.

Fan Zhongyan's proposal was originally the responsibility of local officials, and now that it is a drought period, praying to the heavens for good weather is also in line with the will of the people, but the officials present know very well that Fan Zhongyan does not seem to be a person who believes in the way of ghosts and gods, otherwise he would not continue to veto the requests of some officials and people to pray for rain.

Could it be that Taishou was under pressure and finally changed his mind? Not to mention the slander in the hearts of some officials, some officials who care about the people's livelihood have other considerations, if it is in normal times, the sacrifice of the Midyear Festival is not a big deal, it is nothing more than spending more money, silver, rice, grain and manpower.

And now it is the drought season, and there is a lack of rice and grain in the city, although the "chaos" phenomenon has not been born, but there are also some slight sprouts, as the head of the place, he should find a way to appease the people, why should he care about the matter of paying tribute to the souls of the dead, of course, several sensitive officials also guessed that Fan Zhongyan also wanted to take this opportunity to do the work for relief policy again, but compared to the current situation, it seems that the cart is a bit upside down.