In July of the 11th year of orthodoxy, heavy rains fell in the southern Zhili of the Ming Dynasty, which caused the water level of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River and other major rivers to rise sharply, flooding countless cities and towns, and displacing the affected people in various places, killing and injuring them.

After Yingzong learned the news, he immediately ordered Nanzhili and the provinces south of the Yangtze River to allocate money and grain for disaster relief, and exempted the people in the disaster area from paying taxes for three years.

However, by the time Yingzong's will was delivered to the disaster area, Nanzhili and the provinces south of the Yangtze River had become a mess!

Previously, in order to deal with the warat army that was constantly invading south, the imperial court had mobilized the garrisons of Nanzhili and Jiangnan provinces to the north, leaving behind not only a serious shortage of soldiers and horses, but also almost all of them were old and weak.

Such soldiers and horses, not to mention disaster relief, grain release, and guiding the people to avoid danger and survive, can't even do the most basic maintenance of local order!

As a result, millions of people have no choice but to flood into the surrounding affluent cities.

In the face of the menacing wave of victims, Nanzhili and the wealthy families and eunuchs in the provinces south of the Yangtze River were surprisingly consistent, and all the family members, domestic slaves, and even the officials, city patrol archers, and guards in the city where they were located drove the flood victims to other places, regardless of the lives of the victims!

Of course, the vast majority of officials in the affected provinces are still faithfully implementing Yingzong's edict, but due to the lack of manpower, money and food, the number of people who can be resettled is limited, and it is impossible to curb the formation of a large tide of disaster victims!

Moreover, the main focus of the local government is still on alleviating the flood and preventing the collapse of the Yangtze River and Pearl River embankments, and the resettlement of the victims is only a secondary matter.

As a result, the people who could not survive in various places had to start long-distance migration, some of them went north to Shandong and Henan, and some of them went south to the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

However, hundreds of thousands of victims who went south to the provinces south of the Yangtze River were desperate, and were jointly pursued by wealthy families, eunuchs and gentry from all over the country, and were constantly driven back to Nanzhili.

As a last resort, in the end, in addition to the more than 100,000 victims who were resettled by Nanzhili, the vast majority of the remaining millions of victims all chose to go north and poured towards Henan, and among them, 200,000 to 300,000 victims flocked to Shandong.

When Liu Zi'an received the news from his subordinates, the 200,000 or 300,000 victims had already entered the boundary of Xuzhou, and they were about to go north to Shandong and enter Yanzhou Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion!

At this time, Guo Yongzhong, Zhang Baigui, Tang Yu, Guo Muying, Hu Dexing, and Liu Zi'an had all gathered at Liu Juntao's house.

At present, Yanzhou Mansion can be said to be an undefended place, if those 200,000 or 300,000 disaster victims pour into Yanzhou Mansion, it will be like locusts crossing the border, and the entire Yanzhou Mansion will be plunged into turmoil!

At present, Yanzhou Mansion has no soldiers and no food, and the grain stocks of the garrison and various prefectures and counties have been sent to the border gates, and it is no longer able to resettle these hundreds of thousands of disaster victims!

Guo Yongzhong said with a sad face: "Jun Tao, you must think of a way!" It is not easy for our Yushan Town to have today, if we let the hundreds of thousands of victims rush in, the farms scattered in various parts of the Ministry of the People's Republic of China will bear the brunt of the disaster, and everything in our Yushan Town will be completely finished! ”

Tang Yu was also a little panicked, and said in a trembling voice: "Mr. Lian, now the business of our Ministry of Commerce is all over Shandong, and the business in Yanzhou Mansion is even more intensive, as long as those hundreds of thousands of victims rush in, the shops of the Ministry of Commerce will also be looted, especially the warehouses and warehouses in various places!" Mr. Lian, we can't afford to lose! ”

Guo Yongzhong and Tang Yu's words made everyone's already extremely heavy mood even worse.

On the side, Guo Muying's eyes were even red, obviously crying, and said at this time: "Jun Tao, you should think of a way!" We can't sit still! ”

At this time, Zhang Baigui slapped the table and said loudly: "In my opinion, let's immediately mobilize the escort team and set up checkpoints in Anshan Town, Huakou Town, Zhangqiu Town, Yushan Town, and the official roads leading to various places, and stop all the victims who are coming north!" ”

Liu Zi'an and Hu Dexing glanced at each other, their faces were worried, and they shook their heads slightly.

Liu Juntao also said: "Master Zhang, it's useless!" Let's not mention that our escort team has a limited number of troops, and our businesses and farms in Yushan Town are scattered all over the place, so it is impossible to cover everything. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of victims are flocking here, and it is impossible to march along the official road, but will sweep through all directions like locusts transiting. ”

Hearing this, Zhang Baigui's face was also pale, he sighed heavily, and muttered, "How is this good!" What a good thing that is! ”

For a while, the atmosphere in the room became extremely dull, and everyone was unkind, and there was nothing to be done about the coming wave of victims.

Suddenly, Liu Juntao remembered that Guo Yongzhong and Tang Yu had complained to him about the lack of manpower under him, and a burst of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind!

"Haha! God help me! ”

Liu Juntao suddenly laughed, looking extremely excited, and even tears flowed out, attracting everyone around him to look over.

Guo Muying asked with concern: "Jun Tao, what's wrong with you?" Don't worry, let's figure it out together! ”

The rest of the people also had wrong faces, for fear that Liu Juntao would be so crazy because he was frightened by hundreds of thousands of victims.

Liu Juntao stopped laughing and said to everyone: "I'm fine!" It is a great thing for the victims to go north to Yanzhou Mansion this time, but God helped me! ”

Everyone was puzzled and asked: "The entire Nanzhili was affected by the disaster, and hundreds of thousands of victims went north, what kind of good thing is this?" ”

Liu Juntao did not answer what he asked, and said: "What is the most lacking thing in our Yushan Town now?" ”

Tang Yu said suspiciously: "Silver? ”

Guo Yongzhong said uncertainly: "Grain? Or land? ”

Hu Dexing said with a big grin: "It should be soldiers and horses, firearms!" ”

Liu Zi'an thought for a while and said, "Intelligence! ”

Liu Juntao said with a smile: "Neither! It's people! Now what I lack most in Yushan Town is people! ”

Speaking of which, everyone understood that Liu Juntao actually wanted to take those hundreds of thousands of disaster victims for his own use!

At this time, almost everyone objected, and only Guo Muying was silent and thoughtful.

Guo Yongzhong first said: "Jun Tao, although we have a lot of grain in Yushan Town now, it is not enough to feed hundreds of thousands of victims!" Our Yushan Town will be eaten by hundreds of thousands of victims! ”

Liu Juntao said: "Hasn't Guo Yuanwai been complaining about the lack of manpower in the farms everywhere? As long as we take in those victims, I promise that the Ministry of Civil Affairs will not be short of people! It didn't matter if there was a shortage of food, the Ministry of Commerce immediately raised money and sent people to sell grain everywhere! ”

Tang Yu also said excitedly: "Mr. Lian, even if we are short of people in Yushan Town, there is no need to accommodate hundreds of thousands of victims, right?" The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Military want talents, but what talents can be among the victims? ”

"Why not? It was Nan Zhili who was affected! The place with the most talents in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to Gyeonggi North Zhili, is the most South Zhili! Under natural disasters, you won't come to the door just because you are a talent, and among the hundreds of thousands of disaster victims, there must be a large number of talents! At least it can alleviate the urgent needs of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of War! ”

At this time, Hu Dexing said with some concern: "But have you thought about it, hundreds of thousands of disaster victims are pouring in without food and clothing, how long can our family in Yushan Town support it?" Can a few thousand people in the convoy maintain order everywhere? ”

Liu Juntao waved his hand and said: "Extraordinary times should be used in extraordinary times!" If the hundreds of thousands of victims want to receive relief, they must obey the management of my Yushan Town, and I will also arrange manpower to select suitable people from among the victims to be stewards, so that they can achieve self-government. If anyone commits a crime or plunders rampant, then men, women, and children will be put to death, and they will not be tolerated! ”

Zhang Baigui said in a deep voice: "Use heavy codes in troubled times!" Jun Tao's idea is right, but there is one thing: if the news of our Yushan Town's relief of the victims spreads, will more and more victims come over? ”

"Of course there is!"

In this regard, Liu Juntao has obviously thought of it, and said confidently: "But the victims who heard the news need time, and it is impossible to come in a blink of an eye!" With this time, the relief of the imperial court has long been transported to all parts of Yanzhou Mansion! ”

Although Liu Juntao said his reasons very well, everyone still had some scruples in their hearts.

At this time, Guo Muying said with a smile: "I think Jun Tao's idea is feasible!" ”

Everyone asked, "Why?" ”

"Because I believe in Juntao, without Juntao, there would be no Yushan Town today! Therefore, Juntao has made a decision, we just need to check and fill in the gaps, and the rest is to fully support Juntao, what do you say? ”